The shift !

This is one of those times when the whispers in the head have turned into rumblings, may be for good or may be for worse ! Too many thoughts pointing to a direction, different from the one I am on. Whatever it is, looks like, needs to be addressed seriously, since it has displaced the already frail needle of focus. To be or not to be: that is the question(Hamlet, by William Shakespeare) !!! A very difficult situation to be in. Hoping for a miracle to clear the mist :)

Miracles !

I can not say that I do not believe in miracles. They do happen though not always when we want them to happen, but still. Many a times I have wished some miracle to happen in order to survive a situation, I found difficult to handle in my personal life, which, as a matter of fact, have sometimes been granted.  I am sure many of you would also want this miracle to happen- no war, no fight, no killings anywhere on earth. Just the thought of it takes away my sleep and peace of mind and to live under the fear of death and destruction is way too much this short span of life is for ! Misunderstanding, mistrust, ego, greed(probably the biggest cause of problems in the world) is what leads to situations like this in personal and national/international levels. How I wish some miracle happens and lo and behold ! we all change the way we think, the way we live. And the world is a better place to live for you and for me and the entire human race !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzDft0DZRUw 

A journey called life.

I was initiated into these thoughts after we were invited for Shabbat dinner to our friend's (from Isreal) place and we happily obliged them. After seeing the ceremony my exact feelings were- whether you are a hindu, sikh, muslim, christian or a jew or a better way to put it is, if you are a human, you have the same feelings of love, pain, anger, ego, frustration, hate, and fear of failure and unknowns. We, the frail and weak human beings, seek intervention of our respective Gods to help us sail smoothly through the journey of life.


When we arrive in this world we come naked, all we are covered up with is the amniotic fluid from the mother's womb. And there is no difference in that cover for the human species. It is only after the birth that we acquire different identities labeled by name, profession, caste, religion, nationality etc. and all these labels are man made. Convenience of identifying a person in the population of 7+ billions on the basis of some of these distinct labels might be a valid reason to use them. But its time that the idea to use any of them to foster the feelings of divisiveness leading to perception of superiority/inferiority among the masses(as has been the acceptable norm up to now) should be done away with.  The outcome of such an idea has always been the conflicts and unrest in the world.

Isn't it ironical, that in spite of the fact, that our (humans) needs are  same, feelings are same, ways of expression are same still we have so many conflicts amongst us ?  This happens in our day to day life with our friends, colleagues, relations and accumulatively on a much bigger scale as nations. The way we are today, unfortunately, any of these divisions is an acceptable reason to kill or die for !

To understand what, when and where, went wrong that led to this skewed idea of life, is something we should be spending our energies and resources on ! We need to do a lot to get a solution which will fix this  issue. One simple way to start with can be , we live life trying to understand and appreciate this simple fact - life is a journey between the two doors - birth and death, and we all have each other, the fellow human beings  and other living creatures as our companions. The journey for sure would be more pleasant ! And this beautiful desire of John Lennon can become a reality !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwUGSYDKUxU

The Solution !

The title does not refer to any particular situation, according to me this is for most of our problems. In spite of the fact that many of the people I know do not feel as strongly as I do, in favour of this, yet I am convinced this is how it can, it has to and it will work out finally.  Given the basic fact that all living beings are made of same building blocks(quarks and leptons at the moment, to be precise) and the amazing diversity in the living world is just on account of evolution of life depending upon the various conditions, there have to be common solutions. Most of the problems, if not all, are created by one species-humans.  First and foremost we have to realise that being the so called(by us) 'most intelligent' species by no means give us the right to  live life as if the entire planet is in existence for us only.  We have created problems not only for ourselves but for other forms of life. We ought to seek the solutions for the issues together. We deal with various issues on a much smaller level in our personal lives. Here I am concerned about the solutions that come from all of us and have implications on a much larger scale.

The incident which again brought this to my mind is the recent attempt to kill Malala Yousafzai, a fourteen year old girl from Pakistan. If some people think that what she was doing(she just did not want to give up her studies !!!)  was a serious threat to their existence or cause, it just means something went seriously wrong somewhere which led to such a skewed judgement and the action that followed.
I have nothing to do as such with either the victim or the people who attacked, I am a third neutral party or am I? Going by usual reaction to such an incident it would be enough for me to sympathise with the girl and criticise the attackers and forget it. I do not think so. If I believe that a problem is not mine as long as it does not hit me directly or indirectly then this is one of the very short sighted attitude to have. It is just a matter of time till I would be caught in the web(of whose strings have come from many such unrelated incidents).

To come back to the point I feel we all should be accountable for what is wrong. Empathy, compassion, understanding, respect for other's life are a few qualities we need in all of us. Poverty, wars, terrorism etc. are few examples of self inflicted wounds by us and the solution has to come from each of us, it might be in a very remote way, something which has no direct bearing on the issue but unless this happens, consider yourself sitting on a ticking bomb and just wait for your turn !!

A beautiful day :)

It is a beautiful day today. One of those days which kind of forces you to show gratitude for whatever you have. I am thankful for what I have and where I am today ! I earnestly wish the nature, the Lord to be this generous, all the time for everyone and everything. Wishing health, happiness and peace everywhere.

Enrich yourself !

I am kind of overwhelmed by the no. of things going on in my head which need to come out ! But something which have been on my mind for many days, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that someone(may be there are others ) has put the thoughts and ideas in a very nice and clear way. I am talking of Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, who is an American psychologist and the creator of Nonviolent  Communication(a Google search is highly recommended !). Of course the way Dr. Rosenberg puts it, is a way beyond my capability. I listened to his audio CD's on the same topic. It makes a lot of sense to me. I feel very strongly if we all try to implement what he says(must remark that the things are explained in a very simple way) this world will be a far far better place to live in !!

Evolution has been the way of life on earth. Humans as a species may or may not evolve into a new species(physically)but certainly we are evolving mentally and it is a long way to go.  The more I understand and appreciate the facts about the fundamental building blocks of the universe, more I feel this.
Life on earth is a diverse manifestation of some fundamental laws of science. Every thing in the universe living/nonliving has the same building blocks. I am not saying earth since our planet is a tiny speck in the universe!!! and on top of that humans are ONLY one of the millions of  species that inhabit earth !!  How I wish we all could appreciate this fact ! That would have taken care of large number of problems in our lives.

 May be I am straying away from the point I wanted to make.  So better search for Dr. Rosenberg and enrich your life with the simple methods he offers.

The dark in you !

How to live in peace with the darker side in you? How does one handle self in the time when the dark normally hidden somewhere in you spreads in the head? I am struggling to figure out what exactly is the contribution of the dark part of me and what comes out of habit. Some times I behave in a way that defies not only  common sense but any sense ! Feeling guilty, sad and bad over the self behaviour during such moments is how I end up after the show ! I think my biggest problem  is I do not accept myself as I am and instead expect self to have ten on ten in everything I do, which I do not get as I am a very strict self invigilator :(. It does not look like I am getting any clarity on the issue. Looks like more sessions with paper, pen and self are needed ! 

A quality !

One very important quality to achieve to have a quality life is to be flexible in body and mind but at the same time be able to put your point of view without any emotions but firmly. The point is, it certainly does not help to be stubborn but to be taken granted always by others has nothing positive about it. So dear self learn the way to be polite, calm, but firm at times, when needed.

promises to keep !

1.) temper - keep in check everyday. shall count and write every time I let it go off .
2.)  facebook: login once in a day only that too in the evening.
3.)  exercise: everyday for 30 minutes.
4.) flexibility: to be attained in body and mind.

A lurking thought.

In some way it is related to my earlier post but not exactly what I meant to write. How I feel  when I compare the dimensions of a man or for that matter even the mankind with the universe and the kind of attitude we have as a race is very difficult to describe. I shall be publishing them very soon. But something which has been lurking in my mind now for quite sometime, I am out with that now. This is about the violence shown in movies/TV programs. I feel that it's time that we change our ideas about how the good wins over  bad. The act of justifying the violence in the process of eliminating evil has to go.  The other day when my lil one asked me, (after watching a hollywood movie scene where the hero kills three people and when the heroine tells him that he did wrong ), did n't he do the right thing mamma as they were bad people and is n't it okay to kill bad people ? In spite of knowing the answer very well and clearly I was shocked and puzzled. Because this is not the point of view I want him to have at all ! What is good and bad according to me is a very relative and very much dependent upon a specific situation. Of course we do have good and bad in a broad way  to guide us through the life. But I feel earnestly that we all should change our viewpoint on how to deal with bad.

I shall elaborate my point with an example. A child, of say eight or nine years,  hits another child and hurts him/her badly. How do we deal with it ? Do we punish the child so bad he feels hurt even more?(Now I do realize that I am comparing a child, who does not understand the seriousness of his actions to fully grown ups, but wait till I finish) This act of hurting is a superficial manifestation of something more serious.  Unless this was an accident(we are not talking of that case) and the first child did it with the actual intention of hurting then the problem at hand to be taken care of is Why did he do it? We shall try to find out the reason and try our best to remove the cause along with being patiently telling the child who did it that what he did was wrong and unacceptable. He/ She might get some punishment also but certainly not hurting him/her more.  So why do we handle the same situation in a very different way for grown ups. The only reason I see is as I said as grown ups we are supposed to know the consequences of our actions not only for the person/persons but for ourselves and hence that should be a deterrent to that act. I agree with it. But what if some people and I believe there are 'some' only do not understand it.  Why we have to have harsh punitive methods to drive home the point that violence in an form is not acceptable ?  I see two things there though not unrelated and independent of each other but still two of them 1.) act of punishment 2.) to convey the message. If our aim is only point 2.) then I must say the methods should and can change. Why can't we try here also to look a little deeper with some compassion  and find out the reason  and try to get rid of the circumstances/ reasons that led to it. I understand that real situations are far more complex than this but what we learn in research is when faced with a difficult problem-break it into smaller pieces and handle them.  All that is needed is patience and a positive outlook.  I believe this would work for every situation in life.

too many interruptions, so rest later,  I am not done yet but may be mercy for the moment :)

Living or Coexistence

The term living should be replaced with coexistence. We as humans get so much lost in our lives that we forget about the millions of other living species which also inhabit our home-the planet Earth. We do not have harmony and peace even within human species. Our brazen misuse and exploitation of the planet has been going on for hundred of years to make our lives more comfortable. But now we can see the consequences coming up not only in the form of natural disasters but many man made disasters. Unfortunately it looks like we still do not realise the seriousness of the matter as one race.  As I see it some of our basic traits like fear, greed and ego run very high not only at the individual level but also at the state level. The problems arising on account of these have led to widespread mistrust if not exactly hatred, huge difference in the distribution of wealth and resources. Settling the matters with in our own human race is a huge challenge, unless each of us overcomes the ego and greed on individual level. Living our lives the way it is going on, we are not creating problems for ourselves, but putting in danger the existence of many other living species, many of them already are extinct.  We live our lives so involved in our materialistic world, that, we never realise some very basic facts which I shall continue in my next post.

Some shots in the Himalayas !

 The  Alaknanda

A beautiful sight

the earth hour !

While observing earth hour on 31st, something I came across -

You must treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It is loaned to you by your children.  (which is a Kikuyu (Kenya) Saying )

in a restaurant in Haldwani, a town in Uttrakhand during our recent trip to the Himalayas kept coming again and again to my mind.

Now one does not need to have super intelligence to make sense out of it. But still the way we live and treat the earth is anything but anywhere near this sentiment.  In fact the more I think about it more worried I am for what we are going to leave for our children.  Generally it is our very selfish and narrow attitude towards life that makes us live in this manner. But for me the same attitude of selfishness forces to think what I am leaving for my child. Is bringing him up with good education,  providing him with comforts in life, all I need to do for him? I do not think so. I would like my child to live in a world, where love and trust is not only confined to small circles of family and friends  but to all the inhabitants of the planet, earth . I would like to leave this world with natural resources-forests, water,oil etc. for them.

Fortunately or unfortunately(depends upon what you think, former for me) we  have to live our lives with a much more broader outlook in order to make the world/planet a better place or even leave it the way we got it.  If I think about what all needs to be done I just get overwhelmed by enormity of the task and feel helpless and depressed. But I have decided to do whatever I can do in my capacity and I believe anything or everything will change when all of us take this attitude and am sure there are many others who feel the same.  I shall save water, electricity, trees, gas, petrol to whatever extent I can  and I hope you all will. Let us try to leave a better place for our children.  So  let us observe many more undeclared earth hours to save our natural resources.

chal manna !

chal manna hun kuj kariye,  te chal  phir agge wadhiye,
Bahut ho gaye bhane shane, bahut ho gaye lare lappe,
phir to ek chlang mariye, te phir to koi hud tappye.
har ek dar nu piche chad ke, har ek shuk nu jaron mita ke,
josh apne nu, jor  apne nu, ekitha kar ke,
chal manna hun kuj kariye, te chal phir agge wadiye.

(this is written in punjabi-my mother tongue)

two difficult emotions !

The two emotions which are not only difficult to handle but cause immense trouble when we operate under their influence are anger and fear. I do not think they are independent of each other. I feel keeping in check these two, most of the problems can be handled in personal as well as societal life. I happened to see an incident yesterday which reminded me of this simple fact again.

Let me not do it !

Why is it so easy for humans to pass judgement about others ?
Why do we conclude quickly just looking at the superficial level ?
It is just being insensitive or indifferent to some one's feelings. After all unless you yourself go through the motions some one has gone through you will not appreciate it fully.
 
In other words, never ever, dear self jump to conclusion when it concerns others. I repeat this fact to myself, every time I get hurt on account of being (mis)judged by the other wise men/women. One such moment is just passing by and am sure will not last long. Many a times it is not really worth trying to clarify or prove yourself but this time I take it as a challenge to prove some one  wrong(over a period of next three years). Amen !

I wonder

Sometimes I wonder, as a parent, while bringing up our kids we teach them or learn from them. Or may be to put it right this should not be a question at all. It is obviously both ways. We teach them and we learn from them. Many times while trying to give my 'Calvin' a dose of wisdom in simple or complicated way, I feel probably I need it to be implemented in my life first. I feel it is a kind of  having double standards in your life. Preach one thing and practice something else. It is so easy to demand from others to change and an uphill task to bring the change in you. But certainly this way I feel the pressure to bring out that change, much more on myself. Learning is a life long process, right from our birth to death we do learn something or the other in many different ways and from many different sources.
Among the various methods to learn I have come across till now,
I find this one very effective.

The attitude

The attitude to look at the negative aspects in life should be positive.

A very Happy new year to all !

Let the coming year be full of love, hope, peace, health  and endless opportunities for every one :)