A Journey of 201 Miles…

There are so many things in life for which the children are indebted to their parents. And, I feel additionally indebted to my parents for two things. One, they taught me the taste of gathering knowledge by sitting in one place, by reading books. And, two, they told me that one can gain wisdom by widely traveling too. Every time I learn something or the other during my journeys, I remember my father’s words about how traveling can teach a person so many things, which even the books may not teach. Traveling can give a person some amusing experiences, some unforgettable experiences and, at times, some not so pleasant ones. Luckily for me, my life has taken to living out of the suitcase (or, a duffel-trolley, to be precise) and of late, a considerable chunk of my life is being spent within the belly of metal beasts (read, trains and buses).

Talking about trains, who doesn’t love the train journey, especially the ones where one has access to the window seat? The sight of green farmlands, trees, telephone poles, platforms, faces that wait in the station, in the railway crossings, the strong wind that blows across the face and ruffles one’s hair (a pleasure, which I am afraid I might miss if I become bald). During childhood, I used to believe my father’s words that the trees and telephone poles all along the railway track keep running behind, because they were afraid of me. That was well before, well, I learnt Physics in school. But I am sure most of us thought the same too.

Well, to come to the point of this write-up, have you seen the characters that travel alongside you in the train? My experience of about a decade now has brought so many characters again and again into my life. And, here I am, trying to ‘immortalize’ them, by writing about them. I doubt whether I will be the only one that had the ‘pleasure’ of acquaintance with these characters. If you happened to have some similar experiences, well, let’s laugh together. If not, and if you happen to be one of those characters depicted here, well, let me tell you, for the safety of my nose, that this is purely a work of fiction and does in no way resemble any person dead or alive, traveling or otherwise.

Here they are:

1.    Lone Ranger - This person usually happens to sit like a hermit, resigned to the tragedy of having to travel alongside the lesser mortals in the compartment.  S/he usually does not mingle with the others and keeps to her/himself, by listening to music, reading books or simply staring out the window. These Grumpy Jacks neither talk to anyone nor see the others. They travel with a cocoon of their own. At times they eat, most times they don’t, depending on the duration of the journey. Even when they eat, they munch silently, neither share, nor accept. They behave like the air – you can feel their presence and you can’t feel their presence. If you can understand what I mean.

2.    Philanthropic Paul – This is that one altruistic soul that each and every compartment will DEFINITELY have. S/he travels for the sake of others. No, no, no! I neither mean the Ticket Examiner nor the security personnel. Our Philanthropic Paul is just another traveller like you and me, but he is the one who is always there when people need to bring down a shutter, struggle with the latch, fail to turn on the fan or prepare to adjust their seats. He always lends a hand even before you can think about asking for help. He always has a smiling face. I purposely used the masculine noun here, because women don’t always keep a smiling face during journey. With the way the things are in this country, you can’t blame them either.

(to be continued...)

G-A-P

I feel amused when I thank my friends and they respond in a pleasantly annoyed tone with ‘one doesn’t thank friends’. That sets the thinking gears of my mind in motion. If we cannot and should not thank our friends, whom else would we thank?! If I am not going to feel gratitude for the good things and good people in my life, what else have I got to be happy about?! I always believe that most of the troubles of today’s so-called modern world emanate from a lack of GAP – Gratitude, Apologies and Politeness. Or, in much simpler terms, the declining usage of words like, ‘Thank You’, ‘Sorry’ and ‘Please’. And, this behavior from my friends only makes my assumption strong. Let me elaborate.

Why is it being considered a mere formality when one thanks someone else – be it friends or anyone else? I have this habit of thanking the conductor when he gives me the ticket. I have this habit of greeting the server when he offers me a glass of water or fills my plate with whatever dish I had ordered for. I thank the doorman who opens the door for me when I visit the big restaurants. I, these days, literally thank anyone and everyone who does something or the other for me. I have even made it a point to thank my mother when she makes a steaming hot cup of tea for me amidst all her busy work. (Let me tell you a secret. I am yet to drink as special and as tasty a tea as the one that my mother makes. May be the ingredient of love makes it that way, but I digress.)

It all, I believe, happens due to the belief that we are the most special ones on this planet and all the other people/beings are here to serve and please us. If we look deep, nobody has any such obligation to do anything for us, except as an act of love - love for us or for something/someone else. And, we humans have this strange attitude of taking anything and everything for granted, till the moment of truth of losing that person/object strikes us hard like a sledgehammer.

Just because someone is our friend does not mean s/he has to do something for us. Whenever they do something for us, no matter how little an act it may be, let us all learn to appreciate the same and acknowledge it then and there. And, let us start proving our gratitude for the things and people that we are blessed with, by offering genuine, heartfelt thanks, instead of a mere mumbled utterance. Think of it – who doesn’t want to be thanked in a loud voice and a big smile?!

There is no need for me to offer any points about the importance of offering apologies and acting politely. All of us know the same, though very few of us act with that knowledge in our consciousness. Let us try using the G-A-P words for a day and I am sure we will all start seeing how our life and the surroundings change, when we offer genuine words of gratitude, apologies and politeness.

Remember, nobody is here to do anything for us, with any obligation to do so. Whatever others do for us is an act of love and nothing else. Thank people when they are with you, apologize when you are wrong – at times, even when you aren’t because people (the right ones) are more important than any argument, no matter how important the argument might seem to you at the moment – and ask with politeness, by using more of ‘please’.

While we may continue to keep taking things/people for granted, Life can take away them all in one quick swoop, leaving us wondering behind as to what happened. So, let me start by thanking you all for reading this and apologizing for whatever pain I had caused for you, if I had ever.

Please. Sorry. Thank you!

:-)

Hope, Love & Happiness

Feelings and emotions like hope, love and happiness don't need to depend on anything or anyone. They don't emanate from any external source.

You need to keep hoping even when every dream of yours is crumbling down to dust. Because hoping against hope is the only way to live. You need to keep love flowing from your heart, even when people repeatedly come and choke the very source within you, because a heart without love is worse than that of a zombie, which is without life. And, happiness is a weird thing. You don't need anything or anyone to be happy. But by simply being happy and at peace with yourself, you can make your presence a source of happiness for all those around you.

Even otherwise, a life that is not lived happily, without hope and without happiness, is an insult to this magnificent Universe and Mother Nature that felt it fit to bring your very being alive!

So here's wishing you all love, hope and happiness on this lovely dawn!


Ashok Krishna

Book Review – The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins

Intense and interesting - that is how one can summarize 'The God Delusion'. Intense in the way it destroys the religious myths and muddled feelings in your mind; interesting in the way in which it does so, filling that empty space with worthy ideas and ideals.

No matter whether you're a theist, deist, pantheist, agnostic or an atheist, this is a book that you MUST read. It will end up changing your religious orientation, unless you're a dyed in the wool fanatic. Dawkins has a magical knack of predicting every question, every excuse and every doubt that might pop up in the minds of the readers and answers it well. As you keep reading it, you will find yourself astonished, muttering to yourself, 'Gosh! That was what exactly I was going to ask/was thinking/was wondering about'.

One loveable thing about this book is that Dawkins doesn't simply and bleakly question the religions and the reality of the god. He cleans all the cobwebs of religions away from your mind and fills it with refreshing ideas, morals and miracles. He proves that the universe is as miraculous as it is, without there being a need for a man (or, a woman, as I prefer to polemically put it) in the sky pulling the strings. He says that it is possible to live morally and ethically, without having to need some imaginary being looking over your shoulder and making a note of how you live, what you eat and what you say.

But, if you're a believer in god and would love to remain that way till the end, please DO NOT read 'The God Delusion'. Richard Dawkins will systematically destroy your belief system, without letting you safeguard your belief in any nook and corner. He predicts every other excuse and argument that the believers could come up with and detonates a blast right at the root of that.

Finally, as Richard Dawkins managed to change all the doubts in my mind into definite - at least for the time being - answers, I felt another question. Can anything and everything on this Universe be merely analyzed and laid down as mere scientific explanation? Should we desiccate the human mind by making the hope and mystery taken out of every aspect of 'faith'? What is wrong if some people believe in an imaginary god and still end up living truthful, worthwhile lives? Will not life lose its charm if we try to dissect and view everything as mere facts and logic?! For example, Love, the most charming of human emotions, can be explained in terms of physiology, psychology and bodily chemistry too. But won't the way of viewing love as an ordinary prelude to exchange body fluids and procreate progeny steal away all the magic and mystery from the human mind? And, in the process deprive us of those innumerable works of art, music, poetry and literature?!

Just a thought. Not an excuse for the imaginary ‘supreme being in the sky’ to ascent her throne in my mind again.

Ashok Krishna

Hues of Humans - Beggars

I happen to notice two beggars every time I go for a walk in the beach road. One of them sits in the subway that connects my road to the footpath on the beach. He sits calmly with his back to the wall, his artificial leg removed and placed by his side. He neither asks for alms nor raises his hands. But he simply looks at the passers-by, a look that conveys supplication and anticipation. Whenever someone deigns to spare him a coin, he simply folds his hands in respect and conveys gratitude by that simple act. He is someone who will make you believe that no matter how worse a fall people happen to suffer, their innate dignity can still hold true.

There is this other person who sits on the footpath a little farther away. His very appearance and attitude proves that he is a sloth and a wastrel. He simply bellows to the passers-by, calling them out like ‘brother’, ‘mother’, ‘girl’, ‘boy’, ‘sir’ and so on. Rotund and rugged that he is, not many people care to heed to his calls. And, he is someone who does not like to be treated that way. If you move ahead without paying him a coin, you can hear him mutter a curse against you under his breath. He is someone who seems to believe that the whole world is here to serve and satisfy his needs.

Every time I observe these two people, I just wonder. If two people, that too beggars who are normally considered as beings without dignity and character, can behave in two different extremes, what to say of the innumerable human beings that populate this planet?! How many hues and patterns will be there?!

Youth or Adult? Problem or Solution?

When we enter youthhood, with the rush of blood in veins and an indescribable energy surging along with it, we all try to act as 'angry young men' (or, women, as the case may be). We start questioning why are things this way instead of that way, why is there so much of injustice around, why are there so many wrong things when doing the right things is the easiest and noblest way to live, and so on. 

 

But, as we grow, we slow down. We mature. And, we start thinking in a different tone. We start turning those questions inward. If there is so much of injustice and stupidity, what is my part, what am I doing to change the status quo, am I adding to the idiocy around me or am I working to wipe out the same, am I adding to the woes or am I contributing to the cure, am I part of the cure or in team with the chaos and so on. 

 

I believe, may be, that is the age when youth enters adulthood. Being an youth or an adult is not merely about the surge of hormones or a change in appearances. But it is all about the maturity and wisdom that one gathers and implements in one's life. Some adults remain the part of the problem. And, some youth become the harbingers of solution and better ways of life. The immature ones choose to remain a part of the problems and complain. The mature minds decide to solve the problems and soar above!

Book Review – The Palace of Illusions, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

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As the book 'The Palace of Illusions' is racing towards the conclusion, stirring so many emotions within me, like the scene of a beautiful sunset, I am feeling some familiar pangs. The same pangs that I felt when I first completed reading the Mahabharata, translated into Tamizh by Rajaji.

Written in a lucid, convincing style, this book will make you fall in love with Panchaali. Often through the book, I felt that I could hear the voice of Panchaali from the depths of Time's abyss. Then I reminded myself that this is only a work of fiction and not the words from real Panchaali. And, a work of fiction this is, like no other. 

The most crucial cog of Mahabharata around whom the entire epic is woven, appears here not like the heroine that she has always been glorified to be but as a woman with the typically feminine frailties. Her anger, desires, wishes, ambitions, jealousy, friendship, passions, love, vengeance, sorrow and, finally, her salvation – Chitra Banerjee lays out the whole gamut of emotions for us to feel and empathize with one of the foremost feminists of Indian history.

This is a book that you should not miss reading!