Cntrl+alt+del

Often people ask me during a job interview,"what is it that you want to do in life?". As if the person asking the question knows what he/she wants to do in his/her life!. Silly question. Funny part is, if I tell them what is it that I want to do, they will not give me a job! I want to end this pretence of knowledge. Knowing things. Want to get back to a state of child like ignorance. When there were more things that I did not know, rather than many things which I have to pretend I know. People refer to me as the knowledgable, Intelligent types. People also say that knowledge is wealth. So yes, to a certain extent I am wealthy. It is like having loads of dollars in a country where the currency
is a riyad or a yen. Of no use. You are still poor. All my knowledge is bookish or corporate. Unwanted and useless. Burden, just like unwanted wealth. God only knows what all is there in this garbage that I have accumulated over the years. Tons of templates, emails, notes and processes. Just want to shed this unwanted flab of knowledge. Tiers of fat which has got formed around my mind. Making it slow. Like the tiers of fat around the waist. Making a person slow. Don't know of any technique cntrl+alt+del and the mind is clean. Clean and empty to allow some fresh air and light!

Your eyes say so many things....otherwise unsaid

These days there are strange shadows in your eyes. Some memory, a flicker of thought...something from the past. I can read so many things; emptiness, questions to which there are no answers, deep sadness, anger with self/him/world/your parents, helplessness; restlessness and a desire to escape from it all. Escape from the loss, the deep pain. So many things happening inside you. Don't think I can't see it all. It makes me sad too. Very sad. Can't describe it. You are strong. You have resilience. Get over it. Life is all about happiness. Remember, happiness is the magnetic north which attracts us. That is god's design of human form. Praise his design and go with the flow of life. Just like the river in Siddartha. We all loved him just as much.Quoting my favorite lines for you

Struck with palsy, sore and old,
Waiting at the Gates of Gold,
Said he with his dying breath,
"Life is done, but what is death?
"Then, in answer to the king,
Fell a sun beam on his ring,
"Even this shall pass away."

Creative Visualisation

Time to get life back on the tracks. Not worth the crib. Time to move forward in life. Bitterness is not my style. I am born optimist. Always positive. It is like being healthy. It is natural. Illness is unnatural. So is negativity. I treat life like a child. Try not hurry and nothing to worry. Need to loosen up a bit. Time to do some creative visualisation, a technique proposed by Shakti Gwain. The trick is to visualise something that you want. And go into the finer details. The more details one visualises, the closer you are to the object. Very relaxing. They say that when you visualise something, the entire universe starts working to bring that object into your life. It is a positive affirmative technique. I would love to be in Goa right now. Sitting on my favourite beach-Vagator with my husband. Just the two of us. The beach is very unusual. When one is sitting on the rocks, the sea waves are at the human eye level. You suddenly feel as if you are actually sitting under the waves. Towards one side of the beach is a short hill, over looking the sea. Amazing sight. In the dissappearing light of the evening sun, the sea, the moutain and the beach all turn strange colours. Blue, then orange and then purple. Gradually people start leaving the beach. It becomes silent. As time passes, it grows darker and more quite. One can hear the stray dogs barking. Silence....listen to the sound of the waves....soothing, rythmic consistent in its range. Gradually it all fades away into the night. The sea, the beach and the hill are all engulfed in the darkness of night.

Work

I really don't know if it is a failure. But yes, the feeling is not very good. Precious years of my life dedicated to a cause. The cause of doing good work. Work which I love and did at all times with sincereity and dedication. So many flights taken; disturbed sleep of family members because I had an early morning flight to catch, dinner eaten in a restaurant later in the night because the evening flight back home got delayed. Beautiful moments of celebrations missed because I was traveling for work away from home. Days when the body and the mind were too tired to do anything else but fall on the bed. So much effort, all wasted. In the name of work. Life went on, things and people got left behind. Precious moments of life got lost in eternity, all because I was preoccupied with work. Work which has not given me much in return. What kind of corporate monsters have we created which only take take and take more from people like me. Without giving anything in return? Making us slaves, robbing us of our time. Free I want to be. Free from the habit of going to work every morning. Free to be my own boss. Free not to shout and fire people just because one has to. I am simply bored of this routine. As my friend Sniggdha says, "Imagine wearing heels to go to office every day? How boring!!!". I don't want to wear heels to work every day for the rest of my life. It is a moment of important decision. To free myself from the world of coporate slavery or continue with the caged existence of a corporate employee?

Einstein has said, "If someone feels that they had never made a mistake in life, then it means they had never tries a new thing in their life."

Shakti

October is such a beautiful month. There is so much festivity in the air all over Mumbai. Rakshabandhan followed by Ganesh Chaturthi and then Durga Puja and Dandia happening together. Lots of noise, music, lights and fun in the air. Today is Navami. The ninth day of Puja. Morning I was at the Durga Pooja Pandal with Kaushik. One can not take eyes off the Statue of Goddess Durga or Ma Kali. She is so powerful, yet feminine and motherly. Ever giving to all its children. The prasad khichdi they serve at the Puja is amazing tasty. Women looking gorgeous in rich colourful silk zari sarees. Their eyes dark with Kajal, crimson sindoor on the foreheah. Displaying their lovely gold ornaments necklaces, earrings, bangles. Large red bindis symbolic of married state. Men elegant in embroidered silk kurtas, looking slightly lost. Men usually are lost in such social gatherings. It is women all the way! There were exotic food stalls selling kolkatta rolls, cutlets, fiah and tons of Bengali sweets. Children running mad all over the place. What chaos, total madness. But its fun. All because of Ma Durga is here. I love Durga Puja.

An excerpt from "The Bridges of Madison County"-Robert James Waller

"God or the universe or whatever one chooses to label the great systems of balance and order does not recognise Earth-time. To the universe few years is no different than four billion light years. We could have flashed by one another like two pieces of cosmic dust, never to meet."

We meet people because its is destined. Else in the canteen of our office, we could have missed each other by a few seconds. I could have been introduced to someone else. Known someone else. As said in the book "One", "there exist infinite worlds and there is a chance that we can land in any one of them." A universe which does not recognise Earth-time gifted us those few seconds.

Finding the silence zone

Thoughts are our friend for a life. They keep floating in and out of our mind, just like friends in our house. Some thoughts are light as a feather, some heavy as a piece of Lead. We are helpless, we have no control over them. The good, the not so good and the bad thoughts. All are welcome. Variety of thoughts....Dreams, Love for someone, Concern, Worries, New ideas, Desires, Fear, Creative thoughts...mind is a monkey. It will not still idol. Result, the mind gets tired processing these thoughts 24X7X52. Just as the stomach gets tired digesting food after we have eaten too much, or legs get tired after a long walk. A healthy mind needs a daily dose of complete silence for atleast 30 minutes- to rest, recover and rejuvenate itself. And a healthy mind can do wonders to life. So just enjoy short periods of silence each day by not talking to anyone for a few minutes in the day, meditation, taking a short sleep/nap or taking a short walk alone. Find time to be alone with yourself each day. These work for me and help me quiten my mind.

Silence is precious. Don't loose it in this cacophony of sound inside and outside. Look at a ferocious tiger living in the jungles of Afrika. With all its feline grace and power, it looks so much more relaxed than most of us living in large cities. We have made god's paradise (our world) a noise choked hell. Phone, TV, Computer, Work, Traffic...the list is endless. Humanity has become slave to science- tense, worn out and irritable. The whole world is talking about pollution, global warming and melting ice-plates. But what about some silence? Please.....

Vedanta-The Eternities

Recently I had an opportunity to read a book on Vedanta by A. Parthasarthy. His book is called 'The Eternities', Vedanta treatise. This book is about living life on the Vedic principles. Independent of any religion. There is a part in the book which I really liked very much. Very apt because I identify with the writers thoughts. Sharing the same for my friends.

"Few realise that the greatest contributions of humanity can never compensate for the largesse of nature. All the material work you can offer is immaterial. Yet every body hurries and worries about his work. Your approach to life should be to just do what your ought to do. This is the begining and end of your obligations. You are not to brood over or become excited about your duty and responsibility. Your real duty in life is to remain self-poised and self-pleased. Your primary service to the world, your religious duty is to keep yourself peaceful and cheerful. To be sorrowful and miserable is a social, moral and religious crime. You ought not to spread the disease of melancholy to your fellow beings. Instead rejuvenate their health with joy and happiness. This attitude must blend with work.

The moment you are born the good world provides you with everything you need. Oxygen to breath, mother's milk, the right temperature outside and inside and countless other things. You become totally indebted to the world. You must therefore maintain a sense of gratitude through your life.

The German scholar Arthur Schopenhauer has said: It is difficult to find happiness in onself but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr has described it more exiquistely:

For him in vain the envious seasons roll
Who bears eternal summer in his soul."

Be cheerful and have a great day.

A Poem by Theodre Tilton - This too shall pass away

I am overwhelmed with the response received to this poem. I was reading through a book and found this poem in the book. The fine words of this poem touched a deep cord in my heart and I decided to put it up on the net i.e my blog for others to read it and enjoy too.

Just sharing some statistics with the visitors to my blog- there is an average of 2 hits per day on my blog because someone somewhere is searching for this poem!!!! Also this poem, complete in all respects is only available on my blog, nowhere else on the net (I think so). I have tried searching it myself but was unable to find it.

My only request to all those who visit my blog for this poem, please take time and read through the write-ups I have on blog. It is a promise you will not be disappointed.

This Too Shall Pass Away

Once in Persia reigned a King,
Who upon his signet ring
Graved a maxim true and wise,
Which, if held before his eyes,
Gave him counsel at a glance,
Fit for every change and chance.
Solemn words, and these are they;
"Even this shall pass away."

Trains of camels through the sand
Brought him gems from Samarcand;
Fleets of galleys through the seas
Brought him pearls to match with these;
But he counted not his gain,
Treasures of mine or main;
"What is wealth?" the king would say;
"Even this shall pass away."

Mid the revels of his court,
At the zenith of his sport,
When the palms of all his guests,
Burned with clapping at his jests,
He, amid his figs and wine;
Cried, 'O loving friends of mine;
Pleasures come, but not to stay;
"Even this shall pass away"

Lady, fairest ever seen,
Was the bride he crowned his queen.
Pillowed on his marriage bed,
Softly to his soul he said:
Though no bridegroom ever passed;
Fairer bosom to his breast,
Mortal flesh must come to clay-
"Even this shall pass away"

Fighting on a furious field,
Once a javelin pierced his shield;
Soldiers, with a loud lament,
Bore him bleeding to his tent.
Groaning from his tortured side,
"Pain is hard to bear," he cried;
"But with patience, day by day,
Even this shall pass away.

Towering in the public square,
Twenty cubits in the air,
Rose his statue carved in stone.
Then the king, disguised, unknown,
Stood before his sculptured name,
Musing meekly: "What is fame?"
Fame is but a slow decay;

Even this shall pass away.

Struck with palsy, sore and old,
Waiting at the Gates of Gold,
Said he with his dying breath,
"Life is done, but what is death?"
Then, in answer to the king,
Fell a sun beam on his ring,
"Even this shall pass away."

Autum sun, dry leaves and the tree.

The "IntelligentTree" was discovered during one of our holiday's many years ago. My husband and myself had gone to Lonavala, a hill station near Mumbai. There was this tree in the back garden of our Hill resort. Something about the tree caught our attention. It stood tall and barren, without many leaves. At the end of each day, the grass in the back garden of our pent-house Villa would be covered with the dry leaves of the tree. It was beautiful and charming. In the Orange-reddish light of the fading winter sun, a cosmic bond was formed between the three of us-Kaushik, myself and the tree. We would sit gazing at the tree for hours talking about everthing under the sky. The tree fascinated me. Kaushik would ask me why I kept looking at the tree for so long. And I would reply saying that the tree looks very Intelligent as if talking and responding to me. Very amusing, but I was convinced. And so we debated. The two of us. Our debates brought life to the tree. The holiday ended.

Years have gone by since we saw the tree. Busy life. No time to go back and recapture the magic of the mountain and the tree. It all feels very far away. Don't know if the tree is still there. The memory of that beautiful holiday remains carved in our memory. The "IntelligentTree" from the back garden of the far far away hill resort is our own little secret from the world. Work, family, responsibilties take away precious time. No free time to sit and gaze around doing nothing. And life passes by.

Precious seconds of life slip by unnoticed just like grains of sand. How much ever we wish to hold the sand in our hands, it slips by.

The "IntelligentTree" lingered in both our minds, it still is there.

'IntelligentTree' now available on Blogger@google.

This message is for all those who have been visiting my blog 'IntelligentTree' at Blogsource. Please note that Blogsource has shut down its blog service. My blog 'IntelligentTree' is no longer available on blogsource. Unfortunately the content of my earlier blog could not be transferred to this new blog. Will attempt to take time out and re-publish the archieved items. I want to thank all my friends who have supported my blog on blogsource for the past two years.

Please circulate/add my new blog address to your list.


http://IntelligentTree.blogspot.com/