"Transient" an inspirational Zen Story

A famous spiritual teacher came to the front door of the King's palace. None of the guards tried to stop him as he entered and made his way to where the King himself was sitting on his throne.

"What do you want?" asked the King, immediately recognizing the visitor.
"I would like a place to sleep in this inn,"replied the teacher.
"But this is not an inn," said the King,"It is my palace."
"May I ask who owned this palace before you?"
"My father. He is dead."
"And who owned it before him?"
"My grandfather. He too is dead."

"And this place where people live for a short time and then move on - did I hear you say that it is NOT an inn?"

Home & alone. What a bounty!

I bet there are many like me living in this perpetual dilemma - how to get a work & personal life balance. My moronic corporate existence hits every now & then. On rare occasions when I am alone at home during the day time (usually I am night owl, a working women with 8.00 am to 8.00 pm, six days a week job), I sit on my favorite sofa cum chair and ponder about life. It is during those blank, empty hours that thoughts for this blog pour out of my tired mind. Rest of the time, for about 10 hours a day life simply passes by. Me is caught in a time machine called "Office". Start of the day to end of the day, start of the week to end of the week, cut off from the outside world by sound proof glass panes, the weather changes!!! But everything right from the decor to the temperature, to the light remains unchanged in my sophisticated air-conditioned prison.

Sitting in the favorite corner of my house, the silence and solitude has a soothing effect on me. Is it all really worth it? Outside the shadows are changing shape, the Sun goes up ans then down, the Stars appear and disappear......My body has forgotten the warmth of the summer Sun. Alone at home, I sit silent and still for hours. Coming to terms with what I am loosing. Day after day. Reflecting. Nostalgia takes over. Childhood memories of seasons, associations surface. Sounds and smells of summer spent with cousins and friends. Winter chill waiting for Diwali sweets and the wet rains or monsoons in Mumbai - time for a fresh new semester at the School.

Coming back to where I started from, the merits of a simple, uncomplicated life, non corporate life. On rare days when I am alone at home, I listen to the crow outside my window, children laughing and playing, honking of autorickshaws, a loud thuk thuk(bang bang) of hammer (somewhere close there is a carpenter working) It is all music to my ears.

No cribs. It is not as bad. I like my work. And my office is a good place. People are kind to each other. May be being away from home makes me appreciate the otherwise mundane sounds of the crow and the carpenter!!!

Nature's Symphony

"At the moment my life is a symphony composed of three distinct movements: ' a lot of people', 'a few people', and 'almost no one'. Each of them lasts about four moths of the year; and although there is often a little of each during the month, they never get confused".
-Like the flowing river (A collection of short stories and notes by Paulo Coelho).

Hang around. Be there, enjoy. What's the hurry? Life is anyways rushing past. So much change all around, giving us with very little time to cope. Definition of self is no longer relevant, it keeps changing, like many other things. Personal boundaries are blurred. Inherent values and culture seems like a giant Collage-there are no defined shapes and colours, one has to try and make sense of it. Frame of reference keeps changing. So what? Ever body is as lost. It is one blind man leading another.

I wish we were all as fortunate as Mr Paulo Coelho, to have the liberty; of choosing and spending life between ' a lot of people', 'a few people' and 'almost no people'. Particularly we Mumbaikar's....where there are only people.....a lot of people and many more people.

International Women's Day

As a women, what am I feeling on this day greeted as the "International Women's Day"? Is it a different feeling from any other day? Is it truly a reminder to me and those around me that I am a women? Is the reminder required? I think I am feeling slightly different today. There is this sudden spurt in the male attention all around me. All the men in my life want to make me feel more important- my brother sent me this beautiful sms in the morning, my husband was kind enough to make breakfast and my Dad too remembered that it is women's day today. Yes, I am feeling more women today.

I think the admiration is genuine. Atleast the cosmopolitan Indian man has reached a stage of advancement where he is publically acknowledging women and giving her the due credit. Well thanks to all the men in my life. I am happy being a women and very proud of my womanhood.

My interpretation of God

Somewhere in a church/Temple/Mosque stood a man praying to god...."God....I hate him....I want to kill him.....forgive me for killing him for he is a sinner...I hate him....I will kill him"
Somwhere in a Church/Temple/Mosque stands a man praying to god...."God....save me...save my life...he wants to kill me...he will kill me....god I don't want to die...save me...."
God is the supreme conscience which grants them both their wish. For.....the killed and the killer are no different. Is God just or is he unjust? I don't know.

God and his true nature is beyond my interpretation.