The sweet feminine push

Some sweet moments stand out from the dust of time on the well trodden path even years down the line. They haven’t actually changed your life with a huge jolt, nor let loose a tsunami cascading down the corridors of your memory. Rather they are very small happenings whose smiling smell defies to die in the ever-crowding chambers of your brain. They are simply like some small wayside flower you came across and whose smile you retain with you as you waft through the turbulent sea of life. One such moment stands out. Its imprint as solid like any other substantial event of my life. The memory leaves me with a nostalgic smile. It happened more than a decade back when I used to lumber along the sea of humanity struggling to complete one another day in the behemoth that Delhi is. Delhi was changing and females were seen jostling in the struggle shoulder to shoulder with the men-folk. A petrol pump and its female keepers womanning the oil machines! After guzzling fuel from the strong hands of the sweet girl attendant my cart, very old battered car, won’t start. Its battery gone weaker than the body. Embarrassed, sheepishly I looked around for help. Gracious heavens, two petrol attendant girls came manly--if we may say so, although given the men’s ways in Delhi it’s no matter of pride to be manly--forward and pushed the old hag and its owner with such dignified force and refined purpose that my buffalo cart surrendered its obstinacy to the feminine purity of their purpose. ‘Salutes! We are a gender-neutral vibrant nation now,’ my heart exulted with the starting jolts of the old engine. I looked back and there they were with a smile on their faces. The moment seems etched in stone in my memory chambers. Millions of chit-chatty things come and go and fall off like inconsequential flakes. Some things but stay with you. Take out such moments of life on some early winter day and relive those moments. As you smile with the recollection of those moments, and preferably sip ginger tea, you find life slightly better than before. And meaningful also. Happy winters guys!

Commonality gone and extraordinary emerges

I wonder how can a tiny act like simply cutting hair and adding moustache makes me look like Gandhi when he arrived in India to start his innings as a freedom fighter? Well, the job is worth it if it gives such an esteemed feeling! The journey: From outer shadows--which are ever shifting and fleeting--to inner substance which is ever unperturbed and waiting for the journeyman to come home at long last.

Saint or a Sinner?

Change...just 7 days interval between the two moments....mat kar garoor e Insaan....all forms and shapes are just temporary imprints on the shifting sands of time...just like waves on the ocean... don't hold onto a particular image😁

Well, some of my friends say it's as much of a difference between a saint and a sinner. Never mind. Shadows are just illusory projections cast by shifting angles of circumstances, prejudices and ego.

The guest

He has learnt the lesson: to survive you are at human's mercy. With his natural feeding ground, the countryside, turning into a chemical bowl of monoculture where poison kills insects, rodents and reptiles immediately in the fields--and humans themselves, slowly over a period of time as the toxicants enter the food chain and punish we humans for our collective sins--this beautiful multicolored wonder of mother nature enters houses, beating its natural fear of the two-footed most dangerous animal on the planet, and stands there like a well decorated beggar. What else to do? No option left. Struggling farmers pour chemicals, pesticides and weedicides in the fields. Nothing left for this free forager in the open lands. So it lands on terraces and yards to get survival morsels. Sometimes when its hunger is unbeatable, he follows people well into their rooms, like a cute kid hankering after elders for chocolate. Last time it came it had a huge bunch of shining and shimmering plumage, just on the verge of deloading. I could hear my mother requesting, "Arre pagal pankh hamare ghar gira ke Jaana!" But then in this he is the master of his own will. So here comes the colourful Romeo without his burden. He has shed his plumage and looks like a nimble, flirtatious teenager. Moves freely, flies with lesser effort. But it comes at the cost of love. Peahens won't give him a damn look without his decoration. And of course my mother is angry that he didn't shed even a single feather in our yard. "Go to them whom you gave your feathers!" The poor thing got reprimanded. She started with her household chores, but not before handing over a chapati to me to honour the colourful guest.

Musings on a hazy early winter day

Forget whether your one coin will change the life of that person or not. All you need is a big heart and genuine sympathy. A coin given with respect to a fellow human being is far-far more valuable than a hundred rupee bill given with some inhibitions. The lesser fortunate will feel the humanism behind your gesture and reciprocate in equal measure.

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Always there are easiest of routes to the toughest of destinations. Every hard situation has the softest of a solution. So there is no hard problem in the real sense. Our solutions make them so. When in the face of a tough situation blame your solution not the situation.

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If your mind just doesn't see any solution in a difficult phase of life, start with an assumption that things will turn for the better. Then without wasting time and energy on becoming too serious, just put yourself on autopilot. Just allow things to happen to you. Just persist there. At the lowest morsels. It’s a very intelligent universe out there to help you survive and sustain. Look with hope and love into the infinite starlit distances at night. The ‘primordial will’ will reciprocate. You will get rewards as opportunities will grab you slowly, silently without sounding miraculous.

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If you can’t respect other’s thoughts, not a big problem with that. Just slog it out—even egoistically—to prove your point. But never do the same in case of feelings. Respect other’s feelings. There is a big difference between thoughts and feelings. You can trample your fellow human beings’ thoughts. But please spare their feelings. Feelings are sanctimonious. Leave them unstigmatised and pure on the altar of heart.

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In "Animal Farm" the pigs led a coup against humans, driving the humans away. Nothing to do with humans and anything related to them, they declared. The commandment included not to stay in the farmhouse once used by the human owner. Later when the group of pigs, the leaders, shifted to the rooms, their propaganda master said it was more suitable to the dignity of a leader to stay in the comfort of a house. Well, reminds of Kejriwal and his big official bungalow...

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World is just set for fundamental changes. Even birds are taking short-cuts on natural instincts. A dove just picked few sinews to tag them in along the flimsy protection of the money plant clinging to our neem tree. Just 2 ft above the ground, visible to wild cats and humans. Laying two eggs it just flew away not to be seen. I found one egg missing and the other somehow fruitlessly stuck up. We have done irreversible damage to nature and its constituents!

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Among monkeys we grew out of our skin to rule the planet. Among us, now the politicians are just evolving fast as a totally different super-species. Time is not far when they will just stand out as winners at all levels. So fellows join politics. It’s just a matter of making good choice in the scheme of evolution.

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In the traffic chaos a small natural phenomenon crying for attention. Delhi…a congested road…vehicles after vehicles hurtling with noise and exhaust fumes…horns angrily baulked…and a 2 ft road divider. A female dog with tummy full of just-to-be delivered puppies desperately digging a hole to lie down for the moment of creation. The unconcerned world just speeding away. We miss so many misdeeds born of our mindless development.

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Now the dilemma arises. Is it possible to do a good deed in part? Or goodness requires the completion of a cause? Just because most of us are incapable to see through our act of beneficence to its destination, is it justified not to take that littlest of step which might keep the chances still alive for someone in need?

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"When they measured my stature, they failed to measure my heart." NFL veteran Vernon Turner in Option B, on the sports officials' doubts about his suitability for the game given his less than adequate physical attributes. He proved them wrong by not being a product of his DNA. He became a product of his actions. Go within and dab into the innermost reservoirs of your will power. It undoes any evident limitation imposed on the the outer surface of our existence.

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I may not have the genes to be a world champion, but I have the option to act and be a smart, successful, happy, competent, confident and caring human being. And once I do that no reward stays unachievable.

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Majority of our repentances are over the incapability to act in the past, rather than the actions which failed. So think, rethink, discuss with the best person you have around, and then just nail it, act. The burden of regrets becomes lighter in the future.

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The mighty lord whispers in a softest voice,

My son grow thou strongest and sire chances for those without any choice! 

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Though your enemy, I am sweet! 

My neck thus deserves a softer treat!

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You know why people kick a football? Simple, because it reacts and invites more kicky acts! And why people don’t kick a stone? Because it doesn’t react, only your toes get an ache! So fellas become stones, controversies will find you untouchable!

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