Learn to Smile

 A geranium needs just a few beams of the early morning sun to spread its smile inside a dispirited room. A sunflower, on the other hand, has to dare for a full stare into the sun’s fiery orbs to grin, smile, laugh or whatever these flowers have the nomenclature for this expression. The night jasmine loves spooky midnight dark to chuckle mischievously perhaps. The sadabahar is unpretentious altogether, no nakhras at all. It is happy to smile all across the year at all places ranging from flower pots to weedy uncemented brick paved  yards to even dung heaps. No wonder, the one smiles the best, who does it with least conditions. This smiling spirit gives it the name that translates to ‘ever in bloom’. A garden rose surely is coquettish and has lots of nakhras. It has to pampered with cuddlish care. One has to get many a prickly pinches in managing a smile on the garden rose. But then it compensates very well with its beauty and fragrance. The hibiscus stands as a pretty good smiling lady if you manage her well through her slippery adolescence, given her susceptibility to get in the company of pests and aphids who love her soft soots. Be with her through this naughty time, she then becomes a big-hearted beauty having broad dimpled smiles. The butterflies have a whole lot of petalous boulevard to give rest to their wings on her big petals. The bougainvillea hardly throws any tantrums. It has strong genes for many clusters of smiles. Even the traffic exhausts don’t intimidate it once it gets it smiley momentum. The marigold is the sweet nice eater of nutrients for it eats well to become a dark green fatty boy before it shows its cherubic grin. Mind you, flowers aren’t all about only the velvety soft colorful landing sites for the butterflies, colors for our eyes and scent for our nostrils. Aconitum, the devil’s helmet, kills and viciously chuckles. Nerium oleander is the scented killer. Castor oil blooms can definitely castrate anyone’s pride. Sum and summary is that all of us are good and bad in our funny, quirky ways. We the eccentric pop-ups have an idiosyncratic blend of strengths, weaknesses, negatives and positives, smiles and tears. Blend well with your surroundings. Being joyful is a habit. We can regularly remind ourselves to feel happy on principle. Make joy a hobby, a kind of propensity through practice. Start with flowers. See, how happy they seem all the time.

The ever-hungry questions

 जिन प्रशनों के उत्तर खोजने पड़ते हैं, वे जीवन पर्यन्त प्रशन ही बन कर रह जाते हैं। वो चंद मुट्ठी राख में खाक बनकर किसी पवित्र नदी की धार में मिल कर अपने अनसुलझे प्रश्न का हल खोजते खोजते अनंत सागर की तरफ बहे चले जाते हैं। और  जिन प्रश्नों के उत्तर स्वत: फलीभूत हों, इतनी स्वाभाविकता से जैसे कि बगीचे में एक पुष्प खिलता है, वे मनुष्य की चेतना को सत्य के और निकट ले जाते हैैं।

The questions whose answers we have to seek, remain mere answerless questions for the entire life span. They turn into fistfuls of ashes that float in the holy waters of a revered river and keep moving in their quest to find the answers. The holy torrents take them to the ultimate sea where they rest finally with the river itself meeting its resting place. On the other hand, the questions whose answers fructify naturally of their own, like a rose blossoms in a garden, they take one's consciousness to the brink of the ultimate truth. 

Aim for a better Taliban and the worse of other terror outfits in the new superpower's backyard

 How to make yourself appear more presentable if you cannot absolutely bring out any change to your own self? Well, our cognition and interpretation of reality is relative and comparative in nature. Use it. Make yourself stand by the side of a still messier persona and emerge as smarter—apparently though—without any change in substance. You will be at least symbolically better. Well, Taliban are far smarter than the last time they were bundled out two decades ago. To make it better for them, they are learning politics pretty fast apart from firing guns. So they may be up for a better innings this time. Given their past, they were almost unacceptable to the world outside Pakistan and Afghanistan. They cannot change their skin altogether. So what was the option? They allowed IS-K, a far bloodier version of terrorism, to stand by them and appear more acceptable and less savage. A very smart game. Please don’t commit the mistake of categorizing terrorism in good or bad terms. These are plants from the same nurseries. Taliban, IS-K, TTP, LeT, JeM and many others are simply different colored plants in the nursery managed by Pakistani generals and the ISI. These are mere chess pieces, move up one, take back the other, sacrifice this one, abandon that one as per the varying situations. The more pieces you have, the better it is. That’s why Pakis keep many outfits under their patronage. You cannot just rely on one. In the face of the gruesome bomb attacks at the Kabul airport by the IS-K, the West now naturally finds Taliban a bit more digestable because may be they are apparently less bloodthirsty. The West should not be too bothered about who rules Afghanistan. They should forget about it for some time. If at all you can do something, facilitate the safe exit of those Afghanis ho want to leave the land in turmoil. Then leave the field clean for the nursery of fundamentalism to thrive unchecked in the backyard of China. Terrorists have no friends. China may think that its clout in Pakistan will be sufficient to keep its Uyghur plans intact. The concept of Islamic Jihad is above and beyond alliance or falling out with outside powers like America and China. China is temporarily part of the scheme just because America is out of it. Its temporariness they will surely taste for much bitterness in mouth with the passage of time despite tea sharing with Taliban leaders. Did you ever see a case where there was a fire in a house and its immediate neighbor did not feel the heat? The Chinese will also feel the heat. About Pakis we need not say anything because to them feeling the heat is a normal part of life. They are used to it. The Talibs have as much a right to rule as the Americans, Russians or Britishers if they can capture Kabul like they have now. Let it be the way it is. Why force a change? When the land is ready for it, the change will come from within. Give resources to the Panjshir valley group to retain their freedom so that this can be used in future. Don’t allow Ahmad Massaud’s land to fall in the hands of Taliban. The West still needs a bit of foothold in the backyard of China. This little space should be sufficient. Use it for geostrategic purposes, focus on ETIM. If you have the guts and resources to nurture it, do it. Recognize Taliban and give them the protocol driven respect a ruling group deserves. It will make them more responsible and bring less mayhem in the lives of ordinary Afghans. Why douse fire if the water you throw also aggravates the embers. At the moment we can try for a better Taliban. It’s prudent to stop the ‘no Taliban’ strategy. Their political office in Qatar has given them some training and experience about how to handle things diplomatically instead of talking through guns all the time. Slowly they will loosen the Pakis grip on their wrist because a grip by an outsider is the least they want. Now they have been focused on ousting America, after some time and cool Afghani deliberation they will prefer to have their hands free of the Pakistani grip. They just cannot help it. They have to shake off any foreign grip. Pakistan has been handy so far in reaching Kabul. But if they stabilize their power for a considerable time in Kabul, Pakistan will be less handy.

Tea-time musings on a breeze-swept day

 With softly pining majesty,

silence sings a song,

Shadows grow long,

Her soft fingers brace my face

and go along a tear's trace.

Delicate tip of her finger bears the jewel,

A tear,

The tear that would have been

lost as a salty line on my face.

**

If the situations and circumstances around you are muddy, count yourself lucky because you have been picked up to blossom the lotus of life in that mud. Ever saw a lotus smiling in clear waters? So guys just splash playfully in the mud. I promise it is worth it. Did you see a pig rolling in the mud? Well, that is bliss if ever there was any. It owns it mud fully. It doesn't hold partial purity of future. It clings to its present mud with full passion. The pig just loves wallowing in its mud. Let the purity seekers waste their lives in reaching the holy pools to cleanse their souls. Let them ruin their present for a promised future. A pool of mud at hand is better than mere promises of holy bathing in uncertain future. Love your circumstances, feller. Try your decent bit and see whether you can change them a bit to your liking. If you manage it, well and good. If you can't change them, simply roll in them like a pig. It is blissful. Believe me!

**

The sun playing hide and seek among floating clouds,

The humid air wispily whispering a smart secret,

The land lying languidly with overdose of love;

its pining thirst quenched

by the sky's countless kisses and love-drops,

A dove pair mating,

lost in the silent majesty of lusty innocence,

And he holding her hand

with a soft touch to cover stony realities,

A gentle kiss follows

to hide the mutual lies told

to make each other happy and joyful

for the time being.

**

Whoever pleases and pacifies the Demons in us becomes our Angel!

Teatime Trills

 Greedy, lustful gust of wind 

clasped the fragrant petals 

of the full-blossomed flower. 

Covetous currents of its dark passion 

tore the tiny vase of beauty and perfume.

Petals fly with dust in all directions. 

The storm doesn't win 

and the beauty doesn't lose! 

The former loses battle over time and distance

and dies with thorny imprints 

left by the stem on its viciously throbbing heart,

The latter spreads its cozily surrendered self 

in the limitless folds of peace.

**

If you lag behind, they will trample you.

If you run with the pack, they will try to push you to the sidelines.

If you outpace them, they will pull your leg.

Well, that's human society for you!

**

क्या कहेंगे लोग?

यही है सबसे बड़ा रोग।

**

Lynched by loneliness,

I surrendered to the 

sweet tyranny of solitude,

The wounds healed,

The suffering receded,

They moved away 

like shifting shadows,

Painful memories lagged behind

and turned milestones on the foggy path,

Of course sweet breeze blows sometimes

and carries sweet memories from behind,

They leave a smile on my lips

and are again left behind, as I move on,

like sweet pathside flowers,

I look back, 

They wave a sweet good bye

with a still sweeter sigh,

And thus we have to move on,

All alone

to our destination next,

And pitch our tent at one fine dusk

and go for a long, long sleep.

**

I know this is in contradiction to aesthetics. But then we have to acknowledge the dark as well. So couldn't help sharing this tantalizing piece of grey shades. By who else? GD Roberts in Shantaram:

"The best revenge, like the best sex, is performed slowly and with the eyes open."