I wish instead....just a rant

• I wish during my early years in Shimla instead of pouring all my attention on books I had explored the fun outdoors more.
• I wish when single I had travelled more instead of worrying about a career.
• I wish when young instead of valuing people for their achievements I had valued them for their essence.
• I wish instead of being just an armchair activist I am able to do something to make a difference to a girl child's life other than my daughter in this lifetime.
• I wish instead of the boundary walled apartment complex and the hostile-to-women city I lived somewhere I had a beach for a safe evening walk.
• I wish instead of following the Indian style of parenting including "protect the child" I had travelled and gone out more with P.
• I wish instead of this list I had written something better.

:p

DELHI - First impressions, second time

• MIND OVER MATTER You may value your marble floor and wood work a lot but they can't make a meaningful conversation.
• RESPECT A barefoot child selling some random item on the signal deserves more respect than a man spitting out pan from his expensive SUV.
• FEMINISM A plumber works day and night to give his only girl child a college education and a man with a few factories just wants to add a few more zeroes to her dowry cheque.
• LIFE Possessions are just that , first you posses them then they possess you.
• HOME Bricks and cement, price tags mean nothing if they do not have the warmth of human souls.
• LEARNING The more you learn the more you must unlearn to uncomplicated and live a life free of prejudices and baggage.
• DELHI A city can be a friend, a frenemy, a teacher and all of the above.

Vignettes

I
a lone lamp flickering
darkness ends
where light begins.
II
life packed in boxes
boxes of life
labelled.
III
The decay
the leftovers
the giveaways, the takeaways.
IV
questions, answers
rhetoric
noise to
avoid being killed by
the silences.
V
addresses, faces,names
words, songs, places
ennui.

Hometown

hills and fog
memories of
spring gone by
buried in the snow

flavours, fragrances
of youth
the decay and emptiness
of old age

the joy and
the ache
the bitter-sweet
the happy-sad
hometown.


 

Hashtag YOLO : A lesson for 2014 from 2013

The world is often divided into two groups those who live by the Internet and those who curse it for everything from divorces to crime.
I belong in neither at times and at times in both, Internet amuses me with its capability to create and demolish so many alternate identities and world in a moment for so many of us.

So yes I am no extremist who says Internet is ALL trash and my takeaway from the online world this year for my inner world is one of its most popular words - YOLO

I am not an abbreviation person per se and I am often at sea when I chat with some of my ex-students and younger cousins who use these like their first language.

But this one kind of stuck a chord-  YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE

Yes this is the lesson, the essence , the core of it all. There is only one 01/01/2014, that 2013 that went by just yesterday is not coming back ever again and similarly you and I may live similar moments of joy and sorrow again and again but neither will be the SAME ever.

I always believe the most precious, important and surreal thing happening to all of us is LIFE itself and we focus on everything else but living. Imagine how much we miss of the essence in trying to grasp the trimmings- jobs, belongings, material comforts.....

Imagine you get a vacation to your favourite spot and carrying a lot of extra baggage that restricts your moving around. And now imagine going through this wonderful world with so much of extra baggage- prejudices, hatred, anger, regret.

So every time my heart sinks in pessimism, or I am hurt, angry, frustrated I will tell myself- My dear #YOLO you only live once- LIVE IT, give it your best shot and as I always say LET IT GO.