The buzz quietens...for the time being!

Last 2 weeks have been quite busy with LOT of noise around me. Having a house a few metres away from Ramlila Maidan during Navratri ensures the buzz until wee hours. I have shared a complex relationship with the 'Mela' and the subsequent noise it brought. As a 5 year old, I would anxiously wait for my Dushera holidays because that meant daily visit to the grounds for watching Ramayan acts, the rides, and some crazy fun with my cousins! :) I remember we kids being treated by my father with our respective 'shastra' for good behavior at the grounds; I always chose 'gada' being the Hanuman fan I was and still am. Spending 4 hours daily, watching Ramayan and sometimes even fighting adults 3 times my age for seats for those 11 days, was BLISS! That experience was even better than going for a movie and if that was not enough, my gang of cousins with the our shastras would play roles from Ramayan and enact them in the mornings at home. The dialogues, the lanka dehan, the Surpnakha killing with OTT make up and expressions; we were a bunch of crazy kids who stayed glued to our seats throughout the act!

Things changed with increasing commercialization, deteriorating quality of the acts and the frenzy of Ramlila died a slow death. The 5 year old me grew up and then came the new exam system in school with half-yearly exams to be held exactly after the Dushera holidays. All of a sudden, the buzz of the mela and everything around it became a nuisance to my mind and my exam preparation. The unabashed fun gave way to long study hours with the futile use of ear plugs to help concentrate on studies. How I cursed my school management to put me through this! Though, some things haven't changed much; I am still jolted out of my sleep by rowdy boys on their bikes blowing bizarre horns in the middle of the night. As much as I curse them then, I am sure to miss the madness tonight. The mela ended yesterday and the sound of some very amusing and loud songs of the 90s would make an appearance next year. 

Though, this quietness is only for the time being; wait till another 2 weeks before the marriage season kicks in; I will have to plug my ears again to the DJ's constant loop of Munni, Sheila and Chameli songs given the fact that I have a community centre at a stone throw distance from my house!! :D

Love Always!

The Blue Lagoon

No, I am not talking about the movie here or the eroticism. Time and again this word keeps hounding me; one fine day, my ever analytical mind went on a spree of finding the appeal behind the word. After a moment, the uncanny connection hit me. Don’t worry, I didn’t go about running madly around the streets like Archimedes with this eureka moment! ;) I guess, blue lagoon defines me in more ways than one; blue is the most consistent in my list of favourite colours, blue lagoon is my favourite mocktail, I get blues often, I can gaze endlessly at the blue sky or the ocean. Blue is vastness and that is what I aim at- vastness of being; though at one point my mind misinterpreted it as vastness of waist and that left me in trouble! :P

By definition, Lagoons are shallow, often elongated bodies of water separated from a larger body of water by a shallow or exposed shoal, coral reef, or similar feature. In my understanding, it is an isolated water body amidst huge volumes of water thinking itself to be separate from it. Aren’t we, as humans just like that? We think ourselves as isolated personalities in the ocean of humanity wherein we are always connected to the Source. Our mental blocks i.e. reef makes us feel separate from wholeness of the Being. Remove those barriers and see that you are the Ocean yourself! So by that means too Blue Lagoon defines my reality and my journey! It after all had a hidden meaning! Unintended symbolism! I think I should apply for a consultant job- by such logic, main kisi ko bhi lapet sakti hoon...haha J

May the blues never reach you; just gaze away!

Love Always!

Election time- Passing the Baton, not the Blame!

A few days back, I was reading a rather elaborate and long interview of Madeleine Albright, Former US Secretary of State on foreign policy (courtesy- R) that a thought struck me- how each successive government of any country creates a picture of its country to the World outside. What Clinton or Bush government did is perceived by the world as what America did and not just their individual governments. What happened in India in 1991; the debacle and the subsequent reforms is what India did in the eyes of the world; not just Narshimha Rao’s government. The world sees a country as a unit; not fragmented terms of its individual governments. Shouldn't then, the election time be rightfully treated as passing the baton than passing the blame?

I see the whole process through the relay race. The athletes run and pass the baton at regular intervals to other athletes with one goal- winning the race. Unless there is perfect co-ordination and an intention of not only putting one’s best but bettering the other runners’ inadequacies, the team can’t win. Similarly, unless successive governments take ahead the work done by the previous government with utmost honesty, the goal of Nation building can’t be achieved! What politicians, Indians in particular do is to blame each other for the inadequacies and there in goes the goal of nation building for a toss! What if the baton slipped, what if the runner tripped; pick up, back them up and run forward.

Is there a point in blaming for mistakes in the middle of the field and hurling abuses at each other? Can’t they just shake off the dirt and run as best as they can? Is it too much to ask for the sake of the country?

Shower some love shuv on yourself too :)

Finding yourself- this is the message that resonated loud and clear after I got out of the theatre having watched English Vinglish. No one else can do it for you; you have to do it...it’s the minimum you owe it to yourself. For Shashi (Sridevi), its English language that became the instrument for getting back her self esteem and some respect from her family that tends to take her love and care for granted and look down upon her for her inability to understand English. Sometimes, it takes new people, a fresh life to make you see what beauty and talents you hold when you start viewing yourself as someone lesser than the world around you. Everyone has weaknesses; for some subtly wrapped and for some glaringly evident; but it just doesn't matter! Respect yourself first and see the world crumbling on your knees to do that to you! LOVED the spirit of the movie.

Not all of it was great but yeah it did leave me with some beautiful thoughts and some eye tonic too ;) The French guy in the movie is hot. The only good thing visually throughout the movie since the makers didn’t focus much on the locations. Sridevi’s voice disappointed me; she never had that command but her voice has lost that vivacity that was so Sri! It was too choked even for the submissive and easily overwhelmed house-wife. Acting- she hasn’t lost her spark but to do another film after this might just take some more hard work from her.  Right amount of humour and emotions; though some tight pace would have nailed it for me.

One time watch; go have some good time with your family wamily J

Luv Shuv...Always!

P.S. What is with hot and gorgeous men being left to deal with a heart that hurts? Such 'Khuda ki rehmat' don't nurse a bleeding heart and live with unrequitted love! That's not allowed and it's criminal to see them go wasted! ;) Seeing Damon Salvatore in Vampire Diaries and now this French guy in this film made me question this. Guys; you MUST come to me; the world doesn’t have the ‘Parkhi’ nazar to appreciate the kind of scarce beauty you hold!! What a waste of Nature’s bounty...some people just have a problem of plenty and for some like me...whatever! :P

The flavours of Silence

I have always been a chatter box as a kid; friendly, with variety of theories about anything and everything. Teenage brought out silence to the fore; not the very comfortable kinds but that is where my tryst with Silence began. Ever since then, I have come to appreciate the many flavours of Silence beyond the customary ‘library silence’.

The flipside of exploring silence was that my tongue might get its rest but the onslaught of the heavy traffic of thoughts is always borne by my innocent mind and eventually my brain! So I have decided to bring a balance to this equation of silence and talk; the fact that I am still seeking it is a different matter! J

Usually, when you are silent, people tend to misconstrue that silence as either about a nagging issue troubling you or a sign of arrogance or plain ignorance on a subject matter. It can all be true but many a times it is a comfortable silence too. Trust me; I have been misunderstood for my silence umpteen times! This could be because over the years I have evolved from a chirpy kid to sometimes shy and a contemplative individual who is pretty happy in her own space. Being quiet has become my second nature and my loved ones don’t like and understand that at all; of course they can’t, since they have always come to love the bubbly and chirpy me! J I hope one fine day, like me, they too will be aware of the many flavours of Silence beyond the sad one, the ones I am going to broadly list now.

Ø  Blissful Silence- Ah! WHAT a blessing it is to experience this! It is the kind of silence where you are ‘Just there’; aware of the vast expanse that is your Ultimate Reality. No questions, no seeking answers, no thoughts; just ‘That’. You just celebrate the Existence! Been blessed with this Silence twice and since then my quest for this elusive one continues.

Ø  Contemplative Silence- This is my usual comfort zone which gets misconstrued most of the time with all the things I mentioned already. Most of the time, it’s a quiet, peaceful, contented space where I know the answers I seek, are within the periphery of my mind and I just got to focus to be able to get them. A space of all Eureka moments as also a space to imbibe and absorb various lessons that Life gives me. This one heals and brings such terrific awareness and understanding of the world within and without. 

Ø  Agitated Silence- That is pretty much common I guess; some kick ass when angry and some go the silent way. I do the latter when I know I’ll end up creating havoc with my as well as someone else’ butt in the former. J Edgy I am in this silence; sarcastic and irritated remarks welcome people who shake me up from this state.

Ø  Sad and Depressive silence- Widely experienced and traditionally accepted reason for Silence. It is surely not a happy space where nothing stirs within and a state of apathy and numbness engulfs you. Its deafening in there unlike its other counterparts and needs LOADS of will power and blessings to snap out of it. If anyone is stuck in there; much love to them; they’ll come up sooner or later. J

This is by no means a conclusive categorisation on Silence; I am sure there is more to this enigmatic space. Though I for now feel good about this awareness; my bad I don’t have any source into research departments; who knows this awareness might have made its way to Organisational Behaviour (OB) papers in B-schools and I would have gotten to see students making presentations and writing assignments on the same! :D

Is there a Nobel Prize for Human Behaviour/ psychology? Should I revise this list and add a category of ‘Drunken Silence’ now? :P

Love Always...the silent way! J