Going Strong

It was my curiosity that got me to blogging. As I wondered what should be my first post.

It began with the topic of name and as I published it six years ago, kept checking on the pages now and then for comments to come across.

The only one comment that I got for the post got me excited and from there on begin the journey of writing for which there has been no looking back.

Though there were times wherein I wondered if I can write or was it just a figment of my imagination. The comments that have been received states otherwise and I am grateful to you to make me think otherwise J

Six years!! A pretty long time. When I look back but it has been more than a space than to express my thoughts and share it with you to ponder upon.

Thank you for making the journey worthwhile and look forward to the same in the future.

Indifference

It was a lazy Sunday for Subhash who got up late in the morning after Vaishali’s constant nagging to get up. He opened the main door to pick up the newspaper lying there.

As he started reading the headlines, one got his attention. The headline “Man killed in preventing robbery” caught his attention. He feared if what he was thinking was true. His wife Vaishali sat beside him with the tray carrying cup of tea for both of them.

Seeing his colorless face, she asked “what happened? why do you look so pale, has something bad taken place?”.

Keeping his newspaper aside he took a sip from his tea. He did not know how to begin, but he had to tell her. “You know last night Mrs Motwani’s chain was robbed by two thugs on a bike” “You are talking about that thick, long gold chain that she keeps wearing all the time”. She asked “yes that was it” he replied. “How did you come to know about that?” She enquired.

“I happened to meet her while coming home and it took place right after I left her” “Did something else happen too? You look worried”, she said wondering what was troubling him. 

“A man got killed it’s in the papers” he said showing her the newsprint.  She took the paper in her hands and started reading it. After a few minutes, she pulled her head out of papers and said “it says that the woman who was robbed ran away and there was no witness who was coming forward to report the same” “Yes, as the man got stabbed, she ran away in an auto” he said. “How can someone be so insensitive? The least she could do was to help him; after all he was trying to help her”. She said getting enraged. “Did you do try to save him?” expecting him to reply.

“I could not, by the time I reached near his body, crowd had gathered and he was already dead. No was willing to take him to a hospital or else he could have been saved” he replied somewhat dishearten. 

“These are bad times we are living in today; nobody comes forward to help others due to fear of legal hassles. Nobody does anything unless it happens to them” she said sadly. The reaction was expected from her as being a social activist, seeing people’s apathy infuriated her to no end.

The phone began ringing when Subhash was taking a short nap in the afternoon. After picking up the receiver, Subhash kept listening and said yes. He soon kept it down and made another call. He asked the caller to call out Vaishali and had exchanged a few words with her. She was away at a neighbor’s house where all the ladies of the building had gathered for a get-together. Soon after, Vaishali was back at home. 

“What happened, I was having such a good time”. She said keep her head on his shoulder. “I got a call from the police station” he said to her. “They have told me to come down there for an inquiry regarding the incident”. “How did they come to know you were there?” she asked shockingly.

“I don’t know about that, will come to know once I go there”. “Can I also come with you?” she asked? “No, I’ll manage it, I might come late don’t know how long this would take”.

The police station was a stone throw away from Subhash house. As he entered the police station, he could sense a strange kind of silence in there, which made him wary.

He was told to wait till the sub-inspector comes in. The sub-inspector came in after some time. He asked the constable who gave him a file for approval. “Saheb, we had him called for inquiry in the M.G. road robbery case” pointing his hand towards Subhash. “Okay” came the reply. 

“I am sub-inspector Omkar Patil” he said moving his hand forward, Subhash reciprocated his gesture. “We came to know that you were present when the victim Rajiv Sharma got killed while preventing the robbery on Saturday evening on M.G. road” he said looking straight into his eyes.

“Yes I was there” Subhash said not knowing what to expect. “Here is the visiting card that we found on the scene of crime”. He took the card from the sub-inspector’s hand and then realized it was the same card that he had given to Mrs. Motwani. 

“Are the robbers caught?” he asked as curiosity got to him. Omkar gave him a glance and said “they will be if people come forward and let us know who they were and how they look”.

“Anyways, you tell me in detail what you saw that evening”. Subhash told everything he knew. “Can you tell me something about how they look?” He remembered the face of the person riding the bike as he had wore a headband and told the police about the same. 

“That’s great”. Omkar said with a smile. “We will call you again and have a sketch drawn with the help of our artist and if need be we will also call you up to identify the accused”. Subhash was okay with that as he felt he should be fulfilling his social obligation. “Also if we do catch him, you will have to testify in the court as you are the sole witness in the case” said Omkar who kept staring at him, expecting a reply from him. 

Lone witness!!! Subhash had found himself caught off-guard when he heard about that. “Sole witness, there were so many people there, did no one came forward?” he asked.

“Nobody likes to be involved in these things, as they think the system would make their life miserable. They turn a blind eye to incidents like these and then if the police are not able to find the accused they blame it on our sluggishness”.

“If people like you come forward to help us catch the thugs, we would more than happy to see them behind the bars” said the sub-inspector who seemed to be venting out his ire on public’s apathy. Subhash understood his plight and then made his way back home.

“How did everything go?” Vaishali asked him as she gave him a glass of water. “It was okay, I might be called again to draw a sketch of the robbers and probably to identify him” he said. 

It turned out to be a quiet a day for Subhash who switched on the television to divert his attention. The news channel flashed the news how a man who tried to save a women got killed in the process of preventing it. 

It caught his attention and he increased the volume to listen. The image on the screen moved in to show the crying wife of Rajiv Sharma who was inconsolable. The reporter told how the family that includes his wife and six-month old baby and an old mother to look after lost their only bread winner of the family. A tragedy had taken place and it would take time to overcome it. They don’t know what the future hold for them?

The public’s apathy was very discomforting as hardly anyone came forward to provide information about the incident. The lady whom the victim was trying to save from getting robbed is refusing to say anything on it and has not filed any complaint. 

Tells a lot about the kind of society we live in today. A society without conscience. That was the parting shot of the reporter.

The whole incident had left Subhash shaken. 

Here was a man who was trying to do something right, and here we are trying to disassociate ourselves from being a part of it. Was this a wake-up call, to fulfill our duties as a humanitarian and listen to our inner voice? Only time will tell, as he penned these thoughts in his dairy and switched the lights off.

The Misfit

Very recently one of my close friends confided into me how he sometimes finds himself at loss of words during an argument even when he knows he is right.

He could think of the wittiest words that he could have said to the other person post the argument. It stands true for most of us wherein words fail us when we need it the most.

 He also informed how he was trying hard to adapt to the reality where he has found himself taken for a ride for being a nice guy. It made me wonder if we all are trying to fill up the so called imperfection in us that makes us unique or stand out among others.

It is not his fault, sometime one just ends up as a misfit if one does not follow the rule of the jungle “Survival of the fittest”.

Let’s be honest and accept that not everyone is cut out for the rat race, some just choose to be in it so that they can have a livelihood.

These are people who are immune to the realities of the world and go by the goodness inside their heart. No matter how many times they have been let down because of it, but they still follow their heart maybe hoping they can change a person or more.

The goodness exists in each one of us but seldom do we look inside ourselves to know our true self.

We keep forgetting that life is not just about earning a livelihood and running it coz if you are doing that you have not experienced life.

It’s about the small experiences that make you what you are today. Those moments of happiness, excitement, sadness and despair that stays fresh in your mind as memories.

Money can certainly bring you ways to buy happiness but not of the kind where the true feeling of people around reflects their care for you.

Unfortunately many of us find ourselves trapped in the loop of trying to live up to the expectations of the reality around us rather than finding the true meaning of what life holds.

We need to remind ourselves that we are born as humans to experience life that happens only once. Unless you are the one who believes in reincarnation but won’t have any recollection of your past lives.

I told my friend that he cannot make himself adapt forcefully and he needs to observe, learn and accordingly adapt to situations. Time is a teacher which makes one learn the hard way when we are not ready to learn the truth which is in front of us most of the time.

He is not alone in his quest to make himself equipped to face the reality. We all do in our ways, it’s just that some are good at hiding it and some are not.

What we should not be forgetting is that we live only once and the experiences of life remain with us for a lifetime….

Purpose

Even as I am writing this post I am wondering if all of us live our present hoping the best for our future. 

Future towards which we all foresee to have a better life than the present.

The present life becomes a grind between the daily routine and working towards one dream making it a reality in the future.

We all seem to be in a rat race for more money, better living, relationships and so on and on.

Have you ever taken the time out and smelled the roses for a change? However brief the encounter was, did it make you feel alive in your present than working towards the distant dreams of the future.

Do we exist in this planet only to keep ourselves caged in the world that we have built around us or does life has something more to give that’s been ignored in our chase of living our lives where even a day feels short now.

There are no answers here, only a thought that life can mean more than a mere existence of fulfilling our societal responsibilities and desires.

As they say, the truth is out there for those who seek….

Cougar Love

“Think about it” said Anita as she left Sushma alone to ponder.

The past two days as she went about her morning walks, her eyes were in search of someone desperately and were not like her normal morning walks.

Sitting in her office, her mind kept overworking about absence of Neel during his morning walks. She wondered if he too got the drift about what was going around and decided it’s best to end this relationship. All kind of thoughts kept coming even as she kept staring at the mails that awaited her reply.

They had met during their morning walks when she had sprained her leg and he helped her. One thing led to another and they became good friends who would end up having long conversations. As they lived nearby, they would often provide each other company in one another’s house.

Everything was going fine, until one day on her routine morning walk, she heard another walker telling her friend about how she was trapping the good looking young Neel in her love trap.

Her world had come shattering down when she heard about the gossip that going around about her and Neel, all of which made her wondered about her relationship with Neel.

She considered him a good friend and enjoyed her time with him and would miss him when there were days they did not spoke.

Her mind raced into the past looking for clues to know if there was more to their friendship. Lost in her thoughts she stood in front of the mirror going through minute details of her looks and figure as she imagined Neel besides her.

“Love can happen at any age, it does not see who it falls in love with” said Anita to her whom she had confided about the rumors going on and about her feelings.

“Age is not an issue as long as you both know that you are in love and this what you wanted”. However she also warned her that our society has not matured enough to accept the thought of an older women falling in love with man younger to her. “Think about it” she said and left.

That evening, even as the television played out in front of her, she stood lost in her thoughts when the ringing of her mobile and flashing of Neel’s name on the screen got her attention.

He informed her that he had to go on a sudden business trip and hence his disappearance. As they chirped along lost in their conversations, she decided to keeping her feelings wrapped until the right moment came along…

Memories

The thought of you makes me despair
weakens my knees as I wish things to go back to as it was earlier

It’s easier said than can be done now
knowing that we have treaded on to different paths that does not seem to meet.

It’s the memories that still keep us alive
the way it used to be between us

That keeps me going every day
even as your absence haunts me

I await for the time to heal the wound and
to make the memory of you as a distant past
even as the memories of us will remain etched forever in our hearts.

The Moral Dilemma

 “To be or not to be” is a question that we tend to have asked ourselves a lot of time when put into situations that requires decisions to be made.

As a child, we are taught the importance of saying the truth. How it’s bad to say lies, steal and do things that harm others intentionally among other values that are taught.

Somehow that stick of moral values which is so upright during one’s upbringing tends to fickle as one enters into the realms of reality as one grows up.

It all comes to do the choices one make and how well the repercussions have been understood to forgo the value of what was taught years ago as “right” 

There may be a few who would stay strong to overcome the greed of short-term gain and there will others who would have fallen prey to such vices as they find themselves embroiled in the materialistic world and would go to any extent to have things go their way.

Moral values does teaches one the right thing to do and how one can lead a upright life and save oneself from the agony of taking wrong decisions which can mess up one’s life.

At the same time, one also needs to question on the practicality of it in reality which we all know cannot be followed all the time. Its only when one finds themselves in a position of such an implication, do they brood over this moral dilemma.

To know the decisions that one makes can best be left to individual choices and the situations that leads to them to take the high road or otherwise.

It’s quite odd though that even after arriving at a decision, one cannot help but wonder what if they had made the other choice? Something that one will never know its outcome as each decision has their pros and cons.

Have you faced any such situations where your heart did not agreed with your mind? Feel free to share.

Peace

Being alone with nature instills a sense of calmness as you listen to it speaking to you.

Rain droplets falling from the sky, makes its impact on the ground and spreading all over the place. Even as the wind forces it to change its direction

Heavy down pour make the city noise mute long enough that all one could sense is their own consciousness.

Give it a time and one is almost at peace. One just wants to hold on to the moment but like every moment it has to come to an end for a new moment to come.

P.S. Simply love the rains but you cannot enjoy them certainly not in Bombay where everything surfaces, floats and moves that is laying around as garbage. Wish had a cleaner city to enjoy the nature at its best.

Do You Know Your God?

I wonder how much do we know about our God about which we hear through folk stories that has been passed down the generation as part of the Indian culture.

Would It surprised you when you come across story that makes the same God act immorally in order to have advantage over the demons that threaten their prowess.

Came across one such story which makes me wonder if at all God to whom we worship are no different than us humans, who make mistakes and then make amends.

 

Of late, have been watching Devon Ke Dev Mahadev soap on TV, when I came across the story of Jalandhar.

 

Had never heard of the story before but did wonder if it’s the same name of the place in Punjab.

The weird part of the story was that a win over the demon could only be possible when the chastity of his wife, devoted to Lord Vishnu was broken. For which, Lord Vishnu appear before her in the disguise of her husband. You can read more about it at this link.

The demon was defeated after that. The question that arises is the way and the length Gods went to win the war. Is it acceptable? Does that mean that everything is fair in the game of life if you are trying to win it?

It also makes me question Indra, the god of the Gods, who has done most of the vices done by humans. Yet he continues to remain the God that he is.

I guess questions are all that I have which is in need of answers. If you have any, please do share your thoughts.

Back

The mind is free, alive as it journeys itself away from the midst of the forest where it earns its bread and butter and towards a break for refreshing the mind, body and soul of the man it resides in.

That’s how I will define my break that I have taken to be away from the jungles of the real world and seeking the solace inside my cave and wish to go into a hibernation to give me a peace state of mind that I yearn, if only it was for my hunger which would drive me out of my cave L

There have been days, when I wanted to return this place, which I discovered by accident and the fact that I can write too. If you hear by the compliments of the sisterhood on my handwriting, I probably should be banned for writing. According to them my handwriting resembles “crows feet”.  Thank God, for computers, the truth can be white washed.

There were posts which were put to an end before it began. Posts that was half written and left to find its own place. This is what happens when one is trying to write a comeback post after a hiatus.

Today I realized, I just need to make a heart to heart conversation to get your attention.

Life is keeping me busy to the extent that I even have to end up planning my off days so that I could take care of household chores and yes after that if time left, is for myself. The time for self is like a smoke that gets over before you even began your first drag.

The good part is that I am learning. I am now playing a guitar which seemed to be a distant dream for ages.  There are other things in the offing too.

I have always been curious about the human mind and the way people behave, act in any given situations. I find myself in the midst of people who can beat the shit out of you or make a fool out of you and you won’t even know…

It’s amazing to see how much communication matters in today’s world. If you know just how to communicate and not even know facts in a given situation, you can still rule. I am trying to learn that but it’s not that easy if you don’t open up to people easily.

Apart from that I realize that it matters to have good relations/contacts with people.  Our country lives by the VIP culture where it comes to crucial matters; it’s the contacts/people that matters that comes to the rescue. This is so evident in our so day to day routine, that one wonders if the govt. is a mirror reflection of its people??

Anyways, apart from the observations, I am looking for a change. Have planned things for this year and already the Q1 is over.  Still lot of time, to get things done right J

Hope everyone is doing well, and yes spending enough time on their blogs…