The People; We are.

Yes; We classify people based on where they come from. Ohh He is a Bihari, or that Bengali fellow, he will never work after tea! The same goes for Malyalis and Tamils and Gujaratis!
Even If you leave the country, the regional discrimination will not leave you! Then you start to think, he is a Bangladeshi; that fellow is just like all Turks!
So; why is it that we have a typical mindset about the various groups of people? What does it take to build a people? Don't we all say and believe that each and every one of us is unique? Then how can we be grouped and stereotyped into one mold?
Then what builds an image of a people? Who is a typical specimen of an average person? Why; we all have certain exceptional qualities. Then how can you be average? Borrowing from the Japanese Yin and Yang; we are all good just as we are all bad.
Would it not then become the responsibility of the speaker to make a fair evaluation of a community before he describes them in generality?
Would you take a remark from someone in good taste, if it were to be typecasting you in one of the 'typical' categories? it would be just like stripping you off all your talents and beauties; and placing you there with a profile with nothing exceptional!
Now; this comes from a typical Indian; who having worked and lived with most of the nationalities and cultural groups of the world feels that people all over the world are the same; all looking for genuine love, satisfaction in their jobs and a comfortable living. Yet each one I have met is unique, as he is so different from his fellow countrymen, sometimes in looks, sometimes in thought and sometimes in style! I find that the Micro has enlarged to the Macro; and the Macro has shrunk to the Micro... You could enlarge your society of 300 houses to half the world; and find remarkable similarities; or you could look into just one family and find striking dissimilarities!
So once again I ask my readers; We, the People; What is it that defines us?

Me and You (Ek Choti si Love Story)

I was once walking down an old deserted road. It was winter and the frost was an inch thick on the rocky terrain. It was a long journey along life's lonely road.
I was still in my youth, The fresh leather boots bit into the ice and gave me a good foothold. Ofcourse, I sometimes became reckless and sauntered away straying from the path. But then I saw Me and You; both walking at a short distance from each other. Both mindful to be near enough, and yet not intersect the others path. However, I was still too young to pay attention to Me and You, and continued wandering along the open fields and meadows... for it was spring now... and the flowers were in full bloom. What a pretty sight it was to behold! The green meadows with bright yellow and red flowers! The old man's tree fully laden with fruits! Further ahead I could see Me and You, both a bit closer now... You looking ever so pretty in the yellow polka dress and Me handsome and smart in conversation with You. Perhaps it was a silly joke, I saw You laugh, the free laughter of youth! It was the dimple on your rosy cheeks, or was it the pearl white shine of your beautiful teeth I do not remember! But I was fascinated by You. My careless walk became more mindful, I forgot to smell the flowers and taste the fruits!I was so engrossed with You!
Me and You seemed happy together. Holding hands, now You were so happy with Me. From afar it looked like a perfect couple, one that could travel along the long road of life through all weathers! Me and You, Together. Forever.
I was still looking at You, lost in my thoughts of You. So much so that I couldn't comprehend the big picture where even to the plain observing eye one could see Me and You happy forever!
I don't clearly recollect what happened next... Everything happened so quick! I moved towards You, I fumbled, I erred. I offended You. You left Me. I withdrew. I could see Me standing alone, calling out to You. You had tears in your eyes as You went away. You cried, but You never came back to Me.
From afar I could see Me broken hearted. There was nothing I could do about it. You had left Me! I felt the urge to run away from the wretched scene, which a moment ago was the most pleasant and romantic. When Me and You were together. Without You even the bloom of spring looks like a snow clad plateau. Everything is buried under. On the surface you see a level sheet of ice. The face that will never betray what lies within, but will just reflect what is shown upon itself.
It has been a long time since. I have been walking over the snow. My manner is no longer carefree and my gait is measured. I've been walking along this road a long while... and I miss the sight of Me and You walking happily along the very same roads! I wonder if ever I should come across You again... What would You look like now! Would You and Me be just as happy as before? Will the seasons change? When? Where will I be then!
I still wonder! In the moonlit nights and the warm winter afternoons! I wonder; I hope; and I Wish!
I pray that I see Me and You happy once again!


A few lines for You:

My thoughts this autum are lonely and sad....
A chill wind from the mountain blows in the garden
The sky is gray, a snowflake falls, the last chrysanthemum
Withers beside the deserted summer house.
I walk along the path in which weeds have grown.
My heart is bitter and tears blur my eyes.
I greive for the days when we lingered together
In this same garden, along these paths between flowers.
In the spring we sang of love and laughed with youth
But now we r parted by many leagues and years,
And i weep that never again shall i see your face....

Flowers are dead; People are beautiful…

 

“Just put them in a wrap and tie it with a ribbon; Five carnations in a bunch. If they are small, make them six. See its that easy!” These words greeted me on my first day at work.

It was a bright summer day in Glasgow, and the flower shop located at the West End of the city. Everyone loves flowers, and I knew that my boss had a thriving business. West End was ‘THE PLACE TO BE’ to have good fun! And my boss had been there for 40 years!

I too loved flowers. Perhaps the reason why I chose to work in the flower shop. Maybe I loved them too much to be able to work with them.

How could you bend and pluck and skin off parts of something you so dearly love! And that too do it with speed and elegantly. But at the Flower shop I learnt the biggest lesson of my young student life.

I learnt that people are like flowers. Your relationships are too like the same.

I had a variety of flowers and could try my imagination picking out combinations for customers. It was always a pleasure to have people who knew flowers. They would tell you; these will die out too soon, or these would be good for the window, and these for the bed.

The long and tiring days were the wedding nights! It was always a challenge to make six dozen bouquets and all must look the same, pretty and elegant. My boss could do it with his eyes closed; perhaps the reason why he was so good at it. And maybe also the reason why he could do days on end without rest when he had back to back orders! It was the first time in my life that I had met and seen a person doing what he loved to earn a living. It showed me how different your life and lifestyle can be when you do what you love, when you are with people who love you for who you are!

People when given due respect and attention become beautiful.  Flowers when left standing too long decay and rot. I was poor at my job; but I learnt to love the people. The flowers died, but the people came back.

I passed my exam. And i miss the flower shop.

The Link

Perhaps it was the one moment where their thoughts were in sync. The thoughts of love!
While Siddhartha fell asleep thinking of his wife; Ankur was dreaming of the pretty girl with a beautiful smile lying on the grass of the meadows!

Death: The end of the beginning.

What happens after one has drawn in the last breath of air? After the last blink of the eye lids? Are we just a lump of hydrocarbon with a limited shelf life? At the end of which we cease to exist? Are we at a constant war with the micro organisms in our body, awaiting till they take over and decompose us back to the earth?
If that be the case; then what is the purpose of life? Why do all religions preach of an 'afterlife'? An eternal hope that no matter what your circumstances are in the present world, that your good deeds will be rewarded in eternal life.
These were the thoughts running through the mind of Siddhartha as he sat on the rocking chair and watching the birds fly home at sunset. Soon the sky would turn from the pale blue he saw now to the fiery red and then darken gradually to fade into the darkness of the night.
Since the past twenty three years he would come out and sit at the porch watching the sun set into the lake of Bikshi. Yes, it was today, twenty three years ago that Pooja had left him; forever. Since then he would come and sit down and watch the end of the day. Often his thoughts would drift towards his beloved wife. For her skin was as golden as the evening sun. Her eyes had the same sparkle as the sun's reflection in the water. Her passion was as fiery as the redness of the sky... In every sunset he would see a part of his wife; and would wish her goodnight and later move indoors as the chilly winds got to his bones.
But tonight was special. He got so far engrossed in his thoughts of life and death and the purpose of it all that he didn't realize that Ankur, his grandson had not returned from the fields.

An old love story...

On a quiet windless night, a young lad climbed up the hill and sat there gazing at the stars. It was a cloudless sky and slight wind. He could hear the chripping of the grasshopper; for it was early in the summer, and the rain had given new life to the vast meadows that lay beyond...
Sitting there he let his thoughts wander... To that new girl who gave him that special smile! She was here on a holiday; that was all he knew of her! He had a glimpse of her when he was working his cart in the market. Just a glimpse!
But tonight while gazing at the stars he trace the outline of her face in the stars! Those luscious lips; the hazle brown eyes; the arch of her neck... and her smile! It was a captivating smile! For some reason he thought it was a special smile only for him! How red his cheeks had been then!
He lost the count of hours in his thoughts... and fell asleep under the open sky... in his dreams too that same pretty face, the slender neck and that very special smile greeted him till the morning sun hit upon his brow...

Freedom.

Today everyone seems to want freedom!
Freedom to draw any cartoon he/she likes; The freedom to stop work and destroy property as and when one wishes to hold a bandh; The freedom to set ablaze buses and tires and hoardings and flags and effigies when they want to protest!
However, Somehow we have forgotten a more intimate and personal freedom. The freedom to choose one's own life partner. To be able to say freely, 'This is the person I would love to spend the rest of my life with.' To have the freedom to convert this dream into reality. The freedom to be allowed. To be heard, believed and to be true.
Every freedom needs courage. And here, the courage to be able to stand alone. To be able to reason with the family. To be able to listen to their reasons and concerns.
It is perfectly acceptable to have a life partner you might not have fallen in love with on the very first day you met! It is a persons choice to be happy and content being married to a person who he/she knows to be compatible. Someone who can support you, Someone you know you can support. Someone you can trust. Someone who might be able to understand you, even if he/she doesn't always agree with the way you think.
Hence it must be understood that the freedom to choose the person you marry does not only apply nor does it imply that you always marry the person you love.
For you might fall head over heels for the most beautiful person on earth; one perfect in every way. But it be so likely that he/she; or their lifestyles would be so far apart! The essence of a marriage is to get a man and a woman to live together, to support each other and start a family. Procreation; The survival of the human race! What is the point of marrying someone you tremendously love, but are irritated to your wits' end by their habits and manners!
It is here that the counsel of parents and elders comes to play an important role. For with their maturity and experience they can foresee and judge many a things that the youth in their brave and bold hearts cannot!
Gone are the days when the elders would pick the match for their children, and the children would obediently agree! In todays society, the parents and elders should ideally listen to their children's wishes, their views and ideas and then understand and evaluate the compatibility of a match!
Hence, in todays world I feel that the role of a parent in match making has become a lot more tough and challenging that it was ever before! Where the parents fail to see their changing role, you often find broken marriages, divorced mothers and unfulfilled dreams of true love!
What can be worse than a life that has lost its spirit of life? In this context, Love is the mightiest of all forces on Earth. For it can transform the common man into the bravest hero; as also the strongest and the mightiest of all are brought down to their knees when the arrow of cupid strikes in the bottom of their hearts!