Quote blog!

"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am a huge fan of Emerson.. and I took this quote rather seriously.. so this is my new quote blog where I write what my own thoughts!

"Speaking my mind.."

Now, I have few people to thank here.. 

Nothing Profound- My Daily Aphorisms Blog

Ever since I have stumbled upon this blog I am in deep admiration of the author! Read few of the aphorisms and you will be as awestruck as I am! So my new blog draws an inspiration from this blog!

My dear friend- Ms.R

Who encouraged me to come up with a quote blog! 

Currently I have updated the blog with few of my thoughts.. so click now and tell me what you think!!

*Wondering if I am addicted to blogging :P*

Bunch of keys!

Have you ever heard the phrase- Think through? Now, re read it. It reveals a lot of wisdom. It silently plants a seed of hope in your mind that if you shall channel your thoughts a solution will come through.  Thoughts are like keys that unlock our mental doors, emotional rooms and  give us access to everything we sense, feel and respond. 

We all make our own keys. Some like the ancient big ones, beautifully carved, too heavy to carry around, but to be carefully guarded.  And, these keys do not fit into many doors(minds). They have selective purposes.But, there might be times when these keys become too big to unlock simple issues. Too pricey to open common locks.

Few others like the spares. They are busy picking up keys of others they have no unique key of their own. They shall forever limit themselves to unlock only those destinations that have already been explored. They lack excitement,adventure and faith in their own key to unlock a unknown life of their dreams.

On the other hand there are people who put in effort and collect a bunch of keys. They unlock every mind, every soul, understand every pain, every gain and every emotion.. well almost. They refuse to accept there is any door, any block hidden and unobtainable. They simply change their keys, make additions and keep opening doors and walk into new destinations. Their key bunch keeps on becoming heavier and more valuable. These are people who unlock the big or small ..any lock with equal ease- with just a turn of the key! 

Just a turn of the key! That is how simple it is. But we all are too busy wasting time thinking about the locks, claiming them to be too big, too rusty and too jammed. We forget and refuse to understand that we need to grow in our minds and build a key that fits well in the lock, we need to stop depending on the keys we have and look for the keys we need. 

Like a single key doesn't open every lock a single way of thinking gives us access to only our own restricted mental room.We need to keep adding new keys and get rid of rusted old ones. And, if we want to unlock more beauties, marvels and treasures of life we should make sure we have a bunch of keys and be flexible enough to use them all at different doors! 

Small initiatives

There are times we have this unsettled feeling. While mostly we are seeing things with utmost clarity, quickly  making analysis in our brain about what to do next.. we suddenly suspend, fall in a rut and do things out of routine. Our brain stops registering that we have options to make things better. To improve, to change and to reason things out. We get irritated, frustrated and feel helpless not understanding what is causing our mind itch, what is holding us back?? It is not great issues in life that we slip through. It is mostly as simple as putting your shoes back in the shoe rack as against kicking them off on the floor. It is simple. Simple as smiling at someone you know rather than waiting for them to recognize you. Simple as letting go. Simple as deviating from the routine and being different once in a while.

The biggest task is to keep our eyes open, look for simple issues. Simpler solutions. It is very difficult to do that. We don't really notice how we have changed ! We are tricked to think when was it any better? But do we ask ourselves as to why can't it be any better now? What stop us from taking initiatives. Small ones.

It works wonders. The only effort it takes to look at a door and open it.

Fragile happiness!

Happiness is the most fragile and sensitive emotion. Beautifully delicate like a air bubble - it floats around freely.

It is born out of simple wishes, our small pockets of joy hidden in moments spread across the years of our lives.Happiness too has a definite end. Like a air bubble it too will eventually vanish. Like a air bubble it also changes its shapes- defines and redefines its boundaries.

Some days our happiness bubble is achieved only when we blow enough air in our pompous life and fill it with unreasonable wishes and demands. Asking for more than what we deserve and need to be satisfied or be discreetly happy.  Or we find ourselves euphoric by  a simple delight in just being and existing in whatever situation and be thankful for breathing. Be thankful for life.

Like one losses the control over a air bubble as it detaches itself  from the ring and floats in thin air. Our happiness moves beyond our ability to maneuver from the moment when we feel it. One hasty remark or an unrelated incident  is just that little that is needed to make it pop! It is a common phrase - happiness multiplies when shared.. but how many times have you witnessed someone's happiness being received by jealously, misunderstanding and erratic response? It is sad... many times people don't even realize they burst a bubble!

One might argue one should find one's own peace and delight and live oblivious to the world."I care a damn!!" is the "in" thing! True, that might make one happy. But what is life without care for one another? How long can you shield yourself from what others do and say? We hate to admit it but we don't have much control over sustaining the happiness we create for ourselves.

It is natural for these air bubbles to either burst, grow or live on. A air bubble cannot expect smooth surfaces where ever it travels. The only game plan we have is to keep blowing our air bubbles. Find and discover our little joys. In abundance.

Magical Lanes

Conversations are like lanes. They can be like a highway on which words flow without hitch and jams. Stopping once in a while to pay toll while sipping a coffee. Just that the toll here is genuine smiles that express the joy of a person to have found someone (or some people)  who understands their words and actions like they do. Who knows a person like a person knows himself or herself. 

Conversations can also be those silent lanes lined with beautiful trees with flowers in full bloom. Where you discover a soul that belongs to you. You slowly walk. Talk carefully. Douse in the beauty of another person by the words spoken.Make your ears and other senses primary organs, live on by picking up tiny things your companion on this lane tries to show you. You can park yourself on a bench and stay in that lane a little longer. Linger on those moments that are rare. When a person walks you through his/her life on these lanes of conversations. When words like the hands of lovers mingle and bind.

Lanes that can be difficult to walk on are like conversations that are difficult to make. Usually one person emerges like a caring one and holds the other little one with words. Like mom who guards her child. Directs one's thoughts and helps one think better. To walk on the same lane and look at it with the same eyes but a different mind.

They can also be the lanes that are barren.  With no other person to talk to. A lane with complicated twists and turns bound to a destination unknown to you. Those conversations are like lanes on which we take up walks,alone, lanes on which we grow. They are the conversations we have with ourself. We walk around and finally reach a place we are comfortable with. A place where we believe we can put our journey to rest only to resume it again. A lane full of sights to forget and beauty to capture. A lane full of hidden treasures of one's nature. 

Conversations are miracles. They are those magical lanes that lead us to us and to others.

Write to me..

Don’t call, just write to me

When you glance at the blue moon

That lights up the sky,

When you sit by a fire and watch

The ambers fly.

Don’t call, just write to me

If you catch the sight,

Of a flower in bloom.

When you walk on a silent lane,

In the month of June.

Don’t call, just write to me

When you connect to a soul,

You never knew.

Or made a kid smile,

Even for a moment or two.

Don’t call, just write to me

When you do something,

You haven’t done before.

Or you want to talk,

About someone you adore.

  

Don’t call, just write to me

Not about your love,

Or what you feel for me. 

But, about the man you are,

And who, you want to be.

Don’t call, just write to me

Cause memories will fade,

But, words cannot tamper.

Don’t call, just write to me,

Not about me, but, about you, on a paper.


~Sam

You belong to?

"You belong to?" It is a straight forward question. The logical answer to it would be a place.But if you pause and think, rewind and re-look at your life. The answer to this question would have had million alterations. 

I belong to the beach when I laid my eyes on the moving waves and let the water brush up my feet, when I walked in that sand and sunk my fears deep, I took off from the ground let dreams build in the zephyr. I belong to the nature on the chilly morning when I was in awe of the beauty I was fortunate enough to see. I belong to my mom whenever I went crying and she took me in- nothing was spoken but conversations were made. I belong to my sister who caught hold of my hand and told her friends- this is my sister, with proud smile spread across her face.

I belong to all those who thought I was worthy of their conversations. To friends who put faith and shared their fears and little secrets. I belong to the arms that hugged me when in distress. The adamant friends who decided for me that I cannot be left to cry. Those crazy people who had more belief in my abilities than I ever did. I belong to my school- for putting up with all my mischiefs. Silly fights. Punishments.  Embarrassments. Victories. I belong to the guys who decided I was special irrespective of what I felt for them. I belong, in bits and pieces to all people I admire and adore for various reasons. 

I belong to the puppy that playfully jumped into my arms. I belong to grass I lied down on.  I belong to kid who wrapped his hand around my arm. I belong to the elderly with who chose that I accompany them for an evening stroll.

It could be the photographs, images, food, places, conversations and million other indescribable teeny-weeny things that stirred my existence and added little meaning to it. I belong to all of it.

And people ask, "You belong to?" Now, can you give the answer? Is it a place?

Moments and beads

We never hold the moments as they pass by. At the end of a year we somehow walk on the same path to pick up the moments like beads we carelessly dropped. A year is too long a time. Some beads get lost in lanes of the mind. The beads we carved beautifully.  The beads we thought were exclusive and we felt that we were privileged to have. Beads from different locations, with different people, different emotions- Pride. Joy. Satisfaction. Relief. Pleasure. Peace. Tension. Frustration. There are also some beads we carefully hid to prevent us from stepping on them and then slipping back to the times, to the thoughts we had when we first encountered them.

Each bead like a tiny moment of joy or sadness, a simple moment to hold in you hands, a moment that can slip through the grip of your mind. We silently contemplate on the final days of the year. We pick up these memory beads and string them together. We collectively talk about our year being good or bad but we rarely recollect each moment as a separate entity a separate bead. We get so fixated on the thought of adding one new number in the date and it makes us mentally ready to plan changes and resolutions. We forget the laws of nature and hanker after things to change overnight just because of a change of date. We forget that there is nothing like a new year. All that is new is just our thought. A new addition in the date boosts our confidence. We decide that we can suddenly take up challenges and actually do all the things we planned to do but never did. We forget that again in a week or two… this newness will wear out.

We need to shift our focus from the dates. We need to look through the lens of time as a string of these beads. We should work to make each bead a Beautiful. Memorable. Delightful. Prideful. Moment.  We should understand that our newness lies in the ability to pick up these beads. Ensure continuum. Understand our capability to start afresh any moment. Just like simple act of choosing beads. Dropping the unwanted ones and picking up the ones that catch our fancy. Our ability to define and redefine our lives just by holding each moment like a bead and not waiting for the end of year to string them together from lost lanes of the mind.

P.S: The idea for this post came while I was reading Susan's post on New Year. Well, she has a beautiful blog in case you want to take a look at what she writes about.. go ahead and you will be amazed by the brilliance and simplicity of her thoughts.

Change

Out the most frequently used English words - change would definitely clinch a decent top ranking. All we have learn't about change is being open to change. Being adaptive. Not being stuck in a rut. I understand being paralyzed by same things, same situations and thoughts is bad. It is. But what if you are the kind that cannot succumb to regularity? If change is all you could do? Some people would term it as reckless, random and strange or plain lack of will when we fail to do certain things repeatedly. Some say we should have a little determination to hold on to things for a while.

But what if change calls to you. Change like a wave lures you to stand in that beach on the shore. Each wave of change adding a little more to your life. Each wave of change washing over your feet and leaving you little different.You feel the sand slipping and making a new ground with each passing wave. You suddenly realize you are no more standing on the same sand. Sometimes change becomes a wave that meets resistance and it splashes and erupts against the rocks. But what if it leaves a tingling funny feeling like a wave-froth on your feet that makes you smile? And what if you can't resist standing in that beach, looking at each wave and anticipating what it would feel like to float away with it?

What if you just keep losing interest in a place, in a person and anything you like? Too quickly. Unknowingly. Without pain. Without Guilt. And what if you are the kind who changes at an unacceptable pace?

Flashdrives of flashbacks

Memory is a very strange thing. At times we are delighted to be reminded of something in our past and at times it leaves us unpleasant. But what is thrilling is how we store this memory. I am not talking about pictures, photographs or videos here. Those are unreal, without feeling, without emotion and they are not lasting no matter how hard you try to preserve them. I am talking about those tiny little memories packed up in some senses. Few days back a chocolate ice-cream with mint sauce took me back to the day I licked out choco-mint creme from a biscuit. I was 10 maybe. I had comfortably forgotten it. But that day the smile didn't leave my face. I was so happy to have reconnected with a tiny insignificant part of my childhood. Similarly today a spoonful of milk powder melted on my tongue and I gleed with joy and felt like a child. What amazes me is not the memory. It is the way I remember it. Now if I think hard I can actually remember particular scents. A favorite teacher's saree. Or the smell of my mom's cupboard when I could comfortably hide there and be untraced when we played hide and seek.  A unique voice. A funny manner in which someone walked. The way someone gestured. The way someone smiled. A similar sight, taste, sound , smell and touch can unlock a whole new world from our past. Lot of it stored unconsciously. Insignificant things surfacing in the present but bringing back the same old feelings effortlessly and unknowingly. It is a pure delight. Most of these memories are not connected with joy or sadness. There are just those grey areas you never make an effort to remember for years. No value as such. But its sudden recollection that slips through some sensory detection- marvellous and miraculous. So if we actually understand this brilliance our flashbacks are stored in the flashdrives called senses.

Unsighted

We all have a image of people we meet, see and talk to. The parameters of judgement different for each one of us. What we fail to register is the hidden qualities of individuals which like an illusion shows us a image and challenges us to discover the hidden side.

Last evening I was sitting in the crowd watching different individuals dance, sing and perform.It suddenly hit me. There is a lot more to a person than what we understand them to be. I personally feel there is nothing like a woman who can dance and a man who can sing.There is nothing like a person being able to hold the crowd in awe with what he or she can do. Nothing. But once the situation changes the value of the talent diminishes. It is more or less like a stock market value. At different times we are valued differently. For someone who has invested in us feels proud and happy and someone who hasn't aches for our company. Just like with newly signed deals and progress and new information the stock value gets altered.  Uncovering of some information. A little more knowledge about a person.Changes our perception. We see them in a altogether different light. But this light fades over the time or at times get so strongly associated that it blinds the other person of all the remaining appreciable or inappreciable qualities.

While some of us drum beat our talents- some keep it hidden. Some are so exclusive of their audience that most of us will never really understand what the other person is capable of.  I sometimes laugh out loud when people say- "I know him/her/you" . The truth is we never know. Never. Like the stock market can put a Satyam in high charts just before its fall. The human stock value (as I call it) can be tricked to be high. Or it can be tricked to be low.  We are under the misapprehension that someone's mind, someone's nature, is something real and enduring.Something we can fully understand. Only when we sit straight and look into that person , does it become clear that  we haven't looked enough. We are just not capable of that somehow. 

They say we have a blind spot and we cannot see everything with our eyes. I'd say our eyes are incapable of seeing anything at all. Forever we will continue to remain unsighted because anything worth seeing has to be seen with a mind, a perception, a emotion, a experience, at different dimensions and with understanding.

The fabric

Slowly. Unknowingly. We reach a point where we clearly know what makes us happy what doesn't. What we like what we don't. Who annoys us. Who makes us happy. Who is appreciable who is not. Ninety percent of our daily activities are figured out. Solved. Why is that people say life is unpredictable when we are always learning and unlearning? They say that because of these moments.

Those moments that are fickle. The moments when emotions fail to register. Feelings suspend. You simply don't know. Your memory cannot relate to what is in front of you and what you think you had figured out. You think you will be too happy but you try very hard to pass a simple smile. You surmise you will be hurt but you remain strong. You cannot figure out the fabric of behaviour and feelings you very carefully wove through millions of interactions you have had with the world. That fabric in which each thread is touched and felt by you. The colour of emotions, the set of reactions -everything defined by you. Now. Suddenly. You don't know. You pause for a while and peel the layers of emotions you experience. You keep seeing a different shade each time. Different. It is illusionary and  enigmatic. You cannot stop.You have to continue. Each shade is marvelous. If you peel a layer of happiness there is grief. Beneath love there is pain. Everything beautifully hidden. You may peel off the layers and stop at what you think is what you want to feel. There is no end. There really isn't. 

What is even more gripping is the amalgamation of our surroundings. Just like a fabric fades in the scorching heat and might burn a thread or two. Our fabric of emotion gets affected. It fades. It gets torn. It has patches of different cloths. It has nothing of its own. The emotions are adopted by our surroundings.The thing that makes this adoption exciting is- the choice. The choice of surrounding. You may choose to dye your fabric in the darkness of envy or self pity or pain. Or you may venture out into a unknown colour. 

The trick is to keep conditioning that fabric of emotion. Fully realizing  the power of its dynamics. Understanding that it is too complex to be fully understood. But, too simple to manage. Just a fabric, that we weave. The fabric which is palpable just in those fickle moments.

The power of unrest

Have you been through this..? That state of unrest when everything that defines you malfunctions?

The times when you have to decide something 'important'. You won't rest till you have considered the opinion of everyone you value and have projected its possible outcomes, looked if there is flaw in your perception ...phew ya thats the state of unrest. You won't eat well or you'll eat too well [:P] , do random comfort giving things.. buy a book, get a haircut (then worry about bad haircut :] )

Play around for a while but in the end.. you have to talk it out to know.

When we decide something .. think about something.. it is easier to let it rest in our mind. What is difficult is to open it for public discussion selective public discussion. When others give their opinion it is like a blow of hammer. You react and justify your stand. You come up with reasons you never knew about why you want to do what you what to do. That state of unrest will capacitate you for everything that you don't know. It is like the shimmering fire that melts down all the pointless thoughts. Then all this unrest ends.. there is a clarity like a FL graded diamond. Thats when you see what you really want. Thats when you know what to choose. That is the power of unrest.