Mission Radiance

It is believed that if you desire something long enough, it eventually comes within reach and becomes one with the mind! One such thing that did happen was our visit to the Government School of the Hearing and Speech Impaired earlier this week! I've been long wanting to visit there and organize a little something for these special kids, so when Manesh, my good friend, suggested a well laid outreach and giving program to put this into effect, my joy knew no bounds as if realizing a long awaited endeavour that was finally coming to be born!

Such an expedition does a lot of good, for, as an outsider, one comes to understand the intricacies of how special children go about their lives and conduct themselves in their routine, something that is done with a great deal of relying upon within than outside, contrary to what is popular belief. They truly are icons in the sense that they derive strength, courage and determination from among themselves than looking upon to an external source for all of that!

It is truly heartening and to see how much they can connect with you and more importantly teach you some very valuable lessons in life! It may, for some of us, be very easy to overlook the basics of life that we consider a necessity. But when you step into the realm of these little ones, you realize that there is absolutely nothing that can be taken for granted indeed.

For starters, we were received with a great deal of love and joy, something that I truly didn't deserve and therefore was moved very much by the honorific gesture. It was a hard task to keep my emotions under check while interacting with these ambassadors from another world.  I consider myself very fortunate to have been permitted to get a glimpse of these special lives and they way they are furthered. There is indeed no greater joy than the joy of giving, for it enables one to experience a sense of happiness and fulfillment like no other!

So for me, this was a mission, one which involved seeking happiness in those of another who surely, as much as me, has the right to live a life in dignity and satisfaction!

Footnotes:

Some of the pictures taken during the course of the event can be viewed via this link.

I cannot say enough to thank Manesh for his marvelously well orchestrated skills of coordination and execution that have ensured the smooth conduct of this effort. Thank you Sir, but for you, this would have never happened! 

Marathon of Hope

October 15, 1979

My name is Terry Fox. I am 21 years old, and I am an amputee. I lost my right leg two-and-a-half years ago due to cancer. The night before my amputation, my former basketball coach brought me a magazine with an article on an amputee who ran in the New York Marathon. It was then I decided to meet this new challenge head on and not only overcome my disability, but conquer it in such a way that I could never look back and say it disabled me.

But I soon realized that that would only be half my quest, for as I went through the 16 months of the physically and emotionally draining ordeal of chemotherapy, I was rudely awakened by the feelings that surrounded and coursed through the cancer clinic. There were faces with the brave smiles, and the ones who had given up smiling. There were feelings of hopeful denial, and the feelings of despair.

My quest would not be a selfish one. I could not leave knowing these faces and feelings would still exist, even though I would be set free from mine. Somewhere the hurting must stop....and I was determined to take myself to the limit for this cause.

From the beginning the going was extremely difficult, and I was facing chronic ailments foreign to runners with two legs in addition to the common physical strains felt by all dedicated athletes.

But these problems are now behind me, as I have either out-persisted or learned to deal with them. I feel strong not only physically, but more important, emotionally. Soon I will be adding one full mile a week, and coupled with weight training I have been doing, by next April I will be ready to achieve something that for me was once only a distant dream reserved for the world of miracles – to run across Canada to raise money for the fight against cancer.

The running I can do, even if I have to crawl every last mile.

We need your help. The people in cancer clinics all over the world need people who believe in miracles.

I am not a dreamer, and I am not saying that this will initiate any kind of definitive answer or cure to cancer. But I believe in miracles. I have to.

Footnotes:

It was on this day, in 1980, that Terrence "Terry" Stanley Fox, a Canadian athlete and cancer research activist began his Marathon of Hope. He has, since, become an icon of superhuman stature! His marathon raised $1.7 million and his legacy continues to evoke deep emotions.

Today, close to 30 years after his death, Redefining Oblivion salutes this herculean idol and celebrates his lasting legacy that has benefited several thousands of people in their arduous fight against cancer, by giving them what they needed above all else in life, that element being hope!

The contents of this post is a letter written by Terry Fox to the Canadian Cancer Society informing them of his endeavour.

Excerpts from the epic

"When Brahma created living beings, he was filled with anxiety. 'These lives will multiply and soon their number will be beyond the capacity of the earth to bear. There seems to be no way of coping with this.' This thought of Brahma grew into a flame which became bigger and bigger until it threatened to destroy all creation at once.

Then Rudra came and pleaded for allaying this destructive fire. Brahma controlled the great fire and subdued it into the law that is known to mortals as Death. This law of the creator takes many forms, such as war or sickness or accident and keeps the balance between birth and death.

Death is thus an inescapable law of existence, ordained for the good of the world. It is not true wisdom to be impatient with Death or to grieve immoderately for those who die. There is no reason to pity those who pass away. We may have reason indeed to grieve for those who remain."

Footnotes:

I have presently completed reading the Mahabharata by C. Rajagopalachari and thought it apt to present this excerpt which moved me beyond anything that I have ever felt, known and heard! I feel unnecessary, and also grossly unqualified, to explain this simplest of truths any more than what has already been so wonderfully illustrated in this marvelous epic.

However, I have come to realize how true these words are, along with those others spoken at length, especially in the context of our lives in the present day!

Notes of life

Theres a great deal of emotion in music, you will agree!

From the notes of subtle staccato on the piano to the deeply crafted compositions on the violin, the clumping strums on the guitar or the thumping percussions from the drum, there have come about some of the finest pieces of wonder that the human mind can conceive and create for it's likes to intensely indulge in enjoyment!

What would be a world without music, if the maestros had not assumed their will and power over the instrument to create many a relic for the rest of us to relish? Can we imagine a realm where sound is merely a cacophony of our menial verbiage grossly cluttered in chatter and monotony at best?

To experience the sheer amount of joy that is a result of a musical treat is sanguine not just to the ears or the mind but also to the soul, or the inner being, I suppose! How else can you justify an amount of disproportionate rush that overwhelms the self while being subject to the brilliant modulations of sound that we know and term as music?

Would you therefore, like me, not empathize with Henry David Thoreau for his belief that "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer? Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

Footnotes:

This post was created as an inspirational result of a mad rush obtained while listening to the creation of one of music's most respected masters - Hans Zimmer. His conception for the movie Angels and Demons reflected to me, while writing this post, how intense an emotion music can bring upon to the listener and the splendid outcomes as a result thereof!

The world in a page

They say, that as a child a library card takes you places, while as an adult a credit card does the same job! Well, the former part still holds true in my case and it so appears that there aren't a lot of stones unturned in my efforts to constantly dwell over my most prized hobby - reading, that is!

So, when I walked out of Higginbotham's a few days ago with armfuls of superbly serious literature on history, Indian jungles and statecraft, I felt a mad rush that could well be equated with the ecstatic high which almost always is a result of a very successful culmination of events in a way that the mind has envisaged and so desired, so often termed as picture-perfect!

Those who have cultivated this magnificent inclination, and a strong liking for it, will certainly agree that it is surely a matter of unrivaled pleasure to sink into a couch with an honorific possession, engaging with which can delightfully transport the reader into a world that is a lot more than just worth visiting!

Maybe that is precisely why I so emphatically agree with William Styron who rightly remarked that "A good book should leave you slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it."

Welcome back Mum

No painter's brush, nor poet's pen, in justice to her fame, has ever reached half high enough, to write a mother's name!

-- Anonymous

After an excruciatingly long eleven month absence, Mum is back home in Ooty!

Suddenly there is life amidst us, after a painfully dull mechanical period which at best can be described as a time of despair and glum numbness! Conversations that were hitherto in monosyllables have resumed to be full and meaningful dialogues. There is laughter once again, like old times. It feels like the family is now complete and together having endured long distraught times due to separation!

Utter silence of the past few months has altogether disappeared and there is a sense of relief and cheer as Mum has considerably improved in health and is nearly back to her previous state.

I cannot say enough to thank all those wonderful souls who have worked ceaselessly to ensure that she reaches a state that is marked in difference, in progress! Without such tremendous and overwhelming support we would surely have been cast away into doom and never regained the strength and the courage to lead our lives in fulfillment and happiness once again!

Iconic it is when I say that the sounds I hear today are apart from those of creaking doors and heavy footfalls.

The Flowing Brook

Time, they say, is nature's way of making sure that events don't happen all at once! But, thinking retrospectively, now I feel that the years of growing up were one big episode of a multitude of related events. Maybe I'm right after all, and I know for certain that I miss those wonderful times of the past and will cherish them for all time to come, all the way up to the very end.

I have recounted to you stories of how I live in the present, but seldom about the way I did in the times before. Now that I feel I'm growing older, I feel a compelling urge to revisit those bygones in the attempt to rekindle a lost sense of warmth and time! Growing up was a journey much like a mission to discover and there was plenty to chance upon, both right and wrong! It was a time when the mind was asking questions about everything that was anew and fresh, that which was unseen and unfelt! Instances of new found love, emotion, desire and comfort were creeping into the mind like passengers on a journey into another world!

I had the world as an outback and it was strangely large and unexplored! There was a lot to do with possibilities being endless under the blue skies of freedom aided with a sense of undying quest. But there was also an urgency to grow up and get away from the routines of study and scores! It was a false belief that age would automatically yield the desired level of control over what one chose to do at one's whim and fancy without a conditional attribute!

Little was I to know that the best parts of life were being played out in the open, only never to be revisited in person once again, for learning soon dawned on me that time and tide waited for no man, or practically anything! Today, the memories last as if they were a movie that has left a lasting impression. But in essence, those times are gone into making me who I now am - with the ability to take full cognizance of the world around me, the people that live in it and the lives that are so distinct yet intricately woven together like well crafted tapestry!

We are all one in the sense of who we were! Maybe we've chosen different paths to fulfill the destiny that awaits us in the course of our journey! But to remember that we have behind us, a time as magnificent as childhood is perhaps among the most blissful of all occurrences one can chance upon in life!

Maybe thats why Pink Floyd sang High Hopes with the aptly famed verses of how "beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young, in a world of magnets and miracles, our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary."

Footnotes:

This post is part 2 of a series of those which remember and pay tribute to the wonderful times of childhood. It was called for by fellow blogger Vimmuuu's tag!

The first part of this series immediately precedes this post and is titled 'Idyll's dream.'

Idyll's Dream

For most of us, dreams come true only after they do not matter! Only in childhood do we ever have the chance of making dreams come true when they mean everything! 

-- Anonymous

Mum would readily agree that Bill Waterson's inspiration to create Calvin and Hobbes was as a result of me! I was so much of a technical nightmare to folks in my formative days as a child! And imaginably, life has been hard on them as a result of my famed antics that come to be recalled amidst laughter even to this day! Sigh!

Such was childhood! Among the best times, undoubtedly when my tender self with an overtly imaginative mind frolicked in the expansive plains of inquisitiveness with surprising thirst and hunger! I'd readily put the phrase curiosity kills the cat to absolute shame owing to the way my mind functioned, an in many respects, still does! I simply needed to know everything, even if were to be how Mum's necklaces would sink down the water in the well, to how later hapless chicken would too! Perhaps, there was some kind of excessive gene in me that ensured that the carrier stayed silent never! But that remains unexplained medically and parentally until now - something which I surely need to be thankful of!

Leading the gang, or rather a crude bunch of thug children, I'd wander to seize upon the next victim - that could be anything from Aunt's cow being horrendously multi-coloured to lighting up a fire enough to consume a house in its blaze! Childhood was surely unrestricted and largely unsupervised! Being subject to discipline was not a deterrent in any way, but only served to up the ante in vengeful multi folds!

But there absolutely was something magical of those bygone times. They were blissfully sweet, with promises of strong bonds and unbreakable companionships. Even the sunlight seemed kindly mild in its disposition. There weren't deadlines to meet or people to satisfy! There was just us, a bunch of wily hooligans who were almost always given a long rope! And we did tie up the world in it!

Prized possessions ranged from those pocketfuls of Poppins, peppermints, phantom sweet cigarette sticks and so on, often traded for another one's best kept trophy, which was shamelessly called for and made one's own! Might certainly was right! One could endlessly argue over a board of strewn marbles or a pack of footballer cards that were a child's lifeline!

Where have those wonderful days gone to? Why do I never feel the wind bring me those scents now?

Footnotes:

This is the first of a multi-part series inspired and called for by fellow blogger Vimmuuu's tag on the same subject - Childhood and the nostalgia associated with those heavenly times!

Introspective glances

Standing perpendicularly beneath the sky, one feels neatly aligned to every celestial body in a straight line, but the end points of such a connection are countless. Similarly, engaging in an introspective exercise, based on the process of life, is also an endless pursuit with unlimited outcome! Such is the world of possibilities in the realm of the absolute!

It doesn’t help to go to sleep and toss aimlessly from one corner to the other in the pursuit of that easy exercise which you are deemed to engage in, supposedly with near-perfect ease! The mind, it is said, needs to attain a certain equilibrium before slipping into a state of clean surrender at the close of day, allowing the subconscious to perform that routine exercise which is meant to calm the system. But, aren't systems supposed to become dysfunctional at equilibrium? Or so, I read some place!

Introspection, thus, as I have learnt, needs to be limited only to that aspect of what can be done in the context of what was not done better on a previous occasion. If you give the process a degree of liberty more than what is deserved, then facing the peril will also be a responsibility you’ll automatically have to shoulder.

Mean minds like mine can play power games with itself and it's owner, without either of them realizing that they are being tricked in the process. So how do you rein in the brat?

Now, is that my mind speaking to me or otherwise?

Jackrabbit woes!

Footnotes:

Not to worry! This one is a product as a result of my inability to fall a sleep on a rare occasion. Having faced with the situation, I tossed myself up, following the advice of a spin-doctor, and pronto - the product is a grey configuration with shades of black and white! Abstract at best, presumably!

International Womens Day

Today is a significant date, which was etched in history to commemorate the establishment of the International Womens Day!

Eons have come to pass since then and changes although welcoming have not yet been indicative of the state that is desired.

Countless women across geographies continue to suffer the ravages of war and social injustice. Sexual violence against women is rampant in Congo, Senegal, Colombia and Pakistan, to name a few, that is. Elsewhere in places such as Darfur, living conditions, as a result of civil war and strife, are painfully abysmal!

Here in India, an ominously archaic social structure continues to prevail in many underdeveloped states where women folk continue to bear the brunt of a shamefully oppressive system!

Empowerment, self-help, education, etc are among the many buzzwords in print, which have not yet made significant in roads into dusty lands to effect the action that they have been supposed to evoke!

Simply put - how long before we learn better to take care of our women?

Seeking Albedo

A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction holding me fast, how
Can I escape this irresistible grasp?

-- Learning to Fly, Momentary Lapse of Reason, Pink Floyd, 15-09-1987

Have you had an uncanny sense of having been in a place before? Something like having known it even before having visited there? Or maybe, the striking similarity in the manner in which two events have occurred? Say, for instance, stark similarities, more than once? Or perhaps, a very vivid dream that pictured extensive detail as if time had enacted a scene of utterly unquestionable reality before your very eyes, when the mind was in absolute consciousness?

Of late, such instances have been on the rise for me, with the saddened part of them lasting only in tiny fractions, their sketchy remembrances almost always lost in the same instantaneous moment and manner that they appeared in the first place! I'm wondering what it is behind a Déjà vu, that makes it so real, yet painfully unexplained!

Must it be nothing more than a minor chemical imbalance triggered by an electrostatic activity in the brain? Or is there much more than meets the eye, of something that is larger and certainly incomprehensible? Either way, there is a certain degree of frustration as a result of the inability to understand the 'signal' that may hold the key to what the mind has known, even before the present individual (read: physical) realm attained consciousness!

Pure logic would suggest a rapid discount of such trickles, necessitating them to be dismissed as non-figurative occurrences without any significance what so ever! But the other hemisphere - is it the right? - would ponder over such happenings for sometime in a quest for reason! Balance is never found, though articulated at length by various internal agencies. Arriving at a conclusively amicable agreement is a mythical state, yet something, which is cleverly urged by one over the other in an endless scheme of outwitting the opposition - power-plays and artful dodging engaged at best!

There are a thousand fractals within, like black holes lurking in the boundless black universe, unknown, unseen, yet powerful light-bending time-stoppers! Maybe they are aimlessly chance creations, for now, but in time and with experience, a lot more will be understood of them as perhaps holding the key to time warps!

Sorry, not quite what you may call the adventures of Tom Sawyer!

Footnotes:

Albedo, by the way, is the measure of how strongly an object reflects light from light sources!

The Skinnew Effect

The Sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older!

-- Time, Pink Floyd, 1973

Operation Keeknow (spelt Key-No) has come to an end, after a marathon two day exercise which saw a much needed change in the way Redefining Oblivion presented itself, resulting in what I now call The Skinnew Effect!

Among the first things that you'd notice is how quickly the blog loads itself. This was among my primary objectives, considering the number of emails I've received asking to do something about the delay. For those of you accessing this space via low bandwith internet, this surely will make a lot of difference, I hope! I've also factored those of you who access my site via handheld devices, and thus made the new template wireless-access friendly, with very little links loading upfront. The trick is to access the page in a landscape form over your handheld device browser!

Over time, the previous template had gathered a great deal of knick-knacks making it appear very cluttered and distracting, besides the number of tweaky XML codes in the back-end ensured that page loading was delayed - this has been addressed! The comments section has been relocated to the bottom of each post, as was before. Common sense necessitated that it made no meaning to place it after the title, inconveniencing readers who would have to read the post and then scroll back upwards to leave a comment!

Working my way through the maze of XML codes, thanks to a host of invaluable information available on the internet, I trimmed parts of the new template, adding a brand new triple footer section, that now displays fellow bloggers and their spaces according to their respective genres! Reminds me of triple Sundays, the desert! ;)

The template itself, you will notice, is minimally simple, keeping in mind the objective of the blog - to portray relevant content, combined with quality, in a very simple yet appealing manner, which I hope you find so!

Obviously, all of this would not have been possible, but for your suggestions and recommendations, which go a long way in the endeavour to make this a better and meaningful space with a truly enriching web 2.0 visit experience!

However, one person needs a very special mention, for his Godlike patience and determination, and for his thoroughly professional meticulousness in listing down a number of very well-pointed recommendations that I have adhered to, word to word! I cannot say enough to thank Parv kaushik, from Indiblogger, for his invaluable help in effecting Operation Keeknow and The Skinnew Effect, as a result thereof!

And, as for you, my fellow bloggers, readers and enthusiasts, I say with a great deal of conviction that it is your words of encouragement, support and critique that drive me ahead, in pursuit of the best!

Tales from the kitchen

Thou shall never overestimate thy culinary skills!

Thoroughly disregarding this rule, two men (one doggedly coerced) set foot into the kitchen with towering ambitions, one bent to prove to the other his prowess, which was famously non existent! A great deal of preparations went into the making of an elaborate mezze pla that would have put even the finest of executive chefs to shame!

The younger one, expressed his doubts over what he considered was an operation waiting to be botched, but the elder would have none of it! Alas, the former was quickly silenced. So he shouldered the dubious plan in the thick of distrust and the worst of expectations!

Soon came the big question; how would it be done? Phone calls were made to an unsuspecting lady who was in the midst of recuperating from an affliction. The younger man on one end, wanting to soften the blow on the lady, suggested exercise of caution to the elder accomplice, as he knew the possible psychological after effects on the lady who considers her kitchen so dear. After all, the experience of having co-ruined a priceless Pyrex dish, many years ago, still lingers fresh in his mind!

Finally, after explanations were sought, in what was extensive detail, the plan was put to happen. Fire lit, concoctions readied and condiments dispensed with the supposed precision of a druid's exercise, hope soared high! But hope, as is the case in many instances, lasted momentarily and came crashing when the kitchen was soon awash with a burnt foul odour!

After all of the mess that ensued, the duo could not have expected horse d'ouvres, canapes and wine on the menu, could they?

You can well imagine the characters in this cast, though I dare not mention them by names or suggestive indications! I shall leave that for you to discern!

Moral of the story - Thou shall never overestimate thy culinary skills!

Inside the home and mind of a Josephite

Following my earlier post on a visit to my alma mater - St. Joseph's school, in Coonoor, this is set of pictures, among the many, that I took on that day!

And it's whispered that soon, if we all call the tune, then the piper will lead us to reason!

-- Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin, 8 November 1971

Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young,  In a world of magnets and miracles,

Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary, the ringing of the division bell had begun! 

-- High Hopes, Pink Floyd, 10 October 1994

How I wish, how I wish you were here. 

We're just two lost souls, swimming in a fish bowl, Year after year, running over the same old ground. 

What have we found? The same old fears. Wish you were here.

-- Wish you were here, Pink Floyd, 12 September 1975

You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one 

-- Imagine, John Lennon, 11 October 1971

Encumbered forever by desire and ambition, there's a hunger still unsatisfied

Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon, though down this road we've been so many times

-- High Hopes, Pink Floyd, 10 October 1994

Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow

Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free

Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands, with all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves

Let me forget about today until tomorrow.

-- Mr. Tambourine Man, Bob Dylan, 22 March 1965

I walked the avenue till my legs felt like stone, I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone 

At night I could hear the blood in my veins, black and whispering as the rain!

-- Streets of Philadelphia, Bruce Springsteen, December 1993

The grass was greener, the light was brighter, with friends surrounded!

-- High Hopes, Pink Floyd, 10 October 1994

And we'll bask in the shadow of yesterday's triumph, sail on the steel breeze! 

-- Shine on you crazy diamond, Pink Floyd, 15 September 1975

And a new day will dawn, For those who stand long, and the forests will echo with laughter! 

-- Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin, 8 November 1971

And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking, 

racing around to come up behind you again!

-- Time, Pink Floyd, 1973

Yes, there are two paths you can go by.

But in the long run, there's still time to change 

The road you're on! 

-- Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin, 8 November 1971

How everything still turns to gold 

And if you listen very hard, the truth will come to you at last 

When all are one and one is all! 

-- Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin, 8 November 1971

Tipping Point

A world that follows the rules of epidemics is a very different place from the world we think we live in now.

Think, for a moment, about the concept of contagiousness. If I say that word to you, you think of colds and the flu, or perhaps something very dangerous like HIV or Ebola. We have, in our minds, a very specific, biological notion of what contagiousness means. But if there can be epidemics of crime or epidemics of fashion, there must be all kinds of things just as contagious as viruses.

Have you ever though about yawning, for instance? Yawning is a surprisingly powerful act. Just because you read the word "yawning" in the previous two sentences - and the two additional "yawns" in this sentence - a good number of you will probably yawn within the next few minutes.

Even as I am writing this, I've yawned twice. If you're reading this in a public place, and you've just yawned, chances are that a good proportion of everyone who saw you yawn is now yawning too, and a good proportion of the people watching the people who watched you yawn are now yawning as well, and on and on, in an ever widening yawning circle.

Footnotes:

Excerpts from the acclaimed Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, which is a highly intelligent and articulate account of how little things can make a big difference!

For those of you who are interested in understanding trends and the undercurrents that make them as powerful as shockwaves of an earthquake, this is the book to get hold of!

So, what really, is the Tipping Point?

Out there on your own

Hey you, out there beyond the wall,
Breaking bottles in the hall,
Can you help me?
Hey you, don't tell me there's no hope at all
Together we stand, divided we fall.

-- Hey you, The Wall, Pink Floyd, 30-11-1979

Some memories last forever, and the pain lingers on like an inevitable habit embedded in the deepest recesses of the mind.

Mistakes can never be forgiven and are like cracks on pot china, it's pieces smartly stuck together with a binding adhesive but the cracks still very visible and existing! Sometimes I wish, I could travel back in time, as envisioned by H. G. Wells in his famed Time Machine, but that hasn't come to be, yet!

I'm amazed at how emphatically people state that they have no regrets in life. Can life, ever, be so perfect like a clean slate? I wish mine was too, but that remains only a wish at best.

In the end, when they say that nothing else matters, I'm comforted by the adage that "some of the worst things in life are intended to make one better and not bitter."

On the road to neverland

I'm on a journey, in search of something I do not know - a something, I'm not sure I will be able to find, ever! It is a quest that has long endured the vagaries of time and taken my mind to meander in the most unusual places that a thought can lead it to. It is a journey that seeks to draw a pattern of the myriad things that happen and discern the reasons for such happenstances - simply put! Hardly an easy task, I suppose.

It is quite like walking endlessly to seek what I believe are the pieces of a missing puzzle, the picture of which, sadly, is very fuzzy, yet strangely compelling. Often, I'm left with nothing more than exhaustion as a result of this chaotic pursuit that the mind is made to gallop for. Yet, on other occasions, I feel that there is an instant connect with something unknown, unexplained, however strong.

So, I'm searching for answers, much like how Wolverine aimlessly wandered in search of the account that would tell him of how his physical self came so much to border that of a mutant - terribly accidental though! Except here in real life, I do not have a fancy film-like ready reckoner to turn to and draw inklings from!

So I turn to silence, and chaos, the trees and the wind, the mountains and the water and still find little consolation in the hope of finding an answer - while also realizing that the search could well be futile and is perhaps ordained to be so! Quite a comfort in such a thought I rest with, momentarily, before the urging drive takes over again.

The night sky in all its glory, bejeweled by a billion stars, comforts me immensely, by which time I've lost all courage and determination to continue my aimlessly maddening pursuit. Undoubtedly, there is a strong connection. For as long as I'm gazing at the stars and the comforting expanse of the night sky, I feel soothed and forget that the hours of darkness will eventually give way to a bright new day - one that will see me scurrying in search for answers, I do not know what to!

And then, in the end, it's just me, by myself, on the road to neverland! 

Dirty Ooty

I'm enraged at how miserable the topography of Ooty has become! It is so full of shit that I am entirely justified in using the expletive here without having to seek any apologies from you for having done so.

How else can one explain the absurd and utter disregard of the much touted scenic environment that has, over the years, come to be known as the "Queen of Hills?" Well, the tagline is surely a misnomer, a myth rather, for now there is no queen, and her hills have long been grotesquely molested by the establishment of innumerable clusters of repulsive settlements that threaten the very ecosystem that houses them!

Now, there are a dozen or so forums that claim to be painfully distressed at the rapid scale of deterioration that Ooty faces, but not one of them has come any closer to implementing as much as the first step to mitigate the damage. I doubt they ever would! And about the Executive, the less said the better.

Simply put, my being infuriated will not reverse the current state to a desired one, neither will the so-called concerted efforts of a certain group of crisply attired, hot-shot, jet-setting, supposedly committed-to-the-cause professionals!

So, I'm better off being irate, or so I believe - talking about sense that is! What do you think?

Happy Birthday Mum

Mother, can I run for President?

-- Mother, The Wall, Pink Floyd, 30-11-1979

To you who raised me

I offer this thought

It is something I learned

Without being taught

In all the world

There is no other

To take the place

Of my dear Mother!

Happy Birthday Mum! You are the light of our lives, now and forever!

Footnotes:

Lines composed by Regina Graham

Speak to me

Run, rabbit run. 
Dig that hole, forget the sun, 
And when at last the work is done 
Don't sit down it's time to dig another one. 

For long you live and high you fly 
But only if you ride the tide 
And balanced on the biggest wave 
You race towards an early grave.

-- Speak to me, Pink Floyd, (Dark Side of the Moon), 17-03-1973

Small towns are wonderful. They are small, easy on you and foster a sense of bonding like no other. Throw in good friends here and life is truly blissful, of a kind that will probably not be experienced even in the most sophisticated metro due to its haphazard lifestyles and constant 'on-the-move' designs mostly as a result of the maddening rat race!

So today, when 49 of us got-together to watch the much reviewed 3 Idiots, followed by a good session of cheerful exchanges and hearty laughter, we were doing just the thing that we ought to be doing - celebrating our long lived associations that hold tremendous respect and love for one another, by the grace of God!

To me this is more pleasurable than pub-hopping and once in a while getting togethers, which are largely at a professional level due to one's organizational and official affiliations!

How many of us do some serious introspection about the quality of life we lead and the outcomes of such schedules?  Do we assign enough importance to happiness which needs to be the central aspect of our lives? Perhaps not, as a result of which we suffer the consequences of our ill construed actions!

We alone are responsible for the manner in which our lives progress - good or bad. We alone stand to take the blame or deserve the credit!

We alone are the dark side of the moon - or the brighter one!