Q&A Time

I am a seeker of questions not answers. Answers have a quality of permanence. They remain fixed in their point of inception and do not exhibit evolution. Questions, however, have no such challenges. They are not bounded. They realise that no answer can be permanent. It will change. It has to change. Thus is the nature of life.

Ask your questions, and keep asking them till they generate more questions.

The fear, and it remains mine truly is the birth of a cycle. One leads to another which leads to another. In this constant flow, where does action occur. When is action born? For an action, do we not need to create an answer of sorts?

That is a new question, I guess.

We shall ride again...

It all started with one phone call
We never thought that we were going to lose it all
They say that when life plays cards, it plays them tough
But rarely does it ever bluff

One wrong turn, that was all it took
It changed our lives, our peace it shook
We searched for days, high and low
Only to realise, it was your time to go

A true Friend, Brother, and Son
The Adventurer, The Rider, The Crazy One
Joy and Laughter was your calling card
Nothing was ever boring, nothing was ever hard

Some people walk and some people soar
And some stand still, knocking on destiny's door
But you were forever the different one
A shooting star, brighter than the sun

There is not a day that goes by
That I do not think of our time gone by
And wish that this is but a dream
A joke in life's grand scheme

I cannot say goodbye yet, my friend,
Just farewell for now, while we
each ride to our ends.

We swore to ride the world together,
Promises made, broken never.

When my time comes, to ascend or descend
We shall meet again, my beloved friend
We shall ride again, old friend.

The Search...

Do we know what we are looking for?
We search, we stumble, knocking on every door.
Screaming and shouting, we fight and we bicker
Years pass by and the soul flickers
But all it takes is a little faith
to look away from all this hate
For the answer lies deep in your mind
Locked safe in a place you didn't think you would find.

And the winners are: The Bright Stars

In my journey of life, I have had many a "speechless" moment. By nature, I'm not much of a talker. But my mind; it's like the Indian parliament. No one can agree on any thing, everyone has something to say and I often find myself looking ,violently, at a chair.

Last month the voices in my head went absolutely quiet. I was faced with a situation that dropped me right in the middle of an existential crisis with a question mark for a life boat.

Let me begin with an insight into the situation.

More than a year back, I was introduced to a bunch of kids from a local children's home, aptly named the Bright Star House. When it comes to kids, I have one important philosophy. Take them to the zoo. If you haven't been to the zoo, you have been deprived of a happy childhood.

So the ever-enthusiastic Jar Heads and the Brightstars (sounds like a band), made a day of the same. We zoo-ed it and followed it up by an enthusiastic lunch. There was dancing and eating and laughing and presents and cake and more cake. We parted ways with promises to meet again and keep in touch.

I'll be honest. I didn't. I never went out to meet them. I never gave them a call. I inquired about them, but I didn't end up seeing them for a long time.

It's not that I didn't want to. But finding extended hours in a day became a task. And the guilt of an unkept promise began to plague me.

However,come the monsoons and a dear friend suggested that we take the Bright stars camping.

I was worried. I made so many promises to them the last time, but I never managed to pull off a single one. I began to create huge excuses and interventions to deal with the hostility I was about to face. My MMP (Members of my Mind Parliament) started throwing around words like accountability, responsibilities, earning bread and butter, and in time I was ready. There is no way they would make me feel guilty.

Come the fateful day, I stepped down from the bus, marched down to the house, and the first of the imps walked down the stairs. I was ready for them. I was the lone gun slinger. Finger on the trigger. Waiting for the first move.

And then the most confounded thing happened. They hugged me.

Not those polite "bro" hugs, but a full-fledged, "you are so awesome" hug. And, the "speechlessness" began.

We are all experts of human behavior. We 'know' how people behave and its a 'dog-eat-dog-world'. If you're not looking out for yourself, the world will suck your soul away.

Sorry mate, we got it wrong. At least, I did.

If you believe that world is a cold and miserable place, so will be your life. If you believe that the world is an awesome and generous place, so will be your life.

Take a lesson from the Bright Stars. Their spirit is indomitable. They haven't had the best of cards handed to them, but they still end up taking the pot (please excuse the poker metaphors). No bluffing, no power play, just a game of love, rooted in a strong belief that the world is a beautiful place. And I guarantee you, they will always win. Because, they win DIFFERENTLY.

For them, winning means, everyone had a good time. For them, winning means, that they had a huge laugh, sang a fun song, and danced. For them, winning is co-operating. For them, winning is that they learned something new. For them, winning is making sure that everyone ate heartily.

I came back from this camp a wiser man. I went thinking I would be a mentor to the kids, but the tables were turned and the teacher became the student.

The greatest honour in my life would be the day I join their league. The day I become a Brightstar. And till that day, I trudge on.

For more information on the Bright Star Kids, please link to the facebook page: Bright Star Kids @ facebook

Of gods by men

It is possible that every man has a limit to his intelligence.

Let us assume a man of limitless knowledge and wisdom. I would like to call that person god.

All the religions do it, so I take that liberty in this post.

If a common man has a reasonable amount of intelligence, and those that scream eureka when their hind side hits a tub of water, have an above reasonable amount of intelligence, the difference between gods and men is a simple matter of limits.

It has been observed that the intellectual giants of old, when faced with a dilemma that lay outside their intellectual capacity, have attributed their unsolvable mystery to the existence of a mystical being who keeps it all together.

 And it is more interesting to note, that a century later, another intellectual giant solves the problem, and in his course of research comes across another apparently unsolvable problem, which he again attributes to our very own mystical all knowing being.

It has happened with Newton, it has happened with Darwin, it has happened with Laplace.

So I can conclude that a god is born each time a man reaches his limits. God is a creation of men’s arrogance. An arrogance that makes men believe that if they cannot come up with an answer, then the answer can only be explained by the existence of the unknown.

It reasonably explains why every religion expounds the virtues of humility. A subconscious discrete effort to remind man that it is not the end of the road, keep trying.

Make A Choice Foundation

Stop complicating it. There are only two rules that hold true in life.
Number one.Life is a series of choices.
You can choose to take a beating and move forward or sit in a corner crying about it.
You can learn to face your goliath or slip away quietly into the night hoping that noone sees you.
You can choose to take a learning or you can choose to blame.
You can choose to lend a hand or choose to walk past the chaos.

Let those choices be guided by conviction. Anything else will lead to choices you regret

It is this rule of choice which leads me to the second decree of life.
Number two.You are the sum of all those choices. Mystery solved.
That is who you are. You are not a separate entity with your experiences and feelings in a bag, slung across your weary shoulders.
Your choices are you. Get used to it. Or make a choice, and change it.

The Dilemma before Dawn

Awoken by a strange phone call in the middle of the night, our bleary eyed, slightly inebriated protagonist lounged in front of the television, allowing the idiocracy of the world he lives in to muddle his mind. As the last battalion of his sanity charged  towards their most certain death, he came to grips with a reality that was  hidden in the dark recesses of his mind. In this game of chess called life, he was both a player and a piece.  And though the oracle of fate is every mans vane, in his case it was love. He was a pawn with those he loved, to be moved as pleased, for he never imposed on their will, misguided by principles of honor, freedom and trust. But with those outside that circle, he played the game. Sometimes he won, sometimes he lost. But with each win and defeat, he only grew stronger, more resilient, more determined. And this is wherein the dilemma lies. The crux of this story, lies entangled in the collision of these two worlds. One the pawn. One the player. One the pawn. One the player.

As dawn broke, our deluded protagonist, closed his eyes with a comforting thought, "It takes more courage to be a pawn than a player. In the game of pawns, we lose the ones we love. In the game of players, we only lose to win again some day. Be a pawn, and be loved forever. Be the player, and live forever. The player finds strength in the pawn, and the pawn the player" 

As the insanity ebbed out of his tired frame, the pawn and the player both found their peace.