I was recently learning to tune the Veena. My guru Dr. Subramaniam asked me if I could recognize the harmonics of an out of tune Veena. I nodded the all confusing vigorous Indian nod this time it meant a ‘yes’. He smiled and said that it was a good place to start: ‘awareness’.
His next question was what stumped me. He said, “If you know what is not right, would you then say that you can recognize what is right?” It was a simple mathematical corollary, only, this time I realized it did not equate quite well.
If I knew something was ‘not right’ obviously the converse of that was ‘right’ (how hard is that to fathom?)
If I know I don’t like something, is it not logic bound and obvious that I like the exact opposite of that? Does that hold true when we respond to some of life’s most important questions? Is it more easier for us to list down all that we want in life or has it been easier to nip out that which we don’t want and still find it hard to figure out what it is that we actually want?
Do we know what we really want?
Quite often we seem to know what it is that we don’t want…we burn our fingers, hurt ourselves, break our hearts, shed a few tears and over the years we have learnt to adeptly identify that which we don’t want.
I often get asked, “What kind of a life partner do you want?”
(Now…this should probably be the easiest question to answer, factoring in all the years I have invested fantasizing about my Prince Charming and visualizing the perfect love story with all the possible fairy tale endings interloped with all the top of the charts Bollywood duets.)
I always thought I had a well formulated answer and I would rattle off, “I don’t want him to be:
a….
b….
c….
d….
Until recently I had my moment of enlightenment: I had spent all those years figuring out what it is I wouldn’t want my man to be rather than what it is that I truly want.
I also noticed that I was not sailing in this delusion alone...And hence this blog…
Life’s little game is not just about getting what you want; it is about enjoying it after getting it. So be sure of what it is that you want. ‘Awareness’ a good place to begin!
FAITH and MONEY allure mere mortals they say
The carrot and stick a compromised game they play
Deep down the rabbit hole greater treasures there are to take
But the darker it gets there is more than just wisdom to stake
A pacing fear shall trigger the heart searching for GLORY and NAME
Haunting memories of promises made to touch the pinnacles of FORTUNE and FAME
Oh! lame saint you better think wise
For every promise is bundled with a tag and a prize
DEATH the most certain destination
LIFE the most uncertain illusion
The mysterious of inevitabilities we fail to uncover
Though mere mortals, we seek to live forever
“When a child is born, no one can predict whether he is going to be a Nobel Laureate or a vagabond. But one thing that can be predicted is that he is going to die. Though death is the only certainty in Life, no one is ever prepared to accept it.”
Swami Suddhananda
It is remarkably heartrending to realize the ignorance of human brain, an astonishingly brilliant chunk of soft tissue that can envisage visions of the world decades ahead, deliberately chooses to ignore the most reliable state of every origin – DEATH
National Geography tells me, the moon so many light years away from me has no air to breath, so I perhaps might have to prepare myself to bring some air to breath along with me, before I get there. But there is no modern scientific media that provides me with a checklist of what I might require to carry along when I die.
This intentional ignorance to uncover the most mysterious phenomenon is perhaps a choice we have made in our vain quest seek immortality.
My parents held my hand and taught me how to walk, taught me how to speak a language they recognized as understandable… and as I grew up, I became a woman my mother once was and academically qualified as my father. I now wonder is it that I saw my parents as successful people and so I chose to tred the same path, or did they instill into me such a thought, as that was the path they were familiar with and hence found it safe to put me thro’ as well. Was it their success that inspired me or did they live their life thro’ mine? I wonder…
The path I tread was lonely and dark
Thorns to prick and bats to lurk
No ray of joy, as bitterly I wept
No dreams did I take to the bed I slept
Frantic for novelty fighting with fate
Chillness engulfed my blanket of hate
Pangs of pain, what more would a bleeding heart need?
Wishes for a heart of stone, so no sympathy I shall plead
Then… bolted mercy out of the blue
A ray of hope to look up too…
A warmth that caused the stone to melt
L.O.V.E was what my thirsty lips spelt
Hands I found that would caress and care
Joy of mine another heart would share
The one to cause my beats to skip and leap
Lend me a shoulder to drench as I weep
Thought the warmth would burn my life to keep
What a fool I was to jump from the ditch to the deep
The waxing moon was waning soon
When the joy I found was Cinderella’s boon
Miles we had walked vowing never to part
Yet the pangs of separation throng my heart
The jeweled possession of mine I treasured
Has now left me, for a 2nd chance I wasn’t assured
As I gaze into the void life has grown
I see no return, of the one, I possessed, I thought I own
My mistake it was, too late I repent and later I whine
With agony I screech, ‘will that lost love ever be mine?’
At the stroke of 12’ tonight an amount of $86,400 shall be credited into your bank account.
No hidden taxes! Fair and Easy!
And the clause in ‘small print’ as usual:
You can spend only A DOLLAR at A TIME.
At the stroke of 12’ tomorrow night the balance of whatever you have spent over the day
Shall Be Withdrawn.
Still Easy? Sounds a little unfair right?
Alright, to make you feel a little luckier:
At the stroke of 12’ the day after you account would be credited with $86,400 once again.
Now…this would happen everyday for the next six days.
Now we are talking Business!!!
And you read the last line of the fine print: The Clause! This MAY continue everyday.
Hmmm…Uneasy?
With my very first blog and my first time here, I welcome you to the world of Chances, to the world of Uncertainty, to…
THE WORLD OF TIME! The one dimension that has remained an unconquered quest for mankind.
On the 31st of December 2008 a Leap Second was added to the clocks. When I heard this, I was quite excited and mentioned this to several friends of mine. I had a few pairs of eyes glaring at me trying to spit out, ‘Have you lost your mind? What is the excitement all about, its JUST A SECOND!’ quite contrary to their reaction when I mention finding a dollar lying on the road – ‘Wow that’s a lucky coin!’ It never is ‘Come on, it’s just a dollar’
Google returns 289,000 ways in 0.27 seconds to ‘how to make an extra dollar in a minute.’ How many valid websites do you get when you type ‘How to create an extra minute’?
Despite our inability to create time and our, ‘289,000 and counting’ ways to create wealth we still equate TIME with Money.
When Create(Money) = InfinityAnd
Create (TIME) = Null
Therefore Create(TIME) is not equal to Create (Money)
Could I then assume TIME is not equal to Money?
How come we say ‘Time is money’
What a logically depleted statement.
My Uncle also my mentor, called me one evening and requested me if I could spare some TIME to meet him later that evening. I come from an Indian background where gate crashing is a license given to all those near and dear, the fact that he even had to ask for my TIME sounded odd. I responded with immediate affirmation. Later that evening he said he wanted me to work on a mini project called – ‘Goal Setting.’ The little voice in me went ‘Gracious me, not again, not another wise old man telling me I need to figure out the purpose of my life.’ Now I valued his advice so I heard him out patiently. He asked me to list down all my goals in buckets of career, relationship, financial and social goals for the next ten years. ‘That’s easy’ Ten years is a long time isn’t it?’
He then added: work backwards, break it down to your yearly goals, monthly goals and daily goals measuring ‘in ten years I want to become_____ for which today I need to________’
He asked me how long I would like to take to finish? This sounded so simple, a few excel sheets and I would be done! 2 days I told him. He said take a week, SPEND TIME, it would be worthwhile your investment.
The first step was quite easy. By 25 I believed that I had already figured out what I really wanted to become when I was 40 so a mile stone of 35 was hardly a task. It was the second part of the exercise that I got stumped at. Trying to balance those excel sheets to my daily planner hit me on my head. Suddenly 24 hours in a day was not enough. My 10 year goal plan became 15 as I realized I didn’t have TIME to do everything I wanted to do to become what I wanted to be in the next ten years.
Could I create more time? Fantasies of Time Machines are thrilling.
Every morning our TIME ACCOUNTS are filled with 86,400 seconds. It sounds like a LOT OF TIME only because we take it for granted that although our time accounts deplete to zero balance, the next morning it is going to refill to another 86,400 seconds. Let us get affirmative in our approach here and believe that our Time Accounts are going to be refilled day after day for the next 75 years. Fair enough?!!
Now...that generous serving fills our plates of life with 27,000 days. Of which we spend on an average 7000 days trying to figure out what we ON EARTH are we supposed to be doing. Discounting which gives 20,000 days to learn, work, have fun, raise a family, leave a mark in life and become wise. Doesn’t sound like a lot…of TIME ofcourse. Not a lot, especially when you get to the last 7000 days, and want to say ‘That was exactly what I wanted out of life’
SHREE
My Dearest Ones
I was just packing my bags and gearing up to start a whole new 365 days of exciting journey when I realized that my luggage was weighing way above the allocated baggage allowance. I was carrying with me a box filled with all the exciting experiences, a reference tool that decodes the learning from those experiences, a tape filled with all the happy moments, an album with all the old and new relationships, a book filled with refreshingly new thoughts, my vision board, a gratitude rock, and a ‘special gift’ box, each one carrying an equally valuable and justified ‘must have’ tag on it.
I then began sorting out everything on my list into piles of, ‘once in a life time’, seasonal’ and everyday essentials. I was almost done picking and choosing except for one big box, the heaviest of all of them and the ‘most valuable’ of all of them. It was the ‘special gift’ box. It was sent to me from all of you…filled with a few thousand tons of strength, a mighty pillar of support and oodles of love all stuffed into one big ‘Family Pack’.
Although it weighed so much I knew I could never function without it…and guess what?!! As always, a grand plan of action came bolting thro’ from the supreme cognizance. However I would need all your help to execute this plan.
Here’s the plan: I would need each one of you to courier me your share of the gift from the ‘Family Pack’ in installments over the next 365 days.
