God's Own Eyes

God's Own Eyes

Day 3 *** Artist - My Younger brother *** Cameraman- Yours truly 

This picture takes the coveted place in my top 7 favorite clicks.. .well , yes I agree it has many technical imperfections as far as the photograph goes, but still, it is special for me. Reason being that the artwork itself has been done by Rochit, the younger of my twin brothers. And of all his paintings, why this one??? Because, this was the first time he agreed to do something closely remote to a human figure. The restless and in-a-hurry painter in him always runs away from the detailing needed to make human figures, but he could not stop himself from making this one. These are the first eyes he painted – God’s Own Eyes. Would like to share with you this poem I had written inspired from his painting. 

There was love, there was laughter

There was sunshine in the pasture.

There were memories of spring and fall,

The Rear view mirror showed it all.

Reflections of all the happy times,

Escapades of mind and singing chimes.

All the moments when life was lived,

They’ll last forever one believed.

The first time someone held my hand,

To make me walk on the sand.

All the firsts and all the rest

Life in the rear mirror looked the best.

Some better ones won, some good ones lost,

The rush of life, came with some cost.

The bliss of ignorance was the hide out,

Blindfolded I marched till it was over and out.

Mother’s eyes begged me to stay,

Love of my life did nothing but pray.

They prayed for me and my long life

All they wished was togetherness to thrive.

The rear view mirror warned me enough,

That the ride was risky and the road was tough.

It did all it could to slow me down,

But a man in hurry never wears the crown.

It was all slipping away from me,

The love, the life, the happiness and glee.

They all stood there helpless and still,

Tears in eyes, which the rear mirror did fill.

All of a sudden I lost all control,

In seconds all would crash, body and soul.

All that was mine, beautiful and safe

Will change for worse and never be same.

Only

To the cautious advise if I had lend a good ear,

The dos and don’ts, which I never did fear.

The well wishers around were angels in disguise

The rear view mirror was God’s own eyes!!!

So all my friends who are busy running, rushing, toiling, overtaking and risking , I just have to say one thing. STOP!!! Stop and breathe, breathe and observe, Observe and be thankful, Thank and Live... Live this life for yourself, for the people who care about you. This is no race and you are no athlete. God sent us with a purpose, and that purpose is same for all..to make our life count.

The days are numbered by Him but you decide the worth of those days... 

Be aware ...Be thoughtful ..Be Grateful ...God's Own Eyes are looking after you ...But, in your rush, don's miss to look into them ... If you will you will get all your answers ...

Shiva

I am celebrating the Write Tribe Festival of Words and will be posting every day for seven days, starting 1st September. The theme for the Festival of Words is “seven“.  I have decided to post  my top 7 photographs which I hold very close to my heart. 

Birds of Feather

Birds of a Feather

Day 2*** Picture Location – Lodhi Garden New Delhi *** Cameraman – Yours Truly *** Muse – Birds in motion

Birds of feather …. Flying high … Free spirited … Always in motion …. Nimble and fast

Me as a kid would never miss my 5:30 pm routine. I would leave all that I was doing and rush to the balcony … It was time to wave goodbye to the chirpy beings … always in flocks …flying together …calling it a day. Every day I would imagine their lives, how all of them would go back home after a whole day of toil and enjoy a relaxing evening with their families. And then my mind would go to their kids at home. How happy they would get when they see their Mumma Papa come back at dusk. And I would always envy them, because their parents never got late, and my father would.

What serenity they left behind … Just a moment before that those synchronized voices would have filled up the skies, it seemed as if  they were calling all their friends who were still at work, asking them to shut down computers and go back home ...after all there is something called work life balance J. One by one all would fly and before you would know they would have all boarded a bus, and the bus would leave for its destination, precisely as the sun clock struck. And a deep, soulful silence would follow.

This was like a ritual for me … and it did fill me up with so much happiness. In my mind I had also made colonies for them, how birds of my area would be going somewhere far for work and would come back to the trees in front of my house, and how all those I saw going ,would actually be staying in a posh  location in the center of the city .. well those were the rambling imaginations of a little mind …but they actually gave an alternate reality to an otherwise mundane life.

I always wanted to be a bird … they used to intrigue me … How could they just fly so easily and I could not. They were so free, so limitless, so freewheeling, so liberated and so lucky!!!

But as I grew up I realized, who stops you from being one. Let your mind free … Unbuckle the tenterhooks.. Break the confines and just Fly !!!!  Be a bird, but never forget to flock together!!!

Shiva

I am celebrating the Write Tribe Festival of Words and will be posting every day for seven days, starting 1st September. The theme for the Festival of Words is “seven“.  I have decided to post 7 photographs made by me which I hold very close to my heart. 

First Love of my Life

The Divine Drops

It struck me today and it struck me hard ... It is blasphemy for me ... Nearly two months of blogging ... one shy of a dozen posts (Yes I know, for you all serious bloggers this is nothing, but to a toddler like me it means a milestone) touching 800 page views .. All this and I have yet not written a single word for something I love the most in my life. This can’t be …and so I write.

I write a tribute to the love of my life ...Raindrops!!! 

Those innocent little droplets that fall on you from up above and make everything around you so worth looking, living and admiring. Those clear crystals, through which when you see the world, it looks much more beautiful than it was a moment before. Those, “touch me not ephemerals” who define the timelessness of beauty, they may not live forever but stay they do … forever framed in moments, nostalgia and happy memories.

It is a shared love, I know. It’s not just me in this relationship …it is an infinitoangle love relationship. Because each one who has walked on the mother earth, has atleast once in his life, rejoiced looking at those tiny drops of divinity …it is a love at first sight each time and every time. Well that’s OK, I am not the possessive type, I have always believed that a thing of beauty or a masterpiece creation, is not to be owned but shared. It becomes more valuable that way.

If I had to write a book on the “photo” moments of my life,  it would be full of raindrops. As a kid I remember, how I used to cry “cat and dogs” when it was raining “Cat and dogs” outside and Rambishan Bhyya, my rickshaw puller, would come home to tell us that the school had declared a rainy day. I didn’t like it a bit ..my wonderful ride to school has just been snatched from me. My chance of passing through, all the beautiful rainy sites – a man on his cycle with a polythene bag on his head, or the lady selling flowers, running with her basket of flowers on her head, and the one site which made me envy’s child – seeing those kids at the construction site jumping and dancing in rain. Even today I want to be one of them.

My madness for rains goes to the eccentric limits… that’s what some of my friends tell me. But if you have ever been in love you will understand. Alrighty, let me put it simply to you… well if given a chance to be with the one you love the most, would you think of ways to avoid him or make sure that you two meet… The later right!! So that’s what I do…what’s the big deal about that??? I have never bought an umbrella or a rain coat …because when my God sends me my gift I want to be ready to receive it with open heart always. I feel it would be a bad omen if I carry an umbrella with me, He would get the wrong hint and not send rains my way.

The freshness, the softness, that aromatic romance…everything is just perfect about rains. The first drop that falls on you, delivering the missive of an impending downpour … the happiness emanating from the soil showing its excitement to meet her friend … the walk in the rain hand in hand with THE person…the indulgence in  pakodas and chai sitting at the balcony, overlooking lush green trees fresh after a bath… The list can go on...each of us have our own shares of rainy memories.

So this was my rendition towards the first love of my life … I can’t thank God enough for making something as beautiful as raindrops.. They inspire me to be like them…transparent, clean and clear at the core, adapting seamlessly to their surroundings. They just belong to wherever they are …and above everything else ..they make happiness.

Shiva

I am celebrating the Write Tribe Festival of Wordsand will be posting every day for seven days, starting today. The theme for the Festival of Words is “seven“.  I have decided to post 7 photographs made by me which I hold very close to my heart. 

What Harry Potter is not

Pottermania .. Potternerd … Howgsmad…

For the “Haves” these words make all the sense there is in the world and for the” havenots” they are nonsense. I personally do not have a grudge against people who have not lived in the Harry potter world. People who have not just written off the HP series, but  have gone a  step ahead and sometimes also written off the people who are nuts about Harry Potter.

For those muggles, who don’t even know that they are one, I have no hard feelings. I don’t curse them with the “Stupefy” spell for their ignorance. I can still give them a chance and can still wait for the day the realization dawns on those souls, that to have been lucky to be born in the Harry Potter Era” and still not reading the epic is like reaching the finishing line and still not winning the race.

Yes, for you this is definitely an exaggeration and in all possibility you will read this post with a smirk, and with a horizontal nod, you will move on to another blog, another book and another life sphere. But I still will give it a try.... Maybe I am lucky and can get a few converts.

And you would be wondering why so much fuss about it..why do I have to enlighten you with something you don’t even consider worth discussing.. Well that is because, I was one of you. Let me take you back to the day my journey to get converted started.

 It was the summers of 2002, I was on a train with a bunch of 5 people of my age, all set and excited to enter a new phase of life… we were going, bag and baggage, to our abode for next two years, our MBA institute. And there I meet this girl, tall, skinny, smart, simple and full of attitude.. “Vidula , my name is Vidula, it is derived from the word “Vidushi” and it means intelligent”, she told me.

And that’s how started the unending chit chats, gossip, sharing, caring not just for the next two years but even till date. It was in that meeting that Vidula, in her highest achievable level of excitement and intrigue, told me about Harry Potter ..how she loved it, how amazing it was, unputdowanable, “takes you to another world” kind of a book. And did yours truly believe her..OFCOURSE NOT… Well… I thought this is just another children fantasy book about wizards and witches …how can an intellectual..”sort of well read” grown up like me like a book like that. That was my first reaction.

But then that was Vidula.. she was not the kinds who give up easily.. so in my two years with her she kept pouring trivia about the series. By that time five books were already in market and our friendship and bond had grown even stronger… The two years flied in a jiffy and both of us were now set for the next phase of our life..she was getting married and I was joining work.

So that’s when I finally picked up Harry Potter… it was my way of telling her that I trust her for life and for me what comes closest to life is books. And right from the opening lines “ Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” my dreams and reality criss·crossed forever.. the reality was a dreamland where everything was magical and the magic of dreamland was real.. I love Vidula even more today, and blindly go by her book recommendations because she introduced me to the “pottermania”.

Well that was my journey and I have countless things to say about what Harry Potter is for me..but here I will choose to talk about things that Harry Potter is not. Even if I can get one of you read Harry Potter .. my job is done. So here it goes…

1. Harry Potter is NOT a children’s book- It is a book for all ages...Only exception being for the child within you. If that child is still alive, and mind you it has  nothing to do with your age, you can safely say that it is a children’s book.
2.  Harry Potter is NOT a book about magic set in a dreamland - “In dreams, we enter a world that's entirely our own.” This world is real because it is made of real people who make magic , not by wands and spells… but by love trust, bond, friendship and conviction… It is only in such a magical dream land that “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times"
3. Harry Potter is NOT a fantasy “far from real” book –As I just said, when you read Harry Potter you don’t read but live in that world. And as the book says “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” 
4. Harry Potter is NOT a onetime light read – This is a book for life… Yes it is.. It will teach you life’s lessons. Two of many that I learnt from this book

• Your abilities or resources do not determine your destiny, it is the choices that you make in life. “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities”
•    Respect irrespective of class “If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals”

    5. Harry Potter is NOT story of an extraordinary boy born with magical powers- Most importantly    this is not a book about a singular boy, it is not Harry Potter, but all the small and big characters of the          book, that make it what it is. This book would have been impossible without the two strong pillars of          friendship and trust. Ron & Hermoine, the undying love of Snape, the experience and wisdom of    Dumbledore, the commitment of Sirius Black, , the devotion of Hagrid, the warmth of Weasleys, the        courage of Neville  and the  ambition of Voldemort

And secondly, it is not the powers that Harry was born with, but what he used them for that made him extraordinary… “You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!” 

Hrrrghhhhh … So I finally did end up selling this book once again…. Well I leave the choice to you …But I love Vidula for making Hogwarts real for me.

Shiva

This was written for the Harry Potter Festival

Food for the Soul

Those sunny afternoons, we’re walking towards the auto stand, you ask me to keep to your left, the traffic safe side.

That foggy winter morning, we’re going to coaching, and I’m shivering. You stop the scooter, take off your green fleece and give to me.

Those “Everytimes” you never forgot to open the foot step of the scooter for me.

My love for Samosas and your love for me ...  So many times you told me about that vicarious satiation when you saw me eat them.

Today when you are not with me ….  these memories keep my soul alive.

This was written for the Write Tribe 100 words prompt on Food for the Soul