Of the smiles along the way

What it is about the sunrises and sunsets that instills so much calm? So much so that all your problems melt away into nothingness. So much so that you feel like it's God's way of telling you that there is more to the life he has given us than the problem gnawing at our existence. What is it about the smile on a baby's face as he sleeps that makes you break into a one too? That brings back the innocence we have lost somewhere in the humdrum of our life. What it is about a loving gesture from a loved one that is enough to see our day through? That it seems like a glimmer of hope in an otherwise bleak scenario. That it gives you so much strength that you can take all of life's battles head on. Why are little things like these such an integral part of our happiness?

Look for it and it can't be found anywhere, but get involved in something, and you can often catch it peeking from behind the curtains. In the beauty of a flower, in the innocence of a child, in the smile of a person for whom you've come as a divine intervention.

Yes we are responsible for our own happiness. No one can give us that. We have to see it in the most myriad of things. Those cues are the absolute lifelines. We can't help but depend on those. No matter how much we claim that our happiness doesn't depend on anyone, it does. We are all so interconnected. We aren't that mechanized yet that the presence or absence of people we deem important makes no difference to us. We expect them to be rock steady and we expect their unending love and support. Somewhere our happiness is linked to them. If that is not the case then it should not hurt when they leave. If that is not the case, then when something exciting happens to us, they shouldn't be the first one's we want to break it to. If that is not the case, they should not be the ones we want to turn to for council when we seem to have lost our way. If that is not the case, then even when we have everything we always wanted from life, we ought not to yearn for them.And if that is not the case, their sadness should not affect us so much. I guess that drives home the point.

They say you don't get everything in life. Fair enough. You gain some, you loose plenty. And even if we don't have everything we always wanted, we learn to find our happiness in whatever life dumps us with. The thing with living in a society is, that society thinks they have the right to decide for us. It gets engrained in our being so much that anything away from the stereotypical is not supposed to be good for us. Why do we feel safe being a part of the herd? Why must we be conformists in every sphere of our life. Be it as silly as a choice of hairstyle to the graver choice of career.

A little more acceptance should do the trick. Accepting people as they are, with the package they come bundled with. And appreciating them for the little things that make us smile every time we remember them.

Intricacies of being a human being

Has this ever happened to you, or is it another of those oddities that are unique to me? When you are in the act, it seems like the most sensible thing to do. You can counter any argument from any quarter of the earth and prove that no one and nothing can refute your logic. The moment passes and senses alight lightly on your shoulder. With the moment that has passed, passes away the lofty logic. You realize what you’ve done in the heat of the moment. You feel like beating yourself up for what was full of sense till some time back. And then it falls on you like a tone of bricks. Ironically the whole world watches your mindless antics. Not even a tenth sees your remorse. No entertainment value there, hence no TRP’s ofcourse. But what hits you more than anything else is that the moment has passed and the damage has been done. If damage control is possible, you’re in for a tremendous amount of luck. If not, God save you. But even if you fall in the latter category, much as you wish, the world does not end, and to be honest, the world does not even care. What is so huge to you means nothing to others. Not that you really care what the world thinks anyway. But what hurts is that you’ve fallen in your own eyes. More than anyone else, you’ve let yourself down. No matter how huge the calamity, life goes on, and the world at large behaves like nothing happened, or like they didn’t see. It might seem a mammoth task to pick up the pieces and get up, but that happens. Sometimes gradually with a lot of effort, and sometimes in a jiffy. So coming back to the gaffe ceremoniously performed by you. What do you do next? You’d probably find yourself either curled up or lying flat on your face in some nondescript corner of the world you call home. Would that remotely help? Most likely not. What next? My logic is, every one goofs up every once in a while. At times we don’t even learn from our past mistakes. If the current goof up is bigger than the prior one’s, chances are the lessons you’ve learnt are also bigger than the previous ones. And if that be the case, we know precisely what not to do in the future. Another tiny something that hit me was that a chunk of the problems can be solved and major faux pases averted if we have a little more understanding and patience. This is a remedy that can come in handy if we are to zoom out a bit and look at world peace. Hope, a little sugar, understanding and dollops of patience. (Ouch! I am so good!)

A teeny weeny note anyone?

As I write this, I've 153 profile visitors.I was thrilled when I had 8 visitors in the beginning so obviously it's dizzying now. My friend who egged me into doing this would very generously leave comments to keep me going. It's more than kind of her to have never left a nasty comment no matter how bad the post.

She is my life support. I believe everyone must have a friend like her to get through life and living. There have been times when a problem in my life has been so gripping that I've ended up discussing it with her a zillion times and every single time she has listened to me patiently and has given me a much needed perspective and advise. The phrase friend-philosopher-guide fits her to the T. She has a solution for everything that happens in my life. Which is as close to an instruction- manual-for life as you can get. If I've ever gotten on her nerves and shoved her to the brink of tearing apart her hair in frustration (and I know I have) or have her throw up her hands heaven wards because she has temporarily given up on someone incorrigible, I hereby publicly apologize :-)

She has a hell of a lot on her hands and still finds the time for me. I am floored! Google her name and she is all over the place. One day she will be a huge name in India Incorporation and I'd be so proud to stand at the back of the audience and applaud aloud lauding her for her achievements and contribution to society. She is Meenal Mukadam.

Coming back to the topic of no consequence. Just what have these 153 people been doing on my profile? Did they accidentally drop by and as swiftly veered elsewhere? Did they spot me commenting somewhere and dropped by out of sheer curiosity and left disappointed? Do they actually read what I write? Do they read and don't bother to leave a footprint? It doesn't matter what they do. The big question is, why in the world do they not leave comments?

One fine day, this very site would crash when a trillion people would be logging in every second to read stuff I dole out. Ah!How good wishful thinking feels! Dream on sheer bliss!