A smiley & toffees ...

Sometime you feel great, just by unfolding the moments that are /were so tightly attached with your life. You live with it and it brings that faded smile back on your face with every encounter of it, may be this time it's more than a handful of toffees, but most of the times it just go unnoted.

Photo Story I - The light

Without you I am nothing, you gave me the ultimate meaning of my existence.

Our love propels like a glow that illumines in spite of every odd and nothing that can separate both of us.

At times I may have been foolish enough to run away from you and lead a different path but you taught me that the only way to live beyond any boundaries of life is to spread the love in more than one way.

My existence would never perish and there I am reborn again to share this light of “love” with the world…the light which is so much necessary to cover the darkness !!!

A rainy day in the summer!

I woke up early in the morning with a prayer, just to witness another new day in my life. It has been an unfinished journey ever since I started counting on my days. I have just crossed one more mile stone and these 365 days is nothing more than experiencing the life in every possible ways.

One more day, one more year and one more opportunity encountered with the life. The joy of re-discovering it, believe in giving always the best you can, the pleasures of being simple and all it seems less complicated life & the world around breaths the new air.

“Gravity, release me, and don’t ever hold me down ... Now my feet won't touch the ground”.

Strange Consequences?

While browsing through YouTube, I chanced upon this video of OSHO, and it turned out to be one of the most enlightening messages by him. You should watch this video, if you haven’t already watched it. I have also put up the text message here for easy reading.

So here you go with the starting point of OSHO’s talk and the video ...

"When Friedrich Nietzsche declared “God is dead”, fuck became the most important word in English language".

The problem is if god is dead, then you lose the most important word in your language and you will need a substitute. And god was one end, one extreme. And when one extreme is disappear from your mental vision, the necessary and inevitable is you will fall to the other extreme. And that’s what has happened Milaripa … Instead of god, fuck has become the most important word in our language. Even if Friedrich Nietzsche comes back, he will be surprised, and he will try to resists, somehow the dead god is back because this is stupid. But you will need a whole report on it, a whole research.

One of the most interesting words in the English language today is the word 'fuck'. It is one magical word. Just by its sound it can describe pain, pleasure, hate and love. In language, it falls into many grammatical categories. It can be used as a verb, both transitive (John fucked Mary) and intransitive (Mary was fucked by John), and as a noun (Mary is a fine fuck). It can be used as an objective (Mary is fucking beautiful).

As you can see there are not many words with the versatility of 'fuck'. Besides the sexual meaning, there are also the following uses:

Ignorance: Fucked if I know.
Trouble: I guess I am fucked now!
Fraud: I got fucked at the used car lot.
Aggression: Fuck you!
Displeasure: What the fuck is going on here?
Difficulty: I can't understand this fucking job.
Incompetence: He is a fuck off.
Suspicion: What the fuck are you doing?
Enjoyment: I had a fucking good time.
Request: Get the fuck out of here.
Hostility: I am going to knock your fucking head off!
Greeting: How the fuck are you?
Apathy: Who gives a fuck?
Innovation: Get a bigger fucking hammer.
Surprise: Fuck! You scared the shit out of me.
Anxiety: Today is really fucked. And it is very healthy too.

If every morning you do it as a transcendental meditation - just when you get up, the first thing, repeat the mantra "fuck you!" five times, it clears the throat too.

P.S: I have composed the text message after watching the video, but I am afraid you may find some discrepancies with that of the actual video. For more videos of OSHO's talks click here.

Time machine!

All you need a time machine to trace the path of the life you are on. Some of them take you back to a moment, called the memories and there are some which take you forward called the dreams.

Picture: Voyaging on The ECR Road, Chennai

I believe the only thing that can be considered available as "free" is that TIME but then it is absolutely “priceless” when counted the variegated moments of the life it offers to you. Neither you own it nor you can keep it with you but you use it and spend it the way your life can... It is impossible that you can waste the time but you can waste your life. Once you lost the time, you lost it forever, and so as the life.

An uncalculated and unreserved moment that life is ...! still alive.

P.S: The post is inspired by a quote & a real life incident.

A door of perception

Picture: Monuments at Mahabalipuram, Chennai.

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.

- Aldous Huxley

Life in pieces

“In a blink moment life is, a fatal was not, what life could be? A dark sky, a shinny sun or a smile in flash that re-discover the life, and no pain shall be painful.

I cut myself into pieces to find the joy in simple things, believe in giving, learn to fly and touch the stars. My blood is drying out gradually but still I am breathing the wild air to witness a less complicated world & the life looks happier (or I say peaceful) than before…

It's normal, maybe perfectly?

As you might know, I am a great fan of Paulo Coelho if not a big follower. So here what according to him the "Inventory of normality" which was published on January 7, 2009 in Warrior Of Light.

One interesting thing I could figured out about this blog is based on my recent chat with AJ. I can recall when she asked me, AJ (asking): according to you why some people behave or think strangely? Me (replying): it is nothing but the normal the way they are. Perhaps, we are the strange people, because many times we forget about the limits that defines the range of being normal, but then we don't know whatever that range is or simply ignore it. So what exactly is normal to you will define what is that strange for you, right? AJ (thinking, strangely) : Well! I guess ‘Yes!’ :D

You may also like to check the Paulo Coelho’s blog, Oh! I am subscribed reader of his blogs :) So here you go with the post, just go through those points and see how normal you/we are ...

Inventory of normality:

I decided to conduct a survey among my friends about what society considers to be normal behavior. What follows is a list I have made of some of the absurd situations we face in day-to-day life, just because society sees them as normal:
1] Anything that makes us forget our true identity and our dreams and makes us only work to produce and reproduce.
2] Making rules for a war (the Geneva Convention).
3] Spending years at university and then not being able to find a job.
4] Working from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon at something that does not give us the least pleasure, so that we can retire after 30 years.
5] Retiring only to discover that we have no more energy to enjoy life, and then dying of boredom after a few years.
6] Using Botox.
7] Trying to be financially successful instead of seeking happiness.
8] Ridiculing those who seek happiness instead of money by calling them “people with no ambition”.
9] Comparing objects like cars, houses and clothes, and defining life according to these comparisons instead of really trying to find out the true reason for being alive.
10] Not talking to strangers. Saying nasty things about our neighbors.
11] Thinking that parents are always right.
12] Getting married, having children and staying together even though the love has gone, claiming that it’s for the sake of the children (who do not seem to be listening to the constant arguments).
12ª] Criticizing everybody who tries to be different.
14] Waking up with a hysterical alarm-clock at the bedside.
15] Believing absolutely everything that is printed.
16] Wearing a piece of colored cloth wrapped around the neck for no apparent reason and known by the pompous name “necktie”.
17] Never asking direct questions, even though the other person understands what you want to know.
18] Keeping a smile on your face when you really want to cry. And feeling sorry for those who show their own feelings.
19] Thinking that art is worth a fortune, or else that it is worth absolutely nothing.
20] Always despising what was easily gained, because the “necessary sacrifice” – and therefore also the required qualities – are missing.
21] Following fashion, even though it all looks ridiculous and uncomfortable.
22] Being convinced that all the famous people have tons of money saved up.
23] Investing a lot in exterior beauty and paying little attention to interior beauty.
24] Using all possible means to show that even though you are a normal person, you are infinitely superior to other human beings.
25] In any kind of public transport, never looking straight into the eyes of the other passengers, as this may be taken for attempting to seduce them.
26] When you enter an elevator, looking straight at the door and pretending you are the only person inside, however crowded it may be.
27] Never laughing out loud in a restaurant, no matter how funny the story is.
28] In the Northern hemisphere, always wearing the clothes that match the season of the year: short sleeves in springtime (however cold it may be) and a woolen jacket in the fall (no matter how warm it is).
29] In the Southern hemisphere, decorating the Christmas tree with cotton wool, even though winter has nothing to do with the birth of Christ.
30] As you grow older, thinking you are the wisest man in the world, even though not always do you have enough life experience to know what is wrong.
31] Going to a charity event and thinking that in this way you have collaborated enough to put an end to all the social inequalities in the world.
32] Eating three times a day, even if you’re not hungry.
33] Believing that the others are always better at everything: they are better-looking, more resourceful, richer and more intelligent. Since it’s very risky to venture beyond your own limits, it’s better to do nothing.
34] Using the car as a way to feel powerful and in control of the world.
35] Using foul language in traffic.
36] Thinking that everything your child does wrong is the fault of the company he or she is keeping.
37] Marrying the first person who offers you a position in society. Love can wait.
38] Always saying “I tried”, even though you haven’t tried at all.
39] Putting off doing the most interesting things in life until you no longer have the strength to do them.
40] Avoiding depression with massive daily doses of television programs.
41] Believing that it is possible to be sure of everything you have won.
42] Thinking that women don’t like football and that men don’t like interior decoration.
43] Blaming the government for everything bad that happens.
44] Being convinced that being a good, decent and respectful person means that the others will find you weak, vulnerable and easy to manipulate.
45] Being convinced that aggressiveness and discourtesy in treating others are signs of a powerful personality.
46] Being afraid of fibroscopy (men) and childbirth (women).
47] And finally, thinking that your religion is the sole proprietor of the absolute truth, the most important, the best, and that the other human beings in this immense planet who believe in any other manifestation of God are condemned to the fires of hell.

The December!

Seconds, minutes, hours and days were passed by me just like that and now when I look back I have already completed living one more year of my life. A year filled with the little pains which helped me to understand what it takes to be alive?, the failures that made me a stronger person than before, the successes that encouraged me keep on moving, and last but not the least a bucket full of memories that reminds me of this journey. So far so good, oh! maybe I don’t have anything to regret for the roads I have travelled, the places I stumbled up on, the paths I crossed, the people I met on my way, for the life I learned to live and appreciate whatever happens is for some reasons in our lives and only then we able to identify what actually we are & then the dreams are not too far from the reality.

The reality I live, I have always told myself that the world is nothing more or less than the image that you can create for yourself out of it. It’s my own world and I cherish every moment spent here. Looking at the retiring calendar hanging on the right hand side of my room’s wall, year after year, I have learned that each one of them has a purpose in it for us, to accomplish certain things that will determine where we are heading for … There was one such day for everyone of us to recognize that we have done something not just to prove anybody else then ourselves, followed by a quick realization that still a long way to go but you have taken the much needed step for it. Possibly, I can recall one such day of this year. I maybe blessed on many occasions but certainly the beginning of this year unveiled me a darker side of the life where I struggled to fight back for quite sometime before I could accept the impossible truth that there exists no life beyond your own imagination. Nevertheless, the beauty of life is that it demands from you only the strength you posses. A flash moment in life and then happened a series of good things here and there which eventually became part of the rollercoaster ride I am on.

Personally, I would like to count the year 2008 for everything that can come to my mind, a mixed bag. And with the countdown for the New Year 2009 is already started, amidst the global economic meltdown and around the chaos of terror attacks, finally found some reasons to cheer up and we at workplace celebrated this December together.

So I am hoping & wishing you all Merry Christmas and a very happy & prosperous New Year in advance.

P.S : I am back to business & gradually recovering from the bloody cold.

You Compare?

I don't know if something right or everything wrong with this world but you compare. In the whole world there is nothing like comparing something with everything else and more precisely there is no good or bad or ugly. You compare that exists, or that doesn’t but that is not the end, you find questions and seek answers for there is always a better you, a better me, a better we and a better world.

Life is like that you never know there is a better life in store. You see there is always something missing that you can never compare. So what’s more, now you are asking me for a better comparison?

In my head ...

The line that was ticking my head all the day …

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared”.

… it so happened again with me and to my realization the size & price of the candle doesn’t matter, what matters is that whether it is having the light?

Diwali Sparks!

In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't. ~Blaise Pascal

Many hands make the light work which seems to be amazing :)...

Ad-Mad! - Dreams

These days I am suffering with something called as ‘Ad-Mad fever’ :) and my favorite ad these days is this ad of ‘Union Bank of India’ …. A very beautifully presented ad, and the lil gal in it, is what make a whole difference while putting forward the message of this ad. Simple, yet a powerful message that make you think over it again.

“because your dreams are not yours alone…”

Life and death

Life and death are the two simple words that have myriad of meanings in it, and someone can easily relate these words with so many things or course of events happen around him/her. One is antonym to the other but both are part of the ultimate truths we are guided with. Wait! I am not trying to find a new definition for them but it is the topic of this month at Cuckoo’s Photo Gallery and so I am back here again with one such pic …


The picture was taken inside one of the pandals created on the occasion of Durga puja. There was this centere place inside the pandal for people to light up the lamp and offer their prayer to the goddess Durga, when my turn came on that evening I was quite amazed by seeing the faith that people were showing for these lights. The lamps burns until the last drop of ghee and spreads the warmth, to live with a hope. But if you don’t light it properly; no matter how much ghee is inside the lamp, it will extinguish quickly like a spark in the clouds.

People light their lamps to see it burning, they see their life gathering an invisible power from it, and they feel blessed. They move on with this light but they tend to forget which lamp had given them it.

The lamp (like a body) is matter to the soul, and light is an act or form (like the soul) to the potentiality of the body. The body may demise after certain duration but the soul will remain as the principle account the cause of existence of the life. They both represent the cycle of life, and death being the final completion of a transforming process.

Left, right & Life!

You are different, your world is different and so your life is different. Every one of us here has something more to say about life and the lessons learnt from it. Maybe we already know some of them or maybe we are yet to know about everything that might happen in the life. So knowing others perspective on life is as important as your own. Whether it’s good, bad, ugly or beautiful you will identify only if you go on with the ones, having a bit of you in it :) See the difference; see a new world around you and explore it.

My search begins with me ... Well! Life is like a WINDOWS operating system where you can find an 'EXPLORER' key to identify what is there inside the folders that every time you made some changes to it. So keep checking in it. It’s your life and it’s your search. And In the end, …

In the very beginning of my life, I wanted to have answers for everything. But now I respect the fact that I can’t have answer for everything … - Paulo Coelho

Into the dimming sunlight ...

... he looks up at the sky. And a voice says: My dear, everyone makes mistake. You're forgiven, but I can not force that forgiveness on you. It's your choice.

The warrior of light has learned that it is best to follow the light.

An idea ! What do you think?

There was an discussion on something with couple of friends and then this topic of creative ideas appeared in front of us. Santy was quick to point about one ad which he thinks a very creative idea. On similar track can be used to address a larger audience to convey a message about the product.

I didn’t react to his shout but quickly recalled a conversation about this ad with another friend … Later I asked santy, do we really need such an idea??

It’s not a difficult task for anybody to understand an ad, the sole purpose of it to sell a product and never an idea. They merely influence the real life but some people think they are smart enough to ply the emotional concept of advertising and gain the popularity. Needless mentioning, we hold the craze for celebs way too much ...

You see, now the focus is on something called a ‘Brand and that is known as Idea’ and never on some actual idea. Forget about the welfare of those old children and villages shown in the ads but to advertise the brand on their name. I wonder if they can ever spend a little amount of money to educate the poor children then simply paying it off on an ad, to a star who is already so rich.

Some people are carried away with such ads, what do you think what should be an idea to bring education to poorer and the poorest people? Now shifting the focus from product to people.

A blooming cactus

Life is sometimes so simple to go with and some other times really hard to realize … “I have learned the difference between a cactus and a caucus. On a cactus, the pricks are on the outside”.

Shiny Clouds !

It’s time for me to go through my archived photo albums and find a picture to publish it for Cuckoo’s Point & Shoot Photo Gallery for this month. Ah ! did I tell you some more reasons for participating there ...

• You get to know some like-minded people’s perspective on similar subjective pictures.
• You must not be a photographer to use all those jargons :). For me, till now like many others, photography means two terms ‘Focus’ and ‘Click’.
• Finally, if these two reasons don't drive you towards the competition, check this out ...

Now coming back to this month’s picture topic - Cloud. This topic is fairly simple but as most of us know that difficulty is closely bound with simplicity. For me, the difficult part was to zero in on one picture, so here it goes ...

The picture is clicked while I was sailing through the backwater of Allepey. It was a memorable trip for me, a much awaited break from routine things. A pinch that reminded me that - life moves on with every untold truths, unrealized thoughts and unswayed dreams. Maybe far away from the moments that somebody lived but yet so close …. Nobody can seize it from you for being an unknown to this world. It’s never an easy task to defeat the sea. On your way, you discover dark clouds but with effort and time passing by, you come across the shiny rays of triumph turning things for you and guiding you through to the shore. I found this fine quote to share here ...

The world's greatest lie: At a certain point in our lives we lose control of what's happening to us and our lives become controlled by fate.

Pay the price!

I know, we have to pay the price for everything that we want to see as a change. It's little more than a year and still counting with a hope ...