reignbow
arches true colours
against the anarchic sky
a recurring hunch
Election news blaring, cannot help but carve a political haiku. The pandemic has blunted the senses but not so much as to not cut their games.
Hands that dream of holding the reins promise rainbows. And then it’s the reign of the fittest!
But none can take away our piece of sky. And our hope to soon see our loved ones and us healing.
sea my eye O’ blue
fishes are out of water
rain my dreams again
Reach out to your dreams again. Your eyes must see past the tears…you never know…the dearly missed might touch you in your dreams.
nose melting away
mountain vows you are Sunner
Summer’s some other
While life seems to be slipping away from closed fists, more hopeful things are happening elsewhere. Winter writes ice haikus on mountains and Summer willingly gives them away to the lakes. Lakes send cloud haikus back to the sky and Monsoons again give them away to the lakes. Seasoned so, we learn …life never ceases in reality. So do haikus. Metamorphosis!
My haiku says she would rather have an apostrophe.
What a catastrophe has been averted!
Have a haikuful day 🙂
Intention is the nucleus around which theories are built…theories of convenience…theories of compulsiveness and impulsiveness…theories of righteousness and charity. These theories collectively become a school of thought, and culture of a set of people. A school of thought so born may influence/ represent one whole country, a state, a city, a family, or the smallest possible social entity such as one individual.
We are out in the society holding a mirror to ourselves. It is strange that the image we see of ourselves is far more perfect and different from what the world sees. Everyone except us sees the imperfections we reflect.
Our intentions manipulate our words and deeds. It is of utmost importance that we identify our intentions beyond their garb of nicety. Often our intentions are rolled in layers of self-centeredness in the inside but present themselves as good Samaritans. When negative intentions float around us it’s hard not to give in. By practice we can bring in some kind of mental regime. Identifying a negative or selfish intention is a great beginning to curbing the release of the same, and the resulting ill effect thereafter. That achieved we are prepared to identify such intentions in others. But may the schooling begin for self at first.
Similarly people will always know if we are downplaying our virtues. Our way of thinking is a watermark that appears in everything we do. But positive intentions seldom are cause for worry.
Intentions drive actions
Actions are irreversible
May they reflect nobility.
Intentions derive theories
Theories lead to practices
Practices lead to norms
May they reflect righteousness.
In the end human nature is bound by its own weaknesses. We always come up with a reason and logic to support our intentions. If we are not in agreement with something, in spite of it having the potential of doing good to us and the society, we find a reason not to do it even before thinking of a fair motivation to do it. Similarly if we are inclined towards doing something, even if it has the magnitude of bringing down our own image, we don’t wait for a reason. On the contrary we would have already done it before finding a justification.
Intentions are powerful tools that can either break or make us. If we mind, we can make them our strengths. We can eliminate the difference between the real and the virtual image of ourselves. The need is only to rise beyond our own interests.
Thanks for reading through. May we all be led by the angel in us.
We live in times where a word or an action drives a thousand more. Communication is seamless and equally seamless are the possibilities of miscommunication. We have perhaps misplaced the comma in a world of instant reactions.
We often miss the ambience of an expression. We don’t have to necessarily count unto ten to control our urge to misunderstand things, but we can always take a fraction of a minute to look at the backdrop of an ongoing conversation. Only hearing, but not interpreting what’s being said in the light of a larger picture, leads to a jugglery of justifications. No one wins, everyone loses in the end. Wise people either ignore or develop immunity to this syndrome. But when beautiful equations are thrown off balance it’s time to go back to basic grammar.
Don’t lose my song in the dance of words.
Read not too much between the lines
I don’t write anything there.
As real as the sky above us
is the song on my lips.
A note you didn’t find
is a note I didn’t sing.
It’s a maze with no escape
let’s not go there another time!
Lot of energy is spent in reading between the lines rather than looking at the writing on the walls! We are more concerned about what may be hiding in the shadow while we totally miss what the apparent burst of light is trying to tell us. What may be implied gets more attention than what is shouted from a rooftop.
The pleasure of communication is only when it is received in the same sense as it is conveyed. It is such a simple joy when someone says ‘I get you’.
The key to finding the inside monk is setting the inside monkey free. Both are wor(l)ds apart but both are homed within us. The trick is to retain the monk and let the urchin out.
And then sit calm and watch how the monk becomes all the wonderful things in the world. May the unsettled wander from tree to tree, and may it let go of the dream of enlightenment.
May we all find the monks in ourselves.
Tree knows not another way
shelters them both
Monk under the tree
Monkey atop the tree
Summer knows not another way
suns them both
Monk down to earth
Monkey dances for the sky
Monk becomes the tree
becomes the Sun
the moon
stars
Monkey shifts
tree to tree
Monkey sets free
a dream
an awakening.
What do we think of people who live by the sea and choose to be water-blind? And people who live by rainbows and choose to be colour-blind? Living in closed boxes where our comfort zone is the only window can gradually shut us out from the rest of the world. Unless we open ourselves up to new possibilities, new ways of looking at things, we will only grey, not grow.
Covid has made us to reflect upon life like never before. The books we read, the paths we tread now have different stories to tell. It’s time to bring in the change that might help us an iota to sustain. To unlearn and learn there are plenty of opportunities only if we have the willingness to see.
OPPORTUNITIES ARE ABSTRACT
How do we identify an opportunity?
Opportunities are abstract and don’t make a center-stage appearance under a spotlight. Neither do they come gift-packed and labelled. It requires a genuine urge to find an opportunity whether it is to better our personal lives or professional lives. When we are mentally prepared to welcome an opportunity, we always find one. Maybe not in plenty, maybe not at arm’s length, but enough to trust that there are.
The bigger hurdle is not the lack of an opportunity but not identifying it when there’s one.
Victim cards not accepted here please
Many times, especially when things seem like they are falling apart and nothing is going right, we feel deprived. When we look around us it seems as if, except to us, life has been kind to everyone. Every other person looks like a privileged king for whom opportunities are being served hot off the oven. Aroma of success on the tip of his nose…drizzle of achievement on the tip of his tongue…Hmm…people are having it so easy. That’s how it appears.
Time to shake off self-pity and stop behaving like victims of circumstances.
If we resolve to make things better for ourselves, we can change a few things if not everything at once.
Utilise, don’t eulogise.
The biggest hurdle is the same since ages…having an opportunity, identifying it but not utilising it in time. No justification is good enough to explain our laxity. Lest we want to spend the rest of our lives eulogising something we let go, that would have turned our fortune forever! Absolutely no use crying over a lost opportunity. Better don’t lose one.
Once a loser… twice a willing loser
Learn from past experiences. If we are always in a dearth of opportunities and find ourselves often at the receiving end of life, it’s time to crown the blame upon ourselves. It’s easy to pretend we never had a chance to alter anything in our lives. It’s easy to ignore all the inspiration that fairied its way to us. But the difficult part is saved for later, again, only as a lesson. A lesson we deliberately don’t learn anything from.
Let us not be willing losers!
Thanks for reading and have a week full of unending happy possibilities! Cheers!
When memory throws tantrums…
Catch the brat gently by its horns and ask that it behaves. Mnemonics are good nutri bytes to munch on. Has worked for me most of the times. When random access is elusive the sequential access trick comes in handy. Trying to remember names of acquaintances and places seems like a task going down the mid fifty mark. Vowel sounds and alphabets help a great deal in getting you to the Eureka moment.
More or less everyone passes through this nightmare. I wonder if it has something to do the phase we are in at a point. Almost set to retire, children settled well, and the world around being extra kind to our forgetfulness…What better recipe to cake up a weathering mind!
Memory begins to take things for granted, somersaulting, flip-flopping and what not. Yes, and selective memory is one big symptom which gives away what it’s hiding behind those grey folds. We never forget things meant to be forgotten and never remember things meant to be remembered.
Things done in full mindfulness stay forever. Making sure we have our head well into what’s needed to be on top of the memory stack is crucial. Especially when there’s a constant influx of information overload in today’s world of seamless connectivity. Letting go of negative elements is a trustworthy tool which flushes out the toxic and makes space for meaningful storage.
The internet genie has spoilt us a lot more than we can imagine. Everything appears before our eyes with a click. The spell checks, grammar checks the social media reminders and prompters have all taken over as our permanent memory system. The temporary memory files are just full of uncertain mumbles, and jumbles of memory noodles slipping off the fork and going nowhere.
Tell yourself that it’s alright if you can’t remember a few things. Know that people around you can’t make you retrieve all the information you have gathered, from cradle to college to corporate, on gun point. If they continue to shoot off their heavenly tongues leave them to it.
Last but not the least there are people more forgetful than us. They test our limits by scaring us that we forgot something they have never told us in the first place! Be ware of this kind and learn to identify them for your own good. We need to accept that with advancing age the mind and body need to be dealt with like little children. Discipline the mind, find a regime and stick to it. A good diet of positivity and we are set to tame the brat, and wear it like a hat.
Have a memorable day you all!
May this year bring hope, harmony and joy to one and all.
Wishing you all a very happy new year! May this year wipe away the tears, and bring in smiles and cheer!
Daya Bhat
Vacuum burns in countless homes, hearts tossing and turning through Covid nightmares. Shoulders, of fear, shying away from loved ones. Where have we heard that before! Where have we heard you can’t kiss your loved one one last time! Something more cruel, more cruel than the cruelest a mind can imagine, lingers in the air. Abstract demon dancing away to gory. In such unending grief what can be more painful than looking to chain a few parched words.
There’s no death like seeing a dear die
but memory keeper,
know,
you have made many a wonderful.
Know,
they live greenly ever after.
After him, after her
and after you!
Know,
to thank the heavens.
Know,
to rise blue.
To rise and fall
like the ocean.
To rise again
fall is an odd
never an end.
With earnest condolences to all those who have lost their loved ones! May we all find the strength of mind in prayer and hope.
Make as many beautiful memories as you can. That’s what will stay with you forever…untouched.
