Marwari & Poppy Tears!

Since the time I read in the papers about the association of the Marawari community with the Opium trade in the late eighteenth - early nineteenth century, it has led to a gamut of constructs. My first reaction was that of awe and bewilderment followed by what happened to their devil-may-care attitude down the years.

Now the construct in my head of a marwari is very skewed, so i thought. They are docile, amiable, calculated risk-taking folks who will do nothing to endanger themselves and their business. However, their involvement with Opium, spells something else about them. Daring, intrepid and blasphemous. Yes, blasphemous, since they take matters of their religion with great earnest and will.

Now this leads to the prefixed notions that are present in some part of our brains, it could be because of what we have read, heard, been told, seen and experienced. To break the shackles of these preconceived ideas can be challenging. To uncondition conditioning is what I aspire for. It works when everything and everyone is evaluated without judging the contents.

Marwaris as the Poppy Tears exporters or Gold businessmen. Who cares?

'Boulders in the River'

There is always some kind of bickering that goes on between couples. It is the understated bickering and communication thereof that leads to a trajectory of deep understanding. Something the older generation believed in tremendously. It was easy for them to fight over issues than discuss them at length. To sit across the table and exchange views and counter views is a new age phenomena. An excellent one, i think.

There are such short lived relationships these days. Some marriages last for a few weeks, some for a few days (case in point Kardashian) and some are just a long drawn drag, smoke is barely there yet the addiction is difficult to kick. While all these relationships, i am sure, had begun with the vows of forever-ness and a honest intent to keep those vows. Forever-ness, somehow soon is forgotten and what is supposed to be for keeps is anything but that. Remorseful.

If one listens intently to the voices of dissent between couples, there would be strains of laughter, memories and love. They probably will realize that a few boulders in its course makes the river sing sweeter as its flows!

Music - The great Calmer

There are several voices buzzing in the head. Some are saying banal things, others are driving intellectual points, while some are simply reflecting and few are whispering nothings. Then, boom, comes the sound of Bappi Lahiri, popularly known as Bappi Da, singing "jeena bhi kya hai jeena" (living is, well, banal, honestly can't decode this one) So it brings a smile and the voices in my head get drowned by this psyched up music, no nomenclature of music can capture the essence of the "dhoooinsh". Bravo Bappi Da.

To Bappi Da for the music that rules the myriad sound waves in my head currently. Hope this doesn't last too long. Truth is nothing does. Impermanence does though.

Wisdom on the road

It is an observation that some of the most wise advices have stemmed from those inconspicuous people who simply do their business of ferrying folks from one part of the city, sometimes from one city, to the other.

This post is courtesy: one such experience.

Anonymous driver says, “Aadmi agar imaandari se koi bhi kaam kare toh kabhi museebat main nahi padta, agar kismet ki galti se padta bhi hai toh uski imaandari use bacha hi leti hai” (If a man works with honesty and diligence then he never lands in trouble, however, if fate plays foul and he does, then it is his honesty that saves him.)

Now these words ring in my head. He said the most simple fact without much ado. Context to his sentence was nothing, he was pontificating while driving.

There is so much truth in those words, only if it were easy to follow the advice to the letter H.

Another day under the same Sky

Another year. So that's why this whole fuss. I think a majority of people consider this change in a date an opportunity to unwind and reflect on what has gone. I think there is only one kind of Time. Past. Even the present becomes past in a second. Future is never there. Mind has a way of popping constructs and we are so deeply chained by pre-defined sets that any inevitability seems banal.

Struck by meaningless-ness all the time. My reflections are devoid of any baggages and sometimes sense. Too much importance is put on deciphering events and people, it is such a senseless exercise. Let's all be as we are and let others also be as they are, strip all expectations and enter the cave of tranquility.



There is another sky,
Ever serene and fair,
And there is another sunshine,
Though it be darkness there;
Never mind faded forests, Austin,
Never mind silent fields -
Here is a little forest,
Whose leaf is ever green;
Here is a brighter garden,
Where not a frost has been;
In its unfading flowers
I hear the bright bee hum:
Prithee, my brother,
Into my garden come!
- There is another sky By Emily Dickinson

Weirdly wired

Sometimes all one wants to do is enjoy one's company. Solitude is not a dark, sinister person to hang out with. It is someone who gives comfort, is objective, truthful, understanding and unassuming. To be bare in front of Solitude is rejuvenating. While walking endlessly one feels Solitude, reading a book, though, here the world of the book can be distracting. However, the severance from any outside contact is calming.

Yet, the social obligations weigh on us. To make small talk, feign to show interest in a banal conversation, show concern and exhibit various emotions just so that social beings aren't affronted. Wearing masks all the time can take it's toll.

Maskless-ness is needed.

Despair & Sadness begots Creativity

This post is credited to a fellow-blogger and a dear friend. The words she wrote are still lingering in my head, "Just limitless tracts of lifeless black.... Just eternities of obstinate darkness."

I feel that when we are beaten dead by the life we lead, the people, who perform in our existences and the society, that plays the stage; we release those emotions, the angst, the pain, the beleaguered situations through creative work. Why does it take a death or a drastic event to be creative? I think, we begin to value, what we have the most when we think we are losing it. No one wants to loosen the grip on anything. The moment the grip is lax, control wanes, thus insecurity and it's cousins envelop us. "Just a chimney crammed with old damp wood."

To be creative when one is in a state of abundant joy shouldn't be that difficult, extreme conditions induce great work. Such a fallacy. To break these fallacies, we should try to neutralize situations, Acceptance & Commitment, accept rather than eliminate, embrace the troubles as a core part of personality. Only if we stop fighting the inevitable and have the presence of mind to start making some choices that could eventually pull us out of the bog.

Difficult but with efforts becomes simple.