Thursday, August 29, 2024

Of the nature of life....




And so it is.....
one more time 
that... 
the weather change brings out the philosopher, the poet, the artist, the melancholia in some of us...
and how wonderful is that!! 

I quite enjoy these trysts with my thoughts...
Sharing one with you all..... 

Every phase in life is fraught with its shares of ups and downs, 
that is what life is all about really.....

While we seldom appreciate the ups we oft allow the downs to overpower our being. 
When faced with such a predicament I am reminded of  the words of the pater, sometimes in a tone somewhat annoyed at my lack of a clear understanding of the inherent 'nature' of life! 

"Praachal, everything in life is transient. After you have spent some precious time sorting it out, don't fret or ponder over it indiscriminately. Just leave everything that is bothering you and concentrate on your work. Whatever it might be, will sort itself out sooner or later. 

And so I have always trudged along......
strongly focused on the tasks at hand and not ever (well almost! never) allowing the downs to take over my thought processes completely... 

Sometimes just sometimes, I must admit even with the awareness that I had what it takes, it did take all that I had....(Feb 17, 2016)




Off with it now I say!

It is that time of the year again when the weather in this part of the world is humid and sultry, extremely sweaty and necessitating a change of clothes at least twice a day (if you want to feel fresh and pleasantly fragrant). I read an article, as I sweated out the morning, on 'bras' and the need to throw them off......and I danced and sang as I had none on to throw off!!





The custom  of wearing the 'bra' it is a 'custom' you know, is something I wondered about as a student of Sociology, college, seeing pictures of Papua New Guineans with no bras at all. 

Do we really need these I had wondered, with the rash I got many a times under my breasts from wearing a bra non-stop (in hot humid conditions) for seven eight hours at a stretch. There is hardly any scope for airing with the kinds of bras we had as teenagers. Support bras our mothers would ask for at the sales counter, not them fancy lacey ones with no support the strong cotton ones with the thick straps to provide good support.I must admit I was thankful because as a school going adolescent I had felt extremely uncomfortable without one of the support bras in school, being the captain of the basketball team and a happy member of all sports activities I surely needed all the support I could get!! 

 I have heard of the cancer connection earlier and am glad I have the guts to go without, even with the D size I am.What is there to be ashamed of? Also under no circumstance should one sleep with a bra on.The only time I do 'need' a bra is when I am on the road (driving or being driven) for reasons of comfort.

I know these discussions make some of us uncomfortable but I am glad that we have reached a stage where we can openly discuss them. It allows for more open discussion on topics one might wonder about but not bother to discuss. And even if there is no open discussion there are many who will benefit from this post itself.









http://travel2photograph.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/buddhist-prayer-flags-%E2%80%93-5-colors-5-elements-of-basic-energy/


From left to right: blue, white, red, green and saffron (yellow).

Read more: How to Hang Tibetan Prayer Flags | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5566109_hang-tibetan-prayer-flags.html#ixzz2HxCsgWs2

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

To learn more question more...!!




To be able to answer the prompt in the given context: "Who should be a teacher" is to first teach our young ones what they should expect of the learning process and from the teacher.

Do we not need to first teach our children to respect a teacher and to understand that a teacher is meant to kindle the fire of learning in you, but the fire is your's to feed!!





Only if we were all to realize this basic fact that Socrates philosophized, learning and teaching would take on its true essence. 

Yes, the consumerist tendencies of the capitalist world somehow dictate the teacher too to be more and more inclined to the monetary gains of the profession but even so, to be able to bring back the altruism in the humane profession it is for us, the learners and the students to bring back the lost glory.

Teachers need to be (re) trained in empathy and the students too need to develop an attitude of                                                                              gratitude.

Taali ek haath se nahin bajati!! 

One can not clap with one hand. Both hands must come together to form a clap!!
  



Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Almost....


                                  


                                            you and i 

                                       don't and won't 
                                          and can't

                                    and so one knows
                                yes, it was meant to be...

                                       meant to be 
                                         this way

     

                               if it was meant to be 
                                    any other way
                                 it would have been 

                                        or will be

                                          what is 
                                           is how 
                                   it was meant to be

A stitch in time saves nine!






Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” – Khalil Gibran



Oft one hears...."Just throw it away, it's broken" 

Aaaah! yes, but I never could, doubt I'll learn to, well, doesn't seem likely anytime soon...just love it too much: fixing broken stuff. As a youngster, it was the TDK tapes with my favourite songs that used to get stuck in the tape recorder (gunjal ho jaati thee) and I just couldn't throw them and lose all those songs, ouch!! Nevaaaah! And so I diligently fixed them with cello tape. And voila! the music, it played again, minus a couple of lines and a distinct sound when the cellotaped portion ran over the tape reader.....My stuff, yes, I like fixing it, it gives me memories and with it, a history. 

Rain....


 

you ask
why it is i come back?
what i would love to know
when it was i ever left
or can i even?
did you?'
can you?'
oh! my darling 
the earth it needs rain...

The lift off...


                                                    

                                                     



 You can actually hear the shattering
I never ever knew!!