Feelings

I feel hungry.... I feel like going for a movie.... I feel cold..... I feel hot......
Are these feelings? Are men supposed to have only such feelings and nothing else. I believe that we have moved away from these stereotypes and we are allowed to be who we are without being boxed or typecast into categories. I believe that we are living in an age and time that a man can feel like a woman and a woman can feel like a man and freely express these feelings aloud without being judged and condemned. Or am I mistaken and the time is yet to come?
Why not, I feel afraid... I feel vulnerable..... i feel lonely..... I feel loving ..... I feel upset ..... I feel happy.... I feel angry? There is a whole gamut of feelings out there and I am expected to have only this, this and this and nothing else. Does anyone have the right to dictate to another how one should feel or not feel? Am I not entitled to my feelings, of course, with the rider that it doesn't affect someone else's life?
I'd like to explore these topics with you. Please feel free to share your views so I can learn from you and others can learn from this free and frank discussion..
I googled for the list of feelings and emotions and I found that there are far more words for negative emotions than there are for positive. Our human experience seems to be mired in negative feelings and emotions which are only intermittently broken by patches of positive feelings. Like a mirage some people chase sensual goals to get a grasp on bliss while more often than not, they fall in the desert to negative emotions and feelings.
We shall discuss these major emotions over the next few days:
1) Anger
2) Dissappointment
3) Guilt
4) Worry
5) Happiness
6) Loving
7) Courageous
8) Graceful
If you think I've missed some crucial feelings and I should include it, please do let me know.

If your are interested in learning more about feelings, you could check out this link http://www.searchingwithin.com/journal/abptb/feel.htmlhttp://www.searchingwithin.com/journal/abptb/feel.html

Anger:

Anger is one of the most common feelings for most of us isn't it? It's easy to come by and easy to express. Look around you in any public place and you'll find that anger is expressed quiet openly. You see road rage, you see a spouse angrily speaking to the better/bitter half, you see a parent ticking off the child or the child throwing a tantrum at the parent, You see anger in the workplace. Boss to reportee, peer to peer, reporteee to boss, client to vendor and the other way around. You see anger expressed in so many colourful and not-so-colourful ways right out in the open in public. While you don't see love being expressed quiet so openly in public.
Have you noticed that no one bothers to stop you if you slap someone in public or give them a dressing down, while if you try kissing your girl in public, the cops will swoop down on you for indecent behaviour and the upholders of cultural values will harangue you for your obscene behaviour.
Once upon a time we were a land that celebrated love. Today we are a country that smoulders in hate and reveres it.
In an Emotional Intelligence Workshop, the participants, all highly educated and paid and ergo assumed to be highly evolved were tied up in knots when asked to express "I love you" in as many creative ways as possible. They were shy, withdrawn, trying to dig a hole and disappear for being asked to mouth such words. But when this same group was asked to express "I hate you" in as many ways as possible, they were in full flow exploring all the notes in the emotional scale.

I've always been surprised at our ability to express negative emotions so freely while bottling up the so-called positive ones like love, compassion, caring, gratitude, etc. Anger probably is a the top of the list and the one we all experience often and see even more often.
What if we could use the same anger and turn it around to work for us. Just as tidal waves are used to generate electricity, why can't we turn our anger on our own limitations? What if we turned our anger on our limiting habits or feelings such as procrastination, jealousy, greed, fear and so on? What if we are able to burn these to cinder so we're are able to lead fuller lives?
Then our anger would be well spent. And well earned too:)

The art of conversation

How many times have you wished that it is not worth having this conversation? It may be because the other person was not listening to you.... it may be because the other was not understanding you..... it may be because they have a counter for everything you say..... it may be that they were putting words in your mouth and jumping to conclusions.
Wasn't it really frustrating? I've been there. And I get there sometimes even now. I wonder whether I'm so dumb that I'm unable to make that person understand or sometimes I wonder whether they are that dumb or stupid that they are not understanding.
Whatever the reason, it leaves me pretty drained and yeah, sometimes it leaves me feeling stupid too. Where is the power of words that I thought I possessed? Where is the charm and the persuasive skills that has helped me before? A simple conversation suddenly turns into a minefield of arguments and counter arguments till you feel you are ready to throw in the towel.
Why wasn't this skill taught to me in school. These skills are what I need to survive in this world. But I ended up learning about the battle of Panipat and myriad other useless information that I never use in my daily life. And I've not been taught or if they did, I never learnt the art of conversing with someone without having to lose my cool and wishing that i'[d never opened my mouth.
When am I going to learn the art of conversation?

Dog or God

A few days back, I was just coming out of my meditation early in the morning and I caught sight of my dog intently looking at me through the french windows. While I was lost in my meditative state looking for the divine, here he was looking at me and wondering what I was up to searching in all sorts of places. A fleeting thought crossed my mind. What if to him I was God and he was gazing intently at me to get a sense of the divine. The next thought followed swiftly behind. Or what if he was Him come down to be with me and look after me and remind me to live in the here and now.
You could say, hey, he was just waiting for you to take him for a walk. Don't read too much into that incident. I could brush it off and refuse to dwell on those passing thoughts and go on with my life. But the thoughts did pop in and the possibility of either being true is very real. Who is to categorically say one way or the other?
But now when I look at Alfie (my dog), I wonder, is there something behind those eyes that I have not been aware of till now? The Dog is a supremely wonderful example of how we should live. He is happy when someone is around to play with him and he gives us all his attention that time. When no one is around he is absolutely contented to just lie down and sleep. Even if it is for the whole day and night. He lives completely in the moment. He doesn't hold grudges. Your nice to him, he is good to you. You ignore him, he is still good to you. You are rude and angry with him, he just waits till you subside and he's back at your side. Ever willing to give you a lick or two and let you know that you are still loved and at the center of his universe.
He teaches us how to live and I am supposed to be his master. Who is the Master and who the pupil?

Captain without a team

Once upon a time there was a captain who thought he had a team. He was asked to fight a giant who lived in the neighbourhood who was constantly robbing the people of their crop and produce and never allowed them to live in peace. This captain faithfully prepared for the war and set forth to teach this giant a lesson he'd never forget. so that he'll never again attack the people, However, just as he was preparing for battle, some of the team members who had asked him to go to battle started questioning the methods being used and asked him to submit detailed plans.
This captain took on this additional responsibility and submitted all the required information. However because he got delayed for the war, the giant had grown larger and stronger than before and so beat the captain after a prolonged fight.
The wounded captain had to lick his wounds and look around for a fresh strategy and support to combat this giant. Just as he was preparing to launch the 2nd offensive, again the same few team members called him to give an explanation of his earlier failures as well as details about the new plan along with a guarantee of success.
This again put back the captain by valuable time that he could ill afford. At this weakened state, he wondered are these people really part of my team or the giant's. Have they been planted by the giant to allow him to live in peace and eat and grow from the earnings of the people? These few people were only sowing doubts in people's minds and sapping the energy of the captain and the team that was going to fight for the village.
What do you think? Are these people who were questioning the captain really interested in saving the village? or were they pretending to be concerned so the giant can win?

Get a perspective of who you are.

Fuss-o-Fuzz

What is all this fuzz about?
Couple of days back, I decided that it was time for a change of scenery.... I wanted to see a different face in the mirror and while shaving just decided to take off the fuzz above my lips without giving thought to the amount of fuss that I was inviting into my life.... No, that's a lie... I knew what to expect. This has happened many many years ago too. About 15 years ago I had done the same and got vaguely similar similar reactions except not all the players were the same.
But that was ages ago and my memory plays hide and seek with what transpired then. But I did have vague premonitions of what was to happen after this diabolic act.
My wife who had laid the law "No removing moustache" fainted of shock after I opened the bathroom door. My kids were woken up to see this apparition. My dog was brought into this discussion and was asked to express his shock and dismay at this dastardly act. My younger son who had expressed the desire to see his father without the fuzz and later made to retract that statement was suitably admonished for his loose wishes that led to this drastic folly..
The whole house was in turmoil on a Tuesday morning in the middle of a busy week with exams looming on my 10th std son. And this fuss just didn't die down there.
It went all the way down with me travelling 20 floors when people took a double take on seeing this fuzzless wonder. Some were reticent, some suppressed a laugh, a few ventured some comment about how I looked different, many categorically told me that they don't want to see me like this and wanted the old Iggy back.
What really surprised me that evening in the lift was a 9 yr old girl telling me, "Uncle, you took off that? My friend S.... told me about it in school." Wow! Didn;t realise that this will be a topic for conversation with kids that age.
What hit me was people associate me with some facial hair and are not able to digest me without it. Am I only that, or is that the salt in this dish? The next question was, "Which is the dish and which is the salt?"
We see people so mechanically that any change in them makes us uncomfortable. Or are people worried "Why is this fellow not bothering about all the ridiculing comments and living life on his own terms - without caring for public opinion." "What kind of a creature is this that doesn't care about the opinion of his family, friends and community?"
But to me it was a liberating experience. It taught me that I need not get fixated on symbols of how people see me. Now, I can handle people laughing at me. This has made me stronger to live life on my terms rather than on someone else's terms. And I believe that that is what upsets people around me rather than the loss of this small patch of fuzz.
Try removing some symbols of how people perceive you and see for yourself how liberating it is when you are able to handle people's ridicule. It will help you build the emotional muscle to take on resistance on more important issues in your life where you are imprisoned behind the all-important "public opinion"
Live life on your terms. Let not the perceived image be you. Set your inner self free to experience life in all its beauty.

Gratitude

Attract Abundance through practising gratitude:
Have you ever noticed when you are planning to buy a new car or looking for a particular make or colour, you suddenly see a lot more of them on the road than you had noticed before. Why does this phenomenon occur? Does that mean that after you started paying attention to something, it starts manifesting itself out of nowhere. Or could it mean that they were always around but now that you are aware of it, you are able to notice them? And this is true not just for cars alone, isn't it?
I believe that what you pay attention to in your life, grows. What you ignore dies. If we all understand this simple law, can't we just manifest the perfect life for ourselves by picking the things we pay attention to.
Last month, I hadn't thought of all this when I'd started to post one gratitude per day on facebook. This was triggered by a post on a friend's wall where she posted a gratitude since it was December, last month of the year and she felt like thanking some aspect of her life. That motivated me to post one gratitude per day for one month and sign off the year on a string of gratitudes.
It was easier thought, than done. The first few days was a breeze, but there were days when how much ever I dug into my memories of that day, I couldn't find a single thing to be grateful for. However, buried deep within, there was something I could find that I could be grateful for.
After 3 weeks, it seemed to get easier since I was constantly looking around at what I could be grateful for and things just started to go my way or you could say that I only noticed things that went my way.
I've given below the whole string of gratitudes that I'd posted on FB. There may be 2 or 3 days missing since they were the darkest or the busiest and I couldn't find time to do them.
Year 2012 - Gratitude
December is here..... End of the year......
I'd like to have a daily thread of gratitude... I'm going to pick one thing I'm most grateful for in this year and post one per day for the rest of the month. Hope you guys share one of yours too daily on this post.... Let's see all the things that we are grateful for in our lives and bid this year goodbye from the high ground of gratitude..
Gratitude #1:
I'm thankful for my family for having stood by me through thick and thin and still shower love, warmth and affection, come what may..... Thank you one and all for being in my life and for being who you are.
Gratitude #2:
I’m thankful for my dog Alfie, who greets me with so much enthusiasm every time I come back home that I instantly forget everything that happened in the day and am brought to the here and now instantly. He has no bad moods, holds no grouses, doesn’t expect anything more than a pat, hug or scratch and brings me back to what is, rather than what could be or was.
Thank you Alfie for coming into my life and being a big part of it
Gratitude #3:
I’m grateful for all my new friends and family in DLF Garden City who have come together to create a vibrant community – going beyond all the problems, irritants, poor quality, late delivery, increased costs and myriad other issues that DLF has created for us.
This community has come together like early settlers and have bonded and worked as one unit to create a happy, energetic and vibrant life in DLF Garden City.
Thank you DGC-ians for being so positive and helpful to each other
Gratitude #4:
I’m grateful for this new project that I’m working on right now. It has given new meaning to my life and everything that I’ve learnt, experienced or felt before has come of use today. It’s almost like God was preparing me for this all along, and the time has come to give birth to our world this fabulous thing called TGR Happyness Circle. Every member and every person who has come to the sessions have been wowed by it and have taken away real benefits.
I’m so looking forward to witness its growth and I am so grateful that I’m involved in this great initiative.
Gratitude #5:
I’m grateful for my temperament that allows me to live amongst all these stressors and challenges and still come through right side up. Life is a roller coaster and though we are bumping from one challenge to another, it still feels worth it and the muscles of the soul are getting bigger and tougher.
So I’m grateful for this inner thing called temperament or whatever that is, that allows me to smile though it all and keep looking ahead to every new day for new adventures and challenges and to enjoy this dance of life.
Gratitude #6:
I’m grateful for my country India. In spite of being labeled backward, third world, or whatever other demeaning sobriquet, it has a rich history as well as ancient wisdom. We are a democracy and whatever problems we have are all created by us only.
We are what we are and the western world can seldom understand us. Our traffic, our queue system, our head shaking, the smells, our sense of karma and our ability to be cheerful under extremely trying circumstances are all puzzling and annoying for most foreigners.
But it’s still India and our home and I’m grateful that we are still one nation and we will be no 1 very soon. At least in sheer numbers ?
Gratitude #7:
I’m grateful for the staff who work so tirelessly to do all those little things that make our life easy every day. Security, maintenance staff, maids, vendors and all those people who are toiling away to make sure that we have electricity, water, security, communications lines, lifts, milk, paper, groceries, vegetables and all those zillion things that I use daily without even acknowledging the effort that has gone into bringing it into my life. Where will I be without them? I’m connected to so many millions who have contributed to making my life here and now possible.
Thank you all those nameless beings who have contributed to keeping me alive and making my life easy.
Gratitude #8:
I’m grateful to the scenery outside my windows and balconies. Vast greenery, some buildings in the far horizon, flocks of migratory birds flying below us, the mist shrouding the scenery on some mornings, the peep of the sun as it shyly comes up from sleep, the spreading glow of daylight, the magical star lit nights with lights twinkling in the far background, rain filled fields and the ever changing kaleidoscopic changes during dawn and dusk.
It’s better than I imagined and makes the whole experience of buying a flat from DLF more bearable than it otherwise would have been.
Thank you dear scenery, may you always dazzle me with the magical changes through the days and months ahead.
Gratitude #9:
I’m grateful to my heart which is tirelessly working day and night to keep me going. Every second, every minute that it is pumping, it is toiling for me. It has been working well without me sparing it a passing thought let alone acknowledging its efforts.
Without any effort from my side, without any special care, this organ keeps going on and on.
Thank you my heart for keeping me alive and thank you for making me who I am.
Gratitude #10:
I’m grateful to all the conveniences in my life. My car, cellphone, laptops and the myriad electronic and electro-mechanical devices that clutter my life and make it easy for me to do 10x more work or live richer than it would have been possible without them. Life has become so easy for us and so abundant. I can watch and hear stuff happening thousands of miles away on my TV as it’s happening.  Who would have imagined this 50 yrs back? We can travel 1000s of kms in a few hrs, what would have taken months  just 100 yrs ago.
I take so much for granted so many things. Even the richest kings 200 yrs back, couldn’t in their wildest dreams, have wished to do the kind of things that I can so effortlessly do nowadays.
I’m living more abundantly than the kings of yore and I am grateful for that and for all those people who have created these magical devices that make this possible.
Gratitude #11:
I am grateful to all those people who feel passionately that India should offer her best to her citizens; reliable electricity, safe drinking water, good roads, clean governance, good civic sense, excellent civic amenities, reliable law & order and a trustworthy & speedy judicial system.
As long as their tribe grows, we have hope and when this tribe reaches critical mass, all of these dreams would become reality.
Two of this tribe had reacted passionately to my Gratitude #6 and I am grateful that they pointed out what they did and wish them well and hope they spark more such people to join this movement.
Gratitude #12:
I’m grateful to all those people who have taught me valuable lessons this year. Consciously or unconsciously, you were meant to teach me these lessons and I acknowledge with love that you have done it for my good and my development whether you are aware of it or not.
It may have pained you or troubled you at times that this was happening.  But, I believe that there is a larger design and this was just an episode in our relationship that was meant to happen and we need to move on and seek our own development
Thank you for doing what you did and may the force be with you.
Gratitude #13:
I’m grateful to all my friends out there. Those who keep in touch, those who just send out those warm fuzzy thoughts, those who are too busy and have no time to do either, you have all added big time to my life and your good wishes, thoughts, words and deeds have contributed to my growth and happiness.
Some of you have known me like forever, and some of you have just recently come into my life, but each of you were meant to be here and connected with me. I’m grateful we’ve had our times together now and then. We may not be able to meet anymore for various reasons, we may not be able to speak anymore, but just a few kind thoughts now and then are enough to keep us connected and add meaning to our lives. I wish you all well and hope that you are having the time of your life.
Thank you for being you and thank you for gracing my life with your presence.
Gratitude #17:
I’m grateful for birthdays. I’ve been surrounded by people wishing me the best and generally making me feel good and wanted. It’s fabulous to have so many friends and family share your happy moment and make it extra special by taking the trouble to visit; taking the trouble to call or email; or taking the trouble to send warm wishes or just thinking about you in some way.
My brother and sisters took the trouble to drive 30 kms last nite to wake me up from sleep and flood me with their bonhomie, wishes and gifts that it was truly worth giving up my sleep. Birthdays help remind me that at the core of our life is all these relationships that we’ve built over the years and that though we may be separated by distance, yet we are all still together.
Thank you all for making it beautiful and a truly memorable day.
Gratitude #18:
I’m grateful for the one hour I get every morning to myself soon after I wake up. The stillness, the promise of a new day, new beginnings, new adventures, a possibility to do more, some time for a dialogue with the Creator, some exercise, walking Alfie, the morning pages (the days I do it) and just pottering around the house while the rest of the household is asleep.
It’s easily the best time of the day and I can’t imagine any other way to start the day. And when dawn breaks, the sun slowly rises on the horizon, the colours change every second and the sky gets streaked with yellows, pinks, orange and reds that chase the indigos and turns them into myriad shades of blues.
The early morning sky, pre-dawn and during sunrise is such a beautiful sight that makes your heart skip a few beats each time you see it.
Thank you dear mornings, you energise my day, every single day.
Gratitude #19:
I’m grateful for the drive that I have every morning where I get time to spend with my son. Whether we are chatting or not, we’re getting to know each other better, bonding better and get to discuss stuff that we otherwise wouldn’t get the time or space to discuss at home.
I’m grateful that I drive him to school every day ‘cos I’m getting to know him a little better than I did before. And I’ve also discovered that he is grown up enough to discuss events and ideas almost like grown-ups.
I’m grateful for the time that I’m getting to spend with him on these morning drives.
Gratitude #20:
I’m grateful for being alive today. Whether today or tomorrow is the last day of the world, I don’t know. But I am alive today and ready to take on this world and determined to spread cheer and happiness to everyone I meet or interact with.
I believe that this is the only way to lead one’s life, full-on and in-the-face, come what may. Doesn’t matter if I drop down dead the next minute, ‘cos I’ve lived fully every moment of every day at my terms and in full communion with my creator and all the other beings he’s created for our collective enjoyment. So how does it matter when the world will end? I’m alive now and that’s all that matters for now.
I’m glad to be alive now and I’m glad to have lived the life that I have till now… and looking forward to more God-willing.
Gratitude #21:
I’m grateful for my Samsung Galaxy Note II that was gifted to me by my wife and kids on my birthday last week. It’s a super cool phone with a ton load of features to make life easier and more productive. My children have researched which one to get and have been picking my mind on what I would want and not want in a phone for 3 to 4 weeks before they zeroed in on this model. They’ve bought this 2 weeks before my birthday and have kept it confidential till the D-day.
It’s a truly amazing phone where I can speak and a text message or email can be sent out, I can draw and edit photos, find directions to a new place, do banking, book movies tickets and do a host of stuff that I never thought possible in a phone.
Thank you Samsung for putting all this into a handheld, thank you my phone for being so handy and thank you my family for researching this and getting it for me.
Truly handy and useful gift:
Gratitude #22
I'm grateful today for the empty roads. It's such a pleasure to be able to travel at a steady speed and reach our destination in half the time it usually takes. Thanks to all those who have left for vacation.
Gratitude #23:
I’m grateful for Mother Nature. She’s so bountiful and generous irrespective of how we treat her. On my morning walks, I find that any patch of land, will have some life form or other – starting with the lowly grass to shrubs and flowering plants. There is patches of colours under all the construction dust and debris that we see thrown all around us just outside the DLF GC complex, some brave flowers have sprouted out and displays their radiant colours to observant passer-bys.
Whether we chuck plastic or paper or cloth or other debris, nature finds a way to build life around it and sprouts up plants and best of all flowers through all this.
What if we could help her and ourselves by reducing the rubbish that we throw outside and ensure the cleanliness of our surroundings. Then these flowers would be more visible and show their full beauty for all to enjoy.
Thank you Mother Nature, we owe so much to you and your large-hearted  contributions to our well-being.
Gratitude #24:
I’m grateful to the water I drink every day. It’s just water you might say. But it’s what makes me who I am. What thoughts I carry as I drink it, goes deep into me and determines how my day pans out.
The thoughts I think, as I have my bath, flows along with the water and enters my pores and permeates my very being.
This water, goes in and becomes my body. Remember, I’m 70% water. And every thought, every word and every action is coloured with the same intentions and thoughts that I’ve been carrying while I drank it or bathed in it.
Thank you water for energsing me and for giving me the life force to lead my life well.
Gratitude #25:
Thank you for Christmas, a day when most parts of the world celebrate as a time of peace and a time to shower love, especially family love. This day that Jesus was born, changed the world order. He brought love, peace, forgiveness and compassion to a savage land and filled people with hope of reaching for something higher, call it heaven or whatever. It is now also known as the time to give… Give gifts, hugs, presents, parties, love, good will, cheer and more. It is filled with memories of good things and is a season of giving and sharing.
I’m grateful for the midnight mass at St. Theresa’s Church with the lovely decorations and the beautiful messages shared by the priest. The massive turnout would be a testimony to the spirit of the season and I hope this spirit is being carried into each of their lives and benefitting lots more people.  I’m grateful for the party hosted by my sister which kept me awake till 2 am and all those who joined in the merriment?
Thank you Christmas for ending our year with gratitude, sharing, compassion and appreciation of all our loved ones.
Gratitude #26:
I’m grateful for all of you out there who have been following this string of gratitudes this month. Some of you like Swapna Simon  have actually contributed to the thread many times and seems to be the only one who read my first gratitude where I’d requested others to join in with their own.
I’m grateful to Nishith Kl Bhandarkar and Gomathi K Reddy who have had the courage to tell me that they are waiting to see their name in one of my gratitudes, you guys rock.
I’m grateful to those of you who chose to disagree to some of my gratitudes, and cared to put it down as a comment. Your forthright views goes towards shaping our collective consciousness and will ultimately make our world better.
I’m grateful for those of you who have left comments, pressed like, called or emailed to let me know that you love reading these posts and that it has made you think on similar lines and looked within yourself to feel good about the many things in your life that you can feel grateful for.
I’m grateful to those who have passively watched along the sidelines and have either sent silent thoughts of appreciation or disbelief or plain disinterest, you have your reasons and you are doing what you believe is best in this situation. Hope you have spared a few moments to think of what you are grateful for in your own life and in some small ways made you feel a little better.
I'm grateful to every single one of you for sparing some time to read and hopefully sparing some time for self examination and discovering gratitude for whatever blessings you have in your life.
(Btw, just started reading a book by Rhonda Bryne "The Magic",ur a birthday gift by my sister, on this same topic)
Gratitude #27:
I’m grateful to those countless people out there who are daring to stand up against the establishment and voice their views, organize protests, whip up movements and do their bit to build public opinion and force governments to change laws or policies so that people can be treated in a more humane and caring manner than it currently is.
In the US, India, and many other countries, the common man and woman are standing up for their rights and the rights of others and are creating ripples and waves that can build momentum to bring about radical change in laws and policies that could build a more humane society.
I’m grateful that people care enough to care for the plight of others and I hope that this spirit of caring grows and grows to envelope the whole world so that each will look out for the other and become truly one.
Gratitude #28:
I’m grateful for vacations. It stretches and challenges me (as well as most parents) to find ways and means to keep the kids engaged and happy. Those who can go away for extended vacations find their life a little easier. Others like me who have been at home this vacation have to get creative and be challenged to stop the kids from uttering the b**** word.
It’s not a four letter word.
I’m grateful that vacations are here and we’re able to bond with our kids and I’m grateful that it is short enough to send them back to school so we can miss them badly, till the next vacations ?
Yes, I’m still grateful for vacations. There is something so relaxing and yet so challenging in it. The dread of hearing the “bored” word from my child and the pleasure when we get through the day without once hearing it ?
Gratitude #29
I’m grateful that these string of gratitudes is coming to an end. It has taught me that it is tough to feel gratitude for an extended period of time. It has taught me how tough it is to keep an habit like this going for 30 days.
It has made me dig deep to find things to be grateful for. It has evoked mixed reactions from friends and acquaintances and showed me how differently each issue can be looked at by different people and that there is no right or wrong. Only perspectives and opinions.
I’m grateful that this is coming to an end. ( Except that I’ve now bought a little diary where I’m going to pen 10 gratitudes every day for the next one year. Want to see if I can have 3650 unique things to be grateful for next year. ) Wish me luck!
Gratitude #30:
I’m not sure whether this can be termed as a gratitude, but here goes…
I’m grateful for this brave soul who gave up her life in such a painful way after extreme suffering to awaken a nation steeped in apathy for such a long time.
She’s broken this nation out of its stupor and brought the spotlight on how badly we treat our women – from small daily harassments in the form of lecherous looks, comments, thoughts and actions to far graver crimes such as suppressing the right to live for a female foetus to the right to move around freely and choose freely in life.
She’s broken the blinds that had us pretending that we are a nation that reveres our women as Mother and God (in words and platitudes) and shown us to be a nation that truly treats its women as mere goods and symbols of power and greed.
She’s no less a martyr than many many before her, and her short life has taken a whole new meaning by the way she fought for her rights and the rights of half our nation.
I’m grateful that there are countless more souls who have taken upon themselves to stand solidly behind this braveheart and braving the fierce cold, lathi charges, water cannons,  govt apathy and cold hearted official reactions are demonstrating day and night for the past 13 days and is moving our cumbersome and lethargic political class to take heed and worry about their survival for the first time in 65 years.
May her soul rest in peace by achieving what billions of Indians before her couldn’t, making a lasting change that will build a more responsive, compassionate society that celebrates freedom and security for half its population and change the justice delivery system in our country.

Fabulous morning

January 04, 2013

I don’t know how many of you in Chennai noticed the thick mists this morning…. It felt like I was in a hill station. At 6:15 this morning there was a dark gray carpet covering the countryside and it felt like I was looking down from a plane. In about half an hour, the sky started lightening, but the thick mist held its ground. When I walked my dog Alfie around that time, the visibility was just around 100 ft and dropping at times.

This was such a fabulously novel occurrence for us here in Chennai and it was so thrilling to see the battle between the sun and the mist. It lightened and then suddenly darkened and this went on for almost an hour. If I was any younger I might have just gone around screaming around the complex with my arms stretched out in gay abandon and soaking in the fabulous weather.
What a sight it was to behold and all for free, without having to buy tickets, take the trouble of travelling and booking into a hotel.
The hill station was right here in my backyard, and all around me, visible from the balcony or the windows and beckoning me to come out and enjoy the chill….

What is it about mists that evokes a sense of magic and  mystery and makes you imagine things, such as hearing the footsteps of Long john Silver, and a sense of anticipation that he will walk out of the mist any time soon.
While the rest of the world was sleeping, I quietly clicked a few snaps of this show by Mother Nature wrestled with my imagination and then got around to getting on with the rest of my day…..
I love the changing patterns and colours of the mornings and it never ceases to awe and astound me with the variety that it throws up every few seconds especially in the mornings and also in the evenings. Dawn and Dusk are such magical times if we took the trouble to look out at the sky and see the kaleidoscopic changing colours and patterns forming every few seconds for the half hour before and after the sun rises or sets.

Welcome to my blog

Hi Wanderer

Welcome to my blackboard. I'm going to be scratching some stuff here on a regular basis and you are welcome to come by anytime and leave a note or two on your reactions or thoughts on the subjects being discussed.
These posts are going to be just my thoughts or my reactions to events in my life or experiences that I may have directly faced. It may not be very well written or presented since I'm a newbie to this space. But with your help i hope to get better at this and hopefully start producing better quality stuff in a year or two.
Thank you for swinging by and feel free to leave your mark here.
Have a great day!
Cheers
Iggy