Fortune, Fear and Faith

You are standing at the edge of the precipice..you look down and see the deep dark blue river...you know you have to jump..you can feel the coldness of the water and a shiver runs down your spine...
You have to jump to get across, there is no other way...

You look down again and wait for the whistle to blow - the whistle is your cue to jump. The wait feels like eternity...
You take one more look down at the water and feel a lurch inside ...your courage trembles, your feet get wobbly and you suddenly become uncertain of your ability to swim...

You know that when you jump in the water, it will be cold, it will be deep...and yet jumping is the only way through.
You know that once you jump, you will have no control over your actions...the current will sweep you in its flow...it could land you in one swift wave to where you wanted to go. But then, it could even pull you away from where you had thought you will go and push you towards where you did not wish to go...but you have no choice...

It is then you realize that, the only thing you can do is keep swimming...not in any specific direction, not against, but with the tide - no matter where the river takes you, you have to keep swimming.
You have to keep swimming - and have unwavering faith...faith in your abilities, faith in the river below and faith in the sky above...and ultimately you will reach where you were destined to...
Amen!

PS: Written in a fit of desperation, ignore if you find it meaningless and out of context :P

A Prayer

A prayer that is extremely close to my heart...had read it somewhere and suddenly came across it today. Couldn't help posting it here...


जे टाळणे अशक्य, दे शक्ती ते सहाया
जे शक्य साध्य आहे, दे निर्धार ते कराया ॥
मज काय शक्य आहे, आहे अशक्य काय
माझे मला कळाया, दे बुद्धी देवराया ॥

Translated it means,

Give me the serenity to accept the things which cannot be changed
Give me the determination to change the things that I can
And the wisdom to know the difference...

Amen! PS: Although I had read the original in Marathi, the English version is credited to Reinhold Niebuhr

The Missing button

He was excited! He so badly wanted to wear his new shirt and brag about it to his friends! It was one of his most favorite ones...and as he took it out to wear, he lovingly gazed at it, marveling at the turquoise colour and the flawless finish...He ran his hand along the rim...the shirt was perfection itself...nothing was amiss.Until, he noticed that one tiny missing button.....
He wondered how he could have missed noticing it before...the even line of shiny silver buttons was broken. Nothing that would stand out from a distance, but something that was very obvious once you looked closely...
Once you looked closely, the absence could not be ignored...it was there - in stark contrast to the otherwise perfect piece of fabric - as if teasing him on purpose, and reminding him of all the things he was missing amidst his almost perfect existence - loved ones, lost dreams, forgotten promises, broken vows - and his eyes moistened as he put on his jacket to hide that missing button...

PS: Dedicated to everyone who has a shirt with a missing button...

Action Replay!

The other day, I was in a train taking me back home...as usual I just put on my headphones, turned on the music player and settled comfortably in my (window :-)) seat. The player coughed up one of my all time favs - "Yuhin chala chal raahi" from Swades...ahhh...heavenly :-)

A fortnight of slogging, coding, writing and nightouts might have made me a bit wonky...but never mind...this is what came to my mind then...and I want to pen it down, so here I go...

The song said "Jeevan gaadi hai samay pahiya..." and I thought "Wow! That's so true...Life is a train...time is(are) the wheel(s)" (forgive the grammar ;-))
What this means is that every event, rather every day, every moment in our life is lke a station...a station which, once we pass through, we can never cross it again... Life's train knows only one direction - the forward one.

So what if we do want to re-visit a station, I asked myself? (Well, I already said I was a bit wonky, so this might not make much sense!) Isn't there any way out? "Well, yes there is...we call them 'memories'". "But if life is indeed always moving forward, how can we have memories? How can we re-visit previous stations?" "Hah!" my (wonky) self answered, "That is because life is a train with a CCTV camera! " ;-)
How smart...and convenient! Revisiting a station means just playing that station's tape in our mind...all the while being aware that life's train is still moving forward...even as we are busy reminiscing over this video...these images from the past...

Well, since I am already in the mood to philosophize, I want to share just one more thought that popped up in my mind...something that might help glide over those Monday blues...If memories are indeed tapes which we play in our minds (voluntarily!), and if memories are capable of making us sad, angry or even depressed (which they indeed are capable of), why not use this fact wisely?

Whenever we relive a sad memory, and feel blue then it's almost as if we are watching a tragic movie and complaining that we are feeling sad, or cribbing that we are scared while watching a horror flick, isn't it?! And the solution is really simple...just switch off the flick and put in another tape with a comic movie...switch off the tape with the bad memory and put on a tape with happier memories! Well, happy memories need not always be (rather they seldom are) big events/days/achievements in life...often they are the simplest videos starring our friends and family :-) (and the star of course - us!)

So, the next time you feel down in the dumps...don't forget..just change the tape!

Signing off!

PS: Of late, I have taken to stealing titles, which is kinda sad...hope I get back to having original titles for my posts!
And before I forget to cite...this title is chorofied from the upcoming Ash movie "Action Replayy"