“Isn’t it a beautiful day?” He said.She looked at him and nodded.He noticed what she wanted him to notice. Her welled up eyes.He knew she wasn’t fine. But there was no way to make her speak up, except by getting her to witness a sunset.Sunsets were special for her. Her heart would lighten up at the sight of a sunset. She would open up as the sun set along the horizon. She had a special relation with sunsets, just the way she had with him.As the golden ball took a dip into the shimmering waters, her glittering eyes let go of those tears. He held her tight, no words exchanged. The cloak of silence comforted the two hearts. His, ’cause he knew he was her comfort, and hers, ’cause she knew she had found her one.To sunsets and beautiful people!
Category: Nature
The Warmth of a New Morning
It was a quaint little village tucked in the mountains of Nilgiris. Birds welcomed the first rays of the sun with their chirping and woke the village up.
Madhu stretched on her bed and opened her eyes to a new morning with a smile on her face. She stepped out of the warmth of her room and felt the cold floor outside. She hugged herself to keep her warmth wrapped within herself. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
The smell of fresh morning filled her body. The sounds of the chirping birds filled her soul. She stood there taking in the fragrance of flowers opening up to the rays of sunlight. She felt the pores of her skin open with joy.
She looked straight ahead at the silhouette of mountains and trees. She stretched out her hand and traced the outline with her fingers as she gently closed her eyes.
The next thing she knew, she had sat there with her book and pen and was sketching the beautiful morning in the village on her book. Gentle and fine strokes of her pen decorated the paper, capturing little acts of people around her. She hadn’t failed to acknowledge the little children running around half naked, who were starting their day with a round of games. She captured the laughter and frolic that filled her ears.
As she sketched, she paused to notice the people carrying out their everyday chores. She smiled at the villagers who looked in her direction wondering what she was up to. She felt a sense of connect with them when she met their gaze. Yet the reality of being an outsider never once left her.
Ethnography made her heart come alive. And her passion for art gave her meaning.
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Co-Existence and Gratitude
I wondered what was making me feel excited about that day, my birthday. As I spent time reading Thanks! on the eve of my birthday, I realized that my excitement was associated with the fact that there were people who took a little moment out of their lives to send a text or make a call or to send something across to make my birthday special.
Like 7 billion people, I could be just another person for them. Yet I am someone in their lives. A classmate, an acquaintance from college or social media, someone their friend wished, a friend, a cousin, a long-lost buddy or someone more than just a friend.
This thought made me realize the network within which I exist.
They must be wondering what makes them a part of the universal network.
I imagine stars in the universe as I think of a network of co-existence. Maybe I do that because I consider co-existence as the root of human life.
While competition and comparisons have forced people to think and act in an individualistic manner, a quick review of therapeutic practices and also religious texts will tell you the importance of having a social network. No, this isn’t the number of people who follow you or the number of “friends” you have on social media. Yes, they can be your extended social circle. While that is necessary, try and identify people who will form your inner circle. These are people you can fall back on. They are the ones who will hear you out and sometimes, try and help.
Your support system may have one person or ten people or a hundred. Appreciating each of them for playing a role in your life in some way is an act of gratitude.
Image credits: @shanerounce (Unsplash)
When I think of people in my life, I feel grateful. I am grateful that they have shaped me, I am grateful that they have taught me life lessons, I am grateful that they have been there for me.
From being a teenager who often said “Ultimately you are alone”, now at 23 years, I believe that there will be at least one network that will change in your absence. And I am grateful to be a part of such networks.
Billions of people live on this planet. Therefore, every shooting star is appreciated by someone, somewhere. If you think you aren’t, I want you to know that if you are reading this, I appreciate your existence. You matter as much as I do (may be even more!)
Image credits: @krisroller (Unsplash)
I want to end this piece with a question for you.
Robert Emmons, in his book Thanks! discusses that individuals with depression showed less symptoms after undergoing a gratitude intervention, i.e. thinking and reflecting on what they are grateful for, over a period of time. He says that gratitude allows for attentional shift from the self to the other.
What are your thoughts about this?
Being a Speck of Dust
I am a droplet in the ocean. I am a speck of dust. I am one among 7 billion. And yet nature holds me in her arms. She caresses me like her only child. She adores me like the only moon that the Earth has. She makes me feel at home in a crowd.
Oh wait, aren’t we following social distancing norms?
We have been seeing days that we may have never seen in our lives. This has forced us to adapt to a new way of living. Some of us found comforting hands, while some lost touch with reality. Some of us discovered our heart’s calling, while some created art with their hands. For some of us, family provided a safe space, while for some, members of the house were draining out every drop of energy. We faced new reality. We encountered new challenges. We saw the different faces of humans.
But nature, she showed us what she was forced to hide all these years. Wondering what forced nature? Everything that we call ‘development’. We pushed nature to the periphery. We forgot that we ourselves are creations of nature and share a bond that is stronger than any relationship primarily with nature.
The months we were holed up in the house, we noticed nature. Be it the increasing sound of pigeons or some bird which you have never spotted before. For some, it was seeing a flower bloom for the first time ever or in many years, while for some, noticing a rainbow in the unexpected summer showers.
Countries are opening up, economic activities are limping back. I wonder how many are, again, going to be conscious of nature that is around them or maybe within them?
This period helped me grow inward and recognize my connection with nature. It has been an experience of connecting with something larger than the self. Existentialists would call this a spiritual experience. The spiritual dimension is one that focuses on meaning, faith, and a connection of humans in a cosmic context. It involves looking at this larger than human feature by being human.
That’s too wordy, isn’t it?
Basically I understood that being a speck in the galaxy is important, because nature is embodying herself through me; that as much as I am a part of a system called nature, I also make an important component through which the system (nature) can be seen.
And that’s why, however tiny you are, you are never insignificant.
Under the Shining Sky
In your embrace,
I find the world
Staring back at us.
Should I say, through us?
‘Cause we are invisible.
We are within one another
Showing each other the world
The world that resides within us.
Every rise and fall of your breath is like waves that hit the shore and go back. I know they’d come back and enchant me like they did the first instance.
As you trace the skin over my body, I feel the passion that engulfs you. You immerse yourself in me like I were the mountains and deserts you traversed.
All through, I look into your eyes. They reflect back the extraneous treks you have taken to scale the tallest of the mountains. In them, I see the waterfalls, pouring itself into the abyss. The abyss within your eyes show me the pristine water that is home to hundreds of little lives. The memories we had created years ago lay there untouched but preserved.
And now, this moment, we lay on a bed of grass creating memories under the shining sky, rekindling the burning spirit that keep us going strong. This moment will stay, like million others, each unique in its way.
- Photo Credits: Ajinkya Bhonde
Follow his work on Instagram (@xtermist). This person is a lovely photographer and an even more amazing friend. 🙂
She falls in love…
The day starts out peacefully. The winds are blowing. Sparse clouds decorate the blue.
The day has signs of a possible shower.
It turns out to be completely normal until evening.
As evening sets in, so do the clouds. Grated droplets of water fall from the sky. The dust in the atmosphere settles down. The leaves appear greener. Stray animals run to take shelter under parked cars or any place that is dry and comfortable.
Through the rains, holding a blue tinted umbrella, walks a girl. Handling her bag and umbrella, she walks across puddles of water and continues on her path. With every step that she takes, the sheets of rain become thicker. There comes sudden hurriedness in her demeanor. She ignores what’s around her and starts moving faster. That is when the breeze flows in, making her hair fly and also touches her lovely face.
The wind, that she loves, had paired up with the rains! So does she hate the liquid sunshine? Well, no. In actuality, she did not know the true charm of the heavenly showers. But now she smells the essence of beauty in the monsoon winds.
She calms down and stops on her path. She closes her eyes, and her umbrella, and looks up towards the sky, allowing the free flow of water hit her face. Sensing the tenderness of tiny droplets, she lets herself out. She starts crying out of joy. She, a person who always felt a disgust towards the rains, becomes a lover of the sunshine shower!
Joy, happiness, excitement combine together and makes her dance in the rain, forgetting everything about her surroundings.
She finds a sense of satisfaction. She discovers the underlying beauty of the showers.
And.. She falls in love with monsoon!
The Right Time?
Walking down the street, I stare at the sky and ask the clouds, “When will you rain?”
The clouds echoed, “Let the right time come.”
And that is when I realize that the world has learnt this trait from the clouds.
Why do people say that the right time is yet to come? Do they wish to avoid you? Or is it just to procrastinate? And most importantly, when will ‘The right time’ come?
There is no answer I could possibly give. But each day I keep hoping that people would start telling and doing things right away, and not at ‘the right time’.
You never know if you would be alive the next day or for that matter, the next moment. The world is unpredictable. And here you are being said that you must wait if you want an answer.
As the quote goes, ‘Time and Tide waits for none’, one must realize that time is short. Live your life to the fullest now. And do things right away. The right time never comes. It is we ourselves who make the time right by making the best use of it.
We humans don’t need to follow the trend that nature has set, of waiting for the right time.
‘JUST DO IT’- NIKE
Do share the post right away and not when ‘the right time’ comes!
Patterns in Life
Just observe your surrounding and you will find interesting patterns everywhere. Up there in the sky, the clouds form such patterns that you continue to look at it. Discover the beauty of life!
Stories of Moments 