A lovely day

Yet another bad hair day, I told myself this morning as I tried my best to press down an unruly mop of hair on my head that stuck out like a bunch of overgrown weeds on a neatly mowed lawn. The zit on my nose right between my eyes seemed to have gotten bigger overnight. Pushing thirty and still having problems with zits, that’s not really comforting. The traffic was a monster on my way to work and the weather was bad with overcast skies and a gloomy atmosphere. All in all, it looked like another terrible workday that I would have to pull myself through. The morning went by, dull and drab.

And then the clock struck three.

A bus load of kids came over to our office. Today was the day when we had arranged a fun event for underprivileged kids. We had gotten in touch with an NGO called Global Concerns India who sponsor the education of children of people with low income. We wanted to have the kids over at our office for an afternoon get together so that they can get a feel of the corporate world and hopefully be inspired to work towards a better education for themselves. But more importantly, we wanted them to have fun.

So over the next three hours, we had them eating their snacks and mingling with a lot of us, asking questions, singing, dancing and in general having a blast. We had organized a one hour magic show which was a big hit with not just the kids but also with the employees. After all, who does not like magic ?.

At the end, we gave each of them a small gift consisting a school bag and some stationery to help them in their studies. As the kids left the office premises, I could not help feeling a surreal sense of satisfaction on a day well spent.

The zit is still there and my hair still refuses to get back in place as I pack up to leave for home and I don’t care because today has been a lovely day.

Looking Within

The winds of religious rhetoric have begun to pick up speed again in the subcontinent. Be it the Taslima Nasreen witch hunt or the Gujarat pre-election campaigning where Modi is going all out with his Hindutva babble, religion is again in focus for all the wrong reasons.

I cannot help but wonder if our Gods up there are having a good laugh at all this insanity.

The Jews await their Messiah, the Christians the second coming, the Hindus anticipate their Kalki and the Muslims their twelfth Imam - Al Mahdi while the Buddhists await their Maitreya. Even the cargo cultists want their John Frum back.

And while the Gods confabulate on whose turn it is to descend into this mortal world, we can in the meantime go for each other’s jugular.

The idea of God’s descent on earth scares me. Not because it may happen soon but more because it may have already happened and it did not make a difference. We were too busy upholding religion to notice God. Or maybe just maybe the Gods may want us to sort out the mess we created before even contemplating on another visit down here.

One of the more mysterious verses in the Vedas is the verse “Tat Tvam Asi” (Thou Art That). This verse has been a source of many an epiphany for me.

What is ‘That’ and what does ‘I am That’ even mean ?. More I think about this, more I have come to believe that there is no ‘That’, ‘That’ can be anything we want it to be. And what we want it to be is what defines us.

If you want to see Peace around you, you be the peace, if you want to see Love, you be the Love and if you want to see War, you be the War.

There is a beautiful saying (some attribute it to the Talmud) “We don’t see things as they are but we see them as we are”.

I guess we all spend our lives trying to find our ‘That’ while it remains within us all the time. We have a choice to make, whether the ‘That’ we choose, builds hearts and minds or destroys life and destroys the spirit. Apocalypse and Nirvana both lie within, we just have to make the call.

The Gods may never come down. For they know they have bequeathed upon us the most powerful gift of them all, the power of choice.

And what we choose is what we will become……

We still have a long way to go

So what I suspected for a long time has finally been proved by Science that chimpanzees are smarter than you and me.

http://deccanherald.com/Content/Dec52007/foreign2007120539491.asp

For a keen observer of the human race, this should come as no surprise. I can think of a few reasons why

1. So how many world wars do you know that were started by chimps ?. We have two on our side and maybe if we try a little harder, we can muster enough dumbness for one more.

2. The last time I checked, the chimps still had no clue about religion.

3. All they do is eat, sleep, poop and make babies in between. We do the same too but squeeze in time for killing, polluting, abusing and discriminating just for kicks.

4. George W Bush

So can you think of any more reasons ?. And while you think, let me go get myself a banana

An affair to remember

One of my longest relationships came to an end this weekend. It was heartbreaking to say the least. But I had to do it, the holes on my t-shirt became so big that a freight train could pass through them. And it was with great difficulty that I brought myself to discard it.

I am sure all of you have one such wardrobe jewel that you simply cannot part with. This t-shirt was with me for 9 long years and has served in various capacities like sometimes doubling up as a towel to dry my hands with and sometimes to wipe the table when I got too lazy to find a table cloth and all this (and I am not proud of this) while being an active t-shirt on me (Oh, shut up and stop wincing, as if you never did it !!). But still, in spite of its multipurpose existence it barely showed any signs of aging at all except for some stubborn stains that came with all the wiping.

Going out into the neighbourhood with this piece of clothing on was a real test of bravery. I would catch people staring at me probably wondering if they should toss a coin towards me. But fashion gurus don’t get turned off by petty distractions because we fashion gurus are always on the lookout for new ways of publicly embarrassing ourselves…or as we call it….making new style statements. So I bear no ill feelings toward any of those people with a diminished sense of fashion but I do ask them that they at least have the decency to not point at me when laughing their guts out.

Anyway, over the past few months, the t-shirt finally started giving way. A tiny hole first made its appearance by strategically locating itself right in the midriff area. And then it brought its friends along, so all at once, there were so many of them that it was like they were having a college reunion. And every time I wore my tee, a few of them would come together to form a bigger hole, and before I knew it, it was ‘Holes Incorporated’.

When you have more hole than cloth, it is a clear indication that it’s time for you to say goodbye. So after a few moments of ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ talk with my tee, I threw it into the dumpster.

Wait a minute, I have a better idea. All I need to do is become immensely popular (because you will tell your friends about this blog who will then tell their friends) and then put my t-shirt for sale on E-bay. When a chewed up gum by Britney Spears can get big bucks, I am sure my tee can do well too.

Then again maybe not since Britney had a lot of other antics going for her that I not even dare try.