I Do Not Know What to Write

From past half an hour, I have opened this “Add New Post” on my dashboard and I did nothing but just stared at the page thinking about what should I write about today. It’s not like I’m out of ideas or full of too many ideas. But I just can’t decide on one thing. But why is that. Well there can be several reasons:

1. I am not focussed on this one task of blogging right now (too many things going in my mind), or
2. I don’t feel like putting up much time today on writing since I have already wasted 30 minutes on thinking, or
3. I really don’t want to write today because I’m feeling lazy, or
4.  It rained here today after almost 45 days, and it brought me such a great feeling and excitement that I want to just have fun. I have made my mind to watch a movie instead. This seems to be the right reason… Yeah.

So that’s it for today.. Going to decide which movie to watch.

But I still have something new to share:

 

A storm passed by today. Dusty winds + Rain afterwards

Calm and chills after it ended.

Goodbye for now

PS: Well, I did end up writing something, didn’t I?  :D

 

Cheers! Spring is Here.

Winters are on their way back and spring has arrived along with its paraphernalia – colors, flowers, captivating butterflies never seen before, greenery everywhere… Oh what a beautiful sight.

Every season has a lot to offer. And I appreciate all of them. So many memories associated with each one of them, and so many more memories to create…

There are several other reasons which makes me like this season. It is neither too cold nor too hot. People come out of their cozy homes and prefer to walk around. There are many more smiles and happy faces. Well, that really makes my day, a smile, or better, a lot many smiles.

And as they say it - Spring is seen as a time of growth, renewal, of new life (both plant and animal) being born. Cheers to new life!

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February is the month of spring. In India, there are two festivals associated with this season. Vasant Panchami and Holi (the festival of colors and fun!). Both are yet to come.

These days, while walking with friends, I often hear “Hey! look at those flowers..”, “Wow! I love flowers”. Well most of the times they sound like as if they are realizing this for the first time. . One of my friends also acknowledged his love for this season/month some days back. Here is what he said: 5 Reasons I Like February.

Who doesn’t love it? Surely everyone. Nature in its best form!

Happy Spring!

Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life.  And everyone deserves a little sunshine.  ~Jeffrey Glassberg

P.S.: Pictures in the slideshow were clicked by me during the past week in the CEERI gardens.

Caught Them! Finally.

Birds, as per my experience, are always difficult to capture on a camera until and unless you are into the profession of photography because then you can give all of your time to it, waiting for the right moment. But that’s not the case with me… I’m not a photographer, at least not by profession.

Some time back, I tried for days.. to catch a flock of birds on my mobile camera (Yes, it was real good back then, a Cybershot!). But, sadly never succeeded. Either they all would scatter around before I could even hit the click button on my mobile camera or the show will be over in seconds before me realizing “Oh, I had to click that!”. And what would I be left with? Just a picture in my mind. Not bad though, but that’s not the idea.

So one day when I and my sister were out enjoying the weather noticed the birds flying, sitting, flying. She then, better than me for sure, captured them very nicely. Really fast and in a great way!

Aaah!…caught them finally! Thanks to my sissy… Mehak. Miss you.

What Kept My Mind Preoccupied All Day Long

Sometimes you want a thing, and then you want it badly. This is one of those times. Around a month ago, I read one article by Michael Shermer in the Scientific American magazine (forgot which edition). I liked it very much. It was quite intriguing. Don’t worry, it wasn’t some science article . Well, it somehow reflected my thoughts (in some ways). I researched about the author of the article on Google and found out that he has written a book on the same topic. The book is : “How We Believe”. Its second edition is also out now. And since I want to read it, I need that book. I searched for its e-book version but couldn’t find any. And there are no nice bookstores nearby, so can’t even buy it. Sigh. Guess I’ll have to wait more. I thought about it for almost whole of the day… and also on when and how to buy. Though nothing planned as such.

But, I have to read it!! OMG, I’m actually obsessed with this idea now.  :D

For more info: http://www.michaelshermer.com/how-we-believe/

P.S. How great would it be if someone could gift me this book ;) And also, I do believe in God. No doubts in that.

Here Comes the Sun

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”
~George Washington Carver

Sunrise offers some of the brilliant combinations of constantly changing colors. Rarely any two sunrises are the same. I won’t say much here, let the pictures speak!

Dead and Blooming

Winter time, time when you can’t wait to go out in the sun…, and when you do not want clouds in the sky at all. Well if not you, I really want to soak myself up with heat. And so these days, I just cannot wait for the tea/coffee break, when I get a chance to stand on the green grass and drink a cup of tea under the sun. What a wonderful quiet half an hour of the day.

While I’m standing and drinking tea, I out of my habit start observing around. The flowers, the trees, the birds, and sometimes just the emptiness.

Here is the thing which captures my attention most of the times - A dead plant and just in its vicinity the beautiful flowers. Two different views of life at the same time and place..

My Day Today- Just like any other day :)

There was not much work in the laboratory today, and somehow, I did not want to sit and study in the library for the whole time, so thought of  just looking around. There is a lot to observe if you really want to. Honestly, I do this all the time, but today was a little different. Don’t know why . So I walked in the sun in the afternoon, looked at the birds chirping and flying together in the evening, and captured few moments. Today was just as usual as other days, but still special.

Not just nature, I tried photography on myself too. Just putting it here for fun!

Some of the pictures…:

A Decade Over, a Decade Begins

“O my God,” I said to myself out loud, smiling, when I woke up on 1st January, 2011, “today is the first day of another year! and I’m alive.” Then I thought today is also the beginning of a whole new decade. “Decade” … that sounds huge. … Of course it is huge, it contains ten years, a huge chunk of my entire life. And just when my mind started thinking about the uncertain i.e. about the future ten years of my life, it suddenly chose to think the other way. The past decade of my life. Well… that is quite explicable, since thinking about past is easy since it the past, things which have already happened. And in no more than a second, my mind was full of flashes from my past, this thought, that thought. Flood of images, of moments of laughter and tears, all of them all together.

“Stop!” I told myself. It was 7.30 in the morning, and since I was late to get up (I had decided the last night to wake up early), I had to finish some of the urgent things so that I do not run out of time later. I pushed all the thoughts aside and decided to consider them sometime later that day. After all, the year has just begun!… Show has just started And my memories, well.. they are not going anywhere.

Later that day, I sat down to ponder about the time I spent (or “lived” is a better word to use)  during past ten years. Did I live it right? Or have I really “lived” in those years of my life in a living-sense-of-a-way?

Thinking about the past, really? It’s a bad idea as most people would say. But I say, consider the idea again. I do not think it is a bad idea. Dreading about the bad times is not what I’m suggesting when I ask you to consider to look back through the window of your mind into your past. Give yourself and your life some respect. Everyone has some good and bad times in their lives. One needs to appreciate their life, including all the good things and the difficult times they had to face. Also, include your mistakes. They made you realize you are just a human being, and the most you can make out of them is to learn from them. Forgive all those who left you hurt in some way or the other. I know, not an easy thing to do for most of you out there. But give it a try. It will be easy once you start. And for one thing I’m sure of, most of them are not even in your life now. So forgive. Take that burden out of your shoulders now. Not now then when? On your death-bed? (If you are lucky enough to get there. Mostly, and it is a sad fact, that people die before they realize it). And above all, be grateful to God for everyone and everything in your life.

Well back to myself, I then started recollecting all the events which changed my life in the past ten years. The number of events is difficult to remember, but surely they all were significant. Most of them happened because of the choices I made, and some were not in my hands. They just happened. And all those events shaped my present. And may be that’s why I am able to write in my blog… since one day I made a decision to start a blog and now I’m here. And same goes for the other things in my life.

And now, I am happy that I can say it and I’m gonna say it :

“I’ve truly (may be not fully) “lived” my life in the past decade. Or at least I have tried to. Let me say it like this: I made some tough decisions and made sure that I do not waver, although so many situations came which made me realize that I might be wrong. Thank you Mom and Dad for believing in me, without you I never would have reached till here. What I’m today is because of you two, because you were always there for me. Thank you my sister for being my best friend in this whole world. You are the three most important people in my life. I pray to God that in coming years I can spend time with you as much as I can. Thanks to my friends who were there for me when I needed them. I hope I was there for you too. Thanks to all those people who were rude to me because they made me realize that I should not behave that way to anyone. Thank you God for making me strong enough to handle difficult situations, and helping me in letting go of people I loved when that was the right thing to do. It is always a tough thing to do, but eventually I did succeed. Thank you God for letting me live, for being aware of my thoughts and deeds. I will definitely try to do this more, to live fully, to live for others too… To LIVE more, to do it right…”

God Bless this World.

Happy New Year everyone.

Smile! You are luckier than others out there.

 

 

“I know this love of mine will never die…”

New Year- once again- There are Places I Remember

There are places I’ll remember
all my life, though some have changed.
Some forever, not for better;
some have gone and some remain.

All these places had their moments
with lovers and friends I still can recall.
Some are dead and some are living,
in my life I’ve loved them all.

But of all these friends and lovers
there is no one compares with you.
And these mem’ries lose their meaning
when I think of love as something new.

Tho’ I know I’ll never lose affection
for people and things that went before,
I know I’ll often stop and think about them,
in my life I love you more.

Tho’ I know I’ll never lose affection
for people and things that went before,
I know I’ll often stop and think about them,
in my life I love you more.

In my life I love you more.

Source: The Beatles

Prayers and Rituals

Every religion has rituals associated with it, esp, Hinduism. They have been followed and performed by religious people for hunderds of years. They are considered as ways to show God our love and prayers. Many of the rituals have been continuously modified among generations. I was brought up in a very religious family. But now being a science person too, I have observed that these rituals are more of some RULES than being simple prayers. I mean people get tensed and scared if they don’t follow them, thinking that God will get angry and will not listen to their prayers and will punish them. I am not strictly against rituals, I respect them, but honestly, I don’t follow them on daily basis (I have my own rituals ). What people have forgotten is that our “deeds” are our prayers to God and not those rituals. People visit temples, mosques, gurudwaras,… do bhajan-kirtans, etc, but are not even conscious of how they behave with other people. Prayers should be spontaneuos.

Here is one article which so beautifully describes what I need and want to say:

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A Spontaneous Love
(Talk: Osho)

Iam against rituals, but that does not mean that a religious person cannot go into a ritual. But when a religious person goes into a ritual, it is not a ritual at all. His heart is in it; then his words have wings. I am against the ritual when there is no heart in it.

Here’s a story about Moses. He was passing through a forest. He saw a man praying. But the man who was praying was saying such absurd things that he could not go further. He had to stop the man. What he was saying was profane, sacrilegious. He was saying: “God, you must be feeling sometimes very alone – i can come and be always with you like a shadow. I will give you a good bath. I am a shepherd. And i will take all the lice from your hair and your body…”     Lice? Moses could not believe his ears: “What is he talking about?”     Moses stopped him and said, “Listen! What kind of prayer is this? What are you doing? To whom are you talking? Lice in God’s hair? He needs a bath? And you are saying ‘I will rub your body and make it absolutely clean’? Stop this nonsense. This is not prayer. God will be offended by you.”     Looking at Moses, the man fell at his feet. He said, “I am sorry. I am an illiterate, ignorant man. I don’t know how to pray. Please, you teach me!”     So Moses taught him the right way to pray, and he was very happy because he had put a man on the right track. Happy, puffed up in his ego, Moses went away.     And when he was alone in the forest, a thundering voice came from the sky and said, “Moses, I have sent you into the world to bring people to me, to bridge people with me, but not to take my lovers away from me. And that’s exactly what you have done. That man is one of the most intimate to me. Go back! Apologise. Take your prayer back! You have destroyed the whole beauty of his dialogue. His love is true. Whatsoever he was saying, he was saying from his heart. It was not a ritual. Now what you have given to him is just a ritual. He will repeat it but it will be only on the lips; it will not be out of his being.”

Don’t learn empty gestures. Let your gestures be alive, spontaneous. Otherwise, deep down you know that this is a ritual, deep down you know that this is just a formality you are performing. And if that is your feeling inside, what is the point of going into it?

I am against rituals because they have killed the spirit of religion in the world. But I am not saying don’t pray, but let the prayer arise. Let it be of your own. Don’t repeat it parrot-like. I am not against rules, but the rules should arise out of your understanding. They should not be imposed from the outside. I am not against discipline, but discipline should not be slavery. All true discipline is selfdiscipline. Only disciplined people become free, but their discipline is obedience to their own inner voice. Let your own awareness decide your lifestyle, life-pattern. Don’t allow anybody else to decide it. If you do, your life will remain superficial, it will be hypocrisy.
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Rituals are man-made, while God is in FAITH, LOVE, GOODNESS, and HOPE.

Keep loving!