Rest in peace

If you have a soul, it has to rest in peace. Does it matter if it has to be after you are dead? NO. Rather, it should be more when we are alive. Once we are dead, who cares about soul and mind and life and brain! It's more dramatic when we are breathing. Isn't it?

Absolutely. We all know how life is. People use various adverbs and adjectives to describe Life. It's abstract. We don't know what is in store for us. The only thing we need to get right is our soul needs rest. Soul is not your heart or brain, it's more of you. Your inner self. 

We are battling constantly with our inner self. The battle gets toughest when it is Inner I vs. Outer I. We tend to wear a mask of outer I to conceal our inner feelings, which we believe will be harsh for someone to take. We try to camouflage, tidy up, decorate, polish, or even be diplomatic to make sure we don't hurt someone. But, while we are doing this what happens to our inner selves? We try to sabotage our views, our perspectives, our original dialogues, which were actually our first choice. 

Just as our body is made up of mass, bones, nerves, and blood, what is our inner self made up of? It is made up of a reservoir full of emotions and original could-have-been first reactions. This reservoir has doors. What happens when this reservoir gets full?

Yes. The doors open. If they don't open, the reservoir bursts. Exactly as it happens at the time of monsoon or heavy floods. 

What's the solution? We have to keep emptying the reservoir based on situations. Yes, the chances are someone may be hurt as you drain. But, then that damage is survivable than the ad hoc bursting. Isn't it? People being affected may make you go through hell as you drain, you may get some degrees of "Being Selfish", "Being Rude", "Being inhuman"... But is that true? 

Do these people not empty their reservoirs? Do we really decorate them with these certificates? Not really. We absorb the drain and let them vent. 

If there is something that I could ever tell my life is: Oh Life, don't be so hard on us. We may not even enter your life again and again. (Original was in Gujarati: Ey Zindagi, aatli kathor pan na ban. Amey kya taari zindagi maa varamvaar aavana chhiye)

May my soul rest in peace!

Broken, loose earphones!

Traveling seems almost difficult without a pair of earphones. Day when you can't reach out for few of your regular I-can't-live-without things, you tend to freak out. Few such things (keeping aside the necessity such as wallet and cell phone) are: watch, lipstick, rubber band, sanitizer, moisturizer, and ear phones (in no particular order).

One such evening, traveling back home, I boarded an airtight-packed train. I reached out for my ear phones as usual. Came out of my purse were two strings of black wires, which were way more tangled than my early morning loose hair. When detangled, they pulled apart to the core, which was the 3.5mm jack insert. My traditional earphones appeared way more lousy than me on a Saturday morning! I wondered if I'll have to go through a boring ride! Now what?

A fraction of a second, and my innerself told me two things. A) I'm going to plug this in and check if it works. Even if one of them works, I'll be happy. B) If it doesn't work, for a change, I'm going to look around the sunset in a concrete jungle.

I started with A. Without panicking, without reluctance, without doubt, or without worries, I implemented A. I plugged them, tested it with a song, and bammm! They worked! Perfect sound with all those whatsoever bass-tremble-sound effects :)

As a self-made promise, I started looking around sunset too. Then, I tweaked the promise a bit and began writing this article!

With some soothing music, sunset, boarded on a train, writing this article, what did I learn?

I learnt that things are not as bad as they appear. Situations are not as uncontrolled as they appear. People are not as devil as they appear (well few are :)) Sometimes, life throws unexpected errors! Unexplained facts! Undesired choices! We are expected to live through all these! The more we panic, the more difficult it will be!

Nobody told us world is going to be a smooth ride! People whom we meet are always those whom we wanted to meet! Situations will be made-to-order! No. Nobody promised us our life will be a simple prince-princess fairytale.

Real life is exactly like this pair of loose ear phones! You work through it to win!

Happy as sun shine! Happy as a chirping bird! Happy as a wave in sea! Happy as moonlight!

Most of us become metaphorical when we see nature! We want to be one of them. We want to be someone like them!

I love the first ray of sun. It's pure. Golden! Vibrant and energetic. Motivates us to wake up, go past past, and make your day.

Then comes the lovely tiny chirping creatures! They just fill your ears with joy. Their nonstop chirping makes you feel you are not alone on this earth! You are accompanied by these birds who would soon fly away. Yet, they make you feel they are with you forever.

Even though, I haven't lived at sea shores or cities with beautiful beaches, I have still experienced the free flowing nature of waves in the sea. The sound they make, the pleasure of them touching your feet, when they make you feel they have waved across the ocean just for you - This is awesome!

The moonlight! When the light emits from moon, it's way whiter than any tube light. So many times, I have experienced the moonlight flowing through my bedroom window. As night sets in quietly, the pollution fades away and gives way to the moonlight, especially on the full moon day. This is one light that accelerates my sleep. I love the ambiance on any full moon night.

When we come across these natural occurrences, we want to be one of them. We want to feel what it is like to be one of these! These are the natural sources of happiness for me.

For some, these can soon turn into a scorching heat, a headache, unwanted wetness, and a disturbance in their sleep!

Hence, happiness has different definition for each of us.

Abstract Nouns

You are everything to someone. And, at the same time, you are nothing to someone else. For few, you are their world. And, for few, you don't even exist. Have you ever felt this at any stage of your life?

I have. Many times. Every time I've felt something like this, I've tried to put up a way stronger face than I can ever imagine.

Many times we beg to be understood. We want our presence or absence to be felt. But, it doesn't work that way. Our gestures are misread. Our humor is misunderstood. Our presence is ignored. Our absence is overlooked. Is there anything we are doing wrong? Are we expecting too much? Maybe, yes.

In my school, I learned something called 'Abstract Noun'. It means, something that can only be felt and not seen or touched. When I studied further, I realized, the meaning is not limited to 'not seen/touched', but it can also not be measured in terms of unit. Today, after being a student of one of the biggest institution, I realize how deep the meaning of abstract noun is.

Love, care, sympathy, honesty, affection, gratitude, are all such real time examples of abstract nouns. These are neither felt nor touched/seen! Maybe, it's time schools change the definition of what abstract nouns are all about.

Adjusting with absence

Everybody is destined to meet. Whoever you meet in the course of life was/is supposed to meet. The reason, the duration, the way they entered in your life, and the way the exited from your life - everything is already planned and destined. I believe, everything is replaceable. There is nothing in the world except few relationships that cannot be replaced. You may not find an exact match/replacement, but shall surely adjust easily.

The most number of people we meet is at work. Your professional journey has the highest number of footprints. Out of these, few leave their golden footprints on the sands of time! Just like you, I have also met a lot of people in my professional career. I have worked with many companies before I joined this company back in November 2008. However, this journey has been the longest so far. 6 years-and-still-going is not a small period. I've put down my papers and now I'm only few more days away to be an ex-employee!

In this course of time, I have made some really very-very good friends, which I never thought I'll ever get so close to them. Veena and Hetal have been really very close to me at work. Hetal is away on her maternity leave past 6 months, so it's mostly Veena and I that keep each other's company. When I disclosed my resignation news to Veena, her reaction was silent yet very loud. It contained eyes full of tears and a huge question mark on her face that kept asking "Why did you resign when you actually need the job". More than the need to know the reason behind resignation, her eyes conveyed the empty space that she'll soon have after I'll be gone. A reaction of you-are-not-replaceable really makes you feel you are very special and make you believe that there are still some people in this world who thinks your presence is needed in their life. 

However, it's a reaction that will phase out with time. When I will not be seen in the office, the reaction will subside. She'll adjust with my absence automatically. Of course, this no way means that she'll forget me or not remember me, but it only means that sometimes our reactions force us to be unhappy. And, it's very natural.

Before I met her, I too had a lot of friends with whom I used to spend time at work. When they left the organisation, I had reacted almost in a similar way. But then they were soon replaced by some other people, and those some other people were soon replaced by Veena and Hetal, and vice-versa!

What works here is the simple concept of 'Out of sight, out of mind'. When you stop seeing a person for a while, the image starts fading automatically. This doesn't mean that person no longer is your friend or not being remembered by you. It's only the adjustment that occurs in the background without your knowledge.

When you learn different ways of accepting changes, you explore the more-of-you. You know your capacity and that takes you very far. People walk in and walk out of our lives, regardless with or without knowledge. And, every time such thing occurs, you react, and then you adjust. And, it makes you more stronger.

*****     *****     *****

Veena, Hetal, if it's going to be hard for you, it's going to be harder for me. The time spent at breakfast, lunch, and snacks, will always be cherished. The pings on Skype will always be missed. Making faces whenever Veena ends up asking clarification on the simplest communication, will always bring smile on my face. And, the first time when Veena showed us the multi-touch feature of her Samsung Galaxy phone will make me laugh loud! Those knowledge-sharing-sessions on parenting will always make me feel that I'm older than you :) :)