Today is Someone's Birthday

Today it’s the 30th of June, 2018. We still laugh, play, run, fall, enjoy and make mistakes; the one extra added element is seriousness. You know how they say, any single ingredient added to a recipe can make a great dish poor yet a poor dish great. Such is the impact of seriousness, the only difference is that this element forces out space reserved for the positively happening emotions and actions in our lives.

It was the month of May 2008, not many people visit super sunny and raging hot beaches in India, but there I was right; young, wild and free; me and a very dear friend, Mojo. While Mojo's parents made love, we were busy chasing each other barefoot on the streets of a secluded land with vibrant palm trees on either side of us and grasslands behind them, seems beautiful when I think about it today you know. Back then we were too young to bother about and appreciate beauty, we found happiness and joy in the smallest of things. Serious talk was like banter. Imagine running on heated rugged cement roads, scorched by the powerful rays of the summer sun, slippers were torn on one foot, hopping with the other trying to catch Mojo.

This is precisely where we played

That brat was running around with my haversack, taking away all my chips and chocolates. What was astonishing was I did not have to catch him on one leg, I could use both, but the ground was so hot and my sandal was in shatters so you know I was kind of forced to. Despite this entire struggle for me, I chased him with thorough laughter, sweat dripping down my soft childish skin, a tone of complete freedom and an anonymous love for life followed the vibe as I went on with the venture of saving my munchies.

You see, I wasn't serious at all, my brain had not perceived the situation with frustration as I would today. This is the beauty of life; simple relations complicated on a very intricate level, the whole relation tree unfold as time passes. You come to terms with memories; you smile at random times with no hint that you are smiling. Time has passed, it’s been little over a decade but I yet feel that day just like that day. My point is, don’t be so serious, you have not after all ventured upon earth to grunt about and do your job. 

Run boy Run, this world is bad for you.

Accept: that you cannot deny

Laugh: that you cannot be serious,

Live: like you will never die for when the time comes, you will know that All is one, yet one is all.

In this time of the world, a stranger seldom smiles at another stranger, neither at the homeless. People have become so serious that the fun elements of life are being replaced with the dull ones. What if, just what if you lose all your loved ones or you move to a land where everyone is unknown to you and then in the midst of all the monotony of loneliness one person smiles at you, or a sparrow sits on your shoulder, a homeless offers you a joke, a child shares his/her chocolate, an aged human blesses you, or a little baby wobbles on your little finger like your finger is his mothers.

You can find solace anytime, anywhere, anyhow.

That's a complete cycle, everything comes back to the start, you were happy once, now you are lonely, but the forces of nature and of love are again showing you that there is happiness even in loneliness. Imagine that every ingredient on this planet has every ingredient on this planet present in it. Collectivism is my conclusion. One is all, yet All is one friends. 

Kudos to the 30th of June, 2018.

-Goa, India

Amidst the Mist

You know, tractable as we are, living in the city, advocating ourselves day to day because that’s the apparent plan. Getting away from this fixed unsynced time table is something we all crave. An ambivert would always be conscious of this thought but yet seldom would he take the correct steps in order to free his mind and heart from this wrecked social world. Blessedly, Travelling and philosophizing are the only two things in my world that give me an unfathomable sense of satisfaction and happiness. I believe my actions and decisions are doing justice to the forces of the universe and this is the epitome of all I ever sought.

Nature resides here, you are welcomed

A few days ago, I decided to embark on one purposefully misleading trek to a nearby mountain. No phones and torches, meaning no artificial form of light. I intentionally carried one matchbox for a feeling of slight carbon warmth when I needed to turn back to 'Reality'. I wanted to turn myself in, get in the midst of all the untouched nature and lose myself, wishing to stay in the company of the ones who don't move, they just breathe and provide us with the necessary elements to breathe. From morning to night, just me, the greenery and the gazillions of insects I could hear but not see, felt weird you know, I could move freely, hear my own breath, see butterflies in a bunch of lustrous color combinations as they would settle on my shoulder as I passed. After all, we know "all is one for one is all".

After a stormy summit and an attempted pacy walk back to the base, Darkness struck in, this is when I knew the discomfort that I was here for has struck. Gradually we lost our way and eventually, we were not even on a trail; we were forcing our way through thick bushes. Trust me friends, two hours of wandering with fear tingling within me was revealing enough, wondering would I have to stay the night in this beauty but beasty land with not one ray of light. Moment by moment, my belief was plummeting. Look at me, being all shaken and praying to the powers above. Now even if I unintentionally touched a leaf I'd wonder was it my past bad deeds telling me that they aren't leaving or was this nature’s way of guiding me deeper into the discomfort I came looking for. Man, I settled for once right where I was, my shivering hands got into my pockets and got a match out, I struck it, and boom, a groovy vertical wave of flame asymmetrically bloomed of the stick with a little extra carbon smoke waver into the darkness and I saw my hands on which on a drop of water lay, my face's reflection in it. Bamboozled did I look, not one bit of understanding of the world on my face, but I saw who I am, even in the darkness. You know what my dear friends, I felt something within me, goosebumps crept in and my legs and hands twitched, my beard felt rigid and strangely erect.

Conquer while you can

That's when I figured about oneness again, everything was so contrasting, after such an eventful day a simple light of a match made me feel one with the forest, the land and the daily life that I left behind for a while. Vibes started pouring in all around, rainfall struck and I felt safe. Krr-krrr, Choo- Pakiyaaa, Tu-Doo-Do-Do-Do, all life around me rose like a Blue Whale, I felt so good and so peaceful and loved existence so much then, I believed in "Tears in Heaven" and "Coming back to life". You see once again friends, nothing is hard, you never need to run or stay, you never need to explode or implode, the two sides of a coin are a myth, it’s all one, there are no two sides, its collectivity everywhere, you-me-him, land-fire-water. A broad mind will make you comfortable with my aspect of loving discomfort.

- Shillong, Meghalaya, North-East India.