~ Reflections ~

We spend a majority of our day at work... come home tired.. and eventually fall asleep... In today's materialistic world, the few precious moments one can spend with their family is at the breakfast/dinner table... You might think that this is an old fashioned thought.. I mean who eats at the dining table nowadays. Isn't it better utilization of time to watch TV side-by-side.. The dining table is the only opportunity for the family to sit together and talk, mostly the mundane activities of the day, and effectively stay in touch with each other. We might be living under the same roof, but may not have a clue about the other persons life.  And so.... I strongly believe that a  Family which eats together, stays together . Which is why the Coca Cola campaign, Khanna to hai bahaana makes good sense to me :)

We all find different ways to pay back to the society (and by that, I am not referring to Income Tax :)) Some like cleaning the neighbourhood.. some of us work for NGOs... the rest of us just ease our conscience by donating to a cause... In an effort to the same, I found a very interesting initiative online.... Microfinance, at a truly micro level, and for the people that matter... http://www.rangde.org/

We are all like inspectors... inspecting our own lives.. trying to figure out what it has doled out to us...  and more often than not, trying to find out what we've missed... And then the spiral starts... about the What If .. What if I worked somewhere else.. spoke differently... lived somewhere else... sometimes the what ifs spiral down to even more trivial issues... which eventually leads to cribbing about life.. What we often miss is.. what if we didn't have what we already do... would we even have the luxury of sitting and indulging in the what ifs... 

It suddenly hit me that the year is about to come to an end... This time of the year is normally when I sit down to think what have been the high points and low points of the year.... I don't exactly do this try accounting for the year that has, as usual, zoomed by...  I do this because somewhere, it makes me identify, more clearly the people/things that count to me the most... moments that have clearly left a mark, and are now a part of me...  Almost every year, most of the high points are contributed by my family... close friends... whom we often take for granted the most.. This year has also left a lot to seek... a healthier life for everyone... take a break from work more often... and some growth in work & family... But in the middle of all this.. some highs & some lows... I feel that the year went by fine... And hope that we have even better ones ahead of us...

All of us like to plan ahead...  some to the closest instant, so for the distant future... As humans, i guess we feel assured of a certain lifespan.. so we like to control, to the extent possible, what comes our way... What we don't anticipate, is that it can all come tumbling down, with that instant of carelessness, or the sudden slamming of the brakes.... And then, it dawns... Thank God I am alive... Maybe that helps respect the life we are living... every moment, every thought...

The confidence of being in control... The satisfaction of being right... The joy of reiteration... The squabble that follows... The pleasure of just kissing and making up... M not sure going through the rigmarole was worth it... Considering there were easier ways of achieving the same end result... Not like I drove home a point either ;))

I ran through life, not bothering about people who'd have joined me... Now, as I barely manage to walk, I am all alone...

We are all entitled to views.. perspectives.. about things... people... But what happens when these views slowly turn into prejudices.. without realizing, we begin judging, which the need of a judgement... It could be based on anything... gender... religion... faith... language... colour... just about anything... even something as trivial as how someone dresses... How do we control our thought...And not see everything through tinted glasses... It becomes so difficult to see the truth, to get past these thoughts & our ego, to see that we are wrong.. and someone else is right... Photo Source:  http://www.blue-point-trading.com/bluepoint-daily-market-view-%E2%80%93-february-09-2012

Memories are vicious things (and I don't necessarily mean in it in the negative sense)...  They are self absorbing.. make you forget reality... almost like a quagmire... Also, they are like the items kept in a Cupboard ...  If the cupboard stays locked up for too long, the minute you open it, a million thoughts keep flowing out... and we are just left recollecting old thoughts and worries... If we kept opening the cupboard once in a while, it would be well ventilated. Also, it would be easier to weed out and forget old worries, and make space for new memories. Needless to say there won't be a flurry of clothes tumbling down.. Afterall, our head has only that much space for memories, where we pack them all :)

Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values. ~ Ayn Rand

If you are living in Delhi (or maybe any part of this country) and drive yourself to work... what do you to think is the single most persistent sound that you can hear (ofcourse, besides the non stop blabbering of your head !)... the Horn !! The ever so irritating sound, that just doesn't go as long as you are on the road... though the purpose of a horn is to alert people on the road if they are on the way (yes, yes.. that thing has a purpose)... it seems to be an indicator of our impatience, a bike howling its way on the road, or just mindless show off... After much thought, I feel that the best way to curb the unnecessary usage is by linking the horn with the usage of fuel... so everytime you go for your horn, you will also be loosing a drop of petrol.... Once the damn thing is not free to blow away, we will all be more thoughtful and mindful as to when to use it... And hopefully, in the future, we'll have a more peaceful drive to work and back home... sigh !!!! Pho

All of us dream when we sleep... Some dream about the days gone by, and the others navigate through time around the corner.. Of wishes fulfilled, and the ones left to accomplish.. Of love & life, hope & pain... But what if I told you that I wanted to break free from dreams.. That I didn't want to contemplate - neither the past nor the future... Would should I do ? http://dianablography.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/dreams-and-reality-might-collide/

Found this in a book I just finished reading... says it all... "In the infinity of time, what is the span of human existence..." Photo Credits: My Husband :)

No moment is ordinary... each is unique and non-replacable... Infact, every moment we are spending cribbing, feeling disappointed, fighting over banal issues... we are wasting time on hand.. Life is like a clock moving backwards...  We rarely know when our time will be up...  Only the moments created are an infinite.... 

Waltzing through the day, I laughed at my life... I lie down at night, And the tears hit me...

What do you do when people are being very stubborn... So stubborn that they've stopped seeing anyone's perspective other than their own... When they try and convince you in every possible way that they are looking after your welfare.. but they don't see that they are doing as much harm... All you can do is try and be calm.. and wait for them to hear your plea... Not just hear, but listen to them... and understand.. what exactly we are saying !!! Source:  http://coffinberry.deviantart.com/art/You-re-So-Stubborn-131282027

What happens when you suddenly break free... The realization that you were caged so far suddenly dawns upon you... As though... I was so used being in the cage, that I didn't know of a world beyond it... That the walls were where it all ended... But the most painful is when there is a creak in the wall, and you can see what you are missing out on... 

All of us have small little rituals, that comfortably become a part of our daily lives... And we don't even notice them till they stop... be it a good night kiss, or a meal together.. Actually, I always used to wonder during my childhood why my mother used to try her best that all of us eat dinner together at the dinner table... yes.. dinner table !!! It all sounds like an alien concept, with tight schedules and the television to give us company.. But it all makes sense to me now... through our entire busy day,we are always surrounded by different objects/people... Dinner seems to be the only time when the entire family has the opportunity to sit together.. and talk... discuss the day's events... and other trivial things.... As unimportant and trivial as it may sound, I have come to believe that a family that eats together, stays together !!!

Read this somewhere... It struck a chord somewhere... As the dream of most parents I had acquired a degree in Software Engineering and joined a company based in USA, the land of braves and opportunity. When I arrived in the USA, it was as if a dream had come true. Here at last I was in the place where I want to be. I decided I would be staying in this country for about Five years in which time I would have earned enough money to settle down in India. My father was a government employee and after his retirement, the only asset he could acquire was a decent one bedroom flat. I wanted to do some thing more than him. I started feeling homesick and lonely as the time passed. I used to call home and speak to my parents every week using cheap international phone cards. Two years passed, two years of Burgers at McDonald's and pizzas and discos and 2 years watching the foreign exchange  rate getting happy whenever the Rupee value went down. Finally I decided to get married. Told my paren

A lot of us believe that we should apologize for the wrong we've done...True.. But I've observed that a Sorry seems to be an easy shortcut... Uttering the one simple word seems to wash away the wrong-doing... We might not even pay as much attention, when we just utter the sorry...  And obviously now, thou shall be forgiven !!! Source: Toonpool