Do we need a Paint Brush.......

Beautiful paintings attract our eyes and draw our attention towards them....the colours, the lines , the meaning behind each stroke, everything leaves you zapped.....we all have a misconception that only great artists have the ability to create such terrific, breathtaking works...but how many of us know that God has hidden an artist in each one of us...someone who doesn't need a paint brush, or a canvas to create beautiful landscapes...our mind can do the needful!!Surprised!!

God is the greatest artist and what's great about his work is that he colours our imagination and leaves an enchanting effect on our senses, making each one of us, an artist of a different kind....
What happens when we see a beautiful landscape...our mind captures the image and hangs it on the walls of our minds eye, and when we recline on our chair...long after we believe that the memory must have faded away, our mind starts painting a beautiful picture of the very sight that left us speechless....it's then that we become an artist, painting inwards and creating pictures that smear our senses with delight.
That's why it is said that it's important to observe.

Observe what goes around you...observe the little baby of a construction worker, you'd be taken aback by the innocent, moist eyes.
Observe the route that you take to your office everyday...did you ever notice that the trees on the side paths struggle to freshen up the air around you?
Observe the light rays of the early morning sun and the dew that settles on the leaves...how is it that everything turns greener than ever.
Observe the faces of people stuck in a traffic jam...don't they seem similar....all of them running a race without knowing what life is all about!
Observe the silent corner of the joggers park, the squirrel that runs around, the birds that keep chirping ... you'll notice that each one of them is working hard to make your day better!

Observe and paint a picture in your mind...a picture that represents your life, the way you want it to be.....Believe me no other piece of art would seem better.
Fill colours of happiness and peace in your life... coz each one of us can work on a beautiful masterpiece, that would be a blueprint of our aspirations towards a beautiful tomorrow!

The Stomach that moulds life!

Rajan was getting ready for school, he was looking forward to it. The day before it had been a hard day for him, masterji had not been very kind....not kind enough to let go of his incorrect sums...maths was always a mystery to him, but he took it up as a challenge, a challenge to do his best to stay in school as long as possible, since his stomach fought a tough battle of patience and longing for the sumptuous mid day meal that was distributed in school everyday.
All his friends, kalu, meera, kabir, junaid, suresh, all of them had joined school for the same reason.
The lessons on the history of the nation did interest them, the various stories of the great warriers came as a boost for their not so easy life...Like brave warriers they too fought with their hunger and celebrated their victory when the mid day meal was served.
The dinners and breakfast at home were a rare sight, their mothers got their meals in the houses they worked for and sometimes saved a little for their kids and spouse and their fathers were labourers working day and night with a cloth tied to their stomach to stop the hunger pangs...they too were lucky to be given something to eat when the owner felt generous enough....life was not a bed of roses for Rajan and his friends, coming from poor families, their happiness rested in the school corridors.
It was late in the afternoon, Rajan had not had anything to eat since day before, he was extremely hungry and was waiting for the midday meals to be served...the wait got longer but there was no sign of the food lorry.
Time passed......The break got over..... masterji came in the class and started a new lesson.....weakened by his hunger, Rajan, with innocent drooping eyes asked his teacher...masterji aren't we getting food today?"
Masterji looked at him, and a shadow of sadness covered his face...no my boy didn't you hear the news.....the cooked meal program has been disrupted due to shortage of food grains, there are some problems going on. Rajan cried out, " what problems masterji!"...his teacher had a worried look , "you won't understand kid, the HRD ministry and the Department of Food and Public Distribution are locked in a payment spat...."
Rajan," no masterji, I understand it well..." those people are unable to understand my hunger!!!!"
With tears in his eyes Rajan started flipping the pages of his notebook....food was the reason why his father had allowed him to study and food would be the reason for him to drop out of school to earn his bread....
After all what would alphabets do if one doesn't have the strength to understand them????????

It's not just one life

It was twelve in the afternoon, her son had come back from school, Zeba was completing the daily chores...She could feel it coming, the pain was knocking her senses but she was determined to make arrangements before leaving...She ironed the clothes of her little one and packed them in a bag...the books for the next day had to be sorted out...there were medical papers that had to be taken out and placed in her handbag..
There was a knock at the door, the maid had come to take her son to the neighbours house, an old couple who were happy to help...."take good care of him Kamla, and get him ready for school tomorrow on time...I'll be back soon."
The maid looked a bit puzzled but nodded in agreement.
Everything was in order , she kissed the little one and sent him on his way, locked the house and holding on to all the strength and patience that was left in her she reached the hospital on time.
The hospital was just a few blocks away and she had got conveyance arranged beforehand.
As soon as she got down from the vehicle the last string of her courage just broke and she was instantly taken to the ward...... a new leaf of life was turned over....she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl...
A smile of satisfaction smeared her face as she saw the little one as a sign of her victory....while her husband fought on the front, she braved her life daringly...fighting and winning over another battle...the battle posed by life. She knew that he would be proud of his fellow soldier...

It's not just one life that sacrifices itself for us, but there are numerous chords that work as pillars of strength...while one ensures that we sleep in peace, the other takes care that her brave companion has a happy home to come back to...

The Good and the Bad of it.....

A friend once told me that she likes being alone, so much so that she is possessive about her solitude.
Solitude often refers to loneliness, but in this day and age it has split into varied meanings, it can act as a break in which we can recollect our selves and recall the days happenings.
When we meditate in solitude , the mind settles down and stops running the daily marathon that it has got used to. It helps a person to stay focused.
Solitude can act as a balm but can also serve as an enemy...since when we try to cut ourselves from others for longer periods, we fail to realise that relationships too are vital for a happy life.
Striking a balance is a must. It's good to spend time with oneself, all alone, just we and our thoughts, but it's also important to open up and breathe in the freshness of the blessings showered on us ..our loved ones, our happy moments, our sadness...yes sadness as well, since it helps us grow, making us appreciate the good things in life.
Solitude is a bliss, till it doesn't turn into a well in which we decide to stagnate forever...it should act as a short sojourn, getting that refreshed effect that helps us understand and appreciate life.

Tame Your Fears!

Yesterday I saw a painting of a lion sitting comfortably in a living room, with a little girl resting against it and reading a book. I've seen this painting many times before, on my visits to my cousins' place and it has always given me a lot of peace. I could never explain why it had such a soothing effect on me! Yesterday, when I saw it again, a big fact of life knocked at my mind....don't we all have fears? In the painting like the little girl rests against a lion, we too rest against our fears but don't ever let them take over , because life has to be lived with courage.
Our shortcomings, our fears, our failure, all this is a part of the game called life , we just have to be good jugglers, juggling with the good and the bad and striking a balance in our life. Sometimes the negative becomes heavier and tumbles down but that doesn't stop life from going on, it does come to a standstill for sometime, or it seems to be the case but time flows away and heals every thing.
Our courage to take life as it comes should never fade away. We are never too far from the positive, neither are we too close to the negative, the courage to conquer our fears, sets things right!

Looking at the painting, I realised that our fear walks with us, where ever we may be, but we should never let it overtake our path...when we overcome the negativity in our life, we can always be at peace with ourselves and our life would be touched with a serene smile in turn giving us the courage to walk with our fears.
You must be thinking as to why I've chosen a lion to be a symbol of our fears, well that's what they seem to be when they scare us, but when we turn them into a tamed pet that's when our courage to brave life comes in the forefront!
Tame your fears........ they'll never be able to take over!

Complex beyond imagination!

Do we really know the people with whom we have spent a significant part of our lives ?Is it possible to understand a human being....however close we may be? Why is there something that always comes as a surprise? Why are so many questions left with no answer at all? Is this complex phenomenon called humanity, a tale with innumerable plots, one unfolding after another.....Confused??So am I!
It's difficult to understand people, even those whom we claim to know well. Our mind works in different ways and we never get to know which new turn it decides to take at any point of time in life...things happen and we are left zapped, struggling to find a reason that triggered them off....A person we've known for long becomes a stranger in a jiffy...someone whose thought process is alien to us! It happens with everyone, even if we claim to be simple....the very simplicity shows so many colours that we surprise our selves and are taken aback!
Yes, we humans consist of a complex mechanism....more complex than we can can ever imagine it to be....
The simplest of all can turn into rocket science and the complex ones can be as simple as ABC.
Be Prepared to be surprised where fellow humans are concerned, even if its our own self.....you never know when life takes, hopefully,a pleasant turn ;)













You are a mystery to me ....
you and the self within.
Days passed and life kept surprising...
Until I realised one day, that it's all in the mind...
It's a complex machinery we fail to understand!

Even if it's just once everyday!

I remember a school assembly that was conducted by our principal. She started it with a question.."how many of you have made someone smile in the whole week that has passed...does anyone remember??There was complete silence in the assembly hall, since all of us were busy remembering when we actually made someone smile but the mind went blank...totally...completely.
How important is it to do something good for someone even if it's a small little deed like making someone smile...very important..in fact if all of us strive to make someone smile everyday the world would be a better place since there would be someone or the other to spread the cheer and lift our spirits!
A smile is contagious, most of us must have observed that when someone smiles at us..even if it's a stranger, it brings a smile on our face..it sure does.
I still remember that the question wasn't left confined to the school assembly, it was brought to the class. We were asked to list a number of incidents when we made someone smile, then on the next page we were asked to list a number of things that can be done to make someone smile..when the list was ready our class teacher asked us to reflect on the first list and if we feel that it isn't sufficient we should paste the second list on the first one..i.e. we had to paste the list of things that can be done to make someone smile on the one that had the list of the number of times we made someone smile....the first list was highly insufficient and hence was taken over by the second one...Thus our teacher announced, now you have an important list in your hand...the ways to make someone smile ....."Make a fresh Beginning!"...from now on it's your duty to follow it everyday "religiously"...the word religious emphasized the fact as to how important it was to at least attempt to do a good deed everyday...
That day I went home, hugged by mom and promised to be an obedient kid...it did bring a smile on her face..even though being a mother, she knew that time keeps changing ;)
There were many things that were taught to us when we were kids...That day, in the school assembly those lines got registered somewhere deep within.. and still reside in my mind's eye, so much that today I do make a conscious attempt to bring a smile on someones face...if nothing else the thought makes my day :)

I read the following poem while surfing the net and thought should share...it's very meaningful!

SMILE FOR YOU
Smiling is infectious; you catch it like the flu,
When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling too.
I passed around the corner and someone saw my grin,
When he smiled I realized I'd passed it on to him.
I thought about that smile then I realized its worth,
A single smile, just like mine could travel round the earth.
So, if you feel a smile begin, don't leave it undetected.
Let's start an epidemic quick, and get the world infected!
Anonymous