Whatever

'Twas before a few days...my auto driver was whizzing through the busy streets of  Hyderabad...Lakdi ka pul area..entertaining as ever. someone almost straight out of the movie Ten Commandments, swiftly took a turn with his bike with an expression as if he's rushing to save the world...fancy kinda Egyptian turban though...three gals clad in burkha on a scooter...hmmm impressive manuevouring...a Punjabi uncle with a pink turban sped up sloth fully, several women drove across the roads on 4 wheelers...
Just another usual day in the city of Charminar. The thought gave me quite a chilling moment of pondering. I think no other nation has this  vivid a mix of tongues n appearances n being. it's been so natural to coexist, sharing lives since ages. Don't know what's apparently making a difference now and why it seems that one group is after another.
With a sudden jerk, I woke up. In a country haunted by rapes in cab, women assaulted in public n private transports, a woman reaching her destination while she fell asleep in the auto is quite a feat. I grew up in neighborhood where the local people driving rickshaws (tricycles) took children to schools n colleges n brought them back home. All of us trusted , sure we trusted not because it didn't  have any value but it was priceless, still easy to trust.
Whatever happed to our cities and towns!!
And are we really done with our fair share of protests against such grotesque, inhumane acts? Maybe yes..maybe no..
Hmm..well but what to do with this pseudo freedom in declaring what "should be done" and "how degraded people are", if we ourselves practice double standards? If we as individuals still don't "get involved" when gals get humiliated by guys on roads, buses, trains? Couldn't quite figure out which part of our mind and body gets enhanced by knowing which Act in the law book could enforce punishment against the troublemakers or even better, what is the correct definition of an assault, if we don't teach our kids real honest standards, if we don't teach 'em to respect both the parents equally?

Unique!!

It's a remarkable thing how we can tend to misjudge in our daily lives. I mean, look around, there are tons of examples of how people thought something else for something else n concluded in a bad decision, sometimes the worst decision of the life. 

How is it that day after day, we lull ourselves in believing something that's untrue and does not matter against something which is true and will matter not only to us but our surroundings as well.

Its tough to exercise decisions when we grow up with false senses of humility pumped into us. As opposed to thinking of ourselves less, we end up thinking less of ourselves. While, in a maturing society with a craving of all kinds of resources, one would rather be falsely humble than keep his pride; this mass behavior also produces a mass result wherein whole strings of generation are smeared with low self esteem. This typically is the case of thinking of ourselves as something that's less than what we are, not only as individuals but also as a group, as a society, we diminish our values much beyond sane limits.

Funnily, children don't exhibit this behavior since they are unable to understand pure worth in a true sense in their state of mind. They rather look at stuff only with the 'survival' glasses on, unlike the adults who "have to contribute" to the society in predestined orders and forms, at times not even knowing what they are good at.

While a virtue like humility is a strength to one's character, a false humility destroys not only an individual but also decays the society. The balance between self and society is indeed tough to achieve. While we wouldn't look forward to a society where 'I' rules, we wouldn't want our next generations to grow up in a blur not knowing what their true worth is and how the same can be shared with fellow beings for goodness multiplied!

It's marvelous to see the applicability of these thoughts as found in the Bible. Something that's described as apple of God's eyes, inscribed on His palms and made in His own image can't be as plain a thing as we make it to be. The creator is unique in all His senses, directions and attributes of His creation and it is indeed unique worth that He places in each one of them for them to really be the objects of His affection!

Nachos, curries and integration

Was at a get together with a few colleagues last night and 'twas fun! Bunch of English with a sporadic mix of Indians. We hit it off like usual. Business, programming, cryptography, family,   fancies etcetera, with only few of us speaking their minds and the rest speaking in their minds.
By the middle of starters, the miracle was evident, once so ever more. The fact that we came from different world-views altogether and still could produce sane products at work seemed almost like a miracle.
Nothing bares a man more than a dinner table. You can read his appetite, loss of appetite, even his hiding of his appetite and link it all with the bits and pieces he says and emotes and in due course you'd understand the ways he's familiar with and why he is the way he is.
So, you see, if people really gel at the dinner table, there rarely remains anything about the other that they can't appreciate. And that's what makes it so difficult, to dwell far away from clichéd conversations and really integrate at the dinner table where people come not only from various standpoints of life but from different kinds of lives altogether.
If you'd ever been in a grind of all mix ethnicities, you'd have a better view of what I am saying. Nonetheless, the divides exist and extend with not only geographies but also with schools of thoughts.
What makes it so difficult for us to appreciate what another thinks is funny or inspiring or mad or whatever?I could in the course of time come to align myself with the idea of the funny joke but then will I ever be able to gather all the right context behind it if I didn't belong to his place? Never. Will someone else from the other groups understand the humour I enjoy without knowing the exact point I narrated it from? Nopes.
And yet, this is what we do incessantly and practically, all our lives. Integration, with the world around us, while it chooses to accommodate us or deems us unacceptable. We are happy when a dialogue with the world around is successful and a communication is established and we grow remorse when there's no interface to hold a dialogue with.
Needless to say, our satisfaction and meaning of life seem to emerge out of such medley.
Is that really true? Who renders meaning to the medley as such?
Needless to say our satisfaction and meaning of life actually emerge from the maker of such medley.
We are truly happy when we connect to the true soul of the world around us and we grow remorse when we are don't see the meaning of happenings around us or are deceived to find a wrong meaning. Bad integration.
So, what if someone takes the pain to not only align me to the idea of the joke but also ingrain in me the complete version of the context that I was missing?
I will then be able to appreciate not only the joke but literally each and every thing that I am exposed to!
So, if someone could ingrain the infinite context of eternity in the time bound slices of whatever number of years of our lives, will we be able to live minus the things that produce despair in most of us? How will it be to live a life beyond the geographies we come from, the education and governing systems that we had subscribed to, the constant grill of comparison and peer pressures of our environs and even the seemingly unlimited but actually limited aspirations of our own minds!!
Sounds insane?

And yet, someone has done it years back. He took a piece of bread, blessed it, broke it and passed around the table. He also took a cup and after giving thanks passed it around the table again. And all who ate and drank of it literally partook a part of him who shared himself in the bread and in the cup. And by virtue of doing that, as if literally they were born again.
They were born again in the knowledge of not only the complete context but also learnt how to apply it in various circumstances.
They had partaken of the one who came to integrate them to the true soul of the world; so they appreciate their lives truly to the fullest, not only to their heart's content at present but also beyond the extent of their imagination of the present and times beyond.

**If you feel puzzled with the last paragraph and are curious, do google and find out the context!!