The Heart Of a Mother

Hundreds of stars were glimmering in the sky. But among them there was a star that felt lonely and pensive. Although it was a shining star, nobody had ever pointed it in appreciation because it was like any other star shining among the multitudes of its own kind. It used to shine brilliantly but rarely had any human eye fallen on that lovely star. Sometimes flakes of cloud would obstruct it from view and sometimes the silvery glow of a full moon would overshadow its brightness. But the star would stay in the sky hanging all day and night, visibly or invisibly for some unknown reasons.  

One day the star asked God, “Why have I been created? I twinkle among so many stars but why do I feel so lonesome?”  God smiled and told, “I have specially created you for a lonesome heart that is alone among a crowd.”

That night a motherless child pointed her hands at the star and uttered the word, “Mother” with two sparkling drops of tears. The star twinkled in a light of heavenly love and uttered, “Dear child I was so alone without you!” The little girl became happy. And the star thanked God because in the shade of loneliness God had granted the star the most precious thing of the creation- THE HEART OF A MOTHER.

All of them sold out LOVE,TRUST & FRIENDSHIP

That was a time when the air was all fresh and life was a pleasant dream. The earth was a paradise because the heart was warm with fervent hopes, sweet innocence and abundant love. I was a teenager all ready to change the world. I jumped into the world stage as a hero to enlighten it with love, trust, friendship, righteousness and all high ideals of human breast.

I started with love and I was betrayed ultimately. I believed others with my whole heart and I was brazenly cheated. I smiled at a friend but the friend turned to be the worst enemy. I buried my face in utter disappointment and my heart was bruised and bleeding. I was crying.

I wiped my eyes and opened them. By that time I had already cried a lot. My eyes were washed. Now I could see a world that was simply a market place where everyone was a seller. And all of them sold out LOVE, TRUST and FRIENDSHIP from their hearts in exchange of few paper notes.  

That day I was Not Alone.....

That day I was not alone….
An eagle, high up in the sky, was wheeling about like my path finder in a dreamy world. The bird was elegantly circling around me.
The time was right……The fresh green leaves had sprouted in response to the first showers of monsoon and those leaves were gleefully rustling and dancing with the gentle morning breeze.
The place was heavenly……. The enchanting solar rays were witnessing the eternal sky and the lovely mountain locking their lips on the horizon. Flakes of cloud were floating past the tips of spectacular mountains.
The person was right….. She was with me. She was smiling often with her eyes downward and I looked above and found that the morning sun had already risen above the mountains. I felt my heartbeats quickening. I knew I love her more than anything else. But I could not say that I love her. I gently held her hands in mine. She came closure and I could not speak anything because my lips had touched hers.

An alcoholic neighbour-A story

26 years back a father, a mother and a son had to set out on the unknown seas of life. The family boat floated directionless for many days. No land was visible for days. The fog of uncertainty pervaded all around. But they lived…..

Grass emerges out of the cracks of cemented walls. Likewise, life also comes out green through many troubled blockades. Life NEVER says “NEVER” because human heart is always a natural seat of undying hope. Therefore, life had generously given them many narrow escapes, tears, disappointments and last but not the least some happy moments.

In the flow of time a new member was added to the small family. A baby girl cried and all woke up to her care. Times passed and life moved. The son grew into a man. He got married and was blessed with a child. By that time the little girl had also grown into a lady and one day she found her soul mate and went with her stepping gently into a new phase of life.

Life continues like this-One generation holds the centre-stage for a while and then slips away to make room for the next. Individual life is but a single ringlet of an infinite chain. The previous generation vanishes in a state of decrepitude while the next one blooms.

One day the son, who was now a young man, stood on a busy bus stop. A hand from behind gripped his hand. He turned his back and found a decrepit old man holding his hands. The old man was dressed in shabby clothes. The son vividly remembered that the old man was his neighbor 26 years back when he was a boy of 8years. He was a tax collector of a marketing committee. Most mornings he would call the boy to his home to have breakfast. The boy would go to his home and would play songs on his sound system. He would take breakfast there and after that he would return his home. The neighbor had a wife. The couple had a bad habit of drinking alcohol. Day by day this bad habit developed and disturbed their life so unfortunately that the neighbor lost his job and faced legal proceedings on charges of misappropriating office money. By that time the boy’s family moved to a different house. The boy could no more witness the gradual downfall of that neighbor. But after so many years alcohol had turned him into a beggar. The old man asked about the well-being of the young man and then asked for hundred rupees. The young man took out a 500 hundred rupee note with some tears in his eyes. He gave it to the old man and left the place in great disappointment. He knew well that he could give only a temporary relief to the old man’s inevitable disintegration but he could never stop this tragic human waste.

Alcohol never leaves its prey so easily. A day will come when this liquid enemy will eat up the soul of that old man and he would be left in a drain to die alone and helpless. And the world would not care for the old beggar although he had the fine human sentiments of feeding a young boy as a way of loving the humanity in general.

A happy preparedness for death

Success is the manifest face of several little efforts persistently taken in a single direction. Success needs persistence. On the way to success there may be many petty failures and distractions. However, the final outcome will be determined by an individual’s consistency in his pursuit. But is success all in life?

Life has a beginning and an end. But the time lying in between these two ends must be lived fully and meaningfully. A life well lived is the greatest kind of success on earth. It is true that many times life gets entangled in useless things and considerable time gets wasted. Such entanglements and distractions are a part of life but to rise above them and give a meaning to life is a greater virtue of all undying souls.

Unnecessary past broodings and useless future apprehensions kill a lot of positivity. Therefore, to achieve success and fulfillment in life, one’s life must be lived from moment to moment. On each day set your priority and think of investing the day in the most useful and meaningful work that supplements your life’s ideals and cherished goals. However, everything becomes easy when we start living from moment to moment. Somebody has rightly said that you cannot do anything on two days in your life: One is YESTERDAY and the other one is TOMMORROW. So live your life fully and responsibly for TODAY,

Life is very short-lived. But we normally think & behave as if we would live for centuries to come and consequently fail to understand the value of each moment that God has granted us. The wise thing is to live one’s life so well that he/she is prepared for death at any time and still has no regrets. In this context I would like to quote a line of Amitabh Bachan from the movie “Budha Hoga Tera Baap” because it comically projects a person’s real preparedness for death. In that scene Amitabh stands on the gunpoint of a hooligan. However, Amitabh is seen to prompt the hooligan to fire at him at once. He says,” Fire the bullet at me; I would love to be killed with a bullet and not with sugar or blood pressure.”

The hindi movie, HAUNTED.

Most hollywood films are far from reality but they do well in the box office. Ghost stories, vampire tales, demon fights , magic & sci-fi adventures are popular among the modern generation. This inclination to highly imaginative and unreal stuff is a natural consequence of an era when life is excessively routine bound &monotonous. Watching movies with themes of non-human characters & strange worlds give a temporary relief from the vicissitudes of a day to day life. It also consoles us that everything is not mundane.

In indian cinema this trend is often imitated but the effect of hollywood movies has always been superior to indian movies in this regard. However, recently I viewed the movie HAUNTED & I was quite satisfied with its storyline, way of picturization of real world vs a ghost world. The film projects intermingling of past and present. It has elements of love, ghosts, adventures & the omnipotence of almighty.

Indian audience will surely enjoy the film. The role of the protagonist is realistic and convincing. You won't regret going to watch it.

Sri Ramdev

It is God's design that He accorded an uncommon popularity to a common yogi like Baba Ramdev & transformed the yogi to an atom bomb of mass awareness. Today every common man of India is aware of the huge wealth of India which is lying in foreign banks in the form of Black money.

It is a crystal truth that the life of common man is full of hardship. He has neither time nor scope to understand the loopholes of our political and economic systems.In the stuggle to eke out a living modern man is suffocated and has become so weak that he has lost all his guts to protest corruption,exploitation and oppression.His lack of awareness has bred many brokers who unscrupulously engulf the cream of this country. And this year long process has given rise to a country which is bleeding with a yawning gap of the haves and the have nots.  But Ramdev's present "Political Assanas" have drawn the attention of the aam admi to the serious flaws of our political power holders.The Govt has used the tricks of SAMA, DAMA and DANDA. The use of police to treaten, beat and injure aam admi was the show of DANDA. And now the rule of "confuse and corrupt" or VEDA will be soon enacted. However,Indians will stand in support of Ramdev because aamadmi doesn't have accounts in the tax havens. Only the corrupt business men, corrupt bureaucrats and corrupt political leaders will shrud in fear and can go to any extent with their ill-got money to crush democracy. The governments' oppressive measures to crush the strike nakedly exposes the corrupt inclinations of the government. Baba Ramdev is first an indian and then he is a religious leader so if he stages a hunger strike as an indian, he no way deviates from the principles of a religious teacher. However, religion is for better living. Therefore, any change aiming for the welfare of the common mass is the greatest type of religion.

Personally, I thank Baba Ramdev because he has strongly raised a big question mark against the system.Sri Ramdev has braved to swim against the current where there are  deadly sharks all around. If Ramdev hoodwinked the police under the scarf of a lady then there is nothing wrong in it. It only exhibited the natural defense mechanism of a common man under terrible psychological pressure.

The ruthlessness and threat of an armed police at the midnight can easily draw a simillar response in anyone. The situation reminded me the notorious Jalianawalabag incedent minus deaths. But the brutal act was an inhibition of human dignity.   

Fighting a monolithic corrupt government in empty belly in the midst of Continuous life threats and a day long mental and physical pressures is not so easy as it seems on the TV screen. Sri Ramdev has opened a way through the adamantine wall. Let us stand by him strongly as a protector of Sri Ramdev's life and safety so that he does not need to flee under pressure. "Arise.awake and stop not till the goal is reached....."