A Young Boy Was Standing With a Young Girl Close to That old man.

The evening sun was sinking below the horizon. And the dying rays of that fading sun were falling on an old man. He was sitting on a dilapidated wooden bench at the bus station. He was bent over a half-opened biscuit packet and his trembling hands slowly and painfully put bits of biscuits in his toothless mouth. He had to eat because life was still in him and that day he had only those biscuits with him to eat. He was helpless because old age had robbed all his strength. He appeared like a lonely scarecrow which was left alone on a deserted field after the harvest. 

The sun completely faded and a shower of rain covered the bus station with layers of mud. The people in the bus station huddled themselves under the station roof for shelter. Now many people stood around that old man but nobody had time to take interest in that old man. The hurry of the average man to collect tickets from the counter, the deafening noise of horns and motor vehicles had successfully obscured the old man’s feeble presence. 

A young boy was standing with a young girl close to that old man. The girl was like a smiling flower and the boy was like a dancing river. They talked with each other on the notes of a young love. In the eyes of the boy there was deep appreciation for the girl and the girl had wholehearted acceptance. Their heads bent over each other and they looked to the distant lands with millions of dreams in their eyes.       

The buses were drawing impressions of their tyres on the wet ground. And the love between the pair was getting deeper and deeper…….

A honk of the horn from a bus startled the love-pair. The girl had to board that bus. She reluctantly approached the bus. By that time her eyes were full of tears. She was no more a smiling flower. The boy stood still like an iced up river. After the final call of the departing bus the girl had to board the bus. She waved her pretty hand to the boy. The boy blew a kiss in the air …….

The bus went away drawing a neat impression of its tyres on the wet ground. And the boy was left alone in a thoughtful silence, grief-stricken and desolate. The old man drew closer to the boy and asked, “Do you really love that girl?” The boy was very sad and with a shaky voice told, “Yes”. The old man offered a piece of biscuit to the boy and told, “Treasure today’s memory in your heart safely. Because it is the most precious gift that Time and Life can fetch you. Time robs everything. Time erodes everything but it cannot rob the true feelings of love. And when you come to my age, you may realise that the flash of such a memory can enlighten a dying old man.”

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....."   

An old couple

The summer sun was generating unbearable heat. As soon as I got into my car, I raised the glasses of the car to turn on the AC. The car rolled few yards.


At the first turn of the road I saw an old couple. The man was very old and his eye-sight had precariously fallen. Therefore, he was led by his old wife. The old man had worn a cotton vest and a dhoti. He was walking feebly. He held one end of his staff and the other end was held by his wife. She was leading him the way. The hot sun rays were directly hitting their bodies.

I forgot my speed. In some corner of my heart I felt something. I thought myself as an old man too weak to move and the hot sun burning my body. I slowed down but I knew I would do nothing for them.

The road was a newly constructed one. It was wide, open and black. Many vehicles rushed past with tremendous speed. And it was natural that the couple’s slow movement could never match their speed.

sincerity in little things counts

One of my acquaintances phoned me in the morning. I was busy. I picked the phone and told him that I will make a return call when I am free.

The sun sat in the evening. Night thickened and I slept after the day’s work but I could not be sincere enough to call back that acquaintance.

This type of lack of sincerity in our day to day life is a common occurrence. But in some ways it degrades the intrinsic human worth. Firstly, I neglected the dignity of a fellow human being. Secondly, I did not keep my words & proved myself to be insincere. Thirdly, I diminished the good rapport between us.

This case can be construed as an example of communication gap despite the availability of Ultra speed communication technologies. Printers, faxes, computers, digital cameras, DVDs, pen drives, mobile phones, internet connectivity and all such modern communication gadgets overpower our day to day lives but with each electronic pulse an admixture of love and sincerity is of enormous importance.

There are many slips between the cup and lips

"There are many slips between the cup and lips". This wise saying became more relevant when my salary could not be deposited in my bank account because of a link failure. In my college I along with Mr shirish and Mr. Patra take more interest for sooner disbursement of salary. We generally remind the principal to do that job at the earliest. Often we go a step ahead to phone the head clerk of the treasury for sooner disbursement of salary. This time also we did our part as usual. The only difference was that we were not at the headquarters. We were on summer vacation. On our request the principal went to the office and did the needful for the release of salary. We were expectantly looking for the money because Savitri Amavashya was approaching. But the failure of internet link ended everything in smoke. . . . . . . . A picture of a greedy dog who waited for a piece of bread to be thrown at appeared on my mind. I realized how some paper notes can make us so doggish.

A shameful social habit

For last two days I am in the Ganjam District of Orissa. This district is famous for Bhanja Literature and the straight forward attitude of its people. The people of this region are frank and speak unequivocally what they feel. But this district has a characteristic but unacceptable social habit which is visible mostly at the time of sun rise and sunset. At these times most human beings naturally feel a pressure to empty their bowels. And most people of most of the villages of this district would sit by the sides of the road with round bottomed pots full of water to attend natural calls. The people of this region love to pass morning and evening faeces counting the passing vehicles on the road. In the evening even the strong headlights of the vehicle can not deter them. They would stubbornly sit and excrete paying no heed to the traffic. They become dumb and blind to the presence of the passers-by and vehicles.

This socially unacceptable behavior has become a part of their life. However it is really disheartening that the social malady is infecting the new generation too. Last evening I saw two small children had lined up in the group which was assembled by the road side to attend the natural call. It is needless to say that those children will now bear the wrong habit for the future generation.

It is a fact that India is a hot country and the terrible heat makes many people suffocate in the toilets. So passing stool by the side of the road is much more enjoyable because open sky and natural wind are abundantly available. However, this bad habit has caused many tragic accidents in the past.

Bad habits should be replaced with good ones. Now it is high time when for the sake of sanitation and civilization all people should adopt safety latrines although it is devoid of open sky and fresh air.

how to make life beautiful

Failures and pains in life often made me sit silently and made me think how to make life beautiful. Any thought in that direction readily invoke some age-old unchangeable principles of humanity. I knew them to be repetition of old wisdom but they show their glittering faces whenever the gloom of a vanquished life pervades the mind. I have jotted the thoughts as it appeared during some moments of troubled musings.


 Be specific in what you say. Nobody has time to listen to exaggerations. If you do not have specific points then do not beat about the bush. Remain silent.

 Be courteous and respect the people you come in contact with. Good behavior and respect to others will never go unrewarded.

 Be honest in all occasion. Help others whole-heartedly. It is the shortest distance to others’ heart.

 Everyday think about living meaningfully. Utilize your time and talents sincerely in achieving excellence in your respective fields.

 Be humorous and at the same time maintain your dignity. A sense of self respect is essential for higher values to blossom.

 The expressions of thoughtfulness and self-poise are the hallmarks of being influential. People judge your worth by your attitude. People who are very talkative are viewed lightly. So never talk unnecessarily. Most people think that by talking glibly they display their knowledge and wisdom and in turn they can influence others but this notion most often proves to be wrong. Listen to others; gather sufficient information & other viewpoints before giving your opinions. Analyze the facts and logically reveal your own understanding. Never argue because human intelligence is not immune to errors.

 Be trustworthy. To be trusted is the greatest compliment you can earn for yourself. Never break other’s trust in you.

 Keep your words. Commitment is an ingredient to be great.

 Love all because love can transform you into a human magnet. Your words, attitude, service and presence will become magical to others. And life will become a song of inward happiness.

Bhagban Sri Satya Sai

Last night there was no electricity. In the darkness I slept a dreamless sleep. I slept comfortably even without fans because the night was cool.  A windy summer rain had lashed the evening. However, insects fluttered around the emergency light. I switched off the light, pulled up a mosquito net and cocooned myself inside it. 

When the night is dark and the trees look like shadows of mythological demons and flashes of thunder cast its heavenly blue on earth, the world becomes mysterious. The tiny speck of life bearing the consciousness of “I” fades. We start to think of the world, the universe and the principles and the guiding force that control them. It happens so because the wind, the thunderbolts and rain all defy human control. Man is but a powerless creature like the fluttering insects under the mercy of nature when the big powers of nature come into play.  

Before I could sleep I pondered over the sad demise of Bhagban Sri Satya Sai. He was a miracle man to many. He had prophesied that he would live in his mortal form till he was 96 years. And his early death convinced millions of his devotees of the uncertainty of life. Nobody knows when the wheels of life will stop. This uncertainty factor will prompt other mortals to live life meaningfully because life is so uncertain. 

In his life time BABA was a quintessence of human service. He illustrated how life can be lived on the principles of truth, righteousness, love, peace and non-violence. I missed his mortal form but as his contemporary I felt that I owe a moral responsibility to bring those basic human values into the frame work of my society in its unsullied form. 

The rain had almost stopped. Calmness prevailed everywhere. I curled on my bed to welcome a new morning and a new sun of enlightenment.