IT AINT A MERE COINCIDENCE!

It’s a cold winter night- must be around 1 am. She is rushing towards the car. From behind, she hears her mum call, “Get back here..you are not going in that car!” Flustered by this remark she looks back and chides, “Why mum?  I want to go with all the cousins!” Her mom asserts, “Just get back!” and the conversation ends.

4am: Her blissful slumber is rudely disturbed by a frantic call. “They had had an accident!” The cousin driving the car was horribly hurt.

There are indications and signs planted in our life- famously called coincidence or luck. Signs and indications that have a language of their own. They subtly warn us, protect us and always bless us. Most often, we are too busy in our lives to notice these small hints or think about them. We let them pass us by and go unnoticed. We think they are trivial and we have ‘better things to do in life’. If you carefully pause and think, and travel down memory lane you will notice that there are numerous hints that life has given you. A faint glimpse of what lies in the future or a soft  whisper offering a solution.

A thoughtful message from a long lost friend, especially when you are down and out, subtly giving you a solution. A call from nowhere that cheers you up. A stranger offering you a helping hand when you are lost. Instances which we all say are just a coincidence. It is actually a beautiful indication; a conspiracy of the universe giving an assurance that there is always a way out.

These hints are like elves surrounding us whispering to us and putting their hand on our head to guide us in life but we have too much noise around us to hear the whisper and too many people pushing and shoving us all the time to feel the guiding touch.

EACH ONE IN HER SHELL

We all wear masks in life. A mask of being prim and proper at work or a mask of being a socialite in a party- these are all layers that hide the core. Call it entrapments of the social world that define or dictate how we should be in a situation or at a place. But the truth is that there is always a place or a space where we are ourselves. A place where we live and breathe without inhibitions and apprehensions of being judged.

The faint glimpses of this place in her mind were: a small piece of land traditionally enclosed with red brick walls. Aroma of freshly cooked rajma chawal, garish sound of the television, a male authoritative voice, a warm caressing touch, flowers in the garden and the incessant bark. She visualized herself coming back from school, studying for her exams, dancing at her sister’s wedding and sneaking back from a late night party.

No matter where she would go- place, geography and distance would not matter. She would always come back to this small piece of land traditionally enclosed with red brick walls. It was her shell where she would sleep like a child. It gave her the protection from the so called ‘big bad world’ out there. A fortress that gave her strength to face what the world had to offer. A fence from where she could easily distinguish between the pure and the tainted.

We all have this shell in our life where we get a feeling of security and protection. In this rat race of life, we all tend to go back to that shell. Sometimes to replenish our stock of strength and sometimes to hide from the ‘big bad world’.

Our shell which resembles a small piece of land traditionally enclosed with red brick walls – WELCOME HOME!

WHEN WE BECOME LIKE WINTER

The sun was pushed in oblivion by the menacing fog. The icy cold winds were unnerving and merciless. Everybody seemed to shiver in the unrelenting cold wave.

I walked down the street loaded with woolens, yet shivering. I could barely keep my head straight or eyes open. The cold wind was  freezing my senses.  I saw the watchman huddled in front of an ‘angeethi’ trying desperately to get some warmth. For a minute I gave him company. Looking at him, my shivering stopped.

I moved on, near my lane, my eyes stumbled upon a dog. Crouching in a corner, beneath the fur the skin was cold. Coiled on the ground, I heard his silent plea for warmth and his tale of survival against all odds. My fists opened and my hands were less cold.

The fog thickened and the vision got blurred with each passing minute. I was rushing back home and just before I took the stairs, I saw a small girl, sitting in the corner. Tattered clothes, boney hands, teeth chattering and a helpless look in her eyes; she sat there just fight the cold. My eyes were wide open and my senses thawed.

Looking at them, took away the chill.

All wrapped up in woolens we all truly become cold. Despite the icy wind, I was warm. I ran upstairs and got some woolens to share.

WE NOBLE BEINGS- CREATORS OF OUR ENVIRONMENT

It’s dark all around. The skies are over cast and look menacing. The wind is gathering steam and the silence around is indicative of a storm. The stage has been set, the cause has been made and the effect of it will be a torrential downpour.

He walked down the road. A spoilt brat with a brash gait kicked the dog who was harmlessly sitting in the corner. The dog got agitated; he got up charged towards the boy and bit him in his leg. And the brash gait reeking of arrogance was tarnished in a way.

She was a warm person, genuinely cared for everyone around her. Care that was given not only through comforting words but also translated into actions and gestures.  One day, anger overpowered her senses and she rubbed a friend the wrong way. The cause was made, anger led to an effect - an argument & a fight between the two friends.

From science to philosophy there are instances of cause & effect everywhere around us.  From nature to mankind, it is a theory that seems to have universal application. You make a cause and the effect is generated simultaneously and comes forth either immediately or subsequently in the walk of life.

This theory has not only been propounded by great thinkers like Aristotle but also is beautifully embedded in nature. The Lotus flower is a clear example of how intrinsically the law is embedded in flora & fauna. The lotus flower produces flowers and seeds at the same time, indicating that the effect is simultaneous with the cause.

Cause as we all know simply means words, thoughts or actions which creates a response or an effect in our life. Cause can also be understood as an indication / action which is going to lead to an effect. For example warning call by animals in the forest denoting that a predator is around or is on the lookout for the kill is a cause that will lead to an effect.

Seldom do we pause and think that such causes and its effects are all around us. While they create our environment, we (all creations of God) create them.