Idyllic Thoughts

My friend told me a story today while we were travelling in bus. It made me think of human emotions and the ways they are manifested in relationships. On Monday, my friend got into her bus as usual and sat on a vacant seat near an old man. He was bent with age, possibly carrying the life's burden. After a while, he started talking to her, asking about the time and her destination. When the city bus stand came near, he said he had to go to Sayyaji Rao Road to buy dosa, come back near Town Hall to buy churumuri and go somewhere else for some other eatable. She just nodded thinking why he was telling her all this. He then said it was all for his son. My friend asked him what work does his son do, to which he replied 'nothing.' He is well-educated, with good computer knowledge and intelligence enough to work. But he never steps out of his house and this aged dad works for a living, not only looking after his grown son but also cooking for him and lovingly serv...

I feel marriage is the ultimate acceptance of a person, with all his/her emotions, dilemmas, habits, beliefs and other such idiosyncrasies apart from their physical attributes. How can you accept a person so completely without the feeling called love? What will become if there is no such acceptance within a marriage? How can people live with each other just as a formality or out of long practice? Isn't this when tempers flare, patience and tolerance lessen? I was thinking of all this on my way home in the bus some days ago when I happened to glance out of the window. I saw a sight that always makes me smile: An aged man in his 80s was helping his aged wife to climb down the stairs of a building, holding her hand and her bag in other hand. It is a sight which always makes me think -- about what a strange feeling love is which never diminishes with age, outer influences and time; about how even if forgotten for years, it can be rekindled with a single glance and touch. I am glad t...

Galileo Galilei once said: "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." The statement itself seems contradictory to me on one side and also reasonable on the other. Apart from the 'understanding' part, my question is, do we really have to know about the truth at all times? And why? Sometimes, it would be better if we are unaware of the truth. And why should it be discovered? Apart from practical purposes, what do we get in terms of psychological benefit? Enlightenment? About what? And how do we know that what we believe to be the truth is the truth? What is the ultimate truth for some may be the ultimate lie for others. And how do we 'discover' a truth? By what means? Through meditation or following a guru in terms of spirituality? Through seeking and questioning in terms of practicality? How?

I am always surprised at the gaping imbalance in the world. A scene from a Hindi serial haunted me for many days where the rich, after a party, throw their food onto the streets where many hungry kids stand waiting to gobble it up. Looking around me, I am drawn into the eyes of the women and children on streets. I start imagining what ordeals they may have undergone till now, in a struggle to live. I wonder where they sleep at nights, worrying if some person molests them and they have no protection. Walking on a road in city after 10.30 pm is terrifying to me, though the area is peaceful. Then how do these beggar women, some in teenage and very beautiful despite their appearance, survive? A reassuring mail I got just now reads, the difference between the rich and the poor is not that they have food, clothing, shelter or any such. It is just that the rich never smile, while the poor do. I have seen such smiles on the faces of young kids who play on roads dressed in tatters, not carin...

On my way to my engagement in Udupi on Sunday. Now a thought recurred to me: We as humans have to trust even strangers completely when such occasion arises, as in drivers in rented cars on long trips. We would know nothing about them, but trust them with our life and belongings. Can't write more in dark, so will continue tomorrow. 

Two days ago, I was trying to cross the busy road near bus stand in Mysore. A girl too was there carrying a heavy bag. Then she saw me and came near me so that we could cross together. The same thing always happens to me while crossing the road. There would be somebody else and we would look at each other, then cross together. For a brief moment, we would be stranger-allies against the onslaught of traffic. While travelling to Orissa recently on train, a middle-aged man who couldn't understand our language brought us water in bottle whenever our bottles emptied. He did not know us and yet helped us. Somebody helps us in bus by keeping our heavy bags on their laps, others by leaving the seat to an elderly person or a woman with a child. In all these incidents, there is no need for words, a glance, a gesture is enough. And sometimes, it was just mutual understanding without any kind of gesture. After alighting from the bus, train or crossing the road, we are strangers again.

Bertolt Brecht says, " Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." This is my most favourite quote on change. I believe change never happens suddenly, it is gradual with many small, seemingly insignificant events leading up to it, causing it just like years of boiling lava finally erupts as a volcano. But sometimes people do change quickly, for better or for worse. And why is that? Their thoughts, beliefs, ideals, outlook towards life and way of living, everything changes. Do outer influences have more power over human mind than his own thinking? 

I wonder how every tiny little piece of puzzle fits right in when the time comes. I used to wonder whom I would marry and who would live with me all my life, tolerating my eccentricities, short temper, impatience... Now the puzzle is solved and I am surprised. Fate has brought me someone who was my first and last crush since childhood  When I was in primary, he was in high school and then college. Very handsome then. I was shy of him but adored him unknowingly. Over the years, we lost touch as roads differed and each went on our own path. But I always used to wonder where he was and what he was doing, may be married with two kids and not even remembering the tiny little me who once tormented him. And then one day, I felt like searching for him in Facebook. Then hesitatingly sent a friend request imagining I would just be his friend and it would be great to renew old acquaintances. And one thing led to another. I still can't believe I have met him again after 16 long years and...