Time flies....

when stretching out on a deck chair bathed in sunlight and an ice cold drink to avenge the heat....
when flipping through the pages of a magazine - can one be bothered to read the words? probably not when the sun screams out to be seen and heard....
when floating on dead sea waters, cocooned in ethereal music and lost to the night sky above...less of the down-to-earth more such celestial please....
when tucking into a hearty lunch knowing the rest of a lazy day awaits....
when drenching in warm monsoonal downpours.....
when learning what hydrotherapy really means and wondering what took so long....
when dozing off on a heated stone bed  with the soft sounds of water trickling around....
  ....time flies alright....when doing such nothings.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiIPbl6WHuQ



Inspired by -
http://www.nirvanaspa.co.uk/

Glorious Grey?

I screamed out aloud in dismay,
when I noticed your unceremonious arrival,
none the happier,
but people tell me all the more wiser(yeah right!)
New kid on the block you may well be,
but the older you have made me,
There you are vying for attention,ivory against ebony
while I ponder your fate,
Do I uproot you?
or give you a makeover?
none of this new found wisdom seems to pass muster.
OK! OK! enough of the angst, let's call it a truce, friend....pal...buddy....
what say I leave you intact(for now anyway) in all your shining glory?
but promise me, please please not to invite more of your kind to stay!
just you and me, cosy and nice,
for the next 10 years,what say?
wipe that smirk off!
the next 5 years then?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKMaVpF4atg

The Stuff........

of dreams
      and the odd nightmare,
the stuff that makes the skies bluer
          and the clouds greyer,
the stuff of elixirs
     and  slow poisons,
the stuff that drives you to distraction
         but brings focus to many a lost cause,
the stuff that intoxicates
      and yet rejuvenates,
the stuff that makes you a fool
     but leaves you with wisdoms untold,
the stuff that tugs at the heart
         and yet smashes it to smithereens,
forget logic , this stuff apparently makes the world go around,
defies 20 - 20 vision,
famously addictive stuff,
notoriously deceptive stuff.......
what else? but that four letter stuff called Love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjbj51SRgys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_lSFmsO0A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWhU6v2cVSg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x9LjtO6eqQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xg3vE8Ie_E

Grey Skies by Varun

Ugly dark frail sky,
Kiss the hope,happiness and the summer goodbye,
miserably, spitting, dull rain,
forlornly, drifting, pale, puddles down the drain,
gloomily,huddling people,
lifelessly swaying sad leaves,
stiffly swaying abandoned trees,
gusting winds makes shivering knees,
the standing deserted green fence,
no cheerful faces on the cold chocolate brown bench,
dry standing trees all frail,
black birds on the dull silver rail,
sad reflections in the grim puddles,
abandoned bike rack steeped in rain,
rain pouring on the glum umbrellas,
all warmth ,sun and happiness gone.

Guest Post - by Varun Muralidharan 

The Wonder Years

On my son's 11th birthday the typical worries that come with that territory that I have been ignoring, come flooding back. Aside from the fact he asks way too many questions  he seems to understand most of the answers. One can't get away with diversionary tactics or gibberish. You are faced with the realisation that this is truly a young adult in the making when he starts giving you tips to save money or  suggests  improvements to your time management skills. The bittersweet emotions of watching children grow up are only intensified when you realise they are no longer comfortable with you hugging or cossetting them.
With each passing year one dreads the onset of the teens and although most teenagers do seem like alien creatures I am hoping my son will be a lovable alien. Yes they are grumpy, short tempered, reclusive, rumour has it they also smell:-) and take every opportunity to defy authority but is it all bad? After all the most crucial years when a young person finds his/her grounding and starts forming opinions cannot be belittled. I think most of the behavioural issues that kids exhibit at this age stem from the fact that they no longer can take cover in our shadows and feel the heat of the sun full on. They may not reach out like before but the truth is they need us even more.Often the most desperate cries for help are the quietest....
Parenting is by no means a walk in the park and I often find myself wanting a 'Parenting for dummies'. One has to strike such a fine balance between supporting yet not curbing their independence. I think parents should be like an umbrella - a crazy comparison I know - that umbrella we keep safely tucked away in a forgotten cranny of our bag as we go about our business  but the second the downpour starts, out they come faithful as ever.  Good parenting is that subtle blend of holding on and letting go.......sounds worse than rocket science.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDo_JBFgH3k

Breathing in the fast lane

A maelstrom all around everyday and everywhere,
waking up even before the sun has warmed to the day,
rushing to be somewhere you should have been minutes earlier,
a few gulps of that stirring drink and precious mouthfuls of sustenance,
in and out of meetings and phone calls,
jargons, sticky situations, that ballistic boss, reams and reams of reading,
peering endlessly at that screen for answers,
talking, mulling, challenging,thinking.......and more thinking,
that's only half it though.....there's more,
cooking, washing, laundry, shopping, school runs,
a tireless list but only one of you,
each day blending into the next,
so much to do,
stop......breathe,
you owe it to yourself even in the fast lane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe6Ji8_6wLo

Rowena and her labour of love

I have come across  stories where the sheer grit and determination on display have inspired me. But Rowena's tale far surpasses all of them - girl power personified! When I first heard about the Minack theatre  and the wonder it is, I knew I had to see this one. An open air theatre with the raging Atlantic ocean as the back drop - stuff of fairy tales indeed! I was determined to see it and we visited it while caravanning at Cornwall. And like the guide books mentioned I too did believe at first sight that it must have been constructed by the Romans or at least a truckload of huge builders with all their paraphernalia of cranes and bulldozers. But then the story of Rowena Cade unfolds  before your eyes - an aristocratic upbringing born to a famous artist, Rowena was associated with the theatre from a young age having performed in a few small scale productions and also assisting extensively in backstage props and costume design. There are those that are patrons of a particular art but then there are those that live and breathe for their art and give up their lives for it.
She decided to convert her garden at Cornwall to a staging area for plays and thus began the rest of her life as lover of the theatre but primarily visionary and master builder. She set off to work converting her back yard at Minack house for Shakespeare's Tempest. What started out as a simple staging area for this play then slowly evolved into this amazing sight that stretched out before my eyes. Stones cut and and polished to make seating areas and a central staging area painfully hand carved lovingly into stone. She loved Shakespeare and what a stage she created for his work. But as all pioneers do, she too faced hurdles at every corner. World war II for starters put a huge damper on progress but she ploughed on. Rowena would continue to work on the theatre all her life till her mid eighties. She struggled many a time to make ends meet as ticket sales failed to generate enough funds for upkeep but nothing fazed her. A women who single-handedly moved ship wrecked wood from the beach below for the dressing rooms knew a thing or two about muscling through any hurdle.....
With just two sidekicks, her gardeners, a seemingly "frail old women" achieved the impossible.Today the theatre is swarming with visitors and theatre folk but her journey was a lonely one filled with hardships. If you are ever wondering what to see in Cornwall, make this top of your list. My only misgiving was that we couldn't see one of the productions being staged there but hopefully one I will be given the chance to set right.
There are many moments when architectural wonders take our breath away but very few labours of love that choke us - a women who lovingly chiseled away  at a brutal mountain surface all her life to unearth her dream........


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUBp_LvXuc4

pyar ya pyar se bhi zyadaa

It's been a while since I blogged - a multitude of reasons but I prefer to  fashionably put it down to writer's block. My definition of writers' block - a writer banging their head against a block praying for inspiration, a bit dramatic but not too far-fetched. Then I came across this contest on India bloggers to write an article on.....lo and behold!- Love marriage Vs Arranged marriage. A topic discussed to death, argued on every platform often igniting  strong opinions. What more can little old me add that might make a difference? But that's probably why so many people have ridden this hobby horse - cause nobody can escape from it, everyone contemplates marriage at some point and before you know it there you are on that horse forming your opinions with each clippity clop. Enough of the equestrian comparisons - coming to the matter at hand what more can I add to this discussion? Well here goes...

Pyar - Everyone grows up with ideas of falling in love and finding that elusive soul mate. But how many of us can afford that luxury and even if we could is it always forever? A teenager's dream, a young person's hope, someone's reality and another's disillusionment. Flowers and hearts, sweet nothings and more - and why ever not cause when it hits you it catches you unawares, rocks your world and tilts it askew. And then when the dust settles and you are living the dream, can you keep it up without waking up? Reality bites and when it bites boy! does it chew at you in chunks. I have seen so many love marriages turn sour, when expectations let alone not managed, are hardly even acknowledged. Mind you there are always success stories as well. Couples who blossom in each others presence and stoke and kindle their chemistry to something that lasts till death does them part and if possible even beyond.  Alas ! we don't have more of them because they are beautiful to behold - a jigsaw that knits seamlessly into place, a poem entwined in music to make a song, a mish mash of colours on a canvas that spectators often scratch their heads to decipher.

Pyar se bhi zyadaa - an arrangement, a contract, realism in action.....do we like each other? do our families get along? do our horoscopes match? are we compatible?.....how many more questions can I list in my match-making checklist?.....possibly stark , a little de-stripped of emotion almost like the spotless bleached corridors of a hospital ward. Not a pretty image! but the realist that dozes in everyone and often wakes up in people like me and gives a kick up the backside and says "wake up fool!" is doing the salsa when faced with such an arrangement. Yes, it doesn't start off all whistles and bells and very few poets have been inspired by it but why then does it work so well? A love that grows with each day - ok ok that might be too optimistic a view. Let's say a love that waxes and wanes like the lunar cycle. A discovery in its most beautiful form, a quest if you will. Often a success story and why ever not? two people who have come into the relationship their feet firmly grounded and if  they do then learn to grow together, furrowing roots deep into the ground and maybe also throwing branches reaching for the heavens - indeed why ever not!
It has known to happen and yet again it is a sight to behold.

surrealism or realism,

a beautiful dream or a spiritual awakening,

the searing passion of turbulent waves or the soothing touch of babbling brooks,

pyar ya pyar se bhi zyadaa,

Who is equipped enough to fathom that hey? definitely not me.....

Yes, as the very appropriate strap line for the contest read - either you arrange the love or love the  arrangement! a conundrum indeed. An argument exists for both sides as always and I personally seesaw most of the time as most of us often do. But that's the beauty of life itself - choice , freewill, to make a decision and to commit to it and live it the best way possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T71jHjIvEAI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=xPKQ1tzsBWI&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-J4xYOxJ9w&feature=fvwrel

A date with destiny....

No, not the name of some mills & boon you faintly remember, rather a serious discussion about destiny. Well as serious as I can get in most circumstances anyway. Why destiny? Why not destiny? Is it foolhardy to believe in it? or is bigger the fool who dismisses it? Is it possible our lives have already been written, pre-planned and us only living the motions. How many times do we shrug our shoulders blaming fate? escapism ? Possibly. But the argument there could be why do we so often get the feeling that some things are meant to be? Coincidences which just feel too coincidental.


And what about astrology ? Hogwash  or something so groundbreaking and scientific that a full understanding of it is beyond human comprehension? Think about it, the position of the cosmos at the time of your birth and its transitions thereafter defines you and your entire life, down to the nitty gritty of how you look, how your partner might look, what work you do and even when and how you move on to the beyond. I for one raise my hands to poring over sun sign predictions and the like. Why you ask? Not so much because I believe that everything that I read will come true but more so for the sense of comfort I get knowing it's not all down to me, all the ups and downs are not entirely my doing and there could be something beyond me. Escapist yes but also rather humbling in a way. There has to  be some truth in it though - considering sometimes it feels like whatever you do you just can't seem to catch a break, hurdles at every corner and a liaison with bad luck that can't be shaken off. While at other times, things magically seem to go your way, a rainbow after every rain shower, good fortune that hunts you down. Makes me wonder......


 My mother, an astrology enthusiast herself, once said to me that our astrological charts are the balance sheets from our previous birth i.e. whatever you do now defines your life in the next birth. Quite an icky thought at that! One would think any retribution for the bad and any goodwill for the good , would boomerang back in the current life. But does that mean we can shirk all responsibility for our actions, blame everything on the elusive and lounge around with no motivation. Fat chance! That's where the catch is! Freewill is the magic word here or at least the perception of freewill. They tell you everything  can be surmounted with hard work, battling against odds, banging against that wall so many times you at least dent it. And this I do have proof off - striving for something for so long, living and breathing it, does make it come true. It's almost like some thing out there has heard your fervent prayer and can't but offer a helping hand. So the next time you get down on your knees, maybe not literally, and say "give me a break someone up there" make sure you say it fervently enough and who knows what might be in store......
Lots of questions as always with very few answers.....but then some questions just need to exist unanswered....... Keeps us going, keeps us wondering.......


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjyP37kDJ4I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVfgqdlAuwU

Happiness Unlimited

that sigh when standing on a mountain top,
that contentment lazing on the grass mesmerised by fluffy white clouds,
that cosy feeling of a warm drink on a cold winter's day,
that gentle relief of a breeze on a searing summer's day,
that chill of the first wave on the beach,
that moment when your favourite song starts playing on a drive,
that feather soft touch of a babies hand,
that bittersweet emotion watching your children grow,
that pride when praised for a job well done,
that smile on a loved ones face,
that buzz of first love,
that yawn when your head hits the pillow,
that blissful silence in meditation,
so fleeting, there one minute gone the next,
forever etched in the windmills of your mind,
profound, elusive, surreal yet so real!
wealth, power , fame hell yeah! but take a backseat for now,
Happiness Unlimited? yes please, if only for a while!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDnJx6T_HsE&feature=related