Feel privileged!!!

Sometimes things seem so beautiful and so astounding that we tend to forget the real object.I mean, how the real object must be feeling to be a piece of such adoration. Sometimes, though it may sound rather peculiar and surprising, the admiration that they get is not what they desire. It's sometimes painful for them but their painful situation becomes so breathtaking for us that they can hardly complain and we can hardly realize. Just take for example, the images given here.It's of the Niagara Falls when it froze. It's so wonderful that we forget the woe of the water which is dead frozen....which is inhibited of the flow!

But, despite all this life is for living such moments. If your woes and sorrows seem good to others, then you must feel desired and privileged. After all, life is a mixture of good and bad. If everything we desire gets fulfilled, then it's not a life worth living!

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Words So True.....

What is the meaning of life? To be happy and useful.

# Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.
- Audre Lorde


# No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.
- Barbara de Angelis


# Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
- Anais Nin


# We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are.
- Talmud


# Be where you are; otherwise you will miss your life.
- Buddha


# We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving. And we all have some power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.
- Louisa May Alcott


# Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.
- Ralph Ellison

After 28 years

Saturday morning. It started like every normal Saturday morning usually starts. We had our end-sem lab quiz scheduled that day, it sounds important but could it be more important than the event that was scheduled for that day! Well the answer might be subjective but it is unquestionable at the same time. So, just like each lab class we ‘calmly’ went inside and almost all of us were trying to have premonitions, not about the quiz questions of course!!So, the lab ended at 12:30 for the 1st batch (I was in it) quiz takers and at 1:00 for the 2nd batch. And after the lab, we didn't have any classes, not by time table. It was because the day was more of a festival for the citizens of a country where cricket is an unequivocal religion. So, we all fastened our seat belts and got ready for the war to begin. I was getting flashbacks, or rather, flashes of the Ramayana.

The match began. Many boarders were enjoying the match in the dining hall of our hostel and it felt like a stadium but, I preferred watching it online. Whatever! The match went on and on and on. India’s innings started and started rather at a low note. Sachin’s wicket came as a heart choking situation and many were disheartened. Well, the match was full of nail biting moments. Sachin and Gambhir’s wickets were like ‘Nooooo…..that can’t be…..!’ moments. I started disliking the bowler. Anyways, I was watching the match alone in my room, so it was a bit of pressure to witness some worrisome situations. The last 6 overs to go! It was expected that Malinga was going to bowl the 48th and 50th overs-the 2 crucial overs for India. I was feeling that it was kind of a live or die moment. At last, at the end of 47th over, I thought, I can’t handle the pressure alone and went to a friend’s room (who was also witnessing the match online) for the last 3 overs. And, as expected Malinga bowled the 48th over but…..tchtchtch….what great strokes! My heart elated with each stroke. That was just wonderful, awesome! Starting of 49th over…..5 runs,12 balls and a great performance awaited. We were praying for a six but the first ball contributed for a single run. Next, 11 balls, 4 runs…..Dhoni on strike. The ball was bowled, Dhoni hit the ball…..and buffering stopped. We were sure that it must be a six or at least a four but for 5 seconds could not judge what it was exactly! I patted the laptop heavily as if it would listen to me and would show the consequence. That was funny but at that moment it was not! Finally, after 5 seconds we saw that it was a huge six and……..INDIA WON THE WORLD CUP 2011! I was spellbound. I did not know for a minute how am I supposed to react. I was just left in that moment. I did not want to come out of that. I was seeing my friends screaming and dancing with joy and I was just asking them,”Is it for real? ” Then, we saw Yuvraj and Harbhajan crying and then I realized, 'Yes. We actually have the cup now. We are the champions now!' A lot of thoughts and lots of feelings were streaming in but I was just confused what to do. Should I scream, should I laugh or should I cry. Anyways, we enjoyed the last moments of the world cup in the dining hall. Sachin being carried on the shoulders and India’s victory walk round the stadium was heart-elating. Sachin’s last ODI world cup in his hometown, in his ground with a victory, world cup victory, and his cherished dream of holding a world cup in his 21 years of carrier, that was one of the most glorious moments. But that was also sad. I was feeling as if this is the last world cup match for me. Anyway, we are the champions now and that’s the best thing. When the team was posing for a photo with the World Cup in their hands and a banner reading ‘Champions’ in front of them, I bet most Indians would have witnessed a ‘goose bumps moment’. Oh, that is just so good, it’s hard to come out of it.

All this glory, all this pomp is worth the win, a win after 28 years. But, what disturbs me is the amount of money. Yes. Many organizations-govt. and private have already announced and some are yet to announce huge prize money for the team members for their win. I agree that they are worth it and deserving. But, just think, gifting each player 1-2 crore rupees on one side and people of the same nation dying of hunger, committing suicides out of hunger on the other, where does this issue fit in? If one crore rupees have truly been invested for such a cause, how many lives could have been saved? How many people could have been benefited?

Think of 2007 world cup. We, residents of a civilized nation turned into terrorists when Indian team failed miserably. We were in the verge of demolishing their houses; we burned down their dummies and what not. Let us forget the past. It was bitter. But shouldn’t we give it a thought? We are healthy minded people and have got the capacity to think and ponder over an issue. We are happy now as our team won the world cup. They are happy too. It’s our win, our country’s win. But, when the team lost in 2007, was it only their loss?! Were they feeling happy about it? We were feeling bad; but, at the same time we should have thought, what they were feeling at that moment. They were also depressed and we added on to it by burning down their dummies, by attacking their homes and by bad mouthing them. Is this what independence should look like? Definitely not. Now, we are raining gold on them. If a small, just a trifle amount could have been used otherwise, a lot of deaths could possibly have been done away with.

Anyways, it was Team India! The men in blue! And, tomorrow is Blue Day. Just hope, the glory remains with us forever.

Copyright © One Life To Live. All Rights Reserved.

Tamishra

Copyright © One Life To Live. All Rights Reserved.

Marichikaa ra swapna

[This is a short story written in Oriya.
To read it ,click on the images given below]

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Reflection

Another morning heralds
And the sun sprangs out of the horizon
The darkness is nowhere to be seen
It lies there all within….

Hope fairy knocks the door
Wakes me up …
And drags me to the open moor
It lets me feel the breeze
As morning unfolds it crease

I see it has still followed me
“What do you want?”….
I wanted to ask… But
I saw it leap and sprang
With all joy and halcyon…
Can it feel….the mood I am in?
No,No…it can’t be….

The voices faded and it has to stop
I returned and went for the call
Day and night it seemed to me….
Long enough….and gloomy
Yet…it was not the way I thought
The sun just sensed it
And concealed it fiery wings

Perhaps just to hark me back
I walked past the moor
To the cosy filled door
As I turned back
I again saw it following
But this time it didn’t ‘sprang with joy’
It just stayed calm and …..
(I think it grieved)
But why is it so?
I didn’t know what to do
And what to say
But I remembered all the way
It danced with joy
Sometimes I marked it and
Sometimes I did ignore
But all the time it stayed with me
And reflected all that I seek
But how…how could it know everything?
I need to know
I have to enquire…
And then I called it upon
And asked,” Who you are?”
It stayed calm and looked at me
“Before I answer just close your eyes”
It spoke to me…..
“And said can you feel me all through the day”
“Yes, everytime”, I answered
It smiled and uttered,
“That am I….
You feel me every time,
Every time you are with yourself
Every time you are alone
Only I stay with you
And It’s only me who can reflect you….
Whatever you can call me
But the world names me truly as
A Shadow……".

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YOU ARE A BLUE PEARL

Head understands head and heart understands heart. The nose can only smell; eyes can only see; ears can only hear. Similarly, the heart can only feel while the head can only think. We try to put the heart in the head and the head in the heart and it doesn’t seem to work.

Your heart feels something is beautiful, and can feel it. When head says something is beautiful, we cling on to the word; it’s there in the mind, but we might not feel when the heart says the same thing. We repeat the word ‘beautiful’ in the head but it doesn’t seem or feel beautiful the way it would have if it had come from the heart.

Let’s talk about love. It’s the same thing-you talk too much about love, the word ‘love’ gets stuck in the head, but somehow there’s no depth of feeling. That’s because it’s in the head, not in the heart. In silence, love emits, radiates. We experience ourselves in the things we love more. That is why, when we lose the things we love, we feel hurt; we feel unhappy.

Suppose you love your piano very much and you hear that something has happened to your piano, something gets cut-off in you. Or, if something happens to your car and your dog, you feel a loss. So, you are not just living in your body, but also in that of the objects or people you love. But if you can expand this existence even more to cover the entirety, you will know that there is no loss and you are total.

You are a blue pearl. Blue is beautiful; blue is something that is big, vast and infinite. All that is immense and infinite in creation and that which has depth expresses itself in blue.

The sky is blue, the ocean is blue. You are a blue pearl, in the sense that you can’t be measured. You are so deep in your being. Though you are in your body, nobody can measure your being. The being in you is not just the blue infinity; it’s a shining radiant infinity that is deep and immense. Blue pearl means that which is shining, that which is radiant, that which is infinite; yet. It seems to be so finite.

When we start listening to our heart, the we know that all is one; and one god is in all. See, in our body we have so many cells and each cell has got its own life. Many cells are being born every day, many cells are dying but they do not know you. You know if something is wrong with one particular cell; you can feel it. Similarly, though we are all made up of small units of life, there is one life that covers and governs all other lives.

We are all floating in an ocean of life; a big life. It is not just empty space all around us; it is lively big life. And in the big sea of life there, all shells are floating and each shell has got a little water in it which is not the water separate from the water in the sea.

So, we come out of our shells and experience, “I am not just in the body, but I am expanded all over; everywhere, it’s me there and it’s me here. I see myself in everybody”

That is the essence of life!

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I read this article in "The Times Of India" of 20th April....its from the "The Art of living foundation"

Youth

Some 3-4 days back, we were informed about a student of our college who needs a kidney transplant. The operation costs a whopping amount, hence financial support was necessary. A few students took up the initiative to arrange for the same; even the management and faculty members extended their support. A notice was put up at various places in the college campus, requesting students to support and rise for the cause. Some read it casually, some paid attention and some were even ignorant about it. A support box was placed in the campus. A bunch of students, however, made a mockery out of it and started putting ₹1, ₹2 coins in the support box as if they are giving alms. I don’t know what they thought and why they thought of doing such a travesty. Some students from his (the boy who needs the transplant) class informed us about the act of mockery when they came to our class to inform us about a meeting that they were organizing for the support cause. 

This is really concerning. The youth has become so unemotional and unresponsive. However, nothing can be generalized. There are some people who are really taking the initiative for some social cause and if not taking the initiative, they are at least not backing off or making a farce out of it. But the other side of the coin, the unethical and unconcerned attitude is really concerning. The end up spending money on meaningless things, especially on those things that are considered to be not good and may be harmful. If they save their one day’s expenses and donate it for some noble cause, then it will really be great. At least, it would do something needful.

Today’s world suffers from many problems. Leave the world, in our country there are several causes to fight for. The youth has to rise and take the control for the betterment. And, by rising I don’t mean setting up of some social service groups or something of that sort. I don’t think just doing that  would really work. I don’t say that all of them are good for nothing; some are seriously working for the good. But, what I mean to say is that one need not establish some kind of groups or be a part of such groups to actually help in any cause. You could do your own part. Like it’s better to individually teach a single child on your own level and do something productive to educate the child than to build up a social organization and take up hundreds of students and doing no good to them. I myself have come across such group where some 15- 20 students come daily to study for an hour or so but almost each one of them hardly learn anything at all. They are motivated to come and study there but those students never go to a school; even when there is a provision for a free primary education in our country. So, it’s better if you rise yourself and take up pace for the cause. But still everything depends on the way you think. The youth has to rise and involve themselves for the good of mankind and society. Each individual has to do something for the greater good that would give an eternal satisfaction to their beings. After all, its One Life To Live!

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A QUESTION

All Indians must have heard the childhood story of Mahatma Gandhi: when a school inspector came to his school and took a test of the students by dictating five words and Mahatma Gandhi had wrongly spelled a word. Even after the teacher’s instruction to rectify his mistake by peeping into his neighbor’s copy, he didn't do it.

What followed this story is very much known to everybody. The fact is, this incident has become just a ‘story’ for everybody. Such honesty is considered to be seen only in stories. Almost everybody seem to consider that, such incidents can happen in a story and real incidents present a complete different scenario. Or may be even, occurrence of such incidents is limited only to the lives of great people is another way of thinking. But, a thing to ponder over, when such incidents happened in the lives of great people, they were as ordinary as we are now, but, what they did then, and how they did it, made them great. They never did certain things with an intention to be great and good. They did those because they felt it as the right way of doing things. They responded to certain situations in a special way, not intending to make it special. They responded that way because, it was their spontaneous self. They never "planned" to behave good. They behaved well because they were actually good. That is what distinguished them from others. That is what made the difference.

But…..

This was just a one sided view. All great men were great but, there were and there are some honest people who never made it large. For some, conditions were unfavorable, for some resources (not exactly material resources)were the major hindrance and for some, just being honest did not turn out.

Yeah, it’s true; at least if seen from the perspective of today’s “realistic world”. Yeah, values like honesty, truthfulness, sincerity are outdated in today’s times. Those who speak loudly of such values are considered to be dumb and psychotic. If ever, anybody wants to be honest or do something good, the generation kicks the person hard, they are discouraged to a great extent and sometimes even jeered upon.

Well, everybody knows what happens. Most people would have seen this happen. After all it’s a regular scenario everybody is acquainted, well acquainted, with. But is it really mad to clutch to our values??? If you yourself can’t adhere to the values, why do you disgrace those who respect and have faith on them?! What I want to tell is: I agree that today’s world has become unethical to a certain extent and values are outdated, but what about people who still adhere to such things.

What say?

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