Autumn Leaves

Sunday, was Sarah’s favorite day of the week. She liked Sunday for three reasons. First, there was no school or tuition on a Sunday. Second, she had no homework to do and she would spend her time drawing, coloring and playing. Third, she would be spending her entire day with Mummy and Daddy – two people she loved and adored most in the world.

Autumn was here, the leaves on the trees had turned yellowish brown, and over a period of time trees started shedding their leaves. And when one walked on the street, it made a crushing sound due to the dry leaves fallen from the trees. Sarah sat beside the window for a long time and drew a beautiful picture of the trees and the leaves, and colored them very carefully. In the end, it turned out to be a lovely picture!

Happy and excited, Sarah went to her Mummy to show the picture she had drawn. Her mother, who was a teacher by profession, was correcting the test papers. With a twinkle in her eyes and smile on her face, she said, “Look mummy, I drew a picture of the trees”. Her mother who was correcting papers lost count of the marks she was calculating. Irritated she looked at Sarah, not even noticing the picture she told her daughter that it’s a nice picture and quickly got back to her work again. Slightly disappointed by her mother’s reaction Sarah quietly left the room…

Sarah desperately wanted to show the picture and the next person she headed to, was her Daddy. Her father was a Software Engineer by profession and today he was preparing slides on his laptop for an important presentation. Scared, yet with a smile on her face, she said, “Daddy! Look I drew something…tell me how is it?” Her father…too busy to even look up and talk to his daughter asked her to leave him alone. This time tears rolled down her eyes, she felt her heart heavy, speechless and sad she left her father alone and walked out of the room. Wouldn’t it be nice if Sarah’s mother and father put a pause to their work and then look at the picture Sarah wanted to show? Tell her nice words and make her happy?

This was just one small incident that took place in Sarah’s life. Like I always say, Kids hearts are the purest. Give them a chocolate and they are happy, take away the same chocolate and tell them ‘it’s mine’ and they will start crying. They never remember anything for long periods of time. Sarah too will soon forget about this Sunday…will continue to draw, color and love her parents. Well…that’s about kids…what about grown ups like us?

The ‘Global Village’ is what we call the world today (Another term used for Globalization) .There are hundreds and hundreds of BPO’s, KPO’s, IT companies and so on…People work for hours and hours without taking any breaks. They work not only in the office, but also at homes.

Is it necessary to work all the time and take relationships for granted? Is work more important than relationships? Now I am not saying that one should ‘not work’ and sit at home all day long. No, but at least it is possible for us to take some time off from work and spend some quality time with the family.

There are times when the husband and wife make some evening plans, but it does not take place because one of them gets stuck at work. Mother is waiting for her daughter to return from work so that she could go visit her relatives, but the daughter comes home all tired and cancels the plan. Postponements of plans are all right if it happens once, twice, thrice…but is this fair when it happens all the time? Will one lose the respect for each other or will they be able to strike a balance between work-life and relationships?

I’d say sometimes relationships are like autumn leaves – very delicate, they slowly lose their color, get separated from the tree and finally after they are crushed …they are blown away by the wind!

Gracias Todos :)

Gracias Todos. Didn’t understand? Well…

‘Gracias Todos’ in Spanish means ‘Thanks to all’. Today I want to thank a few people who really encouraged me to write these articles and in the process of writing these articles I realized that they are not just articles, they are one’s thoughts that are put on these blogs.

Until now I had convinced myself that I cannot write, on a piece of paper or on blogs. In fact, blogs never really interested me, until Aakriti kept sending me everything she wrote. She writes everyday and she writes really well…what she writes spreads positive vibes. At first, I never really liked reading them (yes Aakriti…and please don’t be mad at me for this) but after a while, I kept looking forward to read more and more of what she wrote. Then one day it occurred to me, that why can’t I write something too? I knew, I cannot write as well as Aakriti, but I really wanted to give it a try…wanted to write a small article about something….about anything….but I was scared and unsure if others will like it or not.

One day I was chatting with her on-line, and I told her that I wanted to write too…and I also told her now scared I was. All she told was this “I want to live…CARELESS and free... I want to run through the jungle with wind in my hair and sand on my feet!!! Go write one...me offering u a million bucks!!!!!:)♥”.This she told me just 6 days back…and there I was, writing my first article. May be all I needed was a ‘little push’. Mil gracias Aakriti, for inspiring and motivating me.

There were others who encouraged me too. Thursday evening I started writing ‘About Saaya’, I could start well…but at the end of it, it seemed that I could just not come up with a good conclusion. I felt that this article was a ‘fail’ and I decided not to post it on the blog. I shared this article with some of my friends who were online. They read it; some seemed to like it a lot and others did not find the ending too convincing. That’s when Baban, Ashu(Ashutosh) and Sumit asked me to work on it a little more and I again started writing it, but this time I did not put forward my views (well…I had presented my ideas before posting it on the blog) ,I rather put myself in place of Saaya and viewed life through her eyes. And after that I somehow managed to end the article well. Gracias Ashu, Baban and Sumit for not letting me give up!

I need to thank Prasoon and Vikram too…Prasoon for correcting my silly grammatical errors (well…I don’t know how many errors this one has, as I am not going to take anyone’s help to thank everyone. Frankly, even if it does have any errors…I don’t really care) and helping me decided the title(s), Vikarm for asking me to write ‘not for others satisfaction, but for my own’. Gracias una vez más.(Thank you once again).

Lastly, I want to thank Bhaiya, Amit, Alok and everyone else (really sorry if I forgot to mention your name (es) here) for liking what I write. I don’t know when I’ll write my next article, but I hope you will all like what I keep writing and also keep giving me that ‘little push’ when I am close to giving up!

Mucho Gracias!!

May Flower

When I look outside my window I see a beautiful garden. It’s not a very big garden; it’s small but has a lot of plants and flowers. I see pink bud roses, white little flower with five petals, tiny blue flower-which is a creeper, red hibiscus …all these colors make them look lovely with a touch of green from all the other plants. They are always accompanied by pretty dancing butterflies and bubbly buzzing honey bees. This drags my attention everyday, I look and I smile.

It was the month of May. One evening, I was sitting in the garden and looking at all the pretty flowers, lost into thoughts….Kids played outside, the gardener was plucking the weeds, elderly people chattered, mom was in the kitchen-chopping vegetables for dinner and others involved in their on normal daily activities. But then something happened and it was no longer just another day!

All this while I was looking at the May Flower, it was still a bud, yet to bloom…The gardener who was working, pulling the weeds, had a small quarrel with our neighbor. Now I really don’t remember what the matter was, but he was angry and mad. In this anger he still continued to work, but he just pulled out the May Flower bud! It left me stunned, and even before I could protest or stop him, the flower bud was gone! I had waited all month just to look at the May Flower, as it blooms only in the month of May! I was really upset…and then it occurred to me, aren’t we humans like the May Flower too?

God gifted every individual with a talent. Some discover this talent when they are very young but most of us take a lifetime. Also there people who are in search of their talents, some of them try to paint…but do not get the best out of it, some of us give a shot at photography…but not everyone can capture best of the shots, some try to get into the world of music…but they are not very successful! And when they don’t really succeed in what they dedicated their time in…most of us, including me criticize them. Not realizing that it could burry all their talents in a coffin. It leaves one shattered and scared, it lowers their confidence …so low that they would never want to try anything again! We pluck their talents and never let them bloom. Wouldn’t the world look beautiful with fully bloomed flowers?

Well, then why do we criticize them? The “Words” spoken by us are so strong that it can make or break a person! “Words kill more than swords, so use words carefully”. Isn’t that true? Have you ever seen a crawling baby get up and run to its mother in just one day!? No.Parents encourage the baby to take one step everyday and don’t just abandon them because their babies take too long to walk and run…Parents knowing that they will see their child run walk and jump with joy someday.

All one needs is a little encouragement and soothing words. So let’s try and motivate each other and encourage ourselves, let’s not let anyone crush our talents-like how the gardener crushed the May Flower bud.

The Lost Childhood

When I say Kids…Do you imagine a cute, innocent, sweet and sometimes chubby looking face? Yes, Kids are innocent and they are filled with optimism in them. They are the most honest ones with a pure heart! It is said that “Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them.” But does the same apply in today’s world?

There were times when we kids only played games like Hide-and-Seek, Lock-and-Key, Hop-Scotch, Kitchen-Kitchen, Home and so many other fun games! But kids now-a-days have Xboxes, play stations and what not! There were times when our Grand parents told us many stories and we would look forward to listening them every day. But these days’ kids watch Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Nick and they have no time for such lovely stories….

We did very little studies or no studies and spent majority of the time in other activities, but today’s kids have a lot of competitions…! Everyone wants to be the Topper in the class and want 100% attendance awards, the best student award, best in sports, best in singing, best in dance, best in everything! Do these people-the parents, the teachers and the principal have any idea what the student(s) go through when they are not “First” in everything? Why don’t they make children feel special and say everyone is “Best” in their own unique way? They have extra classes after school and tuitions too…they have Physics tuitions in the morning and Math tuitions in the evening…and not to forget the guitar classes!

Everyone wants to be “The Best”. No, it’s not the kids who want the “Best” it’s their parents who want the “Best” out of their kids. Do parents realize what they are doing? Have you ever realized the amount of pressure kids have to go through?

Yes, we all enjoyed that stage of our lives and cherished it…but will the kids from the new generation cherish their childhood too?

In search of "I"

“I” am here today, writing my first article.” I” always get confused and look for adjectives when “I” am asked for “My” introduction. So,” I” asked “Myself” this question,” Who am I”?”I” always find it difficult to answer this question. Yes,” I” have a name and an identity, but “Who actually am “I”? “I” cannot give my introduction for more than 20minutes.Yes,”I” play many different roles; “I” am someone’s daughter, a sister, a friend…in fact, “I” play too many roles and “I” can be described in too many adjectives .But, the answer “I” am looking for is not there in the roles “I” play and the adjectives “I” am described in. They “Make me,” Me” .But, they are not what “I” am.

“I” am just another individual. “I” too have similar activities like you do and have similar emotions too. So what is it that’s extraordinary about “Me”? Am “I” not one among you?” I” am not sure,” I” have been discriminated.

“I” believe, God sent “Me” here for a purpose. The purpose is unknown.

Do “I” live for myself or do “I” live for others? Do “I” make myself happy or do “I” please others? Like always “I” have no answer.

There is a saying “Live and Let Live” …Do “I” Let Live people who do injustice to others? “I” have noticed that it’s easier to say things.” I” have realized that people just “say” things and do not analyze what they say. In fact, they are not even sure of what they say or do.” I” am now convinced of one thing, “I” now know that there are people out there who are as confused, as vague, as unsure as “I” am.

Well…may be, “I” was EMPTY. “I” was just filled with beautiful colors by beautiful people “I” have met in the journey of my Life. They were many, some stayed and many decided to leave. Many laughed with me and smiled with me at good times, but very few gave their shoulders to cry on when “I” had hard times. Never the less, they created Memories-which are going to last forever.