A song to hum

Hans Christian Andersen, a Danish author, once said, "When words fail, music speaks" - so true.

Have you ever listened to a song, closed your eyes and became nostalgic and just felt the moments of bliss.

Some tunes have that ability to make us hum continuously and make us traverse through a benign flow of contentment in our veins.

They say music has the ability to transcend our minds and souls to a higher level - a level which is so beautiful and perfect that each second spend listening makes your day and the energy that it carries on us and our near & dear ones through us, makes it really something to spend time on.

I believe everyone of us has that playlist of their own. Keep that playlist handy and whenever your adrenaline needs that push, listen and get immersed on the opportune moment. After all, in this age of mind carrying unnecessary clutter and traffic, much needed essence of melody helps us unmind and unwind.

What is Real Peace

A king once organised a painting competition in his kingdom. The theme of the contest was to showcase peace.

There were so many entries but at the last, there were only 2 paintings selected for the finale. One painting was about a serene and calm lake, surrounded by snow capped mountains. It was a perfect depiction of peace, where everything was soothing to the eyes.

The other painting showed torrential downpour on a deserted land where everything looked opposite to a calm surrounding. The King saw something else. He saw a small bird perched on a tree, giving food to her tiny fledgelings in her drenched nest.

The second painting won. King explained that real peace is not what we feel when everything around us is good or calm. The real peace is when despite tribulations, worries, problems, we still continue to remain in sync with ourselves and do what is the best thing to be done at that moment.

A Donkey and The Untied String

A man had 3 donkeys. Once he was travelling with them to a distant place. He came across a river and wanted to get refreshed but he had a problem. He had only 2 ropes to tie his animals to a nearby tree. There was every chance that the 3rd one could go astray.

A Wise man was travelling by and seeing his dilemma offered to give an advice. He said pretend that you are tying the 3rd one to the tree - just make sure that donkey is facing you.

The man did the same and went to get refreshed. When he came back, he was surprised and happy to see the 3rd one still holding on to the tree.

He untied the other 2 donkeys and started his journey. There was one problem. The 3rd one would not budge an inch from the tree. He tried all his tricks but no respite.

The Wise man comes back to the scene and answers the riddle. You have forgot to pretend that 3rd one's rope has not been untied. A gasp of disbelief came upon the man after he saw that pretending to untie made the donkey move freely around.

A beautiful story where untied strings signify our apprehensions, dilemmas, worries, stress, uncertainties and all such similar attributes that deny us invariably to move forward in our life.

No one can teach us how to untie these strings. We need to figure that out as most of the times they are our own creation and for some reason, we keep these in our minds for quite long, than needed.

Sometimes, we suffer much more in imagination than in reality. This Realization is the first step to untie the string.

Words are powerful and have energy

Words are said to be very powerful. It represents what we think and feel from core. What comes from our mouth and what we in turn hear does in fact makes a huge impact on our subconsciousness.

Imagine a person feeling sick and he chose to speak in negative words while speaking to the outside world. By negative words I mean like I am sick, I have so much work to do, I am always unhealthy, I have so much tension and now I fell sick again.
Feeling sick means our energy balance is disturbed - negative is more than positive. Now on top of it, if we say negative words do you think that our balance will be restored faster or delayed.

Contrary, imagine thinking positive and choosing to speak positive words like I will be healthy soon, let me find out ways to bring back the balance by eating right and thinking right. Say good things to near ones and appreciate their kindness and help for taking care of you. Talk to your family and get advice. Chances are you will hit the equilibrium sooner.

Thinking and speaking positive when negatives are all around us is something which may feel bookish and not worthy to believe for, but if it does have an effect, I think it is worth trying out. Not sure if it is worth believing in but sometimes you tend to feel the righteousness even though there is no logical proof towards it.

Words are always free to use, it's how we chose to use it, which will decide the energy that follows.

Falcon and Comfort Zone

There was a king who received a very special gift - two beautiful, magnificent, peregrine falcons. He handed them over to a man, who was expert in training falcons. After a couple of months, the trainer informed the King that one of the falcons was doing really well - Flying majestically ! Soaring into heights of the sky ! But the other one - it had not moved at all from its branch - from the very day he had started training them.

The King brought healers and sorcerers from all over the place to try and get the falcon to move, but the bird just wouldn't fly. Having tried everything he could, the frustrated king said to his minister - "Maybe we need someone more familiar with nature. Someone who understands animals and birds. I think only such a person can solve this problem. Go. Look for someone like this from the countryside and assign the task to him."

The next morning, the king was thrilled to see the 2nd falcon soaring high above the palace gardens. Delighted, he called his minister and asked him to get the doer of this miracle to him. The minister brought a simple farmer to the King. The King asked the farmer - "How did you make this falcon fly?" The farmer replied - "It was very easy, Your Royal Highness. I simply cut the branch on which the bird was sitting."

Falcon = We
Branch = Comfort Zone
Fly = Growth

We all tend to slowly and unknowingly slip into our self-made comfort zone - a zone where we limit ourselves of all possibilities and probabilities, keeping ourselves tied to our notions of knowledge about everything out there. It is the journey with experience that helps us grow to be a better person, than we are in the previous moment.

Feeding our Minds - It's our choice

It's interesting how our minds sometimes bowls a decent googly to us and we are found wanted and adjudged out plump. It has been said that our minds are sponge and they take on whatever we see and interpret.

Now this also means that if we see something bad or not worthy in its true sense, chances are our minds start adapting our behavioural patterns with respect to them. And knowingly or unknowingly it will affect our cognitive abilities - we start reacting to situations rather than responding to them.

Let's take a glance on the other side of this aspect. We see things which are Good, noteworthy, meaningful and motivational - our minds subconsciously paves way for positive frequencies which in turn affects our response to situations and moments with a balance.

Well, we have around 16 hrs a day - what we see, what we do, what we say, what we listen to, what we interpret,what we think - all of them matters. Changes or positive vibes may not be felt by naked eyes readily - maybe or may not be.

For some unknown reason which only our consciousness knows why, I do believe that this could be true - i.e. seeing good things bring positivity and anything remotely bad sheds positivity.

Point is do we believe it or not. And if we do believe, let's atleast try to make an attempt to make a choice next time round - As someone famously said,

"Mind is a good servant but a very bad master"

Remembering National Anthem

The other day, i was in cinema hall and before the movie commenced, we had this sentence flashed on the screen, which said - Please stand up for the National Anthem.

Jana Gana Mana...the song which we sang every day during morning school assembly. I remember that we used to get punishment, if we were found to be moving during the anthem. It brought a level of discipline and honour for the national flag, though I must say that fledgelings, that we were, it was just like a normal school routine for us, and nothing more than that.

In the theatre, when everyone - parents, children, couples, aged alike were all standing up and listening to the rashtragaan, i could see that there were few people, who came late, were standing in the Entry gate during the anthem. There was this sense of nostalgia and at the same time, i felt a sense of pride to remember ourselves as children of our homeland.

More than anything else, i was flown years back and came forth to present, and that traversal is what was precious for me to relive and cherish the remembrance and present.

Going An Extra Mile

It was the usual travel to office on Monday morning, walking past the jam packed road, full with four wheelers and two wheelers giving horns to make their way free. As usual, no one paid heed to them, including me, as vehicles in front of us, were also moving at a snail pace.

After going some distance, the road got widened, and we were able to move faster. However, there was a biker behind me who was giving horn every now and then. At first, i thought he wanted a way and i gladly gave as well. But the main surprise for me was to come next .

He went past me but while moving ahead, he signalled his back pack and a thumbs up sign. For a moment, i did not get the thing, but then after a sec, things got clear.

To confirm the same, i parked my bike side and yes, as i had thought, my bag zip was open.

I know, this does not qualify for something which is worth mentioning- but what striked me was the simple gesture and the way it was given to me. For some reason, it brought a sense of serenity and smile inside me - the feeling which we get when someone goes that extra mile to make things right - to us or to anyone else, selflessly.