Dancing Feel Good Tryst

Have you ever wondered what smiling, indeed, is all about. Well, it is one of the most beautiful state-of-existence every one of us wants to be all the time. But it doesn't happen so quite often. Right?

I have always been wondering how one can prolong this state for more days and months and years and not the other extreme i.e. for hours, minutes and seconds. Its like a Sudoku puzzle with the 3 Levels : Easy, Medium and Hard. Sometimes, its so simple, sometimes, its so not-so-simple and sometimes, its not-at-all-simple.

On the other day, I was watching Dance India Dance, a program telecasted in Zee TV. There was this guy named, Yashwant from Rajasthan, whose sheer innocence and charisma, pounded my heart to beat atleast 3 beats faster for sometime. There was this-something in him, which made me wonder "If there are more people like him, I wonder whether Oxford dictionary alikes would be able to maintain the word 'Sadness' in their word-list for a long time"

This is what happened :
Yashwant from Banswada(Rajastan) gave his audition. He has done all his practice from TV. His dream was to meet the judges of the show and see them through his live eyes. When he came to the stage, his eyes were showing the excitement on seeing the judges. When the audition ended, the judges were of the view that he should come next year. His response was something which made me think and remember him for a long time for the smile he carried throughout :
"Sir, main rajastan ke ek chote se shahar se hoon. Maine practice sirf aapko TV pe deh dekh kekeeya hai. Main sahee mein truly bol rahaan hoon kee main yahaan ke layak naheen hoon. Kyonkee iss program ka level bahut ooncha ho gaya hai. Mera sapna tha kee main aapko real mein dekhoon. Jab aap bahar bheed mein se aa rahe the, tab main aapko haath bhee naheen de paaya tha. Main aapko promise karta hoon sir, kee agle saal aur mehnat ke baad pheer aaonga. Bus ek request hai sir (there was a cap which he used for the audition). Agar aap yeh topee mere sar pe takdeer ke topee samajh ke pehnaa de (Actually, the person who gets selected gets a cap from the judges as a token, called 'Takdeer Kee Topee') to mujhe…."

Forget all the above conversation, what was evident from his face was that his was a character who deserves to be applauded for being so simple and straight. The judges, of course, applauded him and gave him his version of takdeer kee topee and said they can’t forget him. And the guy went out with the same genuine smile with him.

Sometimes a small deed, a small gesture, would make us think about the different facets of the people. I just wanted to capture this beautiful one in writing, less it shoves away in the sands of time.

Faith Walks

Some stories turn your heads towards them. Because they have something in them which makes you think "Wow!!!This is something !!!".

As told by Jude Stringfellow(the owner):
Faith was rescued by my son Reuben on January 21, 2003, when he and his friend Johnny, the owner of Princess, jumped over the fence of the flea market area that Princess was raised to guard. Princess wasn't exactly the mothering kind. She was literally terminating Faith's life because she knew instinctively that Faith was unable to battle the other puppies for a place to feed. Faith was weak, small, runtish, and mostly she was nearly dead. Reuben grabbed Faith out from under Princess and smuggled her under his jersey.

When Reuben brought Faith to us she had 3 actual legs, but the left front leg was badly deformed, placed backward, upside down, and it had more toes on it than normal dog legs. The leg was removed when she was 7 months old when it began to atrophy

Her owner, Jude Stringfellow, using a spoon with peanut butter as an incentive taught Faith to hop but Faith decided on her own to walk.



And the sentence which I want to emphasize again and again is "Faith decided on her own to walk". She walked her life with her. Let us all Live and Walk Our Life the way it should be.

A Feel-Good Tryst

On Dussehra, I went to my brother's place. It was quite an enjoyful experience. Would like to narrate one small incident which happened in the midst of all the hue and cry. We all went to Ayyappa temple on the occasion of Dussehra to get the much needed and never-ending yearning of blessings.

After paying our homages to the God, we went straight or rather our bikes paved itself to the Idli-Dosa stall nearby. We ordered masala dosas and were engulfed into tasting the yummy-crispy food in our plates. Just then this guy came and ordered for himself the same menu as was ours. Nothing unusual uptil now.

Here comes a lady who was begging for some alms. She went to this guy asking for some favours and without a hesitation guess-what this guy did. He asked her as to whether she wants something to eat. She said she wanted to have some vada-sambar. He promptly gave the order and gave the vada-sambar plate to the lady.

That was quite a different aspect of helping street beggars. In this way, you feel happy and the receiver is also happy. Had it been a child (God forbid) then giving a small chocolate to him/her would be the best thing you would feel about yourself. Its just a way of taking things in a different way. If you really wanna help, give them something to remember or something to cherish....you may never know it could bring the much needed smile to their lips and the best part -- it would bring smile to your lips....think about it and try it

Underestimate At Your Own Risk

A lady, in a faded gingham dress and her husband, in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the Boston train. They were to meet the President of Harvard University. When they reached the venue, by seeing their simple attire, the secretary was in a dilemma as to whether she should pave them in to meet her boss.

For hours the secretary ignored them but their determination of not-to-budge-until-meet-the-President attitude finally took them inside the The Cabin. The President obviously was not entertained by seeing them in such a simple and un-sophisticated look but gave them some time to listen to their say.

The parents had a son who had attended Harvard for 1 year. But was accidentally killed in a mishap. As as he was very happy during his short stay in Harvard, so they wanted to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on the campus.

The President was shocked. And said "We can’t put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery.” The lady said "Oh no, we were thinking of giving a building to Harvard in his memory". The President rolled his eyes and said "“A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have overseven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard.” The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, “Is that all itcosts to start a university? Why don’t we just start our own?”Her husband nodded.

Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away traveling to California where they established the memorial of their son and you guessed it right...it is Stanford University.

The authenticity of this story is still debated but whether fake or real, it indeed is a good story for us to consider that no matter how small or insignificant a person may look like or be in his nature, Never ever can anyone in this universe estimate the true self of simplicity. For if you do so you would end up surprising yourself more often than not.

Carrying Things In Paradise

Sometimes, we carry things for more time than we should. Quite a simple story to illustrate this:

Two traveling monks reached a river where they met a young woman. Wary of the current, she asked if they could carry her across. One of the monks hesitated, but the other quickly picked her up onto his shoulders, transported her across the water, and put her down on the other bank. She thanked him and departed.

As the monks continued on their way, the one was brooding and preoccupied. Unable to hold his silence, he spoke out. "Brother, our spiritual training teaches us to avoid any contact with women, but you picked that one up on your shoulders and carried her!"
"Brother," the second monk replied, "I set her down on the other side, while you are still carrying her."

You see the woman could be replaced by virtually anything in this world ---- all depending on the way we take and perceive things. We have our own way of living life. Now the main thing which I am trying to stress is as to how much time we keep less-important things in our paradise(Our Mind) and for how long. Because the more we keep it, the more we delve into unnecessary chasms of irregularities

Just Another Unbelievable Story

We all love commentaries...be it cricket or football or tennis (they are the livewires who makes our adrenaline rush to its allowed limits though it often crosses while watching).....the likes of geoffrey boycott, harsha bhogle are many....and we have Dean du plessis.

Now who on earth is this guy --- I am quite sure that until today you would have joined me on the whereabouts of this hitherto anonymous name. This guy is a superb and brilliant commentator, he is one of his genre....the way he comments with precision and accuracy about the ongoing live cricket war on field is unbelievable.....the last word is not a typo because--- he is blind

Dean du plessis - a Zimbabawean commentator is all about self-belief and what it could do to your inner self. Wired up to the stump microphones, he can tell who is bowling from the footfalls and grunts, a medium or fast delivery by the length of time between the bowler's foot coming down and the impact of the ball on the pitch. He picks up a yorker from the sound of the bat rumming down on the ball, can tell whether the ball is in on-side or off-side and when it has hit pad rather than bat.

He cant deliver bowl by ball passage but works with the anchor. He has already shared the podium with Ravi Shastri, Geofrey Boycott, Tony Cozier and Bruce Yardley. This is quite an ardent display of believing what you are and to pursue your dream to the end and keeping that come-what-may-i-will-damn-reach-the goal attitude. Time to look inside us and rejuvenate those latent or made latent dreams to prop up and see the light of the day with some never to die vigors.

Making a Difference

Sometimes we come up with a brilliant and noble idea but when it comes to the execution part, which unfortunately is the most difficult part, we start thinking that we as individuals would not carry a say or for that sake, it doesn’t make any difference to others because that act may not be big enough to come into view. But in the larger sense, it is.

A beautiful story to keep up our momento intact, in doing good all the time, howsoever small the magnitude of the action may appear to be as it does a invaluable difference in the long run---to someone else.

My friend was walking down a deserted Mexican beach at sunset. As he walked along, he began to see another man in the distance. As he grew nearer, he noticed that the local native kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out into the water. Time and again he kept hurling things out into the ocean. As my friend approached even closer, he noticed that the man was picking up starfish that had washed up on the beach, and, one at a time, he was throwing them back into the water. My friend was puzzled.

He approached the man and said. “Good evening, friend. I was wondering what you are doing.”
“I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see its low tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don’t throw them back into the sea, they’ll die up here from lack of oxygen.”

“I understand,” my friend replied, “but there must be thousands of starfish on this beach. You can’t possibly get to all of them. There are simply too many. And don’t you realize this is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast. Can’t you see that you can’t possibly make a difference?”

The local native smiled, bent down and picked up yet another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea, he replied, “Made a difference to that one!”

Life is too short to hate anybody....Trust me!!!

We are born humans....we die humans. But during all the phases of our life, most of the times, we tend to be what we are not. We become what we should not. We become what is not right. And then everything just doesn't fit the things.

It is but natural that at the times of adversity, we become arrogant and we drift ourselves from the right....so much that we hurt others who are in contact with us. I would just say one thing : Remember that life is too short for keeping angst or hurting others. It may not be evident at present but when you are old, when you would have grandchildren's and when you look back in your life-canvas, you would see that there could have been instances where we could have made life more colorful, more meaningful, more joyful, and more less-painful for others.

So, during the most extreme times of the life, just keep this in mind.....no matter how bad the situation may be, there is always room for us to behave in the right sense and the right way. Just ask your heart and stick to its decisions. Things would surely see the light of the day sooner or later, but atleast you could be sure that no-one is hurt during the transition.

If we could practice this throughout our life, we would be making our small yet valuable contribution towards making Life, and indeed it is, a Miracle.

Sands and Stones

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE."

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one, who had been slapped, got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After the friend recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE."

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?" The other friend replied: "When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."

That's how life is all about. Goodness should be kept close to our heart and badness, in any form, should be kept out of our heart's periphery.

Nature returns everything with Interest

A farmer in Scotland, by the name of Fleming, heard a voice calling for help. He immediately ran towards the call for help, and there he saw a boy neck-deep in quicksand. Fleming struggled to pull the boy up; he affectionaltely patted him and told him to go home. Then he returned to his farming job again.

Next day, a well dressed gentleman visited the farmer and thanked him for saving his son. He wished to reward the farmer but he declined saying that it was his duty. Looking at a little boy, the gentleman asked Fleming if that was his son. Fleming nodded and was told:"This boy, one day will make you proud!"

Then on, the gentleman took full responsibility for the upbringing and education of that boy. He grew up to become a world-renowned scientist. He was Alexander Fleming - inventer of Penicillin. A few months after his invention, the son of that gentleman was hit by a severe attack of pneumonia! His life was saved (the second time) with penicillin! He was Winston Churchill.

Nature has a wonderful and marvellous way of returning our goodness in mysterious ways....sometimes evident and logically fitting in our thinking and sometimes not. What goes around, comes around. Nature doesn't retain anything. It returns everything with interest.