Leafy Meadows

  The afternoon was felt, with the sun turning up the heat at the full notch and even in the big air-conditioned conference hall, the heat was felt. A small droplet of sweat trickled down the back of Dhananjay making him uneasy, aware at the same time of the droplet trickling down his bare back and also the chairman introducing the agenda for today's meeting, it was going to be a long hot day. A reflective glance at other members present in the conference hall was needed just to confirm his affirmation that everybody is as uneasy and uncomfortable with the heat as him. He looked around, there he was a bespectacled balding fellow... with a little stub of skin and bones that performed the function of the nose. How ironically Dhananjay thought, this person was a quintessential meddler. Never found in his greying dusty cubicle but always hovering around accounts, marketing and purchase. Nosing into others' business with that small stub of a nose. A feeling of disdain flooded into h

  GOD. It's something that only a handful have experienced, few try to contemplate and many are ignorant about. Shiva was a bum, who would spread his tattered jute rug on the floor in front of the shoe stand of Madurai's Meenakshi temple. No, he would not beg for alms like all the other bums who would sit beside him, nor would he accept any prasadam . He would simply ask all the temple visitors who would approach him, more out of pity, than sympathy or empathy. "Have you seen GOD?" One wondered what he actually wanted to know about GOD, not even the devotest of the devotee would attest to seeing GOD and when such a question was asked by Shiva they were taken aback, at times offended for they visited the temple for years and yet, a simple question from this bum, had the power to unsettle them and question their faith and years of devoted worship. People would humor him sometimes and few teenagers would take him on his question, and answer seeing GOD in such an elaborat

  When the loose skin sac held it safe in the amniotic sea, the mind was born, it wasn't having the shape, that most of us who are familiar with geometric or design concepts would recall. It was a floating lump of grey tissues. It did not have an awareness of its claustrophobic surroundings as it was yet to grow. So alone and in a tightly contained sac of skin, the mind was born. Those who suffer from social withdrawal or from group anxiety would relate much to the mind's current state. How did the mind cope with such a claustrophobic environment of loneliness? Well, it was afraid like all of us, like when we suddenly become cautious about impending perils when the lights go out. It was unaware of the heart that was playing outside pumping in and out the red fluid of life. Do we not have such an acquaintance, a friend, or a neighbor who is engaged in activities that we think are just out of our league. But let's not waste our time on the mind's claustrophobia, our mind

  What could be more confounding than wondering and driving endless without any goal or destination in sight. With every moralistic, ambitious, and motivational speech about looking ahead and seeing the growth and future, every one seems to have been forgotten about looking back and learning from the lessons of failure, mistakes and unresolved issues.  On the eventful road called life, the destination is not so much as important as the journey itself. One might contemplate sitting beside a serene and calm lake or hustle in the corner office in one of the busiest city on the planet. The destination is same. The journey is another matter.  Where are we? and where are we bound to go? are questions that have haunted our forefathers, yet this Phantom, dwells in each one of us. We may suppress this with the materialistic happiness we derive from the feeble possessions that will eventually erode from the book of time. Even plastic is fated to erode, but the time is so large that it is seen as