mindfulness

Magic is in the eye of the beholder. We can treat every passing moment as ‘yet another’ or as the ‘most magical’! The moment presents us with the opportunity. The choices are ours to make! Here’s to a super week.
#stories #culture #trade #life #ordinary #traveller #instatravel #instapassport #blogger #travelblogger #blogging #travelinsights #traveladdict #traveltheworld #wanderlust #destinations #entrepreneur #startup #disrupt #fun #metaphor #love #story #latergram #work #meaning #conversation #love #mindfulness #Monday

The rolling hills lurk an invitation that is hidden by winding roads and tall trees, Come, they seem to say. It’s an effort to get to a height, but it’s totally worth it. Most heights are worth the climb. Which height are you scaling today?
As a sunset loomed in and a steady breeze ruffled nascent order of a recently cleaned road, it was a treat to watch the plants behave. As they took the hue of the Sun and the direction of the wind. They seem to have a song in their step and dance in their lips. Bend. Dance a bit more. Smile.
#stories #culture #trade #life #ordinary #traveller #instatravel #instapassport #blogger #travelblogger #blogging #travelinsights #traveladdict #traveltheworld #wanderlust #destinations #entrepreneur #startup #disrupt #fun #metaphor #love #story #latergram #work #meaning #conversation #love #mindfulness (at Vagamon Medows)

Michael Jordan famously said, “Success doesn’t stop when you get there’. Infact, the real test of success is to see what happens when you get there. Your old associations, values, outlook? What has changed and why? And the next question, what next?
#stories #culture #trade #life #ordinary #traveller #instatravel #instapassport #blogger #travelblogger #blogging #travelinsights #traveladdict #traveltheworld #wanderlust #destinations #entrepreneur #startup #disrupt #fun #metaphor #love #story #latergram #work #meaning #conversation #love #mindfulness #basketball

As a new crimson lights a fading night every blade of grass seems to jostle for a better view. The breeze and the birds sing a fresh tune. They ask, ‘so how are you today’?, In teasing invitation.

Thats a good way to begin the day. In their company,. #stories #culture #trade #life #ordinary #traveller #instatravel #instapassport #blogger #travelblogger #blogging #travelinsights #traveladdict #traveltheworld #wanderlust #destinations #entrepreneur #startup #disrupt #fun #metaphor #love #story #latergram #work #meaning #conversation #love #mindfulness

From a big plane’s window it looks like a small plane. There is a difference I tell myself, even as I dismiss it by its size! Size after all is a matter of perspective.

I remind myself : This seat is mine for this journey. That plane is his. There is a difference there! 🙂

Our perches are not us!

I spotted that on the Berlin Wall! What remains of the wall, that is. It spoke to me of restless energy. Of a capacity to imagine a future that is different from the present.

To me that is central to progress and change. To see the Youth around the world, walking tall with fearless energy fills me with hope for the future. ‘Youth’ is a state of mind.

(at Berlin, Germany)

He sat there on as trains rushed by. On the platform of a busy Jamshedpur station. His craft at his feet. His rustic look keeping him company long after the train had left!

He stared a vacant stare. He didn’t speak much as my eyes met his.

As I looked at what he had to sell, crafted stone, I realised he spoke more with his hands.

(at Tatanagar)

Life keeps throwing balls at us. Which ones do we catch?

It often depends on how ready we are for anything that life throws at us. We can’t expect the ball to come to us at a speed, angle and height of our choosing!

The only choice that’s good to exercise is to be ready for whatever life throws at us in the moment. And catch it with all our mind!

Catches, as they say, win matches!

The real poor

What does it mean to be poor?

It is easy to describe poverty through the lens of money. Somehow that is the one definition that seems to stick across the spectrum. There are programs for alieviation of this wretched state. Governments are made and unmade on this topic.

But what does it mean to be poor?

On a summer morning, from a construction site that was fast making realty a reality, I saw a lady pass by. A hop now, a skip otherwise and a jump now and then.. In tow was her daughter. Playing with an empty water bottle and struggling to keep pace. On her hips, her little son cackling with laughter and undoing her hair.

She spoke in a language I didn’t recognise. But her tone was enough to tell me a bit about her love for her children and the richness of her heart. Atop her head were building material in a red basket with a yellow safety helmet sitting pretty. Like a crowning diamond on Her Majesty’s crown.

The bright red flowers on her saree sat easy with the glass bangles and matched her happy step. Her work shift was all set to start. The anklets on her feet seemed to announce that with every step she took. It was going to be some time before family time in their temporary dwelling that they lived in. The builder had given them one until the high rise that they were part of constructing, got done.

There was genuine happiness in them. All three of them. The daughter often stopping to pluck flowers and throw them at the wind and then scampering to catch up with her mother. They went about reaching out to the morning with a joyous spirit and a gentle sprint. So full of life and yet with tenderness and care. Oblivious to the stranger in me watching them walk by.

Are they ‘poor’?, I remember asking myself. A monetary lens will affirm. But look at it this way.

To walk by with a happy stride.

To carry a weight but not seem bothered by it.

To provide life in real terms to your children by exchanging your living moments for it.

To embrace each morning with  smile and all the possibilities that it brings in.

That is not ‘poverty’! Ask any rich man. Or the office goer. Observe faces on a Monday morning as they come out of trains, buses and cars. It often is a weary lost look and an impossible to miss sadness. Not in all, but in many. And even as you wonder why, remember to look into the mirror as well.

What are we chasing? What do we have to give up in order to be ‘rich’? Poverty, as they say, is a state of mind. So is ‘Richness’. To be truly ‘rich’ is to be mindful of ourselves and our choices being fully present to how we think of our state of the mind. The lady with the red flowers and the eloquent yellow diamond atop her dirty crown showed that to me. She is long gone but the happiness in her voice and the cheer in her children remain in my memory.

The high rise she helped build now is lit by big swanky cars, sophisticated scents and solemn looks. Especially so, on Monday morning. Often it takes me back to the laughter of the lady with the bright red flowers on her saree. We have choices

We have choices! Lets remember to choose a rich life.