Existential Gift

"Happy Birthday!"
"Thank you."
"Akka, your birthday gift, is my existence."
"Oh no, can I return it?"

Thanksgiving

We all sometimes need to feel cared, supported and loved. Especially when you feel down or when the going gets tough.  That is when you can count on your sisters.  In the ocean of life, they are like dolphins, swimming in their own waters,  keeping afloat  their responsibilities,  diving into the depths of duty. But they have special senses and when they catch the distress call from a sibling, they reach out and  are there swimming beside you.  Supporting  you over rough tide. They have your back. It is a bonding for life.

Mother is caring and compassionate. Her love for her siblings, is unconditional. She raised three children with grace and poise Some parts of her can clearly be seen in my sisters.  Both of them have gone through some really trying times in the past years. Both have emerged stronger. I am  very proud of them. One has learnt to attune and get the better of situation while the other, though having to go through a lot of suffering, has seen her old passion resurface - her golden voice. Both have received their share of resilience and fortitude from father. Blessed to have  wonderful parents and the most amazing sisters. 

How can you teach

How can you teach the eyes to see only what they are supposed to,
When all they have, is the vision of what they are not to see

How can you teach the mind not to think of what is proscribed

When the mind minds not the transgressions in its trance

How can you teach a heart not to dance to a cadence

When there is no control over the symphony of its beats

How can you teach the memory not to overwhelm the thoughts

When  hijacking  the senses becomes the favoured occupation

How can you teach the self not to tear to pieces 

When it consoles to have someone to piece you back together.

Pressed, not suppressed

Memories bring back with them emotions, time that has passed, people, animates, inanimate objects and more memories. Memories brought with it a desire for the fragrance of flowers that had bloomed years ago. So, I brought down the book which held some flowers and petals in them, pressed for all the unnamed years.  Joy seemed a word mild to express the emotion that welled up within. Hands warmed with the breath that flowed from the pressed memories. Achromatic they appeared, losing their vibrant colours and fragrance to the years of perpetuation. With care, as I picked them up one by one and held them in my hand, with remedied vision from the same old pair of eyes, which was trying to  see what they had missed earlier, they seem to slowly come to life. Colour and fragrance slowly revived. Pressed they were, but alive, beautiful, warm and earnest. Contrition that I may have earlier failed to observe the apparent popped with pain.  The pressed objects hinted a protected preservation and continuity. Dead, but way alive and timeless. Grateful and redeemed that I had the chance to realise now. Thankful for a second grasp in life.

Silver Lining

The total lockdown mandated by the Corona crisis has led people to stand in long queues in front of the grocery store for essential commodities.  People equipped  with mask and lessons on social distancing stood quietly maintaining a distance of at least three feet between each other.  People were let in only one at a time for purchase.  As I stood in this queue revising my shopping list and planning   how I would go about picking up the vegetables and groceries I require from the store where each shelf can be recalled by memory by familiarity, so that I spend minimum time shopping, and giving some sense of relief to those waiting in the queue ; a thought sneaked in. The crisis has forced people to enforce discipline on themselves!  People stood in queues at mandated distance between them without having to be monitored.  Some helped out the elderly by offering to shop for them. Most amazing looked the fact that people, most usually always who are impatient which has now become the new normal way of behaviour, were somehow infected with Patience! Everyone had to wait at least forty five minutes for their turn into the store and this new infection caused people to  suffer patience quietly. Some of them also had this additional symptom of a calm face with a smile stuck on it.  This, as I observed, was spreading over to those exposed as the symptom started to show on them! 

Is Patience an intrinsic virtue in a human being which has been suppressed by other vices and habits, which surfaces only when faced with a crisis ?  So,  are we discovering good old patience again in us humans?  Is this the silver lining to the dark grey cloud?