Living in Expectations…

What do you think when this so called word “expectations” comes into your mind? Expectations! Yeah, you expect something from expectations. It’s just not the word my dear friends, it is that constructive thing that can create masterpieces in everything, you can say in relationships, in your career and by far in your life and also a destructive one which can perish anything and everything in the world. It’s a feeling in everyone that the things should happen as the way they thought out to be or more precisely ought to be. 

What everyone expects? What do we expect? It varies from person to person. A child expects attention & affection from his/her loved ones, father expects his children to be more successful than him while mother expects them to be more caring & loving than her. A friend expects companionship at the happiest & also the most difficult times while a lover expects love from the other partner. An employee expects a raise in the salary while a company expects to do more progress in their relative field. Even the smallest of living creatures expects sun to be rise every day and make them live. There are numerous things to add but the constraint is time. Everyone expects something, from an event, from a particular person or by far from their life. 

Every time when we expect something we tend to attach to that thing emotionally and after that, detachment becomes very difficult. At times it is unbearable when something doesn’t happen as it should have, mind spins around & heart is felt too heavy to keep at the pace. 

As we take on the positive side, every time it teaches you a lesson. It inspires us to be stronger and to be more introspective, thinking why that thing couldn’t happen the way we thought? We seek the solutions on how to cope up with the setbacks that encountered through the time. In relationships, it guides you to filter out those who were never meant to be with you. Those who never understood you, those who never tried to break that illusionary wall that sometimes built in unavoidable circumstances. But on the real side, don’t we expect from our near & dear ones!  If we are giving our more than 100% to any relationship then we have an utmost right to expect something from the other side. And if this doesn’t happen then we feel disheartened and negative things takes up our mind. But yeah it has a positive side too. It brings out the one you never expected, the one who is perfect for you and the one who will be there forever & ever till the end. 

Once I was somewhat depressed, when all of a sudden one of my best friends’-Soham texted me motivating message. Many of my friends’ text these types of messages but this was at the very perfect time. The message goes this way - 

"Khush-Naseeb Woh Nahi Jiska Naseeb Acha Hain, balki Khush-Naseeb Woh Hain Jo Apne Naseeb se Khush Hain…”

translated as ''lucky is not the one who has the best fate but the one who is happy with what he has…'' This really moved me and made me actually feel good! It came at the time when I really needed it, that’s what expectations are all about. They shower at the time when you have least expected! You do get surprises, surprised by the way god connects to you in a godly manner and guides you when you most needed it.

 “Anyone who loves in the expectation of being loved in return is wasting their time. Love for the sake of love itself." – Paulo Coelho

There’s a long live misconception that “Expectation always hurt!”, but in a true sense it really brings out the best from you and the best for you. This is the positive side of negative consequences of expectations and as we are meant to follow the positive sides, filter out the negative ones, expect less and you will be surprised how the future comes out. A person should be happy within his own content, from what he has and from what he can do with what he has, to rise in everything he does, to reach at the upmost peaks in satisfaction, to reach beyond the limits and to break all the barriers that comes between him and his goal.

Ending with a thoughtful thought - 

“Expect less and give more, never know you may be fulfilling someone else’s expectations…”

Remembering my first best friend…

               

                 In the past times, I used to wait for sundays a lot, not just for holiday but for the day which was always filled with fun, frolic and cars. Why cars? At the tiny tots’ age, I was crazy about cars, cars of all shapes and sizes, with joyous colors and different kind of motoring sounds. Those Sundays were different from the now ones. It wasn’t mere a holiday to sit back and relax or partying around. It was a day heaped with just pure joy, awe-inspiring food and with lots of cars at the end. And the credit for making those days special goes to one man, my grandfather. Late Someshwar Anand.

                Short height with broadened visions, generous smile with friendly voice, he was the epitome of benevolence, generosity, affection and adoration for me. Whenever I met him there was an uneven spark flew in me, a spark of playfulness, a spark of care and love. I received loads of love as I was the first grandson of him. Not just with me, he totally got involved in playing with my cousins too. He just enjoyed every aspect of playing with kids like a kid.

                On every Sundays, we used to traverse around the Ahmedabad city whole day, finishing up his social work then going up to new places, having great food and a new car at the end of the day, almost like a “showstopper” at the end of a fashion show. I really loved that as I got to enjoy the beautiful time with him. I still remember the walks we had holding my little fingers with his protective hands.

                He was my first friend who taught me to live life generously, with compassion and tenderness. When I was of 5, he passed away by a major heart attack; I was too small to think what I lost. I still remember that night we all celebrated my dad’s birthday, had long talks and the next morning he died.  It was heartbreaking and sad. As I grew elder I got to realized that I lost the most important person in my life, the friendliest friend I ever had.

                Now whenever I see someone playing with his grandchild, all the memories I had with him comes straight back to my heart making me sentimental and nostalgic. The relation we had had a different kind of meaning, something that still connects with him. I wish you were here, I wish you stayed some more time with me, I wish we both travel to more places with the same fun we used to have and the things I wanted to tell you that how much I felt about you. I wish I had some kind of time machine that would re-alive those lovely moments! I do get tears in my eyes when there is a vacant space of yours in our family. But I do feel you are here watching me and our family growing with happiness and prosperity, making us stronger and wiser. I truly miss you a lot!

                Today is my grandfather’s 15^th death anniversary and so this article is totally dedicated to him. Wherever he is, I just want to thank him for those wonderful moments he shared with me and want to tell him that we all miss you a lot!

Enlightening Your True Self !

                Diwali is a festival of lights, the festival regarding the victory of lightness over darkness, the victory of good over evil, the victory of happy times over the sad ones. People celebrate this festival in the remembrance of the arrival of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after an exile of 14 years. They lit up their homes with auspicious diyas bringing in the good luck and pure bliss. Children enjoy themselves with the crackers and fireworks that adds rejoice in their playfulness times. That’s what the festivals are all about. People try to forget all the sorrows and get indulge in the divine holiness of the festivities. But is that enough? Is that enough to just be happy in the festivals by buying new clothes and all new stuff?

                The real beauty, the real happiness lies in making others happy. 

Then and then you fell contented. We do celebrate it with lighting up our homes, bursting the crackers and having the sweetest delicacies all over this festival, but what god wants to convey through this divine festival. It’s not only about having well times meeting up the relatives and friends, firing the crackers or just grabbing those saccharine  sweets. 

This festival is about illuminating your true self, bringing out the best from you, broadening your visions, imagining the non-imaginable and more than that lending a helping hand to someone needy and someone who really craves for something.  

A help can be of any form, it doesn’t confined to any kind of limits. It can be solving your friends’ problems, it can be giving grains to the birds, welcoming your new neighbor, or it can be giving food to the poor or it can be giving an innocent smile to a stranger. A sweet generous smile to someone you don’t know is also a kind of help. It makes them feel good and makes you feel happy within your soul.

                Let me share an incident that happened to me. I was at the Passport Office for my sister’s application; there I came to meet one uncle. I didn’t know him and I saw him the very first time. He was kind-hearted and you can make it from his behavior that he was a good man. I was in the queue and he was standing right behind me. He generously asked me about the procedure and the documents he has to enclose with the application. I replied and helped him just holding his belongings for some time and arranging the documents in the file. After all done he very kindly said “thank you” with a big-hearted smile on his face. It was something not expressible. In fact I felt happy when he said those words.  It might be not a big thing for many of you but I want to say, help someone once in anything. You’ll feel happy deep from your heart.

                On ending note, I would like to say that do something good for someone. Just try it once, you’ll feel affluent with happiness, richly by the good times. That’s what god wants to convey, enlighten up your true self, that’s what Diwali is all about. I would like to share a quote which I read in newspaper by “Herbert Read”: 

“There are lights everywhere except in the minds of men.” 

This really moved me and made me write this article. There should be lightness from our inner self and that can be brought by “giving”. Give as much as you can, share your thoughts, share your feelings, and share your love. The world really needs love. So a happy note on this lighting festival: 

May this Diwali bring the light in your life filled with pure bliss and May this New Year enlightens you deep from the heart & brings out the best from you every time. Wishing you all a Blissful Diwali and a Prosperous New Year.

Feelings of a Lonely Soul...

On the path of the best and worst times,

                Many came and went by,

Not the one who truly stood,

                Not a single one understood

the feelings of a lonely soul…

There were at times,

                where many came closer and

made him feel contented But they also left & ignored,

Not a single one understood

the feelings of a lonely soul…

On the rocky path of his unsteady life,

                he also wants to be steadfast & walk tall,

But none came to accompany him

Not a single one understood

the feelings of a lonely soul…

But he still has the hope & faith in his mind,

                That someone from somewhere 
will come & hold his hand tight,

                Who will be with him forever & ever 
till his heart beats

And will understand

the feelings of his lonely soul…

           

Wants to go to the World...

Wants to go to the world

Where the birds speak and flowers dazzle..

Where there is oneness in everything..

Where there is nature to have a conversation with..

Where there are no boundaries in love..

Where there is someone special waiting for you..

Where there is immense love that outshines hatred..

Where there is an unbound pleasure in just “living”..

Where there are few friends who make you laugh..

Where there are moments that make you cry with bliss..

Where there are no complaints and no demands..

Where there is no analysis in anything..

Where there is just true happiness and

Where there are no reasons to love & live!

I still have the note you wrote...

Leafing through the pages of my past…

                Got encountered with the note you wrote…

Wondered why it came in to my present

                Where I want it to be totally absent…

But as they say past is the part of life

                And life goes on & so the past sometimes…

Reliving the memories of those sweet something

                That is making me nostalgic in this life of nothing…

I still have the note you wrote

                In which you portrayed me as a funny tot…

The words you wrote with those curly nodes

Are the words which make me full of reloads…

The time which we used to spend in the meadows

                Is the time which came back in my shadows…

The time is not going to come back these days

                And I don’t want it too nowadays…

I still have the note you wrote

                Which reminds me of the time we stood…

But now the things have changed a lot

                And so the time & train of thought…

I still have the note you wrote…

I still have the note you wrote…

Rakshabandhan - The Eternal Bond

The purest and the most divine form of love is the relation formed at Rakshabandhan. It binds us with the eternal bond of care and protection for one another. This relation isn’t confined to human beings. As nature plays an important part in our lives, there is an unbounded relation between “the Dharti maata” (the earth) and “the chanda mama” (the moon). Whenever there is shade of darkness in the sky at night, the moon bestows its light to the earth. Raksha basically means “protection” and bandhan means “bond”. So collectively, it is called as Rakshabandhan - the bond of protection.

In the ancient times, it wasn’t an all-in-all a brother-sister festival. People used to tie the holy threads to their loved ones for their protection and goodwill. The Indra (the king of gods) was defeated several times and at that time his wife Indrani tied the holy thread to him, and after that he emerged victorious. It is believed that the sacred thread tied at this occasion has divine powers. As per Hindu calendar, it falls on the full moon day in the month of Shravana. On this auspicious day, with the exchange of sweets, sisters tie an enshrined thread on the wrists of their brothers for their long life and the brothers in turn promise to protect their sisters against any kind of danger.

Brother-sister shares a very different kind of relation. They fight in the morning and patch up on the same day. They quarrel for the petty things and will give up for the same. They teases each other every now and then, still will conceal everything as a secret. This is certainly an immortal bond that has no discriminations or any kind of limits. As it is celebrated all over India, every religion takes part in this angelic creation. To bring up the peace in this multi-religious country, people make an effort by letting a sister tie the thread known as rakhi to the brother of other religion and thereby constructing an ever-lasting bond that would never break. The beauty of this festival is that it brings the nation closer through the bond of genuine and beatific love that exists in every human being.

As per Hindu mythology, goddess resides into the girl child and so the prosperity comes in abundance into our life. I still remember the day when my sister was born, that was the same day our first car came in. She is an angel for us and lucky mascot that prospered my life through each and every aspect. I found a companion in her from playing child-like games to sharing my hard-time secrets. We confront almost every day on tiny little things but still at the end we both made up. As a typical elder brother, I am used to torment & annoy her all the time but the affection I have for her is indefinite. The love and attachment I have for her is beyond the scope of the words. I sometimes got grief-stricken about the fact that she is not going to be with me forever.

Folks, as a brother’s point of view, sisters are the form of goddesses on earth, they are the most mischievous but sweet companions having a boundless space in their hearts. They have the river of infinite love in their hearts which constantly flows with the time. They act as a friend, philosopher, guide in every little and every important issues of your life. They always guide you to the truest path to live a peaceful and lively life. They too will annoy you but those annoying things will be the most saccharine moments of your life, the moments that will be cherished when you will be alone without her. So, live the life to the fullest with your darling sister as this time is not going to come back.

         On a last note, no matter how many times we fight with each other, how many times we tease how many times we annoy, we still love each other very much and it’s not at all expressible in mere words. So this is the day to have those never-ending fights with the sparkle of love and care. Go and have those sweet conflicts and make this relation eternal.

Someone Special...

Her Sparkling eyes are like twinkling stars..

     Eyes that is as deep as the deepest oceans in the world..

Eyes that reveals her truthful, faithful, caring, loving & humane        nature..
     Eyes of someone special…

Her sweet & gracious smile that takes my breath away..

     Smile that is as glowing & vivacious as the sun..

Dimples on her cheek when she smile adds more elegance to her lovely & charming face..
     Smile of someone special…

Her locks of hair so nicely tied, not so stylish yet beautiful..
     Hair that is so shiny & black on her fairy like face
resembles a full moon covered with a dark yet beautiful sky..   

     Locks of someone special…

Her voice so soft & calm that feels like the silence & solemnity of the dawn..

     Voice that makes my heart beat faster..

Voice that touches my heart & soul..
      Voice of someone special…

Her presence makes me feel blessed & makes me find solace in eternities..

      Presence that transforms the whole atmosphere into positivity..

Presence that makes me believe that yes God does exist in humans..
      Presence of someone special…

How one can be so decent yet beautiful, so simple yet attractive, 
       so lively yet natural, so divine yet real..

And that’s my someone special…

Hope that she is reading this & hope that she would see me

& we would meet someday somewhere down the horizon…

My someone special…

Nostalgia..

Missing those between-the-lecture chats,
those never ending whimsical comments,
that planning which we were always into,
those discussions about the current topics and on our views,
those laughs we had on funny situations,
that teasing each other on the latest crushes..


Missing every bit of time spent with you guys in the class..
Truly Missing Mukesh Kumar Singh, Krupanshu Lavaniya, Vipul Malani..

Happiness...

Sometimes observing little things in life makes us happy…

• A poor little kid enjoying with a kite in his own world unaware of anything else…
• A puppy cuddling & playing with his mother…
• Flowers blooming in the sunshine…
• Cool breeze that goes along with you…
• Seeing a smile on the face of your parents…
• Smiling without any reason while thinking about that someone special…
• Quickly making a wish on seeing a shooting star…
• Watching a small kid fascinated by a vivid butterfly…
• A spark of bliss on a mother’s face when she holds her child for the very first time…

Rain - the fall of Bliss

Rain is the most blissful thing nurtured by nature. It changes everything around us, from dull dusty sand to the aromatic earth, from barren land to the lush green fields, from the blazing wind to the cool breeze and from the hot unpleasant climate to the amiable refreshing one. Everything around us gets a new look, a replenished refreshed kind of.

After bearing the non-bearable hot flaming & scorching heat, rain comes as a real show turner. It turns every bit of everything affably. The ambience transforms into a real enjoyable climate in which you would love to have those hot oily mouth-watering delicacies forgetting your strict diet plan, or you would love to have that long drive with your cutie neglecting the hectic schedule at work, or love to be just playing under this nature’s charisma.

Whether it’s the drizzle or the cloud burst, you really are blessed by the god’s nerved beauty. Drizzle is really beautiful as you experience those tiny little droplets falling on your face making you radiant from your innermost core. Cloud burst is rather a heavy take on the rain. It has the thundering sound of lightening with the thrusting winds of storm. The big drops are like banging on your face and it’s sometimes unbearable as it creates flood like situations. Nevertheless, the most awaiting people are the farmers in this rainy season. They all wait for this aid whole year as their hard work is being transformed into the final product. They pray to the “Parjanya” or “Indra” (the rain god) for bestowing the blessings on them. After receiving those blessings, the farmers become the most cheerful people in the world. For them, these blessings in the form of rain are more than any kind of precious jewels or any other honorable awards.

It’s truly a divine unconditional creation as the “Dyaush” Pita (the sky father) meets the “Prithvi” Mata (the earth mother) through the conduit of water droplets. The atmosphere becomes cool and tranquil after this sacred engagement. The wet aroma of sand turns on the mood and is more aromatic than any delicious food. 

The nature is singing a song with the beats of water droplets and the lush greenery is dancing to its tunes. The colorful flowers become more vivid and the green leaves of different plants become greener as they are laced by the beads of rain. 

It’s so soothing. With all these natural things becoming more fascinating, there is a sudden burst in a romance everywhere. Be it in those love birds crackling the grains sharing with each other, or in that peacock dancing at his best spreading those quills seducing the peahen, or in those couples having their best time ever, or in the couplet of flowers waving with the winds of rain enjoying this natural season of romance…love is certainly in the air this season.

The real alluring thing is to be laid down in this magical rainfall alone. The small spattering drops falling on your face having rejuvenating experience. It’s an experience that is so peaceful and enchanting. You would get to know the uncommon things that were present in you but were concealed and were not noticed in the mere usual situations. You would be inspired and admired and have a better vision about yourselves. You would find your own individuality and would feel that you are out of the crowd in some way and get to know yourself more clearly.  

In the end, rain has its own reasons to enjoy, its own rejoice, its own purpose to swing around, an inducement to enjoy the sparkling sound of spurting raindrops and the wet smell of earth, the thundering sound of lightening and the lush greenery around everywhere. So go out and play with it, as you’ll get to know yourself better.

Happy Friendship Day

Friends are like droplets of rain..
They spatter all the cheerfulness on you every time..
Accompany you in your jolly days..
Always ready to get along with..

In any dreary situations as we weep nobody can notice those unending tears in rain..
Friends veiled our sadness the same way and are always there as a shoulder to cry on..

Thanks for being my tiny little drops always showering happiness on me
& a mighty support whenever I needed..

HaPpY FrIeNdShIp DaY..

Discovering New

Time: First appearance of light.
Place: Greenest capital city in the world.
      
     Dawn is always mystical, at least in Gandhinagar. This city has that never ending greenery along the roads, the unseen migratory birds chirruping melodies creating a harmonic atmosphere, those different varieties of flowers blossoming with the illumination of the brightest star-Sun adding vividness to the flourishing florae. It’s truly prolific and provocative. It has the sounds that are so peaceful; it has the ambience that is so soothing; it has the happiness of the Mother Nature that is so steadfast.


     Pedaling the cycle on the long & broad empty paths, I got to hear the tweeting of birds as the melodious music with tiny droplets of rain spattering all over my body. It’s invigorating. While cycling those too hard to resist pedals and using those not so easy rusted brakes, I saw the most magical thing that god has created. The first rays of sun, the rays that were striving to come out from the dark gloomy clouds and just falling on you. I got to see the flowers blooming gradually with those rays. It was too slow but exquisite. The always chirping birds, some the same but some so different and new and the little & quick chipmunks playing around the paths making a startling sound.
     
    The dawn was indeed magical. It would find you so simple and usual thing that happens now and then but aren’t the simple things are magical? They are by god magical and Epitome of the nature.


  Have you ever noticed what those first rays of sun want to convey, or those flowers which born and dies every day, or the birds want to tell us every morning, or those chipmunks that are too fast and rapid. I have always wondered that there is something new in every morning although these things seem to happen every day.


    After spending some time deep down in this heavenly caress of the Mother Nature, I came to know that those small chipmunks want us to be fast and brisk to cope up with the situations that aren’t pleasant. The birds want us to be free from the clinches of discrimination that is everywhere around created by us, human beings. The flowers want us to be happy and bloomy like them in any gloomy situations that come in every walk of life. The first rays of sun want us to rise every time when we fall and it keeps reminding us that there is always a new beginning.


  Yeah we think that way but never implemented it. We all want to be first and that too fast, but never applied the efforts to reach there. We all campaign about maintaining peace & prosperity and think to break all the barriers. We all want to live blissful life but we always end up thinking of those sorrowful situations that went through and just mourn on those for endless time. And we always do want a rise in our career, in our relationships, in our world but we just think on it, never acted or implemented it. There is some ordinary thing needed to make it happen that would result in extraordinary things.


  After getting intrinsically involved in it, I got the answer what’s that ordinary thing. The ordinary thing is you, the new in you. Yes. That’s true! They all want us to be new every time, new in our thoughts, new in our actions, new in our reactions too, new in everything that we do. It’s all about following the omens of god through the channel of communication of Mother Nature.


  The new is you. Day by day dawn by dawn second by second we are getting a little older, a little wiser and a little more new. Discover something new in you every day. Discover new in yourself and life will discover you, by far the most magical thing in the world.

Girl at the Beach...

      Waves coming underneath my feet and the roaring sound of water came through my small ears. It was the first time I came to any beach. Or I can say that I saw sea for the very first time in my life. It was amazing and vast. I can feel the cold water coming towards me and the breeze that’s so refreshing.


        An amiable beach with a vast widened picturesque sea with the waves coming to and fro making me splashed with the water & a distinct view of fort. It was enthralling experience as I was having the first encounter with the Arabian Sea or simply I would just say “Sea”. The place was Diu way back in 1994 where my dad’s conference was held. The best part in my dad’s every conference is the part of sightseeing. Actually that’s the reason why I go in any of his conferences.


       The most awaited and the best part (sightseeing) came and I got to experience the nature’s beauty. The beauty that only God can create, the beauty that’s not comparable to any materialistic things or even the most beautiful women on earth. On that day I got to know that beauty has power, power that entices you towards it, power that brings you closer to the reality of nature or to the god specifically.


       I was mere 5 then, wasn’t aware of the things that were happening around that time but yeah I could now recall all those feelings, that ambience out there, that roaring sound of sea divulging the playfulness of mother nature. I was just enjoying the waves, the cool atmosphere and the small pebbles & the shells. Mom, dad & I were having a ball of time enjoying the waves & wet sand soaked up by the waves. The beach sand is always a different one as it consists of having those innumerable one-of-a-kind stones, pebbles & shells which you would never see in normal sand.


         In the midst of this whole exhilarating sequence, something stroked me to see a girl nearly the same age of mine playing with a football patterned with pentagons of black & white color. She was wearing a nice frock of a light purple color, barefoot, hands fully covered with wet sand & was deeply involved in playing that she wasn’t aware of what was happening around her. She was playing alone and no one was there with her. I guess she was native of Diu & not a tourist like me. She was bouncing that football on the waves that were coming to the shore splashing the water on her not-so-fair looking face. Still I can recall she was innocently beautiful. I was almost lost in her, lost in the way she was playing with that ball and enjoying in her own colorful world.


        As my dad is always fond of clicking pictures, we were having a photo shoot kind of stuff. In between this, my mom approached her and invited to join in this photo session. She came nearby with a sweet gracious smile wearing on her round face. She was looking more beautiful when she came nearby my side. Her wet strands of hair were stuck partly on her cheek & partly on her neck. I was amazed and also hesitated to speak to her. I don’t know what was I feeling then, but yeah whatever it was, it was heavenly beautiful. My mom asked her name, she graciously replied but I didn’t remember that as I was lost in her small but deep eyes. I can’t recall her name as 16 years passed from that day.


         Mom came out of the frame and now we were just two, me and that girl. I was wearing a white t-shirt having cartoons painted on it with a one character saying ‘HELLO’ to another one and under it was a dark purple shorts almost matching with her light purple frock. I was blushing like anything at that point of time. With that blush I was smiling showing my merely countable teeth and she was handling me that ball as in giving me any memento at an occasion. In return to that I was just showing my hand pretending to hold that one. She was staring at me with her small deep eyes giving that innocently cute smile and I loved that. May be she was looking at my over-glowing profuse smile that wasn’t stopping. This was the first time any girl was looking at me like this. It was great!


         Photo session got over and she went back to play with the wet sand, splashing water and patterned football. We also left the beach and at the time of leaving we both turned back and saw each other at the same time. At that point of time I realized that there was an unspoken bond created between both of us. I still remember that evening that was one of my first special friendships that god gifted to me.


          I realized that there are some relations out everywhere in this world in which there is no need of any communication. Those relations communicate through the eyes, through the heart. I felt like we were connected through a channel that most people can’t understand, the channel of heart. I haven’t seen her from that day onwards but still it was my special relationship that god created although it was too small in period of time. But it doesn’t matter as the cliché tells that the 

"Relations are not bound by the time you passed between but it bounds by the way how you felt at that time of your relationship".

        So find out those relations in which you felt really good. Love the people and the people will love you. The world really needs love… so love and be loved.