The boys kicked the ball to each other. The game of football was proceeding nicely amidst a few games of cricket. It did not matter that they had only a quarter of the ground as their zone. Shouts of near victory arise and fall.

The grandmother was trying to keep up pace with her grand-daughter as she set out to explore the world. You could see the clear amusement and the displeasure of having to run behind a 4-year old.

In another part of the ground, the two puppies were up to their own game, jumping on to each other while their mother lay a few meters away watching. The score wasn’t clear.

The young executive clearly had no time for the rest of the world. She had promised herself that she will do her jog religiously. The ipods made it easier for her to drown the rest of the inconsequential world.

The old men’s gang was back to their discussions on what ailed the country. It did not matter that they had themselves lived their lives in the country. But they had a right to their opinion and it didn’t matter that they were being quickly forgotten.

In the only obscure part of the park, the couple had occupied the only private bench where they could whisper to each other. The giggles, the light touch and the flirty hands all told a story.

I stood on my balcony watching yet another day at the park and thought to myself, is this not a world full of peace…..

Then the newspaper arrived….

We all find conversation topics to crib about so many things in life…work, people, call centers, traffic, infrastructure..in fact, it seems papers like Hindustan Times (one of my Delhi discoveries) seem to make money only out of the misery of the world as they see it ..

Yet we find so little time to appreciate the fact sometimes it is not so bad after all!!!

I have always been of the belief that in general, people are good most of the time. This has been my belief system always. By god’s grace, there hasn’t been too many reasons for me to change that view. Well…there have been disappointments, letdown before but I have in most cases, managed to see beyond that….sometimes it has taken time, sometimes sooner… In fact I remember, long ago in B-school, when the whole world used to talk of RG (Relative Grading), that dirty word, I used to have the exact same conversation. Am happy that there has been no reason to change that yet.

And I then realized that actually for most people that I know, I suspect, that if they looked closer, each of them will have a reason to believe that there is goodness that still exists in the world. People like us (urban, educated folks especially the pseudo-intellectuals) tend to take for granted all of the things that we have, that we stop recognizing the good that is around us. Maybe if we started recognizing the goodness around and were thankful for it, we would be happier too.

Yes, there will be people who argue that you as an urban populace will live in your ivory towers. I suspect that the people who have to struggle through their lives (financially at least) probably encounter more goodness in people than we do.

When I searched for this, I hit upon this eBay commercial. Quite evocative. It’s worth a watch!

After a long time, felt good writing a post. Sometimes, doing the most simple of things take a whole lot of effort…and sometimes the most simple of gestures have the greatest of impacts…I think maybe we should just stop once in a while to look for and say a thanks for the goodness around….or maybe just say a kind word…

May we always have a ‘Joie de vivre‘!

Oh yes, and apparently these stray thoughts run in the family….maybe its a gene thing!!

Sometimes Nostalgia is about bringing a smile to your face….

When I see the ‘Hero’ fountain pens that is used by the boy…those pens were probably the ones that stayed all through schooling days…an excellent mix of music and visuals..quite a refreshing ad…

While I am at it…one of those evergreen ads…

Some of these you dont know why they worked..just that they worked and it touched people universally….

Makes you think..life was so simple back then or maybe it feels so looking back…
Well…for whatever it is worth….

Its a beautiful day, I tell myself
The week is beginning and it wont be so
But for now, its the thought that holds still
The knowledge that some things are just good the way they are
Its the knowledge of knowing that hope is for eternity
And that is what makes this all worthwhile

Why is it that when you want to believe something so badly, it seems like all the signals point to just that….it could be the words of a song, it could be a stupid talk show on television or just some off-hand remarks made by someone in a completely different context…

Am wondering if the signs of fortuity are just the figments of imagination….

—————-
Now playing: Mohit Chauhan - Tum Se Hi
via FoxyTunes

The day begins all lazy…(from my window in the morning)

When did Time become a commodity and an exchange rate for life? When did we start talking about that disgusting ‘Time is Money’? We talk about how we never have time for anything and spend all our time on the minutiae of life doing those small things..

There never is a time for oneself, friends, following your passions or just ‘being’…you always have things to do..

If there was no concept of ’sixty minutes of distance run’, then would we be happier?
If there was no frame of reference of time, there would be noone talking about how at each milestone of age you would have to achieve something….yet we would still have people who you would respect for their experience, their wisdom..you would still have those friends..
you would still fall in love and live a life…

Then it would be truly ‘it happens for a reason and at a time when it is time for the reason’

Given that I am in the dumps of the writer’s block having no wisdom, melancholy or humor to provide to the vast world, there is nothing much else to do than keep looking at the blog and click on the Random Posts link to see what you had written before…

As I look at my blogposts themselves, I go through different thoughts…
Some posts….i read them..i go ‘did i write such stuff?’
Some of them…they just make me think ‘hmm…i know why i wrote that’

And then there are those which makes you wistful, nostalgic etc etc…those ones that came from the heart…

But in the end it does give me a sense of the years gone by….a kaleidoscope of images from life.. from what i was to where I am today….
I have never believed in writing diaries even in my childhood…it was almost as if I was in a hurry to just go forward and looking back was a waste of time….

but then at some point it had become a Speed Ramp and maybe this was a way to slow it down…

For a long time, I have been living away from what I could have called home at some time. Every single time since then, my living surroundings have been always fairly bare. It was always as if it was never really home and there was no real point in decking it up…

But at some point of time, it started to feel good to do just that…it didnt matter if it was not ‘home’ in the real sense of the word. So now its about just doing it for the sake of doing it. It did not matter if it tied me down with the amount of stuff (that I may have to theoretically dispose in case I need to move).

I think it is the same case with people now. They may all leave one day one way or the other with their own lives but it didnt matter…the thrill is in knowing that it lasts until it lasts and then you just move on….it’s fun to be just be….you carry with you those few ones who touched you in meaningful ways, others you just file in the recesses of the mind to be recalled only on occasions…

Oh..to be a child knowing nothing yet knowing all…
The innocence of growing up…
And asking the questions that are just that…
When games meant just sport…
When gestures meant something and not just obligations…
Why grow up at all indeed??

“People say it doesn’t exist
‘Cause no one would like to admit
That there is a city underground
Where people live everyday
Off the waste and decay
Off the discards of their fellow man

Here in sub city life is hard
We can’t receive any government relief
I’d like to give Mr. President my honest regards
For disregarding me….”

~ Tracy Chapman in Crossroads

Outlook magazine has brought out the issue on how the South of India is this cooler place (ask all the Delhi-ites living in Bangalore) ….

Anyway, the one thing that I did like was this statement ‘Every city is several sub-cities that coalesce, converge, conflict with each other, or remain disconnected’. That’s when the song by Tracy Chapman came to my mind… In the end, every city is schizophrenic in nature – almost like two completely different people living within the same body. One part lives oblivious of the other or at least as much as possible.

But then these crossroads converge or conflict under unforeseen circumstances…like we saw when Bangalore went berserk with the death of Rajkumar and Cauvery rulings or in a positive sense when the Mumbai floods saw people helping each other out without the schizophrenic sense coming out…

Somewhere schizophrenia is maybe prevalent in all people too. I have written about how the persona through the blog could sometimes be different from the offline persona. I guess it becomes a disease when one part dominates the other and tries to change the natural personality of the person. I think the same thing holds good for cities too. But I guess that’s what makes life interesting…..its always a fine balance!