All the random thoughts

"It is simple, really", said God as he created the world. All these life forms need to follow the demands of their body. Eat, breathe, sleep, mate, procreate and eventually die. "About ten tasks is all they need to do", God said. "How long should we do these tasks and why?", asked some of the smarter life forms. "It is upto you", replied God. "If you stop doing these tasks, then you do not have to do them because you will anyway die". God was probably getting impatient about the smarter life forms that (s)he had created. "Do not ever ask why. That will lead you into all kinds of trouble. But just so you know, the answer to the why is also very simple. You are created because the system needs you to exist. As to why the system is created, it is my problem. So leave it at that and go do your ten tasks", with that God dismissed the life forms to various parts of the Universe. The life forms on Earth started their contribution to ...

As I walked past the temple on Market Street, I heard an old beggar yell, “Happy Deepavali! Give more today!” “Why more today? Is it a Diwali offer?” I asked. Sometimes the desire to be witty overtakes the need to remain sensible. “You are going to pray to Goddess Lakshmi today and ask her to spend more time in your home, right?” the old man said. “I promise not to pray and compete for her time. In return, you give me more today,” he explained. “Lakshmi is a goddess. She is all-pervading and can be in all homes at the same time. There is no competition for her time. Go ahead and pray if you want. She will be in your home and mine at the same time.” This time, it was logic over sensibility. “I don’t have a home,” he said. “It doesn’t matter to God,” I argued. “She is everywhere—maybe even standing next to you right now.” He smiled and said, “The only one standing next to me right now is you.” His case was obvious. May you get the chance to be the Goddess Lakshmi for someone today - shar...

On a stroll around, I chanced across a sedentary swine. "What's with the flu", I asked. "Why spread virus and kill people?", I said. "Swine flu is not a virus", the swine replied. "It is an antidote for man-flu, the way we animals see it". "What's man-flu?" I asked. "Oh it affects mostly us animals", the swine said. "It destroys our habitat and kills us in great numbers. It also hunts and kills us one by one. It wipes out species. It is deadly. And us animals keep coming up with ways to kill this virus called man. Swine flu is just another attempt", the swine explained. "Am I a virus?", I wondered aloud. "Depends on the view point" said the Swine.

“Being parent means being patient”, I decided finally. There is a history to this wisdom and while it is still in the making, let me try and capture the story so far. They say wisdom dawns only when mistakes are made and only after a person has traveled past the difficult phases of life. True. Or is it really? How many mistakes can one afford to make as a parent? And by the time one finishes with the mistakes and is all ready to be a good parent, will it be the time to be a grand parent? I will tell you the story of life as I know in at least one case. We were living in the United States when our first daughter was born. We cleaned up the house the day before the c-section, got the carpet steam cleaned and all were ready and nervous. After all, we reasoned, when we can make the house sparkling clean for an important guest coming to the house, should we not do at least as much for the most important person coming into our lives? The house was clean, the birth bag was ready, new baby sup...

On a sunless day when I was on the street, walking alone, dragging my feet; with nothing to look forward to, no one to meet, that I heard this voice, gentle and sweet. Amidst the clatter of plates and amidst the chatter of mates, It was a matter of fate, that I could hear more than just prate. I looked around for the source of playfulness among the chores; in a place that was nothing but coarse, the sweetness was quite off course. There it was, the lovely face, less of beauty more of grace, As she moved around the place, the ambience changed to suit her ways. No doubt, she was God’s dear one; His way of saying, ’I’m here son, moving along with this nature woman and not, as you think, beyond the Sun’. I shook my head and looked again, she was ever so elegant and yet so plain. Being earthly there is so much to gain,  that vanity seems like all suffering and pain. It was late in the evening, half past seven I resumed my walk, bright and liven. To sinful m...

These are the two most important things in human life. We all know that each one of us has a reservoir of time meant for ourselves and that the reservoir levels are constantly depleting. Believers in destiny would say that no matter what modern medicine can achieve, one can never refill the reservoir. Near close encounters with death mean nothing because they are never really close if your reservoir is not empty - they'd say. Then there is the money. The one thing that drives human behaviour in the modern society more than anything else. We spend our time for the money, we accumulate it, we measure it, we indulge in mathematics so we can grow our reservoir of money. Our entire being is defined in terms of our tendency to monitor the reservoir of money or otherwise. Someone becomes a Sanyasi because he doesn't want to monitor that reservoir any more. Someone else becomes a super success because they just cannot stop monitoring that reservoir. We have banks and other institutions...

It was The Night, a night of Dreams; of dancing trees, of running Streams. The haunting melody of nature’s song, as it breezed past the flora, or took it along - Oh, Nature ! What is your nature? Artistic? But you are the only artist ! This is a Silent, almost reflective night, a feeling of oneness, of spiritual delight. Then there is this soft, cool zephyr, raging a fire, of passionate desire - Oh, Nature ! What is your nature? Paradoxical ? or is it my innocence? It's every where. Sometimes one needs to make conscious effort to see it and some other times, it is just in your face. I am talking about the Paradox ! Great confusion followed by complete clarity. Worrisome anxiousness followed by complete peace. 'Followed by'? May be not. They just are sitting next to each other and it is really me who is choosing one over the other. In computer terms, the RAM is being loaded with one or the other from the hard disk. If RAM is the active brain then what is the hard disk? More...