All the random thoughts

“There. Listen to the sounds of the train passing. Some compartments are full, some are half empty and even some more are empty. This train will be gone and will take all its passengers to wherever they need to go. A new train shall pass by here tomorrow. Some of the passengers could be the same ones who have traveled today. There will be some new ones” “Will the train ever stop here?” “It does but only briefly. And then you will see some old faces and some new. Treat the old ones ever so gently. Give them respect. Speak softly. They are the ones who will yell at you about yesterday. They might even shower praise and affection. Do not get swayed by any of those emotions. Just be aware that them being emotional only means that you matter in their lives. So be gentle with your words to them” “What about the new faces? Do I matter in their lives too?” “Not yet. You matter only to their minds when they are new. They will assess and analyze you. Be yourself. Do not put a show for them. ...

"Can you at least let Sir know that I am old and from a village in remote India? May be he will agree to see me then" The frail old man has been doing rounds of the Home Ministers office for more than a month now. It all started when the man was reading a vernacular newspaper at his village and came across a rather peculiar headline. His village was hidden behind the hills that ran along the main road to the nearest town. Only people from the village would know the existence of human habitat beyond those mountains. For everyone else, the picturesque hill range presented a romantic outlet into natures arms. Poets of all kinds, sitting at the window seat in the state transport buses plying the main road, have regularly found expressions ranging from pure lust to spiritual bliss as they watched from their window the hill range pass by. Those verses related to pure lust made their entry into mainstream cinema while those about spiritual bliss were mostly piled...

"What's this request? Yeh Kya hai yaar?", Baburam picked up a file from the 'IN' tray on his table. "Somene wants to award a doctorate to someone else, sir. They have sent a request for clearance", Baburam's secretary answered even as he was busy crushing dried chana in his hand. "Why do you crush chana before eating yaar? I never understand that", Baburams sense of curiosity overtook his sense of duty. The secretary however was very protocol based. He never tolerated any questions that he found intrusive and violating his personal choices in life. He decided to ignore Baburam. "How can you ignore your boss? If you keep doing that I will not clear this file". Baburam was angry and so lost his sense of threat-making. He forgot, in the rush of the moment, that his secretary wouldn't give two chanas if the file was not cleared. In fact if anyone, it was Baburam who would get affected by not clearing the file. The secretary c...

There was a conference of sorts between my consciousness, heart and mind. It was presided over by my body. The body explained how it had become a bundle of confusion with all the three attendees not being in alignment. "Please come to an agreement", it requested. "The key issue", said my consciousness, "is to evaluate what you are doing against its significance in the overall scheme of things. Right now there are so many things that do not seem to make sense". "It doesn't matter what you do as long as you enjoy doing it", replied my heart. "Enjoy your work and everything else will fall in place. You will be happy and things will make sense even if they don't". My mind seemed irritated. "What BS?", it flared. "You have accepted the system when you accepted its education, its degree, its job, its money, its marriage, its family, its medicine and its electronics. Why question the significance of its work alone?"...

The Vagabond was now older than what he’d have liked. He was respected for his past achievements, which never were, and was one of the most sought after consultants at ITVille. Over a period of time, the Vagabond himself forgot the source of his greatness and started attributing his status as a respected master to his own non-existent capability. The Vagabond now spent most of his time walking around ITVille at a leisurely pace (less than a quarter kilometer per hour). The same speed that made people to think of him as a lazy bum is now attributed to his wisdom and his ability to imbibe knowledge from everything around him. People, the young and ambitious, slowed themselves down so they could catch down with him and try to gain some of his wisdom on those perambulatory strolls. No one understood, just like all those years ago, what the Vagabond had to offer but, instead of attributing this to shallowness of thought they now considered it as a hallmark of true knowledge that made the...

"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...