Being

Such is the nature of Life.

We walk on tender grass blades who have just woken up to the brightness of a new day. We feed on fresh fruit, ready and ripe about to start a life of its own, about to become a tree.

Life consumes life. And survives. The spirit of the blade of grass about to be trampled or the fruit about to be consumed is no less inspiring than the sun that is timeless and ageless.

What a sun does for eons, a blade of grass does in its one-morning life span.

It is difficult to know who you are and Be it.

Stand back and look..

Ladling out hot spicy sambaar on to a bowl of crisp appes can be a eureka moment for the likes of me. The very act of blending a curry and a mild tasting dish, sends forth a billion thoughts into my mind space. When was the first time i bit into a crisp appe, i was trying to recall.Then the thought jumped to how over a long span of 37 yrs, i have tasted a variety of cuisines and developed a taste for different food groups.

I have been working on a commission work lately, of a painting which is 4 ft x 3 ft. An abstract for a friend who relates to my brand of abstraction. Though the original was done on an A5 size paper and then reproduced on to a 4 x 3 canvas, there are changes.

I had been struggling with the colour lime green and green yellow. Shades which are not so easily mixed in acrylics. It was time to stand back and look at how far i have gotten. This thought became a precursor to the concept of this post.

Whether it is looking at your hair style, or the latest blemish on your face, or your taxes, or your career or your life or like me just another painting, or a bowl of appes temptingly dowsed in hot sambaar, stand back and take a look at it. There is sheer pleasure in that very sight. Through this one image that your mind captures while you are standing back and looking, you can see how far you have come, assess your past, become aware of your present, and plan your future, or atleast acknowledge it.

The painting as it stands today is far better than the pesky small time original. I am sure my friend will love what i have done with the lime green and venetian red. Maybe i will stand back and see her reaction :)

The Firewalker

I came across this term a little while ago. Fire walkers are people who have the ability to walk on burning embers of coal without hurting their feet. There are a dozen theories as to how it is done, but the one that persists is, Mind over Matter.

In a day and age when we are re-searching our roots for remedies to our overly stressed, clueless yet successful lives, the Mind over Matter theory helps us get through. Well, most of the time.

I read an article about fire walking, about how it transforms your life, about how the whole brain changes its patterns of thinking and brings about precisely all the things that you would want in your life.

We have books and cd's and Youtube testimonies teaching us about various methods to get us to that level of our own self we are not used to seeing often. Much as I believe in the life-altering changes actual Firewalking can have on us, I do believe people at some stage or other, do undergo what i call a Life-doctored-fire walk.

A single parent working three jobs a day, trying to educate their child, is fire walking.
An athlete who has lost his limbs, choosing to coach younger aspirants instead of drowning in self-pity and despair, is fire walking.
A student bar-tending all night, to be able to pay for medical school, is fire walking.
Trying to rebuild a home from a scratch, after being battered by war/ floods/ tsunami/ hurricanes is fire walking.
Believing you still can run a business when you have been cheated or completely washed out by competition, is fire walking.
Defeating a terminal illness and daring to make a new beginning into the absolute unknown is fire walking.
Being out caste for your beliefs, and choosing to be yourself and stand by them still, is fire walking.
Pursuing a career/cause in spite of all the odds of ever succeeding, with no guidance, is fire walking.

Often, invisible when you begin the walk, the other side leaves the walker triumphant. The burning embers of coal, are self-doubt, grief, guilt, fear, despair, lack of self-belief, lack of confidence and lack of faith. And these burning embers often can outshine the spotless, most determined of minds. Sometimes the walk seems unending.

Fire walking is coming out on the other side with belief.

Belief which prods you into a direction you never mapped out earlier in your mind.

Seasons' Greetings

Seasons Greetings to everyone..:)

The strong one in the family.

A life of unending 'nexts', she strives to bring normalcy into her abnormal situation... wipes the table clean with a dirty cloth, trying to make everything seem normal. Cooks food for a family, which has lost its appetite..

Her breath is strained, her body drained..she battles her next big war..with the big C. Its on the right side, but it is so wrong. Why her? Who did she wrong? Her family searches for their answers in bits of astrology, clueless godmen and greedy medical practitioners. She faces bravely her painful, humiliating almost defeating battle. Each day, she wakes up telling herself she is stronger than yesterday. Each night she goes to bed, praying fervently for tomorrow's dawn.

She loses weight, she loses hair, she loses her skin, she loses her normal life, she loses her confidence, the only thing she doesn't lose is hope. The only thing her family doesnt lose is their patience. And we see from where God speaks volumes in silence, about life's brutal lessons. Her children laugh openly, her husband cries silently. The rest of the world is indifferent.

I see strength. I see hope. I see the human spirit triumph once more.

The Smile Maker.

Leonardo Da Vinci, of course!!

Intelligent, talented, determined, whimsical, inventive, skillful..are just some of the words one can come up with, as word associations with Leonardo da vinci.

The man never knew defeat. He knew the proportions of a human body. He knew light ans shade of a sculpture and how to simulate it using paint. He painted The Last Supper introducing revolutionary ideas about perspective.He painted a simple peasant woman and gave her the one smile, that intrigues everyone...till date.

What is the Mona Lisa smiling about ? Then Dan Brown writes a novel, making it even more intruiguing!!

I salute the man behind the smile..Leonardo da vinci, the renaissance man.

Being The One

This is a Blog about people who i consider successful. People who have fought their way up to the top of their own lives, leaving behind large crowds of imposters purely on the basis of their will power and belief in themselves. They have succeeded not just in their careers, but in anything they chose to be a part of.

Here's to life's heroes...!