An Orange Day

It was an orange day. I don’t know why but it was one of those rare days I classified as orange. Days can be easily classified using colours; my mind automatically arranges them for me – yellow when I am bright, white when I am calm, black when I am mournful and so on. Every hue carries a message and my intuition said today was orange. Something special was destined today.

In Mumbai, it does not rain, it pours. During the last hour of college, it was pouring madly. We requested our lecturer to leave early; he denied permission. Everything seemed just as usual. Afterall, heavy rains aren’t unusual phenomena in Mumbai.

When the college bell rang, we moved down the staircase that took us to the front gate, but we were stopped short by the sight before us. The rain gods had gone berserk and the pouring looked plain catastrophic. Cell phones beeped wildly and the verdict was out – No moving out of here! All rail routes, road routes were closed.

The next few hours were spent discussing gossiping about our "favourite" lecturers. I did not know that Emily was going out with Muthu Kumar! What a combination - two of the most hated lecturers! We cracked jokes on what would they name their kid. “Artificially intelligent”, came Armaan’s prompt reply while someone said it should be “Network failure”. Emily taught us Computer Networks, Muthu Artificial Intelligence.

Few hours passed and the rain subdued a little. The more adventurous lot started moving out of college. Heading home was impossible but people were trying to go to places of people known to them living nearby. Seeing the college getting emptier, I decided to go to a cousin’s place living some blocks away.

While I was still waiting for the orange spark, it dazzled brilliantly through the grey alley I was moving in. She asked me if I could help her under my umbrella. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was beautiful, elegant, graceful. It was her eyes I couldn’t take mine off from. Dark jet black – incomparable beauty! I felt a deep connection. I felt something about her that I had never felt before. I felt as if my heart had close for any other woman on earth. It was unusual but a moment to be revered for life.

“Excuse me?” I got back to my senses. “Sorry”, I mumbled. “You can get under the umbrella. But I don’t know how well this would be able to protect us both.” She got under the umbrella. She smelt of sandalwood – pure and holy. “Thanks”. I was wondering if she felt the same clinking of metals within her, the same current running under her skin as was running through me.

I tried controlling myself but blurted out, "You are so beautiful." How can you ever say this to a girl when you have only just met her? What will she think about me - would she find me desperate? But she smiled. "I know and I am glad you can see it too". Glad that I saw it too? Does this mean other people did not see her as beautiful? I was confounded.

It suddenly started pouring madly. The water in the lane we were now walking in was already above waist-level. Luckily, I noticed that an electricity pole dangling dangerously around the corner of the lane. If the pole fell down, it would electrify us both to our deaths. I caught her hand and asked her to run. The pole could collapse any moment and we had to hurry. But, she did not move - out of fear or shock I do not know. "What? Do you want to die?", I asked. She said, "Nobody wants to die. But we all have to." Wow! This wasn’t time for philosophy! But she continued, "People find death ugly for it takes them by shock. But, there are few who understand the beauty in it. Death is transformation. Can you imagine how would it be to just live on and on with this body ageing but there being no death. How ugly would that kind of immortality be?" I thought she was crazy. 

I left her hand to run away but she held my hand tightly and I just couldn’t move. I was mesmerized. She continued, "People see in death what they are. You saw beauty in me. Since you are beautiful! You will pass into a newer life without any pain, or trouble. You deserve a beautiful transition". Till I could grasp what these words meant, the pole collapsed. A strong current ran through my body and I smiled. Life had passed in the time my lips had curled. It was surely an orange day - the last of this lifetime.

Tarun

Seeking Completion

Just close your eyes for a moment and think,"What do you want most in life?". Different people seek out for different things. Some people wish to have a great career, some want loads of money and lots of fame, some want an understanding life partner, some want to find out the purpose of life etc etc... The list goes on.

But why is man involved in so many quests at the same time? Why does he need all of this in life? Lets take a look at what we need in life and why.

Money/Fame:

Some men feel that there is no joy in life till you have all the luxury of the world at your feet or till you are known by one and all. They feel incomplete till they do not experience/achieve all the materialistic things in life. Don't we frequently come across the line,"You should experience everything in life, atleast once"?

Sex:
This is one of the prime needs for most individuals as it comes in the physical category. Sex involves the desire for satisfaction of a strong physical urge. If the urge for sex is continuously suppressed, the desire becomes very strongly prominent and one starts feeling more and more incomplete without gratification of the desire.

Partner/Soul mate/Friends:
Man seeks company of someone who would understand him and care for him. He wants a partner or a soul mate for sharing his deep emotional self, his feelings hitherto known to no one. Man without a partner feels emotionally incomplete and thus seeks emotional completion in form of a soul mate or like-minded friends.

Knowledge:
This category of men are involved in seeking the truth... Trying to find out the purpose of life. Trying to answer the deeper philosophical questions. The world, to them, seems so incomplete without the knowledge of the truth. Questioning all the commonly known beliefs, they involve themselves in unraveling the bigger mysteries of life. The more they know, the more they want to know. Without complete knowledge, they feel incomplete.

Whether seeking one of the above or something else in life, what are we all actually seeking? Why do we want to satisfy the burning passion within us? If you look at any passion that you have in life and ask, "What will I get if I get this?", the answer would be a sense of fulfillment. We seek fulfilment because we feel incomplete. In these various forms, man is seeking completion for his various needs - physical, emotional, social or intellectual. The underlying basis of anything that you want in life is the need for completion. All of us want to be complete!

And for a man who knows that completion is what he is actually seeking, the next question would be "How do I become complete?". There is the famous story of the musk deer who tries to find out the source of a beautiful smell which is present all around it. It goes round and round in circles but cannot find what it is seeking. What it is truly seeking - the source of that smell- is the musk lying within the deer itself.

We seek out various external means for completion. We try to find completion by seeking something that lies outside us. But the truth is that all that we really need in life, all the completion, lies right within us. Looking out for this completion in any of the above forms or through any other external means brings only temporary satisfaction and nothing else.

The only means to be complete is to look within. And you will find the path unfolding on its own in front of your own eyes. Imagine a 3-D person being held up in a 3-D prison with no way to escape. What will happen if the person is given a fourth dimension? Can a 2-D plane of paper hold a 3-D object? Surely no. So, when you get this fourth dimension, you become free from the daily attempt in life to seek completion in various forms. And the fourth dimension and many more lie right within you.

Delve deep into your consciousness. Meditate. Look within. To know you are already complete!

Shreyans
Weekend posting straight from my blog: http://mehtashreyans.blogspot.com/

Alphabets and more

ABC: I dont know why they use my name when they dont get any other? Have you seen the letters children write in school? To ABC. From ABC. Cmon... I thought I had a pretty uncommon name.

XYZ: And I seem to be having the maximum conversations with a guy like you(argh!). To ABC from XYZ. To XYZ from ABC.

ABC: That is the good part of it :D. But cmon, if they want to write something to you on my behalf, why dont they teach them writing love letters in school? After all, that is the thing they need to learn the most. Those are like the business letters most rejected by the client.

XYZ: Love aur tumse??? Kabhi nahi...

PQR (comes rushing in): Stop fighting guys. Did you know what Mr. Lobo did right now? He drew three dirty figures on the board - three triangles - and called them ABC, PQR and XYZ. And what I am really wondering is how Mr. Lobo found out ABC is the obtuse one !

Lines : 14
But it has only 5 conversations. I donno if this qualifies.
PS: My first attempt at humor. Donno if u guys will like it. Honest comments please...