Sometimes it seems as if a shadow is cast on you from nowhere. Broken away, it falls in your path, and you have to carry it along with you to whichever part of the world you go-in search of the entity from which it broke off.

Shadows have a reality longer than is recognised. Faces too have a reality. But for how long? Shadows for as long as you like. For a lifetime, if you will.
Years come and go. They do not wait. Some shadows, on the other hand, hover around us with an existence of their own.
Shadows are related to entities; they are subservient to entities. Yet some do not fit into any such pattern.

Amrita Pritam – Revenue Stamp

“If our friendship depends on things like space and time, then when we finally overcome space and time, we’ve destroyed our own brotherhood!

But overcome space, and all we have left is Here.

Overcome time, and all we have left is Now.

And in the middle of Here and Now, don’t you think that we might see each other once or twice?”

Richard Bach

I wonder why we divide life into fragments, the business life, social life, family life, religious life, the life of sport and so on? Why is there this division, not only in ourselves but also socially – we they, you and me, love and hate, dying and living?

I think we ought to go into this question rather deeply to find out if there is a way of life in which there is no division at all between living and dying, between the conscious and the unconscious, the business and social life, the family life and the individual life.

These divisions between nationalities, religions, classes, all this separation in oneself in which there is so much contradiction – why do we live that way? It breeds such turmoil, conflict, war; it brings about real insecurity, outwardly as well as inwardly.

There is so much division, as God and the devil, the good and the bad, ‘what should be’ and ‘what is.’

J. Krishnamurti

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough

 Meister EckhartHow easy is to say these two simple words – “THANK YOU” but how many times we just ignore saying this to all those who matter – all those we have taken for granted,  all those who have given so much to us in this life , all those who keep on loving us, helping us, blessing us and making our life easy by just being there!

Would like to take this day to acknowledge their contributions in my life.

• My parents – my MOM who in the age of birth control and family planning still decided to bring me in this world and bore my pain for 9 months; my DAD  for being most important person in my life and unabashedly spoiling me 
• My husband/best friend – for treating like God’s blessing to him and loving me unconditionally, for always being there , for believing in me, being my biggest support and my being my biggest critic
• My parent-in-laws who treated and loved me more than their own daughter. For always believing in me and giving me wings to fly.
• Blessings in my life – my maternal aunts and uncles – who treated like their own daughter and made me feel so special all through my life
• My paternal aunts and uncles who were always there when I needed them and even when I didn’t need them 🙂 . Having this assurance that they always have my back is the best feeling in world
• My siblings (including my cousins and brother/sister-in laws since we were raised as one big extended family) for the best support system in the world. I don’t know what I would have done without all of you spoil brats in my life – for being my partners-in-crime or teasing me to death. My eldest sister for my biggest support system and my youngest brother for teaching me what selfless love is.
• My awesome niece and nephews – for the awesome photo ops 😉 – for bringing my childhood back , for teaching me what innocence and unconditional love is all about! 
• All my ancestors – who converted to Sikhism and gave me opportunity to be born in this fearless warrior community which has shaped my personality to large extent.
• All my teachers who have shaped my thought process and pushed me to challenge my limits
• My friends – the soul connections I have been able to discover over all these years – all those who are still in touch and continue to inspire & motivate me and even those with whom  I have lost touch – your purpose in my life for that defined time period is something I am thankful for and thanks for crossing my path.
• My mentors – who helped me chart my career and bring out the potential in me which i never thought existed. My superiors in Eclipse Systems & Grundfos – who taught me what it really means to be a leader, to push my limits and to take any challenge heads on.
• Thank Almighty power GOD for blessing me, always having my back and showering me with love and blessings of the kind souls in my life.

 THANK YOU!

Franz Kafka, the story goes, encountered a little girl in the park where he went walking daily. She was crying. She had lost her doll and was desolate. Kafka offered to help her look for the doll and arranged to meet her the next day at the same spot. 
Unable to find the doll he composed a letter from the doll and read it to her when they met. 
‘Please do not mourn me, I have gone on a trip to see the world. I will write you of my adventures.’

This was the beginning of many letters.
When he and the little girl met he read her from these carefully composed letters the imagined adventures of the beloved doll. The little girl was comforted.

When the meetings came to an end Kafka presented her with a doll. She obviously looked different from the original doll. An attached letter explained ‘My travels have changed me.’

Many years later, the now grown girl found a letter stuffed into an unnoticed crevice in the cherished replacement doll.

In summary it said:

‘Every thing that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.’

Have we got it all wrong.

Does the so called “pessimist” who sees glass half empty is actually an activist optimist – who sees the potential and opportunity?

And the so called “optimist” who sees glass half full has already decided with the whatever is there in glass and sees no opportunity of growth?

Hmmmm…..food for thought.

I am not going to stop talking to him merely because he pays no attention. I like hear myself talk. It is one of my greatest pleasures. I often have long conversations all by myself, and I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.

Chanced upon Oscar Wilde’s short stories while on short stay at Prague.

(The Happy Prince and Other Tales (sometimes called The Happy Prince and Other Stories) is a collection of stories for children by Oscar Wilde first published in May 1888. It contains five stories: “The Happy Prince”, “The Nightingale and the Rose”, “The Selfish Giant”, “The Devoted Friend”, and “The Remarkable Rocket”.)

Don’t even remember last time I had read Wilde’s stories. What refreshing short stories and storytelling. Each story is narrated in such an engrossing yet comical style – surely to catch the attention of young readers. Each story though with such a strong moral has been told in a light breezy style.

Well, good-bye : I have enjoyed our conversation very much I assure you.

“Conversation indeed!” said the Rocket. “You have talked the whole time yourself. This is not conversation.”

“Somebody must listen.” answered the Frog, “and I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time and prevents arguments.”

“But I like arguments” said the Rocket.

“I hope not” said the Frog complacently. “Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everybody in good society holds exactly the same opinions”

Reading his stories now bring a different perspective and better appreciation. Guess morals like common sense never becomes obsolete yet so rare to find 😀

Some of my other favourite quotes of him:

1. Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
2. Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth
3. One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.
4. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
5. The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it… I can resist everything but temptation.
6. Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.
7. Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
8. Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.
9. How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.
10. When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.