Dew

It was a shock to see this WhatsApp news item that brought the sad demise of one of the successful businessmen. I dismissed the thought with a sigh at the first instance. Next mention was when I heard someone talk about the same loss. This time, I got thinking about it a little. About an hour ago, many hours after the demise of this gentleman, I read a silent news ticker on a television channel on the same sad demise. That’s when I dialled a friend of mine. For a strange reason, I felt disturbed about the death of this businessman, who is not related, or known to me. It was a suicidal death. Suicides instigate a fit of anger in me all the time, followed by a deep sadness.  I thought it was selfishness at the outset when one person cannot think of anyone else but self when taking such devastating decisions. Try as I might dismiss this news as just another world news, I cannot. I said, 'loneliness and ego could have caused the suicidal thought like most other suicide case...

The adage is true and while I am a strong advocate of nurturing good habits, I also suddenly notice that some habits can develop into a little more than nature - Obsession which causes pain to self and the surrounding. Trait, Character, Nature are terms that have very thin line difference as I see. The trait is something that is inherent but gained from one parent. Character is something that you consciously or unconsciously build. Nature is what you came with.  These can be changed/restricted/improved/practiced/avoided with some conscious efforts. Whether we want to do it, is based on the individual’s mindset. With this understanding, if ‘Habit is second nature’, it takes some effort to ensure that we have the right habits because it is linked with our nature. When we say ‘right habit’, it is always circumstantial. While the right habit is to remove your shoes and go inside a home, in a cold country, if you walk barefoot in a non-carpeted home, yo...

Antonym of the word happy is sad. Goes to say that the word sad is just a word. No more, no less. We often complicate life with these oldest language construct Antonym. Graphs taught us positive and negative as much as Chemistry that taught us cations and anions. Astronomy has Night and Day as opposites while Science brought in Full x Empty, Fast x Slow.  Kinder garden text book has these: Tall x Short Good x Bad Big x Small Heavy x Light Beautiful x Ugly Black x White While we fully well and clearly see that these are just words, we often give a heavy weight to one side of the cross mark. The cross mark x in writing an antonym is in itself a mere indicator that we are seeing polar ends of any given idea. Park the thought right there. Now lets ask ourselves: Who said that only the left hand side is ‘good’ and the right is ‘bad’?? Is your left eye precious to you than the right eye?? Same with all the parts of your body. We want left and right to...

Evolution in its base sense translates to Continuous Improvement Process - How we improved from where we were in the age-old past to where we are in the present day. We all as human beings, community, group, society, country, and the world continuously grow and improve.  Growth is part of being. Continuous improvement is part of us!! We have evolved (grown and improved) from the state of total innocence in the undated past to the state of information overload today. One of the ‘like-it-or-not’ aspects of present-day information overload or its glorified synonym ‘exposure’, is the bringing up of a gamut of adjectives into our otherwise calm, simple, and happy minds. The phrases such as ‘successful’ growth, ‘significant’ improvement, and 'remarkable’ achievement are all conceived my man in his own balance scale, benchmarked by a known achievement of another man.  With these adjectives, most people today aim to meet or exceed the mark made by another perso...

Ever been on an escalator? Yes, am sure. On a recent such escalator experience with my children, I realised a hint to the big truth of life , as I would see it. My son held the rails so strong for fear of falling off that he was standing at an angle for a few seconds before I hurriedly got him to loosen his grip on the side rails and straightened his panic mode to a gentle smile! We safely stepped out, and it was such a huge ordeal for me, coming to think of it. Afterthought: Think of life’s timeline as an escalator with side rails. Let’s say each passing moment is a step in the escalator. The timeline keeps moving the Moments in perfect routine and it is always a forward movement. This escalator stops only on your Last working day on Earth! Now, what will happen if we hold on to the side rail and refuse to let go of our grip?? We’ll fall, while the escalator continues to move.  That’s exactly what happens to most of us most times, when we refuse to le...

A wardrobe full of white clothes - All of them kept sparkling white and neatly pressed! All clothes are clean, devoid of every last bit of dust or stain, folded neatly, and well in place to find them when you need! Clean hands, disinfected from all the bacteria, all day! Everything in the room is symmetrically arranged at all times of the day and rearranged every time a little change happens in the order. The Coffee should,taste this way, be served this way, at this time of the day and have this shade of brown! Everything should be in perfect order and consistency in keeping tidy is an absolute must! Now all these, at the outset are perfectly acceptable practises, habits and interests to have. Aren’t they?? What if I tell you, that these habits and many more like these become rulers of our psychic at times, deteriorating our quality of life, slowly and steadily in a big way!!! In short, they become Obsessions! Each of us may have one or more practises that we absolute...

I was working on Environmental Studies Homework with my six year old daughter. ( Oh yes, it is nice to study some things again with a little student friend as long as it is not Algebra and Geometry, I can confidently say! ) "My Family" was the first lesson. The text read: Tina is six years old. Her father is a doctor. Her mother is a teacher. She has a little brother. She likes to go for a walk with her grandparents. Tina has a pet dog. She loves to play with her dog. Her mother teaches her. Tina helps her father clean the living room on Sunday. The lesson had pictures illustrating the whole scene in the house so the children understand how Tina was related to each of the family members, their roles in her life and how others in the family connect with Tina. Beautifully done, I thought!... The next day, my son brings a book from his Kindergarten class. The Homework for the week was to match the capital letters and the corresponding small letters. The next page had ...