He sat on the couch holding a medal that belonged to his daughter. How he missed her!! Now, he had made up his mind to join her. He had made all the necessary arrangements and was extremely excited about this trip. He sat and waited. His watch showed that there still was 5 more minutes to go. It seemed too long a time to wait. The excitement was too much to bear. He closed his eyes and began to breathe deeply so that he could relax. He could hear the clock ticking, his heart beating and his slow breathing.
Thoughts began to fade and serenity swept upon him. He could feel his breath getting shallower by the minute. Slowly he began to slip into a deep slumber. By the end of 5 minutes, everything came to a standstill. The friendship between his body and soul finally came to an end.
He sat on the bed wondering what his true identity was!! He could not blindly accept the identity that people gave him. He did not remember a thing about why he was where he was. Perplexed he looked at the sky through the window and saw the moving clouds. One cloud caught his attention. It resembled a sky scraper, he felt. “Yes!!! Milind, you are a civil contractor.. Not a sales executive like they tell you. They are all lying!!!” With this, the past began to flash in his mind and he sprang up from the hospital bed to pursue his life.
The case sheet at the end of the bed read:
Name: Varun
Diagnosed with: Dissociative Personality Disorder
A little girl was sitting alone at the sea shore. Her eyes were hollow and tears had dried up on her face. Her hair was dishevelled and heart was shrunken with pain. The girl was hopelessly lost in the midst of a million crazy thoughts of her own.
She was lost and all alone and dying to move on but she had no idea about where to go or what to do. The waves from the sea touched her feet and left; pulling away the sand from beneath her little feet... The more the waves grazed her feet the lower her heart sank... The cold breeze that touched her face forced more tears to flow down her cheeks. She began running haphazardly along the shore, screaming at the nothingness that she felt deep within her heart. She tripped on a few pebbles and sea shells and fell face down... That made her further angry. She picked up those and flung them back into the sea.... Unable to contain her frustration any longer she burst into tears.
Then all of a sudden she felt a warm hand on her shoulder. She panicked for a moment and her body tensed a bit. Then those hands took her tiny hands into themselves. She was lifted up to be hugged and comforted. The girl was slowly and steadily put back on the ground. The stranger nudged her to walk with him holding his hands and she slowly began moving along the sea shore.
She noticed that the stranger was tall and well-built. His face radiated warmth, comfort, love and care. His eyes radiated serenity and calmness. On the whole he looked like an embodiment of God. His hands then pointed in some direction and urged her to look that way. She saw the beautiful view of the setting sun. The golden red sun seemed to reflect in the stranger’s eyes. Gradually she began to feel the warmth of the hand she held and that of the sun, spreading all through her body. Relaxation set in and her eyes did not feel hollow anymore.. Her heart rose from the abyss that it had been in.
The stranger then showed her a flock of birds flying home. He smiled at her and she found herself smiling back. Now she could feel her heart smile as well. He walked the small girl towards the other end of the sea shore. He began telling her stories about the birds, animals of the sea and land, humans etc. She thought she had walked for eternity but with each impending step she felt more energized as opposed to feeling tired.
On reaching the end of the shore, the stranger hugged the small girl and planted a soft and affectionate kiss on her forehead. He ran his hand over head. She felt she now had the strength to carry on forever in the path she was treading. He began to walk away from her but sadness did not dare to come closer to her. She would not be sad for he resided in her heart now. For days to come she would not feel negative thoughts around her. She would just feel bliss surrounding her.
She wanted to cherish this memory forever so she picked up a sea shell and poured all of the memory into it. She closed it slowly and carved on top of it
‘MY SPECIAL FRIEND – FOREVER REMEMBERED’.
My first air travel was such a lovely experience and also an absolutely unforgettable one. Magnificent view of everything down below and the feeling you get when you see the horizon which displays a blend of beautiful colours will be cherished forever.
As the flight took off and I slowly saw the walls and houses and roads grow tinier and tinier; everything started looking so meagre and I realized a fact. Things that surrounded your view and blocked you from looking any further and beyond now began to appear like specks. The looked like the scene out of a children’s book.
This applies to our lives as well. When we are totally engrossed in a problem, all we can do is think about the problem. Everywhere we look, we see the problem. But if we assume we are in a flight that is thousands of miles above, then we just need to see the situation as an outsider. We need to rise above the problem and look at it from a bird’s eye view. Slowly things start to appear as they actually are and problems which seemed like giants start to appear as tiny minuscule. Solutions can be easily achieved if you start thinking like an outsider rather than a person involved it.
So, when you are neck deep in trouble, just rise above it and resolve it. Do not run away from it or get engulfed by it.
A few months back I read this quote somewhere and it read “Life is complex because it has both real and imaginary parts”. I was admiring the quote and discussing it with a friend and ex-colleague of mine when an idea struck my mind like a flash of lightning. Thanks a lot Manish for that short chit chat... It inspired me to write this post.
The quote seems very true to me. Life really is complex and it does have both real and imaginary parts to it. The best part about this being that the imaginary part is denoted by the ‘i’ which also indicates the 'self'. Most humans hardly know the ‘i’ part. They do not know what they are and what they are capable of. ‘i’ stands for √-1 and this can only be imagined and not appreciated enough by many. By changing the value of ‘y’ in a complex number ‘x + iy’, we alter the boundaries of ‘i’.
Our imagination truly has no bounds. Most things are achievable if we able to imagine doing so. This imagination then becomes a thought which is later manifested into reality. Our imagination is nothing but our thoughts. Our thoughts define the ‘i’ which ultimately means that out thoughts define us.
If Beethoven had no imagination then he could never have composed tunes after he became deaf. It is solely because he imagined the tunes in his beautiful mind that he was able to compose it. Even Stephen Hawking for that matter couldn’t be what he is today if it was not for his thought.
Well, if imagination increases manifolds and is beyond control then we lose the ability to control the thoughts. The thoughts will begin to ambush us and we get lost in those thoughts. We lose ground and lose touch with the reality. This is where the real part of life comes into picture. When the real and imaginary parts are put together in the apt quantities, the ‘i’ will accomplish its meaning and the path of our life is shaped.
So, it is very essential that we realise how important our thoughts are and how to give meaning to our life through these thoughts.
You are.......
like the pearl resting in an oyster
like the rainbow beaming in the sky
like the smile spilling from a baby's lips
like the seedling growing out of land
like the fresh air atop the mountains
like the clear water gushing down a river
like the love filled in a mother's heart
like the first rays of sun kissing the land
This is the way I see you...................
