Loved ones...

There once lived a man in a beautiful town called Fantasy. On one of this daily morning walks past a nursery he noticed the gardener water a beautiful sapling. He fell in love with it, and wanted to make it his own. He walked up to the gardener and expressed his liking to buy the it. The gardener explained to the man that it was no child’s play to raise a small sapling into a healthy plant. It requires time; effort, dedication, patience and most importantly love to raise one he added. He asked the man to come back to him when he was confident that he possessed all those qualities. The man went home with a heavy heart that day. He had developed deep linking for the plant and wished he could soon own it.

After that day, rain or shine he made it a regular practice to visit the nursery every morning to see the sapling. As days passed by the sapling grew little by little; thanks to the tender care of the gardener. In the days that passed, the gardener realized the fondness the man had for the plant. One day, he gifted the man with the plant, but requested the man to take good care of it. The man was delighted by the surprise gift and assured the gardener that he would care for the plant to the best of his abilities.

He placed the plant in the best spot of his garden. He would miss even a regular activity of his, but would never fail to take care of the plant. He watered it regularly, ensured the soil was perfect for the plant to be healthy, and took great care to check insects did not harm the plant. The gardener often visited the man’s house, and was soon impressed to see the way in which the plant was cared for.

Soon, the plant grew big enough and began to bear beautiful red flowers. Excitement was beyond words for the man. He was happy to see his hard work pay off. He would pluck the flowers in bunches and deck up his home. As the plant began to mature and bear more flowers, the man’s attention was more toward the flowers than the plant itself. He began to forget to manure the soil. He assumed the plant to be strong enough and failed to protect it from insects either. Some of the leaves began to dry, and the body of the plant was invaded by many insects than one. Still, the beauty of the flowers blinded the man, and he was only interested about the bright red flowers and the way in which it could add beauty to his home. His intention was not to abandon the plant. However, he assumed the plant to be fit and fine, and concluded that the plant does not need much attention as before. Still, as nature demanded, the plant produced beautiful flowers in bunches.

After some time, the man slowly began to lose interest in decorating his home with the same color flowers every day. He preferred bunches of colorful flowers instead. No more interested in spending time and energy to grow plants he decided to buy flowers of different colors from the local store. He was very pleased with the change his heart wanted, and tried all possible ways of decorating his home with beautiful bright flowers.

Seasons changed and the local store ran out of flowers. He spent many days in disappointment trying to procure flowers from various stores across the town. Unfortunately, none of them had flowers for him. One day, as he returned home disappointed after visiting a far off store for flowers, he noticed his red flower plant missing. He rushed around the yard, and finally spotted the plant in a different spot. To his surprise he saw the gardener who gifted him with the plant apply manure to the soil around it.

Guilty of having broken his promise to the gardener, he slowly walked up to him. The gardener stood up and smiled at the man, as he continued to water the plant and remove the dried leaves. As the gardener was busy with his work, the man slowly looked at the plant. It still had the same charm and beauty, and was filled with beautiful red flowers. For a moment the man froze. He recalled that he had stopped taking care of the plant from many months before. He was sure that by now the plant would have died. As he stood there with a puzzled look on his face, the gardener spoke to the man. He explained to him that, though he had gifted the man with the plant, and though the man had taken care of it for the initial many months, he visited the plant to check if was alright. When he noticed the distraction the man developed for better flowers, he was sure of the fate that awaited the plant. He had come over to the man’s garden and moved the plant to a better place on seeing the dreadful condition the plant was in. He went on to say that he made it a point to care for the plant as his own, until the man stepped down from his world of ecstasy and come back to the plant.

These words of the gardener were like a tight slap on the man’s face. He was ashamed of his irresponsible behavior toward something that he wanted the most. He sought forgiveness from the gardener for his selfish behavior and promised him that he would never make this mistake again. He also thanked the gardener for having cared for his plant at the correct time failing which he would have long lost his dear plant.

This story is nothing but a personification of our lives.
The beautiful town is our desire.

The plant is the true love of our life. Just like the man in the story, we make sincere efforts day after day until we win the trust and affection of our true love. Once it comes into our life, we care for it like it the most precious thing in our life. We let nothing harm our love, and protect it with all our heart.

The bright red flowers the plant bears are the pleasure and happiness our true love gifts us with. Just like the man, many of us begin to prioritize the wonderful times we spend with our true love, rather than love itself. We begin to look for the benefits of our relations, and soon lose focus on the wonderful meaning our true love has given in our lives.

The man’s assumptions and careless behavior are the taken for granted attitudes we have for the special people in our lives. Many a times, our personal likes, priorities and interest are so much important, that we without realization begin to exploit those who truly love us, for our happiness.

The colorful flowers are the various distractions in our personal lives. Work place and social networking tend to keep us busy for most of our day. Invariably, we begin to submerge in useless time outs with colleagues, friends, and in temporary relationships. The time which we craved to spend with our loved ones, soon gets distributed on the social networking sites, over coffees, dinners, and long hours with people for whom even they do not know what we mean to them. We are blindfolded by the instant pleasure all these activities bring upon us, and fail to realize the loneliness and pain we bring upon that beloved ones and dear family.

Seasons are the attitude of our so called dear friends in our lives, though friends are pivotal relationships in our lives, we often tend to misjudge the short lived relationships we pick along the way. Many a times, we seize our precious time for togetherness from our special people and allocate it between such passenger friends whom we pick along our journey of life. We are happy with the momentary pleasure we gain from the company of such friends. It hurts us only when those friends prioritize us next to important. It is at this point we realize that people enjoyed our company merely because they never had anyone else to pass time with. When they find better company is when we feel the pain of abandon, which we gave to our special people in plenty in the past.

The gardener is none but our creator. Just like in the story, even though God sends us to the best of people to be with, in those whom he has faith in, he still never abandons us. There are numerous things in life that change or force us to change. Some good, while some not. It is in those not so good times, that God takes care of our loved ones. He protects our love with tender care, and prevents it from all external harm. Again, like in the story, her forgives the true realization of our mistake and gives our love back in our live if we pray with a sincere heart never to desert it again.

The society in which we live is, is often filled with numerous distractions, that sometimes we change our minds and perspective of life. Without realizing, we drift away from those people to whom we are truly important. We ignore them, take them for granted, and reach out to them, only when required. We fail to distinguish between water and oasis. In our momentary bliss we often wade far away from our dear ones, and put them through emotional ordeal and trauma, which are beyond expression. Our lives are not always like the stories that we read. In the sense, we may for all we know never get a second chance in life. Do you think it’s time to reflect on our lives and change for the better?

Realizations along the way...

I learnt to smile at things I cannot change…and guess what…Life became easy!

You can never respect someone if you cannot respect yourself.

Love and concern are priceless…be careful to share it with those who know this truth. Else, it would be like water down the drain.

Remember, there is only one You...be proud of who you are and enjoy every moment being what you truly are.

When you know that past is never in your control, then why waste time thinking about it?

Failures never mean that you should quit. They are for you to realize the essence of persistence, will power and confidence…for you to believe that you are destined to get nothing but the best!

When you reflect on your life, do it only to refine it for the better.

A single act of carelessness can shatter the trust and faith built by a million words of sweetness.

It is true that Love is not math or science to be proved. But then, it is a feeling that is to be shown.

Never break the trust of a loved one. That is the biggest damage you can ever do.

An amazing 'She'

When they said she overslept
They did not know it was because of the drowsiness of the sleeping pills she took to put herself to sleep each night
When they said she waits for an opportunity to simply sit and do nothing
They did not know her health was failing
When they complained she was arrogant
They did not know she decided to take all the pain and still say nothing
When they said she cries for everything
They failed to understand she too was a human and needed a way to vent her emotions
When they said she was a snob
They forgot that everyone has their share of troubles to worry about
When they said she was a strong woman
They simply wanted her to be the strong one every time no matter what
When they said she overreacts for no reason at all
They wanted her to put up with whatever they did to her
When they said she has forgotten the old times
They wanted her to be the first one to say sorry, even when the mistake was not hers
When they said they missed her a lot
They had no one to spend time with that day
When they said work was too tight
They did not want her to expect they would meet her often
When they realized she was the only good one to count on
She had become so very numb that their words made no sense to her
When they said she always had a beautiful smile
She knew no one could snatch her determination to be herself in life

Though a million people criticized her in a million ways, she always believed that life was beyond such petty issues. She ripped apart emotional stress, mental ordeal, trauma and pain to grow into a person with an amazingly beautiful inner soul.

My standing ovations to my dear cook Valli aunty for making me believe that “Life for sure is beautiful no matter what!!”

My Baby Steps in Greening

“It’s officially declared…NASA discovers a new plant perfectly suitable for human survival. People from all over the world to be identified for transfer to this new plant named Green Earth in the next couple of weeks.”

How nice would it be to read such a headline on a sultry summer morning? But, unfortunately, at this point, we are blessed with just this one place, “Planet Earth” to call home in this whole wide universe.

With media scream about this issues every other day; and responsible colleagues discuss this over dinner tables and coffee machines, I finally declare that “I’m going Green!!’ What better good could I do for myself and the generations to come? :)

I have self nominated myself to be a Green Ambassador, to let people know of the numerous ways in which they can contribute to a greener, healthier, and wealthier Planet Earth. Remember, as the quote “Single drops of water make a mighty ocean”, every little green act of ours count a great deal!

Ever since I got enlightened about this whole Greening thing, I ensure I use energy saving fluorescent lamps at home – the benefit; not just energy conservation, but extra cash I save on my monthly electricity bill….hurray!!!

Paper to me is slowly getting to become Stone Age stuff. I prefer to make effective use of my tech gadgets like the computer notebooks and the like to pen down information. Also, unless absolutely required, print-outs are a strict no-no with me. And at times of that Absolute Necessity I prefer to use the duplex print mode. Once again dual saving – both paper and ink!
Now, for what I do with my used ink cartridges at home? Of course recycle!

Both my family and I make it mandatory to ensure television sets in all rooms get turned off completely; unplug charges and plugs of electronic appliances when not in use; and not over stuff refrigerator compartments. I also opt to drink water from bottles in place of disposable cups.

When it’s shopping for grocery or home needs I use cloth bags in place of polythene. This I should say is our personal Green favorite at home. We get back home and pat on our backs when we realize the number of polythene bags we avoid each day :)

As a long term Greening initiative I have begun to plant trees around my home. Am sure, not just me, this would benefit the other generations as well.

As my most recent effort to go still green, am practicing and advocating the art of reading online newspaper. While a few of my friends say am over doing the Green stuff, most of them are in concert with me. Am sure all these little acts of mine, would definitely contribute to a much nice Planet Earth someday.

If you agree with me, then don’t think, but act. Together, we sure can make our plant a much safer and healthier place to live and rejoice. Thanks in advance!!

Am finally a blogger!!!

Hi Friends,

After months of delay, I have finally managed to create a blog!! Guess I need a whole lot of self appreciation for that to begin with.

I have always had great flair for writing. It has always, and will always remain my fondest medium of communication. If I walk down memory lane, I was four when I wrote my first I Love You letter to my dear parents. Ever since, I had never missed a chance to write.

Now, about what I write…anything under the sun that interests/ impresses me. It ranges from philosophies to gossips; likes to dislikes; movies to music…you name it, I write it.

Before I begin to indulge in active blogging, I would like to extend my humble thanks to my dear Bengaluru friend, for all her motivation. She had always liked my style of writing, and had never lost an opportunity to inspire me to blog. I am proud to dedicate my blog to her, my family, and those special friends who love, guide, and inspire me in many ways than one.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy reading!

Cheers,
Priya