Pursuit of Happiness !!

We always think that happiness is a faraway thing, something complicated and hard to get.. We look for it in the most tedious manner, drifting from the real path in this process….Yet, what little things can make it up; Have you ever contemplated what small things of life can make you smile and be happy,even for a little while ? Just to be with someone one loves, to think about special moments and days of one’s life when there was a special someone with you…..simple things like a steaming cup of tea when you are really down, a wonderful book to read-outside on a breezy afternoon, a shelter from the sudden downpour during your evening walks…wafting fragrance of an unknown spring bloom…twittering of birds, pitter-patter of raindrops, rippling of the placid lake from a falling twig…..calls of the cuckoo-the advent of spring, suddenly coming across a long-lost object in the most unlikely of places, planning a long-awaited trip, looking at the Maple turning auburn from green, bit by bit… Falling in love, waiting for that phone call in trepidation and excitement…..holding a baby in your arms for the first time, realizing that someone loves you ……All these things and myriad more constitutes the key to happiness…..These things make you happy !!

GOD + NATURE Vs MAN

Global warming and dwindling natural resources has already been successful in creating a pressure on our planet…then comes the recession-adding up to the prices of commodities, with number of jobless people on the rise resulting in lesser people who can afford to survive properly…Now, the oil spill- seafood prices will increase, fishing industry going down already,people again lose their livelihood with bans on fishing and shrimping..Nature’s way of showing that something is amiss and God’s way of showing his wrath ???????? Think about it !!

Diary of an onlooker

As I stare at those birds and dragonflies, or focus my camera onto them…they don’t have a clue that I’m trying to intrude into their private lives. For so long, the door to my balcony has been my window to the world…So many dusks have I spent, sitting in the balcony or standing on the threshold, looking out at the world as another day came to an end !! I wondered about so many things, but the most being about the beauty and peace abounding around me,at this time of the day…of the happiness I feel when I close my eyes and let the wind caress my hair….the rustling of the Sabal fans, the buzzing of the dragonflies, the tweets,chirps and varied sounds of the birds, the house swifts fluttering around and occasional sounds of the mechanical birds-on their downward flight to Fort Lauderdale airport !!

Everyone seems busy retiring in their own impassive manner. Although I’m totally slumped at this time, the retiring world out there perks me up..We are so bored with our daily mundane affairs, yet we find so much pleasure looking at the modus operandi of the birds,bees and trees…They are doing the same thing day in , day out- looking for food,breeding,looking after the young hatchlings or for the plants- growing, flowering,pollinating,bearing fruits,surviving the seasons.-Do they complain as much as we do ? Does the woodpecker get bored and tired of all the knocking it has to do for such a small bird ? Well, we’ll never know and yet we admire their daily routine and envy them for having such a beautiful life.

Now, the newfound hobbies of mine have provided me with a totally different perspective to the world outside my balcony …I appreciate the wordly chores that has been assigned to each one of us and understand that for the larger machine to go on, we have to play our parts, no matter how much of a drudgery it might be !!

The story of the dragonfly !!

There are a lot of dragonflies, flying around, this time of the yr....Since my childhood days, I always associated dragonflies with the impending rain..don’t know till this day if there is any real connection- but even today whenever I see swarm of dragonflies flying around, in my mind I think “ It’s going to rain !! “.. I have been wanting to photograph one …and just today, as I was finishing up my work in the kitchen, I saw two of them-from my kitchen window…about 150 ft away..Yeah, u can say I have sharp eyes, even with my specs..Dropping everything I was doing, I got my camera and rushed outside, went down a few stairs to get a clearer view and zoomed on to them as much as possible..It was windy and the branches of the palms were swaying too much, making it even more difficult in the zoomed situation ..Anyways, I managed to take a few photos, before they planned to change their position…and I’m happy !!

I looked up dragonflies on the net and found that like “ birding “, which I’m a great fan of, people pursue looking at dragonflies as a hobby and is called “ oding “ !! Now, isn’t that cool ?!

The bridge to the other side !!

Take me to the other side …where there is that missing romance,passion,love !! Where there is respect and eternal bliss ….take me to that land of ethereal happiness.

“If I had but an hour of love,
If that be all it’s given me.
An hour of love; upon this earth,
I would give my love to thee.”

The larger machine !!

We Live in our own ecosystem and then again we are intricately connected to the larger machine out there, the larger ecosystem !! As we think of us, our parents, our relatives, our children-born or yet to be born…of our own good and bad, we forget about the world outside. We forget to worry about the larger ecosystem which sustains us and which we belong to. We have built a nice interconnected world of our own with friends and foes , with blood and non-blood relations around us. We are constantly concerned for our well-being and to be socially accepted, to sustain this network that we have built. But in this process, are we sustainably managing our relationship with the larger machine ? Just as everything we do has an impact on our relationship with others, our actions has irreversible impacts on our world, the results of which we are already experiencing in our day to day life..When I came to know of the drought certain parts of my country has experienced last summer, when I learnt a couple of days back that the summer is already showing it’s wrath in India, I wondered…Along with feeling miserable for my near and dear ones, who have to go out everyday, without ACs in their cars, shop in stores that don’t have ACs and just live this daily life in this heat wave, I wondered - Is this larger machine showing it’s anger in this way, like someone close, someone who have been denied our love and neglected for long ? We humans, in the process of being perfect socially and otherwise, lost all connections with one of our important relatives. Now, we are to suffer the outcome …Is it too late for salvation ? Is it too late to acknowledge mea maxima culpa ??

Bloom and grow ...

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…where the rhododendrons and azaleas are in bloom…I am ever so haunted by this dream during this time of the year. It’s spring, time for the cherry blossoms to open up in full vigour. The eucalyptus, acacia, magnolia, jacaranda and myriads of other spring flowering trees are showing off their colors..I can see the bluebonnets dancing in the gentle wind , when I close my eyes. The Caribbean trumpet tree on the roadside are abound in intense yellow …Our childhood neighbour had one, which marked the advent of holi for us. My mind is always in a state of changing hues, and in full-blown spring during dusk hours..The world around me presents itself in so many shades during that time of the day, it’s only silly to blame my sappy mind !! I stare at the dark waters at my side of the lake and wonder at the golden magic created by the setting sun on the other side of the bank……

The Departure

The boat left, too soon, too early and I couldn’t stop it. The flower shriveled up before I could stop it …The sun set and I couldn’t save the auburn shades for myself. So many things happen in life which we can’t stop or save for later, as life itself. The moments lost are lost forever, the steps we tread today are difficult to be retraced, the smiles and laughters of today stay only in memory boxes of our minds. The seasons change and the cycle of life goes on. Twilight leads the way for the sensuous dusk…and we hope for a brighter tomorrow. We know another day will arrive and try to erase thoughts of yesterday’s apprehensions …But every departure doesn’t coincide with amelioration !! How do we cope with such departures ? How do we get over those departures that are too soon or however natural, are too difficult to bear ?

Revelation !!

We are silk, we are coarse..Sometimes fire, sometimes ice..Storm now, serenity after.We can destroy, we can create. Strong and kind but never weak…We are the fairer sex- We are the women of this world …….

The other road .....

Let me walk down that overgrown sedgy road …and find out for myself if that’s the one for me. Let me have a brush with any prelude to possible mischances that might follow..

Let me ascertain there will be flowers and bees apart from occasional sharp-bladed grasses and thorns along my way….If only life could have been like this !! If only we could have walked down a road less taken, find out if that’s going to produce a significant divergence from the future one has sketched in their minds and retraced our course.