Life is an illusion

Have you ever decided that you will change your completely, become more active, proactive, non-self-sabotaging, on the whole a better person? Once you go back home? Now I have realised that I do it every single time, I go elsewhere. And inevitably I do not implement any of these, when I reach home. This is like new year resolution like me For example- currently I am thinking how I will travel my city, blog about it, blog about citizens’ problems, organise my home, and so many other things. But my dark wolf is sniggering. And I hate it  because there is truth in that snigger. Any of you do this “resolutions”?

I have been thinking- we have so many rivers, so much rain fall. But still water scarcity. Why? Is it due to lack of planning? Or citizen indifference? Or because of population? We tend to go with third answer and declare our helplessness. But there must be something one can do. For our future generations!!! In Bangalore, there are plenty of parks. I think it will be possible to construct some very small lakes in each of them. May be the outflow of each of these can be sent to storm water drains.  Rain water harvesting which was said to be compulsory can be implemented. Citizens can be given 2 months time to implement after which a fine of a very huge proportion can be levied on them. To make this more lucrative, government can give some rewards to this - e.g. no water bill for 6 months if you have rain water harvesting. People normally look towards short time benefits. Rain water harvesting must be implemented in apartments and also in government buildings includin...

What is an ideal holiday? Where your only work is to see new places, try new cuisine and come home rest and get ready for next day of adventure? That too in all our dream country US of A. But we still miss our daily troubles with water, roads, maids etc.  This city - Chicago - is a large one. But the area we are now is calm. And it is green filled with trees everywhere. Surprising fact because the city will be covered in snow in the winter. And because the summer and sun are thing to celebrate, I think people here try to brighten these days with color. You can see flowers on balconies everywhere in what appears to be coco-peat filled containers. Even the side walks have tiny plants filled with flowers. None of which are familiar to us. The trees too are different. When I finally found a tree which looked like banyan, I was happy to have recognized one. But the happiness was short lived because that had serrated leaves and cottony flowers. These flowers had made a bed of ...

Baha’i religion was founded in 1863 in Iran by Bahá’u’lláh in Persia. The unique ness of this religion is it teaches unity of all humans. It spread to middle eastern countries and then to all other countries. There are around 5 to 6 million followers of this religion today. The three major teachings of Baha’i are Unity of God Unity of Religion Unity of Humanity (we need this) I had read about it earlier. Yesterday we visited their temple in Wilmette Chicago. The main temple has 9 sided tower surrounded by 9 gardens. Beautiful these are with fountains and all. Inside the temple there is serenity and some kind of tranquility. Sayings of Baha’i (I think) are adorned on the walls. And like many South Indian temples, there is a water body in front of the temple (as if it is present to wash out all impurities) The guides told me that you can sit inside and pray to any God in any language. The pillars of temple have symbols of all major religion and that of  Baha’i...

We are in Chicago for a holiday. We visited this art Institute here. It is wonderful. The museum has enormous collection of paintings from Europe. Most of the paintings are from 18th and 19th century. Ok, we may have skipped contemporary arts section. There is a section of Indian and Japanese art too. Indian section has statues mostly in black stone of Gods and goddesses. Do visit this place and reserve an entire day for the visit.

Many spiritual gurus say we must be just witness to our own lives not at all being affected by sukh or dukh. I think I have achieved that. I think I have become a sakshi watching people stabbing me (figuratively) not only from back, but from front knowing too well how helpless I am. I think people are happily dancing euphorically watching me bleed. And I am watching that. Unable to do anything, unable to protect myself. Or may be all this is me watching some one else’s life. May be a dream. Now coming to why I think God came to take away my life and was begged for mercy. For some reason, he was angry with me and decided to teach me a lesson. Like everyone else. And he told me “ok, you can live. But each and every day, you will wish that you were dead”. I am sure this must have happened. But I don’t remember it. He must have told this in my dream as is his habit. There is no other logical explanation to this.

Yesterday I was a carefree young woman enjoying living life. Today I am an old lady who should think twice before sitting, standing or walking, and shiver at the thought of climbing stairs. Yesterday I was boasting how I rarely take any medicines except for an occasional Crocin which is a cure-all according my belief. Today I need to swallow a long list of medicines before going to bed. How did that happen? How did I age so suddenly? Till yesterday, in-spite of people giving me some kind of respect reserved only for age, in-spite of the knowing too well that I am fifty plus and am old, I did not feel old. I could walk when I want, I could dance if I wanted to or I could jump if I wanted to. Not that I did any of these things. Now suddenly, age, or as was said in epic TV serial Mahabharatha, "Kal" has caught up with me. Today if I walk for 5 minutes, my knees hurt. If I sit with my knee bent below the desk, my knees hurt. If I start singing a song, one of my ears hears ...