Passion…unbridled

“And the night shall be filled with music, And the cares, that infest the day, Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, And as silently steal away.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

From one task to another I scurry

With plenty to do, I have to hurry

The day goes by in a grayish blur

With not a single moment to ponder

Upon what I am doing and why

All I feel are moments slipping by

At times I feel I have been mechanized

In relentless activity I am galvanized

Until it is time to lay my head

On the pillow, hit my unmade bed

As I close my eyes to finally pray

At the end of a very long day

Even though I work hard throughout

Discontented I feel, without a doubt

I am glad when sleep eventually takes over

Under fitful dreams, my mind takes cover

**

I had always been taught to admire

Dedication, industry, a belly full of fire

Working was noble; was my interpretation

Of a meaningful life, in my estimation

Workaholism was a quality to be emulated

Constant work would keep one stimulated

Thus my life I had filled with work relentless

Any time spent idling appeared pointless

**

Of course I did not realize when it happened

All of a sudden with burnout I was threatened

I was forced to take a break just for my sanity

Even though at the time it hurt my vanity

Then I discovered, and it was quite a revelation

How time spent at leisure led to rejuvenation

Somehow in my life’s remote control I had

Missed the pause button, but now I was glad

To have discovered what relaxation meant

It was the solution to many an ailment

Real and imaginary, that afflicted me

What I had been missing, I could now see

Now I have learnt to soothe my mind

At the end of the day, I try to unwind

And do nothing but reflect on my day

Calm down before my prayers I say..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watching my son struggle with the ball
I cringe inwardly, I hate to see him fall
Like every parent, with every ounce of my soul
I want him to succeed every time, score every goal
He is trying hard, that much I can see
To the very best of his somewhat limited ability
He is only five, competition not yet a word
In his vocabulary, he is still guileless in this world
He has not yet succumbed to peer pressure
He can still play a game for sheer pleasure..
**
When I get disappointed, I have to remind
Myself, this is not about me, I have to find
The right balance between pushing and letting go
Letting him learn to deal with the highs and the lows
I am his cheerleader, the one with the loudest voice
But how he handles a sport is ultimately his choice
I have to be careful never to weigh him down
With my expectations, even if reasonable they sound
He is learning to kick the ball, that’s true
But on the field he is learning life’s lessons too
To fall, and get up, to never lose sight
Of the ultimate goal, to keep up the fight
When he does not play well and I get upset
I set a wrong example, he does not learn to accept
Disappointment, which in life is inevitable
In every walk of life, this rule is applicable
**
Thus while my son soccer and life’s lessons learns
I learn valuable parenting lessons in turn..

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

Ayn Rand

I have been trying to find what exactly

Is it that has motivated me

To get out of my comfort zone and seek

To climb yet another peak

In the past- I am trying to find

The impetus given to my mind

That propelled me to seek adventures new

I need to know, I really do

Now that stuck in a rut I feel

Unmotivated, I’ve been waiting for life to reveal

An exciting opportunity that I can capture

Something that can send me into rapture..

That is not happening and so I need

To be proactive and find inspiration indeed

That would galvanize me towards a goal

Bring succour to my restless soul..

**

Feeling uninspired, ultimately one day

I decided, to my own dismay

I could not climb another mountain

I could not push myself again

I could not accomplish another feat

I would be contented in my current seat-

What happened next is ironic, I’d say

Just saying to myself “I could not” paved the way

For me to get over inertia profound-

Suddenly motivation came around

And once again I found myself neck deep

In an exciting project, oblivious of rest or sleep

It became my most ambitious venture to date

Another achievement I found on my plate!

**

With this rigmarole all I wanted to convey

Is that what motivates me every day

Is an inner critic that whispers in my ear

“This is beyond your capability, my dear”

To prove the critic wrong, the fighter in me

Takes on this serious responsibility

And pushes me forward relentlessly

Until a new pinnacle is reached by me!

 

 

 

 

Wikipedia definition-” Jugaad (alternatively Juggaar) is a colloquial Hindi (Devanagiri जुगाड़) and Punjabi word, literally meaning a hack. It is generally used as word to represent an innovative fix or a simple work-around, used for solutions that bend rules, or a resource that can be used as such, or a person who can solve a complicated issue. This meaning is often used to signify creativity to make existing things work or to create new things with meager resources.”

(This post is inspired by the launch of 20 satellites in a single mission by India, produced at a fraction of the cost of NASA satellites.)

In the midst of resources scant, ingenuity runs high

Feet planted on earth, eyes lifted towards the sky

Out of box thinking has always been in vogue

Hacking is a way of life, call them maverick or rogue

When they come up with products at a fraction 

Of the cost involved in a developed nation

That work equally well,  less energy consume

Leave critics awestruck, they can no longer assume

That the product, being cheap, must be inferior

Granted, less appealing might be its exterior

This capability of “jugaad” is inherent to every Indian

Survival in paucity requires principles Darwinian

Most days they are loud, chaotic, disorganized

But once in a while, the world is surprised

By the unexpected display of ingenuity profound

Leaving agape critics and economists all around

Frugal thinking and flexibility are features salient

Of “jugaad”, the concept that’s quite ancient

Maybe the rest of the world with shrinking reserves

Should take a page out of Indian books to conserve

Precious resources that might one day disappear

Learn to make do with less, and scarcity not fear..

(Image source: https://www.linkedin.com/topic/jugaad-innovation)

 

 

As I sit down to eat all alone

Checking messages on my phone

Occupying a small corner of the table

Thinking to myself if only I was able

To go back in time and fill up the empty space

Wipe away the loneliness that I had to face

Of eating dinner without any company

Except that of myself and my gluttony..

I travel back to my childhood days

Where dinner was in many ways

Bonding time for the family entire

By an unwritten law each member was required

To be present at the table to break bread

Or be in peril of going to bed hungry instead

While during the day life happened to us

Over dinner as a family we discussed

Our daily highlights, frustrations and fears

We laughed at our antics, we shed some tears

While simultaneously enjoying food glorious

Freshly prepared, every dish scrumptious

(Especially when compared to my dinner current)

Such luxuries are now from my life absent..

It is true what they say about food and family-

Ordinary food becomes gourmet with good company!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It took me years to realize
Who I was in my father’s eyes
The empowered woman that I am today
Would not have been without the way
I was raised by my father in a society
That glorified tradition and propriety
He taught me to do what my heart desired
He was ready to take any criticism that was fired
Against my choices that unconventional appeared
Because of him, exploring new grounds I have never feared

He lowered the peaks he wanted to climb
But when it came to ambition mine
He gave me the courage to aim for the skies
He always wiped away disappointment from my eyes

A guiding light in my life he has been
An omnipresent shoulder to lean
On- his greatest gift to me would be
The fact that he believed in me.

 

“The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars

But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

-Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

 

From time immemorial man has tried

To make some sense of this world wide

 

Life operates in ways quite mysterious

It’s machinations make human beings curious

When scientific inquiry fails to provide

Answers; science and superstition collide-

Thus was born astrology, a discipline controversial

Claiming our fates are tied to configurations astral

How can stars and planets located light years away

Influence a mere human, a skeptic would say

Yet people trying to make sense of their lives that spin

Out of control check horoscopes daily, trying to believe in

Anything that gives them some semblance of control

Astrological predictions are like therapy for their souls

The stars  make a nice scapegoat, I would say

To unload responsibility- they can be blamed anyway

When they “align” (a term quite dubious)

Fate would bestow you with blessings copious

 

Belief in astrology should have been outdated

To the era of Shakespeare it should have been delegated

But newspapers across the world  still carry a column

Dedicated to this discipline, read by millions

Some hang on to every word but for others

It is frivolous entertainment, like any other

Section devoted to housekeeping or fashion

Nice to read but with no direct implication

 

The stars were aligned so this verse was written

May the planets behave themselves in the heavens!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable sensations.”

Vladimir Nabokov

As a sensitive, impressionable kindergartner

Learning alphabets and words I did suffer

 

Slowly and painstakingly, once I had gained

Mastery over the printed word, my developing brain

Found nothing more fascinating than books-

I learnt to read hidden in crannies and nooks

At a gathering of adults engrossed in conversation

I would slip away much to my mother’s consternation

Find a cozy corner and settle down with a book

Nothing outside those pages merited a look

I learnt to enter stories, characters befriend

I prayed for positive twists at the end..

 

As years went by, life did not remain

Uncomplicated, there were moments of pain

Through every step of my life, I can say

Books were my companions along the way

Milestones in my life I could measure

By change from one to another genre

 

Now I go through life at a dizzying pace

Where a good book is still a saving grace

It helps me wind down and allays

My anxiety in many different ways

Now I view reading as a private affair

As a stimulating discourse extraordinaire

Between the reader and the writer alone

The experience of reading is my very own

 

 

I am a bookaholic a thousand times over

And  I have a responsibility to shoulder-

To teach my child to learn and discover

In the printed word the same sense of wonder

That I had found when I was his age-

The excitement of turning every single page

 

The love of learning I’d like to instil

His mind’s corners with imagination fill..

(P.S. This photograph shows the books I am currently reading.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blessed are Mendel, Watson and Crick

All those who discovered one big trick-

That our characteristics and behavior any day

Can be blamed on our genes and DNA..

From obvious physical traits and maladies rare

To an optimistic disposition- nothing is spared

From the influence of the mighty double strand

All quirks of human body seem to stand

Subservient to the whims of their genetic constitution- 

DNA has, indeed, acquired a dubious reputation

For being implicated in everything from addiction

To anger, adultery, any behavioral affliction..

Easy it is to blame something that cannot be changed

While (modifiable) environmental issues remain unnamed

By  blaming unacceptable behaviors on heredity

There is a tendency to absolve oneself of responsibility..

But here is something that we should remember

While DNA loads the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger*,

So even if the genetic code stays a mystery

Actions can outshine family history!

 

(Mendel discovered genes, Watson and Crick discovered double-stranded DNA)

(*Adapted from a quote by Mehmet Oz)

(Image source: http://www.123rf.com/clipart-vector/genetics.html)