Monday, March 31, 2008

Out of the blue.
--------------------------------------

You came out of nowhere..
as sudden as a flash of lightning..
making my life a poetic paradise
which suddenly had found all its meaning..

As welcome as a ray of sunlight
in the thick of the winter storm..
you came in like the long awaited rains
for a desert thirsty since long..

No color in the rainbow
Can describe the shade of feeling
No expression ever coined
Has the power to express the longing.

One look in the evening twilight
An entire song sung with a smile
Words seemed so redundant..
Your eyes had said it all.

Best,
Gargi.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Just another random thought.

Firstly, I don't know how much sense this blog is going to make but i am gonna give it a shot anyways :)

I can trace the origin of one of my "current most haunting" thoughts to a nice lil sentence i read a few days back which goes something like this.

“Really great people make you feel that you too, can become great.”

Mr Mark Twain must have told this on one of his exceptionally intelligent days :) .

I have this really odd habit of analyzing conversations, meetings, mails, chats and the like with people long after they are done and forgotten. It gives me special pleasure in doing so because every analysis gives me a new chain of thought, something that i had totally missed when the actual interaction was happening.

I have had the pleasure of meeting some really interesting/wonderful people. Intellectuals, so called "philosophers" :), teachers, managers :P , technical people, bankers, farmers, artists, musicians, etc etc i have met them all. Though they may not have been the "really famous" ones, they have been remarkable people by themselves. Some of them have been true and honest, some kind and understanding, some proud but very capable, some proud but seriously stupid and the rest plain hypocrites.

Regardless of what profession they have been in, regardless of their origin/place/birth, there are some things that are so insultingly common in all of them/us that it makes me wonder at times about the striking simplicity that exists amidst the seemingly complex human behavior. One of them, i have made an attempt to describe in this blog. This is just a personal observation done over a period of time :).

Let us imagine a situation where we have had the chance to have a conversation/interaction with someone who is considered "good" at something. Has the conversation made you marvel at the beauty and the elegance of the job they do or has its complexity amazed you? For me, it has almost always(with a few exceptions) been the latter. I always have wondered at that point, how any mortal could do something like that within such short time and the like :). There have been exceptions where the conversation has been successful in making me understand the job/work and realize the simple but profound logic in it :).
And time and again, life has proved to me that such people who make you feel their job is the easiest on earth and u can be as good as he/she is, are the ones who really know what they are talking about :)

When i say simple, i don't mean they have done it by down playing their job or work. They have done it by stating stuff in simple, straight clear terms what the job is all about and what it takes to get there. No fancy words, no frills, nothing.

Maybe we all do it at some point.. exaggerate everything a lil more than what it actually is. Use stupid jargon and confuse others. Make it sound really nice and wonderful. The really great just don't to do it.. they don't need to. And such people will always have all my respect and admiration :). Explaining something the way it is(not the way they want it to be), so that the other person understands the elegance in it is an art.. which unfortunately most people don't want to learn. Decorating something that should not be decorated might make it look nice momentarily but in turn makes it lose its central meaning, and its beauty.

Maybe we should all contribute by example to form a space devoid of hypocrites and big and empty talkers. Rather, look towards creating an environment of honesty and truth.. Looking at things as they are and telling them as they should be.

Just adding one of my most loved sanskrit subhashita that is kind of relevant here:)

Sampoorna kumbho na karoti shabdam
ardho ghato ghoshamupaiti noonam
Vidvan kuleeno na karoti garvam
gunairviheenaaha bahu jalpayanti

Best,
Gargi.