spreading smiles..

I can sketch people on a drawing paper better than I can with a pen and paper.. But this time I am going to give a try to sketch one personality here..

... You are rushing for the morning classes.. You manage to barely catch this bus.. But when you enter the bus, you are greeted by a broad smile and a "Good morning!.. How are you doing today?! ".. I smile back.. And there I know that my day is going to be as bright as that smile! You must have guessed whom I am talking about. There is this BT (our college bus) driver I am speaking about. I am fortunate enough to travel most of the times by his bus and that's why I could observe him in detail..

I would like to mention here that my conception about social attitudes of people with different colors and from different places completely failed when I came in proximity of this person. I found a lovely zephyr in that elderly smile. This was indeed soothing while I was surrounded by hypocrites in a foreign country.

I would like to tell here an incident because of which my reverence for this man reached a point where I started seeing a fatherly image in him.. It is 9.40am.. Not everyone is in a rush for the classes.. We reach some place where two grannies (80+) get in with a 'gifted' lady. (I have adopted this word from one of my friends. It is the best way to tell everyone who the mentally challenged people really are.. ) There comes one more 50+ lady with one more person in wheelchair. The man in wheelchair hardly can make any movements. You look at the group and start thinking about how a human can be challenged by life and start feeling sympathy about the lot.. But before you even realize anything about the lot, our driver uncle gets up from his chair.. Greets them with his broad, cheering smile and helps them get in the bus one by one.. Welcomes all with a number of "Good morning!.."s, even to the gifted one without getting exasperated at all.. While helping the wheelchair secure on the bus, humbly tells them "I am so glad to have you all today with me!..." .. This is the first time I saw someone doing so much for others in this country.. When other students were getting irritated because of the slight delay and the humdrum going on, this person was doing his duty with a heart full of love! That incident made my day!

There are more people in the world who face everyone with a grim or a straight face.. there are a few who greet people selectively.. and there are very few who spread smiles contiguously that is irrespective to whom they are smiling at.. It is said that one simple innocent smile can make significant difference in someone's life. I am sure I found at least one person from that category here in USA... :)

Finding Answers to Life's Greatest Questions..

I recently attended this talk on 'Finding Answers Amidst Life's Greatest Losses' by Dr. Ravi Zacharias at the university. It was basically arranged in response to the April 16 shootings, as well as some other human suffering. I was aware of the speaker's main area of interest, issues of faith from a Christian perspective, but still went to attend the lecture hoping that I would hear something relevant to April 16 as well.. I was not disappointed completely. I got an interesting answer on how to reduce the pain.. The answer is: 'It is extremely difficult for a stranger to feel and try to remove your pain due to first point because it is 'your' pain and second, if the cause of suffering was inexplicable..' The man behind the massacre at Tech had his own relative frame of mind. He did what his thinking lead him to do.. No one could have stopped him because, for us (and I feel even for him) the reason for his did was unknown. Today, as science and/or spirituality cannot explain the beautiful phenomenon of 'falling in love', obviously enough we are ages away from reading minds and seize people from destroying peace in others' lives..
This is just a stupid cartoon I drew when I was writing this blog.. Thought of putting it here! :D It just expresses futile efforts of a saint to 'reboot' the mind of a psycho killer.

Aah, if at all this was possible, wouldn't the earth be a paradise? Human beings living peacefully with no suffering at all? I think no.. Unless we get rid of the 'Shadripus' (six enemies of man - Kama (Lust), Krodh (Anger), Lobha (Greed), Mada (Intoxication), Moha (Delusion), Matsara (Jealousy)) from each and every human mind, we will not be able to lead to a truly peaceful life.. To restrain oneself from these enemies, our saints and sages had shown us a light of getting engaged in praying.. God is nothing but this concept with which if you occupy your mind, you will simply not get any time to look around other things and to give reign to those six hostile things mentioned earlier.. What have we made of this God now? A Jeanie who will give us everything we want, an open book where you go and write 'sorry' for all your sins and innocently (!) hope that your character gets cleaned, a diary where you reveal all your secrets and expect the diary to be as quiet as calm lake and an omnipresent energy the existence of which you selfishly recall when you need something badly!

hmm... I remember, at one of the musical programs, a poet expressing the concept of God in a very outstanding way. According to that poem, an atheist is the best friend of God.. why? because, that is the only person who doesn't rely on God, to whom the God can talk at equal level at the end of a tiresome day answering all the prayers and who can assure God that he can take care of himself without troubling God anymore..

Why do we need to ask anyone (even God) for support? Can we not figure out things ourselves without bothering Him? Even the greatest quests of life will then be solvable.. Yes, indeed, every problem has a solution.. Even Life's Greatest Questions become answerable if we realize this and if we realize who we are.. Even while writing this, honestly, I am trying to find who I am.. I am hoping I will get my answers some day.. Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? I definitely know there are answers and I will figure them out some day.. I hope you will find yours too!

An Inconvenient Truth

This is not a movie review.. This is just a long awaited chain of thoughts being written here.. Since my childhood, I had been thinking about the 'non-childish' issues like the pollution around, the population explosion and ways to reduce the global warming/ climate crisis.. The public awareness lectures, discovery channel programs and the long discussions with my father were probably responsible for this.. I had been taking active part in some programs regarding environmental issues at school and college level. I could have even pursued it more seriously as my career if some other passion would not have been more dominating..

Now, while pursuing my career, I shall also keep up my work on environmental issues for sure. But I am wondering, if there at all is any solution to the problem of global warming.. Have we gone beyond repairing the global warming issue? Can't we do anything? My dangerously optimistic mind does not let me lose hope. I love this blue planet and am sure there are more such people.. We will figure a way out..

By the way, before I saw this movie, a few days back, I went to a presentation by Anousheh Ansari, a private internet explorer and a co-founder of the Ansari X prize. It was a good trigger to my sleeping thoughts on the issue of 'saving our planet earth'.. Doesn't the blue globe look beautiful from outside? As Anousheh rightly said, one won't see any boundaries from out there.. Just the calm, gorgeous blue ball.. Our 'only' home.. We need to protect this place. With the current rate of exploiting resources on the poor earth, I guess in near future, we will have no option but look for a new place to stay. It will be definitely millions of miles away from our current location.. (Ha! Is that why I am doing Astronomy ;) )

Coming back to the movie, the graphs and real life evidences shown in 'An Inconvenient Truth' are definitely astounding and give a wake up call! I don't care about anything else in the movie but the vivid pictures.. We need to take measures.. Oh well, why do we at all need to save energy, live a thrifty life and worry about the future of the planet? I think all the young minds in the whole world must realize that this is a combined responsibility on shoulders.. If we refuse this right now, we would be cursed for a horrendous future of our next generations..

Now, where do we need to start? What do we do? Any easier way to do it at individual level? Indeed there is.. First and foremost is digesting this very 'Inconvenient Truth'. The rest will follow.. Once a person decides to do something really important in order to save his life or if not that at least his home, the earth, eventually rest of the things will follow.. (I presume so!) Remember, where there is a will there is a way.. :) Educating thyself on this issue, careful use of resources and finally a sense of ethical/moral burden should help solve this problem in due course of time.. I wish more people will find out their own ways to contribute to this global movement of saving the planet earth..

First Blog

Well, this is my first blog on internet.. I have this habit of writing a diary. And I am maintaining it now for more than ten years.. I had always been looking for like minded people, rebellions and mavericks.. I have a good collection of such friends around me.. Eventually, I figured out that even this blogging could be a good way of sharing one's thoughts and gathering people.. So here I am..! I will not stop writing my diary as I believe that I can talk to myself the most through this diary.. I will also keep writing letters to those with whom I loved talking for hours back in India.. This is just a new addition to my writing list...