#60 Observation

Observation

 Observation is a unique act of looking at God’s creation. Our surrounding is stuffed with a variety of things. Sometimes few things present in our surrounding amaze us. We get awestruck about the fact of their presence, creation, look etc. No matter how simple or ordinary those things may seem, they are the power houses of uniqueness in the sense that nothing can replace another thing.  From observation comes motivation. For example, this piece of article has been influenced by certain observations made by me. Morning hour motivation comes to me through observing the components of nature. The nature has got vivid imageries and when you start to spend time with nature, you’ll certainly get mesmerized by the way things have been put in their places. It feels great in the act of chasing those white doves, with the stealth footsteps, which seem to have descended down from heaven to quench their parched throat from a limited reservoir leaked from the water tank over the terrace. Now I realize why those birds have been tagged as the symbol of peace and serenity. It’s even their slight glimpse that brings peace. They are the vehicles of the air; flying high to touch the limitless sky. Then a flock of birds in the sky draws my attention. On close observation, that flock seems to have led by a bird-might be more experienced in comparison to the other in the group.

The sunset view is breathtaking. The fierce hot burning yellow colored cosmic body, Sun turns orange, pink then gets absorbed amidst the vast stretch of clouds. The clouds, fundamentally, the agglomeration of numerous tiny water droplets, bear the shades of a color pallet at different instances. On closely observing, I find a resemblance of those yellow and peach colored clouds with those of the cream over an ice cream cone. The sky radiates the colors of a painter’s brush or I’m watching a creation of the greatest painter, the almighty, I just can’t differentiate. The commotion on the other side of the boundary of the hostel drags me close to the boundary of the terrace. When my foot takes me there to have a glance, I find a bunch of toddlers playing with clay- in the lap of nature. Neither the darkness of the surrounding nor the responsibilities of the life scare them off. They are like free birds flying carelessly with the passage of time. The cool blowing breeze makes me light and I let myself get blown with watching the activities of those notorious kids. It makes me realized how quickly my childhood days have passed. The floating of cotton with the breeze in the atmosphere creates the scene picturesque. It seems as if there is a unique combination of summer and winter as the spread of cotton in ground resembles snow.   

The darkness of the sky is now accompanied by a silver colored celestial body shining prominently with other numerous tiny stars. On observing the moon closely, I find many unidentified scars over it which reminds me of a tale that my grandma used to narrate in my childhood days. The gist is- Once a hare visited moon and it got lost there. That’s why the shape of that lost hare is still visible. There was no congruency of that tale with the reality but we as children were fascinated by it. As the night grows thick, the flickering radiance from the other side of the river resembles little candles spreading the light amidst the ever growing darkness. A thick layer of grey colored fume ejected out from the chimneys of the industries diffuse in the tar colored background in the backdrop of many colored lights of the structures turning on and off synchronously. Now, the tall structure of the transmission tower stands still in front of my eyes. I recognize it to be of suspension type with few discs hanging down. I wonder how it is different from the famous Eiffeil tower. I mean, that ordinary tower can be analogous to the famous Eiffeil tower. The road, in the other side of the view, seems to be invisible but the tiny moving vehicles. Their positions can be traced by the light emanating from them which looks like a video game being played in front of me and yes I’m the spectator. My vision can chase few moving lights performing rectilinear motion and then disappearing. Sometimes, it seems as if a competition is going on when a vehicle overtakes another. Everything seems magical and the air takes me to a completely different realm of imagination.

Everything around has got so much to give. It seems as if the inanimate things want to convey us a message of eternity and peace. What is required is to lend an ear to their unspoken or a keen observation.

15.04.2014

Swati Sarangi

This has been published in December issue of writer's ezine. From the Archives of writer's ezine

#59 Nullity

Nullity

An action starts from null

No one has ever imagined that

It might get so tall

Driven by unidentified will

Passion or a long woven

Imagination powered by

A strong inspiration.

Difficult to make out the

Origin of that thought

Thought which blows the minds

Thoughts which carry us to

Faraway untraveled roads

To satisfy the requirement.

Both beginning and the end- mystery

The road taken will very

Soon fade into history

Journey sometimes seem directionless

Who knows it might be

The reverse case.

What’s the hidden clue?

I ponder hard

I try to search that as far

As I traverse unrestricted

In the realm of possibilities.

The truth of life lurks behind

The planned adversities-

Those designed by the almighty

To set everything in

Its right place and to

Make impossibilities-a

Short spanned race.

You never know the motivation

Its origin and implications

It embraces you automatically

A soft shower so angelic

Enough to sublime

The sheer desolation.

Nullity

An upside down serenity

A noble start

With a hope to excel

Over the desired.

8.04.2014

Swati Sarangi    

#58 Book Review

Who will cry when you die?

Author: Robin Sharma

Genre: Inspirational, Motivational (Non-fiction)

Rating: 4.5/5(self)

About the author in brief:

Robin S. Sharma (born 1964) is a Canadian lawyer, leadership expert and a writer. He is of Indian ethnicity with his father hailing from Jammu, India. Robin Sharma's training programmes and leadership lecturers are summarized to a five point checklist: 1) Be physically fit like a sportsman 2) Wake up at 5 in the morning and focus on mind, body and spirit. 3) Learn new things daily 4)Daily spend one hour away from technological benefits like smart phone, TV etc. 5)Be grateful to others and count and write five good things every day.

He has written several self help books on personality development and leadership which have been published in more than 60 countries and translated to more than 70 languages. Although he became a successful writer, he was forced to self-publish his first book with 2000 copies with his mother as editor of the first book. His book, The Monk who sold his Ferrari was adapted as a play and staged in places like Mumbai.

Review: The book opens up with a quotation of Norman Cousins, “The tragedy of life is not death, but what we let die inside of us while we live”.

The book has been divided into 101 chapters which give required insight to life. What makes the book interesting to read is the fantastic way of organization of the chapters. The chapters written in a concise manner are restricted to at max. to 2 pages. The titles of the chapters have been very intelligently picked up keeping in mind the need of the readers.

The usage of appropriate and emphatic quotations makes the script more powerful. It also gives an impression that the author has acquired a wide knowledge on books as he had read many cautiously and this quality of him has been reflected in his way of expression.

The language is lucid. The message that the author wants to convey can easily be extracted from the text.

My Experience: It is a must read. If you are searching for a self help book, no book can be better than this one. The words written in it ought to get promoted.

Each moment I spent devouring through the pages of it, I experienced a sense of complete bliss. I started to understand many things about life that I never understood. Words of wisdom are certainly worthy, I believe. They have the power to transform one’s life. In due course of reading, I got inspired to bring about many transformations in my life, the first one being maintaining a code of conduct for myself that I read daily to start my day well and this reminds me of the important things- priorities in life. It opened my eyes to many other rather deep aspects of life that have laid untouched so far.

Each one of us is filled with infinite potential and due to the ordeals of life; we tend to get into the state of forgetfulness about that power house that is deep intact within our core. Motivational books like this one serve the purpose of waking us up from deep slumber.

A billion thanks to the author for transforming the life of so many (including myself). J

In the nut shell, I must state that it is among those books which require to be read again and again because the more you read, the more you can extract from it.

31.03.2014

Swati Sarangi

#57 Reasons to be happy

Reasons to be happy

We live in a world with a pack of things to be done. We are virtually trapped in the cobwebs of competitions and ambitions. We hardly devote any time to those things which make us happy. Have we ever tried to come out of these complexities and adopt some measures that would make our life simple and free from any kind of tensions? In fact, we are more concerned with dwelling deep into the problems rather than taking it lightly and letting it go unnoticingly. Our brain is a tank where we mix much stuffs rigorously. We forget that it has got a limited capacity for accommodation. We keep on carrying the loads of miseries, failures, betrayal for long . With further passage of time, these feelings take a shape of a giant and ultimately it becomes all most impossible to get rid of it. Before making it grow out of control, some steps should be taken to curb it. .

Happiness is a deep feeling of contentment. It is always accompanied by internal peace. It is related to the level of satisfaction of a person. A person can be happy with or without any reason. One cannot search for reasons all the time. It is very aptly said by Dalai Lama “Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions”. In fact, we are the ones who define any criteria for happiness. No one can instruct us what to do, when to do and how to do, we can only take their advises. Outcome is the result of our deeds. And later, the question of the level of contentment arises.  We bound our thinking process and limit our imagination to such an extent that anything deviating from this level cannot make us satisfied. We are tired of the truth and dare game of life and feel relaxed on being making ourselves expel from such a game.  Below some ways are mentioned through which we can be happy-

1) Keen Observer: To be happy, we should be a keen observer. By observing many things clarifies doubts that arise in our mind. When we are able to feed answers to our mind, we are left with no further questions and feel relaxed and happy.

2) Search for Interesting things around: Sometimes, the things happening around can fascinate us and draw our attention. In that case, one can find those to be interesting and hence it adds happiness to your life.   

3) Nature and its elements: Mother Nature has got all the elements that can attract us to its beauty. The flowing river, chirping of birds, breeze, slow movement of leaves, formation of clouds on sky, the scene of sunset and sunrise are more than enough to bring eternal peace. Daily spending one hour to see these naturally occurring phenomena can make one free from tension and provides immense pleasure.

4) A smiling face: Smile is a curve that glorifies face. A Smiling face becomes a center of attraction. It sends a positive signal and able to communicate with others in an efficient way.

5) Passion for hobbies: Nurturing hobbies can be considered as a best way to keep you live and create a long lasting effect on mind and body. When we engage ourselves to some useful tasks or constructive works, then we forget all other things that are creating troubles for us and we immerse ourselves fully in pursuing those works. It not only helps in relaxing ourselves but enriches our existing interest. We are satisfied internally.  

6) Healthy interaction with others: Developing a healthy interaction with people around you can heal your mind and soul and hence it will help to foster a strong bond. You compel yourself to open up and share your feelings, ideas, thoughts and emotions. When you feel that your voice is being heard and respected, a sense of satisfaction is experienced.  

7) Introspection and meditation: Communicating with oneself is an important factor which contributes to happiness. What we expect from ourselves is known to us in a better way than anyone else. Meditation and introspection helps to improve our vision towards achieving goal. We become clear of our objectives and transparent to ourselves.

8) Detachment from results: We can experience happiness by detaching ourselves to the result. Results are the consequences of our efforts and sometimes we overcome our expectations and sometimes not. If we keep on guessing the result, we will get exhausted completely in a short span of time. Guessing results creates a barrier in mind and it also conflicts the thinking process. Hence we cannot remain happy for long.

9) Complimenting others: The act of complimenting others gives immense pleasure. It shows that we are concerned to the person particularly, that’s why we are appreciating the work. By this way, it excavates the positive nature. Admiration helps in viewing the positive side of any person.

10) Gratitude: We are having more than what we know. This is a thought of being grateful to the almighty. We are constantly being helped by many people. We should be grateful to those who encourage us to do something in life. Showing gratitude to the near ones in life will broaden the relationship with them and make you feel happy.

Happiness doesn't depend on any external conditions; it is governed by our mental attitude. You outshine when you have control over your emotions. Happiness is something that can be found in every corner of the world at any interval of time. One needs to have a closer look to it. Happiness will definitely come if you make yourself loose (not to hold tightly) and make your mind a free bird that can navigate all most anywhere. In the end, I would like to share a quotation of Oscar Wilde, “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”

   To be happy, count blessings and forget what you are missing.

SWETA SARANGI

4.4.2014