Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist:
“To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation.
All things are one.
And, when you want something, all the universe conspires to helping you to achieve it’.”
Shah Rukh Khan in Om Shanti Om:
“Agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaho to saari kaaynaat usey tum se milaane mein lag jaati hai”
” अगर किसी चीज़ को दिल से चाहो तो सारी कायनात उसे तुम से मिलाने में लग जाती है’ “
No this is not the notorious Patel Motel Rap. It is rap, but a very well made one at that.
The rap is a sort of a ballad of a journey of a young ambitious man – a son, a brother, wanting to economically immigrate to ‘Umereekaa’ ~ Maarey Umereekaa javvu che ~ A call that many a youth, many a families are making. Once he is here, he goes through all the work, effort, trials & tribulations of adjusting to the western culture, achieving his goals and ambitions of ~ ‘Maare millionaire thavu che’~. But all along he knew deep inside he was also losing a lot of himself. Nothing comes for free.
Not to say that lofty ambitions, high goals are wrong. Not to say that the ability to buy a Hummer and wear the best suits is wrong. But should these things be achieved only at the cost of losing, breaking, ignoring the relationships, the bonds that tie us, that keep us on firm ground, then they are all wrong. Duty is a very important word and ‘virtue’ – culturally within the Indian Diaspora. Fore go the odd dollar for the sake of doing your duty. This is a fight that all Indian youth born and raised or brought up in a ~ ‘vilaayat’ ~ a foreign(?) land – in the west have with themselves. Sadly some lose this battle. But most shine through.
Listen for the gujarati words..
maru dil..my heart
maru loy..my blood
maru nath..my family …2 worlds apart
kay-veereetay jaiyse
~ Rakesh
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
~ Ralph Emerson
Jo beet gayi so baat gayi
Jeevan may ek sitatra tha,
Mana woh behad pyara tha
Woh toot gaya toh toot gaya.
Amber ke aangan ko dekho,
Kitne iske tare toote,
Kitne iske pyare chhoote.
Jo chhot gaye phir kahan mile
Par poocho toote taron ka,
Kab amber shok manata hai,
Jo beet gayo so baat gayi.
~ Harivanshrai Bachchan
What has happened has happened !
In your life there was a star
Agreed that it was bright and beautiful.
If it has broken today it is broken !
Look at the courtyard of the sky,
How many of its stars break away from it,
How many of its stars leave it and go away.
But of all the stars and loved ones the sky loses,
Have you ever seen the sky mourn for them !
What has happened has happened !
Our respective profiles; be it our Facebook profile, or our real social profile; shows many ‘friends’. Friends made with a click, or made with a smile and a shake. The ‘instant’ nature of everything in our lives, in my opinion, has greyed out the difference between ‘acquaintance’ and ‘friends’.
Every now and then, it is required for us to stop and look around us and ascertain the quality, the value of these ‘friends. Once a value is attributed make sure that the person knows their value in your life and that “Who they are really does make a difference”
This video makes us stop and think, out of so many ‘friends’, who really would we be able to pin a Blue Ribbon with Golden letters??
Stop and have a ponder!
Not many!
(Warning: Keep a box of tissues handy to wipe that odd thing called a Tear, from your eyes!)
There once was a little boy who had a bad temper.
His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.
The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally! the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.
The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.
The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.
He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say ‘I’m sorry’, the wound is still there.”
A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.
“It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.”
~Warren E. Buffett
Our best behavior; Our best efforts; Our best attitude should be prevalent, especially at the times that you know that no one is watching!
Assumptions are the termites of relationships.
~Henry Winkler
This is so true. Assumptions and speculations arise, first of all, out of the need to know more about a person, an event, an occasion.
Our failings in not being able to reach out to the source of this information thus gives us the license to create our own version of the fact. Which is closer to fiction than fact.
Need to know something, ask the person concerned. Don’t have the familiarity with that person? Best leave it to keeping that as unknown rather than creating something that is more fiction than fact.
A good friend is a connection to life – a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world.
~ Lois Wys
Jawaab maan…