Friend

Dear Friend,

We might not have met in the most friendliest of circumstances, even with the constant denial we know we did not have entirely positive views in the beginning. Now look at us! We lament every missed weekend not spent in each other's company, is there a secret we do not know about each other? Do you not turn to me, and I to you at the end of the day? You've grown from friend, to best friend, to sister. At the core of the matter, however, is the fact that we are friends through and through.

People around us say, that a guy and girl can never be "just friends", that a platonic relationship with an unrelated female is just fiction. We have been proving them wrong consistently, and in future too they will see the error of their ways. Who are they after all? They never travelled our path, took our journeys. People in the shadows who will never realise the things we have been through. We just turn a blind eye and deaf ear. Your fiery spirit would, however, prevent you from having a mute mouth. They will get what they deserve, but this is not about them. This is an ode to our continuous friendship. It stands testament to the fact that it is not the length of time spent together that makes friendship. I have had you as my friend for quite long, but not long enough. Would we have been such great friends if we had met earlier? Absolutely!

Today is Friendship Day in this timezone, what an opportune moment to say that I am indeed blessed to have you to fall back on. I know, guys do not say much, most of us do not wear our hearts on our sleeves, but the only time we do reveal ourselves is to our best friends. We have seen each other at our best and worst and yet there is more to come. So, take this as my version of a Friendship Day card. Cheers to us. Priya, have a great life and as usual I'll always be there to celebrate and console. The reverse is true, without need for mention.

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out

~Walter Winchell 

Writing

I've written about writing before, the catharsis it offers. In my opinion, at least in my case, few things have provided me with a vent in a way writing has. I am not necessarily prolific, poetic or profound. My words do not necessarily impact people as maybe those from the well known. The joy of writing is my own, for an inherent soul nourishment, than as an attempt to please. I've learnt things about myself from writing that I would have never thought. It has unfurled aspects of me that would have otherwise been entangled and ignored. I am not good enough to make it my career, I would count myself blessed if I could manage that. Just a few words on paper or screen is enough to make me feel satisfied. In great moments of crisis scribbling something out has given me a greater clarity than meditating on it. Counting the number of I's that has been written before can give an understanding as to how personal this is for me.

It is with considerable anguish that I then add as to how stale the art of writing has become around me. I've always wanted to see things with a fresh new insight, I never thought that writing which had been a second nature to me needed a second look. I have grown to neglect it and as such I must bear the brunt of the shame. As with any skill, writing is manifest as much with practice as with inner talent. The best of writers are known to write, write and then rewrite. The true literary masterpiece is one which ends up satisfying oneself more, than the intended audience. I've of late grown easily satisfied, which will obviously not do. Writing has been there for me when I was indeed vulnerable, to forgo it in moments of leisure smacks of great ingratitude. To all my fellow writers great and small, I may not be in a position to advise you as I myself have failed, but know this, as you favour writing so shall it favour you. Write about things that may never matter, those things would matter to you in a way you'd have never thought. Writing is our voice which needs to be heard, especially in today's din.

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

~Ernest Hemingway 

Free Time

How often have we come across the saying, "Time and tide wait for no man." 

This oft repeated mundane phrase which sets about to instill in us a sense of purpose, an urgency, or even moral responsibility; seldom looks into the contemporary situation where people have no time for anything. Neither do we bother with time for time's sake, nor do we even bother with the tides. In the daily doldrums of routine, such things matter so little that it is only when we have some free time at hand do we look around and measure it. We count the days till we have reached a point of respite and once we are free we pray for time to go slow to enjoy it to the maximum. 

 The question however is, do we really enjoy the free time we do get? We plan so much, the myriad activities, the wondrous travels, ponderous books, and parties. In the end we end up lying on our backs till the sun scorches us awake or waste our time TV surfing. We must know that as humans we are entitled to only so much free time, even in that if we do not pursue something that we love, how is it of any worth at all? Wouldn't we have been better off without it?

Image of leisure

Agreed that the few hours we get in the name of leisure should indeed be devoted to that, but we must learn to define leisure. If leisure means a simple siesta, without any concrete output, then we need to seriously look into ourselves and introspect. We as a species may have well defined goals which we achieve in our work time, but as Robin Williams said in The Dead Poet's Society, it is for the pursuit of those arts which fall out of our main goals, that humanity endures. Our lives should not be embroiled in the meaningless struggle to simply survive and procreate. We must live.

It can be the stroke of a brush, scratches of a pen, strums of an instrument, swaying of our bodies. Do it for the pleasure of simply doing it. Consequences be damned when you're free. If we cannot pursue our hobbies when we are free, we also cannot pursue our goals when we aren't.

Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Blogging

Back again after a long time. Actually so long that I might had forgotten about this blog entirely... We often take up projects that are close to our hearts and with the passage of time often abandon them to rot. Very few of us have been able to manage to sustain them long enough. Going along with the theme of this blog I thought that I'd have a fresh look at the this blog itself.

Why did I even start this blog in the first place?

Screenshot of my first entry

If you can see that first entry I posted, it was meant to add to the measures I was taking to reinforce my dwindling writing. I myself am surprised at the things I had written. The blog itself was an attempt by me to look at the various things I had taken for granted and analyse them as a fresh new thing. We are often stumped when asked about the things we take around with us, we don't bother much with them. A new smartphone, laptop, book, partner; we often think the world of them in the beginning. A few years later we become people we do not recognise. Often at these times we never look back and list down the things that made us fall in love in the first place.

I for one started this blog with the intention of it being my creative outlet, a place for me which would force me to look at those things which I had neglected in the first place and make me see the wonder in them. Even now when I go through the old posts I am relieved and sometimes aggrieved to see the level of change in me.  I am also amused by the pattern of my posts which had three pictures at least and one quote in the end. Hopefully this might change for the better, I'll let the words speak more than the pictures. I'll keep the quotes though, I like that. 

So say anything you will, change is good but a change for change's sake is not. We have to see what we loved about ourselves to love us now. Often enough we find our old selves within us, just buried by new soil. Digging through that is worth the treasure inside.

The greatest explorer on this earth never takes voyages as long as those of the man who descends to the depth of his heart.  

~Julien Green

Music

Day 3

It's surprising that there were so many things worth observing when the danger of exams loomed over my head, whilst now when there is actual free time the many things just dry out!
Well after quite a work out to my rather worn out mind (my exams were dragged too long, people in MU will sympathize), I decided to fixate on the topic of MUSIC.

Music is many things to different people, for some it's an art to be appreciated, to others it is travel companion and to a very few it is the ultimate source of solace. So what is this music to me?
Music for me is a source of expression, a new language, a companion in solitude and comforter in grief..
Music goes beyond boundaries of definition:

The art or science of combining vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.

This is how Google defines music. It's a rather much more eloquent note on music than given otherwise by standard lexicons.  So many people can be seen today in any mode of public transport plugged in to their various devices listening to music. Such is music that it transcends barriers both cultural and economical. Few things can truly be the great equalizer (pun for those who get it) than music.

I'm asked at most occasions on what type of music I like. A fair question since as social behaviour dictates the grouping of people is similar to the grouping of songs into different genres. My answer has always been: "Anything that's good." That is true, I have never liked any particular genre per-se but anything that sounds different and vibrant I do listen. 

Some songs do come as a surprise, for what I have seen so far the indie music scene here in India isn't that popular. People are more mainstream, but there are so many gems in them and they do satisfy the craving for variety 
One such is the band Tiny Victories

Their song Mr. Bones is so intriguing that it took me quite a while to listen to anything else. I suggest hearing that song once just to hear the electronic pulse, it's psychedelic if you will!

Another band I found good was Elliott Brood

Here I'd suggest listening to Lindsay, a very captivating song, that.

And my friends who are forever fixated with mainstream, Coldplay has been a truly consistent band, producing path breaking songs some of which always end up in repeat in my phone!

Well these are just a few of the ones which caught my fancy. I think that music, as phenomenon will forever shift and change and for anyone who is an ardent fan of music, be it of any form the search for the song that  fits their own definition of music will go on. For that I think it's time to plug on your headphones and search for those little oldies which have been lost in the sea of playlists and find out why you liked them in the first place and maybe then you'll find your own music and not depend on a friend for new ones. Music expresses as much individuality as one's own fingerprint. Are you willing to kill it or raise it back? Godspeed to you...

Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die.

~Paul Simon

The Little Things

Entry two
Another fresh new day and many more things to talk about. What are those things again which are worth a second shot.

My semester just got completed recently and my plans for the limited vacation period was as had always been to laze around with my novels and not lift a finger. Now after meeting up with a friend and having a conversation with an even older friend there came..surprise surprise a second thought.
Is the vacation only about secluding oneself into tiny room and poring over novels and stories, reading and re-reading the same stuff? Has the outside world lost it's own inherent mystical charm and intrigue? Cannot the same stories be disguised in the patterns of the grey clouds and gentle mist?

A common view among many is to view the rainy weather as one of gloom and withdrawal. Many lament about missing outdoor activities fearing mud, water, flu. Others provide the rain with poetic words, bathing it in ephemeral droplets of highly fashionable tosh. All things said, as with anything comprehensible to humans there are extreme views in perception. I, am neither an enthusiast nor a hater. I fail to smell what is described as the deep rich aroma of the soil after the first rain, frankly I found it smelt no different. I don't question it, merely site my inability to perceive it. Nor do I understand the near vehemence towards an otherwise harmless weather change. I understand that things get mucky and damp, but then what's not to like in that? The cool breeze and misted hillsides are constantly a source of festive imagination.

This little path in any other day would hardly be something..but add the mist and the usual sudden burst of greenery and it turns into a dirt path worth a short hike. A road to the unknown, a short adventure?

The scenic beauties aside there are the traditions of childhood, the fascination with rain and thunder and the brilliant lightning! One cannot immediately forgo such memories for even in the old the memory of youth is quite deeply etched.

The evening tea time with hot snacks and torrential rains outside? An opportunity worth the sacrifice of a million other commitments.

As it lashes beautifully outside I choose this time to not stay cooped up with comforts. It's time to venture forth. Promises to keep and fun to be had. Why must one not brave the torrent for after all if it weren't for the rains we wouldn't enjoy those small comforts at home and what better excuse than the rain to "stay" at home and skip work? ;)

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.

~Gilbert K. Chesterton

First Entry

First ever blog entry!
Thought about a blog to express views to a larger hopefully accommodating audience..
As the title suggests, my blog will consist of things which we in our hectic daily pursuits fail to spare a second glance. For to observe a thing another time is to spare it a second thought. A second thought is a largely honourable gift for objects which we might never see again but it is that very thought which gives us an opportunity to set it down into our minds and in days of seldom company and even seldom thoughts we remember them as fascinating things which for a brief minute had given us a refreshing change from our monotonous thought processes.

How many things are worth our second thoughts?
=> A warm cup of coffee                                        

An espresso or latte is something we barely pass a thought to but on a nice rainy day it's an elixir worthy of the gods!

=> The Rain

After a blistering summer the monsoon is nothing short of a treat. These torrential delights are something of a nuisance to the average busybody but how many countless childhood hours have been devoted to the singular pleasure of all the mischief this season offers? Of paper boats and rain dance and the ubiquitous umbrella fights!!

"When we have 'second thoughts' about something, our first thoughts don't seem like thoughts at all - just feelings."

                                                                                                         ~Sydney J Harris