The London Rain, Oh the Beautiful London Rain

Yet again you caught me unawares,
Chased me till the end of my journey, you did.
But your game I’ve now learnt to play and enjoy,
It does come with gifts only you can provide,
A whiff of the sodden earth,
A sprinkle of joyous drops,
Cool breeze and raindrops dancing around my feet,
Oh for the tired mind, you are but a treat,
A Refreshing Retreat.

Dear Aliya... Where art thou?

Silent though your presence was, strong it was nevertheless...
I miss watching the verandah from your eyes, a perspective that was entirely yours...
When all are silently asleep, for your much cherished night time company my heart weeps...
Loving you forever...
and once again death played its role... now I am in doubt... if its a friend or foe...

Happy and safe, I know you are,
Closer to me than ever before,
but once again I lay bare to the fallacies of human nature,
Tears are what I can never hold back,
Each time that I see your picture.

An ode to a lovely grandmother and a beautiful lady... Ammiji

                                                         In our hearts you'll always stay,
                                                         Your touch we'll miss every single day
                                                         Across boundaries and worlds your love I feel
                                                         Mastering time, the illusionary wheel.

                                                         Every single day.... :)
                                                         Loving you always ammiji....
                                                         (1st February 2009) 

 

An Operation, A New Lease of Life and an Awakening

My soul rushed into my body and I entered my mind.
A complex web of wild thoughts.
I saw a distorted form that metamorphosed into a goddess but even before I could contemplate her beauty, a square loomed before my eyes and immediately dissolved into a circle.
It was a mesh of red, blue and green and the rainbow faded.
Someone was holding my hand."whose is it?", I asked.
"This is GOD and I am holding both."
"Am I alive?", I asked myself.
I heard voices in the background. 5 minutes...the voices grew louder..
10 minutes..snap
I was out of it and alive and my life was never the same again..

The World Through Aliya's Eyes

“Aliya!  Aaaaaliyaaa! Where are you hiding this time?”

“Ma, have you seen Aliya?”, I asked my mother.

“Did you look under the drawing room sofas or behind the curtains?”, she replied.

“How did I forget about those two hiding places?”, with that I rushed into the drawing room.

The grandfather clock in one corner of the room showed 7:00. It was a beautiful Saturday morning outside. I had woken up about 5 minutes ago to the warm golden sunlight streaming in through my window, dispelling the darkness of the night and bringing a hope as fresh and beautiful as a baby’s smile. As I had looked out of my window to see the birds, chirping and sharing my thoughts of renewed hope as they had flitted about for their early morning chores of gathering food, a loud meow of my Persian feline had snapped me back to the surroundings of my room. I had jumped out of my bed and had run straight out of the room looking for her.

I found her squatting behind the curtains in the drawing room staring beyond the French doors, out into the verandah. “What is it out there that you find so alluring?”, I asked walking towards her. She looked up at me, with her two big, button like eyes, full of confusion. She gazed at me for a while before giving me a signal of recognition with a little meow and resumed her constant stare out of the door.

With a jump I sat down cross legged besides her. “I don’t understand what is it that you see out of this door everyday with absolutely nobody in the verandah. You can’t even look at anything beyond the house boundary. There is the tap out there and the tiles and only these plants and, and ooooh myyyy God, they are beautiful.”I finished my sentence with a tone of surprise and amusement.

“No wonder you sit here every morning never once breaking your tradition Aliya”, I continued.

Now almost level with her eyes, out in the verandah, I saw a world from Aliya’s eyes.

 I caught the leaves in the middle of their morning chat with their neighbours as they all swayed merrily to the tune of the morning breeze. I saw, as two sparrows settled elegantly on a stem and started their talk about the nuances of their babies and husbands.  After a hearty discussion the sparrows flew away, maybe back to their young ones. A shift of gaze to the floor brought me to the world of ants where they scuttled in and out of their lair carrying their food and following their leader’s instructions. A bee, a butterfly, a few pigeons, some mynahs; from where Aliya sat, it seemed like a miniature jungle out there, bustling with life and activity.

I stood up, scooped Aliya in my arms to go out into the verandah. The instant I stepped out of the door, she jumped deftly onto the floor and stealthily found her way across the verandah. There she sat crouching behind a pot. Suddenly, without any warning she pounced on a plant and at the same moment, the sound of panicked ruffling of feathers and alarmed pigeon coos filled the air as Aliya’s prey struggled for its life, clinging on to a flimsy ray of hope to survive and escape the pursuit. Then as the final blow came, all was quiet and still.

With her diamond trophy dangling from her mouth Aliya triumphantly strutted to the shelter of a tree to enjoy her kill and to enjoy a perspective of the world that was entirely her own.

Raincoat

 

As I watch the Grey cloudy sky,

I am reminded of the days gone by,

Of muddy streets and puddles in the road;

Splashes, raincoats & rainbows.

Of rain drops falling in my cup of coffee

Watching dusty foliage turn into a lively green.

And yet again my memory jogs to a past beyond,

from where I hear the patter of rain drops upon

The cobblestone streets I have yet to discover.

And that warm little cottage around the bend in the corner.

The Perfect Tease

     
       
         Juice, Chocolate and Cheese,
         Ditch the apple please,
         Cold weather and a long walk,
         The perfect tease.

A day in London

The wind today nearly blew me away.
But I loved it so,
And each second I loved it a bit more...

An Introduction... ????

People think I am crazy, they say I am mad because I am weird... I say.. I am different (but then is not everybody ??? :))

I am already at it, working out my Karma that is...:)...
and my thoughts are screaming to get out of the hat (not that I keep them in there,
I vomit out whatever I have in mind.)

I love horses and find elephants cute.
Making friends with stray cats and dogs is a passion and I miss Dominoes and now even Aliya :( .
Watching birds take flight or tigers run is a pleasure...
The sight of a dog going round and round in circles trying to catch its tail is hilarious...

Staring into empty space and lost in my thoughts I while away hours.

Everything natural has an appeal and that also holds for a fresh heart, mind and ideas,
as it does for rising mountains, plunging valleys, roaring rivers or silent waters...

Pride and Prejudice forms a perfect backdrop for my desire to live in medieval England surrounded by chivalrous men and brave knights ;),
cobblestone streets, rattling carriages and majestic palaces,
then maybe just an antique shop around the bend, in the corner or
an exquisite little cottage with all the warmth of the rising sun...


SHIFT GEAR and back to present....I live to love to live...:)

Savera - A new morning

When I first joined Savera, a school for kids with special needs, it was with zeal to do something for these kids. To help make their lives easier in one way or the other, probably by serving them. I had absolutely no idea of what I’d be doing, seeing or learning there. So I joined the school with no presumptions and this helped me to not only give and serve the little ones better but also to receive so much more from each child, more than I could possibly have imagined. Each child was special in his/her own way. Each child was; is a bundle of love.

The first day kicked off with introductions. Mam introduced me to all the kids and half a minute for each kid was about all that it took to establish that initial bond of love between souls, whose bodies may be maimed but their souls are whole.

The next few days are now some of my most treasured memories of life. Though now I am back in Amritsar, there are times when the faces of these children flash in my mind, each one trying to grab my attention. Each one expressing love in her/his own special way.

It was during my time in Savera that I asked a friend, “How would you define God’s creation?” He replied,” Everything that is unscientific and illogical is God’s creation.” In keeping up with all that I have learnt during my school years, I said,” How about the Universe, the Sun, the human body…..all these are God’s creations but we study them under science.” And he said,” Science is man’s perspective of looking at God’s creations.” What he said struck a positive note with me but the enormity and the terrible beauty of his words actually sunk in with an experience I had in Savera.

One afternoon after school was over and the curtains separating the two groups of students were drawn apart, Ayushi called me from the other end of the room. A young girl of, I guess, 10years, Ayushi suffers from Ataxia and needs help moving around.

For her, speaking every word is a challenge in itself. Unable to get out of her chair due to being ridden to it for life, she looked at me from across the room, gave me a beautiful, warm smile and using her eyes called me to her. Once with her, she uttered,”baithjao (please sit).”

That day Ayushi, with her silent gestures, taught and showed me what no other, with their bodies whole and unharmed, could ever teach me. The power of love, love as God meant it to be. Sheer, unadulterated love.

Science is man’s perspective of God’s creations but Love is God’s perspective of what he created. We teach these children how to survive in society but they taught me how to live.

Earth Hour 2009

 With the advent of Earth Hour, as my cousin and I switched off the lights and electrical appliances of our home and moved out into the verandah, we set the natural electrical signals in our gray matter clicking to think of an activity for the next one hour. However, the moment we stepped out of the door we realized that we didn't have to try too hard to find something to do, nature had already taken care of it and with a carefree mind unhampered by worries, the two of us listened to the dance of the white fairy god mothers, grayed with the weight of vapour, as they danced chaotically keeping in tune with the rhythm of Nature. Nothing seemed more pleasing to our eyes than the music of this blissful celebration of the ladies draped in white and gray, the music of those tiny droplets that gradually filled out into hearty drops of water. Unable to hold ourselves back any longer Maneet and I joined in the festivities and danced to the rhythm of the rainfall.

And as I sang songs that I had learned in my choir, the silence of the human world made more beautiful by the darkness and the pitter patter of nature's feet, made the music sound eerily beautiful. Nothing else but a graciously proper combination of Nature's elements could have made my cousin (used to listening to blaring Punjabi songs) sit through a soprano's high pitched performance.

After accepting his kind compliments, we looked around us at our neighbours' houses, curious to know if they too were being a part of this exhilarating movement by switching off their lights. We realized that though there were many who knew about the Earth hour, there were still a few people who had not turned off their lights. My cousin and I looked at each other and without further hesitation rushed out of the gate to bring out our next door neighbours. As aunty came to answer our call we politely explained to her the importance of the hour and how she too could be a proud participant by switching off the lights in her house. My neighbour is a nice lady and she willingly became "member number NEXT" of the Earth Hour. Encouraged by our success we rushed to three other houses in our lane and convinced the owners to turn off the maximum number of lights in their homes. As we walked back to our house, the rain complimented by a cool breeze played around our feet, patted our backs and splashed freshness on our faces. With joy in our hearts and peace around us, Maneet and I hopped back to our home to make the most of the last ten minutes of a beautiful hour.