potrait

dexter

As a kid I was always fond of canines. I always prayed that someday I will have a 4 legged companion with me. The place were I stay I have seen so many pets and looking at them always made me go “awwwwwwwwww….. I wana have a pet too”. Herd always that  dog are just like human beings but never believed it until I met “ SANDY”  the most beautiful and elegant golden retriever I have ever seen . SANDY was a star in true sense. He had the moves, the attitude, the looks he was like the super dog. a champion in many competitions . Every time  I saw him I couldn’t stop myself petting him ,then it was another handsome Labrador retriever  “LASER” . By the time I got to know him he was a senior citizen with a heart of a kid. He would play hide n seek, tug of war and loved his dumbbells. Yeah he use to workout! My friend use to share all her secret, her crushes with her 4 legged pal. LESLY that’s what Kruvesh calls him is truly human with a very cute face. He inspired me and finally it was time to get myself a pup.

Dexter, a 40 day old pup and size of my hand entered my life. He was welcomed with mixed reactions. My mom was petrified, sister had always been scared of dogs and dad was mutual. He is charming guy with the most expressive eyes. Poor kid went through lot of troubles and turmoil but today he is ruling our hearts and our lives. Some times I wonder how did he pull of this magic of making everyone fall in love with him and then I realized one thing ,we gave him time that we could spare, love we could spare and space that we could spare and in return, Dexter gave us his all .

I remember I was to go on a trip with my buddies and I canceled it the last moment. My friends went ballistic and I don’t blame them because for them it’s “Just a Dog”

But this “Just a Dog” has changed my life since the day he walked in and pee on me ☻. He was my responsibilities and it felt like I was a father in true sense. Cleaning him up, cleaning his poop, bathing him, feeding him medicines and taking care of him because he was the naughtiest kid I had ever come across. “Just a Dog” has brought the change out of me and taught me how to be compassionate and patient which made me a better person,brings into my life the very essence of friendship, trust, and pure unbridled joy.

He made us rise up early to take walks be it any season any day of the year. ”Just a dog” brings out what’s good in me and my family ,diverts our thoughts away from ourselves and the worries of the day. I know many people don’t understand, its not “Just a Dog”
but he gives me humanity and keeps me from being “just a man.” Earlier it use me make me angry and but now I just smile and say to myself it’s all cool because they “Just don’t understand”☺

Until one has loved an animal part of one’s soul remains unawakened. Dexter is truly special and has the most expressive eyes that does all the talking. When u look at his big brown eyes you just know what he wants. It’s like soul to soul communication. What makes him so loveable may be it is the way he will come over to see me, for no reason, just to let me know I’m important to him. Many a times I’d wake up to find that he’d been watching me sleep. The look in his eyes saying, “Welcome to this day.” Or the he wakes me up in the morning by pushing his cold wet nose in my ear and snuffing loudly.May be it  is the way he is always ready to lick the ice cream  off my nose, the way he looks into my eyes and finds contentment in simply being near me. the way he will run all over the place to fetch a soggy tennis ball and bring it back to me as if to say “look dad , it’s all I have, it could be your if u run behind me “ or is the way he shreds news paper all over the house, because it’s fun even though He knows he shouldn’t.
He  is special because  the way he’s sure he can catch the flies troubling him and looks perplexed when they escape, the way he comes over to me when he is sad or could be the way he wedges himself near me when I am sad and push all others away, to console me with his love. He is my brave pet who is terrified of the loud thunders and umbrellas.
He loves me, even when I am impatient with him and have no time this morning for a game of tug-a-war. He is special because from him I can learn so many things. ” unconditional love” He makes me feel special in his own ways when I am wrong, he is delighted to forgive.
When I am angry, he clowns to make me smile. When I am happy, he is joy unbounded. When I am a fool, he ignores it. When I succeed, he brags. Without him, I am only another man. With him I am this guy who is compassionate, friendly and the best person Divine  has ever made  His head on my knee can heal my human hurts. His presence by my side is protection against my fears of dark and unknown things. The way he would wait for me until I am at home at any hour and looks at me which say” dad what took you so long, I been waiting for u and I am so sleepy. Don’t u know I have to get up early for my walk”☺

The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world is a pet.

Dexie , ma boy you are very special to me . I wish the world could be like you. There would be so much love and happiness around. Thank you for making me feel so special and good about myself. People who have a pet or want one.  Please take care of them and have a fun filled life. It’s a commitment and a big responsibility that I understood after getting Dexter home. Thanks to my family who are now taking care of him  much more than me. Love your pet a little more because that’s the only thing they want. Am sure people like me are going to cuddle up their special pets’ rite away and get all licked up .Have a happy dog day. Bow wow.

its about you

Like in many other fields, Creativity has been the pulse of our profession globally. We are on this diurnal conquest of aspiring to be more creative. creativity is the most elusive butterfly all artists hanker behind, architects being no different! Our professional life is a daily tryst to find this beauty. the fact that we have science behind art, intrigues me completely. I wonder about the possibility of the existence an equation for being more creative. I question myself very often “what are the mechanics of being creative?”

Anatomically we humans are similar and yet unique. What makes us so unique? The answer to this is very simple, it is our thoughts indeed! These thoughts that subsequently result in action which makes us the individual we are. The same situation would lead to several interpretations. These eventually result into actions or reactions which would be radically different from each other.

Why is it that some one gets a violent thought while another gets a creative one? How can some one be genius and some one else not? What does this depend on? Is it the genetic framework, the upbringing, the exposure or the inner urge that is the driving or the stopping force?

Great writers, thinkers, visionaries and many architects have experienced a creative block at some point within their career spans. You sit with a paper and pen in a beautiful place, waiting for that eureka moment and very often…. It doesn’t click!!

What is the source of creativity?

It is said that, Thought is nothing but an impulse of energy and intelligence. For this impulse of energy and intelligence to arise, and for a thought spring, the impulses are required to meet at a point in the cerebral cortex at a super fast speed!!! Within this short interval of time, when all the 16 impulses in the cerebral cortex meet, we have, what we call, a “correct thought”.

So what do we do about it?

It’s again training our mind which is mostly not in our control.

Its funny that, right now as I speak, you have a dialogue in your own mind, saying “yes I agree!” or “no! That’s rubbish”. We all have a filter in our minds and we just listen through this filter, accepting only that which we already know! We conveniently filter away everything that is not a part of our belief system.

This tendency in the mind to take things which it already knows and reject that which it doesn’t, is one of the main blocks to creativity.

The second aspect of creativity is imagination. every creative person is imaginative. While being in this surreal imaginative state, we lose the ability to distinguish the real from the unreal. More often than not, imagination and inspiration derived from the sub-conscious, unreal state brings creativity!!!

If we are restricted to ground realities in our though patterns, no creativity will dawn. However, the other extreme of being in a very dreamy and imaginative state will not yield innovative solutions. Therefore, achieving a balance is pivotal. Life apes this paradigm – a balance between our intellect and our heart, feelings and institution. Listening to our gut feelings and developing the intuitive ability within us enhances creativity.

The third and the gravest problem that stops us from being creative is “stress”. How would I define stress? In simple words when the demand is more and energy supply is comparatively less we develop stress. In a day we spend a lot of time being angry, hurt, getting frustrated, regretting, feeling of guilt, blaming our self and sometimes others.

Inhibition is a big problem amongst youth. We waste a lot of precious time in worrying about what the other person is going to think of us. The problem with our mind is we cling more to the negative events in our life as compared to the positive ones. This generates more stress within us and within the society. The past is filled with regret, guilt and anger. When we dwell in the past we go through these emotions. Thinking about the future brings anxiety and feverishness. The mind is oscillating between the past and the future and it’s never in the present. We all know what the power of now can create. Being in the present moment makes us more productive, creative, original, young, energetic, enthusiastic and happy. So how can one dwell in the present moment would be our ensuing question. The answer to this is spirituality. We all have our notions on spirituality. It most definitely has nothing to do with religion. If science is the study of “what is this?”, then spirituality is the study of “who am I?” Spirituality is something that encompasses all the avenues: human values, compassion and caring. It is a value system, a way of life. All spiritual practices and celebrations lead one to a more fulfilled and joyful life- more love and care, which is what we youths require. Delving into our lives, we need to see it from a bigger perspective and not just look into immediate short term benefits. Using this as a platform, we need to bring a conscious shift from “what can I have?” to “what can I give” – a relocation in our thoughts from competition to contribution. This can happen when we nourish ourselves from our sources of energy- food, rest, breath and a few minutes for a calm collected and meditative mind.

It’s unfortunate that we have a very dogmatist approach to spirituality. Caring for life, recognizing life, and uplifting life- is the essence of spirituality. By keeping it in its true spirit of celebration, joy and sincere love, youth like us will come around it.

Suicides are happening all over the world. Newspapers and television are brimming with such revelations. I feel suicides are more among the capable people. Why could be the reason? May be stress a feeling of dryness from within or lack of support. Support needs to come from within. Food and water are not sufficient for our existence. Spirituality has the unseen strength to uplift us. It has the ability to fill the vacuum in our life. The other reasons for high suicidal rates and depression is our incompetence to take criticism in the right spirit.

The value of doing selfless service must be addressed. Service is the instant solution to bring a pleasant feeling from with. The satisfaction that comes from helping others and contributing towards society cannot be found elsewhere.

Success in life can be attributed to domain skills and soft skills. A research has shown that all successful people have one thing is common. It is a steady equilibrium in the ratio of these two skills. 87% of soft skills and only 13% of domain skills that we call as education. We spend more than fifteen years to acquire the domain skills but no where in our education system are we taught to harness our soft skills. Spirituality helps to develop these skills.

India is the youngest country. More than 60% of the population comprises of young blood. We as the youth of the nation need to take the responsibility for ourselves and ensure that our mind is clear and not clogged. We need to know that our life is more than our activity. Life is not only about achieving- it is about contributing.

“What have we contributed to the world or to the people around us? This question brings meaning to our life and working on this path will make us more creative, content, serene and happier.

Ulimately, happiness is what we all long for?

So try to love yourself a little bit more every day. Be more grateful for what you have and less critical of what you lack.

Smile. It is the best gift you can give yourself and to the world.

ps: its a column for my coll mag.

False Securities

Precariousness, shakiness, vulnerability
lack of assurance

few emotions that I go through thinking about my future.

Having a job, a house, friends, girl friend and money formed my superficial securities in ma and many of my friend’s life. Well I have seen them coming and going in n outta ma life very often.

I guess it’s very human to have never ending wants.

I finally saw “Avatar” last night. the story was very ordinary how we humans after  screwing up da nature enough want to screw  up some more and wouldn’t mind going to another planet wearing amours n oxygen mask to get some rock dat will solve problems of earth.  So u enter the world of Pandora a place dat is dream world  with rich forests with some of da most beautiful colors, where they believed everything is made up of same energy and we all are connected to each other.  Its just da matter of “seeing it”.  Amazing drama that will make u forget everything n just be der thanks 2 da 3d effect. Phenomenal job by Mr. James Cameron. I salute you.

On my way back I was very quite and my mind was still wandering in Pandora .  One of my friend in going through a very tough time . Amazing human being, very strong willed and bitten hard by the insecurity bug. I know what she was going through coz I myself have gone through dis

. While talking to her my mind went back to the people of Pandora n how dey fought back wid humans just having faith in the divine. I have herd this and experienced this so many times faith is da biggest security you can ever have. You will always get what u want.

A caterpillar cannot remain in the cocoon forever. A butterfly will emerge when the time is right. U and I need to trust the nature, the DIVINE and his timing ….probably HE doesn’t use the same watch like we do  . Our false insecurities stops us from believing in HIM.  Guru ji  says securities keep faith away from us.  Our spirits belongs to the divine. So don’t give up and don’t worry. Divine is the only security

Lets give DIVINE a chance to act in our life.  You’ve Got To Keep The Faith!

Special PEOPLE

In my 25 yrs of extremely entertaining life I grew up with lot of theories, assumptions and own set of ideals and idols. Met so many different people especially in the last 5 yrs. I always wanted to be independent coz I m living a very protected life under da shadow of  my family. For  me the word independent meant self sustaining , meeting ur own needs n so on. But today when I look back I feel I am so dependent on each and everything in my life , from microscopic to the macroscopic things.  Now it feels funny when I hear myself saying “ I wana be Independent”. Then again my guru told me “independent “ means being depended on inner self. The person with a rich innerlife is the richest of all.

The people whom I met and da people whom I gona meet have somehow added things in their special ways to contribute and  shape up what I am today and what I am going to be in my super amazing life in future.

And why am I talking abt all dis  is b coz I bumped into dis special yet ordinary person I call him  “GOD SEND CAB UNCLE .”  I met him a couple of months back when I was traveling and I was running late. I  don’t like being late so to beat the clock I took a cab to bandra.  Don’t remember for some reason I was not in da best of my moods. When this Santaclause look like guy  turned to ask me if I wanted to lis to some music.  For some reason der was enough of rock n roll happening in ma head n I didn’t  wanted  da dheek cheek beats 2 add to it . I was reading a knowledge sheet and den he just randomly hands over me a diary. Quite surprised I asked him wat is it and he told me he writes n stuff. I didn’t ask anything and den he pops up dis question to me “ beta batao zindagi jeena jaruri hain ya majboori ?” I was quite amused and I said “jaruri hain uncle “  he  turned and looked at me and stared right into my eyes as if he was reading my mind my thoughts. He smiled and said “ beta ji bohot ache .” and den der was no stopping 2 him . for a minute I felt like da answer that I gave was the key to “ the secret world “ of philosophy and life by “Santa clause lookalike cabwala”

This guy was awesome. He had seen da world with his  rear view mirror and told me amazing stuff about life , ppl , family ,spirituality and almost everything on dis planet in a span of an hour n half.  Da person who gt outta da cab was not da same who got in . it was a pleasure meeting him n definitely my gud “karma points “ helped me 2 meet him.

Some people just bring a smile on your face da moment u think about them and I am very lucky I have a bunch of these people in my life.  Coming back to people  I recollected something that I had read before that when u look at your life u will see that each of them came for a reason, for few seasons and some for a lifetime.

Santa clause lookalike cabwala”   was definitely der 4 a reason and der is something abt dese kind of ppl. They have come to assist us  through a difficulty, to provide us with guidance and support,to aid us physically, emotionally, or spiritually.They may seem like a godsend, and they are! They are there for the reason we need them to be.Then, without any wrongdoing on our part,or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die.Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force us to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met,our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer we sent up has been answered. And now it is time to move on.

Then der are people who come for a few season Because our turn has come to share, grow, or learn.They bring us  an experience of peace, or make us laugh. They may teach us something we  have never done .They usually give us an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.and last is

LIFETIME relationships which  teach us lifetime lessons things we must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Our only job would be to accept the lesson, love the person,and put what we have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.

Who knows we must have played one of the above role in some one ‘s life too.  Just makes me feel that we all have special talents that are just waiting to b engaged in a worthy pursuit. We all have some form of personal genius within us. We are all here for some unique purpose, some noble objective that will alow us to manifest our highest potential while we ,at the same time, add value to the lives around us. Finding our calling doesn’t mean we must leave the job we now have. It simply means we need to bring more of our talents into our work and focus on the things we do best.  My guru says “ choose the middle path.”

New Beginning

today is a new beginning for me . its been quite a while  that i was thinking of blogging but i needed some push from within to do so .

the whole phase of a ” new beginning” always brings lotsa emotions within me . new beginning means forgetting about what happened in da past n focusing on da  goal. some times its like forgetting abt da things u did in da past , sometimes people , situations for good.  for a person like me its diff to say gud bye but i guess we all have to do it some day or the other  for our gud.  yest i was catching up with a few close buds and i realized we all in a pursuit of happiness . battling with the  situations . sometimes we cry out in exasperation “why me?”  n sometimes when we feel nothing s worst dan dis can happen  so plz “try me” . most of ma friends are in dis zone of sorting out things in der life just like me . sometimes i feel i have grown apart from them but on da other level we are going through da same things and hence we are still connected.

i always believe that i am more than i know myself to be .  no matter wat am i experiencing in my life rite now, i believe that all is gud n unfolding in my best interests.  sometimes it may not look pretty but i guess it is exactly wat i need to learn to grow into a person i have been destined to become.  sometimes it feels life is  like a musical concert and it has been so perfectly orchestrated to inspire my maximum evolution  and bring out my true powers.  ”letting it go ” is a strong key dat allows you to go where u are meant to go . i guess it has the highest interest in its mind.

heres cheers 2 da new beginning !!!