Random Musings

One day while strolling on a beach I came across life Merry and carefree Full of joy and glee Life surprised me With its lightness and enchanting beauty Hey life! I said In my years of existence I have experienced you differently Sometimes you felt tough Sad and unworthy Full of misery Rough, heavy and hardly painfree And here as I speak Millions are in pain Suffering and tormented Diseased and abused Humiliated and killed In spirit and in reality What right Do you have then To be like this? Do you have no sympathy Or are you just Out of touch with reality? Life turned around Looked me in the eye And sighed loudly Son! I am what you make out of me When you met me You were happy and free Seeing you like this I also rejoiced But then you suddenly Awoke from your reverie And became unusually angry Am I to blame For this sudden change? Yes I am aware Of the pains and tribulations Humans go ...

Renowned Buddhist philosopher, author, educationist and my mentor in life, Daisaku Ikeda recently quoted Elizabeth Cady Staton, a pioneer of women's rights in US: "The happiest people I have known have been those who gave themselves no concern about their own souls, but did their uttermost to mitigate the miseries of others" . Ikeda who is fondly called sensei (or teacher by his followers) shared this with people from George Mason University who had come to Japan to confer on him an honorary doctorate, as an expression of his commitment to sharing with the rising generations the ideals of freedom and equality that George Mason propounded. This lead me to think, why are so many people coming and conferring such awards on sensei (he has more than 250 such doctorates conferred on him including one by Delhi Univ, which was conferred on him in a ceremony where Anil Wilson; who was the Principal of St. Stephen"s Delhi when I was studying there, was presiding)? ...

A weary mind a tired soul Some moments of rest Get up on your feet Start running unleashed A mechanized world a dehumanized me The rules are straight People manning them All curled up - like a dog's tail Diving into work is not the trouble Dealing with unclear minds Is difficult - unfathomable Lies, fibs : is integrity a mere word? Over powered by fear men behaving like savage beasts But fight one must For this evil needs to be tamed The clear stream of reason Must be purified and kept untouched The more I dither The muddier it gets Take the bull by the horn Disagree boldly though not disrespect This social web Has become an untamed monster Combat it we must Life has compassion But only the tough survive In its roughness In fact the answers lie Dealing with an adamant child Is tough indeed But in its loving smile Reality exists As we evolve Patient we must be Practicing tolerance Become accepting of our defeats Through tireless striving Is perfection attained By developing restrain...

Today morning I got the news that one of my father's closest associates, his Personal Assistant, someone who worked with him for nealry 19 years was no more. For me, it was a huge personal loss as I knew him since I was 14 years old and he saw me go through tremendous vicissitudes in life. Just 2 months ago, I met him in Mumbai - he had been diagnosed with Blood Cancer. I spent nearly 3 hours with him trying to convince him that when it comes to battling an illness, the fundamental attitude of the patient determines everything. And I was extremely happy to see as I was leaving that he was determined to fight and win over his Cancer. True to his determination, he showed tremendous grit and determination and won over his Cancer. The Doctors were astonished at his recovery. He was even contemplating joining work back with my father. But then just 10 days back, he contracted pneumonia. In Blood Cancer, one's immunity becomes very low and pneumonia proved lethal and he passed away t...

While browsing through some facebook links today, I suddenly saw that some friends I have recently made were there as friends of friends of mine from college. And it hit me again, what a small world this is! The concept of karma in buddhism (somewhat similar to karma from hinduism) explains the significance of people we encounter in this life time. People whom we love, form relationships with, even people we hate and want to have nothing to do with. Just think about it: the boss in office we can't get along with, the stuck relationship that just doesn't work, the friend who was once so close but now is distant, the parent with whom we cannot mesh, the teacher in college we hated.....the list can be endless (more you age, as I am finding out, more it grows). So even the person tormenting us the most in this life might be doing it coz we might have done the same to him/her in a past life! Phew, such thinking actually makes the mind boggle a bit. How am I supposed to be responsibl...

As I juggle my professional and personal life with a highly active invlovement in the Buddhist organisation, Bharat Soka Gakkai, there are some issues I get to observe in the youth of today. One of the main ones (which in all honesty I myself have been struggling with) is how to get clarity in CHOOSING the right life partner. Choosing here in CAPS since for the longest time, we followed the simple arranged marriage system. With youth of our generation though, arranged marriage (even in its new hybrid avtaar) just seems to add to the confusion. There are so many instances of people I come accross who are involved with somebody in their lives but things dont seem to work. General confusion. And the million dollar question: "Is this person right for me?" And so this latest muse: how does one know if a person is right for him or her? Come to think of it, there was a time when the world was a very small place. One's exposure to people outside of one's family was restricted...

As per the Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, the word Trust has the following meanings: noun: assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something verb: to place confidence in, rely on, to hope or expect confidently . While creating a presentation on Trusts for my PWM clients today, I started doing some random search on the word trust. Think about it, trust is such an important aspect of our life. Every human relationship is based on trust. Only if I trust someone do I open up to that person, share things with that person...in short allow him a glimpse of my inner life. For unless we do that, how much can another person really know us? As humans, communicating what we really feel inside is so difficult. And then start all misunderstandings, hurts and a whole cycle because we assume the other person knows what we are feeling deep inside whereas that person maybe thinking something completely else based on his or her past experiences. So what's the de...