Innocent Promise

Probably that was longest day in her life.  She was caught unaware.

From the auto stand to her hotel, few furlong took a life time to cover. Legs were too weak to walk steady, almost dragging, as if she was returning from a funeral procession. She was not sure of what was she feeling. Probably mixed. Throbbing pain in heart or numbness of brain. 

Bouts of sudden urge to drift listlessly on the street, and to abandon the city immediately paralysed  her thoughts. 

Loosing friendship can be so sad, she thought.  And she found herself  in the hotel bar. 

"Let me grab some wine", she said to herself. Then walked out of bar almost absent minded.  She pushed herself into her hotel room. She was too tired to reason out why was he so strange. They were getting along so well. They shared so much. What happened? Did I do something wrong? Questions were streaming and adding to both confusion and pain. She realised after few hours that she had continuously cried, but she wanted to cry more.

As evening grew darker, thoughts were getting clearer and pain was aggravating with that. How excited was she to meet him! He had called, "Let us meet". Excitement raced her heart faster. Moving up and down in hotel restaurant she exchanged curious smiles from hotel staff, that she did not mind, while impatiently waiting for him.

Lunch started well. She let him order for both. That is how it was all the time. He was not looking normal. 

"What happened", she asked. 

"Nothing much, i may need to go early", He said. "Why so", she demanded. 

"Well", he said with a  pause, "You remember you had promised me that I could walk off without a reason, it is time for that. 

She braved it, "ok". 

"I need to leave now", he announce. "Would you like to see me off at auto stand", he said courteously. 

It hit her hard. But she followed him on her longest lonely walk to auto stand like a little lamb behind her master, regretting the promise she made innocently.  "And he forgot all promises", she said to herself, without blaming him. 

We and Pace of Change

Facebook growth story is amusing and historically pointing out to  the fact that while for few decades a new billionaire did not join the club of billionaire, now on we would see it happening every 5 years and may shrink to 3 year or even a year in next 10-15 years!

looking back, at beginning of 20th century, we could never imagine a person from nowhere would become worlds richest man in 25 years. Bill Gates was the first one to achieve this.  

what looks like to me is that we have always been on acceleration of change as well written in "Third Wave".  

Stock market indices were slow to rise and fall, data of 50s show that such rise and fall were spread over years. The changes were not so prominent in 60s or even in 70s.  The present day market fluctuation of market in one week creates or wipes out trillions of dollar in matter of few weeks.

Fashion too has 12 or more seasons now. 

It amazes us that all of us enjoy these changes in all aspect of our lives. What is more important is to make this fast accelerating change to our advantage. A long term  10 years investment of yesteryears, has shrunk to 2-3 years. Frequency of buy and sell of properties have gone up significantly.

Share markets has reflected this change phenomenally. The traders square up positions in matters of hours and days.

Other side of the change is longevity of businesses. The banks can go down in matter of days. Bank of Barring, Dwada, Lehman Brothers are big example however, small and medium banks included shut down count is more than 5000 world wide in last 3-4 years!

In a single day in CA, USA over 400 companies had filed bankruptcy during the melt down.

Kingfisher Airline wound up in 3 years from launch taking down probably over few hundred millions down with it!

The impact of change is exactly what Alvin Tofler has predicted, enormous and astonishing. In a way he and all of us predict change in our own way, but are we ready to brace is question we need to ask?

Farmer and the butterfly

In a village named Hirapur, lived Ram an average built, nice and sharp person. He was well off with a score of cattle and a large farm by the bank of river Dharma. His wife Radha was petit, beautiful, caring and simple lady.

Ram had a nice house with a large courtyard. The courtyard had a large Neem tree and a well full of water.

Ram followed a set routine. He would get up before sunrise, feed cattle, clean courtyard and start pump to fill overhead tank. Meanwhile Radha would cook some breakfast and tea. They would eat together on the bench below Neem.

Ram would go to farm to work hard till noon. Then had his lunch in the temporary shade of the farm and took a short nap. Late evening , he would reach home and they would spend lot of time on bench with Radha talking on random subjects with too much of future planning. Till patience gave strength, Radha would listen and smile, more out of love than the context and eventually start dragging him to the village gossips.

Life was perfect for them!

It was a nice rainy day. It had just started drizzling near noon. Ram rushed to the shelter. A very colorful butterfly followed in. It was wet. Unable to fly it sat on Ram's forehand.
Ram was mesmerized with the beauty of the butterfly. He started blowing air from his mouth gently over the wings. Soon the wings dried. Drizzle outside also came to halt too.

Butterfly flapped her wings to fly away. Ram whispered, " Why can't you stay with us".

"I can, if you promise" said the butterfly.

"I promise", Ram said firmly

Butterfly laughed, " I didn't even tell you what I want".

"Whatever, does not matter",  said Ram.

"Promise me that you would tell me a story every evening and if you break your promise, I would go away". Said the butterfly.

"I won't, I promise", he said convincingly.

Butterfly giggled, flapped her wings and flew away.

For reason not known to him, Ram started dancing and singing joyfully. It started raining and it didn't seem to matter him. He reached home and saw Radha dancing in the courtyard. Her face was glowing. She ran to him. Gently hugged him and announced softly, "I am pregnant".

World around them changed. The started cherishing the thought of baby to be born. Months passed by. Early morning of mild summer, nurse emerged from bedroom adjoining courtyard and announced to Ram, "You are blessed with a daughter". He rushed inside. There was a cute baby with nice twinkling eyes and a lovely smile on her face.

"She didn't cry!", said Radha.

Around evening Ram took the baby and sat on the bench. Radha saw Ram continuously speaking to the baby. She shouted, "You are crazy. She would take time to grow and listen to your random uttering". Ram was in his own world.

Parents greatest joy is to see baby growing. Often they tend to behave like kids!

The girl grew in a sharp and bright student of the village school. In matter of few years she could read and write well. Often Ram will say to himself, "She is the brightest child known". Sometime during his evenings with girl, he would say same to her. She would simply smile it away.

It was a winter noon. Ram had to head for neighbouring town Raipur, in connection with farm business. He told his wife that he would be back by evening. The daughter was still in school.

He was about to head home, he saw his old classmates. They met after longtime. Shyam insisted that all four of them have dinner together. They were happy and enjoying the company. Late evening, Radha called, " our doll is not well. Slight fever".

"Did you take her to the doctor", asked Ram.
"Yes", said Radha, "Flu he said, not much to worry. I am taking care."

Around midnight, Radha was concerned, "Fever is persisting".

Ram rushed home. His daughter was lying on the bed, little pale.

"Where were you", She was angry, "And what about your promise" she demanded.

"What promise", barely audible Radha asked.

" I wrote in the paper, folded and kept on your bed", Ram was almost apologetic.

"And who is suppose to read it to me? The daughter was still angry while paper was in her fist.

"And you know that if you break your promise, I will mine!" She was unstoppable.

" I won't", said Ram. "I won't", he repeated firmly.

"EVERY FATHER HAS A PROMISE TO KEEP" He said and smiled and she giggled.

MIND AND BODY

They say mind controls body. Relationship is governed between two in a very intriguing way. Mind directs. If mind(read brain) is not healthy, let us examine how this relationship works.

Let us take a simple example, body is suffering due to lack of sleep, the mind  reacts, it is full of irritation and further deprivation would lead to anger, that on aggravation could turn into madness and stretched, would lead to anxiety culminating into depression. So, body too controls mind. Unhealthy body would eventually corrupt mind's health.

Let examine further, what if mind is not healthy? Say a friend ditched you or a person you loved is severely sick. Mind would again go through similar phases. During discovery of ditching, you would be irritated, angered, anxious and depression. This would in turn break healthy state of body, leading to stomach upset, loss of sleep hence body enters very unhealthy state soon. Further aggravation could lead to severe anxiety/depression leading to admission in psychiatric ward, eventually life span may reduce.

Some time, intermediate steps are not there. Depression could be the first feeling after short anxiety.

If we think further, it is quite apparent that simplest way to break cycle is to keep healthy, both mind and body. Fortunately, keeping body healthy is easy. Force yourself to exercise and eat healthy. If body remains healthy, the correlation of mind-body breaks and that in turn breaks whole irritation to depression cycle. Therefore, there is emphasis on exercise on daily basis. eating healthy is equally important.

Fear of loosing

Fear of loosing is for some a great motivator. It creates kind of nervous energy, very much required to win. Mind is at it's sharpest best and brain computes zillion time faster than it normally does. 

Stillness - A Poem by Shilpi

Stillness – beginning of a new journey,

Or solemnly marking an end?

Time to leave behind a part of life,
Or to keep the memories penned?

To keep reliving the good times
Or for some time – to let them go?
To make space for new experiences,
Or to let your emotions flow?

To think what it all meant,

Or to allow time to tell.

To think what lies ahead,

Or to retreat into your shell?

 

Sometimes life moves from one phase to another,
Allowing no time to look back or recap,
Sometimes it demarcates the phases,
Allows stillness to fill the gap.



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Shilpi's Quote

sometimes you control life, sometimes life controls you. in the former you make the rules, in the latter life puts them to test - only to make you realise that the former is just an illusion - life takes its own course :) -Shilpi Pathak