At the holy land of Puttaparthi,where I dare not utter a lie,I am being brutally honest to confess that I am going through my mid-life crisis.My colleagues tell me that I have been doing well in my new job.My bosses laud my acheivement which have been ahead of targets. I wonder how someone who has been doing so reasonably well, be so unhappy. On the inside, I waver between depression, feeling totally out of control and feeling like I am going to explode because I am so full of pent-up emotions.....confusion,anger,alienation. In the bloom of an apparently smooth life pattern, there remains a sense of emptiness,of unfulfilled dreams and guilt.There is a longing of an undefined dream or goal, a desire to relive feelings of my youth,a need to spend more time alone. This is accompanied by a sense of remorse,vaguely defined as having drifted away from my original life intentions,as having ill-lived life so far. Such feelings combined with the sudden awareness that life is finite can be quite unsettling.
But why does this happen?Does it hit everyone?Can it miss you?Has my home life lost some of it's sparkle?Has life become a hackneyed procedure?Overtime through the prism of experience, things become repetitive. Much of what one does has a stale taste of 'been there, done that'.Is it that most people go through this period but are not willing to acknowledge? Is it the fear of non-acceptance or of being ridiculed? In the small town of Shillong,I saw a balding man speeding away in a red new Merc and heard a passer-by mumble...see that man in his mid-life crisis. Can't a man at 35 or 40 find his happiness and love without someone ridiculing him? Isn't it a stage of one's life?Do we make fun of children going through the toddler stage or teens going through puberty?My view is that this man was flaunting his accomplishment of perhaps a dream that he nurtured since he was 20, but could never afford then and fulfilled only at 40. He must have worked hard for it and had every right to do so.
Is mid-life about distractions? 'To keep the dragon at bay,know the dragon and know him well'. We love distractions and the feelings that are associated with their wonderful instant gratification. 'No distractions are worth your time'....mid-life is certainly not distraction,it deserves it's time and a careful nurturing.
It is the point in life where your inner curious child ,the one that all of us have deep inside is ready to re-emerge and begin to influence your life again. Your inner child is saying to you that you are now ready for new and more powerful experiences and because you have gained so much knowledge and wisdom by living your life upto this time,you can handle much more.It is the second adult-hood and a chance to be the person we were meant to become.Midlife is where reality sets in and the old beliefs crumble under the weight of logic,experience and common sense.It is the time of increased reflection and introspection. It is the catalyst that trigger change and the time that you decide to either sink or swim.
We pause and think of our lives,whether it be about missed opportunities or just that we don't have another fifty years to live;the time for putting things off is over. The time is NOW...it's our final wake up call.
Paradoxically, in such a moment of profound uncertainity 'Follow your passion' can become a reality again.To quote Hellen Keller " Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all". 'To be or not to be....'....What did Shakespeare actually question? May be life boils down to taking risk or letting someone control your ambitions.
My mid-life has been beautiful. My 'Eureka moment' was born during this period.It is the time when I realised that there is more to me than what I do for a living.I deny to call it a crisis,I call it a mid-life awakening, a transition or maturescence.It is also the time I realised the value of practising moderation...the time I woke up to find that I don't need the cheese badly enough to put up with the rat race.As I grow older, I will look back at this period of my life with lot of fondness and nostalgia.I pledge to take this part of my life in a religious fervor and with this conviction firm on my mind I move on....a little sadder, a little wiser.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The Evolution of God
One December evening,I decided to spend some time with my night watch-man, a middle-aged person, illiterate, who had never attended school in his life. As he managed the bon-fire and prepared potato barbecue, I sat in the hearth and began asking him a few questions. The sky was bright and glistening with stars. I asked him "What do you know about these stars?". His reply was" They are all God,when a person dies,he becomes a star,my father is also one of them". Then I asked him " What about the moon?". He replied "That's our king,after he died he became the moon".Suddenly, I felt a gap of centuries with my friend for the evening, but saw a truth in what he said.
"God exist where the human mind cannot explain". The man of the old used to worship the sun, the moon and the stars. With the growth of astronomy and the resultant scientific explanation of the universe,the God in these celestial bodies diminshed.
Man also worshiped the fire,the rain,the earthquake,the volcano etc. When the striking of two stones sparked fire and when match was invented,the God in fire perished. Likewise,with the scientific explanation of these natural calamities,the God in them faded away.
Then,came religion and its authority,so much so that religion became more prominent than God,Himself. Believers began to offer wealth as a form of worship,the churches began to collect tithe from the followers. Religion grew,God became smaller.
Then,the custodians of religion,the priest,the brahmins etc. who were all self-styled symbols of divinity,who acted as people one step closer to God, charlatans...who devised methods of worship and who pretended to know the language of God. The extension of these people are the ones we see as 'Godman' today, mushrooming up in India....that's another evolution of God.
The faith in God is a very abstract one,it is about one's perception and it differs from one person to another,hence the debate on God and religion has been an endless one.
While one does not believe in idol-worship,another can worship a fellow human-being as God. Both are right from their own perspective,so long as they are true to their feeling.
However,the belief that one has,should not be imposed on another and that's what we call by 'True secularism'.
"God exist where the human mind cannot explain". The man of the old used to worship the sun, the moon and the stars. With the growth of astronomy and the resultant scientific explanation of the universe,the God in these celestial bodies diminshed.
Man also worshiped the fire,the rain,the earthquake,the volcano etc. When the striking of two stones sparked fire and when match was invented,the God in fire perished. Likewise,with the scientific explanation of these natural calamities,the God in them faded away.
Then,came religion and its authority,so much so that religion became more prominent than God,Himself. Believers began to offer wealth as a form of worship,the churches began to collect tithe from the followers. Religion grew,God became smaller.
Then,the custodians of religion,the priest,the brahmins etc. who were all self-styled symbols of divinity,who acted as people one step closer to God, charlatans...who devised methods of worship and who pretended to know the language of God. The extension of these people are the ones we see as 'Godman' today, mushrooming up in India....that's another evolution of God.
The faith in God is a very abstract one,it is about one's perception and it differs from one person to another,hence the debate on God and religion has been an endless one.
While one does not believe in idol-worship,another can worship a fellow human-being as God. Both are right from their own perspective,so long as they are true to their feeling.
However,the belief that one has,should not be imposed on another and that's what we call by 'True secularism'.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
To my darling daughter
Saw you for the first time when you were a four month old fetus, on the ultrasound monitor; being a doctor I knew you were a girl.You were a delayed Caesarean baby as I was out of station when your mom's process of labour started. I wanted to be part of the team performing the Caesarean on her, little bothered what the delay could mean to you....to tell you the truth, at that time she was more important to me than you. When you were born, you took nearly 5 minutes to take your first respiration...the paediatrician looked at me and I saw doubt in his eyes. You finally gave your first cry...I would have never forgiven myself had that cry never came by.
You were 3 years old when your mom had an ectopic rupture with massive intra abdominal haemorrhage, followed by hypotensive shock, post-anaesthetic coma, pulmonary oedema....all the complications known to medical science. You did'nt cry as you knew that she was ill but you were craving restlessly for her. You could be appeased for a while by a piece of chocolate but once the taste of the chocolate was over, you would again crave for her. When the doctors conveyed to me that her chances of survival was dismal, I sat in silence unable to believe that someone who was absolutely fine till the morning was on the verge of death now. I looked at you, still craving for your mom...I was already imagining how to bring you up alone..motherless. But Sai Ram showed to us once again that 'Divinity' transcends ' Science' and she is still here with us.
I had always complained about your noisiness..your cycling with the 2 added wheels on the wooden floor and those three endlessly barking dogs running around your bicycle( or quadricycle) but your abscence leaves a silence that is more suffocating...the clock seems to tick louder and the dogs too seem to have stopped barking. A friend had told us," When your child comes back from boarding on her first vacation; she would show significant difference, would not be the same child you left at boarding; would be more mature, more independent, forgotton you a little bit, also will love you a little less".
Ironically, thats what we want. We love you so much that we don't want you to love us as much for the truth of life is that we are here for the first half of your life, the second half is all yours. The training should begin now on. I know you'll neither be able to read nor be able to understand what I am writing today but as you grow older, learn about computers and internet,you'll find what I had written about you when you left for boarding and you'll come to know how much you meant to us.
On this day, let me tell you that you might be just another girl for this world but for us you are the world.
You were 3 years old when your mom had an ectopic rupture with massive intra abdominal haemorrhage, followed by hypotensive shock, post-anaesthetic coma, pulmonary oedema....all the complications known to medical science. You did'nt cry as you knew that she was ill but you were craving restlessly for her. You could be appeased for a while by a piece of chocolate but once the taste of the chocolate was over, you would again crave for her. When the doctors conveyed to me that her chances of survival was dismal, I sat in silence unable to believe that someone who was absolutely fine till the morning was on the verge of death now. I looked at you, still craving for your mom...I was already imagining how to bring you up alone..motherless. But Sai Ram showed to us once again that 'Divinity' transcends ' Science' and she is still here with us.
I had always complained about your noisiness..your cycling with the 2 added wheels on the wooden floor and those three endlessly barking dogs running around your bicycle( or quadricycle) but your abscence leaves a silence that is more suffocating...the clock seems to tick louder and the dogs too seem to have stopped barking. A friend had told us," When your child comes back from boarding on her first vacation; she would show significant difference, would not be the same child you left at boarding; would be more mature, more independent, forgotton you a little bit, also will love you a little less".
Ironically, thats what we want. We love you so much that we don't want you to love us as much for the truth of life is that we are here for the first half of your life, the second half is all yours. The training should begin now on. I know you'll neither be able to read nor be able to understand what I am writing today but as you grow older, learn about computers and internet,you'll find what I had written about you when you left for boarding and you'll come to know how much you meant to us.
On this day, let me tell you that you might be just another girl for this world but for us you are the world.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
My Guilt
As I walked down the lane through the meat market, I saw the butcher running a sharp blade on the neck of a goat. Blood gushed from the severed neck like a fountain and the animal writhed in pain. I did'nt feel guilty that I was also one who had come to buy a part of it......after all we had to eat it.
A thousand rupee note was lying redundant in my wallet, it was torn a little in the middle. During an urgent transaction, someone had cheated on me. I paid it to the old shop-keeper when I cleared my monthly bill. I would have acted as if I was unaware of it, if he discovered. But poor old man with cataractous eyes, he missed it. I did'nt feel guilty......after all, my money had ultimately moved.
The patient was groaning in pain, he could not void urine for the last 24 hours. All he needed was a urinary catheter to be placed, a simple job but the relief was huge, a 24 hour agony over in 2 minutes. I knew I could inflate my bill, knew his satisfaction would make him pay whatever I asked for, finally, charged him three times of what I normally do for such a work. I didn't feel guilty.....after all, it was my profession.
I saw my child beating up another smaller child of the neighbourhood for which I scolded her, she cried and went off to sleep. I looked at her while she was sleeping and she looked so innocent. I felt terribly guilty for having scolded her and apologized to her the next day.....after all, she was also a child, what did she know?
I said something to my wife, which unintentionally though, sounded a little like a sarcasm and she took it that way. I felt extremely guilty and said,' Sorry' on the next day......after all, she was my wife, how could I hurt her?
Its said," There is nothing good or bad, nothing right or wrong; thinking makes it so". We never feel guilty for the grossly wrong things we do to others but can't withstand the guilt that comes on the smallest mistake that we commit to our near and dear ones.
I am a little conflicted as to whether this is true guilt or another manifestation of selfishness and as I feel a little guilty writing this blog, I justify myself saying.....after all, it's a material world.
A thousand rupee note was lying redundant in my wallet, it was torn a little in the middle. During an urgent transaction, someone had cheated on me. I paid it to the old shop-keeper when I cleared my monthly bill. I would have acted as if I was unaware of it, if he discovered. But poor old man with cataractous eyes, he missed it. I did'nt feel guilty......after all, my money had ultimately moved.
The patient was groaning in pain, he could not void urine for the last 24 hours. All he needed was a urinary catheter to be placed, a simple job but the relief was huge, a 24 hour agony over in 2 minutes. I knew I could inflate my bill, knew his satisfaction would make him pay whatever I asked for, finally, charged him three times of what I normally do for such a work. I didn't feel guilty.....after all, it was my profession.
I saw my child beating up another smaller child of the neighbourhood for which I scolded her, she cried and went off to sleep. I looked at her while she was sleeping and she looked so innocent. I felt terribly guilty for having scolded her and apologized to her the next day.....after all, she was also a child, what did she know?
I said something to my wife, which unintentionally though, sounded a little like a sarcasm and she took it that way. I felt extremely guilty and said,' Sorry' on the next day......after all, she was my wife, how could I hurt her?
Its said," There is nothing good or bad, nothing right or wrong; thinking makes it so". We never feel guilty for the grossly wrong things we do to others but can't withstand the guilt that comes on the smallest mistake that we commit to our near and dear ones.
I am a little conflicted as to whether this is true guilt or another manifestation of selfishness and as I feel a little guilty writing this blog, I justify myself saying.....after all, it's a material world.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The Pendulum
The mind oscillates like a pendulum but in varying amplitude. One one side is 'Happiness' extreme of which is called the ' Mania'..on the other side is 'Sadness' extreme of which is the 'Depression'. At any point of time our mind fluctuates between the extremes of mania and depression....the less the fluctuation the better controlled personalities we become.
It is a Herculean task to acheive 'Level-Headedness', ' Mental Balance' and ' Equanimity of Thought' and ' Meditation' is the road to this goal.
Meditation delinks us from the physical world around us and takes us to a whole new world of absolute peace where the pressures of life cease to give us pain. A few minutes of meditation in a day can be so rejuvenating that one can come up with new confidence and energy.
While happiness is a positive feeling it is important that we learn to control ourselves from its extremes. It is said," Never be too happy when you are happy or too sad when you are sad".
The turbulences that we are exposed to in our day-to-day life make us extremely vulnerable to a nervous breakdown and a severe depression and thats the time we need to give ourselves the wake up call and say," Cheer up....Life is like that..enjoy".
It is a Herculean task to acheive 'Level-Headedness', ' Mental Balance' and ' Equanimity of Thought' and ' Meditation' is the road to this goal.
Meditation delinks us from the physical world around us and takes us to a whole new world of absolute peace where the pressures of life cease to give us pain. A few minutes of meditation in a day can be so rejuvenating that one can come up with new confidence and energy.
While happiness is a positive feeling it is important that we learn to control ourselves from its extremes. It is said," Never be too happy when you are happy or too sad when you are sad".
The turbulences that we are exposed to in our day-to-day life make us extremely vulnerable to a nervous breakdown and a severe depression and thats the time we need to give ourselves the wake up call and say," Cheer up....Life is like that..enjoy".
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Expectations Hurt
Every relationship comes with a package of expectations and when it is not fulfilled, the relationship gets strained. In extreme cases, even parents begin to detest their offsprings when they do not fulfil none of their parental expectations..when they do not complement their parents love in anyway.
So, are relationships too, a form of transaction?
Even the best of friendship is a ' Give and Take' affair. The concept of ' Unconditional Love' largely remains a myth. The word 'I' is the epicentre of all our activities and we live in the pursuit of fulfilling its wishes. Then, are'nt we all 'self-centred' or 'I-centric' people?
Can expectations be seperated from our love, admiration, enamour and adoration for another person?
Is it possible for one to shower all the love to his near ones without expecting a bit in return?
My answer is,'Its difficult but not impossible.....possible at the greatest depth of your feeling and emotion' and the more we are able to do that the less we will hurt ourselves.
So, are relationships too, a form of transaction?
Even the best of friendship is a ' Give and Take' affair. The concept of ' Unconditional Love' largely remains a myth. The word 'I' is the epicentre of all our activities and we live in the pursuit of fulfilling its wishes. Then, are'nt we all 'self-centred' or 'I-centric' people?
Can expectations be seperated from our love, admiration, enamour and adoration for another person?
Is it possible for one to shower all the love to his near ones without expecting a bit in return?
My answer is,'Its difficult but not impossible.....possible at the greatest depth of your feeling and emotion' and the more we are able to do that the less we will hurt ourselves.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
A little love and lots of respect
The couple was very close to me , they were the greatest lovers that I had ever known, their love would easily place Romeo and Juliet in the second rung. She was a mesmerizing beauty and he was the brightest brain of our times.....a case of talent attracted by charm and vice-versa.
But then, there was something that was lethal in their love. They always had an overdose of each other....would indulge until they fight...would indulge again after the fight is over, the cycle would go on. When asked ,'Why do you fight so much?', their reply would be,' Fighting makes us love each other even more'........somewhere I felt that in their quest for the pinnacle of love they were accumulating disgust.
I met this friend of mine recently, asked about his old beloved, his answer was 'That bitch'.....we did'nt need to talk any further on that. I was amazed that a relationship that was once the cynosure of all eyes would dwindle down to the level of calling 'A bitch'. Why do we love each other so much if we have to ultimately become sworn enemies? With love, comes possessiveness and with possessiveness comes jealousy....a good and healthy feeling leading to a poisonous one.
The problem that I saw in this relationship was that the love was not complemented by respect for each other.The positive qualities that once draw us to someone, fades as we go closer to that person and his negative qualities become more prominent. It is aptly said ,' Never go too close to the one you don't want to lose'.
It is not obsessive love but deep admiration that binds people together. Isn't it a little love and lots of respect thats required to keep all forms of relationship blooming?
But then, there was something that was lethal in their love. They always had an overdose of each other....would indulge until they fight...would indulge again after the fight is over, the cycle would go on. When asked ,'Why do you fight so much?', their reply would be,' Fighting makes us love each other even more'........somewhere I felt that in their quest for the pinnacle of love they were accumulating disgust.
I met this friend of mine recently, asked about his old beloved, his answer was 'That bitch'.....we did'nt need to talk any further on that. I was amazed that a relationship that was once the cynosure of all eyes would dwindle down to the level of calling 'A bitch'. Why do we love each other so much if we have to ultimately become sworn enemies? With love, comes possessiveness and with possessiveness comes jealousy....a good and healthy feeling leading to a poisonous one.
The problem that I saw in this relationship was that the love was not complemented by respect for each other.The positive qualities that once draw us to someone, fades as we go closer to that person and his negative qualities become more prominent. It is aptly said ,' Never go too close to the one you don't want to lose'.
It is not obsessive love but deep admiration that binds people together. Isn't it a little love and lots of respect thats required to keep all forms of relationship blooming?
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