The Rain, the puddles...

On the way to home,

It’s the usual street.

Running raining hope,

For something new to meet,

It’s pouring all the way,

Clouds don’t seem to pay heed.

Looking up for shelter,

And down to save the puddles,

Life’s raining down,

With all its struggles,

Still going that way,

But, today home seems too far,

The distance pays no heed

Even though when,

It’s the usual street.

It was a usual day when I was on my back from work. That's when it started to rain in a not-so-usual way. Those are the times when  roads, vehicles and almost the entire city starts to seem crazy. It doesn't take long when even you start to lose your sanity standing still in the traffic. And, you realise that you are in a concrete jungle (the so-called fancy metro city you came to, to fulfill certain dreams)

It’s one of the rare times when you depend on your feet to carry you, till you find a miracle. And this is one of the same times, when you realise that you don’t own a four wheeler or rather wish upon owning one. Oh wait... what the heck! With a four-wheeler you might escape some of the rain but, you can't... just can't escape the traffic and the lo.......ng wait.

You watch empty autos pass-by, with a child-like hope that the driver would agree to take you, and you internally prepare yourself not to bargain tonight. But alas! It’s their night to price high as well as act pricey. You get rejected one after the other, and you keep guessing the right reasons for it. What would you have had done to them or how far would have your location seemed to them, to reject you out rightly. You keep guessing and they keep rejecting. Maybe today, when you are not thinking of fares, they are not looking at their income. Maybe even they just wanna get home soon.

But, on a rainy day like this one, when I traveled back home alone, these thoughts dawned on me.

1)      This was the time when you feel little more unlucky for so many things.

2)      This is the time which like all hard times, can either leave you helpless or can make you tough!

3)      This is the time when you feel strange caught up in a world of Dummies! Cos you stand on a flooded road for hours maybe, getting rejected by all sorts of public conveyances who usually run to take you on a normal no-rain day. This is the time when a million cars pass you by with their drivers looking at your helplessness with pity. You see almost 3 multiplied by a zillion empty seats in each of those 4 wheelers which can easily help more than half of the people on foot-getting drenched. You tend to remember all theories of inequality of distribution of wealth. But...

4)      You are too conscious. You so wish to help so many others who are helpless. And, you quietly or sometimes even loudly, do want to get helped!

5)      These are the times, when you realize you are all alone. No friends, family, love... could have saved you from this rain. You feel like calling them, but, you know... it’s your own road with its own counted puddles. You have to jump, save or cross each of them, to reach home.

6)      In the end, most importantly, you realize that you will reach home. You will be safe cos you were strong enough to struggle and hope for a miracle. (A conveyance- even an auto after a long walk and wait seemed like one!)

Siddhartha- My Experience with the seeker

‘Siddhartha’ by Hermann Hesse, is the story of a seeker.  The exploratory journey, of a curious and determined young boy becoming- a man, an ascetic, a worldly soul, who submerges in ‘maya’ to emerge as a weary man who later learns and grows to find what he had been seeking all through, from a river and a simple ferryman.

The reason why i was attracted to read this book was because, i was told that it changed the lives of some of its readers, as it changed their perspective. I too, just like the protagonist- Siddhartha, was eager to find something new and life changing through this book. I thought i will immediately find a new learning or maybe answers to many of my questions.

Few pages of reading the book...

Nothing such happened. Few more pages and nothing new still didn't occur. I sighed and then decided to just read on. May be it would just help me pass time if nothing else.

I read on and on. Nowhere, i saw ‘Siddhartha’ as the hero of the book. He was someone who was somewhat defiant. Who was lost in lots of questions.  Someone who did not know what he was going to do next, but, did know what he must not do. He knew when to just go on, even when full of doubts.

My Key Learning from the Book:

1)      When life seems to hold no meaning anymore, when even the act of living becomes just passing each day and hence, it starts to feel weary. Then, it’s time to take a halt. Cos it’s life’s way of showing us that there is another plan waiting for us. There is another path already carved for us, awaiting us to choose to walk on.

2)      This choice is the time that we must say ‘Goodbye’. To all the childish things. Cos now we have chosen to take responsibility. We have chosen to act for ourselves. And, when we choose to act for ourselves, we start bringing a change for which not only us, but our entire world might not be ready for. For this conflict, we must be prepared, must be strong enough to bid Adieu to the child and all that he loves, cos he knows that it’s time to grow up.

3)      The path to good may not always be good. At times it is important to know the badness of the ‘bad’ to know the goodness of the ‘good’. And to know the both, one must experience. Experience is the key. Siddhartha explains that why is it important to be a sinner, to be a saint.

4)      It is easier to give up a pleasure that one has never experienced. True fasting is performed by the one who has had the luxury of food and taste, both. The true essence of fasting is also, understood by the one who has understood the satisfaction of the sense of taste.

5)      The most new learning was that, time and space is an illusion. Life is a full circle, like, the word ‘Om’ which means complete, perfect.

How we are visible in only one form, but, we do have another life and another form at the same time. All the other differences due to past present and future are a delusion. What we wish to become, is what we are now. What we are seeking is what we already have. Life and us, it’s all perfect in the now. 

Therefore, there has to be no seeking for peace. We are peace. 

We are the dead, the living and life itself.