‘Perfection’ limits us

Perfection is an illusion created by man to hold on to his idea and necessity of defining boundaries for himself. Does the perfectly blue sky have any limits?The earth by itself has no boundaries that man hasn’t surpassed. He pushed those very same boundaries that were once considered perfect and learnt to move over land, wade through the oceans and jump off the earth to fly into space.

Perfection is an illusion only because man has a deep inset need for order and orientation that helps him find himself in the midst of chaos. When we go to a new place or move into a new home we are constantly finding things and places we can draw associations with in order to orient ourselves.

Perfection to one is a perception of his own experiences. A perfect crime could be someone else’s biggest mistake. Every faith considers God to be the supreme idea of perfection who has created everything to perfection. That includes a mentally ill child, a blind man or a person with physical ‘deformities’. We however term them as deformities as they go against the general order of what most of us look like. Stephen Hawking showed us that our idea of perfection could be so misplaced. So many others follow him everyday in some part of the world. An athlete who loses a limb tries to learn to walk again with a prosthetic leg and he challenges himself to walk better everyday. Each day leads him to greater accomplishments or setbacks. How could perfection ever define his life and fight with reality, which in itself is a wonder!

A perfect family, a perfect child, a perfect dive, a gymnast with a perfect 10 score, a perfectly tuned guitar…what is perfect to one could be nothing near perfection for another. It’s simply an idea based on our own experiences, rich or poor. It’s an illusion that limits us.
The only thing perfect is to be born and then be whisked away by death which is just as perfect. The beginning and end of every life.

What lies in between is a world with infinitesimal possibilities that could lead us to push boundaries every day, one day at a time.

The Puppet’s Dream

And she ran to catch it…and fell…and got up and ran again…this time it fell further away. Again and again she tore through the obstacles to reach it. She had waited for almost a decade for this moment. It couldn’t end like this. She reached out again trying to grasp it. It was her dream. It couldn’t slip away like this. She was about to make it real.

Suddenly a voice from above boomed “Not now. You have to be elsewhere.” The Grand Puppeteer had spoken and his words were final..for he controlled everything. He had always controlled everything ever since it began.
She stopped and felt a thousand blows to her heart. She gazed up at him for a long time and looked away. He pulled her away for another act.

She watched her dream fading into the distance and grew limp.

After all those hopeful years, she too had begun to fade away.

Caprice of Man

At some point in every human life there is something that you desire so badly that you try everything to achieve it and yet forget to do the most simple thing. Like just telling the person you like him or merely communicating to those around you that you think differently and are entitled to your opinion. On the other hand, maybe it was never meant for you and so it simply slips out of your hand like sand each time you try to tighten your grip upon it.
And time takes over to fade away the pangs of not getting what you have pined and toiled for, for as long as you can remember.

Then one day, something happens…something kicks you in the gut bringing back memories of how you had desired, how you had tried. Maybe a phone call, a chance encounter, a sudden drift… And those pangs return as fresh wounds wanting to be soothed. And you begin trying again. This time its different. Years have passed. Change has redefined so many things and circumstances in your life and in the lives of those who may have been part of this wanting.

You also realize that where life is now, is at a much better place than it would have been, had things worked out then. People change, your youth had you be more impulsive and naive, experiences changed and so much more. The changes seem evident of the fact. But something pulls you back. Maybe its man’s constant need to achieve something and when he doesn’t it feels like an unfulfilled dream. And no matter what the stakes are, you are attracted nevertheless. Like a fatal attraction….

It is at these points in life, every bit of the human will and self control are truly tested. Does it make sense to throw caution to the wind and go after something that looks like its come back to you only for your wanting. What if this is the last attempt given to grasp it and success is just waiting at the turn?

But who could make that decision?
Humans are such complicated and knotted up balls of emotion! And when emotions take control they weaken men and women into capricious and fickle minded people who end up at many points in life wanting something so badly that they try everything to achieve it. Even if every sign and change proved that it was never meant to be.

A Poster-Invisibly Yours

Excerpts from Invisibly Yours..posted earlier this month.

Christmas in Black & White

The snow lends its shade of sparkling white to everything it covers this season. The first Christmas was welcomed on a cold,wintry night in Bethlehem. A white star shone brightly through the black night sky.

Carols are sung through the season. Keys of ebony and ivory play Christmas tunes all day long.

To some, Christmas is simply in black and white.

Black is for dreams that were cut short this year, for the loss of someone very dear, for the thousands killed in senseless acts of terror the world witnessed together, for the homes and lives destroyed in natural calamities, for a medical fraternity that worked hard and sometimes helplessly to save people, for those brief moments of insanity when we completely lost our faith, for all those moments when we were pushed to a limit where we turned our gaze heaven-ward and dared to ask- WHY?!

White is for the tiny ray of hope that shone through the dark, stormy clouds. For the new born babe who battled himself to victory to stay alive in his mother’s arms, for the life that slowly limps back to normal after being battered in rough seas of whatever was thrown at us, for love that resuscitates after long, harrowing months following a divorce, for a new lease of life given to a cancer survivor, for those who can be grateful for one more day spent in the midst of joy and love…white is for that seed of hope planted within the most vulnerable human heart that pumps unceasingly to maintain life yet dies several times in that lifetime.

So, can Christmas be in black and white?

I think for a lot of us, it already is.

Fault of our Emotions

We are products of emotion. The entire human race is driven by emotion- anger, passion,greed, love, sadness, and so many more that cumulate to define the next phase of progress or destruction.

What if we numb ourselves to emotions and simply let the mind rule? Would that be the practicality of it? Or would that be simply mechanical like robots are meant to be? Being emotionless guards us from impulses that lead us to do things in the heat of the moment.

But can we humans who are born out of an emotion, separate ourselves totally from it?

Can an emotionless human safeguard his heart from pain and rejection that drives him to unthinkable actions?

Does such a human exist?

Does he need to?

Does the goodness of early experiences the child has in his environment make him the adult he can be, who can handle all emotions but not explode like a grenade?

La Vie en Rosé

Life through rosy hues.

Freedom through the Haze

Do we constantly have to fight for freedom?
Do people have to be hurt and killed in our search of it?
Do the screams and wails of a woman holding her lifeless child at her breast help set us free?
Does it bring a smile to snatch another’s shelter and livelihood by encroaching on their territory?
Is it freedom to stamp on the lives of other humans?
What is this idea of freedom, I wonder!

Does the world not have enough space for each of us to stand in His grace?
Do we need to hoard so much that eventually gets left behind when we turn to dust?
Is a child who works to earn a living free, when he would rather be on a seat of education that empowers him?
Is a woman who sells her body every night to earn and feed a family free, when the world leaves her no choice to earn a more decent living?
What is this idea of freedom, I wonder!

What are we humans, supposedly the best of all creation?
Who are we that He has set us just below his angels but master of all things on earth?
I think we are an enormous mistake to disturb the pace that nature had set!
For in each one of us is a monster who waits, to devour everything created,
Who plays with our thoughts where actions are spun,
That freedom is to be fought and won,
At what cost and what is right,
Is a skewed image that looms in sight.
What is this idea of freedom, I wonder!

Or else each of us would be like an eagle flying high,
Soaring over winds and stormy skies,
Lifted up to a higher place,
Where freedom is a peaceful space,
Where I can live and let others too,
In dignity and respect, as creation meant us to!

Invisibly Yours

We spoke a while and you lingered on,
I caught my breath to hold you back
But you were gone;
And I watched you widen the space in between us,
I stood there pondering when my heart had first paused for you,
Hoping you would turn around just once;
But how were you to know what I had for you,
Was it so long ago or was I still in love?

As inevitable as it is
For earth to orbit the sun,
As impossible as it may be,
That time would ever merge day and night into one,
I am, but unknown to you…Invisibly yours.

Our lives were never meant to meet again,
But sometimes chance leads us on;
My emotions I should have held fast,
But couldn’t fight the urge to hear your voice return from the past;
We were born two people with separate destinies,
But for long I had pictured us as a possibility;
And now you’ve left me standing here once more,
Filled with memories of so many years ago.

I could be an invisible shadow
That you would never sense;
For I’ve never gasped with such breathlessness,
A feeling so intense;
Yet before I close my eyes and my heart slows down,
Before life trickles away to alight on the rays of the sun,
It’s the last pause I want to feel before I fly to a world where dreams come true,
A place where I’ll always have you…

I stand here at your door,
And yet you wouldn’t ever know.
As for now it must be so, that to you I remain, invisibly yours.

A Home in my Heart

When you have run your length of time,
And caught all your dreams and adventures;
When you have met kings and walked with men of great standing,
And loved, lost and loved all over again;
When you have quenched your passions to discover all that’s within you
Be still, come and rest awhile, for there’s a home in my heart.

Its hearth is warm against the cold world outside,
There’s a fire that never burns out;
A couch that you may sit on perhaps to ponder and talk of your capers,
A soft rug for your worn out legs and feet:
When your work is done and you begin to tire,
Come and stay a while, for there’s a home in my heart.

When you arrive at the evening of your life,
And often think of a place you can settle,
If only to be yourself in the company of friends who matter;
When you close your eyes to the scent of faraway hills that promise a solitude one often seeks,
And you set out to make amends for all that hurts inside you,
Rest awhile for a day or two where there’s a home in my heart.

It’s isnt very large and may have a bit of clutter,
But every bit has a story to utter,
Collected as jewels in a treasure chest of memories,
That open to reveal the man I’ve known you to be;
Every bit is yours- a home built for you with the love of my youth,
Its walls stay adorned with a tapestry of dreams never caught.

There is a small corner that lies bare,
It’s for our time now, a moment so rare,
Where nothing can be carved off a dream,
These moments when you step in
Add colour and life for us to share;
In the midst of all that is imagined and remembered,
This corner is for now, a time when you step inside, into your home in my heart.

Who knows what the future holds,
Fate may have sealed many things:
But as our years pull along living separate lives,
There may come a moment or two
When life crosses our paths;
We may share a word, maybe a few,
And if you feel like coming in
Step inside this little place,
Which has been your home in my heart.

When I prepare to lay to rest,
And see the past slip away like clouds,
When the memories come flooding in
To remind me of a life lived in love,
I will think of you and hope you are near,
As a love that felt so endeared,
And if you stay a while before I breathe my last,
I will smile and you will shine,
As the brightest star from my past.