Only a dream away...

I am upset about something not happening- my mind tells me it aint happening. And my heart foolishly believes beyond all reason that it will. It's like hoping that suddenly things will change and two and two will add upto five instead of the usual four. Obviously- the heart does not understand math. It just keeps on dreaming- it does not care what is summing up or subtracting or whatever.

I got the title for this post from this picture by Raymond Leech. And inspite of all logical reasoning and arithmetic- I believe- it's Only a Dream Away...

What's in a name...

OK- so this blog made people ask me two things:

First- why did I name it that.
Second- why I did not start of with a customary beginning note which would then automatically have an answer to the first question! Hmm- very neat...

I believe the answers deserve a posting- so here you go everyone- your reasons for my unconventional beginning and the supposedly out-of-place name for the blog.

I have been writing diaries since I was in class ninth- it has had all my thoughts and feelings and opinions about anything and everything. Lately I have been very busy and haven't got lot of time to put things down in writing- something which I want to go back to actually. But till then- I thought- why not go back to blogging... And the idea appealed and here I am writing the same ol' diary all over again. So it was never really a new beginning for me- it was just a continuation of what I have been doing for a long time. What's different is that here I have people people writing and sending comments instead of giving them to me in person. Well- that's fair enough considering I have a larger audience now. So I did not feel like this was a beginning at all or that it warranted the need for an introductory post.

Now for the flowery part. Every morning I get up and walk into my balcony- I find these petite, pretty violet flowers scattered all over the floor- they fall from the tree branch hanging above every time there is a slight breeze. (At times like these- I want to write in Hindi you know- I could've expressed the feeling in this sentence so much better in Hindi!! Anyways- back to the point..) And no matter with whatever problems I have slept at night- I wake up to this beautiful sight in the morning and it makes me smile without fail. The little things in life are precious- remember :)

Using Shakespear's literary gem the billionth time, continued from the title-

"... That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet."

Shall we dance?

I had gone out for dinner with some of my colleagues last evening. The restaurant had a live band playing and one of my colleagues is a real dance enthusiast. So we used to end up on the dance floor everytime a dance number was played. Incidentally, my colleague's husband does not share the same enthusiasm for dance like she does. So he never really joined us and preferred watching us as we let ourselves be lost in the music.

After our meal was over- we thought that we'll just dance for a while and then leave. She called her husband many times to join her- but he wouldn't budge from his place. Finally she resigned with- "Ok then..."

And then, after two minutes or so, he came up on the dance floor and whisked her in his arms and they danced for, what seemed to the rest of us like, eternity! I wonder whether they both realized it- but everyone around, including all of us from the team, were clapping and cheering them both. Finally the song ended and we all decided to go home. It was late and I was going to stay back at their place, so I went with them. And I could see that smile on her face throughout the drive back and even after that.

It is truly the small things that matter- they create the big picture. A diamond ring is not even half as precious as making a moment special with something as implicit as a smile or a touch. As they say- one glance says more than a thousand words. I saw how much a small gesture meant to someone last night. Love is truly in the small things. And I hope both of them dance away like last night together into the rest of their lives...

God! Do I love fairy-tale endings or what?! So- you ready for a dance? :)

Black and white are opposites...

I found this wondeful ambigram in the Sunday Midday while I was in final year engineering. It has been created by Punya Mishra- he's a very famous ambigramist and you will find more of his ambigrams here:

http://punya.educ.msu.edu/punyaweb/

In Punya's words, "... you can see this as being about opposites (good - evil; black - white) - the absence of one defining the other..."

It is so simple to categorize something. People are very quick to say something is good or bad- that they are happy or sad... But everyone would agree at the end of the day that life is not black and white- though we would sometimes want it to be like that so much just for the sake of more clarity. If I am happy I would automatically see the world as happy- and the same goes for the scenario when I am sad. But it would help to remember that my joy inadvertently means sorrow for someone, whether I like it or not... Andre Gide really knew what he was talking about when he said "The color of the truth is gray"

One more interesting thing about the above ambigram is that the first thing that people usually notice in it is the word Good- it is only after looking at it closely that they realize that it also has the word Evil. But once they have found out the evil in it- the next time they see the picture- they will always read the 'evil' first and will need to strain their eyes to see the 'good'.

That's how some people tend to look at life too. I know I have done that. Once faced with any sorrow- they become sceptical about the very existence of joy- forgetting that sorrow is merely absence of joy and it is them who can make sure that absence is no longer there. Happiness is a choice one makes. Period. And if you cannot make that choice for yourself- then no one else can do it for you. I have learnt this quite late in my life- but I have learnt it for good..

The next time you think something is black or white- think again- you might have seen the very same thing as being exactly opposite the last time you saw it. Gray is in people!