Masakali - I Love You

Masakali !  Masakali  !  

Without any guesses in this article I tried to pen down my touching experience with a masakali (pigeon) that came my waywithout invitation and left me without any permission.

 

That particular night was no special in the sense that I set out for a night walk after my dinner as always. The moment my lift door opened (I live in third floor) I happened to see this cute little pigeon just leaning on to the wall and looking at the passing people with fear. As a bird lover, I could not resist myself from stopping for a moment and admire the beauty of the bird and its God given elegance. At around 11pm, sight of a pigeon was quite unusual and even more intriguing was the fact that it was standing at one place without flying or moving whatsoever. Ignoring her for the moment, I continued with my walk.

When I returned home in about one hour of chilling out in fresh air after a hectic busy schedule in an air-conditioned jail (office), I could still see this cutie (pigeon) standing at the same place. But somehow I could sense a kind of anguish in those tiny little round eyes. I wish I could become a pigeon to ask what was that which was troubling her. Nevertheless, I decided to go down towards her and see what was wrong with her. As I approached her, she started running away from me in fear, a spontaneous emotion that God has sown in each of his child as an alarm  to escape from danger and she was expressing that fear with a divine touch.

Somehow I could catch hold of her only to have my heart shattering into pieces. Now I understood her anguish and pain which was evident in her eyes. At this moment I heart fully thanked God for giving me a benediction of speech so that I can express my pain and shout for help. Unfortunately she could not do it. She was so uncomfortable and struggling even to walk because she was severely wounded at her back in between her wings. Probably that is the reason she could not open her wings and fly into the open sky.

Immediately, the first thing I did was I carried her with me to my home and treated the wound with some homemade remedy of turmeric-coconut oil paste which is very effective traditional (Indian tradition) way of curing those bruises and cuts. The I tried to feed her with some grains but with vain. I even kept some water, but she somehow did not feel comfortable in a new place or in a pair of new hands. I left her alone in my balcony in fresh air with some grains and water beside her.

Next day morning when I got up, the first thing I did was to check with her. To my surprise all the grains have been eaten up and she was standing fresh and energetic there. Still considering the deep wound I thought that it might take at least a couple of days for her to fly. I went inside my home to fetch some more grains to feed her. Still she was afraid of me and was running away from me when I tried to refill her breakfast plate.

As I was trying to asses her condition, suddenly to my utter surprise she saw me compassionately for few seconds or at least I felt so, then she slowly leaped onto the parapet wall of the balcony and zoom she flew high in the sky. I was taken aback and stood there spellbound admiring her flight in the air. From the depth of my heart I thanked God for providing me an opportunity to serve one of his children who was in distress. Suddenly I sensed some hollow created due to her departure in my life and wondering who would replace that now. Then I had to console myself with no other option left.

Though our relationship lasted only for a night, but the residue of that incident will remain forever with me. A peculiar sense of the satisfaction prevailed with me for whole of the following day. May I call this love ?

I hope someday in future we meet again my cute little friend !

An Unique Page from my Travel Log

One more day of mine has passed in trying to tame the hunger demon by earning our daily bread ofcourse not without sufficient fun though.


There is a saying that this entire life of ours is a journey. Whether we make a heaven out of this unique journey or a hell out of it, due to our sheer ignorance is all the choice we are left with. On that account these few peculiar moments of mine (about to describe) are those that I stole from the eternal cosmos and hid with me forever.


Being a traveller by inborn nature, fortunately I am placed in a job that demanded frequent visit to new places (inside and outside my country (India)) as a part of my profile. Out of countless situations during my travel around the world, which are unique by themselves I will describe one such encounter that I had enjoyed the most and will cherish throughout my lifetime.

Bird's eye view of Timor Leste

 When I was in Timore Leste (island near Australia), I was awe struck by the beauty of the place. Unfortunately nowadays beauty of the country is measured by the tall buildings, long flyovers and wide roads. I kindly request you all to drop those distorted perceptions of the word beauty when reading this blog topic. The island was a very small one, almost it takes only 3 to 5 hours to go around the entire island in a car. But the pristine beauty of the nature is intact even today, with one side bounded by the sea (timor sea) while on the other side stood the tall mountains with lush green cover. Nothing less to be called as a "Heaven on Earth". After living my entire life amidst pollution and  crowds, my stay there was totally refreshing. My entire spirit woke up from a very long sleep of years together.

Unsung Style Icons

Everyday I used to walk along the beach early in the morning listening to the waves and talking to the cool breeze. One such morning I came across a few children who were inquisitively following me as I was clicking snaps of the early morning scenery (Of course I am a shutter bug also). Somehow I fell in love with the innocence evoked by those children. Then I spoke to them but they could not understand English and obviously I could not understand their local language. First time ever for me, it so happened that the language had lost its significance in communication. Their eyes were speaking, their smiles were aloud and their hands and legs assertive, amidst this all their words hid without compromising to convey their message to me. That morning was one of those very unique mornings for which I thank the almighty for giving me opportunity to interact with those innocent souls which inturn helped me to invoke my long forgotten innocence effortlessly.

The boys shown in the photographs are the ones I was talking and admiring about. Seeming stylish, aren't they? Their very hairstyle tells you their personality rather the environment in which they grow and live. But the ugly part of their lives is that the political situation is very volatile there. My sincere prayers to the almighty that let the life of those people also be as beautiful as their innocence and  let peace privail throughout their land.

Speed thrills but kills- Beware

First of all I wish a very "Happy Holi" to all my fellow bloggers and readers

Touch and go situations happens with us many times in our lives. But in this anxiety filled racing world we fail to look back at those unique moments and contemplate on them to gain insights into the realm of hidden world of possibilities and probabilities. One such thing happened with me today which prompted me to record that moment of fear painted with surprise in my blog and share here with you all, just to create awareness that each and every situation arises in this cosmos not by accident, but appears as a well planned thought out process.

It all started like this,as always, I was racing in my Cheetah (Pulsar 180 bike) on the highway at about 90kmph. On any other day I would have been a bit on the slower side (not <75 kmph though), but this being sunday and in addition Holi (Indian festival of colors), the highway (Mumbai-Pune) wore a deserted look and my cheetah just unleashed in its full potential and drove the entire stretch in style. It was late in the evening (around 7.00 pm IST) and the cool breeze was brushing my skin and my entrire body cells instantly woke up and started dancing to its rhythm. 

Everything was fine until I saw a middle aged person who was standing at the side of the road with his hand stretched out for help. I mean he wanted lift, so he was trying to catch the attention of the speeding vehicle drivers and latch on to their vehicle. When I approached close to him he did the same thing with me too, but somehow I felt that his gesture to me was a bit on the harsher side. So reluctance crept into my mind, this few seconds of reluctance was enough to cross him in a flash and I was way ahead of him due to my already zooming speed (90kmph). Instantly, seconds later I could sense that the car (White Mauriti Swift) in front of me slowed down suddenly and almost came to a halt. That gave me smells of something unusual happening in the vicinity. I slowed down a little bit (still at 70kmph) to be cautious. Suddenly at this juncture that disaster thing happened.

As I was behind the car I could not know the reason for the sudden stoppage of the car. Without having a hint of the danger lying ahead, I just overtook the car from the left side (in India overtaking should be done from right side). Buuzzz.....! came the monster shouting with its cheeky tone from nowhere and was right in front of my bike. A old rabid dog which was the reason behind the stoppage of the car, was trying to escape from the car and in process of saving its life it started running in all directions out of fear. Without realising the danger ahead, I overtook the car and was about to hit that stray dog in that speed. Only God knows what could have happened to both of us (me and the dog) if I am to hit him? Fortunately I could pull my brakes exactly at the right time and I could just stop my cheetah (pet name for my bike) in time by brushing his tail. Thank God, you saved both of us today was my immediate response !

After a few minutes when my heartbeat resumed to its normal rate, I just contemplated on this incident. A myriad of question struck me from all around. If at all I would have stopped to pick that man who asked me for lift then I would have avoided this mishap. Is it my fault that I did not help that middle aged man with lift that I was punished ? How should I thank the almighty who helped me in escaping from the jaws of death?

As per my understanding, I see a well knit cloth of events that happened one after the other. My taking from this is that never ignore anything or anyone for whatever reason, you never know what is the consequence you will have to face by not responding to God's messengers.

Once More but Never Again

On any single day we come across manys such words which we never heard before, in newspapers or in conversations etc. If it is not of significance to us then we just try to fakely laugh our way through the situations to avoid any humiliation. I also was one among those herd of black sheeps who does not care much about that nuances of life until a realisation struck me that how long can I fool around like this. May be with my intelligence I can fool my fellow being beyond doubt but definitely not myself.

"Euthanasia" is one such word whose sound had hit my ear drums first time ever around four years ago. To make things worse I was given these group of alphabets "Euthanasia" as the topic of the on spot oral competition. Oral skills are probably one thing that I am good at, atleast I fell so. On that particular day, confidentally I was looking at the crowd to shower them with my word play until I heard the sound of this word. Once I heard my topic "Euthanasia", I stood spellbound. Now what the hell is this ? was the question running all over my mind. But as a testimony of my pressure absorbing skills, I threw a joke at the crowd in anticipation of getting any clue. The wit being ' who better can speak about "Euthanasia" (youth n asia,that was the hidden meaning of the comment) than me as an Indian Youth, but equally I am competent enough to speak about Euthanurope and Euthanfrica' also. Unfortunately people could laugh at my wit but cannot provide me any further clue. I laughed to myself sarcastically, and told myself that now is the time to divert the public and sneak through without anybody's notice. I then cunningly hide my ignorance about the topic and asked people think about the more burning topic which can be solved only by the youth of India. Suddenly unexpected blow hit the crowd and patriotism filled the hall. Before the crowd came to their normal senses I spoke my way through the burning topic of the world and need of the hour (it is true though). Not only did I receive heavy applause but I went on to clinch (cunningly though) the  'Best Orator' title for that year.

The beauty is that even till yesterday I did not know the meaning of the word, rather I did not attempt to know the meaning of "Euthanasia". After many days I came across this word in the newspaper yesterday and the entire memories of the the Oral competition flooded me with joy and filled me with shame. But what was  even more humiliating was that I still did not make an attempt to know the word. I stood where I was around four years ago. I am happy that atleast now I had an oppurtunity of knowing the meaning and this time around I did not want to mess around. But even an bigger bigger blow struck me when I actually understood the word. It was completely unexpected from my side to know the exact pain the word carried with it. Making things even painfull for me when I came across the case of Aruna Shanbaug who is coma for  37 years and for whom a petition was filed in the court for mercy killing. It is from this news I was given one more oppurtunity to understand "Euthanasia" and this time around I grasped it with both hands. Should I thank Aruna for washing away my historical ignorance or should I worry for her sorry state ? May be both.

Aruna, I dont know whether you understand or not, but my sincere thanks to you from the depth of my heart. We can sleep for at the most 10 hrs in a stretch, but God has given you a prolonged sleep of thirty seven years, may be he is preparing you for something else. Prayers of all of us are with u......!

As you helped me to understand the word "Euthanasia" I have a similar belief that you will help me in understanding the word "MIRACLE" from your recovery of long sleep and deep silence.