Yun toh saare sukh hai barse…….

On my way to work, I was listening to the Swades song yeh jo des hai tera & the lyrics go like,

Yun toh saare sukh hai barse,
Par door tu hai apne ghar se…..

O my God, can’t explain how nostalgic I got! Down the heart I knew the truth quotient of these words. No matter how much I try to justify it otherwise, I can’t deny how homesick I felt when I saw the Gulmohor tree & the chai wala with his 6 cup holder stand in some desi movie. They say you can have a home away from home, but who are we kidding; can we really?
Some decisions in life are taken weighing the practical gains over emotional, but why is it that the later almost inevitably takes over the former after the goal is achieved?

With a heavy heart.....

http://www.shekharkapur.com/blog/archives/2007/07/partition_of_in.htm

A must read from the Shekhar Kapur collection. I have known a family friend of ours in Nagpur who came to India from Lahore after partition & had similar heart wrenching stories. At times I guess, life gets too complicated to judge the right & the wrong. No amount of regret can bring back the lost glory though!

Thought for the day

I read somewhere again,” Unexamined life is not worth living”. I think it is right. But I think it’s also important to know when to stop examining life. Just accept every day as it comes, just that raw moment & try to enjoy it. No philosophy, no viewpoints. Today I wish I was one of those people who live life for that raw moment!

My new muse

Very few of my hobbies have been constructive so far in life. However, cooking has always been one of them! I am going to keep http://triedandtastedrecipes.blogspot.com/ this blog updated with the recipes I use & also got a few of my friends who are very good cooks involved. My point was to have a centralized place where all of the delicious recipes were readily available to everybody. I hope this turns out to be a helpful venture!

Shantaram

‘The worst thing about corruption as a system of governance is that it works so well’.

‘If fate didn’t make you laugh, you didn’t get the joke!’

‘Without love, India would be impossible’.

‘There is no act of faith more beautiful than the generosity of the very poor’.

‘Poverty & Pride are devoted blood bothers, until one, always & inevitably, kills the other’.

‘Justice is not only the way we punish those who do wrong, it is also the way we try to save them’.

‘Every act of suffering, no matter how small or agonizingly great, is a test of love in some way. Most of the times, suffering is also a test of our love to God’.

‘One of the ironies of courage & the reason why we prize it so highly, is that we find it easier to be brave for someone else than we do for ourselves alone’.

‘Cruelty is a kind of cowardice. Cruel laughter is the way cowards cry when they are not alone, and causing pain is how they grieve’.

‘Pity is one part of love that asks for nothing in return and, because of that, every act of pity is a kind of prayer’.

Just completed reading “Shantaram” & these are a few of the quotes from the book. What I fail to understand is that how can someone having so much insight on life, fall for crime, drugs & depression? How can people stray from being right when they very much know they are being wrong? This guy had a highly philosophical approach toward life; I guess that’s the reason he found India as his home. I also learnt that we should be thankful, because for no contribution of ours, we were never exposed to the life of poverty & slums in India. It can be argued if a criminal deserves this kinda glorification or not, but just the fact that he doesn’t justify his crime or is just out there with it, makes it a lot more easy to understand him & his situation. Inshallah, his sequel to “Shantaram”, “God Willing” will be a big hit too!