Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Journey
Everything happens for the best. When misfortune befalls us it is for our best , if we achieve something that too is for our good. We should accept both the pleasant and the unpleasant happenings in the same vein and remain unperturbed. We are going through a journey and only the calm and serene, the pure and unadulterated can reach its end. The rest loiter around on the way falling away here and there never to resume the journey and reach the destination.
(Wrote this on 9/1/09 but did not post it.)
A Date with Myself
In this busy life we have lost the opportunity to keep our date with ourselves. People laugh at the thought of having a me-time. 'But I am always with myself, what's the point of wasting extra time?'--they say. One needs time to keep in touch with one's inner self, independent of every worldly aspect of life--independent of one's profession, religion, nationality, race, caste, class, etc, and that is when we realize we are one. We make wrong decisions when we lose track of our true self. We are restless and angry when we fail to control any situation. Our private lives are something some of us would like to run away from.
If we meditate deeply for the shortest possible time we realize that our inner core will never be a part of the flux of the ever changing world. It is that inner core which helps us to accept the blows of life with a smiling countenance. It is that force within us which awakens the potent power in us to be supra humans.
So, it is necessary to keep that date with ourselves.
If we meditate deeply for the shortest possible time we realize that our inner core will never be a part of the flux of the ever changing world. It is that inner core which helps us to accept the blows of life with a smiling countenance. It is that force within us which awakens the potent power in us to be supra humans.
So, it is necessary to keep that date with ourselves.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
My First-car-feel: A Love Story with a Difference
Bought my first car in the first week of this month. It’s not the model which is unique but our relationship—my car and I. I am not here to show off but to share my feelings. These feelings are extremely private and I might even delete this story altogether but as of now I simply can’t help myself but capture the feelings as much as I can with the help of pc keyboard. I want to get better of my inhibitions.
When in Nigeria my family and I used to travel a lot. We had two cars allotted to my father by his company
with license plate numbers—KW 1859 R and KW 604 AD. I loved those two cars. Weekends and holidays meant long drives in them. There was even a time when we drove for 21 hours (we started at 5 am sharp and reached our destination at 2 am the following day) at a stretch and paused for a few minutes at some filling station to fill up the gas tank and refresh ourselves but, that was it. Our driver used to drive at the speed of 160 km/hr on those roads—no, he wasn’t reckless, he was pretty cautious and that’s why my father selected him. The roads were fantastic (I can even feel the smoothness and speed as I write this)—smooth, even and so broad that six cars could compete or keep up with each other on an even footing. And on both sides of the road were extremely dense forests with tall trees—one could get lost in the wilderness and never want to return. That’s how I came to love forests and to be precise—nature. Our house was on a hilltop from where we could see the River Niger. It was a wonderful sight. Hope I don’t sound too romantic. Enough of my nostalgia here--may be some other time. Anyway, let me return to the present—my new car.
Its colour is silky silver—a colour I was not too keen on choosing in the first place. My favourite is black but a car I saw of the same model on road made me change my decision. I thought of beige but eventually settled for silky silver pondering on the traffic conditions in Kolkata roads (If you drive in Kolkata roads you’ll get what I mean—the dirt and grime, splash of mud on a rainy day).
We were apprehensive of rain (had to get the Teflon coating done on it) on the date of delivery as it has been raining cats and dogs for days, but luckily on that day in spite of early morning clouds it turned out to be bright and sunny.
We reached the showroom at 10:45 am. Got the keys to my car at 3 pm. I couldn’t believe my luck when we managed to get a driver for a drive to Dakshineshwar to offer our prayers. It has been ages since I went there. We could have taken the shortest route but we took the longest one instead—through the Rajarhat-New Town expressway, etc. The driver was a bit reckless at times and had to be cautioned at times—he drove at 120 km/hr and had the habit of applying the brakes all too suddenly. But the drive was wonderful. I even took photographs from my car on our way back. The sky looked so photogenic at 5:50 pm that I couldn’t have the power to resist. The feeling of ‘my very own first car’ still didn’t sink in. Nevertheless, I loved its speed.
Got a driver from some agency--started driving it to college. I just loved the feel but it still didn’t feel my own even on the second day but I became extremely protective of it. My driver thought it right to take the short cut route to college, I did not object as I had a lot of time on my hands and didn’t mind experimenting. Actually, I badly wanted that romantic-first-car feel to sink in. Eventually the inevitable happened—we lost our way. We asked our way out to the highway that led to the college in which I teach. In a subdued tone I informed the driver where to park the car. I didn’t tell anyone in college about the car yet. It felt wonderful to keep a secret like that. There was this feeling that I have a friend waiting patiently outside for me. A relationship with the car had started building up.
A few minutes later a colleague entered the faculty room one thing led to the other, and I had to mention about my friend who was patiently waiting outside for me (it is the norm at college to reveal everything, privacy is not welcomed—in fact, it is scorned upon. I am a private person but here I had no choice but to comply with the norms). Then followed several interviews regarding the valuation, etc of the car and another series of questions regarding garage, driver, etc--to which I reluctantly obliged--my sense of privacy was bruised to a certain extent.
From the third day it felt as if it was this very car that was protecting me from the outside world. I never felt like this all my life. It felt like my very own sanctuary—surprisingly it was as if the driver did not exist. It was only my car and me. We had developed a strong bond.
Today is the sixth day--I felt that it had become an intrinsic part of my life. My college has two buildings—I used to take the college car to go to the other building but today I took my car and the whole experience was a beautiful one—that feeling I waited for had sunk in.
I was now really in love with my car.
See you in another post.
.
When in Nigeria my family and I used to travel a lot. We had two cars allotted to my father by his company
with license plate numbers—KW 1859 R and KW 604 AD. I loved those two cars. Weekends and holidays meant long drives in them. There was even a time when we drove for 21 hours (we started at 5 am sharp and reached our destination at 2 am the following day) at a stretch and paused for a few minutes at some filling station to fill up the gas tank and refresh ourselves but, that was it. Our driver used to drive at the speed of 160 km/hr on those roads—no, he wasn’t reckless, he was pretty cautious and that’s why my father selected him. The roads were fantastic (I can even feel the smoothness and speed as I write this)—smooth, even and so broad that six cars could compete or keep up with each other on an even footing. And on both sides of the road were extremely dense forests with tall trees—one could get lost in the wilderness and never want to return. That’s how I came to love forests and to be precise—nature. Our house was on a hilltop from where we could see the River Niger. It was a wonderful sight. Hope I don’t sound too romantic. Enough of my nostalgia here--may be some other time. Anyway, let me return to the present—my new car.
Its colour is silky silver—a colour I was not too keen on choosing in the first place. My favourite is black but a car I saw of the same model on road made me change my decision. I thought of beige but eventually settled for silky silver pondering on the traffic conditions in Kolkata roads (If you drive in Kolkata roads you’ll get what I mean—the dirt and grime, splash of mud on a rainy day).
We were apprehensive of rain (had to get the Teflon coating done on it) on the date of delivery as it has been raining cats and dogs for days, but luckily on that day in spite of early morning clouds it turned out to be bright and sunny.
We reached the showroom at 10:45 am. Got the keys to my car at 3 pm. I couldn’t believe my luck when we managed to get a driver for a drive to Dakshineshwar to offer our prayers. It has been ages since I went there. We could have taken the shortest route but we took the longest one instead—through the Rajarhat-New Town expressway, etc. The driver was a bit reckless at times and had to be cautioned at times—he drove at 120 km/hr and had the habit of applying the brakes all too suddenly. But the drive was wonderful. I even took photographs from my car on our way back. The sky looked so photogenic at 5:50 pm that I couldn’t have the power to resist. The feeling of ‘my very own first car’ still didn’t sink in. Nevertheless, I loved its speed.
Got a driver from some agency--started driving it to college. I just loved the feel but it still didn’t feel my own even on the second day but I became extremely protective of it. My driver thought it right to take the short cut route to college, I did not object as I had a lot of time on my hands and didn’t mind experimenting. Actually, I badly wanted that romantic-first-car feel to sink in. Eventually the inevitable happened—we lost our way. We asked our way out to the highway that led to the college in which I teach. In a subdued tone I informed the driver where to park the car. I didn’t tell anyone in college about the car yet. It felt wonderful to keep a secret like that. There was this feeling that I have a friend waiting patiently outside for me. A relationship with the car had started building up.
A few minutes later a colleague entered the faculty room one thing led to the other, and I had to mention about my friend who was patiently waiting outside for me (it is the norm at college to reveal everything, privacy is not welcomed—in fact, it is scorned upon. I am a private person but here I had no choice but to comply with the norms). Then followed several interviews regarding the valuation, etc of the car and another series of questions regarding garage, driver, etc--to which I reluctantly obliged--my sense of privacy was bruised to a certain extent.
From the third day it felt as if it was this very car that was protecting me from the outside world. I never felt like this all my life. It felt like my very own sanctuary—surprisingly it was as if the driver did not exist. It was only my car and me. We had developed a strong bond.
Today is the sixth day--I felt that it had become an intrinsic part of my life. My college has two buildings—I used to take the college car to go to the other building but today I took my car and the whole experience was a beautiful one—that feeling I waited for had sunk in.
I was now really in love with my car.
See you in another post.
.
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