There is no place like home

The look of the place, the smell of it, every corner of this place is so very familiar, so very known; they are so close to the heart, because there is no place like home.

It has been a long time I have been away from this place, which hold a very special place in my heart. In fact it has been too long. Someone once told me that, when you return home, to your city, to where you reside, after a long time, it is then you understand how beautiful it truly is. Yesterday I realized how true this statement is. As the flight started to descend below the clouds, giving a bird’s eye view of the city, which looked like it had dressed up for a special occasion, I realized something. Kolkata had never looked this beautiful to me before, as if I was seeing it for the first time, in brand new way.

Here’s the funny thing, when a plan is about to touch down, I do not know if anyone ever pays attention to this or not, but for about ten odd seconds it keeps hovering inches above the ground, as if to tease you. I have never really noticed this detail, but yesterday it gave me a funny feeling in my tummy. And about the moment the wheels touched the ground, believe me for I am not kidding, my heart skipped a beat. There was a lump in my throat. I was home. I guess these are a few things that just happen, it is not a feeling you need to try and get.

It is funny how things in your home stay exactly the way they were, no matter how long you have been away from it. It is amazing how we take no time to get comfortable, and settle back in. And it truly amazes me how the food you get at home is always better than anything you have tasted. Does not matter if you have been to the best of restaurants, stayed in the best of suits, when you come home and get to lie down in your own bed, and your mother feeds you homemade rice and meat, there is no place on earth you rather be.

The beauty of the place we call home is, I guess, almost impossible to define.

It is a place which is there for you, like a friend, always waiting with its arms wide open.

It is somewhere you find peace and solace.

Truly, there is no place like home.      

Time: the push we need

Life is a tough task master. At times life can get very rosy, but you can be rest assured, that means life is just planning something weird for you. It always seems to me that, every moment of our life has conditions applied to them. Happy moments tend to fade away, and sad ones always come to an end, giving way to numerous reasons for us to smile.

A few days back as I was writing one of my previous blogs, a thought struck my mind, that of the importance of time in our lives. Usually we do not really think about it, but time is a friend we have who helps us deal with situations. When we feel lost, down, or beaten, we tell ourselves, time will heal. I disagree. Time does not heal. On the contrary, like a strict coach who pushes his trainee till he learns to be strong, time keeps pushing us, no matter how low we feel, till we can get up and walk again. On the other hand, when we are over excited about something, it slowly fades away the excitement, so that we can look forward to the new moments of excitement and joy of the future.

I guess, this is because time has not been taught how to slow down. It, therefore, teaches us the importance of moving on in life.   

Time does not sympathies with us.

It gives us that push to forget and keep walking.

Be it a happy moment or a sad one, it keeps pushing us forward, as if to tell us, “new and important things are waiting for you, and I don’t want you to miss it.”

A True Friend

Friends, one of those pieces without which, life would literally cease to have any meaning. They come and go as time keeps pushing us ahead. It is funny how easily we build relationships with people, in our schools, colleges, in our workplaces, and how easily we lose touch. Only a few stay, and fewer is the number with whom we can connect at a very personal level.

I am lucky to have one such friend. To whom I can express my every feeling, and believe me you, this friend can be the best friend, philosopher and guide one can have. I am talking about someone called “MUSIC”.

A few hours back, I sat down to play my guitar a little, and this thought struck my mind. It’s amazing how music is there for all our moods, for every moment of our lives. Whatever I might be feeling, when I take out my guitar, and strum those strings for the first time, it somehow, in a magical way comes out with a sound which fit my present mind set, as if to understand what I am feeling.

Be it at a party with yours crazy friends, or be it when you are sitting on a rooftop, segregated from the whole world, when you need someone to understand you, music is always there. True, music is not an individual entity, it is created by individuals, but somehow music, the songs, tracks or whatever you may call it, can have a personality of its own. It is there with you when you feel like head banging your head off your shoulder, or when you are with your special person, and you need someone to help you win her over.

It is beautiful, this thing we call music.

 Life’s road is not that easy,

It is there to make the rough road of life, that much smoother.    

You learn to fall in love

A few months ago, I had to move away from my home town, Kolkata, and shift to Delhi for my higher education. My initial feeling towards the city was therefore, that of dislike. I could not bring myself to like anything. Everything about it got on my nerve, as I kept comparing Delhi to Kolkata.

It has been almost three and half months now, and I have come to realise that, I am starting to like the city. The last few weekends I have spent roaming around the city, specially the old parts of it, and well, it is unique. Where Kolkata has a very classy, colonial feel to it, Delhi has a very traditional beauty. The thing I love about Delhi is its heritage.

I have been visiting the numerous monuments that are scattered all over the city, India Gate, Hauz Khas, Red Fort, Chandni Chowk, Jamah Masjid, Qutub Minar, Jantar Mantar and a few more places, and frankly they leave me awestruck. It is really hard to explain how beautiful and peaceful they are. A few days back, I got the opportunity to visit Jamah Masjid, and instantly fell in love with it. I have heard people say that when you visit a religious places, they make you feel peaceful, and believe me, that is exactly what I felt as I entered the premises. I could spend hours, just sitting there. Yes, the road leading up to the stairs can be a little intimidating but, it is worth pushing through the sea of people. For my friend it is Qutub Minar. She says the exact same things about the Minar. I like it too, but for me it is Jamah Masjid, who has stolen my heart.

The city is a cramped one, filled with excessive traffic, too much people, confusing roads, and an expensive cost of living, but there are places away from the hustle-bustle of the fast life, where peace rules.

 I have realised that, the initial dislike that I had grown towards the city is now fading from my heart.

There are many corners of the city, which are yet to be explored.

Many more places to see.

I hope this city, slowly but surely, makes me fall in love.     

They are better then we'll ever be

“If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man.” 
― Mark Twain

They are innocent. Helpless, they live every waking moment of their lives in fear. Fear of being beaten, kicked or killed for no good reason what-so-ever. As few days back, I happened to overhear a group of boys boasting about how one of them got drunk, and ran over three street dogs in one night. It got me thinking, how can we humans 

be so cruel? We are always bragging about how we human beings, are the most intelligent living beings that exists on the face of this planet, because we have the most developed brains, we have the power to reason. Where is that reasoning when we kill just for fun?  Apparently, our highly developed brains tells us that, only human lives have a value. All other living creatures are worthless.

People may judge me for saying this, but, at times I feel like humans don’t deserve even a percentage of what the Almighty has made available to them. Apparently everything is God’s plan. I am pretty sure God did not want his “children” to run around like fools, killing anything that they see.

What I fail to understand is, how can we be so cruel to these beautiful creatures? When I hear people saying, “I wish I could feel true love”, I always have a strong urge of asking them to keep a pet dog, for they are living examples of the definition of love. It is true, they know how to love, better than you, me, or anyone can ever begin to imagine. I lost my pet a few months ago, and let me tell you, they take a huge part of you away with them. It feels like your life has been taken away from you. Such is the power of their love. They can be a protector if required, a friend if needed, a teddy bear if you need something to cuddle, and they can be the shoulder you cry on. They are all those things that keep a person happy bundled into one. They are mesmerizing characters. We don’t understand that they don’t understand the concept of hate. They need our love to survive.

Instead, we treat them like dirt, like they do not have any right to live. Like we are the ones to decide what their lives are going to be like. Like they are a burden in our lives. It is fun for us to kick them while they are sleeping. Beating them up if they make a small mistake makes us feel like the superior beings. Why can’t we understand that they are innocent?

What have they ever done to us? Some may say they bite us. Here is my answer to them; they bite because they are pushed over the edge. When a dog bites, understand that it has been through more torture than you can think of, without protesting. Like us, they too have limitations to their patience. 

The beautiful thing about them is, they do not have a grey region in their thinking. There are no ifs and buts for them. If they like something, love something, they do it with all of their heart and soul, and on the other hand if they don’t like something, they try really hard to make us understand their dislike.

They might not have the capacity to reason, but that gives them an advantage over us, that of having a pure heart. The very reasoning power that we are so very proud of has only brought us evils like hatred, jealousy, anger, suspicion, envy. I do not deny that the advancement of our minds have brought all the good things in the world too, but every deal has its’ side effects.

They are homeless.

They do not have the ability to earn, yet they don’t want anything from us.

All they want is a little space in this huge planet.

A little love and understanding from us.

They are innocent. Scared. Helpless.

If there is any part of us humans which is good, we need to stop hurting them just because they are weak. But then again, the lesser you expect from humans, the happier you can be.

They are better than we can ever be.

Its a beautiful world

Journal Entry #1

It comes as a blessing to the nature, cleansing it of all the dust and dirt. The most beautiful thing that i can think of on a rainy day, are the leaves of a tree. How many times do we stop and take some time out of our apparently "very busy" life to look at these beautiful living things dancing and rejoicing to the music of the raindrops.

Today was a beautiful day. No, nothing unexpected or unusual happened, but i had an unusually nice experience. Let me tell you, it is fun to take a metro ride in the pouring rain. People find it irritating at times, I do too at times, all the rain drenched grumpy looking people stacked together like a flock of sheep into one compartment, it can get on your nerves at times, but today, i tried to enjoy it for once. 

As i stood there near the door and observed the compartment, i saw few very interesting things. The first were a group of office goes, all irritated and grumpy about the weather, their wet clothes, and, well with anything that came close to them. Second were the stops. Every time the doors of the train opened, the on-boarding passengers-all drenched or equipped with wet umbrellas where greeted with utter disgust.

But here is the most interesting thing i observed. In one corner of the compartment, a kid, about 10 years old was seated next to a young lady, who looked pretty annoyed with the current conditions, and on top of that, at every two minutes, the little kid would shake his head, spraying some water on the lady, adding to her irritation. Then he would look up at his victim, with a big smile and a innocent glow in his eyes. The lady kept making an irritated face to make him stop, but our little trouble maker kept on enjoying himself.

Its funny; this life. We get so busy with trying to get what we want, in trying to get to the top of the food chain, that we forget how much we enjoy having fun. Irritation becomes our default instinct to everything.

But, stop. 

Think. 

You will see that the very world we keep blaming all the time for making our lives dull, is trying so very hard to make you smile.  

    

The Silence

The word "home" is defined as a place where one lives. So, going by the definition, it would mean that, when one shifts from one place to another, one's home moves along with the person. His residence becomes his new home. Well, I choose to disagree.

A few weeks back, a couple to be precise, I moved out of my home, or my permanent residence as the government would have it, and moved into a hostel in a different city from my hometown, for my higher education. This is the first time I have had to move out of my home, my hometown permanently, and now I know the true meaning of the word "home". Home is where the heart is. Home is where the love is. It is where you are loved, even when you make the silliest of mistakes. It is where the pampering of your parents and elders is. Home is where forgiveness is free. I understand it now. They say, one does not understand, or rather they under estimate the true value of something when they have it, it's only when you lose it, you realize its true value. It's as true as it gets. 

I used to live in a home where I was the king. Everything was a whistle blow away. Now I live in a hostel, sharing a room with two other boys. Almost all the time I am mute. There are times, like this very moment, when I realize that it's been hours that I had last uttered a word or spoken to someone, and by someone, I also include myself. Yes, I talk to myself.

It's been a rough beginning to my journey alone, without the comforts of my home, and i can say this without any doubt in my mind, I MISS MY HOME. I might have moved out and away from the place i call my home but somehow, a part of me has stayed back There is a strong urge inside of me to make whatever space i have in my hostel room, look like my room, so that i feel that mush closer to my castle. 

I have read in so many books, and seen in many a movies, that when you move away from a place which you love with all your heart and soul, a place you know by heart, to its tinniest detail, a place where you can move around with your eyes closed, a place whose every texture, every smell, marking etc is known to you, you don't really move out, because your soul stays back. Like a ghost, half of your heart stays back and keeps saying things that the other half doesn't want to listen. Maybe it does, but it in no way can. 

It's a big hard world and it beats you black and blue till you are numb. We are supposed to be strong, and carry on with whatever life puts in front of us. I had thought it's not that tough, everyone around me is doing it, how tough can it possibly be? But now I realize it's a hard struggle. It's almost as if you declare war inside you own mind. One half says, “It’s not worth the pain, go back home and do whatever you want from there”, and the other half says, “Don’t be a loser; you know it has to be done.”  

This world  can make you feel pretty lonely if it wants to. It has some amazing tools. There are people, like me, who would rather spend time alone. They like their space. In the comforts of their zone, it's always I, me, and myself time. When people ask why, they would say things like, "I like silence". I said it a million times. I did not realize how much noise silence actually makes. It is, in its truest sense, deafening. Silence, screams at you, and makes you feel like your head is going to explode and there is nothing you can do; nothing at all.

We have our own tools to counter these feelings of loneliness. According to me, the strongest weapons we have are our friends. But, I am not talking about just any tom dick or harry we say hi to or stop in the corridors of our institutions, to talk to. No; I am talking about the friends who know the A to Zs of the person you are, the people who you can count on. People you can call up at one am in the morning and enquire about what the time is because you think your cell phone is showing the wrong time. Friends like these are hard to find, but you can always bet a million bucks on these people, that no matter how tough it gets, they will 'defend the silver lining'. Yes, it has been weird a start, but God has been good to me, by keeping a really close friend, really close to me. Like most movies, my days have a comic relief too. The only thing that has kept me going for the last two weeks has been the time I have spent with this very special person. My “best buddy” you would say. As every day comes to an end I return to my prison like hostel room; the only thing that keeps me going through the night is the thought that I’ll get to spend time with the person I hold so close to my heart, the next day.

As we age, life starts becoming more and more taxing on every aspect of our lives, be it mentally, physically or socially. We are supposed to adapt to the changes, never look back and move on, without asking any question. But, at times even though in our mind we know we have to, our hearts keep yearning for things to remain the way they are. Our hearts never want to let go, it never wants change.