For the restless spirit!

Last night was party night - my husband and 2 other friends shared their birthdays today and we all got together to dance, drink, feast and make merry...it was, as the invitation read, "a reason to celebrate Life"! And boy, we partied hard....gasping, panting towards the wee hours past midnight as we sometimes struggled to catch our breath amidst all that frenzied dancing!! We celebrated living so much that by the end of the party, we were breathless..... And then we came home in the early hours of the morning - to hear a shocking news - that one of my husband's close friends, who could have well been in that party last night, had breathed his last this morning ..... He was lying in his bed at home as the mobiles buzzed around Dubai.....still....cold.....breath-less.... A man who loved Life, lived it king-size and suddenly, without any prelude, he was no more. Untimely....shocking.....saddening....but God has His own ways that none on earth can sway. Maybe He t...

I am sure I have mentioned this before in my earlier posts, but I feel it so much I need to repeat myself .... While I am all in favor of loving one's own self and building strong self-esteem - I think that's critical- but I also think, that sometimes, we take ourselves far too seriously and unnecessarily complicate our lives.  This blog is my partner as I travel on the road to happiness and peace via the simplicity route! Recently,I was in Disneyland, Paris and one of the best things I brought back from there was the sheer glee, joy and unadulterated happiness that I saw in the eyes of the little kids and some not-so-little ones when a Mickey or Pluto danced past them. For them, it was as real as it could be, for they believed and it made them happy. Simple. No doubts, no suspicion, just plain innocence or belief that brought on sheer joy... We see that all the time in kids around us...their happiness in doing simple, maybe even mindless, things.  But I also see th...

Even if you are not Pinocchio, you should not lie..... Lying is "wrong" - I was taught very early in my life. And having grown up in a convent, I believed it. I had this mental picture of an angel making a note, disapprovingly, every time I said or did something I shouldn't have, and was very worried that, at the end, my report card would not look very good. Back in those days, report cards mattered .....and I generally made sincere attempts to keep mine reasonable clean! Life, over the years, has taught me to be more ...."realistic" shall we say?  I have learnt that while lying is still "bad" (and those counts upstairs still unsettle me)....sometimes it is necessary, it happens - yes, its always a choice; but sometimes, that choice is dictated by factors that make the lying bit not so evil. And I am not only talking of "white lies" here..... So yes, I now do have my fair share of black ticks or dots against my name in that report ca...

The day I was born, 46 years ago (did I hear ouch??!!) it was a day for flying kites ......as has been every year since then.... As a child, I was always fascinated when my brothers' used to fly kites from our terrace on this day ...... I used to try and make myself useful as they very seriously competed with the neighbors on whose kite flies highest and alone against the clear blue skies.  I remember the sky always looked so colorful and cheerful that day - despite the fierce rivalry on ground. And since it was my birthday, I felt special.....and happy! Maybe, that's where my fascination for the sky began - a fascination that remains till date. Maybe those kites embodied my restless spirit back then, a feeling that also remains till today. I admired the free spirit of those colorful kites - how they soared higher and higher, dipping often, loosing altitude, falling even, but again, recovering and soaring again....high, really high. I remember scanning the horizon each y...

I have a dream......yes, again!  I can almost hear people within my inner circle say...Again? Really?  :) Love you guys! But why not?  Isn't that what they say? I believe so ...firmly. Today's world has far too much harsh reality for me, it truly does .....I find myself running more and more - away from politics, from economics, from media, from a lot of people that don't seem to be on the same plane as I am. And I am getting a bit tired of running.....is it me? Or is the world going crazy?  Am I missing the plot? Maybe I am, maybe not.....but I chose to escape to a world where there is more positivism than I see around me ....and if that world is in my dreams, so be it ...I will dream another dream! My next dream is to be a volunteer for a humanitarian project, anywhere in the globe.....to go, live and work in an unknown territory, to help people I don't know live a little better, to team up with other like-minded souls, to be able to make a small ...

I will turn 46 years old in less than a week's time.  Wow! Time does  fly, doesn't it? These 46 years have shaped me - my thoughts, my convictions, my being, myself .....like a sponge, I have soaked in as much as was possible over the years and I continue to do so ...as I still feel like a naive child when it comes to larger and more pertinent questions of Life. However, along the way, I have also "learned" a lot that I take the opportunity to share these learnings with those that are open ....this blog is one such humble attempt. Today I want to talk about something that Life has shown me over and over again - something that has hit home, time and again, down the years- and that is the need to always remain humble, to keep your feet on the ground , at all times, irrespective of all the successes you may achieve. Simple for many, I guess...  - For those who have either found no reason to fly or have far too many weights around their feet that do not allow t...

Gosh! It seems like a long long time since I have been here .... The restless spirit has indeed wandered a lot since I last blogged ......so what has my restless spirit come back with? A suitcase, nay, suitcases full of wonderful memories, priceless moments spent with my immediate family, a zillion pictures in my memory that will possibly stay with me for a life time - each refreshing, calming and a remembrance of good times. It also has come back with a sense of thankfulness, of being blessed - that it has had the opportunity to roam free and wild, to experience many new things.... and it has returned more humble. I cannot thank the One Above enough for setting me free for a while - free to roam, to explore, to wander, to soar.......to be happy. One thing I have always known, but am now firmer in my belief is that the key to your happiness truly lies within .... Before the trip, during my days of travel and even after I returned to my adopted city and started to relish a...