Wondrous

 Life is full of wonders. So i believe most firmly. There are very many grand, gorgeous aspects to life around us. In fact, so many are there that at times you feel as if just one life would not be enough to experience and admire them all. 

Just an hour ago, I watched this video of a train. I came across it quite accidentally, while browsing through news online. The viral video, so the newspaper portal reports, is seen already by millions.

 The video shows a train. It is indeed a beautiful view when a train appears curve shaped while changing tracks, i suppose. What makes this video special is that the train is up a hugely high bridge. Below is a truly deep ravine, and the train is merrily crossing it. Wonderful indeed!

Have you read about the railway tunnel that joins the two shores of the British Channel? It is below the sea bed! An entire sea, imagine the water pressure, is up above the tunnel that regularly is open to railway traffic. 

Superb must be the engineering and technological acumen in building such  wonders! Well, at least now are available engineering tools that have  such absolute finess and precision. How about the ancient forts and sculptures? How exquisitely carved out of sheer solid rocks! Just remember the Raigad and the Ellora caves! What wonders indeed when the gadgetry available now was not even thought of!

Indeed life is full of such unique creativity that shows the best of human head, mind and soul. Life is truly a wonder!

Pratima@ Wonders never cease.

Infectious

 Yes, it is yet again that time of the year. It is the time to celebrate, and it is  the time to worry. Why worry? Oh, well, the super-spreader is here yet again. Yes, these days, infections are hugely around, and rampant yet again.

Oh, yes, but currently there is  so much more that is  infectious, too. The parting year hath given us foreboding regarding the super-spreader. But this time round, we are far more prepared. Nobody hence is much worried about the variant, number whatsoever. 

Infectious instead is the joy ini  waiting for the New Year. Infectious is the sheer hope it brings along in its wake. Infectious is the smile that promises the rosy future! Infectious is all that is positive that awaits us as the calendar turns a page yet again!

Pratima@Despite the Covid, we continue to believe that infectious is not always a bad, dirty word. That itself is a miracle post 2020!

Threat

 All of us feel threatened now and then, right? We perfectly very well know how to deal with it, too, right? I suppose, initially, we should plain ignore the threatening presences, right?  If that does not work, I suppose, we should confront the source, right?

We are on the same page so far, it seems. You would hence agree with me that it is a wee bit little too difficult when one has to face a constant threat whose source cannot be located, but one senses its presence 24x7! No, no, it is not at all paranoia. An example or two may suffice, right?

Well, since early morning till midnight, if some mobike or two-wheeler zooms past the lane, you cannot question it as the lane happens to be a public road. Well, right under the huge neem tree in the compound of the house next door, such vehicles stop, how can you question that either?

Such surveillance goes on though. Someone constantly seems to keep a tab on every move of yours, when you wake up, when you eat, when you sleep, what do you do during the afternoons, evenings, and so on, and so on! Who you speak to, where you go, why you go there, whom you wapp, whom you e-mail, the weird interest never, never ever, stops.

Such surveillance, being easier with the ubiquitous technology, is no longer frustrating or irritating. It honestly gets plain amusing as this invisible presence, constantly interested in each and every activity of yours, seems so pathetic and  appears real stupid because you learn to plain ignore it, and you carry on with life.

The purpose of threatening you by constantly keeping tabs on each and every movement of yours, in fact, starts getting hugely comic. Well, if you are, for example, going to sing at a semi-public function, and the driver of the auto you hire at the nearby auto stand continues singing for all the  forty-five minutes of the busy traffic, you learn your musical notes better, hone them  by contrast, i suppose!

 In brief, when the threat is palpable, extremely real, but the perpetrator (and his minions) is coward enough to be absent and indirect, laugh to yourself at the fool, oh, yes, that is the best solution! What say?

Pratima@ Plain ignoring a cowardly crook is the best solution as nothing else could correct such a creepy fool, and his cohorts, whether paid and/or unpaid!

Contentment

 Contentment is more than mere happiness.

 One feels then absolutely no stress.

 None can from you snatch this perfect feel.

 To your soul travels the divinity that heals.

 Each moment is thus thence blest.

 Never hence any deficit of trust.

 To fullness, every moment treads.

 Mind n moods no negativities dread.

 Each minute now genuine and full.

 No griefs, no worries have now any pull.

 Till eternity, peace and joy your life fill!

Pratima@ Blessed and content, in peace!

Tribute!

                         Tribute                                 

 What is a good tribute? 

  Forever keeping in their name a fast?

 Trying in their memory to reduce my faults?

 That at times must have left them aghast!

  Indeed, what is a tribute?

  Sure it is keeping their memory alive! 

  Do  keep a fast early morning to eve!   

 Better still in life keep their memory safe.

 Let me improve many a quality.

 Thus mock measuring mere quantity. 

Vision thus helps us envision our re-vision!

Pratima@True tribute is neither obituary nor donation/Empty rituals trash the tribute genuine!

The Christmas Feel

 Can anyone and everyone, anywhere and everywhere, even when  one does not have  a Christian friend, enjoy the Christmas Feel? Oh, Yes, absolutely, for sure! For one thing, the market forces would almost make it inevitable for you. 

 So many sales, rebates, 'one on one' schemes would get thrown at you that unless you follow a strict financial régimen, you are sure to get drowned in the Christmas special offers. Do not believe me!?! Just have a look at the overflowing street bazaars to swanky malls. My assertion would get more than (im)proved. 

The Christmas feel, however, is much more than this. Honestly, it is much more than the Carol Singing though that eventide vigil is sheer fun, too.  It is much more than the Christmas Mass which has its own gravitas. 

Remember Tolstoy's soul stirring description of the Easter Mass in 'Resurrection'? Believe me, the Christmas Mass is much more holier - yes, I am consciously using the double comparative - than that. I should know as i attended one. 

A hostel mate felt very lonely on Christmas Eve, far away from family. To cheer her up, we had all attended the Christmas Mass. Even when it was a Protestant congregation, wonderful was the Christmas decoration, the crib to the church rituals. The Catholic church sure would be more opulent and dazzling in capturing 'that magic in the air on this night' . 

The Christmas feel is much more than such rituals. To understand it better, yet again, as usual, we have to get back to literature. Remember Dickens' Scrooge? Remember how the Christmas spirit makes a new man of him? So, yes, the Christmas spirit is much more than the decorative tree full of lights. It is not merely the Santa gifts. It is not  just the lovely cake fragrance, either.

To understand the Christmas feel, i suppose, we have to get to know the Jesus goodness and compassion. He was innocence itself. Yet he was harassed most cruelly. He knew very well how one of his own inner circle, his seemingly pious disciple, was to give him away for a few ducats. Remember 'The Last Supper'? Yet his pity for the lost Judas, despite the knowingly cruel and vicious betrayal, never wavered.

He knew the difficulties of the downtrodden. Most all of his miracles consist of the hope he awakened in the lost. Despite being so very good, he was the sacrificial lamb for the evil. He bore that pain even when he was getting cruelly crucified. Yet his last words were, 'Forgive them, Lord. They know not what they do'. 

That pure state, that divine decency, that self understanding, common to all the religions, is what the Christmas spirit truly is. Even if we were to imbibe an iota of it, every day would be  Diwali, and every night the Christmas Eve!

Pratima@ Blessed indeed are the pure of the soul/Malicious ill treatment and jealous villainy of them taketh no toll!

Consumer Consciousness

 We live in a world that has transformed us all into consumers. By definition, a consumer is someone who buys a product or a service for himself/herself. That is to say, a consumer is the end user.

This definition may be technically ideal, but it is defective and deceptive in my opinion. That is because in this definition, a certain agency is granted to the consumer as end-user. In my opinion, the reality is vastly different though.

The market forces are such that as the end user we are left with very few informed choices. The market believes in utmost simplification, and uses very persuasive technologies, mostly in the form of advertising but basically as opinion making formats which mould our very mindsets, thus disabling our genuine choices.

This fact holds good in every field, food to fashion to education. Look at how subtly career choices are chosen for us! Much worse is the case of educational technologies. The IPEM or the Byju's can be good examples of this phenomenon.

The persuasion power is so subtle and severe that those who do not adhere to it or do not fall prey to it are subtly and viciously targetted, literally made to feel outcast. Necessary, however, is to stand up to these, and such, pressures for the health of both, the individual and the polity. Long live consumer rights!

Pratima@ And that would be a fair judgement! 'Daniel come to justice' as Shakespeare would say!