Ripples of my Reflections

I think, therefore I write

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Are you a water person?

September 11, 2014 / / 10 Comments
swimmingImage Source: favimages.net

Do you know swimming and enjoy it? Then you will get this post, totally! You don’t know swimming or you have never felt that swimming is fun? I hope this post makes you interested enough to learn. I have never been a record athlete. I was a decent table tennis player (I hope I can regain my decency if I am given a chance to practice enough) and a good runner as a result of the summer camps my dad sent me to. When I was at school,I had a good stamina and even beat the class record holder in running once. I was a good swimmer(again with practice, I can gain more stamina and better at it).

Of all the sports I ever participated in, swimming is one thing that refreshes me like anything. If I have a good swim, I feel like I am reborn. I was introduced to swimming in 2nd grade and I learnt it for around 5 years every summer. After that, there was no stopping as it rejuvenated me like no other activity. I learnt all the common styles and even attempted the dives in swimming except for the butterfly diving which made too much enter my head and made me miss subsequent swimming sessions. But I never tried to excel as an athlete in swimming. Of course, I won all the local competitions and races but never once did I think about making it professional. The reason being I was having too much fun swimming to care.

I hate the routines – the warm-up, the strokes and then the rigorously planned laps. Once I take that cleansing bath before entering the pool and reach the pool, all restraint and responsibility breaks free for me. I dive straight into the deeper end of the pool without bothering to warm-up and do what I feel like doing on the fly. My coach tried to restrict me for a while but gave up after seeing how much fun I had in breaking the rules of this sport. The pool I practised was the deepest in our district with the maximum depth at the diving end being 22 ft. There were different levels of diving boards for swimmers at different stages of learning. The first time I attempted diving, I went straight to the top and jumped. Yes, it hurt! Like hell! It hurt because, in the excitement, I missed my coach’s advice to stick my hands close to my body. That was my first encounter with the fact that water has so much force and would hurt you if you are careless.

I learnt by experience and followed only 2 rules – 1. Never underestimate the force of water. 2. Running water is different from still water. If you want to experience wildness, go to the highest diving board and dive with my eyes closed. The rush as you tear through the air and break the water surface is enough to give anyone a high. Ever felt what it is to be truly tranquil? Try floating on your back spread-eagled with eyes closed, letting go of every weight in your mind and body. Just float! I call this water meditation and you can even sleep in this position. Are you a control freak? The inverted position in water is for you, i.e, Reaching the depth where you can stand comfortably and bend down to stand on your hands with feet above the water. Your nose and ears will protest until you master them. If you want the force of water to challenge you, walk against the water as you would walk on the ground. Something as simple as that would show you how much force water holds. If you want to experience out of world serenity, reach your comfortable depth and exert your weight downwards and sit cross-legged on the pool folder holding your breath as long as you’re comfortable.

These are just some of the experiments I learnt from my coach and enjoyed it to the core. I have tried swimming in a river and in the ocean when I went for a catamaran ride (with supervision). Swimming in running waters is nothing like swimming in a pool. If you think what I experiment in pools is wild, then swimming in running water is just out-of-words kind of wild. So I don’t play break-the-rules there and instead be an obedient child. I wish I had a private pool but yeah I am practical about how much it would cost and how much water it would use. So I take every opportunity I get to swim, hoping the opportunities would increase once we move to our own apartment. Seeing how much I enjoy swimming, some of friends wanted to learn and I taught them a bit too. Also I never play when I teach others, I know how play can turn wrong and I don’t want to be there.I experiment on my own because I know what I am doing and I don’t dare nature. So I guess I can consider a hobby as a coach in the future if people are interested.

Water is such a chiller for me that any time anywhere I see a swimming pool or prospective water body for swimming, I want to jump in impulsively. I feel that water is the best teacher there is, it teaches you to play, it teaches you to follow rules and then break them, it teaches you to let go and it teaches you to hold on where needed, it teaches you to survive, to battle and overcome the downs, to enjoy the ups. In short, water teaches you to live.

Until later 🙂

P.S: One more common lesson for swimmers out there, if ever you are trying to save a drowning person or someone who thinks they are drowning, never approach them from the front and save them by catching hold of them from behind or by giving them something to hold on to. Once when the coach was trying to teach my younger bro to forget his fear, he made me stand in the water nearby so as to reassure him. As soon as he was into the water, the moron thought he was going to drown even though he was perfectly safe, so I held out my hands to assure him and you know what he did? He pulled at me, kept one hand on my head, pushed me down and tried to stand on my head to save himself!!! Yes, fear does that to you. Thank god, I was quick enough to realize my folly and get a grip on him and get him out of the pool.

P.P.S: If I had been Archimedes, Eureka would have never happened. I would have just enjoyed an awesome bath in my tub without bothering about mundane stuff like Maths 😛

DISCLAIMER: Every attempt/experiment I have mentioned here, I learnt it properly from a qualified coach and improvised. I don’t advise anyone who hasn’t learnt swimming well to try this. Nor do I recommend anyone, even if they know swimming, to attempt anything I have said without learning it from a qualified swimming coach. The fun lasts only as long you are safe!

11 years ago, on a Wednesday…

September 10, 2014 / / 14 Comments
wishyouthesame Source: wishyouthesame.wordpress.com

As I turned to my right and tried to open my sleepy eyes, I saw him sleeping like a child with a face that was full of innocence. I couldn’t help but smile as I saw his hands tightly holding mine as he slept on with his dreams for company. As I looked at my mobile for the time, my eyes fixated on the date – September 10. My memory flew immediately to one special Wednesday 11 years ago. Yes! 11 years ago, on such an ordinary Wednesday, I was swept off my feet when my best friend declared to me that he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me.

The then amateur me thought that “Well, What’s wrong in having a little more love in life?” and agreed to the proposal gladly. Amateur and innocent might have been where we had started, but in 11 years there have been much more. Much more than anything I could express in words. And this Wednesday today, I am by his side looking at him, remembering our promise, holding our hands, facing life a step at a time. The smile that dawned on my lips reached my eyes and I got up knowing that not only this Wednesday but every day is just as special, as long as we have each other.

Until later 🙂

The transformation

September 4, 2014 / / 6 Comments

This post is inspired by another post I read recently about an unrequited love, a broken person and a hurt heart. It’s easy to break someone but very hard to build the trust again. However hard it is, it would become a lesson in the victim’s life but for you, your karma will hunt you down and kick your a**.

But then in cases where someone plays you knowingly, does the ego ever let go? Does the grudge ever fade? Does the scars ever vanish? Does the anger ever cools completely? That’s what ego is about. That little bit of ego is necessary to uphold your self-respect or so I feel. Maybe I am being amateur, maybe not.

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I have long wanted to let go
The grudge I held has turned futile
It was you who taught me, what it meant to love
And then to lose.

It’s true that if not for you,
My understanding of love would’ve been infertile,
It’s true that I wouldn’t have known how,
And to whom to give my all.

I was too blind to see it, blinded by you,
Then you broke me and the illusion turned vile,
When you showed me what it takes to lose in love,
I saw what I’d done to another loving heart.

Even as I let it out of my mind to flow
My ego clings on to the tip of the pile,
Refusing to erase the grudge now,
Refusing to leave without a scar.

It wants a that bit of regret to stay on,
So that I know all the while,
That it’s always easier to vow,
Than to keep it up.

But for the sake of being a better person,
Wherever you are, thank you for that lesson worthwhile,
But wherever you are, you would never know love,
And that’s for the sake of my ego.

Whether you know it or not, sinners pay
Because there’s always karma’s aisle,
Of course, it might not be just now,
But you are just waiting your turn!

Until later 🙂

P.S :Don’t ask me where I was! I would say 2 things – Work and Health. Just when I thought enough is enough and picked up the spirit to blog, the common cold beat the crap out of me. I haven’t yet recovered from the blow but I figured, what the hell! I can’t and won’t be deterred by this.

P.P.S: I haven’t picked my laptop at home for more than 2 weeks 🙁 Poor me!

The divine paradox

August 4, 2014 / / 12 Comments

lingam-1

I recently happened to listen to the long forgotten devotional albums, Jyothi Vativaana Annamalai by UnniKrishnan and Om Namah Shivaya by SPB. Not that I am getting any religious than I was, but I stumbled across these in the pursuit of something else. It invoked a lot of childhood memories as my mom loved them and used to listen to them all the time, I wonder where those radio cassettes are lying now. Man, the time for cassettes has been long buried!

Anyway, my point is I loved hearing some of those songs and couldn’t get them out of my mind. Especially the “Shivaya Nama Om” song in UnniKrishnan’s album. What a voice! It was as if something from within your mind is calling out to you. I am not a fan of Idol worship or to be precise, man-made concepts of divinity. I am a believer of natural divinity in the form of a central force that is omni-present. So this song failed to invoke the spiritual aspect towards Lord Shiva as many would expect but what an internal insight it brought to me in the way of my beliefs and perspectives.

This experience left me pondering about divinity within every self and how we can peel through the layers of ego, human emotions and other superficial stuff and reach it. And the music composition just had me swaying to the tune with eyes closed. It’s been a while since I connected this deeply with anything that’s construed as religious.

When I was pondering over this, an intriguing question came to my mind. I know humans represent Lord Shiva in the form of a Lingam and that the shiva linga is the collective representation of lingam and yoni. That is the ultimate representation of the male-female oneness, creative energy and the potential of creation. You can check this wiki entry for more details. What had me thinking was another aspect of general belief that Lord Shiva is the destructive aspect in the process of life. I have heard how people name the lords Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva responsible for creation, protection and destruction stages of the life cycle. However, the shivalinga which is used to represent the lord of destruction actually represents the power and potential of creation. Therein, this paradox already shows that there is nothing but one divine energy which is probably too enormous for the amateur human minds to comprehend that they give names and forms to the force.

I don’t have any issues with naming the force to one’s belief and follow one’s preferences. What really bothers me is the fight over whose perspective is greater and forcing others directly/indirectly to believe that each one’s perspective is THE right one.What’s so bad about believing in something for your own sake? What’s so bad about letting another person believe something that is in contrast with what you believe and accept that it’s their right to do so?

And this divine paradox makes my belief stronger and shows me that I am on the right path. Whether I will reach the destination is a different thing altogether. Even now, I don’t force this perspective of mine on anyone. I am just sharing what sparked in my mind. I so wish the other side would do the same to me by not forcing me to believe what my mind can’t process. That’s so egoistic and there’s nothing divine about it.

Everyone has a way of connecting with the inner force and it’s better to let them do it. Enabling them to connect is one thing but forcing them to take the same path as us is a different thing which is just wrong. Because our perspective helps us connect with the inner self, if I force someone to believe what I do, it means I am forcing them to connect with my inner self the way I do. That defeats their purpose of seeking divinity.

Until later 🙂

P.S: Heavy, right? Yeah, I like to write about such thought processes as writing helps me to analyze myself.

My Royal Black

July 22, 2014 / / 10 Comments

Black has been my favorite color ever since I can remember! It’s  very difficult to establish this bias towards black when you have a dad who’s as orthodox as the day is long 😛 Yet, I never staggered for a second. Black has always been and always will be my favorite color. The royalty and dignity I see in black is never fulfilled by any other color. Be it a jolly top or a formal attire, be it a backpack or a travel suitcase, be it a tiny earring stud or a dangling, black is always my color. In short, my go-to color for anything. So here are 5 things I would love to have on my list, I had a really tough time choosing them.

A full-length satin dress:

I have always been head over heels with those flowing full length satin dresses and more so with the black ones. The rich feel of it, the royal look of black is always something that captivates my mind. Black attire has always been my favorite and I had to fight tooth and nail with my superstitious relatives that black doesn’t mean mourning by nature. It was man-made, which is well proven by the fact that in the northern part of India, people wear white for mourning. Any color has a definition, but that’s what you associate with it and not a hard-coded rule. So, I will add a full-length attire in royal black, no matter what anyone says, when I lay hands on the right one 🙂

Waist-length jet black hair:

My hair is black but it is not that dense jet-black mass that I so envy on so many people. My hair problems and fighting genetic combinations that cause hair-fall is a long story. But if I could, I would want that jet-black tresses waving their way down to my waist and I would never ever think of cutting it.

A sleek black car:

Who wouldn’t have this on their list? Though I know maintenance would be one heck of a job, I have nurtured a desire for a black car ever since I laid my eyes on one. The sleek finish complemented by the color that stands out and blends in paradoxically, is irreplaceable for me. No other color can fulfill that desire.

A complete set of black metal accessories:

I love artificial jewelery and this lead me to a journey discovering a plethora of colors. Amongst all that I hoard at commercial street, I wish I could have a perfect collection of black metal accessories. It’s always one short, either the bracelet doesn’t go with the earrings or the watch doesn’t fall in line with the bracelet or the pendant dominates the look and takes away the attention from the other things. Nope, it won’t do at all. 🙁

Black interiors for my home:

One might see so many interior decor ideas today, but nothing catches my eye than the black and white themes. These have been doing the rounds for a while but still stay in fashion. I wish the home I call as mine would satisfy this thirst. I already have a platter of ideas in my mind and am looking for more. And I will keep looking until my now-under-construction home becomes complete. 🙂

So what’s on your list that’s royal black?

This post is  written for #WhatTheBlack activity at BlogAdda.com.

Until later 🙂

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