Priorities @ tender age of 27

Life changed, from being a s...l...o...w drama to a fast-paced thriller. How? That's beyond me. Till last week I was a normal boy, for God's sake, normal. Getting a good girlfriend was my top priority! My dreams were all about getting a good job and a big car and going on a long drive with this girl, blowing her mind away. But as destiny would have it, here I am, fighting a formidable enemy, waiting for the inevitable but at a much tender age than I thought. Its coming on too soon for me. Its a losing battle, but I am determined to fight till the last breath. I won't let hair-fall control my life. I will control it no matter what it takes. After all, hair trumps a good job and a big car. The basic law of life: 

No Hair = No Girlfriend

 I am not a stud that can beat this rule. Just hold on dear hair, atleast for a few more years, atleast till marriage.

Growing up has its disadvantages I guess. I left my first job primarily because of hair-fall. The location had polluted water supply. You see, how important hair are for me. Now almost four years later, the monster has emerged from the deep underground again. I blame Delhi for this. Its poisonous. Polluted air, water, food...everything. Have been sick throughout this year. Hazardous shampoos, conditioners and weird hair-oils added icing to the cake. I am now done with using these and also left-over family shampoos and conditioners. No more!

In this darkness, all is still not lost. God has His own ways. He sent a fairy to me, one with long lovely tresses. She suggested using Coconut oil and steamed towels. I would have laughed had it been any other day, but today, I am willing to go to any lengths. So I am starting this new hair-care regimen with great hopes and determination. No offense to anyone, but a friend once told me that there are only three kinds of people in this world: Men, women and bald people. I want to remain a man. That's the top priority.

An Evening Discussion With a Professor: Who Am I?

Its hard for me to imagine today that of all the places on Earth and out of all the people I knew, I chose to have a serious Metaphysical discussion with a completely indifferent professor, in his cabin, in my Engineering college. I had gone to him to submit a presentation PPT file for review concerning the Linguistics course I was pursuing under him. While discussing the complicacies of La Langue and La Parole with him, I asked him, "Sir, who am I?"

Plainly, he replied, "Who do you think you are?"

I was taken aback. I was not expecting him to ask this. I took a pause and replied meekly, "This body can't be me, because it mine. These hands and legs are mine. Its organs are mine too. Then what is it that I can say is me?"

"Carry on", he replied.

Referring to the subject matter, I replied, "Perhaps this definition is not in any language I know and maybe that's why I can't comprehend this matter."

"Maybe", he said, again indifferently, "Maybe not. You are not thinking hard enough. Read some research articles about it."

Then we continued looking at the PPT and making improvements. I left after that.

 

'Heart...Brain...Mind...Soul....' I thought about them later. Heart and Brain seemed too physical. 'My Heart...My Brain...' Consciousness stems from some part of the brain I know, the Cortex and the Frontal Lobe are responsible for decisions and consciousness. Still, I believe, these physical and chemical processes in the brain are controlled by some higher order non-physical entity. So I set out to define what mind and soul are.

 

Even though I am still perturbed by the question even today, I believe there is no one answer. I am a combination of my mind and soul. More so, I am my soul because it is possible for me to control my mind to some extent and assign some function to it, it is the soul that is hard to imagine in some form and its hard to assign a function to the soul. Even when I construct some sentences using the concept of 'my soul', they feel either of the deepest connection to my inner feelings or feel entirely wrong.

 

Even if I am a bit satisfied by this thought, some bigger questions emerge. How do we explain what the mind and soul are? What is the extent of their capabilities?

 

Come Back to Life, Boy

Never was any good with friendship, still am not. In my defense, I never chose to bump into these set of people I bumped into. I couldn't avoid them, that's all. Or they couldn't avoid me. 

But I'm more like a wine bottle that once opened, becomes sour with age. 

One poor fellow, who got a taste of this sour wine is a friend from a far off land. This fine boy, or rather this fine man, became known to me during my post-graduate course. We both had the same ambition, learn as much as we could and emerge as successful persons and somebody to be reckoned with. We had both come far from our homes in the hope of making it big in life. I became an avid admirer of his demeanor, his effortless and fluid style and his eloquence. I found a person from whom I could learn a lot and thought it would be fun to challenge him and test my competence. As the bond of our friendship grew stronger, I realized that he was one person that I could trust with my deepest secrets and could rely on him during the most testing times.

Tragedy strikes, as always, when you least expect it. My friend suffered a big personal loss and that day I learned that our biggest role models can be human too. Perhaps we expect a lot from our role models and don't forgive them for even a slight sign of weakness.

Months have passed and even today I long to see my friend in his real form. I know that I have not been a good friend to him. I deserted him at times when he needed support the most. Even though I fear friendship and all the emotions it brings along, its time to finally grow up and handle the situation. I want to just be there atleast for him. Alas! Maybe that defines success and not just our financial success. So I have to bring a person(ality) back from the dead! That's an interesting mission.

Sparkles in the Sky

This is a story about two fictitious characters, Patience and Contentment. Once upon a time, they lived happily somewhere on this Earth. 

But then, one fine day, Patience was overrun by a speeding, 'always restless', new Mercedes-Benz GLA and the poor fellow died. Poor Contentment was murdered in broad daylight. The series of unfortunate events was captured live on video, in Ultra High-Definition, on the latest Sony Xperia Z3.

I chanced to meet the ghosts of them both, once. Even though I occasionally take time off from my routine life to travel, this trip was special. For two weeks, I survived on my humble backpack without any electronic gadgets. With no screen-sucking to do, I had no choice but to look at the world in Real Definition. My world was only my humble bicycle and the company of my few dear friends.

The vast emptiness of Ladakh can be a testing terrain. For bikers, the winding mountainous roads offer no respite from the merciless sun and the bone-chilling winds. Unpredictable rains lead to unpredictable landslides. The deficiency of Oxygen plays games with your mind and body. Water and candies are like God in the middle of a desert. Yes, water and candies. 

Suffering from cold and high fever and weary of exhaustion, my body asked me to quit pedaling and go back to the warmth and comfort of my home. But the barren mountains had me mesmerized. They wouldn't let me quit. Looking at them, I got better everyday, with every pedal I made and with every breath I took of the clean air. 

Some SUV taxis would zoom by occasionally bellowing smoke into my nose. When I think about it now, I pity those tourists traveling in air-conditioned boxes on wheels. They miss the whole point of visiting Ladakh. It is not just watching the Pangong lake and clicking photographs or climbing the Khardung-La and coming back unscratched. Its about breathing the pure air deep till your lungs explode, about feeling the heat of the Sun and absorbing the views with your skin and not just through your eyes. Its about talking to the lovely and beautiful people you find on the way. I confess, I stole a lot of that place, to last me a few days, when I'm back at home.

I can't recollect that whether it was the hunger, or the exhaustion, or the fever, or the severe pain that hurt more. It was all secondary. I met the ghost of Patience while counting my breath and synchronizing my pedaling speed to it. I met it while minding my posture while sitting on the bike and negotiating every sharp curve on the road on my speeding bike and while crossing every stream of water or rubble on the road. I met Contentment while having the simple meal that was served to me, foreign in taste but nonetheless delicious. I met it when I fell fast asleep in my sleeping bag in sub-zero temperature.

No amount of tears could express the heartbreak which I felt on coming back home and being trapped behind the four walls of my room. I was truly beaten then and not by the scorching sun or the chilly winds or the fever back there in heaven. I realized that I had, like every other ordinary city-dweller, surrounded myself with things that I might not ever need. I had tied myself down to the Earth by issues that did not concern me or added any value to my life. I had till now, enjoyed the company of my laptop and smartphone more than that of the people that actually mattered. But I had, unlike many others, started to realize the potential of the truly amazing tool that God gave me, my body, which is the only thing I needed to survive, along with the five elements of nature.

I was more fit than ever before. My typhoid was gone for good!

I had realized who my true friends were and whose company I would like to keep in future.

I had realized that I needed to tire my body to enjoy a good sleep and remain healthy.

The best of all was, I had realized that God is.

It is true that Patience and Contentment are dead. But their ghosts are still lingering in the quiet barrens, waiting for anyone who wants to listen.

I had once heard that 'wandering one gathers honey'. I had the chance to collect a little in the small bowl I had.

In earlier times, Indians used to wash the feet of those who would come traveling from far-off lands. They respected the wisdom that the person might have collected during his travels.

Patience and contentment still visit me at night. They show me the night sky of Ladakh when I close my eyes. Brimming with sparkling stars trying to say something. Away from the dust and city lights. I come face-to-face with 'Akash Ganga' at nights and see the many worlds that exist beyond ours.