Utopia forever

On a warm, bright winter morning Ms. Butterfly decided to stroll around and relive the day. The world was beautiful with angels around. She took her way to the neighborhood market, stopping at a grocery store.


“Goodmorning Mr. Snake. “ Ms. Butterfly said to the grocer.

She eyed around and found the right corner of juices and picked luscious pink pack.

“How much is the juice worth?” The rose juice wetted her mouth.

“Its 100 Rs" said the grocer.

“But the retail price is 60 Rs?”Ms. Butterfly drew her thoughts back to grocer looking at the pack.

Mr. snake hissed his forked tongue. "Its 100 for living and 60 for the dead. “

“Now do you want it for 60? “Ms Butterfly quickly picked out a hundred rupee note and rushed out of the shop.

She saw the theatre with a blockbuster “pa”. The waiting line was long but somehow she managed until her turn. Ms Cat who was 5th in the adjacent lane pushed ms butterfly and stood ahead. Losing her charm to watch the movie, Ms Butterfly walked back home.

She took the lonelier ring road to match her thoughts. Fresh winter morning breeze soothed her with lily scent of the farm. She took a halt and basked on the lily bed with winter dew.

“Off you go” said Mr. Grasshopper kicking Ms Butterfly from the top.

” This is my place. Who the one you to collect?”

Ms. Butterly passed through ranches, meadows and willows. There was heaven around with perfumes lilies and drifting daisies. But not for her.

Little boy house sparrow chased her even in the woods. Ms. Butterfly could we ride back home. I lost my way following you.

“Leave me alone. I am not going back to Greenville ever again” Irked Ms butterfly

So they crossed rivers, lakes, gardens and alleys, searching for a place that was meant for them.

“Where to? Ask the stranger Mr. Rabbit.

“We are going to utopia.” Replied Ms Butterfly

“Wait. I will join. This forest is not for me.”Mr. Rabbit followed

“ Is there a utopia? Oh… We have had been dreaming of it forever. We are coming with you.” The duck neighborhood was moved.

Deer, pigeons, frogs and bugs all followed the historical inquest of utopia forever. They crossed the Himalayas, Indian Ocean, rain forests and the North Pole.

Sun shone, rain wetted and snow chilled but, they were determined.
“Where to now?” asked Mr. Rabbit looking at the moon from the end of North pole.

Grand old Mr. Gear Bear howled and whooped on their story and pointed out to hiding Mr. snake, Ms cat and Mr grasshopper who had been following them on the great story.

“Those were the days when God lived with me. God frazzled through the days and the nights and kept me awake with him. You know creating a world is not an easy task. Now I am old and worn out but there was a time I carried it on my shoulders.”

He sighed

“For a brief it was all happy but, slowly people came fighting on the ownership of the world. They claimed that because they lived here, the world belonged to them and not to others. They also said that their share was inadequate.”

“God was out of answer and so he abandoned this place giving it all to them. Even now people come seeking their claim.”

I tell them that this world is not to own but, to be. It is a utopia if it is for all and a hell if for one. Ownership distorts vision turning beauty into ugliness.

Chosen detention

Monday mornings are a pain,managers are monsters, traffic an Everest and home a mess. In a nutshell life is just a drag. One is doing things because one is supposed to do them. But, Of course one enjoys on Saturdays and Sundays.

When I was a child I had always wanted to become a singer. I remember me, with two of my best friends, rehearsing in front of virtual audience after school hours. One of my friends wanted to become an astronaut and the other a pilot. I have never come across a child who expressed a desire to become the CEO of a big multinational company. Now, most of us aspire the same: a higher salary and a secured job is all that we are driven to. What changes our dreams and aspirations so drastically? What brings down our focus from high dreams to moderate achievable goals?

Scientists say that almost every child is born with superior intelligence. But, the tragedy of human civilization is that only one Einstein evolves in centuries. This garden is full of identical grass weeds with very few coincident roses. 99% from us choose socially acceptable apparently secured work profiles than individualistic interesting ones. And even though we praise individualists, we choose herd mediocrities for ourselves. Deep inside we are keener in following than leading: following an Obama, following a Bill gates, following an Einstein.

But, when one follows and adopts solutions from others, the validity of solutions is lost. Our unreasonable clinging to answers turns them into bigger questions again. Industrial revolution was an answer for great depression. Our obsession with it is slowly turning into a historical problem. Man is working like robots without thinking, without dreaming, without living.

We are holding tight to our age old ship that is punched with holes everywhere. Life is all about building new ships and going for newer expeditions. And, easy tried solutions are not always the appropriate ones. If one is born unique one should live unique. A prototype life is irreparable waste.

The real King

Undefeatable Alexander the great was repeatedly defeated in arguments by Diogenes. Diogenes was a beggar, who lived in a tub, in Alexander the great’s empire. This is a paradoxical world, almost always kings are defeated by beggars.

“I am Alexander the great” said the monarch

“I am Diogenes, the cynic.” beggar replied

 "Ask of me any boon you like." Alexander to the sunning Diogenes

"Stand out of my light."

“What are your plans, Alexander?” Diogenes asked laying on the shore in the morning sun

“To conquer and subjugate Greece” Alexander replied

“Then what?”Diogenes asked

“Conquer and subjugate Asia Minor “Alexander continued

“And then?”

“Conquer the world”

“What next?”

“Then, I will relax and enjoy.”

“But, I am relaxing and enjoying in the sun right now. Why so much trouble?”

Alexander is reported to have said, "Had I not been Alexander, I should have liked to be Diogenes." As it turned out, both Diogenes and Alexander died on the same day in 323 B.C. Alexander was 33 and Diogenes was 90.

It doesn’t matter if you live in a tub or 100 palaces, what matters is -what exactly you consider yourself? You can be a beggar and live like a king and you can be a king living like a beggar. 

UGLY IS BEAUTIFUL!!!

My granny used to have a mango tree in her lawn. One evening strolling around her garden, I saw a chameleon sitting on the mango tree. The chameleon had just jumped from the creeper and, its color was slowly changing from green to brown. Suddenly a thought pumped in my mind “It is a chameleon”, my lips curled downwards.

Granma was watching me .She walked slowly to me and asked “Isn’t it amazing how it changes its color?” I looked at her and said” But, it’s ugly. It is a chameleon Granma.”Granma smiled.

Few days later we walked to the market and Granma hit into a lorry accidently. Lorry bashed into a scooter that was driven by a young guy. He fell over a bucket of tomatoes. A bunch of young boys cracked up. Looking around he yelled “You ugly old women, look what you have done?”

Those words pinched my heart. Later that night I asked mom “Ma is grandma ugly?”

“Who told you that?” Ma asked

“The guy at the market said she was old and ugly.”

“But, she is the most beautiful women I have ever met. That means you have not noticed her properly?”Ma replied

I went to the Granma’s room. She was sleeping. I looked at her face. That was the most beautiful face I had ever seen: a face filled with compassion, love and grace.

It was beautiful because I was ready to see it. I could feel it because I wanted to feel her. Since then I have never seen an ugly thing and. even today I can tell you that old is beautiful and chameleons are fascinating.

See without judgment, hear without prejudice and feel without inhibitions: heaven is here, here is heaven. All is beautiful.

Thought of the day

Give your dreams a chance, they really want to work.

Machine made man

The topic reminds me of a prudent parable. 

A customer waiting to collect his grocery from a village grocer was curious watching a bull turning the log and in turn driving the pulley on its own. The customer asked

“Your bull seems very obedient”

The grocer laughed and called the customer nearer

“Do you see that small bread?” Grocer indicated to a piece of bread tied on the bull’s horns

“Yes” replied the customer

“Well, the bull is simply trying to grab it”

It will go in circles till evening and when the day is over I will untie the bread and feed it.

When use become dependence it is impossible to tell who drives whom. 

Though man started with using machines to his convenience, he has eventually landed to being used up by machines.  Bigger cars drive us and expensive mobiles speak about us. Our possessions establish our own worth. Therefore we work hard to own a bigger car, a better mobile and a better television .Our work schedules pertain to the availability and functioning of machines from morning nine to evening six.

Man is caught in reverse ownership of machines. 

Was Jesus- a God?

“May those who have Eyes, See; and those who have Ears, Hear” Jesus Forgot to include “may those who can reason, have the courage to accept their wrongs”. Being seen and heard became the foundation of Jesus of Nazerath’s execution. It is calamitous that malign criminals stroll free or at the most spend their life locked in the jail rooms but, compassionate authentic wise men are almost always killed brutally. From Jesus to Buddha to Mahatma Gandhi almost all good harmless influential people were executed.

Man is born with an inherent capability to distinguish between good and bad. No law can match the reasoning of an evolved being. Each of us has a clear understanding of where we stand, what we do and what should be done. But we all differ in our capacity to accept it, so we keep ignoring it to much or less extent. These few great men were the ones who had the total capacity and courage to accept and change themselves for the better.

Jesus , Buddha , Mahavir were authentic men, real men: as man should be. They were a yardstick for human existence; a challenge to mankind; an Everest to cliffs. But, they reminded fellow men of their pettiness. There is a very ancient saying that if you want to make one stick look small erect a bigger stick adjacent to it. So they stood like a pole to the moon.

Executing them was an effort to reestablish lost superiority in some way. But when one brutally murders someone utterly innocent, guilt remains. Calling Jesus, Buddha and Mahavir God is a subtle way to hide guilt: the guilt of all wrongs we did to them: Of killing absolutely sane people for insane reasons.

And naming them God is also a way to guard our betterment. It is an excuse for us in being as we are. We want to remain at the lowest because lowest needs no effort: It is an easy path. All good men turn to Gods and Mahatma’s and all bad remain to be human. Adolf Hitler was a human, so was Joseph Stalin and Mao-Tse Tung and so on.