life in purple-its about living and not just existing
Sometimes I wish I were born in the sixties or seventies. By jove those were colourful times. Times of rock n’ roll. Maybe I would have passed high school and formed my own music band. Worked by the day and played guitar by the evening to a high-spirited ,equally carefree crowd. Maybe I would have joined some hippies and travelled the entire length and breadth of this country wearing a John Lennon t-shirt. Or maybe I could have become a photographer and spent a lifetime in wilderness shooting Indian exotica. Life is not just about making a fortune . Life is about discovering your destiny. And the path leading to that. As I sit down to write this post after a gap of almost an year I find words flowing thick and fast. The Beatles are singing in my ear:
“And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree,
there will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see,
there will be an answer. let it be.”
Sometimes I feel if you listen to their music in solitude with a candle burning in front you will see your future unravel and discover what you really wanna do with this life.
Sometime back I had seen an amazing documentary called ” The Secret” which says that we all actually become what we think for ourselves to become …Confusing?? Well to sum it up in three words.. Thoughts Become Things. It was life transforming for me. It actually meant that as we move on in life we create the universe around us. This in turn meant that I could still be a 70′s dude in 2009. It meant that I just had to think that everything around me belonged to the ” polka-dotted decade”. And by the way for those musically uninitiated souls out there…”Rock n Roll” is not just music …its a way of life…true it has its ugly side which those who don’t know a shit about RnR keep criticising and cursing….but once you learn to leave life the RnR way, wonderful things keep happening. And LSD needn’t be the notorious narcotic. For me it simply stands for Life Sans Drudgery. Each moment is meant to be lived like a rockstar. It is meant to be sublime like Freddie Mercury stricking the higher C in Bohemian Rhapsody or Slash ‘s soulful solo in November Rain.( For those who are finding this Greek…listen to those two tracks and you will understand the profoundness of this post!!)
Just a few days back a new company was formed by four friends all of who are students of Design in ‘IIT Gu-waa-hati’.It is very aptly called Purple Leaf Design. Leaf is the most ubiquitous thing in nature. But it is the sustainer of all life. It signifies synthesis. Just like good design should be … simple and sustainable. And purple….Well…purple has always evoked feelings of sophistication and royalty. It really stands for elegance.Some people may say that this is really a risky and audacious decision on the part of those four morons.For those people ,there is only one thing we can say and sorry but its highly cliched…” We just don’t give a damn”. Some souls are very bad at taking orders and doing donkey work. Life in a swanky air-conditioned office with a six figure salary and a boss chasing down my ass with a hot iron rod does not really synchronise with my “RocknRoll theory”. Life is more about breathing fresh air and dealing with real people who all have their own stories to share(you know… stuff without presentations and excel sheets).
Whether Purple Leaf blooms or wilts is up to the elements to decide. But one thing is sure. Its about making a difference that counts. Our dream is not to have a turnover of 1 crore . The day we can give a deserving youngster a full time job with a handsome salary will be our day of glory. Till then its all about fastening the seatbelts and riding the roller-coaster called (an entrepreneur’s) Life. And some wise man had once rightly said ‘” Your success is directly related to the number of people you make successful”.
Alas…The Beatles playlist is almost finished as John Lennon sings passionately:
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one.
Till that day I won’t stop dreaming. Not for one single moment. I promise.
Racing the Rats
When the man was born,he was free
And then he grew up,stood on his feet
Learnt to walk,learnt to run.
And then the race of his life begun.
’twas cool in the start when he ran alone
But soon there was competition.
First his foes came and then his friends.
He panted and felt trepidation.
Not realising for what he ran
His life is now like an egg in the pan.
Once in it there’s no coming back.
You either keep running or pack your sack.
He is racing rats that look like him
And among all wants to be the best
Putting even his last resort
And every drop of sweat in the test
But what has he got
Except the sweat?
The rat race will go on
And end in a stampede.
Hey all you folks out there
I ask you to explain.
Why do you wanna race
When you can walk in the park?
Why do you wanna get wasted
And go in the dark?
The man still running,
Is now getting old.
Death has already marked him,
But he refuses to hold
See how the rats have eaten his brain.
He is a slave to them now
And he cannot restrain.
Hey you old man,look at you now,
God gave you a life to live
And what have you done
Except the blind run
Instead of reaching a destination .
You will only end where you begun.
Footnote: Friends, at all points in our lives we race….and we race on the beaten track against friends as well as foes.But wouldn’t it be better to make our own paths and stroll on them exploring every little object on the way…feasting with our senses the diverse offerings life offers( we do need an eye to spot them out in the shambles of our daily lives.)
Let the rat race be for rats ……not for humans.
DeadEn(e)d
Today I cried,I wept
Because I felt pain
I felt contempt and hatred
Today I became insane
I wanted in life peace and sanctity
But all I got was betrayal instead
Today I cried,I wept
For all I am is a walking dead.
As I stand in this open space
I fail to see the horizon ahead
The emptiness spans forever surreally
No thoughts expressed,no words said.
In these unknown provinces
I get lost in my mind’s maze
Today I want to see the sunshine
But all I see is fog and haze.
From a distance my life looks picturesque
The nearer you come it becomes grotesque
The river bank from a mile looks lush
But itself it knows its full of slush
Today I cry but tears don’t come
And I have lost the power to dream
Today even if happiness peeps
I can’t rejoice,I can’t scream
Today I cried,I wept
Because I felt pain
But I’m thankful to pain because
The pain made me alive again.
ps–>This poem bears no resemblance to the current mental state of the poet…its just imaginative
Just a passing thought…
Life is beautiful.Agreed its the name of a classic movie but what I mean here is that life is actually very beautiful inspite of all its complexities. We never spare a chance to curse and complain about how stressful our lives are or how boring and uneventful it has become. But hang on…are we not the masters of our actions,of our senses and of our conscience…?Why have we stopped admiring the little things things that used to enthrall and excite us when we were kids? why do we always look up at the tall towers of ambition and not spare a moment to look down at the pretty flower blooming just under our feet in the grass.Why do we only give a forced smile or at best a half-hearted laugh when our friend cracks a joke when say a few years ago that same joke would have made us roll and chuckle? why do we feel that the roadside ‘bhujiavala’ is too low for our tastes when there was a time we used to run to him with our humble penny to get our daily staple snack.Truly speaking life is inherently beautiful…One only has to have an eye to spot it in the most unassuming and unimportant things. For me the words simplify and beautify are synonymous…simple things are always beautiful…The same applies for our lives…
I always was a person who believed in flamboyance,I believed that it was important to win every race in life…come what may…never to look down…always to aim for the stars…and more often than not I achieved what I set out for….till one day I lost…and although I lost I learnt the most important lesson in life. To be happy in life you need to look down at times and give yourself the gift of relaxation maybe at a premium sometimes.And from then on I have lived every passing minute as if this was the last of my life..and believe me its an awesome feeling…
