CAVE

Abhi, a student pursuing the Civil Services in Delhi, was getting back home after a long day.Although mentally exhausted, the moment he reached home he couldn't resist turning on his new baby; a 5.1 BOSE surround sound system, as  he changed and got ready for dinner.

This routine is very typical among boys and girls of this generation. "Work hard, Patry harder" is the mantra to survive the monotonous life most of us lead. The essence of such a lifestyle lies in not what we see, but what happens behind the curtains. I personally christine this behaviour/lifestyle as "Hiding in the Cave."

A cave according to me, would be a world where no one can see me; where I can be just me; a world filled with peace , beautiful vibes and love all around. I find my cave in the world of Trance; soothing soulful music which makes me love every moment of being alive.  Like me, many of us would love to stay in our own cave , a cave filled with happiness / optimistic thoughts and bliss.  Here are few instances of people who inspired me with stories of their “caves” which motivated me to pen down this blog  :

First up is Parvati, a software engineer by profession and an avid reader by passion. There are days where she just cannot separate herself from the book she is reading and ends up carrying it everywhere with her, be it in the office cab, at the office desk, canteen, etc.
To try and understand this, I dig in for more information from her and this is what she said, "Well Kochar it so happened that, one fine evening, I was feeling sick ,bored and restless at the same time. I almost felt like the energy in me was being wasted on literally doing nothing. Even watching people became a monotonous pass time. The only effort I took was to fill my mind with thoughts , dreams, desires and then randomly my eyes landed on the book gifted to me, lying on the table. That was the day and there was no turning back after that. I got so addicted to the world of books, which I may not be able to explain in words." , With a huge library on the wall behind her where she is leaning as we talk about her cave, I now empathize with her words and the unspoken thoughts in her mind.

Here is another instance. Age should never deter someone from doing what they love. Alok Dubey, father to Rudra, a 5 yr old kid, is a keen painter.He always wished to paint something extraordinary for his darling kid.
"Thoughts & ideas take their own time to find a place in your mind. For me to make something unique, something that I have never painted all my life and for someone who is more precious than anything in this world it took an entire night. For such extraordinary stuff I had to go into an extraordinary zone and that was possible after I gulped down half a bottle of vodka on a late Saturday evening to enter the world of cave." He chuckles. Little did he realize the power of his cave until the next morning when he put down his painting brush at what he had just painted. I could never believe staying up the entire night can be so productive too. The pic added here is the extra ordinary work of an ordinary father who stepped into the cave.

As I was drafting this blog I bumped into an old friend of mine and I had the same question to ask her, "So Heena, what according to you is a cave?" , this is what she had to say,  "For me a cave is somewhere I feel secured, I feel content, feel the ultimate level of happiness , Most of all, feel like I m important." I further inquired : "So how do you enter the cave ?"
Heena : "I talk to people, being in touch has never been so easy given the vast technological advances, I ensure that it is utilized to the best, after all  a human life is not worth it, if you don't make another human happy." she replied.

After hearing and understanding about people caves, I now strongly believe in the existence of this new World, a world of "cave", where the guiding light is your own dreams, your thoughts and your desires. Life is not completely lived, if you have not experienced the other world, a world which at times is not explainable in words, but only felt and lived. 

Life of Dilemmas

On seeing the post of my new blog on Facebook, you as a reader, must have thought once whether to go ahead and read the blog right away or keep it aside for the leisure-time read later. Well my friend, this is where our life begins; the moment, when we aren't able to figure out between the things we want to do and what we actually end up doing.

For a moment if we happen to recollect instances when we have gotten ourselves into situations where we have not understood the difference between right and wrong, well then, I'm sure many instances might pop up in our mind:

May be as a student, solving a complex math problem in the exam without being sure of the formulas or as a college grad tasting alcohol for the first time or a husband trying out a new dish without knowing the exact ingredients or an employee making a critical decision of a job-switch or a mom wondering whether to eat dinner before putting her kid to sleep or a musician deciding to stick to a genre of music.

In all the above given instances, one thing seems to be common, the impact of the decision taken, during the moment of crisis. Some call this impact as "growing-up" in life. As my friend Val (Valerian Menzes) once shared, "People who are able to decide in a situation are much further in life compared to the ones who cannot".

Here are a Few instances where people and their decisions have given them a new meaning in their life:

# Mike Murali was once given the opportunity to meet his "God" in life- Sir Ilaiyaraaja, on the condition that he would have to travel 6 hrs one way to Chennai, meet the legend and travel back 6 hrs straight to attend a function back home in Bangalore, the next morning. Well, he chose to do what he felt right at that moment and now with a personally autographed poetry from the legend himself, I’m sure Mikey has no regrets.

# A buddy of mine had to call off a long lasting relationship for a reason that he and her (mind it, it’s no longer they) could not find themselves together in the future for various personal reasons. Now as he is trying to move on from the past, he is getting more involved in the things in his life that he had momentarily forgotten about, like writing blogs , going on adventure trips and enjoying the world with a different view.

# Another close friend Rashi, was in a dilemma to choose between Mumbai or Bangalore for her higher education. The former city would bring along utmost luxury and the latter would give the independent living she was always dreaming of. Choosing between them was really not that easy, however, she continued to live in Mumbai- the city of dreams and is ensuring that life is being lived to the fullest, by fulfilling all her dreams.

For me the idea of options is about being happy or sad. I understand it’s very hard in life to bucket situations/options into just two areas 'happiness or sorrow', but nevertheless being able to do so is a sign of maturity.So the next time you are confused with an option, ensure one thing for sure, no matter how many options you face or dread the impact of those many options you see, do not hold back, give it a shot, because we live only once, but we regret a thousand times.

            Quote : Madness, that's the word to internal satisfaction