Life is not fair ! Seriously !

I am sitting in the bus . Its like any other Tuesday . Most of us, the employed folks are dragging ourselves to work on cars,buses, bicycles and what not ....muttering a " I wish it were Friday!" under our breaths . The ones on the bus are lost in instagram, face book , downloaded videos on Netflix and some other social media rage I am yet to familiarize myself with . Our salaries need to take count of every second we spend for the employer . But we love Fridays ONLY ! How can we love our jobs ? We have demanding bosses, annoying subordinates , difficult clients and the torture of being holed up in well lit airconditioned offices !

The man who sweeps the park everyday takes a second to glance at the speeding buses and thinks that his own children in his home town would be getting ready to go to school as well. It would take another year for him to visit them !

 There are those that are staying at home due to circumstances , carrying on with their daily service of making the homes spick and span and are muttering " I hate this life! If only I had a job. "  They look after the children , ensure that the family is well nourished, maintain the homes as clean as a temple. Yet they hate what they do. Its not a real job after all !

Then there are those that have just finished studying or had the misfortune of being a victim of company cost cuts and are now hunting desperately for an opening or a means to make a living . An interview call fills them with hope and then comes the anxiety of awaiting the results . Its either a new beginning or another opportunity down the drain !

Life is simply not fair to any one of us ...Seriously!!!

The girl next to me is listening to something on her phone. She has her headphones on, but i am convinced, that the lady driving the car next to our bus can clearly hear it . I should find out the make and model of that phone. Super volume  i must say !

I feel sorry for her ears. Yes ! akin to the statutory warnings on cigarette packs, phone manufacturers do indicate that listening to something at high volume is unhealthy . For those that cannot read, they do have a color indicator. But sometimes what we do is too important for the general improvement of mankind!! Where do we have the patience to make note of all this ? I mutter a silent prayer under my breath for the well being of her ears and all the complicated circuitry that helps us to hear .

Then I remember my friend who is an ENT surgeon and has recently started her practise in town . I had muttered a silent prayer for her too! That she may get many patients and that may her practise flourish !
Now these two prayers contradict each other !

If all ears are good how can my surgeon friend survive ??

Let life take a call ! After all its not fair !

Give me some sunshine

Aaditya Hrudayam Punyam Sarvashatruvinaashanam

Jayavaham japennithyam akshayam paramam shivam

These are the first two lines of Aaditya Hrudayam a Hindu Sanskrit hymn praising the sun God. It refers to the sun as destroyer of enemies. Here enemy is not to be taken literally . Lack of confidence, lethargy , stress ,  ill health and a lot of things that harm us from the inside will be wiped out by the power of the sun !

This is not a post promoting religion. Today morning as i was driving , the rising sun had me spell bound. Not hot , but warm and loving - a big orangish yellow circle in the sky and i was reminded of this.

Well yes, i know scientifically there are millions of stars in the galaxy like the sun but to us its a visible beautiful source of energy that hovers over us , illuminating all our lives.

Social media is full of ways in which solar energy can be tapped .There was a time when the only solar panels I knew were the maroon chips at the corners of calculators.Thats about it! Now, we have roads being laid with hidden solar panels to solar panels floating on water. 

I often hear people living in hot humid places complaining about the weather . People living in cold places know the hard reality! .... the grass is not green on the other side....Not metaphorically but even literally because even grass needs sunlight to grow ha ha

Have you seen the movie "Chronicles of Narnia" . The evil white queen removes all the sunshine and greenery and leaves the land white and cold and barren ! When the curse breaks it transforms beautifully!

In fact all our lives revolve around this burning sphere as our tiny planet revolves around it. The water cycle, the rain , vegetation , crops - Every morsel of food we consume and the entire planetary life cycle depends upon it.  Have you seen the first scene of the song "the circle of life" from The Lion King ? The sun the song the singing ....wow !

At a personal level one of the things i love in life is the gentle morning sunshine. The one that gently spreads its rays  through our windows, comes around you and holds you in a warm embrace ! 

There are lots of things recommended to fill our beings with positive energy. Sun salutation is an important aspect of yoga. Traditionally the recommended direction for most activities is east west along the solar trajectory .

Stand facing the morning sun, gently close your eyes and take in as much energy and positivity as you can . You would be filled with enthusiasm and vigour and a renewed confidence!

Of course the vitamin D comes extra for free ! 

I remember reading the story of a king who was perennially sick. Then came a famous physician, gave him a long mallet and advised him to get on horseback and go about hitting a ball with it .  The king got cured and polo was born . 

Let the sun in and your days will be sunny!

Showering Music!!!

6 40 am.
Our home is busy getting ready for the day ahead. Monday morning - worst of all! ...weekend inertia for everyone! The pressure cooker breaks the morning silence with its shrill whistle as it sweats away to make our take away lunch. I go and knock on the bathroom door, and cry out in a quintessential mother-in-the-morning voice "V you are going to be late !."  That interrupts my little boy's (well little is just because i am used to that term, he is ten now) day dream and i hear the shower head going into full fledged force.

After a few seconds, an incredibly soulful " aaa ahaaa ahaa " is heard along with the sounds of the spraying water . His knowledge of rock music is limited but he loves the tamil cinema numbers that border the genre . He goes on singing loud and clear, the lyrics coming in now. His voice is good and so is his singing. It takes all of my self resistance to overcome my guilt in disturbing his morning reverie.

Well, to be honest, i love singing in the bathroom too. Its a kind of meditative state where you hide away from the world and be the performer and the audience combined into one person. Pure bliss ! Trust me, its not an intentional act. It just happens when you are totally "in the moment" . That is precisely what all self-help books ask us to get into, right ?

Image credit: Me myself and Sketch app

My theory is that bathroom singers are those that can stop a minute to admire the flowers on the way and are in no hurry to join the mad rat race we all are embroiled in. Well, may be thats taking it a bit too far but not a bad theory i suppose!

Apparently the hard tiles and confined space of the bathroom provide an acoustic environment that make us sound very good and that is one of the reasons people start singing in there.

Sometimes i have heard people say " i cant sing...i am just a bathroom singer " . Well one should not demean oneself like that . To me, bathrooms are the best place to test ones vocal abilities. A person who sings well in the bathroom loves music , sings well and can put in a lot of feeling in . Outside of that confined space, he just needs to learn how to get his voice into a similar state of symphony.

Have we not seen in the music competitions on TV - the idols, the super singers etc - judges mentioning " there was not enough feel in there . It lacked the intensity " . Well singing is at the epitome of feeling when one is engulfed in the water droplets pouring out of the shower ....

Immersing oneself up to the in neck-deep water and then singing is a traditional practice that is supposed to soften and strengthen ones vocal chords and singing abilities.

As Sanjeev Kumar rightly sang in a movie, " Tande tande paani se nahaana chaahiye...gaana aaye ya na aaye gaana chaahiye" ....translating to " you must bathe in chill cool water and whether you can or not you must sing! "


....vaazhga valamudan!!