very poetic and animated , aachi..could see the princess through your eyes...tx...awe is a quality within us...the moon does the same for everyone, but few of us are alive to its dance with the clouds...tx for a lovely wake up post...

ws reminded of a song in 1947 earth..dil ke darwazon par taale , taale par ye jang hai kyon...a lot of self healing lies in our abilities to take in the sunlight which showers its rays on all...the depth of our abilities to experience is a parameter of our integrity...

Good Morning Aachi

Hmm what a lovely princess to wake up to. Triggered off so many songs and poetry as I read about your Beloved and the awesome kingdom over which she reigns.
As a child I was facsinated by these lines of Gurbaan which make up a conceptual Aarti(since it's not a religious ritual in the traditional sense)for the metaphor of adoration of the Creator.
'Gagan mein thal, rav chand deepak bane, taarika mandal janak moti, dhoop malianloh pavan chavro karey, sagal banrai pholant jyoti, kaisi aarti hoi bhavkhandana teri aarti, anhada shabad vajant bheri.'

The infintude of the sky is your Aarti platter, the sun and full moon the immortal deepaks, the galaxy of stars are your priceless/glitering gems and pearls, earth's millions aromas your incence, the wind your celestial fan and millions of flowering fields/forests your radiant lamp, and to one such as you, pulsating in every fragment, what aarti can be befitting, you who revel in the resounding hum of the primordial word/sound.

Even as a child it filled me with awe made me misty eyed and feel realllllly speckish before the cosmic splendour.

So for you who dance in the dark and play amongst your galactic friends, pay wonderous tributes to your glorious princess and so become her, as the Zen verse says:

"Just as the pure crystal takes color from the object which is nearest to it, so the mind, when it is cleared of thought-waves, achieves sameness or identity with the object of its concentration."
- Patanjali

Much love

tx for that share from the gurbaani jasjit...very beautiful...

jidhar dekhun udhar tum ho nazara ho to aisa ho

ananda, anandam!!

Hi sundar,

It felt nice to share this experience with like minded people. I sometimes wonder whether growing up kills the innocence in us and hence the pure perpectives we have of many things.

Dear Jasjit,

Lovely verse. What a poetic comparison of the sky as a celestial Aarti...

Becoming like that crystal is perhaps a life's work or much more....but as long as one can touch the helm of beauty....even if it is for a second...the journey is worth every step.:)

there is a story of a wonderful tub of Dye. Any cloth immersed into it would automatically be dyed in the color it liked. A cloth which liked to be blue was given blue, a cloth which liked red would be dyed in red. A wise man saw the tub and when asked what color he wanted his cloth to be dyed in...he said...dye my cloth the color of the dye in the tub... :)

lots of love

Lovely song Harb,

Its my fav.

Good Morning Aachi!

Its a bright sunny pleasant morning here and yet reading the beautiful picture of the gorgeous night sky that you just painted, has completely engulfed me in its splendour. It reminded me of my trip to the Jabalpur Marbel Rocks, many years ago, on a moonlit night! The deep dark body of water glowing in the moonlight, the rocks shining as the moonlight touched every contour on it ...... absolutely breathtaking!

thanks for the reminder! :)

Have a lovely Sunday ...

yeah aachi...in today's educational and other systems, growing up is skewed towards a training of the mind...flowering of the heart is a missed exercise in the skew...if it survives it is more by accident...sometimes in our awareness we are fortunate to encounter our dryness and address it..in healing spaces...until we unlearn and grow up again , i guess...into our natural states of being where awe and wonder qualify our living moments, not judgements and comparisons which inhibit our expereinces...of love and joy..
i have often observed new borns just keep looking at the rotating fan above them in awe...absolutely transfixed and enamoured...as we grow up we classify evenst as pleasurable and painful and in that judgement forfeit our capapcities to experience...in moment when i have been privileged into visit such realms of consciousness, i have sse that the very nature of experiencing is bliss...joy...our capacities to "experience" are blocked through the mind filters...

harb, did u have a fun lohri...did u have a bhangra rap?

Hello Aachi,

Thank you for reminding me of the good old college days too, seems like ages ago! Chaandni Raatein is one of my favourite songs too.

It is indeed very difficult to even look at the sky or the moon (let alone spending quality time) with a household to run! Sometimes my daughters call me outside to view the full moon and I just give it a fleeting glance and go back to my chores. Quite sad...

But thanks for reviving the old days for me :)

"The princess it seems.... seemed to say...in nature lies the true beauty ...in perceiving her lies true realization.... and in falling in love with her...true ecstasy". Very lovely Aachi.

love
anusheh

Thank you, Aachi.

I feel like sharing a part of this little piece i've been writing from the time I fell in love with the Princess and all her playmates and companions...

sometimes You are my whirlwind afar,
sometimes You are my evening star.

sometimes You are the sapphire noon,
and the silent crescent moon

Sometimes You are ancient starlight
sometimes you are the mountains' might

Sometimes You are the forest green,
the song of water, a sylvan dream

Sometimes You are a morsel temptation,
always an embracing, warm vibration..

Angry storms, lashing winds,
or a touch, a whiff, fragrance

Eternally You are... sheer enchantment

sundar, yes i enjoyed lohri sitting around fire with family and relatives...eating various gajjaks and taking a couple of drinks...i even gave voice to some of my yin by singing with ladies of the gathering...

i loved hearing songs sung by ladies ever since my birth and i recalled a couple of them especially sung by my mother and asked the ladies around to sing those with me. one was:

raja tan puchhe ni raani
sun meri baat nun
sun meri baat nu,
mehlan de suche moti kis nu deie...

jasjit may have heard of it...

then yesterday i did bhangra by lifting in turns my granddaughter and grandson(1 & 3 yrs old children of my elder son, 28, who had come here for the occasion))for hours to the beat of drum on tv. at night i was sooo tired...my bones ached...i had to take a peg of old monk to sleep...today my son and family have gone back to patiala where they live and i am on my usual job..of watching tv and writing on computer...

aachi, interestingly, whenever i would sing such a song such as 'jidhar dekhun udhar tum ho...' almost always i will focus on some indescribable/formless something and never on any particular individual...

once in my college days i was coming back after seeing the picture 'dharti' with my friend who was in a way also my guru of the times. we were on a bycycle. the time was of night. and the moon was on its full. a light drizzle had filled the roads with thin sheets of water here and there. moon and tube lights were reflecting themselves in each of those sheets. it was an indescribable seen. i rememebr then singing a song of the film just seen and experiencing an ecstacy of the like you have described. the song was "jab se aankhein ho gayi tum se chaar is dharti par..." and interestingly my focus again was not on any particular person but on some formless/indescribable something.

in fact i have unconsciously used two lines, one from a song and an other from gurbani as my mantras for remaining focussed on the highest...self or truth of whatever:

as to the first, it seems i always knew ever since i became aware of my individual self that there will come many distractions on my way to my goal (whatever that may be), may those be in the form of persons, books, ideas and so to save myself or to keep myself from swaying i almost automatically chose a line from gurbani which will then keep reverberating within me almost always and on its own. it was "he mana meria tun sada raho har naale..." and whenever i will become conscious of saying this i will always focus on the center of my own self which often seemed to align with my spiritual heart...where christians make a cross...

anyway and the other line was from a song. it was

"kabhi to milegi kahin to milegi bahaaron ki manjil, raaahi..."

singing this i will feel transported to another, indescribable spacetime, neither inside myself nor yet outside...

lately, while arguing the balancing of my yin yang mostly with jasjit, i immediately begin becoming aware of another person sitting cross-legged like shiva within me, with legs firmly placed well up on opposite thighs, some indescribable lightness mixed with awareness overtaking my whole body and exanding to infiniteness all around...surti utaahan char rahi hai...perhaps this is the goal...jasjit has said that some interesting changes will take place within me this year...perhaps this may be one of them...if this takes over fully, i am afraid i may not even be able to write here any more lol.

in fact, with drinks and with so many other things i have always felt that i am trying to remain clinging to THIS world..and i have often told my family members that the day i will leave all this i will no longer remain belonging to THEIR family...can anybody understand what i am saying...even writng here is like this clinging thing...an effort at clinging to this world while some thing from within seems to be sucking me towards that shiva like image...'mujhe dor koi kheenche teri or lie jaa...' ok till it lasts...
oh god, i too want to taste sugar than becoming one...

ananda anandam

aachi, reading your post the first thing came to my mind was that you could be a writer too if you want. then i did not write it because i have always felt that you could be anything you want to be...

hi sukanya! good all-embracing piece...

harb

Hi Shubhosree,

must have been a wonderful time. There is nothing like seeing a water body in the moonlight...and if it is punctuated with a waterfall then it is out of this world!

Raahat,

it is indeed part of life that various responsibilities crop up and we dont have time for these things. But the presence of children is like a buffer effect for they keep reminding us of the innocence we are a part of.

Sukanya,
lovely share. It is indeed a never ending enchantment. Its variety and immensity brings out the awe in us and as u sadi..."always an embracing, warm vibration.."

Dear Anusheh,

thank you. :)

harb,

it is a favourite thought of mine. anything which inspires us...we can become. writing though requires a lot of time and right now I am hard pressed for it. Perhaps when i retire i will rediscover it. but thanks anyway.

Good Evening Harb

Tey tusi Yin shin de chakkar vich pey gaye ho! Chalo ese gal te thodi hor gurbaani ho jaye.

An adventurous gender change can be struck with the heart mantra "mil mere pritama jiyo, tud bin khadi nimmani, main nainee neend na aave jeeyo, bhave unn na paani." A passion of rare potency!

On your Shiva image, the immortal being and the infinity of learning
" Kya mandir mein, kaun basayii
taka ant na kouoo payi, na kouoo payii." In the sanctum of the Anahata who resides...the endless one, the unknowable one the infinite one.

For the state when one feels that all will disappear, family ties, connections...
"Na oh raja, na avdhoota
na us mayi, na kahoo puta"
So within the cycle of all stands the one who is conected to the unconnected. And it all serves that purpose, the ties, the friends, the words written, heard, spoken, the computer and the books. They all disppear and yet they linger to give a boundary to the unbounded.

On the fear that THIS will finally disappear into some reverberating silence and oblivion.
"Is mooey ko je koi rove, je koi rove param gat khovey"

Nothing really disappears (I feel)..it just reverberates at ever changing frequencies, subtler and subtler in the final realms.

Ananda Anandam

Dear Sukanya

weep, weep, weep through the beauty of your words, weep for the perfection of your yearning, weep for the purity of your desires, dance in the blood of your memories, dance till they bleed you of fear, dance till the intensity of your pain storms as ecstasy of your peaks, revel in the gift of the muse, unveil her of her fearful shrouds, gift her the silence of your faith and watch her unveil your heights.

Much love

jasjit ji, tusi hi menu is yin yang de chakar vich paia sidhe saadhe pendu bande nu. hun je gurbani de chakar vich pai gaye tan aapan sara guru granth sahib quote kar sakde han..jindagi di kehri aspect hai jis te gurbani di koi na koi tuk nahi dhukdi...? unj menu gurbani bahuti nahin aundi. moke te hi koi tuk yaad aa jandi hai..tusi tan sara guru granth sahib jande hovonge.

oh yes, at a certain period this line "mil mere pritama jio..." was very much with me. i used to sing it sometimes very loudly in the bath room lol.

and yes, nothing disappears...energy/matter is neither created nor destroyed...it always is yet always changing forms...

hey harb, seem to have had fun with ur folks for lohri...whats a few aching joints...

sundar, thanks, and they were taken care of soon lol.

hey harb and jasjit, would req u guys to ensure a translation when u exchange in punjabi for us lesser mortals unless u choose not to share...

aachi , dont know whether u r a cartoon network watcher; can be gr8 fun...i recently borrowed cd of telly tubbies from my 4 year neice and had a real ball...also subscribe to dilbert on my mailbox....they make my day more often than not , so also garfield on myyahoo...

yessir, sundar!

aachi,
amazing.......post

nights hav always been the inspiration for me ..
even i used to stare at the dark skies and imagine life beyond...

Harb Ji

'Sidde, Saadey Pendu'..hmmm "Dil behlane ke liye Ghalib yeh Khayal accha hai"

Know the whole Granth! Who would claim such a thing? Just like you a few lines resonate, get filed somewhere and pop out quite by chance when needed.

Sundar

sorry for the language exclusion. Will try to translate in future. Its a rare joy for me to share my language with someone especially on the blog so get carried away sometimes. apologies to all for unintended exclusion.

Dear Aachi,

That you love nature is quite evident from your pic on this blog. The background shows the universe...

What a wonderful description of your princess. Living in the busy cities leaves us with no time to look up at the sky. In earlier days when there were no inverters, everytime the current would go we would go out and either sit in the balcony or the terrace or come out on the streets. This atleast gave us the time to look up at the sky and admire its beauty. But now we hardly go out and do this.

I remember few years back I had gone to mukhteshwar with a couple of friends. It was raining int he evening and the current had gone off. We were all hudled inside the cottage. The rain stopped but the current still didn't come. So I walked out to get some fresh air. I looked up at the sky and I was spellbound. In the background of the dark sky were trillions of stars shining away. It was so bright that it took sometime for my pupils to adjust to the scene that was staring at me. I almost felt like counting the stars. Truly at that moment I felt like I was in the abode of God- MUKHTESHWAR.

Lovely poem, Sukanya!! Quite enveloping.

Aaichi, enjoyed reading this tremendously!!

IN our family, is a specially shared song called:

"Boat on the River" by: Styx(circa 70's) so that's how long it's been a favorite; as my 2 bro's would play guitar, and we'd all sing along!

Yesterday was the anniversary of my one brothers passing, Jan.14-2002. Without attempt; the song flooded my memories with song, and with my brother. It was beautiful, I was receptive to it all without depth of painful sorrow.

The song, my brother, love, death, life; all remains the same, in the balance and scheme of things.

Lovely story; and to be "inspired" is to be a flower, having become blessed with the nectar of life,,,water!

I have been so inpsired lately for designing; it's hard to stay away from my programs! this re-ignited light for my passion to create "images" has been a God-send!

Your story, only further supported my flight...thankyou Aichi!

North

jasjit, if you will meet with me and listen to my theth majha punjabi ( i originally belong to chamba kalan/chohla sahib, teh tarn taran, dist amritsar, near harike patan) you will at once come to know that you have hardly met more sidha sada pendu (unsophisticated villager)than me. you will find it difficult to relate what i write here or at intentblog and the real person i am....you may even feel shy introducing me to your delhi-living acquaintances lol. listening to my desi punjabi no one will admit that i can even write in english. of curse some of it may be because of my hearing problem...

i have heard something about chinese leader mao tze tung which resonates with me in this connection. when he became unchallenged leader of china, someone asked him to learn to wear a bit trendy clothes and speak a bit sophisticated languge as many world vips now come to meet with him. he refused saying that when more than a billion chines could accept me the way i am why should i change that for a few vips?

so i feel when i could learn/experience so much with the way i am why should i bother for sophistication of one sort or the other? sooo the sophisticated laugh at me and i at them lol.

harb

sundar, i never knew there was so much difference in punjabi and hindi, i thought he who knows hindi can understand all punjabi effortlessly. then there are many many punjbais settled in bombay...anyway, now i will be complete angrej lol.

HELLO NORTH!!

sorry to hear about your brother....my soul hug to you!

designing something else besides the book cover?

harb

Hi sundar,

I used to watch a lot of cartoons a few years back. I love Tom and Jerry. The other toon characters I know about only a little.

Preethi,

Thanks. Imagination is easy when a muse as wonderful as the night sky inspires us.

Annie,

the picture is actually a painting of mine depicting the Universe. It is a huge art piece that I have in my bedroom.

and about Muktheshwar...well the entire area around it is filled with one of the darkest spots in South India. I lived in Mangalore for about 5 years (1995-2000) and used to love the night sky in the beaches because of the little light pollution then. an amazing sight is standing on the edge of a huge piece of rock (40ft high) in the shallow waters of the beach and watching the night sky with the sound of the waves lashing the rock below. it was absolutley out of this world.

Dear North,

thank you. Do show me your designs when u have finished them.

lots of love

Harb

What need is there for outward sophistication when there is such finesses of thought within? The artifice of fancy words and engaging manners is for those who carry a chasm within. "Andhar bahar ikko" is the gift of the rare. And how amazing that you should write English with such clarity and depth when you say that speaking it is difficult.
"Bullah Ki Jaana Mein Kaun
na mein momin vich maseetan
na mein vich kufar diyan reetan
na mein pakan vich paleetan
na mein musa n Phiraun
Bullah Ki Jana main Kaun"

Bulleh what to say of who I am
neither a muslim true to his legacy of graves
nor one who understands the ways of damnation(kafir)
Neither he who draws lines between pure and impure
Neither a Moses nor a Pharoah
What to say of who I am.

hey harb, i see language or presentation skills as only one aspect of communication and not as important as it is made to be... ...u have hit upon the flow which is the more beautiful aspect of communication, which is not got by training or orientation...just a happening in those realms...and trust me , friend, you are a great communicator...

in this context , just wanted to share some mystical expereinces which opened my eyes...i was involved in some processes i am part of about 10 years back when my friend and guide told me to sing...i had sung sometime in childhood and never later and am not trained in those realms...i communicated as such...to which i was told just try...and i just opened my mouth sang out melodiously in telugu, a language i am not familiar with...i observed such an event a few years later with an italian woman who did not know english and just started flowing out in it...aspectes of consciousness and their capacities are awesome...

tx for that share from Bulleh shah jasjit...have a close sardar friend who is a healer and the daphli wala and lyricist in our bhajan group...he writes from a lot of inspirations from Bulleh Shah for us...he is also a flow guy rather than a trained person...works as a technician in RCF but widely respected for his spiritually inspired flows...be it through words or through his daphli or through his healings...he responds naturally to the bhava of bhajans sung in various languages he knows not..
shared in fsacination to life's processes as we observe them...

Good Morning Sundar

Yes these experiences are reported by many. I guess its quite like a radio frequency. The finer its ability to tune into far away transmissions... and we too, when we move into the intuitive field of commmunication by engaging into bhajans/mantras/meditation/a powerful creative expereince/a visually intense experience etc suddenly it can trigger off a frequency within us (earlier unknown)and what we access suddenly as an alien language, powers (to sing etc) is the transmission from some other karmic(life) field (usually our own)which connects us to a forgotten but known ability.

Aachi,

Promise to gaze at the sky tonight.

I used to live at the top floor of a 8 storeyed flat. The building is situated very near to the river Yamuna. Though it can now hardly be called a river but still when the reflection of the rising sun, the setting sun, the light from the dark night sky or from highway light-posts falls on the river water its just amazing.

I used to go up on the terrace and watch these beautiful scenes whenever I would feel unhappy or troubled about something or when I wanted to find a solution to a problem. It used to work miracles on me. Nature is afterall the best healer.

I miss all this now cause I've shifted. But reading your post brought back all the memories. Thanks.

yeah jasjit..tx for that feedback...

jasjit, sundar,

thank you.

jasjit, your bullh shah post held some indescribable charm for me today.

sundar, i felt connected to some other level when i wrote my book as i will write below.

in fact two interesting things came to my mind while reading your posts. one is, that i began my book somwhat like bulleh shah. read the beginning lines: "the fact that i am neither a mystic nor a philosopher neither a scientist nor yet even a writer fills my mind with a number of apprehensions before i begin this book..." of course at the time i was writing these lines i was just a couple of years past my 'going to the core of my being"' experience and was slowly coming up and so writing was not very easy to me. i had to sort of collect my wholeself into me and wait for words.

and the second thing is about connecting at some other frequency going by sundar's beautiful posts. throughout writing i felt my self connected to some other freqency. what was coming from within me i really felt to be coming from some other karmic life, so much so that many a times i will marvel at my own written lines wondering from where within me they came from. and because of this i often thought that i will ask people that i have writen th book now take it or leave it but dont ask me for explanations, for i dont know. many times i wondered if any dead scientist especially einstein had overtaken me. i especially had the reason to think so of einstein in the course of my writing because einstein died after struggling for last 20 yers of his life trying to prove what i have written. only perhaps he was to prove it in hard science.

yes jasjit, andro bahron ikko, harb.

Watching the moonset night turn to dawn, and the sun come up on the Himalayan peaks, in a little village in Nagerkote, Nepal... the March cold blasting me...and Abida singing Baba Bulleh Shah..

That experience was almost "andron bahron ikko"..

Jasjit, experiencing that melting in to the Oneness makes the meltdown happen, and tears flow, cleansing...healing... purifying..

love and gratitude

Harb

There is absolute reason to believe that a scientific mind (dunno if its Einstein)but a powerful ring of perhaps many scientific clusters have chosen to speak through you. Happens all the time when they find the right medium to express that. will share a similar bizarre (not so now lol) experience I had by e-mail.
Now you know why I said leave the book behind. The river has flown you have inscribed it. Something else now awaits flow but you need to make the space for it. And the book is impeding all because it stands in your way. It will find its readers etc when you let it go. It expanded and set the paradigm of your consciousness too but for a purpose. And the purpose is to make way for something more vibrant yet. Friend this is all one becomes good for then. And fine tuning(purifying the sattelite) means strengthening the Yin field receptors to make them subtler and subtler and the Yang is supposed to quietly standby and provide the tools/skills(writing/speaking/comprehending/articulating) to manifest the flow of the cosmic clusters. Fame, acceptance etc are irrelevant because the field creates its own marketing synchronicity too. Knowing exactly when to flow and to whom. All quite fascinating and wonderous in the experience of what creativity and abundance ultimately mean. Personally I find the challenge is to be vigilant that the Yang does not bring in some past pattern of desiring/attaching/hanging-on to the peripheral plays of acclaim/my word is Divine/the only truth/I am beyond learning etc. Just like your image of Shiva, it contains in immortal silence the play of the mahamaya which spins out from within the myriad forms of Prakriti.

Sukanya

Envy you the silence and beauty and steal some of it by zipping into your wonderful moments.

hugs

fascinating, harb...i see the whole of the universal mind flowing through all of us and we tune in to some at different moments of our lives depending on so many parameters...when liberation has been talked about, i see it essentially as a liberation from the mind...including liberation of the senses from the mind...to enable them to just expereince which is their very nature...

sukanya...loved the express..makes meditation happen...i seee meditation as a "happening" in awareness realms, not an activity as it seems to have become...various activities can simulate a meditative state but meditation , by itself, is a happening...

wow sukanya!

do you know punjabi or you could just understand andro bahron ikko?

you are at nagekote, nepal? lucky free butterfly you!

Jasjit, you know you don't need to steal...its All yours and for everyone who can partake of it... i believe its a blessing that is connected and shared..

love
sukanya

jasjit, yes, i know two things very clearly. that following my first sudden experience (around 28)i was supposed to get wine, women and wealth so to say out of my sytem. and then following my second long experience - in which i was loaded with a book - i was supposed to get that book out of my system. having thrown both away now i wonder what is in store for me now.

sundar, you hit the nail on the head when you said that the whole universal mind acts through us. oh how sometimes one falls into thinking of particulars...of a particular scientist in my case...

sukanya, what you are doing are my dreams too..i often think of wandering like this but yet find difficult to manifest becasue of one reason or the other...perhaps i am moving in that direction...

Yes Sundar, those moments make meditation happen..so true...this self dissolves into the awareness of that ever enchanting One

No harb, I am in Delhi right now, I was at Nagerkote last March..I treasure these moments, my work has blessed me with a lot of travel on my own and with these transforming experiences. And i carry them deep within me, and recollect and lose myself again in that remembering.. it breathes life back into me...and i have a strong almost visual memory, so I have a scrapbook inside... I understand Punjabi and Urdu quite a bit, all stemming from my fascination with the world... I found it from books very early on. I am instinctive with languages; Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit (needs great polishing now though) Oriya my mother tongue and English of course my first love.. all thanks to Bapa (dad) and my grand parents on both sides...

and the love of nature too I owe to them.. for example from nani I learnt to look for and wish on the perfect crescent moon in the dusk sky on dwitiya tithi.. and now its a habit; everytime I am out, at some point I look up at the sky...she gave me the tradition of sandhya baati lit every evening outside in the aangan.. and to spot the kaash phool heralding the coming of navratra in ashwin... all those inputs were such a tremendous blessing.. these teachers and masters who guide us and steer us to our paths...

beautiful , sukanya...these teachers and masters who guide us and steer us...is there anyone, any moment or any event which is not a teacher to us...life becomes awesome when are able to see that...

Hello everyone,

nice piece Aachi. your piece reminded me of a time that i prefer not to remember. i did try to do that long back, stnading at my balcony, staring at the beautiful sky above. and then suddenly some friends of mine came out and saw me standing there all by myself looking up. and i cant tell u the way i was teased for days after that. they kept saying that i am turning into a girl, looking at the sky and dreaming and stuff. it irritated the hell out of me! but since that day, i avoid it unless i know i am in complete solitude. cant guys be thoughtful and deep like women? not that all women are thoughtful and deep, but still it wont be looked upon as something odd. but with guys, it is something out of the ordinary.

well just wanted to share my experience ....

Hi chaitali,

hope u have a wonderful sky viewing tonight!

hi raj,

i think wonder is defnitely a feminine emotion. Once on the way to delhi in a train I saw a girl sitting on the steps of the train and watching with delight the fields go by. A guy, her friend, came and shook his head and said " What do you see in those fields thats makes you so happy?"

She just smiled back.

In insight I feel happy that the emotion in me is there to appreciate wonder because having it, I shudder to think what it would be not having it at all.

Hi Aachi,

Your piece was so overwhelming that I really couldn't find the right words for the emotions I felt. Moon being my first love, I found your poetic expression really unique and so animated. While reading it I actually walked with the words into the world of prose.

Like Annie I had a similar experience in Mukteshwar. I don't know if it's a regular thing there. Rain and no electricity and a vast vacuum of darkness all around. And the moon in full glory.

Living in the cities and with all the artificial lighting around, it's very difficult to gauge the actual beauty of moonlight. But while camping in the hills several times, I've actually felt the magic it does to people. Hyuk Hyuk

Going mad in moonlight is not that far a possibility. :-) Even for the sanest of us.

Aachi what a lovely piece. Please dont take it wrong but I am so overwhelmed right now by Jasjits big T article that I cannot help but say that you seem to truly have little of the mean testosterone in you and more of the magic and wonder of estrogen:-)

Dear Sangeeta,

thanks a lot. I am very happy that i could make you feel a whiff of that wonder that i felt through my post. :)

Dear Kranti,

I take it as a compliment.:)

Hi Aachi,

Your princess and her playmates look so awesome, even in the Delhi night sky...

You put it so well! "In insight I feel happy that the emotion in me is there to appreciate wonder because having it, I shudder to think what it would be not having it at all..."
Friend, i shudder to think what my life would be, not having it at all..

When I decided to relocate to Delhi, I was extremely sore at the thought of missing out on my daily connects, of spending time alone with the princess and her playmates. My home state Orissa is awesome in natural beauty... pristine virgin beaches, waterfalls, jungle, amazing bio diversity..the light, the colours, the red earth and the lush greens... I didn't know how i would survive...

Yet, maybe because i wanted it so much, I was blessed that even here, so removed from it all, I still have them with me, around me, inside me. Inspite of city lights, i watch the moon and the sun, I love the innumerable neem trees, I still watch out for the first notes of the cuckoo, and how the rays of the sun change.. i sit out on my terrace and inspite of city lights, I wait and spot venus and orion... i wander amongst the ruins and watch light play out on the red sandstone...someday i will be able to share more of my writing on your princess.. but in closing here's a few in gratitude and love..

Sometimes You are my fleeting dreams,
Sometimes You are my reality stings
Sometimes You are my daily hint
Sometimes You are that chill in the wind
Sometimes You are that distant beckoning
Sometimes You are an instant's reckoning..

Thanks Aachi... for reinforcing and sharing awe and wonder..

love
sukanya

Dear Sukanya,

Reading your post only one thing came to my mind.

the beauty is not out there...it is inside. Because of the beauty inside you, u are able to see the beauty outside though in such a crowded city.

I should thank you for giving me this perspective.

lots of love

wow aachi to "the beauty is inside u....well said...

Aachi,

Thank you for such kind words...If I can share my perspective a little bit: Inside there is a framework, a rich warp and weft of imprints that experiences have woven together, along with a deep need to stay connected to that framework.
That's why, wherever one is, whatever one is doing, somehow we tend to look out for these soul soothers, and invariably find them...

Delhi has grown on me...and I am lucky to live and work in places/spaces, inspite of scope being limited, enchanting beauty still crosses my path, surprises me... if I am aware and conscious in willing it to happen, it does so always.. its all around us, we only need to look with appropriate lenses that are within us.
Does this make sense?

love
sukanya

interesting perspective, sukanya...to share mine, i see joy as a parameter of consciousness levels....awareness, joy, love etc all manifest as a flow in certain energy levels within...thus, they are independent of circumstances while preferences may still exist...

Dear Sukanya,

I love Delhi, especially during the winter. I discovered the city in the winter of 2000 and for the next four years regularly visited it during the winter. I love the CNG autos, I love the orange mist like hue in the nights due to the street lights, I love drinking lassi from a puzzled shop keeper in kamlanagar market during the winter, I love south ex, Habitat centre, safdarjung tomb, shadra, mehrauli, and a million other places. Terrific memories, wonderful times.

I think it is the most beautiful city to me, after Mangalore.

Sundar,

Thanks. You have said well about various emotions being just a flow of different grades of conciousness. I too think the same.

Hey Aachi,

I had stepped out into my little balcony only a few minutes ago... above the orange hue of street lamps there was the waning moon - rising late, and up above, the sky was clear with a sprinkling of stars & Orion..

I discovered Delhi in winter.. I love the lofty neems, and the way the sun plays with Delhi's contours.. especially in the areas where I go to work, Chanakyapuri & Lutyen's Delhi..Lodhi Gardens, Safdarjung, and am fascinated by old historic Delhi..

Endless enchantment.

Haven't been to Mangalore or that part of Karnataka or to Konkan coast.. someday it might just happen, like all else did.. but would love to go there; travel up the coast..I've heard and read so much from friends, family and peers..

"various emotions being just a flow of different grades of consciousness.." that's so true Sundar and Aachi...thank you for your beautiful shares.

hi aachi, sukanya, sundar, enjoying delhi chori chori, i too am awake and around and about you lol!

harb

sukanya and aachi, tx for those poetic darshans of delhi....beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder...

harb, the silent tycoon....last night i just went off to the sea front to hear the waves...so while all these discussions were on here, i was savouring those wave sounds in a gentle whiff of sea breeze...i enjoy early morning and late nite dialogues with the sea...

Mithin,
I always know that you had this great skill of seeing things which we cant even think of.Great one from a loving person.
It was indeed a great experience reading this...

Hi harb

Even I spent my first 4 years in Chohla Sahib.
And I was there on sunday...

wow, but open up a bit more friend! who are you and how and where you happened to pass the first four years at chohla sahib and how you visited it now!! wish you had taken me along...if you know me.

it is like meetig somebody from your own village in some foreign land!

seems, jasjit is sitting beside you smiling...or at least knows you...no?

Pls. can u tell me who belongs from CHAMBA KALAN??

Hello Gurpreet, it is me, Harb.

How do you know about Chamba kalan?

You can even write to me at harb_singh@yahoo.com