Lili and the omen

She thought, when I started the painting I did not foresee the painting as it turned out to be finally. I just kept doing what came into my mind, then nothing was planned .It was just the minds flow that took shape into a painting and yet it was perceived and nominated as the best painting of the year which sought her a fortune at the Sotheby’s. She was happy for the appreciation of her work and the fortune she received but in her mind she wondered was it as worth as it was ranked by others?

While just strolling down the road, lost in her thoughts, Aparna walks down till the lake. Near the lake as she takes a view around, she finds one girl almost about her age, sitting solemnly. The girl was lean and averagely dressed, bending down to face the lake water. Aparna’s gaze is now caught by the fluttering pages of a book lying besides that girl.

Wondering what the girl was trying to do, Aparna goes close to her and peeks into the fluttering pages of that book. She gets hooked to that book as the fluttering pages give her the glimpses of what was contained in that book. She could partially see some of the beautiful paintings drawn in that book interspersed with some writings also.

To quench her amazement over that anonymous girl, she taps her gently and says “Hi, I am Aparna. I just saw partially some of the beautiful paintings in your book and I must say they are awesome. Who are you? Are you an artist? If you don’t mind can you show them ? I am an artist myself”

To this, that girl just gave a lame look. Though Aparna looked like a damsel to her, she found some sort of coziness in Aparna’s company and hence started sharing “I am Lili, I come from near by village. I come here daily to search life and the experience that nature has to teach us. What makes you come here madam; you seem to be from a very rich family? Even I wish I was …” the voice dampens and the pitch goes real low “ rich and successful ” “ I wish to work and bring in loads of good for my paren…..”

“No, I am not as rich as you are, I just came strolling here and saw u kneeling over the lake and thought to inquire the same from you. The paintings that I had a glimpse are extremely good, they are awesome, you could win ample awards and money from it. Could I have a better look of it?”

“Sure madam” says Lili and gets close to Aparna to show her the paintings. “This one madam, I had drawn a few years ago, and this one when there was lots of rain last year and the lake looked brim fully happy and this ….. ”

Aparna, now lost in her thoughts as she went through the paintings one by one. She wondered over the worth of Lili’s skills. Just then as Lili was showing her work, Aparna’s eyes hit the words on the flipping pages “Why is it that I wouldn’t trust what I don’t see…..”
To this she put hand over lili’s hand to halt over that page.

“Lili, could I read that what we just flipped by.. those words seem interesting to me .. “Why is it that I wouldn’t trust what I don’t see…..”

Lili, a little hesitant at first shows it to her and says “madam, these are my thoughts and I have no education like you so they may seem stupid and weird to you, but… ”

By now Aparna has already started reading what was written..

“Why is it that I wouldn’t trust what I don’t see?
Where is that reassuring hand to get us through?
What reassurance do people give to themselves in the state of fear or period of trial that would help them dole out relentlessly?
And was keeping faith till the last minute of trial being overly positive..

At least show me the omens that I hang on or move on,
I need omens to guide me through,
I need omens to guide me through,
Be it in form of putting trust on instincts
Or not letting me leave that path that was meant for me to travel,
Cos what purpose will it serve if I return with mission unaccomplished?
Show me the omens to guide me through.”

Totally stunned now, Aparna is thinking over the worthiness of the words mentioned.. they were powerful , they were words with great thought.. words which touched almost everyone . they were words of omens and the dreams..

Lost in the words of Lili’s poem, omens that we should seek, Lili’s worth as a great artist and Lili’s position of where she is and where she should have been … Aparna thinks in her mind “As like the painting she made with not great thought and effort.. it just happened and yet that sought the award, she thought there are many things in life which are incidental or accidental and there is a force that guides one through to make it the way it is… but what of omens and dreams ..and what of Lili’s omens and her dreams …. ”
______________________
Other short stories are here , here , here , here , here and here .

coincidence or what ??!!

Sometimes, why certain events just happen with you and not with someone else.. all the more that event is something you hate the most .. for eg.. hair coming in the food plate that you are consuming and it keeps coming to your dish alone leaving apart other taking food from there only... :)

similarly other events that may happen to you but you hate those events to take place ... is there an answer to such events that happen to you consequently ...?? or can this termed as coincidence or what.... !!??

lets do our bit ... say no to plastics

One more message to spread ....
say no to plastics..
lets do our bit by reducing our wants of using and wasting plastics unnecessarily .. and spread this message to as many as possible..
It would be nice to get a feedback of the count in my comments section of how many people were spread this message or sensitized to... ( to whoever lands on this page unknowingly or is a regular visitor of this page.. )

pondering over ...passing thought ...

Quite often we tend to pass on a murk smile ( or a mocking smile ) if someone falls or makes mistakes ..
( and all the more if the wavelength of the other person dosent match much with you ( or if one is not too comfortable with the other person))

what makes us laugh .. that other person has made mistake and you are not the only one ... or what ...

**Tagged** TagDi Batein

Little Ranting reptile ( stupidosaur) has tagged this time .. ( Acknowledgements to the little ranting reptile to 1st of all tag me and 2ndly to use a part of title from his blog without asking , but this reptile is a little generous and wuldnt mind the same ;) )
More often then not Tags come and act as fillers .. anyhow here is the tag completed..
Rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge the person who tagged you.
Nearest book?
Hmm.. badi mushkil se ye book khatam kiya .. Pg 123 didnt have anything substantial to quote so I took liberty to change it to pg 148 and the last of 3rd sentences from that page is what i ve taken here

Name of the book: Letters to Sam , A grandfathers lessons on Love, loss, and the gifts of life By Daniel Gotlieb

( Crossword had put it in best seller section - but some how I was hardly impressed . As written in the last page of this book Royalties from sale of this book are being donated to cure Autism now and other children's charities. - so in case if u wud like to do a little charity u can buy this copy - otherwise the book can be skipped.. )

Here are the lines :
"Groopman realised that as he accomodated the pain, it persisted. And the more he accomodated, the more it demanded.

I think many of us do this with our tigers. If the tiger is fear of rejection, we might not get into an intimate relationship. If the tiger is depression, we might stay home more and socialize less. if its insecurity, we might devote our lives to appearing more productive than everyone else, just to hide that tiger."
______________________
(Could coorelate with the above quote and hence posted it but I would like to add one more from my diary . )
I ll post a quote I like a lot .

- To laugh often and much
- To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children
- To earn appreciation of honest critics and endure betrayal of false friends
- To find the best in others
- To leave this world a bit better by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition
- To know even one life has breathed easier because you ve lived.
This is to ve succeded
___________________
Anyone who wishes to update their blog page is humbly requested to take up this tag..It wud be nice to read variety of answers..

Fundamental Duties of Indian Citizen

I found this excerpt on Fundamental Duties of Indian Citizen in one of the secondary school texts on Environment studies.. it did remind me of civics as a subject in my school days and how i used to hate it .. but isnt this feeling what almost all would reciprocate with ..
How important it is to know what the Indian constitution says and do what it takes to prove a better citizen but hardly anyone would be recalling it...
here it goes.

Article 51A of Indian constitution mentions the Fundamental Duties of Indian Citizen

Fundamental duties:
It shall be the duty of every citizen of India –
1) to abide by the constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National flag and the National anthem
2) to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspire our national struggle for freedom
3) to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India
4) to defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so
5) to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all people of India transcending religious linguistic and regional or sectional diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women
6) to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture
7) to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, rivers, lakes, wild life and to have compassion of living creatures
8) to develop the scientific temper, humanization and the spirit of inquiry and reform
9) to safeguard public property and to abjure violence
10) to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement

More Goofing's ......

Now this is becoming a space to vent out goofings.. yet another one and this one was really funny..
Scene 1:
C is to take a lecture to the freshly recruited batch, next morning at 10.30 on a designated topic (which got designated to her just around 6pm).
The lecture to the batch is to start at 10.30am at ground floor conference room.
Few minutes before the presentation time, C checks for the setup. C was not aware where the wireless keyboard and mouse were kept apart from the console to control projector and stuff.. so C goes to the reception counter and gently asks the receptionist ( hence forth called R1) of the same ..
(both the receptionist R1 and R2 are engrossed in some talks before I barge into their conversation )

here goes the conversation…

C: hi, I’ve a presentation in this conference room . I ve to present “slides” so I would like to get the set up of projector, wireless keyboard and mouse done .
R1: tell security nah.. (half listening.. not interested in what C is talking as C had disturbed her from some hot topic both R1 and R2 were discussing… )
C: perplexed.. ‘security’ ??
R1: yeah .. tell security he will do it
C still stands there not understanding why for IT set up she has to talk to security ( or was it that security was that smart )..
R1 : arre tell this lady in grey sari she will also do it ..
C is still standing ..and wondering and more confused.. what and how would security people know about how to set up projector and keyboard and stuff..
R1: go that lady standing there, she will help you. ( by this time R1 is tired of instructing C !!)

Scene 2:
C: ( so confused still) approaches wondering what and how she should explain that security wali lady to get the set up of projector etc done ready for her presentations so that she understands my wants and gets done with my requirement …

Though C in her mind knows the result and doesn’t want to converse at all with that lady but R1 from remote is watching ;) so C makes effort and goes to security)

C: I want to present a lecture , Pls get the projector and keyboard in place..
Security lady : what ?? huh.. i dont get u!!
C is like where in the world have I landed ( C feels like banging her head)

C is looking around for some instant relief and luckily C spots HR guy .. C immediately leaves that lady behind ( that lady is also perplexed what language I talked her into!!) and C follows the HR guy who’s walking towards R1.
( so this conversation again takes place near the R1)

C: hey V, I have a presentation here in ground floor conf. could u pls get the required set of WIRELESS KEYBOARD, MOUSE and PROJECTOR done for me ( C is now tired of explaining her wants)..
V: hmm .. ok ..
Meantime R1 is also hearing C and V’s conversation and barges our conversation to share her knowledge….
R1: o ok u want to present a lecture I will call chacha..I thought u wanted to get “switches” on..
(Chacha was the IT guy handling/managing all those equipments..)

So while I was talking of presenting “slides” ( inturn meaning a presentation) R1 in her own mind understood my saying as “switches” instead of “ slides” and hence was continuously pointing to the security .. because security ofcourse knew where the “switches” were to lit the conference room.

Phew!!!

There was no end to laughing at the whole encounter and events that took place..