Sreenath Sreenivasan

Thriving Mindfully

Category: Love (Page 3 of 3)

When only your mother reads your blog

April 9, 2018 / / 0 Comments

After four years of indecision and procrastination, I finally started posting my work online a month ago. While I am extremely happy that I’ve been publishing a blog post a day since March 1, 2018, I wonder if I am sharing the best of my work or not. At the moment I do not have as much feedback as I would like.
But I have one constant source of feedback.
My mother.
She reads my posts everyday and shares what she thinks of it. It is an adorable gesture, but it makes me think as if she’s one of the few that comprise of my readers. At one point I thought to myself,
‘Well I just have one member in the audience it seems!.’

Then I wondered,
‘She was the only audience when I learnt to stand on my own feet when I was 12 months old. Also, when I spoke my first words, when I started to hold a pencil, when I could wear a shirt by myself.
All the crucial ‘firsts’ were done with my mother as the only onlooker.
In fact, this rings true for each one of us, doesn’t it?
So now when I think of her as the only loyal reader I have, I feel as if I am up to something good,
something memorable.
Akin to standing on my own feet.
‎

Food, Love and Energy

April 8, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Exhausted after a long bicycle ride, I stopped at a snack shop in a busy lane in Nakhon Sawan. I was hoping the lady cooking inside would understand English. I showed her my phone which had a translation of vegetarian in Thai written for her.
‘Mangsawirati? (Vegetarian in Thai)’ I asked
‘Ok Ok, yes!’ she said.
‎
She quickly cooked up a vegetarian fried rice for me.
We exchanged words as I ate. It was a pleasant 15 minute conversation.
As I left, I felt more energised.
‘I wish you good luck, strong man!’ she said.
We shared a laugh as I pedalled on.

That morning, I had also gotten a bowl of rice and egg as breakfast from one of the monks. We shared a great conversation as I ate. I clicked him a Polaroid picture as a token of appreciation for his kindness.
As I left, I felt I had great energy.

At the moment I am in another temple, supposedly one of the more famous ones since it has a big pagoda on top of a hill in Nakhon Sawan. I have a place to set up my tent in a corner.
But I have absolutely no one around me.
I went out and ate the same meal as I had for lunch and breakfast, this time, all alone.
I had fried rice and eggs. It tasted much how like breakfast and lunch did.
But I don’t feel energized after the meal.

I realize that energy comes from the person who prepares and serves the food,
From the one who shares a conversation with you as you eat.

No wonder kids have such exuberant energy. They’re fed by the most pristine source, with the most heartfelt conversation that can ever exist.
One in the company of their mother!

What do you think ?

Fruit and Family

April 1, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Just about a week ago, we had a send off party at our community. One of my friends was leaving on a journey to Israel in a few days and I was leaving for Thailand. We had a gleeful time at a swimming pool with all our friends. After much merriment, we sat down to have snacks. As I upturned the bag full of snacks, out came rolling among other things,
Passion Fruit!

My sister’s gaping eyes couldn’t contain the joy of this sight. She loves this fruit dearly, as do my other friends. Who doesn’t love Passion fruit !
Everyone grabbed a fruit and savored it as if it were to disappear in moments!

Over the course of time, as the energy got a bit mellow, we all found different places around the pool to sit and relax.

I went to my sister lazing in a hammock.

‘How come you have two passion fruit?’ I asked.

She just giggled teasingly.

‘It might be the last passion fruit you have this year. It’s March, end of season!’

‘Oh yes’ she affirmed with an air of disappointment.

‘But don’t worry, soon we will have mango season no?’

‘Oh yes, in just one month we will have so many Mangoes! But you will be in Thailand. You will miss out on it !’

‘Well, I have a surprise for you’ I said and took out a Mango from my bag.

‘Where did you find this?’ she asked excitedly.

‘On a tree, during my visit to Kerala couple of days ago. It’s ready to eat!’

So there we sat, my sister and I, sharing the last Passion Fruit of the season, the first Mango of the year.

‘This is heavenly’ she said.

I could only agree.

 

Right now I am at a night market in Ayutthaya, Thailand. I see a fruit stand selling Passion Fruit smoothie and Mango with sticky rice.

And I can only wish to have my sister with me to share this. Without her, the pleasure seems unseasonal.

It certainly wouldn’t be as sweet to my heart if not shared with family.

‘

Love and Responsibility

March 24, 2018 / / 0 Comments

There are big tasks and there are small ones. But there is one thing that should not be compromised in the guise of big and small. It is the act of being responsible.

We have a tendency to attribute more respect to someone who does a big task and think lowly of the person who does the small stuff. Say, a white collar manager gets much more respect than a blue collar floor worker in a factory.

With how much love do we do what we do matters much more than big and small after all.
We can do small things with great love.
Think of a gardener tending to a resplendent garden. It brings joy to every onlooker!

Responsibility can only come when you have love for something.
It is the reason men become more responsible once they have a family.

And that’s why it is of paramount importance to do what you love.
Love and responsibility go hand in hand after all.
How else would we build a responsible global community !?

On loving like a child

March 17, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Today morning I was walking around in the forest. I saw my four year old friend a bit further away from me. He was walking his new puppy around. Both of them were in a joyous mood of discovery.
My friend started humming a simple melody to express his happiness. He had a new puppy after all!
His world couldn’t have been any better !
It was a sight to behold.

I too started repeating the melody behind him. His eyes lit up as he heard someone sing exactly what he was singing. He kept on singing and I kept on singing back.
Curiously he started walking along with the puppy in the my direction.
Once he got past the outgrowth of the forest he saw me humming along.
He was delighted. He kept on singing as I kept on repeating his melody.

With glimmer in his eyes he asked me, ‘What is your name?’

‘My name is Sreenath.’

‘Sreenath, I love you’ he expressed.

His puppy found place in his lap and he started singing again, walking towards his hut.

I just stood there wondering,
‘ If only we could love each other for the little things, the small kind actions, a modicum of care,
And express them like a child, with effort less flair
We would be such a loving brotherhood!

Roots

March 8, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Morning. 6 am.
My sleepy 5 year old friend Adva is rubbing her eyes to wakefulness. She dangles out of her mother’s comforting shoulder as sun warms up the air with its promising ascent. She basked in the warmth of mother’s love and sunlight.

After breakfast I saw another friend Lior, 24. She was feeling a bit sick in the morning. The sport she is, she shook her head like a toddler and whined jokingly, ‘I want my mommy!’
She files back home to Israel soon and she will meet her mom in not too long a time.

At night I happened to speak to an elderly American-Indian lady, Dami, 63.
She shared how she comes to India only to see her mother. Life in the US can sometimes get lonely. The prospect of meeting her mother keeps her going. Although the chance of meeting an 86 year old mother in good health gets bleak with every passing day.

It got me wondering how regardless of age, one wishes to turn back to her very source, the Mother.

It’s tragic however that as we age, our proximity to our mother decreases. Even though we have the technology that enables us to talk to anyone anywhere in the world, we still long for a motherly touch, her comforting lap, her nourishing food.

Then I looked around to see my fellow freinds in the flora.
Trees.
As they age, their roots only go deeper into mother earth. Ageing only strengthens the bond between mother and child in this instance.

It might be the deepest human longing ,
To emulate this strengthening of bond with our mother as we age.
We only have to look around and find a tree for inspiration…

The chief ingredient

March 7, 2018 / / 0 Comments

I had the opportunity to cook lunch today at my community. I was a bit drained out because of a bout of cold. Thankfully I had a great kitchen team that helped in the best possible way. We prepared a great meal and left a clean kitchen behind.
Once everyone started eating their meal I could sense that people enjoyed the food. I was happy. After finishing my meal , as I was heading out to wash the dishes , someone patted on my shoulder.

He smilingly told, ‘Thank you for bringing me close to my mother. I ate the food and thought my mother had cooked it.’ I was quite surprised by this compliment considering that he was from Israel and nothing we’d prepared was from the Israeli cuisine.

Then I realized that even though the spices were different the chief ingredient in the meal was the same.

Love.

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SREENATH SREENIVASAN

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