Tag: perspective (Page 16 of 17)

Tidying up our home

April 20, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

The sun shone feebly over the hills covered with morning mist. Alive with nature’s clarion call, the valley arose to greet the new day.
It was my first morning at the Mindful Farm Community. I awoke bright and early and savored the surprise of the magical dawn that unfolded.
Amid the calls of curious birds, I heard the clink and clank of kitchen utensils at a distance. I descended the stone stairway and made my way to the kitchen.
Pi Nan, the former monk turned farmer, the founder of the community, was cooking breakfast all by himself.
Brim with enthusiasm, he enjoyed each moment of involvement.

‘Can I help you Pi Nan?’ I asked.
‘Yes, of course. Can you cook something with Zuccinni? We have a lot from the farm but I don’t know how to cook it.’ he shared humbly.

‘No problem Pi Nan, I can do that ‘ I said and got to work.

I made a broth of Zucchini with lemongrass, fennel and mushroom sauce. At a wizardly pace, he made four dishes at the same time.
At 8 am, Pi Nan rang the breakfast bell. Everyone assembled and got themselves a plateful of food.
We sat facing the rising sun and enjoyed the meal in complete silence, mindfully.

Once we finished, I got up to wash the dishes. In the community people take turns to cook and clean. I chose to help my friends cleaning the dishes.
Down to the last dish to clean,
My fellow work-mate Rafa and I smiled at each other.

Just twelve hours ago, I was completely new to the community and now suddenly, I felt quite at home.
After a moment of thinking, I realised why.

‘You know, the easiest way to feel at home anywhere Rafa?

‘No, What is it?’

‘ The easiest way to feel home is by helping to clean up. Once you do that, you’re not a guest or a stranger anymore.
You’re part of the home, part of family.’

‘Oh yes ! I too feel the same ‘ said Rafa laughingly as we washed the last dish.

Breathing in the fresh mountain air, I wondered,
‘ Isn’t this beautiful planet we all share our home too?’

‘And if so,
Then are we tidying it up in the best way we can?’

The mist in the valley and in my mind, cleared up at this realization.

And with a clear mind, ready to act,
I picked up the broom,
And my spirit,
To do my part,
One choice at a time.

What’s your Age?

April 16, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

Seated cosily on a couch, my new friend and I were sharing our thoughts on life eagerly. Even though I had spoken to her many times over the phone, this was our first meeting in person. We were sharing our life stories, listening and interacting with deep intent.
At a certain point she asked,

‘Can I ask you a personal question?’

‘Yes , surely!’

‘How old are you?’
She asked almost as if she felt that the question might have made me uncomfortable.
I quite readily disclosed my age and so did she.
And we carried on our conversation about splendid things under the sun.
But this moment of inquisitiveness got me wondering about the concept of age.

Why does a purely chronological fact make one feel uncomfortable?

I feel that when one is confronted with this question, deep inside, it feels like a moment of reckoning.
He starts to evaluate the worth of his own self and his time on Earth. It gets him wondering if he is the best he could have been at his present age.
We all have a certain idea about our age. There is a societal checklist so to say, of things you must accomplish before a certain age. Then, there are personal ambitions and goals one visualizes in his ideal self that he must fulfill by a certain time in his life.
But these societal and individual checklists are the best case scenarios, the abstract version of an ideal reality.
If one is judging his worth against these parameters, he’s surely trying to hide his age, because the ideal scenario never exists in real life.

In my opinion, we should rethink the concept of age altogether. We have a certain, non negotiable biological age. There’s no denying that.
But I feel we represent a different age at different moments in life.
We are youthful and alive in the company of friends, carefree and childlike when around kids, a curious student in front of our old teachers, avuncular mentors for young students, and always a child for our parents.
We are 4 years old at one moment, 24 at another. It depends on the context and the company ,doesn’t it?

One can only truly feel comfortable in his age when he is aware and accepting of how our age morphs from time to time .
For me my biological age doesn’t matter so much.
As long as I am old enough to be responsible of my actions and youthful enough to be childlike as situations arise,
I have made peace with the number of trips I’ve made around the sun.
I turn 28 soon.
But that, as they say, is just a number !

Choosing to Smile

April 14, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

After a 14 day ride up north from Bangkok, I finally reached Chiang Mai yesterday.
The great thing about travelling on a bicycle is that you get to transition from one place to another. The shift in place is not sudden like a train, bus or an aeroplane journey where you travel from point to point.
And with the slowly changing landscape, food, flora and fauna, I also noticed another discerning change.
This change was about people.

I bicycled mostly through rural Thailand. Even though people did not speak English at all, they offered helped in the best manner possible. They would smile more often. Without any reason I would find myself smiling at them as I passed by their field of view at a leisurely pace. And over the past two weeks, I learnt to smile at strangers.

As I reached Chiang Mai yesterday afternoon, I stopped at a public park to rest.
Being the second biggest city in Thailand, it has a sizable population. Tourists thronged the city to celebrate the Thai new year ‘Songkran’ in huge numbers.
Sinking in the feeling of having safely reached the city, I smiled, just like I did at the village folk in rural Thailand.
I looked into the eyes of people passing by and smiled genuinely, like a child.
I was happy and I wanted to share the energy.
But I was met with reserved smiles, guarded hearts looking at me curiously.
For a moment I wondered,
‘Why aren’t people smiling?’

Equally perplexing was the way people were reveling in the streets with uninhibited laughter and festivity of Songkran celebration. People were splashing water at pedestrians and passer-by and laughing their hearts out.
But the kind, natural, sincere smile was missing everywhere I saw.

In a few hours, I had to accept the reality of how a city gets used to individuality, at the expense of a collective community.

My smiles became much guarded in a day, just to not make other people uncomfortable.
In my eyes however, there still was unbound happiness and wonder.

As I walked past a big building in the city today, the security guard and I exchanged a glance. And we both smiled at each other in perfect consonance. What a welcome change it was !

Deep down I know, he still has a little part of the village in his heart,
As do I.

While we cannot change a city’s culture,
We can surely influence the culture through our interactions, our immediate surroundings,
In the little world we dwell in.

As I write, I am looking at a flower and wondering,
‘The flower is only looking to transform itself from a bud to a bloom, not worried about where it is in the world.
It only expresses its energy and graces the little world it dwells in.

We as creators of culture are confronted with a choice.
And in the interest of more smiles,
We should always yearn,
To Bloom.

Uphill

April 12, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

After spending a comfortable night at a Buddhist temple-school, I prepared myself to leave early in the morning. My little monk friends were just arriving from their alms gathering run around the village. They all had one thing to share with me from their alms-pot. Someone offered Soy milk, another a pack of noodles, a Thai snack…
I looked at them all and asked,
‘Can we eat together?’
‘Chai Chai'(Yes-Yes) they said and we enjoyed a nice breakfast together.
I told them I am going to Chiang Mai next, 150 kilometers further uphill. Following an incredulous gasp, they all started giggling. They must have thought I am crazy.
As I parted, they all lovingly sent me off.

I reached a town called Lampang in the afternoon. I had two flat tires on the way and I had to fix them on the Asian Super highway under the afternoon sun. I was quite exhausted when I reached a little Mom and Pop store in a quiet corner. I stopped and asked for something vegetarian.
Flustered by the unusual request,
The old store lady brought me a cup of instant noodles.
I sat and ate like I’d not seen food in a few days. She also brought bananas, water and grape juice.
I shared that I am cycling up north to Chiang Mai.
I gestured that my ride since morning has been uphill. She nodded as she turned the table fan towards me.
She exuded such motherly care that I didn’t want to get up and leave the shop.
She refuse to charge me for food. I got away with atleast paying for the instant noodles, ‘Mama’ as they call it in Thailand.

I bicycled on for another couple of hours, all the way, Uphill. It was difficult. At some points I would just laugh out loud wondering how difficult it was !
As the evening set in, I started wondering about finding a shelter. I searched for temples nearby but there were none around the Asian Super highway.
Eventually I stopped at a highway police station to catch a breath.
I sat on a bench and wondered, I am not going to be able to cycle another 30 kms uphill today. I must put an end to cycling for the day.
I looked around to find a highway police man come towards me with his phone.
He used a Thai-English translation app to communicate with me.
His translation read.

‘Do you have a tent me dear friend?’
I nodded animatedly.

‘You can set it up right here and sleep tight for the night.’
I couldn’t believe how eager he was to help.
Later on he came to me and led me to a room with a bed in the police station.
The translation on his phone read,
‘You can sleep on the bed. No need to set up your tent.’
I hadn’t felt so grateful in a long time.
I wrote in his phone,
‘You have a kind soul.’
He smiled like a child.

Right now, I am sitting in the comfortable bed that my Policeman-friend generously offered me.
And I wonder,
‘Why are all these amazing people helping me so much?’
‘Is it because I am on a bicycle?
Or because I am Indian?
Or do I look in need of help?’

Then I realised,
More than anything else,
I am being helped,
for the spirit of choosing to ride,
Up the hill.

How many friends do I have?

April 11, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

‘So, do you know anyone in Thailand ?’ asked one of my friends over dinner.

‘Hmmm, do I need to know someone in Thailand?’

‘Yes! It is a country you have never been to. It helps to have a connection that will be of help just in case.’

‘Well, I don’t know anyone.’ I smiled apprehensively.

Yes, I did not know a single person in Thailand before coming here.

But every single day since I’ve been here, I meet a new friend.
Now that I think of it, I would tell my friend,
Yes, I have many friends in Thailand.
I don’t know them all yet!

They keep coming and sharing their love,
One day at a time.

Today I met many little monks at a Buddhist monastery. I don’t know names of all of them. But we smile when we pass by. They kindly shared their living space with me for the night and brought me dinner. The warm energy of comradeship surrounds the whole space.

After this brief jaunt of a few weeks around Thailand, my perception of a friend has changed.

Earlier if I were asked to count my friends, I’d make an effort.

But now, if a little kid asks,
‘How many friends do you have?’

I would only be able to say,
‘I cannot count them out. Because I am yet to meet all of them!’

To a new day,
With the promise of meeting another friend !

Harnessing Help

April 10, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

Back in school we had a story in our textbook that I still remember vividly.
There was a huge trunk of a fallen tree blocking half of the path leading into a nearby town. Most people chose to do nothing about it. They just passed by from the other half of the road that was still accessible.
However, a little boy saw this scene and was determined to change the situation. He kept his school bag aside and started to push the mighty trunk out of the way.
The onlookers were amazed by the boy’s spirit. One by one the onlookers joined him, as did the people passing by. Before too long, the trunk started to roll. Everyone put in all of the energy that they could and soon enough, the trunk rolled out of the way. The road was clear for everyone to use safely.

Where did the energy to move such a mighty trunk come from?
It came from a little boy’s mindset.

There are seemingly insurmountable problems all around us. And we have learnt to navigate our way around these problems to live a life of compromise.
We tend to feel that people are too busy with their own lives to help fix a situation that needs collective effort.
But the parable of the little boy only reaffirms us with the faith that if you are willing to take responsibility of a mighty problem that plagues all, helpful hands will manifest around you.

So, it is never a problem of there being enough help available. There always is help around, albeit in latent form.
That help can always be galvanised.
The only question is,
‘Am I willing to take the first step?’
‘Do I have the heart to take a humongous responsibility?’

If so, the trunk will roll off the road.
It is only a matter of time.

When only your mother reads your blog

April 9, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 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.
‎

Being Nature

April 3, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

It was a fine summer morning. Aiden and I were sitting in our little hut overlooking the open forest. We balked in the warm sun filtering through the growing canopy of young trees. Quite the nature lover, Aiden was lost in observing things around him. His lips arched in a wondrous smile as he shared,

‘It’s fascinating!’

‘Just how there is so much life happening right within a hand-span of earth! There’s all these tiny creatures busy with their own lives. Things we would never notice if chose to not pay attention. And then there are creatures we can’t even see with our naked eyes, but as alive as anything else around.’

‘Fascinating indeed! Awareness is such a gift’ I replied.

‘And the possibility of raising our awareness even further. Another gift in itself!’ he said feeling the earth with his fingers.

As his eyes scanned further, he spotted an injured worm struggling to crawl to safety. He sat meditatively, wondering…

He turned to me and asked, ‘Sometimes you wonder what to do in such situations. Whether to interfere with nature or just let it be.’

His hands still caressing the earth around the injured worm.

There was silence.

I poured a couple of glasses of hot tea from my flask and proffered one to him.

‘Aiden, WE ARE nature. And so is our decision to act.’

He smiled as he accepted the cup. He picked up the worm gently with his fingers and left it at a safe spot to recover.

With cups in our hands and smiles on our faces, we, two beings of nature, savoured nature…

The tale of three friends

April 2, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

Once upon a time, three close friends visited a historical town. They roamed about all the day looking at remnants of a once thriving civilization. All around the town there was rubble and bricks holding together the form of old houses, castles and temples. Towards evening, each of them sat at a nice spot overlooking an old temple as the sun drew closer to the horizon.

One of them thought to himself,
‘How glorious this town would have been in its heydays. Even if only disintegrated parts of the civilization remain, it commands such glory and respect. I would like to build something like this!’
Later on in life he went on to become a great builder who engineered a state of the art township. Glorious on all fronts in his lifetime.

The second one of them was ambitious as well but wanted success quick. He thought to himself,
‘What is the point of building something that stands for long if it is going to become rubble anyway. And I can see remnants of old towns are celebrated by all. I should make something that turns into rubble fast so that I can be alive to see how my achievements are lauded.’
He went on to make a town with inferior quality material. It was sure to turn to dust within his lifespan.

The third friend was an observant man. He looked at the remnants of an old temple and saw a little tree growing out of the crevices. Then he saw around and almost everywhere, he saw little plants trying to grow in between bricks. There was a statue of the Buddha in a temple that was completely entwined in tree roots. It was the most famous place in the city.
He had an epiphany.
He went back and started planting trees all around his country. He did it all through his life happily.

In a couple of centuries their civilization was wiped off by a natural calamity.
A few centuries further into the future, people came to see the once glorious town from far away places.

The first friend’s construction drew a lot of crowd. People studied the remnants of the architecture. Even if most buildings didn’t hold on to their functional use, they still represented a glorious past.

The second friend’s construction turned into rubble within a few years of building. Nothing remained of it after a few decades. The land where the buildings stood was left barren, bereft of life.

What happened to the third friend’s work?
All around the country, there is thriving flora and fauna that is going to last for centuries for everyone to enjoy.
He only planted a few thousand trees in his life. But he invested his time and energy in something that would self replicate and flourish even after his demise.

No one remembers the name of any of these three friends today. Their karmic footprint is in the quality of their work.

Today, in this ancient town,
I’m writing under the shade of a resplendent tree in springtime. I have a feeling about what I should do with my time, life and work.

If life is not going anywhere

March 30, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

Deep in our hearts, we all have that little dream of an adventure. But we are guilty of postponing it forever. We think that life is not going away anywhere and we will fulfill our dream of that adventure someday along the way. We do this because we are too afraid to stray from the constancy of life. Since an adventure asks for a tectonic shift in our lifestyle and outlook, we postpone it.
‘Life isn’t going away anywhere,’ we rationalize. ‘One day we will embark’.

However, there is another perspective which might serve one better.

Life truly is not going away anywhere.

Yes, an adventure asks for time and mindspace. But if we give it what it takes, our life will only be further enriched through the experience. We can always come back to the constancy, the mundane daily life. And it is best to come back to it enriched.
As we return to our previous lifestyle after the adventure we’ll discover that we’ve evolved. And we are ready to imagine a life that’s true to who we are deep inside.

So if you feel your life is going nowhere, remember that life is not going away anywhere. Make time, be brave and fulfill the adventure you’ve always wanted to.
In the interest of the evolution of your soul.