Carpe diem!

This one is for all of us who have put our dreams on hold.

Remember when we were 16 and the world was our playground and nothing, absolutely nothing, was hard to envision?

Adulthood has undoubtedly put our dreams into perspective, magnifying the fine line between the good dreams and the bad, the big and the small, the realistic and the idealistic. It is trying to convince us that dreams are just that, and that life is meant to be filled with sacrifices.

It’s a lie.

Think of the last time you really, really wanted something and gave all you had to get it. Think of the thrill you felt, irrespective of whether you made it.

If the thought was short of a smile, you need to think again.

Cliched as it might sound, life comes with no warantee card. We spend so much of our time doing things we hate that we forget all about the things we love – future or no future. It’s not about being rich or famous or successful. It’s about knowing that at any given moment, there’s nothing else you’d rather be doing and nowhere else you’d rather be.

It’s about the dreams. Let them live with you, within you.

It’s a girl thing.

Here’s the most powerful depiction of girlhood I’ve ever come across. Eve Ensler, the creator of The Vagina Monologues, is amazingly inspiring. All hail!

This talk, entitled ‘Embrace your inner girl’, was delivered by Eve Ensler at TED India (Mysore) in 2009.

Guess who’s back!

Let me say a fashionably late hello to the new decade. I have finally found my new link to the blogosphere. No prizes for guessing; I’m probably the last person to resort to mobile blogging! I’m already in love with my beautiful new white iPhone and all set to resume blogging!

Happy 2010 to all

’cause time flies

It’s been exactly a year since I unofficially graduated from college and lost myself in the insanity of adulthood. I have loved the freedom since, the rush of responsibility, the financial independence, the stamp of a degree, the corporate chaos. And also hated it.

Life has changed in many ways, and yet, in some fundamental sense, I am still the restless, fickle mind of a young student exploring the ways of the world, looking for adventure in the least likely of places, and forever moving by elimination. I have however, in this year, found a master key to survival – living a day at a time. Of all things that work, this one works wonders. It’s amazing what a day can be, with no future to look into and no past to brood over.

I am not aspiring to be a life coach just yet, so I’ll leave you with these lines from Porcupine Tree,

But after a while, You realize time flies, And the best thing that you can do
Is take whatever comes to you, ‘Cause time flies…

The creeper

It sprang from beneath the dark earth

Upon the dark earth

Disillusioned by the light at first

That shone in the sky above

A dry spell

The oasis of thoughts is running dry

Unkind is the trajectory of time

Between dreaming and doing

Imagination has sketched a fine line.

Many lives, many masters

Whether or not you believe in science, this is one book that’s bound to give you food for thought.

Penned by a psychiatrist, Dr Brian Weiss, Many masters, many lives is what he claims to be the true story of one of his patients. Catherine, a young girl troubled by inexplicable phobias, seeks his help, and when typical psychiatric treatments don’t bare results, he resorts to the rarely used practice of hypnosis. What follows is plain bizarre. In her hypnotic state, Catherine appears to visit her past lives, reincarnations of herself in varied geographical locations and time periods. Often, Catherine reaches an in-between stage, where she’s dead but not reincarnated yet, and she communicates to the doctor the messages of highly evolved spirits (called the Masters), including personal details from his own life.

I know it sounds like the plot of some psychological thriller, and as I re-read it, even the highly predictable story-line of a horror Hindi movie. But that’s the beauty of it – what you believe is completely your choice. At one point, I passed it off as a self-help book in disguise, one that will make you feel more aware about life and why it throws what it throws at us.

What makes me think though, is why there are barely any conspiracy theories about what might have happened in Dr Weiss’ office. The book was first published in 1995. There are tapes which recorded the hypnosis sessions, there are psychiatrists who have reviewed the treatment, and if anything, Dr Weiss has abandoned his practice to teach fellow psychiatrists the art and benefits of hypnosis. It sure makes me wonder; if we are to buy that life and death are really the way the book defines them, it will undoubtedly put into perspective everything else we have believed thus far. It’s a matter of faith, yes, but the ideas the book puts forth have an uncanny similarity to Hindu ideologies. For instance, it affirms the entire cycle of life, karma, death and rebirth. I must confess that the book tempted me to abandon my recently acquired nihilistic stance, at least briefly.

If you have ever questioned life and the after-life, pick up a copy and read it. There can be no firm evidence for or against the book, because as google says of the topic, all evidence is anecdotal. It sure however, is an enticing case to brood upon.