Happiness is..... A Kindle

 

An event of earth shattering magnitude occurred yesterday, I felt crushed, it was as if the whole world came to a standstill....  

Well, you must be wondering what catastrophe befell me, did the sky fall down or Apocalypse happened??

Nothing of that gargantuan proportions happened, it is just that my Kindle refused to start( which to me was tantamount to a Shakespearean or Greek tragedy all rolled into one)  - I left it to charge , joyfully contemplating a few hours of blissful reading. My sea of tranquility was rocked by a fierce tempest- critical battery status on my kindle screen, no matter how hard I tried to revive it, my kindle refused to restart. In that moment, I felt like I was losing a much loved and cherished friend leaving behind a void which cannot be filled. The reminiscence of happy times filled with hours of enraptured reading on my kindle flashed before me. A treasured and loyal friend, my kindle has been my companion and kindred soul. 

And then, as I was trying to come to terms with my despondency and torment, I saw the screen flicker and like the mythical Phoenix, my Kindle resurrected itself from the ashes!

All order was restored and as Darth Vader famously said" This will be a day long remembered..."

Where do I see myself five years down the line?

The quintessential question found in the repertoire of  every interview's quiver of arrows to be aimed at potential candidates, a question done to death in every interview and worse, the score of unimaginative and run of the mill answers given in response!

Though I am not facing a hiring manager, I would still like to contemplate an answer, however there is no easy answer to this superficially profound question.

If I answer I do not know, you will think I am not ambitious or my life lacks direction. If I give a detailed itinerary of my life's journey as I envision 5 years ahead, you will think me over-confident and arrogant!

The world as we know it has undergone a dramatic and perhaps unimaginable change, a change none of us were prepared for! In this fragmented world, the shards of  our illusionary invincibility lie scattered, we are scrambling to find meaning and reconstruct the familiar wholeness. It feels like we are in the middle of a fast paced thriller with no clue to the ending. In this scenario how do I answer this question- it makes me pause and think. 

Five years ahead is a scenario I cannot fathom today, I wish to be a lot of things by then, just not sure if I will be able to achieve it all. So instead of wishing and wanting to be somewhere in an uncertain and  unsure future, I would live in the moment, savor each minute as it comes and not think of what lay ahead. The most constant thing in this world is change : " Resistance is futile" !

Beam me up Scotty! I am ready to live ! :)

" Teaching is a walk in the park..... but that park is Jurassic Park !"

A lazy afternoon well spent in mentoring and assisting my 12+ year old prodigal son in his English creative writing exercise. Being an English language educator, that would be my Utopian ideal , sadly, the ground reality is appallingly dystopian!!!

Picture the scenario: 

Summons from the Lord and Master of the house: "Son, you need to pick a suitable topic to work on your creative writing skills! "

Prodigal Son: " Yes papa" ( apparently all the teenage Sturm & Drang is directed against the mother and not the father). " Mom, I can't think, can you suggest a topic please?"

Oh the joy I feel at being asked!

Me: " Of course beta"( and being the ubiquitous teacher , I give him the topic that my 4th graders in school were given last week). "Why don't you try writing on - What I feel when I look out of the window....

Prodigal son-"MOM, what kind of a topic is this????  What will i write about when i look out of the window, what IS there to look out at?? and on top of that I am stuck here, in this lock down, with nothing happening in my life....

Me: " Ok, hold your horses, you are supposed to THINK about it and not rant at the unfairness of your life"

15 minutes goes by...

Me:" Son, are you done writing?"

Prodigal Son-" What? like now? SO soon???"

Me:"How long does it take to think and write?"

Prodigal Son- " Mom, just because you can write does not mean I can too, this is unfair...." ( and the raging and ranting goes on.)

Me: Ok! Ok!, take your time.

Another 15 minutes later..

Me: " SO , what have you finally  written?"

Prodigal Son passes his workbook to me.

My worst nightmare came true, the world as I know if does not exist anymore , the humongous effort and energy spent  by just trying to get him to start thinking on the given topic makes me cry tears of frustration and lament the gross malfeasance by the Almightly creator in giving me a son who cannot appreciate the nuances of English language! His piece is full of gaming and science fiction jargon, a picture of a desolate future due to human actions. Very creative indeed, but where is the  sentence structure, and punctuation, not to forget the use of imagery to make meaning clear?👿

Prodigal Son(looking at my inscrutable expression): " Mom, relax, It is not so bad, at least I used my imagination!"

Me: (in a daze)- "Yes dear! There is that.."😓

END to a  productive and fulfilling afternoon. (ahem!)

Serendipity

Does the universe conspire for souls to meet each other?

Another weekend, another thought provoking question! 

This one thought has been on my mind for a long time, what is that serendipitous force that pulls two ships passing in the night to each other? Destined to be together and how?

Some things are meant to be... I live by this adage. Some things are too strange to be a coincidence and if we believe in the power of this universe , we must believe in serendipity. So tune your mind and your soul and wait for the universe to lend a helping hand. Happy weekend. 

Happy Friendship Day

There are so many of these ' days' that are being celebrated now a days that I am bewildered at the mind-boggling variety and the sheer numbers of these monstrosities that are foisted upon us, exploiting our sentimental and tender-hearted emotions 

Having said that, there is one among these that is special to me, just for the simple reason that it celebrates people in my life who have been more to me than even family. Without being sentimental and misty-eyed, this piece today is my ode to the few friends in my life who have kept me sane when everything around me was maddeningly falling apart. 

Someone rightly said," A true friend walks in, when the rest of the world walks out".

The balm of their understanding, the benevolence of their friendship and the show of solidarity when I, like Atlas toiled and struggled to uphold the burden of my adversities, helped me overcome those difficult times. I am who I am and I am blessed for having a few people in my life, who are bound to me , not by blood, but by bonds that are deeper than blood; for they have shown me what it means to be a true friend.

Humbled and blessed, I thank each one of you my dear friends for embracing me and loving me. 

A special thank you to all my friends,we don't need daily conversations as we are all in each other's thoughts and hearts always.

Wisdom begins in wonder-Socrates

Chanced upon this  sagacious quote  with a serenely sanguine image while going through my daily Facebook wanderings. The wise Socrates said-"Wisdom begins in Wonder". This got me thinking as to how germane this saying is to our children today.  Without a sense of wonder and a capacity to appreciate the  world around us, we are not really on the real path of learning.

Children have an innate and inherent desire to question and they go about this quest in the most incredibly persistent manner. Not a moment goes by when I am not a target if heavy artillery fire of wondering and questioning from my two boys! As exhausting as it is, there is also a sense of intellectuals exhilaration, when I am able to give a satisfactory answer to their never ending queries. But many a times I am guilty of ignoring their questions, "Not right now, I am busy", or "we will talk about it later". By stifling their curiosity or worse by not acknowledging it, am I impeding them? Is education just amassing a set of degrees, or do I have the courage to let me children actually learn?? When they wonder, they learn- without the filters of what society deems appropriate and outside the parameters of the perception of education! Do we possess the wisdom to set our children free? Food for thought...

“Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?” ― Garth Nix, Sabriel

So it has been a while that I inked my thoughts on paper!

Last couple of weeks have been a struggle- to construe some kind of meaning in this existence, the what and why of this life! There are times  when I  recede into a cocoon of my own making- where in isolation I muse upon some surreal questions; diving into the obsidian depths of my mind . Like a sea slug lying unobtrusive on the sea floor, my question refuses to go away, no matter how much I dive into abyssal depths to run away from it, I keep coming back - over and over! I tie millstones of rationalism around its neck ,burn it at the stake of optimistic contentment , but like the mythological phoenix, it rises up every time! 

The demon confronts me again and this time I chose to take it head on. So here I am trying to figure out an answer to the one question that has ceaselessly rallied like an unabating storm against the windows of my mind-  Are we truly free and masters of our own destiny?

Like all human, I live a glorified chimera we call life- a fable with its share of ebbs and tides. I have maintained the facade that  I am the creator of my destiny and . And a tiny voice inside my head say- "Oh Really!!!" 

No matter how much we wish to continue the illusion, the fact is, there are forces in this universe that are beyond our understanding or control. The best laid plans go awry, years of hard work  lay to naught, your life disintegrate in front of you.... and you cannot do  anything except wring your hands , lament or rage against the inequity. 

I am a firm believer in the concept of TIME. When the time is right , everything neatly falls into place like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and when the time is not- well, one piece will elude you, precluding the completion of your puzzle. 

I am still pondering over the question, sinking deeper into the vast morass as I try finding an answer... and so the quest continues !!!!

Till next time

Akanksha Bhanot

Back to school, relive the nostalgia- Must watch on Netflix!

I have always been a movie buff and more so now with lockdown blues and a lot of time on hand to spare! If you like high school romcoms, you MUST, absolutely MUST watch The Kissing Booth. A sparkly frothy movie about two best pals and the regular trials and tribulations of teenage love, and what happens when the female lead falls in love with the yummilicious elder brother of her best friend!!! Fantastic cast, great music and loads of fun to watch. Watch out for the sequel on 24th July!!!

Pick of the Week

For all you lovers of vintage romantic suspense novels, try reading Mary Stewart. One of the most popular novelists, was born in Sunderland, County Durham, England. Mary Stewart's career as a novelist began in 1954 with the publication of Madam, Will You Talk? Since then she has published fifteen successful novels, including The Last Enchantment, the third book of the magical trilogy about the legendary enchanter Merlin and young Arthur.

 Enchanting and exotic locales, smart bold heroines and fast paced plots are a hallmark of her work. 

Check her out at- http://marystewartnovels.com/biography.html/

Courtsey- Amazon.com 

"Once upon a time there was a girl who really LOVED books. That was me. THE END"

If anyone described my life story, the sole reason why I exist on this earth, my inducement, incitement and incentive to continue on this planet- then this quote does it!

I am that woman who would probably haunt a library, whose ghost will lurk around in bookshops for eternity, for my salvation lies in the pages of books. So this summer, with Covid-19 wreaking havoc across the globe, I get an awesome opportunity to read and read and read some more!

I am reading a historical mystery series by author Anna Lee Huber- she writes some amazingly engaging historical suspense novels with her main leads- Lady Kiera Darby & Sebastian Gage- playing with danger and solving mysteries around them. You can check out the series at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5775520.Anna_Lee_Huber

The writing is fast paced and atmospheric with romantic tension between the lead pair!

Not a heavy read, you will enjoy the series.