Saturday 21 September 2013

158.A day well spent!

I hadn’t been able to talk to Fr. Johnson even for a second after the first call. And then I got into a frenzy of activities. Then came D-day. I decided not to go for my routine jog in the morning as I wanted to sit and work ‘cause I hardly had any time between my preparation and reaching DBI.
DBI or Don Bosco Institute at Kharguli is located at a location, which is very close to Paradise. As the Borluit flows at an unpretentious pace, my mind races to give my best. Why best and to whom?
Well, it’s been quite a journey with DBI since the start of the millennium. Fr. V.M. Thomas literally kept me on my toes with the plethora of activities over a decade and now with Fr. Johnson, I knew my schedule was going to be busier than I would dare to imagine.
Incidentally, this is what I love doing. Counselling, talking to people and resolving their problems. So, on 20th of September, I, armed with my laptop, which invariably is loaded with all sorts of things, made my way full speed to DBI. I had to present or rather animate for 30 odd junior engineers from Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB).
Though I almost always go to present something or the other but I actually come away learning far bigger lessons from the participants and at the same time having a hilarious time.
The mixed participants of young and old laughed, interacted, joked and made my presentation on communication far more interesting than when I started off with the thought that I will stick out as a sore thumb with this crowd. What a group! Hats off to this beautiful team from ASEB.
After lunch, my drive through the road from DBI to Tata Institute of Social Services was a dream ride. I was relaxed, it was drizzling, while I drove at a snail’s pace glancing at the misty-with-drizzle-river once a while to satiate my love for my Luit.
I reached TIS by 4.30 and within a couple of minutes the whole place was swarming with young people only to be joined a few minutes later by the moderator Kula Saikia and speakers Indrani Rai Medhi, Sriparna Barua, Mitra Phukan, Pulak Banerjee and Samudragupta Kashayap and a host of other people from different backgrounds. It was quite an evening as we all talked about whether “Society can change the Media”. Well, I was only of one opinion.... “If we got to see change anywhere, every individual should be the change. Be the one man army.” Wow! Quite a day!


Friday 20 September 2013

157. Trying to understand


The human psyche has been a study of interest for me as long as I have been trying to understand people and why they behave in a manner peculiar to them alone. No two persons behave, think or act similarly but throughout life, in the process of meeting endless numbers of people, I have come across only a few, maybe a handful who seem to understand me. But my inbuilt radar system somehow catches stray waves of people's behaviour and I, humanely human that I am, try and mirror the behaviour of the other person, which ofcourse means in short that I am concerned about that person and wish only happiness (with no gender biasness whatsoever!!) and want them to come out of that quagmire!
However, in this jet-paced life that all of us lead, love, patience, understanding, concern, thought for the other would probably be words alien to us in a couple of years, maybe months. If only we took some time to understand our brethren, the problems therein, become more sensitive, maybe we could ease the pain for someone and bring the much needed change that we all talk about day in day out. 
If we look around ourselves, we tend to meet more lonely people than people who are happy.They might be smiling and pretending to be over-the-top-happy but once we start talking, we find a person  who is ailing to be loved, pampered and cared for. One reason might be that we are not talking about our problems with family, friends, well-wishers, best buddies across the table. There are no problems without solutions 'cause there is a key to every lock that has been manufactured. 
Trying to understand a person can be a big task but no task can be a mountain if we start to climb it one step at a time!



Sunday 15 September 2013

156. .....and you thought, what?

Since I had come to my senses in the mind, body and spirit, I have realised about the unfathomable depth of the one powerful factor that moves the world; the one factor none of us can do without; the one factor all of us crave for till the last breath. No prizes for guessing but I know some of you got it right. Yes, it is love, love and love.
Saturday was an overwhelming experience with the children adopted by the Don Bosco Institute of Guwahati as I spoke words of enthusiasm with them. They almost brought the house down with their screams of joy and laughter. And I enjoyed every second.
My pledge was simple but that was a day I wanted to give away something. My eyes. As tears rolled down my cheeks looking at the sight impaired little boys and girls, singing, "I have a dream....a song to sing," I only wished I could live that much more to see the dreams of these little angels come true!
(...and all this time you thought my life belonged to me? Nay, it belongs to the people of that same God who has shown me the way to give myself away to the privileged few who desperately need me!)


Thursday 5 September 2013

155. I love you Teacher!


Thankyou Mom! I just wonder where I would have been without your teachings. I hated it then when you used to make me sit straight, close my mouth while eating, smile and not frown (as you told me I would get wrinkles sooner than I could think!), walk daintily in the new dress you sat through the night and stitched, treat everyone with respect, forgive and forget, study hard and best of all, enjoy life! I disliked you reminding me to do all these things all the time. It was so perplexing. I thought there couldn’t possibly be a worst enemy than you at a time when this girl thought she came packed and sealed with all the knowledge of the world. And now, when you are busy with your prayers all day, quiet and tired of the years behind you, I miss your reprimanding Mom, everyday, when I wish you could tell me I am making some silly mistake and not do it again. After all, Mama, I am still your little girl and I don’t want to grow up.




Having said this, my teacher called me today morning at a time when I was driving through the city to get to some place. I told him I am often worried seeing the sad, frustrated, dejected, angry and confused faces of people driving their cars, who behaved as if their work was the most important. He told me, “Try and look at the smiles behind those faces and you have nothing to be worried about.” I know it’s going to be tough but my teacher has surely taught me an important life lesson; “See the positive in the negative.” Thank you teacher ‘cause it’s for you that I stand apart from the crowd instead of being a part of the crowd. Salutations!

Sunday 1 September 2013

154. Back to school


The best part about getting back with school friends is that I can be, unpretentiously my own self. Letting my hair down is just one option when I can actually choose from a wide variety of putting my legs up, laughing uncontrollably, screaming across the table, disturbing the people seated at the next table , eating what I want and not being a wee bit ashamed of it. After all, we were meeting after ages. We were bound to act wild anyway!
So, when a whole zing bang of us from Loreto Convent, one class-mate and an unpredictably larger number of seniors, met at the Brown Bean Cafe for dinner and a chit-chat, people might have passed only one comment with a tilted smirk , "I wonder where these girls were educated. Quite an unruly lot!"
But we LCites, nonchalant as we always were to negativity, gossip and what not, have only learnt to cover our mouths as we laughed with the mirth of a naughty 16 year old!