One Hundred Years of Solitude

“Intrigued by that enigma, he dug so deeply into her sentiments that in search of interest he found love, because by trying to make her love him he ended up falling in love with her.”

― Gabriel García Márquez

Being YourSELF

Tu Dhoop Hai.. Jham se Bikhar...

Tu Hai Nadee.. O Be-khabar...

Beh Chal Kahin... Udh Chal Kahin...

Dil Khush Jahan... Teri Tou Manzil Hai Wahin...

A thoughtful abstraction

The ones you remember are the ones you cherish. Everything else is forgotten. What lies in between perhaps doesn't matter, the extremities have every chance of living eternity. Life may just be unfair but is that what you will remember in the end? Of thousands of face, images and clustered emotions.. what exactly you think will bring you calm? Past, present, future.. what will you loathe more; chances that you missed or the attempts that threw you off the cliff? Head on collision with the authenticity of life.

You might say life's unfair, true sometimes, but its indisputably genuine too. Like a gray dull sky that goes violent, or like a reddening sun. They say... to feel isn't as difficult as to think, but what's the difference? They ask.. what's harder to put in; questions or answers? When a lad from a lower middle class family travels in air for the first time, what is that one thing which is more obvious? Joy? Fear, diffidence?

60 Seconds...

60 seconds between us. 6 meters ahead of me. Living in a same enclosure, this is what separates us. You, me and these 60 seconds, that's all. Now we are not like those people... they have so much time you know. They can actually go back to that debris and isolate every single decision they took. They can look for the shadows of people they lost, and try to retract images. In their lives, they can bring out their old muddy sculptures back from their subconscious store rooms and wait for the day when everything shall come alive.

We can't do it, can we? They are after me but I don't care really. I'm just about these 60 seconds between us. You got to know this. Just like my past, I can relate with those people and those places. But I can't go back. Glory awaits me.

Isn't this a beautiful thought? Whatever I do today, my love, my desires and all those aspirations... all that is about to come...

I can't be there before you. You got to protect me. Take decisions and act. To make things work for me.

And you have 60 seconds!

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Note: I believe this post, originally written on April 25 2009, is one of the finest. Of whatever I have written over the years.

Walls

There are moments... when you stand still and do nothing; you see through the window, see through the lives of people inside and around you... trying to figure the dynamics that have governed..

And then you gradually learn to value... its only the spirit that is immortal.

There are moments... when rotten red bricks begin to speak to you.. But you have to listen; they tell remarkable stories... stories of fanatical lovemaking, stories of atrocious bloodshed.. depends on your own circumstances... as whatever you bring in, these rotten red bricks are going to give it back. These walls have thousands of stories buried inside... what you search is all what you'll find..

She's with you...

You may not be her first, her last, or her only. She loved before she may love again. But if she loves you now, what else matters? She's not perfect - you aren't either, and the two of you may never be perfect together but if she can make you laugh, cause you to think twice, and admit to being human and making mistakes, hold onto her and give her the most you can. She may not be thinking about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her that she knows you can break - her heart. So don't hurt her, don't change her, don't analyze and don't expect more than she can give. Smile when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she's not there.

Hereafter

"After hearing the miracle of my voice, you might think, "Who cares what you earned when you were alive? Tell us what you can see. Is there life after death? Where's your soul? What about Heaven and Hell? What is death like? Are you in pain?" You're right, people are extremely curious about the Afterlife. Maybe you've heard the story of the man who was so driven by this curiosity that he roamed among soldiers in battlefields. He sought a man who had died and returned to life amid the wounded struggling for their lives in pools of blood, a soldier who could tell him about the secrets of the Otherworld. But one of Tamerlane's warriors, taking the seeker for one of the enemy, cleared him in half with a smooth stroke of his scimitar, causing him to conclude that in the Hereafter man is split in two.

Nonsense! Quite the opposite, I'd even allege that souls divided in life merge in the Hereafter. Contrary to the claims of sinful infidels who have fallen under the sway of the Devil, there is indeed another world, thank God, and the proof is that I am speaking to you from here. I've died, but as you can plainly tell, I haven't ceased to be. Granted, I must confess, I haven't encountered the rivers flowing beside the silver and gold kiosks of Heaven, the broad-leaved trees bearing plump fruit and the beautiful virgins mentioned in the Glorious Koran-though I do very well recall how often and enthusiastically I made pictures of those wide-eyed houris described in the chapter "That Which Is Coming." Nor is there a trace of those rivers of milk, wine, fresh water and honey described with such flourish, not in the Koran, but by visionary dreamers like Ibn Arabi. But I have no intention of tempting the faith of those who live rightly through their hopes and visions of the Otherworld, so let me declare that all I've seen relates specifically to my own very personal circumstances. Any believer with even a little knowledge of life after death would know that a malcontent in my state would be hard-pressed to see the rivers of Heaven"....

Chapter 1 - I Am a Corpse

My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk

Personal Note: May not be an easy read, But I would recommend you to read this book. Its mystical, rich and stunningly beautiful.