footsteps in the sand...

Birth and Death...who hasn't been mystified by these two inevitable elements...when the beginning and the end are so overpowering, how can we expect ourselves to understand the intricacies of life,the enigmatic journey we begin to invariably reach the end...?
We spend a lot of time contemplating the past, and planning the future...but when was the last time we took a break to take a look at what we are doing in the present? Have we ever tried to understand the implications of our actions? Am i talking about karma? No, i am talking about how our existence alters another,how a seemingly unimportant act of ours might alter the life of another.
Look at Mitch Albom's take on heaven in the five people you meet in heaven. He recounts the story of Eddie,who meets five people in heaven. These five people are those whose lives Eddie has altered in someway. Eddie doesn't even know the first man he meets. But as a kid, Eddie once ran into the street to retrieve his ball.This man swerves his car to avoid Eddie. He prevents this accident, but still reeling in shock from having almost hit Eddie, he meets with another,culminating in his death.
Makes you ponder about how many lives you have altered unknowingly, doesn't it?
These are incidents that most probably will never be brought to your notice, unless heaven really is a chance given by god to understand your life, as Albom puts it. But what about those that you are aware of?
When we hurt someone with our actions, we repent. If we can, we try to change our ways so that we don't hurt them further. But the damage has been done. Can we erase this damage? Or are our actions written indelibly into the cosmic sea, from which there can be no point of return? Is every action of ours making not just our life,but so many others, a deeper mess? Is there any true way of forgiving and forgetting?
As we run this journey, we invariably leave our footsteps in the sand...in a place already filled with many, we add our own,mis-shaping those we stamp on, cracking those nearby...the question is,will the sea ever advance enough to wash over them...?

Temptation - to give (in), or not to give (in)

"I can resist everything except temptation"
-Oscar Wilde

I start my post with this famous epigram, not 'coz it happens to contain the first word of my title, but 'coz these could have been my original words,had he not thought of it first. :) Ah well, who am i kidding! But i agree with him on those words.
We have all been slaves to this flirtatious evil, the weaker more often than the stronger. But temptation has many arms, many facets,many nets-the strong may elude this one,but turn weak in the next...
temptation seems to be omnipresent. Where ever we look, which ever way we turn,which ever path we trod on, there always seem to be mini traps laid around by her.And no matter how prudent we are,we just cant seem to save ourselves all the time. When we are busy exulting over having saved our right leg, she clutches on to the left.
Take me for example. As a connoisseur of shopping( and i use connoisseur,for shopping is indeed an art) the temptations I find are of the highest order, and the maximum in number. Just when i save myself from falling in love with the purple sequin top (ridiculously priced at Rs 950), my eyes fall on the adjacent dark blue lee cooper jacket, and while i struggle against two instead of one, it suddenly grows to four against poor me in the form of a pair of lovely earrings hanging a few feet away from me and the stunning pair of heels beckoning me through the glass display from the opposite store. All this happens so amazingly fast, that my mind has already lost the battle to my heart, and you ll see me walking out of the store with the jacket and earrings in hand, heading towards the stunning heels. such is the power of temptation.
If you have been ridiculing me while reading the above para, let me tell you,shopping might not be your pit fall.But something else definitely is. Maybe it's the Adidas sports jersey, or your street-corner panipuri,or mouth-watering rasgollas, or the latest barbie doll,or the PlayStation 3, or the cadbury's temptations! The truth is that we all have our unique Achilles heel and temptation holds that knowledge close to her heart.
But why does temptation always have a negative tinge to it? Who said it is wrong to give in to your temptations at times! If you end up in trouble 'coz of your wicked temptations, thats okay! Life lets you make mistakes right? After all, we have been taught to learn from our mistakes. If we dont make any, how else will we learn our lessons!! ;)

p.s. And for those who have been scratching your head over the sense of deja vu the title is giving you, here's a little help for you : to be, or not to be :D

Men may come and men may go, but i go on forever...

No,this ain't Tennyson's Brook talking. This is the harsh abrasive scorching star flaring his fiery tongue at me.
If the sun reminds you of warm California beaches and chilled lemonades, let me take you on a 10 minute walk at 8 30 am out in the Muscat city streets.You will start to loathe the sun.
The sun isn't just a hot ball of gas as he pretends to be. He has a mind. A mind supremely capable of coming up with its gambits.He has ears. How many, I know not. But ears capable of listening sneakily to your silent curses and in perfect co-ordination with the mind, he lashes back at you all the more fiercely.And if he has a conscience somewhere within that impenetrable exterior,let me assure you,it is defunct.
Imagine yourself walking on a Muscat city street at 8 30 am for some reason,the reason being unimportant here.And the person responsible for placing you out in the streets(be it yourself, or your mother) was kind enough to provide you with an umbrella and a bottle of water.You think you are well protected against the sun and can make it unscathed to your destination within 10 minutes. Aha! But you,my poor fellow,have misjudged the true limit of his potential.
He sees you hiding from his glare under the umbrella.Instantly he strikes a deal with the wind. The wind blows its mightiest blow. Whoooooosh...the umbrella flies out of your hand even as you desperately try to clutch onto it...you try to run behind it, But aha! the wind and the sand shake hands( yes they all are successful businessmen) and the sand whirls around you, lifts into the air and the dust particles irritate your eyes...and while you are left standing there scratching your eyes furiously wishing the sand out of them,your umbrella disappears into eternity. Well not really into eternity,but well out of your sight.And this is how,ladies and gentlemen and my poor friend stranded out in the sun,in cahoots with the wind and the sand,he snatches away your first weapon.
He knows the bottle of water is no great weapon. But he is a misanthrope. Seeing man suffer alone with not even water to give him a moral boost is what fuels him. You can feel his hot breath on you. You find your skin breaking out into perspiration.Millions of tiny droplets of sweat.Your body cries out for water and as you gulp down every drop that the bottle holds, he mercilessly continues to suck it all through his straw till the very last drop.And a bit more for pure unabashed pleasure.
And there you are, at the end of ten torturous minutes,dragging your defeated feet which can barely support your withered body and your mind which has ungraciously conceded defeat,to the gates of your destination,the sight of which ameliorate your spirits. And he? He sits high up in his abode,grinning at you,a mere mortal, nefariously, and the above described sight having fueled his fire instead of satisfying his hunger,he spans the earth,searching for his next victim...

inspired by a true incident.