Reflections - A Journey Through Life

There was no light anywhere except the back-lights of the car and the starlight. I stood silently. A little apart from my car. Looking around and up at the night sky. After two hours of drive I had told my driver to stop in the middle of nowhere. Just to drink in the night sky. My town was still two hours away. It was late night. No car coming this way. My driver, a quiet non-interfering person. I felt deep peace seeping into me. Huge empty expanse now dark—lying dormant— sleeping under the December sky. This morning only I went along this road, the rolling green sunlit fields merging with the horizon mile after long mile. I loved this road during the morning drive. Now I am in love again, a different kind of love. My puny body rooted to the mother earth, my eyes soared among the stars finding company, strange but rich comforting company. The twinkling stars told me—we are with you, forever.

The man was standing near the window of a car three cars away in front. He was trying to sell cheap toys to a child inside the car. The red light halt at this large traffic point will take a few minutes more to turn green. The object of attraction was a colorful disk—must be part of a cheap toy which the man was trying to sell. The colors lured the child inside the car. A dialogue was going on between the toy-seller standing under the harsh sun and the inmates of the car. All around him were cars of various shapes and sizes impatiently waiting for the light to turn green. He didn't belong there just as a slum doesn't have any right to be near a modern apartment building. I was happy to see the toy passed inside the car. Now is the payment time, the deal will be closed and the man will have the chance to move away from the unnatural company of cars all around him. My gaze had drifted away for a moment. The light had turned green. Cars in the first row started moving. ...

At the end of the two hour flight, the plane landed uneventfully, taxied to a stop and most of the passengers got up simultaneously from their seats. It takes at least five minutes for the gates of the plane to open, but people are impatient. They are all standing still for the disembarkation to start. This is the time I observe my fellow passengers. By natural selection, my eyes land on the females first. This morning I was a bit surprised to find only one female passenger within eyesight. I thought—so what they say is true! After all, it’s still a man’s world. We encounter so many statistics nowadays showing the progress of women. One or two women head large companies. One or two women head nations. Once or twice girls topped national board exams. Leading software companies have started preferring female employees over males. By 2015 men will face a stiff challenge from women in the employment arena. Around us we find with most young couples both of them working. Change is ...

Tell me new things She said to me, “Tell me new things”. We say things, talk, converse, gossip. Among friends, with a friend one-to-one, with our dear ones, with colleagues in workplace and with numerous other people like the shopkeeper, fellow traveler, bus conductor, doctor and so on. Usually I couldn’t talk to unknown people about anything other than the immediate need. Some years back things changed. I still remember an evening when strolling on the sidewalk I entered a small watch repair shop to adjust the band of my wrist-watch. The man on the counter had a bandage on his forehead. While he worked on my watch I started the conversation, “How did you get the injury?” And he started telling the history of his hurt as if he was telling to his friend. I reciprocated and the tale continued. Coming out of the shop I felt a glow. The warmth of holding the hand of another human, a stranger. Did we talk of new things? What do we say? Usually? With old friends we revive o...

The Separation It was a sudden trip. Stolen and sandwiched between two heavy work days. I travel lightly with a small overnighter. But I never forget to take a small lock for it even though I take the overnighter along with me as my cabin baggage. All through my life I could accumulate little of material value but still the idiosyncrasy persisted—protecting my mobile phone for a few minutes while it passed through the x-ray check at the airport security sitting smugly inside my overnighter; or, providing a token security to the not so valuable belongings in my overnighter while I left it in my room for work at the distant city. Over the years the overnighter changed but not the lock. It somehow became my companion—a little bit of security traveling with me in this insecure world, giving me an elusive peace of mind. I came to understand early that most locks do not come alone. Almost always they have a key as companion and you have to take care of the key while the lock travel...