Sweet Slumber !

 Photographer Anne Geddes has made an art form out of taking pictures of sleeping babies. Her photos evoke smiles. Nothing is a better image of peace than a sleeping child. But between naps and nighttime, caring for children is an exhausting and relentless responsibility. In their innocence and enthusiasm, children can get themselves into life-threatening situations in no time.

 After a hectic day of chasing, entertaining, protecting, feeding, dressing, guarding, guiding, and making peace between squabbling siblings, parents are eager for bedtime. After the toys are put away and the pajamas are put on, the sleepy toddler slows down, cuddles with mom or dad for a bedtime story, and finally falls asleep. Later, before putting themselves to bed, parents check on their children one more time to make sure all is peaceful in dreamland. The serene beauty of a sleeping child makes all the day's frustrations worthwhile.

Too often in our immaturity, we too get into trouble and cause conflict. Like parents of young children, God desires for us to become weary of wrongdoing and to rest in the safety and contentment of His loving ways. 

Tempting outside, toxic inside !

An Australian study concluded that plainer cigarette packages would make smoking less appealing to teens. In response, the Australian government introduced legislation that would require tobacco comapanies to replace color, logos, and promotional text on cigarette packages with health warnings and images of diseased lungs. In effect, the Marlboro Man would give way to the Grim Reaper in an effort to reduce the number of deaths caused by smoking. But cigarette packaging isn't the only thing that may be tempting on the outside with a toxic product inside.

The book of Proverbs urges us to carefully consider the long-term results of all our chocies. The recurring phrase "in the end" (5:4 , 25:8, 29:21) is a warning to look down the road and ask if what we're attracted to will ultimately lead to joy or sorrow, honor or disgrace, life or death. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright (2:6-7).

The key to avoiding the tragic results of foolish choice is embracing His wisdom as our guide through life. Then we will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path (2:9).

The Daffodils !

Don't ask me why this title? I wonder why I kept it (and pasted a picture too), hence would fail to justify.
It was the August of 2013 when I first shifted to this flat here, knowing that Geetha stays just a mile away. Period. No rush in the adrenalin, but life was a better one here indeed.
A month passes and there is news. Sony shifts her house to the lane right behind the apartment I stay in. Whoaaa !  There are thoughts coming up. Geetha and Sony round the corner. Hmm, God is nice ;)
And this is not all. Rashmi rings up one day - I'm moving in your flat this weekend. Whattttt? So now there is Rashmi and Sony and Geetha, all in the vicinity. I am indeed flabbergasted. Could you ask for anything more?
It all happened within the twink of an eye, without a plan. Such a coincidence.
And then the story began.
Oh I'm so sleepy to update this beautiful story that has happened to us. It sure deserves a thoughtful narration of togetherness, before we all part to different places and stages of life ! Coming up soon, the nuances of the bigger picture ! :P

The pride that wasn't !

These days its mostly about work. Even if there is hardly any work in my plate, it feels like there is so much to be done, or to be learnt rather. It is becoming like a monster growing taller day by day. Or am I exaggerating? :) Digging down the memory lane, life was a happy one. Eating, shopping, watching tv and okay even studying were the order of the day. Laurels could be bestowed easily. Things were nice then :) But this monster was a much coveted one. All of us wanted to explore life, wanted to work. This holds good even today. No one wants to give up working. Sweet, sour or bitter, this lifestyle is cherished. Having said this, I myself wonder about the things 'actually' cherished.

This reminds me of a verse - "It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:18-19 this is ! The "It" here is the earth. This was given when Adam disobeyed God and agreed to what his wife demanded. Long story short - Both Adam and Eve got decieved by the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit in the Eden Garden. And so the great downfall ! Argghh ! God is a strict God. His lessons come the hard way and believe me there are no short cuts. God is nice too. Be faithful to Him and you would be surprised to see how life unfolds.

Oh and why on earth did I put this wierd title? I see the worried faces around. It baffles me. Looks like no one is happy. Or a better way to put it is - no one is at peace. Everyone has a sad story to narrate. This or that. From EMIs to not spending time back home. The list is endless. The concept of the so called "Work Satisfaction" slowly fades away. Satisfied or unsatisfied with the kind of work that happens to them, everyone is working so hard to make money - earn a decent livelihood, buy happiness for the family, for the kids. Happiness has been closely related to time however. And people here are short of time. This could be justified with Dr. Moorthy's "Have breakfast or be breakfast" speech maybe.  We build mansions but hardly have time to stay in them. We stuff the wardrobes with expensive stuff but hardly use them. The pride of life is still in its proper place, happiness however has lost its original definiton and has taken a backseat. The smiles are now plastic. People keep running all through their lives. "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground" How true this turned out to be. Damn Adam ! Eve was innocent and not so wise, why did you get carried away. You thought you could play around with God? Come on dude !

PS: God is a good God. God's anger however is also necessary and this was one such incident. There also are people who wear the real smiles, people who have time to walk with God , who still understand and live the real definition of happiness. People who live a life like how we read in the fairy tales. A golden fairy and a red one singing with great joy :D But the tired faces I see on weekdays give me such thoughts, cant help but put it here ! :)

One Beautiful Moment

One snap of the shutter, and there it was - one beautiful moment captured in time for eternity. The late summer sun reflected in the breaking wave made the water to look like liquid gold splash onto the shore. If my friend had not been there with his camera, the wave would have gone unnoticed, like so many others that have come and gone, seen only by God.

Who can imagine how many waves this sea has sent rolling onto the shoreline? Yet each one is unique. As seen in every wave, God makes extravagant beauty out of seemingly mundane things. Using water and air, He makes wondrous works of art. We enjoy His gallery in the skies above, on earth and in the sea below. But most of earth's beauty remains invisible to us; it is seen only by God.

God uses another gallery to display His glory - humans. We too are made out of something ordinary - dust. (Gen 2:7). But to us He added an extraordinary ingredient - His very own breath. Like waves of the sea and flowers of the field, our lives are brief and seen by few. Yet each one is a beautiful 'moment' created by God to say to the world, 'Behold, your God!' Whose word will last forever
(v.8).

        Only one life, so live it well,
And keep your candle trimmed and bright;
        Eternity, not time, will tell
The radius of that candle's light.

Those two girls !

I was getting fond of Ann. We called her Annie. She was here for a quick two months duration, and left us feeling as if we knew her for ages. She had good things to talk about - big dreams and bigger ambitions ! Animation it was, she was into the animation stream of NID. Ann and Arpita, Arpita into exhibition design. Annie stayed with me and Arpita with Golu. These young girls were so full of life and creativity, you wouldn't get tired being with them :) I saw their sketchbooks and felt aweful about mine. Those were called THE sketches, amazing handwork and in not much time. They would draw sketches and make animated movies out of that, everything clubbed together and stuffed in adobe as frames becomes a movie - say 120 such frames/sketches make a 12 sec movie - depends on the speed of motion needed. Man, this was news to me. Animation is vast, this is only one bit of the whole picture. They had other projects too in their internships. Annie had six in all - creating animated alphabets book on a monster theme being one of them. This was crazy. Oh and I remember one more. She used to talk about cats some days. She loved cats. When asked to choose a topic for an important project to capture its nuances creatively, she chose a cat :| The cat story supposedly had three phases. The expressions that she got from us after narrating those phases, made her give up the idea of working on a cat project :) Arpita had one project, turning a large empty room into a laser tank gaming studio :O Yes, for commercial use. She started with wall-painting. Every evening she would be back in the same torn jean with half a gallon asian paint on it, with a complimentary pungent paint-warnish smell. We called her yo-types girl :) She is an avid reader, a witty damsel. You name it and she would have read it already. I wanted to take her sketchbooks to my workplace, and cant recollect why I didn't! Watching 2-3 movies everyday to understand the lights and sounds and blah blah was a part of their job. I was falling for their profession :D Interesting, the other side of the grass is always greener. It would however have its own set of sad stories too. Two months passed so quick, we never realized it was time for them to go back. Crazy girls, some days they would sleep for 18 hours, and other days they would spend their days working and nights watching two movies minimum! The night walks for dinners and ice-creams were good too. I miss these girls, they had some good sparks in their eyes and an uncompromising desire to explore the whole wide world! Long to spend some time with them yet again :)

Teenage Dream .. wink !

Loved this one. "Words for teenagers" was the title when published.

Northland College principal John Tapene has offered the following words from a judge who regularly deals with youth. "We always hear the cry from teenagers, 'what can we do, where can we go? ' "
My answer is this: "Go home, mow the lawn, wash the windows, learn to cook, build the raft, get a job, visit the sick, study your lessons and after you've finished, read a book. Your town does not owe you recreational facilities and your parents do not owe you fun.
The world does now owe you a living, you owe the world something.You owe it your time, energy and talent so that no one will be at war, in sickness and lonely again. In other words grow up, stop being a cry baby, get out of your dream world and develop a backbone not a wishbone. Start behaving like a responsible person. You are important and you are needed. It's too late to sit around and wait for somebody to do something, someday. Someday is now and that somebody is you ! "