Positive Overtones

“It’s only words and words are all I have to take your heart away.” This is a line from a popular song by the BeeGees. It is a strong reminder for me on the power of words. The words we use are integral in the growth or the destruction of the other. The same structure can be used with different expressions producing different outcomes. In the movie ‘Stoning of Soraya’, the central character, Soraya, is accused of adultery by her husband. As the story progresses, the village elders slowly begin to manipulate their words to frame Soraya of the crime she is innocent of. Yet, their lies prove so convincing that she is condemned to be stoned. At times, we too could be like these village elders. We may manipulate our words to make our lies seem like the truth. At times, this could also lead to gossip. We lead others to their metaphorical death, destroy their dignity and tarnish their image. I have witnessed, both, the creative and the destructive power of words. The most prominen...

Have you ever been nervous when looking forward to accepting a request? Does it ever occur to you that at times requests may come with hooks attached? If not, you are still one of the good people who genuinely go out to help others. If I had a hat, I would have lowered it and bowed in respect to you. The genuine way of helping others is through selfless availability. There is immense joy that accompanies selfless acts of service. This is so because, one does not do things out of compulsion or force but our of general care and concern. I have heard that it has to own perks too. Of the many, the most notable would is the accumulation of talents and experience. As one helps the other selflessly, one acquires skill and understands things better. However, selfless acts of service also have its downsides. Many times people make use of those who genuinely go out to help others. This is because people who selflessly help, at times, find it difficult to say no. Ergo, we have the conund...

Chuck was just an ordinary kid. Wait! If that is so, then why am I narrating this story for you? I guess we will only know that in the end. But to reach the end we should have a beginning. Let's just keep the beginning the way it is. Chuck was an ordinary kid. He was medium in stature; had thick dark-brown hair coupled with a skin-tone that resembled the sands on the shores of Cape Town. He was ordinary in every aspect except for his untapped potential: he was a genius at languages. Whatever language he attempted to learn, he could learn it in 3 months straight. But, this is not a story about his success in life but of the origination of his talent. It is the story of how he discovered this hidden talent. Right from his initial schooldays, Chuck always liked his English class. Many thought that he did so vecause English was his native language which he already knew and needed no effort to study. Though that wasn't the reason for his particular liking, he eventually beg...

Robin Williams. Marilyn Monroe. Ernest Hemingway. Chester Bennington. These are names of great entertainers who ended their life because of depression. While they had the talent to ring happiness to others, they struggled to find happiness themselves. What is it that truly makes us happy? Is it the wealth we hoard? Is it the status we attain? On, is it the success we achieve by our own determination? It is true that at times, these things bring us happiness. But is it lasting? Often we tend to place these peripheral things as our lasting happiness. However, we get easily tricked and end up into a bottomless pit. We do not realize that we are falling till we lose ourselves completely into these passing desires. These things are indeed good but it is not what our hearts truly long for; it does not bring us lasting happiness. At times we think that being good, observing rules and laws is what brings us happiness. But, this does not fulfill the true purpose of our life. There is al...

Birthday gifts!!! That was the one thing  we were guaranteed every time we flew down for holidays. Since we would not be around during our birthday, my grandmother would handover our gifts when we met her during the holidays. Except for when her health began to deteriorate, I cannot remember a year when my grandmother had not given us a gift. Most of the time she would hand it over to us. Other times she just gave it to my parents to give it to us on our respective birthdays. Because we constantly changed our interests, she did not know exactly what to give us. And so, she would give us a certain amount of money and tell us to spend it wisely. I never asked her where she got the money from but I guess she took it out from her pension. Though she told us to spend it wisely, we as kids would just spend the money on trivial things that we thought were valuable at that time. She never changed her habit of giving us our annual birthday gifts. I guess she just wanted to see that j...

The mid-October climate in rural Maharashtra has a mix of summer, autumn, and winter. The scorching heat at mid-day is coupled with the cool chill late in the evening. Most parts of the day are accompanied by cool chills. It is the ideal climate to go camping near a river. You could take a dip in the cool river-water while the heat warms up your tent for the night's cold-rush. Three of us were sent some years back to a particular village in that particular region. While basking in this Utopian atmosphere, we were told to have a first-hand experience of life in remote villages. While we obediently took down notes of our experiences, we developed a new task: A half-day hike to a mountain. The village we were sent to were surrounded by mountains. But, we had one mountain on target for the expedition. It was the mountain that consisted of a number of windmills. The windmills were owned, funded and constructed by a noble politician in Southern India to provide electricity for his r...