HOPE WILL LIGHT THE WAY INTO 2024

 The year 2023 that is, that was. 

One of those years , I would possibly imagine didn't exist. One of those years, I wish, just skipped in the history of universe. One of those years, when I felt that, I only lived in blind optimism. 

And while I ponder on these , a soft tender voice still whispers in my mind, "every adversity opens a new chapter.  A chapter that takes you a step closer to self-adaptation.". And this time, I know that this voice does not belong to my parent, husband or a friend. This voice belongs to that my little one, my son, who I lost  this year and now lives with me as my Little Angel. And every time I become weak and lose resilience, he comes to me with tiny doses of wisdom. 

And therefore , as I take each baby step towards self healing , I will remind myself about each of these each day :-

1. Every individual that you are related to directly and indirectly behaves in a certain way , because he/ she is responding to his/her particular situation. Therefore , I will not react or get judgemental before getting to know the real perspective.
2. There are few people in your life ,whom I look upto , they are a reason for my existence . My parents, my teachers, my mentors. They are now another set of children (in this chapter of their life) for me and therefore unke liye , sab kuch maaf hai.
3. I have my set of complaints, grudges and unhappy memoirs of few people in life. Will those make my life any better. If not, I will try best to learn the art of 'Letting Go'.
4. Most Importantly, I will remember that I am as flawed as any of my friend, colleague , relative ,client and even my soulmate. Therefore , I will try and conquer 'The Art of Acceptance'.

While I always wondered that , my purpose in life was to nurture Advay and protect him, soon did I realise that , he came into our life, with a definite purpose to remind us that 'Do not cultivate blind optimism, but radical hope' .

Thus , HOPE never dies. It is Infact a Waking Dream.

Happy 2024 to ME.

 The Sound of Music is The Sound of Hope

Way back in the 1980's , our school introduced us to this timeless legendary film , for which we will always be indebted to them. We were really young then , probably in our late primary or early secondary schooling days , when we had a period ( I don't remember the name- maybe my school friends can remind me) where we could watch movies that were suitable enough for our age. That room was called audio-visual room. The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins are the two movies , I remember watching during those times.

Back then , it was just a musical for us , the songs of which I started humming and still do till date. I remember that each of us used to look forward to that period to watch the musical. and since it was a long film, and our period was for 1/2 hour , we had to watch it in parts. Nonetheless , the anxiety levels to watch the next part kept growing each time. Julie Andrews (Maria) became our idol and Christopher Plummer (Captain Von Trapp) , our childhood crush. After few years , when we got the VCR at home, I used to rent the Sound of Music cassette to watch it over and over again.

Decades have passed by and my viewership patterns switched from VCR , to DVD's , to sometimes online. What remained immortal was the musical and its characters. As I grew up watching the film , it began to unfold the various learnings and life lessons, probably which I did not notice / realize while I watched it when I was young. Every song became an inspiration in itself and gave some really valuable learnings. The title song  'The Sound of Music', ' I have confidence' , 'Climb every Mountain', 'Edelweiss', each one of them is eternal. My Jr. Cutlet continues to hum 'I'm Sixteen , going on Seventeen' as she continues to do her chores. Maybe she wants to believe in the lyrics that say,  I know that I´m naive, Fellows I meet may tell me I´m sweet, And willingly I believe. 

During our school farewell , a batch junior to us , held some performances for us and one very memorable one was when few students got onto the podium and sang this wonderful rendition ' So long Farwell , Auf Widersehen, Goodbye' . Maybe that was THE time when we realized that it was indeed  was our last day in school and we couldn't hold back our tears. And everytime I hear this song, I recall this incident to the Jr. Cutlet , she replies, " Yes Mom , U've told me this already" 😇

One song that stayed with me throughout the most challenging times of my life was 'Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens'. My niece Saanvi used to sing this song to Advay when she was very young , and everytime she sang 'When the dog bites , when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite and then I don't feel so bad'.....we would watch his 200 watts smile. And then after everytime he cried , this song became a routine with us. 

My reason to remember all of this today is that , we were fortunate to watch this Broadway Musical yesterday at Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre and it blew our minds yet again. Every memory created over decades by the film was relived in  a new format ready to sweep our feet off the floor. It is definitely a must watch , a joyful experience again for those who have known the film. 

That makes me believe yet again.......

If you want to spark magic in your life, then you have to surround yourself with magical people who inspire you....LET THE MAGIC BEGIN.......

Illusions - A fresh perspective

Illusions- The adventures of a reluctant Meesiah by Richard Bach .  I remember vividly that it was either one of our English teachers or a friend who introduced us to this book way back in college. I read it then and really liked his experiences and the way he wrote down some hard hitting facts of life . For me it was one of those books that was for keeps and it always remained close to me.

It was not until few days back that I saw the book again in a corner of my room and began reading it again after some 20 or more odd years later. This time however, it hit me really hard and it was as if every word mentioned in the handbook of the story was written for me. It was just about a month after I lost my son to an illness, when I didn’t feel like doing anything and almost did it to please my family and friends. Holding this book and reading it once again was like a message from my Messiah - my son Advay who was trying to tell me something.

“ There’s no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts”.  Advay came to us like a God given gift and our journey together completely changed our perspectives in life and this sentence was a reminder no. One to it.  “ Happiness is a choice and it’s not always an easy one.” Advay made it very easy for us to be happy because he remained that way. Pain was always a moment for him and once it subdued for a while he would be infectiously happy.

“ If you really want to remove a cloud from your life, you do not make a big production out of it. Just relax and remove it from your thinking.” This is Not easier said than done because we have seen him doing this each time effortlessly.

And finally the most profound for me this time is “ Don’t be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again after moments of lifetimes , is certain for those who are friends.”  There are so many such wonderful thoughts mentioned in the book that I were to mention the best of it, this blog could run into a series. 

Thus as Richard back quotes in his preface, I choose to think that my Messiah is perched out there on some other dimension, not fiction at all, watching us , and laughing for the fun of it happening just the way we’ve planned it to be.

Love you Adu.

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