JUST SAY YES TO LOVE...

It happens in no particular season.

It happens for no particular reason.

                               There is no specific season of it. It doesn’t weave its haze according to your calendar. In fact, the more you are eager to have it , the more it feints you and when you don’t make any efforts for it, the chance of getting  your eyes their sky in an another  pair of eyes, is high. It comes like an unexpected, unwelcome guest and becomes inseparable part of your being. It’s the strangest part of this game, isn’t it?

Everyone under the sun is seeking this adobe which is without door and walls. The thirst we have for it is the curse and the blessing for us at the same time. It’s the surest pain reliever and the greatest pain inducer on earth, above earth and under earth. It gives us peace but puts us at the center of the storm. It’s the flood which destroys all your veneered civilization. It takes you to your most ancient and wildest core. One of its many mysteries is that you cannot help anybody though you have experienced its dangers and wonders. You can understand one’s pain and pleasure,sufferings and blessings that accompany him on this path but you cannot do anything for him. He himself has to walk his path,he himself has to bear the pain , and most of all he himself has to treasure in his heart the essence which is the reward of his sufferings and the tears.

What I am talking about?  Yes certainly about four letter magical word: love.

It happens in no particular season.

Its happens for no particular reason.

ON THE TEDDY BEAR'S DAY

Let Love Not Be Limited for Their Toys Only.

Hello friends.... wish you a very happy Teddy Bear's Day.

                                              Do you know how this bear was born?  I mean off course the teddy bear not just a bear. Bear is as old as the human beings (i don't know exactly when it enters into 'the Evolution’) but the teddy bear which is the hero of the day is not that old. It has come into being in the year 1902-03 and after a century this cute, innocent, ever-young dude has been ruling over the hearts of children and the hearts of those who have forgotten their age in love and have again become children in love. So, the fate had arranged a strange incident to give this fellow a zabardast background for the welcome.

                               The then Governor of Mississippi invited the then President of USA Theodor Roosevelt for the hunting. But Roosevelt Sahib seemed not a hunter of the first water. I guess neither of the second or of the third water, because even after three days he was unable to kill any  animal (might be he was a man of the first water). The next day the hunt guide had found a black old bear that was badly injured by the dogs. The guide tied the bear to the nearby willow tree and called for the president to shoot but Mr. Roosevelt refused to shoot it as it was unsportsmanlike for him. But Roosevelt ordered to kill the bear to free it from its suffering as it was wailing in the pain. After the news of this incident a famous political cartoonist of USA Clifford Berryman published a cartoon in the Washington Post on 16 Nov., 1902. In it Roosevelt was shown refusing to shoot the bear. Eventually a NY candy shop owner, Morris Michtom, inspired by this cartoon to make a toy of bear for the children. He put two stuffed toy bears in his shop window made by his wife and  when Mr. Roosevelt  grant the permission to use his name for the bear, Morris Michtom branded his toy bears as ‘teddy- bears’. Mr. Roosevelt was known as Teddy by his close ones at that time so it became ‘Teddy’s bear’. Is not the story interesting?

It’s good that the teddy bear has become the symbol for love and sympathy. But if it becomes symbol of love and sympathy for the animals, birds and the entire environment which is embracing us all the time, we will surely be a step ahead toward a matured and loving humanity. Let love not be limited for their toys only. What do you say?

SHANTARAM- by Gregory David Roberts.

Throbbing with Love, Life, Challenges and so many ‘aha’ moments- SHANTARAM.


                                          Call him Lin , Linbaba, Gilbert,or Shantaram-his real name is Gregory David Roberts, the author of this fantabulous book-Shantaram. It’s the story of a nomadic who is a citizen of New Zealand  by birth, a fugitive by fate and an Indian by heart. If you are a Mumbaikar and are boasting of knowing your Mumbai closely, Shantaram will shatter your pride and will show you a new face of this miraculous city not to make you hate but to love it even more.
                                        Characters are vivid yet unfathomably deep. They take you into their lives so intensely that you will desperately anticipate knowing more about them.
                                           Prabhakar or Prabhu, a heart centred young Maharashtriun friend of Lin who often calls him Linbaba in his typical dialect who takes Lin to his village for several months to give him an another plum-de-nom, Shantaram-god of peace or peacemaker. Prabhu who gives Lin ……love,dies an unfortunate death leaving behind a  vacuum in the Life and the heart of Lin.  Another person who touches the strings of Lin’s being is Abdel Khader Khan or Khaderbhai- a don of Mumbai Underworld whom Lin adores like father. Khadebhai's quest for the truth and his unique view of seeing the things appeals Lin. And then Lin introduces us with Kalra, his sweetheart, she has seen all the faces of life which gives an edge of philosopher to her personality. Then comes Didier, an Italian, Abdulla, one of his friends in the underworld, Johny Cigar, Nazir, Madona(a dedicated lover). Lin stores the essence of all these characters in his heart to make them memorable in the readers memory.  His friends and foe alike, help him realize the true meaning of life to which Abdel Khader Khan calls ‘the ultimate complexity’
                                   Greagory shows us two worlds at a time which are inseparably mingled into each other but are far more different, rather opposite -the luxuries world of upper class mafia which is very cunning and cruel and a filthy, highly insecure world of the slum dwellers which is inevitably innocent,true and honest 
                                   One truth shines on almost every page of this thousand page novel -if you are lean and eager to  learn, every incident may it be bad or good becomes your guide.
                                     The story starts with the statement of Lin-" I learnt about love and fate and choices we made in our life but the heart of it came to me suddenly when I was chained to a wall and tortured. My body was shackled but I was free: free to hate the men who were torturing me or to forgive them. Freedom is a universe of possibilities and the choice you make becomes the story of your life".                           
 Shantaram , with the utmost freedom chooses to forgive his torturer. And with this Lin finds the formula to win the hearts of Indians- to surrender to the moment.
                                    ‘Shantaram’ has become an account of Lin’s external and internal journey at the same time.                                                                    
                                    We know many faces of Mumbai-city of film stars and films, the economical capital of India, an adobe of gangsters , an over-crowded island, the Dabbewalas and their six-sigma management, the city of cricket legend Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. But the Mumbai we see through the eyes of Shantaram is so big and warm that you will feel as if you have experienced the real Mumbai-Darshan.
                                    Mumbai which appears on these pages plays the role of the cosmopolitan heart of the world.
 Don’t miss this literary masterpiece.