Rains and Pune

Love the rains, love the city of Pune and especially so when it rains. 


But so many conditions apply to each of these "love"s. 


I wouldn't love the rains as much if they were as hard here as in some coastal areas, so that everything is so humid it leaves the floor sort of sticky and a hint of fungus can be smellt on walls and cushions. 


And I would dread the rains if I was living in cabin-like houses where water entered through the entrance and leaked through the tin sheets above and I didn't have the place to dry out my laundry. Wouldn't have many clothes to wash so drying them wouldn't be such a big problem. Drying my person would be a greater one.


Why can't I just enjoy anything without thinking of someone who wouldn't be privileged to enjoy something like it?


Why does there always have to be someone like that?


But thinking of the above I would probably love Pune anyhow, even if I lived here as a beggar on her streets.

What's the point of it all

If everything around is bound to someday be undone? Like shapes in the mist dissolve after the sun shines. A feeling of futileness which I can't express enough in words as much as I feel it.

In spite of which I do this silly act of putting it down here in this blog. Futility feeds futility which in turn feeds some more futility. But we don't stop living do we? 

Judgement made versus insight had

Many or most of us are in a habit of classifying components of the environment around us as good or bad, right or wrong. Or at least as "ok" and "whatever". Actions or thoughts acceptable of those we like are unacceptable of those whom we don't take a liking for. A lot of subjective complications. 


Thinking in this way takes a lot less effort than to be wary of the activity in the mind. Of the minute ripples that appear almost unnoticed while interacting with people every day. Or thinking about them. 


But those muscles around your eyes, face or neck don't fail to notice who you like and who you don't.

A - is easy, and comes with a loss of insight into people and what happens around us
B - takes constant effort. But is a fun game to play with yourself.

Monday blues

It's a Monday, and it is cloudy July weather, exceptional with the lack of rain in my city this year. Just need to get out and come to office, and the blues recede by themselves. Next day you're a complete contrast, tricked into looking forward to go work because of all that which awaits your attention.


But I'm thankful I have somewhere to go work.

:-|

Wisdom life offers

There's always lessons around. It takes a lot of laziness shed in order to let these reach inside the mind, to be thought upon and processed. And will to bring about change in our actions and thought patterns. And persistence to keep this habitual.


The inspiration for this post was a speech by Dr. Ashok D Ranade about his guru in music, musician and artiste Pandit Gajananbuwa Joshi, at the occasion of the stalwart's 75th birthday celebrations. 


Any word from my mind about Dr. Ranade seems small, inappropriate and unbefitting his greatness. So it seems appropriate that I don't get into details of what I learnt from that particular speech of his.

Gossip, outside and within

Gossip, chatter, idle talk. On people, or happenings about. There's one that is carried out between two or more people. And another that is carried out within one's mind.

The latter is something always available. 24 by 7. You don't need to find time for it, or company. Idle talk has much more potential to cause damage when it does rounds in the mind than in conversations.

Makes the mind dull. And capable only of being dull.

Stopping idle talk within results in a natural resilience to that outside. And a constructive, productive mind.

What is beyond my influence

Should not have the power to bother me.

This has to be an exercise done constantly within the mind. As we untangle ourselves from the bothers we get so used to living with, there's contentment and joy. And a lightening of the heart, but also an emptiness. Emptiness without a negative connotation. Just neutral emptiness.


Nothing to obsess upon. The things that might seem worth allowing to occupy the mind time and again, such as an art or an intellectual or social pursuit might not feel very important at times. There are these moments when nothing seems that important.


That is when the search might begin for some, for what seems true and ever-important, that which only matters.

Being indifferent to external approval

With the premise that one is ethical and means ill to no one. Those who possess this quality are gifted with peace with their own self. That leaves them with a lot of saved energy which can be channelized elsewhere.