901 - Epistle to the Universe

-
Dear Universe,

Today is not an exceptionally sad day. In fact, it was quite nice. I went out for coffee with a colleague after a really long time. However, I have worked through the night and I am still not done. I have worked for most of my adult life and I am still not done. I have tied many times to sit down and write, making umpteen schedules and I am still not done. I have stacked my clothes according to colour and size and material and appropriateness so that I get a chance to at least wear every garment at least twice but I am still not done. I have made lists of people to forgive and meticulously prayed to forgive them but I am still not done. I have, at times, quelled my mind to sort through my earlier years of hurt and angusih to set myself free from the caked residue of the past and I am still not done.

I know you are busy and all being the Universe and all that but one of these days, while I am sleeping or maybe even when I'm not, can you please please tell me what really is the point of it all?

If I am driving or in a conference call, come back another time.

Thank you and best regards,
Mukta

P.S. - I was told I was part of you - hence the letter. If you are not the entity with the answers, do pass it on to someone who has a clue and gives a shit.

Comments

Unknown said…
The point is to sit and take a deep breath and smile; to go to your favourite hilltop and look at the sky and smile; to wait for the jam to un-jam and look out your car window at the next person and smile. That one wholesome breath, that one heartfelt smile, that is about the only point. The rest, once that happens, does start to fall in place. But for it to fall in place, one's got to…unclench, give-up, give-in, let-go…like you do in the mornings (or evenings) and al the toxic waste just comes pouring down, out of your body. Let it go. Let it come.

To understand why it's still not done, it is imperative to stop doing…it. Stop working, stop writing, stop making schedules, donate the clothes you haven't worn for the past 6 months. Don't forgive if the forgiveness doesn't naturally flow; it's only because there maybe some unsolved issues, some unanswered questions, some closures that were never reached; do not try and force a door shut if the cupboard is crazy full of shit and won't close.

The universe will not set its plan for you in motion unless and until you stop planning and doing stuff yourself. It is a respectful universe, waiting for you to finish, giving you time, as much as you will take, keep taking. Think and feel if maybe you have closed your fists too hard, clenched your muscles too hard, are always working, working towards reaching somewhere, achieving something.
1:00 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Check (the) mate

-
My cousin, who was born sixteen hours before me, got married recently. I am expected to follow her footsteps soon. Thankfully, I have been granted more than sixteen hours to do that. My father’s health has taken a turn for the worse. My mother is completely exhausted. Rationally, points 1, 2, and 3 would be distinct from each other. But in my family there is no such thing as ‘rationally’. Therefore all these points are inter-related. Strangely, here, we believe my marriage to be an antidote to mortality and fatigue. I happened to be sitting in my parents’ room while Ma looked through Papa’s blood reports. They didn’t look good. Ma was worried and Papa didn’t help matters much. He kept talking about Sourav Ganguly and why he deserved better. Ma got further agitated and after flinging the reports somewhere inconvenient to retrieve (I should know), she snapped, “So what? There are many like him.” Papa doesn’t believe that and would have no one in his family believe that either. He went to...
Read more

Not the same, all the same - Rang de Basanti, being a Hindu, uniform civil code, and Hostage – in that unrelated sequence

-
I watched ‘Rang de basanti’. That, however, is not the point. Everyone now wants to go to Delhi and cruise around in jeeps at night. And that too is not the point. I need to say something. That, really, is the point. ‘Rang de…’ is a good movie but frankly, I’ve seen better. I’ve seen ‘Yuva’. It is creditable, though, that the movie could say what it did without using the ‘sage on the stage’ (as we say in Instructional Design) approach. The movie does have a couple of ideas that I have been besotted with for a long time now. One is the life of a story. There is the germ of an idea about men who go to their deaths cheerfully. There is fascination about what could inspire such courage in ordinary people. That story lays inside a diary for a long time. How long? Long enough for history to play itself out and begin the process of repeating itself. A nation goes the ‘Animal Farm’ way – humans out, pigs in. The story lays untouched – fermenting in latent vigor. Then someone discovers it. She ...
Read more

Save the Indian (male) child

-
This isn't exactly a feminist tirade, but this is written by a woman, and it is written in annoyance. You raise your girls to be sweet, strong, and independent. (Wise parents teach their children to listen to opinions and discard or heed accordingly. The other ones just teach their kids to bullshit everything that everyone says. Still others bring up girls to be on guard and forget that spine so that everyone thinks well of them. I am not sure which is worse, but I detest people shoving their opinions down other people's throats in a show of liberation, so I'll lean towards the former. But only slightly.) As the gender construct of being a 'female' is pushed even further, you teach your daughter complicated activities – driving, perhaps, sending them off away from home, wearing a sari (those freaking pleats!), cooking and de-veining prawns for added advantage. At the end of that, you have a person who genuinely dislikes blending into anything, doesn't like bei...
Read more