Recompense

For every word of harshness that you hear,
You have a word of love to cure the heart;
For the darkest hours of a wakeful night,
You have a beautiful dawn to shine bright.

For the loss of innocence of childhood,
There is the growing maturity of years.
For the loss of a life near river green,
There is lot more sunshine to balance.

For the trenches that this life fell into
There are the new scales that it climbs.
For the years lost in search of dreams,
There are these words on a virtual page.

Which brings in daily strange comfort,
For every friend lost, that of strangers.

patience and time

Terminator 2

The Unsent Letters

Dear Sean
After you, I never thought I would love again. For I was quite naive when I met you and fell in love with you. In the long years we were together, I never thought of a life without you. Each and every thought was spent in how to make life more worth living with you. After you, I knew the pain of not being able to getting close to anyone, the insecurity that comes from not being able to trust anyone completely and the angst of existing yet not living. I thought of telling you this day, when we would have celebrated our anniversary of togetherness had we been together.

Love
Berry

Friends Forever

Desiderata

GO PLACIDLY amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Akashdeep

Sunny

Sunny:A Review 

I think it is quite fitting that the Corona times require a story that is inward drawn and focuses on the tribulations of a single character. Reflective of the times that is quite marked by social isolation despite of high social media use and attempts to while away the slow-paced time, Sunny focuses on the landscapes of the cloistered Corona life. 

In the initial part, the story poignantly captures the despair and angst in the life of the protagonist Sunny. His addiction to alcohol is clearly drawn, so is his slight mental imbalance, which had become very common in these times of social isolation. He struggles to see another day during his quarantine at Hyatt Hotel in Cochin. 

There is despair as well as hope as he tries to speak to the police inspector, to the girl who stays on the floor above his or the psychologist that the police inspector recommends. An interesting scene is where he feeds sugar to the ant slightly reminiscent of Katherine Mansfield's The Fly, where however the protagonist kills the fly just for fun. His isolation compels him to come to terms with himself and to face life courageosly. However, what is striking is the message of hope that is given inspite of the ordeals faced by the protagonist to come to terms with his alienation.

Living Corpses

There is a story about Dudjom Rinpoche, one of the greatest meditation masters, mystics, and yogins of recent times. One day he was driving through France with his wife, admiring the countryside as they went along. They passed a long cemetery, which had been freshly painted and decorated with flowers. Dudjom Rinpoche's wife said, "Rinpoche, look how everything in the West is so neat and clean. Even the places where they keep corpses are spotless. In the East not even the houses that people live in are anything like as clean as this."

"Ah, yes," he replied, "that's true; this is such a civilized country. They have such marvelous houses for dead corpses. But haven't you noticed? They have such wonderful houses for the living corpses too." Whenever I think of this story, it makes me think how hollow and futile life can be when it's founded on a false belief in continuity and permanence. When we live like that,become, as Dudjom Rinpoche said, unconscious, living corpses. Most of us do live like that; we live according to a pre ordained plan. 

We spend our youth being educated. Then we find a job, and meet someone, marry, and have children. We buy a house, try to make a success of our business, aim for dreams like a country house or a second car. We go away on holiday with our friends. We plan for retirement. The biggest dilemmas some of us ever have to face are where to take our next holiday or whom to invite at Christmas. Our lives are monotonous, petty, and repetitive, wasted in the pursuit of the trivial, because we seem to know of nothing better.

Mercury Retrograde