Ralph Waldo Emerson

To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others; To give of one's self; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - This is to have succeeded.

Meditation

What wonders have time brought, All at my window. The numbers keep changing, Every day new life springs, Out of old ways of thought. Oneness with the universe, With a thousand kindred souls, Spread across the earth, Space and time and universe. Sitting before my gizmo, I wander with delight, Through snow-covered landscapes, Gather in my curious hands Sheaves of snow-sprinkled wheat. A bird spreading its wings, The earth from space or a tiny flower A thousand scented candles- All new ways of bringing me back, To my centre, my self- All at my window. 

On the death of the Beloved

By John O’Donohue

Though we need to weep your loss, 
You dwell in that safe place in our hearts, 
Where no storm or night or pain can reach you.

Your love was like the dawn
Brightening over our lives
Awakening beneath the dark
A further adventure of colour.

The sound of your voice
Found for us
A new music
That brightened everything.

Whatever you enfolded in your gaze
Quickened in the joy of its being; 
You placed smiles like flowers
On the altar of the heart. 
Your mind always sparkled 
With wonder at things.

Though your days here were brief, 
Your spirit was live, awake, complete.

We look towards each other no longer
From the old distance of our names; 
Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath, 
As close to us as we are to ourselves.

Though we cannot see you with outward eyes, 
We know our soul’s gaze is upon your face, 
Smiling back at us from within everything
To which we bring our best refinement.

Let us not look for you only in memory, 
Where we would grow lonely without you. 
You would want us to find you in presence, 
Beside us when beauty brightens, 
When kindness glows
And music echoes eternal tones.

When orchids brighten the earth, 
Darkest winter has turned to spring; 
May this dark grief flower with hope
In every heart that loves you.

May you continue to inspire us:

To enter each day with a generous heart. 
To serve the call of courage and love
Until we see your beautiful face again
In that land where there is no more separation, 
Where all tears will be wiped from our mind, 
And where we will never lose you again.

You and me

You have left behind your traces in my path. Wherever I go, I see people who had met you, words that you had read and poems you  had written. That’s too much for me, for I have always played along with you, as if I believed each and every word you had said. But here, when I look back, I feel that your love is nothing more than a big lie; for the great darkness has sure unveiled quite a number of shadows that existed and shown in clear light what every single moment of wavering cost. With each day, it was my nature than corroded and rusted, only to be discarded along with scrap. You have scattered your scents in the wide universe; and I now out of four walls of my alone self can resist loving your soul, who wandered with me throughout ages and all times. 

Part of Definitions 

Wayside view

This was taken on an impulse, on a day that I had stopped to stare at these lovely flowers on the road, with my friend!

Waterlily in our garden

This was a surprise on Saturday, when I found out that the pond in our garden has a new-comer other than the frogs, tadpoles and fish(officially it's Dad's fishpond). Beautiful, graceful and bright-shaded, this water-lily has changed the appearance of the entire place. I hope to get up early morning tomorrow to get a snap of it, with its petals opened. 

My alma mater

Mar Ivanios College, Trivandrum

Veritas liberabit vos

Truth shall liberate you, 

My college for seven long years. 

April 22: Earth day

EARTH DAY 

Thank you, my beautiful earth,
For being my home and muse,
For sights, sounds, beings and life.

Work

Your work earns you respect and keeps your body and soul together. It fills your empty mind with thoughts of perfection and keeps you focused enough to face the mad words that the world slings at you. But most of us have known the joys and pains of hibernation, when you rested at home and proved the reverse of the rule of motion that a body in motion stays in motion by obeying the rule of inertia. 

Then one day when your words gather rust, you set out in search of greener pastures to rest your mind; for with no work to fill the empty spaces, life turns dull and monotonous; days close and open their eyes. When in such dreary states, the mind naturally longs for some puzzle to solve, some people to teach and some words to write. That's where you find your destination within your reach; to help you glaze like newly burnished metal; you know only to be a light and to shine and sparkle. 

Read more Definitions

Time

Words have lost their shine
And have faded and died,
Like the blossoms in my garden.

Rose

Rose

Five Favourite Songs

• Leaving on a Jet Plane by John Denver
• Illegal by Shakira
• Everything I do by Bryan Adams
• From this Moment On by Shania Twain
• Hero by Enrique Iglesias 

Perspective

Irony

You dab colours with a steady hand,
While mine shakes and shivers,
When putting colours on a blank face. 

Happy Vishu!

Yellow flowers of prosperity

Rain

A wall collapsed in rain,
That stood between us,
You and me, now one.

A tribute to Joy on his death anniversary

Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Tall, dark and handsome, his smile radiates a serenity that is charming. From the stained photographs his smile reaches and touches my heart. A heart-warming smile. He is the man I have always loved. Wherever I have walked, I’ve carried his memory within me like a treasure. In the sad moments of life I have called out his name and cried. He's my father, who left shelves full of books, not even a grave to visit, for that went with renovations as general space.  

I know what books he liked to read and touch with care the books he had loved feeling the spirit reach out to me through other people’s words and by the words he had underlined. Every detail matters. I did not have the good fortune to know him personally though i have heard a lot about him from others.  

Looking at his photographs I see that I look like him and it makes me happy though at times I feel sad that I don’t take after my beautiful mother. 

Yet I have known deeply, intuitively like the song that I hear every day. He made me love him just by his absence and this loving heart has always loved him completely idealizing him and seeing him as my hero.

He’s still my hero whose presence lights up my path and accounts for a guardian-like presence in all trials and tribulations. He’s the spirit who walks with me wherever I go.

Bowing down before this amazing silence

Twenty Tenets

Though I’m only an apprentice of writing, these are some of the lessons I have ‘recognised’ as useful while trying to write .

• Use simple language.
• Use active verbs.
• Free write and edit.
• Write to music.
• Rewrite old writing. 
• Write daily at least a page.
• Write from the heart. 
• Use different words for variety.
• Dive into the eccentricities of imagination.
• Write for yourself, edit for others.
• Write about dreams, they are useful.
• Learn grammar and punctuation.
• Make good use of depression.
• Read about other art forms.
• Read poetry for inspiration.
• Experiment with forms.
• Listen to constructive criticism only.
• Love your writing
• Remember your inspirations.
• Some suggestions don’t work.