Chandu Chitrkaar

Chandu ka bus thaa ek pyaar,
ek din woh banega sabse achha chitrakaar,

Apne janamdin par usne ek chitti kholi
aisa laga ki uski kismat khulkar boli

bheja hai maine tujhe, ek sundar frame,
usme bharna woh chitr jisase ho sabse jyaada prem,

Pakit mein bhar kar paint brush ke gucche,
ek kora kagaj aur rangon ko daboche,

chal pada chandu apni cycle par savaar
apna sub se sundar chitra banaane ke liye taiyaar

dekhe usne bade bade jhaad,
unpar fulon ke rang karte sawaar,

kile ka bas tha ek bhura rang,
lekin geherai use khilaati apne sang

Chandu lekin tha santosh nahi,
Socha kyun naa kuch aur hi sahi.

Cham Cham karti cycle uski na ruki,
kuch toh thi har chitra mein kami

rangon mein doobe motor car,
na raas aayee use nadi, pahad ya phoolon ki bahaar

paaye unmein sundarta apaar,
par nahi tha unmein Chandu ka pyaar.

Udaas woh lauta ghar jab hui raat,
saath uske tha woh kora kagaz aur do saaf haath

Apne chehere ko hanthon mein dubaaye
Socha usne, "ki koi dhrishya use kyun nahi raas aayee"

Tab usne apne andar se avaaz suni
ki sabse sundar drishya to usne dekhe abi

woh bade bade jhaad, woh phool, woh phal,
unhone jiyaa tha apna har ek pal

us kile ka bhoora rang, tha hazaron saalon ka bharna,
un pathro ka kadi dhoop ko sahana, phir bhi na tootna ya bikharna.

Bus tab Chandu ka sabse sundar drishya uske ankho mein khila
Chandu aakhir apne chitra se apne angan mein mila

Lambi lakiren, woh peela rang, bhoori katorian aur unke sang
kuch safed gucche, peele mein chupte chupaate, aur kuch bhoora rang

Ho gayi Chandu Chitrakaar ka chitra tayaar
Chandu ke maa ki tasveer, uska ek hi pyaar.

The Others

The one common thing we all want is to be different.

When you meet a guy, you ll hear him say that he loves sports, movies, road trips,etc and when you meet a girl, her hobbies would invariably be painting, being creative, interior designing, fashion designing etc.

And we believe we are different. Most of our conversations about ourselves are animated around how we see things or think of things differently. But no matter how different you get. You will still do something that many others have already done. No matter how much we try, we are same at almost all levels.

But what is so great about being different? The "I am" or "I did it" factor, the " Every body look up to me" factor. The " I will always be remembered as....." factor. The "My contribution" factor. What ever it is, the focus is on being recognized, being seen differently, in the present and future.

Today are you willing to look into your neighbour's eye and openly declare that " I want to look good to you, and I will spend my entire life doing all that is needed to look good to you."

I always believed that if I live the journey right the result will finally be reached. But after 10 years I have realized that, 1. There is no right and no wrong. There are only different ways. 2. I did not aim, so I did not meet the objective. My purpose was my journey and that is exactly where I am and will be at the end of this life. On one of the ways..... with no idea where it leads. Because that is exactly where I want to be.

I have no where to reach. I have just to be.

There

I am never really here, I am always there,

Singing songs of morrow - the music blares,

Yes I love today - the things that make my day,

Yet there's a string that pulls me away.

The butterflies of tomorrow fly by me,

leaving me in sparkles floating free,

Oh the beauty!! the seductive tease,

Of ma ideas performing a striptease.

Taking shape, growing, taking form,

Dancing to its own music, buried for so long,

Opening up with grace, standing tall

Oh what a performance!! Applause Applause Applause

The color red, the strong scent,

the bold use of hands, the enchantment

My eyes, my thoughts, my ears, my nose

Are all absorbed in tomorrow's shows.

The future is more real than the present picture

My present is completely drowned in the perfect future

The moral of this graphic picture..is...

My present is my future

My future is my present.

My Song

I know since I have blogged its been long,

Was just waiting for the perfect song,

But I guess I just got the idea wrong,

Perfection follows a journey, lifelong.

So I decided to just sit right down,

To write of the thoughts that goes around,

In my head, over and over again as a record rewound,

Seems like it requires a place abound.

I think of paint, I think of crease,

I think of letting my thoughts just freeze,

I think of a fine hand, I think of release,

In just the fashion I see it, piece by piece,

I see me colored in my own paint,

Of the outer world I have some idea faint,

My wishes are pure, but my fears taint,

The color of my life is growing quaint,

I sit with books, my work, my day,

Dreaming of a picture I put on my tray,

I can't stop floating going astray,

Yet of commitment I don't dare to say.

Will try today, will try tomorrow,

Today or tomorrow I will get narrow.

Will make a choice as I believe is destined,

Its only a game, I'll win over my doubting mind.

Till then I will hold on....

Will continue to write some imperfect songs!!!!!

The Story of my Experiments with Truth Author – Mahatma Gandhiji

A beautiful account of an autobiography. The first biography, I have read, that has been written with an objective and Mahatma Gandhi, not once lost sight of it. The lesser learned, like me, would begin reading the Father of the Nation's autobiography with an expectation of having a first hand account of the Indian freedom struggle. But to my surprise, it was written with an objective of telling us the ' THE STORY OF HIS EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH'. dot to dot. And ended where the freedom struggle began, as according to him that point onwards his life had already been public.

A few paragraphs on what left me spellbound and my mind’s take on the matters.

I have come to learn that Gandhiji's work in vegetarianism was much wider, more inward and much more difficult as compared to his work in the freedom struggle of India. His work in the sphere of national independence slowly and steadily found ground, a following and unshakable personal commitment of very powerful people. But his struggle and vow to be a vegetarian was primarily focused on self, thus not much following, not much external encouragement or moral boosting. On the contrary he found ridicule time and again and again. The friend and foe of vegetarianism was nature itself. The essence of that consumed would determine Gandhiji's health without being liberal. And nature can be very ruthless, I mean very non-discriminatory. Not a British rule that could be spoken to and whose reaction could be predicted and twisted with the power that our leaders personified.

He has written in the book of his wrong doings and eccentricities which would be rare possibility in any autobiography. His poor performance at times was boldly written too. And knowing him through his book, I can assure you that, it surely was not done in the light of the fact that he eventually had become a Mahatma and would be forgiven for his misdeeds.

He spent his life almost up to his middle adulthood without a blind belief in any religion. Mind you, though religion and vegetarianism were his favorite subjects. He read, and heard and confirmed what he heard and discussed with those who had faith in their own religion like Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and grew up to believe in the Gita. He took Gita to be a guide to a wholesome being and at every point in his life he personified the teachings in the Gita. His life is an example of living in the true spirit of Hinduism, our culture, the essence of the Maharishis.

He developed The faith - the BLIND FAITH

Gandhiji's life can be described is the shortest way as

'Experiments with Truth'. Truth not just in words, but also thoughts and deeds. We learnt at school in Moral Studies, the lesson on speaking the Truth. But Truth has many more dimensions than only sound. And Gandhiji taught that not only through his speeches but more so through his deeds. The fact that he was a believer of truth left no room for an adjustment or a compromise. Standing on such difficult ground he did public work involving thousands. How many of us can maintain the same level of Truth within our families. Speaking the truth to the society does not even cross our mind.

In such a difficult terrain of Truth, he watered the thought of Satyagraha. To explain the right and duty of Truth was not an easy task. And to withdraw a national level campaign that was half way through, due to the lack of understanding of the rights and duties of truth, of uneducated and the educated masses sure won him many brickbats. But Gandhiji publicly accepted his mistake of premature delivery of Satyagraha and decided to begin the task of educating the masses of their duties and responsibilities towards the Truth. This meant quietly gulping the atrocities of the British Empire and exaggerations to begin with. He thus issued pamphlets, made speeches, prepared instructors and teachers on the subject and issued a code of conduct. And so went on his search for Truth.

Gandhiji is a practical guide to our culture. my regards to the Utmost Supreme. And thank you God for dropping in our lap this son of yours.

My First Baby

This is how it started, like most interesting things in my life-With me scratching my head and asking myself...Whaaaaaaaaaaat????

1st Q- What is the one thing that makes our home unique to any other place?? .....

Ans- A place to sit back and relax.....

2nd Q- What can I gift my brother

to tell him he is special?? .....

Ans- Nothing but the best whatever it takes!!!!

Two questions and their two obvious answers took me through one

rocking experience-

Building a Chair from scratch.......

A few more scratches on my head later I realised!!!!! , I knew nothing

about woodwork, knew nobody who knew about woodwork, knew

nothing about the time and efforts it would take, nothing about the costs

involved, nothing, nothing, nothing & some more nothings. The one thing I knew was the answer to my second question supported by the answer to my first question.

A plunge into the project, some expenses and some wood pieces later I was sitting with Chacha ( an awesome carpenter) at his furniture shop. Chacha was too sweet to allow me along with my army of friends and relatives into his shop and work as if it was our own. Chacha was a tough boss....I guess, he too wanted us to build nothing but the best. He encouraged and pushed us to give the best finishing to our work even when we were crying that we are tired.

Every day I had to decide what materials I would use to look like, apparently every idea in my head made life difficult for Chacha as he had to think about ways to make my ideas fly. And fly it did when we figured out & agreed a way to use shattered mirror glass for the finishing...the idea was brilliant and mirrored my idea perfectly...now I was happy.

Chacha’s shop was at the main road and for 1 month nobody known to me travelling back from work would miss seeing me sitting on the floor of the shop with all the dust happily cutting and polishing wood when they would be expecting me to be at home chopping vegetables and dressing the evening salad.....but nothing worried me... cause for a change...I WAS HAPPY

My chair making project was a talk of the town with all my friends and relatives. They all came...and how they came :) ...to click pictures...to help me...even if for a day...loved it. My joy knew no bounds when my all time hero, Papa came to help me. It is amazing how he is there for me every time I need him.

My brother got the best he deserved, the best pair of chairs in the world and I had the best time possible surrounded by family and friends. :)

And above all this I would love to tell you that without Rakesh my chairs wouldn’t have been the same!! And I would not like to spoil it by thanking him!!!