The Black Guardian

Wow! Isn’t it beautiful? Don’t you see it? Oh C’mon wake up and look at the sky! Has anyone seen this kind before? No? Strange.  I truly understand that the city life is deprived of such breathtaking scenery and yes this is happening for the very first time in this city’s history. Extravagant it is. Surely. Has such a sky ever left you spellbound before? Has it? No, right? But today is the chance to witness the sparkles, sparkles unseen and untouched; maybe the only chance to embrace visual delight.

What I see above in this glittering expansive sky, reminds me of something really romantic. It has never looked so clear, like in ages! All those twinkling stars are studded in that pitch-black blanket at their distant and unexplored homes, shining with valor as if it is a once in a millennium opportunity for them to showcase their maximum luminescence. And tonight, they are not alone, they are FAR too many, literally uncountable to see but too obvious to fall in love with. For minutes and hours I can gaze at this magnificent sight which I don't know who has painted for us, or maybe exclusively for me?

I wish tomorrow's sun never rises off its horizon and I wish I could just wrap up my little body within this blanket and sleep forever in its mystical hold. Then I would wake up in my dreams where I’d be unraveling the hidden secrets of this mysteriously gorgeous blanket; I would unearth its most intricate cities; I would go after THE source of such divine illumination; I would delve further into its dark crevices to get cognizant of this universes’ unmatchable magical prowess. But I would only if I really could.

Well, though I don't have a complete view of it - as I am sitting in a first floor balcony and not on the terrace - but whatever's on offer is sumptuously infectious to my soul; I experience a connection being established with my soul, I felt some of its elements communicating with my inners and telling me that all of it is my guardian, mine and mine alone. Too philosophical, right? But I kind of feel really happy to be indulging into such an inexplicable act. 

Oh wow, it is so pleasing to the eye and to each and every cell of my body. I wish that every night after returning from home I can gasp into the beauty of such a magnificent spectacle but I guess such things become special only when they are visible on exclusive days. Special things loose their charm when served daily.

But now when I concentrate on only one of those divine celestial bodies, my eye's wider field-view gives me an image showing an infinitely stretching sky sprinkled with glitters at random spots. For once I doubt my conscience whether I am literally watching this or am I studying an animated computer-rendered imagery!

And somewhere in this heavenly view I find some light touches of purple, very slight touches, and you know what, this involuntarily pulls my lips oppositely producing a smile I haven't wore since weeks. I can feel the stretch on my cheek bones and the reflecting glow in my eyes and THIS makes me realize the powerful aura of the picturesque universal magic I am witnessing right now. Its holds reach up to a point which is far from imagining and in those twinkling elements, I try to find you, or maybe your first letter or something, anything related to you, but then suddenly my brain hallucinates your face somewhere between a family of quadruple stars, as if you are under some spotlight and the world is watching you with its keen eyes waiting for this moment to arrive. You look so beautiful, I was right then, wasn’t I, about you being a heavenly angel! Hah! And again, the smile stays, as if forever.

For like the first time ever, right now, I feel completely thoughtless. Yes, there is no arrival of any kind of thoughts at my brain junction and this empty, thoughtless feeling gives me a feel of not being a human. I mean, we humans react completely opposite to this, don’t we? Our brains act like a radio station catching frequencies from all over the universe and hence we are always subconsciously or consciously engrossed in some or the other thought processes and most of the times it is harmful, needless and wasteful. Yet we do, because that’s how we train our minds, to be busy for eternity! But trust me, a stagnant brain is the most relaxed one, and right now all my brain cells would be thanking me for giving them some rest after some years!

But it is all just an illusion, isn’t it? 

As one feels the rain talking to its soul I too can sense my body striking not one but multiple chords with this godly marvel over my head. And you know what it says to me, "Never shall you fear young man, i am always with you."

Inner peace

The first monsoon rains had just lashed the city and had left back a pleasant environment to cherish. It had been a long while that the rain gods had to answer the scorching heat and I am grateful that they finally did so and that too in such a beautiful manner. Perched on the branch of the Ashoka tree- which has been my home since the beginning- I soaked those peaceful surroundings, and I could soon realize that they had produced a soft smile on my face along with a composing effect that seemed to empty my  mind with literally everything.

And I truly love this state of my body when it is partially wet and almost all the water is about to dry up from my feathers, it feels refreshing and clean. There is a sense of lightness which I experience throughout this state, as if all of my ‘excess’ load is shedding off me. To increase the thrill of it I flutter my wings at the rate of knots and in the wildest possible manner, and while doing so I get cognizant about the relevance of being with self, about being teleported into the world of philosophy and inner-peace, as if it’s a whole new universe left to be explored. My insides are calmed and I am kissed all over by an inexplicable rush relaxing me down to an ideal state.

But that day, while I was lost in this enchanted leisure activity something caught my eye immediately. I can bet that my eyes wouldn’t have been that wide open as they were then; for a few moments I couldn’t comprehend what was being flashed upon my retina, and soon I flew from the branch and up I was floating in mid-air trying to sink in what lay in front of me. It took some time to synchronize my wings together as I was left in a baffled state for I was witnessing something like never before. Someone looking up would surely have been distracted by my haphazard movements of which I was gradually gaining control. But that moment all these thoughts were all bygones and it seemed that I had just found the purpose of my life, which was calling me in sheer desperation!

I took my flight too higher altitudes, as I wanted to reach for that solitary white cloud which was stuck beautifully in between that grey cloud army. The left side of the army was splashed with reddish hue and the other side had a glittering silver lining on its periphery. But wait, how can I ever forget the golden lining over that white ball of cotton; I wanted to get there, I wanted to zip past that golden line and I wanted to sleep in the arms of that gigantic army of clouds (though I found that army a bit ominous).

I was racing above with sparkles of ecstasy as I had believed I had found the path to heaven and there was nothing left to go back to that Ashoka for this sight was much more captivating to me. With each inch I was getting closer to it that reddish hue started to blend with orange I could see that it was about to engulf MY white cloud, (oh I wanted to be a part of this unusual natural phenomenon) but ironically, my eyes were bursting with joy, my smile was stretching above its limit, my body was filled with severe adrenaline rush for I had never been so desperate for anything and this seemed to be worth it. But my speed-of-light like journey was disturbed by the sight of a gigantic bird, but no I realized that it was a man-made bird programmed to its destination. I wonder how boring it would be for it to monotonously fly on that same path back and forth, though it traveled at a much faster speed than mine but I was not envious of it because it couldn’t do one thing which I could and that was being free to fly anywhere!

My crazy-fickle nature came to play as I tried to be a part of a self-adventure when I literally went after to catch that aircraft in spite of knowing that it was out of bounds for me. The thrill of such a chase where we know that the results are unfavorable makes you test your limits and will-power, I thought so. After intense fluttering of my wings and expulsion of kilo joules of energy, I could sense some pain in my wing muscles as I had given my heart out to get anywhere near to that metal-bird but just at the moment I thought I had given too much it paced far away into the rain carrying clouds which were hundreds of kilometers away from me. Tired and kind of wasted, I relaxed myself and suspended my body in mid-air; closing my eyes I started to regain my system for the return journey. It took a few minutes for re-fueling myself and I guess during this I must have easily traversed at least one or two kilometers, unknowingly.

As I found some strength coming back in me I once again looked at that mammoth army floating high above in the sky but this time that singular cloud was nowhere to be seen and it disheartened me for I was quite keen to get there had my over-excited mind not wandered me away elsewhere. I searched for it but I guess it might have been crumbled by the dark (grey) forces of the army and this was proved by the fact that now the entire mass of those dark grey clouds had bathed in red. I felt sorry for the solitary one and sadly gazed at the magnificent red army, which shined with golden at its borders.

As I turned back to go home I got acquainted to a beauty which complemented the one I had just seen! All shades of light blue submerged with turquoise and aqua were spread infinitely all over the sky which I was always taught to be blue in color but, all my knowledge failed in front of this mind-numbing gorgeousness. I had gone mad, my mind had started to malfunction and I was unable to interpret the reasons for such an unbelievable spectacle. Science seemed to have been defeated finally and my belief in a universal power grew by leaps and bounds as I was left gasping for my senses in this awesomeness.

I was in the exact center of the line which divided the immeasurable sky into these two groups of magical colors, colors which were beautiful than ever. My notorious and excited nature seemed to have been overpowered by what I was witnessing; I felt I had matured; I repeatedly looked around the heavenly exhibition and consequently, I could feel my vocabulary being wiped off. I didn’t want to go back, I had decided, as I knew I had been enlightened in the best possible manner. I knew I had finally achieved my inner peace.

The next thing I could remember is awakening to a pleasant sunshine which I could quite clearly see from my nest on the Ashoka.

Finding Peace in the City

The moment I entered the park, I sensed that I was getting disconnected from the city. The ruckus of the traffic was slowly diminishing in the background and it was compensated with the warm breeze that was blowing around. I could see people exiting the park as it already was late evening and I bet that they must have got some other important things to do after their park routine, maybe like sticking to their idiot boxes till midnight, or going for a late dinner with their family.

But I was not alone, the mammoth park still had a sparse amount of joggers, walkers and romantic couples- though they were not into each other literally. I could barely see the people's faces as darkness had already swept the city, but there were a few high-headed lamp posts which emitted a soothing dim white light. This shallow light was the only source to follow those semi-cemented walking/jogging tracks. But I guess the people who had come with their pets must not have required any, as their pets could assist them in that!

As I strolled myself into the denser paths of this park I could feel the breeze kiss my face consistently, its touch was softer than a feather and moreover, the whistling sound that it was making at my ear drums was generating immense peace in my soul. That mild wind had a drastic calming effect on me and soon I realized that I had stopped walking! It wasn't the breeze one would always desire but it was special because it was giving a sedative like effect in that quiet environment. Enjoying the breeze, I started to stride again.

After two rounds of the outermost track, I changed my course and started to move into the darker areas of the park. The only light there was that of one of those distant lamps and of course the bright moonlight creeping through the branches of the trees. Yes it was scary for me, because at one point of time I could see no living being and was just accompanied by the noises of the evening insects. I kept on walking ahead, looking around the desolated park which actually witnesses hundreds of people daily- but I had arrived at the wrong time maybe-and continued my introspective thought-process.

As I was walking on the inner tracks of the park I saw groups of old men, few couples walking bare footed on the evenly trimmed grass, two men exercising and two-three couples enjoying themselves(!). But this part of the park was the one I fell in love with, not only because of the entertainment those love enchanted couples were providing but also because, right above me was the half moon surrounded by those beautiful twinkling stars. Frankly, I had never seen such a sight in this city! The moon looked exquisite as it was sumptuously chaperoned with those stars. I was bamboozled by the sky, it was crystal clear as if it was flaunting all its breath-taking celestial bodies in one go!  

I saw around and found myself at the center of the park, right underneath the shimmering moon. There were people were around me but I don't know what so significant they were talking because they were missing out on what the sky was giving, how could they miss it, how could they not see right above their foolish heads! I sat on a bench and I was once again, caressed by that breeze, it had started to flow again, very mildly, as if it was waiting for me to be seated.

I just closed my eyes and let this magical moment sink into my every segment. I didn't want to leave this place, at all. It was as if I was right under the moon and it was enlightening me with its gorgeous bright light. The juncture was divine and kind of impossible in a city which is the most polluted in the world! It wasn't the moment when one could get all the answers of life nor was it like being bestowed upon by the Almighty but it whatever it was, it was surreal in today's city life. The peace it had showered upon me was unique and inexplicable. The internal happiness that I could feel was like never  before.  

A Phenomenon

I look up at the dark sky and find those twinkling stars, that illuminating sun and that 'dull' moon really attractive. In spite of knowing that they are unreachable and infinitely away from me, I still wish to be there in that 'darkness'. The darkness where only few prestigious and daring human beings have gone. Out of those human beings, some return safely and some get lost into that cold and inexplicable darkness. But still, I feel proud of them, I really do! For what they have done for mankind and for our livelihoods. All of those brave men and women are like inspirational pillars; they have never failed because of what they do for us.

Space agencies and scientific organizations keep working on projects(missions) of which the common folk is oblivious. Space scientists spend their lives on building technology, doing research and finding more powerful ways to explore that immeasurable darkness that lies above us! Gigantic shuttles and expeditious rockets are sent into that wilderness for various studies and research. They remain there for months, years and even decades (until they can survive!). And these beautiful machines keep sending some 'valuable' data to the bright minds monitoring them, well, it's a very complex procedure for people like me. But I still love to keenly follow the developments!
Yes, everyday We are taking larger steps towards exploring the outer space, yes We are slowly finding ways for Our alternative home! That's what these scientists have been looking for all through this time, another place for our existence, another place for human survival.  

But apart from these extraordinary scientists, there are some people who are also achieving significant feats in the field of space exploration. They were not born to be scientists yet they have created things of unimaginable magnitudes. They have given this world an outlook of what lies in that unexplored space or more practically saying, of what can be there outside our Earth. And this 'they' are no other than, people from the film fraternity!
Yep, I'm not joking but just stating a fact.

Films are the most influencing source for us. What we see in them is what we believe, and if they are based on true studies and findings then its all the more riveting and trustworthy watching them! And one such movie is the recently released Interstellar.

The director, Christopher Nolan, in Interstellar has weaved something beyond our wildest dreams. He has gifted us a marvel of science and has opened floodgates for attracting people more towards the celestial environment. I read a lot of articles and saw many videos and interviews related to this movie and I got to know that it obviously is Sci-Fi movie but, it lives more in Sci rather than in Fi.

While I was watching the movie I was completely engrossed in its prowess. I wasn't just watching but I was thinking on whatever was happening on that screen. My face had expressions of bafflement, joy and surprise. The movie took me to a new world, a world where I or I guess no one has visited ever! Nolan had transferred me into all those astral places where those characters had gone and survived... I had numerous instances of goosebumps and adrenaline rush in my body...
It's been a month since I watched it and still, I keep relaying the movie in my mind, I try to think about different results or consequences, I recapitulate those moments of magnificence... I create my own Interstellar in my mind! And I know that who ever really loved the movie would still be lingering onto it, he\she would still be struck with what Nolan and his team had shown.

Interstellar was not just a movie but it was the future. Justifying all the scientific laws, it had exhibited what could lie in the crevices of that pitch black environment which is waiting to be delved into by the humans. It was like an invitation which humans can't ignore! That's why I loved it, because it was near reality and near practicality. This phenomenon is an inspiration not just for the common man but for the scientists as well, it'll act as a driving force for finding life beyond earth and to unearth many facts about this unending universe that we are unaware of.
This epitome of excellence would surely generate a drive to research and 'look'  more about what lies above us because the universe is awaiting our touch!



 
     




 
 

What a video!

Never seen a video like this! This is way beyond perfection. The music, the captions, the images, everything has been blended and synchronized excellently... The first time i saw it, i burst out into laughter and i had a constant smile all throughout the video...It is a collection of weirdest and funniest snaps of mine... It made my birthday even more special and beautiful... I really am out of words and i can't stop thanking my buddy Shubham Bahl who spent so many hours creating this magical video for ME! I also thank Barbie Goyal and Shrey Arora for providing the snaps and spending so much time discussing and planning for this video. Thank you Guys. You left me speechless and infinitely elated.

Video LINK :-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp9iwlhZVe8&feature=youtu.be

Relationship: A coin

Like every other thing in this world, relationships are also like a coin. Yes they are! Inspite of them being embedded with love and passion, even the healthiest of relationships have the "other" side. 

People say that love is the best emotion(feeling), the best thing one can experience-only if you have that reciprocated love towards you. But no one tells its disadvantages. The disadvantages of being in a relationship! In a healthy relationship too. Yes no one. I'm not talking about being heartbroken or someone being on the verge of some breakup, but here I talk about the other side of being in a "beautiful" relationship. Afterall being in one has its own consequences that one has to bear.

Relationships can be publicly open or confined to the concerned couple or known maybe only to very exclusive people. And these are just the types based on how open a relationship is to the public. Apart from these three types there are numerous relationships which are based on other numerous things, which are of no importance to us right now, atleast. Now all of these three types have some interesting other-sides, sides that hold prime importance. Especially the last two types! Well, let's uncover them.

Okay so in the first type. The society- one must not include their parents in here- knows about you and your lover, and quite obviously knows that you two are love birds since blah blah time. If the couple has no problem then it's absolutely no problem for anyone. All of their friends, or their social circles have complete knowledge- this varies from the closeness of that couple with their people- about their love story! While some gossip behind the back while some play as assistants, assisting and advising to that love enchanted couple. People in such an open relationship become carefree towards the society's fear and comments and are happy to be publicly known as a couple. Might be giving them a feeling of an "official" couple. Who knows!

Well, it's their own willingness and they have full authority to exercise their rights. Now, what are other sides of being in such a relation? The other side has only one "threat", and that is the parent issue. This is a serious and a common threat in any type of relationships! The couple must really be wary of their parents because our parents much smarter than us. If the parents know about you and surprisingly, have no issues then I feel that that couple is the luckiest, atleast in terms of social and family pressures. But if that's not the case, then declaring your love openly and still hoping to hide it from your families is an uphill task. It's like an exam which you gotta give 24X7! But only if the couple is smart enough and well-planned then they'd know how to handle such scenarios of sheer danger!

Moving onto the second type of relationships, we see a sea change in the approach of the couple. As soon as they step into a relation, at that very moment they become actors for others. They unknowingly hone their acting skills as they always are acting in front of others, obviously when they are together.

This type includes all those love birds who have kept their love saga as a deep secret from everyone and wait for the correct time to unveil it. Well, I feel this is the toughest type, a type where there's maximum risk involved no matter how normal the couple tries to be. Because acting can never be used as an escape rout, not everytime atleast! Somewhere, sometime, someone will surely catch you and you'll be left with nothing but to spit out your secret. And the truth is that you really can't hide love! That's the truth, even if you think you are hiding it exceptionally well then you are very well wronged. And it's a very rare case because the couple surely shares it with someone, so as to keep an assistant, who'll be helping them whenever they are in "danger". So basically, the other side of this coin has only risk and danger. It needs planning, superb acting skills and most importantly alertness to be preprared for the other side as it's consequences are massively severe and threatening!

The third and the final type of relationships are an extension to the second type. Everything's same as the second type but it's just that there are more actors who are involved rather than just the two. The protagonists here,  have their "support" cast with them. The cast includes those exclusive people who are trusted more than life, by the lovely couple. A lot of thinking goes between all the actors and everytime they indulge in trust games. Things are chilled out here, as the couple enjoys their love life without any worries and knows that their secret is known only to trustworthy people of theirs. The relaxation turns into wild tensions when the couple encounters the other side.

The other side is really worrisome as the couple realizes that their secret is not only confined to their support cast but more people who have become aware of it. This chain grows on indefinitely. Slowly and silently. Plus there's this fear of parents also! So suddenly there arises some real tension and the couple undergoes some gruelling time discussing it. Even if those "new" people are equally safe there's still a sense of worry that lingers on in the minds of the couple. Everything's fine and normal but at the back of their heads theres a little worry that rests in a dormant state.

This coin of relationships is flipped at irregular intervals. It itself is a wonderful blend of an all-emotion journey. It keeps flipping all the time and produces newer adventures for the love birds. It tests their love, understanding, wit, alertness and what not. But love also blindfolds the couple from the other side of the coin and that can be utterly dangerous. So I urge all those relationship-blessed couples to be wary of their coin and take appropriately and timely decisions.

Change from I to We

"Health is wealth", this saying has been fed into my head since I first stepped into my school. These three words together create one of the most truthful life teachings of all times. At school I knew it but didn't think much about it, actually I really never thought about it much, but as I opened myself to the realms of this mammoth world it was then when I realised that "okay, this is the most crucial sentence for anyone's life."
This sentence is a simple yet hard truth that's integral for not just me and you but also the other living creatures of this planet.

In our childhoods we hardly paid any heed to even think about it but on the insides we definitely knew what it meant literally but not what it meant "actually"! And that's where I feel we were being oblivious to something that was there always in front of us but rarely did anyone do anything for it.

Why is it so much important for the survival? Why is it that this sentence holds so much weight in the lives of every single human being? These questions are way back in the queue to be answered. They hold importance but aren't our priorities at the moment. Why so? Because in "health is wealth", health has been lost somwhere deep into the crevices of this society. And in the quest for wealth, things have gone from bad to worse. It's been a silent change in the way people have started to take this life changing phrase. Everybody knows that health is crucial for wealth but despite of this "knowledge" there is a race for wealth first.

And what leaves me horrified is the fact that due to this imbalance, health levels have gone down and with wealth there's something that has increased and that is, hunger. Ironical isn't it? People might say that, " How the hell is it possible? How come hunger can be in direct proportion to wealth?" Well, I have the answer.

In this wealth race, our mindsets have changed to "I" rather than "we" and this has been the missing link to the downfall of "health is wealth". There are some nicer souls who still have had the ability to strike the balance but the majority has failed to follow the "we" culture than the "I" one. This imbalance has made some richer or even richest but it also has made some poor or poorest! The richer ones have collected the wealth but also have they become unaware of the most dangerous problem of our society. Hunger.

Hunger accompanied with malnutrition has dented not only our nation but the entire planet. It's silently yet terrifically spreading its vicious wings over all the countries. People face shortage of even the basic food and then they starve and starve and starve more but one day, they ultimately die. They die in the quest of hunger and they die in the state of malnutrition. About 842 million people in the world do not eat enough to be healthy.  That means that one in every eight  people on Earth goes to bed hungry each night. A third of all deaths in children under the age of five in developing countries are linked to undernutrition(India is also a developing country). Most of the world’s undernourished people are still to be found in Southern Asia, closely followed by sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Asia.

These facts leaves me shocked! Those stats are literally horrifying. And then I realize that so many people undergo such huge deprivation of food! It makes me feel for those food starved people and especially those malnourished infants who came into this world with their baby cries and then with days passing those cries turn into the cries of agony, pain and HUNGER.

But why such a massive problem? Here's why...

If women farmers had the same access to resources as men, the number of hungry in the world could be reduced by up to 150 million. The gender inequality has always been a bane to any sorts of development in any country( especially Middle East and South East Asia). Women have had to face the beating and here also they arent spared. The orthodoxies of our society have caused this severe imbalance of fodd and has led to such a massive shortage of food to people.
It costs just US $0.25 per day to provide a child with all of the vitamins and nutrients he or she needs to grow up healthy. The "wealth race" has not allowed this to happen. Corruption and the intense greed for money has resulted in this unequal share of money and that has ultimately lead to shortages of basic food to people. Humans have gone crazy to create heaps of money for themselves but in this cruel quest they have forgotten to  help out these painstruck people.

By 2050, climate change and erratic weather patterns could have pushed another 24 million children into hunger. Almost half of these children would be in sub-Saharan Africa. Unequal distribution of resources in  African counties has already made them the hunger countries of the world and it's not far when all of us would be living in what would then be called as the "Hunger World". It's time to step in and to help these innocent souls. It's time to stop the money race, it's time to inhibit all wars and come together to share our resources with them and uproot this venom known as Hunger.