A heart stirring thought.... from an admirable person

Gone through your blog and your thoughts....

Have you ever seen the cactus flower. The flower has same qualities which others flowers have, beauty, softness, awesome color. However, nobody uses these flowers. They never think that how daring that plant is, which manages to grow in such an adverse situation; and inspite of the adversity.. it grows beautifully.

My bizarre thoughts say that maybe sometime all cactus plant would have bud flowers....
However, when the saw the adversity and fate (negligence) of other cactus plants of there family, they stopped budding flowers.

Again, a thought flashes on my mind... isn't this the case with my country, India... as well as the world....

There are many people who like to spread beauty, awareness, peace and sanguinity amongst the people around.However, seeing the fate of the people who think on similar lines, they take a step back.

However, there are some who still dare; inspite of all odds, inspite of the clouds of terrorism, unrest and treachery which have almost engulfed our atmosphere, they dare to change today for a better tomorrow. Thank God, such people still exist.

I too have thoughts like you. Just the difference is, you give them shape of blog and I try to kill those thoughts by my paintings and sketches.

The most special ingredient in the dish of your life is: "YOU"

Have you ever wondered - What is the most special ingredient in the dish of your life...? "YOU"

"YOU" are the secret to all your dreams, all what you have ever wanted or dreamt to achieve.

Let me clarify...

Friends, you know to achieve something great, the first you need to do is believe that you are special. You have been born on this planet to do something big, to make a difference. Yes, you are special. You have a purpose.

Believe you can do it and definitely you will.

Recently, I have been reading several books and also watched several movies and I really appreciate the fact that many of these means of mass awareness, are spreading around this message of the power of self belief.

I loved this movie "Kung Fu panda". It was a very enjoyable movie, but it did contain learning; a learning which if you understand and start applying, will be the key to all that you desire for.

It is the promise of something special that makes it special.

The story of "Kung Fu Panda" goes like..
the Valley of Peace is protected by the Furious Five, a quintet of warriors trained in kung fu by tortoise Master Oogway and his protégé, the red panda Master Shifu, and consisting of Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper, and Crane.

One day, Master Oogway has a premonition that the snow leopard Tai Lung, Master Shifu's former student who gained a thirst for power and became evil, will escape from prison and attack the Valley. Oogway instructs Shifu and the others to hold a tournament in order for the next Dragon Warrior to be chosen in order to receive the power of the Dragon Scroll, a parchment said to give limitless power to whomever reads it, and defeat Tai Lung.
There is this overweight Panda Po, who accidentally happens to become the new Dragon Warrior of the Valley of Peace.

Unwilling to believe Po is destined to become the Dragon Warrior, Shifu attempts to conspire with the rest of the Furious Five to shun Po and make him leave the temple as soon as possible, but finds that Po, inspired by Oogway's confidence in him, is very determined to learn despite his size and clumsiness.

Without going into further details of the movie; let me put a question... Can you guess what the Dragon Scroll contained? Your wildest guess... - IT WAS AN EMPTY REFLECTIVE FOIL.
Then what was the secret? Was it all a joke?

No, the secret was “YOU ". The reflective foil shows your own reflection.
It’s your power of self belief which will help you sail through all odds and reach the pinnacle that you have always dreamt for yourself.

How this secret is revealed is quite an interesting part of the story, however, am sure you can watch the movie for yourself.

That’s the belief which I always talk about.

Let's cook and garnish the dish of our lives with this special ingredient: the belief that the outcome will be awesome.
Let's paint our lives with the colors we want, with the brushes of dreams and aspirations with the belief that our painting will be the most beautiful among all the paintings which our eyes have ever witnessed.

Let's be alive friends. Let's never stop dreaming and never stop believing that an angelic tomorrow awaits us. Let’s look to the horizon where a new day will begin.

The awakening

I cast a look around me; I feel overwhelmed with what I see...
The world has changed, really beyond imagination.

Some changes have affected us, the people, positively whereas some have proved to be disastrous...

The change which makes me wonder most is the change in our mindsets.Citing the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai which our country, India, had to combat; things are slowly getting back to normal.

However, what do we define as "NORMAL"?

When will there be a case when our nation will awaken and say "ENOUGH".
How long will we behave like dummies. Something happens, we call our loved ones, see they are fine, feel a bit emotional about the incident for a week or so and then get back to our daily lives.

When will we start feeling the pain of others, our fellow country men? When will we realize that tomorrow we can be one among the innocent people who lost their lives? When will be understand that we need to stand together and act, change our mindsets, awaken us and paint the picture of the world around us, in colors chosen by us, not by "THEM".

Its our country, our lives. We "ARE NOT" puppets in their hands. They can’t choose when we will die and how long we live. They can’t and won’t paint the lives of my country men in blood.

My nation, my India, my county... its mine.

Let's realize this. Let's stop being insensitive and indifferent. Let's not turn a blind eye to what is happening around us.

Some of you may be wondering: What can we do? Our leaders are corrupt. Our nation’s security system is at fault.

Friends, it’s very easy to point fingers. Aren’t we who have selected our leaders, isn’t someone amongst us, who is dishonest? If each one of us changes ourselves, our mindsets, awaken the giant within us and then influence people around us; a day will come, when our entire nation will be alive, not dead; when we can dream of a beautiful tomorrow full of peace and security and not of uncertainty. Where we can say once again: “I AM PROUD TO BE AN INDIAN”.

Friends, let’s start taking up our responsibilities seriously, let’s vote, select best leaders, who are motivated like us, who have big dreams like us, who have unlimited passion like us. Let’s together lead our country on the path of success and abundance.

Let’s begin our journey with Tagore’s below prayer in our minds:

Where the mind is without fear and the head held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

Nostalgic School Memories

Bloom, bloom, bloom where you're planted...

You will find your way....

Bloom, bloom, bloom where you're planted...

You will have your day....

As I cast an eye down the memory lane...looking back on whatever life has enfolded before me till date, I am full of a mixture of feelings. Feelings of joy, amusement, a little dash of sorrow, some regrets, but tons of happiness, love and laughter to carry forward in life.

School days are the most memorable part of one's life. Those days of innocence, freedom from the chains of worries and tension, a golden period full of liveliness and vivacity.

At school, I was a quiet and introvert child. However, deep within my self, I had always been a deep thinker. I now wonder how bizarre some of my thoughts had been. They had a spiritual and philosophical bend even at that tender age. I always loved reading motivational poems and songs, motivating my friends to do something innovative and new. Now I understand, I basically loved motivating people, which now has become so much a part of my self.

I remember the few lines from a song we used to sing at my school, Carmel Convent, Durgapur.

Bloom, bloom, bloom where you're planted...
You will find your way....

Bloom, bloom, bloom where you're planted...
You will have your day....

This chorus has and will remain engraved in my mind forever. Just try to take a deeper look into the meaning of these few lines.

Like a flower/shrub/tree blooms, wherever it’s planted… A fertile soil or a barren desert, the peak of snow capped mountain or lush green plains. It never complains, so should we learn to bloom wherever we are… under whatever circumstances and with whatever limitations. We should make the best utilization of our limited resources to carve our way through all twists and turns of life and reach the pinnacle: the zenith which we have identified for us.

This does not mean that we should live content with small means, never dream big, and be happy with whatever little we have; never ever think of venturing outside our boundaries… NO, I don’t mean this.

This to me is equivalent to death. I want to be alive, vivacious and lively… with the sparkle of big dreams in my eyes, with the hope of the most beautiful tomorrow that my mind can picture. This is my symphony of life….However, for the attainment and fulfillment of these most cherished dreams, let me awaken within me the infinite power and belief which will help me sail through all the ups and downs… all my limitations… which, I wont put it as a limitation now…My surroundings is the garden in which I have been planted. A beautiful, fragrant flower can grow anywhere… as I said, in lush green plains as well as desert, on a snow capped mountain as well as on the sea shore.

Let me put my heart and soul in making myself that sweet fragrant flower, which will always bloom where it’s been planted…as long as it is there on this planet, spreading its beauty and fragrance in the atmosphere, making the world around a more beautiful and serene place for others as well as myself.

Let’s bloom where we are planted, we will find our way….