Life, Musings, Misadventures, Epiphanies by Arun Raj

If your smile were the light That shined the testing paths Along the treacherous walks of life, I would gladly walk along. As if it were just a path Of flowers and lazy petals - un-paced. I wish you were mine then, For the known and unknown eternity now to only see your smile sparkle my everyday with love.

A broken heart wishes hard, To mend itself from a few broken shard. Tears of blue blood, In fear of the next stray sword. Slayed by pain of wrought memories, I own a mind fray in vain worries. The last fall sparks a distant cue - All the play & games, ends in an unfair rue. I hold on to a tiny thread of hope, Lying await for your words of love speak to drop. I push harder in a stray hope To make you feel my silent hope. My last wish now, I wish a little harder; To stop my broken heart's leak! ~Arun Raj

Conversation after conversation that I have engaged with women I have been privileged to have the company of in my life, I have observed one thing : the innate power of a woman to endure pain – physical and mental, is by far unmatchable by men. And this I feel makes them more divine than human. If most of them have learnt to live with it then it is not out of feeling physically insecure of surviving without men, but an ability to see things beyond a man's sensibility can perceive – unconditional love. Observe this in their fights and protests, they will always prefer to not cause pain and any induced suffering. In complete contrast would be a man's position, which is then to take to arms and battle it out. Very few men have been able to understand the value of the women to the society and stand for there cause – Gandhi, Vivekanada, Periyar, and many others. Even though to date their efforts have brought great relief to the oppression on our women, but still the silent battles r...

While wondering about the relationship of time to life and the consequences of the variants of the existential dilemma we all go through in life, I could not help but conclude this. Life is a consequence of time and time a consequence of an existential doubt. I saw the existential doubt as an apt metaphor for the daily doubts and conflicts we keep having, which is summed up pretty simply by Shakespeare as ‘To be or not to be’. Most of our doubts, daemons and conflicts can be categorized as 'Should I be myself or conform by expectations form me?' or 'What if I do this and what if I don't?'. And in the process of this of conflict spend a great amount of quality time. TIME then becomes the consequence of the EXISTENTIAL DOUBT. On Existential doubt, one of the founders of this philosophy comments: What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know, except in so far as a certain knowledge must precede every action. The thing is to under...

We at Prayas to date have successfully admitted and processed more than 35 children to a better state of academic schooling than what they had previously. Recently, during one of those admitting sessions, we had compulsorily asked the parents to join their children to the school for the process. Five children along with their mother and father came along even though it was already time for the parents to go off to work. The admission process began with a few questions about their family and other details. One excited child stood there, as she was asked questions by the principal, clutching onto and playing with her skirt. She stood there part smiling and part confused while she abruptly glanced at him. Then, I noticed him! There stood a father, next to his child. From his expressions I noticed that he could have been deeply contemplating and calculating the outflow of his monthly wages towards his child's education, the bills, the food, etc. In the moment that froze in front...

As I was pulled towards the ground, a strong and unfamiliar type of fear had taken me over. The support under my feet had just vanished for a few seconds and it felt like that moment in itself was a teacher of Buddha proportions. I had jumped off with the expectation of a different consequential fear that the height had spurred in me as I had a fear of heights, but now I felt another fear. The fear as I felt now was more akin to a state of insecurity and then of being connected to a force beyond my mortal control. The cliff though was only 20 feet high still gave a good 3 seconds of free fall before you landed. As the rafting experience and its multiple rushes, gushes & twirls had not enthused me, I was growing disappointed as it was almost the end of the 12 mile stretch. While I was not in a mood to try this part of the experience (Cliff jumping), that I had paid for, a voice inside me roared onto me and drove me to give it a try. I climbed the cliff which was now crowded by a bun...

In a waiting stance, he waits and waits – For her and her’s only love struck stare. To be he wishes, but wishes deny, In her arms to lay and sleep - in peace! To be he wishes, but a forlorn strait Stands between them; reluctant it blows! “Oh! Let me flow through thy trying flows, To reach ashore, where my love awaits!” To the Strait he prays louder and louder, In her arms to lay and sleep - in peace! Her eyes strain beyond the forlorn strait, In failing Hope, but she would wait. A distant beacon dims and shines As her heart wails and wails. A storm broke, a year from now; Across the forlorn strait it spread. “Take Me around this storm, for I can no longer take This unending wait, oh forlorn Strait!” To the strait she hollers, louder and louder, As her heart, wails and wails. The strait spoke, with lightning strikes fray, “My passing by has caused your heart pain; My frivolous waves have crushed your boats; ...