Cine actor Jagathy Sreekumar met with an accident few weeks ago. Famous that he is for his antics on the screen, the hearts of a great many Keralites went out to him and his family. Nothing wrong. Usual expression of concern towards someone to whom bad times have befallen.

Few days later the Chief Minister of the state had the audacity to go public saying that the treatment will be state sponsored! What?! Yup. No voices were raised and the population of the state of Kerala went about their usual lives; and did not even raise an eyebrow towards the comment.

What logic is there in lending a helping hand to such a person who has amassed a lot of wealth through his brilliant career, I do not see; when you have thousands of more deserving denizens who do not even have the means to meet their basic needs.

What shocked me even more was that no political party or anybody for that matter came forward to register their disapproval against such a stance taken by the leader of the state. It only proves that when it comes to taking up real issues of the people we have our priorities confused.

Going at 80 Km/hr on a 120 Km/hr road gives you a different feel and perspective that is analogical to living slow on a fast paced modern day lifestyle.

Those driving at 120 or more were more driven to hitting the brakes frequently (causing wear and tear over a period of time), getting into frequent bumper-to-bumper conditions causing frustrations, etc. Those at 80 were far more relaxed, only having to step on the brakes a lot lesser than their 120+ counterparts.

So is life. The harder you try to raise the tempo, the chances of causing wear and tear, both bodily and mental, are higher.

There is this scene from the movie 2012 – a Buddhist monk sits at the top of some mountain overlooking many other huge mountains. A young disciple sits beside him trying to find an answer to a question. All the old monk does is start pouring out tea into a cup. He continues to pour even after it starts to over-flow. When the young monk points this out, the old man says – we all have lot of things in our mind like the overflowing tea cup making it impossible to take in any more useful knowledge. Clear your mind first.

Thinking along the above I was eating grapes standing in the kitchen. As I am alone at home I do not get to indulge my appetite as it normally does when all are home J. Each grape tasted so good. I was thinking to myself – eating the usual stuff when you’re a little hungry taste completely different.

Adapting the old monks teaching to my case I’d come up with the below:
Leave a little room for hunger (in anything). Do not over indulge.
Have that what is required to just satiate. You’ll experience that fine thing which usually gets cloaked.

Like Leo says, learn to be silent even if it is for a few minutes in a day, so that you can hear your life speak to you.

I follow the writings of Leo Babauta on and off. Don’t get mislead by the simplicity of his site. That’s what he stands for – SIMPLICITY. What I am going to put in here though is not a pitch to become a follower, but a tangent thought that crossed my mind while reading one of his posts today. What you read below will make more sense if you were to first read his post that I provided in the link few words ago.

He talks about the benefits of developing the Habit of Meditation, as a group. And he lays down the following points emphasizing the pros:

1.            It’s a great way to start your day calmly.

2.            It helps reduce and cope with stress.

3.            It’s a training ground for living more mindfully.

4.            It improves focus, memory, effectiveness and more.

5.            It makes you happier.

What struck me was its close similarity to our daily morning congregation prayer (Fajr prayer – which sadly most of us do not take benefit of) that has been made binding and beneficial to the mankind and believers in particular. Most of the time we tend to overtly stress on the spiritual benefits of the 5 compulsory prayers.

I say we have in it an “Art of Living”.

The usual saying we have commonly come across is “Look fear in the eye”. I took it a step (or a leap?) further – “Look fear in the balls”. Now why would I think of something like that?

Looking in the eye has an even probability of your adversary overcoming you in the struggle to attain an upper-hand; whereas my thought leaves no room for such probability. Think of it, it will be a retreat (shameful) either due to embarrassment or just fear itself (of what you might do).

The recent Rushdie sensation created by our country’s leaders and made larger than life by the media keep re-affirming the fact that we have nothing better to do. People need to be continuously reminded of Newton’s third law. The more you oppose the greater is the exposure it gets.

Rushdie as a writer has all the rights as a human being to express his work and opinions freely. I have not read his Satanic Verses, so I am not educated enough to make comments on him along those lines. Nevertheless, what these so called religious zealots do not realize is that, what they’re doing is only drawing unnecessary attention to things that they want people to keep away from.

In one of the news channels answering a question to the interviewer, Rushdie gave a statement that grabbed my attention. In all the furore caused there were a lot of support and encouragement extended from the common Indian populace via social network and the likes, to Salman, that he said he had faith in the general population, but not its leaders.

Can’t blame him, can we?

You can get famous in 2 ways - fast or painfully slow.

In the fast lane, you need to know when to stop. That’s difficult. But stop you must if you need to maintain the fame for a long time. On the contrary you’ll have your ego urging you to go on. And when that time comes to wrap things up, you are unable to maintain the momentum and get shoved in to your own shadows.

The latter is painful too. You never know when you’ll attain that level of fame; dangerously hovering over the precipitous valley of uncertainty, ready to cave-in and quit at the slightest of provocation. But reaching the pinnacle in this manner has its up-side too.

I kind of see Washington D.C like the hub of any other powerful kingdom that existed in history. Greeks, Romans, Persians, Despots, Prime Ministers, Presidents, Generals.

Kings, Ministers, Warriors, Spies, etc. were all part of the fabric then. When time came, no matter what or no matter how much they tried, relegation prevailed over their much sought after rise, if not total annihilation. Most of us may not remain to see the day of the decline of yet another powerful “kingdom” of our times. But for what they have earned, it is only a matter of time.