बहुत कुछ करना है, हाँ, बहुत कुछ।

अभी पंख लगाकर उङना बाकी है,

सागर की गहराई में क्या है, यह देखना बाकी है,

दौङते हुए बहुत दूर अा जाना बाकी है,

बिना बिजली के गाँव में रहना बाकी है,

फिर से बारिश में भीगना बाकी है,

सिर्फ किताबों में डूबे रहना बाकी है,

काम की मौज में लुट जाना बाकी है

गाना सीखना बाकी है, गाना सुनाना बाकी है

दिल खोल के हसँना बाकी है, रोना बाकी है

एक बार फिर से जीना बाकी है

बहुत कुछ करना है, हाँ, बहुत कुछ।

Haiku

Tried writing a haiku. Followed the 5-7-5 syllables and the where-what-when rule. Totally immersed trying to capture what I have been feeling this whole morning.

Crouched below a shade

Hot summer winds gush by

Childhood dreams

I am not sure if it makes sense when read once. Perhaps it is a poor haiku or perhaps it just takes time for the reader to engage with it and get to the layer underneath. I ll opt for the former. It will take time for me to become good at it. But at least it is a step and I feel nice.

One of those days...

One of those days when I want to put on wings and fly

One of those days when I want to give everything a try

Of a sun that sparkles as hours become fuller

Of hot summers nights as they become cooler

Those moments of breaking free from the everyday

Those days of making new memories that are here to stay

Days that are awake, full of creation

Days that forever sparkle with imagination

A whole new layer to it...

I have been working on a project for the last 9 months- the last 5 months in just writing it up. The report has gone through at least 10 revision and complete re-writes. By now, some of the member of the team are just tired of it. "No more!", is their call. Any talk of the document and they take cover. But that does not stop the edits from coming. Every time one reads a report, one wants to polish it just a bit more, maybe just rearrange stuff to see how it looks or just add a personal touch. It is natural.

I greeted these changes with annoyance. Can we stop being perfectionists?, I wondered. This continued for almost 2 months till I noticed something really strange. I began to like this process of making changes. There was a sense of satisfaction in implementing them - like I had crossed another hurdle on a steeple-chase. As the noted violinist Stephen Nachmanovitch would say, " ...the secular and the sacred merge". Work and play suffused. It became almost fun to incorporate the new set of changes which keeping the old integrity and philosophy of the report intact. I actually denied admitting to this pleasure. This can't be true, I should be angry as the others are!

Now, as we are almost ready to print, I feel a sense of having achieved more than I would have if there were just 2 rounds of edits. I leave the project happy and content- so different from what I felt two months ago. Throwing more time at a problem, doing something you hate agan and again can sometimes allow another deeper perspective to emerge. Isn't it?

We are not alone..

Multiverse. A hypothetical set of multiple and parallel universes- each similar to, yet different from the others.

I have been toying with this idea for the last couple of days. I find it intriguing. It means that, in another universe, right now- I am doing something different. I could be in a cafe' in Vienna instead of my home in mumbai. It is me, all right- but a different me. All because I took a decision in that universe to travel to Austria during the summer vacation. How exciting! And since there are infinite such universes ( if the hypothesis is true!), then there are infinite variations of where I could be and what I could be doing.

When I let this sink in, I realize that each choice that I make means that I forego a different one which could take me on a different pathway. Each choice has that potential. What if another me, in a parallel universe, is also pondering over exactly the same question?

Dream on!