Absolute Khushwant: My thoughts

Just finished reading 'Absolute Khushwant' - The Low-Down on Life, Death and Most Things In- Between penned by Khushwant Singh with Huma Quraishi. On the cover page of the book it is written,
"I would like to be someone who made people smile."
Not many people cross 90 today and even if they do, they are not as articulate, clear in thought and expression as Khushwant Singh was when he wrote this book at 95. 
This book gave me a thorough understanding of the major figures like the Gandhis of Indian Political history. I really loved one of the chapters 'On Happiness' which i read daily as a ritual these days. His frankness, brutal honesty about his relationships with other women is also one comes across in this book. 
The language is simple and one can finish this book in a reading or two.
His references to Ghalib and Urdu poetry also make the articles interesting.
On love he quotes Ghalib,
"Ishq par zor nahin,
hai ye wo atish Ghalib
ke lagae na lagey, aur bhujaye na bane."
While criticizing the fundamentalists he says I will keep on writing about them even if there is no outcome and quotes an Urdu couplet,
"Kya poochho ho haal merey karobaar ka,
Aaeeney bechta hoon andhon ke sheher mein"

What is education?

What is education?
Is it just the increasing number of engineering/medical degrees?

Can't we all,
the students-teachers-parents-administrators
do our duties?


No one's going to
hire a B.E or an L.L.B

if he/she doesn't even know how to spell
Physiotherapy.

Concept building, creative thinking
imaginative writing and a lot of reading activity
that should be the hurry.

Everyone's not the same.
Find your S-W-O-Ts (Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat

Life:The best teacher

Learn from your mistakes,
Learn from your past.
Work hard daily and sincerely,
As today is your last.

Learn from your experiences,
Learn from the people you meet in your path.
Be steady as a rock
And never bend like a twig of a new plant.

Learn from sadness,
Learn from human or material loss.
Don't lose your heart,
As it won't forever last.

Learn from books,
Learn from life at task.
Give love, spread happiness
And remain positive in life till your last.

SMALL TOWNS OF INDIA

I am not anti-social,just can't adjust with this lot;

Feel claustrophic coz I am not of this sort;

Lack of scope makes the place rot;

Feel sorry for the future gen., whose life will become a knot;

There are exceptions who make it big but the number is as small as a dot.

The charm is rustic, here people still sleep on a cot;

I can hear the birds' chirping and see the women carry water in a pot;

The nature pulls me towards the good and towards the bad; not.

The place sounds sweet but I bet you its not that easy to grow in this sort.
Regrets and qualms, I have not; to live in small towns is not an easy cakewalk.

Love yourself

For me, freedom is loving myself, freedom is having the right to speak what I want, write what I feel for and roam where ever my heart asks for.

The soul when free is at its creative best. The divine soul is meant to reside in the human body and not to be jailed. 

Perform your worldly duties well, don't shove off from the responsibilities you are shouldered on but let your soul also breathe, feed it with the food of music/books/gardening (food for my soul) or whatever it craves for.

If you don't know yourself, what it asks for; take out time for yourself, love yourself. 

Begin and end your day loving yourself. Live for yourself with all the other things you do in this world. 

Close your eyes, listen to the sounds of Nature: the chirping of birds, the musical notes of the cuckoo bird, feel the breeze brushing your face with freshness. 

Love and act what you loved doing once, act and find love in something new. It will give you immense happiness, bliss, charge the batteries of your life with positivism. 

Don't wait for anyone to come and console or cajole or motivate you. 

Start loving yourself now because it's better late than never.

Love yourself and spread the love.