The not so ordinary flight :)

           As she flew over the vast spread of blue waters, glistening under the golden rays of the setting sun,  she was lost in a myriads of thoughts. Fodder, was what she had set in hunt for but her thoughts had meandered the course of her action, for she had been flying for hours capturing no prey, when all the gulls around her feasted on easy prey. Her mind was stuck to the image of her baby gull, who had consistently failed in his attempts to fly. Initially she had thought he was still small, but when all the baby gulls born after him started taking their flights, the worry constantly gnawed into her happiness.

"He simply couldn't fly!!" said the other gulls. Some bothered her with their overly curious questions. She was fed up and tried to shield him away from all these, to keep it from affecting his morale.

She could still feel the tingling excitement that they had felt on the night they had decided that he would take his first flight the next day. She had tucked him closer and had felt his heart beat as he brimmed with excitement. He had fluttered his wings in sleep and she was so happy at thought of her child dreaming of his first flight. "Ah!! what a great flier he would make! what a sight would it be to watch him fly!!" With that image on her mind she had drifted in to the arms of peaceful sleep.

The image of that beautiful morning, clear sky with velvety tinge of sunlight was crystal clear in her memory. No sooner than he had taken his first flight, like a misfortune that strikes when least expected, a mighty eagle flew from nowhere crashing into the little gull. He shrieked as fell down wounded physically and scared by might. She had rushed to him, his feathers were ruffled, and the red on his wings gave away the story of wincing pain, as he trembled in her arms.

She had left no stone unturned to nurture him back to health. Though he had healed physically the trauma had marred his confidence. She had tried to talk him out of it many times and had got him to attempt flying again. He had tried, she knew, he had sincerely tried to block the fear and fly but as the pang of pain surged from a distant memory, he fell like he was never meant to fly. He always relived the trauma and let it cloud his joyous adventure of a new flight..
This had continued..

But today she decided she had to call it a closure. As she flew back with fodder, she had made up her mind to push him harder no matter how much he would hate her for it. She knew only one love, the love that makes you independent not a creeper.. And she loved him, her little gull.

As she landed near her nest, he peeked out. He was hungry. He was dependent on her for food. She did not pamper him as usual and told in a voice sterner than she intended to - " No food without flight." As he had a confused look on his face, she mustered all the strength she had to not go mild on him and continued "Unless and until you take a flutter a day you wont be fed." His hunger triggered his anger. He yelled, "I would not!!! What sort of a mother are you? You know I cannot fly!! ". She interrupted "Only if you try, you can know if you can fly." He screamed at the top of his voice-" Try, try, try!!! I am done with this.." He ruffled his feathers in anger and stomped away sulking and wondering what had got into his loving mother. As he sat behind feeling the emptiness of his life, he saw other gulls fluttering  around happy and free. His stomach was churning. He thought he could take a chance. He tried but again the memory of the pain sharpened and he fell. He gave up and the night passed as both the mother and the starved.

He decided to talk to her in the morning and went only to find her humming a melody..
Fly my love, fly
Because thats what you are born for
To cross the oceans
To rise above differences
To reach out for your love
Treasured for you in the hearts so close yet so distant.
Fly my love, fly
Soar above your doubts
Your conflicts and prejudices.
Because the who never gives up
Is the one who rises.
Erase the limits defined
Soar into the limitless horizons meant for you
Fly my love, fly
Fly now, fly forever.
Because flying is what you are born for.

Like a lightening strike, the song awakened the gull in him. He looked her guilty face as she hummed it along unaware of his presence. In that face he saw worry and love which had made her stern, as it was her last resort. He saw the untouched food lay there. He was moved by her love. He promised himself he would try flying all day and surprise her in the evening.

After she left in hunt of food, he started his flying ritual with whole of his heart and his mother's melody lingering in his ears. He failed his first flight, failed his second, failed his third. He thought of giving up. But the image of her loving face surfaced and he could not give up. And he took the fourth flight, which was promising and the fifth got better. But as he had starved he could not try more.

He sat back down but he was no more the gull he was some time back. He was no more a prisoner of his thoughts. He was trying now. Trying to break free, trying to free his spirit held down by his own thoughts. The fire in him had ignited and he kept humming the melody to keep it bright and warm.

The worried, hungry mother gull still aware of the advances her love had caused came back with food and repeated the same condition. When she did not hear a word of resentment from him, she stole a glance at his face. He looked different. He looked tired physically, but there was a shine in his eyes,  a confidence of conquering a fear than being conquered by..

Not giving away to the demands of her heart to feed him, she masked herself behind a sterner face and said "fly". With a deep breath he filled his lungs like they would carry his wings during the flight, he looked at her with love, a love that perseveres and humming the tune he flew.

The first flutter, the second flutter, the third flutter and then he fell. But she hardly took note of his fall.
Her son had just taken his first flight!! He had faced his fears head on!! Her joy knew no bounds.. She was blank in ecstasy.. He held her in his arms and told
" Mum! I was scared to death!!
But your love held me up..
How I thought I could not fly!!
But your love never let me give up..
I fly not on my wings!!
I fly the flight of your love!!!"

She fed him that night and thanked God for all the goodness in the world. This went on and now he was confident enough to accompany her on her flights. They flew across seas, soaring into the limitless horizons of their dreams..

One fine evening, as a little child and his grandpa took their evening stroll, they caught a sight of the flying mother and child gull. The curious lad asked his grandpa "What is that?" and the grandpa answered in a know-it-all tone "Ah dearie!! thats the gulls taking the ordinary flight." :)
But little did they know that the flight was not so ordinary because that was a flight of love,
a love that is patient,
that is kind,
that always protects,
that always trusts,
that always hopes,
that always perseveres,
a love thats never fails.

Gandhi's Talisman

Was in a lot of confusion today wrt something...and a friend of mine suggested this..

He said it will get you out of the mindset you are in..Trust me it did not only get me out of the confusion I was in but also helped me get into a resolute mindset..

So i thought posting this and sharing it with all of you would be a way of expressing gratitude to the person who shared this wonderful piece with me..

Hope this helps you all and resolves the conflicting thoughts of the mind...

Happy Republic Day!!

On the occasion of 65th Republic day of The Republic of India, lets celebrate the unity in diversity of the country.

 From the snow-capped Himalayas to the serene sunsets of Kanyakumari, India is a melange of culture, traditions, languages, religions, exotic flora and fauna. To get down to statistics, we boast of a culture which is 5000+ years old, we have 34 officially recognized languages, 1500+ dialects, 6 major religions and yet we are one nation coming under the canopy of the tricolor. The question that intrigues every one is how can soo many different ideaologies overcoming all their differences thrive, and flourish as one nation. The answer lies in the basic essence of Indian culture: to accept and adapt. Take a look at history, we have been invaded numerous times and every invasion has left an impact on our culture, which has contributed to the exubarence we now witness.

Another instance i would want to quote on the occasion is whenever, a divisive force, external or internal has tried to threaten the secular fabric of India, we have stood as one nation, forgetting all our differences. Examples would the Indian independence movement ages ago to the recent Anna Hazare movement.

No matter where you are from, North, South, East or West, we as Indians have a heritage to share. From the Marathas to the Mauryas, we have had our glories. From the Nandas to the Tuglaqs, we have had our regrets. We take pride in Gandhi. We rejoiced as one nation when the Indian National Cricket team finally clinched the world cup :)

Concluding, all I want to tell is "Together we have suffered, together we have endured, together we shall flourish".

Optimistically learning optimism.

The word "optimism" intrigues my curiosity faculties and I wonder where do I belong?? Do I belong in the optimists lot or the anti-optimists(pessimist) lot ?? I try and think of situations and my reactions to them, which would help me to conclude on the point. But they seem to worsen the problem in hand. Instead of helping me figure out which club do I belong in, they seem to tear me between the two extremities of optimism and pessimism. But the question is what do I advocate??? Hmmm either this or that??

Audience poll!!! :P  Looks like most of them believe optimism is the way to go:)) Okay, positive should be the outlook but what would lead me there??

The supposed answer is "Learned Optimism", proposed by Dr.Martin Selignman, the father of Positive Psychology.

Learned optimism is the idea in positive psychology that a talent for joy, like any other, can be cultivated. Learning optimism is done by consciously challenging any negative self talk. So, pessimist or and moderately optimistic person can learn optimism through the following ABCDE of Learned Optimism as proposed by Dr.Selignman.

ABCDE of Learned Optimism:

A->Adversity: This is an event that occurs. Eg: You fall sick on the day of your exam.

B->Belief: How you interpret the event. Eg: How unfair!! All my effort went in vain :(

C->Consequence: How you react based on your beliefs. Eg: My grades are ruined. It won’t help even if I do the papers well.

Keep a journal of such adversities, beliefs and consequences for some time. Then move on to the D & E of learned optimism after studying your behavior patterns.

D->Disputation: Now combat the negative thought with a positive one. Eg: I will make up my grades in other papers. It is reasonably good considering the situation.

E->Energisation: Now its celebration time, as you have successfully learned to lessen the burden of guilt on your shoulders with learned optimism.

And, if the term learned optimism sounds funny, I would like to quote Alvin Toffler who famously said, “The illiterate of the 21st century, will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." So, let us be literates and lets learn, unlearn and relearn with optimism.

From the nobel laureates study :)

Where the mind is without fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

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.

This a personal favourite from the Geetanjali. I love the way freedom of thought is emphasized.

Dont be fooled by me

Hey people check this out!!! This a poem by Charles C. Finn, as read by Roscoe on WBAI, April 1967. I loved it!! So passed on. Hope it is worth the read:) 

Please don't be fooled by me. Don't be fooled by the face I wear, for I wear a mask. I wear a thousand masks, masks that I'm afraid to take off and none of them are me. Pretending is an art that is second nature to me, but don't be fooled, for God's sake don't be fooled.

I give you the impression I'm secure and that all is sunny and unruffled with me, within as well as without, that confidence is my name, coolness my game, that water is calm and I'm in command and that I need no one, but don't believe me, please don't believe me.

My surface may be smooth, but my surface is a mask--my every varying and ever concealing mask. Beneath it dwells the real confusion, fear and aloneness. Beneath lies my smugness, my complacently, but I hide this--I don't want anyone to know it.

I panic at the thought of my weakness and fear being exposed. That's why I frantically created a mask to hide behind-- nonchalant sophisticated facades to help me pretend-- to shield me from the glance that knows-- but such a glance is precisely my salvation, my only salvation and I know it. That is if it's followed by acceptance. If it's followed by love, it's the only thing that can liberate me from myself, from my own self built prison walls and from the barriers that I so painstakingly erect. It's the only thing that will assure me of what I cannot assure myself, that I'm really worth while, but I don't tell you this, I don't dare--I'm afraid to.

I'm afraid that your glance will not be followed by acceptance and love. I'm afraid you'll think less of me and you'll laugh and your laugh will kill me. I'm afraid that deep down, I'm nothing and that I'm just no good and that you'll see this and reject me.

So I play my game; my desperate pretending; with the facade of assurance without and a trembling child within. And so begins the parade of masks, the glittering, but empty parade of masks and my life becomes a front. I idle chatter to you in suave tones of surface talk. I tell you everything that's really nothing and nothing of what's everything and what's crying within me.

So when I'm through going through my routine, do not be fooled by what I'm saying. Please listen carefully and try to hear what I'm not saying--what I'd like to be able to say, but for survival I need to say, but what I can't say.

I dislike hiding, honestly, I dislike the superficial game I'm playing, the superficial phony game. I'd really like to be genuine, spontaneous and me, but you've got to help me, you've got to hold out your hand, even when it's the last thing I seem to want or need.

You can help wipe away from my eyes--the blank stare of grieving dead. You can help call me into aliveness each time you're kind, gentle and encouraging. Each time you try to understand because you really care, my heart begins to grow wings, very small wings, very feeble wings, but wings.

Iif you choose to, please choose to. You can help break down the wall behind which I tremble. You can encourage me to remove my mask. You can help release me from my shadowed world of panic and uncertainty. From my lonely prison.

So do not pass me by-- please don't pass me by. It will not be easy for you. A lone conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls. The nearer you approach me, the blinder I may strike back.

It's irrational, but despite what books say about man, I am irrational, I fight against the very things that I cry out for, but I am told love is stronger than strong walls. In this lies my hope, my only hope, please help beat down those walls with firm hands, but with gentle hands--for a child is very sensitive.

Who am I, you may wonder? I am someone you know very well. For I am every man you meet and I am every women you meet.

A native American prayer

I give you this one thought to keep - 
I am with you still - I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I am the sweet uplifting rush,
of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft starts that shine at night.
Do not think of me as gone - 
I am with you still in each new dawn.



This is something I found while googling. Found it beautiful. So thought of sharing it:)