Tuesday 29 October 2013

DO NOTHING AND ENJOY

 Published in
Business Sandesh July 2016
http://www.businesssandesh.in/do-nothing-and-enjoy/

Web link: http://www.businesssandesh.in/july-2016/


DO NOTHING AND ENJOY
-----------------------------------
Before my retirement FAQ was what I would do after retirement. I
was not much concerned about my post retirement financial blues. I
had already got my children settled and would not anticipate any
serious responsibility. My colleagues and friends who had retired
earlier always suffered from retirement blues. Luckily all of them got
placements here and there. This was enough for my better half to
rattle me with her pasted ‘answer me’ look, “why don’t you search
for the job like others ?”

“What for? Don’t you want me to give you company at home and
watch you doing daily chores since morning till evening and of course
night? I have been missing you always through all these years”
winking I had said. Females, however old, get and feel the essence of
massage and always respond with coyness and pleasing smile. Isn’t it 
so nice of them?

It was not that I was well off financially and did not require additional
income for support. Every penny counts during this century’s
economic upheavals and Sursa like inflation. I had 15-20 years still in
me (GOD permit) due to better medical care, yoga, exercises etc. The
fact was that I had become sick of offering and accepting
salutations.....sir...sir...sir....during the last 37 years of service. I
wanted to get rid of this sir (shit in rest) business. I could not dream
taking up an employment again. Venturing into some sort of business
was out of question.

Secondly the responsibility which I had thought would decrease after
my retirement, actually increased with the passage of time.
Attending to the nitty-gritty of household problems, tending to grand
children, making my own parents live comfortable life,
maintaining/reliving/reinventing social relations with relatives and
forgotten friends, taking my hobby of writing poems and short-
stories seriously apart from looking after self and wife were enough
to keep me engaged, engrossed and occupied.

Then one fine day I remembered William Henry Davies poem ' leisure'.“What is this life if full of care/We have no time to stand and
stare......”

This quotation propelled me to question the worthiness of yet
stressful and busy life even after retirement. The answer I got from
inner self was in negative. I then and there decided to enjoy one day
in a week doing nothing- NOTHING at all. Sundays had become
busier than other week days so I decided the Wednesdays to be the
day to enter into the venture: DOING NOTHING. I really loved it and
shall love to share my experience on doing nothing. Small but
notable things which we are missing to feel, to observe and to
absorb in our daily life. Doing nothing must have some pre-requisites
to start with as under :-

Pre-requisites : Your time, your house, any park, market, cross-road,
hill-side  & beach (if available ) or any place where you can park
yourself and enjoy, feel and sense the happenings going around you.
Mind you, you are not an idler. While doing nothing, you are still an
observer, keen watcher, a knowledge gainer, a commentator. You
will soon develop a sense of belonging to the environment while
doing nothing.

See your toddler grandchild trying to crawl and getting up giving you
his/her innocent smile making different facial expressions like awe,
fear, alarmed, superficial crying and seeking your attention. The
satisfaction you get is immense. Just enjoy and do nothing.

Watch a bird feeding its little ones from its beak from the balcony of
your house and enjoy the motherly love.

Watch a couple of pigeons  on your AC top trying to make nest with
broom sticks, rags, cotton pieces and appreciate the efforts made by
these lovely creatures to build a nest time and again. Time and again
you try to remove these nest, next day you find them there
rebuilding. What a patience and living hard way.

 Watch a house lizard staring and waiting patiently to gulp down its prey.

Stare at the beautiful rising sun bringing sun shine into your
compound and in your hearts early in the morning and observe the
setting of the sun like a fireball going down slowly and steadily. The
serenity of situation will dawn upon you and enlighten you to the
existence of cosmic life. Just do nothing and enjoy.

Watch the laborious ants making a bee line balancing and carrying
eggs and leaves to their holes in corners of your house wall or  under
the tree in the park.

Your neighbourhood will provide you ample enjoyment not available
on your TV screens. Listen to the folk, filmy, devotional music blaring
through loudspeakers. Watch ladies of the locality haggling with the
vendors over the price of vegetables. Car washerman washing the
cars with same dirty & muddy water, leaving these mean machines
spic and span. Children running after ice-golawala and racing on by-
cycles attempting stunts seen on TV ads. People of all ages walking,
jogging ,singing, discussing, playing making the park proud of its
existence. Just do nothing and enjoy.

At nearby market place go for window shopping. Watch intense
selling and buying, traffic at snails pace, people laughing, talking,
poking, sweating for parking place.  I am not telling that you have not
been to the market. But then you had a purpose and you had
pressure of time. You were oblivious of surrounding and happenings
around you as your concentration was on your need of coming to the
market. You couldn’t have enjoyed the market scene as one enjoys
standing doing nothing.

Stand at the cross-road and observe the urchins begging or selling 
everything pirated/spurious. Admire their skills at marketing or
begging. They may force you to part with your hard earned money.
See interns of MNCs advertising their new product and convince you
to go for it. Watch a traffic constable more interested in cutting
challans/ or pocketing money instead of managing the traffic when
signal lights are off. Just do nothing and enjoy.

Living near a hill side ( I belong to J&K state) just leave worries at
home. Don’t get involved in daily homely soaps. Wake up to singing
and chirping of birds, listen to the rustle of leaves, feel the
whispering of trees, breezy conversation between streams and water
falls. Enjoy walking on serpentine and zig-zag roads. Look down the
gorge from the top of hill and feel yourself getting sucked in a black
hole or watching the earth moving under your feet. Just do nothing
and enjoy.

As I mentioned already, doing nothing will not label you an idler. An
idler is one who just laze around, totally inactive both physically and
mentally. My version of doing nothing is that you do nothing yet you
gain an immense insight into the working of nature and human
forces and their behavioural pattern just by watching and feeling
which I have been missing throughout  my life till I decided to make
Wednesdays my do-nothing and enjoy days.
----------------------------------------------x--------------------------------------------
Tribhawan Kaul

Wednesday 16 October 2013

Truthfulness

Truthfulness
------------------
 Allow the dreams to make castles in the air
Truth always bare the truth behind a ruse
How much illusions try to circumvent
Rainbows always have the last laugh
After clouds bring rains and deluge.
Peeping into self, awakens and
Zero gets power to bounce
Shaping path of its own
And goals to achieve
Hitting bulls eye
Truth trounce
Falsehood
Ultimately.  
--------------------
All rights reserved/Tribhawan Kaul

Thursday 10 October 2013

मुक्तक/ Muktak

मुक्तक/ Muktak
---------------------

अलसाई सी आँखों में यह कैसा निमंत्रण है ?
सुर्ख होंठ दांतों तले क्यूँ आने को आतुर है  ?
प्यार का आलिंगन तब कितना मधुर होगा
जब नैनों से काजल चुराने को कोई तत्पर है.
Alsaaee see ankhon mein yeh kaisa nimantran hai
Surkh honth daanton tale kyun aane ko aatur hain
Pyar ka aalingan tab kitna madur hoga
Jab naino se kaajal churane ko koyi tatpar hai
--------------------------------------------------------------------

आड़ी तिरछी रेखाओं में यह  जिंदगी उलझी  है
तभी तो एक धड़कन दूसरी धड़कन से कहती है
मेरे बाद तुमको धड़कना ही होगा, मेरी बहन
वर्ना मौत बेखबर जीवन को, क्षण में डस लेती है.
Aadi tirchi rakhaon mein yah zindgi ulji hai
Tabhi to ek dadkan doosri dadkan se kahti hai
Mere baad tumko dakana hee hoga, meri bahen
Verna maut bekhabar jeevan ko, kshn men das leti hai.
------------------------------ x---------------------------------------------

क्या भाषा क्या जाती, क्या कुल क्या धर्म भेद
त्यागो सब एक करो, कुरान बाइबिल गुरुबाणी वेद
कल के साए में क्यूँ ,आज की अर्थी निकली जाती है ?
इतिहास को क्यूँकर अवसर दें, वह जताए कल फिर खेद.
Kya bhasha kya jaati, kya kul kya dharm bhed
Tyago sab ek karo, Kuran Bible Gurubani Ved
Kal ke saaye mein kyun, aaj ki arthi nikaali jaati hai
Itihaas ko kyunkar avasar dein, vh jataye kal phir khed.
---------------------------------x--------------------------------------
दुःख, तू भी कभी ग़मज़दा हो, तो तुझे मालूम हो
ख़ुशी भी कोई शह है जहाँ में, तुझे मालूम हो
तेरा आगमन बेशक, लाता है वेदनाओं का तूफ़ान
जिंदा है ईश्वर तेरी वजह से ही, तुझे मालूम हो.

Dukh, too bhi kabhi gamzada ho, to tujhe maloom ho
Khushi bhi koyi shah hai jahan mein, tujhe maloom ho
Tera aagman beshak, laata hai vednaon kaa tufaan
Zinda hai ishwar teri vajah se hee, tujhe maloom ho.
----------------------x--------------------------------
सर्वाधिकार सुरक्षित/त्रिभवन कौल

Monday 7 October 2013

The Martyr

The Martyr
---------------
Lotus blooms only in mud
bleeding wounds do give solace
colour, caste, religion matter not
flag of pride and ownership do.

Nectar and poison drawn
from churning a rouge entity,
for everyone to reap
gruff of a lion is enough for sheep
yet clever is fox in numerous garbs.

Poison of hatred everywhere
drink like Neelkantha*,spare the nectar
for those, who need it the most
heaven is hidden somewhere there
raise the bar there is nothing to fear
your body may be consigned to flames
But not YOU, never ever.
_____________________________
All rights reserved/Tribhawan Kaul

*Hindu religious scriptures (mainly Shiv Puran) say that during the great churning of sea by Gods and Demons, nectar and poison both were produced . None was prepared to consume poison (Halahal) but that had to be consumed otherwise that would have made entire sea poisonous. So Lord Shiva took the poison for the benefit of all but did not swallow it and kept it in his throat making his entire neck bluish . The Lord since then came to be known as ‘Neel Kantha ‘ ( Having Blue coloured throat) also.
 A martyr is also like  Lord Shiva who gulps down/ embraces the poison of Martyrdom so that people of his/her land of his/her country remain safe. Enemy country is like a sheep which dare not take on direct confrontation but send terrorists who come in various disguises. These terrorists sometimes succeed in their misadventures succeeding in killing brave soldiers fighting for their motherland.
-------------------------x---------------------------------
kaultribhawan@gmail.com


Tuesday 1 October 2013

The Saviour

 The Saviour
----------------

One day.
Time : 1700 hrs
Place : Sanjay Park, New Delhi-23
From the distance it seemed they both were arguing. The man was trying to pacify the woman. The woman was not listening. She got up. The man seemed to plead but in vain. The message in woman’s action was clear. She did not want him to follow her. She left leaving some onlookers and courting couples  bemused.
                                         ---------------------------------------
Time : 1830 hrs.
Place : Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi-24
Mukta threw herself on the bed. She was profusely perspiring. Breathing was heavy. She hid herself in the pillow and sobbed uncontrollably. She got up after a little while, went to the washroom and freshened herself. She saw herself in the mirror. “ What has become of me,” she uttered whipping towel on her face. Putting light makeup, she came out quickly changing into an embroidered top and jean. The top was somewhat transparent and her black bra was visible in contrast. She deliberately ignored the transparency while watching herself in the dressing mirror.
“Isn’t it in thing now ? Anyway who cares.” She comforted herself, picked her purse and went out of the room, down the stairs to the main road. She called for an auto and hopped in. “ Challo, coffee house, CP.” After 20 minutes of auto ride she was at the  coffee house.
                                     ----------------------------------------

Time: 19 hrs
Place : Same Lajpat Nagar
“ What the hell, she thinks of herself ! I am not going to take the things lying down. How can I spend whole life with someone who does not trust me?” Manoj was furiously throwing things upsetting the decor of the room.  “Couldn’t she once ask me the reason of being with my boss?  How mean of her even to think of….shit…disgusting?” He picked up one shirt and then threw it. Picked up another, matched that with a pant and started pulling himself through. Belting the pant, he searched for the socks and found it underneath the bed.
“ Look, what has she done to my room. Not a single thing is in its place and she boasts of being meticulous.” So grumbling, he came out of the room, went down the stairs, to the main road and hailed an auto.
“ Challiaye coffee house, CP.” Hopping into auto, he started dialing a number. Getting no response, he furiously worked on mobile keys and pressed the send key. While closing the mobile, the image of Mukta and his own cropped up. He knew where he could find her.
                                    --------------------------------
Time : 20hrs
Place : Coffee House, Connaught Place, New Delhi-1
Mukta was sitting in a corner. An empty coffee cup was on the table. She was thinking fast. She thought of growing live-in relationship with Manoj. She had put everything on stake for this relationship to survive but Manoj seemed to have taken her for granted.
“ How can he be with his boss, that bitch, whole night ? What was the urgency? What were they doing ? Project work- my foot. Project work is simply a ruse to hoodwink me.” She was totally engrossed in her thoughts when she heard Manoj.
“ Mai bathun? (Should I sit down?)” She was startled seeing Manoj standing in front of her.
“ You….how could you show face to me ?” she almost shouted hardly restraining herself.
“Cool down, just cool down. You are neither listening to me nor understanding the circumstances……’” Manoj tried to put some sense into her.
“Why should I listen to you?….and what is there to understand?…you have betrayed me, you have destroyed me…,”Mukta almost became hysterical.
“ No, you got everything wrong”, Manoj said firmly raising his voice. People around then were keen to listen.
“ Look Mukta, never think me of betraying you. Reema had asked me to give finishing touches to an already completed project  before morning. It was too urgent to be ignored as tomorrow a demo is to be given before a foreign delegation. I had to stay in the office whole night.”
“ OK, so far so good. Why was Reema there all night with you?” Mukta asked sarcastically.
“Well because she happens to be the super boss monitoring the project. The whole project is her baby and she wanted the report to be 100 % perfect.”
“Oh,yeah. I know that bitch since our college days. Wasn’t She your classmate. ? Remember”
“ Don’t dig graves, Mukta. It will lead us nowhere.”
“ Why not? She had always been between you and me”
“ Now, she is not. Even during college days, there was nothing serious between us and you know that. She is married now. Destiny made me to work in her husband’s firm and I am placed under her without my knowledge. I was not aware that she was going to be my boss being the director of the firm. The fact is she only came to know about my existence in the firm only when she was introduced to me and my team.”
“ He is right, Mukta.” A third voice interrupted them. While Mukta became speechless finding Reema standing behind her, Manoj wore a thin smile which faded soon.
Reema continued, “ when my husband Rakesh asked me to take up the responsibility as the director of the firm, I never knew that Manoj was part of my team heading it. The project is very important to clinch a foreign deal. Manoj being an expert only could have handled it.”
 Reema settled down on a chair and Mukta still gathering her composure and seemingly unconvinced retorted, “you were there too, Reema. Isn’t it? Whole night”
“Yes, I was. Whole night. But does that mean………”
Cutting her short, Mukta made no attempt to hide her contempt for Reema, “ yes, I mean that. You had planned it. Your husband was out of town. You always wanted him from the college days, and how come you are here,” she asked sarcastically.
Manoj could not tolerate more and kept his hand on her mouth, “ Mukta, talk sense. People are watching. Don’t create a scene”
“ No Manoj, you keep out of it. Now it is between Mukta and I.” Reema was cool. She saw red faced Mukta into her eyes, “ look Mukta, let by gone be by gone. Once upon a time, I had a crush on Manoj, you know that. But it is all over now. There was nothing serious between us neither then nor is now. He is and has been all yours. I love my husband Rakesh. There has  never been anything between  Manoj and I”
Mukta started sobbing. “ Please don’t try to save him. Whole night you were with him and think of a man and a woman, in a room…how could not an old spark rekindle the fire”
“ Dirty mind can think of dirt only. You are paranoid, Mukta. You will soon lose Manoj the way you mistrust him”
“ I trust him, I love him  but I don’t trust you Reema”
“ Ok , why don’t you then listen to him and believe?” Reema asked.,,,,,,,
Manoj who was patiently listening both of them stood up, “ no use, let her get some peace and make her mind up as to what she wants.”
Mukta also got up and caught hold of Manoj, “ no, you stay. You can not leave me in the lurch. Swear on your mother that you two did not indulge in…ah…ah… I mean did nothing to betray me. Can you prove it.”
Manoj and Reema were both taken aback. It was the most silliest question. Silence fell around them. Imaginary things can never be proved. Manoj was at loss of words at Mukta’s behavior whereas Reema was stunned at Mukta’s bluntness.
“Yes, I can prove it.” An unfamiliar voice filtered into the air. Whereas Mukta and Manoj were inquisitive, Reema was surprisingly happy to see him and immediately stood up but was gesticulated to sit.
“ I saw them both doing nothing. Both of them. A man and a woman. In a room. All alone. Doing nothing. I saw these fools doing nothing whole night except discussing the project.”
Reema could no longer hold herself and she jumped and hugged him.
“ What a surprise Rakesh?” she hugged her husband tightly and introduced him to Mukta and Manoj .Manoj shook her head in approval and Mukta made no attempt to hide her despair but she was not the one who could simply yield.
“ How do you know, Mr. Rakesh. Weren’t you out of town ?” she asked.
“ yes, but I had come yesterday night itself and my journey was preponed. I drove straight to office for safekeeping of some important documents. When I reached office, I saw the lights on in the main hall. I saw Reema and Manoj engrossed in finalizing their project . They did not even once noticed me not even then when I settled in the dark corner cubical for rest.”
“ So nothing happened……” Mukta muttered
“ What did you want to happen Ms.?”, asked Rakesh with some sarcasm.
Mukta could not keep eye contact with anyone present. She was feeling let down by her own jealousy and guilt. Her eyes became moist and she started to leave when Manoj held her hand in his. She turned weeping and hugged Manor in full view of the entire coffee house. Wet eyed she asked Manoj  and Reema for forgiveness. Manoj patted her as if assuring her of her sound relationship. Reema also hugged her indicating the turce. Both went saying good bye to Reema and Rakesh.
                                              ----------------------------------
Time: 22 hrs
Place : Outside coffee house, CP New Delhi.
Reema was anxious, very anxious to know. She could not wait to reach home.
“ How did you manage to come yesterday, Rakesh dear.? You were to come today. Where were you whole night and till now and don’t tell me that crap again ?” she bulldozed Rakesh with the question.
Reema’s curiousity made Rakesh to laugh. He brought Reema nearer to his and whispered, “ No, I did not come yesterday. I arrived an hour before. On reaching home I found your note that you would be at coffee shop as you had received an urgent sms from Manoj. I came here and heard everything unnoticed.”
“ Wow. That is great Mr. Rakesh. But how could you say that we did not…I mean Manoj and I….what ?” Reema’s  naughtyness was coming to fore.
“ Because I trust you. If a wife and husband don’t share the trust between them, life is going to be hell for both.” Saying so he planted a kiss on her lips.
Reema at that moment was the proudest woman on the earth. She could express her happiness only by hugging Rakesh tightly.
“ Saviour. I am proud of you. You saved not one but two relationships today.”---------------------------x-----------------------
All rights reserved/Tribhawan Kaul
Disclaimer : This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Tribhawan Kaul
kaultribhawan@gmail.com