Ever battered by a hail storm with hail stone sizes ranging from green peas to playing marbles to ping pong ball size stones and have nowhere to run for cover but to endure it for 8-10 mins and still survive?
Well,that is what i and a couple of my friends exactly did.
We had gone to Itasca for the long weekend.It is the birth place of the great mississippi river which flows through the heart of America.We went kayaking on Lake Itasca.Most of my friends were doing it for the first time.We were frolicking about. I was on a single seat kayak and am very comfortable with handling kayaks having done it quite many times. Being the naughty kind or sadistic kind or the goonda kind and having the advantage of greater control over my kayak i started going round two of my friends(Mahesh and Sheia) who are on a two seater kayak and were beginners and couldnt handle it so well.Its like those old movies where in the goondas come around in bikes and go round and round menacingly around a poor helpless soul ,scaring him/her to death. I was kinda doing the same thing and started splashing water on my friends using my oars.
Poor souls!Were they drenched!I was having the sadistic fun of my life!! lol!
They were trying very hard to get water on me but not much success.Sheia is screaming continuously like 'he is not wet at all,this is just not fair''Mahesh,dont let him go,we have to get him wet today'.
Well talking about fairness .. someone above immediately heard her and decided to take charge of things and by jove - Did he take charge!!
The first big drop fell 'pit' ...then it increased a bit 'pit,pit,pit' . Sheia goes all happy ..'its raining ..its raining ..there is justice in this world...thank you god for hearing me' . I am laughing.We are in the middle of the lake.
My laughter turns to ecstasy when the first hail stone falls on my kayak 'tak'.I scream around -'hey hailstones..hey hailstones'... i pick it up and gulp it down and shoot a big smile..
Within seconds this ecstasy and laughter turns to horror.All of a sudden we have a flurry of hailstones,it starts hitting you.I am only in a T shirt and a bermuda and i have nothing to cover myself with.Boy,do they hit hard.They start hitting my outstretched bare leg on the kayak and its like stones being thrown across to you.My legs hurts i bring it in into a squatting position,i try to cover my head with my hands,but get whacked by a couple of big ones on my fingers and they hurt real bad. I already have a couple of tiny cuts on my legs due to the falling stones which bleed a little. My immediate reaction is to reach shore as quickly as possible and I shout at others to do the same.But i realize we are too very far off and suddenly the waters have turned very choppy due to the rain and waves have become higher and the wind has increased and kayaks wobble dangerously in these waters and it becomes difficult to handle the kayak and there is no way we can reach shore in these conditions. Panic strikes.I know we wont die atleast due to drowning because we have life jackets on. I want to remove my life jacket and cover my head with it but at the same time i think its safer strapped on,what if the kayak capsizes?I just sit on the kayak cross legged and bend my head down in between my knees with hands covering my head and just endure the hail storm,they batter us. I dont know how long it lasts,its seems like an eternity and finally it subsides,i just lift my head and look around ,everyone's safe.Just as suddenly it came,the skies suddenly open up and the clouds clear and everything calms down. I just cannot believe it.
While the battering was going on,i happened to look onto the waters and it was one of the most beautiful scenes i have ever seen in my entire life. All around me i have jumping fountains nearly 1 to 2 feet.Every hail stone which hits the water splashes water nearly a feet or two high and with millions hitting the water at the same time the whole lake was a dancing fountain and i am inbetween. I was like stunned by this scene.I think i will remember this scene for a very long time. Ironically i wished i had my camera then to capture this scene.With my life at stake i want to capture a snap.Lol!!
Once the rain and hail subsided,the whole lake is white with floating hailstones.What a scene!Within 5-10 mins the sun comes out and everything melts and there is no evidence of a hail storm. You just wonder did the whole thing ever happen? Yeah it did! Because i have evidence on my body with red marks everywhere!!and a couple of bleeding cuts.
All of us come back safely ashore.What was horror minutes back suddenly becomes a joyous and incredible moment,We feel like heroes,we all get on shore and scream at each other and pat each other and talk at the top of our lungs as to how each one of us survived it and how it was an incredible experience.Sigh ...life ...
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
To a forgotten friend?
I came back from office and felt so tired that i slept off on the sofa, then i just woke up and i suddenly felt sad,really sad.I dont know why and all of a sudden i felt really lonely in life.
Just a month back i lost a very close friend,but i see that i have already returned back to normal life,my life is consumed only with 'ME' and i feel so ashamed,we were supposed to go somewhere for the long weekend of May,possibly canada and he was making all the plans.After a month later I did go somewhere else with others and i did have a swell time,i did remember him on that day but only for a fleeting moment.I see all our common friends also get back into normal life styles everywhere.Many of them are getting married and are joyously announcing the same,we are taking our trips,we want our salary hikes,we want to build our houses,we want to change the world,we want to do good,we want to do philanthrophy,we go to movies,we have our usual cribs about life.My friend is forgotten and very hardly consumes our thoughts.But what can anyone else do -you might say?He is dead and there is nothing we can do-we need to keep on carrying with our lives.Yeah-true! Life has to go on and we have to think about ourselves and people who are close to us and how we will live,thats more important and thats the irony of life. The dead no longer matter.He is just one among a billion others who lived on this planet and had his own small dreams and had his own small life and finally life consumed him just as it did billions of others.Just because i knew him closely for a period of 4 years in my life i felt his loss and i am already forgetting him and he hardly consumes my thoughts,probably a good 5 mins or even less is all i might think that is all now,years down i might remember him on his death or birth anniversary or on a slight few occasions or I might forget him altogether,a 6 billion others on this planet dont even know him and dont even feel that.Oh! I so want him remembered but .. i know he will be forgotten like the billion others...When i myself can forget him ..why do i expect others? Isn't happiness what everyone craves for? Death is not happiness,its sad.I wonder what does happiness and sadness mean now ...
Random thoughts and i am wandering now.....
I am not sad .. I am happy in life ..afterall 'Everybody says I am fine and wishes happiness for others and everything is done for achieving happiness and prosperity in some sort at their own levels'.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha .......
Just a month back i lost a very close friend,but i see that i have already returned back to normal life,my life is consumed only with 'ME' and i feel so ashamed,we were supposed to go somewhere for the long weekend of May,possibly canada and he was making all the plans.After a month later I did go somewhere else with others and i did have a swell time,i did remember him on that day but only for a fleeting moment.I see all our common friends also get back into normal life styles everywhere.Many of them are getting married and are joyously announcing the same,we are taking our trips,we want our salary hikes,we want to build our houses,we want to change the world,we want to do good,we want to do philanthrophy,we go to movies,we have our usual cribs about life.My friend is forgotten and very hardly consumes our thoughts.But what can anyone else do -you might say?He is dead and there is nothing we can do-we need to keep on carrying with our lives.Yeah-true! Life has to go on and we have to think about ourselves and people who are close to us and how we will live,thats more important and thats the irony of life. The dead no longer matter.He is just one among a billion others who lived on this planet and had his own small dreams and had his own small life and finally life consumed him just as it did billions of others.Just because i knew him closely for a period of 4 years in my life i felt his loss and i am already forgetting him and he hardly consumes my thoughts,probably a good 5 mins or even less is all i might think that is all now,years down i might remember him on his death or birth anniversary or on a slight few occasions or I might forget him altogether,a 6 billion others on this planet dont even know him and dont even feel that.Oh! I so want him remembered but .. i know he will be forgotten like the billion others...When i myself can forget him ..why do i expect others? Isn't happiness what everyone craves for? Death is not happiness,its sad.I wonder what does happiness and sadness mean now ...
Random thoughts and i am wandering now.....
I am not sad .. I am happy in life ..afterall 'Everybody says I am fine and wishes happiness for others and everything is done for achieving happiness and prosperity in some sort at their own levels'.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha .......
Friday, May 23, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
If you love the touch of grass underneath when you walk barefoot,if you love the fresh smell of blooming flowers,if you love watching the squirrels and rabbits come out and play,if you love looking at clear blue skies with white fluffy clouds,if you love watching pretty girls walking around in skirts,if you love the chirping of birds everywhere,if you love getting into your bermudas and just sitting outside on the grass and watch all these things and feel you are blessed and leading a glorious life then you are mostly a spring lover!
Monday, May 12, 2008
IF...
Well another of my favourite poems
'If' by rudyard kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
'If' by rudyard kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Thursday, May 08, 2008
thinking about thinking!
As human beings we are born with a trait that other creatures rarely possess - the ability to think about thinking.We are not only natural philosophers,we can philosophize about our philosophy,reason about our reasoning.Its strange but its true.We humans can have real self awareness if we want to - if we choose to.We can judge our own goals,desires,emotions and purposes and we can review,examine and change them.We can see,reflect upon our changed ideas,emotions and doings and we can change them and change them again and again.
You can probably call it 'free will'.But the question is how much are we willing to exert it on oneself?
You can probably call it 'free will'.But the question is how much are we willing to exert it on oneself?
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