Category: motivational

The Lost Childhood

Children Playing in Rain, Bangladesh

Do you remember your juvenile days, the time when the whole world was full of wonder and possibilities? The time when the whole world was just perfect and everything was just a thought away? The truth is most of us cant, if I were a wee bit wrong and I do wish I was wrong, we could have seen a whole lot of people trotting along the streets smiling happy smiles. If I were wrong we could have seen unknown people playing with each other and there would have been no disgust or bias based on colour, race or faith. Every evil is the work of an adult, the child is not tainted, the child knows no distinction, and for a child all are one and the same. With age we learn to bias, discriminate and demarcate!

Let me tell you something that happened on my train journey yesterday, I was travelling on a train to home in a relatively full cabin. There was a young couple, an old man, a middle aged professional and then there was me. A rather weird mix of people that under no circumstances would strike up a conversation with each other but it so happened that in this particular journey we were meant to be more than just polite  in our conversations but friendly enough to play together. There was a girl, A sweet, cute angel with a flower the size of a lotus stuck to her hair bow and a smile that could melt the world away. She talked to us every one of us and before we knew we were cracking jokes playing at each other’s expense and mocking each other. What had happened for such a remarkable transformation to occur to a very strange group of people?


The truth is, the kid happened, her innocence transcended our hearts and heads, her innocent melted away any discrimination and disgust we would have carried, it annihilated whatever it was that prevented us from talking to each other. In her presence we were becoming children poking her, making faces, mimicking her stories and acclimating to her emotions. She made us able to see through life with clarity, without prejudices, an ability that we have lost in a very distant past. It’s a shame that we can’t live the life of a child always. Wouldn’t it be amazing had we been able to remain a child forever, an age of mind where your biggest sadness was not getting candy and your days always started with sunshine and ended in fairytales? An age when we were willing to believe in magic, fairytales, magic and fairies. An age characterized by an ability to trust and love unconditionally.




I believe we need to reclaim our childhood if we are to live life to our fullest. I believe when we lose all childishness and child-likeness in ourselves that’s when we really become old. It is possible and it is achievable, to be like a child, it is possible to keep an open mind and it is possible to love and trust unconditionally. We need to understand the child in us and keep it alive inside us. Life is too short to be not a child. Ask yourself if being in the presence of  a child is enough to make you childlike then would it be hard to be childlike all your life if you tried.




Photo Credits: Children Playing in Rain, Bangladesh© 1996-2012 National Geographic Society.
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
― Mae West

The Drought…

It strikes me gravely, to write such as this. This is not ability to write that I share but the inability to do so. It is no story of real drought and hunger that affect many a millions in this world. This is the story of just a single person starved on the keyboard. This is no story, in fact this is the absence of any story that I would like to share.
I must be frank, this is just a weeping. This certainly is going to be a boring piece to read. It has no happiness in it at all. No happy beginning, no happy happenings and certainly no happy endings that I know of. This is the grim story of myself and my pen, sitting together to write nothing. Its our explorations in the dark unfathomable shadows that we fear the most. If the darkness is what that scares the least, its the fearfully personal happenings that seemed to carve in the most.
Its been sometime, sometime now that the pen and paper had shown any mercy to me. No matter what I start writing I inevitably bump into that invisible wall that separates me from making any sense of what I write. Either I end up making a hash of it or even worse I end up stuck in the middle with both my pen and my mind refusing to budge a single inch. Its certainly not the lack of ideas or topics, but its the matter of the flow, no longer can I caress the piece of paper with ease and it has started to show.  All those brilliant sparks die out the miserable death leaving me to fend on my own. Talk about being ditched by myself.
I do not know how long its going to be, till I can get a hold of myself and come back to the good old times. I can but only hope that it will all be alright, Anything more is too much to ask for. One thing is certain it has came back every single time it has happened to me. May be its inside somewhere in the hiding and if I look hard enough and let myself be inspired by life around me, then certainly it would come back one day
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
― Mae West

The Burden of Command

To wield these stars and to hold his medals, to don this cap and to fill this chair. There are many things in life that may be happy but this is not one of those. To do is not an option, it is the only thing that destiny has in store. Either this or walk away. The latter is worse than death. The Command has its power and its status so does it has a large baggage that has to be dragged to ones grave. Nor the salutes nor the Laurels does anything to ease the pain, but persists an humble remainder of all that is to be dragged along alone.
There are times when the facets are to be put up, even when you desperately desire that you would be spared, you have to do it. The dictum is such that the failure to perform is unacceptable, even when it means to put everything you believe in to put at the front line. There are times when great men will be fools and hearts of steel will start to melt. No matter how high the principles be held, the man in the matter is but human. There are times heart remains a heart and there are times the head refuses to comply. But still the weights upon ones should bear down you as albatrosses from yet another tale.
Leadership is a quality that is tested and retested every now and then. It is not the making of the man it is breaking of man again and again such that he is immune to this pain of severance. To remain intact at times of peril is not an option, not when there are men who depend on you, not when they look up to you and not when they refuse to bow down just because you manage to hold it together, it is a necessity. The life that is yours is no longer just yours, there are other who willingly surrendered theirs to yours, just because they do believe it you who can hold their together with far more force than they can. They believe in you and with that come responsibility. You are not you anymore you are the culmination of all their interests and the holder of the higher truth.
It is not for you to not to fail, It is for you to fail as equally as it is for you to win. It is about you never letting them down, who willingly let themselves be lead. It is for you to never give up on anyone and hold it up for them; It is for you to see the light when the herd has lost its eye. It is for you not to believe but make believe the ones behind. To lead is a great feeling, but it is not about the celebration but about conducting it so that everyone can enjoy and in their enjoyment you can enjoy. It do feel great.
One thing that is asked of the leader that is most difficult to perform is the use of the whip. There are times, times you are given no other resort, but to crack the whip. Every single act of harshness you provide has a toll on you, every now and then you have to raise your voice there is a part of you sinking. To love is to be a good leader but to beat them up and make them strong calls for a great leader. He can inspire and so he can command, He can praise them and with the same hand crack the whip upon them. Yet at the hands of a great leader they feel no pain nor no grudge just the desire to correct themselves and lead a path of righteousness. Their feelings have to be upheld and they protected, but at the same time a mask is forced upon our face that shields the real one with a sterner perfect leader.
Yes it calls for a great leader so do should one selves, none is made a leader they are born, not from the mother’s womb but from the amongst of you and I. There is a leader in every one of us, a leader who shall rise when the time calls for him. When he is really to fly, he shall rally men and pick up momentum. When this do happen to you, call upon him , cheer him, cherish him because he not only can change you but can change the world.
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
― Mae West