THE QUEST : Some Thoughtlets, Thought Waves ....

Perceptions Steer Relationships - In Professional As Well As Personal Life .... Clarity; Focus On Merits, Principles And Objectives Of Common, Higher Interests Is Essential ....

Perceptions Steer Relationships - In Professional As Well As Personal Life .... Clarity And Focus On Merits, Principles And Objectives Of Common, Higher Interests Is Essential ....

- Vanita Thakkar (29-07-2020)

The Quest ....

Whatever I see of you in you

Is but an image of myself,

Because even though my eyes look outwards,

I am continuously searching myself all round.

Short-comings of the other person

As seen by me –

They may be my beliefs

Or may be a proof of my short-sightedness.

How to know that

Someone is proud, jealous .... ?

It may be our doubt.

What is the need of judging others ?

Why bother about others’ short-comings ?

From all that I have seen of myself and others,

Judgments have more to do with the person who judges

Than with the person who is being judged.

Sometimes, the shortcomings or drawbacks

Which we think others have

Are the reflections of

Our own drawbacks in them.

So, whenever, one feels that

The other person lacks so and so,

Instead of worrying about that person,

One should check one’s own self first.

- Vanita Thakkar (04-06-1991 - from my old diary)

Superimposition of one's own fault on someone else to justify one's possessiveness to one's preferences, is an example of one of the "Klesha"s (afflictions) described in the Patanjal Yoga Sutra (classical text on Yoga by Sage Patanjali), which creates havoc in administrative systems as well as relationships ....

In administrative systems, focus on Merits and Principles is essential and in relationships, Love is the essence.

- Vanita Thakkar (21-08-2017)

Life begins as a quest of the child for the man, and ends as a journey by the man to rediscover the child.

- Sam Ewing.

The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge.

- Thomas C. Foster

Madness - A Poem

Ponderings on the Immortal Insanity of Love and Truth .... 

The eternal madness of Love and Truth is better than the escapist madness of hypocrisy .... 

Commitment and Determination as Madness - Fairness of Purpose .... 

The Example of Great Martyrs of Indian Freedom Struggle ....

The eternal madness of Love and Truth is better than the escapist madness of hypocrisy ....

Vanita Thakkar

Madness

The immortal insanity of

Love and Truth

Gets projected as Immaturity or Madness

By practical escapists,

Who fail to cast and mould It

To their desires or

To their misconception of

Benefit or Advantage or Goodness.

God bless their good health

And their sanity !

They are on a shoreless voyage,

Drifting away from themselves

Into madness called hypocrisy –

Ugly when open,

Misleading when concealed,

Dangerous always,

More so, when intoxicated by

Acquired authorities,

Typically known as Power.

- Vanita Thakkar (06-07th April, 2009)

Reflections ....

• Madness literally would mean an unstable mental condition. However, due to the discrepancies that tend to creep into civilized social life on a mass scale, in the name of traditions or behaviours that go out of tune with the dynamics of changes / progress with time, circumstances and necessities of prevailing ecosystems, certain abnormalities assume the label of normality and vice versa.
• A book of parables and poems by the great Khalil Gibran is titled - The Madman. It begins with this interesting parable, in which he describes how he became a madman .... He says he woke up one day, long before many gods were born, from a deep sleep and found that all his masks were stolen. The seven masks that he said he had fashioned and worn in seven lives were stolen. He says, he ran maskless through the crowded streets shouting, "Thieves, thieves, the cursed thieves !!" Men and women laughed at him and some ran into their houses out of fear of him. And when he reached the market place, a youth standing on a house-top cried, "He is a madman." He says, as he looked up to behold the youth, the sun kissed his own naked face for the first time and that his soul was inflamed with love for the sun and he no longer wanted any masks. He cried, as if in a trance, "Blessed, blessed are the thieves that stole my masks." And thus he became a madman. Then he writes, "And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us. But let me not be too proud of my safety. Even a Thief in a jail is safe from another thief."

Commitment as Madness ....

Firm commitment is also looked upon as madness. But the fairness of purpose is important here.

Here, I am reminded of the great martyrs who laid down the lives for noble causes, such as the freedom struggle of India. Two days are celebrated as Shaheed Divas (Martyr's Day) in India to gratefully remember supreme scarifies of martyrs of Indian Freedom Struggle. 30th January is the martyrdom day of Mahatma Gandhi. The Mahatma was assassinated on 30th January, 1948 when he was returning from his evening prayers. 23rd March is the Martyrdom Day of three young Freedom Fighters of India - Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Shaheed Rajguru and Shaheed Sukhdev, who were hanged to death on 23rd March, 1931 for killing the English policeman who was behind the death of the great Indian Freedom Fighter Lala Lajpat Rai ....

One who truly loves his / her mother never even thinks of insulting anybody else's mother. So it is with one's love for one's motherland and one's religion. We need to recognize the ugly face of nasty power games - non-violence is not synonymous to cowardice, nor is a thoughtless, greed-inspired act of brutality or crookedness anywhere close to being bravery or manliness.

There can be no justifications for wrong means adopted for fulfilling "right" goals. A thief has the good intentions of making himself and his family prosperous. That does not justify his wrong actions. Colonialism was inspired by "good intentions" of serving one's country at the cost of destroying the identity and fundamental human rights of another country / countries .... Means and ends cannot be separated. Wrong means adopted for "right intentions" is a lame, and on a large scale, a dangerous and cruel excuse.

There is hardly anything "fair" in and about wars and anything "unfair" cannot be love. We need to recognize and understand the absurdity and reckless incivility in the thought - "Everything is fair in love and war."

Shaheed Bhagat Singh - the martyr who laid down his life for the freedom of India ....

© 2021 Vanita Thakkar

F-Bond - a Poem on the Strongest Bond Ever Found Anywhere

 

As students of Science, we study Chemical Bonding. Here is a poem on the strongest bond to be found in nature ....

F-Bond

The other day, I went to see

A friend, who does research in Chemistry.

After the usual, “How do you do ?”

I said, “I have a question for you –

Can you name the bond

Which is the strongest of all those found ?”

She laughed, “Are you kidding ?

That’s the simplest question in Chemical Bonding !

It is known the whole world round

That ionic is the strongest bond to be found.”

Woefully nodding my head I said,

“You are wrong, I am afraid.

Compare all the data, fresh and latest

F-bond is stronger than the rest.”

”F-bond ?”, She jumped off her chair

And gave me a confused glare.

“Yes, F-bond”, I replied.

“What’s that ?”, She cried.

“What’s it’s length and strength .... ?

And what about it’s existence .... ?”

“To digest the information I am going to impart,

Put aside your brain and apply your heart.

It’s bond length and bond energy –

Both tend to infinity.

It’s full name is “Friendship Bond” and you see,

It exists between you and me.”

- Vanita Thakkar (13.04.1990)

I wrote this poem to gift it to one of my school friends on her birthday. We used to do that - gift each other with poems / quotes / writings on birthdays / occasions or just for fun ....

I had published this poem on HubPages under the word prompt challenge on - Friendship - by my dear friend and fellow writer-poetess on HubPages - Brenda Arledge. However, it was not a new one. I was happy that Brenda and other friends enjoyed reading it as a part of her word prompt challenge and responded with great comments and feedback.

Reflections ....

True friendship is very rare and precious.

We get to hear more about true, exemplary friendships among men, even in history and scriptures, like - Raama-Guha, Raama-Sugreeva, Raama-Vibhishana, in the Raamaayana and Krishna-Sudaamaa, Krishna-Arjuna in the Mahaabharata .... There are hardly any examples / tales about great friendships among ladies. Ladies tend to remain too engrossed / busy with families and domestic responsibilities ....

(from the reply to comment by author-poetess friend on HubPages - Chitrangadaji.)

© 1990 Vanita Thakkar

Silent Diction - Poem .... A Call for Awakening to the Language of Silence ....

.... Seeing in, out and around, we discover, that in order to communicate, words, all can’t shower .... 

.... The best of joys and the worst of sorrows are often out of reach of words .... 

.... Life becomes more worthwhile if we learn the Language of Silence ....

Silent Diction

Can you see the joy that peeps out

Of the brightness of eyes, perceiving ecstasy all about?

For the best of joys is far too deep,

To come within shallow words’ grip.

Can you hear the echo of untold misery

That retreats from sad lips, shut despondently?

For, the great pain is too bitter,

For the subtle words to endure.

Seeing in, out and around, we discover

That in order to communicate, words, all can’t shower.

So, may we learn the Silent Diction, not aye relying on words, fragile,

To know, to understand more and to make life more worthwhile.

- Vanita Thakkar (22.12.1988)

© 1988 Vanita Thakkar

 

Mother - A Poem on Mother .....

 

Embodied Beauty .... Embodies Life .... Empowered by Divine .... That's Mother !! It is difficult to describe mother and her role in our lives .... here are a few words that make some efforts, perhaps in vain, to describe mother ....

 

With my mother in November, 2016 .... Vanita Thakkar

Mother

Strong and soft,

Tough and tender,

Creator’s delight,

Beholder’s wonder

Embodied beauty –

That’s Mother,

Embodies life –

That’s Mother !!

Delicate and distinct,

Malleable and mild,

Strength unlimited,

Support undeterred,

Unbreakable, unbeatable –

That’s Mother,

Empowered by the Divine –

That’s Mother !!

- Vanita Thakkar (22.11.2011)

Mummy at Coorg in May, 2016 .... Phoograph by Vanita Thakkar 

Mummy at the Norbulingka Institute, Dharmashala (Himachal Pradesh) in May, 2018 .... Photograph by Vanita Thakkar

 

© 2020 Vanita Thakkar (Published on HubPages on 01st October, 2020)