A Sign of Perfect Peace

Today morning, something very different happened, something that never happened before in the past few months. I woke up with so much happiness and enthusiasm! I literally jumped out of my bed ready to conquer the whole world. I felt so much strength in my arms. My heart felt as light as a feather.

What was so strange about today? Did my worries evaporate away? Did my problems vanish completely? Did my life become easier?

Well, NO.

I just felt a sense of "Perfect Peace" within my heart and I could feel happiness in every cell of my body. I remember, last night, I had slept off with a little prayer. "I give everything into your hands, Lord. Take care of me. Help me do your will." 

Was it the effect of the prayer? I was thinking about it, while I walked around my room. How good it would be if this perfect peace remains in my heart continually, I mused. I knelt down, prayed, felt even stronger. I walked into the kitchen.

My mother had just made me a cup of coffee. It picked it up, took little sips and walked out. It was such a perfect blend, I enjoyed every drop of it as I crossed my house. I went out to the veranda. I could see my father watering the garden. The golden rays of the morning sun hit those tiny water drops on the leaves that glittered like little golden balls. I was mindlessly sipping my coffee when a glimmering light caught my eye. On the grill that separated the veranda and the garden, between two rods, was a fine thread of gold.

I went close and saw a spider web. "Nice," I thought and looked away. In a sudden jerk, I turned to the web once again and this time I examined it very carefully and with a lot of wonder. In the midst of a beautifully spun web was a little white spider. There was something strange about this one. It was perfect. Not even a single strand was broken. It was in perfect condition and it was glittering in the morning sun. (You can see the pictures below. Some strands are not seen because the camera could not capture some very thin strands if the angle to light exposure was different.)

It was quite strange because I have never seen an intact web ever before on that grill because the leaves nearby or the water from the garden hose invariably would damage it. For that matter, I have never come across such an intact web anywhere before! I went running to pick my camera and I clicked off lot of pics. And when I was totally into my camera and macro lenses, I heard a little voice whisper...

"If I will keep the spider web intact and perfect, won't I care more for you?"

This is my sign of a perfect and perfecting peace that has taken root in my heart. 

I wish to share this little sign with someone out there who needs it.

 I wish it would put a smile on someone too.

The spidey! F/5.6 | 1/160s | ISO 200 | Canon 550D Abialbon Paul

The perfect web! F/5.6 | 1/200s | ISO400 | Canon 550D Abialbon Paul

Sign of perfect peace! F/5.6 | 1/200s | ISO 400 | Canon 550D Abialbon Paul

Thank you Bernoulli!

At my cousin's house. 

My head on my mother's lap, lying on the comfortable couch, I was fully relaxed. My mind was soaring on the highways on a pan Indian tour! I had just drove from Pondy to Chennai and I always loved driving on the highways. There was a clamour around, I was happily dreaming…

There was a little commotion around the fish tank! The aerator had stopped working and my aunt panicked. She had a valid reason to. Considering the small fish tank and the large fishes, the oxygen content of the water would not be sufficient for a long time to sustain those fishes without proper aeration. Those fishes were already seemed half dead and were settling on the lower portion of the fish tank. My aunt had lost fishes before because the aerator malfunctioned and so she was hullabaloo!

My aunt ordered me to go out with her and get a new one ASAP. I really did not want to move, but I couldn't deny either.

Show me the aerator, let me have a look, I said. I will repair it for you if you just give me 5 minutes.

I was too lazy to change my night dress and leave out on a cold night.

I opened up the aerator. I saw it had a small motor whose fan was propelled by an electromagnet. The motor pumped out water. On the pump outlet was an air vent. Oh, the Bernoulli's principle, I mused. When the water was pumped around the air vent, a negative pressure would be developed that would suck the air in. The problem here was that the air vent was displaced and was facing the opposite side! And that is why there was no aeration but water was being pumped out through the air vent.

I fixed it.

Tada! It works! I exclaimed!

Now don't call me anywhere, I announced!

Thanks to Mr. Daniel Bernoulli! And thanks to my physics teacher who inculcated so much interest in me that I still remember what I learnt 8 long years ago! I thank you people so very much!

Because of you, I go now back peacefully. Back to the couch, back on my mother’s lap, back to the highways lit by the beautiful evening sun, revving a 2000 cc SUV, piercing through the dashing wind, exploring, experiencing and fun !

The Angel Wears Raincoat

On a November morning, when the dark clouds crowded over the busy town, when the gravitational pull on me when I'm on my cosy cosy bed went extremely high, it rained.

For some reasons, I have always been in love with the rain all through my life. Turning into a 24 year old, I still had those beautiful feelings for running around in the rain, dancing getting drenched, jumping around in the muddy puddles. It has always been my ambition to be happy with whatever I've got and to be the best I can be. (Well, yes, the rain does bring philosophical thoughts too to me)

Rolling down out of my bed, staggering around I went about getting ready for work. I have to confess by the time I was ready to leave home, I was getting blasé about the day’s work. And to add to that, a little irksome mood kept peeing out as I had to go through the beautiful rain to boring work.

The cold engine revved up and I was on my way to JIPMER.

The road ahead was busy as people were walking with colourful umbrellas, parents accompanying their school going children and college busses on the mundane trips. The traffic did not do me good. I was frowning already.

500 meters ahead, I could see a slender figure standing right in the centre of a busy road and swaying irregularly. Another victim of the effect of alcohol, I thought. As I was moving close to him, I was fuming. There was a little commotion around him.

As I approached near, I realised that the slender not-so-tall middle aged guy was wearing a raincoat and was standing right in the centre of the road and waving to the vehicles to move on either side of him. Curiosity replaced my little irritation completely.

Almost very close to him, I realised that there was an electric overhead cable that was cut and lying on the road. This guy was standing right in front of it and signalling people so that they would avoid it and not run into it. For a moment, his eyes caught mine staring at him so intensely. He waved his hands and I obeyed subconsciously.

I kept moving.

I took a turn and exited the main road and continued on my way…

RESPECT.

For the Angel who wore raincoat.

Beast of Burden??

A puff of smoke rose swirling up.

A curly haired, medium stature guy with dark complexion stood beneath. I could see a not so pleasant smile on his face and from the creaks of his lips smoke came out. One one hand, he had a smoking cigarette and was tapping it and waving it in the air and on the other was a mobile phone which he was looking at.

Beside him stood a shorter lady wearing a bright green saree. She held a child on her one hand and a milk bottle on the other. She was trying to feed him so that he would stop whining. A heavy handbag hung on her shoulder; it looked so heavy that it was almost pulling her down. Down below, near her feet was a big blue duffel bag.

I was standing somewhere near, waiting for a bus, tired and hoping to escape the harsh sun as early as possible.

A little while later, the guy spoke something to her and he started walking. She bent down, took her duffel bag and followed him.

I sniggered. Who would treat his own queen like a donkey, I thought. Is that sacred yellow thread/chain they tie at marriage nothing but a rein, I chuckled.

Don't treat your lady like a beast of burden.
Carry her load, not because she is a weaker version, but because she is your queen.

What The Frail Old Man Taught Me On Love

It was on a mundane afternoon, one that I so vividly remember. It was one of those rare days in medical training (Internship) when nothing throws a surprise on you. Everything went well since that morning and all I had left with was a chronic disease OPD to attend after which I would walk back to my hostel room and enjoy the rest of the day absolutely doing nothing.

I was sitting in the female side of the OPD. All I had to do was to take blood pressure measurements, check blood reports of old people with diseases like diabetes and hypertension and re-write the medicines previously prescribed for them if everything was normal. I was doing it fast eager to finish it off.

An old woman come and sit at my table. When I enquired her, she did not respond. She made a few facial movements but made no voice. Instead, an old, should be 75+, frail looking man, standing nearby her side, was the one who did the talking.

I didn't listen to him. I was waiting for scream from the OPD nurse. That's what she does when any male enters the female OPD. (She does this on junior male doctors too at times :-p). I was waiting for this guy to be thrown out. I glanced sideways at the nurse. She was looking at us and beaming a broad smile. Strange!

This old man was cleanly dressed and was carrying two heavy bags. He spoke very softly and his voice indicated his frailty. With his little voice he was informing me what his wife's problems were and what medications she was on. He seemed to know the names of all the medicines and the dosage strengths and he was almost instructing me not to forget anything in a very polite manner.

(Normally it would irritate me when a lay person instructs me to prescribe, what's the point of me spending 5.5 torturous years in a med school then, I would think.) He was quite worried that I might miss out something from a big list of different medicines she was on. Probably, it has happened before that some junior doctor in a hurry forgot to write something or wrote something wrong. If that happens, his wife would have no tablets to take of that particular medicine for the next 2 weeks. So his behaviour was quite acceptable and I did my best to measure her blood pressure, check her reports and write her all the medications she required.

After I was done, the old man lifted his two heavy bags on one hand, held his wife's hand with the other and slowly walked her out of the OPD.

The nurse told me later that this particular old man brings his wife twice a month, every month from his village. His wife is hard of hearing and she has a high blood pressure and diabetes. It's a long journey from his village to JIPMER so he brings everything that would be required for her including, food, towels etc. and waits till the afternoon for the chronic disease OPD. He makes her sit in a bench and he waits in a long queue for her. He meets the doctors, gets the medications written, stands in another long queue for getting the tablets from the pharmacy and finally takes her back home.

When the sister had told me all this, I had a big smile on my face and a little tear on my eyes.

That frail old man made a statement so strong that penetrated my heart. I saw what true love was all about. The commitment, the care this old man had, simply melted my heart. He showed a commitment time nor tide would never fade.

Dear old man, I thank God for bringing you there to inspire me. I promise you, that when I hold the hands of my queen, I would remember the lesson you thought me that day.

And sure it does. Every once in a while in the middle of an ordinary life... Love gives you a fairy tale!

A Smartphone Battery Miser

It has become one of my life’s greatest disappointments to look at my mobile and see that my battery is about to die. It’s such a terrifying feeling to know that my mobile will run out of charge and will shut down leaving me strangled and disconnected in middle of a busy day or during a travel where charging facilities aren't readily accessible.

Thanks to the pathetic battery life of today’s smartphones and the constant cycle of such disappointments that I have had, I have morphed into something disgusting. A battery miser. Yes, a smart phone battery miser.
There are tons of battery saving apps and battery drain preventing apps in the Google market. I constantly keep track of them and keep reading the reviews. I have been hoping from one app to another believing the impossible promise of a longer battery life. Some apps simply disappoint by themselves draining more battery. The others bring about no visible change.

What can the apps do for you if you keep using your mobile more, you might ask. Yes. The first thing I did was to decrease the screen brightness to the minimum possible through the settings. The awesome AMOLED display fitted in my mobile constantly is dim because of my stinginess and others find it too difficult to read text or view images. To add fuel to my craze is an app called the screen filter. It enables to decrease the screen brightness less than 10% (the minimum possible using the Android default settings). I have been using this app and now my AMOLED screen displays pathetically washed out images and poorly dim lit text with no clear contrast. It is no longer crisp nor clear. All for a longer battery life.

What could be worse? I am so fearful of switching on the Wi-Fi or the mobile internet. I switch it on only for an instant. I try to check whatever I wanted to do on the internet and put it off as soon as possible. Often I am not being notified of my emails and messages from Whatsapp and Hike because I have switched off the auto-sync feature to prevent battery drain. I’ll have to open the apps and refresh them in order to get the notifications.
All for a longer battery life.

The kill apps button. I keep pressing this button whenever I unlock my phone. I am pathologically obsessed with an uneasiness which creeps into my mind when these background processes keep running and keep draining my precious battery. It has become an obsessive compulsive disorder for me now.

Games are a strict no-no on my mobile. Mobile is not for playing games! It would drain the battery more. No switching on the GPS or the Bluetooth either. If I find that the GPS had been left ON by mistake, I would faint. Any new custom ROM that promises better battery life would have been tested by me in vain. The battery stats in android is my best friend. I keep checking for the battery percentage. I keep checking for apps which drain the battery the most. 

My pathetic worsening condition has rendered my 20k+ smart phone into something worth nothing more than an ordinary mobile used for making calls and texting people. I constantly keep check of the battery percentage. I charge the battery whenever I get a chance. My mobile does not auto sync. My mobile’s AMOLED display performs poorly that an ordinary TFT display. And so on…

I type this on my laptop because typing this in my mobile drain a lot of battery!!!

Is there any help for me?    :-(

Let go !!! Or wait...!

Few days back, I took a "seemingly" awesome pic. I am not self boasting but then, have a look. It seems that I have caught the leaf at mid air. I put a caption saying that often you'll have to let go of the old and unwanted things in life.

But then on closer look you will see a fine strand of a spider web holding the leaf.

Interesting isn't it. To me, it means a lot.

I leave it to the viewer for extrapolating little things into deep thoughts of insightful reflection. 

Like I often do. :-)