Hold my hand

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(Writing for 28 Jan)

While coming after my daily run, I saw a lady with her son holding his hand and walking towards the school. The boy who would be 10-11 years young was looking to be assured and was not thinking much about the road which he had to cross along with her mother. Contrary to that his mother was vigilant, eyes towards the school and rushing with her steps one after the other as if the race was between her two legs on who can be faster.

The boy’s speed to reach the school was governed by her mother’s rush and intention. He was least bothered if he will be reaching on time or if there are any cars coming on the way. Trust plays a big role here. In life scenarios, especially in difficult situations, we wait and wish if someone would help us. At that time even if you get someone who understands your situation and listens to you helps. A person cannot live his whole life alone. By basic nature human beings are social animal. And you need some people if not many to talk to you, to understand you or hold your hand.

You would have different trust or comfort factor with different people. With few you can talk for few minutes, with few you can talk for hours and open up. There are always few, may be 1-3 people, you can call at any time, talk to them, ask for help fully trusting that that person would surely help. Similarly you will be that person for few other people. These small circles, close circle of friends, then family and then few colleagues with whom you work, creates your world. All other things are in TV, internet, newspaper and in your imagination.

In this busy world no one has time for anything. Everyone is running after something or the other. The rat race is never ending. And you hear some or the other news about someone has passed on in family, friends or acquaintances. You will feel sad, reminisce some moments where you have last seen or interacted with that person and then get up and move on to do your daily chores. As you grow older, you will start feeling the need that someone should be there to hold your hand. The holder could be one of the person in your closest circle.

The boy going to school may not want his hand to be held as he goes into adulthood. He will have his dreams of independent world, going beyond the sky. The mother would still want to be with him, if not physically at least in thoughts and conversations. But sooner or later this realization comes back that you need someone to hold your hand, not physically but who is at the back and you have the trust and belief that he is with you no matter what. You don’t have to say to that person “Hold my hand”. You are already held in the love, care and trust.

Peace

(For 27 Jan)

Peace cannot be described in words. Peace can only be felt. The deeper the peace the more peaceful you will feel. The feeling of peace is very soothing to heart. We generally attach peace to happiness. We assume if we are happy, we will be at peace. That may not be true. If you are elated and excited, you might not be at peace. You would be expecting something, the next high in your life, so you may be in the mode that this excitement, happiness should continue, there should be some reward, but not peace. On the contrary you may be at peace even after a great loss.

Peace doesn’t have a condition. Being in peace is a choice which you have to continuously take even when it is chaotic in outside world. You need to consciously choose to be in peace. One of the ways to be in peace is to practice meditation. The other way is to observe your thoughts whenever you can. To be in peace is greater than any materialistic thing you can attain in your life. It is better to understand this sooner. A normal person do have very few peaceful moments which he can remember. We must try to create more peaceful moments.

We need to stop being desperate about things and just be. Do your best and stop. Do not over think about the result.

Are we strangers or connected

I was running today and covered till 16 km and was planing to complete 26 km today, a man in his sports bicycle slowed down the cycle and asked if I am ok. He was genuinely concerned and I felt that. He offered water which I politely declined as I had the water bottle. He went ahead with his cycling wishing me luck on the rest of my run. I thanked him for his gesture.

Are we complete strangers or are we all connected just waiting for the artificial cover to be removed by initial talks. Even talking to a stranger feels refreshing and brings a new perspective. Sometimes just by looking at a person you feel connected to that person and you would want to talk to him.

There is some signal which gets transferred between two bodies even when they haven’t started talking. That signal helps in starting conversation. Contrary to the older belief and advice given by parents that we should not talk to strangers, we should not be that skeptical towards strangers. Who knows one of those encounter may give you a life long friend

Waiting to be called

( 25 Jan 2020 12 :06 PM Noida)

We are always waiting to be called. Called by whom ….. To be called by the interviewer, to be called by the immigration officer, to be called by the receptionist, to be called by the announcement of flight.

Why are we waiting to be called by someone. Is it because we do not find peace in the current position or do we have a material need or it is natural to move from that place or it is just a physical need or we need to move as that movement is the means to a different end goal.

Whatever is the case may be to wait for the call and as soon as we hear our name go towards the caller, are we at peace from inside. The internal peace and stability matters. Even if we are moving physically and doing things as per the worldly demands or for any practical purposes, we need to be stable and peaceful from inside. That peace and stability gives us the strength required to survive and be content.

The outside call will always be there and we have to follow the calls, but from deep inside once those call stops then we are at peace. From deep within we will know that there is no destination and there is no origination. We ourselves are the origination and destination

There is so much in life

Life is unlimited. It can only be limited in your mind. The limits are set by you. If you break those limits from your mind, you can go beyond the sky and even sky is not the limit. Life is full of surprises, adventure and fun in all aspects. But we make ourselves limited to a particular target.

You will find all kinds of people doing what they love to do. There are examples where people have won over their adversities. All the excuses about not having time, or too busy in life are irrelevant. It is up to you on how do you want to take your life.

Life is waiting to be explored. Take risks, be playful, be free, forget your fears. Life is not about accumuating materialistic things. It is about gaining experience, making friends, enjoying, being peaceful and content.

1000 days of running

#1000daysofrunning

A mail popped up in my company mailbox somewhere during the end of April 2017. 100 days of running to start again this year from 29th April till 6th Aug. A voice inside me, as always, said “Let’s take up this challenge”. And there I was. Running my first run in this challenge on 29th April. Challenging myself excites me and gives me a kick. I have done this on a few occasions in the past. But this challenge was very different. It is not a single instance. It has to be done again and again, without a single day of failure. Running for 100 days continuously, no matter what, running for at least 2 km. I stretched the minimum 2 km to more than 5 km since starting off. To be precise, the distance was 6.5 to 7 km daily barring the initial 7-8 days, when it was 5-6 km. The journey of running, getting into a new routine, thus began on 29th April 2017. I asked a few of my friends in my company whether they want to be a part of this, thinking that there is no reason why one would not participate in this event. But to my surprise, I found no one taking the interest to join. But that didn’t deter me to join in the event.
This is the exact same first paragraph I copied from my company blog which was posted on Sep 9, 2017.
Now comes the second part. I am still running and today on 23 Jan 2020, I have completed 1000 days of running. Yes 1000 days of running. What a journey it is. Now it has become a part of me. I have not missed a single day when I didn't run. I ran for all days and that too more than 2 km. Recently I have got into habit of running more than 5 km daily. I have heard so many comments like you should not run daily, Why are you running ? Will you not get exhausted. But I kept on going. I remember one instance when I was in Pune staying in a PG, and it was raining outside and I completed my running of more than 2 km just running around the small room keeping the tracker Endomondo to keep track of km run. It has been a fantastic journey and I get a great feeling. Running has also kept me maintain my weight and gives the necessary physical exercise required by the body.
During this journey, I have actually run 5 half marathons (1 half marathon = 21.0975 km). Total distance run since the beginning of my journey is 4064 km. This distance is 29 km more than the distance from Srinagar to Kanyakumari on road via Delhi, Indore, Mumbai, Bangalore. The total time for which I am running till today is 484 hours, 57 min and 54 sec which is more than 20 days of running day and night. Out of the 5 marathon which I have run, the best personal record is in 2 hr 31 m 6 sec. I am not running for any record and now it has become a habit, the habit so strong that if I do not run I feel some itching. People say till what time you will run. I reply till the time I can run. Whats the harm in continuing a good habit if you have attained that habit. Why to stop that.
Getting into a good habit brings self confidence and motivation too which keeps you going. I feel that taking a challenge and attempting something which you think you cannot do, brings the energy and confidence. This helps in other area too. Subconsciously you get the feeling that if I can do one thing which I thought was not possible, I can do other things too. Moreover doing regular physical exercise keeps you healthy and reduces the stress. You will never hear an athlete or runner or someone invoved in regular physical workout going into depression.

Running has become like a meditation for me. I feel relaxed and refreshed while running. Running in the morning keeps me refreshed and energized the whole day.

A child's play

Life is like a child’s play. Life should be like a child’s play. A child is so playful and keeps laughing or crying but remains in that very moment. He never gets tired of his mischiefs. He is always excited about everything.

The same child becomes serious as be grow old , become teenager and later grows to an adult and becomes a completely different person compared to how he was during his childhood, especially during the first 4 years of his life. The innocence spills over from all his body and through all his activities.

A child is easily connected to the nature and laughs and plays with the nature. The natural tendency of a human being is to laugh, play, live, learn which are innate but as he grows he learn to take stress, be busy and start complaining about life. There is a complete change in him.

There should be conscious effort to keep the inner child alive in you even when you grow old. Keeping the child alive is keeping your energy alive, live completely in the present and not worry about past or future. Awaken the child within you and enjoy the moments of life.