Day 78 : Ave Maria

I would never have realized the strength of resolve,
if not for that one man toiling in the sun's heat smashing rocks for his day's pennies.

I would never have realized the strength of kindred,
if not for his brother men who merrily shared each other's burden of rocks each day.

I would never have realized the strength of love,
if not for his wife who cleans and scrubs a dozen homes a day to earn some extra bread for her cubs.

I would never have realized the strength of grace,
if not for the crippled boy who drags his lame leg to school everyday with an erect poise.

I would never have realized the strength of kindness,
if not for the able bodied kids who would slow their gait to walk beside their crippled friend.

I would never have realized the strength of inspiration,
if not for the poorest of those kids who'd make up stories of grand scale to keep their discouraged minds distracted on those cold glum nights.

I would never have realized the strength of hope,
if not for the father of the poorest of kids who'd keep on working each day on the rocks, dreaming of his children living in one of those bright homes that reach for the twinkling stars.

~ ~ ~

Happy new year, everyone. Stay blessed!

Day 77 : Your Year in Review

As has become the norm for Facebook, they released their 'Year in Review' feature this week. This tool enables you to get a 'Top 10' of the most significant (mundane albeit popular) things you posted in the past year. Last year it made a slideshow video of your most liked/commented status updates and images, scored to the exciting tune of elevator music. This time it seems they decided to do away with a video, and just put up a bunch pictures you got tagged in onto a webpage. Getting lazy are we, Mark?

Anyways. I think they've accomplished what they were aiming for. They got me thinking about the past year on basis of those images. Which I confess aren't all that amazing to begin with. I only did two decent vacations this year, both with the same set of people I know and most of those pictures were taken during that duration. Apart from these there were a few pictures of the books I was reading (yes I take pictures of books while I read them, don't ask me why) and a few taken on a colleague's birthday. That's it. Crap, isn't that disappointing! Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy those vacations. I was in dire need of them. Also I know I am not exactly the jet-setting kind - by virtue of wallet size. But still, it is sort of disheartening to know that after spending most of the 365 days making plans to do amazing things and at the end you have nothing to show for it.

I am not kidding. I have made plans for more travels and milestones this year than I care to remembe anymore. I honestly lose track of half of them in a fortnight. I've picked up two technical courses to attend through this year, stopped them in a week. Made plans to meet up a lot of old and new friends for night outs and stuff, most of those get cancelled by the end of that very same day. Most of the things that I do get around to do are things that have somehow managed to attract a sizable crowd of friends to ensure that I don't get bored, and that we look like a hip crowd. That is another thing that I am never able to understand. Why do I always have to have a big mob of friends when we go tripping. I want to go to that hill station up North, why don't I just pack up a toothbrush and a book and just leave.

Well. I'm a classic procrastinator. I make big plans of the grand things to do the next year and end up accomplishing approximately quarter of them. Case in point - this blog. I started this Ledger at the beginning of this year making an 'unbreakable vow' to myself that I would write something here each day religiously. How many have I managed to publish so far? Around 70 so far, that comes up to just 20% over the span of 11 months! How's that for an 'unbreakable vow'.

So.. this was my 'Year in Review'. A ton of plans and commitments made, most to myself. Most of those go unmet, most to myself.

I know a lot people who would agree they feel the same way each year. Every New Year's Eve we find ourselves make a bunch of big plans to do big things the next year. Really follow our passions and lead our lives to a decidedly glorious turnabout. We all believe that our lives are largely in our control. That we are on the control panel of this spaceship. Nah.. What really happens is that we discover that we have hardly made a dent to the trajectory that our lives are in. You are just hanging along for the ride. Most of the things that shape our lives are the things that we make no note of until the shit has transpired. You don't plan for none of them, but they do go down with or without your bidding. It sure is optimistic of us to believe that we can do something about it. And so yet again we plan for another wonderful year ahead. Promising ourselves to do grand things in 2016.

Good luck with that. Really.