The World Within

It was late at night and as lonely as it could be. I went to my kitchen balcony and glanced around the neighbourhood. All dark. In that darkness, the tall palm and coconut trees' leaves swayed in the wind, dashing against the tree trunk and each other. The mango tree's leaves were rustling too, producing a soft hiss. Other than that, there was no other sound. No crows were cawing that late, no car horns going off and I couldn't hear the dramatic background track of the late-night news— My loud neighbours were asleep too. As I scanned the streets, I spotted Jacky, a local street dog, he was sleeping peacefully tonight instead of indulging in his gang-related activity. The dim moonlight which was filtering through the thin layer of clouds sprayed a silvery hue all around, which made the whole moment seem even more magical and obscure. It was a very lonely night and though they say that Mumbai is a city which hardly sleeps, right now, no light was oozing out of any window ...

An ever stretching and wonderous expanse of inherently nothing littered and splattered with tiny specs of white, gold and red. All of what's real and all of what can't be, all of it seemingly makes sense when the tiny eyes pop open—when the neighbouring neurons rev themselves up and light up the Christmas tree of thoughts. The gigantic quantum soup of uncertainties and co-existing possibilities, counting up to an infinite, reduces to the singularity as the ever-obscure wave function collapses. The unfathomable scramble of letters gradually begins to spell the universe and it gains depth and definition as the neural mechanism grasps more and more of itself. As a little spark of thought ignites a fire in the forest of greed, jealousy and materialistic pleasures of the world, the forest ablazes, paving way for a road to knowledge and wisdom as the insignificant matter laced with consciousness attempts to unravel itself. As the candy jar of the universe is opened, various cos...

Let's say you got hold of a time machine and plan to begin an epic journey, cutting through time. That's exactly what we were debating a few days ago. A friend of mine wanted to know if time travelling was possible and if yes—if it was worth it. He was excited, the idea of going back in time to warn himself of mistakes he wanted to avoid, or going to the future and bringing in the question paper of the next test so he could study and top in his class—all such fantasies were popping inside of his head like popcorn until I capsized his boat full of fantasies. As I thought about it, Time Travel was pointless, even if it were possible someday. I didn't mean to break his hopes, but it was better than to let him fantasise over something which would practically never work.  I am not going to tell you why we can't build a time machine yet. There's a boatload of information about that, just Google it. I'm, however, going to consider that we somehow do manage to...

Today was the last day of my 30-day challenge and now, waking up early has become one of my most important habits. Yeah, it has sunk down into a habit—even if I'd not want to wake up, my mind will wake me up on time. The last thirty days were fueled by positive changes within me and I discovered a newer, more disciplined self who maybe was always present but I'd never given an opportunity to thrive.  I am also enjoying a higher level of motivation, energy and have seemed to discover a source of an abundant and unstoppable force within myself which is constantly driving me forward. As I moved further with my challenge, waking up gradually became easier until it finally just automized. I had days wherein I woke up even before my alarm did and felt so fresh as if I hadn't been asleep in the first place—no brain fog, so to say. Certain days, I would be out of my bed, into the bathroom and I'd be walking out with the toothbrush in my hand, without even realising it. Th...

A happy, positive and successful person has also had a rough, uncomfortable, problem-ridden and painful life just as an unhappy, negative and unsuccessful person has. Something that sets the former apart from the latter is a slight change in perspective. The problems you have in your life, all those aching moments you would rather want to forget, those dull and dark moments, they're all a normal thing to all of us. We all have a lot of crap to deal with in our lives. One thing that I would tell you is that that crap should never hold you down or hold you back from becoming what you want to become or being who you want to be. You have to use all that crap to build yourself up. Honestly, if you have a lot of problems and there's a lot that's going on in your life right now, then consider yourself lucky. You have an opportunity you would not want to miss.  You can let all the experiences and lessons, the problems that life offers, build you up instead of break you down...

We've often heard that happiness acquired from temporary or materialistic means is short lived and that true happiness is one which is self-induced and is not attached to anything. True, Happiness that arises out of external things is bound to fade out as soon as that external thing is taken away. If you are happy because you just bought a new car, then that happiness is not going to last long. As days pass by, it will no longer matter and your new car will grow old, not bringing you any happiness and if it gets stolen, it is bound to make you sad. So we should not be happy due to anything materialistic or external? Quite not. Some materialistic happiness is needed. I'll explain as we progress ahead. So, what is happiness and how does one go about acquiring it? Happiness is a state of mind and I will also add that it is self-induced just as sadness or even anger is. If someone comes up to you and were to slap you, what would happen? That action of getting slapped would ge...

There is one inevitable state of being and of existence that is dreaded by many. Loneliness. Whether by choice or some other reason, loneliness can easily become destructive—of course, if you let it to. The person in acute loneliness begins to sink in deeper and deeper into a dark and empty void that loneliness brings with itself. In a sense, loneliness is a companion albeit a violent and a destructive one and manifests in the form of the person's own thoughts. It can drive one insane after it starts shooting out of control. Sometimes that state leads to complete ruin. Humans are social animals and as much as we need food or water to survive, we do also need company. We need touch. We need each other. We need our community, without which we can easily lose our identity as a conscious and alive being. There are several reasons why someone might face loneliness, but one thing is for sure that everyone in their life goes through an acute or at least some degree of loneliness. Ma...