Before criticizing

Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins. -- Native American Proverb

I have loved this quote ever since I first read this quote. I am very slow to form any type of opinion about anyone. Though I make a mental picture of everyone instantly but I take very long time to bring them on my lips. Usually I just skip the latter part and keep them to myself or share with some very hand-counted people. People about whom I am confident that will rectify me if they think I am wrong.

Very frankly speaking its very easy to say, “I would have never done that.” But if we dig deep we will see that almost all actions have roots far deeper than what we see from above. And in most cases, if we go down with the root a little, with an open mind we will see that his life was leading to it.

No normal human being can happily do wrong things, so when someone does some thing wrong it means that there was something wrong with his life, or the circumstances in which the thing happened. Before hating or pointing our finger at him we should see and feel his condition.

Dignity

One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered.
-- Michael J. Fox

This is so very true. No one can take away our dignity as long as we don’t let them take it away. And dignity is never to be given away. No one but God can demand our dignity to be surrendered before her. That is why she never demands it from us.

We often hurt ourselves by thinking that that “this” man has ruined our dignity, well; he can ruin our reputation but not dignity. Dignity is just where it was before. Scandalizing has not hurt it an ounce.

Those people who have the courage of walking their own path may meet these attacks again and again. They should always keep the words said in this quote in mind. No one can take away any thing from us unless we surrender it to him.

Anything

Anything you could ever want or be you already have and are. -- David Russell

A handful of pearls stringed together to be worn by any one who can realize their worth. Ever since the day I started to believe this quote my life became happier and content.

It’s a beautiful truth; we are what we wanted to be. If we don’t like it we can always improve ourselves to better but we should never be upset or sad.

There are some exceptions to every case, but most of us consciously make ourselves. We change ourselves due to different reasons and chisel out the latest versions. But we should always remember one thing, human soul is made of light, we can any time remodel it if we sincerely try. It’s not made of stone or metal that once done is done, there is no turning back.

I have seen people changing themselves completely, sometimes for better sometimes for worse.

Age and wisdom

Not by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired….. Titus Maccius Plautus

Wisdom has nothing to do with age. I have seen senior citizens innocent as small babes and young men and women as wise as sage. Just think, all the prophets of human history have gained immense wisdom before reaching maturity.

How much wisdom a person will be able to soak depends on his capacity. Some people soak wisdom by instinct. It appears as if they become wise by just being. They don’t need to study hard, they just read all the things we read and simply squeeze out the wisdom out of that. Have seen so many of them that I know its true about some people. They are just wise.

No one looks at their black hair, they just listen to them when they speak and realize that they are speaking the facts of life. They are uttering the greatest words of wisdom with the ease of a seventy year old weather ripe person.

An easy life

Do not believe that he who seeks to comfort you lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. His life has much difficulty... Were it otherwise he would never have been able to find those words.
-- Rainer Maria Rilke

We very quickly form this opinion. A person who is smiling too much has never tasted pain. A person who preaches has not seen the real life from close circles. Mostly it is wrong. He has suffered that is why he is offering you the counsel. So that you are spared from the pain. Or may be he has seen someone else suffer. That is why he is able to offer you the counsel.

People who are courageous and wise rarely discuss their own pain and sufferings. For they know that they have reached this place of peace after suffering too long and bringing back those memories will only cause them further pain, without any gain. Just like putting finger in a wound that is healing. So they avoid those memories after learning lessons from them, and prefer to share their lessons with others so they are spared from committing the same follies.

A river flowed by

My ancestral homes are situated on both banks of damodar river. One in burdwan, the one in which I lived till 7^th august 2007 and the second one in the opposite side of damodar, where our ancestors lived for centuries. Our old, almost ruined home is there. Every year Durgapuja is held there with a huge gathering. Apart from that Kalipuja is held with a small gathering and every other puja is performed in the temples created by my ancestors.

 

Damodar is most probably one of the most attractive rivers in India, it’s a very wide river, but maximum proportion of the river bed is sand, with small streams of water running through them. Crystal clear water, sometimes just wetting your feet and sometimes upto throat or may be more.  We were terrorized by elders and villagers that there are shifting sands and other scary things so we never ventured much.

 

I personally believe that most probably sometimes the sand banks gave away beneath the feet of a non swimmer plunging him into very deep water without any chances of getting out. We have seen those sand banks without water, they are sometimes very high, fifteen or twenty feet, may be more. And just like any other sand sculpture they are always ready to crumble.

 

I have spent a lot of time in the companionship of this river. One of my favourite hobbies was to wake up before dawn and take the longest possible route to the river bridge, watch the sunrise there and return home.

 

During the durgapujas I used to spend a lot of time having fun on its banks with my nephew and nieces. Splashing in the water and playing with the sand. Or just sitting there and talking for hours. Watching the river and enjoying its serene beauty.

A neem tree

How many of you have had a huge neem tree in your garden? We had one, in our courtyard; I think it was older than me. I recollect seeing it when I have visited my home as a small baby. Then childhood memories are quite tricky, but its trunk was massive so it might have been older than me. It was chopped down by the same troll, the greatest troll I have ever met in my lifetime and am not very keen to meet another or him again.

 

Neem trees are really beautiful, a little messy because they shed leaves but they compensate by wonderfully fragrant flowers. I love the fragrance of neem flowers and they look very beautiful too. I used to put the branches in flower vase after storm, they stayed fresh for a day or two, without fragrance though.. only the beauty.

 

The branches of this tree touched our roof, and created a wonderful hiding place for me, I used to climb down on a wide parapet with a book, or walkman and sit there for hours. I could see the surrounding from the cover of the leaves but was only partially visible to others. It gave a sense of disappearance in the crowd.

 

There were lots of squirrels on that tree; it also invited parrots and other birds with its ripe fruits. Parrots and koyals used to come and eat those bitter sweet fruits, my siblings also relished them, I tried a couple of times but did not love them much. I preferred the flowers and the tree itself.

 

We used to climb it a lot before a creeper completely covered it, that creeper had thorns, so we were deprived of that joy thereafter.

 

When a tree is standing in your garden for years it becomes like a living being, someone you know, I wonder why trolls don’t feel the same way. These people have an inborn hatred for every thing beautiful I believe, and its really painful to live around them.