Now that this week is almost over, I can see the gifts it brought me. This was a week of brown studies and introspection. It led me down paths that made me wonder what I was about. As I witnessed the things that have shaped other people, I wondered at the things that have shaped me, and those that continue to chisel away at me.
This week has made me question myself and demand more of myself. It also made me share my thoughts with a deeper clarity than I have done before. In a way, this week has surprised me. The week has been a eloquent testimony to the impact the visit of a dear friend has had on me. Her presence compelled me to look into the distance as deeply as I looked within.
What an amazingly wise catalyst she has been!
The inertia of the mind urges it to slide down the easy slope of imagination, rather than to climb the steep slope of introspection.
~ Marcel Proust
Dish #1:
C. Suresh is a humorist. Many, many are the hours I have spent on his blog, grinning with delight. Suresh has honed self- deprecation into a fine art. With a world- view that manages to ferret out the ridiculous in situations, in humans and in humans in situations, you can be assured of your weekly quota of laughs whenever you visit his online home. Irreverent humor and a talent for poking benign fun at his readers, in the guise of poking fun at himself, are his calling cards. His blog is called Life Is Like This. Need I say more?
The post I am sharing today is a very sensitive piece in which he fondly remembers his mother and the lessons he learned from her. It is a beautiful piece, very different from Suresh’s normal offering. This is what he writes:
The electric coffee percolator had just made an appearance in the Indian markets and I was yet to lay my eyes on one. My mom was waxing eloquent about it. “The coffee decoction comes down in a jiffy. It switches off automatically by itself. And, if you try to get more coffee out of it, it cleverly gives only plain water.” The way she was describing it, it appeared as though there was a pixie sitting in it, monitoring the coffee-making and switching it off when done. If you tried to deceive it into giving more coffee, the pixie would thumb its nose at you, wag an admonishing finger and pour out straight water. Things always appeared more interesting than they really were when my mom described them.
Read the rest of the post at Child- Like.
Dish #2:
Know thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.
~ Alexander Pope
Indian Home Maker aka Bhartiya Grihani is a well loved blogger. Her blog is not a platform from which only her voice is heard. It is also- and primarily- a platform which gives others the safety and security of raising their voice. She empowers and enables those who have things to say, things that impact all of us. Her blog brings us these voices, often wounded, frequently diffident and low. What a wonderful, beautiful place this is! If you haven’t visited this haloed place, you have missed much.
The post I am sharing today showcases one of the voiceless. I assure you, it is not what it seems to be from the excerpt:
I am a silent reader of your blog and today just want to say a few words to all those girls who get into relationships and gradually just get sucked into the whirlpool of non sense .If you know what i mean.I am not talking about marriages here,but relationships which become possessive and mean and smart girls loose out on many a precious years struggling with those.
Read the rest of it at: An email from a happy girlfriend
Dish #3:
Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.
~Henry David Thoreau
Please, I request you, take the time to watch this video. It is one of the best TED videos I have ever watched. It made me question myself. It made me ask myself what my contribution to this world was. At the same time, I felt empowered and strong. There really isn’t anything we may not do if we can but commit to doing it.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9dm0PC0_b8?rel=0%5D
Dessert:
The only journey is the one within.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
As I said before, this week has been a week of contemplation and reflection. Here are the results of that self- examination:
- Divinity In Doubt: You look at these people and are awed. They have things in them, talents, depth of perception, wisdom , inner resilience and resources, that you would give you right arm for. And yet, you see them frozen in a sea of inexplicable self doubt. Why so these gods and goddesses doubt their divinity? Why do you?
- Everyday Destinations: One should remind oneself that beauty of life is in the journey, not in the destination. And that there are destinations reached everyday as you journey on…
- Forgive and Forget: Is it really possible- or advisable- for forgive and forget? What is your take on it?
I wrote a Haiku a long time ago at the persuasion of a dear friend who insisted that I could write one. I, of course, was certain of the opposite. I respect her too much to contradict her belief and so, for once in my life, decided to attempt flight on the winds of her belief. This is what emerged:
Warble of the brook
Resonates within the soul
God’s quiet tuning fork
I am a writer of books in retrospect. I talk in order to understand; I teach in order to learn.
― Robert Frost
How has your week been? What did you learn?
Aha, for once I think I’ve read all the ones on your Sunday brunch list. Great collection. My next aim is to write something which is worthy of getting in there :D. Have a great day Dagny 🙂
Now, I declare the man is fishing for compliments! Didn’t you feature in the very first Sunday Brunch? Or was it second?
You’d read them all? Wow! But I am sure you hadn’t read the Haiku. 🙂
You have a great day too Sid. 😀
Almost all of them 😀
Ha. Almost! 😀
I love these curated Sunday lists– the way they blend into to a theme, a concept, or an exploration. Also how they introduce me to new writers. My Sunday is an integration of the last two Sundays and what it has done for me. I reflect on how I am being sculpted. That brilliant Haiku sums it up.
I am surprised, the way they blend into a theme. Every week I begin putting in the last touches to the post convinced that no common thread runs through them. As I re- read the posts I have collected over the week, somehow the thread begins to emerge. I look back upon the week
and am amazed afresh.
You see things in that Haiku beyond the words. You see me trying to let someone’s belief bolster my own flagging faith. I think that, more than the thought communicated by the Haiku, makes it brilliant for you. Or am I mistaken?
Nope. I read the Haiku and see the brilliance in the twist of phrase and how easily it condenses a book.
“Warble of the brook
Resonates within the soul
God’s quiet tuning fork”
What we capture or like or desire via our senses — the “warble of the brook” is what is yearned within, a mirror of the soul. When the connection happens, the “resonates,” it is not a desire nor a yearning, but a necessity, a natural movement to harmony, the “God’s quiet tuning fork.”
A moment that encapsulates a journey and yet remains a moment.
Brilliantly subtle. A Haiku indeed.
Now I don’t know what to say. How can you read it all like that?
Don’t answer that. The question was rhetorical. 🙂
At last I write something that you consider good enough for your Sunday Brunch. *wears a crown and smirks* 🙂
Suresh, you always write beautifully. It’s just that, being in the state I have been, I haven’t found reverberance with a post before. It has nothing to do with your expertise; that is too well known for me to comment upon.
It is always a pleasure to read you. You never disappoint.
Super sunday with Dagny. 🙂
And with all one’s dearest friends. 😀 Thank you Janu.
I love reading C Suresh’s posts. The humour cracks me up everytime 🙂 ohh the haiku is just lovely … so beautifully worded.
Rajlakshmi, I wonder sometimes where Suresh gets his inexhaustible supply of humor from! Good to know we share a taste for Suresh’s writing. 🙂