Defining Bliss

Photography courtesy of Kamlesh Jeeneea

Once again, I will not attempt to preach or deliver some discourse about any mysterious truth of life.

I will simply define the feeling of full satisfaction with life that one simple girl like me has and is experiencing.

No, bliss is not a myth nor is it impossible to attain and yes it involves living with a non-materialistic perspective.

I will not state that I’m fully out of the material world – yes I have cravings too! Yet, I’ve been able to find the silver line that demarks material and non-material life.

The most important factor would be to find peace inside of your mind. Peace does not mean having no worries. It means even if your life is troublesome (whose isn’t?) you are being able to accept it, deal with it and solve it with the best smile you’ve ever had. Some help and support are crucial in this endeavour. Therefore comes the second factor for bliss – love! Fill your heart with love, first for yourself then for others. Experience, then, its wonderful power. Don’t be mistaken though. Love is a deep value that this modern world has trivialised. Reach for the genuine one, that’s lying somewhere in a forgotten corner of your heart and let it free!

There you are, live it up now! Make the most of it. Seek for no more than the sweet feeling of contentment every morning you wake up till you sleep. No need for weeds brother 😉 It’s all inside of you, seek and find it! Bliss is the gift of appreciation you receive once you’ve found the beauty of being alive and human.

A moment lost in time

For a few instants, let me take you to that moment where everything stops and stands still. That very point in time where you stop being part of the world but live in a particularly intense moment in your lifetime that’s gonna last forever no matter what.

Would you share it with me? Would you let all worries behind you, the time of a moment together?

There’s no particular preparation, come as you are. There’s no particular location,let’s be where you are. There are no particular words to say, let’s enjoy the very presence of each other.

This magical feeling won’t work with anyone but you. That special feeling of being captured in a lost moment, a moment that’s never to come again but that’s gonna remain in our minds always.

There’s no need for music, your voice is the sweetest melody right now. There’s no need for great food, your talks are all that would satiate me.  There’s no need for an extravagant venue, your presence makes any place the best place to be.

There’s no need for special bright lights, smile and make my world shine. There’s no need for any splendid view, the depth of your eyes is all that matters. There’s no need for perfect weather, having you next to me is the best season of the year.

So would you? Would you share this wonderful moment with me? Immersed in nothing but the very existence of you and me.

Give it a try and see how fine it is to be. Give me just this moment to be fully lost and ever happy…

The Splendour of Hindu Weddings

Wedding Photo by Doorgesh Mungur

Before getting along with this article, I’d first like to point out that this has no aim of demeaning other religious weddings. It is simply a blog post expressing my vision of a typical Hindu wedding, which I consider is culturally very rich and worth being shared with you all.

Actually the effervescence and excitement of a Hindu wedding starts right from the moment the preparations are on. However, real things start when the wedding venue is being set up and decorated. Then only the mood and atmosphere build up and it grows gradually as the venue transforms itself.

Spotlights, little led lights, flowers, shiny cloth drapes, colourful pooja ‘samaans’ and people buzzing around. All adding up to the magic of the wedding atmosphere. In the background you can hear kids running and playing around, ladies rushing here and there getting ready and attending for rituals/customs, catering service peeps getting busy with cooking the food, the fragrance of the special curries lifting up in the air and also Bollywood wedding songs playing to enhance the ambiance.

Among all this, there is also the bride/groom getting tensed and excited as the H-hour approaches; congratulated as guests keep coming and going and meanwhile preparing for the rituals. The moment, I believe, is even more intense for the bride as she not only prepares herself to start a new life with her beloved but also to leave her parents’ home.

There is a mixture of tension, pressure, stress but also of celebrations, happy tidings and unforgettable moments spent with dear and close ones.

As the venue fills up, there is literally a festival of colours as women come in all decked up in their most beautiful attires and shining jewels. Each looking elegant and gorgeous for the special occasion.

However, there is nothing more beautiful than the bride and the groom on the altar, both shining in their wedding attires, specially the bride. If you look closely, you might see an aura of brightness around them, making the moment worth a “picture moment” as we’d say. their smiling faces, the proud groom, the blushing bride and the happy gaze of the parents make it more merry while the chants of the priest and the holy fire make it more solemn.

Sure such weddings involve quite some expenses but I’ve always liked how splendid they look, no matter their grandeur. They change the atmosphere and bring a very special feeling. A moment to meet relatives, have fun and celebrate the union of two souls. It is for sure a very tiresome event but still it is one big event in one’s life not to be missed 🙂 .

P.S: This article’s photo is courtesy of Doorgesh Mungur and more of his works can be seen here.

The game of flirt

It’s been quite a while now since I’ve been observing this. It’s that game they call flirt, that exciting and enticing part of a relationship – no matter its degree of seriousness.

I found myself finally identifying a similar trend even if the personality differs from one guy to another. However, very quickly the shine and glitz of it all faded. It dawned very soon – the game has no end nor a beginning. You only feel as a prey in the end.

Who’s real and who’s fake, it’s all a matter of perception. How far you want to get involved or being fooled also depends on you. It’s all a game of strategies and moves. At times it’s fun, at times too cliché to appreciate or at times too nonsensical to accept.

It also gets more complex when you are told not to be able to understand their feelings. Quite contradictory I’d say because they themselves were looking for some fun time. Then where have feelings come from? And since when is it you who’s the one without sentiments??? It then becomes clear – you are not being treated as insensitive, you’re just being treated as an acquaintance who isn’t that close to understand their problems.

Yet, I won’t say I didn’t enjoy it. Let’s face the truth, who doesn’t like some nice good flirt in life? Specially when being single. However, when you wake up one day and think it over, you wonder who finally can you hold on to? When all the fun talks are over, when you’ve said goodbye, who is left there to actually share your life with? It’s even more deceiving when you find out that those you thought were close and real have no more intentions than some frolicking too.

Things I think get a bit worse if sex gets involved, but this is another level I’ll let others testify. My venture in this limits itself to the virtual world.

Then maybe too much of something kills the interest or maybe there comes a phase in life where all this matters less than having someone real, sincere and permanent.

Anyway the human mind and heart is quite fickle. Today it might wish for a long term relationship and tomorrow get tired of it and wish for some momentary happiness.

In the end, it’s up to you to figure out what you want. This game is sure not for fools!

P.S: For those who think the list of observations has been very long, well rest assured it wasn’t but even for this few, the similarities are very obvious 😉 And no regrets or grudge held against anyone.

Island Girl’s Vision

The cool blue of the sea at far, the soft greenery of mountain ranges outlining the landscape…

This is my darling island in the sun.

Appeasing my tormented heart, my restless mind.

Calling me for rest and peace.

Showing me the way to rise and shine.

Giving me hope to find a new reason to smile.

Warming up my cold soul.

Waking up these numb emotions.

The magic of such a beautiful place, inviting me to live again!

The pleasure of reading

Yes, I did use a title with “pleasure” and “reading” together! In this information technology era, it might have become obsolete to actually read but I still believe nothing’s better than actually reading a story than seeing the movie for instance. In fact, the idea of writing this post came to me as I was reminiscing with a friend  how wonderful reading is.

I do miss those happy days where I’d go at the municipal library with a huge excitement in my heart as I would look at all those books waiting to be discovered! Unfortunately, as I told my friend, there was mostly Mills and Boons ones and I wasn’t quite a fan (I know, weird for a girl to say that). Then I was lucky that my parents registered me to the British Council. Again, every time I’d step in to change books I felt this great excitement inside me like “which new world am I going to discover this time? Will it be some crime investigation, some fantasy world or a literature classic?” This is in fact what makes reading a big pleasure – the freedom of imagination, the feeling of escapism. If you are a big reading fan too you’ll understand what I mean. There’s no movie or any other hobby (not even the play station) which can actually replace this.

Why so? Well simply because when you read, you actually imagine the scene yourself while say in a movie, it has already been depicted to you on the screen. Let’s take “Alice in Wonderland” for example, those who read it then watched it am sure can say that the way they had imagined it and the way  it was in the movie were two complete different things. The same goes for “Harry Potter“, “Twilight” and any other book adapted on the big screen.

In fact whenever I watch movies adapted from books, I feel like “Oh dear I was so wrong, so this is how actually it looks like!“, which hurts my imagination. We have all been blessed with a mind and the capacity to imagine and create, that is how the author did write a book and the director made the movie. Yet, the magic of books lies in how others interpret it! I bet if we had to actually depict how Harry Potter‘s fan have imagined Hogwarts, we would have had various different versions! I think this is what we actually call art, since art is the expression and the interpretation of one’s creativity. Expression is when the artist gives life to his/her imagination and Interpretation where the public understands that creation and deduces something out of it.

I still hope to go back to reading some day, when I’d be less busy, and then revisit or discover magic worlds. Those of you who are still into it, keep it up and those of you who are thinking to start, way to go guys!!! Besides, if you haven’t been a big reading fan, don’t try to influence your kids. They might actually like it, just let them decide 🙂

What’s the fuss about the New Year?

Last week end, the whole world was celebrating a brand new year, or at least experiencing its arrival. As the clock hit midnight and the Mauritian sky brightened up with fireworks, I experienced that same feeling of exhilaration I always do on that occasion.

At that very moment, the thought came to me that the arrival of a new year has always had so much importance to us not only due to its mediatisation and commercialisation but also because it comes as a promise of renewal of those twelve months. Some would see it as the endless cycle of life, repeating itself each year. Yet, as the sound of firecrackers roared around me that night, I felt renewed, just like the year.

When a year starts anew, we all most certainly feel like a new beginning. There’s a strong urge for planning, setting out dreams and aspirations and hoping that the 365 days waiting ahead will bring lots of opportunities to realise those. It’s just like we would be given a blank sheet  of paper and be free to fill it in whatever way we want.

So, that’s the fuss about the new year! It’s not only an occasion for festivities but also the chance to live it up again. A gift to appreciate and use thoroughly to make our dreams a reality. I therefore seize the occasion to wish you all a very special 2011. Keep going, don’t lose hope, life’s path sure has obstacles but overcoming them proves how we are persevering and so much ALIVE !!!

My Toy Story

Watching Toy Story 3 really brought back old memories of childhood! It’s so incredible how at that time, anything could turn into a spaceship, a car or a castle and more!

Whenever I think of my playing days, I always wish I could revive in me that imagination. But it is never the same…

You might very well remember how the old tree in the yard used to be a big, gigantic castle tower but no matter how hard you try to imagine it as such today, it will only appear as an old tree.

I remember how my sister would put wax crayon dust in a little tube-like recipient and add water to it. As you would shake it, the dust flakes would swirl around and we would pretend they are fish in a bowl. Needless to say that our “aquarium” had different coloured fish and it was like one of the most amazing thing we played with. Today, the idea makes us smile and laugh but oh how wonderful it was then…

With one piece of chalk we would mark out the ground, making parking lots or lanes. Then we would follow those marks with our bicycle/tricycle.

As most little girls, I was also very fond of playing teacher. So, all my toys – teddy bears and dolls – were my students. Mind you, each of them had paper and pencil! If anyone had been naughty, they’d be sent to the corner of the class or directly outside.

I also remember how I used to have loads of fun playing with my cousin with his little toy soldiers and animals. We would bring aaall his toys in his living room  – plush, animal farm, toy soldiers and red Indians – and we would play the whole day, each toy having its own character in the game.

There are lots of such memories coming back in my mind as I’m writing this post. Childhood was and is truly the best part of our life. We had no limits, no barriers and no frontiers. I wish every kid in the world to have their own toy story to cherish later on when they grow up. May those who are being deprived of such beautiful moments, be saved and protected…

Keep the child alive

As we are in the festivities’ period, it often happens to us to revive our childhood moments – the excitement of Christmas coming, the endless hours of playing with our gifts and not even realising that the 25 December is over and so is Christmas…

Do you still remember how you would wish, as a child, to be an adult already and then do whatever pleases you? An innocent dream of all children, I believe! Today we find ourselves wishing our carefree childhood days were not over.  But hey, they are not totally over! I admit that life demands a lot from us all but if we try to forsake the child in us, we are condemning ourselves to a less colourful world.

I find children the best persons to truly enjoy happiness. Why? Because they have an innocent and pure heart. And it’s incredible how we tend to lose all this as we grow up.

Some of us are afraid that they might appear less credible if they let themselves be taken over by their inner child from time to time. The fear is quite understandable but it’s all in proving yourself in being a well-balanced human being – a professional and at the same time a joyful being.

In letting your inner child live, you are also spreading a beam of happiness all around you! Who among us would prefer living among stern and gloomy people than jolly happy-going ones?

It’s high time then to wake up to life with this very thirst of living and enjoying it as when we were children. We live only once, it’s a chance not to lose specially if we are lucky enough to live a life without war or calamities afflicting us… So, in this period of festivities let the child in you awake. Have a thought for those who really can’t and make the most out of it for yourself and for them.