God and the Devil

To my family (my parents, my in-laws, brother's family, in-laws' family), and of course, to Priyanka and Pranav Dhaundiyal :

The entire credit for this post goes to my son, Pranav - who wants me to write about God and The Devil.

I have often wondered, what defines a good human being.
We keep listening, reading, learning about becoming good, doing good, etc.
But what exactly does all this mean?

What constitutes the definition of a good person when we have both God and Devil, all within us?


There have been so many occasions when I have been rude to my family members. There have been so many occasions when I have hurt others.

There have been times when I have felt, appreciated, and given love. There have also been times when I have been happy about my conduct my heart, and my belief system.

Yes, quite simply, a good person is someone who, while conquering his inner demons, devils and weaknesses, also champions every effort channelizing on his positive, selfless, love-filled side.

True, life is full of challenges and temptations presented by the devils.
However, opportunities to be selfless and loving, abound aplenty too.

It is up to us to make the decision.
It is up to us to choose.
Every moment we spend, every decision we take, every action we make: let's ask ourselves:
In doing or not doing anything, are we siding with our inner God or our inner Devil?
If we can decide and act in consonance with this question as our guiding principle, I am sure, eventually, we would be happy with the way we led our lives :)

And no reason to worry about making this a tall order. Let's just climb one step at a time.
One day at a time, one act at a time, one decision at a time.


Hopefully, every such effort will be an exercise in making us a better person, a closer-to-God-than-to-Devil person every single day!

It will be a loooong and tiring journey of questioning ourselves everyday, but surely, this is one query which will be worth all the effort!

It is our life, and therefore, our own responsibility to do all we can, to make our inner God stronger every day, and vanquish any vestiges of anything negative or devilish from within.

Good Karma: It's never too late (and never too much)!

This one is more of an exhibit, than an article.
I write today, to just share an inspiring account of two lives - incidents from the lives of two individuals, to show the power and impact of good karma.

Credit to this Facebook post, for illustrating a wonderful instance of just how wonderful and powerful it is to practice any good 'karma'.

If you go through the post, what it teaches us is that it's never too late!
It's never too late (nor too much) to practice any good 'karma'.

Perhaps this account might inspire more and more people to understand, believe, and implement the ineffable joy and cathartic delight that one could experience through any (number of) good karma!

It's never ever too late, it's never ever too much to do any good deed, any number of times!

Sincerely hope and pray that may all of us always strive for and achieve being able to practice performing any (and every possible) good deed that we can ever perform, at any and every given opportunity, all our lives!

So let's do good, be good, to all, always!
Amen, to that! :)

Happy Raksha Bandhan!!

One of the many amazing things about living in India is the sheer abundance of festivities that celebrate some occasion or the other.

Being a melting pot of a huge chunk of humanity, practicing multiple faiths and belief systems, something or the other is always going on (or, worst case, just round the corner) at any given point of time!

However, even among the multitude of such events, there is a day that always stands out for me: Raksha Bandhan.
There aren't many occasions as pious as a day celebrating the love of a brother for his sister, and vice versa.

Without even any religious copyrights or boundaries, one that is completely understood, liked, practiced across all faiths - appropriately enough, because its idea and concept is not endemic to a religion but to humanity. No wonder, any sane person/family appreciates, understands, and even practices it, irrespective of any religious affiliation.

A day that also recounts and reaffirms a brother's duty and sense of responsibility for his sister.

Quietly.
Piously.
Warmly.
A simple ceremony where the sister ties a rakhi on her brother's hand, does a simple teeka/tilak, followed by a pooja (equating and acknowledging a brother to no less than a divine blessing), and the brother too, as a token of his love, exchanging sweets, gifting his sister, and most importantly, acknowledging, appreciating, and reaffirming his love and responsibility towards her.

Without any shenanigans.
Nothing over the top.
Nothing against any other festival but this is a day, which neither carries the baggage of liquor-induced tamasha of a Holi nor the agonizingly gory display of self-inflicted violence of a Muharram. Heck, not even the ear-deafening blitzkreig on a Diwali.

Nice, plain, and simple.

As part of a sense of the occasion, what is also worth sharing and is something I've always felt could be extremely helpful in today's times of lack of trust and safety for women, is a sense of responsibility towards every woman.

I must also confess that it would be too idealistic or foolhardy to expect that everyone should see every woman (except his wife) as his sister only.
Yes, this ain't Satyug yet.

However, what surely is possible, is that no one should count it as his right to harass anyone.
You might not need to see/call everyone as your sister but please do have a sense of responsibility towards everyone's sister.

This video (courtesy/credit: Varun Pruthi) is perhaps a wonderful example of what it is truly, to celebrate Raksha Bandhan, in the best way not only on just that day, but also on every single day.

A nice, simple, and wonderful way to make our society better.

We have also had cases of women misusing their current status to manipulate/harass men too, but I believe, that just like most men aren't bad, most women aren't either.
Just a case of a few rotten apples on both sides, who unfortunately, tend to dominate our view when it comes to forming opinions about any person/gender.

So if I can ask anything of every guy, it is only this much:
Even if you cannot call everyone your sister, let us all make sure that we protect and care for not only our sister(s), but also everyone else's.
No one (across any gender) has the right to harass any individual.

Perhaps the day when we could see every guy adopting such an attitude as part of his core, conscious belief-system, that day would be the day when we would be making our world such an infinitely safer and better place.
That would be the best way to celebrate Raksha Bandhan!

Here's to a much happier, safer, caring, responsible, and empathetic world: Happy Raksha Bandhan!!

Hichkiyaan

हिचकियाँ 

कहते हैं कि कोई याद करे, तो हिचकियाँ आती हैं
कोई दिल से बुलाये, तो गले के ज़रिये बताती हैं |

माफ़ कीजियेगा, पर ये तो है एक झूठ सफ़ेद
वरना मेरे याद करने पर ही क्यों करेंगी वो ऐसा भेद ?

उनके आने-ना आने का तो राज़ नहीं जानता हूँ
पर अपने मन की भावनाओं को तो पहचानता हूँ ।

उनके प्यार में अंकित आँखें सिर्फ उन्ही के लिए नम हैं,
उनकी मिठास के आगे दुनिया भर की चीनी भी कम है।

जिसने हमेशा मुझे हर पल सिर्फ और सिर्फ बेशुमार प्यार दिया,
जिसके लिए दिल की धड़कनों ने पागल हो जाने का इज़हार किया
उस पर  कैसे ना हो ये दिल हमेशा के लिए निसार ?
कैसे न निभाऊं मैं उस से, ज़िन्दगी भर अपनी तरफ से भी प्यार?

आखिर क्यों ये दिल उनसे दूर होकर भी हर दर्द ख़ुशी से पीता है?
क्यों ये मन हर वक़्त, हर पल सिर्फ और सिर्फ उन ही के लिए जीता है?

तुमसे प्यार सिर्फ कह के नहीं,
हर तरह से कर के भी निभाउंगा 
जो भी तुम्हें ख़ुशी देगी,
हर वो बात, हर चीज़ ख़ुशी से कर जाऊँगा ।

जैसा भी हूँ, हो सके तो रखना विश्वास,
कि मैं ख़ुशी से हूँ हर पल तुम्हारे साथ
तुम्हें प्यार करता था, करता  हूँ,करता रहूँगा,
हमेशा थामे रखूँगा तुम्हारा हाथ।

झूठ कहते हैं लोग, कि किसी को याद करने पर हिचकियाँ ज़रूर ही आ सकेंगी
ग़र ये सच होता ना मेरी जान, तो तुम्हारी हिचकियाँ तो कभी भी ना जा सकेंगी ।  :)