LIFE, "LITERALLY"

Just two weeks back, at a similar time of the day/night (3:30 a.m.!!!) I was trying to introspect my Life. I have a wonderful family, ever-supportive friends, a lovely child (just a wee bit younger to me !!), a great job which i enjoy and very recently I found this perfect girl(Minakshi) who is going to be my life-partner. End of the story. What more can a person ask for? Picture perfect.

But somehow I realized that I wasn't eternally happy. I just felt like a machine who is programmed to work 12 hours a day, sleep another 6 and has no idea what he wants to do with the remaining 6. And I just couldn't figure out why? What should I do for my PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS?? I started finding all kinds of reasons for it. May be I was average at all things but exceptionally good at none. I mean I sing OK, I can create OK music, I write OK, I do my job OK, I can give OK solutions to people's problems, but in none of these fields was I the Best. May be I wasn't sure what I wanted to do in future. May be this, may be that. But again, of no use.

Then I talked about this to my child. And man, she did made me realize what a fool I was being. I was trying to find out reasons why I was not happy. Instead, I should have been busy focusing on the ways i should be happy. And all of a sudden it was like the doors of liberation had been swung open for me. I tried thinking hard what made me happy more than anything else?? And finally i reached the place where I wanted to....

I have always believed that to give birth to something out of nothingness is the most challenging as well as satisfying thing a human being could possibly accomplish. And I realized that I can do few such things myself. And the biggest happiness has always been seeing the end product. OK.. they might not be the best in the world. But they are mine. And even a single good compliment for them gives a satisfaction which can have no parallel with anything else.

So I replaced my provogues shoes with the Comfortable Slippers, the gucci handbag with the Familiar Jhola, the prada eye-wear with the Good Old Harry-Potterish glasses and went to listen to the writing greats of the world at the greatest literary show on the planet. The next three days I attended the Jaipur Literature Festival religiously, even though I wasn't well enough to do so.. But I sincerely believed that the solutions of my problems were definitely not with a Doc. So.. JLF.. there I was... AND GOD.. DID THAT GIVE ME MY LIFE ?? I mean I was just spellbound.. Listening to the literary greats of all times like Gulzaar Sahab, Javed Akhtar Sahab, seeing eminent personalities from all over the world talk about all kinds of issues ranging from political to economical to social to even sexual (Vatsayana)!!! Ohh.. It was an experience of a life time. The prominent Indian personalities present, excluding the above mentioned, were Om Puri, Girish Karnad, Shabana Azmi, Rahul Bose, Barkha Dutt, Krishna Baldev Baid, Namita Gokhale, Ashok Vajpeyi, Pawan Varma, Prasoon Joshi, Tarun Tejpal, Devdutt Patnaik, Navtej Sarna, Vir Sanghvi, Dileep Simeon, Nandini Sundar, Shobha De and even Chetan Bhagat (though a few people still don't like him to be invited to such an illustrious event!! :P .. miss RC !! ahem ahem !!)... From around the globe, we had Ashi Dorji, the Queen of Bhutan, Mark Tully, John Kampfner, Niall Ferguson, Steve Coll, Louis De Berneire, William Dalrymple, Tenzin Tsundue, Veronique Tadjo, Alain Mabanckou, Tina Brown, Ali Sethi, Shazia Omar and many more. They were a mix of writers, journalists, poets, social activists.

But for me what mattered was all the people around there THOUGHT. And their words made me THINK. I felt so so human!! I bought 7 books in there and have presently started IF I COULD TELL YOU by Soumya Bhattacharya and also, every night I read poetry of Gulzaar Sahab and Javed Akhtar Sahab before going to sleep. As about JLF, the complete package was a terrific one, including the poetry recitation by Javed Akhtar Sahab and Prasoon Joshi, the fantastic performance by the Band (which was a mix of a French singer, a Pakistani ektara player, an African saxophone player and rest Indians on dhol, nagara and dance... Ah.. Art does overlook all barriers!!!!), the heart-stopping poetry rendition of Faiz Ahmed Faiz by Ali Sethi (just made me fall in love all over once again!!).. But the few lines by Gulzar Sahab were just out of the world.. I really fall short of words to praise those lines.. I have uploaded its video on facebook.. Just watch and think for yourselves..

I just made a point to myself that from now on, everyday i would read something good and also I would write and compose whenever I feel like and not keep on postponing it for a future date as has happened with me since i joined my job.


But simply speaking it was a new Life for me, "Literally"!! I owe this to my child and miss RC.. Thanks Baccha... Thanks miss RC.. :-)
God Bless!!