The Song of the Birds

The merry chirping of the birds

The tooweets, the caw caw, the tweet,

A variety of soulful singing

Reduces the emptiness within.

Live! Live! Live!

The birds seem to say

Stop the moping and pining

There’s a reason you must stay.

It’s not for you to know

The reason why you’re here

Your job is not to survive

But to live every minute well.

Why am I here

We birds don’t ask

Neither does the tree, or shrub

Nor the trampled upon grass.

There is a reason why we’re here

We don’t have to know why

The Supreme in its Intelligence

Didn’t leave the canvas white.

We arrived without our knowing

We will leave when it is time

Just like the roving sun

And the changing tides.

In the vastness of the universe

Remember, ‘A mere speck am I’

Like the millions of sand grains

And the vapour in the sky.

Why fret to join the dots

And ponder over why

‘coz no matter what we do

It won’t throw any light.

Life will go on, as it does

Taking change alongside

We’ll suddenly find things different

In the blinking of an eye.

That is all it takes

A micro millisecond

To replace a night with day

And a day with a night.

Every tender leaf

Will one day crumple and go dry

Watching as it falls

A bud opening its eyes.

Sad should the brown leaf be

Or rejoice at the sight

Of the earth where it came from

In whose lap it would now hide.

Chirp I can so I must

Fly because I can

Play the role I’m meant to

Simply giving it my best.

So let’s chirp away our worries

As we soar into the sky

We haven’t been given a life

To just waste wondering why.

-        Rukma Sadekar

And my heart sang ‘It’s raining leaves!’

Engrossed in my work at the laptop, a shimmer of gold from outside the window caught the corner of my eye. Were gold flakes being thrown out of an aircraft from above? Was this an innovation in professing love – flower petals replaced by gold flakes?

I ran to the window with these thoughts running through my head. And what a sight beheld me. The leaves of the tree were being gently loosened from their place on the branch, by an ever so lilting breeze. The golden leaves performed a delicate dance, pirouetting in the air, before finally settling on the ground beneath. Golden leaves – brown actually – having lost the greenery of youth, were on their way to their final resting place. Final did I say? Come to think of it, they were going back to where they came from only to return, caught in the cycle of leaves-mulch-nourishment for the tree-sprouting of new leaves-leaves growing old and falling-mulch . . .

Even in their death they were useful – supporting the very life system they nourished during their living years. Watching the leaf dance, I came face to face with the person in the mirror, asking – How useful are you to the society you live in? How much do you contribute to the environment you take from? Are you producing more than you are consuming? Are you giving more than you are taking?

On a Breezy Summer’s Day

In the sweltering summer heat, as one desperately attempts to be comfortable by all means, the greatest respite is the cool summer breeze. As it gently wafts in through the open window, bringing with it sweet relief, I can’t help but thank it profusely for making its presence felt. Thanks to the scorching Chennai heat, it finally dawned on me why in our Indian culture, even the wind is deified as Vayu, the God of Wind. Experience the Indian summer amidst long hours of power shutdowns and you will be his ardent devotee (like me)!

So subtle it is that we don’t recognise its presence until its either soothing us in the heat or chilling our bones in the cold. It comes and goes at will, sometimes makes its presence felt while at other times it does its duty without ruffling even a feather. It caresses tenderly like a mother tending to her child, and then there are those days when it unleashes its furry, thrashing everything that lies in its path.

What I admire most about the wind is that it carries everything with it, but does not get tainted by anything. It carries the scent of the flowers that it passes by, but the scent does not become a part of it. It carries the stench of the garbage bin, yet remains as pure as it always was. It reminds me to learn to have and not to hold; to develop the ability to carry along but drop at will, and thus to travel light through this journey of life.

Rise & Shine

“Sunrise, sunset…sunrise, sunset…”Goes the song from ‘The Fiddler on the Roof’. The two lines kept playing in my head like a stuck record as I sat waiting for the sun to rise. For a change my niece and I were up at an unearthly hour. It was dark, still and quiet outside, except for the normal night sounds made by nocturnal creatures. Gazing across the horizon we awaited the arrival of the sun. There was mist in the air and the lawn was covered in dew. As we waited there were many times when we thought we should just go back to sleep or get going with our work because there was no sign of the sun. But our wait paid off great dividends. After what seemed like ages, a glimmer of gold finally appeared in the east. The sun was not visible but the grey clouds were now painted in light shades of gold. As we watched mesmerised, the glow turned brighter and spread to a larger area. In contrast the west was dark, no sign of daylight there. With every passing minute the sky became brighter and the golden glow spread far and wide. Along with this came the chirping of the birds. We could hear them but we couldn’t spot a single one. Keeping time with the rise of the sun, in a while the birds set about in a flurry.  The sight that lay in front of us was worth all the effort. Blue sky, splashed generously with burning red gold left us mesmerised. The trees formed a pretty silhouette against this vibrant canvas.

Life is unpredictable but there are some things in life that we can depend on…always; such as the rising and setting of the sun. The sun continues its journey, unabashed, unabated. We can rely on it with our eyes closed. Not all things in nature are predictable or reliable, but the sun is. It may be get covered by the clouds, or it may be hidden by the fog, but rise it will. Whether there are storms or droughts or happy monsoons, the sun dutifully performs its job. Being reliable is not a quality we all have, but surely it is a quality we all need to develop if we wish to rise and shine in life.

Bowled Over by Boulders

Have you ever observed the huge boulders in the midst of waterfalls, rivers and streams? The force of the water is huge, but the boulders stand firm, day after day, year after year. A few months back as I was basking in the glory of such gigantic boulders, perched precariously (apparently) one on top of the other at a waterfall in Uttarkashi, I couldn’t help but admire their silent strength. The water gushed over and under them but did nothing to topple them over, nay move them an inch. No doubt the water smoothes the rough edges of the stones but moving them was beyond the powers of even the mighty waterfall.
The tenacity of a rock never ceases to amaze me. Microsoft WORD offers the words stubbornness and obstinacy as the first two suggestions for synonyms for the word ‘tenacity’. But they are not the apt synonyms. A search on the internet for the meaning* resulted in ‘perseverance’ and ‘persistence’, meaning ‘holding fast’. That is what I am referring to.

Often we mistake tenacity for stubbornness, but it need not be true. Holding on to one’s ideals, beliefs and values and making choices keeping them in mind, is not obstinacy or stubbornness but being steadfast. Standing up for and holding on fast to what we believe is the core of a vibrant personality. We can stand straight only when we have built a firm foundation of values and ideals. Such a person alone has the tenacity to weather storms, and come out shining. That person alone can give and love and support and create. Without that base, without that inner strength we would go with the flow and get thrown asunder by the external forces like the pebbles and stones that finally get crushed to soil by the sheer force of the water. When faced with choices, let us choose to be like the boulder and hold on tenaciously to our ideals and values and weather the raging tempest within and without and rise from it gloriously. Wish you a glorious year ahead!

*http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tenacity

Did you know?
About a thousand earths can fit inside Jupiter.

Do your bit!
Make a gift using disposable items in your house.

The Might of a Presence

As the car manoeuvred the sharp bends in the road I observed the scenery outside the window changing gradually. The uphill road wasn’t going up all the time; it was full of ups and downs. Yet, strangely, we were going higher and higher. The plains were left far behind and the mountains were rising around us, steadily. That’s not all, the mountains were getting bigger and taller, their peaks aspiring to touch the clouds. The sight of the mighty Himalayas left me spell bound, as always. Towering over the valleys, their presence exuded a strength far beyond that which can be expressed in words or seen. It can only be felt. I stared at them in awe, my mind stilled by their very sight.

Come hail or snow or sleet or rain, they stand there unperturbed. No lightning, nor thunder; no storm or gale, can make them move from where they stand. A few stones might rumble down, a little soil might wash away but they continue to stand there, as strong as ever. What a presence!

Can I, like the mountains, stand tall in the midst of storms?
Can I, like the mountains, hold my head high and look beyond the minor upheavals in my life?
Can I, like the mountains, remain steady and come out strong through tremors and rumblings beneath the ground I stand on?
I wondered…till I tried.

Only when I tried did I learn about my strength, my fortitude and my resilience. I realised that, like the mountains, I too have it in me to withstand everything that comes my way, be it the fiercest tempest or the wildest gale. I learned that we all have that power within us, all we need to do is tap it. And once its tapped, like the mountains, we too become a presence to reckon with.

Keep the Faith

The chirping of the birds outside my window woke me out of my deep slumber. My eyes still closed, drowsy as I was, I wondered how fast the night had gone by and it was already day time. When I finally opened my eyes I was surprised to see that it was still dark outside. But then, how come the birds were up and about? As I gazed sleepily out of the window, darkness started fading as the sun began to inch upwards in the sky. First a faint glow, then a brighter glow, then a gleam of sunlight and finally appeared the tip of the sun shining bright against the dark silhouette of the hills. The chirping of the birds got louder and frenzied. The sun was out! Just as they had expected. I smiled as I remembered the words of the great poet Rabindranath Tagore, “Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.”

What immense faith these birds had in nature and in the sun, that it will rise, that day will follow the night. In anticipation of dawn they were already up and about; long before the sun was up, long before darkness turned to light. Indeed, what better metaphor for faith than the bird who sings when day has still not dawned upon us!

Can we have similar faith in ourself? In God? In life? In people around us?

Like it’s said, ‘faith can move mountains’. If we truly believe in something, there is no way that we will not be able to accomplish it. Everything is possible for the one who believes. Faith in one’s abilities and faith in the Lord is the beginning of success. Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda puts it very succinctly when he says, “Faith is, `to believe what you do not see', the reward of which is, `you see what you believed'.” How true with the birds! Why not with us? Think!

Did you know?
Each year the Arctic Terns (seabirds breeding in Arctic and sub-arctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America) fly from the Arctic all the way to the Antarctic and back again! That’s over 35,000 kms. This is the longest regular migration by any known animal.


Do your bit!
Make a bird house using an old shoebox or half a tyre and hang it outside your window. Besides providing shelter to birds, you will be entertained by their colourful and musical presence.