Words

through the window pane: traveling in time with the Delhi Metro

imagine your metro has just left the Yamuna Bank station on its way towards Indraprastha, (you need to be going towards Dwarka on the blue line for this) and you’re just crossing the Yamuna. you look up from the book you are reading and midway to the horizon you see a passenger train crossing the old iron bridge, slowly, like it is the first train ever to cross the first iron bridge in time. in the distance you see the glistening golden spire of the Shanti Stupa and a little to its right, the dove white dome of Humayun’s Tomb. farther away shrouded in fog or mist or dust depending on whether it is winter or rain or summer stand the tall office buildings of the Nehru Place complex. and just coming on your right are the IP power station chimneys slowly letting out steam like huge cups and saucers. seems that the hidden giants to whom these belong have come for a picnic on the bank and might come into view anytime now.

morning after morning, this view never ceases to transport me to a long lost time, when Delhi as we know was still young and Yamuna flowed pristine and pure and where, an iron train crossing an old iron bridge above an iron grey river was still a sight to be amazed of.

despite the never ending queues, the chicken coop compartments, and the people who don’t give a second thought to others’ comfort…traveling by Delhi metro still holds some treasures. this was perhaps my favorite of the many moments i cherish. would love to know your favorite bits, from your ‘Delhi Metro’ journeys.

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a bookmark to life #worthliving

It’s just a bookmark! A simple piece of thick paper, printed replica of some really old Japanese painting. A couple of mornings ago, while rushing out to office, I put it in the book I was going to start and forgot how special it is.

Yes, it’s not just a bookmark. It is my time traveling ticket to Paris. More specifically to the hours when I was happily lost in the labyrinth that The Louvre is.

Traveling in the metro today, I pondered at a pause and used this bookmark to remind me where I’d stopped reading. And from the page I was on, I traveled back in time to my recent France visit, to Cannes, to the few wonderful days I’d spent in Paris.

That is when i realized (and not for the first time) how absolutely important it is to keep a tab on the good moments and memories in our life. Far too often we focus on the negative, the depressing, the what-is-not-right in our lives and keep missing the little big things that are good, even great.

It is midnight in my corner of the world. Lemme see what can I feel good about from my day so far…sunlight filtering-in through the window, my environment-friendly alarm app; giving last night’s leftovers to a stray dog, its joy was infectious; a meeting went well; stumbling upon a new music group and then it leading me to more and more songs that I loved; the bliss of a cup of masala chai; watching Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets; the very fact that i got up this morning ALIVE and that I have a bed to sleep in tonight…life is literally filled to the brim with blessings worth treasuring.

And yes, I know that life is full of troubles and trials. Yours is, mine is as well. That said, it doesn’t take much to keep the good memories closer to our heart… what we need to do is develop a habit, a strong will to change how we look at life. There IS a silver lining to every dark cloud we face, sometimes the most negative experiences are an act of grace, life just tells us again and again to have faith…because someday we’ll look back at it all and wonder, how in the world we made it so far.

So yes, as the bookmark monkeys show, hang in there and please start bookmarking the little moments you’ll treasure later on in life. Because it is these memories that make life what it is…worth living.

It’s time we speak out and raise awareness about suicide and its prevention. To honor the lives lost to this mental health issue, McCann Torre Lazur invites you to tag your images, videos, or words that represent the beauty and meaning of life with #worthliving on September 10th, World Suicide Prevention Day.
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the best gift

getting a book as a gift is the best gift possible <3 IMG_2351.JPG

thanks to Dee for this. the book is titled ‘The Alphabet Versus The Goddess’ by Leonard Shlain and it talks about how possibly the advent of written word destroyed the more intuitive female worshipping from the Western hemisphere. had read its sample in the kindle app and wanted to purchase this one for quite some time now, but was torn between a bookbook (as Ikea’s new ad cheekily calls its print catalogue) and an ebook.

and just now when i was wondering what to read next, i’ve it in my hand! hope to share some nuggets with you from time to time. you would want to follow me on twitter @delhidreams for that 🙂

thanks for taking the time!
-adee

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a digital age wish

“Wish one could delete mistakes from life’s book as easily
as people delete ‘friends’ from facebook.”

-adee

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carved in stone

IMG_2326.JPG

#louvre was a maze i was happy to be lost in. been a couple of months since i came back, but still missing #Paris 🙂

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English. Hindi. and mother tongue.

sometimes, suddenly i must open a book in Hindi and read a sentence. randomly. “bhari bus mein yeh hua tha…” any sentence- poetry, prose, play, essay, anything would do as long as it’s in Hindi. “…ki naad aur shabd ke abhaav ke bavjood, sampoorna nistabdhta mein bhi rangmanch bol sakta hai.” because all said and done, English is career, conversations, coherence…but Hindi? Hindi is the soil where my roots get nourishment. Hindi is soul, solace, sorrow. “prem karne/ aur pustak padhne mein/ koi antar nahi hota/”

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on traveling and finding yourself

Read this old piece by William Dalrymple while traveling by metro to office today.

Home truths on abroad
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/sep/19/travel-writing-writers-future

Came across this beautiful quote by Nicolas Bouvier that i would want to keep with me for posterity. Dalrymple writes: As the great French traveller Nicolas Bouvier wrote in The Way of the World, the experience of being on the road, “deprived of one’s usual setting, the customary routine stripped away like so much wrapping paper” reduces you, yet makes you at the same time more “open to curiosity, to intuition, to love at first sight … You think you are making a trip, but soon it is making you – or unmaking you.”

beautiful, isn’t it?
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strive

delhidream's manifesto
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khamoshi

silence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lafz nahi,
shayari nahi,
bus ek khamoshi si hai aas-paas,
aaj sab ke sath hanse hum,
aur phir der tak rahe udaas

लफ्ज़ नहीं,
शायरी नहीं,
बस एक ख़ामोशी सी है आस-पास,
आज सब के साथ हँसे हम,
और फ़िर देर तक रहे उदास

-adee, 11/08/2014, posted first on facebook

 pic courtesy Ni-Haw
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my heart is a Ferris wheel

Ferris wheel

my heart is a Ferris wheel
desires unending
keep coming
one, other
one after the other
until one day,
the operator will come
and switch the power off.

adee, 12/08/2014
pic courtesy, Ni-Haw
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