SOULspace

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. This is Sonnet No.116, and I'm sure you know whose it is! Our own inimitable Shakespeare! I remember reading this in school when I was in 10th standard. It has forever haunted me with its timeless thought. I never internalized the full meaning of these words back then. (I could not have!) But now maturity, time and life has taught me how valuable, and meaningful these words are....

There is no single route to Happiness. I believe Happiness is a tangible, achievable goal. But that cannot be had by reaching out to a single thing or person. To me it is a sum total of many aspects of our life. Like a mosaic design we find these individual parts and place them piece by painstaking piece together and build it into the picture we desire. So that means we need to have the larger picture in mind. If not the exact at least an idea of how we want the end to look. Again as in all things in life we have no template, no pre-formed  model which we can just use to structure our lives on. Yet there may be some picture, some image that helps us create our own. But again what we create for ourselves is unique and fashioned by the pieces we choose. So for now, the search for the pieces begins as we live the life we are given. Sometimes the piece we pick up may not feel right and so that has to be discarded. Sometimes we struggle with a piece believing it to to be the rig...

We meet many people in our lives, some leave their mark and some others don't. Yesterday I met an interesting lady. I know her  and have spoken to her many times, but it happens that sometimes when yu are so bored to death (in official parties), we tend to get into converstaions to liven it up, and then suddenly a spark is fired and we connect. This one was that day. Generally chatting, she slowly started talking about her children (what else, do mothers talk about?!), then about her life growing up in a village in rural UP. She is from a hardcore traditional family and spoke about discrimination and prejudice against the female child, even within an educated family like hers. Not harsh ones, but subtle ones, like"girls dont do this or that", and how that made her resolve to do any thing and everything a man could do, within her abilities. So she became the first to ride a cycle/ bike in her village. She learnt swimming..... Mind yu she belongs to the previous gene...

Psychology says that every one has a Locus of Control; it is that which drives them, which motivates them towards their goal.  You can either have an Internal Locus or an External Locus. The internally tuned person looks within themselves to do things, and is motivated/ driven from within, or so the experts say, while the external folks look outward and require some element/aspect from the environment to move/ be driven. Historically, and culturally Indians emphasis that it is best to focus within and be driven from within. Literature/research too leans towards this, as people are encouraged to look for intrinsic motivators. Yet I believe, things cannot be so easily compartmentalized. Yes, every one needs to have intrinsic motivators. This part of the self helps oneself detach from the outcome of our act. This part helps us feel happy for ourselves, no doubt, helping us do our life’s requirement without worrying too much about the end result. Helps us enjoy the journey and ...

                                                    A Tale with a Difference:                                           A cosy Home away from from Home:                 Teachers, Parents,Students, an environment that always makes one feel blessed Uthara and I on World Disabled Day, Dec 3rd, that also happens to be my birthday Took my kids along too and did the story of "The King's Moustache" by Asha Nehmiah (CBT). It is the funny but endearin...

At moments like these when we are literally crying for help, a voice, a thought, a story brings some relief... Here is a comment by Sharadha( no blogger profile), who left this story on my comment form, and I find it so apt to what I am going through at present. All I can say is Thank You for sharing... hi sowmya.. reading this post, got reminded of a story i read somewhere ( a story to a storyteller:)-) its about how a little boy who spilled the milk went on to become a world renowned scientist. He was then a five-year-old. As he was trying to remove a vessel of milk from the refrigerator he lost his grip on the vessel and it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor - a veritable sea of milk! When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, giving him a lecture, or punishing him she said, “Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you...