Life's Onward Journey...

Last monsoon I got an umbrella as a gift. Lilac in colour. Foldable to almost-pocket size. But it seemed a little too delicate for the gusty winds coming from the sea-side. I decided that I won't use that umbrella here in Mumbai and kept it safely in my cupboard. I wanted to possess it forever, even if that meant keeping it as a show-piece in my drawing room. One day when somebody had borrowed my other in-use umbrella I had to take this one out. I had hardly walked 50 steps when I saw an accident happening in front of my eyes. A car had hit somebody. Out of shock the grip on my umbrella loosened and I ran towards the site of accident. It was a friend. Luckily she didn't get hurt badly. Next I noticed that my umbrella had flew to a distance. I ran and grabbed it. It was torn. I started cursing myself, "Why did I take it out today?" The new umbrella, now damaged, was kept back in the same cupboard. I got another umbrella towards the end of last monsoon. Thought it would...

It affects me. It disturbs me. Not always though. But, yeah sometime it does. 'Time' is working on it but till now it hasn't succeeded in healing it. I hope it will. To catalyse this reaction I need a change of place. I want to go somewhere else. I don't want anybody I know around me. I want to live alone. Everything is irritating me. I wish it were dust, or dried flowers, or an empty bottle or a worn out dress. Things would have been so easy then. I would have thrown it away, out of my sight. But it is neither of these... It is nothing but my own thought which I am trying to disown. I push it away from myself and temporarily it gets lost somewhere. Later when I am unaware it slowly creeps in my mind and disturbs me for hours. It brings with itself, its friends, several unanswered questions . The answers of which I know not. I just know I was right and I am right. Life has been unfair in some sense. Why? Why me? How do I prevent it from happening again? Ther...

An iron needle is the simplest object which can be converted into a magnet. The atoms in this needle is arranged to form small domains which are small magnets. Before the needle becomes a magnet, the domains in its structures are chaotically arranged and point in all directions. When this needle is subjected to a strong magnetic field the domains swing and point in the direction of the magnetic field. When all or most of the domains get aligned in similar way, the 'ordinary needle' becomes a 'magnetic needle'. Chaos is seldom productive. It needs to be cleared and arranged/aligned. This is done at various points of our lives. Our parents teach us how to keep ourselves clean and tidy, how to keep our room and work place tidy. Teachers instruct us during lectures so that anything which is half understood or not understood gets in the head clearly, the way it should be. There are so many 'special magnets' around us which help us in aligning our thoughts and chanel...

That day I was walking past a desert. Nothing except huge sand dunes was in view. I still kept on walking. I tried to remember how I reached there. I couldn't. I started walking with my eyes shut. It was then that I sensed a sweet fragrance . I was startled. I know this smell. When and where did I smell it first? Before I could realize, i felt a cool breeze stroking my hair. The breeze was carrying the familiar fragrance. For a moment I stood still with my eyes shut. I felt the breeze gently carressing me. Then an unknown pain engulfed me. And I started bleeding from the tip of my fingers. I was crying as well. It continued till eternity. The pain started to diminish. I opened my eyes. I was standing under the blue sky, facing the ocean. Near my feet i saw a new-born baby. It was me, wrapped in a thick white cloud . Now, the cloud was emanating the sweet fragrance. I lifted myself and stared in my eyes. They were innocent and untouched by any worldly evil. I said a prayer. I st...

This time i want to write about a ritual i follow everyday and a problem i have been facing. I have 'n' numbers of glasses and bowls, big and small. Everyday i drop my riches in them after placing the glasses and bowls in a particular sequence. Of late i have observed a change. The bowl which comes first doesn't seem to get filled. I end up pouring all my earnings in that bowl and still i see it empty. And i m left with nothing to put in the other bowls. I m turning poor everyday... Why is this happenin May be somehow my riches are turning invisible after i pour them in the bo This time i want to write about a ritual i follow everyday and a problem i have been facing. I have 'n' numbers of glasses and bowls, big and small. Everyday i drop my riches in them after placing the glasses and bowls in a particular sequence. Of late i have observed a change. The bowl which comes first doesn't seem to get filled. I end up pouring all my earnings in that bowl and sti...

She loved flowers. She saw them as a bunch of smiles, an inspiration to live, untouched by worldly worries. A flower knows that it is going to wither away in finite time. But we cannot make out from its vibrant colors that it knows that. There lies its greatness. It teaches us to live today to the fullest. She simply loved flowers. Is there a way to preserve the beauty of a flower? She kept on thinking and searching a way to do this impossible task. Then one day, a day which seemed special beginning with the way the first ray of sun struck the earth, she found a magic vase . Flowers kept in this vase will never wither. She began keeping her favourite flowers in this magic vase. It turned out to be true. The vase preserved the beauty of the flowers. It seemed like a dream. No, it was not a dream. She lived those moments. The eversmiling scented flowers blooming in her own room on her bedside, from day to night. They gave her life a new vigour. She and the flowers became one and the s...

Last year was "disaster special" for our lab. One fine morning the -80 degree centigrade freezer was found to be at 0 degrees. The stuff normally kept under frozen condition had thawed. Another fine evening we noticed that there was no liquid nitrogen in the liquid nitrogen storage cylinder. So, another set of cell lines, bacterial stocks, yeast stocks, DNA stocks of the lab were destroyed. The best was yet to come. A part of the hard disk of the most used computer of our lab was found erased. That left my lab mates data-less as well as devoid of experimental material (not completely!) I had an interesting conversation with my brother regarding the lost data. He tried to explain in simple words. He said that the data deleted from the hard-disk was still there though it was not accessible through the normal route. There are special softwares using which deleted data can be retrieved. I asked my brother if the data has been deleted how can it be retrieved. And i found that su...