When LOTR DIsrupted And Saved A Day!

It was one of those days when nothing worked as per my plan.

For starters, I woke up late, which in itself produced a quake in the whole foundation of the day. I wondered how it came to be that the hour I woke up, started deciding the course of the whole day. 

Waking up late meant I missed my morning routine of stretching exercises, reading and meditation. In the afternoon which is when I usually write, I felt uninspired and whiled away the time watching LOTR (yet again; by now I have lost count of the number of times I have read the books and watched the movies as well). My ritual of walking in the evening while listening to inspiring speeches got affected with the unexpected arrival of a guest. 

Night brought in the realization that I had wasted my time by watching LOTR. Wait... what?? 'Wasted' my time watching LOTR?!?!?!

And that's when I shook myself out of my melancholy. LOTR is the one addiction I take pride in. Be it the books, be it movies, I am CRAZY about both. I will never tire of reading the books or watching the movies. They represent a world I keep returning to every time my world starts feeling heavy. 

And I won't allow myself to feel guilty about LOTR. Never in my lifetime. 

All the accumulated exhaustion of the day was replaced with the shock of associating the word 'wasted' with LOTR. And that brought in another realization.

That some days life will take its own course. You will wake up late. It will disrupt your whole day. Plans will fail. Guests will arrive unexpectedly (when your house is NOT clean). But it's okay. What will make a difference is how willingly we go with the day's flow.

No matter how badly my day might progress, LOTR will always be that un-guilty, unrepentant pleasure that I will allow myself. As Gandalf says, all we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us, and if our answer is LOTR movie marathon, SO BE IT. 

The Coffee That Completed The Circle Of Life

I am extremely fond of the calming solitude of the dawn. I usually wake up looking forward to my morning routine which includes some stretching exercises, reading some motivational works and a meditation session of five minutes. I can focus only for five minutes at present, but I am thinking of gradually increasing the time to meditate. 

But the other day, something happened that made me realize that there is something more amazing than the silence of the morning, and that is the excited chatter of a boy in his not-yet-a-teen phase. The kid woke up early that day and asked me to assist in his studies. While I am a huge fan of silent mornings, there is something very magical about the energy of a teen in the early morning. For someone who gradually accepted and embraced contentment and peace, the kid's excitement and vigor felt like a refreshing change. It brought hope - of possibilities coming to life, and making dreams come true.

I usually prepare the decoction for filter coffee in the morning. As I poured the hot water over the coffee powder in the filter, the kid walked into the kitchen and inhaled deeply. "I love the smell of coffee.", he said happily. "Do you remember the coffee shop that used to be there in the lane where we lived on rent? That shopkeeper would roast coffee beans and grind them. I used to love going to that shop." He said wistfully.

I smiled thinking about not just the said coffee shop from his childhood, but one from my childhood too - a shop where I would wait patiently while the shopkeeper ground coffee beans to prepare filter coffee powder. The shop also used to sell books and there was one called Gokulam, a fortnightly magazine for kids. I would purchase the same and start reading, all the while inhaling the invigorating aroma of coffee powder. 

From me reminiscing about the coffee shop of my childhood, to the kid reminiscing about the coffee shop of his childhood, life indeed has come to a full circle!

The Gray Hour Of The Evening

They often talk about the golden hour of the noon. But have you experienced the gray hour of the evening?

The other day, there was a power-cut in my colony around 4 in the evening. Usually the generator in the building is switched on during power-cuts. But that day the generator wasn't operating. So I opened the curtains of all the windows in the house. And that was when I experienced the gray hour of the evening. 

It is that time of the day when the sun, still very much in the sky, retracts all its rays, lending a gray aura to the evening. If someone took a picture of this moment, it would probably look like a black-and-white photo. This time of the day has a nostalgic aura.

That day as I soaked in the gray hour, it reminded me of my childhood when we experienced this phenomenon on a daily basis. Hailing from a middle-class family, we were all about savings and reducing expenses. So, evenings usually were kept naturally lit, with the power on in only one room of the house while the other rooms with open windows let in the gray color of the evening. I remember spending evenings sitting on the bench placed at the entrance of the apartments and watching people come home from work. For some ridiculous reason, it always made me happy to see people return to their homes. 

Today, as I try to recreate the gray hour as often as possible, I feel the same peace that those days brought. The lights are switched off in most of the rooms except one. The whole house looks like a nostalgic photo frame. It takes me back to my childhood when the day consisted of only two parts - the golden hour and the gray hour. 

The gray hour is special to me for another reason - it feels like the day hasn't ended. And at this stage of life that feels like it is speeding up, every lingering moment of the day is precious, for it gives the illusion of having more time. And in the middle-age, that is all you need sometimes.