Hurray!!! It is FRIDAY!!!! I rejoice in the silence of the morning and I smile. The smile stays day long – untouched and unscathed by anything and everything around me. Work, travel, food, chats, coding, mail-forwarding and awaiting the clock to strike 5.30 – hey, I do the same things on each of the weekdays, but today I don’t mind staying back until 9.30, today, I smile if I miss the bus and am happy to get my share of adventure – yeah, the uncertainty of the BEST bus coming on time, barging through the doors of the right bus at the very sight of it, hustling through the crowds and what not - that’s quite an adrenaline rush!!! And finally, when the day is done, the PC is switched off and the card is swiped the last time for the week, I attain Nirvana as I head back home. For the weekend is here!!!
Last weekend was quite different though, not just because it was an extended one, but for the realization that dawned upon me. The much-awaited weekends in Mumbai are spent in lazing around on Saturday afternoons, wondering what to do in the evenings, going to the mall/shopping/having pizzas on Sunday. The common thing here is not just the activities – it’s the crowds everywhere. It makes up for the train travel absent in some blessed peoples lives on the weekdays and assures them that they have not been outcast – they still are Mumbaikars! It all too rushes before the eyes and before you know it, BANG! Its over!! And yet another long wait for until the next one…
Imagine this – you are walking bare-feet on the white sands, the subtle waves of the sea beckon you, you trudge over and wade through the waters – so clear that you see your feet and your reflection in it. The early morning sun is still lazy to wake up and come out – it is hidden behind its blue and white blankets of the clouds. Far, far away, to your left and to your right, there is NO ONE!! The tranquility in the air is enlivening as it enthralls your senses. The experience – Divine!
It was a marvelous discovery and a humbling realization that just beyond the precincts of this concrete jungle and its multitude faces – their artificial smiles, restless minds and worn-out feet from running in the rat race – there is place where you meet someone very very special – Your Self! And then you realize, you cannot ever attain Nirvana, for Nirvana is you.
