A Life cut short

Burning Fossil Fuels is the number one cause of air pollution. In fact I feel that the number of cars on the road must be equivalent to the population of our country. This one, two or three pair of wheels can outnumber the humans living!

 Such is the impact of these automobiles.

Soon they will take over the planet (Figuratively speaking) as they continue to lash out at us by their dangerous fumes that consist of carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, hydrocarbons and particulates, which actually prohibits man to avoid pulling down his windows to breathe the fresh air. He instead prefers to inhale the air conditioned air or if on a two wheeler will put a mask on him to avoid ingesting the direct fumes.

Time to get back to these automobiles cause if they are not subdued, they will rule over mankind!

Time to shorten their lives to about a year, wherein they are forced to get admitted into a mechanic shop who will tune their engine and other parts such as spark plugs, piston rings, cylinder bores, valves, air cleaner, fuel filter that will prevent them from exhaling those poisonous fumes.

Result
Cleaner air for the city and the people living in it.

My 2 cents
Man has invented plenty. It is time to sustain what we have. That can only be done by cutting the life of our precious brainchild. This will sure be a headache for ALL, but will create awareness and clean air that will help us all walk towards a healthy life.

Programing our inventory so that we can have a life void of Asthma and many breathing problems...Amen!

Mantra for today: Prioritizing things in life can enrich mankind.

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The post written for Project365. Their topic is: Necessity is the mother of invention. Invention that could help reverse pollution. how the invention works and how it will save the planet

The Future of Abracadabra!

Reader Alert: Fiction

Over a decade ago, I started my blog with a touch of MAGIC
Just a poof and an Abracadabra and voila all the grief would disappear and wishes that one aspired for...would come true!

Thus, began my journey of blogging with Abra-caba-dra where I used to blow out mantras on this blog, and make myself and who ever people were reading it; be able to shape their destiny by their actions. The prime condition would be that the actions had to be attained while listening to only Caribbean music!!

Yes, my blog, my rules!

Now readers were a little annoyed over my conditions, but you see research had indicated that this kind of music digs deep into the neurons, and helped set the wiring straight for our ambitions to come alive. Not many are aware of it, since the research was performed while I was a biochemist in a start-up that was forced to go underground.  Success was attained so easily that protests from activists made our company not even start its ignition, thus went under the surface, and worked as a submarine. Since there was fear that people would just be listening to this kind of music, and become lazy souls!

Many of my employees (including myself)  were the guinea pigs, and we realized that what we envisioned came to life; thus, I enforced it after filing a patent along with many of my ex-employees.

You could either blame it on the universal energy that I had been channeling in my spare time that eventually matured or just the music that had help shape an environment that was suitable for all living beings to exist in peace and happiness!  But, life was taking a turn for the positive, and I could see a change of positiveness around me.

With regards to myself; while the music was flowing 24*7, my actions took shape and with steady steps, I could author a few books and make shape one title's plot onto celluloid.

I wanted all kinds of readers to avail of this opportunity thus as a writer tried to cover...Fiction, Nonfiction, Haikus, Wordless Wednesdays, Book reviews and Spotlights to attract readers to this blog.

Thanks to the research and helping people shape their destiny, this blog has been featured in many "Best Blogs". Also received a couple of virtual awards, which are invisible on my blog due to lack of music.

Music is life for this blog, since it has helped uncover sheaths of ignorance that lies in our brain. As a result, this has helped unfold many journeys that man could have only dreamt upon and has been able to achieve it, and put his signature on it.

Now the question, "is man happy thereafter" is an issue that will take a century to resolve!

But, till then with the music in the background and as the pixie fairy; I continue to wish for abundance of happiness to my fellowmen!

Abracadabra!!

Mantra for today: Belief in magic is a state of mind, which could lead to a blissful living.

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The above post written for WePostDaily

“Where do you see yourself ten years from now?“ Go on, think about it, and post an about me page for your blog as it would look in 2024.

The Spotlight

"And we would like to thank......"

Confident Joan was partially up from the seat but plops down in confusion upon hearing a different name.

While in introspection, a disorientated Joan forces a smile to congratulate her associate.

"What! How come?" her mind was asking a zillion questions.

Soon her name was announced, and she got up to answer a few questions about the project.

After replying with confidence, and enjoying the partial limelight, she seated herself while her partner got all the drilling.

“Aha! loved this kind of spotlight. At least it spared me those grueling questions” she chuckled.

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The above take is a 100 words written for Project365. Prompt is, "Are you comfortable being in the spotlight? Or would you prefer working in the background? Let us know your thoughts!"

An encounter with nature!

A decade ago I and my friend went for a casual hike.

Told our better halves that we will be back in no time. Just carried a bottle of water, but did not bother to get a map or the phone or wallet since we kept reassuring each other, "it will be a short one!"

Now, we all know that when two women get together time knows no limits or boundaries. We started with small steps, and casual chit-chat, but as our talk intensified our stride picked up, and we walked wherever the path took us.

We were ranting over our personal matters, mouthing our opinions, and echoing over various issues.

When two women agree on many things, the surroundings become hypnogogic, and even though our legs were doing the walking, we did not feel the pain of any muscle being cramped or asking for attention.

Our steps were just marching along with the tune of the words totally unaware of where we were going, and time was another factor that we did not pay attention to.

Just then I started to feel a chill and had to zip my jacket. I was quick to look at the watch, and my eyebrows lit up. "Sush, It is past 5pm. We gotta head home. The sun will set soon."

I guess any blow to the body makes one realize of the environment, and seeing unfriendly ambience, made both of us feel exhausted and thirsty. We took out our bottle from our jacket pocket, and it was frozen.

 We were just hiking amongst nature and with the bottle next to our body, how could that happen?

While trying to suck some water off the ice, we were trying to make sense of the scenario and feared to realize that we had reached a certain altitude.

Looked around us, and could not find anything familiar since we were busy yapping to glory. We tried our best in reviewing some landmarks, but our surroundings wore nothing but white. Ice was covering everything, and made our steps falter.

We also met some hikers and asked them the way down. They pointed us in a particular direction, and we would obediently follow that finger. Unfortunately, we were not equipped with a compass or anything high tech. Thus, we would just be going round and round without any success!

Finally, we sat down with tears falling down our eyes since we realized that we were lost and tired and nowhere to go!

We now missed our better halves, and although our walk started with several outbursts against them, we were longing to embrace them no matter what!
What a drastic change when circumstances change, huh!

As we were sitting there in desperation and trying to plan our night out in the cold.
We heard some guys in skis shouting our names loudly. Now the pronunciation was not correct, so it took us a while to understand.
We started to jump and walk towards that voice while shouting back...yes! yes! to get their attention.

These two guys were in their late 20's attractive, and well built and at first we were embarrassed to admit that we lost our way, but then we behaved like damsels in distress and allowed them to show us the way to the bottom.

We were walking slow (after all we were the lassies in pain, and had faced such hardships) while they were skiing with pace, thus making us plead them to slow them, but when they announced that a storm is on its way, and we all could get trapped. That made us gulp in fear, and we picked up our gait.

Finally, we could see two familiar faces, and boy! What a rush we got seeing them even though those two handsome hunks rescued us!

We thanked the helpers and went our way!

My 2 cents!
Nature sure can be imitating if not obeyed or followed or going out without any guide map.
Till today, I don't mind going on nature hikes but make sure I hold a map or have a compass with me cause when lost, nature tends to embrace you as its own, and honestly I still wanna enjoy the comforts of the city.

Mantra for today: Being a caveman is not easy!


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FYI...This is a true waala story!

Project 365 has an open prompt: Memorable experience of exploring time in nature. Were you in awe or not impressed? Would you rather spend time in the city?

A Letter to Inflation

Source: http://www.economicnoise.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/inflation17-oct-4.jpg

Dear Inflation,

First of all, I would like to commend on your popularity. You have hit each household and every living being. You are the talk of each gathering, and all of us are conscious of You since You hurt our buying power. As the prices are rising, we have to pay more for the same goods and services. The standard of living for some has decreased because of You. However, some of us are lucky that as Inflation rises they see an increase in their income.

You certainly play tricks on our minds. These days we see an increase in Gas prices but our home values are decreasing. Oil prices drive the gas prices and have made the cost of gas heads for $5 a gallon. Driving to work has become more expensive and stressful than about keeping our jobs.
Economists tend to define You as a cause for an increase in the money supply. However, in the short and medium term, You are largely dependent on supply and demand pressures in the economy. Thus, the above increase in Gas price and downturn in our home prices.

You are also referred to as a rise in a broad price index where You represent the overall price level for goods and services in the economy. Some examples of broad price indices are Consumer Price Index (CPI), Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCEPI) and GDP deflator.

A Humble Request
Dear Inflation, you hit man hard in all aspects of life. I humbly request you to spare the human in some areas of life namely- Food, and Death.

Let no man die of hunger. This is a natural product, which is grown on Mother Earth. Then, why charge the poor man the transportation fee. Spare the fees on food please!

When a man’s soul leaves the body. This body needs to be buried, and the cost of land per square feet is expensive for some that the relatives don’t know what to do with the body. Could You please be liberal on the value of land where the body needs to be rested? Can you please not affect the cemetery and burial fees and let them be at its minimum.

Since You are so powerful that You can move the Treasury Department. I beg you to ask the government to subsidize the food and cemetery and funeral laws. Let our bodies get the required nutrition to fight the challenges of life and then when it is time to say Adios, let us rest in peace!

Thanking you in anticipation,
A Common Man


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This post has been written for Project365 where the cue is to write something, which is a misfit for your blog.

Two sides, but one Coin

When faced with confrontation, I usually head towards the hills by chanting Om Shanti Om.

No, not that song, but  reminding myself that my peace of mind is what matters in the end. Getting in a conflict of words is more than physical lashes thus, gotta avoid it.

Why fret over it when milk is already spilled!

Just zip it up and let the karma chameleon beat her over the actions. (my thinking)
Dunno why and how I land up bringing kismet into it but, I guess that is the baton of non-violence, and if Mahatma Gandhi was successful in making the Britishers leave India, I can definitely use it on one individual.

Now I am not the Anna Hazare of today's world and nor do I plan on forming a political party over my principles to bring clarity to this world since; I am myself struggling to get the lucidity over my ideals and get some perception on how to lead my another ~30 years of life.

As adults, we reach a point in our lives, when we want action to be taken when someone is unfair and we tend to rejoice when he gets paid for his deeds.

No wonder, Ditto is such a common word, and as we grow older, we love using it more.
The concept of sharing is only till we are pre-teens thus, we enforce this attribute in our children since once they are grown up, it is history.

There had been a time when I went head first into a conversation. This particular individual was irritating me for quite some time, and would refuse to take NO for an answer.
So, wore my headgear and went head in with a squawk.
That grunting noise was essential to keep the adrenaline pumping for me to strike back with equally gutsy words.

My shield was acting a good protector as it would deflect off all the words coming from her thus, avoiding it to penetrate in me and to affect me in anyways.

Man is resilient to bear any hardships as long as he can continue to absorb those verbal lashes.

So, I wore my eye black more so to protect me from that glare and head strong language, and help me tone down in all possible ways. The stripes help differentiate between light and dark lashes and help following a pop fly thus avoiding any injury to the self.

Like a knight I was dodging the abuses, accuses and defending myself.

Finally, my opponent gave in and retrieved before sunset. I was relieved.
But, stood guard cause the key to each action is a good defense thus, was on the alert for another few minutes and then retrieved.

And when I removed my shining armor. It was black with soot. I guess the words do impact and change color. I was so tired.
Mind was restless even though my shield reflected off most of the words. I took a day to compose myself.
Realized the impact.

The result was that no more punga from that person.
Surprisingly, the feeling was mutual!

Just like in mint factory, two individual and distinct sides, but ultimately the result is a shiny coin. We also went on such a similar excursion and experienced something similar.

When we entered the battle field, we were two individuals, but alas after an hour long brawl, we exited in one state....tired, sweaty, and fagged. We both had a new perception towards each other and were shining bright (cause of the sweat)

Mantra for today: There is no winner in a confrontation. Pressing the mute button is the key to that factual lock.

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This post is written for Project365 with a theme, "When faced with confrontation, do you head for the hills or 

walk straight in? Was there ever a time you wished you’d had the opposite reaction?"

Roses and Thorns

It was the decade of the nineties, high school was done, and before dispersing on our respective paths, my friends and I wanted to go for ~2 nights stay.

Now in that era, far place would even be a ~50 kms, but the fact that a girl stepping out with her friends for an overnight trip was a jaw dropping question.

How could I? Will they? What if?
Questions were flowing in  my little (cause a teen and inexperienced) grey matter as I was around for every beck n call of my mom and helping her with all sorts of errands.

I guess moms are smart species. No wonder, just about anyone cannot become one.

"What's the matter?" comes an eerie question

Quick comes up the head almost eager to let out my concern, but then the fear of being refused made me answer, "Oh! Nothing" with a forced smile.

"You know you can say anything to me." Blurts out mom as she is kneading the flour and a few strands of her hair fall over her face, that helps make a temporary sheath between us.

I am happy cause that avoided her to see the reaction on my face as I forcefully gulp down a big bite of an apple so as not to lose the moment.

"My friends (yes, I swear it was their idea) are thinking of going to Mt. Abu for a few days. So," before I could complete the sentence, she blurts, "what do you mean few days?"

After all the necessary explanation of we going our separate ways after graduation and yada yadaa.

She was quiet and insisted I talk to dad.

I felt a big chunk in my throat which even after gulping many times refused to go down since talking to dad is easy but when it comes to matters like this, dunno how he would react. I nod and wait up for dad to return from work.

Dinner table is the place where all the talks happen. I brought it up, while keeping my fingers crossed under the table.

What!

I am blinking hard, as I am trying to listen carefully.

I reiterate my question and put away those stray strands of hair behind my ear, just so that I can be clear in the conclusion of the discussion.

"Yes, you can go" comes a loud and blunt voice.

After dinner, I could not resist calling all my friends (alas the era of texting came in the 21st century) and informed them about the green signal. Luck had it, the six of us got it, and in no time we were booking our bus ticket, making hotel arrangements, packing and consulting each other on what attire to wear and shop for. The phone would usually be ringing or would never be off the hook since we all had lots to discuss and conference calls were not invented. The saga seemed unnerving for my parents and younger brother who just seemed to feel disconnected even though they were living in their own home.

We are dropped off by our respective parents to the bus stop, and with the constant yapping and hardly listening to each other, our four hours flew by!

We reached our destination and enjoyed those two nights and three days with various activities such as chatting, boating, laughing, hiking, eating, giggling, and then rattling some more till we reached back home.

After a decade, when we met again, we re-lived that trip of ours and most of us faintly remembered what we actually did until the pictures were dug up (thanks to Thomas Wedgwood) but we clearly recalled getting permission to go on a trip by ourselves without any drama or protest such as throwing a tantrum, banging the door shut behind us with the shouting at mom "You just don't love me to have a great time"

Aha! So not cool!

Life is good when the path is fragrant and smooth with rose petals, but ideally some thorns should be around to make us aware of our existence.

When something comes too easy, it is treasured but the drama would have given us the adrenaline rush, and the fact that a scene created over it in six different households would have been something to comment upon, criticize, given a commentary upon.

My 2 cents
This makes me ponder that sometimes when life is too darn easy, it is difficult to digest, and man tends to ponder upon its rules since he is an intelligent species.

The anticipation for a desire to be fulfilled, makes an individual strive hard for its outcome. Thus, making him yearn for success while working hard to achieve that goal since happiness will follow the quest.

Mantra for today: It is the challenges that make thy man!


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This post is written for Project 365 which had a theme, "Tell us about a time where everything you’d hoped would happen actually did."

Mind over Heart

Contemplation between the H and the M. 

Where H is me, and M is the muse that meditates over various issues.

M: What is happening to the world? How can an airplane go missing in this wide world, with so many radars everywhere? We have satellites at every nook and corner. Why are people tormenting people? 

H: Yup, its a sad state.

(smirks)  I pity the politicians for once. 

M: Politicians? How are they coming in the picture?

H: Well they have to tackle the issue since this plane goes missing and people are questioning them for once.

M: Well, I kinda agree but also disagree with you on this.

H: I am pleased that you agree with me but Errr what part is that makes you contemplate over this, my dear M?

M: It is the We the people and not the politicians who are actually responsible for all that is happening around.

H: Well, Hello!! 

 It is the leaders who poison innocent minds. That is how terrorism exists in the first place.

M: Sheeshhh...please let's not even go there, H! You are making way too much out of this. 

H: Who me? I don't think so! Ask those people who wanna know what happened to their loved ones. Infact, we all want to know what happened to those innocent passengers.

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 M pretends to get busy so that H gets the signal and shuts herself out!

My heart and mind have been playing the bone of contention ever since Malaysian Airlines went missing and even though all the above is yet unsettled there are various points of disagreement. I pray the outcome is a pleasant one and the Heart and the Mind can be rest assured that mankind has some hope!

Mantra for today: The Mind is intelligent to absorb the changes, while the heart still laments over it.

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Project 365 has a prompt "Bone of contention" 

Join in the fun!

Go to hell, for heaven's sake!

"Go to hell!" I hear a voice as I walk past a stranger sitting on the road with a HOMELESS sign, whom I did not pay heed to. 

 "Hell" hmm I think. 

"Don't we already live in that place? Although it is defined as a place beneath the earth where the wicked are punished after death. But, death is such a common noun since people are killed every second on this planet. Picking up a newspaper is nerve cringing these days." 

As I continued to walk along the rough surface, I ponder. "Wonder what heaven would be like? Although it is also another noun but has such an angelic and goodness behind it. Is it because it is a place in the sky and not beneath the earth?"

 I scratch my grey matter over this intense topic and wonder if sky would be a place to visit. But, then think of all the goody goody stuff happening there and wonder if that will go into my head or also might find all that a fake cause being surrounded 24/7 by generosity, friendliness, righteousness, and morality will make life pretty dull with no excitement or play.

 I was not sure that I would like to visit such a place cause sorrows when accompanied by happiness makes life so much worthwhile that I felt that being in my present place would be an awesome location to be since it keeps me grounded amidst the chaos, agonies and the daily blazes that need to be extinguished. 

The daily dose of dreaming and the excitement of possibilities keeps me alive cause musing and planning brings out the best in the intelligence of man.

 Mantra for today: It is the Anticipation that keeps us alive!

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Join in the fun with Project 365 and their unique writing prompts. Their, "Is there a place in the world you never want to visit? Where, and why not?" is LIVE. 

Link up!