Beaching with an Endless Horizon

I can feel the calmness around me. Nothing but stretches of sand to my sides and the vast open waters to the front. A cool breeze and soothing sounds of nature. Waves sliding on and off the beach. The leaves moving. Water splashing against the rocks. And I am just sitting and taking in the awesomeness of this paradise. People generally look at a clear night sky and the millions of stars on view and the inherent feeling of being smaller than a tiny speck in this universe sets in. I saw the endless horizon and felt the same. But it was beautiful. It was amazing. It was and is one of nature’s greatest pick me ups. Add a nice spot to sit, your best music collection, earphones and the moment is complete.

If you haven’t gathered as much so far then me me state what should have been obvious. I love beaches. They are fantastic. And a regular visit to them would do one very good. But it has to be a completely committed visit. Isolation from your normal 24/7 routine. Getting away from life to enjoy it more.

Beach visits are a different experience in summers and in winters. In summers it’s more like an activity based visit. Like beach sports and going into the water for a bit. Winters is just about taking it all in. The elements around you.

One more reason why I love my city – the beach is only ever 20-40 minutes away depending on which one I am going to. It’s my city by the sea. My view of an endless horizon.

Emotionally yours, Human

I know that in general the difference between man and beast has always been put down to the intellectual capacity that humans posses. We have opposable thumbs and a brain which thinks, applies logic and rationalises all situations. We process the information given to us. But somehow that just doesn’t complete it. I mean yes the obvious physical differences are there. But that’s not what we are driving at. In fact this blog isn’t about the difference about humans and animals at all. It’s about how we are incredibly emotional creatures. About how really when it comes down to the battles between our heads and hearts then really the overwhelming and awesome power of our hearts has no match. Our EQ holds supreme over the IQ.

We have all, I am sure, had many points in time in our lives when we have had to pick between the two. And not just for any particular situation. It is not restrictive to relationships. It could be work. It could be something one is very passionate about like their works of art, their life’s dream etc. I know I have been through situations pertaining to my job / career which demanded of course a rational and logical choice. Now that would really be the domain of the head. The grey matter. But even then if I think back it came down to what my heart was telling me. Why? In a very simple explanation our ability to feel or know what we really want is in our heart. Our entire emotional content and baggage is stored there. Our personality is half defined from their. Our words are conceived in our hearts. The brain just gives them the language and shape to come out coherently.

We feel welled up while watching incredibly made and directed emotionally critically movie/tv show scenes. We feel our hearts sink during stories of struggle and tragedy. We feel excited during stories of triumph and giddy during really good love ones.

For some people work is their life. In such cases the work would be their passion in life. The drive for this passion comes from our emotional hubs i.e. the heart. Sports athletes are a good example of passion. They play with heart. They get emotionally invested into their teams or their individual sport when they step onto the field. Music comes from our souls. Our souls are just an outlet display of sorts or distributive channel of our hearts. Artists, social workers, humanitarians, chefs, adventurers, entrepreneurs all have passion. And that passion is driven by our emotions and feelings. Our hearts, our emotions and our feelings is who we are, is our life.

We love people because of emotional interactions with them and not because we can sit down and do math with them. Nor is it because we can intellectualise trivial things. We love people because we get emotionally connected to them.

Now because we are so we also seek validation for our feelings and emotions. We seek clarity. We look for a sign in almost everything. We look to relate ourselves with almost anyone (mostly fictional characters). We want signals. Omens even if superficial ideas end up creating some degree of chaos in us.

This is who we are. This is what makes us human. It defines us and drives us and makes us, well, us. It is the ink to writing our life story.

P.S. the title might not make sense to some. It is the best I could come up with at 2.30 AM.

Another Night….

And so he sat at the beach front again. Trying to make peace with the dark still night. Nothing but water and sand in front of him. And the thoughts that are his curse. The thoughts and the whole thinking process that doesn’t let him be. Hand in hand with emotions. The two enjoined together since the dawn of his existence never to leave him. Never to let him be rid of them. And they play themselves out on a canvas of a star less night.

Why he thought (the irony ever so blatant)? Why won’t these thoughts abandon me? Why can’t emotions not construe a scenario with much fewer possibilities, permutations and combinations? And why do they come in every time? Is the ability to be objective so hard to attain? Question after question just racing through and before he knew it, the chance to make peace with the dark night was gone. Lost before his eyes as sand slips through the grasp of one’s hand. And he is still stuck the same questions rooting out from his emotions to become the fodder for his continuous and cursed thinking.

Playgrounds

I went to a playground park a couple of days back with my nephew in Phase 8, DHA. The park is really well made with all sorts of swings and other playground obstacles. The nephew and other kids over there were having a ball and looking at them just sent me back to my own childhood and how everyday at the playground would be a new imaginary adventure. From make belief fairy tales of a prince fighting monsters to a band of super heroes going through the gauntlets and mazes put forth to them by the evil villains of yore.

From the ropes and chains of the wobbly logs over the demonic fires of mount doom to the slippery slopes before the fortress of the evil black knight.

We didn’t really have the tons of gadgets and gaming consoles back then. I mean there were no ps3′s or iPhones. We had a defined outdoor time in our heads in which we would go and play with our friends. To have wonderful adventures engineered by innocent imaginations. We couldn’t wait to come up with the most fantastic tales and games, form our teams and take our gear (toys) and begin our journeys.

Of course there were times we didn’t imagine any tales, just grab our water guns or bows and arrows and then use this playground as a battlefield. Point is the playground was the centre of our evening time universe! I couldn’t wait for the clock to strike 5 (for most of the year) so I could make my way to the ground of goodness. This of course faded with time and as I grew but from age 5 to age 10 it was a thrill.

Even today kids enjoy the playgrounds but maybe more in a way of exercise. I don’t see the same adventurous sparkle in the eyes of kids today in playground that was there when I was their age. Today’s kids are the iGeneration with their apples, playstations and Dora games.

Anyways to each generation their own.