thedawaring's blog

September 2015 Ruskin Bond and Autumn Sky Ruskin Bond? Yes, the great Indian children’s writer who wrote scores of beautiful countryside tales and short stories like The Cherry Tree & Garland of Memories etc . This afternoon, while walking in the autumn sun, I just thought of Ruskin Bond out of nowhere. He had great love and appreciation for the Himalayas and hill stations like Shimla. Reading his short stories would make one immerse into a blissful display of imagery words.  In short he loved simple things in nature and found beauty even in a dried, crumbled leaf! Wearing the immortal literary eyes of Ruskin Bond, I went to a solitary walk last week end. With a camera in hand and keeping the senses open to enjoy every bit and piece of small yet beautiful things and events occurring in the nature.  As I walked by the river side, the feel of grass on my grey converse was different. The river had become less noisy and more peaceful. It no longer was dragging lo...

One night in August, Thimphu, Bhutan Walking home from work yesterday evening, I came across trucks and trucks of military men passing by. A cool August wind laden with aroma of lemon grass was blowing, brushing my curly brown hair. School children were going home too. A drunken man lay asleep beside the road. To perfectly soak in the moment, I plugged in my earphones and listened to the good old Scorpions song: Winds of change. Change, then I thought, is a part of life. The most romantic month of the year, August, is slowly giving way to September. For someone who takes great joy in the beauty of nature, the coming of September is a huge treat. In September you get to see clear dark skies at night, filled with a billion twinkling stars. In September, you get to behold green leaves on the trees turning into colors of yellow and red. In September, you get to enjoy the peaceful & joyous Bhutanese festivals. And in September, we welcome our first Bhutanese Losar: Thrue Bab...

A friend tries to take off  People we meet in life As we travel along a mysterious journey we call life, we come across many fellow travelers. Each and everyone out there has a lesson to teach, a painting  to give you, a story to share, a song to sing and a reason to smile. And believe me; each one of them leaves an eternal imprint on our soul. They subtly shape the way we perceive the world. Back in college days in Goa, I had a catholic friend named D’souza.  She gave me a copy of The New Testament. Later she also gave me a copy of the Bible. I would read it in the evenings when the singing birds would return to nest on the giant jack fruit trees near my hostel. The central learning from my reading the two holy books was our purpose to love. God created us to love without boundaries. God sent his own son to show how much he loves each and every one of us. We love because we need to love.  Love is an act of faith. Not an exchange of emotions. Then, ...

Mid Summer in Thimphu, Bhutan. Finding happiness towards late June It is not often that you wake up one morning feeling perfectly happy.  One Sunday morning in late June, I wake up feeling a complete new sense of bliss. I jump out of the bed and head towards the veranda. A fresh, soft and cool morning air blows gently past my face. I pull out a red polythene chair and sit to watch a mesmerizing morning magic unfold itself before me. I play the song SubhanAllah from the 2013 Bollywood film ‘Yeh Jawani hai yeh Deewani’on my old fashioned cell phone and listen to the melody fuse itself with the beauty of the morning.   After two days of clouds and rain, a bright sunny morning was opening up. The owner of my apartment was burning pine leaves, perhaps praying for a good day ahead. The smoke wafted across the space riding on the gentle morning wind. The river below my house was swollen. Debris of logs and leaves were being carried away by the murky water. In the...

December,2014, Trashigang Sunset through the Window When I opened the old wooden windows of our house, a cool & gentle December wind was blowing. Pieces of colorful flags danced in harmony to the tune of roosters signaling the end of the day. The western sky presented itself to me as a magical formation of shades of yellow and orange. A sweet natural melody erupted from the wind blowing into empty bottles lying around in the dry grasses. Flakes of white clouds turned grey above the horizons as the sun began to set faraway behind the towering mountains. A sense of blissful air slowly covered the whole hamlet. From above the monastery, the aroma of juniper being burnt spread throughout the whole village. A full moon day as it was, monks playing the soulful jaling could be heard. With every passing second, the golden sun dipped itself deeper behind the shadows of the mountains. Then and there, I was once again, as always, struck by the eternal beauty of seeing the sun setting....

Switch off the TV and start reading All the great men and great leaders are great readers as well. Television has completely changed the way we think and work. New lifestyles are adopted from popular reality shows broadcasted on the TV. Ancient culture and heritage are replaced by modern popular western culture. Children are glued to the idiot box for most of their free time. Families get rare opportunity for quiet and peaceful time after a tiresome day. Everyone is busy in their own world watching different shows on the TV. On the other hand, the culture of reading books is diminishing at drastic rate. Children and young people find it more and more monotonous to pick up a good book and enjoy the read. Supporters of the mainstream TV culture maintain that watching TV is more effective for learning than reading. They also say that what you see in live pictures and footages remain more vividly in the memory. They assert that scientific knowledge can be assimilated more ea...

The Boudnath stupa, Nepa l Sharing the pain of Nepal. In ancient India, there lived a beautiful nun who was known for her exotic beautiful eyes. Around the same time, there lived a man who was deeply attracted & attached to the nun. The man made desperate attempts to meet the beautiful nun but to his dismay he could never arrange an agreed meeting. One fine morning, when the sun was rising, the nun was going for her routine alms begging when she chanced to bump into the man. The poor man was so surprised and happy that he could finally let the nun know that her eyes were beauty beyond descriptions. So he told her, ‘my dear bhikshuni , your eyes are the most beautiful thing I can ever imagine of in this world. I am attracted, out of control, for your divine beauty.’ Hearing this, the learned nun thought it was time for the ignorant man to learn a lesson. She pulled out both her eyes and gave it to the man. The man was shocked to see how she looked without her eyes. She looke...