A FRAGRANCE CALLED LIFE. It was early in the morning and I sat down in front of my laptop to write about “Sikhism,” a subject I have been studying for some time. Among other things I had studied, a booklet written by Dr Karnali Singh, “Towards definition of Sikhism” which dealt about the genesis and meaning of the word, “Sikh” had invoked considerable interest and curiosity in me. Suddenly the room filled with a faint fragrance….the news paper screamed, “Today is world fragrance day.” I was surprised; would the fragrance spread on its own on the Fragrance day!?” I have always loved fragrance. They always drifted me into a different world… “Where is it coming from,?” I wondered. “It is coming from an advertisement on the news paper…smeared with perfume!,” said my wife with a smile on her face. I took the news paper in my hands, for a change, I found that it carried full of fragrance! The fine obituary of one of the doyens of Indian journalism, Kushwant singh, written by none other than his own son, Rahul took me through all seasons unleashing the magnificent fragrance of the man who never believed in destiny, but was taken away by it at 99 before he could successfully bat that one last run. I shelved my plan to write about Sikhism as I realized I have not yet read the iconic book, “History of Sikhs” written by the man whose obituary I was reading. Bachi Karkaria, one of his “chelas” stood at her best as she captured her mentor’s expression about her good work, “Shabash”; cringed at “Cliché-ridden bilge”; and learnt from his example that you must take your work seriously and yourself lightly” and there was another one by the “man with matchless malice” himself, “Work is worship, but worship is not work!.” I rolled through the paper further. The “Sacred space” and the “Speaking Tree” emitted a fine fragrance that continued to linger throughout the day. The Shakti Mill rapists’ conviction too added to the fragrance and then there was this young woman, “Adrianne Haslet-Davis who had lost her limb at Boston bombing performing at TED Conference in Vancouver, Canada with her artificial limb. It emitted not only a rare fragrance, but displayed brilliant colours of diligence, dexterity and perseveration in my mind. The finest of all, perhaps, was the quote, “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus” by Martin Luther King Jr and I wished, our leaders for a change would open their doors at least for a day and allow this rare fragrance to reach them. I sat back and started pondering over the fragrance people emit. There were many: …..the fragrance of knowledge…..fragrance of wisdom…..fragrance of competency…..fragrance of perseverance…. fragrance of courage……fragrance of valor…..fragrance of compassion….fragrance of love….fragrance of diligence…fragrance of appreciation…..fragrance of persuasion….fragrance of hard-work….fragrance of sharing…..fragrance of caring…..fragrance of co-existing…..fragrance of co-operation…fragrance of goodness and fragrance of forgiveness. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that life’s kitty has so much and everything in it has been given to us. …and I wondered again, “How many of us use these fragrances?…..How many of us spread these fragrances?” Affectionately….
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 17:17:11 +0000
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