On Seizing the Moment

Each new day brings on new challenges, new ideas, new aspirations, and with it new actions and deeds. It is so true that every action is but a mind-set. If you are keen on something, if you love something deeply enough, if you have firmly engrained goals, then you automatically strive for them. Every once so often, there is a feeling of trepidation, a hesitation of deciphering right from wrong, a negative thought that negates you. However, treat it as fleeting and transient, like everything is anyway, and there is no turning back. Someone has truly and wisely said that all the fun is in the journey and not the destination. This afternoon I sat in the public library browsing the latest issue of the Architectural Digest. It was a cool afternoon and the lake outside the library had its waters stirred up. There was a man fishing and I looked up every few minutes to check if he had caught anything while reading about Brooks Shield's new townhouse in New York and Giorgio Armani's newly decorated Swiss Alpine residence. Then there was an article on Istanbul and its exotic nature lying on the border of Europe and Asia. It was such an enthralling hour spent that I went home in high spirits. Several ideas flew through my mind while reading it which I immediately jotted down in the Notes on my Iphone; an absolutely ingenius invention by the Apple guru Steve Jobs, my hero.

On Reminiscence

Everyday is like a new life to be rejoiced and enjoyed with no regrets for the past and no worries about the future. The day alights in a new way. Sometimes, sunny and sometimes grey. Today is like being in the hills, in some remote hill-station away from the noise and chaos of the city. A light mist covers all flaw. There is a slight drizzle and a certain crypticness to Nature outside. Ducks assemble near the lake, scratching their oil glands with their well-equipped beaks. They, too, enjoying the moment. The weather demands one of M. M. Kaye's books on India in hand for the marriage of the weather and description. Of course, that would mean traveling back in time to British India, to read about India with its cool hill-stations and large colonial houses resting amidst prime Nature. Nowadays, everywhere it is the same story about rampid growth, lack of planning, cutting down of forests, making room for the huge demand for housing, balancing waste, controlling climate change. All worries for the future though, not befitting the 'Live in the Moment' psyche. Here I am trying to capture the moment and yet infringing on the past and future. Just goes to show how difficult it is to live in the present. Where would experiences of nostalgia, reminiscence, memory, recollection, pensiveness go if one were to live in the moment all the time? Don't these nouns have their own identity worth enjoying? They cause pain and joy as is with everything else, but are important, nevertheless. There is unease in recollection but unease in not being able to recollect too. So, what is a good balance is the question that comes to mind. I would say, anything and everything that makes the given moment fulfilling; whether you have to delve into the past or future for that, is making the most of life.