During travel you come across people from various countries, cultures, backgrounds, dressing, languages, etc. You realise that however different you are, your needs to survive are the same though the imputed needs for comfort and luxury differ radically.

In such situations, how do you communicate with each other? Best communication is that of kindness and that doesn’t apply only to when you are travelling but starts at home, society, work place, etc. Kindness is what is missing and that is why the world is what it is, choosing war mongering leaders and suffering the consequences…

Never too late to up your kindness quotient. The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step…

Just because the Sun is called different things in different cultures/languages does not make the Sun any different or any more personal to anyone.

And so it is with the concept of God – whether you believe or not or by what name you refer to God, doesn’t really matter.

The only thing that matters is whether such a belief/name inspires you to be a better version of yourself in thoughts, words and deeds…

Celebration is usually at the culmination of an achievement by an individual/team. Tougher the achievement, more joyous is your feeling and more the reason to celebrate. When there is no achievement, what are you celebrating? Festivals, Marriages, Birthdays, Milestones, etc. Multiple reasons to celebrate but unfortunately the mantra of louder the better is the generally accepted norm these days – a DJ with gigantic speakers(Noise pollution)or worse still there are Karaoke parties where everyone has to endure the torture, Alcohol flowing accompanied with rich oily food that only harms your health(Body pollution), fireworks (Air Pollution), dancing on the roads and blocking traffic(time pollution)etc. Why is creating pollution the way to celebrate? 

Could we redefine celebration to be acts of health, charity, sharing our blessings with the less fortunate ones, improving the quality of the overall environment by planting more trees, etc? Just imagine what a world it would be if we are able to make this small change in the way we celebrate. We would be gifting ourselves and the generations to come a healthier, kinder, unpolluted world and above all an Art of Celebrating.

History is full of who conquered whom and how. So wars have always been a part of Human History(Can’t say Civilization since we are yet to achieve that status). If Saints and God Himself wanted this different, then it would already have been a peaceful world but the fact remains it isn’t and it will never be. Why? They want each one of us transformed and that can happen only when each one goes through the trial of fire.

So the game is not external but internal – people like Viktor Frankl, Anne Frank have shown it’s possible to experience love in the midst of terrible tragedy. So you have to change the rules of the game for yourself and move against the current of the society which is so beautifully captured by this doha of Sant Kabir “Khada Kabir Bazar Mein, Mange Sabki Khair, Na Kahu se dosti, Na kahu se Bair”