I had heard this phrase “Always be ready for change, because change is the only constant thing” couple of times in school. As kids, we were taught to accept the alteration and be ready to handle the direst situation with courage and smile. We were told that everything happens for a reason and the dots are always connected. This has always been the mantra towards life.

While this mantra exists, the question of the almighty taking dad away remains. How is it possible for him to go away so suddenly, that too forever? How is it true that when we were chilling the previous night, we would not see him the next morning? How is it that the plan that we had for that Saturday never happened? How is it likely that the heart can just stop, without giving any time, that too of a person who has never been to a hospital before? How is it all right to accept that there was no science to this, and it had to happen? All of this has added more questions. Most importantly, how it is that if I want to talk to him right now, to ask the smallest thing, I can’t?

How do we know if we are going to get up the next morning or not or how do we know that this is the last time we would be seeing our closest? How do we know that we wouldn’t come back home, to our people and how do we know that this is goodbye? How do we comprehend that the life we say that belongs to us after we go away is ours? I do not have answers to any of these but I know for the fact that nothing is ours.

What remains in all of this is only memories, forget about the various other things that we have that we call ours.  I am saying this because it is very important for us to understand and value every moment. It gives me jitters to think about me not getting up tomorrow, or imagining my closest one. As much as I hate to say it, I have experienced it and I have realized that it can happen and it has. The most that can be done from our side is to believe that every day is a second chance, that the day that we are blessed with is an opportunity in itself. To live with that hope that there is tomorrow and being around people, places and things that make you happy.

“LIFE IS UNPREDICTABLE” IS NOT JUST A PHRASE; IT IS A REALITY, WHICH WE IGNORE IN TRUE SENSE.

All of us have dreams, some come true and some do not, some are huge while some are small. These are aspirations; some are short lived and could change with time whereas some stay in our hearts until fulfilled. One such dream was to start Teach with KTM Drive. After a long wait, the dream is happening and the pilot project after 100 events at The KTM Drive is rolling strong.

The idea of starting something similar to Teach with KTM Drive was in my mind since a decade. I wanted to start teaching the underprivileged since then.  When I was volunteering with a close friend at TEACH INDIA, in Pune, we would go every Sunday and spend an hour with the slum kids. These kids would go to school but that one-hour on the weekend, was their time with us for activities and helping them with their homework. Many people from different stages of life were a part of volunteering. It was nice to see people wanting to be a part of giving and this was the best platform. An hour a week was perfect for someone who wanted to take time out from his or her busy schedule and be around the kids.

Since we had been conducting many events at Chahari, a social organization in Baneshwore, we thought it would be the best place to start this project. There are 15 girls, aged 4 to 12 who stay here. We spread the word and revolved the concept through our social media. We started with the same idea, wherein any professional/ student/ homemaker/ elderly could spend an hour in a week with the kids. They had to choose what they would be teaching them and the day that they were free for an hour. We were looking for a level of commitment so the 4 hours in a month that they give; the kids learn something substantial from them.

They help the kids with their schoolwork and teach subjects which school does not cover. We have our members who visit the kids and help them to develop their personality, make them visualize through storytelling, teach them regular discipline for their everyday life. Each of them specializes in one topic or the other and an hour for them goes quickly. The kids keep waiting at the gate and looking through the fences until we are outside the lane after their classes.

The kids love seeing us and wait for us to come while many members wait for their day to meet, teach the kids. This has surely created a space and different level of connect that our members have with the kids and they have themselves learnt a lot from these innocent children. I feel it is the purest form of giving.

Each one of us want to give, each one of us want to share, and there is never a right time.

Each one of us are so busy in our everyday schedules, to take an hour out, is so prime.

Think about the smiles; think about the happiness, this is the only phase,

An hour in a week is nothing as compared to their love and innocent face.

Thank you all #teachwithktmdrive members for making this dream a reality

 

It feels so nice to be writing after the longest time. There are so many travel stories, thoughts and topics that I have to write about, and it is only being procrastinated and not penned down. I need to get back to my writing, on a regular basis. It gives me another level of satisfaction, corralling down my views and sharing makes it more worthwhile because there are many who can relate and think on the same lines as I do. Writing is a win- win situation; it increases our vocabulary, a hobby perfect for spending some time alone by oneself, and when the writing completes, our mind is relieved of the number of thoughts that keeps rotating.  It gives answers to many questions that we are in search for. It surely acts as a stress buster.

There is no particular time to write, but the best time for me is early mornings or late afternoons. As I look at the sunset and different formation of clouds, the orange tinge in the sky, the greens all around, the clear blues, the beautiful nature that we are have been bestowed, I change my topic from writing about nature of people to how influential writing can be. This is what the falling of leaves, different color of greens, swaying of branches in the trees and the gush of wind does. It makes me want to experience more of what I see, calls to me that I had been missing all of this. It makes me write about how we have taken for granted the most charismatic things, which are available freely. How we are busy in our everyday schedule that we do not have time to see the morning sunrise, the prettiest sight of moon, or even spend ten minutes with our mother nature.

One need not do a course in writing to start to write. Many maintain a journal, some write a diary, and some are professional writers. It depends on each person on what they want to write about and how they want to phrase it. Writing is not about complex words; rather it is a feeling. Some are regular writers while others write only when a situation or a thought provokes them. Some write for themselves, and some choose to be a voice to the generals.

All I would say is if you have not indulged in the process pf writing, you are missing out the most powerful tool that you have, which is available free. If you do have a blog, which has no update for months, or years, it is time to use the domain.

There are situations when I hope you would be standing beside me as I take the most important decisions of my life.  A part of me believes that you are, but the other part of me wants to see you. They said time will heal, and we will not feel the same way as we did on the first day. Little did they know that there is no healing in situations like these, there is no normal?  I have the same questions that I had since the start, and I do not want to believe that I will never see you again. The instant I think that you will never be around, my heart breaks into tiny pieces and I do not want to think about it. I want to keep believing that you are out on a vacation. I want to think that you are busy with your everyday schedule when I am out of town. I know exactly what is happening, but at the same time I want  the reality only in my sub-conscious.

Its been eight months that we have not seen you and in no time, eight more will pass too.  The fact that I cannot share the smallest details of life makes me feel weak and there would be so many more moments that I am going to feel the same. All of it makes me question the point of a relationship; understand the unpredictability of life, and the point of such closeness. Many discourses and discussions have various approach to this subject, but the conclusions stay in our heart and mind for the shortest time. It gives us momentary satisfaction on this vicious circle of life and death, that we are in, but is not the permanent answer. To think about it, there is none.

As I get back to town, my eyes are wandering to see you at the airport, and as soon as I reach home, I realize again that it will be too long until that happens, or it might never. Just then, my sub conscious juggles with my conscious making me believe that this is the reality of life, and this is what will happen to each one of us.