I had shared earlier that happiness to me is holding a cup of black coffee, standing in the balcony and listening to Beethoven. That said, I was with one of my colleagues and I asked for black coffee. Next to me was another colleague with grey hair. He also asked for black coffee. My younger colleague ordered a Juice and in an apparent dig told me, ” I am not old enough to have black coffee”. We had a good laugh and I gave the lesson I learned all along from life. As someone said, “Bitterness of black coffee makes life sweet“. I told him you will one day embrace black coffee and that day please let me know.
It was one of those moments when I was struck with the thought of that article that I had read either in the “The Week” or “India Today” magazine which I had not finished reading. I searched the entire lot of “India Today” and “The Week” magazines and I couldn’t find it. I knew for sure, that if I cared about something I would preserve it, only to realise that I no longer remember where I had kept it. I had a fair idea of the article’s name so I started searching with the keywords. I could narrow that down and understood that I cannot download this article nor can I print out the same of course. I had to pay a nominal amount and then get this article. Somehow I was in a state of ” Must read” mood I ventured to sign up, pay up and finally I had the article in front of me. I read the initial pages and was so looking forward to completing the rest of the pages. However, the daily grind took over and I got occupied with other things.
Today I was opening a black folder, and the first thing I saw was that magazine and it made my day. I had kept that magazine along with the Man of the Year Somnath in a nicely wrapped-up folder with some other articles which I planned to read for posterity. This fascination with this magazine article made me realise one thing which is happening to me these days. My love for ” Philosophy”. It made sense to admit what Seneca said, ” We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” When I was searching for that article, I initially wondered whether that magazine had run out of stock. I imagined why that site reader.magzter.com) is not allowing me to download, I imagined that after I made my payment they would not allow me to download. I knew that I was leading myself into that negative loop.
There is one more fascination which I have picked other than philosophy. That is to listen to Gulzar’s songs. It so happened all of a sudden one day when I was listening to my favourite singer these days Rahul Deshpande unplugged ” Is Mod Se jate hai”. I checked for the English translation and I got this one
At any point in life, several paths sluggishly chug along taking us to a steady predictable boring life .. but a few are focused speedways that accelerate you to your chosen goal.
Gulzar songs , I never got excited in those days. I used to wonder how someone would like the song Mera Kuch Saamaan ….Off late on my weekends, I cherish his songs. When I was coming back home I reached home once late at night from a business trip. At 12 in the night, we had a traffic jam that too on the highway. I decided to flip the switch. I started hearing Caravan’s top 20 of RD and Guzar combination for nearly 60 minutes. It started with the Parichay song, ” Musafir Hoon Yaron”. I was on the road and there was slow-moving traffic. I was struck at 12.10 AM, then I noticed two slow-moving trucks carrying large pieces of Prefabricated sections for the metro. I took solace and calmed my mind to get back to those classics. In each song, I heard those 20/20 caravan classics and it was so deep and for the first time, I started listening and understanding the lyrics. There was some nice trivia which the anchor of the show shared which added a dose of nice feeling to the existing mood. There were patches of road deviation and each time the songs made me navigate through the rough patches with ease. So much so that I started thinking of things that excite me the most and give me a sense of wonder. I also had a chance to look at some of his poetic lines. As noted Czech author Milan Kundera mentioned about poetry , ” The purpose of the poetry is not to dazzle us with an astonishing thought , but to make one moment of existence unforgettable and worthy of unbearable nostalgia“.
By the way, the article that I was searching for was titled, “ Art Zense” . Art to me are songs, dance and humour. If I can live a life dancing, singing and enjoying humour, it will be a life well lived. Zen gets to me with Black coffee with family and friends and Philosophy in our soul space. This magic mix or a holy concoction of Art and Zen helps appreciate another gem of Gulzar,” Tujhse naaraz nahiin zindagi Hairaan hoon main” which means I am not upset with you, life… I am astonished. That to me is “wonder-filled”!
