Snakes: What could I possibly learn from them?

Honestly speaking, I am not really a big fan of snakes. I just hate them. Just like the way I hate cats. For a reason unknown to me, the evil side takes the priority every time I see a cat or a snake, blood rushes in high speed, much like an adrenaline rush, which fills me with a want/desire (or you can call it a rage too) to cause harm to the cat or the snake. After a while when I actually think of that moment of sudden rage, I laugh at myself. I cannot recollect the exact incident that has filled me with this dislike towards snakes.

On the other hand, it is completely opposite. My dad, is curious about snakes, so much so that if there were any programmes in the television in either National Geographic or Discovery or Animal Planet (television channels), he would be glued to the screen. I guess the most knowledge that I possess about snakes is probably due to the unwilling viewership (if at all such a word exists) from me while he watched the programmes.

I will admit one thing though. There are few things that I did learn from the life of a snake. The most amazing part is that the nature has hidden the lessons that humans should learn and are often revealed only when the time is right. For instance, a kid in his fifth standard would not come across a mathematical problem of trigonometry, unless of course, he was Spock from the Star Trek era. Likewise, life as well. Only when you are ready to learn Trigonometry, you will be presented (not the gift kinda present, but the present kinda present) a plethora of problems in Trigonometry (Actually, trigonometry was my favorite part of mathematics, followed by Calculus and then Conics). All these years that I watched Snakes on those channels as mentioned earlier, never once did it occur to me as to how I could relate a part of its life cycle to mine, or generically speaking, to that of a human. I always thought about that aspect as interesting, at times, weird.

For instance, lets take venom of a snake. It is there in it, it is not killing it and yet, when released into another organism, that organism is killed. Much like the malice thoughts in our heart, when actually projected ends up ruining everything.

However, what most caught my interest was the way the snake sheds its skin. Before I reached this part of this post, I did quite some reading online to know the need for a snake to shed its skin. Of several aspects of the whole skin shedding process(this is commonly used phrase, which by the way should be called as Ecdysis) some things caught my utmost interest. Apparently. young snakes shed more frequently than older ones because growth is relatively rapid in the first few years of life. Healthy snakes usually have little or no difficulty with shedding and tend to shed their skins in one entire piece. The shedding process is preceded by a period of relative inactivity. A snake will shed its skin as long as it's growing, and snakes grow all through their lives. And soon after shedding is completed, snakes consume a lot of water.

While I continued to think, I realized something that never made sense before. Even in my life, for that matter, I think its common in most of our lives, I had shedding process too. Not the physical skin, but that of an emotional skin surrounding the soul. While I was in school, and thereafter in college, it was so easy for me to get over things, of course, there was a definite period of inactivity, but shedding that emotional skin was of utmost ease. As I began growing, that which I used to do frequently, and that which was done in bits and pieces, was now being done in an entire piece but the only thing that changed this time around was the level of difficulty.

We all shed, a lot. Some do it with ease some with lot of struggle, some with pain, and for some, shedding goes in vain. And soon after it is done, there is an unprecedented thirst, a need to quench it, a void to fill up, but what matters is that now, a new journey begins. Sooner or later, shedding is going to take place again.

One thing continues to exist, despite all the learning. I hate snakes.

My Mind

Recently, a friend of mine sent me text message that went like this:
You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"

Interesting as it seemed, a thought suddenly occurred to me, like a lightening..

Let's imagine a chemist holding two test tubes in his hands: one containing two parts of hydrogen, the other one part of oxygen. The chemist says to himself, "In an hour's time, I will mix these two gases together, and I shall get water."

What is the chemist doing? He is actually looking to the future. Wonder why? Well, because he possesses all the necessary information to do this. This future has yet to come into being(the water, that is) but it exists in the latent state(hydrogen and oxygen).

Our mind, actually, the unconscious part of it, is like the chemist. This gathers a lot of information, lots of different factors and then tries to draw a conclusion from what it has gathered. Somehow, human mind continues to amaze me. When I tried to think about what my mind thinks and how it actually does it, I realize that among the countless hordes of memories in the human mind, only some stand distinct. Even if our memories seem 'forgotten' somehow they are imprinted in our memory. Interesting huh? Well, that's the reality, you got to digest what you got to digest.

My mind, my mind at the moment battles many battles of thoughts, from one era to the other, swings in time, leaps in ages, dwells in a bridge between past and present.. Aah my mind..

In it lie,
Painful tensions and insinuations,
A want to live more freely and untrammeled..
At times we got to hold back,
The teeming jungle of the unconscious,
Just to travel the path less traveled.

Inhibitions? Not really..

An illness that starts unbeknown to us, produces an abnormal but unconscious sensation. This is when we begin to think, ponder and at the same time wonder. It is so true. Games of the mind are of very weird kind. They often leave a person, in their thoughts, completely intertwined.

As of today, my life is great. Actually, it has always been I guess, it could not get better than what it now is. It is throwing me too many challenging situations and I am glad about them. It is letting me know how weak I have been although I have been telling myself that I am pretty strong. What a tremendous experience it is when a man realizes that he is not at all what he things he is! (Applies to a woman as well!) In a way, looks like I am very lucky., For life is letting me life circumstances that not all get to live, good or worse, I am getting to live them, so perhaps, I am blessed. Like I earlier wrote, if I am not yet killed by it, I am actually growing stronger due to it.

Red Amber and Green. Three main colors that are associated with my current job profile. Red, denotes an undesirable situation or state that needs immediate rectification. Amber, yet another undesirable situation that somehow is critical and yet not that critical. Green, aah the bliss. That which is Green today, might go Amber or even Red for that matter. But for that which is Red or Amber today, takes a while to go to Green. Every time an activity is Red or Amber, an exercise is done to put an action plan in place such that each activity is tracked to turn the status from Red or Amber to Green. Looking at what I do at my workplace, I began correlating it to my personal life. That which is Green, in real life were the situations that were going according to my plans, wishes and desires. That which is Red, were those situations, plans, desires, wishes, dreams, ambitions, that went in the opposite directions, went out of control, caused lot of turmoil within my being, caused a lot of stir beneath my skin, and huge turbulence's in my soul. And Amber, well, they are there anyway.

So here is my life, currently juggling between a lot of Amber and Red situations, some rare Green ones that make the entire juggling event a memorable one. Nevertheless, life of mine is very colorful. Amongst these colors, I found out that one source of inspiration, that motivation, that essence. Most of the times people live without knowing what they should be living for. Sometimes they realize that single most important thing in their life for which they would begin living for. This becomes their motivation, their basic amenity in life, their everything actually.

Just like the recent Eminem's song goes..

I'm not afraid to take a stand
Everybody come take my hand
We'll walk this road together, through the storm
Whatever weather, cold or warm
Just let you know that, you're not alone
Holla if you feel that you've been down the same road.

04 Sept 2010

Whatever does not kill you, makes you stronger.. Yeah, you suffer, weep, cry, whine, complain, spend time being alone, go into depression, sit in loneliness, wish someone was around to take care of you and what not, but in the end, you are much stronger than what you earlier were. I am not dead yet, so that sure is a sign that I am growing stronger by the day. Not just physically and mentally, but also at the level of my soul. TO grow stronger as the days pass is the only option that is left to be used, if only life was one of the 'choose the best answer' type of a quiz.

Situations and circumstances never come with a warning and when they do occur (I am talking about the ones that we do not want to happen) they leave days and months of effort and belief shattered and in that moment, that instance, everything becomes suspended animation. However, that actually reminds me of the sun. When it sets, it sure is to rise again. This fills me with a confidence that as darkness begins to loom around, I begin to tell myself that light is just around the corner, but only when it is the right time, you will see it.

As I write this post, too many things recur to me and they all come crashing down upon me, much like the weight of the world over on my shoulders. I begin to wonder, if this is really one of those situations wherein the thought of tiredness creeps in and just as that is about to come up, I say unto myself, 'Nope, its not that time yet, and it never will be.'

04 Sept 2010 will be a date that I would not forget in a long long time for sure..