I dedicate this blog to all those people who put boards outside their houses. My favorite amongst them are the warning boards that say 'Beware of Dogs'.

Indian Roads are really amusing. This discovery was brought about my observations while wandering aimlessly on these roads for past one week. I have lots of idle time and no desire to put it to any use. So I just read, eat, sleep and most importantly wander.
On one of these days my dad was driving a scooter and I had captured the backseat. I had nothing to do except for gazing around (my dad is strictly against talking while driving). So this is all I noticed, a board was hanging outside one of the houses and it said ‘To Let for girls’; I found this pretty interesting. The house owners want only girls, great! That is perhaps because girls don’t drink or smoke or spoil the walls or come back late and other such bad habits (this is the general belief, we are cashing on the reputation so far created :P). Well this is just a speculation; otherwise other options are like all the inmates of that house might be guys or girls with options open or somebody forgot to paint an ‘i’ on the board.
Next I noticed another board on a house with big black Iron Gate, the board said ‘Beware of Dogs’. What a wonderful welcome message in the nation of ‘Atithi devo bhav ’ (guest is equivalent to god). Well a big black Doberman behind the bars of the massive iron gate suggested me to take the warning seriously. I asked my brain to immediately stop processing any more thoughts against the warning or the reason behind it.
My dad was still driving silently and I was reading the nameplates outside the houses. One of these plates listed five- six doctors, three males and three females, all with same surnames. Then there was another board marking their area of specialization. This is great, they could share the basic instruments, office, stationery and even the white lab coat. Bad joke, i know but that was my first thought. Second was the perfect gender ratio, was it three couples or two couples and siblings and so on. Anyways most interesting part was the presence of two massive dogs behind the white gate and there was no board indicating the presence of these inmates, I guess they were the source of patients; the noble breadwinners of the family.
By now we were at our destination and as we dismounted, the street security marched towards us. The security demanded us to stand straight without any movement at all. Two gentlemen checked while two over saw the procedure. We were then allowed to leave, walking one step at a time. Well these gentlemen were four burly street dogs. I wonder if Municipal Corporation too is planning to put up the boards ‘beware of dogs’ at every entry point to the city.
“Welcome to Jaipur. Beware of Dogs.”

I have been travelling a lot lately, meeting a lot of new people and chatting with them. This blog is inspired by one such conversation I had with someone, whom I met on train.

My long discussions with myself haven’t yielded much just some thoughts I could put into words.
Around me I see a lot of people with problems and I don’t find a single person with no problems at all. Married people and unmarried people, young people and old people, any type of people you name it.
A few of these people asked me if I had any problems, I refused. My refusal was not for ‘having any problems’, rather I refuse to admit I have any problems and next step is to refuse to have any problems at all till they start affecting my very existence on this mother earth.
One tormented soul asked me, what brings happiness. I also wonder about the same.
After a few days this is what I told my new friend ‘the tormented soul’. I said, “Don’t feel guilty about selfishness”.
The soul grimaced and expressed its displeasure at such a ‘grotesque’ thought.
My heart questioned my brain and my brain blamed my mouth to have said it this way.
I smiled at my critique, the tormented soul and asked, “Aren’t humans by nature selfish?”
The soul looked at me with hollow eyes, its dry lips opening up to answer but then it averted its gaze.
Well done! My heart complimented my brain.
“Look everyone wants to be happy and is yet sad because we all depend on others for our happiness. The others is everybody except for you. This ways not only you get rid of the burden of your own happiness but also you get someone to blame for your sorrow. Remember there are choices to be made at every step and being happy or sad is one of them. You will live your life but its your choice to live the present/ repent the past or dread the future. Live your life in moments, this world is full of experiences waiting for the moments of exploration. Set yourself free, O tormented soul and take what this life offers you.
Take care of your loved ones but let it be unconditional. Don’t torture yourself with too many ifs and buts, let your life roll. Look around you, the world is such a great place to be. My dear friend tormented soul if you want to do something for this world, first choose to make yourself happy.”
It looked at me and smiled. “You just preach but you fail to understand, I am very sad.” tormented soul said in a hurt tone.
I again refuse to be moved by those tears or the pain in the voice.
“Is it others who fail to understand us or we refuse to understand ourselves?” I said.
This was the end of this conversation. My heart tried to intervene but was stopped by my brain. Mouth refused to say any more. My brain still kept a question mark in my eyes.