Eat, Pray, Love

Just finished reading 'Eat Pray Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert.

After a divorce and a bit of a pre-mid-life-crisis, the 30-something author decided to spend a year trying to restore balance to her life by traveling solo to three places: Rome, India, and Bali. This book chronicles that year. Its her search for everything.

The book Eat Pray Love is also being made into a movie starring Julia Roberts.

A few lines from the book have really struck a chord in my head and heart. It is so profoundly true and beautifully put.

Quote The resting place of the mind is the heart. The only thing the mind hears all day is clanging bells and noise and arguments, and all it wants is quietude. The only place the mind will ever find peace is inside the silence of the heart. That's where you need to go. Unquote

At times im not at peace because there is a constant head vs heart struggle. And rarely it happens that they get along. In most situations my head and the heart have torn me apart.

At times i have a craving to eat something and if i decide otherwise, it later haunts me and i come to a point where i think i should have eaten it. Thats a small thing my heart told me. There have been bigger things my heart told me, but i ignored all the warning signs and tried to suppress what it said. In the end, you know whats going to happen, dont you? And it does happen. The heart told you so, but you never listened. Now can you really complain?

So, if you find yourself alone and If you are on the road and you dont know the directions and If every door you tried was locked and If the river seems too wide and deep to cross. If the mountain seems too high to scale. Dont worry!! Listen to your heart - your heart will lead you home.

One needs to follow the heart as the heart never lies and would guide you even if you're lost in hostile Sahara or Arctic. And then you shall find ourself once you're completely lost. :)

Just another Day...

...Just another casualty. Each new day is a new fight in itself. The alarm wont ring. The milk gets spilt on the shirt. The team mate is absent. The PC conks off. The boss wants a report urgently. The list is endless. Everyday there are a hundred things that can go wrong and one of them just goes wrong.

And when things go wrong, you find yourself on the darker side of things. Amongst all those times, there is one thing that has really helped me sail through is my extremist attitude. Im am a person who always likes to see things in black and white. It is either this way or that way. Taking the middle path has never been my philosphy in life.

Often we all take advantage of looking at things the grey-way. It seems that the main reason to apply this way of thinking to our everyday life is simply that this way of seeing is to our benefit. Travelling in two different boats at the same time may land you in the pool of water. Ever Kabir Das, mentions in his doha that things get ground between two ways.

चलती चाक्की देख के दिया कबीरा रोए
दुइ पाटन के बीच में साबुत बचा ना कोए

Choosing a destination and deciding between this and that tough maybe, but makes life easier. Its a choice we have to make and then deal with it. No choice is easier than the other. But its important we make one and face the consequences.

Time and again i have made wrong choices, but im glad i made them as i could stand by the concious choice i made. Even if i failed, its easier to deal with the failure coz making the choice was my responsibility and so are the effects of making that choice. Its slightly easier to take it in our stride.

Yehi hai right choice baby - to make a choice!!