Redefining Horizons

“Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. This is your captain.  In a short while, we will be docking at Lerwick. We hope you enjoyed the night sailing with us.  We wish you a good time in The Shetland Islands,” streamed in the skipper's announcement. Our vacation to Scotland and beyond was a gift from Doctor Abe and Elizabeth, our exceptionally big-hearted relatives, retired doctors, and hosts. We were accompanying them on the trip to The Shetland Islands.  Abe rented a car for the journey. We drove out from Birmingham and headed to Penrith for the night. Enroute we stopped by Lake Windermere and Dove Cottage, in Grasmere. It was one of the most picturesque journeys my wife and I had ever undertaken. Surrounded by so much natural beauty, Wordsworth could not have been anything but a nature poet. At Penrith, we were invited, by my wife’s cousin, Anna and her husband, a doctor, to dinner in a countryside pub. Everyone seemed to know everyone else and everyone acknowledged each ...

Life is intriguing, yet most go through it without casting a second glance. Many amongst us spend a lifetime content enough eking out an existence, dying many a daily death.  Rich or poor, few dare to look beyond livelihoods and wealth accumulation. When one dares to ask questions to oneself about oneself, the quest begins.  Quest  gives meaning to life and questions that arise, on their own slowly reach their answers. A persistent question, the ‘why’ of people’s behaviour came up in a late evening discussion with two friends, a young couple both achievers, located in San Francisco. The cause and effect notion of life, means with which it gains currency and its short lived utility found home in that discussion.   Weeks later by sheer coincidence, another persistent one ‘ purpose of life ’ came up for discussion with, a spiritually evolved, material minimalists and unbelievably large hearted couple, our hosts in Tustin, California. It was in one of many such discus...

Dad, me, you just don’t try to understand Desperate my daughter, as the situation, I try to understand Against me in my way, why I find you, I don’t understand World’s ways at least now, you need to understand Those little frowns and smiles, I could understand Without words, your needs I could always understand Fleeting time I feel, I failed to understand My little girl, a charming lady, I didn’t understand Your little eyes, once I could always read and understand Angels and demons, your dreams, then I could understand Clinging to my chest, your sleep I could easily understand Your need to be cuddled, by looks I could then understand You were trying to walk, I could easily understand Why I had to hold you always, never fully I could understand You were just teething, from books I could understand Why night long your mom and I cried, I still don’t understand It was just a passing fever, from the doc, I could understand Why your mom ...