Tag: journey

The Pursuit Of Beauty

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It is the pursuit of beauty in things and people that is the journey – the real journey. I was happiest when I sought beauty in words and music and images. I was happiest in movies or in the middle of a symphony – whatever allowed the mind to ponder all that was possible and glorious. The world, I suppose, is the result of actions taken by people possessed of an image or an idea, and the world I care most about is constructed from those images that reminded someone of the beauty and the nobility of people. I’m back on the job of looking for this beauty, and nothing is safe from my eyes and my ears. I want to find and host the beauty of the world.

– Tennessee Williams

A very warm hello to the people of the world!

In case you were wondering, this blog is still very much alive! I know it’s been a while (7 months!) since I last posted anything, but I haven’t stopped thinking about this blog, and what it means to me. Life has been busy this year, and I’ve been running a little short on motivation to write anything.

But I recently came across the above quote by Tennessee Williams, given to James Grissom in an interview in 1982, that resonated quite a lot with me, especially with regards to this blog, and which shook me out of my lethargy enough to finally pen something down. 😅

One of my goals with this blog has been to share and reflect on the beauty that I see around me, wherever it may come from – people, pictures, places, or in any other form. 

I do feel that given all that is going on in the world, sometimes, we do need to be reminded of the beauty in things and people. To be inspired by them. To strive to be better than before. To try and make the world, or at least our little corner of it, a better place. I know sometimes things like these sound very naive and cheesy, but I don’t think there’s an alternative. We can either choose to be cynical and become apathetic to the way of the world, or we can try and treasure those little moments of beauty in our everyday life, so that we at least have hope for something better, no matter how naive it may be. And I think you’ll agree with Tennessee when he says, “[t]he world .. is the result of actions taken by people possessed of an image or an idea..” So, it’s very important that that image or idea is a positive one, rather than a negative one. 

So yes, I do think that “the pursuit of beauty in things and people that is the journey – the real journey.” I do want “to ponder all that was possible and glorious.” And even though I’ve lost a little bit of touch with that pursuit in 2024, I want to get “back on the job of looking for this beauty”, and “I want to find and host the beauty of the world.”

As a new year dawns, this almost sounds like a new year’s resolution! But I’m not one for such yearly resolutions, which usually don’t last very long. So I’ll just simply hope that in 2025, I can try and be better at this journey than I was last year. And I hope the same for you too!

May we all seek and find more beauty everywhere around us in 2025, and may that beauty inspire us to take actions, no matter how small, to make our world just that little bit better.

Wish you all a very Happy New Year! 🥳

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Credits | Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash | Edited with Canva

Six-Year Anniversary!

A Wondering Wanderer2 Comments

Time flies, doesn’t it?!

Today is the six-year anniversary of this blog! Yayy! Happy Birthday to you, bloggy! 

Wow! I had to check the date multiple times on that first proper blog post I wrote here to actually believe this. It sounds like a cliche, I know, but it really feels like just yesterday that I wrote that piece.

(Well, okay technically, I had created the blog much, much earlier than six years ago – way back in 2011, but I started writing here somewhat regularly from July 25th, 2016 only, and so, that’s what I consider as the starting date of this journey. As they say, things happen when they are supposed to happen!)

And it’s been a good journey. I’ve learnt some things about myself as I tried to put my thoughts and feelings into words. Writing kind of forces you to streamline that jumble of internal monologues into somewhat of a coherent thing, which gives you some clarity. You ask yourself questions, see the inconsistencies, try to resolve them, and when you can’t, you discover, and make peace with, the contradictions that are present in how you look at things – all leading to better self-awareness in one way or another.

Trying to write more regularly also motivated me to introspect more than I may have done otherwise. It introduced me to some good quotes too, as I thought about sharing them as a change from the longer-format essays I usually posted here. Then came the poems. Although I used to write poems even before I started blogging, the incentive of having a wider reach of audience definitely played its part in keeping that flame alive. Let’s see what comes next.. 😉

But, even given all of the above, for the last couple of years, I haven’t been able to write as much as I wanted to. And I’ve been missing it. It’s just that I haven’t been in that zone to be able to actually refine that internal noise into something meaningful. Even though I now have more time than I used to earlier, it still feels like, somehow, things have become ever more complicated. That constant clutter in the background hasn’t allowed me to focus enough to be able to finish my drafts, or to reflect on new ideas.

Plus, it’s difficult to have a creative process work at a fixed, regular frequency. I tried it initially. But I realised that over time, it was becoming mechanical. I was writing for the sake of writing. There was a conflict between two opposing ideas.

One said that I should push myself to write, no matter what. Because you become better only by writing more and more, and if that means setting deadlines and schedules, so be it. And if I’m being honest, there was also a concern that if I don’t put something out regularly, I’ll lose any readers that I may already have (even though I probably have like just 2-3 regular readers, if at all. But for a newbie, wannabe writer, even they matter a lot!).

The alternate view was that writing should be organic, especially given the themes and purpose of this blog. Writing was supposed to be an outlet. What was the point of indulging in it, if I was becoming more concerned about the “materialistic” aspects of it. And like I said before, things happen when they are supposed to happen; we can’t really force them into existence.

So, I’m leaning towards the second argument these days. But I wouldn’t be surprised if, in some time, I start leaning towards the first again. As most things go in life, this might also be cyclical in nature. But yeah, for now, I’ll try to write more regularly (or rather, try to reflect on things more regularly), but I won’t make a thing out of it. If something comes out of those moments of reflection, great! If not, that is okay too.

But I do hope this journey continues for a long time ahead. For six years (!!), I’ve managed to hang on, even if on an on-and-off basis. Writing has made my life just that little bit easier. And I think you’d agree, we can all do with life being a little bit easier.

I’d also like to believe (and really wish) that perhaps, somewhere, someone found some value in this blog. Maybe a thought, or a feeling of being a little less alone, or maybe even some practical advice.. anything. I know I’ve been lucky enough to find words, written by strangers I’ve never met and will probably never meet, that have given me hope on a cloudy day, laughter when I needed it, acted as a guide when I felt lost, and in general, just enriched my life in myriad little ways. In turn, I’d really like to be that person for someone else now – pay it forward along the chain. With interest, if possible.

So, with that hope, I’ll wrap up today’s blabbering.. 😁 Feeling too sentimental I guess. I could go on and on and on… But I’ll stop. For now. 🙂

See you around!

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Photo by Daiga Ellaby @ Unsplash

LFTR #1 | On Switching Lanes Often

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If you are wondering what that weird abbreviation is, it is this: “Lessons From The Road”.

With this post, I hope to embark on a journey (pun intended), where sometimes, I’ll be sharing some of the lessons I’ve learnt while being on the road. And before you think of me as having a fun, travel-based lifestyle, and this as being some sort of a worldly-wise, rich collection of experiences (I wish!), let me tell you that, unfortunately, that is not the case.

When I say “lessons from the road”, what I mean is things I’ve noticed, or thoughts I’ve stumbled upon, while literally being on the road, behind a wheel. I enjoy driving, long drives specifically. There’s something about the open road, with the wind in my face, that tends to put me in a philosophical mood. That, coupled with the focus on driving, makes me notice some parallels / analogies between our journey on the road,, and our journey in life. And that is the genesis of these thoughts.

This is the first post in the series. However, this isn’t the first thought – there have been some earlier as well, but this is the first one I’m writing about. Keep an eye out for the rest in the future, as I hope to share them once those are penned down as well.

So, without further ado, here’s LFTR #1: Switching lanes frequently isn’t always as helpful as we might think.

Here’s what I mean by that: 

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Discovering Our Course

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One recognizes one’s course by discovering the paths that stray from it.

– Albert Camus

This quote is taken from Albert Camus’ essay “The Myth Of Sisyphus”. And I wouldn’t blame you if it sounds confusing to you. I had first come across this quote a while back. And while I don’t remember exactly how I felt about it at that time, I think, now, with slightly more life experience, I can relate to it better.

Sometimes it is difficult to know where to go next in life, which path to pick. There are just so many possibilities, so many directions that one’s life can take. It’s not the case for everyone, though – there are people who clearly know what they want from life, and how to get there.

But if you are like me, you probably have been a bit confused, at least at some point, about where your life was headed. I was at such a crossroad recently, and that’s when I realised one interpretation of this quote that was applicable to me.

Of course, different people may have different interpretations of it. And I haven’t read the source essay to know full well in which context Camus said this himself. Still, based on just this one line, my interpretation is simply this: when you don’t know what you want, you decide based on what you don’t want. And sometimes, that gives you enough clarity to know what you wanted in the first place.

But as I was writing this, I realized, it’s not even just about “wanting” or “not wanting” things – it can be extended to other things as well. For example: You discover what kind of a person you are, by finding out what things you just can’t do or support or stand for.

The things that you don’t want are basically paths diverging from the road that you are on currently.

By knowing what we don’t want, what we are not, where we don’t want to end up, etc., we get a step closer to understanding the truth behind it – what we want, who we are, where we are going.

Imagine it like this: you are travelling on the highway, with no specific destination in mind. At regular intervals, there are exits. One exit will take you to city A, another to city B, and so on. As you encounter these exits, one-by-one, by either taking or not taking one of them, you are deciding the final city where you’ll end up, which will ultimately determine what course you took in your journey.

So, I think the point here is when we encounter these “exits” or paths, we should be mindful, as that will determine where we end up in life. Sometimes, we are just so used to “driving”, that we don’t even realise when we make a left turn here or right turn there. We are on “auto-pilot” mode, just going through the motions. But life doesn’t always present a U-turn for you to go back and make a different choice the next time.

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Two Year Anniversary!!

A Wondering Wanderer2 Comments

Well, well, well…How quickly does time fly! Can’t believe it’s already been two years since I started blogging here regularly!

I still remember that first post. Honestly, at the time, I didn’t know, or even think, that I would be doing this for the next two years of my life. All I wanted to do was to share a pleasant experience with anyone who’d listen. It felt good to share that pleasant experience, and that’s what I’ve been trying to do ever since.

This journey over the last couple of years has been quite interesting. I’ve come across some new thoughts through others’ writings, remembered and re-evaluated some old ones of my own, and reached out to people I never would’ve come across otherwise. There’s something alluring, romantic even, about discovering words written years and years ago, on blogs that are no longer active, by authors who got off this journey at some point, for some reason; about finding that one post with zero “likes”, but that speaks to you as if it was written especially for you, by someone on the other side of the world, at the other end of their life’s journey! The power and connect of words is truly amazing! Reminds me of stones skipping on water. 🙂

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Dear Diary…

A Wondering Wanderer3 Comments

Hey there, dear diary!
Nice to meet you again.
But, after years on this road,
Time’s up on our journey.

We rarely realize,
That word after word,
Our journal fills itself,
N’ how swiftly time flies.

But, what a wonderful gift
You turned out to be.
An anchor for choppy seas,
Saved me from being adrift.

Oh, the accidents it took…
For us to come together.
For this story of mine,
To find a place in your book.

Hopes n’ dreams, anger n’ screams,
Stained your pages with ‘em all.
Yet you somehow held together,
Dangling between the extremes.

Many did I share before –
Memories too important.
Some best forgotten, but
Many still left to explore.

So, it is hard to let go.
Stitching, sketching, stretching,
What will be the last story,
That you’ll ever get to know.

But it’s a good reminder:
No one knows or controls,
The stories and pages,
They are left in the binder.

With nary a chance,
Too many end too soon.
I know I am lucky,
To get one more dance.

But here approacheth the end,
And even though,
There may be more,
None can take your place.
So, in this last little space,
Let me just say:
Thank you, and goodbye, dear friend!

If you have been following this blog, you might notice that sometime back, I wrote a post about some parting thoughts on reaching the end of a journey. When I had had those initial thoughts, I knew there was potential for a poem there. But writing one takes time and effort (lots of it!) for me, and so, at that time, I thought I’ll just go with the flow and put my thoughts into the simple words that came readily.

But since then, the idea of expressing those feelings through a poem had been on my mind. And so, here you go! It’s done, finally!! 🙂

It’s definitely not my finest work, which, so far, (shameless self promotion warning!) I consider to be this, for a variety of reasons. But even though I knew this wasn’t as good as it could’ve been, I just had to get this one out of the system! Still, howsoever the poem is, I hope you’ll at least get a glimpse of that bittersweet feeling (if I haven’t done too bad a job of messing that up), and maybe, of even the larger picture… 😉

Thanks for reading! Hope you have a wonderful day!

Photo Credit: Dariusz Sankowski on Unsplash

What Begins, Must End

A Wondering Wanderer1 Comment

Apart from this blog, I sometimes also write in an actual journal, a diary. I find that sometimes, you just need that physicality to writing – the sound and touch of paper, holding and moving the pen, the rhythm of the hands, instead of the mechanical “clickity-clack” of typing and staring at a white screen. And well, some thoughts are too private even for a “personal blog”. 😉

I don’t do it often – just a couple of entries a year. Sometimes even fewer. So, I’d been using that same diary for the last many, many years. But as I was writing in it this time, I realized that I had reached the end of it.

As I neared the end, I wanted to write a “goodbye” message in the little space that I had left (yeah, I’m “weird” that way), which I did. But as I began writing, I had an amusing and pleasant thought, one that I think (more like “hope”), some of you might find some beauty in. So, here I am, reproducing that final, short diary entry below:

* * *

And just like that I’ve reached the end of this journal – a journey that began many, many years ago, with a thoughtful gift. Now, there aren’t many pages left in this diary, for another one of life’s journeys.

A little more space to continue writing would have been nice, but we don’t control how many pages we are given, and where our story ends. I guess I’d never really be ready for it to be over. So many stories left untold, incomplete. But not much that I can do about it.

Sometimes, you get a chance to wrap up your story in time, when you know the end is near, but even then, it’s not easy letting go. You wish you could continue in some way or another; just refusing to let go.

But, the end approaches, and it’s time to say, “Thank You! And Goodbye.” 🙂

* * *

Photo Credit: Dariusz Sankowski on Unsplash