I begin to journal every day, sometimes twice a day. It became an essential part of my past week’s routine. It was due to the constant need to tell myself to calm down.
I have been panicking over one thing for weeks. And unfortunately, every other tiny problem in my life decided to meet and greet me with open arms at the same time. And hence, to journal every day became the need of the moment.
I didn’t have any mental space to think and be creative for this week’s post. I felt choked till my nose with work pressure and my correspondence course assignments. It was already half the week and I couldn’t let the week go without a post.
I decided to go through my journal entries for the past few weeks to find a post and I found what I was searching for. I have crunched and written a few of them below.
8th September 2019, Sunday
One thing that I do annually from last year is to attend this Ganpati Aarti at my friend’s house. This year’s experience again was as soulful as it could be.
There was a child who wished to play the taal, but since someone elderly was better at playing it, he wasn’t given one. I can’t see a child frown, I just had to get him the taal, and I did, his smile on receiving it from me was priceless!
But what was more worthy was to see him struggle how to play it throughout the aarti. So many people helped him, he took the advice of all and tried to match up to the rhythm of the hymns.
I was standing beside the grandma like last time. She is always looking up to me wondering why I don’t lipsync the entire hymns along with all the people. But finally this time they sang one hymn which I did knew and I sang it with full confidence.
She looked at me, held my hand and smiled. I smiled back. The moment felt serene. Sometimes it’s beautiful how without a word, conversations happen that touch your soul. Yes, I am a writer but I am a sucker for such priceless smiles and wordless moments!
10th September 2019, Tuesday
I and my team leader were to visit a hospital near Haji Ali for work. We finished our work early and decided to go to the Durgah.
We both walked to the holy place reminiscing the last time we had been there as children. How both our families had bought us here, how our vague memories of the time still made us smile. We both cringed to the dirt that surrounded the place and missed how it looked when we were younger.
When we reached the main sanctum, we sat quietly. She asked for duas and then we both sat there silently observing the calmness of the place. After a while, she explained to me many basic things that Islam follows. It felt refreshing to gain knowledge about something I had zero clues of.
Soon we stepped out of the Durgah and since it was low tide we walked to the stones. We walked till a bit and sat a little far from stones that were getting hit by the waves. We conversed about the most random things, observed crabs around us, ignored humans around us and tried to focus on the beautiful lushing sound of the waves.
We both know how mad the work has been making us both. It felt like we were being blessed for being earnest at what we did so far and the experience felt like a motivation to keep going.
17th September 2019, Tuesday
I reached Dadar station early. The travel was tiresome and I sat at the platform for a while before getting into the next train to my destination. I was listening to some loud music to keep me awake when he approached.
“Will you write this Bank application for me?”
Sorry, I didn’t get you.
“My name is DK Salian, I want to close my Bank account and I need help with writing this application. Are you getting late, can you help me please?”
I had time in hand and my gut said the man was genuine. I wrote the application for him while he kept repeating “you won’t get late to work, it is okay no?” I finished the application and my train also arrived by then. He said thank you, we shook hands and I left.
Thank You, DK Salian. You made me believe that the world isn’t evil. That it is still a world where we can reach out to strangers for help and receive it too. That it is still a world where we can be there for each other without being BFFs. That it is still a world where humanity rules overall.
I was busy cribbing about my life decisions, struggling with work and ad mist so much of my own made chaos that I didn’t realize that life happened to me. They say the beauty of life lies in smaller things and moments as such. Being too much into my things I couldn’t appreciate things that I got blessed within the background.
“Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.” – John Lennon. These words came to life for me through my journal entries!