Ignatius Raphael - cosmic traveller

Day #38:     Monsoons (100 days Gratitude Challenge) The skies have darkened and the clouds have gathered and burst forth to shower rains on us. Yesterday was the first day of the monsoon and the city is getting pounded by torrential downpours. I love the rains and this monsoon is promising to be a good one with rains predicted through the month. Along with the rains, romance is in the air. This is the time when you can cuddle up and make out with your lover even during the day. If you love books, this is the time to sit in your favourite armchair, sip hot chai, munch on some bondas and drink in your book.  Monsoons revive and rejuvenate us and give us a fresh new start every year. The city reservoirs get replenished and the water table rises to store enough for us to draw water for a full year. The city gets cleaned up by the waters which wash away months of abuse and dust. The pitter-patter of the rain on the sunshade, the croaking of frogs that have suddenly popped up from

Day #38: To the nameless workers 100 days gratitude challenge Yesterday I was out for a jog along a canal and there were two JCBs and some supervisors working at 6:30 in the morning clearing the debris so the water can flow freely and without hindrance. Most people would have been deep in sleep in their beds enjoying the Sunday holiday. But for these people it was work as usual and they were busy ensuring that we are able to enjoy the monsoons without having to fear about flooding. There are countless such people out there whose work is making our life easier. The city conservation workers, the maintenance staff. EB, water board, Police and other Govt Staff, etc are all engaged in ensuring that we get our basic neccessites and we are kept safe from calamities and danger. Most of the time we do not even know that they are taking care of us but because they are doing their duty we are benefitted. I’m grateful to these people who are toiling for us. We remember them only when so

Day #37:               Social Media 100 Days Gratitude Challenge Yesterday I attended a Social Media Workshop by Social Eagle. Here I learned how social media has taken over our lives and companies are learning about us through our digital footprint and are able to target us for advertising their products and services. Many of us live on facebook, twitter, Instagram or other social media sites. We let the world know our thoughts, what we do, our relationships, our opinions, our interests and our pet peeves. We are letting it all hang loose out there and there are people who are watching this and making up their mind about us or targeting us for commercial gain. There are over two billion people out there on social media and it is growing rapidly every day. It has democratized journalism, helped millions become authors and opinion makers and given the populace a voice that can be heard and trended. In the last 10 years, the rapid strides taken in this space has transfor

Day 36: My mind 100 days gratitude challenge I'm going to turn 55 on December 17. My mind is biologically that old. Many people have stopped learning by this age and say I'm not that young anymore to pick up new learnings. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them. I love learning. Anything I hear that is new to me or something I don't understand, I look it up. I ask for more information so I can understand it better. I love puzzles, word games, chess, cracking clues, etc. I give challenges to my mind so it's working and growing. There is no limit to learning. The human race is evolving so rapidly that if we don't keep up, we will become redundant. Individuals and entities that are nimble, open, and quick to adapt will survive. Others will enter the extinct list. I'm grateful for my mind. It's giving me a rich life filled with valuable experiences. It's taking me on a journey that is filled with potential, possibilities, and magic. You take care of

Day #35:    Car Pooling (100 days of gratitude) I live in the suburbs a good 18 kms from TIDEL park. We are 3 kms from the OMR the main highway that reaches the city and there is no public transport to my place. Over 1200 families live in my township with more than 1000 cars plying to work daily. We have an active carpool group of around 250 people with an equal mix of givers and takers. Some are regulars and some are occasional. I’m using the carpool group as a taker for the last two months and I realise how useful it is for so many people. There is a regular giver who I travel with sometimes in the mornings. He is Ashok a good friend of mine. He is such a happy and giving person who literally gets upset if his car goes empty at any time. He actively seeks people who need a ride and helps them out. He regales us with meaningful conversations and sees to it that in the evenings there is some snack available for those travelling with him. Today I was riding with him after ma

Day #34:     Pacing partner (100 days of gratitude) I’m grateful for my pacing partner who has been keeping me company for the last 33 days by participating in the 100-day Gratitude challenge. A 100-day writing challenge is difficult because you have to be able to write every day whatever your schedule or preoccupations. And to write on gratitude you need to dig deep to find what you are grateful for. We find it very easy to crib or complain. But to be able to find something to praise or be grateful for is not an easy task, especially after running through many topics over 30 days, So when I’m down and unable to pull myself up to write in an upbeat manner on gratitude, I remember that there is someone out there who would be posting her Day 34 of gratitude and I should not let her down by quitting. The same thing happens in running. When I’m running alone it’s very difficult to stay motivated and to keep to my timing or distance. But when we are in a group and we have a pacing p

Day #33: Death (100 days of gratitude) I am grateful for death.  You must be wondering what’s happened to this fellow. Death is a somber, dark, depressing, perhaps terrifying topic to most people. But it need not be so if you went a little deeper to understand it. Death signifies the end of one state and the beginning of another. The day dies to give way to the night. The night dies to give way to the new dawn. The caterpillar dies to make way for the butterfly to take wing. The freedom of bachelorhood dies to give way to the bonds of marriage. (Oops, hope she is not reading this). Death in one state may mean life in another state. Death is nature’s way of ensuring the dynamism of life. Our Creator is also the Destroyer. What he creates in one dimension he destroys in another. A death of a loved one may mean that the loved one is now an angel looking back indulgently at us from above. Yesterday I attended a funeral of a 90-year-old man. He was my father’s cousin and we we

Day #32:     Chennai (100 days of gratitude) I was born in Madras and live in the same city for most of my life, except for a few short stints outside. I’ve visited many cities and have always wanted to get back home after a period. I remember this as a city with hardly any traffic. Private cars were few and far between. Buses and cycles were the common mode of transport. It was a big city with a laid back approach and a village-like pace and safety. I used to go to school by car when very young and later by bus when I was able to commute on my own. There was no fear of kidnappings, extortion, molestation or crime of any kind.   When I went to college I graduated to a cycle and in the 2 nd year I was given a TVS 50. I remember a friend of mine who possessed a 10 gear imported cycle who crashed into a bus at high speed. He was doing 45 kmph on his cycle when the bus in front of him braked. High speed collisions were as rare as a Tasmanian tiger. I could drink water off the ha

Day #31:     Diversity (100 days of gratitude) Good morning! Bon jour! Vanakkam! Namashkar! .... These are four of several thousand languages and dialects to wish you in the morning. India has hundreds of them. Similarly, there are many religions and faiths around the world. There are people with different orientations and dispensations to ours. When we meet someone who speaks a different language to ours, we need to struggle to get ourselves understood. This struggle ends with elation if we succeed or laughter or despair if we fail to understand each other depending on the gravity of the conversation. Similarly, when we meet someone of another faith that we are not accustomed to, we are curious to understand what they believe in and why they believe in it. This exchange gives us a larger perspective to our world and enriches us if we are not stuck up with our own beliefs. Boredom comes when we do the same thing over and over again or meet the same people over and o

Day #30: Addictions 100 days of gratitude The fourth day in succession I went for a run. Ok, actually a walk, jog and a hint of a run. But it tired me out as much as a run. It’s over two years since I ran consistently. But I am feeling good that I’m getting back into shape. I’m again falling in love with the feeling that I’m getting fit and healthy. It’s addictive. When I used to run earlier for a few years I had to have at least three or four weekly runs otherwise I did not feel complete. I was addicted to running. And I had to stop because of some change of schedules and an injury that combined to keep me away for a few months and then it was very difficult to find the discipline to get back to running.  But now I’ve enrolled for the Wipro marathon and I have to get some decent timing there so I train. Ok, no, I’m not doing the full marathon (42 km) nor the half (that is 21 km), I’m just doing 10 km. But at my age and fitness levels that is still something, so, I need to trai

Day #29:  Nature 100 Days Gratitude Challenge I can’t help it. There is such a wide variety of experiences that nature throws at us that I can give gratitude to her for 100 days or more. This morning my walk / jog / run was through a new route and I so fell in love with it that I have to share it with you. Let me show you a few pictures and videos first so you can experience a little of what I did. These do not do full justice to the landscape and the early morning dawn that breaks over it. Fresh clear air, sounds of birds, slight breeze that cools you down, the empty road, water bodies to my right, and the sun peeping out over the horizon, the scene is beautiful and heart-warming. This is the first time I came down this road. Its a new one that ends at a lake and there are no inhabitations close by so it was pretty empty. No vehicular traffic at all.  When I drive down the main road this is completely missed. Its when I am on foot that I

Day #28: Running 100 Days Gratitude Challenge 2 days of gorging on sweets and savouries I’m still feeling a little heavy and drowsy from all that eating. Diwali and Christmas are festivals where I let myself go on sweets and savouries.  This year I decided that I shall start my running again so I can stay fit. So two days back I resumed my early morning runs. Only this time I’ve started with walking first. It’s more than 2 years since I stopped regular running and I need to get myself back into running shape. On Wednesday I did a 5-km walk. 2 kms with Alfie and 3 kms on my own. Yesterday, Thursday, I did the same but this time I ran part of the distance. The feeling of the fresh morning air, the sound of the birds, the green landscape around me and the colours of the rising sun as dawn breaks are heady and I don’t know how I gave it a miss for over 2 years. Running is addictive. And I love it. I’m grateful for running, in just 2 days, I feel lighter and fitter. I’ve signed up f

Day #27: Our world 100 days of gratitude This morning at 5 am when I took Alfie for a walk I noticed the road was filled with the remnants of yesterday's festivities. Paper, cardboard, plastic covers. gunpowder, rocket launchers, bottles, buckets, mugs, and tons of muck. I feel sorry for the cleaning staff who have to labour to clear this. Rains may help if it comes pouring now. We humans have a unique relationship with our planet. We believe that whatever we do our planet will correct itself and come back to how we found it. We don't know or care who is cleaning up behind us. Fortunately for us, our planet has taken care of itself so far. It has taken all the abuse we threw at it and corrected itself. I wonder how long this party can continue before it gives up. Do you notice how our planet is learning to adapt herself to our ways? She is over 4.5 billion years old. She managed to see her way through dinosaurs for à few million years. Primitive mankind is about 200,000 y

Day #26: Traditions (100 Days Gratitude Challenge) Today we celebrated Deepavali in Chennai. I got up late after 6 am. It’s a holiday so no hurry. I walked Alfie my dog for around half an hour.  There was some scattered bursting of crackers in the opposite cluster of flats. My cluster of around 550 flats was silent and sleepy. It was like any other holiday here. I returned home to find everyone still asleep. My mother in law who is visiting had just got up. Contrast this to around 40 years back when my dad used to wake me up at 4:30 am, apply warm oil on my head and all over my body. Hot water will be in the boiler and all of us would take turns to have a bath, wear new clothes and go out to burst crackers. Some of us who wanted to burst the first cracker would jump out of bed earlier and shuck out to burst a few before the bath so we can claim that we are the first to burst on this street. The previous week my mom would have made laddus, murukkus, and other assorted sweets and

Day #25: Mother (100 Days Gratitude Challenge) Today I give gratitude to my mother. She is the reason I’m here and the reason you are reading this. She is the creator of me and this moment. A mother is the most important vehicle for our existence and the life we lead. She determines what kind of an adult I’ve grown into. If I’m happy, then it is her gift to me. If I’m sad it is could be her gift or not, but I can change the state if I choose to. That is the beauty of our life. We cannot change our past but the way we remember it, the way it powers our present and our future can be changed. If you are happy, thank your mother. If you are sad or miserable, still thank her for the ability to be able to understand where you are and the ability to change the state in a jiffy. My mother has been good to me. She has taught me the power of nurturing, caring and love. She has given her whole life to take care of her children. She was born and grew up in an age where the boy child was give

Day #24: Cleaning (100 Days Gratitude Challenge) “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”. We learned this in school and it keeps resonating in my head when I’m faced with clutter and disorder. If clutter has grown over a period of months, then the weekend after I notice it would be a busy one where I declutter and try to bring order to the chaos. Cleaning up is a therapeutic experience. I notice things around me. What is needed? What has outlived its purpose? What has been with me for long but has never or seldom been used? All of these are examined and decisions taken to retain, give away or reassign to a different place. The whole process is interesting. Emotions well up when I need to throw away something that I used to like in the past. In my numerous bouts of cleaning I’ve given away clothes, shoes, books (yes, books), electronic / household items, furniture, and various odds and ends. Notice when you are going through the following emotions or states and take up a clean

Day #23: Graphic Design (100 Days Gratitude Challenge) “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Confucius, This is a much quoted and often abused piece of advice that you may have heard a million times. But a lucky few of you may be in a career or business that seems like play and you may be wondering why you are getting paid for something you would do for free. I’ve had over 3 decades of work experience and I’ve been in different jobs or businesses at different times in my life. Lately, I’ve noticed that all that I’ve done in the past has prepared me for what I am doing today. All the knocks, the experiences, the victories, the failures, the grind, the learnings and the midnight oil have all prepared me for my present moment. When I design for a client, this enormous experience sits lightly on my shoulder and the creative juices just flow through effortlessly to manifest wonderfully on my drawing board or the computer screen. When I’m in t

Day #22: Burger (100 Days Gratitude Challenge) Do you like burgers? I do. And if the burger is from Eatalica or Pupil it’s worth dying for. You may think this is crass, unhealthy and I should not be promoting this. But we all have our weaknesses and this is one of mine. Last night (Friday night) I happened to visit Eatalica in RA puram after a long time and ordered the double-decker burger Puff Daddy. I was straightaway transported to burger heaven with the first bite. It’s scrumptious, tasty, looks heavenly and downright sinfully pleasurable and is worth the drive and the money. I know that this is called junk food and not healthy after a certain age, which I, unfortunately, fall into. But the juicy, tasty, delicious burger does not know that so I need to do justice to it. I’m grateful that I can have a burger and enjoy it. No doctor has told me yet to avoid this. So I’m game. And I’m waiting for the day when research shows up that burger and fries are healthy food that ca