find the alchemist within you...

I am an alchemist…..you don’t believe it!!!...ok….I ‘can’ be an alchemist …for that matter I would say…you too could be... an alchemist is buried deep in me …I mean, anybody could be an alchemist and everybody is born to be one….believe me…

What is alchemy? The power to transform any metal into gold ? or it is sheer chemistry….to get the right mixture…rather a magic mixture…to turn things your way…

When I say everybody is born to be an alchemist…I mean it. we abandon practicing alchemy midway…and cease the chance to be one….thats all.

In the novel there is a sentence which is my favorite…‘When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.’

It tells you that everything is possible as long as you really want it to happen.

When I was a kid I dreamed of becoming an airplane pilot or a railway engine driver or a truck driver or …..most of the kids dream the same way….. they all try to identify their destinies so early……re-identify them…as they grow….with reasons……. at the core of that innocence lies the lust to wander …like Santiago… but as we grow more….we gradually start losing control of our lives……bury our destinies on way…..fill our journey with unfullfilment and define it fate….and as said that’s the world’s greatest lie…Fear of failure becomes the greatest obstacle to our happiness.

Santiago pursues ‘alchemy’ all along…..and finally finds his treasure…the treasure which lay where his heart belonged. he had a dream and the courage to follow it.

What we search is right there all along…inside us.

We all have dreams and wait for ‘somebody else’ to tell that they may come true.

Don’t wait…. Live out your destiny…you have an alchemist inside you.

Life is in the journey, not the destination, so is the treasure.

As Coelho says, ‘Dying trying to realize your destiny is a lot better than dying like other millions who never know what their destinies are.’

At least, I never let the Santiago in me die….a dream even if it is lived for a few moments is better than not dreaming at all….but to survive a dream one must journey…towards it.

Ok…Let me unravel the alchemist within me….

I started as a banker almost 27 years back…in a middle class tamil brahmin family a boy after graduating had to start earning, and getting a ‘respectable’ job at that stage was a happy moment for the family….but soon I discovered that’s only a station, not my destination…..remained a banker for the next 7-8 years when walking towards my destiny I became a journalist. Abandoning a secured job naturally created the ‘required’ hue and cry in the family. By then I was also love married to a lovely lady …so the concern was much higher…but my better half in fact worked as my best half. I sticked to my decision and joined the times of India group. During my 18 years of journey into hindi journalism, I kept my dreams alive, regularly underlining my destiny….in these years worked for most of the big banners of media….though journalism unraveled many intricacies of life…it didn’t deter me either to follow my destiny… then the television breakout came in and I joined a reputed business channel as a producer…but all along I eyed my destination. Suddenly one fine morning I felt time running out to reach my destiny and I once again quit my job to follow it …. I was destined to take pictures of life, in any form….which can make me happy and which I can share with others….now for the last one year I am journeying towards my dream…just wandering and taking pictures…an immensely happy soul….may be a moment comes when my financial concerns and family responsibilities force me to push my dream aside for a while…but then, they can never die…because that’s my treasure…I will be nothing without it…

While walking to my grave, I will be all in smiles…. Because I had found my treasure….

When I say everybody is born to be an alchemist…I mean it.

it pains...

It pains me…but my pain does’nt help her…saw her at the slums near the wai temple. When my camera saw this cute child it yearned to get her in frame…it is true that looking from the viewfinder I didn’t notice the wounds on her face…perhaps I was more engrossed to make a picture….I noticed them while post-processing….and I was sad….sad over my meaningless pain for her….just 20 bucks…I cud have bought a soframycin tube….which wud have helped reduce at least her physical pain….sitting at my computer I cud only wonder how this cute, delicate thing bore all this without a sign of it in her expressions…with a load half her weight on her lap….no sign of complain…. I really felt depressed about it…. There again I missed a chance to help myself….

(Wai is situated on the banks of river Krishna, which has some very picturesque and serene locations. It’s a historical town in satara district of maharashtra, around 90 km from pune. It is also a popular shooting location for hindi movies. Its has two main temple complexes and ghats. The Ganpati temple on the ghats and the menavali temple ghats, which is so serene….)

This cutie is perhaps a construction labourer’s child at wai….those bricks were her toys…she was engrossed playing with them when she suddenly saw me zooming at her….amused…she stood straight looking at me…with a question…..

This group was preparing for a pose at the wai temple…..perhaps listening to the instructions before the shoot….just when few of them saw my camera aiming at them….. and they forgot about the instructions and those lovely things just filled my frame with loads of expressions….thank you cuties…

there is nothing beyond you...

If life is a gamble, she is a clear winner……no doubts….anyone can make it from her face. The innocence, contentment, energy, smile and the blush on her face told that she was very much into life. Even the clothes she was wearing were synchronized to it… And that’s the thing which attracted me towards her. She was washing clothes at the banks of river indrayani at dehu near pune…we were on our way back from a shoot at bhandara when I asked my friend to turn towards indrayani ghat at dehu….in fact I was looking for some good portraits…it was a typical ghat scene, few people taking bath, some washing clothes and others just lazing around in sun….. I had a quick look around and finally my eyes zoomed in to this lady…..she was in her sixties….washing clothes at the river bank very meticulously…it had a method….her wrinkles were a testimony to her hard life… I watched her for some time but she spotted us only when she was finished with her work…..we asked her to pose for us…and she just blushed….then she smilingly agreed to it and adjusted her (saree) clothes so that she looks better….she was so cute in her sixties…. a very happy and content face and when I asked her to grant us a smile on camera….that was fabulous…. I could see in her eyes that she was in love with her life……I don’t know how many shots I took….but neither my camera nor I had enough….

She reminded of those so many people I knew in my life….who despite having all the comforts and goodies of life, were unreasonably unhappy with their lives…..who never enjoyed what they had but always looked at things they did not have…..ever yearning for more….the ‘more’… which was just not quantifiable by any mathematics of life……….

She also reminded me of those innumerable articles published, of how in recent times the senior citizens are ‘living a second life’ after retirement….how they are enjoying the overseas holidays, amusement parks, shopping malls and branded cloths and accessories….without knowing that what they are after is……just a state of mind….nothing is beyond you….

purest form of God...

Today is children’s day…..but for me every single day is theirs…..they are one of the purest forms of God….. talking and playing with them is as sacred as interacting with God…..they are the real stress busters in today’s world…..imagine a world without children…..at least I cannot imagine…

Many years back…it was a cold winter night of January ….my elder son was perhaps 5 or 6 then….after having dinner we were all talking in the cozy warmth of blankets…on the street, a lone vegetable vendor was trying to sell his vegetables ‘aloud’….naming all the veggies he had….on that calm and cold night his voice seemed too interrupting into the hearts….suddenly I saw tears rolling down my son’s cheeks…..what happened…!!! We could not comprehend his tears…..suddenly what has happened to him….we asked him…whats the matter…...with all those tears…he said….it is such a cold night…nobody is on the streets….in such weather who will buy his vegetables….and nobody will buy then he will not be able to earn…..then how will he live…..he said, can we buy some vegetables from him…???....only God could be so concerned…..today that small child is a student at IIM…..God bless children…..

come anyway.....i won't miss it...

Greatest pleasures are in the simplest things……. Proved…..at least to me….and what about you ??? Have you seen grass….one may exclaim…what a stupid question…and when I tell how beautiful the grass is…. one may become sure of my stupidity…and decide to avoid me next time…. There is a reason to it… many of us are so much wrapped in the ‘synthetics’ of life that they can hardly see those simple pleasures …they are more happy faking them-selves….but the grass is just one freeware among the n number of those free and simple pleasures….

Has one ever felt the smile on one’s child’s face (if you have one)….the happiness one derived out of that free to air smile…. I am sure one must have…...do they feel the same ecstasy on a street child’s smile…which is so similar to one’s own child’s smile and its equally free too…. I doubt, many of them not….probably they have zoomed in their world to a narrow tunnel…zoom out, I say, and savor the simple things scattered around….

Let me share a story ….

The other day I was loafing around the phoenix mill compound at lower parel in Mumbai with one of my friends….we shopped…some real, some window…it was hot, so we stopped at an ice cream vendor outside the mall…. As we were enjoying our ice cream, an apparently poor lady (she looked a labor) in her thirties stopped at the ice cream vending trolley…she had a few months old infant tucked to her lap and a five year old boy holding her hand….she bought an ice candy stick and handed it to her son and paid the vendor…the feelings on the boys face clearly expressed that the mother has made his day….she too perhaps wanted to savor the luxury…so they kept licking it turn by turn…the child seemed too generous to share it with her mother….the infant in her lap was watching her mother and brother curiously…the mother sensed it and got him the taste of his (perhaps) first ice candy…the infant was so happy licking her fingers….as it was shared by them, soon only the stick was left…the boy didn’t seem fully satisfied….and kept licking the stick….and perhaps not happy that his mother shared too much of it…by the time we too had finished our ice creams…at that point something struck my friend…and he asked me…shall I buy him an ice cream….oh…definitely…that will be the greatest thing of the day, I said…. He asked the child…do you want more, he smiled and nodded…his mother perhaps could’nt say anything….my friend bought him an ice cream….. the child was more than happy….his eyes thanked my friend….my friend was more happy than the child…I could see it…and we were off from there soon with all our shopping….but the boy’s ice cream weighed heavier than all those shopped bagfuls worth a few thousand rupees….

Its more than two years….I still cherish that evening….and try not to miss any chance to savor such simple pleasures ever….come anyway……