Long ways to go

Cold and dark skies…
Was she lost!…
Long ways to go…

Bars

To be in places…
In search of hope…
Travelling behind bars…

New day

Green carpet welcome…
For a new day…
and a fresh start…

Thousand miles

A journey of thousand miles…
Starts with a friend…
and his trusty old bike…

From the sky

Go as high as you can…
Even mountains look small…
When looked from the sky…

Slowly

Slowly we move…
Connected by the invisible…
To the place we belong…

One closed door

“One door closes and you notice another thousand were open all along for you to enter.”

Another day in the life of Haniel. Another setback. Another door closes, temporarily, when I wanted it to be the most open. Another disappointment I have to overcome. Another interview that has kicked me to the kerb. (oh, boy could I do any wrong… 17.5/100 was my interview score)

I was kind of disappointed about my results. After three years of running around and looking at different paths for me to to pursue, this failure knocked me down hard. I started questioning myself, doubting my abilities and interpersonal skills.

It took me some time to pick myself up. In fact, I didn’t pick myself up. Some people put me back on my feet. People who cared about me so deeply. people who I had my back when I had nowhere to go. People who supported me when I had no idea. My family, friends and teachers.

So, here I am. Writing after a failed interview.  An interview that has almost changed my life, when I think about it. An interview that made me meet some of the wonderful  people in my life. An interview that has once again realize the value of people around me. An interview that has given me another chance to have a go at certain things.

A closed door that has opened my eyes to the million other possibilities there could be.

Journey and destination

I find myself in a journey again. Another train journey and 8+ hours to spend doing something. I slept for some time, watched a movie for a while and finally, ended up here. What is important? The journey or the destination? Such an old question. But, still it gives you a lot to think about, a lot to reflect and remember.

I thought, the destination is more important. It is the most important part of any journey.  Without a destination, your journey won’t have any direction. Without a destination, a journey would’t be a journey. It would be just wandering around aimlessly. When you say someone that you are going on a journey, the first question they ask back is, “Where are you going?”. All the other questions about how and when come after that.

And suddenly, another thought crossed my mind. There were those journeys in which I enjoyed the travel, the places I saw and people I met before I even reached my destination. Those journeys themselves were important, even without the destination. Maybe, how we go is more important than where we go.

My mind was like the famous Tamil expression “மதில் மேல் பூனை” (mathil meethu poonai meaning, cat on the fence that could jump to either side). I still was unable to come to a clear conclusion. Two kids near me were flipping a coin and playing heard or tails. I was watching then and suddenly a thought popped in my head.

Maybe, journey and destination are like two sides of a coin. Both are to be present for the coin to be valid. I doesn’t mean one side is more important than the other. I have often heard people say, “The mean is as important as the end”.

When I thought more, I felt, In some cases, you might have to go through a wonderful journey to a destination that is not so pleasant or undertake a difficult and unpleasant journey to a beautiful destination. Whatever the situation is, try to enjoy the things that come your way.

Think about the beautiful destination, when you are having a tough time in your journey. Think about all the experience and enjoyment of the journey, if you are not happy with your destination. It doesn’t matter if it is the journey or the destination. All you have to do is find reasons to be happy, like those kids flipping coin happily.

 

The interview

Recently, I had  the chance to talk to a friend who had gone through an interview. I casually asked asked about his interview experience. He said that the overall interview experience was good, but something funny happened right before the interview. I asked him for details and here is what he said:

‘… I was waiting in the allocated area for people to wait before the interview. I was a bit nervous about my interview. Many different thoughts were bubbling in my head. I was trying to be cool and not show my nervousness. That is when I noticed that guy ahead of me in the waiting line.

He was very nervous and was shivering like a leaf in the wind. In the 30 minutes I was watching him, he drank 4 bottles of water and went to the washroom 5 times. He looked so pale and was looking as if he will faint if someone touched him.

Looking at him, I got a bit nervous. People are taking this interview very seriously, I thought. I was trying to change my thoughts. I tried not to let the shivering person influence my interview mindset anymore. That is when a guy came out the interview room.

People were flocking around him to hear about his interview. He sat next to me and was narrating the details of his interview. He was talking so fast, all I could think of was, ‘ how can someone talk this fast!’. Without any thoughts, I too started to listen to what he was saying.

‘The interview panel is very harsh. They don’t give me time to think. They didn’t even want to see my work. I had to ask them to see my works.’  He kept on talking. I was feeling nervous again. Fear of interview had crept into my mind.

On my right was a person so nervous about the interview and on my left was a person who was worrying people with his interview experience. Now, I was feeling so nervous, I was almost like that shivering guy (Except for the bottles and bottles of water). I had to reset my mind.

I went out of the waiting area, took a walk around the place, calmed my mind and came back just in time to attend the interview. I didn’t look at or talk to anyone before or after the interview. I didn’t want anyone to get tensed because of my babbling.’

I was listening to all this and was laughing uncontrollably. When I was done with the laughing, I thought about the incident in a different way.

Mostly, people when attending an interview will be nervous. Try to act in a way that doesn’t affect the psychology of people waiting for their turn. Even if people are asking you about your interview after coming out, just say that it went well, wish them all the best if possible and leave the place as quickly as you can.

Each interview experience will be different. Let others discover and enjoy the process. Don’t discourage people before they even start their journey. Have a good time

Seva cafe

My friends were asking me accompany them for dinner. I was a little irritated by the invitation. I almost never say ‘no’ to my friends. I asked them, “Where are we going?”. “Seva cafe” was the answer. “The serve food for free, you can pay if you want”, he added. I was wondering, ‘ who would run a cafe in the middle of this city for free!’. My curiosity  was piqued. I agreed to go along with them.

30 mins later, I was on the top floor of a building that had a pretty confusing layout. we had to go up and down twice before we got the right elevator to reach the place. The place was pretty tranquil and calm. There was not a lot of crowd and my mind still refused to believe that they were not charging people in this place.

We got to a table and took our seat. A lady with a very pleasant smile welcomed us and asked for our order and things went on as they would in any normal cafe. While my friends were eating, I just took a look around the place and found it quite interesting. I asked the lady if I could talk to the person in-charge. She asked me to talk to Baskar who was the coordinator of the place.

Couple of minutes later, A man with a very big smile came to our table and shook my hands and introduced himself as Baskar. I said that I would like to write an article about the place in my blog and would like to meet him the next day. He readily agreed and asked me to meet him after 3:30 p.m  the next day.

We finished eating, my friend said that we are done to the lady who was serving us. She brought the bill like any normal place. I bought it from her and looked at the bill. There was no price written on the bill. We left a small amount with the bill and left the place.

The next day, I along with two of my friends went to Seva cafe at 3:30 p.m . We were asked to wait for Baskar. I took a few pictures of the place.The kitchen was very clean and there was even an exchange library. Seva cafe impressed me more.

Baskar came and started to work on the food of the day. We asked him if we can help to which he agreed readily. We started to chop vegetables and talk to Baskar. I asked him about the place and how it runs.

He explained “Money is not the only thing we can give to others. If we intend to give and share, there are a lot of things around us. Food and service are something that can be shared easily with people. This is the way we run things here. There are four regular employees and everyone else is a volunteer. We don’t have customers, we have guests. We are not employees, we are a family”

“And what about the money to run the place?”, I was wondering. Baskar said, ” We don’t expect people to pay money. When you do the good you do with all your heart and love, people will help you run the place. People volunteer to serve others with all their heart. We don’t ask or force anyone to do stuff for us.”

When we were talking four other volunteers joined us. I just enquired about them. Two of them were localities, one was a student in college and the other was an American touring India. One of my friends had to leave early and the other one was staying with me. We decided to volunteer for the rest of the evening. Around 7 o’clock, people started to come. It was a closed get-together for people from two different service groups.

We watched their activities and started to serve food around 9. The gathering came to a close at 10. I got to witness the dedication and the service of people who worked and volunteered in Seva cafe, first hand. After all the guest left we helped to clean up the dishes. It was a fun evening, working with people I barely knew to serve people I didn’t know.

We came to the end of our day in Seva. We sat in a round to have our food. I was reminded of my school days.We prayed for the food we were having. Baskar said “we should be thankful not only the people who made the food, but the people who grew them and all those who were involved in getting the food to us. If no one else claps and says that you did a good job, tap your shoulders and say job well done to yourself.”

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of going to Seva cafe, having food and then volunteering. I even got a heart badge for serving as a volunteer. Hopefully, Seva will continue to be a place that will serve and delight people with food and love.