Kinley 2014 TVC

Dil Ki Baat

 Telling the truth is easy. If to clean your room is easy, to keep your desk/table clean is easy, to keep your mobile contact list and your computer desktop neat is easy. It is a habit. To do otherwise will make you feel uneasy, feeling of dirty within.

 It was one such feeling I was harbouring since few days. It was a feeling of being dirty within. I knew I need to clean it. Will confession do? I am not a Christian but I can do it in front of my Krishna deity. And I tried it. Oh, I found him laughing at me. “You can fool others; you may even fool yourself, but me? Forget it”

I knew It will have to be true cleaning to get rid of this feeling of dirty within. Telling truth is not just telling it to anybody, anywhere. It is telling one to whom it matters. And in a way that adds to love and not hurt. If it hurts, it is not truth. For truth never hurt. So when I finally let it out, it was with tears freely flowing down from my eyes. It was melting of my ego.

 Why did I not tell him that I was going without him to Mansarovar yatra? I thought he was not fit enough and will not be able to go through rigorous and demanding tour schedule. He may not be able to withstand cold and thin air with less oxygen at height. I thought he may not be able to walk on mountain track. I thought it will take away lots of my time to be with him, taking care of him and being with him, trailing behind others and will miss most of thrill and fun of the tour. But I could not tell him this.

 We had often thought and planned together, to go to Mansarovar yatra. We planned it every year since last many years. But for one reason or other could not make it. Years passed. Time took its toll. My friend developed knee pain and it got worse. He is now not able to walk fast and climb up the track as he used to. Though we walk daily in the garden and share all that two close friends will, I did not have heart to tell him that I will go for Mansarovar yatra without him. I felt it will hurt him. I felt he will think I consider him a liability or he may ask me to postpone it till he gets better.

 Fact is I was too weak to tell him that he was not fit in a way that doesn't hurt him so I avoided telling him altogether. Now having booked myself for the tour I cannot bear thought as to what will my friend feel?

 When I began telling him that booking for Mansarovar yatra has started for this year and I plan to go, he put his hand on mine and asked me that I must book it only for myself and he will not come as he was not fit. With tears rolling down I told him I had already booked one seat for myself. I was coward not to tell him that he was not fit. I am sorry. He hugged me, tears rolling down his cheeks also.

 His words “Truth dil ki baat hai, dimaag ki nahi” will always be guiding me when I am reluctant to say truth that may hurt.



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How foolish!

It was a bloody day

For all who care for life

For what represents freshness of life more than children?

For children

Life is not past but

Sea of possibilities

And that is what scares some

Who want to live in past

They tried to tarnish canvas

That permits any drawing

Any color

Any shape

Any thought

With color of blood of some children,
But canvas is too vast

As big as sky!

How foolish!

To think that

Few drops of blood in sea

Will change its nature!

Those who dare to swim against current

Are bound to get drawn in sea of time

For no force can stop

An idea whose time has come

Time has come for a new world order

That says your faith is private and individual subject
Your individual link with God is no business of anybody else

And so it is for your neighbors

And fellow citizens and all on this planet

Respect this fact

No force can work here

Only love can

Respect this order

Respect time

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Written to say thank you to those school children of Peshawar who were brutally murdered in an act of cowardice by extremists in Pakistan. These children will be remembered as ones who helped to change course of this world.

Vacation with children.

I will recommend a natural and spacious place for vacation when with family.

I used to love to take my children to sea beaches and hillsides in my younger days. Art galleries (yes, art galleries! Do not expect them to discuss art, but they do understand it in their own way!) are lovely spots where children often enjoy more than adults! And of course gardens are their favorite.

My most favorite places are sea beaches.

Sand is a medium that children and adults love to play with and create different world out of it! Sand castles and mountains and what not! Writing names and drawing faces and smiley is fun that comes natural to all – children, parents and grandparent! Creativity gets free flow here. 

Collecting seashells and arranging them later in room is an experience even my fourteen month old grandchild remembers and cherish! He often takes out collected seashells, which are now stored in a used plastic box and shows us. If he could speak, he will say – let’s go there! Let’s build sand castles and watch sun setting. I want to listen to birds chirping and breeze whistling! 

 As a grandparent I know that building sand castles with my grand child was more than play and fun. It was as if I wanted to tell him all in short time. All that I did as a child and all that I want him to know – how, when, where, why.....!

Let me produce a picture with few lines inserted in it. It tells what I want to say explicitly. 

A dip in water with grandchild and his parents around is I think as holy as any holy dip in religious places. It is remembered long after vacation. One just needs to be careful if children are too young. An adult must always be there with them.

Sea beaches usually have notice suggesting where water are dangerous. Avoid such places. In any case, inquire with local people and hotel staff, if it is safe to enter water there. Even swimming pools are great. Please remember to carry your swimming costumes and that of children as well.  Children love water. If they are too young and do not know swimming, please give them some time to get used to water. Please do not expect them to get going from the very first moment you put them in water. If they do, it is fine. If they do not, they will; after some time. Once they get going, you will find it difficult to make them come out. They will want to go on and on and on....

Please be careful about food that you eat at sea beaches. I will recommend coconut water and packed chips. Please avoid Chats like Bhel and Panipuri. I know it is tempting, but it is not worth enough to spoil your vacation. You may try Bhutta (corn cob) freshly roasted in front of you.

Some pictures under tell all.

Just let go when on vacation. Your children want to see you that way. 
It is a gift they are waiting for!

Just relax and play wherever you are and rest will be taken care by nature!

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This article is written for IB contest - Happy Hours: Teddy Travelogues