THE ICON

May I request my readers to zoom into the photograph below (The Icon for this Site), to study the photograph and note the inscription alongside. Thank you all!

The photograph was clicked by me, when we were about to climb the peak alongside the above marker. I must admit, probably like anyone else in my place, it made me stop in my tracks to pause and click a few pictures of this noteworthy roadside concrete signage reading, ‘YOU ARE ON THE HIGHEST MOTORABLE ROAD’! If I may add, ‘IN THE WORLD’! This would emphasize and underline my thought process.

This signage made me pause and think: when one is at the highest point, be it a hill, mountain, manmade construction, road, etc. , would the way ahead be only downhill?!

As I continued to catch up with my mates, who were already shouting and waving from a distance above my position, I was deep in introspection and flipping/flicking through the pages of my life. Thinking of the times when I had reached the zenith, be it with a climb or position in my career, whether I intended to retain, prolong, hold or abandon, depending on where I was; hilltop or the CEO’s chair.

During and after the trip I continued with my quest for coming to grips with this poser, that I had quizzed myself with. Way forward from the peak? Climb down and climb another? Rest in peace with the memories of your conquest. Or find a different path not yet appropriately identified and chronicled.

Did anyone, the luminaries in every walk of life, ever think in these lines? The search and research commenced and continued and proved to me, beyond any reasonable doubt, that no one, but no one, be it a monk, sage, incarnation has had the mandate to explain the unexplained. Intriguing, is it not!

Would you like to do your research and reach the same conclusions or are you game to accept my word momentarily?

At Khardungla (18,380ft)

Sipping Kahwa³#KahwaTea( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/kahwa) Tea at Khardungla, as I was taking in the unique sight of the glacier slowly feeding the stream below,

from which we had filled our canteens a while ago, the chain of thoughts which had commenced at the road signage, suddenly found direction!

When you step into your balcony and look at the sky, you see a canopy far far away and above you. When you stand on the highest peak on earth, say Mount Everest, the sky will still be that far away. If you fire a rocket, it would still not be able to fathom the height and where it all begins! And even if the rocket travels a few million miles into space, it would be the same story. Whereas, you could reach the bottom of the sea. The contrast, dear readers, to me is that going down leads to an end but going upwards and soaring has no limitations. If you can find a place in this void, where all of us belong, we try to realize our limitless possibilities.

Slowly but surely, it dawned on me that my life, until that moment, had never dwelled on a single achievement, more than momentarily, for the fact that I was pushed ahead by some unknown force. This I later identified and felt the presence of as a constant companion. For the sake of identity, I shall address this force as the Guiding Hand.

The ultimate creation, we were told, is a human being. Yet, total confusion prevails! We have believers and non believers of very many things in our daily lives. Both among educated and informed, as also among illiterate and uninformed. Investigating reasons for such behavior is for another day and time and now – best be left to anthropologists, researchers, psychiatrists or experts.

Let us focus on facts instead:-

1. Religion, racism, ethnicity have spilled more blood among humans than wars.
2. Majority of humans, believe in superstitions, good luck charms, bad omens, in their daily lives.*
3. If one flips the coin of life, the Heads and Tails are:-

(a) Life/Death

(b) Illness/Cure

(c) Wealth/Poverty

(d) Victory/Defeat

*(Readers are requested to write to the author with disagreements, if any).

Now, let us consider our status as humans, the ultimate creation.

So, as ultimate creations, we should have had better understanding of the ‘opposing parallels’ (a) to (d) indicated above; a better grip on the eventualities. Alas! this has not happened. Why? Let us examine further.

All of us humans are born in a given geographical location, with its unique culture, race, religion, ethnicity, etc. From birth, we are stereotyped as to where we belong and what would be our behavior pattern with a reasonable amount of accuracy. This is no different from an animal!

If one is born a zebra, giraffe, deer or a lion, tiger, leopard, one would know the behavior, food habits, and where one is in the food chain. It has been stated repeatedly that all living things are connected, plants and animal life. Does it not seem that the exception are the humans? We humans feel, we are not connected and not dependent on each other. We humans feel we are better than animals as we are not eating each other. Pause and think carefully here, we humans are doing just that, eating each other. Not physically, we have moved on from being cannibals, but in every other way. Religion against religion, race against race, white against black, and the list continues. Was the universe planned this way???

We are nurturing differences and complexes in our social system from birth for times immemorial, instead of practicing just the opposite. With superior intellect and as an ultimate creation we should know as truth that human race is dependent on each other and requires the support of nature for survival. This has not happened. What with all the glorification, the international awards and recognition of people in a so called ‘elite’ system, which has always been hollow from inside since inception. Are we not living with lies and misconception and on the adopted course, which can best be described as misadventure?

How does one find balance in the midst of this chaos? Now, the ultimate creation, i.e. us humans, come into our elements. (Before, continuing, I would like to provide, unequivocally, guarantee to my readers that any suggestion given would be from my personal experience and not hearsay).

Humans, with their grey matter, are mind-blowingly stupefying in what they could achieve. This is particularly true about the brain, than any other part of the human body. And one is not required to be a genius, with IQ like Einstein or Bobby Fischer. You and me have the capability. For the time being, I would request my readers to believe me. Here, let me quote MK Gandhi⁴#MKGandhi ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Gandhi), “Truth is what the voice within tells you”. I am more than certain, that if you remain with me, your voice within shall guide you to the truth!

When one focuses on self-improvement to find peace, love, happiness, sound health and a niche of one’s own in this universe, one has to accept changes in life-style, thought process, regimen, etc. In other words, the person needs to either shed, drop, abandon some and embrace, accept, initialize and inculcate new ones.

I have explained myself, through the following blog posts, each complete on its own area of coverage to give the reader the necessary and essential outline. They are divided into the following:-

• THE AXIS
• THE ELEMENTS
• THE WORD (SOUND)
• THE CONNECTION
• THE PERSPECTIVE
• THE VIRUS
• THE TREE BAOBAB

A toddler wouldn’t know the dangers from, for example, fire, sharp objects, medicines, and so on and so forth. The dangers, fear of objects or things comes with awareness, consciousness and knowledge. Just like toddlers, we adults are, in the true sense of the term, are as innocent as children and therefore open to the risks from multitude of objects, happenings and things, about which we do not have the slightest idea and knowledge. As guardians protect children from the dangers surrounding them, it would be wise for us adults to also have someone protecting us.

As we delve more into my discoveries and experiences, I would humbly and earnestly request my readers to proceed in sequence of the topics as given above for better understanding and appreciation.

We shall meet up at ‘THE AXIS’. Until then Peace (‘Sarvesham Santhir Vabatu”)