There’s more to life than we think…

Life as we live, happens to be much more different than we think or have thought of. Thebuswindow has not been a culmination of thoughts over the drop of a night but many a random-thoughts accumulated over the period of last 8 years.

Back to 2011, I was travelling back home at the wee hours in the morning, It was in Chennai.

At the break of the dawn; street vendors setting up their stall, small children attending the call of the nature wherever they got open spaces, phool-walas arranging the flowers in bunches keeping the same coloured ones together. People thronging in huge numbers at that time to the lingams and sanctum sanctorum of the beautifully done ornate structures. As the glance spread far and wide one could see chai walas preparing their first round of that kadak chai, newspaper vendors shouting for news.

As the bus travelled further I could see people coming out of those holy structures with something smeared on their foreheads – of colours red, yellow and white. We entered the façade of the city and I could see people coming in and out of offices. Two contrasting worlds flashed in front of my eyes.

The bus window gave a new perspective to my definition of life from the child attending the call of the nature in the open to the people in those huge monolithic structures with glass panels to peek through. Stark difference in possibilities of life and how having one may risk the possibility of having some other comfort/luxury of life.

I immersed myself in a lot of observation and listening mode for those 3 years and times that were to be. And I guess everytime I met new people, visited new places in and around the city; the lens of the bus window widened. May be not always it gave a sharper focus or clear picture of what was held at the other side of the lens, it mesmerized me by the countless possibilities that lay there.

Life as I said earlier is not what we think or how we have thought of. It is beyond that. As it was supposed to be, life took me to Shillong. The low rise hills gradually leading to higher altitudes, the warm social milieu, lot of good music and cheap liquor – to mention. If I were to give Shillong a mascot, I would vouch for Maruti 800. You could find them everywhere! Shillong was like an extrapolation of thoughts that had culminated in Chennai.

While I stayed there getting closer to the nature day after day, I realized that how disconnected we are from the realities of life. And people over there despite being disconnected were still so connected with themselves.

We get so engrossed in our daily lives that we forget that we owe ourselves a break from that. We miss on so many wonderful things. We miss on observing beautiful evening skies or the morning haze, chirping of birds or the buzz of the wind. We miss the scent of earth after rains and how we miss the dust that smells raw before the storm. We are surrounded by noise every single second. This noise keeps us distracted from the things that are calming and satiate us. If Chennai helped me identify the void, Shillong told me what it takes to fill it up!

We are busy accumulating what we think life seemingly is but not actually is. Let us play the pause button! And we shall hear the musings that shall tell us who we really are and what comprises us. We are not just our body and not what we have, not even our thoughts. We are much beyond that.

I believe we are on an entourage – on this hypothetical bus – that takes us to places and makes us meet kinds of people. I am not sure if this bus shall drop us to our destinations but I am sure the bus journey is going to be one which will be exhilarating and fulfilling enough. After all it is the journey that counts!

While we peek a boo from the-bus-window, we shall realise that we are places we visit, books we read, theories we think about, movies we watch, mysteries we binge on, circumstance we fall prey to, sports we play, beverages we sip, people we meet, souls we connect to and zillion other things. And all that what we do in real world is what makes us – us!

Hence thebuswindow – picking up life!

We are all seeking something, the contention being we might not be seeking at the right places. While I recollect my story, I am sure there would be million others waiting and wanting to find the answers. Looking outside the-bus-window and immersing in the randomness of life might help.

Not that I have found all my answers but life is better if not sorted ☺