I have been living out of hotels for some time now. And when I am in Delhi, I choose to stay at our guest house in CR Park. I remember the first time I came here . The address that was given to me was a place called “Park regency” and I assumed that it would be a Hotel. But when I landed here, I realized that this was a Guest house which NIIT has been patronizing for the last fifteen years. I was greeted by an Old man who requested me to sit down as he pulled up a huge ledger and made me fill in the details with meticulous care. Little did I realize then that that was the beginning of an Intense bond between him ,me and the Guest house. Since then I have stayed here many times; some short stays ; some long ones.

What is striking about this place is the sheer homeliness of it. The rooms are cosy without being ostentatious. There are couple of young boys that look after House keeping in an unintruding manner and above all, Uncleji (The old man I was referring to in the earlier paragraph, whom we all call affectionately call ” Uncleji”) whose concern for his guests is legendary in the annals of NIIT. Almost all the “Who is Who” in NIIT have basked under the affectionate care of Uncleji. Whenever I find time , I sit and talk to him , when he would recount the people who have stayed here and the fond memories that were left behind. To me , personally , I would consider this place to be my lucky mascot.

I am writing this article from the guest house. I am flying to Singapore tomorrow. I want to wind this article with an incident that happened a couple of days ago that has subtly changed my life. I was casually talking to Uncleji about how my body was not in the best of conditions and I dont exercise because of various reasons. Uncle ji promptly went inside his room and bought a Hindustan times supplement and gave it to me and said ” read this”. For some strange reason, I took the book into my room and read the article that he was referrring to. It was an interview with five of the top doctors in India and their attitude to exercises. When I finished reading it at one stretch, Something snapped with in me. Here were the busiest of doctors taking time out to refresh their bodies in Minds and I keep giving excuses. For the last two days, I have started going out for morning walks and I will continue this practice. Although I knew earlier that there cannot be any excuses for not exercising, the way uncleji pointed out this fact to me is something that has left me a changed man.

Cheers Uncleji!!!.

Colin Wilson - a renowned author wrote a book many, many years ago called ” The Outsider”. It was considered a cult book those days. Its a slim volume that talks about characters in Literature who were depicted as misfits in society. Not in terms of being harmful or malicious. But they could not live by the rules of it. They were driven by different impulses which dont conform to the norms of society. Characters from the novels of Dostovesky, Albert Camus, etc were culled out by Colin Wilson to illustrate his point. I dont this book in many book stores these days. But if you can lay your hands on it. Its worth a read.

Incidentally, Colin Wilson became an authority on Serial Killers (people who keeping killing as a habit motivated by an idea which they think is right) - The Ultimate misfits in society and went on to author several seminal volumes of the Pyschology of violence on what prompts people to cross the line between so called Sanity and insanity. Its a disturbing read, no doubt, but certainly worth a read in these turbulent times when unnecessary violence is taking a lot of innocence lives.

Try to read some of his books. Cheers!!!

Well, I have not been wrirting a lot these days. The reason being that I have been travelling much and thats leaves very little time for anything else. Of late, I have been thinking and observing that life is best lived when one is not unduely worried about living. There was a time in the recent past when I used to be jittery about everything. Tickets not arriving in time, Hotels not booked, etc. I used to raise a hue and cry about it. But of late, I have mellowed down. Life gives us what we need in due time. I dont really wory about anything anymore. let me recount an incident.

I moved out of Australia on Sunday. I was sitting in a restaurant at 10. A.M eating Breakfast and I had to go to the airport by 1.00 P.M. I had not booked my taxi and I didnt know the number to call. Eearlier times, I would have panicked and get hussled. But somehow this time, I did not. I was confident that I would see a Taxi sitting in the restaurant with the number displayed on it. Till about 11.30 A.M , i didnt see any, but I still didnt ruffled. I decide to pay and walk out when a cab stopped just in front of the retaurant showing on the part with the Telephone number displayed on it. And it stood there for five minutes with no passenger getting into it. Now, one would call it coincidence. I would also have treated it the same way. But this is just an Illustration of whats been happening for some time with me.

Every moment in life is to be accepted as it is. No Judgement, No profiling. Just be with it and the way will unfold itself. Thats the mystery here.