Roller Coasters

“Life is not less than a roller-coaster ride itself”. Gaurav Tiwari

befriends.me

Circle of Life

I was excited, nervous, and dreamy about my new job back in January 2018. I was part of a multinational company for almost three years but still, it feels like I am going to a workplace for the first time. The same feeling triggered me when I was about to onboard the flight to Japan. Somehow I have reached the place where it all started from and I don’t know what’s gonna happen next. The feeling was the same when I was sitting on a roller-coaster “Do Dodonpa” in Fuji Q Highland. It started with an energy level of a rocket launch with a speed of 180 km/h. It has the largest loop in the world(also it will you go way your hiccups, tried and tested).

The Fall

I am the kind of person who gets himself comfortable in any situation. But post reaching Japan, something was…

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Reena’s Exploration Challenge #142

Reena Saxena

Welcome back!

I’m happy to see the myriad directions in which floating colours took us, in the last one week. New participants too, got pulled in the whirlpool.

Let us see, if we can recreate some of the magic this week.

PROMPT #142

The genie is not getting back in the bottle

Yes, the line above is your theme or prompt for the week. Twist it any way, try to push it back, experiment with formats and words and let us see the story that emerges.

Write a post on your blog, copy-paste the link in Comments. If you are creating a ping-back, check back to see if it has worked. There have been cases of ping-backs not working, 

Go on, uncork your creativity….

WEEKLY WRAP

WEEKLY WRAP

Tessa Dean at

Reena’s Exploration Challenge #141

Sadje at

Reena’s Exploration Challenge # 141- The inner eye

Susi Bocks at

Chemicals

Richa Thankey at

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DREAMS: FOOD

Timeless Mind

Photo Credit: Pexels

Do our dreams guide us about foods?

How important are dreams?

A blogger had a recurring dream. She would see three white men, dressed in white clothes. The moment she would come close to them, they would start beating her. When she would wake up, she’d be very scared.

This dream, with minor variations would come to her every two months. I asked her what white coloured foods was she taking in good quantities. Milk, White bread and White sugar, it turned out. She was consuming a litre of milk every day, white bread was staple and she loved her sweets. Very clearly, these things were hurting her body immensely.

She stopped and within a month, her asthma disappeared.

What does dreaming of dead persons mean?

Another lady I met in a seminar in Malaysia. She dreamt of her dead aunt. This old aunt would come and…

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और ढाई साल …

अश्वनी राघव "रामेन्दु"

पहनकर
रंगीन कपड़े
वो लोटता है
जमीन पर,
निहारता है
पेड़
रोशनी और
घास,
पहचानता है
देह की गंध
प्रेम और
पानी की प्यास,
वो अभी
ढाई का है
ओह
ये समय
रुक क्यों नही जाता
और
ढाई साल!!

अश्वनी राघव “रामेन्दु”

22-06-2020

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Reena’s Exploration Challenge #140

Reena Saxena

Welcome back to the Exploration Challenge!

PROMPT 140

The theme for this week is

Juneteenth

Going by the dictionary, it is

“a holiday celebrated on 19 June to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the US.”

I would take it ahead to celebrate emancipation or liberation of any kind – physical, mental, emotional or spiritual.

So often, we are slaves to our own beliefs and mind-sets, and do not realise it is a bondage, till something happens to prove the contrary.

Here, millions of migrant workers travelled back to their own villages despite the risk, because they did not have money to pay rent in the cities. In one state, the government has formulated schemes to help them stay and prosper in the villages. Maybe, they now realise the futility of migration to cities, which chucked them out like a fly in the soup.

A nation used to housemaids…

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What’s In A Name

One Woman's Quest II

What’s her name?
Simple question
from mother to son –
recognizing the love-lifted
joy of his countenance.

I cannot tell, said he,
you’ll ask too many questions.
Do I know her?
No, Mom, she’s Somali.
And Muslim.

I felt my whiteness
and all its privilege
slap me, stumbled

Of course she is welcome,
of course it does not matter.

Had no sense of the depth
of my ignorance, how heads
would turn, and vile strangers
attack, and his father shun them.

And how her own mother
would advise her to take his name
when the day of their nuptials came
so that finding work would be easier.

Had no sense of the depth
of my ignorance, how
everyday matters suffer
unfair scrutiny –

hold them in my heart
and pray, knowing my shield
of whiteness holds no sway
to protect them.

(What’s in a Name

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It was my choice

‘ Why does it take another generation, at another level, to help us see the flaws in our thought process?’ ~Reena Suxena

Reena Saxena

My childhood was spent wondering who lives behind those monstrous facades. Was it a driver, or a gunner or a silent controller? I would wake up in the middle of the night, when the facades started speaking to me.

My son does not waste time. He just jumps on to the other side, and operates the machine.

The thought of a wasted lifetime has been troubling me ever since. Why does it take another generation, at another level, to help us see the flaws in our thought process?

I ask my mother, and she looks unconcerned,

“It was your choice.”

12 June 2020

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VJ’s Weekly Challenge #99: privilege

VJ’s Weekly Challenge #99: privilege

It’s a privilege 

to watch the sunrise daily

often we forget

what is given us  for free

we always take for granted

Sunrise- Visakhapatnam

On choices in 2020

A Journey Called Life ...

I didn’t grow up with having too many choices. I re-read books because the choices were limited. I ate the same breakfast on all five weekdays and drank the same kind of milk that local milkman delivered to our house. My childhood was years away from the last decade.

And I am happy that I got lucky to have a normal childhood. Life is simple when options are numbered.

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Living in a pandemic: Longing, the word, the feeling

A Journey Called Life ...

“And now I understand something so frightening &wonderful-

how the mind clings to the road it knows,
rushing through crossroads, sticking

like lint to the familiar.”― Mary Oliver

Last week I heard it for the first time- my daughter reminiscing her recent pasts- “Remember when I used to go to school, you used to make smoothies?”

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