Na koi Bandishey Na koi Zanjeerei

There’s always one or more places in the world apart from our home that we all love. When people travel alone or with close friends to a new place, they always like, at least most of the time they like it.  There are few places where people I think would always want to places like Las Vegas, Goa, and Mumbai. I would always wonder what is it that people love so much about Goa ? I've been there with family once, I liked it but it’s not something to crave for until of course I went again with my friends. When I came back I was asked the same questions again and again, “How was it? Did you enjoy? What did you do there? What was the best thing? Did you do this? Did you do that?”

I loved my Goa trip and when I asked myself the reason for it I got a very simple answer. The reason I liked it was not because of the clubbing or the crowd or the beach but the root reason was freedom, nobody judged us there, nobody cared if we were there lying on the beach at 3am, nobody bothered what time it was. It was this sudden sense of liberation, of independence, just being oneself without worrying about how your neighbor’s son’s daughter’s friend who would go back and make a scene. The reason people prefer new places, I guess, is because nobody knows them initially there and they let them be without any social drama. The best thing about Goa was nothing else but the mere fact I could sit at the beach at 3am, sing as loudly as I want without worrying about anyone.

Now I understand when people say why they would like to go to certain places, it’s not because of clothes, drinks, food or clubbing it’s about the fact that they are free and most importantly nobody judges them . You can sit the way you like, dance the way you want, just behave the way you like without harming anyone. In the end everyone needs freedom, freedom to be.

 That’s reason as kids we would love to go at our grandparents’ house during vacations  because we knew mom wouldn't wake us up early, nobody would shout at us if you don’t take a shower, we could sit and watch T.V for as long as we like, we could eat pizzas and all kind of chocolates. Freedom I believe is part of our original being and that’s the reason it’s always fun breaking the rules. We all like to stick to our original nature, don’t we?   

No matter how old we get we'll always like some more freedom than we have. No freedom is enough compared to what each of us were born with.

*Image taken from Google*

Ishq-e-Alehadgi (Part I)

Few places just leave us with a thought or maybe more than one, they leave us with a feeling and one such place would be a beach.  Sitting on a beach facing the sea during the sunset is an experience in its own. Fortunately I just had mine a while back. Different people experience different things, take different message from the sea. Few take from the sea, few from its shore and few from the waves but they all take something back with them. For few people waves are like people in our lives, they come and go but never fail to touch our lives. Few people like sitting on the beach as it inspires them, for some feel love, some feel nature, some feel blue, some just like to get into the sea and drown their fears and their sorrows. While one perfect evening when I was sitting on the beach with the most perfect arrangement ever (ones literally picked from dreams) with a white bed sheet, all friends sitting on it, the sun set, the beach almost empty, the tides growing higher, the wind getting colder with each passing hour and of course the pure silence, I thought to myself, “Dude people say the sea teaches them something. It gives them a message, of hope, of love. They say the sea talks if you can understand its language. So what is it that you feel right now?”

I tried to feel romance, hope, sorrow, happiness everything. I would feel it for few seconds and then back to neutral. I felt nothing. It bothered me for some time and I said to myself “how can you not feel anything Bineka? How is that possible? It’s the sea; focus Bineka look for nature’s signs.” I felt the wind, looked at the waves, felt the soft sand, closed my eyes and heard the waves. I just stopped thinking, was neutral and even then I felt nothing, but now I wasn't bothered with that nothingness, it was actually very comforting and beautiful. I was enjoying that nothingness, and my mind was silent, it was in a no though zone. The feeling was pure and soothing.

And right when we had to leave the beach, I opened my eyes, the sun had set, the waves had grown louder and the winds had become colder, as I was walking back I took my message from the experience, I heard the sea (or rather Universe) tell me that like there exists a no man's land; free from names and tags, in the same way there exists a felling which comes under no banner; happiness or sadness or countless to name. Nothingness has its own beauty. It comes with a smile when you have everything you want in life or when you don’t. Nothingness is not negative, it is peaceful because it is like sea and its waves; complete in its own way, it has no names, no feelings attached to it. It is just itself, just who it is; naked, simple, and in its rawest form. It comes in the same form and leaves in the same , without changing.

Not always it is necessary to have a feeling attached to something or maybe someone too because sometimes no feeling is the best feeling.  It unburdens your heart, gives your heart and consciousness a breath. It’s like stopping for a while and enjoying the journey you already have covered and then smiling, just smiling for no reason and no feeling attached to it. And for people who don't know what Alehadgi means, it means detachment.  

  Title courtesy : Naim Keruwala 

Image Courtesy : Google