Man-Ki-Preet !

Let the magic begin …. When a significant real force in nature, attempts to end a beautiful magic, what do I do? Let us make the question more realistic, for sake of simplicity. What do I do when my husband tells our daughter, as she is excitedly anticipating visit by tooth fairy next morning - “there is no Santa, no tooth fairy. It was mama all along, if you still don’t know it”! BOOM! Our home, like most normal households, is a blend of a people, with different personalities, aptitudes, preferences, beliefs. He never believed and I never stopped believing, which is why, even our love marriage, is a magic to me, at first place. So as he made his grand untimely disclosure, and put some things to an end, there is a part of me that still believes, and wants my daughter to keep believing. But pause!   What do I believe in, that I want my child to continue believing in? So yes, it’s out and about! No secrets now! There is no tooth fairy, there is no Santa Claus...

1/20/19  Lunar eclipse  (Hattiesburg, Mississippi) Cold, January star speckled night  And I gaze up at the sky.  A cosmic marvel is about to unfold  Once in years, as I am told. A rendezvous ...... A whole moon, a whole earth  In motion, on a preordained path.  Pass each other .. And one shadows the other In a chance union of distances  A sight so spectacular!  That silver, white full moon  Slowly fading behind a mighty shadow Untill they are one!  Coppery, fiery reddish hue  So am I to you ... Take me, shadow me, color me  So we are neither I , nor you  A marvel of union of two souls.... -Manpreet 

Sara is going to be 3 years old, next month. She loves ... and lives .. every minute! Playfully! Absorbed and in love! So we are merrily singing ‘Five little monkeys jumping on the bed’. I am enjoying her expressions. Her light frame enacting jumping monkeys, her eyes and hands giving a stern message from mother ” No more monkeys jumping on the bed”...... and after the 3rd monkey has also fallen from the bed, and we recite what the doctor said, Sara looks at me puzzled and asks - “But mommy, jumping on bed is fun! Why mama monkey does not want baby monkeys to have fun?” When Sara speaks , Manpreet thinks and is amazed by her questions! I thought of how as parents, we restrain, restrict creative outlets, often out of our fears of what all can go wrong and conditioning to social norms. I thought of the little monkeys jumping in us, all the time too! I marveled how this nursery rhyme portrays the ‘ divided self’ ! The core source of conflict, pain , misery, guilt, rebuke , ...

कुछ लम्हे, आज यूँ मुझसे मिले ना आने की कोई दस्तक हुई ना जाने की कोई सौग़ाद छूटी .. बस कुछ यूँ मिले जैसे किसी मक़सद ख़ास से गुज़रते हों .. हौले से मेरा नाम लिया नज़रों से मुझे छू दिया कहते थे यही है ...... बस यही! लफ़्ज़ों से इन्हें मत तोलो सवाल, ना ही जवाब मैं टटोलो कोई दिशा नहीं इनकी ना ही कोई मार्ग दर्शक कोई शुरुआत नहीं इनकी ना ही कोई अंत, ना असीम ख़ुशी ना मन का क़रार, ना सर्दी की धूप ना गरमी में बारिश की फुहार पर यही है......  बस यही ! रूह में मेरी,तेरी रूह का एहसास मुकम्मल! यह लम्हे आज यूँ मुझसे मिले ..... -मनप्रीत Please listen to me recite this poem here 

Woke up this morning, and as I looked at the time,  this question echoed in me... As melodramatic as it sounds, the echo of 4 4 4, sounded like time asking me this question itself - What do you live for ? Some questions may not be correctly framed, but the partial answers and reflections it leaves you with, makes it worth listening to, more so when its the silence that speaks  to you!  So ...... I have been thinking! Important pillars of my life ...... Family Birth family and "by law" family .... those who I originated from, those who originated from me .They are my most important ties in journey of this life time. My each decision, from major to minor, passes that invisible filter of my family .....yet they have given me an autonomy to be me ! I live in this intricate fabric of relationships, caring in best of my capacity to nurture and value its existence. My " humsafar "..... but  I don't live " for " them. Closest to my soul ,  bo...

It is deep, dark in the night .  A dream crossed , knocking on my soul  Paid a visit and vanished ... My eyes still shut ,  and conscience awake  Listening to the sound of life in me ! Lub dub lub dub lub dub  Heart beats in a rhythm divine . Silence is my blanket and pillow beneath  and this sound of life ... But wait .... pause , listen ! What is this melody, my soul just caught ? Your name , your laughter , your presence ! Do I hear it ? Or is it longing in a veil ? Beyond the sound of life   I earnestly seek ... The life of sound ! It is the sound of you in me ! my recitation