......skin (s)creams!!!

today...time and again - it kept coming back to me that the bloke who "warm welcomed" me to this country wasn't joking when he asked me the question "...and you wanted to come back???"

if there is one cosmetic product that never was launched ever in Belgium...it has to be sun screen lotions!

cold creams are to South India what sun screen lotions are to Belgium!!

every once in a blue moon day like today...when two South Indians decide to kayak on a "bright" "hot" day in Belgium....there is a truly bizzarre exchange of words!!  "Do you have sun screen lotion on you?!?!" And of course that is perhaps the last thing anyone moving to Belgium expects to be needing here!!

We had to buy sun screen lotion from that ONE store in Belgium and surely enough...towards early evening we had to return the unused tube back!! :P

Ode to my solitude...

Very clichéd title...but I hope/believe the contents perhaps aren't!

you are my everything...
you are my friend...
for as long as you are here...
there truly is no dissonance I need fear...
you say the things nobody dares to say...
whilst keeping me company every night and day...
my dear solitude...leave me not till the end...
I wont let you go...
unless you wish me too...I fear...
like all things...I hold dear...
with the hope of  discovering....
a replacement...
as reliable...as permanent...as constant... as you are to me!
for as long as you are here...
there truly is no dissonance I need fear...

...breakfast banter!

Beautiful morning today! Perfect morning truth be told...there is that certain energy at home this morning...!!

Very often 'ponderers' like myself have the 'right' or 'wrong' debate! And mostly that debate sort of acts as a prequel to the 'done' or the 'not-done' deed...in the mind-movie!!

I mean we always do what we want..! So this debate is often just a meaningless autopsy of the dead done deed...followed by a 'fresher' list of even more meaningless resolutions that never will be followed through on...! :)

I think here is where the GREAT Swami Sivananda's quote has helped me -- "Be good. Do good" and in my rather humble opinion, especially, on this topic where I try to give my explanation to a great quote/instruction from the Great Swami, the brilliance lies in the bluntness of the quote.

It wasn't "Be right! and Do right!" It wasn't "Think good! and Feel good!"

Be good to yourself & others and Do good to yourself & others!! It can even be as simple as not hurting yourself and others intentionally!! If at all any resolution is to be taken and followed through on...this is the one!!

The perfect blend of self discipline and karma yoga!! Resulting in seeing yourself in others and others in yourself and ultimately being the ONE Self!!