Engrossed Moments!

Engrossed Moments:

It was a beautiful Sunday morning.  Myself and my walk mate..Walk with comfort.. what were you thinking.. it’s  my wife  were  in the park for a walk to get rid of our weekly guilt. There were many like us in the park.  Some of them were jogging, few of them were walking and most of them were crawling. Laughing club members were getting grip of their..Ohhh haaa.   We saw a young boy appearing from nowhere with his sneakers and trackers on.  He was running with his ear buds deep stuck into ears.  He slowed down for a moment, and I don’t know what happened he started dancing…there, we just saw a young boy engrossed into that moment.  May be that music would have struck deep chords within him.  He could connect himself with that music and to the situation he was in. 

On similar lines, my father used to narrate me a story.  He and his friends decided to watch a movie called Bharat Milap in my village’s touring talkies.  This movie was made on story lines of Ramayana  As they walked into the theatre premises, a board written on with “Housefull” welcomed them.  After a series of negotiations with Gatekeeper, they secured a place on ground. 

The movie started with prayer of Ghantasala NAMO Venkatesa..Namo Tirumalesha synchronized with curtain rolling up slowly to unveil the silver screen. After the initial happy scenes and moments in the movie, it reached a point of deflection.  Ram gets abandoned from his kingdom and walks out of  Ayodhya along with Sita and Lakshman.  Entire Ayodhya is standing on either side of road and crying to see Ram departing.   

Later, Bharat comes back and observes the entire Ayodhya is deep into sorrow.  He gets to know about Ram’s departure.  He rushes to the palace with frustration, anger and sadness.   He sees his father on his deathbed, and his mother Kaikeyi standing other side.  He goes to his mother and asks in sadness Maa.. where is Ram.. Maa.. Ram Kahan? Bolo Maa Ram Kahan? .. Bolo maa Ram kahan.  There was no response from kaikeyi.  His anger grew to fumes.  He shouted Maa Ram Kahan.. But there was no response from Kaikeyi.  There was a pin drop silence in a movie theatre.  Suddenly a voice came from behind.. “Bol be bol Ram kahan??  This voice had double the intensity and loudness that of Bharat’s, it had million times more anger than Bharat and billion times higher intensity of sadness.  

Suddenly lights came on. Everyone turned around to see who was that and discovered he is Mohamad Gouse – Gaadi Waala. (Cart puller). If Ghouse  was part of that scene he would have murdered Kaikeyi.  He was transformed as Bharat at that moment and transcended him to a different world. 

An anonymous prisoner writes:  HE was given a life term imprisonment.  He spent much of his prison time reading.  He must have read over 500 books, mostly classics, Autobiographies.  AS long as he was engrossed in those books, he writes, he was not in prison.  Reading was his escape.

Dear friends, in all the three incidents above, it was evident that when we get engrossed into those moments, we will forget ourselves, our presence, our surroundings and our worries.  We come out with a fresh perspectives and a better view of life.  My friend stopped worrying about the girl who did not like him after watching the movie Daar.  Mohammad Ghouse was popularly known & called as Bharat and was recognized for  narrating stories from Ramayana.  And reading books gave solace to this prisoner and made him to forget that he was in prison. 

The question arises that you get engrossed only by watching movies or reading books? Not at all.  Ramakrishna paramahamsa used to get engrossed into that moment by just looking at a bloomed flower.  Dr . Bendre, used to write poetry while he was on deathbed.  When asked, he said, he was engrossed in those moments of death. 

These are great people, how about us? Friends, let’s find those moments we want to get engrossed.  It could be reading, writing, speeches, playing with your kids, anything that you are passionate about and love to do. 

As Umer Khayam says

Yesterday was History, Tomorrow is Mystery, but Today is Gift that is why it is called Present..

Let’s discover our engrossed moments today and Cherish this Gift called “Today”