There are certain relationships, like the blood relationships, which one inherits by birth. One has loving involvements with parents, siblings and other relatives who are connected together due to family bonds. As one enters into wedlock, one acquires a new set of relationships. There are new relations & fresh associations ushered in by the spouse & spouse’s family. When one transcends the family frontiers & mingles with more and more people on personal & professional levels, one develops new kinds of friendly, professional and business relationships with a wider segment of people from both the sexes.

Different situations give rise to different kinds of relationships. Connections develop into friendly associations between classmates; tutor-pupil associations emerge between teachers & their students. Working relationships develop between employers & employees. Managers, subordinates & colleagues get immersed into team associations & supportive relationships occur between neighbors. Similarly, beneficial relationships fructify between business associates & on a larger level between nations too.

A casual meeting or a chance encounter with someone, like during journeys, can also develop into a healthy relationship over a period, if both the entities work for that. A healthy relationship rests on the foundations of honesty, sincerity, trust, open communication, compassion, caring, affection, concern for mutual well being & a genuine desire to see each other prosper & grow. With these ingredients, some relationships even gradually transform into very intimate emotional liaisons where all inhibitions, in discarding any visible or invisible veils, simply disappear.

Any type of relationship continues to blossom as long as it does not get afflicted with masked self-interest, hazy communication, deceit & a false concern for the well being of the other. Any such virus would infect even the strongest of relationships so severely that it would sure meet an early death in no time.

The present world of ‘virtual’ relationships, perhaps, has succeeded in influencing & altering the mindset of people to such an extent that even long standing real relationships get tossed into the dustbin at the slightest emergence of an unexpected response. No attempt seems to be made to rescue the relationship by going into the reasons for such an aberration. Mending the perceived flaws and practicing ‘forgive & forget’ appear more exhausting than dumping the relationship altogether.

Decades old relationships have been seen to crumble overnight due to tremors caused by an inappropriate expression or an unworthy deed. Partners have been known to simply walk away for selfish reasons, after years of satisfying marriage, as if there never existed any emotional bond between the two.

In many parts of the world, fathers have been reported to have battered their adolescent sons & daughters and their relationship to death in a fit of rage, for no fault of the children. Sons & daughters have been reported to have conspired with their accomplices to murder their parents for the lure of money or to remove the obstacles they were seen to be in their love affairs, thus chopping off the parental contentment of raising their children. Siblings have been reported to have attacked each other brutally, seriously injuring their life long relationship, while demanding a bigger share of the ancestral wealth.

Also, there have been reports of minor, insignificant quarrels between friends turning cruel & fatal. Colleagues have been known to turn into kidnappers & murderers, for the sake of extorting big chunks of money to satisfy their uncontrolled needs. Neighbors have been known to pull out weapons to sort out their car-parking & dog-barking disputes. Students have been reported to have killed their teachers to eliminate any resistance to their studious efforts of resorting to copying in examinations. Boys, vowing to die for their girl friends, have been reported to have smeared the faces of the girls and their love with life shattering acids.

Social media has its own share of defamation stories indulged into by erstwhile friends & colleagues.

Mistrust is also an element that has the potency of derailing one’s analytical ability & clouding one’s judgment about the emotions, words & deeds of the other, resulting into wilting of a well nurtured relationship.

Are we witness to an era of very fragile relationships, where the relationship switches from warmth to enmity at the blink of an eye, like a computer screen changing quickly with a simple click?

Perhaps, most of the present day relationships are just the make-believe stories, with sincerity & honesty having been thrown to the winds. Seemingly, it is not the compassion & mutual wellbeing which shape a relationship; it is merely an arrangement to satisfy personal, hidden objectives in the garb of a sweet & pleasant association. The sweetness of alliance is meticulously maintained as long as it serves the masked objective of the crafty partner, thereby making the other savor the sweet taste without raising any doubts. The moment the desired purpose is fulfilled or the association seems to be not heading towards the hidden goal, it gets blatantly dumped in the sea.

The victim, in every such case, happens to be the gullible, caring & trusting individual who kept on sincerely tending to the relationship, without ever doubting the sincerity of the other.

For the sake of building up & enjoying a happy relationship, it is better to ultimately turn out to be a victim rather than a tormentor, if at all the hitherto healthy association ever turns sour. Even while assuming that role, one need not close one’s eyes to the reality of the changing times. One also needs to exercise caution & one’s mental antenna should never ignore any disturbing signals coming its way. It is better to be prepared to escape unhurt or with minimum damage, in case of a worst scenario, rather than get hopelessly caught with one’s back to the wall.

In this much happening world, where life always traverses on a fast lane, maybe we need to add ‘caution’ also to the list of many components that go in to make a healthy, happy, sweet, pleasant & long lasting relationship.

Healthy & pleasant relationships thrive on the art of compromise, accommodation of each other’s views, mutual respect, due regard for independent opinions, intelligently debating the contentious issues rather than quarreling & imposing, giving space and above all on the will to happily carry forward the relationship in spite of all the distressing hurdles.

Obviously, that applies to both the partners in any relationship.

May the use of ‘caution’ as an ingredient in cultivating a relationship, remain more of an exception than a norm! ‘Caution’ is likely to take away the innocent charm from happily building up a sweet relationship.

Many such phrases find their way in my article “Art of Phrasing”. I invite readers to send in their original quotes, along with their own complete details like name, age, gender, profession, city, country & e-mail id. I would like to compile some selected original phrases in my future article, giving due credit of composition to the sender.

Have a nice phrase!

The literary world is full of such interesting expressions. All great leaders, spell-casting orators, attention-gaining writers and prominent thinkers have, now & then, exhibited their art of phrasing by wording out certain delightful expressions. These expressions have very effectively & meaningfully conveyed the thoughts of communicators.

These phrases have an amusingly wide variety. Ranging from political to social; scientific to managerial; motivational to educational & serious to humorous, in all their hues & tones, these expressions underline a very useful thought conveyed through a captivating volley of words. Every expression has a distinct flavor, typical of the personality traits of the phrase composer. While political leaders have cajoled the masses to put in their best for their countries, social thinkers have emphasized the importance of working for the benefit of the under privileged. While the scientists & entrepreneurs have tried to persuade others towards innovation & invention; the managers have attempted to give tips on managerial skills.

Although most of such expressions exhibit the seriousness of the thought being conveyed yet there are many that are hilarious in nature and reflect a fun filled view. Nonetheless, even the humorous expressions reveal the masterly creativity in fascinating composition of words.

The popular expressions have transcended all human boundaries of geography, colour, race and language. One such expression that transcended even the astronomical boundaries was the one beamed by Neil Armstrong on becoming the first human to have landed on earth’s moon. Having taken the first steps on the surface of the moon, on July 20, 1969 during the Apollo 11 space mission, Neil Armstrong uttered the famous words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” This expression summed up the herculean efforts put in by thousands of people engaged in space exploration.

Political leaders have crafted some very thoughtful phrases that are not only unique but are also universal in nature. In his inaugural address, after taking the presidential oath of office in 1961, US President John F. Kennedy persuaded his countrymen to do their best for the country with his famous words, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” The glorious expression has a very strong appeal not only for the people of the USA but also for people in all other countries.

Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, former President of India, deeply motivated his young audience to work passionately & with single-minded devotion to achieve their goals. He gave an altogether new meaning to dream by saying, “Dream is not what you see in your sleep. It is that which does not let you sleep.”

There are many expressions that tend to redefine certain notions. One such expression astutely worded by George S. Patton, a U.S. army officer who was well known for his leadership qualities, redefines success. In World War II, U.S. Third Army, under his leadership, is said to have made deeper advances into enemy positions, liberating many territories at a fast pace. His leadership acumen went on to say, “I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs, but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.”

On the personal front many popular expressions signify humility, humbleness & an inquisitive approach to life, to look for more insights. Gautama Buddha, the great spiritual teacher from ancient India, also known as “the enlightened one’, preached right thought, right action, right understanding and right effort. Buddha travelled far & wide and awakened the masses, advising them not to rest on laurels of achievement. During his discourses he told his disciples, “I never see what has been done. I only see what remains to be done.”

Humility is personified in a famous expression by Socrates, the classical Greek philosopher. A social & moral critic, regarded as one of the founders of western philosophy, Socrates observed that there were many who projected themselves as wise men when, in fact, they were not. To make people understand that there was never an end to learning, he once proclaimed, “As for me, all I know is that I know nothing”.

Certain expressions have a majestic characteristic that puts across the intended message very forcefully. Remembered as the world-famous speaker & author, Helen Keller championed many social causes in USA. Her intelligence & the ability to communicate prolifically reverberate through her famous words, “It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.”                                                                                    

The art of creating such meaningful phrases does a lot to move & inspire the listeners & the readers. In fact, such phrases ooze the nectar of life’s experience of the creator. The life story of Nelson Mandela has many inspiring lessons for the youth. The Nobel Laureate for peace & former President of South Africa was earlier an activist who served 27 years in prison. After his release, he was instrumental in bringing about multi-racial democracy in South Africa. One of his encouraging lessons gets narrated in his popular words, “It always seems impossible until it is done.”

Inventions don’t happen without failures. However, most success stories skirt any reference to failures, giving an impression that there were never any obstacles. Thomas Alva Edison, inventor & scientist, developed many devices & had many patents to his name. He was also credited with having failed many times in pursuit of his inventions, but that never deterred him from experimenting further. He was bold enough to gracefully summarize his failures by telling, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Creative expressions have also been used to circumvent direct criticism of things not to the liking of someone. Not happy with the way the club was functioning, Groucho Marx, comedian & master of wit, resigned the membership of his club by writing, “I don’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.”

Hilary Zig Ziglar, author, salesman, trainer & motivational speaker has a crusading remark to make on the way people treat their jobs once they are employed. “A lot of people quit looking for work as soon as they find a job”, is his way of telling people to keep contributing their best for the success of the organization where they are employed.

There are certain phenomena which are truly natural, aging being one of these. Still, human beings across continents find it extremely difficult to gracefully accept that they are growing in age. Mark Twain, one of the most widely loved writers & an icon of humor made it seem very simple by saying, “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

Phrases express creativity; they also depict humor beautifully. Again, it is a matter of selecting & arranging the right kind of words to bring fun into the wordy formation. Ranked among the wealthiest people of the world, Warren Buffett does not shun simplicity & humor. He is known for mixing humor even in business discussions. He brought forth his humble style when he made fun of himself saying, “I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.”

Many creative expressions become hot & favorite. One such favored expression doing the rounds is, “If you do what you always did, you’ll get what you always got.” Obviously, it denotes the need to bring in innovation & inventiveness in our work & style of functioning. It underscores the need to change with change.

The desire to show serious concern about a social issue also brings in artistry into the management of words. The protagonists of population control have impressively propagated the idea by saying too much in too little. The message is wittily worded & lucidly conveyed through, “Make love, not babies.”

The art of phrasing establishes the ingenuity of the creator. Once the desired phrase is assembled, it surely does its assigned task in a refined & polite manner. It also becomes potently useful for all like-minded persons. A vivid example is the sign plate, resting on the desk of a busy executive, that faces the visitors & reads, “If you have nothing to do, please don’t do it here.”

In our school days, the popular expressions symbolizing the true bond of friendship read like “A true friend multiplies your joys & divides your sorrows”. It was an apt description summing up the level of intimacy & concern for each other’s welfare between the two. One wonders whether, with the irreversible change that this world & its people have undergone, we can still boast of having the company of true friends! Whether, with the beating the ethics & morals have taken over the years, people have the confidence to call any of their friends a ‘true friend’!

Friendship used to be a lovely bond on a platonic level without any clauses or preconditions. Both individuals would understand the strengths & limitations of each other so as not to have any unreasonable expectations from the other. Even with limited resources friends were prepared to go all out to help the one in need with full available might of moral, physical, emotional & other necessary support.

True friendship meant one could ask for favours without any hesitation & inhibition. It also meant that the other would similarly respond if the roles ever get reversed. In times of crisis, the true friend would stand by you even without asking for, and do his/her best to smoothen your ride through the rough patch. In case of a heavy work load, the other would chip in with bits of assistance to ensure that one sailed out of deep waters without any hiccups. It also meant that in case one’s family faced any hardship, the other would garner full support from his/her family to multiply the comforting effort, even if there was no social interaction at the familial level.

Although true friendship has always been a two-way affair, in good old days that never had to be matched drop by drop. It was only that the gestures of support were reciprocated as per the strengths & resources of the other. The reciprocity was neither measured with any yardstick, nor weighed in a balance. If one could not provide any meaningful assistance ‘demanded’ by the other, one would truly explain so without incurring any souring of friendly ties. The understanding between the two continued to be superb.

In this age of faltering relationships, the existence of an unbreakable bond of true friendship seems to be on the decline. The reliability has lost some of its dependability; the anatomical constitution of friends has so degenerated that it can no longer digest the secrets of the other; the worldly demands on the time & energy of all are so high that inventing a good, trustworthy pretext to keep away from the other’s emergency situation seems more practical; revealing inner most secrets can mean inviting trouble at some point of time in the future, as such confidential details can somehow find their way to many unintended recipients. “A friend in need is no friend of mine’’ seems to be a more pragmatic approach. Expectations of a voluntary support can prove to be futile as even with so many advanced modes of communications one can still be ‘not aware’ of other’s plight.

‘Being friends’ has given way to ‘appearing to be friends’. That gives the flexibility to choose one’s line of action in case one is called for help by the other in a pressing situation. ‘He is like that only’ is another common refrain to hide behind a smokescreen of inaction, when required to bail the other out of any seemingly self- inflicted trouble.

The competition to stay ahead has also given rise to a new species of friends known as ‘frenemies’. They thrive on the gullibility of people who innocently take them as friends and fail to recognize their prowling instincts. Their charm & charisma are so overwhelming that they can cleverly hide their foe-like acts behind the veneer of their ‘honey-laced’ words. They tend to exploit the friendly trust of their ‘targets’ with so much of impunity that they can cleverly pass off even their ‘blood soaked’ hands as the ones which were simply helping the ‘victim’.

Understandably, life has a roller-coaster track. It always sees many highs & lows. With each passing day, the love-hate relationship of present day friends keeps changing its hues with one aspect becoming brighter or darker in tune with the rotation of the wheel of time. Keeping expectations low from friends is the key to maintaining unruffled emotions & sentiments. Having a true friend, conforming to historical & holistic definition, would seem to be a true luxury in these times where many are living a bigger part of their lives in the ‘virtual world’.

However, this does not mean that all is lost. The tribe of true friends has not completely vanished from earth. Overshadowed by the dazzle of swanky, fly-by-night fun-loving associations, a ‘true friend’ may be hovering just round the corner. It only needs your sixth sense to recognize the one who is not wearing that invisible mask.

The weaker part of person’s personality manifests in his/her resistance to accept the sincere & genuine opinions & advice from his/her close associates. Adamantly sticking to one’s own assertion, with utter disregard to others’ views, without delving into merits & demerits of those views, is one of the most self-deceiving acts a person can resort to. This can slowly lead to distancing away the genuine well wishers, making one feel isolated & lonely. It can also trigger thoughts of self pity, resulting into more adamancy that further compounds this weakness. Sticking to a balanced approach with an unbiased mind, that can take others’ thoughts without any prejudice, is the best way to live in harmony & keep growing.

Next to having a good sleep, connecting with water turns out to be the easiest of ways to rejuvenate our body, mind & soul. We can experience water in many ways. It can be simple rinsing of hands; immersing the feet; washing face; cleansing the body under a shower; a leisurely immersion in a pool or quenching thirst by drinking water. Water gets associated with human life very early in the cozy cocoons of the womb & then follows life throughout its journey under the sun, till life bids adieu to enter the abyss of the mysteriously unknown. Water is essentially an inseparable part of life, both being so intertwined that the journey of life also gets mirrored in the expedition of water.

To the creations on the earth, water seems to appear from the heights of the heavens, just like the human life which seems to descend into the womb from another mystical world. Both make use of necessary elements to take form. The moment a water droplet appears in the sky, it commences its sojourn, very much like the human life that takes birth, to begin its journey to take on the world.

As the water droplet plummets from its height, it transcends into uncertainties, experiencing many highs & lows in the form of atmospheric turbulences. While moving into the amazing suspense of every new moment, the human life too experiences various odds. In their tender age, the water droplet & the child, both experience the awesome beauty of nature. Both marvel and rejoice at the whispering sounds of the caressing breeze; melodies of the chirping birds; colorful dance of the sun rays and ever changing hues on the vast canvas of horizon.

Advancing in age, the child absorbs many characteristics from the people it comes in contact with. These people could be the parents, relatives, tutors & the peers. Much like the human life, water droplet also picks up more qualities on its way. It gathers more mass, more energy and also picks up suspended particles in the air which exert a powerful influence on its characteristics.

The droplet literally faces the tough ground realities, as it finally plunges on to the earth. Having come of age, the human adult also faces new challenges, as harsh realities of the world unfold. Subsequently, the water droplet becomes a part of a large stream that encounters numerous obstacles as it flows over different terrains, to finally merge with the huge mass  of the ocean.

As a part of a multitude of people, the human life too traverses through numerable days & nights, cruising over many landscapes unraveled by life, to finally disappear and submerge into that magnanimous eternity.

After some time, both reappear- purified & cleansed, ready for a new voyage. One rises above from the ocean as water vapour, seeking fresh nourishment from the clouds in the atmosphere, to take a new shape & begin another excursion. The other glows out of eternal darkness, settles for sustenance in a new womb, to take a new form & embark on another odyssey.

Step aside for a moment & standing on the sidelines just observe the ‘event’ keenly. As you look at it as a spectator, this race appears to be very funny. You notice that the rules of the game get changed and bent to suit the whims & fancies of various participants. The racing tracks are many & so well laid out that each track seems to be the winning track and attracts a horde of people. All the time people seem to be very eager & in a hurry to reach the finish line the soonest. You also notice that different people apply different tricks to race ahead, even if it leads to elbowing out the fellow racer.

As a spectator you would be in a state of pause. You can observe people using all kinds of skills to make money & then more money. You can watch people as they jostle with one another to grab all available valuables that match the contents of their never ending wish list. You can also sense their intent to undergo all kinds of organic, inorganic & surgical procedures to look handsome & beautiful. You can also observe them spending a lot of time, energy & money on self gratifying pursuits, all considered to be some useful tools for clinching what they have set out for. The list of the means & methods, adopted by people to seek a share of happiness, becomes endless.

Scrutinizing the lives of some of the closely known individuals & families comprising our society, one wonders whether such a mad race really leads one to that goal of securing happiness? Whether happiness resides in money & material possessions which, more often than not, tend to leave many others cold & blue with awful jealousy? Whether name & fame can also earn that lasting contentment? Whether fine toned & well chiseled bodies decked up with other precious adornments can make their possessors really happy?

There emanate true stories of people having tons of money but possessing tragically poor health, that the feeling of elation of having made so much is simultaneously dampened by the physical inability to enjoy the same. There are professionals who have excelled in their fields of interest & earned the bounty of fame, but cannot rejoice by sharing it with their families due to indifference of their spouses & alienation of their children. There are people who worked hard & acquired many invaluable possessions, but cannot sleep peacefully in the warmth of that pride, as their wayward off springs keep piercing their skins by abusing & floundering up those very possessions.

Also, there are tales of men & women who delightfully fell for each other, terming it as love, but soon fell apart to miserable depths calling it mismatch & incompatibility. There are known cases of handsome lads & beautiful girls gleefully riding high on physical attributes, who came crashing down on earth, with their senses ripped apart by disloyal life partners & other self-centered, manipulative family members.

In fact, there are many cases where the joys of having made lots of wealth, the elation of scaling high peaks of professional performance, the delights of physical association with the craved ones & the thrill of having acquired immense knowledge could not last beyond a very limited span of time, due to other negative factors creeping in to shatter all those nice, good feelings.  

If all that wealth, possessions, fame & even knowledge could not bring in lasting happiness then is this race worth running at all? Why not abandon it altogether & just live out the life aimlessly?

We, the human creatures, are tied & woven into families & societies. Having undergone widespread ages of evolution, we are expected to follow the familial, societal & cultural norms. We are here to provide the best to our families & dependants. We are here to look for progress that conceivably can provide a better future to the next generation. We are here to explore other frontiers to expand our knowledge & reach for the benefit of whole of the mankind.

The problem lies not in the pursuit of wealth, assets & knowledge, but in the lack of pursuit of wisdom that can usher in lasting happiness. We need to gain the wisdom to understand that the external progress in all respects would never compensate for the lack of internal growth of the self. It is the wisdom that enhances the capacity of the mind to understand the futility of attempting to secure happiness through external acquisitions. It is the wisdom that would elaborate to us to always remain mentally detached from all our belongings & possessions. It is the wisdom that would guide us to sail through all kinds of situations, including the adverse ones, all the time maintaining the balance of mind & without ever getting perturbed. It is the wisdom that would make us understand that nothing in life is permanent. It is the wisdom that would provide us the vision to see through the ill-motivated designs of even our loved ones, whose love, otherwise, keeps us blindfolded to their misdeeds & misdemeanors.

It is the pursuit of wisdom that raises our mind to a level of worldly insulation where nothing affects us mentally. It is similar to a state when, sometimes, in spite of being in a crowd you still feel lonely, all to yourself only. A wise mind would keep us unaffected by all the happenings around us, regardless of very much being a part of the same. When this happens, it signals the dawn of perpetual tranquility that opens the doors to lasting happiness.

The invention of the spinning jenny in the 18th century, a not so distant past, perhaps heralded the Industrial Revolution. The discoveries & inventions carried the mankind from one milestone to another. The first long distance telephone call by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 was perhaps the beginning of a long journey to more advanced wireless communications. Scientists & thinkers kept on experimenting to spring up unbelievable surprises of various kinds. A series of stunning wonders were unfolded in the decades that followed the testing of the first light bulb by Thomas Edison in 1879.

Understandably, people of the era would have taken much pride in the success of the first commercial radio transmission; first televisual image, first talkie, first anti-biotic, first operational electronic computer, first flight of a commercial jet & so many other firsts.

The human brain also demonstrated a darker side to its limitless quest for acquiring more power & capability to incredibly impact humanity. The creation of the atomic bomb & explosion of the hydrogen bomb a few years later, were the manifestations of the flip side of this great evolution of mankind.

The keen observations of the elements of Nature, the application of the intellect & the will to transcend the un-conquered barriers kept on prodding the human race to delve further into the mysterious realms. The un-satiable urge to explore the unknown put the man deeper into the sea with submarines & higher into the space with rockets, satellites, space stations & space voyagers.

Every success in demolishing a hitherto insurmountable barrier succeeded in making the human brain more agile & sharp. The heightened level of intelligence, the improved mark of confidence, the mounds of acquired knowledge & the soaring spirit kept revving at full throttle to unshackle the man from remaining constraints, to further unravel the mysteries of Nature.

The mystic functioning of Nature had always mesmerized the human brain. The adventurism to peep into this untangled functioning led to the birth of the first test tube baby in 1978. The inquisitive mind further directed the human curiosity to genetically modify the crops, create identical creatures by cloning, modify the characteristics of species by mutation & alter the weather conditions by manipulating the clouds. Again on the flip side, the lure of better profits unveiled a sadistic invention to outsmart Nature by chemically enhancing the looks & sizes of fruits & vegetables.

Incisively, just when the man seems to enjoy some hard earned superiority to pip Nature to the second place in the contest for supremacy, Nature stretches its limbs to unleash its powerful arsenal. When Nature chooses to exhibit its unparalleled might, more often than not, it throws up catastrophic conditions for the mankind.

The innovative & intelligent human brain also stores the painful memories of the calamities wreaked upon mankind as & when Nature turned on its side. There are reports of hundreds of thousands of people getting killed in Japan in the Kanto earthquake in 1923. Millions of people lost their lives in China to ravaging floods in 1931. The cyclonic fury killed hundreds of thousands of people in the then East Pakistan in 1970. The sweeping tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 caused millions of people in South East Asia to awfully wonder about the enormously devastating power of Nature.

Such disastrous Natural outbursts keep recurring, just the scene of event shifts from one part of the globe to the other. If it was Kashmir in 2005 where thousands bore the brunt of an earthquake, it was Myanmar in 2008 where a cyclone swept hundreds of thousands of lives. Very fresh in the memory is the occurrence of an intense earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, shattering lives of millions of people. A similarly huge number of people have yet to come to terms with the harrowing face of Nature, attempting to overcome the multi-faceted havoc caused by recent floods in Pakistan & China. For that matter, in the on-going year of 2010 itself, Nature has demonstrated its immense potential to intervene & impact the course of human life in different parts of the world. Be it the snowstorms in U.S.; flash floods in Europe; landslides in North Korea & China; cloud bursts & mudslides in India- Nature rolls by, leaving indelible impressions of its unassailable might.

Strangely, Nature adopts contrasting styles to remind human beings of their vulnerability, in case it chooses to show them their place under the sun. If it rains floods of miseries in some parts of the world, it squeezes the fertile land dry in some other parts of the planet. The worst heat wave & drought in Russia is not only sucking life out of mortals but also depriving the populace of their regular share of food crop, leading to shortage of grains & spiraling of prices.

Well, in this unannounced race for predominance, man might have conquered certain frontiers which Nature had been guarding for so long. But when Nature decides to show its hand, man runs for cover that none can provide. In those moments of desperate helplessness, when man realizes & acknowledges the unmatched power of Nature, the human eyes look upward in a gesture of assigning higher status & seeking mercy from the Mighty Almighty.