Speeding...

... The law penalizes speeding cars, buses, trains, trams, bikes, motorbikes, bicycles... all in effort to slow people down.  Why do they however ignore the larger, more significant and, possibly, the most common 'speeding' committed by people today, speeding through life.  People always seem to be in such a rush.  Kids can't wait to be teenagers, teenagers are looking to hit 18, for 18 year olds nothing is better than finally turning 21, can't wait to get the first job, get married, buy the first flat, first child, GET RICH and sooner or later hit midlife and wonder....why the excitement to get there...?  People are rushed to leave for work in the morning but equally rushed to leave from work in the evening.  Others hurry to get to dinner on time but are then eager to finish dinner and get home at a decent hour.  People are disrupting the peace at Mandirs by pushing and shoving to get to the front to, ironically, pray for peace in their own lives.  It seems like the second law of thermodynamics (states that entropy - measure of chaos - always increases) doesn't only apply to the physical world around us, but also the social...so much chaos.  

Having been in rural India (Bagar, Rajasthan) for the past month and a half, I have decelerated, and brought my life speedometer down to a legal limit.  Suddenly, I value the time I have to look up at the sky every night and not only see, but recognize the stars.  Instead of running for shade when it starts pouring, it seems so much better to stand outside and enjoy the rain.  In all the rush, chaos, expectations, opportunities, people, conventions, stereotypes and absolute craziness around, it's only recently that I have been able to step aside, look at my position from a bird's eye view and just think... whether it's staring out the bus window or looking down at village lights from a high rock, these times of contemplation act like a key that is slowly unlocking myself to me (if that makes sense).  

On that note I present: Blah...Blah, a written record of my contemplations / ideas / thoughts / interests / incidents / reflections / passions / achievements / failures and anything else I feel like writing really... Ciao for now. 

Location of contemplation: Jhunjhunu's Rani Sati Mandir