AN OCEAN IN A DROP

 "Who am I? Where am I? Where shall I go? Ask yourself these three questions every day." This is the advice I got when I asked someone for advice regarding spirituality. Over time I started asking myself more questions. But one question I ask daily is, "Who am I?". The answer I get is half-cooked, incomplete, and yet better than yesterday.  I am bits and pieces of everyone who touched my life for better or worse. I am the lessons I learned from the mistakes of my mentors. It's almost like I am no longer one person but many in one. I am every book I have ever read, every leaf I have touched. I am also the sensation of sand that I hate so dearly. I am also my fear of letting my thoughts out in the world by writing this.  I am my ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in my head at the same time without going insane. I am my sensitivity that irritates some and fascinates others. What makes a person them? their thoughts? their behaviours? their intentions? their...

 When I was eight and still learning about the ways of this planet, I read somewhere that plants needed a warm and humid environment to grow. Being a smart child with an incredible memory, I remembered it when I saw a tub of hot water. Naturally, my little brain went, "Ooh, this will make my dad's plants grow faster." There I went, ran to my dad's garden with a mug full of scalding hot water and poured it into the nearest plant. My dad, who was watching all this, gasped in total stupor. Unfortunately,  I was too fast to give my old man enough time to respond. (hehe, proud troublemaker smile on my face right now)  While I watched him freak out at my attempted plant murder and ask me what the hell I did, I spoke with my sparkly cheerful eyes, "Papa, I read that plants need a hot and humid environment to grow!" " Budhhu," I heard behind his confused sad face, "Warm! Not hot!" ( He probably regretted sending me to school at this point).  Befo...