The loaded dice...

Maybe the time has come. To roll it on the table. Finally. How long could I hold it off anyways. It was loaded to start with, and that kept changing my center of gravity as I walked around clumsily. Every step moving it around, changing the entropy (and changing a few other equations as well), and not letting my mind also rest, as if the weight of the dice was also sending out strange signals to my brain as well.

The road to start anything new, well, doesn't actually exist (if it did, then that would mean someone had walked down that path earlier). And so each road is uniquely unpaved, laced with random stones and multiple pathways to choose from. Like the path of the dice. Doesn't matter how many turns it takes, or how many times it bounces off the table, or whether it lands under your nose or on the far side of the table. What matters is the number that comes up. Though of course, the randomness significantly changes depending on how loaded the dice is.

You can choose whether to walk on that path or not. But if you were born with the dice, what do you do? Can't ignore it. Can't sleep over it. Can't even sleep through it. Can't run with it. Can't run from it.

The best alternative is then the only remaining one. Roll it. And follow the number. It will lead you somewhere. Or at least till the point where it is time to roll it again. Until you start enjoying it. Waiting for the numbers, waiting for the next turn.


Image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosendahl/2111805581/in/photostream/

Innocent questions to God

Some of you who have been told about karma and it’s effects might wonder on “certain” days about what’s going on in your life and prepare a litany which could sound like this—

"Today I helped an old woman cross the street.
Today I didn’t speak a single lie..
Today I donated to a charity
Today I helped a child with her homework
Today I actually thought about You for 15 minutes…

So, Dear God, now that I have done all this (and I am sure my neighbor hasn’t done anything of this kind) where’s my million dollar lottery?? Why did my neighbor get a shiny new ipad from the biscuit company that had run a stupid contest, and I didn’t get even free biscuits? Where is justice on this planet?

Ok, so I will do all these things tomorrow as well if You insist, but please by tomorrow evening I want my million dollar lottery (alright, I am a man of simple needs, so even half a million would do)."

Sounds fair?

After all, that is how most of us maintain our relationship with God anyways. The God of all things. Large or small. The biggest barter exchange of them all. I scratch someone's back, and You please definitely scratch mine. A very logical Santa Claus. Our theory of Expectations runs wild when it comes to God. The extension of our normal life into that domain somehow happens effortlessly. 

Until the obvious heartbreak. The crooks keep getting richer and you, of the pious kind, keep struggling with your EMIs; your famous celebrities keep changing partners every 15 days and you keep crawling through your 15 year old marriage, and the most annoying of all -- your neighbor (or close relative) of course. The guy you thought (or wanted) to end up in a ditch, ends up with his ass smoothly placed inside a BMW. Holy Cow.

And then that divine relationship starts turning sour. Though it doesn't have to be like that. If we stop treating the Karma machine as an ATM. You don't put your card into it and expect money to start rolling out in a few seconds. This one's more like a seed. You just have to give it time. Minus the expectations. Now that's the tougher part, though that's the only thing that works. Or you are sure to end up having some such weird conversations with God on a pretty regular basis.