Bow Down

Never I've seen such grace,

Gleaming

with a gentle smiley face.

Contagious,

mystical,

true sense of gloriousness.

I stare,

Drawn to the hungry glares, 

Drawn to the sugary dips,

flips,

and smiles. 

Definitely a gorgeous sight

undeniable true grace,

Moses! 

yes, I'm color blind '

two gleaming pearls!!

green?

Black? 

Brown?

Does it matter?

No, I've got very little to offer, your grace

Hands empty,

slips,

Smiles,

Still complete - Graciousness. 

Don't go too close

I tell myself,

guaranteed broken heart, 

such a lovable soul,

I still stare.

I think,

he's the fool

most definitely, yes

completely,

Doesn't he know?

Much he knows,

About the flower that blossoms,

smile of summer

is a smile for all seasons.

17.05.2013

Best things in life - For Free?

Storming breeze,

refreshes my senses 

under the soothing sun, 

dipped in the cooling sea

Glimpse of the fading sun, 

mesmerized, 

I realized 

Best things in life, are for free

Joyful birthday song, 

non-branded cake

childish blow, at the blazing flame,

never gets old, 

loved ones

Best things in life, are for free

Stoney pot head, 

under the sea of stars

lame fumes of laughter, Too much to take

Breathless,

Food ain't free, but,

it is the invaluable company

Best things in life, are for free

 

Water splashes, 

blinded my eyes

Life is a race, 

only with Dyan 

Firm grip, Rush never ends

Best things in life, 

are for free

16.05.2013

Anxiety - the brain freeze

Anxiety is a word that is commonly used and felt during Pandemic. It is true that we are living in this state of transition adapting to all sorts of new realities. 

First we had the lockdowns, we thought it was fantastic. It was a perfect time do things that we wouldn't normally do or we thought it was best time to rekindle dormant thoughts that we park in our minds in the past years. People rested well, spent time with their families, working from home was a perfect reality and we were thinking about doing something productive during the time at home. We thought about self improvement, like playing an instrument, reading books, cooking, gardening, exercising, building online friendships and romances etc. We also thought lockdown was something temporary, although COVID was becoming serious in other countries with the death rates piling up, we thought we were special. We were unbreakable, untouchable, blessed and in fact at one point we managed to get rid of the 'monstrous'   Corona from our country. Weren't we the fools to think that we can go back to our normal lives, then all of a sudden, surprise surprise, 'reality' made a dramatic comeback and gave us a reality check. It made us go back to lockdown and start all over, And this time we were forced to do it right.

The only thing that we can be certain during this time, ironically would be 'uncertainty'. Honestly, if you think about it, uncertainty has been always there in our lives. We have adapted well to counter it with our everyday routine and relationships. But now since both these elements have changed drastically, we cannot work well with the cancer 'uncertainty', we foster anxiety. Anxiety feeds into wide range of emotions that can lock you down even without the government stipulations. When we let it be, it manages to gain control over us, it will happily guide us into depression that would eventually bring us to thrive on committing murder upon ourselves. Some have actually stopped thinking about suicide because of the whole cremation or the burial issue. We have come to a stage where people can't even commit suicide if they want to. It is sad but true!

It was all the same to me, anxiety was becoming my new best friend. We had short but an intense relationship. In fact I thought anxiety was favoring me for some reason. It was becoming too attached not letting me go. Those were days of surviving and self learning. I took my time to reflect upon what was happening around me. Most importantly I realized that I become anxious about the things I cannot control. 

Interestingly Buddha has stated, 'Most of the Stress and anxiety comes from the way we respond, not the way life is. Adjust your attitude and all that extra stress would be gone' 

As a firm believer of faith and as a practitioner, I started to ponder on this. I reflected why it is necessary to take a step back and understand why I am stressing myself out. I attempted change my mindset and realign my responding mechanism. I can safely say anxiety took a hike leaving me a note even before I realized it.

Like every emotion 'anxiety' is simulated in our minds therefore we can only address it through reflection, understanding and taking action from our minds. It is all in our minds!

In conclusion, I'd like to leave this thought,

Indeed, with every hardship there is ease. (Quran 94:6)

It helps us realize that there's light out there, it is matter of finding it. 

Super Heroes in the Ordinary World - #4 Iron Lady aka Ninja Tigress

It's not easy to write about someone when you have a lot of information about that person, which you know should be captured but you also know that you have to pick and choose thus making it rather incomplete. Well, sadly this is one of those attempts, as this post might not do justice to the person at all.

Well this post is about, Thevuni aka Ninja Tigress, I met her long time ago - definitely feels a million years ago, when she was just a girl and I was just a boy. Now she's a young woman and I'm still a boy! - (at least that's what I'd like to think of myself).  Anyway the reason I decided to write a post about her is - simply because - She's super awesome. Of course, she's awesome for many reasons, I'd like to capture the top 7 things out of many I know of, as she attains her rightful place at the hall of fame of Super Heroes.

Reason #1 - Being True to Yourself

She's one of the few people I know who actually walks the talk and doesn't want to talk the walks. She always questions integrity and honesty within herself first, more than focusing on shortcomings of others. She believes in inside out approach that would constantly improve yourself as it keeps you in check. She firmly believes that 'world you create around you is a reflection of your own self'.

Reason # 2 - She has a big heart

Thevuni weighs about 45kg or probably less but everyone who knows her, knows that her heart weighs way more than that. Not in a literal sense but in a more emotional sense of course. She will fight with you, argue with you, get mad at you, but will be the first one to forgive and forget and then fight for you. Her ability to absorb people's grief is quite remarkable, sometimes she goes to the extent of destroying her own well-being just to be there for her friends and family.

Reason # 3 - She's a Huge Animal lover

People in this world can be ignorant or can easily be distracted by their own lack of understanding of compassion. But I learnt a lot about compassion by simply observing Thevuni's love towards animals. She often say that 'Animals have bigger hearts than people'. But then she counter argues by her own convictions, by being compassionate towards all humans. I don't know about animals or humans but I can definitely vouch for her.

Reason # 4 - Her Strong sense of Loyalty

She's one of the most loyal people you can find in this screwed up world. I've seen her do crazy things over this few years compromising her studies, her health, her safety and her life to be with the people that mattered to her the most. She traveled all by herself in a night bus for 10 hrs to be at an event in Ampara (East of Sri Lanka) just because she wanted to contribute, to do her job but most importantly to share the grief of her team mates as she knew work that needed to be done was challenging and absurdly hard. Well she didn't stop doing it once but continued to do it several times, almost jeopardizing her exams multiple times.

Reason # 5 - Not afraid to do the right thing

She's a genuine role model for ordinary women and men, as she's proven to the world that ordinary-average people can do exceptional things in life by simply being ordinary. But being ordinary is not easy, you need to learn to do the right thing. Of course right and wrong can be very subjective in the real world, but at least you need to learn to be 'fair in life'. 'Not Equality but equity' - that's her mantra.

Reason # 6 - Simplicity

'It's simple - Be simple. Be grounded, be humble. - that's the Bottom line' she says.

Reason # 7 - Girl power

She's a firm believer on girl power, and she resonates her beliefs through action. Simply put, she's not afraid to be a woman and to challenge all odds. Lets face it, we live in a world dominated by men, ruled by men, controlled by men and there's very little space for women to take lead, or even participate. So it is inspiring to see a young woman challenging the status-quo of the world, even by a small thing. And she does that - and that's it.

In conclusion, I'd like to state again that this post might be incomplete as it doesn't capture everything about Thevuni but it surely gives a damn good reason to be a Super Hero. I'm truly honored and inspired by Thevuni for her well deserved achievements, her loyalty and most importantly for being herself - Iron Lady.

Super Heroes in the Ordinary World - #3 Ultimate Lazman

So finally decided that I had some time to write about something, in this case somebody. Its not just somebody - the one and only Ultimate Lazman. His mother called him Larry and don't be fooled by his colour- he's a 100% Sri Lankan. This guy is quite instrumental in shaping my ideology to be a genuine human being. 

Some people are only good at inspiring through words not by action and some are good in coaching people but not being role models. This guy - Lazman - is an all rounder of all rounders, he walks the talk and a great life coach too. His positive vibes are the best vibes you can ask for on a rough day, not forgetting the Baileys. I've never met a person who can only talk about positive things - except Lazman. 

We often have deep conversation over a cup of tea or 'milk', almost every time it starts with a simple question - For an example,

Quite recently he asked me - 'So Ramzi How does it feel to be fasting - spiritually?' - There's no simple answer for that question because no one really have asked me that before. Generally people ask 'Are you hungry?' or they would say ' you must be thirsty' or they would simply assume that we cant even swallow saliva!

The first phase of our friendship was based on an introduction made to help him to conduct a mini conference. I met him several times since the introduction and one particular occasion was really stuck in my memory, where once we were having a conversation about the Future leaders conference that concluded in Ampara and I was explaining it to him that it was one of the roughest experiences I ever had in a while and I told him during this rough patch someone managed to steal 30,000 rupees from me. At that moment of time he slowly reached his pocket took a 20,000 rupee note collection and forces into my pocket. My reflexes are very slow so he managed to win. I know Lazman is not a Rich guy but He's definitely Rich at heart, What he told me that day was that 'Ramzi, Universe has a special way of giving back to me when I need money, So it is not a problem - you keep it. You need it more than I do.' I hope one day I could be generous as he is. - I wish.

He's inspiring in many ways, he in fact watched movies for his Masters degree. That, I think super cool thing to do. 

His wisdom through experience and coaching can be considered invaluable, Thank God I'm his friend, I get it for free!!
You are a true inspiration LAZMAN, only if you had a drive to run for President, - you will definitely be Mr.President. 

Love you to Melbourne and Back. <3 Be awesome as you are. 

I'm honoured to be your friend. But, For me, you are family.