Something that startles me no end is to hear people talk about old hurts, insults and old humiliations, and know that forgiveness has not taken place. And as I listen to bitter, shrill voices expounding on such old incidents, I want to shake them and say, “It’s you who are killing yourself carrying your bitterness on!” And more than that, “You kill present day relationships, because nobody knows when the dormant volcano within you will erupt and intrude into everyday situations!”

A mother was jogging through the park, pushing two toddlers in a stroller. As they approached a hill, she said, "OK, now I wish you could help me." And the children sympathizing with their mother shouted, “Poor mother! Poor mother!”

Sympathy was there but it didn’t help, did it?

And as the New Year dawns and we Indians face another year like the rest of the world, let us realise that we are living not in isolation but with the Rest of the World.

In a country that believes in mentors and gurus, we seem to be moving away from the very concept that admonishments are not punishments but just a course correction, and we as a people are being misguided by national leaders that when developed nations across the seas issue course corrections to us, they are jealous and are trying to derail our economy.

Some of the most beautiful women I've seen and some of the handsomest men I’ve met don't have fair skin and sharp features, do not possess great height and sensual bodies but as they walk and talk and stalk the earth their beauty is gazed upon with wonder and reverence!

How do they gain this beauty, without physical attributes contributing to their features?

This is another adventure of Mowgli from Jungle Book, not written by Rudyard Kipling, but springing from my own vivid imagination.

So, Mowgli suddenly comes across a great divide, “What’s this?” he asks.

“It’s a Divide,” the animals tell him, “We all have to cross over!”