Stories – The Border of a Mind

the inward path

May 1, 2023May 1, 2023 by Ajmal

Once upon a time, a man found himself in a new situation. He had purchased a cow, but he was not familiar with the ways of cows. As he was trying to take his new cow home, he made a mistake – he held onto her horns and tried to drag her along. The cow was resistant, as she longed for her old home and previous owner.

As fate would have it, a wise saint happened to be watching the scene unfold. He kindly approached the man and offered him some sage advice. “It seems you are new to this,” he said, “and that you are not familiar with the ways of cows. This is not the right way to approach it.”

The man was perplexed, and asked the saint what he should do. “I am not that strong,” he said, “and the cow is stronger than me. She is dragging me along and I don’t know how to handle her.”

The saint then gave the man a beautiful green grass and instructed him to leave the cow’s horns alone. “Take this grass and move ahead of her,” he said. “Keep the grass close to you, but don’t allow her to eat it. As she moves towards the grass, you move towards your home.”

The man followed the saint’s instructions, and to his surprise, it worked! The cow was so enticed by the beautiful, green, and fresh grass that she forgot all about her old owner and her old home. All she could think about was getting her mouth on that delicious grass. And so, with the man slowly leading the way, the cow followed him all the way to his home.

Now, think for a moment if you can correlate this with your life.

the bus was always coming.

January 29, 2023January 28, 2023 by Ajmal

Once upon a time, in a land far away, a group of young friends were waiting at a bus stop. They had been waiting for what seemed like an eternity, for nearly an hour and a half. As they stood there, growing increasingly impatient and frustrated, they noticed an old man standing a bit away from them at the same bus stop.

The friends were curious about the old man and his calm demeanor, despite the long wait for the bus. Suddenly, they saw the bus in the distance, and one of the friends exclaimed, “Oh finally, the bus is coming!” The old man just turned to them and said, “The bus was always coming.“

The friends were confused by the old man’s words, but as the bus arrived, they boarded and continued on their journey. As they rode, they couldn’t help but think about the old man’s words and how they applied to their own lives. They realized that just as the bus was always coming, so too were the answers to their problems, and the fulfillment in their lives. It’s about shifting the perspectives.

transcendent truth

January 28, 2023January 25, 2023 by Ajmal

Once upon a time, in a far-off land, there lived a young man named Emaan. He was a seeker of truth, and had devoted his life to the path of knowledge. He was filled with a deep longing to understand the mysteries of the universe and the secrets of the divine.

One day, Emaan found himself in the midst of a great crisis. All of the doors that had once been open to him seemed to have closed, and he found himself wandering aimlessly through the desert of despair. He felt as though he had lost his way and that he would never find his way back to the light.

But as he stumbled through the sands of his sorrow, he remembered the wise words of his spiritual guide: “Ponder upon the vicissitudes of life, I implore you to abstain from venturing into the vicinity of despondency and despair. Despite the apparent obfuscation of all avenues, the divine shall unveil a novel trajectory solely for you.“

With these words in mind, Emaan decided to focus on gratitude. He was thankful for the blessings that had been bestowed upon him, but also for that which had been withheld. He understood that there was a reason for everything, and that even the darkest moments of his life had a purpose.

As he walked through the desert, he began to notice the beauty of the world around him. The stars shone brightly in the sky, and the sand sparkled in the moonlight. He realized that the desert was not a place of despair, but of wonder and wonderment. And in that moment, Emaan knew that he was exactly where he needed to be.

And so, he continued his journey with a newfound appreciation for life and its many twists and turns. He knew that the divine had a plan for him, and that all of his struggles were leading him to a greater understanding.

Although this story is of Emaan, this is also of me, of you

yes, you! : )

Whatever happens, never fall into despair. Think about the brighter and positive sides of events in your life and what you can do positively in this moment to move forward. This would make significant changes in our lives. Despair is the keyway to laziness and inconsistency. A giant leap of faith is required and it’s built on the process. God bless you, and thank you very much for the time you’ve taken to read this. My only wish is to stir your soul towards a positive frame of mind regardless of whatever you’re going through.

the degree of trust

November 4, 2022November 3, 2022 by Ajmal

I’m presently reading a really well-written book, and the old story of a samurai that was mentioned in it piqued my interest, so I’d like to share it here.

A newlywed man was returning home with his wife. They were crossing a lake on a boat when a massive storm erupted. The guy was a warrior, but the wife grew terrified since it appeared hopeless because the boat was little and they were about to sink. But the guy remained still and at ease, serene and tranquil, as if nothing was occurring.

“Are you not afraid?” said the scared lady. This might be our last breath! Only a miracle may rescue us; else, death is inevitable.

The guy smiled and removed the sword from its sheath. The lady was even more perplexed: what was he going to do? Then he brought the bare sword up to the woman’s neck, almost touching it.

“Are you afraid?” he asked.

She began to laugh and said, “Why should I be afraid? Why should I be terrified if you have the sword in your hands? I know you adore me.”

“He retracted the sword and remarked, “You have the answer.” I believe God loves us and that the storm is in His hands.

So whatever happens is going to be good. If we survive, that’s great; if we don’t, that’s also great, since everything is in His hands and He can’t go wrong.

Moral: Develop trust in God, who is capable of transforming your whole life. Everything occurs for a reason.

reclusive vibes

July 14, 2021July 14, 2021 by Ajmal

When your thoughts resonate well with someone else, that’s a beautiful moment. I was listening to the thoughts of a very famous singer’s view on privacy and how precious it is. Basically he was asked about his family, but he preferred to keep everything private, which is very hard these days, especially for public personalities. Along with his brilliant music, I admire him for his wisdom as well. I’ll quote his wise words on this.

"First of all I'm a very private person, and secondly because it'd be disrespectful to them.  Privacy to me is precious and it saddens me that it has become devalued as people eagerly share details of every aspect of their lives online and feed the social media machine but I'll tell my young listeners especially something that my wise grandmother used to say. "Before you speak, cook your words". Think about the consequences of what you are sharing. You can't put the toothpaste back into the tube. Whatever you put out there about yourself and anyone else would be there for ever. Think carefully whether will you or others benefit from it. Do you think it'll represent you in five or let's say 10 years time. You'll change and grow throughout your life. Valuing your privacy will allow you to have second chances and reinvent yourself without being followed by regrettable things posted online. To me, questions about my family are absolutely connected to privacy and privacy is something that I want to protect not only for myself, but those close to me. Because I have a career that has a public face doesn't mean that I have the right to share information about people in my life nor do I want to. Actually, just the opposite, I beleive I have an obligation to protect their privacy. I rarely share personal details about my own life, let alone those of my family. It'll be disrespectful to disclose information about them. It'll violate boundaries of trust. I'm a composer, a musician and to the extent that I want to be known, I want to be known for my contributions to the field of music, especially to reviving and continuing the rich legacy of traditional music still existing in this world. Because, in the end, it's the work that matters, not the person behind it. As long as that person strives to develop a character worthy of his or her goal. So when I find misleading  false statements about myself in various sources,  I don't feel the need to rush out and correct them, thus revealing more about myself and my close ones than we would want and straying to the realm of celebrity. I keep in my mind by this quote from long before the information age by Ralph Waldo Emerson " “Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.” For those who have asked about my family and other personal aspects of my life, I hope you will now understand my reasons for remaining silent when it comes to this."

Can’t put it in a beautiful way than this.

art color life

December 13, 2020December 13, 2020 by Ajmal

There are visual treats that come with exploring unknown spaces. The slice of time from an early morning walk with the sun warming up the sky and the buildings gleaming in this vibrancy. Sometimes we get humbled by the privilege to experience this piece of art forming around you every day in a different hue.

..“Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the mind. As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life.”
― John Lubbock,
Quoted from The Pleasures of Life

Payyoli coastlines

May 24, 2020May 24, 2020 by Ajmal

Netta gazing at the horizons on a fishing boat

This is a photograph from a couple of years ago that’s really close to my heart. When I had traveled to Netta’s place during the initial years, I was not familiar with that place. Neither am I now. After an afternoon tea with family, me and Netta went to the town aimlessly and I was looking for a beach nearby and on a random search, I got to know about Payyoli beach which was so close to their home but the fun part was that she hadn’t been there before. What welcomed us when we aimlessly drove in there was a very wide, serene beach with not a single soul in the premise feeding in the vibe of a private beach. (No, those were not Corona days. I’m speaking of sometime in 2017, on a guess). There were fishing boats parked there and we had witnessed a blissful sunset together sitting on a boat. That moment in time is captured by this shot. So you see, every frame has a story weaved within it. Even if I’m put in a dungeon with a handful of photographs, I can sit with them with a cup of tea and write story after story behind each of them for weeks 😀

The legendary photographer Ansel Adams kills it with his timeless quotes. He once famously said, “You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”

We love stories. Would you love to read more memories?
Waiting for your stories. God bless.

panda cram.

March 8, 2020March 5, 2020 by Ajmal

It’s one of my favourite pastimes to graze through old photo archives and to relish and hark back to the stories and memories that evoked them. Recently, I discovered a treasure trove some of the old photos, notes and illustrations from my 2013 archives. I’ll be trying to share some of those nice memories here in some of the subsequent posts, God willing. After all, this is my wondercrate. Photo narrations are something that I never get tired of.

Panda cram is such a little chucklesome memory. Back in 2013, only a few of my colleagues had personal cars. So, a dear friend of mine had a sedan car with him which can carry 5 people max. So, we used to hop in this car for our lunch trips. So in total, we would be 5 people and the car would be almost full. And then, someday, he got this huge stuffed panda as a gift from somewhere and he had put this in his car. The panda is considerably huge and is tad bit almost the size of a grown-up boy 😀 And as usual, during a mid-noon when we were about to go for lunch on the car, we had this unusual co-passenger inside the car taking the size of an almost full-size adult, and I still remember all of us had to cram inside the car to accommodate this amigo and we laughed our heads off. Visualizing this would make me chuckle every time I think about it or see this photograph. Good times.

passionate soulful prowess

February 4, 2020 by Ajmal

Recently I’ve have been grazing through the videos by Chinese blogger Li Ziqi, who became an internet sensation after her videos on handicrafts, traditional cooking, and DIY from the countryside of Mianyang in southwest China’s Sichuan Province grew in popularity and caught netizen’s attention worldwide. What attracted my attention is the inherent calmness and the passionate composure with which each theme is made. It is in stark contrast with the heavily commercialized video bombardments, often largely obliquely spurious that we see on every video platform. Each video I’ve seen so far is so genuine and brilliantly captured. From what I’ve read in magazines, Li lives with her grandmother in a Chinese rural province. Orphaned at a very young age, she moved to city to work. After her grandfather’s death, she returned to the village to take care of her grandmother who fell ill. All her food and handicraft videos are often crafted from scratch and are prepared using authentic basic ingredients and tools making the best use of Chinese traditional techniques.

She initially started posting videos on Mepai, which is a very famous social platform in China and garnered great attention. In 2017, she started posting videos on Youtube which grew in popularity ever since. Her grandfather was a cook in the village. She learned how to grow vegetables, fish, carpenter handiworks, traditional dishes, and bamboo crafts. The well-made videos with its passion and subtle nuances give a wonderful experience of Chinese traditions and culture and her positive spirit on self-reliance sent by her life expertise has attracted warm international reception.

Her videos are unfeigned, lucid and basics from scratch and mostly don’t use any sort of modern technology or even electricity in most cases. She does everything on her own from cutting goat and rabbit fur for the brush hairs to chopping small trees to make paper. In one of the videos that I saw, she built a coffee table and two sofas using bamboo in its entirety using carpentry skills inspired by her grandfather. In some other videos, lip colors are prepared from fresh flower petals and honey. You’d be amazed by how she delves to the roots. The honey shown is not from a supermarket, but from a beehive in the village. She prepares her own deserts, sweet potato jelly, and pancakes from the sweet farm potatoes which she harvested on her own. A lot of traditional ways of preparations are shown.

The authenticity and fervent equanimity keep these visuals apart from the rest of the crowd and has truly impressed me. As we touched upon in our note on compassionate prudence, true magic ensues when people put in their signature on every single thing they do and when everything is done with love. Stories like this truly inspire!. God bless!

change | influence | build

Here are a few.