High on Coffee and “Taare Zameen Par”

Pre Script: In case you've got the song in the title, then I'd request you to play it while you read this, just so as to give you a better idea of exactly what happened. In case you don't, then you can find it here.


The day is Friday, December 07, 2007, the place, Nescafe @ College, the company, SPIC’s blessings. In this delightful configuration of circumstance, with a nice hot cup of coffee in hand, we were sitting, and thassoing in the ‘usual’ flavour.

The Nescafe people had the radio on, and playing was the title track of the movie mentioned above. Neeraj had just described a ‘snail scene’ from it, which was delicious to the extent of unfathomability, that too in his narration. Wonder how beautiful it must be in person.

Anyhow, title track playing, caffeine injecting, the consciousness of June ’08 approaching rearing its head beknownst to the self, and the general atmosphere starting to grow, I started to observe the unassuming steam emanating from my cup. As the different streams rose from the surface, bound by nothing but the laws of immaculate and perfect randomness, the fleeting nature of its existence hit me.

For JUST a second, I could see every single drop of water that came together to form that mystical and sublime phenomenon. To see how something as insignificant as the steam from the piping hot cup of coffee we so habitually devour, could actually be an assemblage of a million distinct entities; each with its own story to tell; each with a sense of identity, despite, or perhaps BECAUSE of the seamless manner of their integration into the beauty that is rising steam, was… well… beautiful.

Just as I was starting to paint the biographic sketches for each droplet, the line came flowing to my ears,

“Kho na jaaye ye… Taare zameen par…”

And I knew then, the stars in question were nothing but THESE naïve and unpretentious little being-lets. The entities here of course, referring not only to the java bean emanations, but all their myriads of cousins as well, to be found every single place we go. Be it the sight of a lonesome bird in flight, or the sense of having seen a life being lived in the duration of a second; it could be the way the little pup responds to its first rendezvous with a second hand ball, learning unconsciously its first lessons of critical and logical reasoning, or how that which we fear the most turns out to be the best element in our existence.

In essence, we must live, dream and aspire to reach ever changing targets of excellence; we must compete with our best, and strive to win every single time. However, whenever He gives us a tiny little gift, in the form of the aforementioned stars, it is in fact a chance to live the love, even more pronounced.

Live in the present, and be happy for the truly countless ‘little stars’ scattered all around us, in a pattern of near conspicuous randomness.

He loves you. He is all around. You are Him. Love the One in all of us. I love you.

Be Happy.