It?s 7pm on a beautiful autumn evening on the banks of the Ganges river in the holy town of Hardwar in North India. The melodious bells, the priests, the fire, the chants, and the devotion of the people give the ceremony a feel of divinity, as if it were something dictated by God for human bliss. The atmosphere is full of devotion and the huge masses look upto the river to bless them and wash away their sins. It?s 7pm, and the same river has become an extremely huge mass of water flowing slowly through the Sundarban deltas. It?s raining heavily in the monsoons and the millions of drops of water create uncountable ripples throughout the huge river at twilight. It is impossible to see one shore from the other, and the thunder and lightning create a rather shocking scene of the power of nature. Far away from the mesmerized crowd, a lonely soul in the middle of the massive river slowly steers his small round wooden boat towards the shore. He can hardly see anything and he keeps trying to move a little bit at a time, lingering on to hope. He cries and his few drops are lost amongst the zillions. He just hopes there was no rain. It?s 4:30pm in the middle of the desert, not a drop of water in sight, the scorching heat enough to make anyone dizzy. Dubai is being made into a miracle city in the middle of the desert…..<\/p>\n
\n… and people drive around in big cars, as if driving for free, a country opulent just on one resource. We predominantly see men walking around in glittering buildings, dressed in their dishdash from head to toe. One just hopes there were more women in the workplace. It?s the middle of the afternoon and lots of casually dressed men and women sit around open-air tables and drink lots of beer from huge pitchers, not having a care in the world. The Oktoberfest has just begun in Munich and the late autumn afternoon is just perfect. The leaves are changing colors from green to yellow to red, everything is so pretty, and it?s wonderful to just relax. Let others take care of work. It?s 2:30pm in London and serious looking folks in suits populate the offices of a big investment bank, managing the day to day affairs of running the economy. No beer for them, not even a view of the outside, just finance. They get a huge paycheck, but at what cost? Someone shouts ? New York is ON i.e. the stock market has opened. Traders inside the NYSE are busy making zillions of trades, something?s gonna shoot today, this one is hot, we need to take a position here, sell that right now ? it?s the world of capitalism. Wall Street is swarming with tons of men and women coming out of subway trains, some already in their offices, some walking fast towards them, some having breakfast, no one talking to anyone, all living their own existence. A train going uptown from the financial district just reaches Times Square, which is glittering as usual. It?s full of tourists right in the morning, people shopping for souvenirs, taking pictures of billboards, and eating at many 24 hr restaurants. There is a building ?1 Times Square? which proudly welcomes visitors with this sign ?Welcome to the Center of the Universe.? In an apartment inside a residential building nearby a guy wakes up, a little late as he has to work from home today. He opens the window blinds and looks outside. The sun is shining brightly on the Empire State and it looks wonderful, the traffic buzzing through the city below. He can also hear something else as vividly, the bells, chants and the singing around the Ganges; he used to be there. He can see the Aaarti unfold in front of his eyes. He wonders ? Can I be at multiple places at the same time? And smiles!
\nIt?s 7pm and the Aarti continues on at the Ganges.
\nHimanshu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It?s 7pm on a beautiful autumn evening on the banks of the Ganges river in the holy town of Hardwar in North India. The melodious bells, the priests, the fire, the chants, and the devotion of the people give the ceremony a feel of divinity, as if it were something dictated by God for human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-search-for-the-self"],"yoast_head":"\n