Yes, dear life,
I’ll never give up on you.
No matter what you throw my way
I’ll definitely survive the day.
You will always see a smile on my face
For, I believe in living with grace.
I’m not the one to sit and cry
I’ve been taught to touch the highs.
You see,
I’m the mountain girl
who carries the sunshine in her curls
who carries the sunshine in her curls.
To all those who feel like giving up
show life who’s the BOSS, Yes!
What do I say about where and why my heart takes and makes me do – different things at different places? While doing all of that, not forgetting its primary function of pumping blood through my circulatory system, to keep this bloke going the extraa…aaamile.
Real-life is one thing.. fiction is another. My sister and I were raised on a steady diet of homecooked food and dollops of love, and we were never short of stories – mum and dad had plenty of them-some of which were repeats but we didn’t mind. Today, when they tell us the same stories again…we smile at each other, coz we’ve heard them so many times before – but sometimes it is the stories that keep us going.
And that’s how we’ve always lived.
Growing up in the era of the ’90s, where everything we watched and came across brought a smile to our faces, the lives people lived, and the friendships we stitched, always reminded me that life was good and love was found everywhere. Ever since then I’ve always believed in a romantic story, from watching mushy Shahrukh Khan movies, romancing his love interests in Bollywood to young romances blossom in college in Hollywood, and in my heart of hearts… I’ve always wanted stories like that to happen to me.
Can you blame me if I fall in love with every female character on the show/a movie I watch?
…and that’s where I’ve always remained optimistic, that there is someone really out there, and she’ll be all the things I’ve been dreaming about her, come true – my very own princess, and I’ve been waiting ever since.
A lot of the people I know often say that I keep my thoughts to myself, which is very true. There is after-all time and a place for everything. This week’s theme is all about ‘Direct Dil se’ which loosely translates to ‘Straight from the Heart’ – from mine to yours.
Isn’t it funny how sometimes, the romantic ones are the ones with no romance in their lives? Keep pondering on that question – this one’s for us single people out there…
..and that’s where I decided the best place to find a good love story was in the movies and books and hence the love of reading blossomed…and so did the writing, and this is where the thoughts are broken down into fine reading.
My life as I wish is a combination of so many Hollywood movies I’ve watched;
…a little house in the woods, a quiet town, friendly neighborhood, a job that keeps me happy more than stressed, a partner who is no-frills with a pet dog for the complete family. Enough money is earned to live a simple life. And if we lived in a town that snows, even better – nothing like sitting by the fireplace to keep warm on a snowy day. Even writing this down feels as if, I’m already there…
My heart pines for the simple life, no-frills no fancy. I was never cut out for all that we see in the world today.
I fell in love with stories, then with the language …and to see it used in the movies and written in print is like spreading love to all that I touch.
Words are like magic when used to narrate life’s memories, wishes, and dreams. So it is no wonder that I ventured out into writing, I write for the love of writing and not as a profession, because, as I know it, Love originates from the heart, and where the heart is involved, money does not find a place there.
As in all my favorite stories: there are moments in life when you’re not quite sure what’s going to happen next, new ideas, new people – and that can be challenging. It’s how we meet those challenges, NOW that is the exciting part.
…and what I do now, THAT is my story and no one can change that. I am a part of this beautiful ongoing story; my reader, my well-wisher, and my friend, YOU all are a part of this magnificent story in the making.
I am not even going to ask you “What is your story?” because I want to play a part in it.
My daughter was watching her favourite cartoon series on YouTube. Suddenly an advertisement popped up. It was a scary one. With demonic figures charging up, roaring at each other and inflicting carnage on everything and everyone, she got scared and came to me. I skipped the ad and consoled her. She gathered herself and asked me, “Mom are demons real?”
I smiled and said “no darling that’s all imagination, demons don’t exist. Don’t get scared” and hugged her tightly and put her to sleep. That night I watched her closely if that advertisement would have an impact on her sleep. Night passed off well and the next day she left to the school happily. Before leaving she posed one question that engaged my thoughts for a very long time. She asked “Mom can imagination yield something so alien or a completely non existing thing? Aren’t demons real?”
I didn’t say anything but smiled and saw her off. But I had an answer so complicated that I believed it would be out of the little girl’s comprehension. Answer was “Yes demons are for real”.
Demons are not the caricatures we see onscreen but they dwell well amidst us and within us, peeping through the cracks in our character. Always on a lookout to unleash themselves upon us, commanding us to submit and surrender ourselves (souls) to the ulterior motives.
With those heavy thoughts the I tapped the phone to check out the news with my morning coffee. I tumbled over different “Viral” materials across the internet, making their way to the news portals. A group of bullies beating a lone person mercilessly; an officer abusing subordinates and general public while misusing the authority bestowed; miscreants ill treating (vis a vis torturing) animals just for fun; both the genders getting harassed on various pretexts while transgenders still getting mocked up to an extent of utter humiliation for just being a part of nature’s scheme and everything ranging from witty to atrocious. A sigh escaped my lips.
More than the brutality of the incidents the silence of spectators busy in capturing the episodes in their phones is quite bone chilling. Demons that we are acquainted with are blood thirsty creatures who thrive on the weakness, sorrow and fear of others. We had a notion that demons are unworldly and against humans. But a bird’s eye view at the times we are living in it is clear that it’s has nothing to do with a certain type of specie. It’s about humanity which is almost incessantly depleting from the human race. To worsen the woes what we are witnessing is an oscillation between apparent demons (driven by greed, lust, anger, ego) and slow poison (the mute spectators who claim to be peace loving and the law abiding people). Between the demons and slow poison, it’s the slow poison that is posing a great threat to humanity as it is gifting away the encouragement for such insidious and horrific plans of scrupulous souls to be put into action. Precisely the slow poison of the thought process called “why get involved” is ushering life into the ideology of “who will dare”. In a way the periphery system to the humanity – our value system is paralysed. We react, regret and forget but don’t act at the very first place. Over the years of evolution we have technically advanced but morally been (still) through a downward spiral. We are somehow habituated to live in a cocoon, a bubble from where we pray – to keep Us / Ourselves safe and happy; from where we have a view of everything happening around us and hope nothing unfortunate lands at our doorstep; from where we certainly talk about the cruelties of the wicked ones but don’t speak against it because we are more or less paralysed by one question “Why Get Involved?“. This illusion that our silence will save us from problems is like believing that we might save ourselves from a wild fire by simply changing our path or keep the catastrophic tornado at bay using an umbrella. Sooner or later we all will get engulfed.
To Sum it up – We are aware and woke but not awake.
Our System is infected – Since we made an incredible and unfathomable amount of technological advancements let us talk in technical terms. Considering the human society as a system say a computer that is connected to the entire ecosystem via peripherals of values and responsibilities. Time and again this system is being attacked by the virus of brutalities and over the years various technicians (leaders/ law makers) through their tireless research enabled a security for the system. Security include laws and regulations, code of conducts. But that has not been able to completely secure the system, in fact over a period of time the defense of the system has been weakened considerably. Reason – corrosion of the peripheral that made the security rather ineffective. But the technicians and the users are still turning their user manuals to find defect. It’s high time that we revive the connections with certifications of “compassion”, “gratitude”, “unity” towards the entire system.
Reboot is thy need of the hour!!
PS: Have you encountered demons or tasted slow poison????
The sea so serene and cool
Roared and raged with the storm Bulbul
Lashing upon land and ocean
Causing untold commotion
The trees that Fani left
Away Bulbul fiercely swept
Parts of poor men’s thatched roofs
Were blown away with whoofs
Leaving gaping holes
That welcomed in the heavy downpours
No man or beast ventured out
Fearing the fury of nature’s pout
The groan of nature is not its own
Behind it is the Creator’s leading tone
Havoc and destruction however are not His purpose
To amuse Himself with such gory circus
He calms the storm with His words
His majestic power rides over the waters
Who should men then fear – the storm or its Master?
(Written on the cyclone BULBUL that struck Odisha in November 2019.)
Two days back at the time of dropping my daughter at school I had a brief conversation with her. She demanded extra biscuits and Yakult in her bag. When I asked the reason she said that her friends take all the snacks she takes to the school. She gets to eat from little to none. I told her though sharing is caring but she also must have her lunch. To this, she naively replied “Mom I know that but my friend Shalbi cries a lot and quite loud too. If I don’t give her Yakult she will continue crying and the teacher will punish her and I don’t want anyone to get punished, that’s why I make her drink my portion and anyways I have water with me”. On the same night as I was preparing my kids for sleep, I cuddled a bit with my son and went to my daughter. She asked if I was “Siddharth’s (my son) love of life”. To this I said yes and not only his but hers’s and their father’s too. She asked me “and what about yours, aren’t you love of your life? Everyone is the love of their own life”. I was amazed and amused at the fact how she is stating the more or less Crux of human life at such a tender age. What might have actually got into her thoughts and does she actually understand the deep meaning hidden in her innocent talks. She inspired me to think hard and given a perspective to work with.
Though the above situations and the statements seem to be convoluted and opposing each other per se – self-love and sacrifice are parallels and don’t coincide. But that’s simply because our prism of looking and understanding things is quite micro where our definition of self-love is somehow confined to the concepts of comfort, luxury and hollow happiness. But isn’t the ultimate motive of self-love is attaining happiness and peace of mind? Unfortunately, we forgot about the ultimate while chasing the illusions.
Let’s dive a bit deeper: Human by nature have three inbuilt characteristic traits (Guna) and in the due course of life depending upon evolution, choices made, assimilation of knowledge – spiritually and otherwise these three traits can be arranged like a pyramid ascending which leads to the ultimate destination – self-awareness uniting the soul with the supreme power. Those three traits are –
When a human is born these three traits are interwoven. As his journey begins the traits acquire the shape of a pyramid and the inspiration should be to reach the pinnacle !!
There may be tiring times,
There may be troubled times,
There may be worst of times,
But remember that time won’t be the same
Just like a water wave.
You are not allowed to enter
Everytime you see an open-door.
Every person that meets you with a grin
Doesn’t make him your friend or kin.
You can’t bother someone relentlessly
Just because they allow you access selflessly.
It’s not always right to ask for help
When you can do things yourself.
We tend to forget the very essence of life,
That is to live peaceably, without causing any harm or strife.
Life requires codependency for sure,
But not at the cost of people’s freedom at all.
We always make the mistake of taking people for granted but that is not good at all. When it came to me, I realised how annoying and disturbing it is when people take me for granted. The above poem expresses what I actually feel for myself and for others.
Candles Online 