Monday, December 26, 2011

Ten Things 2011 Taught Me


Ten things 2011 taught me –

  1. Love your work the most. It will always be faithful to you.
  2. There is a huge difference between your mind governing your thoughts and your thoughts governing your mind. The former is healthy, the latter destructive.
  3. Believing is essential. You fail the moment you lose faith.
  4. Nothing is more powerful than self-confidence. It is the strongest weapon you can ever possess.
  5. The basic idea of life is To Experience. By the time you turn into ashes, you would have experienced all the adjectives that the world uses to define ‘life’.
  6. No dreams, no reality.
  7. Destruction of borrowed dreams has a way of hurting more than those your own.
  8. Our first and last love is…Self-love.
  9. One powerful idea is all it takes. That one original thought.
  10. It is good to be confused provided it drives you nuts until you have cleared it out.



So this was it for 2011.

Dear 2012,

Prove the Mayans wrong, please.

Sincerely,
Me.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Chilly Mornings


It was a warm winter afternoon and my mom had cooked her best Murgh Masala. It is on very rare occasions that she actually takes the pain to make something like this. Therefore, there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to relish it. It was right in front of me staring at me in a seductive way. With love in my eyes, I looked back at it. Mom hates it when I eat without washing my hands. And that was exactly what I did. She came storming out of the room to give me a dose of cleanliness habits. However, to my surprise instead of words she yelped something that was irritating and sounded something like tring… tring…!

Just then, I opened my eyes and reality dawned upon me. Murgh Masala, my eternal love was no longer in front of me. Instead, there was an eerie looking alarm clock staring at me coldly as if in a way challenging me to break it into tiny pieces. For once, I did consider the thought. After all, it had deprived me of my right to relish the one dish I love the most. But that was too unrealistic for a option. Shutting that damn thing up was a much better option.  Slowly I took out my hand from the blanket to accomplish the very goal. But the moment I took my hand out of the warm blanket I felt the chilling cold air on my hand and instantly pulled it back inside the blanket.

For the next 20 seconds I thought of two hundred excuses to why I should not attend the lecture. Nothing helped. I did not have a choice. But the thought of stepping out of the blanket was scary. It is inhuman how teachers expect us to attend college early morning. I say there should be a law against this. But then again, I say a lot of things. Anyway gathering all my courage, I somehow managed to take one hand out of the blanket. It was tough. It was heart wrenching. But I had to do it. It was now or never. Determined I shoved the blanket off in one go.

In an instant the cold breeze directed itself towards me and chilled me to the core of my being. But I was firm. There was no looking back. I had to get ready. Slowly I stood up and walked to the bathroom. The tap inside was staring at me with an evil grin. At that moment it was the lion and I was the lamb. Gathering all my courage I walked up to it and opened it. The water, which was apparently coming directly from the Arctic Ocean, shred right through my skin. I closed my eyes preparing myself for the next 20 painful minutes of my day.

Now this has become sort of a daily routine. Nobody understands. It is a bad bad world, you see. But you know the one thing that is really refreshing and that charges me like nothing else is the hot cup of tea that my mom gives me when I am ready. And after that cup of tea I am ready to start off the day and meet my stupid friends in college.

Friday, December 2, 2011

The Much Hyped 'Love'


Often people ask me “Do you even have any feelings?” Because according to them I am that sarcastic person who hates everything and everybody. This BTW is not true. (Not to forget the question is wrongly framed). I am after all a normal human being with thankfully no psychological disabilities. I feel, I sense, I observe. The only difference is I prefer not to exaggerate.

Love is not that big a deal, really. It's just sensationalized, romanticized and commercialized. It is after all just a simple feeling. It is not that dramatic as they show in the movies. What they show in the movies is the exaggerated version, which is so perhaps to highlight the factor or the moment. However, it is amusing how the 21st century’s fast, intelligent and forward generation is swathed away with the idea of falling in love. How they try to implement the reel life situations in real life and are then heartbroken when the consequences fail their expectations.

Moreover, the young girls out there need to understand this – “Fairy Tales Don’t Exist”. There isn’t going to be any prince charming. There won’t be any romantic songs. Real life is not reel life. If the guy who you like doesn’t like you back, leave it. Don’t fret and for heaven’s sake don’t try to find solace in those creepy heartbreak songs. Understand this – there is a lot more to life. Love is just a part of life and not the other way round. It is sad how everyone follows a standard line of thought when apparently ‘heartbroken’. There is forwarding of some horribly cheesy SMSs, liking of weird Facebook pages, status updates and tweets that practically don’t make any sense.

This is where parents come in. If there is good amount of understanding and the BFF kind of relationship then a lot of that drama can be avoided. I feel so. I haven’t experienced any of it but I share a bond with my mother where I can tell her almost anything. And that is a relief because for one I know that she will understand.

It is amusing how very few Indian parents are actually talking about this with their children. Most of them shy away from it considering it a social evil. Perhaps they are worried about the extreme consequences. Which I think will not happen if the trust factor is maintained. Parents need to understand and adapt to the changing scenarios. Otherwise, their fears might just become reality mocking them.

Friends are equally important but nobody can replace the two pillars of our lives. They are who they are and by no means can their presence be neglected. In addition, I have managed to compile 450 odd words up there that qualifies for a new post.

I think I really need to work on my beginnings and endings. Don’t you think?