Life Through Eyes Of An Incorrigible Romantic

Love is what triumphs over hatred and fear

Love is what helps you spread joy and good cheer

Love is what brings people together

Love sees you through the tumultous times and stormy weather

Love sees you through trial, tribulations or times that test

Love touches your core, fills your being and brings out the best

Love prevails even when lust fades away

Love gives you warmth even on a wintry day

Love is what gives you trust, belief and the wings to fly high

Love is what tells you never to give up and try

Wealth, money, beauty may fade away or part

Love is but the eternal flame that burns and fills with warmth when it touches a heart..

A dreamer, hopeless romantic is something I’d always be. I thought time would temper this  romanticism with reality..but it just refuses to fade away completely. I guess I am completely smitten with the idea of being in love !!  I am and will always remain an incorrigible, moony soul !! ( Can’t help it !!) 

Piece Of Cake

Swati Kaushal’s debut chicklit novel is quite a breezy read.With things getting a little high-strung at work, this book provided much-needed comic relief for me .The protagonist 29-year-old,Minal Sharma has a hyperactive conscience, and a vivid imagination. Armed with an MBA and a career as a product manager with a FMCG, Minal has a lot going for her. She also has to grapple with her mother’s overenthusiastic attempts at settling her down.. The author manages to infuse just the right dose of humour and weaves an interesting tale around the cakes that Minal’s company makes a foray into.. Pushy mom who dreams of the perfect arranged marriage for her daughters,suitors : a wild radio jockey and staid, boring oncologist,single small town single woman in the corporate world eager to make it big,is ambitious, works hard and unwinds by partying equally hard : this book has all the essential ingredients of a chicklit.The ironic tone, the wry self-mocking humour of the author is present in every episode, whether personal or professional. This is what sets the book apart from the run-of-the-mill novels.I’d give it a thumbs up.

The Eternal Wait

Waiting to get rid of sheer chaos and fear

Waiting for the fog to clear…

Waiting for the clouds to part…

Waiting for the time to sit down and talk heart to heart..

Waiting to learn to sail through and never sink

Waiting for some time to chew over things and think…

Why do we just keep waiting forever, postponing things until tomorrow…procastinating over things that really matter…In the hum drum of daily existence we get so trapped in meaningless things…that what really counts and matters seems to fade into oblivion…I guess with such chaos and obfuscation at work..I’ve been yearning for some me-time to clear my head…this was just a quick way of doing that !!

Us over Me

We are such a community oriented society that the poor individual gets lost somewhere !! If you ever dare to put ‘me ” over us people would in all probability label you selfish !! Isnt that strange !! An assertion of individuality in our society is akin to rebellion.. Most of our choices are determined by what will our relatives, kin and others think of it.. What makes us happy is secondary…what people think should make us happy takes precedence over that… We lead double lives…I’ve seen couples who have no love lost between them merely tolerate each other and stay through a facade of a marriage for the sake of children or from fear of social censure…They’d rather be miserable than take a stand which could ruffle a few feathers in their community… Why should our choices be driven by what people will think of them.. Why do we tread with such trepidation when it comes to asserting our individuality.. No wonder I see so many of us youngsters struggle with an innate anger since we aren’t allowed to bloom as individuals..rather we’re treated like cattle ( follow the herd mentality)There is no denying the fact that extended family and relatives can be a source of strength, bonding over festivals and special occasions can be a source of joy.. But their opinions shouldn’t govern the way we live.. a community ideally should help an individual flower and not stifle  or inhibit his growth by instilling in him the fear of what people will think… No wonder we put up our best social phase for people other than our immediate family for whom the only our devilish side is reserved.. If we were not to exert too much pressure on ourselves to meet people’s expectation and just be ourselves..if nothing else we’d end up lighter and happier souls 

Out of sight Out Of mind ?

Social psychologists have for long emphasized that physical proximity is  a major determinant in deciding how we form social relationships .Then how do long distance relationships work ? And if physical proximity is a major determinant of whom will we relate with then it is most likely with people at work since that is where we spend the major part of the day.. but at work most equations are mere give and take and have an undertone of competitiveness. Also work demands that we relate more with our laptops and Blackberry(s) rather than people.. With a rapidly changing social fabric, people working in silos and barely anytime to connect with friends and family…if we are in close proximity with anything it is ourselves and technology… Where do you think this is going to take us ???

The Death Of Innocence

Child brides have been the norm in Rajasthan for ages now !! According to UNICEF’s “State of the World’s Children-2009” report, 47% of India’s women aged 20–24 were married before the legal age of 18, with 56% in rural areas.The report also showed that 40% of the world’s child marriages occur in India !! Isn’t that a shame ? The plight of child brides depicted in a popular daily soap, tugged at people’s hearts and forced them to take cognizance of such a malpractice. For once the media succeeded in fulfilling the role of a socially responsible medium to sensitize people and generate awareness ( Which doesn’t happen to often in India,unfortunately )

This downright cruel practice sees girls being married of even before they reached puberty , in fact there have been shocking instances of infants as old as 6-7 months being married off !! Many of these “balika vadhus ” then step into motherhood much before they knew what it really entails. Apparently women in Rajasthan are now taking a stand against this  age-old practice. Here is this article from Times of India which points out how these child brides and their mothers are now digging in their heels http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/The-real-life-balika-vadhus/articleshow/5245507.cms

Going by the article it seems we women are finally learning to stand up for what is rightly ours. Let this be the norm and not a one off instance

To Eternal Optimism

Hope tell you there is light at the end of the tunnel which is dark..

Hope is what keeps you going like the soothing song of a lark

Hope is what should be trusted not your fears.

A smile is what you ought to face life with not just tears…

Hope helps you triumph and move ahead in life

hope is what helps you sale through conflict and strife

Hope helps you overcome the pain..

Despite a tumultuous storm, hope keeps you sane.

To hope against hope , people say is all in vain..

But to keep the flame of hope burning despite the odds is the biggest gain…

Yet another session of notes to myself.. I feel I am becoming too much a of a cynicist…so thought I’d remind myself of the undeniable power that faith, hope and optimism bring to one’s life.. It is good to be in sync with reality, but one should never stop looking at the glass of life as “half full”

 

 

Deaf Heaven

This is the title of Journalist Pinki Virani’s latest book.. Her erstwhile books Bitter Chocolate ( on Child Sexual Abuse in middle class and rich families) and Aruna’s Story ( the real life story of a nurse who vegetated in coma after being raped by a ward boy)  were hard-hitting works of non fiction. In this latest novel she makes a debut in fiction, she blends sociopolitical events in modern India with the story of six different women as seen through the eyes of Saraswati, the sutradhar of the story. The book is a comment on our times, how we Indians don the facade of modernity and still refuse to let go of caste, tradition and down right cruel practices like female foeticide. Kudos to the author was interweaving fiction with reality in a subtle yet effective manner. She’s managed to weave in a lot be it Shiv Sena’s hooliganism and atrocities in Mumbai, the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, Bollywood’s eccentricities and egos,bhopal gas tragedy… She succeeds in giving us an unbiased picture of the conflicts and contradictions that shape modern-day India and differentiate it from all that was “Bharat” . A rather interesting read for it combines the best of fiction and non fiction genre…

Of Friends Who Matter

When all’s not quite right with your world and everything seems to be going topsy-turvy , nothing like a heart to heart with an old friend..Let me call her R..she was and still is one of the closest friends I’ve had.. Yesterday after talking to her I discovered how she’d metamorphosed into this wise young woman from a gullible,innocent girl.. We’ve shared our dreams,disappointments, our highs and lows..there have been times when I failed as a friend ( i couldn’t make it to her wedding ,something i regret till date) But the rock that she is..she did not once show any bitterness and continued to be as warm as ever….All through college we would spend hours talking , meandering here and there, buy junk jewellery,eat chaat and lament the fact that we were always running out of cash !! We would share our yearning to step into the real world, get a job, find a guy and get married.it all seemed so simple to us !! Now we long to be as carefree as we were. Such is life.It was heartening to see how she’d discovered her inner strength and  gracefully faced all that life had brought her way..Yet she continues unfazed.The way she gives my raves and rants a patient ear and always understands everything..you’re an angel !!..R this is for you : Thanks for being there always , it’s almost eerie how you know when to call !!There’s a lot I need to learn from you. Just love the way you’re coming into your own and are getting in control of things.You’re my sounding board and now a true woman of substance!! Kudos to you girl..I am indeed lucky to have you  as a friend …its people like you who make life worthwhile..This is my little way of telling you, you are valued and will always be ..not time, nor distance can mar the special equation that we share.

What are we running for ??

Why are we all running the proverbial rat race ?? Why would we rather be busy round the clock  than have sometime to pause and think about what is it that we really want.. We’re perpetually on the move it gives us an excuse ( a rather brilliant one at that) to not face our fears, our anxieties or even face our own selves.. For if we were ever to pause it would give us time to think,contemplate or even reflect.. which is something we’d rather procrastinate over… We don our masks and keep running.. to earn moolah,success, get famous,find love or chase some ephemeral dream or the other.. We bend backwards over to please people in the workplace ,it’s another matter in the process we end up hurting those who really matter to us…we take our loved ones for granted, they are at the receiving end of all our raving and ranting..we trample over feelings and yet keep running…we lose our sleep,our peace of mind and sometimes even the core of our existence…yet we keep running… What is it that we are chasing ? Why don’t we ever have the courage to introspect and do some soul-searching ? That would mean asking some hard questions to oneself and those around us…Who wants to do that ? Sometimes I feel we’re not running to chase something rather we’re running away from ourselves  to avoid facing how we feel..