Green Tea/Just A Thought/ Happy Children's Day/ P.S. I Miss You Old Geezer!!

What can't a morning cup of green tea fix? Its filled with anti-oxidants and help you become more youthful and energetic. Like they show in the Tetley ad, where Kareena Kapoor says, "inside wala snaan". For some it might just be a cup of cutting chai or black coffee or a full fat latte, a glass of juice packed with vitamins or even a healthy morning walk (ROFL, i'm a morning person.... NOT)!! There are endless choices for one to pick from in today's world.

Just a thought though, Christmas is just round the corner. So what do you want to do this Christmas?

2014 has come and gone so fast that in midst of lifey situations i had forgotten to follow all of my resolutions. I may not have forgotten them but i certainly did underestimate all of my will power and dragged myself into being just the opposite of what i had in mind (this is the time when i bang my head against the wall and say "why you bum.. why??", of course, no nobody else is allowed to say that except me..  just getting it out there you know!)

I wanted to get fit, travel/explore more, learn a new language, do some social work (volunteering), grow out my hair (ended up cutting it), get a driver's license..girls, laughing won't do us any good (we need to get this one thing done, if you haven't already) and guys, honestly, every guy friend i have think girls can't drive. Well, considering a live incident, when me and my boyfriend were crossing the road, a female driver ran her car over the divider, onto a one way street going into the opposite direction just to take a right turn, probably 10-15 steps away from me, right in front of my eyes, i'm not too sure myself. May be she was in a hurry to get home but, all the more i look at this, all the more reasons convince me into believing that she might have panicked just a tad bit. Well, there we were looking at each other, he smiled at me and said, "see, that's why i say girls can't drive!!". It was fucking hilarious. I was spell bound obviously but there was nothing i could do.

I would say i don't know much about this whole female/male : "who's a superior driver" thing and may be guys are right or may be not (i call this pride), but i do know that nobody taught me how to drive.
Hence i can't drive.

That's that.

Problem solved!

Call me a diplomate, until i learn driving myself. Will be glad to prove you wrong.

Until than i will be rolling on the floor....

laughing ....(Totally contradicting myself, when i said laughing wont do us no good, tbh, laughing is great for health)..

Probably...

Provided if u are laughing of course..

Hmmm, no, i am gonna laugh anyway.. don't mind me, i'm only here to laugh and blabber and try to make sense out of things.

Moving on, this year i celebrated my 22nd birthday. The moment i blew those candles, a sudden realization came to me. I realized that i wasn't a child anymore. You know, no more free tickets for children below 5. No more going into a bar and drinking below legal age. No more "i'm still a child, i can't vote. Rather i don't know whom to vote". Suddenly there is this  greater need of being more aware of things around you. No more, "mama, stop over-pouring me with all these responsibilities", and above all no more torturing the teachers into organizing children's day when we didn't have any classes, when they danced and sang just for us.

14th November is here already, so, HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY!!! I remember the first children's day i had in DPS. I was in 5th standard. It is, by far, probably the best children's day i ever got to experience. I remember this particular day not only because it is a day worth remembering but also because on this day, i had lost somebody really dear and close to me.

My grandpa was living his last moments when i was at school. I wish somebody would have told me, but yet, they all decided to keep quiet until i got home. There i was having the time of my life when he was on his death bed, counting seconds, re-living memories that once made him laugh and cry and rejoice. Knowing that he lived his life to the best of his abilities. Knowing that there were people who were going to miss him and his presence. When i finally got to know, he was already gone.

My grandpa made my childhood special. He'd climb trees to pick out fruits i loved. He'd fish for me and teach me how to fish. He'd puff onto his cigarette and let me play video games on the telly. He'd let me watch Dragon Ball Z, sacrificing what he loved watching. He'd eat the food i'd make for him when i first learned cooking without complaining once. He'd cut down one tree and plant 5 more. He'd teach me how to ride a bicycle even though i kept failing him. He'd hold my hand and teach me which side to walk on while waking on roads without pavements. He'd teach me how to color on coloring books, he'd say, " first color the boundaries and then color the insides. This will help you make sure you don't spill anything out by mistake". I only saw him few times a year. Somedays we'd go visit him, which was mostly when i had summer or winter vacations and somedays he'd come live with us. Those few limited days i had with him, seems like a lifetime now. He gave me life lessons i will never never forget. Not only his love for me but his love for children was so immense that he even built a school for children who couldn't afford a lot of money. He gave me the perfect example of living a humble life, to be perfectly happy with what we have and the phrase that rightfully says, "less is more".

I might have been small to realize this than but now i realize. I realize that, nothing in this world is permanent. Nothing can be kept forever because nothing is your own. Nothing can be given or taken. Nothing can be made or destroyed. Somethings are not under our control. We are all a part of a phenomena and we exist in this vast universe, living different lives, in different parallel worlds, in different dimensions. We are born into families we call our own. We make bonds and connections with people we are naturally attracted to. We grow fond of them, we forget some and hold onto some and yet in the midst of living this journey, we only know the value of what we have until its suddenly gone.

Do we value people enough? Do we give them the love they deserve? Are we living a life worth re-living? If you could turn back time, what do you think you could have done better? Are you hard to forget in the eyes of others? Are you proud of yourself and others?

Children's day for me is a day i ponder upon reflecting the life i've lived, reminiscing about my childhood days, my teenage days into adulthood. Its a day i miss my grandpa and smile upon the life, the special bond we shared.

If you're still below 21, go on, live your to the best of your abilities and if you're above 21, remember you can still be a child and mess things up around the house and finally, if you have an imaginary feelings wheel and you are looking to color on 'happiness' and 'fulfillment', i'd suggest you to start with the orphanages. Do something you'd feel glad to look back and reflect upon in 2015. Make memories, make friends, make love, rejoice this journey we call life.

P.S. Grandpa (my old geezer), i hope we had more of 'us' time together, i miss you and i hope you know that. I love you and always will. I hope you are proud of me even though i've failed you countless times. I hope you always shelter the people i love and care about under your protective wings. I hope u have found peace. I hope there isn't any more suffering where you're at. I hope to see you standing in the bright daylight at the other end of this tunnel . Where ever you are i hope to see you again. I hope they remember you today at the school you once built. I hope you know you are unforgettable in my eyes. 

Starting a new chapter : Gokarna

A beautiful sea view from hill top

The road to self discovery is a journey. A journey to be taken alone or together with the people you love. The more i grow older the more i realize that this journey is full of surprises, lot of happiness climbing the uphill battle and a feeling of fear and anguish rolling and sliding downhill. If i could find a souvenir for memory just to prove the world that i was there, then trust me i would keep one for every step of the way.

The rocks, the hill, the sea, the sun

You must consider yourself lucky to have the kind of people in your life who show you the right path to walk on, who make the journey with you, who overlook all your flaws and never leave you hanging half way, without whom you would consider yourself lost and the reason behind the radiate smile you carry with you whenever you are around them. I'm blessed with some amazing friends. They are the kind of people who without a doubt are not only worth all the effort, but they are like my family. I consider my self to be blessed because the love of my life also happens to be my best friend.

My love, my best friend 

The Trio: Wanderlust

All of us at some point of time have gotten lost on the way. Some see the sun, some see the smoke, some seek happiness and some search for gold, nonetheless we keep going on. You see the sky change its color as it crosses over from the drowning moon to the rising sun.  You carry your world around like a passenger riding on the front seat of a roller coaster. You start off feeling excited and scared. There are times you are on the verge of exploding with teary eyes midway, but at the end of it all you smile deliberately, without pretense, feeling so much lighter, so much happier, so much relieved, so much so that you'd want to ride it again just to feel the thrill of it all over again.

Shore of Starfish

I made a journey. A journey that changed a whole lot of me. Gokarna taught me that the serenity and simplicity always existed in this world full of chaos. There was no need to get my head muddled. I had everything i ever wanted. There was the sand, there was the sea. There were shells, there were waves. Just to walk on the beach with my naked feet, just to see the birds hovering above and fly towards the horizon, viewing the sun go down from the sandy shores, the feeling of almost being able to hold it in my hands. The sand, the sea, the shells, the waves taught me that maybe you get what you wanted, maybe you stumble upon it, maybe you'll know when you see it, and when you find it, you keep it. In a permanent state.

The rolling hills that backdropped the drowning sun

If life was an atlas, and i could leave my mark, then i'd leave my footprints behind imprinted on the sand. If life was an atlas, then i was in the right place at the right time. I'm glad to have made this journey. This was the starting of a new chapter. A chapter life will help me write. 

Flesh and Bones

The dark sublimed by the illuminating moon

Sooner or later there will be dawn

The birds will fly in flocks towards the light

The warmth of the sunlight will beam through their hollow bones

Sooner or later winter will pass

Tired bodies fall down on the ground

The heat of the body cooled down by the cold earth beneath you

Ignite your soul stealthily, don't haste

Unleash the light, the warmth within your heart

Feel what you have never felt before

May be you've felt it more than i can assume

But just as you lie there helpless and tattered

Never never let anybody else pick you up

It doesn't matter how long you stay there down and naked 

It doesn't matter how long you are vulnerable and exposed

Sometimes all that matters in life

Is to pick yourself up, dust yourself up, each time you fall

Let your loved ones hold your hands and wipe your tears

But pick yourself up before anybody else does, 

Its one thing you can do for your own

There is nothing too embarrassing to see or to feel

Don't just become a random photograph in eyes of your own 

Don't repent or seek pity in eyes of others

You're just made of flesh and bones, it will weather

But if forever is even a true of a word, 

Than forever your heart will carry you on.

P.S. Hope you find this song inspiring :)

Loss Of Someone Close: Relationship With Self

This is a real life story of a person who wanted me to be his voice and tell the world his story.

The story starts when he was a mere 10 year old boy studying in 5th std when he was faced with the most difficult turn of events in this life. He says, "I was a small boy back than, in mere 5th std. I was playing with my friends one afternoon, when I was told the most surprising yet in some way, the most dangerous news of my life! After that very day I had to suffer pain for 10 long years of my life and still counting." 

The news that gave him so much pain back then, up until today was that his elder sister had met with an accident and was taken to one of the best private hospitals for treatment in the city (Guwahati). He recalls, "The doctors said that she will be alright after the operation but the operation totally changed her life. A 18 year old girl could not walk anymore. She was living the life of an infant again. She had to depend on others for every single need of hers." He recalls his mother being heartbroken and pain stricken. He was a 10 year old child but despite him being a child, he didn't have a childhood to enjoy. He grew up way too fast and was trying very hard to get accustomed to his new life but every single day was a painful experience for him to see his family suffer. "The people around me did not understand my family's situation." He vividly recalls, "Every day I had to face an array of questions from my friends and neighbors. They kept asking me horrendous questions like, 'how does your sister go to the toilet?', 'how does she take bath?'. There were a lot of questions I didn't like to answer and on many occasions I felt left out and in-understandable."

His family slowly got accustomed to this new life but there came another blow when his sister started to suffer again. Because she was always lying on her bed, she developed wounds on her back. There came a situation when she could not lie down neither could she stand up nor could she sit down properly. His mother and his sister took tours to the hospital more often and spent almost 2 and a half years in the hospital. He says "Back then, I was living with my father at home and since I rarely saw them, I missed them so very much".

Amidst the pain and suffering, days passed him by. He was stepping into adulthood now, probably a 17 years old teenager just passing out of college. Long before he knew it, he had to face the death of his sister. Just two months later he also loses his father. He says, "Even now I can feel the pain I had felt before, even now I suffer the same way I suffered. All that my life has taught me, up until now is that, there is a very close relationship between me a sadness, between me and tragedy. Someone close to me is always suffering. So I think that maybe every single relationship only brings sadness to our lives".

I do not have a moral from this story as I am in a situation where I am nobody to judge. All I can think of now after hearing his story is that he has truly been a brave person. Seeing somebody close to you suffer is the biggest pain a person can endure but living through it tests the person's capability to live life and helplessly smile when you must. Life can be depressing but on many occasions one can perk up. Many people at this very moment may be going through a lot of pain and suffering. All I can say is please smile. Regardless of any situation, please take a moment to hold your head high and smile because you my friend have been brave and up until now whatever the situation and consequences, you have survived. To think that, "every single relationship only brings sadness to our lives" is rightfully wrong because you my friend have shared a very fruitful relationship with yourself. The way you fell and brought yourself back up again is in itself a commendable thing to do. When nobody was around to support you and understand you, you understood yourself the best. When you thought you could only cry, you have smiled. You have helped yourself become the person you are. So despite the wrongs, the odds, the falls please smile because you have lived through it all to tell me your story as it involves a lot of courage and risks to be completely honest and have a real conversation with somebody. Although I struggled with the post title, I am honored because you made me a part of it. So thank you! 

HOW WEALTHY YOU REALLY ARE?? : BEING SELFLESS

There are times when I sit silently in front of my laptop unable to write, unable to deliberate. Sometimes my thoughts just seem so tangled within one another like a variable mass of ideas and believes. I think about one and another follows but then they never seem to make sense when put all together. 

As I look back now and think about the word selfless, I have never seen anybody being selfless to be honest. My mother was selfless but then again all of our mothers are. Besides her I can't recall one single person being selfless. May be I grew up in a selfish society. Come to think of it now, I really think I must have grown up in a selfish society. I think its true because one thing that I have always experienced is when you are constantly surrounded by the same kind of people, attitude, environment and you don't seem to like any of it, all you want to do is make a change and be different. As a kid my idol was Mother Teresa. My mother knew that so she'd get me books on her and I'd seldom read in the library during my school days. 

I remember an incident very clearly. It was one of those jamming days in school. I was in my school's first ever rock band and I was a happy person because I was doing the things that I loved at that time. 

I had this diary I'd carry around. On it I had written a few songs and some guitar chords. I basically wrote down everything I could or felt like besides the songs and the chords. One day some of my class mates were going through my diary, as it could be so easily taken out of my bag. I had gone out for a bit during the recess and came back and found them laughing. I went and asked them "why are you all laughing?" in a very jovial manner as they were my friends and I always felt the need to be included. One of them told me "Kako, your idol is Mother Teresa?" I said yes but asked them "why?" They laughed at me again and told me that I seemed old fashioned.  Let me ask this to you all, it is bad to have an idol like Mother Teresa as a teenager and not some famous actor, singer, player?? Seeing them laugh hurt me more that day because they were my friends and friends are supposed to have each others backs, not go about laughing at each others likes and dislikes...

Today as I have grown up to be what I am it is not only ironical but people think its hard to believe because I am not the person I was surrounded by or grew up with. I am a completely different me. It was long before I noticed it myself when people thought I was kind and hence weak. I don't believe its even just to say that if a person is kind and loves to share the love, he or she is weak from within or is looking for love in return. Now that I look back, I see my self with a kind of innocence that perhaps at that point of time I think was only natural. No child is born selfish, or kind. A baby is just a mass of bones, muscles and blood. They with their fresh mind soak in whatever is being fed. Teach a child to be bad and selfish they will be, teach them to love and share and they will. No body taught me how to be selfless or selfish or how to live my life to be honest. I just gradually grew and found out on my own. My mother used to tell me as kid to love and share but she also warned me to defend my self when there was a need because when people know you are kind to them they automatically feel like you can be taken advantage of. I don't know why but she constantly felt the need to tell me to be strong otherwise the world could break me. Just because I didn't believe her as a child and constantly believed everyone to be just the same as I was, kind, smiling, cheerful, non-judgemental, accepting people the way they were, trustworthy, easy to talk to and always there to help someone in need, I have been broken down on many occasions. So to say I learned it the hard way. It wasn't long when I had found out there were some nasty people in this world who were more selfish then a cat to be honest. And I'm not saying that cats are bad. Yes they seem adorable to many but deep within them it is so clear that they are mysterious and dark. 

Sometimes when I ponder on being selfless I wonder how rich are you really because to me being selfless is a wealth. You are a wealthy person if u have the love and smiles and blessings of many in your heart. The thing you don't have to worry is "will I get the same love in return" because in you heart you are satisfied, you are happy, ever ready to help. Being monetarily rich with no friends and family to love and care for, no people to call you up and talk to, no one to remember you and you remember of, is the last thing that i'd ever want to experience as an old person siting on a mansion of my own, materialistically having all the things I could possibly think of having but no one in this world to share it with. I would't want to adopt a dog just so he'd keep me company beside the fire, during the last cold winter days of my life. I want to be able to hold someone's hand and share what is within me. I want to be able to be sure that I have fulfilled what my heart desired to fulfill and what I wanted to accomplish in this life time (one of them being selfless) just so I could die peacefully without a shadow of doubt.

I saw this video today and it got me so motivated to write. I was literally crying towards the end. It got me so inclined to be selfless all over again. To be completely honest with you right now "YOU" are just a screen in front of me and to you I'd like to write as if nobody is watching. To you I'd like to say that I don't want to change one bit of me because I worked really hard to become what I am today and will go on working hard, whether its likable or not. I only reason with myself on one thing that is will I ever be able to change the heart of somebody today into being a better person? Because I trust that, the joy it will bring, you cannot capture it by a mere camera alone. It can be only captured by your eyes, framed by your heart and kept to cherish forever it in your mind.

Viva la revolución : A PLEDGE TO VOTE

Did you know that the General elections to the first Lok Sabha of Independent India was held in the year 1951 and the polling station for this first general elections ever, was set up at Kalpa in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh? 

Meet Mr. Shyam Negi, who retired as a government primary school teacher in 1975. He has fathered 10 children and is now 97 years old. Mr. Negi is the first voter of independent India and presently the oldest voter alive. Mr. Negi in this video says, "Today is a very special day, an opportunity to do a great work. In those days, there was a lot of heavy snowfall and here in the cold weather, the roads got closed early. That is why our turn came 6 months before any other state. Even today I can recall, that happiness, that feeling of pride which I had felt that very day. Whether it is snowing or raining, I fulfill my duty every single time and even today I feel the same happiness and pride, I had felt before." 

Mr. Negi, he doesn't need glasses but is hard of hearing. He is an old man and even so he walks to the polling station every single time to vote. By far he has voted 15 times for the Lok Sabha and 11 times for the Vidhan Sabha elections.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/meet-shyam-negi-independent-indias-first-and-oldest-voter/1/223616.html

Seeing a person like him makes me question. It makes me question about us, the first generation Indian voters, are we playing our part? Are we taking up the responsibility of making this nation strong and united?

We all know that most of us have already lost hope in India. Many of us feel like nothing can be done. Many of us sit at home on the voting day with the "India ka kuch nahi ho sakta" attitude and bawl about how badly India is degrading. We try and count the number of uncountable murders and rapes taking place in various parts of our country and complain about how these murderers and rapists are not put into trial. We loath the Indian police for failing to take responsibility and stand as the voice and protector of the innocent. We feel helpless looking at the powerful who like to gamble with the lives of the underprivileged. We seldom feel like a sheep, our hands and legs tied up with an iron chain, being muted by the throat and a butcher slaying us slowly, one tiny stoke at a time. Each day we bleed, pain stricken and voiceless, our hearts full of fear and misery. We are slowly dying and the only solution we come up with is to get out of this country as soon as we can to live a better life, in search for a voice and the democracy we have been denied. 

They say, India is the largest democracy in the world and that the Constitution of India is the longest constitution in the world. It proclaims to be a sovereign, democratic and republic but being a first generation voter myself, whatever happened to these proclamations I wonder.

Nothing can be done to this country...So why should we vote, you ask?? 

Well, today I'm not only talking about my views and opinions but I'm also backing myself up with some facts. I request you to understand that if we do not step up today, tomorrow will be too late to take action. 

According to the Association for Democratic Reform (ADR), India the following facts have surfaced: 

In this diagram we are able to see that in the Lok Sabha there are a total of 543 MPs out of which 162 MPs have pending criminal cases against them. That makes about 30% of MPs corrupt in the Indian parliament.

                              

In this diagram we are able to see that in the Vidhan Sabha or the State assemblies, out of 4032 MLAs about 1264 have pending criminal cases against them. That makes about 31% MLAs corrupt in the state assemblies.

                

Now you might probably wonder if these criminals who decide the way we should live our lives have been punished or not. My friend, the answer is NO. All these criminals who are given the utmost right of making laws in this country, who are chosen to bring justice in India are themselves criminals in the eyes of justice. They have not only violated some major rules and regulations of this country but also have done some serious offenses like: 

                                                       

The shock and the irony of it all is that these criminals who are charged with all of the above mentioned serious offenses only have mere charges framed against them but no FIR have been registered in their name. Now you can imagine if this is the state of Indian government and the law makers of this country are the corrupted ones themselves than how can the normal people looking for justice ever get justice?                                            

Be the voice!!

I remember as a child I used to read in the books that India is a developing country. 21 years of my life has gone by but even now India is still developing. The Gross National Income of India is 4.749 trillion PPP dollars and out of 180 countries in the world India ranks 53 from below. During election time we complain about the corrupted using their money power to buy votes through their vote banks. They promise to give mobile phones, refrigerator, color tv, washing machines. Hell! they even go to the extent of paying off all the bills of an household in order to get their votes. They normally target the poor underprivileged parts of our society. Another fact, according to the World Bank, about 32.7% of India population fall below poverty line of US$ 1.25 ( i.e. 75.01 INR) per day while 68.7% live on less than US$ 2 (120.01 INR) per day. 

Facts like these are insane and makes me wonder that if these leaders are actually gaining from and taking advantage of the poorer groups of the society by forcefully taking away their fundamental rights then why on earth would they ever think of developing these parts of the society? People being poor is an advantage to them so they can mute their voices and take away their most basic fundamental right through money power!

Change cannot be bought at once, change is a gradual process. If you want to change the system than be the system. Be the voice and make a change. Make people aware, organize campaigns, impart free education and awareness to the less fortunate sectors of India. To the children, to the youth and to the old. When we are aware, we can make others aware. I know its not an easy affair but it is definitely possible. If only 1 person out of 10 vote, than how can we expect a change?? Is it even logical?? If 10 out of 10 people vote than we can ignite a tiny spark. Another 10 people's vote will ignite another tiny spark and slowly, if each and every one of us make our voices heard we will create a fire. A fire of change. 

Is it understandable now? How much one vote is worth? How much of a difference one vote can make? How much potential we have as voters to make a change in the Indian map? Elections are approaching, there is an immense stress on the importance of choosing the correct leaders. Please let us pledge to vote friends, its now or never. If you've ever watched the movie V for Vendetta you'll understand this: "Isn't it that beneath this wrinkled well-fed exterior there lies a dangerous killing machine, with a fetish for Fawkesian mask, viva la revolución!"

Be the change. Make the change. Vote.

LIFE AND DEATH

  We seem so afraid,
To do the things we never tried.
Trapped in a small cage,
Conquered by lust, lured by faith,
We move back and forth,
To a grey square box we call life.

Each new day a candle dies,
Like breath taken away from our lives.
We become so petrified of a feeling,
A feeling so undeniable.
Our very existence is questionable,
A mere dewdrop they say,

And yes a prayer put across in reverence,
in tongues with the Lord, and then we stay.

Concealed by a mask so brave, 

A man full of misguided disguise,

In a heart so cowardly,

In a corner so cold.

We are stoned, dead inside,

Infested by fear so deep,
that our souls tremble and quiver,
we stealthily bleed : a silent lamb

A long, cold, slow, death,
and a breath is taken away.

We live but never dare,
To face our planned destiny unmoved by prayers.

Something like life, a gift, a journey,
Something that cant be replaced, but remembered
Something like us, we're born,we die.. 

But what happens in between??
Wont you live it but once!