A few months back I was talking to one of the AID volunteers (actually I know only one). He was telling me about the organization, how it works, what is their goal and so on. Soon I caught his enthusiasm and was all ready to go out and help the less privileged and “be the change” as he puts it. I made big plans about doing this and that… two months later, I was still planning. I was waiting for the right time you see, a time when I would be comparatively free.
Isn’t this the story with almost all of us? We do want to help, but are so engrossed in our own lives that we just don’t have the time and energy left for anything else. Once in a while when we do stop to catch our breadth we realize that we aren’t doing what we wanted to and have given in to the mechanical lifestyle. And then we are filled with guilt with soon replaced by bigger plans and some more procrastination.
Now, what I don’t understand here is… who asked us to do big things. I mean let’s face it, not all of us can dedicate our lives to this. But we do want to help… don’t we? As my friend suggested to me that I could collect money… say put a few rupees whatever amount I can in a box everyday and then use that money for some worthy cause. And as I start to think of ways to utilize the money, I would be more involved with the volunteering work. Isn’t this simple?
But first I guess we need to change the way we think. All of us have our own share of joy and sorrow. And seeing someone else’s problems doesn’t make ours any smaller or less important, but it does help us appreciate what we have and use it wisely. We don’t need to go out and solve the poor man’s problems; we need to help him become self sufficient to solve his own problems. All we need to do is share a small part of whatever we have with someone who doesn’t have much. Even if we can bring a smile across the tired faces and make even a day easier for them, we would have done our bit.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
HOMELESS HOMEMAKERS
She makes food for the family, yet she can’t eat with them she first has to feed her in laws. She gives birth to the child but if she tries to discipline her child she is abused. She earns her living both in the house and in the outside world, yet she puts up with abusive language and mental tortures. I used to think these stories have become history but a better view of the world has shown me that this isn’t history it’s the present of many a women. And I am not talking of the rural areas but of urban educated families. One family where the wife thinks that she isn’t good enough and finds security in the confines of her house… but how secure is she?! She is abused by her in laws, and works day and night like a slave… prays each night for her death. Another family, the girl is educated she is working, she puts up with abusive language and mistreatment, alienated in her own house… she can’t leave cos she doesn’t earn enough to support herself and her son… her in laws tell her son that she is going to kill him. A beautiful girl, extremely talented is married in to an educated rich family, she is tortured so much by her in laws that she had to leave her house, her daughter and son… which shouldn’t have been difficult cos the kids were taught to disrespect her, but who can over look the fact that she is the mother.
The girl leaves her parent’s place to make her own home, ends up in her husbands house…… where is her home?! Where does she belong?!
The girl leaves her parent’s place to make her own home, ends up in her husbands house…… where is her home?! Where does she belong?!
Monday, April 03, 2006
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Saturday, March 18, 2006
RELIGION
I had wanted to express my thoughts on this for quite sometime and a series of events have led to this post…
I believe that religion is behavioral, it lays down the norms a society or cult has to be live by. It gives a sense of belonging to the individual following it, people of similar thoughts and beliefs live together.
The God one prays to is a personal thing… I don’t know what is God, I don’t know if he has a name or is God the name. I don’t know if I can feel God or not, still I am not an atheist… I do believe in God or the forces that be.
Christianity says that man is a born sinner, Hindus believe that man’s actions make him a sinner he isn’t born a sinner. Every religion has its own beliefs and they are right in their own perspective keeping mind the need of the time when the religion came in to being. I feel Christianity is glorified because it is the religion followed in the more developed countries and hence is noticed more… though it is not the most widely followed religion. Islam on the other hand is a religion about which very less is known, though there might be loads of other religions I know nothing about, but I feel Islam is a very widely followed religion that is suffering from lack of proper knowledge of it.
Every religion has turned rigid, but one can’t see that rigidity till he or she is actually involved in the religion… all the religions are God based be it Christianity, Hinduism, or Islam. Christianity was one religion that traveled from the underdogs to the kings instead of the other way round as has been the trend… but if you believe in God all religions hold equal potential to get you closer to God, and all of them preach humanity. I don’t know any religion that doesn’t preach equality or which says that the other religion isn’t good enough. There is one force, call it by whatever name you want, you’d still be praying to that one power above you. I respect your beliefs and you respect mine, one can tell me or you that the religion we follow is lesser, how can it be, God can’t have competitors.
Sikhism seems to be a religion that does not have a Godly start, it was started by Guru Nanak and after him followed 9 more Gurus, and they were teachers and never claimed to be God. Jesus was God’s own child; Hinduism has scriptures by God… Geeta was said by Lord Krishna himself, and Quran was bestowed upon Muhammad by Allah. But Guru Granth Saheb, is a compilation of teachings of the 10 Gurus, it has preaching’s of saints like Meera and Kabeer in it too… to me it seems to be one of the most practical religious scriptures to live by.
To me every religion has it’s own pros and cons and I think I know every little to judge them, and I love hearing about every religion and it’s big and small customs and the stories attached to them… there’s a lot that can be learned from there, a lot that has been sadly overlooked over the years.
I believe that religion is behavioral, it lays down the norms a society or cult has to be live by. It gives a sense of belonging to the individual following it, people of similar thoughts and beliefs live together.
The God one prays to is a personal thing… I don’t know what is God, I don’t know if he has a name or is God the name. I don’t know if I can feel God or not, still I am not an atheist… I do believe in God or the forces that be.
Christianity says that man is a born sinner, Hindus believe that man’s actions make him a sinner he isn’t born a sinner. Every religion has its own beliefs and they are right in their own perspective keeping mind the need of the time when the religion came in to being. I feel Christianity is glorified because it is the religion followed in the more developed countries and hence is noticed more… though it is not the most widely followed religion. Islam on the other hand is a religion about which very less is known, though there might be loads of other religions I know nothing about, but I feel Islam is a very widely followed religion that is suffering from lack of proper knowledge of it.
Every religion has turned rigid, but one can’t see that rigidity till he or she is actually involved in the religion… all the religions are God based be it Christianity, Hinduism, or Islam. Christianity was one religion that traveled from the underdogs to the kings instead of the other way round as has been the trend… but if you believe in God all religions hold equal potential to get you closer to God, and all of them preach humanity. I don’t know any religion that doesn’t preach equality or which says that the other religion isn’t good enough. There is one force, call it by whatever name you want, you’d still be praying to that one power above you. I respect your beliefs and you respect mine, one can tell me or you that the religion we follow is lesser, how can it be, God can’t have competitors.
Sikhism seems to be a religion that does not have a Godly start, it was started by Guru Nanak and after him followed 9 more Gurus, and they were teachers and never claimed to be God. Jesus was God’s own child; Hinduism has scriptures by God… Geeta was said by Lord Krishna himself, and Quran was bestowed upon Muhammad by Allah. But Guru Granth Saheb, is a compilation of teachings of the 10 Gurus, it has preaching’s of saints like Meera and Kabeer in it too… to me it seems to be one of the most practical religious scriptures to live by.
To me every religion has it’s own pros and cons and I think I know every little to judge them, and I love hearing about every religion and it’s big and small customs and the stories attached to them… there’s a lot that can be learned from there, a lot that has been sadly overlooked over the years.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
LETTING GO
I had read somewhere that it takes more strength to let go than to hold on, now I have truly learnt how difficult and how important it is to let go. I have always said this, that no matter how close I am to someone there is absolutely no one without whom my life would stop… I’d be lonely for sometime and will always miss the person but life really doesn’t stop. I was wrong… life does stop even if only for a moment, it does. And if life doesn’t stop you do. We hold on to the memories so tightly that it fills our future dreams with just getting that particular thing back… we forget that without the present there is no past and no future. It takes so much courage to face the facts, like accepting that a loved one is dead and we’d never hear from them again.
We fight so many battles within ourselves and with every decision we win and lose at the same time. I guess it’s the same thing as learning to forgiving yourself. To know that it’s ok to make a mistake and that it is important to learn the lesson well and keep it for life…
We fight so many battles within ourselves and with every decision we win and lose at the same time. I guess it’s the same thing as learning to forgiving yourself. To know that it’s ok to make a mistake and that it is important to learn the lesson well and keep it for life…
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
CLICHE JUICE
This is one of my favorite poems...
It brings back a lot of memories for me... my friend gave it to me at a time when i didnt even know who David Duchovny was... she used to be a quite a X-Files fan and she made it a point to make me watch it too.....
This post is dedicated to her...
CLICHE JUICE
home is where my heart is, and my heart is out travelling
up into that wild blue yonder, wingless, prayerful
that this miracle of light will not end just yet
also at home with you, on the ground
wherever you might be at the moment, grounded like a high schooler
like a wire, a bird and a wire, feet on the ground
and my heart is in my throat now, now in my feet
lawfully descending with gravity, to the lower lowest
most sought after most beautiful bound home
aspirations involve reparations
we reach for the stars, wondering what we are
but my reason has been found, by finding youand looking down
and it is there not in the stars of the fantasized worlds
fifth dimensions, sixth senses, holy parallel potentates
of potentialities, that my feet will trace their slow
as history itself dance. A walking calligraphy so subtle
that it'll take forty years and more, and a view from above
with and impersonal remove and a lofty attachment
i hope to barely fail at that mythical two backed beast
itinerant states like the one i enjoy here
up here in the well attended air
to read the cursive strokes of my aggregate footsteps
like some fairytale dissolve, "once upon a time" or twice
written on our little page of earth ground
wherever our home may be, will be,
wherever we happen to be
It brings back a lot of memories for me... my friend gave it to me at a time when i didnt even know who David Duchovny was... she used to be a quite a X-Files fan and she made it a point to make me watch it too.....
This post is dedicated to her...
CLICHE JUICE
home is where my heart is, and my heart is out travelling
up into that wild blue yonder, wingless, prayerful
that this miracle of light will not end just yet
also at home with you, on the ground
wherever you might be at the moment, grounded like a high schooler
like a wire, a bird and a wire, feet on the ground
and my heart is in my throat now, now in my feet
lawfully descending with gravity, to the lower lowest
most sought after most beautiful bound home
aspirations involve reparations
we reach for the stars, wondering what we are
but my reason has been found, by finding youand looking down
and it is there not in the stars of the fantasized worlds
fifth dimensions, sixth senses, holy parallel potentates
of potentialities, that my feet will trace their slow
as history itself dance. A walking calligraphy so subtle
that it'll take forty years and more, and a view from above
with and impersonal remove and a lofty attachment
i hope to barely fail at that mythical two backed beast
itinerant states like the one i enjoy here
up here in the well attended air
to read the cursive strokes of my aggregate footsteps
like some fairytale dissolve, "once upon a time" or twice
written on our little page of earth ground
wherever our home may be, will be,
wherever we happen to be
Sometimes parents can be wrong too...
People spend too much of the money they haven’t earned… to buy things they don’t need… to impress people they don’t like!!!
- Will Smith
This is the first thing that comes to my mind when I see kids these days. I am not saying all kids are extravagant but unfortunately too many are. And I feel that the blame for this falls less on the kids and more on their parents… when you say no for something to the child I think that should remain a no even if the child cribs. Parents know what’s best for their children and a child’s cribbing doesn’t make a wrong thing right so why do parents change their mind… parents themselves encourage tantrums this way. It might look cute to some when the kid is small (though to me it doesn’t look cute then too) but as the kid grows these tantrums take shape of irresponsibility and disrespect… and then it would be the parents turn to crib that their child is misbehaving!!
Parents always want to give their children the best of everything… but with this it is important that they pay some attention to making the child realize the value of what is being giving. My parents have never put it in to words that I should be careful about the way I spend… but yes they do expect me to be careful about what am I spending on. May be most parents are not like this… but recently I have come across way too many pampered spoilt brats… and depressed parents who keep wondering what made the child lose track… when the reason is obvious the kid knows all he/she needs to get things going his way is throw tantrums…
- Will Smith
This is the first thing that comes to my mind when I see kids these days. I am not saying all kids are extravagant but unfortunately too many are. And I feel that the blame for this falls less on the kids and more on their parents… when you say no for something to the child I think that should remain a no even if the child cribs. Parents know what’s best for their children and a child’s cribbing doesn’t make a wrong thing right so why do parents change their mind… parents themselves encourage tantrums this way. It might look cute to some when the kid is small (though to me it doesn’t look cute then too) but as the kid grows these tantrums take shape of irresponsibility and disrespect… and then it would be the parents turn to crib that their child is misbehaving!!
Parents always want to give their children the best of everything… but with this it is important that they pay some attention to making the child realize the value of what is being giving. My parents have never put it in to words that I should be careful about the way I spend… but yes they do expect me to be careful about what am I spending on. May be most parents are not like this… but recently I have come across way too many pampered spoilt brats… and depressed parents who keep wondering what made the child lose track… when the reason is obvious the kid knows all he/she needs to get things going his way is throw tantrums…
TRUST IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN MONOGAMY !!!!
I was with my friend talking about the ups and downs of relationships and the carelessness with which the word “Love” is used… she handed me a newspaper and asked me to read an article “Monogamy Redefined”…
I have always thought that I am kind of conservative but this time I got the shock of my life… the article was about couples being fine with their partners having extra marital affairs, talking about their crushes and a few more things of this sort. This was talked of as a way of having a “happily ever-after…” marriage……… well happy future is ensured by a happy present and if u are happy with your spouse what exactly was the reason for straying?! Also this is to prevent long term straying… huh?! Anything left for straying?!
I found it strange that marriage is taken more as a social obligation than a life long companionship… I don’t even understand what “marriage” means in this case. Being honest is good… but does honesty give you a license to get away with anything?! It’s like confessions would make your sins vanish. Freedom to talk about your crushes… this seems to be the weirdest part to me. First of all I don’t understand exactly how many people can you be with at one time?!?! Appreciating someone is one thing and having an affair another… and people it’s all in the name of trust… the spouse knows it and has absolutely no objections… HA! Why get married at all?!?!?!
I still can’t believe it’s actually happening… whoever calls the society unaccepting… if this kind of a thing is acceptable little remains to be rejected… no wait a sec… stealing and killing has yet to be legalized and lying has yet to be moralized. I can’t think of any person I know who’d be able to tolerate this concept (whatever it is!!!) and I am proud of my acquaintances for that. But I wonder what kind of people follow this… live with this so called “happily ever after”…
I have always thought that I am kind of conservative but this time I got the shock of my life… the article was about couples being fine with their partners having extra marital affairs, talking about their crushes and a few more things of this sort. This was talked of as a way of having a “happily ever-after…” marriage……… well happy future is ensured by a happy present and if u are happy with your spouse what exactly was the reason for straying?! Also this is to prevent long term straying… huh?! Anything left for straying?!
I found it strange that marriage is taken more as a social obligation than a life long companionship… I don’t even understand what “marriage” means in this case. Being honest is good… but does honesty give you a license to get away with anything?! It’s like confessions would make your sins vanish. Freedom to talk about your crushes… this seems to be the weirdest part to me. First of all I don’t understand exactly how many people can you be with at one time?!?! Appreciating someone is one thing and having an affair another… and people it’s all in the name of trust… the spouse knows it and has absolutely no objections… HA! Why get married at all?!?!?!
I still can’t believe it’s actually happening… whoever calls the society unaccepting… if this kind of a thing is acceptable little remains to be rejected… no wait a sec… stealing and killing has yet to be legalized and lying has yet to be moralized. I can’t think of any person I know who’d be able to tolerate this concept (whatever it is!!!) and I am proud of my acquaintances for that. But I wonder what kind of people follow this… live with this so called “happily ever after”…
Monday, January 09, 2006
Tears...
Random ThoughtsHas it ever happened to you… that you want to cry and the person in front of you telling you are strong and you’ll make it through. That person loves you and can’t see you cry… still you feel like bursting out… what the hell I am not strong I want to let go of pain I want to cry I want to talk… And what you actually do is take a deep breath gather your entire courage n smile… you’ll be fine………but does the frustration go away?!
I don’t know why so much fuss is made over tears… I agree I’d cry only in extreme conditions but then at that time I do need to cry… what is the use of holding back all the grief and letting it mount to an unbearable degree. Tears don’t mean that I am incapable of solving the problem… or that I have lost all hope and strength… I just want to express the pain I am going through. I am free to smile when I am happy but not to cry when I am sad… why so?! A smiling face always looks better but not everything in life is beautiful some things are just the way they are… not beautiful but they aren’t bad. I feel it’s ok to cry. Like it’s ok to make mistakes and learn from them… it is also alright to feel sorry for yourself if you don’t change it self pity drag your life on it… excess of anything can be bad. But sometimes we can let go for our inhibitions and cry… can’t we?!
I don’t know why so much fuss is made over tears… I agree I’d cry only in extreme conditions but then at that time I do need to cry… what is the use of holding back all the grief and letting it mount to an unbearable degree. Tears don’t mean that I am incapable of solving the problem… or that I have lost all hope and strength… I just want to express the pain I am going through. I am free to smile when I am happy but not to cry when I am sad… why so?! A smiling face always looks better but not everything in life is beautiful some things are just the way they are… not beautiful but they aren’t bad. I feel it’s ok to cry. Like it’s ok to make mistakes and learn from them… it is also alright to feel sorry for yourself if you don’t change it self pity drag your life on it… excess of anything can be bad. But sometimes we can let go for our inhibitions and cry… can’t we?!
The thing that I have seen in abundance and learned the hard way in the past few months is that… there is a wide gap between what is said and what is done!
I know most of you would feel that I have learned it too late… well may be I was happy believing people… ignorance is a bliss you know. But you can’t afford to remain ignorant lifelong at some point of time you have to open your eyes and face the realities. People don’t keep their word, lots of promises go unfulfilled… but I am not talking about these things… not being able to come up to someone else’s expectations is one thing but failing your own self is something different. I am amazed when people don’t even stand up for themselves… forget expressing their desires most don’t even bother about respect… you can have your way around them… because all they care about is that they shouldn’t be thrown out of the herd. They just move with the flow and speak with the wind… right or wrong who cares?!
Everyone is happy with the mediocrity of the situation… who’d bother enough to go for something bigger when you are getting things free here… after all what does it cost a little bit of self-esteem?! I have seen really good people lose touch with who they really are and accept a lower position than they deserve… I amazed how easily they sacrifice their dreams and ambition and begin believing that they deserve what they have got.
Why can’t people stand up for what they believe in… I don’t mean that you need to fight every time… but if you don’t ask you don’t get. At least don’t accept things blindly… live up to your won thoughts and words.
I know most of you would feel that I have learned it too late… well may be I was happy believing people… ignorance is a bliss you know. But you can’t afford to remain ignorant lifelong at some point of time you have to open your eyes and face the realities. People don’t keep their word, lots of promises go unfulfilled… but I am not talking about these things… not being able to come up to someone else’s expectations is one thing but failing your own self is something different. I am amazed when people don’t even stand up for themselves… forget expressing their desires most don’t even bother about respect… you can have your way around them… because all they care about is that they shouldn’t be thrown out of the herd. They just move with the flow and speak with the wind… right or wrong who cares?!
Everyone is happy with the mediocrity of the situation… who’d bother enough to go for something bigger when you are getting things free here… after all what does it cost a little bit of self-esteem?! I have seen really good people lose touch with who they really are and accept a lower position than they deserve… I amazed how easily they sacrifice their dreams and ambition and begin believing that they deserve what they have got.
Why can’t people stand up for what they believe in… I don’t mean that you need to fight every time… but if you don’t ask you don’t get. At least don’t accept things blindly… live up to your won thoughts and words.
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