Random musings

Beauty

I saw this and clicked it because I thought it looked pretty. Later I looked more closely at the picture and saw the difference between the tree on the right side and the tree on the left side. One is kinda barren and the other isn't. But both of them make the picture beautiful. And then I thought about people. People are different. On the inside and the outside. But together they all make up a beautiful picture because each person is beautiful in his/her own way. And then I thought about how people always want to be like other people. And then I wondered why. Why do people want to trade their beauty for someone else's? Why are people imitating each other? We're all victims. All of us. But why? Why don't we understand and believe in our own beauty? I don't know. I just know that if every person did, then this world would be more than just beautiful. It would be magnificent. Radiant. Truly awesome.  

#random #deepthoughts #nature #trees #peoplearedifferent #different #unique #beautiful #world #sunset #clouds #shadows #silhouettes #mythoughts #randomthoughts #everyoneisbeautiful #philosophical #iamsoweird #lol #love #happy #idontunderastand #unansweredquestions #sigh #radiant #awesome 

A prayer for Independence

Another Independence day has passed. 67 years of independence! 67 years of freedom!

Unfortunately this year, I couldn't think of anything smart enough to set as a status on Facebook. That's what many of us try to do, yes? We have the freedom of expression so now there seems to be this subtle competition between people to express themselves in the best possible way. I'm not denying that I'm not part of this competition. I find it quite fun, actually. 

Independence and Freedom

Coming back on track - to freedom. So, we're free. We rule ourselves, we don't have foreigners ruling us. I wonder if that is what freedom means to us Indians. I certainly hope not.

Of course we're free from the exploiting clutches of foreign rulers, but are we free from our own clutches? Are we free from our own monstrous clutches of differentiation, discrimination and cruel practices? Believe me, I wish I could say yes. I wish I could say that we were. But if I did, I'd be lying. And I believe that the truth sets you free. 

Are we free from the rigid divisions of intolerance of different castes? Of differently coloured skin? Of a person's sex? Of different religions? Of different native places?

Scary questions aren't they?

Here's a scarier question; Will we ever be free from acrimony, animosity and antipathy? Will we ever be independent from these divisions? I certainly do hope so. 

I pray for the day when every Indian person is proud to be an Indian.

I pray for the day that people can fall in love freely, heedless of sickening divisions of class and caste.

I pray for the day that a woman, can walk alone on the streets of this country, at any time she pleases, wearing whatever she pleases, doing whatever she pleases without the fear of being ogled at, being followed, being laughed at or getting raped.

I pray for the day that dowry, female foeticide and various other malicious crimes against women will cease to exist.

I pray for the day that people regard the environment and the animals as nothing less than themselves. 

I pray for the day that the Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians and every other religious sect of people can regard each other and love each other without a trace of suspicion, repugnance and abhorrence.

I pray for the day when there will be no more religious riots.

I pray for the day when India, the country in which people of secularism, actually develop high levels of tolerance and acceptance. 

I pray for the day when every human, young and old, is treated with utmost respect.

I pray for the day when not a single person in India goes hungry.

I pray

I pray for the day when corruption will be rooted out of every organization, club, party, institution and person.

I pray for the day when people openly accept change.

I pray for the day when people celebrate the culture of India as one which is open to and adapts to other cultures of the world.

I pray for this and a lot more.

In short, I pray for the day when Independent India will be truly Independent and Free. 

The truth is, we have freed ourselves from the hands of foreigners only to be entrapped and prisoned in our own.

Publicity - Good or Bad?

All of us have secrets, little bits of information which we prefer to hide from the rest of the world. Secrets about ourselves, secrets about our loved ones. Everyone hides a different person inside themselves from the rest of the world.

We keep our secrets safe with us until someone extremely trustworthy comes along and we slowly release our secrets to them. Secrets bind people together and can create stronger relationships. I do not deny the fact that many secrets are vile and dirty and play major roles in perfectly healthy relationships and lives. Secrecy can lead to dishonesty but not all secrets are dishonest.

The issue of publicity and secrecy

Publicity is definitely a good thing. Many things need to be out in the open, need to be  shared. But then again, all publicity is not good publicity.

Imagine if everything on our minds was out there in the open for everyone to read and access. We are but human. We have been given the choice of what we want to hide from the world and what we want to reveal.  Like it or not, admit or deny it, we all have secrets, and would loathe it if these secrets were out in the open.

It's just her fat(e)

This has been on my mind for quite some time now.. I guess I never actually got down to writing it because of the absurdity of the entire situation. However, I finally decided to write it down anyway. 

On the 6th of July 2013, Marion Bartoli beat Sabine Lisicki to win her first ever Wimbledon Grand Slam title, thus achieving her childhood dream. 

That's amazing right? She worked so hard and finally after all her hardwork, she got what she deserved and worked for, right? 

Apparently not. Half the world thinks it wasn't right that Bartoli won the title. And why?

Because she's 'fat'. Starting with a reporter. A news reporter! Like what the hell? John Inverdale, a BBC reporter stated that the Wimbledon winner was "never going to be a looker". Really John Inverdale? Well guess what? You're never going to be a Wimbledon winner. 

It's a game of tennis. Why are people obsessed with the way the players look? Is it the love for the game that drives people to watch the game? I'm seriously starting to doubt that. It looks like people want to watch the players, not the game. Their bodies, not their skill. Their beauty, not their goals. 

Twitter comments after the final match weren't about how exciting the final match had been. Nah-ah, they were about how Bartoli didn't deserve to win. Why? Because she's fat. So apparently, if you're 'fat', if you don't have those 'thin, shapely legs', the right 'hour glass figure', that 'beautiful blonde hair', you don't deserve to win  a tennis title.

That is probably the stupidest thing I have ever heard. 

Most of the times, stupid things make me laugh. But this, this just left me sad. 

And disgusted. 

The Bell Rings

22nd March 2013. That was the day I graduated along with the rest of my class. I should be over with the fact that I'm done with school. I should be excited with the prospect of a new place, new friends, new teachers; college. Weirdly enough, unlike many of my friends, I'm not so eager. A few days back schools reopened and it hit me again, that this year, and the years to follow, there will be no going back. Mixed feelings? Oh yes. 

Classes. Countless classes. Mundane routines that got to all of us, making all of us count down the seconds till that bell would ring, ending our boredom and in most cases waking us up. On lighter days, we'd pass notes, doodle in our books or literally just sit and dream, waiting for classes to end.

And then, all of a sudden, seemingly too soon, the final bell rang. I will never again sit in school, in class, waiting for a class to end. Will I do it again in my life? Oh sure. That depends on my teachers, my classes, my classmates. But the fact still remains that I will never actually wait, counting the seconds down for the school bell to ring and end a boring period. 

It's pretty odd that I thought of something as insignificant as the school bell when I thought of writing about school. Yet for some reason, it appealed to me the most to write about. We wait and wait for each bell to ring, for the tiring hours to come to an end, for the exams to finish. Many times we forget to notice small things about our classmates, about our class, about ourselves by waiting for time to run out. For instance, many people in our class don't even remember what colour the door of their class was. Not that knowing the colour of a door is going to help us in any humongous way, but it does add to the colour and excitement of memories right? 

This probably sounds extremely pointless and lame, but guess what? I'm not waiting for a bell to ring right now. I'm taking time out to collect my thoughts and to write. About a bell. Our school bell. 

It's almost impossible to try not waiting for the bell, but try. Sometimes. I did and I noticed so many things. Things that my classmates missed out. 

What's the point of always waiting for time to run out. It's literally living in the future.

The present. That's where we should be. And when the bell rings, it'll ring. We can't slow it down, we can't hurry it up. It'll happen when it should. 

*Trrriiiiing*