Tag: dreams

Dreams Shattered – 3

Click Here to read the previous part.

Akarsh heard people shouting in the news discussion bulletin on TV. They were arguing about something about Kathua. He overheard his father slowly talking to her mother, meanwhile keeping a check that nobody else can listen to him. He understood the case while his father explained everything to his mother in hushed tone.

Image Courtesy: Google Images

Akarsh felt disgusted, hoping that is just fiction that he had just heard. He felt disturbed. The voices which he can hear on a daily basis were making more noise than ever today. He felt like the tipping point seemed to be closing. He thought of focusing on the voice that gave him direction. He couldn’t hear the voice today. He focused and tried harder. Finally the voice answered. He felt a disappointment in the voice today.

“You sensed what I wanted to talk about.” he asked the voice.

“Everybody is talking about that only. You are too small to be handling that topic.”, the voice answered.

“Maybe that is the mistake we have been making.”

The voice thought for a moment. It could come up with no answer. It shrugged.

After a long silence, it spoke:

“There is no way back from this. The epidemic that is rape, has affected India these days, goes beyond my comprehension. Is it religion, is it stupidity, or is it such hard placed belief that a cry for help doesn’t shake a person anymore? It was just to prove a point, I heard.

Nothing remains of her. The only daughter of the family rested in the ground for good. It seems we are obsessed with burying women to the ground one at a time. How do you even determine what she did to deserve such fate. Probably temple was not the safest place for her. Probably, God doesn’t exists everywhere.

We promised after Nirbhaya that we wouldn’t let anything of that sort happen. But look at us now. Making the same mistake, hiking the same path, placing blame on other’s, while failing to realize the fault in us. Our education system, our political inclination, our blind faith in our religion, while making sure that we keep on increasing the population frantically. This ends nowhere, but more pain and more outrage, increasing every single time such an incident happens.

From 1947 to now, we are still a slave to our age-old beliefs that doesn’t let us see that we can be more than aimless followers and backers of our stupid religions, caste, gender, sect or country.”

Akarsh clearly overwhelmed tried to sleep, losing all hope, hoping this was all a dream and wishing he could wake up to a better and hopeful Earth.

The voice called him, he felt a sudden optimism in the voice. He called out to it, “Go away! There is no coming back from this. There is no hope.”

“Hope is you!”, the voice said and transpired through the air.

Akarsh, after scratching his head for some time, realized what the voice meant. The hope are the people who call things out as they see them. The people who fight for injustice, who respect women, the people who get equally disgusted with such news. We need more of them. We need them in this fight, against the ones with no moral values.

Lets Fight!

 

 

 

Dreams Matter – 2

Click Here to read the prequel.

 

Saloni was on a trip with her parents and their friends in Chicago, USA. The weather was a perfect 21°C to roam around the streets. The place attracted a lot of crowd at this time of the year. She observed the crowd. It was a great diverse mixture. Everyone could be seen happily enjoying in their respective groups. The smiles making the environment even more pleasant. But the curious Saloni found something odd about the group dynamics. She observed that females were playing with different different toddlers in the garden. But she couldn’t spot any male playing with any other toddler but their own. The different ethnic group were grouped together, their were hardly any exception to it. The adults were not even glancing towards differentially racial groups, but their children hardly cared about that. The toddlers would look at each other, reached out their hands to touch each other from the distance. Their eyes seems tp say: ‘Come play with me, I am bored playing with my parents alone’. Although the adults would politely acknowledge each other in certain situations, but there was no warmth expressed.
 
Saloni then observed her parents also moving towards what seemed to be an Indian group. She wanted to play with everyone, as she used to play in her home. To run for one ball, or to catch one person by chaining their hands together. She asked her mom, ‘Can I play with that guy over there?’ . Her mum politely said, ‘Lets play with those Indian people there. We don’t know these people.’
‘But we don’t know those Indian people as well.’, replied Saloni.
Her mum thought about it a moment and then gave her hand to his father.
She didn’t like that nobody addressed her query. She thought that Akarsh would maybe understand her. She asked for his father’s cell to call Akarsh.
She knew her neighbour Akarsh was a curious soul and might help her out.
She narrated the whole incident to Akarsh. Akarsh had never experienced such a scenario.
He thought for a bit and he knew from his past experience that he needed to go to sleep. As soon as he dozed off, the voice called out to him.
“What is it this time?”, the voice asked.
“Why is there a differential treatment given to people of different complexion.”, Akarsh asked.
“We didn’t design it this way. Different complexion was supposed to provide diversity to the earth, as opposed to the diversity we seek in the name of religion, caste and creed nowadays.”
“Then why only so few complexion, why couldn’t we have  more so that nobody can judge any other color.”
“Lets try that out.”, the shadow said playfully.
 
The next day Saloni came into the park. She saw people with plethora of colors on and around them. Everybody’s faces were so colorful, that you could hardly recognise what complexion they possessed before. She saw her parents confused as to which group to join now. Seeing her mom so confused, she reached out to her, hugged her and placed her palm over her mum’s cheeks. Her mother’s face started taking a purplish color, as her confusion started reducing. Smile returned to both’s faces: the mother understanding what had transpired, Saloni observing that she had so many people to play with. The colors added what the complexion couldn’t in years.
 
At a distance, a smiling shadow saw the colorful people playing, appreciating the unbiased and colourful mind of the kids.

The Forbidden Apple

It was in the common gossip, everybody knew,

But no one seemed to get it, tried by quite a few…

Some tagged it cursed while some resorted to magic,

Fear engulfed them all that the thing could be tragic!!!

 

I was unaware, being aged just ten,

Believed whatever was written in papers with pen…

Set out to explore what was hidden from me,

Quenched my curiosity with what I could see!!!

 

Kept walking straight till sight guided the way,

Paid no heed to what the people did say…

“I’ll find it first”, a pride filled me in,

With a steely resolve, I waded through thick-n-thin!!!

 

As I entered the forest, darkness began to converge,

Quickened my pace, as thrill began to surge…

Lost all directions, went towards light,

Began doubting my judgement as it led to this plight!!!

 

Something shone bright, and I hid for cover,

The heart of the jungle wasn’t for the mundane lover…

I peeked out right to get a glimpse of it,

It shimmered in the darkness, like a thousand fireflies lit!!!

 

Before I could realize, my feet took me that way,

I was in dilemma, whether to leave or stay…

But curiosity shadowed fear for a ten year old,

I moved closer and closer, my actions grew bold!!!

 

And then it came to view, a sight never had I seen,

An object so bright, a feeling so serene…

As if under a spell, my hands went for the prize,

Feet on earth or floating in air, neither did I realize!!!

 

I grabbed it with my might, it was very warm and red,

Rather than taking home, tried to grab a bite instead…

Juts as my teeth touched its scarlet skin, I felt the earth sink deep,

To my surprise, I was in my room, wide awake from sleep!!!

 

Gone was the forest, gone was the tree, nothing left for show,

And why it’s called ‘The Forbidden Apple’, now I do know!!!

MicroTale #29 : Reverie

Collection : Reverie

MT#29_1

 

She broke all the rules of being a so-called female. At the age of 24, she won the international Body Building Championship.
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Looking back to where it started, when he said, ‘This profession doesn’t suit you’.: She smirked at the thought

Hate is a better motivator than love.

Making Memories!

How many times have we come across the usage of the following, which should be enough to make it to qualify as an idiom in itself: “I hate my job...”, “I hate my life…“.
My mind was pondering over our habit of hating monotonicity. How easily one proclaims that he/she is bored of life/job/workplace. The irony in the sentence really surprises me. The fact that we are here and breathing is itself such a culmination of rare events(that could have easily broken down), that has kept us surviving here.
We worry too much about the future which renders our present a spoiler for our upcoming dreams. It’s one thing to claim that we want one kind of lifestyle and whole other thing to try to get that.
I am really thankful to the internet, which has been providing us resources for so many years now. Although, on one hand, it is providing us with great stories, which should be inspiring us to do something of our own. But the other side of the coin is, it has made us really dependent on the entertainment factor. The fact that we expect so much entertainment or facts sugar-coated with entertainment, has made us a slave of it. It has a part to play in such a behaviour of ours.
Now, coming to the main point, why do we think that our current situation is monotonous. It could be because we see no/uncertain future ahead. It leads me to believe that we are not satisfied with our present. Something haunts us that throws our present off the track.
My theory is that, your satisfaction in life(apart from the big events happening around you), is mostly dependent on how you are spending time after your office hours. If you are getting your personal time, you can find happiness too. Now, let me try to define ‘personal time’. In general sense, ‘personal time’ for introverts could be reading a book, writing something, recharging themselves by staying away from human interactions(:P); while for extroverts, it could mean having their favorite people around, doing something social, etc.
The reason why people are very vocal these days, is because there have been an over-enthusiastic show of dreamy jobs. With the ongoing wave of standup performers, entrepreneurs etc, and the media actively covering their stories of how they broke the shackles of boring jobs to become what they are. Although the stories are very inspiring, but the stories getting mainstream has created a problem with the masses. Suddenly, everyone has started hating their current jobs, citing them boring and monotonous.
The problem is more accentuated in Indians because we are dreamy people, expecting drama in our lives, because of the way we are conditioned. So, these stories make a deep mark in our minds, and thus overhauling our current situations. Now, the current situation is, you are considered cool only when you are doing a job that you absolutely love. This mentality has created frustration in the minds of people. My point is, suppose you like painting, it shouldn’t necessarily  be a source of income for you. But the starry-eyed media will condition you to make it your profession. All hobbies shouldn’t be converted into profession. Our hobbies are fun because we enjoy it and there is no pressure on us. There isn’t anyone breathing on our necks to make us complete another painting or start another project.
So, it’s okay to be in a job, which is not your forte. We will learn it, because we are humans and that’s what we do best.
I will reiterate: In my opinion, life starts after you come back to home after job. I am not saying one shouldn’t enjoy their jobs, one should definitely do that if one can, but keeping in mind that there will be continuous ups and downs there.
Forgetting office work in office, once we return, that is upto us. Learning to enjoy the moments at home, its comfort and the soothness it offers, could be the thing to start with. Travelling really opens up the world to us. Having satisfying conversations does the trick for some. And if nothing works, partying is always there to help.
Jpeg
Courtesy: My camera

On a serious note , there are plethora of activities  that we can engage ourselves in, and make sure we are using our time productively and to also ensure that we are satisfied as well. Instead of fearing for the impacts of monotonicity, we can make the present memorable. After all, it’s the memories that will matter in the end.