Are We Really Celebrating???

We people are proud of our heritage… our culture… our zing-y festivals. We just need an excuse to celebrate… and boy we celebrate it with a bang!  That’s our guilty pleasure. Guilty … ‘coz just after all the celebration… there is a flood of news items… articles… blogs… opinions… telling us how wrong/immature/shallow/toxic our way of celebration was. We feel guilty… we promise ourselves to be more concerned next year… but then… these promises follow the trend of our diet resolutions… we can’t stick to it.

Diwali, for example… is supposed to be festival of lights… not sound & smoke. The idea of celebrating Diwali is to dispel the darkness… within us and around us… and not deafen the ears … or blurring the eyes… or suffocating the lungs… or burning the fingers. And it definitely is not about sending the dogs howling & birds scurrying to safety. We have images from NASA of how Diwali celebrations look like from outer space (And man it’s amazing!)… But then… the street view speaks (read screams) otherwise. It makes me wonder if there is any positive connection between the crackers you burst/burn to the satisfaction of Goddess Lakshmi-Goddess of Wealth.  I mean… think about it… one moment you pray to Her to bless you & your family with abundant wealth... and next moment you burn most of it by igniting the Lakhsmi bombs!  Is it an investment scheme where your money (wealth) gets doubled just by setting it on fire? ‘Coz if it’s so… the whole world should try… our economy woes shall shoo away… and that too with a bang!

Our last guilt trip before Diwali was probably during Ganesh Chaturthi… We prayed… we spread joy… we danced… we immersed the not so eco-friendly Lord Ganesh idols (only to be washed away to the shores and polluting the water & beaches). We saw it on TV and newspapers… we felt guilty… we promised ourselves to go green next year (let’s see how that goes). The festivity drugs us so much so that even Lord Ganesha pokes fun at us.... Remember the once upon a time trending SMS where a devotee cries for help during a water disaster and Lord Ganesha dances in glee… the devotee questions Him… to which He replies… “Hey! You started it… you danced like crazy while you drowned me...!”  

Holi if you ask me… has turned into festival of revenge (in a sweet-chilli way though). Nobody remembers or bothers to know the significance of Holi festival. It’s not festival of colours anymore for Holi is not played with just water & colours but anything & everything that can be slathered/ splashed upon your opponent. The “balam pichkari” of Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani is way too clean version of holi is all I can say.

The list of our drugged guilt trips is endless. Now we have a few more added… thanks to globalization & movie-Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Every year at every festival… there is this trend… Activists try creating awareness & request for greener celebrations… We celebrate the way we always have (plus or minus here and there)….  Reports come in post celebration on how green or mean it was… We bow our head down or pretend we did not know about it…

Agreed that we come have a long way… there are a few who have changed the way they celebrate these festivals… they now do it with a greener zing… schools have also now taken the responsibility… We have so called eco-friendly non-toxic colours… less smoky crackers… Lord Ganesha idols… nd blah blah… But then like my friend points out… Are they (we) really celebrating??? Think about it… Do we need all this preaching of toxicity at every festival? Doesn’t that actually dampen the very spirit of celebration? Haven’t our way of celebration become less of a sparkle more of a bang with zilch devotion & spiritualization??   

Peek-a-Boo

On yet another lazy Sunday afternoon as I cruised through cyberspace… it struck me … I forgot the “peek” of peek-a-boo… and kept hiding from blogger world for close to18 months now!! Some hibernation that…!! Without further ado, I checked some of my friends’ blogs… for some recent posts. Barring a few nerdy ones… most of them like me, have been missing from the blogger space.

[*looking at the ceiling with hands up in the air so as to find an answer...]

Not that there weren’t any significant events in life that were worth enough to blog about… or not that events around the world did not inspire me to write one... but then I did not. Probably that’s the case with my other friends too.

In random order with no regards to the significance of each underlying yo-yo event, I have/was in the last 18 months…

ü  Hit highest highs and lowest lows of my personal and professional lives.

ü  Surprised myself following a routine and then … as a routine… gave up the routine.

ü  Written the opening lines for a blog post after being inspired … and then backspaced for I was at loss for words (or just being plain Bruno lazy).

ü  Found loads of faith… lost some on the way and found it back again(now even stronger)

ü  Gained 7…lost 5… gained 3… lost 8… and gained 3 kilos of fat & muscle(*WTF!).

ü  Had 2 increments on my basic (*yay!).

ü  Found a new hobby i.e shopping… (Boy it’s addictive!)

ü  Went on a fabulous trip to South India (Oooh! reminded of God’s own country)  

ü  Worked under 4 different supervisors all in the same company..!

ü  Cleared two most commonly taken banking exams in India-JAIIB & CAIIB in my 1^st attempt.

ü  Sent in two entries for in-house corporate magazine… both of them published… one of which won me a gift card of Rs500.

ü  Enjoyed the warmth of the sun and calmness of the moon.

ü  Taken aback by the harshness of the same sun and iciness of the same moon.

ü  Lost some dear ones and found some new.

Look back… you too might have had some amazing breath taking moments… some blood boiling moments… some blissful moments… some soul shuddering moments… and some still moments… why 18 months? Try 18 days and you’ll have it all.

In the midst of all the mandated chaos (such is the paradox of life)… and search for tranquillity… we all lose our way. Some find it back… some don’t…and they tread a different path altogether. We have demands to meet… we have promises to keep… and then we have a rep to protect… Compromises… sacrifices… escapisms… dousing of passion happens along the way… and then some new found self-philosophy emerges …probably that’s what inspired this post… [*hands up in the air again]

The idea here is… while life and you yo-yo together and play the peek-a-boo… keep doing what brings kicks in euphoria (as opposed to vanilla happiness) and if being too nice becomes pricey.. Don’t be afraid to be a dog/bitch… for they say… every dog has its day… J  

And with that note... here is me signing off ... promising myself to be back at this space frequently enough... 

L.I.F.E: The Sine Wave

I stand behind the bars gazing into the hypnotic world on the other side… clutching the rusted iron… conspiring an escape with my soul… waiting to experience the world on the other side… waiting for the moment of joy.... the moment of freedom....

I saw this pic on the web few days ago…. I was so moved that I reproduced it right away. (Original by Shukri Abu Baker). Though this was symbolic to his days in prison.... I saw a it completely different. Look at the hand…. It emotes the person’s desire to get out of the closed doors … be out in the open and be free like the birds that touch the sky… free like the animals that run wild… not bothering the safety… not bothering Darwin’s theory… not bothering anything until… out in the wild and ironically fighting to find shelter and food that were once free....

Doesn’t this remind you of the sine wave? If I had to graphically represent life… then sine wave it shall be. I mean think about it…

1. The grass is greener on the other side.

When at A, point B looks attractive. When at B, point C looks attractive. When at C, point D looks attractive. When at D, point E looks attractive and when at E………………………….

When I was months old and mom put me in a cradle… all I did was fantasise about playing with the toys that were lying in the room… strategizing a cradle break by crying and waiting for  mom or dad to come get me out. When I was out of the cradle and a year old just learning to walk… all wanted is my mom or your dad to hold me strong even though I and your parents knew I could do without. The pressure of walking a foot without falling was tremendous. When I had learnt to run and mom wanted to contain me in front of her eyes so that I don’t get hurt or ill, all I wanted to do is run outside and play. A bruised knee, a runny nose, dirty hands and elbows did bother me much. The saga doesn’t end there for all you know.

Look how hard and long we work to get on the other side.... do you realize here... we stay there only for a short while... 

2. The Reprising incidents 

Lost time never comes back they say.... but moments repeat like a never ending drama.... It starts on a smaller scale... like the cell division...and goes on to much larger scale.. larger than life itself... sometimes spreading over generations...! For example....The way you look at your parents now is the way your children will look at you when they reach this age you are now. The only difference.... is X.... the displacement.... the point at which you are... at the moment when the moment itself repeats. .

For every soul on this earth and galaxies far off, the present always seems confining no matter how rosy it is… the future always seems rosy no matter how uncertain it is. If one side the grass is green… the other side it’s clean. The plus point you ask of this sine wave?? You are always inching your way forward X2 never smaller than X1... The only thing hindering you…. Is getting the correct wavelength and amplitude (people and attitude) in your life…Have them.. cherish them... nurture them...and life shall  resonate at its best....perpetually......!!

An Affair with Love

Love is blind,

Love is deaf,

Love is actually all senses de-clined;

It makes you numb,

It makes you pricky,

Love… in fact makes you look quite dumb!

Love is a hero,

Love is a coward,

Love is actually a Cardiac Jell-O;

It makes you laugh,

It makes you cry,

Love… in fact makes you a half n half!

Love is a game,

Love is a feel,

Love is actually an ECG never the same;

It makes you to trust,

It makes you to betray,

Love… in fact makes your mind rust!

Love is a hallucination,

Love is a reality,

Love is actually a late realization;

It makes you strong,

It makes you weak,

But in the end… makes you LIVE long!

                                                                                                             -Divya  Boddu

What's on Your Mind??

Remember the time when FB asked you "What's on your mind ?" and you wanted to scream.... "My mind is being bombarded with a zillion of ZERO correlated thoughts from a machine gun cross cannon... Do you have a problem with that?"..... You had so much to say.. but you just couldn't express it... And when you did express it... somehow the words you used.. the person you expressed it to.. the place.. the time.. did not seem so right.. that even after you ripped your heart open for everybody to see.. hear.. feel... it did not make much of a ripple! And then you were like "WTF...ppl understand Sadda Haq... Kolaveri.. et.al but not me...!!!" Yeah.. I know you remember... and all  you could sing is.."Jo bhi mai kehne chahu.. barbaad kare.. alfaaz mere...ohh yayayayaa..." 

For quite sometime now... FB has been mocking me...every time I log on to it... It asks... "What's on your mind? " (which btw I have now learnt to ignore...)  It then strangely picks all those people on FB who are either studying abroad.. or are on exotic vacations.. or getting engaged / married/ pregnant... and paste them on my wall..!! Ufff...!! And all I can do is to... hit the "like" button.. CTRL+C and CTRL+V stuff like "Supa Like... :)" "Congratulationss...!! :) " "M sooooo Happpppppyyyyy 4 uuuuu <3 " .... AAAhhhh phhuuuyyeeeee !!! All that is happening in my life is...  I wake up... I shit in the pot... I get ready for the day.. People shit on me.. around me...I clean self... I eat.. I pray..I sleep..!! and yeah occasionally I f*** people... and people f*** me..!!! (which btw is not so great... trust me.. the F word is overrated..!!)

If you are reading this.. that means you too surely have a well protective roof on your head.. an all you can eat plate of food.. and u can afford warm clothes... of course all this would mean you have a comfortable inflow of "funds". But is it all that matters in life??What about Maslow's Self Actualization??? In spite of the reading scores of monk-y books and e-mails... in spite of having an OK to strong family and friends back up... most of us say WTF yaar??? WHY this Kolaveri Di...??? and feel like a complete Xenon in the crowd...sometime or the other.. or even worse... forever.!

The most successful keep saying... live each day.. each moment..with people you love.. doing what you love... but they never admit if its a late realization (apparently all greats say they missed out on "living life" in a bid to "make life")... If its a late realization... does that mean OXFORD needs to revisit the definition of SUCCESS??  And if its ain't so... then do they(great ppl) fear competition?? Now I am confused.. and I am sure I got you all confused too... and probably saying it aloud... "God....Guess you need some counselling Girl !! "... Hell no..!!

In the past few months I learnt the following cycle of life...

1. WTF! Stage
2. "I gotta do something about it" Stage
3.  "Hell I am better off than others" Stage
4.  "I am happy with what I have" Stage... and wham!....its all history revisited from there...

From where.. whom did I learn..? Don't ask... how long did it take me to learn that... don't ask... but just know I did learn....

But then me being me.... All I want is this twisted toxic certain uncertainty to end... I want stuff to be "crystal clear" ... I want People to see other people as people.... I want the one firing thoughts into my head to slow down... I want my heart to buck up and limit itself to pumping blood... I want to be able to do what I love with people I love... I want to show FB my mid finger and say.. "Now u know what's on my mind !"