This word was a rather interesting one suggested by Sakshi Jalan. Was surprised when I first heard of it because I thought it would be challenging to write on, and I wasn’t wrong.
Brainstorming and inspiration behind this tale were super fun. Hope the take is good enough!
So I know I missed a tale yesterday. Yesterday’s word was environment and I’m still looking for inspiration and just generally got caught up with things.
Today’s word is key. This tale’s inspiration has been around for a couple of weeks now and I tried to give it my best attempt.
This has been the most challenging one to conceive till date and hence it took me longer than a day to realize the full potential of the word.
Feedback is much appreciated as always.
Today, I was looking for my happy moment for my #100happydays post. While I was on Instagram, I came across a friend, Raj Adnani’s #100happydays post and it was a celebration of the 65th Republic Day of India. And that made me realize how happy I actually am to be an Indian.
India is my country. Indian is my nationality.
India has taught me the following life lessons:
1. Adjustment in life
India is a highly overpopulated country. Every metropolitan city has a surreal man to area ratio. People are crammed into every corner of every city. But as much as people complain about the population on a daily basis, they do manage to live rather harmoniously given their conditions. Local transport is completely packed during peak hours, but people always manage to adjust with rubbing shoulders and more (LITERALLY!) with strangers. Amenities aren’t aplenty, and yet people manage to make do with the available.
2. Loving people
We are a country of over a billion people. Love is the easiest emotion to experience, but the most difficult to comprehend. When a billion people learn to love, the effect is showcased on a rather large scale. India has taught people to love each other. India promotes the victory of good over bad. Be it from advertisements to books to movies to superstars, everybody promotes love. If that wasn’t the case, Shahrukh Khan wouldn’t be Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan wouldn’t be Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan wouldn’t be Salman Khan.
3. Respecting customs and traditions
Indian people might just be some of the most religious lot in the world. We believe in faith. We believe in what we are taught. We believe in people. And we believe in our age-old traditions without questioning them much. Even now, people go on long trips in the most gruelling conditions on pilgrimages to devote to their deities. Even today, Ganges is considered as a Holy river. Traditional dances are multiple and diverse. People are from all different backgrounds and all the customs are respected and appreciated by most.
4. Respecting your elders
I know of so many cases in the west where kids crave to move out of their parents homes as soon as they turn 16. When you tell them that you’re an Indian and that you still live with your parents, it is an “uncool” situation. But I love it. And I thank my Indian existence for promoting that thought in me. At 20, I live with my parents. I know of people who at 40, live with their parents. And after weighing the pros and cons, the pros are most certainly higher. Moreover, even today, we are taught to greet our elders by touching their feet. It is such a warm gesture. Instinctively today, when I meet someone as old as my grandparents, I bow down to touch their feet and seek their blessings. One can’t have enough blessings in a lifetime, and there isn’t a better way of gaining them.
5. Smart thinking
In India, one of the hardest thing to do is to get things to work according to your whims and fancies. When a billion people want something, it isn’t possible for them all to get there easily. The competition that you need to overcome to reach goals induces smart thinking in a person. It doesn’t mean riding over people and proving yourself right. Rather, it means using the right skills in the right places and right scenarios to promote your cause. It is because of this reason that Indians fare better than most others in the world when it comes to problem solving and brain storming. Our brains are designed to work differently and efficiently, with minimum effort, to attain the required result. “Agar ghee seedhi ungli se na nikle, toh ungli tedhi karni chahiye”. The quote translates to – “If you can’t achieve your goal while treading along the smooth path, take the crooked one to get there”.
6. Importance of family virtues
“When all fails, there’s family”. This quote most aptly applies to the Indian culture. In India, even in this day and age, there are so many people who live in joint families. There could be anywhere between 5-30 family members living together. And there is no concept in the world that could teach you to deal with people better. Today employers look for “teaming qualities”. They assess you on how effectively you can work with people. And there isn’t anything that could prove those skills better than living in a joint family setting. There’s so much love to give and to get. There’s so much to fight for and so many to fight with. It is a complete package, but a worthwhile one.
7. Appreciation for Diversity
“When we greet one another, we fold our hands in Namastey, because we believe that God resides in the heart of every human being. We come from a nation where we allow a lady of Catholic origin to step aside for a Sikh to be sworn in as Prime Minister, to a Muslim President to govern a nation of over 80 percent Hindus. It may also interest you to know that many of the English words originate from Sanskrit. For example, maatr becomes mother, bhratr becomes brother, giamitri becomes geometry, trikonometri becomes trigonometry and so on. We have over 5600 newspapers and magazines in over twenty-one different languages with a combined readership of over 120 million. We have the third largest pool in the world of doctors, engineers and scientists. We have the third largest army in the world and even then, we fold our hands in humility before people, because we don’t believe that we are above or beneath any individual.” – Namastey London
Need I say more? The diverse pool of people that we have in India also teaches us to deal with different types of people, which in turn, helps to adjust to foreign conditions much faster than most others.
8. Patience
To get your work done quickly in India is next to impossible. There are long queues at stores. There are long queues at restaurants. There are long queues at government offices. I don’t know too many other people who would wait for half an hour to buy clothes, who would wait for a couple of hours to be able to get a table at a restaurant and who would wait days to get their work done. Also, when you live in a joint family, you deal with multiple people, and you can’t always have a response instantly or in your favor. All these teach you patience, which is probably THE most important virtue the world needs to adapt to in today’s world.
9. Instill self belief and To Dream
People call Mumbai the land of opportunity and the land of dreams. I think not just Mumbai, but the country associates with the tag. India teaches us to dream. India shows us the surreal and convinces us to believe that it is not impossible to achieve it. For anyone to reach a high in life, it is more than important to dream, and our country inspires us to dream. Many dream of changing the political system, many dream of making it big in the entertainment business, some dream of making it big professionally, the country dreams of change and of improvement. A dream can always invoke a reaction, so thank you India for providing the starting step.
10. Unity
Terrorist attacks are not an uncommon event in the lives of Indians. Rapes aren’t an uncommon evil in the society. Corruption isn’t an uncommon truth in our lives. But we stand united. Whenever an event strikes, India comes out in support. Be it candle light vigils, news interviews, support campaigns or online pledges, we do what it takes to show our strength and support a cause as a nation. This is the most important life lesson that India has taught me. Be it 26/11, Hyderabad bomb blasts, Mumbai train blasts or the Nirbhaya case, the country comes out in support. Life throws challenges at you, but unity helps endure those challenges.
The world is sadly full of cynics and pessimists. These are the people who would frown upon some of the points made in the above points. However, I honestly feel that we leave no stone unturned when it comes to criticizing our country, and at time that is justifiable. But we should also encourage instances where we leave behind the negatives and appreciate the positives. This not only helps to gain a balanced perspective but could also be the motivation for change.
Nobody likes to work towards a hopeless cause. But what if the cause isn’t hopeless in the first place?
Well, like always, I begin with an apology for having stayed away for this long. My last post was all the way back in November. I’ve always wanted to keep this space alive and kickin’ but either couldn’t find the time or couldn’t find the motivation to write and so have been away for this long. I’m back now though, and with a topic on which I’ve been wanting to write since forever and have finally put together my thoughts. Hopefully I am more active here and have the drive to write and the content to share.
So today, I took the 5pm bus back home from university after a hectic day. There was an eerie silence and a strange calmness 15 minutes into the drive. I felt sleepy but was itching to write. I haven’t felt that in a long while, so who was I to question the desire. I succumbed and dived into my bag for my letter pad and my pencil and stared at the paper. Suddenly, I thought of the recent high-profile suicide case of Sunanda Pushkar, and remembered the Jiah Khan incident. I thought of how people give up and what causes the weakness. Just then from weakness, my mind drifted to the tangent topic of strength and I posed two questions to myself:
1. What is strength?
2. Who is the strongest person in the world?
I answered the second question in my head by contemplating the obvious. I first thought of some Arnold Schwarzenegger kind of man and thought that he would be one of the strongest people in the world. And then I thought to myself, “Is that really true? What actually is strength?”. Physical strength is actually the feebler judge of what you are made up of. The strength to endure is what defines your personality and is what gauges your overall strength. Physical strength is merely the Armani, worn by the pauper at heart to gain false appreciation.
Having figured out strength, I got back to contemplating who the strongest person in the world was. I could come up with just one answer, and almost instantaneously; a woman.
People who know me well may say that that judgement is coated with unnecessary sentiment, but hear me out.
In general, being a woman is the most thankless presence in the world. There are people with sick thought processes who refrain from conceiving a female child. They don’t even claim to be morally unjust when they kill the child on discovering the gender. The birth of a female child is considered to be unfortunate, insulting and even burdening; somehow never what it actually is – a blessing! True, that it doesn’t happen as much anymore and the modern society refrains from killing the girl child, but by no means does that imply that they treat children of both gender equally.
I’ve been asked on multiple occasions on whether I think that men are superior to women. I have always maintained that women are by far the superior beings and men can’t even come close, forget catch up, in comparison. There are undoubtedly men who know to shower love, who know to be kind, know to be compassionate and even know how to be appreciative. But sadly, a man’s best friend is his ego. He may be loving, kind, compassionate and appreciative, but he’s also the better one. Women don’t strive to prove that they are the better beings, they strive to convince the world to treat them as equals. That, in itself, makes them superior.
Today, women are equal, if not ahead of, men as far as the society’s status quo is concerned. There aren’t many jobs in the corporate world that men can do significantly better than women. With respect to the household, women are hands down winners. Yet, women are discriminated upon. Many young wives, equally qualified as their husbands, are asked not to work after marriage because they have to manage the household and “because they’re place is in the kitchen”. Want her to make you a sandwich? Well dear husband, she’ll actually finish your office work faster and better than you and even make you that sandwich out of sheer love, and she’d do all this much before you’re done stroking that well-groomed ego of yours.
I would openly challenge most men to juggle their lives as well as women do. Be it multitasking, taking care of the household, raising the children, enduring pain, and most importantly making sacrifices, women go through it all and without too much of a grumble. Women change their homes and change their names after marriage. Women make professional sacrifices when they conceive. Women make life sacrifices when they have children. They have to devote a huge chunk of their time to their children. They are the ones that go out of shape and have to work insanely hard to get back in shape. They go through surreal pain. All for what? For the sake of family. While in many cases, the man may be the bread-winner of the family, the real thankless job is the woman’s; that of having to run the household, taking care of the kids and also catering to her husband’s needs. And that is why they very rightly say that behind every successful man, there’s a woman.
Sadly, even in today’s day and age, I know of people who discriminate between the female and the male child. The male is treated with the best of life’s amenities while the female has to make-do with the relatively substandard. I know of cases where the male child is sent to the best foreign institution for university education while the female has to do with local education. Heck, I even know of cases where the female child isn’t allowed a cell phone or a driver’s license. That disgusts me. Man up, stop giving two hoots about what society thinks, give women equal opportunity and then sit back and watch them conquer the world.
I wrote the following lines on how I felt about women discrimination, and I hope it passes on the message clearly:
Today I opened my eyes Looking up at two teary faces They were different, our cries Mine joyous, theirs of gloom had traces I hoped for cheer, from the lady; my mother But silence was the lonely sound Two years later, she gave birth to my brother And her happiness knew no bounds What fault did my existence bear That for life, I be second best Why shouldn’t I feel the love, the care Was it one of life’s nasty tests? They mean the world to me The two I call mother and father Yet they would favor he The ones that called them names rather I was the smart one, always with aptitude Yet always the one provided with the sub-par Albeit, I never refrained from showing my gratitude Even though life had been tainted with a permanent scar They married me off, to this man Whose name, until a week back, I hadn’t known Be a good wife they said, you must, you can A door to a different home, they had shown Here too I was second best In the marriage, the man the better half All my hopes of equality were laid to rest Why am I, life, your victim for a laugh? And finally I gave birth to a daughter, my own And felt real happiness, it was a first I vowed to shower more love than I’d been shown To ensure her life wasn’t like her mother’s, cursed The tap of my heart leaked, emotion ran I was second to none, finally the best Until she met her groom, her man And life shoved me back to second best Now at sixty, having faced life, I wonder Are the times really changing or is it a stand still When will a female child stop being a blunder Will we ever reach the peak, or is it too steep, the climb up the hill? –x–I respect women immensely, and not without reason. Also, I don’t claim that men are pigs and don’t deserve credit for what they do. All this post tries to clear out is that women should be treated as equals and respected more because they are not only the reason for our existence, but are also, more often than not, the reason behind our happiness and well-being.
Lastly, I haven’t mentioned about the number of rape cases that are received because I find it absolutely disgusting that a man dares to do something that horrendous to a woman irrespective of what the circumstance maybe.
I JUST got back home after Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and am really excited as I type up my review. Also, I am going proof read this a couple of times just to ensure that I don’t let out any spoilers, but even then if I do, my bad.
Firstly, let me just get a few facts straight about the movie. The lead star cast comprises of Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Aditya Roy Kapoor and Kalki Koechlin. The movie is produced by Karan Johar and story, screenplay and direction is by Ayan Mukherji (remember Wake Up Sid?!). The music is composed by Pritam and lyrics are penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya.
Review:
And begins the journey of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. The movie starts with Naina Talwar (Deepika Padukone) reminiscing about her past and the movie moves on to a flashback sequence 8 years back. Naina is studying medicine and is quite the “scholar”. Naina happens to be shopping with her mum (Dolly Ahluwali – remember Ayushmann’s mom in Vicky Donor?!) and both of them happen to meet Aditi (Kalki) at the supermarket. Naina, Aditi, Avi (Aditya Roy Kapur) and Kabir Thapar aka Bunny (Ranbir Kapoor) all used to be school mates. So there’s Aditi meeting Naina after years of high school, and through this meeting Naina comes to know that Aditi, Avi and Bunny have all decided to go on a trek to Manali. Tired of her monotonous life, Naina decides to contact the tour agency and enlist herself for the trek to Manali. And then begins the journey of four friends. After the trip to Manali, Bunny gets a scholarship to study journalism at the Northwestern University, USA and he leaves to pursue his dreams. After 8 years (back from the flashback), they happen to meet again at Aditi’s wedding.
Character Analysis:
Bunny – He’s the quintessential traveler. He loves to see different places, to take videos and pictures of every little detail of the places he sees. He dreams of travelling the world and seeing every place there is to be seen. He keeps a scrapbook and is a dreamer and a passionate explorer.
Naina – She’s the quintessential Indian daughter. She is the obedient child, topper of the class in high school and a topper in college. “Scholar” Naina is bored of her uninteresting life and dreams of venturing out, trying to change her introverted nature and to make good friends and create special memories with special people.
Aditi – She’s the tomboy of the group. She is the quintessential friend that isn’t afraid of foraying into new spaces with her closest buddies. Every group has the fun, chilled-out girl and Aditi is just that. She quenches for happiness in life and for a relationship.
Avi – He’s the fun lover of the group. He is the quintessential man-child that is present in every group. He’s the person that refuses to grow up, believes in having fun and values friendship above all else. He is the alcoholic and constantly looks for emotional support and strong friendship.
About the movie and performances:
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is about the journey of growing up. It is about nurturing your dreams but getting your priorities right in life. It is about sitting back and enjoying precious moments in life. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is a reminder that life moves too fast and sometimes we all need to hold back and enjoy and create moments with the ones we love. It is about friendship, it is about love, it is about dreams and it is about life.
Ranbir Kapoor – Oh, everything I say about this guy seems less than apt. He’s the superstar of today and nobody in his league of actors can match his on-screen persona. He has the looks, he has the moves, he has the charm and he has the talent. Yet again, he impresses immensely with Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. He emotes perfectly and delicately, his acting isn’t overdone in any scene and boy, can this man dance?! He’s clearly here to stay and proves his mettle again with Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.
Deepika Padukone is stunning. She doesn’t need to wear bare minimum for people to appreciate her looks. From “scholar” Naina to the fun, best-friend Naina, she impresses with her charm and acting. She dances superbly, acts well and doesn’t look expression-less in the important scenes. Kalki is good as the tomboy Aditi, and she compliments her role quite well other than her abysmal dancing skills. Aditya Roy Kapur was good as the man-child alcoholic and played his part superbly. This guy is another talent to look out for. I love him in Guzaarish, he was superb in Aashiqui 2 and doesn’t disappoint at all in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani as well.
The movie however isn’t extra-ordinary. It isn’t something that you haven’t seen before in terms of story line. The story doesn’t have anything that will blow your mind away. It is a simple straightforward story but one that you can relate to at some point or the other. It is a long movie with a runtime of 160 minutes but you are promised to be entertained without a minute of boredom.
The things to watch out for:
1) Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone’s pairing. This pair is here to stay. They share beautiful moments in the movie and they have an incredible chemistry. For a change (remember Bachna Ae Haseeno?), their pair is one of the biggest highlights of this movie.
2) For all the girls, Ranbir Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur are to watch out for. Ranbir looks his best, acts with aplomb and dances like a dream in this movie. Aditya Roy Kapur is the new heartthrob in town after Aashiqui 2 and doesn’t disappoint.
3) Ayan Mukherji’s direction – The moments captured and the locales captured are stunning. The way the movie is shot seems to flow effortlessly and there isn’t a moment of dullness or boredom and so a thumbs-up for the screenplay.
4) The music of the movie. Pritam has given some mind-blowing music to this movie and the songs are picturized beautifully. The choreography of Batameez Dil is absolutely marvelous and big big props to Remo D’Souza for that. It was beautiful watching Madhuri Dixit dance like a dream after so many years and a special mention for ‘Ghagra”s choreography. Farah Khan and Geeta Kapur have done a brilliant job. Kabira is beautiful and melodious and has become my new favorite. Balam Pichkari is already popular and is a fun song.
What’s not so good:
1) The story. It isn’t anything new, and we’ve been there seen that. Watch the movie not for the story but for the moments created.
2) The run time – I admit that the movie wasn’t boring at all, but what had to be said could have been said in a much shorter time than the 160 minutes.
In summary, the movie doesn’t have an exceptional plot or story, but the movie is worth a watch for the moments it captures, for the Ranbir-Deepika pairing and for showing that it is important to live life at the pace you are comfortable with and sorting your priorities in life.
Rating: 3.5+0.5/5 stars
(+0.5 specially for the Ranbir-Deepika pairing. It is absolutely wonderful and I hope that they start dating again. They make a lovely pair.)
We all love compliments. Compliments brighten up our day. Whether it be the outfit we are wearing, the food that we’ve cooked, the work that we’ve done or the impression we have created, we all like to be appreciated for our gestures. I think it is important to hand out compliments and not be stingy when it comes to that.
But compliments and I share a nasty and complicated relationship. The other day, a friend said something really really nice to me. I loved that she said what she did, but as always I didn’t know how to respond. I start behaving weirdly, start blushing and I also start avoiding the conversation that would persist after the compliment was handed. I tend to smile and let it pass or let there be some awkward silence. People possibly misunderstand this as rudeness or ego. Whereas actually, it is shyness.
I love complimenting people. I do it so often in my head. I would always be thinking that oh this person dresses really well, or oh this person has beautiful eyes, or oh this person has worked so hard on this project or oh this person is such a good cook. But when it comes to actually telling people how I feel about a certain deed of theirs, I tend to shy away. I always express it in some way or the other though. If I like you, it is hard for me to tell you that because I always fear negative reception. So I’ll go out of my way to show my love and warmth towards you. If I see your picture, quite often I want to let you know that you look really good in whatever you’re wearing, but I won’t be able to. So I’ll just go ahead and ‘like’ your picture hoping that you understand.
A new trend that has overtaken Facebook is the “compliments/confessions” pages. Most school and universities have a compliments/confessions page. Being a shy person, I LOVE the idea. I think it is cool to let someone know that they are appreciated without the fear of negative reception. But since people consider themselves to be such geniuses and ‘troll-ers’, everybody started misusing such pages and started writing untrue confessions and non heartfelt compliments. It breaks my heart to see that my compliment to a girl was ignored by her because she thought that someone was misusing the forum again. I hate people who think they’re overly smart. I wish we could be allowed to punch these people hard in the face. There should probably be some sort of rule that allows every person one punch a day, or 10 punches a month or similar.
Now all of you that are reading this might consider me to be a coward, but so be it. The truth is that in today’s day and age, if a boy likes something about a girl, he is always afraid of saying it openly for the fear of misinterpretation. I know that this trait of mine isn’t a good thing and I’ve been working towards changing myself. For the last month, I’ve been trying to be bold and have been handing out one compliment to a person every day. That person could be a best friend or a random stranger that I meet on the streets. I’ve also decided to speak out problems. I used to forgive and forget and move on in case of a situation or fight. But recently, I’ve started telling myself that time only worsens situations and it is much better to clear them when they happen to avoid unnecessary complications later.
Hopefully you guys don’t shy away from situations and compliments. And even if you do, pluck a leaf from my book, it is never ever too late! I’ve been contemplating over a lot of things today, but I’ll leave those for other days and other posts.
Also, I love all of you that do read these posts. It feels like someone else shares my life stories with me.
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This song is from the movie Anari (1959) and is composed by Shankar Jaikishan, sung by Mukesh and the lyrics are penned by Shailendra. Do check out other songs by Mukesh, many of them are sad songs, but have beautiful lyrics and are sung superbly.
I have always been inspired by this song. It really imparts an invaluable life lesson on how you should live. It also teaches us what our priorities in life should be and how other so-called-important things aren’t of relevant importance. I’ve always wanted to write about something like this and I decided to pass on my view and message through the translation of this song because this is one of those songs which is very close to my heart.
I’m going to break down the lyrics and for every few lines, I’ll write about my interpretations, so here goes:
Kisi ki muskurahaton pe ho nisar
Kisi ka dard mil sake to le udhaar
Kisi ke waaste ho tere dil mein pyaar
Jeena isi ka naam hai
The lines literally translate to “To fall for someone’s smile, to borrow someone’s grief, to love someone deep within, that is what life is all about.”
These lines are so beautiful and explain so much more than what they literally translate to. A genuine smile is the best feature of any person. Even if it is lopsided, or imperfect, if the smile reaches the eye and is from the heart, then that genuine smile makes a person beautiful. Smile your heart out, it has the power to brighten someone’s day.
When given the opportunity, we should borrow someone’s sorrows. Sorrows are best overcome when shared with people and it is always important to be a friend to someone in times of grief. Be a friend to make a friend. Borrow someone’s grief so that someone borrow’s yours. Life is a vicious circle and what goes around comes around.
Always love people, love is the most positive emotion in the world. Always have love for someone in your heart, get rid of the negativity and try to stick to the positives and then you will love. An attempt to do these is an attempt to live life at its fullest.
Maana apni jeb se fakeer hein
Phir bhi yaaron dil ke ham ameer hein
Maana apni jeb se fakeer hein
Phir bhi yaaron dil ke ham ameer hein
These lines translate to “I agree that if you look in my pocket, you’ll see that I’m poor. In spite of that, I am rich at heart”.
I love these lines. This is my motto in life. You don’t have to be rich to love and be loved. It is what you are at heart that defines your personality and not how affluent you are. I remember having gone up to one smiling man living on the streets and striking up a conversation.
“Bhai, kaise ho aap?”, I asked.
“Acche hai sahab”, was his reply.
“Maine dekha ki aap has rahe ho, aur apne parivaar ke saath khush ho”
“Haan sahab, has has ke guzaara chala lete hai”
I couldn’t resist so I asked, “Itni mushkil hai zindagi, phir bhi aap khush reh lete hai, accha hai!”
“Sahab, zindagi kiski mushkil nahin hoti, agar main udas rahoonga toh mere biwi bacche udaas rahenge, aur mera ghar sansaar khush nahin hoga, isliye hum koshish karte hai ki hum khush rahe. Khana kum hai, paisa kum hai par sahab jaan bahut hai.”
I had no words to say. I gave the vada pav stall next to them some money and told him to feed them as much as they wanted to eat. Since then I’ve realized that wealth doesn’t necessarily promote health. Wealthy or not, it is important to try to be happy and spread happiness to people around. You’re living life only if you’re finding reasons to be happy, reasons to spread laughter. And so, irrespective of how rich or poor you are, having a big heart is what makes you a good person.
Mitte jo pyaar ke liye woh zindagi
Jale bahaar ke liye woh zindagi
Kisi ko ho na ho hamein to aitbaar
Jeena isi ka naam hai
These lines say, “Life is what perishes for love, life is what craves for spring, we have belief whether others have or not, and such is life.”
Everybody wants to be loved in life. I always feel that to be loved is a need that isn’t professed as often because of social awkwardness. It is so easy to proclaim to want food, to want water, to want to be entertained, to want the presence of someone and even to want to use the washroom. The want to be loved is just the same, but people shy away from saying it for the fear of misinterpretation. We end our lives loving and craving for love. It is a natural process and there is nothing shameful or embarrassing about it.
Also, in life, we crave for happiness and joy. Spring is supposed to be the happiest, the greenest and the most beautiful of all seasons. We crave for spring in life. There are so many difficulties that life has to offer that we constantly hope for better and constantly await spring. Cycles in life change like the cycles in weather and everybody goes through a rough patch, but that is when we should know in our hearts that spring is not far away.
In the wait for spring, to have belief and to have faith is absolutely necessary. Being a pessimist has helped no one in life for long. It is essential to keep an optimistic outlook towards life and all that it has to offer. People say that it is important to be at par with reality and to not be overly optimistic, and that is true. But being too close to reality makes pessimism look very tempting and so it is important to know the reality, but be optimistic about overcoming bad times.
Rishta dil se dil ke aitbaar ka
Zinda hai hami se naam pyaar ka
Rishta dil se dil ke aitbaar ka
Zinda hai hami se naam pyaar ka
“Every heart to heart relationship is about trust and belief, love lives on because of us”
Everyone deals with insecurities in life. No two people are same, but when you share any relationship with a person, trust is vital. If you learn to trust, you learn to strengthen relationships. And when you are involved in strong relationships, you are a happier person.
Set yourself as an example for others when they talk of love. When people talk about loving, and about being loved, they should always remember you. Be that person that is known predominantly for loving and not for being moody or for hating.
Ki marke bhi kisi ko yaad ayenge
Kisi ke aansuo mein muskuraanyenge
Kahega phool har kali se baar baar
Jeena isi ka naam hai
These are the last few lines and some of my favorite few and they mean “That even after death you are remembered, that we will smile through someone’s tears, and every flower will tell the bud on and on, this is what life is.”
Be the person who is remembered fondly even after death. People die every now and then, and everybody mourns for some time and then the dead are forgotten. Create such an impact in someone’s life that you are always remembered even after death. Be such a good friend, or the one that always had a big heart, or the one that always borrowed everyone’s grief. Be that person and be remembered fondly even after death. Be the memory behind the tears and be the reason behind the smile induced with those tears. If you succeed in being the person that is set as an example on how to live life, then you’ve lived life. If a parent can show a child on what ideals are important in life and that you are the person to look up to, then you’ve lived life.
Try and be happy in life. Borrow people’s sorrows and be a good friend. Smile and be the reason that others smile. Love people, look over their negatives and appreciate their positives. Keep a large heart, forgive and forget and be rich at heart. As long as you live, crave for love, it isn’t a bad thing. As long as you live, love and be loved. Adopt optimism as a way of life, wait for that spring to come in life when going through a rough patch. Remember life is a cycle, if the times aren’t good right now, then the good moments are just around the corner. And life is a cycle, so also learn to enjoy and appreciate the good moments. Savor all the positives of the good moments so that you have the strength to face the next cycle. Have faith and keep believing in good. People around may tell you that the world is a terrible place and that life is all hardship and no fun, but believe that good times are there, have faith and trust yourself to overcome the hardships in life and live happily. Whether others trust you or not, always back yourselves. Also, learn to trust others. You aren’t trusting others for them, it is you that benefits most out of it, and even if as a selfish motive, learn to trust others. That trust will help in times of need. Shape yourself such that you are cited as an example predominantly for love and less for any vice in you. Life your life such that you are remembered fondly after death. Be that person whose memory induces tears in the eyes and a smile on the face.
These days YOLO is a very popular term and it is an abbreviation of ‘You Only Live Once’. People have terrible interpretations of the term. But you have only one life, try to imbibe these qualities and make the most of this life. After all you only live once, and Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai.
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Mom and I were being at our conversational best today. We generally have conversations to savor and remember and feel nostalgic about, and today’s conversation was one of those. We started talking about our second car, the car we’d bought 2 months back. We don’t generally splurge on cars, or in anything for that matter. But this was a first. We bought a car that was way out of our budget and way fancier than what was required. We got the sports convertible, Volkswagen Eos.
Mom and I were discussing how uber cool it was that dad was finally driving a car that encompasses a family dream. It is a German make, which dad always wanted. It is a coupe, which is something we all had an inkling towards, since this wouldn’t particularly serve as the family car. It is a sports car, which I’m glad it is because that always been my requirement in a car. I’ve always wanted a powerful car. It is a convertible, which is quite the unimaginable and something that my sister loves. The convertible feature is a dream come true. I was always awed when other people drove cars without a top, and here I was driving my own. And more than anything, my mom and I were talking about how after so many years of intense hard work, dad has finally splurged on something that has been a dream, and how he completely deserves every bit of it. How happy it makes us seeing him drive this car to work everyday.
That conversation made me realize that I may not be an Ambani, but sure as hell, I am born with a golden spoon. My parents have seen countless episodes of hardships in life, and compared to them, I live the life of a prince. I have lived my early life where we weren’t so well to-do in the world, but dad was working hard and there was never a shortage of anything. I wasn’t the kid who had the best of gadgets, but life was satisfactory. I had to earn my rewards and that is how it should be for every child.
And here I am today. I spent two years studying in the US and only the family knows how hard that decision was financially. In spite of the hardships it would beckon, I was sent because it would eventually be worth it. My family was ready to sacrifice and live on a tight budget, because I was benefiting. At 20 years old, I don’t lack anything in life. I study in a foreign university. I study exactly what I want to. We live in a beautiful 3 BHK apartment, which has more than a lavish setting. At 20, I drive a SUV and a sports convertible, have a phone worth Rs 40,000 (USD $800), and live a life of luxury. Sometimes I don’t like it when my parents are reluctant to spend towards something that my sister or I would want, but there are moments like these that remind me of how they’ve put together each penny for the luxury that we as a family enjoy today. It is my own story of rags to riches, and hats off to my parents for working so hard that they got past their rags to ensure we see the riches.
Everyday, I’m thankful. We all know that desire has no boundaries, but I am thankful that we are where we are today, and hope that we keep growing from here, give back as much as we can, and enjoy the luxuries of life together always. Thanks a bunch mom and dad for plating the spoon all your lives so that I could have it golden, thanks for the golden spoon!
Today is a happy sad day. One of the better cricketers, and THE best wicket-keeper batsman cricket has ever seen, retired from the Indian Premier League today. It was sad enough having seen him retire from the Australian team, but back then somewhere the Indian inside me was thankful. And then for the past 6 years, he’s been an incredible influence in the IPL. He was the only reason I supported Deccan Chargers initially and the only reason I started supporting Kings XI Punjab after that. He was a source of inspiration, a leader for countless young cricketers – upcoming and established, Indian and foreign.
He ended his international T20 career against India.
He ended his international ODI career against India.
He ended his international Test career against India.
And now he finally ended his cricketing career in India.
Today was a sad day because the legend Adam Gilchrist finally called it quits. Today was a happy day because of the way he did. He finally showed us what he was so popular for, his style of playing in his second to last game. And in his final game, today, he got out early. As a fan, I was terribly disappointed. But how fast did my disappointment disappear towards the end of the game. The opposing team required 51 runs to win off the last over and Praveen Kumar was going to bowl, or at least that is what everyone thought. And Praveen Kumar and Adam Gilchrist got their ends mixed up. Praveen Kumar was padded up with wicket-keeping gloves and Adam Gilchrist had the ball in his hand. I LOVED IT! It was a wow moment. And the first ball he bowled, Harbhajan Singh skied the ball. I was up on my feet screaming, “PLEASE LET IT BE OUT, PLEASE LET IT BE OUT!” and it was caught out just before the boundary line. The fielder was laughing, the batsman had a smile on his face and Adam Gilchrist decided to give the celebration his all. He mimicked the most popular celebration styles of the player. We got to see a Oppa Gilchrist Style, a Keiron Pollard – Gilchrist celebration, and a lap of victory.
Thank you Adam Gilchrist for ending your career on such a high. Thank you for always entertaining us with your batting. Thank you for being an inspiration to upcoming cricketers and to cricketing fans. Thank you for this last gift.
With a lot of love, respect, admiration, awe and after today – laughs, I hope that we do see you in the future IPL as a coach or some support staff. Best wishes for life, from an ardent fan.
– Kunal Jhaveri
Zindagi Ka Safar 