This is your year!

Let this new year be all about you. Invest in yourself and you wouldn't regret a day.
Read more, blabber less. Go offline, build real relationships. Laugh and smile more, worry less. Be a friend with no expectations.

Love with all of yourself and keep it simple. No mindfuck games. It'll break your heart a couple of times but you will meet the right person who is equally as vulnerable. Let the only reason be love and nothing else. Be kind. It doesn't cost you.

Price tags are for scanning bar codes not for judging others. Stop seeking validation from people who have no clue about your struggles and journey. Keep your calm and lay back. You don't owe an explanation to everyone for everything you do.

It's 2016 and that's 366 chances of bettering yourself each day. Seize it and make the best of it. I still see hope that someday all the hate is replaced. That change begins from a change within. Keep no room for spite towards someone in your heart because they eat,look,speak,pray and think different.

I repeat keep no room for spite at all.

She killed her

Beneath those carefree eye makeup she used to wipe it off before going to sleep knowing for sure it'll be another night when she cries herself to sleep. Why was she crying? Maybe that's being a woman is all about.
Yet another new room, new place and strange faces. She just had no one to dial and say that she was scared to go look under the bed or inside the closet. She just had no one to tell her its gonna be alright except for herself.
Failing to pacify her heart and give it a reason as to why is she so alone. What went wrong and why is it still not right.
A deep lurking fear what if she might have to cry herself every night for the rest of her life. What if her life was meant to be love less. The daily chaos has tired her body and she knows that no one might ever cuddle her to sleep with love.
After all the hurt, she just had to do it. Kill that little girl inside her who yearns to be loved.

Inquisitive basterds

As you grow older you get better at identifying and dealing with all kinds of people. You wouldn't love or hate people anymore. Its too strong a feeling and too much of an effort on your part. You would just let go some and hold onto some. 

In retrospection I realized how many of unnecessary fucks has been given by me to several things and people. At the end of the day it wasn't worth my time.

Moving ahead let's talk of this particular group. I named them the inquisitive bastards. It bothers so much to them since the very first day they set foot on this earth as to where you are at and if you are doing well (at all). Their childhood is spent trying to know if you scored 3 points more in social science than them, then they move to your board results, college admissions, branch, placements, salary packages, CAT or GRE score, further placements, further salaries. Basically they spend most of their lives measuring themselves and others to it.

Pitiful! Really. Mostly because they can never see a person past the competition. Maybe to find a good friend and they never will. Let me explain in plain English. I do not give a shit about your brag stories , where did you study, where do you work, how much you earn, who you meet and nor do I think mine is any of your business. If this is how you seek companionship then we won't gel any day. As long as you are good to me, I am good to you. Period.

Jackie

I saw you on my 8th birthday for the first time. Your paw stuck in those rocks while you cried for help. We picked you up and kept you warm on that cold February night. Treated your leg and you never had to limp anymore. Dearest Jackie, you were the best birthday gift ever. Its been 18 years since then but those memories of you are still crystal clear in my mind when you would sleep in my arms like a cradled little baby.

Life was simple, wasn't it Jackie? You & me playing in the backyard. We never got tired even after running in the fields the whole day. How you would come rushing to my help and finish my meal. You were always excited to see us returning from school.

You taught me how to love someone unconditionally. It was the best moment when you found out we were visiting and you stayed till the end to see us off at the bus stop. How I wish you were still here Jackie. Maybe you would have made it simpler.

50 year old

Dear 50 year old me,

Let me help you recollect a basket full of lovely memories that will make your day today. Its 1:30 am in the night of 14th April and you very easily finished 3 assignments within 12 hours before sleep. Pat yourself for it. Your nexus 5 gifted by Ronnie is your reading material every night.
Life is going good so far. Unpredictable but good. You have amazing friends who don't judge you based on your looks, grades or anything at all for that matter. Makeup or no makeup you love yourself looking in the mirror when you smile. Mornings are the best time of the day because you go running or cycling enjoying the breeze and the rays of sun. There is so much to look forward to in the next coming years and I am super excited.
You taught yourself to drive last year and you enjoy being behind the wheel now while singing to your favorite tunes. You bought yourself a car from your own savings, you performed dances on stage, wrote for your university newspaper, swam laps in the rec pool, climbed the wall in rec, danced to zumba and night club cardio, score more than 100 in a game of bowling, can serve right in tennis, slept in a tent on a rainy windy night, survived a stolen wallet and lost $1000 episode, put in money to play poker, dated your crush on valentine's day, slept on library couch during finals, worked 8 hours all night on weekend to save money for your new laptop, rode on the craziest roller coasters in six flags, can spin serve in table tennis, made friends from around the world, learned to cook chicken in coconut milk, make time to pray everyday, was gifted a talking minion Stuart and most importantly always remember you listened to your heart.
Life will beat and bog you down in many instances but you have been brave. You make me proud that you never chose to cheat the one you love and you never lost yourself while striving everyday. Get up and be the positive you!
Take your chances, make your mistakes and keep learning. Embrace the good people in your life and grow into the person you wished to be.

To Hope

To that kid who sketched a Father's Day card and sits by the window sill waiting for his Daddy to return...someday.

To that guitarist by the roadside who plays the same song written by him waiting to record an album....someday.

To that old lady whose trembling fingers caress a picture and her weak eyes that yearn to see her one grandchild...someday.

To that boy who buys his friend her favorite chocolate everyday waiting if she would feel the same...someday.

To that inmate who never committed a crime, looking out through the prison window and wishing if he could run free on those fields...someday.

To that soldier whose love might still be waiting for him to return...someday.

To that humble researcher whose work will save lives of millions waiting for that one approval.

To that parent whose child is battling it out in a hospital and waiting to take them home hale and hearty...someday.

To that little girl whose dreams go far back to her Aaita and Ma waiting to make it on her own...someday.

One good cry

Life has its own way and things will never turn necessarily the way you want them. What is in your control is the power to stay motivated. If everything were perfect, there is no urge to try more the next day. Losing is a part of being alive and it means you are trying.

We tend to expect more and get attached to our dreams. It is difficult to get over them when they don't come true and it was everything you ever wanted. This is where bracing yourself to accept defeats come handy. Play more and then you learn its all about the sport and not just the match you lost.

One good cry is a privilege given to you. There is nothing wrong in mulling over a loss for once. It makes you human to grieve over a defeat. Take it, soak it all in, make your one good cry and then embrace the next new day. But remember no loss in the world deserves more. Don't look back another day and wish "If only..". No! Move on and make your one good cry worth its time. 

She shouldn't

BBC'S documentary on "India's Daughter" has created this recent uproar of why the video should be banned in India mostly for technical reasons. I watched the entire documentary and I believe there's nothing much unknown about the facts shown in it. Banning the video is similar to the attacks on protesters at India gate for Nirbhaya.
Coming to the point, it has excerpts from one of the accused rapists in addition to 2 defendant lawyers for them. Does it shock me to hear their justifications for what was done was appropriate. Well maybe not. I was born and raised in this country and I know how people think. A major chunk of people still believe today that women aren't equal and it is fine to show them their place.
American women practiced their right to vote for the first time in 1920 and that too after decades of struggling. Today they earn equal wages, enjoy freedom and have been granted equal rights. But that's too westernized for our culture.
We had an iron lady as our prime minister for over a decade. A female President and two consecutive Lok Sabha speakers which goes to show our women get equal treatment. But a society is identified from the position a woman is given.
Drilling down where does all this spite for women originate. Some people cannot tolerate people different from them, be it a different gender, different race even different religion. This intolerance escalates to a level of so much hatred that one can go about inflicting horrendous sexual violence on someone who never has and never will cause any harm to them.  It still is unacceptable for a girl to be out on her own and if she is willing to take the risk then it is rightful for men to rape and teach her a lesson. These men claim with an audacity that she shouldn't and that's why we should.

Picture from 1967 Boston Marathon where the first lady runner Kathrine Switzer took part. “No woman can run the Boston Marathon,” said Arnie Briggs, Kathrine Switzer’s running coach.