ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY, HONEY...!!!

(sorry about the extra flowery language...this was for the editorial board screening so i had to make it as formal as i could)



One might think I’m just a tiny piece of green paper with some gibberish on it. I would tell them-THINK AGAIN….!!

I’m virtually the most abused and the most desired thing in the universe. There’s nothing the vermin of mankind wouldn’t do to have me; I’m the source of their eternal greed and their overpowering lust. To my consternation and amusement, I see them place me at the very epicenter of their lives, letting me closer to their hearts and placing me well above their loved ones. I see their flaccid relationships and families falling apart, all in my name. The fools that they are, they think I can give them the ultimate power and self-satisfaction; I make them despair and feel like I’m ubiquitous yet too far away from their reach. But, when they do realize that I give them all the material things they ask for and when they continue to feel fidgety and agitated, their despair reaches the zenith and I can hardly keep that glee from my face!

Those who have me copiously, sometimes treat me with satiated displeasure and those who have grown up being told that desiring me greedily is in itself a mortal sin, hold me in awe and feel apoplexic with power.

How predictable and vulnerable the human beings are, never fails to amaze me! With my perfidious influence they try to have the cake and eat it too and finally end up choking themselves!

With their retarded minds and immature attitudes, my task of spreading despondency and unhappiness becomes child’s play. I have taken over every sect of their lives; no human bond can be too strong when it comes to matters concerning me. I see the world through different eyes; I change hands often, sometimes I find myself bringing joy to a child, to whom, nothing in this world is as wonderful as that bon-bon in its hands. I see the pious man offer me in charity and pray for a better world. Such instances make me want to think again and see the mankind from a whole new perspective but before long, I realize there is no veracity to it. I’m soon being used to acquire arms and propagate means to disrupt harmony.

More often than they care to notice, they put me to misuse; all I do is sit back and say to myself-“ Let the despair prevail!!! ”

LIVE LIFE KING SIZE....

This was our topic for a creative writing competition. Here's what I had to offer-

Just take a look around; you are most likely to find myriad kinds of people- who are rich and spoilt, people who are hardworking and focused, people who are simple and giving and also people who are ambitious and power hungry. Trust me, the one kind of person who is extremely hard to find is one who is very content with himself and tries to derive the best possible from the big bad world out there and who never stops telling himself that he is the one and second best to none.

The one thing that I always wonder is-“If we are here to help others, what exactly are others here for???” If I love myself more than anything else in the world, what stops me from being perfectly happy about my imperfect self? It’s not about leading a Bohemian life; it’s not about being pompous and self-centered. It’s about giving yourself the best; ‘best’ being a relative term. It’s about doing something whole heartedly, not because you are expected to, but because you want to! It’s about LIVING LIFE KING SIZE!!!

As the cliché goes- life is too short to crib about the things we don’t get so it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that in the end, all that matters is how I feel about myself and whether I have done everything I truly, passionately wanted to do, and have I put my happiness above the maddening demands of this crazy world??? If yes, BINGO!!! You have a person who not only enjoys his time to the fullest but also respects himself for what he is and collaterally has a good perception about the people around him and about life in general.


Honestly, for mundane beings like us, all this is easier said than done. Many great men have time and again tried giving us subtle hints as to how to live life king size. Baz Luhrmann’s Sunscreen song is something I really love, for it so beautifully tells us about the simple truth behind the most complicated things in life- ‘Sometimes you are ahead, sometimes you are behind, the race is long…..but in the end, its only with yourself.”

I personally believe that living life king size doesn’t mean having pretty girls or splurging on expensive cars, it simply means you rock, for the sole reason that you believe you rock!

Not a 'fair' deal

In the light of the recent racist attacks on Indians in various parts of the world, I thought we should probably take a look at the ‘racist’ issues we are faced with closer home. I am definitely condemning the people behind these attacks, but don’t you think we, ourselves are racists, not the kind that physically attack, but the kind that go about it in a filthier angle.

Let me give the best example, something which we come across everyday- the fairness cream ads on TV. I get extremely annoyed every time I watch them, because most of them are pathetic and carry a totally anti-social message. In some ads, they portray it as though fair women make better lawyers, singers and even sports persons. How incredibly lame is that? The so called dark girl fails to do her job well and impress people, but once she uses these fairness creams and becomes ‘fair’ ( which I’m sure never happens), she is a star all of a sudden!

We don’t see racist issues surfacing in India on an everyday basis, but there surely is a racist element in people’s attitude. In the matrimonial sites, you see grooms asking for well educated, tall and FAIR brides. All I have to say to such people is-Get a life! Aestheticity isn’t everything and I frankly don’t believe being fair skinned means being beautiful.

It is a social stigma that is meaningless yet well prevalent. I’ve seen it being openly brought out in serials and movies, where the parents are worried about finding an alliance for their ‘dark’ girl or where the fair kid drawing more attention gives an inferiority complex to the darker sibling. This kind of stuff does happen in real life.

I think this is the most childish and senseless thing that we as a society need to out-grow and as the King of pop, Michael Jackson puts it-

Beat me, hate me
You can never break me
Will me, thrill me
You can never kill me
Jew me, sue me
Everybody do me
Kick me, kike me
Don't you black or white me

Box of chocolates!

Picture this-you have a whole box of chocolates in front of you, but you are allowed to take just one, mind you, just one. Once you start thinking, there is always the nagging fear that the one you choose may not be as good as the one next to it! But, as I said, all you have is one go, so whatever you choose, you will have to live with it.

With counseling (for admission in graduation colleges) either in progress or fast approaching, this is exactly the situation in which me and most of my friends are in right now ( I know, some of you might find that comparison very lame). Well, at least some of my lucky friends already know where they would be joining, but whether they are happy or not with it is only secondary, cause in today’s scenario of cut throat competition you don’t have much choice, unless you are good (here that would mean either fricking intelligent or hardworking enough to put SRK to shame!!!).

Everywhere I see parents who are worried sick about where their darling child is finally going to end up. I believe, this year with web counseling, there will be all the more dilemma and tension to add to their worries. Anyway, let’s just wish we all are given what we truly deserve!

"Culture" shock

How do you define the word ‘culture’? I’m sure most of us can’t find the right words to define it. That is because culture is something that is constantly evolving, changing and always trying to fit in. In today’s world of globalization, no country can survive independently, India is no exception, all nations are interdependent. So, in this scenario, wouldn’t being flexible in matters of culture and traditions be the wise thing to do?

The impact of western culture on the Indian society is both a boon and a bane. I would definitely say its more of a boon, because we as a nation are becoming more developed, futuristic and intune with what’s going on outside the borders. Moreover, no culture wishes to be frozen in time, the very essence of civilization is blending our culture with that of others while maintaining the core values and traditions of our ancestors.

Are we so narrow minded as to refuse to accept anything other than our conventional methods of going about anything- education, marriage, celebration and life as a whole? I’m not saying that we go about doing anything and everything just because it’s a part of their ‘culture’ elsewhere in the world and is not considered taboo there. Of course, it is essential to realize where to draw the line, the traditional values and ethics prescribed by our holy scripts and epics must never be left behind. Having said that, I would like to add that, at the same time, its also important to discard senseless rituals like Sati and child marriage, which, though a part of our ancient traditions have been abandoned for good!

I think its also high time that these so called moral police and other such lame organizations be shown there rightful place. They can’t go around beating up girls, forcing dating couples to get married and protesting against homosexuals, all in the name of ‘preserving our culture’. What I really wonder is what sort of a culture professes physical abuse of women and denial of the basic rights of the people which make us the democracy that we are today??? We just need to broaden our perspective and look at such issues from a whole new angle.

Wake up people!!!

Though i wrote this last year, sometime around the Women's Day, even today, i feel the sentiments expressed in this article quite as strongly if not with greater intensity. I hope it acts as an eye-opener!

A few weeks back, on the, “Women’s day”,I found many articles in the newspaper about Women’s day celebrations and women empowerment schemes by the Government and also by some NGOs. As I continued flipping through the pages I found two other articles which immediately caught my attention. One was about a woman who had committed suicide after giving birth to her fifth daughter since she was so depressed at not being able to conceive a boy, the other was about how 9 male teachers of a teacher training college for women assaulted their students.

Here we are on one hand ‘celebrating’ women and everything wonderful about them while on the other hand we turn a blind eye to such reports of exploitation, which appear almost everyday. I found the contrast both pathetic and horrifying. Why did a mother (who obviously was a woman herself) think of her own daughters as curses and crave for a boy? Why do people indulge in female infanticide and feticide? Why should the parents of the bride pay dowry to the groom? Such questions and many more often leave me baffled.

Today, India boasts of a female President, a female speaker, a woman of our motherland made it to the space and we also have many eminent sportswomen. When women have achieved so much and have been proving their mettle over and over again, why are they still not treated on par with men? Is it because of our society’s baseless yet rooted prejudice against women or is it because we simply refuse to change our mindsets?
In cities, we find girls pursuing higher education, taking up jobs and holding esteemed positions, they also manage their household and kids. We have working mothers, wives or daughters, so, we may feel that ‘women being ill-treated’, is too cliché and irrelevant in today’s modern world. But we need a magnifying glass to get the clearer picture.

The number of high school dropouts amongst girls is not showing a declining trend. Many people from the Below Poverty Line families either want their girls to work as maids or they want to get them married off early while they may consider educating the boys.
Its high time we all woke up to this and realized just how inhumane this is.

Veggie or Non-veggie???

Before you make any pre-conceived notions having read that title...let me make myself clear..I'm not a vegetarian (let alone a vegan) and im not publicising vegetarianism here, im just giving a two sided view.


How many of us cannot tolerate to see a puppy being pelted by stones or animals being ill-treated at the circus or wild animals being killed for fun , but at the same time cannot do without our weekly dose of chicken/fish?
How do we justify this?

Is making a meal out of a creature an offense? Some may say that meat is what the early man lived on and most living beings on our planet earth are meat-eaters, so non-vegetarianism is in no way a sin. Yet others have something different to say, when we can very well survive on fruits and vegetables and obtain all required nutrients from them, where does the need to eat fellow living beings arise? They may call it barbaric, brutal and even nothing short of cannibalism.

As it is human tendency to support our argument no matter how weak it is, People who swear by their love for non-veg say eating meat helps maintain ecological balance in the nature and also controls the number of herbivorous animals thereby saving greenery (I know its kinda lame reason), On the other hand many people are turning veggies because it is being considered healthy and also something ‘cool’ and ‘in’.

Some are realizing that many diseases and pathogens could get transmitted to us from these creatures and result in bio-amplification and they are distancing themselves from non-vegetarian food. Like an alcohol or drug addict, they are struggling to stop themselves from eating non-veg! Certain religions like Jainism, Buddhism and some sects of Hinduism consider non-vegetarianism as something uncivilized and against the Almighty, these people help spread vegetarianism and lately it has been gaining popularity. Actually speaking, I get to see two-way conversions taking place, some of my friends, born in staunch vegetarian families enjoy gorging on chicken while many others who were born non-vegetarians, for myriad reasons have turned vegetarians and even vegans! Well, the grass is definitely greener on the other side for these people.

But there is no denying the fact that eggs and meat are an essential part of a balanced and complete diet, especially for children. To many, non-vegetarianism is a part and parcel of their lives, it is just a normal activity, something that is just to be enjoyed without much thought. To sum it all up, it would be wise to say that its all in individual perception and how we take it.
As they say-‘Each one to his own!’