Living in age of FB

There is a strange tendency in netizens now-a-days, especially on social networking sites, like FB & twitter.... that of hsaring everything with the rest of the world...

I believe just like me, there are others who are not interested to find out as to whether you are cleaning your closets, or if you are at a wedding eating on all the goodies... sometimes yes, I love to find out what my friends are doing, but not every five minutes do I need an update on what is happening in their lives!!!

Why is there a growing trend in all of us (me included.. though I have cut down on the updates) of sharing our life and soul with people with whom we are but acquaintances??

Is it a need to share or is it more of a need to be re-assured that we are still liked by all we know.. a desire to be acknowledged or a hunger to be appreciated?

Truth

Truth.... the wikipedia gives it as;

"Truth has a variety of meanings, such as the state of being in accord with fact or reality. It can also mean having fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal. In a common usage, it also means constancy or sincerity in action or character. The direct opposite of truth is falsehood, which can correspondingly take logical, factual or ethical meanings."

Truth for me has had different connotations as I have grown. As a child, I was a stickler for truth (the perfect spoiler of fun.. ahem..) I was the first one to tattle out the details of the fun time we all had had while playing.. who got pushed.. who shoved.. who did what.. coz till then my definition of truth was being honest and nothing else did matter to me... not even if what I had told caused a lot of pain {authentic and not figure of speech!! :) .. }

With age came the realization that it was not necessary that I told every itsy bitsy thing to my elders, and with that came the realization of a new definition of 'truth'... a definition which meant that there is a variation to the sentence 'whole thing, and nothing but the truth'.... was I learning to lie.. I don't think and feel so... I was merely learning to adapt to my surroundings.

The word truth has come to acquire a totally different meaning... 

Truth now is an expedient in the way I think about things.... so am I a hypocrite

Love/ Hate relation with butterfly

Although it is one of the most beautiful glands in a human body, looks elegant like a butterfly, controls and supports every function in the body; from the smallest like the shine of your hair to the big (!!) issues like weight, I have had a strong love/ hate relation with it.

Growing up as a child, I had a strong metabolism and could gobble down any amount of food without any signs of weight gain; chocolates, chips, fruits, name anything and I could eat my heart's desire of it. Butterfly helped me stay thin in my growing years.

I had known about the butterfly causing great distress coz of family history of the same... what I did not realise was, that it would play a major role in my personal life too. As is generally the case, I came to know of having made a personal bond with the thyroid only after the weight I had gained as a would-be-mother refused to go away even after following a disciplined regime of diet and exercise...

I had all the symptoms but was not ready to face the butterfly's warning signs... I was loosing hair in bunches.. I was snappy.. had a short memory.. in short... name the symptom and I had it.

Time to wake up to reality.

It has been 4 years since I got to know of my eternal bond with the butterfly and after a few initial hiccups as are bound to happen in every relation, we both have settled into a rhythm wherein the usual up and downs are there but till the time I pay timely attention to the butterfly it doesn't get too upset!

Unlike many others who are friends with butterfly, I decided not to fight it but rather make it a daily part of my life coz let's face it, there is just no escaping from butterfly once it decides to be there.. so better make it a friend than a foe!

When reality overwhelms...

When the reality overwhelms us, we seek refuge in fantasy.

Fantasy helps us to escape from the hard realities of the daily life. It makes the real that more bearable even if it is for a brief moment. It provides a reprieve from the bitter truths.. wraps them like a cocoon and waits for the right moment to unfold and help us face the reality.

Procrastination..... and Solution(s)

I have this terrible tendency of making elaborate plans with the minutest of details in mind but somehow or the other when it comes to its implementation I tend to develop not only the proverbial cold feet but I'd say a completely numb mind.. coz the truth is I just freeze at the implementation stage.

So, what should I do.. that is one question that has been haunting me for a long, long time. Tried doing what everyone now-a-days does when in a quandary.. 'googled' it and found no workable solution except a few good quotes and a lot of time in front of the screen.

Finally, I decided to go to the basics of what had been taught to us as youngsters and we often ran away from.. making a Schedule of things to be done in a day extended to a week and viola I had a workable solution to the problem I had been facing vis-a-vis the procrastination.

Since the day began I have managed to visit the Bank, make 2 sketches (will upload these shortly), look up and make a simple craft on quilling (would upload this too), got some work done on my work-in-progress novel, and also managed to snatch some moments to talk to a friend.

On the whole it has been a satisfying day and it is still not finished!! Keeping fingers crossed on continuing with the same zeal tomorrow!

Indian Culture and Foreign influences

Of late the political parties and religious bodies in India have been raising a hue and cry about the increase in the influence of the 'western' culture on our present generations. The points that need to be pondered are: a) Are these influences of a recent nature? b) How beneficial these influences have been for our country?

On turning the pages of history it becomes evident that the outside influences have played a major role in shaping up the culture of present day India. Prior to Alexander's invasion attempt, India had sporadic contact with the west and the influence was also limited. With the entry of Alexander, western influence became more pronounced. In the centuries that followed, many more invaders lay siege to the country but soon surrendered to the beauty and charm of the land. Many a tradition got amalgamated in the thread of daily life of the people ranging from some evils as Sati, Purdah to the good ones included better educational reach for all strata, attempt at removal of caste system.

Coming back to the original line of thought... it s not only West that has influenced the Indian culture, there are many an influence which has affected the nations worldwide ranging from our food (which is quite akin to Mexican food!!), our dresses & accessories (Sari, bindis and many more are now a part of red carpet attire) are just a few.

Our most important influencing factor has been in the form of the migrating populace which has led to our ideas and ways of living being more acceptable now as compared to few decades back. NRIs have played and can play an important role in making our culture more accessible for the lands where they have settled.

To sum up, negating the western influences with the sweep of a hand is not advised but a more judicious choice of positive western influences needs to be made by the masses. What is more important is that we as a nation stop giving in to bullying by religious or political bodies who do so to promote their own personal agendas.

Lost

When was the last time you took a break and looked at the stars?

I recall as a child sleeping outside under the open skies. Often spent many a night watching the twinkling stars way way past the sleeping time. Way past everyone had slept, trying to count all the stars not just in my view but an ambition of counting in the whole sky!

My logic was earth rotates and so I could count all of them, just had to make sure I stayed up that long for the whole sky to pass my view. Every night I tried to keep my eyes open long enough, rarely ever crossed 500 before stars lulled me into sleep. But did I give up. No. I tried and succeeded at making my elder sibling to join me in the noble cause of solving the question of how many stars in sky. Alas! He was never as motivated as me and often slept leaving me counting all by myself.

With age the ambition of counting the stars was left behind. More important matters such as classes, heartaches and heartbreaks took over but whenever I could not sleep I often would spend the night gazing at the twinkling stars till the time stars gave up their fight to light up the skies and submitted to the warm embrace of the rising sun.

Sorely miss the days of star gazing coz now when I look up at the skies for the reassuring twinkling all I see is the lonely moon trying to dispel all the darkness, but fails since it shines with borrowed life.

I wish I could give my son the joy of gazing at the night sky with all the stars twinkling as if only for you. The urban lights have engulfed the night sky and the only time we get to see the stars is when we visit a planetarium. Hope that in the madness of growing our cities and fulfilling our dreams we don't loose out on the small joys forever.