The “low” ness of life

They say one should always be happy because life is short and not one moment should be wasted. When I recall that thought, I find it strange because I don’t find myself being completely happy each minute continuously for a week. May be a day, yes, when things are really going well.

Then again, sometimes, even when things are going well, there is this level of lowness which steals a part of me. I am not sure if a lot of you must have felt the same way. Some days begin with a spell of depression as if the heart doesn’t seem to find solace in anything. It’s even more frustrating when you don’t know what is wrong. What one wants is a reason. We don’t look for reasons when we are happy but gloominess demands reasoning.

And then, you try to analyze and analyze reaching nowhere wondering if music or food or a chat might help you feel better. One day you feel your spirits sunk in like the titanic which never rose to the water. The next day, you’re back to normal where you suddenly enjoy the tiniest events of life. It’s is quite strange how our mind tunes to lowness and happiness.

Rather than giving it more thought, I think there is no such thing as being happy always. Some days are bound to be the low days when all you feel is confusion for no reason. May be these low days are meant to give the good days. So, welcome the lowness and see that it bids goodbye. The Sooner the better.

The gruesome curse of fury

I have been thinking of this for quite some time – the word “anger” had always meant to me, an emotion to display a dislike or frustration or hatred. It used to be just like any other emotion, like love, happiness, sadness, moody, excitement or despair. While all the other emotions never lead to an extreme, anger is seen to result in harming other people.

In the recent times, people have given in to anger so much that it has resulted in unnatural death of innocent people. We do hear from time to time of crimes that people commit under the spell of anger. We talk about it and forget about it praying silently that we don’t meet such psychotic people. What sort of a person would kill another person because he couldn’t control his anger? You don’t even want to know about it because it’s abnormal to kill someone just because you are angry.

Majority of the world knows this which is why we scream or shout or ignore when we are angry. There might be thousands of reasons of why you don’t want a particular person existent in the world. We are human beings, designed to like and dislike but that doesn’t give us a proper reason to take someone’s life.
I am simply wondering, for the millionth time, about the 23 year old guy who killed his girl friend because he was angry that she went out with another guy one night. Was it a strong enough reason for him to decide that his girl friend shouldn’t be alive anymore? This is not it. There are various other people, normal people just like you and me, who act under circumstances that don’t seem very real. But they react based on their instincts and not consequences.

Now, I am wondering again for the millionth time, what solace does murder provide? Does killing someone solve the problem? I think it’s cowardice to kill someone. Those who commit murders under the spell of rage suffer a range of insecurities which is why they can’t bear the existence of a particular person and they decide to punish the person with death. What they don’t realize is this – the murderer is actually punishing himself in the process of killing another person. It’s easy to pick a gun or stab a knife; but what about the future? How can a person get sleep at all? There is definitely no normalcy left in such a person.

This isn’t a world where murders are allowed like marriages and child births or has it become routine? I hope not. While anger management courses are there to aid people, it’s more to do with the mental stability of human beings. There is no need of courses or counseling to control anger; instead, all it requires is a little common sense to accept that murder doesn’t provide freedom. Nor does anger give the right to take another person’s life. Murder, simply isn’t the solution and it never is.

One for the country - Country for?

I don't usually take interest in Politics because half the time I don't have time (the lamest excuse!) and half the time I don't care. I do care for people but politics is such a waste of time that it hardly makes sense. However, I was drawn towards one piece of news that read "Collector Abducted" which initially went ignored because I assumed it was one of those boring pieces which news channels flash because they think you ought to know everything that is aired.
The more I read, the news intrigued me further. For those who haven't got a chance to read, here it is, skimmed version though.

Alex Paul Menon, a collector had visited Raipur to have a conversation with the tribal group out there when another group famously known as Maoists shot down his guards and kidnapped him. Right now, he is held captive by some 500 Maoists. The collector is known to be asthmatic which came to light after his newlywed wife, Asha [three months pregnant] appealed to the nation and Maoists to release him quickly. Meanwhile, the government has assigned a committee who are supposedly to be the mediators to have talks with the Maoists to ensure how their demands (to free other Maoists friends) can be met.

While the newspapers and news channels have been groping at every piece of information regarding the abduction, the collector or the Maoists to keep us informed every minute, my thoughts flutter to the collector and his wife. It must be horrible for the wife to know that her husband is in such a perishable situation and the uncertainties must have robbed her sleep and any thought of happiness. Of course, she is trying her best to stay strong throughout (I do hope she continues the same). While we do know her state, we don't have any news about her husband.

Even as the wife and the family survive through the depressing hours, there isn't been much progress regarding the collector's release. I am sure the government and all the other people who claim to be helping the collector are doing their best. What makes me wonder is that why do people who actually take up responsibility for the country have to face this?

This abduction will only lead aspirants (who do care for the country) to return to their shells because people treasure safety more than their dreams. However negative the situation gets, it's best to stay positive and hope for the best. Let's wait for the news channels to air the good news at least for once.

To die or to kill?

When I read the news article about a fifteen year old boy from Chennai who murdered his 37 year old Hindi teacher repeatedly with a knife (the actual word used was ‘stabbed’) in the midst of the school premises, I didn’t know what to think. And then, as my mind began to digest the piece of information, a series of questions began to float inside my head. Are we shocked because a fifteen year old committed the murder? Are we surprised that a young boy would go to the extremes of being violent? Did something go wrong from the teacher’s part that drove the child to this extreme? I call him a child, though his actions do not equal the description, but we have been told that until a person reaches 18, they are kids.


Obviously, the fifteen year old is no more called a child, because he had the nerve to commit a sin so dreadful that has shocked the country. What untrusting anger or adrenalin distilled mind he must have possessed that he picked up the knife to stab his teacher’s body? A part of me tells that parents are to be blamed here because they did not prepare the boy for the world; instead, they prepared him only for a blood spilling arena.


Uncontrollable anger can have its results in the most gruesome method such as this which can now possibly give courage to those who have been controlling so far. It’s definitely an unacceptable offence but one cannot blame the boy as a whole.


Another incident that came to light two days after the murder was a death of another 15 year old who hanged himself from the fan. Reason: Exam pressure. The contrasting extremes of the two boys; one who murdered and the one who killed himself shows that the upbringing of children definitely needs immediate attention.


There are two set of parents- those who pamper their kids to such an extent that the child is unable to accept the worldly rules and those who pressurize their children for marks and not caring about the child’s mental state.
One can only pray that these saddening events will awaken parents to nurture their children in the right way where emotions are balanced because imbalance has obviously showed its consequence.

Bruce And The Spider

There was once a king of Scotland whose name was Robert Bruce. He had need to be both brave and wise, for the times in which he lived were wild and rude. The King of England was at war with him, and had led a great army into Scotland to drive him out of the land.

Battle after battle had been fought. Six times had Bruce led his brave little army against his foes; and six times had his men been beaten, and driven into flight. At last his army was scattered, and he was forced to hide himself in the woods and in lonely places among the mountains.

One rainy day, Bruce lay on the ground under a rude shed, listening to the patter of the drops on the roof above him. He was tired and sick at heart, and ready to give up all hope. It seemed to him that there was no use for him to try to do anything more.

As he lay thinking, he saw a spider over his head, making ready to weave her web. He watched her as she toiled slowly and with great care. Six times she tried to throw her frail thread from one beam to another, and six times it fell short.

"Poor thing!" said Bruce: "you, too, know what it is to fail."

But the spider did not lose hope with the sixth failure. With still more care, she made ready to try for the seventh time. Bruce almost forgot his own troubles as he watched her swing herself out upon the slender line. Would she fail again? No! The thread was carried safely to the beam, and fastened there.

"I, too, will try a seventh time!" cried Bruce.

He arose and called his men together. He told them of his plans, and sent them out with messages of cheer to his disheartened people. Soon there was an army of brave Scotchmen around him. Another battle was fought, and the King of England was glad to go back into his own country.

I have heard it said, that, after that day, no one by the name of Bruce would ever hurt a spider. The lesson which the little creature had taught the king was never forgotten.

The first Chapter.....

Are you the one for me?




Khushi was enjoying the most happiest day of her life. She could feel Rohit’s arms wrapped around her as they sat munching on her favorite black forest pastry. They took turns to feed each other as the evening sun spread across the sky above their heads.
‘Khushi, I love you so much,’ said Rohit as he licked the cream off her nose.
‘Ah, Janu I love you too,’ Khushi wanted to melt in his arms.
‘We should come here often so that you can stay in my arms for as long as you like,’ he snuggled beside her on the warm sand. Khushi had always wanted to go to the Goa beach with Rohit ever since the day she met him. She couldn’t believe it was finally happening. She and Rohit in GOA!
‘Oh, Rohit dear… I just want you to go on… on… on’.
Suddenly Khushi felt someone slap on her face very hard. Oh no, Rohit was slapping her. But why? What had she done? It was all very confusing.
‘Idiot, silly cow,’ shouted Rachu, ‘Uh, get off my leg’.
‘What? Where is Rohit?’ Khushi woke up from her dreamland to the reality inside her one bedroom flat.
‘Rohit isn’t here so you’d better you stop seeing silly dreams, ok,’ snapped back Rachu.
‘Silly? My dream will come true one day. Just wait and watch,’ said Khushi in a confident tone. She was sure of more than anything else.
‘Khushi, when will you ever grow up? Don’t you realize that guy doesn’t even care for you,’ Rachu tried to shake some sense into her stupid friend.
‘Of course he does. What makes you think he doesn’t?’ shot back an extremely annoyed Khushi. There was no way you could convince Khushi for something she didn’t want to believe.
‘Do you honestly believe what he says? If he cared for you then why did he dump you thrice earlier? He just comes trotting behind you when he is bored and you always take him back. Don’t you realize you are the one who is being fooled’?
‘Dear Rachu, you don’t know Rohit the way I do. He is just a bit childish sometimes but don’t you worry. He is perfect for me,’ beamed Khushi with a smile plastered on her round face.
Rachu lifted her hands in protest but gave up. She knew it was no use talking to Khushi about it. She had been through the same discussion at least a dozen times in the past two years but Khushi just wouldn’t open her eyes to reality. There were times when she wanted to bash up the rogue for exploiting Khushi’s emotions but there was really nothing she could do.
‘Hi Janu,’ Khushi was on her way to her office in a local train while talking on her mobile.
‘Helooo,’ replied back a sleepy Rohit from his king size bed.
‘You’re still sleeping honey. Wake up, it’s nine o’ clock’.
‘Hmmm, yea... I know’.
‘And do you know what date is it? It’s the 20th of February,’ said an overly excited Khushi which made the onlookers peer at her in curiosity as to what could be so special.
‘So?’ Rohit obviously had no clue what she was talking about.
‘You don’t remember at all, is it?’ It seemed Khushi would burst into tears any moment.
‘Well….’
‘It’s our anniversary dumbo. It’s been two years since we love each other,’ the excitement returned again on her face as she spoke. That was Khushi. She could sulk and laugh in a single minute.
‘Oh, yes. I do remember. It just slipped out of my mind,’ said a least bothered Rohit. He faked the memory, confident that Khushi would blindly believe him. That’s what she’d been doing always.
‘Ok cool, so let me remind you that we are meeting at 8.30 pm at Crowne Plaza. Is that fine janu? I know you are always busy so I’ll call you up and remind you around five’. Busy for Rohit meant clubbing and dancing in the pubs all day with people who were as jobless as him.
‘Hmmm, ok. That’s fine,’ he sounded as though he hadn’t heard a word of what she had just told him.
The truth was that Rohit didn’t give a damn about Khushi. Actually, he didn’t give a damn for anybody on earth. And he was not the only one to be blamed for that. His dad had brought him up with all the riches but failed to teach him the importance of emotions and feelings. Deep inside, he knew no guy on earth could get an understanding girl like Khushi but he never made the effort to make it up to her. He took her for granted because he knew how much she loved him. He knew even if he were to stand up and tell he didn’t care for her, she wouldn’t believe.
That was just Khushi, always in her own dream world unaware of reality. For her, love was the most important feeling on earth, a feeling built upon trust, faith and hope. One that should never be broken. She wanted a long term relationship while Rohit couldn’t stand a girl for more than a month. How Khushi survived with him was a wonder for everybody who knew him. She had the most simplest dreams like any other girl. To live life with someone you loved. Little did she know that life doesn’t work that way always.
Her office usually ended at seven thirty but on that particular day Khushi made an excuse of illness and left office by 6.45 pm. She rushed out of the office to the rest room to change into a top and skirt. There was no way she was meeting Rohit in her boring office clothes. She knew he hated bad dressing sense and so she changed her clothes in the restroom. Re-checking her make up several times to make sure she looked attractive, she picked up her pink purse and walked to the taxi stand.
Crowne Plaza was twenty five minutes away from her office. Honestly speaking, Khushi never preferred to go to the giant hotels. It was just not her style as she loved the simpler smaller ones but then it was Rohit’s style to dine only in grand restaurants where food tasted like shit and the place seemed like a silent bombshell. With Rohit, she had visited almost all of the major big shot restaurants in Delhi. She never understood the need to spend large amount of money to have such rotten food. Nevertheless, if Rohit loved anything; she would love it at any cost.
‘Hey there, it’s nine honey. Are you still on the way?’ poured in Khushi cheerfully on her phone.
‘Yeah, umm… give me few minutes…,’ Rohit sounded as if he were in the middle of something really big.
‘Alright, but don’t forget I am waiting for you’.
Khushi had been waiting for the past twenty five minutes with no sign of Rohit. When she tried calling him again, his phone was switched off. She frowned at first but assumed that it must be low battery. Clutching a heart shaped gift which was wrapped in red, she sat uncomfortably on the couch near the reception area. The hotel was pretty huge but people threw such strange glances towards her side which made her want to scream at them.
Her short skirt made her feel all the more worse. Though she lived in a metro, she never liked wearing revealing clothes but Rohit always wanted her to look sexy no matter what hour of the day it was.
‘Excuse me, could I use the phone please?’ Khushi requested to use the phone as she was running low on balance. If you happen to have a boy friend, running low on balance was evident.
‘Sure ma’am ‘.
With a frustrated look, she dialed the number only to hear an automated female voice on the other end. As she turned around dejectedly, she noticed the guy at the reception was ogling at her. As it is, she was bothered by weird looks and now this man was staring directly at her breasts. Resisting the urge to shout back, she went and sat on the comfy padded couch which failed to comfort her.
In that one hour, she must have glanced at her watch at least a hundred times and dialed Rohit’s number at least a fifty times and she was still waiting in a huge stupid hotel with stupid people who behaved as if they hadn’t seen a girl before. This was sick.
At nine thirty, her phone rang but it still wasn’t him.
‘Hello,’ she croaked into the speaker.
‘Khushi, where are you? Its nine thirty,’ it was Rachu. Rachu hated late night outings. Khushi had already been warned to avoid late night meetings a number of times in the past.
‘I am waiting for Rohit at Crowne Plaza,’ she said in a sad voice.
‘Waiting at this hour? Are you mad?’
‘It’s our second anniversary Rachu. The plan was to celebrate and I guess he must be on his way, ‘ said Khushi unsure if what she said was true.
‘What? That idiot hasn’t reached still. Did you try calling him?’
‘His phone is switched off’.
At ten minutes to ten, Rachu forced her to catch a taxi and return home. As she sat in a black taxi with darkness all around her, Khushi felt thick salty tears streaming down her face. Why didn’t he turn up? How could he possibly forget that she had been waiting for him so long? Could something… could something be wrong with him? The thought scared her.
Suddenly, she asked the driver to change directions and head for Rohit’s flat at ten thirty in the night. Her heart was beating as all the negative thoughts clouded her mind. What if he had met with an accident? What if he had got lost somewhere? What if? What if? The what if’s clogged her mind like the bees which swarmed the honey bag.
She decided to hop into Rohit’s flat to check what could have possibly gone wrong. First it was anger that boiled her blood because he didn’t turn up but now it was worry that made her head ache. She had been to his flat on three occasions earlier as it gave them all the privacy they could ask for.
She took the lift to reach the seventh floor of Prime Apartments, the most posh houses in the city. Khushi knew she would never be able to afford one like that, at least not with the money she was earning. It would probably take aeons but then Khushi never fancied big houses. She always preferred simple living without complications.
She rang the door bell twice waiting for the door to open. Rohit must probably be having a hard day so he must have slept off early, forgetting to inform her. She would sulk at first but then he would promise to make up for the evening and eventually she would forgive him. That was it. That was the way it was supposed to happen. So simple. But no. The door still didn’t open which deepened her worries even more.


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Degree- the killer word

Does it really take a degree to get high in life? Yeah, most of us would agree giving an explanation that a degree behind your name is what identifies you. Should I tell you a secret on that?

The answer is No. You do not need a degree to make your dreams come true. Yes, you can now breathe a sigh of relief. If this is true, then why is there such a hungama over a degree. Right from our childhood, we have been asked to enter school so that one day when we reach our teenage, we would come out with a degree. And is that the sign of success? Sadly, a degree is just not everything.
We are just doing it because ages ago, someone decided that a degree is what it takes. Someone decided that only be going to college and getting a degree, you can become a person.

I can boldly say that it isn't true because I have seen people achieving great heights even without a degree. Of course, you can argue back with the statement that some careers depend on a degree because you cannot learn basics by yourself.
Point agreed.

If there is something you want to specialize in, you can very well get a degree. Thanks to the education system, we now get degrees for every topic like catering, fisheries, shipping and the list goes on.

I wouldn't say that a degree is not needed but it is wrong to blindly believe that a degree is what makes you as a person.

People should not be judged with the degrees that they tag behind their names for it is the stuff inside them that really matters. The zeal, the faith and the hope is what really takes you high. Degree is just a stepping stone towards what you really want.

Learning doesn't stop with college because Life itself is a learning process throughout.

Note: Connect the dots is a book by Rashmi Bansal which talks about the lives of 20 ordinary people.

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