HEROES ARE PEOPLE TOO

(Michael Jackson’s death on June 25th, 2009 came as a shock to people all over the world. Never had I thought, that the person whose tunes I grew up on, can die someday, so suddenly, so unexpectedly. I thought him as timeless, as eternal, as interminable….. So did his millions of fans all over the world.

His death, makes us think…..that in reality, death is not partial even to one so famous. All people those we worship in life, be them ordinary ones or even great celebrities, all; all of them are mere mortals. And one day, like us, they will die too.

Yet what will be different about their death is that, they will still continue to live; in our hearts, in our soul, in their talents, their work and in all those people whose lives they have touched.

And this will inspire us that we can be like them too…..

To, Michael Jackson, a person who was our idol, our hero; I dedicate this poem, straight from the heart……….)

We look up to them & are in awe

For they are something different & nice

We love them with all our heart & soul

And follow their all advice

Yet sometimes we are confused

as to what is false & what is really true

How easily do we forget that-

Heroes are people too!

Their successes are our own

Their wins fill us with joy

They are revered as they are

Whether aggressive, sweet or coy

Their downfall is a wound

That never heals in us

Their failures a bad dream

That makes us badly cuss

Its as if our life is attached

To their very existence

No reason justifies our love for them

Be it logic or great distance

Yet sometimes we hate them

Why; we don’t have a clue

How easily do we forget that-

Heroes are people too!

For us, they are an open book

We expect they have nothing to hide

For us, we want them to move ahead

Leaving their personal life aside

When they give us happiness

We lift them up & worship them so

And their mistakes give us sorrow

Its like being struck by a blow

We pry in to what they are

We discuss their all affairs

But we still love their mannerisms

Those high-fi graces and airs

Yet sometimes, they seem so plastic

Like some entity new

How easily do we forget that-

Heroes are people too!

Their illnesses is a cause of concern

They begin residing in our prayer

One so talented should have a long life

Eternal should be the person so rare

And when they die, their death is a shock

Ordinary, what their life seems

For we thought them to be invincible

The rulers of our dreams

But they are mere mortals

Who live like us & die

But between their life & death

Give such a good try

That their ordinary life

Is much more than what ours is

Talents they learn to put to use

Thats what makes them a whiz

And so even when death takes them away

They still live within our heart

They house a particular corner in our mind

And never do they depart

So what they inspire us to do is that

We can be immortal too

They live their life with just a little difference

Otherwise, Heroes are people too!

ENCLOSED MEMORIES

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.

~ The Wonder Years

How funny and sad yet true; Memories have a much stronger hold on us than we imagine them to have. Ever wondered, when we look back, why do we laugh over all the troubled times of the past that don’t matter much now AND how pathetically we cry over all the happy ones that will never come again. Because, Sorrow in the long run, is nothing but a point of life to grow and learn and smile about and Happiness, in long run becomes a pain to endure forever….

Yet, for us, memories represent our whole lives. Even a 10 year old kid recounts the days when he was a baby. And then, as we grow older, our bag of memories becomes heavier and heavier until to the very end of our life, when we are a stooping old man, with a big sack of both pleasure and pain positioned on our back. A sack of memories…..

A camera is something all of us desire. We long as kids for those cartoon models, short and compact. We like showing them off to our buddies, clicking pictures on the playground, in the cafeteria, in classrooms, birthday parties, hanging out in the backyard, family outings….just about everytime. We wish to enclose every single moment in a picture or in a video. And years later, when we open up that dusty album, we automatically get transported to a different world. A world that once was our own. But, a world where we are mere strangers now.

I can remember all the cameras that I have owned. I still have them, safe and sound, yet I never stopped buying newer and newer models. This one’s the latest, the new sony cybershot. Its small and cute and now means everything to me.

Some years back, even the memories from the camera took a long time to develop. The film inside needed to be washed and then you used to get the photos. However, now with the advent of digital cams, you can have even few hours old memories stored safely on your computer.

This is one of the earliest picture that I clicked. I simply loved the simplicity of it. It was not a sigficant moment at all. Yet I know, as long as I have this picture, I shall remember that day. A very normal sunny day, with the beautiful sun shining, a forget-me-not blue sky, clouds like white cotton candy and flowers like innocent little children dancing along with the light cool breeze.

A moment so fleeting, so ordinay……a memory so everlasting, so extraordinary…..

Life is beautiful, just like the flower. So pure and white and it encloses so many memories. So many moments of “I wish”, “If only” and “What if”….. Of “could been” and “have been”. Of death, despair, disappointments, of hurt and wounds. Of life, love, joy, successes, of mirth and laughter. Of family and friends, of complete strangers, of the vast nature, of even the animals and the birds.

Life is like food. So very delecious, so very tasty and so very very necessary. It is something, without which, we cannot live. So is life. Life is different from Existence. In existence, we only exist but in Life, we live, we grow, we learn, we teach and we love….

Life is like food. Colorful. Tempting. Aromatic. It is our fuel. It compels us to always keep moving forward and never look back. o go on and on. It keeps supplying the energy and we keep converting it to do something productive.

People fade out from our lives. Not all, but chosen few are destined to be with us forever; while most of them last a season. (Previous entry: A reason for a season)

We keep on living no matter what. For us, no one’s gone, no one dies, we keep them alive day after day, night after night. Physical death is a mere certainty but people go on living in every memory they shared.

So strong are the memories, so strong their power, so obvious their existence yet so unpredictable their effect. They are an essential component of our life, something without which we are incomplete, something that connects our one life with millions of others, something that tunes our heart to the music of the world….

So, get a camera and start clicking. It need not be an expensive one. Even a small one will do. Click and store the photos, send them to family and friends, display them to the world. ‘Coz every moment that you captured, was once a part of your life which can never be erased. Every memory that will keep you alive even when you go away. A proof that you lived, you loved, you laughed and you enjoyed.

I know, our brain is a wonderful organ. And we can store memories there without having a camera. But, what a camera does is, it never misses any details. And sometimes, details are the only things that make a memory whole and authentic. You might use it for certain family functions or trips and all special ocassions and still know that even when you click a picture on a perfectly ordinary day, it gets etched in the life as an extraordinary never-before moment….

Life is indeed a MEMENTO……

TURNING NEGATIVES INTO POSITIVES

A joke used to do round in my maths class when I was in school. It was so that a boy comes late to school and asks the teacher whether he could enter the class. The teacher says, “NO.” The boy asks again and gets the same answer. However, on hearing the second NO, he quietly enters the class and takes his seat. The teacher is enraged and questions the boy that I didn’t allow you to enter, yet you disobeyed me. Why? The boy replies serenely, “Well, you said NO twice and we have been taught in maths, that two negatives make one positive!”

 

I used to laugh over the silliness of the boy and also admire his smartness. Now, when I actually have heard the joke over and over again, I realize that its not a joke. It is infact one of the most important lessons of life.

Everyone takes their life so negatively. We dissect and analyze the dark side so much that we forget the beauty of the other side. Not only do we do not look beyond the obvious but also dampen the hopes of all those who try to be different. We label others as “over-optimistic” and cover our negativity in the guise of “reality-practical thinking”.

 

When we fail, we become sure that it was always meant to be so. We accept it on our own terms. We firmly believe that we are the unlucky ones. We blame the destiny. We blame the society. We just about blame everything that is around us. We take other people’s experiences as our own and don’t understand that two people can look exactly at the same thing yet see something totally different. We take up age-old notions and degrade them further, turn them as negative as we can.  

 

Have we ever thought of working on these negatives? Have we ever believed that, every cloud has a silver lining? Have we ever converted our negatives into positives?

 

We take our weaknesses as our second nature. Instead of working on them, we excuse them as our basic attributes and believe that those can never change. We take our failures as an unlucky fate and cry and sulk and make ourselves miserable. We think we are the unluckiest person in the world and all bad things apparently to us.

 

Have we ever tried to use our strengths to overcome our weaknesses? Have we ever rationalized a particular situation in such a way that we allow us to observe the good side of things?

 

There is positive in everything you see. In 9th grade, our classroom wall had a frame hung on it. There was a single line written on it, “There’s never a WRONG time to do the RIGHT thing.” The quote still uplifts me, when I have to do a difficult thing. I realize the value of it. Realize the positive energy flowing through it.

All the positives in your life, however minuscule they may be, they have the infinite power to convert the entire negativity into a desirable force.

My life has been going haywire for a past few weeks. But, I am hanging on. I have suddenly understood that all the delicate situations that I have been facing so far have been a mixture of both sorrow and joy. Now, when I retrospect, I realize my joy at that time had the surprising potential of being highly negative and all my sorrows, if dissected well, held a tremendous amount of positivity.

If I learnt so much from everyday experiences, so can you! 

 

Always remember, situations may be bad, but we have something in us that can turn things our way. And that is the power of extracting the hidden positivity in any thing. Nothing in this world is 100% good or 100% bad.

There’s a little angel in every demon and a little demon in every angel…. 

OLD IS GOLD

The only thing that a cricket fan wishes is that his team plays well. Every good batsman you know, should hit a century. Every good bowler you know, should take a couple of wickets. Ofcourse, it’s not possible that every single player plays well in the same match. Obviously, some will fail and some will do well.

 

Dhoni’s comments on Sachin Tendulkar were a litle annoying. It’s true that Sachin wasn’t in his usual self in this tri-series but then, everybody has their ups and downs. Dhoni himself hasn’t been in the best of form. He has played a couple of matches but that’s it. In the earlier series, he was a failure too.

 

Sachin Tendulkar is a man who is so passionate about cricket that few can match his standards. He has been playing cricket for last 19 years!!!

He himself is his best judge. I think, he has the capability of deciding when to call quits. It will be his personal choice.

 

Everybody seems to be criticizing old cricketers. What one musn’t forget is their contribution to the game. It’s true, young blood is needed for bringing about a lot of enthusiasm but at the same time, the value of experiences cannot be ignored.

 

One should feel honoured that Sachin plays for our team. He is a human being afterall and not a machine. There will be times when he’ll falter. But, there always will be great times, when all fans will get a treat to watch his splendid game. Just like today. When he hit a amazing 63 with 10 boundaries.

 

Sachin, we all wish you loads of luck in the coming games. You play your natural game. You retire when you want to. The country is with you. 

But, retire with dignity and not because of someone’s taunts.

 

Today you showed your critics your greatness and let your bat do the talking. Silence prevails now and yet another person knows, what SACHIN TENDULKAR means! 

 

 

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost, the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renewed shall be the blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king.” 

~J.R.R.Tolkein 

AM I DIFFERENT?

I always wonder whether I am NOT normal.

Sometimes, I feel so cut-off from other people, that it makes me think whether I am human at all.

I agree, basically we all belong to the same species but there is something unique in each one of us that sets us apart.

Still, I am way different.

I don’t think, what others think.

For them, I am a MYSTERY.

I am Stubborn. I have my own way of doing things. I don’t listen to everybody.

But then, who the hell is perfect in this world???

Is it my fault that my views differ from all?

Is it my fault that I value different things than others?

Is it my fault that my principles compel me to take a different path?

I listen to only one person in this world.

Only one person takes me as I am.

Only one person who makes me believe in myself.

Only one person assures me that I am not a freak.

My culture beckons me to behave in one manner.

My mind wavers between uncertainty.

My soul is pure but gets contaminated with baseless thoughts.

My heart is true yet confused.

AM I DIFFERENT?

Yes, I am.

But, not in the way you think.

I am different even basically.

I am an ENIGMA.

I will listen only to what I feel is right.

I will obey that which appeals to my inner self.

I will keep quiet and let others make assumptions.

And, in the end, I will follow what I have faith in…..

FAKE (A personal view)

(My view-point on the poem I have written.)

Many have come to me personally and said that “FAKE” resembles them very much. What happened in their lives and what is still happening. It’s a sad thing but true that we have become slaves of our fate and have forgotten that we still can hold the reins of our life and guide it to a more self-satisfying cause.

When our relationships are nothing but a formality for us, we have to stop and think, where exactly the humanity in us, has gone? How much ever the world progresses…. we cannot become machines and let our sentiments down.

All of you, who think, that life is really not what it used to be, that you are living for the sake of it, that people around are more of your enemies than friends, that true emotions don’t react with the “human” in you and that you have FORGOTTEN life…….Please don’t think so…

It’s not that you have forgotten life……You are just afraid to try it out….

Try once….there is at least ONE person in the entire world who appreciates your efforts….

For HIM, for HER…….Let this be the greatest battle you have undertaken against your own self….

I R IDIOT

Few years ago, we used to watch a cartoon I AM WEASEL on the Cartoon Network. It was a story of a smart weasel and an idiot baboon. The baboon, apparently, weak in his grammar skills, never managed to get any sentence right….While introducing himself, he always used to say, “I R BABOON”. What a stupid fella!

You know what, just like this so-called stupid baboon, we label so many kids as stupid too. Every kid, today, invariably gets suffocated under the burden of expectations that his parents place on him. Good marks in school, best at sports, that’s what each parent wants to hear. No one is willing to accept that our child can be just plain ordinary.

Now, how many of us, what’s DYSLEXIA is all about. It’s a common curable problem. I am sorry, I must say “a common manageable problem”. But, alas, very misunderstood and people are not aware at all. Parents as well as teachers at school, so conveniently dub the kids as “duffers” , when the kids are below average in their day-to-day school work.

Dyslexia is a very normal problem. It’s a learning disability that specifically manifests in form of difficulty in writing, as well as reading and spelling.

Children suffering from this disorder, normally get confused between the letters b,d,p,q and mix them up. Sometimes, the letters are written backwards, or upside down or like mirror images. However, dyslexia is not a visual problem at all. Sometimes, they have difficulty in understanding arithmetic, there is left-right confusion, poor short-term memory, problem in processing a lot of information together etc..

But, that’s alright. A little patience with these kids, and they can be the best at anything they hope to be. They are as normal as you and me and just as sane. Language therapy and working on their writing abilities can help do wonders.

Did you know, great personalities like Leonardo Da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Thomas Alva Edison, all were dyslexic. So are, Abhishek Bacchhan, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Cruise…

And, well, Agatha Christie, the great writer herself was a dyslexic.

I recommend, you watch, the Bollywood movie, TAARE ZAMEEN PAR. It’s an excellent film dealing with an 8 year old dyslexic kid and how he overcomes his disability and depression to pursue his passion of painting!

Brilliant portray of emotions and an amazing movie of competent and commendable actors.

It’s a film with a message. An universal message, that “Every child is special”.

As, Aamir Khan, says in the movie, Dyslexia is just a problem with the wiring in the brain. That’s it. Nothing else.

Every kid, every child, every little bud that’s about to flower, deserves the best in Life…..deserves a life worth living.

AND, I R NO IDIOT

You and me, all of us are SPECIAL…

“CULTURE”, OMG, What’s That???

You might know INDIA. It’s a small country in South-East Asia flanked by water on three sides and land on the fourth. Surrounded by over-friendly neighbors like Pakistan and China. Wow, now that’s what you call a “country”.

If you consider the size, India is really small but there are million such “Indias” all over the world. Be it any powerful country, any G8 nation, there is India residing in some part or the other.

The west today, has started acknowledging India’s presence as a powerful country. The west is fascinated by the vast cultural diversity and the ethnicity. It is running towards the east, to India, taken in by it’s strange yet interesting rituals and that spiritual touch.

BUT

What are we doing as “Indians”??? Can we say sincerely, with a hand on our hearts that we are protecting our culture? Are we? Ask yourself.

Immigrants all over the world are proud to be associated with this country. Wherever they are, they celebrate all the festivals with pomp and splendor. Their kids might be born there but still they teach them all about India and it’s culture, it’s religion, it’s growth as a powerful yet humble country.

They, there, far far away, are trying to protect and enhance a culture that is dwindling here in India itself.

We are so hell-bent on being westernized that we have sold our morales and have become slaves of globalization. We forget, that the grass is always greener on the other side. We criticize what we have and appreciate things that don’t suit our mentality and up-bringing. All we crave for is, social status and don’t look beyond money and prestige.

Indian rituals to us, seem stupid and a burden our fore-fathers gave us as inheritance. Our music is no longer classical…. it’s more rock and rap. Our heroes are not the one who gave us freedom, they are the ones who run half-naked around the world.

Where is the “Indian-ness” in India???

Still, there is a great TRUTH…..

How much ever, we try to model ourselves in the western mold, we cannot over-look the fact that our roots are still Indian. Our brains are earning capital for a different country but our hearts are still connected to this mysterious nation.

Next time, you may say CULTURE, OH MY GOD, WHAT’S THAT?

And be ashamed of your Indian roots.

But remember,

YOU CAN REMOVE SEVERAL HEARTS FROM INDIA AND LOCATE THEM SOMEWHERE ELSE BUT YOU CAN NEVER REMOVE THE INDIA THAT IS LIVING IN THOSE MILLIONS OF HEARTS.