Thoughtful Thoughtlessness

All her life, she was free yet trapped in a cage, the door of which she thought would slam shut if she tried to move out. The door wasn’t closed after all, but for her, moving towards her dreams could close those doors forever. She trapped herself inside that cage fearing that someone/something else would do it to her. She was different. She wasn’t the one who believed in glitters but was the one who appreciated the creation of sawdust which made a chair look better, for she believed that improvisation was the key to success. She was a strongly opinionated person who would stand by her opinions if she felt she was right, but she wasn’t a vocally opinionated person- she would do everything only in her head. Not because she thought she might be wrong, but because she thought “what if” her opinions didn’t match with others’, what if someone objected her thinking. So she learnt to keep her thoughts to herself. The fear of the slamming door also repressed her voice. She knew she was th

One fine afternoon on a small planet called Xeniter, 4-year-old Ben was inconsolably sobbing because he wanted to meet his friend Emma, who just moved to the other side of the planet. 738 miles away, Emma’s behaviour was no better than Ben’s; she too missed her best friend. This is exactly when Emma’s mom dialled Ben’s residence. The two friends were more than elated to hear each other’s voice. They spoke for hours- about big problems like toothache, lack of new toys, and things beyond the understanding of an adult human mind. Ben then noticed a big 9-shaped particle in the sky. It seemed to be a 9-shaped light-emitting star. He shouted in amazement “There’s a BIG 9 shaped bulb in the sky!” Emma ran out to the balcony, but found a 6-shaped particle instead. She said that it wasn’t a 9, but was a 6, and Ben argued back. They both had a big fight over that particle’s shape and ended up not talking to each other for months, until they learned that Xeniter wasn’t flat, it was round an

“Pandora just couldn't stand it any longer. She had to find out what was in that box. She hurried to the table on which the box rested, unlatched it and opened the lid. Out flew all the elements of life (most of which were evil), except one. Pandora, horrified, quickly slammed the lid and latched the box, trapping the last element inside - HOPE.  This hope was trapped inside every human being to survive against all the evils that escaped the box.” This is a small extract from Greek mythology, hence signifying how evils entered the world and how we are still surviving with the hope left in the closed box.  Each time we think of “hope”, we get different contexts which fit different “hopes”. “I hope it rains tomorrow..” “She shouldn’t lose hope against the budding cancer cells in her body..” “I hope we meet again..” Human nature is restless. Something keeps reaching out from within us towards the future, towards that which is out of our grasp, which is ‘not yet’. We keep s

When somebody tells “I LOVE YOU”, you usually assume that they mean “I am now going to be a part of you, and be with you forever.” But it actually is something like “I am just going to be a part of your life; it’s totally up to you to make my part cherish-able or hate-able.” Be it your parents, your siblings, your friends, your “better half”, or for that matter, any person, he/she is NOT a part of ‘the you’ who is going to travel through different corners of life, but are just some good travel companions who take you through different lanes. Some lanes are dreamy and some may seem like hell, some may seem to be never-ending while some may be just a metre long, but long or short, good or bad, each turn is important to reach your destination and each road ends at the beginning of a new one. Now, let us assume that there are two roads; one is very shabby and dirty, with trash lying all around but clean at the ground level, and the other, which is very very beautiful and has gardens a

Courage, bravery, audacity, valour.. Are all these words similar? Yes! All these words mean the SAME, and this “same” is different in every world. In the world of a 4-year-old boy, courage would mean being able to fall asleep alone, in a room away from his parents, away from a mom’s lap, from a dad’s warmth for he has become BRAVE enough to combat those monsters under his bed, which might attack him any time. In the world of a 16-year-old, courage would mean having a voice of her/his own, and making sure that that voice is never left unheard for he/she is BRAVE enough to speak up instead of being one among the bleating herd of sheep. The ones who are able to fight the demons inside oneself are considered to be lion-hearted. He/she is labelled to be STRONG if the person knows to hide pain and fear. That person will become BRAVE only when he/she chooses to confront agony, pain, danger or intimidation. This courage is totally DIFFERENT, yet very SIMILAR to the courage of a 4-year