Stop this guilt feeling

How do your start your day if you are married, working, or both? The obvious answer behind it is framing or managing the time schedule for the day. The list goes like what needs to be packed in for the lunch today for your husband or kids, paying attention towards your parents, fixing a get together with friends or else they will be angry, helping a colleague, doing extra work in the job to impress the boss, etc. There are a hell lot of things that needs to be done in a day that has not been mentioned in this list. Various jobs have been pulling you apart but in the midst of all, where are you?

Do you actually have time for yourself? Were you the same when you were in college? Just try to recall those days when you missed out lectures because you wanted to shop for the date with your boyfriend, or the times you have passed just calling your friends over at home and talking to them till your eyes finally gave up. What about those singing competitions that you used to have in your hostel and those grumpy looks of your neighbor the next day as you spoiled her sleep. Life has changed a lot. Right?

Yes and many of you would agree and give out this statement that times are never the same. I agree but what about giving time to yourself and when you do so, here comes the feeling- ‘I have wasted my time playing piano or dancing at my favorite number, I could have utilized this time better.’ Pursuing your hobby or spending some time with yourself is not a crime; it gives a feeling that-‘Yes, besides this, even I am somebody with a different identity of my own.’

Can’t you just sit back and listen to your favorite number without holding a guilty feeling or just go to spas to relieve yourself. Spending some time with yourself just don’t charge you up but also helps you vent out negative feelings about everything. It creates a positive environment around you and makes you happy thereby changing your perspective about a lot many things. Besides, it also helps you to feel more younger and charming and even gives courage to tackle with problems pleasantly. Just try dropping down a not-so-important work from your list, without having this guilty feeling of spending a time with yourself. I bet you will love this change.

Book Reading needs to be encouraged

Books give us a nice platform, expand your horizons, helps you cope with the stress and anxiety, makes you all the more creative as you start imagining and connecting with the characters, helps to learn important life skills, positive life choices and all round well-being.

The ultimate point I want to focus here is that there is nothing negative or bad that I hear or read about books. However, the fact remains that I personally do not like reading much. I mean that the book really has to influence me a lot so that I am motivated to read it. As little kids there used to be comic books like Archie, Chacha Chaudhary, Cindrella, Champak etc that I read a lot. However, as I grew up, the crunch of books at my native place hold back my reading habit.

After joining hostel, the crave to read some books developed and I thought of giving it a try. I issued one of the Chetan Bhagat’s popular books and finished it in six days. Quite a long time though, another book issued by me was in another four months. This time I reissued it for almost five times but did not bother to read it. Finally, I decided to return it with only five pages of reading. Bad score though; I felt there should be books with titles and content that actually lures me to read it.

In this regard when I went to the bookstore as for the assignment purpose, I found that there are many good books by Indian authors, who are still on the shelves of these stores and waiting for purchase. What do you think guys- Shouldn’t the book stores themselves have the provision of allowing readers to read books with some nominal charges? Or they can have Book café or Cha Bar as in Delhi based Oxford Book Store wherein the readers can read books or can even take pause while discovering books. Can’t we have the same book café in other small cities as well?

Dancing blues away!

Oh God! Its Monday again. After a two day weekend, one thing that depresses most of us, even though some of us might like their work, is to wake up again on Monday and going for work. Hence, most of us have ‘Monday Morning blues’.

So what should to be done to avoid a dim, gloomy and dispiriting feeling of waking up every morning and going for work. Well, why not take a 15 minutes break before getting ready and dance on your favorite tune. Have issues with the hubby or had a fight with the boyfriend last night, dance and let the negative vibes evaporate. You will have a better mood that will be shown in you the next time you talk with him or her. Believe me; it really helps both physically and mentally as it releases positive vibes and hormones that will make you cheerful throughout the day.

Doctors and psychologists too believe that it helps in curbing depression. According to Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Smita Pandey Bhat, dance is an entertaining physical activity that helps in the expression of feelings thereby improving mental health of the patient. It helps to focus on a person’s mind and body with all its moves, twists and turns. So next time you are sad, just ward off that depressing state and dance.

Water Conservation: Need of the Hour

I was recently watching a television commercial for a mineral water pack by Kinley- ‘Vishwas karo‘ and was really moved by the advertisement. The way they had presented the advertisement was all creative and had an emotional attachment to it (an emotional attachment is considered to be the best way to make product’s way into the hearts of the prospective buyers from amongst the audience). Yet one thing that can come under light is that even water has come under the umbrella of being sold.

Bottled water like these are like any other product sold by the developed countries to developing nations. However, it is advisable to use boiled water from home as it helps utilise our resources better and discourages the use of more plastic that is used to package water. Water is not a commodity that is to be sold like any other product.

Sometimes commercialization of everything in our mind overshadows our decision making. We buy it as a status symbol with pre conceived thoughts that if something is sold from a good branded company and is expensive, it has to be good. Other times it is because of our fear. The advertisements and the commercial market have made it very clear in our mind that bottled water is much better for our health as compared to any water.

However, most of the time natural water is far better as it doesn’t become stagnant. We just refuse to think beyond what has been laid before us. Imagine in our India when a day will come when death rate would increase not only as of hunger but also as of their incapability to afford expensive water. The chance to pay for healthy breathable air is stronger in near future.

India is a country of rivers and we cannot be ungrateful to the sources which provide us water to drink. We can bring a change if we take the pledge to bring it. Strategic measures should be taken to preserve this ‘golden asset’ of ours. For this purpose we have to first think about saving water from our home. These are the simple steps that we can start from our own home. Individual efforts will make the difference!

• Use bucket instead of using the shower
• Don’t leave taps dripping
• Wash vegetables in a bowl rather than under a running tap.
• There should be water saving devices installed in homes.
• Rain water can be stored and used for irrigation or there can be a provision of sending it back to earth.
• Don’t run the tap while washing face or cleaning teeth.
• Waste water recycling and watershed management solutions
• Saving rivers by not polluting them and planting more trees.

Are we really required to pay for basics of life like water? All I would like to sat is ‘It is better to be a part of solution rather than a problem.

Are Singles really happy?

‘Jaane Kyon log pyar karte hai, Jaane kyon wo kisi pe marte hain’,
remember this famous song lines from the movie ‘Dil Chahta hai’, a song
that was liked by both singles and couples alike. Reason- it
demonstrated emotions of both of them and still accepting both sides of
it and infact agreeing to it from the core of their heart. It actually
expressed the split mentalities of the people who felt that they were
happy being single than into a relationship and vice-versa.

Though singles give thousands of statements to support their statements
like spending their entire salary on themselves or eventually popping
up treats from their friends rather than caring about their girlfriends
or spouse, yet at the core of their heart they have an urge of having
someone special in their life. They want someone who would share their
joys or sorrows or just an experience in may be bits and pieces but
this feeling of sharing their day-to-day experiences is something that
they crave for.

We as Indians have grown to live together, and bonding in relations is
something that matters a lot in their life. This thing continues even
when we grow up. Besides youngsters who move in big studies as of jobs
or studies feel lonely after being away from home and this is the time
they have a feeling of a loneliness thereby leading them on a way of
finding that ‘special someone’. Do singles really rock then or they
just flaunt that they rock? Can a person be really happy without being
into relationship or they want someone to share their feelings.
Personally, I believe whatever side of fence you are, grass always
looks greener on the other side.

Valentine's Day and Indian tradition- The broken link

I don’t want to hurt anyone’s sentiments nor I am here to judge what is right and wrong but this is really something that I wanted to talk about or rather question from everyone’s point of view. We in India, I feel, have almost split mindset regarding some set of things. I was just sitting with my friends in the hostel after she returned from Mathura Vrindavan trip wherein I noticed two major things in all of her talks. One was the ‘prasada’ that is distributed to the masses after ‘bhog’ by God which depends on the amount of ‘chadava’ or ‘shradhha’ you have for Him. and the other is- Well I am going to talk about it here.

We, in India, have strong notion of preserving our social culture and this is something in which we take proud. But while talking about Radha-Krishna, I was carried over by one thought that how double minded we are as in when it comes to worshipping. We will do everything to please God Radha-Krishna so that they shower us with their blessings (money, fame and name). But on the other side we even want to become moral police and would do anything to preserve our ‘so-called-Indian-Culture’. Almost everyday a newspaper is filled with loads of news wherein a girl or a boy is socially beaten, is molested, sometimes killed and even are persuaded to go through a lot of things that we can’t even think (Sorry, we know what all is done to them). These are the people who would have the idols of Indian love God at their home but would not respect the same love blooming in their children. I really don’t know why there are two shades in the same life of a person. We would enchant every kind of mantras to please God, we even have respect for Meera who was deeply in love with Lord Krishna but when it comes to our daughters, brothers, sisters and sons, it is a big no-no in rural Indian society and most of the time even in urban society. If we are so much particular about our culture we should have started worshipping God Krishna-rukmini who was ideally his wife. So great was Radha's love for Krishna that even today her name is uttered whenever Krishna is refered to, and Krishna worship is though to be incomplete without the deification of Radha.

People might now raise a question or would be of opinion that the times have changed since then. There is a big difference in the love of those times and now. I certainly agree but it absolutely does not mean that you would harass them or thrash them until they are found in socially unacceptable behaviour. The things have changed and there is a great deal of change in the way we think and perceive love but I think it should all remain in our hands. There is no point of disregarding love all together in the manner of burning shops carrying cards with love messages and gifts on Valentine’s Day by the so called moral police or the people who say that it is against Indian tradition. Because if it is so than I would request them to ban all the foreign things from branded clothes to MNC’s providing jobs to millions of Indians and from a pen to BMW as they are all foreign to us. And than we should also stop thinking of developing and competing with the other countries of the world.
photo courtesy-www.daylife.com/photo/00V0gGL6yVbPY
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