Day 5: Wheeeee… Travel
Wheeee! I am going to Konkan coastal area for the long weekend! Yes.. *that* excited. 😀 Been waiting for a holiday for too long to remember.. Yes! I am one of those who gets the ‘Travel Itch’ every 2 weeks.
So today’s post will be short and you all better hope there is connection at the Beach Resort so I can give updates! 🙂
Have an awesome dawsome weekend!!
Day 4: How do you see yourself?
Have had an extremely demanding day. So much so that, I could fall off on this keyboard and sleep! Back is still stiff.. work pressure is still high.. expectations have not stopped climbing.. but there is something that struck me as I dragged my weary self back home.
It is how you view yourself. A confident woman will not see fat, will see curves. A doting mother will not see anything wrong in her child when he paints the wall a rainbow, Â will see talent. A photographer will find composition in a traffic jam. A dancer will find rhythm in noise.
Today, the first half of morning went in cribbing, more cribbing and a bit more of cribbing. I did not want to exert myself so I tried to sneak out of my responsibilities. I made a big deal about the amount of work that was handed over to me (of course so unfairly) and that there is no one to help. I whined about how no one else wants to take over responsibilities and the cliched.. “Why should I do everything???”
And then it struck me! What am I doing? This is the time and age to take responsibilities, to exert, to load yourself with pressure and then to taste the sweetness of Victory! I should not be getting worked up over the load of work.. because honestly my friend, it only wastes your time. Why am I not seeing the brilliant opportunities that are being thrown at me? So what if they are laced in stress and challenges? Just do it, I say! So it takes your blood, sweat and nutrients..that gets replenished right?
As Katherine Hepburn truly says, “Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don’t do that by sitting around.”
So this is me, finding a way, to make my life interesting and positive. Sitting around and moping about the apparent stress will probably take me nowhere. These opportunities that are being showered at me will probably not come again. Plus, I have succeeded before. What is stopping me from achieving success again?
I captured this below image while we took a leisure stopover on our way to Coorg. I ask you – What do you see in this picture? The tattered clothes, the skin and bones, the sagging eyes, the tired hands? Or that electrifying gorgeous toothy smile?
What do you see?
How do you view your life?Â
Day 3: Blossoming into a Star!
While I pondered and wrote about Gandhi yesterday, my mind was already racing towards the Day 3 post dilemma. It definitely is a tough task to be writing everyday. But then, that is the challenge, right? 🙂
So I got done with a super long and tiring day at work, done with Pati’s impromptu shopping and done with hogging dinner. It definitely has been a long day. Plus my back has been giving me trouble.. so add it to my woes (read: cribbing).
But then, it was a pleasant day. A pleasant day indeed. And I will tell you why.
My little sister has blossomed like the pink lily she loves. It is tough to look at your younger sibling as an adult, even
when they are all big and matured. I still think of S as that chubby, cute, waddling baby that she was. It is impossible for me to accept her as a matured, beautiful and confident young woman. And yes, we still fight over that!
I have always supported her career choice of wanting to be a successful Fashion Journalist, even when the world went against it and questioned her choice. She has fought the challenges, rose against her own questioning of life and has now taken that big step towards her goal. I admire her. Really. For sticking it out for herself, for her belief.
Err.. before I get all senti and mental, let me get to the point. Where was I? Ah. Yes. It has been a pleasant day.Â
So S, apart from being published across a million websites and local newspapers, has been published in the
November 2011 edition of Cosmopolitan Australia!!! Time for that celebratory jig, eh? *dances*
Cosmopolitan Conquered.. next up?
I am the most proud sister that can ever be! It has been a battle of patience, self-worth and oh so many other things! It has been a battle against loneliness, tinned food and oh so many barriers! But these little sweet victories, make it up for all the other miseries. I know S has a long stardom-lit way to go… and here is me, in my own little way, standing by her like the Wall.
Note: She writes beautifully. It is like poetry in paragraphs! Do read more of her stuff.. (shameless plug-in)
Love you, little one!
Shiti and I
Day 2: To Gandhi or not to Gandhi…
I have been sitting on my laptop for an hour now… occasionally drumming my fingers on the keyboard and occasionally procrastinating.. I have to write about Gandhi. If I was 12 years old, I could have just written an essay on – Mahatma Gandhi, his life, his ideologies and his movements. But today its different. I am not sure if my textbook knowledge of Gandhi, is something I completely believe in. So here goes.. my 2 cents on  “Gandhi“.
If I think Mahatma Gandhi, the first thing that comes to my mind is Anna Hazare and his recent adulteration of Gandhian ideology. Before I say anything further, let me give a small disclaimer: I am not against Anna. I am not against the “Thought”. What I am not OK with is the route taken towards achieving that thought.
To me, Gandhi is a philosophy, it is a way of life. It is an ideology that people live by. Â So I ask, in today’s age, what does Gandhi mean to you? Is it Ahimsa or is it Khadi or is it the live-by-truth philosophy.Â
Does the current generation truly understand what is it that Mahatma Gandhi envisioned for the future of India? Does this GenXYZ know the real ideologies or is it a mixed up version, primarily attained from Munnabhai’s Gandhigiri, Anna’s fight against corruption and idealistic textbooks?
I see a very confused generation. They read all about Gandhi in school. They know what Gandhi did for the Freedom Movement. And then came along Munnabhai who picked up the prime ideologies of Gandhism and converted them to light-hearted anecdotes. Who wouldn’t want to send ‘Get Well Soon‘ flowers to the local corporators to fight injustice with nonviolence?? It was cute, aye? It was funny. There were a lot of us who wanted to go down that path to change the world around us. But then Munnabhai came and went. And we continued with our lives.
Most recently, Anna Hazare led the crusade against the injustices in the society with his version of  “Gandhism“. He roused the entire nation to fight against corruption, the Gandhi way! And then I had a problem. As mentioned earlier, the ‘thought‘ was ideal. It was what happened along the route, that made it all wishy-washy. PR companies suggested profit-induced plans to companies so that they could ride the “Anna, the Modern Gandhi Wave” and be a part of the movement. They were selling Anna caps, Anna t-shirts, Anna stickers… tell me! Who did not make money?
I read a tweet sometime back about how someone approached an Autowallah with a “I Am Anna” sticker on his auto. He asked for Rs.100 for a 2 kms ride. Now tell me, was the autowallah part of the movement because he truly believed in it? Or was he just a “Me Too“.
Thus my question, once again.
What is Gandhi in the current age? Is he a distant idol, a forgotten Mahatma or an adaptable philosophy?
Can Gandhi be modified and accommodated into the current age? Do we need to wear Khadi and fast to be called a true Gandhi? Can we continue to live our lives but adopt parts of Gandhian principles into our daily routine to keep his philosophy alive?
Or can we just not believe in his ideals and just have our own way of dealing with life and its many injustices?
OR was there more to Gandhi than his philosophies that we either fail to see or hide under the covers purposefully?
The stage is all yours…………..
Also.. Happy Gandhi Jayanti.. It is a public Holiday.. unfortunately on a Sunday…Â
Ramblings of a Feisty Spirit 