Mehek Bassi's Blog

Latest mobile phones, (blackberry’s, I-phones) expensive cars, (Mercedes and BMW’s and Audi’s) branded clothing, (Versace, Gucci, Prada), a big house (a palace instead…); now all these are the only symbols of belonging to a good family. Values and etiquettes seem to have lost their significance. Now, not only parents or teenagers, but little children also demand big cars with drivers err well dressed chauffeurs to escort them to their play-schools. And if someday their dad comes in a small car, say, a Maruti Swift to take him from school, the child (saving himself from future insult from his class-fellows) says in front of all his friends, “Kya papa, Swift mein kyun lene aaye ho? FORTUNER mein aana tha na…” (In other words, child is saying we also have TOYOTA FORTUNER at home!) and then he looks at other kids, if they HEARD what he SAID and the dad will be looked upon by all juniors as a criminal!

High society, fashion, classy lifestyle, everything is now being adapted blindly. Parents simply overlook the impact their deeds can have on their little ones. Children feel ashamed in going out if they are not dressed in branded clothes. And if the family is getting ready for some party, these kinds of phrases are most commonly heard, “Sweetheart, mere GUCCI ke shades kahan hain?” “Darling chalo aaj Jaguar mein chalte hain, Mercedes rehne do, last time bhi Mercedes hi leke gaye the” and so on…and the little champs of the family automatically set their mind that JAGUAR is a better brand than Mercedes, so the driver should come in Jaguar tomorrow to their school.

If the junior has his birthday, only imported Swiss chocolates should be distributed among his class-fellows. Any Indian or local brand can gain him utter shame and insolence. Promises are made to the best friends of a treat in a five-star hotel in evening including expensive food items, exclusive ‘shin-chan’ or ‘doraemon’ cake, a magician or a joker as entertainer and what not! The friends also get him expensive and useless birthday gifts including branded watches; play station games, remote controlled cars and robots etc. The gifts only consist of big money nowadays, and no feelings at all! Gone are the days when handmade gifts were in trend; and friends put in their heart while gifting something on birthdays or other occasions. Now, what matters is only the cost and MRP.

Then the weddings, we Punjabis are no doubt famous for their diverse cuisine and eating habits, but that doesn’t means that we should spend unnecessarily on weddings too! Though dowry is a restricted and criticized practice in Indian Culture, but it is still famous and prevalent in Punjab. Expensive cars, lavish amount of cash, jewelry, furniture, clothes, property, and land are gifted to the bride and groom as if the groom’s side has got nothing at all. Then the weddings are full of million different kinds of foods, including Spanish, Chinese, Mexican, Italian, continental out of which maximum goes into trash after the wedding coz we desi people are not much fond offeeka (tasteless) international foods, we like spices in our platter!

Then the decorations…the marriage palaces and halls are decorated lavishly, studded with gold and diamonds instead! Just for other people to look at it for a few hours, criticize the odd combination of tents in lawn amongst themselves, praise it in front of family members and walk away! Guests are heard talking among themselves, “Purple and yellow…what a sick combination! I feel like puking right now!” and after sometime, same person is heard talking to some family member of bride and groom, “Purple and yellow look so great together, who’s the wedding planner? Amazing decoration sir, I must say!”

People know that maximum of their food and money will be wasted in weddings, but still they spend like mad, for whom? Wedding is the most precious and important day of life for the bride and the groom, focus should be laid on blessing the couple and being a part of their happiness instead of spending millions and billions which are worth nothing in the end. For whom so much is done? For the so called high society which is not high in their views and values, but only high in sycophancy? Money has lost its significance!

No-body nowadays is happy in other person’s success, everything left is just show-off! People show as if they’ve got million dollars under their beds, and their children become conceited and egoistical. Parents instead of providing ethics to their kids, give them heaps of money to waste upon useless stuff. Little kids behave as if they themselves earn million dollars a month. Gone are the days when only a fifty rupees note was enough for whole of the day…now even a thousand seems less looking upon the prices of even daily supplies!

And then people complain their expenses have increased, budget of home is disturbed…ask yourself fellows, who has disturbed the budget and who has increased the expenses? Stop throwing money like trash, learn to respect it, teach your children principles and not flattery…live to the fullest…one life!

Polyandry is a practice, referred to the women who marry more than one man, or have physical relationships with more than one man, throughout their lives. Polyandry is prevalent since ancient time, since the time of Mahabharatha, where queen Draupadi had five husbands, the five pandavas. Although this practice has been stopped now, and is no more a common affair, but in some remote areas, it is still celebrated. Especially in villages of eastern India, where the female population is very low as compared to the males, and so, to maintain the balance and to prevent males from remaining single all throughout their lives, ‘polyandry’ is practiced.

In ancient India, kings and rulers of dynasties, practised ‘Polygamy’ widely. Polygamy is the act of having multiple wives. From King Dasaratha of Ramayana, to many Islamic people, polygamy is widely practised, even today! Muslims believe in polygamy and still have multiple relationships. Islam allows polygamy, and a man can have up to four women, if he can afford them.

But all these relationships are with consent of all the partners. The deal is made, and further marriages are done. Guys anyways find it to be ‘fun’ to have more than one girl in their lives, but personally, I feel that true relationship can be established only with one partner.

Shahjahan had fourteen wives, but his love for Mumtaaz Mahal is eternal and still alive, in the form of ‘Taj Mahal’, which is now gracefully acknowledged as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. No doubt he had a big fat family, but still, he was inclined to only one of his wives, and that was Mumtaaz.

Polyandry and Polygamy is widespread in wildlife creatures, especially bees. But the animals who can feel emotions for their partner, like penguins, dolphins or elephants, choose to have only one partner for a lifetime, and so should humans do. Human beings have feelings for their partner, they feel jealous and possessive, and they want themselves to be the most special person in their partner’s life, and not someone else. Even the mere concept of having multiple partners shocked me.

In some far away villages in East India, the practice of ‘Fraternal Polyandry’ is prevalent. Women marry all the brothers of her husband, and they live happily together, and even have children. Similarly, in Islam, even today, men have multiple wives, and then they raise gigantic families. The record for having maximum wives, still alive, goes to Ziona Chana of India. He has 39 wives and 94 children, and more than 40 grandchildren. He lives in a four storey house with over one hundred rooms, with his giant family. A family that could be declared an independent village! They consume around 200lb of rice and more than 130lb of potatoes daily! That’s a lot, right? Well, it sounds fascinating, to have such a HUGE family of your own, but managing so much, without any disputes, is another saga altogether. Mr. Chana, being the head of the family, although handles all the important decisions, but he hasn’t allowed his any son to get married to more than one wife. That’s pretty strange, for a man, having around 40 wives, to not allow any of his children to have multiple life partners. All his sons work for a living, managing so many women is an expensive task, by the way!

I believe having multiple partners destroys your personal lives. With guys being so possessive, and girls being so manipulative these days, one can’t even think of having another partner. Handling one peacefully is already like finding oasis in the desert, well, Sahara Desert! Nowadays, people already suspect their partner for cheating and infidelity, and they can even kill them for that, let alone allowing them multiple affairs. If you can’t tolerate your partner being comfy with someone else, then how do you expect him to do the same for you? The question is, with so many people (men or women) going for multiple relationships, can they tolerate their partners doing the same? The answer is ‘NO’.

With a survey conducted on Islamic men, researchers found out, that they keep their women in hijabs, just to ‘hide’ them, even from the eyes of other men. Can they allow their ladies to sleep with other men? Never! And then, they themselves indulge in polygamy and have multiple relationships. Where is the equality? I’m not targeting Islam in particular, the question is not for any one religion or sect, but on the entire population who involve in polygamy or polyandry. Before you do something like that, just imagine your partner doing it, and then go ahead. If you are comfortable with the thought of sharing your partner, only then share a part of yourself with someone else!

Else, remain faithful to that special one, and enjoy life to the fullest!

That was, My Take On: Polyandry and Polygamy!

We are the people living in the 21st Century, an era of Science and Technology, and naturally, being educated enough, we do not believe in something that is beyond a scientific explanation, or something, that even science can’t explain. But there exist some phenomenon, which are literally beyond scientific elucidation, even today!

So many old rites and rituals, and even some obsolete beliefs have been rejected today, because we are able to find out the ‘reasons’ of death. Earlier, if a person would die of tuberculosis, people would mark it as a task of the evil, the blood vomits were counted as fall of the evil. But today we have found out cure, and if not cure, then diagnose, of most of the diseases, and so we abolish the mere thought of any supernatural phenomenon, occurring in today’s world.

But, not all theories have explanations, and not all people are purely scientific. There exist some people, even in today’s world, who not only believe, but also indulge themselves in black magic, voodoo and santet.

Black Magic: It is the use of supernatural powers for evil purposes, and destructive measures.

Voodoo: It is a kind of spell casting, by inviting the spirits of dead and deceased, and sometimes, trapping the spirits of an alive individual, and make him do what you want.

Santet: It is an Indonesian practise, to harm or kill people using black magic, often by inserting nails, wires, insects, into the body of the victim, causing pain and death.

There are different names, and practises for black magic in today’s world. It is often done with a little or no contact with the victim at all. Sometimes, the magician demands blood, or hair or even nails of victim, and sometimes, just an object that he has touched, is enough for him to cast his spells. The black magician usually claims to be able to contact spirits, and even talk to them. Sometimes, the magician even makes a dummy doll, and casts some spells and magic, and can trap the soul of the victim in the doll. What happens next is history!

Then there was another term I read, Astral Plane. The Astral Plane is a plane of existence, which is supposed to be crossed by souls and spirits, before birth and after death. And the souls and spirits are called Astral Bodies. Astral plane can be visited by meditation, Astral Projections, or Lucid Dreaming (Lucid Dreaming is a controlled dreaming, where you can control what you want to dream about! It can be achieved by meditation and a lot of practice.)

We, being realistic and logic-demanding people would of course consider it to be deceptive, but what I saw in a video recently, definitely put me into thoughts, and that was when I decided to write upon this theme.

Black Magic practise is widely practised in India, even now! Kalia Massan is the most ‘dangerous’ form of Black Magic, and it is claimed to be efficient also. In Kalia Massan, the magician uses the power of disturbed and sad souls, who are suffering and wandering on earth, even after their death. Sometimes souls live as parasites on the bodies of people, and hence there are several temples and holy places where many rituals are practised, to ‘remove’ those parasitic spirits, and purify the body.

In Kalia Massan, the basic theory is power of your subconscious. There are two types of minds, conscious, and sub-conscious. Conscious mind does what you order it to do, and so you remember what you did. But subconscious mind is usually not in control of the person. The dreams we see every night, the dejá-vu, that we experience sometimes, are all activities of your subconscious. If you get a very bad thought or dream, filled with hate or vengeance, and if you are unable to get it out of your mind, then the subconscious travels out and passes this energy to the so called ‘ghosts’ and ‘spirits’. You would have dreamt of some nightmares, which is nothing, but an out of body experience, as your body was asleep and at rest, while your subconscious, which has travelled into another world, while your physical body was asleep, the beings there have devoured on your negative energy. While this act has occurred without your will, you may actually do such an act of travelling to different astral planes using third eye meditation and various astral projections.

The elevated soul will be accompanied by a spirit guide who will directly take soul after death to the mid higher astral plane and will continue its journey to the next level. On the other hand when a soul leaves the body which is not yet prepared to leave as in cases of accidental death, suicide, murders the soul is lost and does not know where to go, it is out of the physical realm because the body cannot accept the soul anymore and is medically termed as dead. This lost soul reaches the lowest astral plane, this is the plane that has maximum negativity, souls who have left the physical plane with extreme lust, hate or any negative emotion dwell here.

At the entrance of this plane there is a river and there are some souls are waiting for the sprit guide to help them elevate from here, and those souls who carry a negative emotion stay back in this plane forever and often communicate with the people on earth who use black magic rituals to invoke them on the earth.

This river is very frightening and when seen inspires misery. Even hearing an account of this river arouses fear. It is a thousand miles in width and it does not contain water. It is a river full of blood and pus with heaps of bones on its banks and mud of blood and flesh. It is impossible for a sinful disturbed soul filled with vengeance, hate or lust to cross this river as it is obstructed by hairy moss and the river is filled with huge reptiles like crocodiles and alligators crowded with hundreds of flesh-eating birds. When a lost soul comes near the river in an attempt to cross, it seethes and becomes overspread with smoke and flames like butter in a frying pan. It is also covered with dreadful throngs of insects with piercing stings and vultures and crows with metallic beaks. It also contains leeches, fishes, turtles and other flesh-eating water animals. It is said that the hungry and thirsty sinful souls drink the blood flowing in the river. The sinners who fall into it wail with pain and fright. There is no rescuer for them. The hundreds of whirlpools in the river takes the ones fallen in to the lower region. They stay for a moment in the lower region and then they rise again such a soul sits on the bank of this river filled with frustration and awaiting some means to cross this river.

Unfortunately, the easiest way to cross this river is forgiveness

Such abandoned souls are then called upon to perform Kalia Massan, the most dangerous type of Black Magic. Kalia Massan ensures the death of the victim within 40 days of its application. And in most of the cases, the death is due to some disease, which occurred all of a sudden. Something which was not there before. There is always an excuse for Kalia Massan, but death is ensured.

In the end, I would say, black magic is parallel to ‘science.’ Some rituals cannot be explained, not even by science. While scientists argue and label black magic as a baseless and logic-less activity, but then there are still evidences of deaths by black magic. Where along with the body of victim, some of his hair, or some blood, or some nails are found, and suspicion goes deeper.

What is the truth? Either science is wrong or black magic, or both are just a pathway for existence of life. Without science we would not have been able to explore the world, while black magic helps us explore things, beyond the real world. A place we can’t even imagine, exists. Black magic opens such unexpected doors for us, to explore the world, beyond explanations, and beyond science!

That was, My Take On: Black Magic!

Just a few moments ago, I read this short description about Hindu Cannibals, on a facebook page, that inspired me to jot down some information on my blog too!

Historically, there is a tribe of ‘Ascetic Sadhus’, who are known for their extremities. They are called cannibals by some, while some view them as dirty sect which destroys the image of Hinduism in the world. They are believed to be devotees of ‘Shiva’. They are supposed to possess miraculous healing power, and some even heal the person by cursing him.

There is a 1000 year old Hindu sect, that challenges traditional religious beliefs and follows an eccentric and quirky path to enlightenment, they are known as ‘The AGHORIS’.

‘If an ‘Aghori Baba’ curses you, that means your problems will end soon!’ – claim some people who are believers and followers of such sadhus. Some Sadhus even throw their faeces in anger on their devotees, who collect it and take is home in the form of ‘prasaad’ (holy food)!

In ‘Kumbh-Mela’ in Ahemdabad, that occurs every 12 years, there come 100 Sadhus to have ‘snaan’ (holy bath), and out of 100, only 99 are supposed to return, one drowns himself in the river to return back to his abode. Every person is considered to be ‘Shava’ (a dead body with emotions), and we are supposed to free ourselves from the materialistic bonds and attractions, and become ‘Shiva’ (deny human pleasures and comforts, and adopt Aghori life!)

Lord Shiva is seen as an Aghori, while some historians claim it to be false. Shiva adopted tapasya (sacrifice of human pleasures) and attained gyan (wisdom). An Aghori is believed to live in a cemetery and many of them roam around naked representing true human life. Sometimes they clothe themselves in the clothes they collect from the dead bodies. They usually carry a cup or bowl made from the human skull, and can eat anything! By anything, I literally mean anything they come across, rotten food, food from dumps, animal urine, animal faeces etc. They regularly perform rites to attain knowledge and wisdom, to enlighten themselves. They rub the ashes of dead human corpse on their bodies, and the final part of the ritual requires minimum of one eating the human flesh and meditating on a human corpse. This is a symbol for their rise from Shava to Shiva!

Aghoris are flesh eaters and alcohol consumers, unlike the other Hindu priests. They eat human flesh (at least once) to gain supernatural powers and power of being immortal and to stop ageing! According to them, they are destined to live such a life and impress the Gods and Devi’s, by offering them human flesh. They perform certain rituals before consuming human flesh. Although the Hindus ceremonially cremate their dead, but sometimes, the bodies are disposed of in the holy river of ‘Ganges’, and they float and reach banks of the river. The Aghoris sometimes collect the bodies, perform rituals and eat the flesh. They eat vital organs in a hope to gain power to immortality.

The Aghoris have to eradicate thoughts of dichotomy, between pure and impure, good and bad, right and wrong. Everything is sacred according to them, and the universe resides within them. Their soul is their universe, and so they adopt some bizarre methods to enlighten themselves and attain supreme wisdom!

Although there have been many debates about Aghoris being cannibals, some documentaries show the truth behind cannibalism residing in Hinduism, while some Hindu activists have declared the Aghoris to be an isolated sect, and they don’t consider them to be Hindus.

The Aghori Baba in the image is shown drinking something in a cup made from ‘human skull’, and on the other side, the Aghori baba, with ashes from the corpse, smeared all over his face.

That was, My Take On: Aghori Babas: Hindu Cannibals?

May it be an engineering college or a commerce college or an arts one, all have their own mini-bollywood residing in them. Don’t know how? Read ahead and find out:

In colleges, only guys and girls with heroic and sexy figures are on the most popular list. Now every college have their personal Kareena’s and Aishwarya’s, also the infamous John Abraham’s of the college can be seen performing dangerous bike stunts outside the college campus to impress the new hot fresher aka Katrina of the college! But there do exist Salman’s, who are the brats and can beat-up anyone if they mess with them or their girlfriends!

The freshers of the college are ranked as per their marks in twelfth standard according to college faculty, but they are ACTUALLY ranked as per their looks by their seniors for their upcoming years in the college! Good looking girls can find million friends on first day of her college and many seniors approach them with hungry eyes on their very first day! By the end of the day, she ends up adding plenty of guys on facebook and replying to some hundred new messages saying, “Welcome to our college dear…for any help you can contact me anytime! Don’t feel shy sweety” and some really weird ones too like: “Hey b’ful chick, saw u in canteen 2day, btw Rocky hea…cute gal cya tomrw!”

While the hot and sexy girls are prime attention of seniors, but unfortunately the fresh cool-dudes of college are threat for seniors for they may steal their girl-friends! So they rag them and threaten them on the very first day! Filthy and abusive language is commonly heard while ragging, “Abey, bacha hai tu saale, teri maa *#$*%&^ shaanti se zinda rehna hai to hamare rules follow karne honge!” While maximum of girls are welcomed like sweethearts, but the guys are mostly exposed to unfavorable circumstances! Guys in colleges can be divided broadly into three categories:

1. The Sanjay Dutt’s (of Khalnayak) and Salman Khan’s (of Wanted) are the ‘BHAI-LOGS’ of the college! Any mess up or fight, and they will always be seen in the middle of the crowd. They usually have 2-3 girlfriends and some other chicks in row with them, just for the cool-look! And they are most of the time, surrounded by some comparatively less ‘daring’ guys who flaunt their courage all the time to keep their spirits up! But they too crave for Aishwarya’s and Katrina’s of the college and some fresher girls with sweet looks.

2. Then the second category is of the chocolate boys of college, basically the Ranbir Kapoor’s (of Bachna Ae Haseeno) or Imran Khan’s (of I Hate Love Stories) orShahrukh’s or we can also consider all the Emran Hashmi’s in this category! They pretend to be lover-boys and big time flirts and killers aka ‘shikaris’ but actually end up falling for one sweet girl.

3. And the third category comprises of Sharman Joshi’s (of Three Idiots) who are always busy mugging up the syllabus and studying all the time! To whom the terms like love, relationships, and sex are foreign and who think that talking with a girl is next to committing a crime! They can be easily found in college libraries or computer-labs, working on some projects or mugging up some more books!

Same is with girls…the three broad categories are:

1. First, the popular hot girls like Vidya Balan (of The Dirty Picture) who are mostly seen with the Salman Khan’s of college surrounding them in really short skirts and who are always flaunting their cleavage one or the other way! They end up just being an ‘entertainment, entertainment and entertainment’ for guys, and nothing more!

2. Then the second category is of ‘sweet and bubbly girls’, just like Preity Zinta (inKal Ho Na Ho!) or Kajol (in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai) who are in the eyes of most of the guys of college! Even the nerds can focus on them by fault because of their sweetness! They have lot of friends and they are always seen in the middle of a big flock of girls around them! They also become the common reason of fights among the guys!

3. And the third category is of SUPER-NERD girls, like Vidya Balan (in No One Killed Jessica), who are most of the time busy with their books and their computers and doing some random projects. They don’t even know the terms like ‘bleaching, waxing or even hair-cut’, they believe in “hidden beauty” and so they prefer “hiding their beauty!”



So, every college has a mini-bollywood, while some people play the characters, some just walk in and out as audience! Some are the heroes, and some villains, some are geniuses while some, total NERDS! Every college has a colorful life…so, go discover it in your college, add colors to your life, live to the fullest…one life!

Technology made everything so advance and easily accessible that now physical workout of people is almost negligible. Like right now, I’m typing this article on my laptop…if I was back in the 19th or 20th century, I had to use pen and paper, and write this piece again and again to be good enough to reach all of you! And in that process, maybe I had burned some MORE calories too!

People now specially join morning Yoga classes, gymnasiums, Aerobics, fitness centers to stay healthy. These are now one of the most flourishing businesses as people are tired enough to look after their own bodies. Everyone needs some advice, girls have set up their minds that they are not fit if they don’t have a size zero, and guys think only six or eight pack abs can give them total fitness, so they blindly follow their gymnasium instructors and eat protein supplements for months in order to get a cinematic physique but the quality of their health and their body organs decay subsequently! They become less immune and some fall sick often!

Nowadays, girls love to fall sick; why? Because it helps them reduce weight faster than any other thing. Some prefer doing karwa-chauth fast on a weekly basis for any random guy or animal or bird for quick weight-loss! While some rely upon only fruits and water and no real food just to burn more calories! And some join gymnasiums for maximum time possible and workout specifically for SIZE ZERO and to gain a belly like ARABIAN BELLY-DANCERS! Gone are the days when actresses like Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi, Karisma Kapoor-who had good figures-(but they didn’t looked skinny and malnutrition!)-were admired and their looks were much appreciated.

But now it’s the season of Kareena Kapoor (the goddess of SIZE-ZERO), Anushka Sharma, Priyanka Chopra, Mugdha Godse and more skinny heroines who are inspiration for most of the fat…oops, chubby looking cute girls J to get slim and sleek figure like them! I’ve literally seen some girls worshipping Kareena and Priyanka-with a big paneer salsa wrap of McDonalds in their hands-for a good figure as if they will fly to them and bless them with SIZE ZERO and take all their fat away-and the salsa wrap too! Girls go to their gym instructors and ask them, “Sir, I want a figure exactly like Priyanka in Fashion…okay…E.X.A.C.T.L.Y.! Or, Kareena in Tashan…dono mein se koi bhi chalega Sir…bas SIZE ZERO bana do mujhe S.I.R…”

If girls are worshipping Kareena and Priyanka then guys are also admiring Salman Khan from decades! Hostel boys have pasted Salman Khan-shirtless and flaunting his flawless body-posters on the walls of their rooms. Shahrukh Khan’s dard-e-disco in his movie Om Shanti Om literally caused an inevitable DARD in the young generation for six-pack abs, then John Abraham and Hrithik Roshan added fuel to fire with their perfect bodies being flaunted in movies like Dhoom and Dhoom-2! Guys were heard talking, “yaar, Hrithik ne toh Dhoom: 2 mein aag laga di, saala kya body hai”. While girls went gaga over their perfectly toned bodies, guys envied them. Gyms and fitness centers saw a flood of youth craving for good figures and six-packs!

Gyms were full of girls and guys willing to put their all efforts to become Kareena and Hrithik! Protein supplements were sold like hot-cakes and aerobics became the coolest sport! Some really fat ‘babes’ with ‘size buffalo’ were seen jogging in neighborhood parks and could be spotted ‘trying to move their big tummies on the beats of Arabian music in aerobics class’!

Nowadays, nobody is satisfied with what they have. People go for plastic surgeries to change their natural features, which is just like losing your own identity! We should not criticize what we have, but must be thankful for everything we have! Our efforts should be on maintaining what we have instead of transforming it into something that deprives us of our own individuality! Everyone is beautiful; the only difference is of carrying ourselves out. Confidence defines a personality and not a zero figure or a six pack! A size zero girl would look skeletal if she doesn’t know how to walk and the guy with six-pack will look an ‘oldie’ if he doesn’t walks uprightly!

So…don’t follow bollywood divas blindly, learn to love your bodies. You are beautiful/handsome the way you are, you are unique, you are ONE! Eat healthy, stay healthy, live healthy…one life!

Many of us think about life as a tedious and complicated circle of mind-numbing routine that follows daily. But as exceptions are always there, so there exist people with better jobs and so called “adventurous” life. But at some point, even they find everything monotonous! Life is just like seasons, where everything paces up in summers and slows down in winters…there always exists an autumn, a dark phase where all the suicidal tendencies gear up in your mind, but “If Winter comes, can SPRING be far behind??”

Just like a cup of coffee, this life will also end someday! So, be a tasty one (yeah! In every sense and I mean it!!! ). Some people are fond of ‘cappuccinos’, while some love ‘mochas’ and some are simply crazy for ‘espresso’ and some lust for ‘black coffee’. Everyone has his own taste, own desires, own accomplishments but one common thing, everyone wants to enjoy and seeks a thrill, an adventure in their life. Something that is different and unexpected MUST happen to them. Something to gossip to a big bunch of friends for whole weekend; like a vampire should turn up and offer them to join his league…or even more adventurous!

But sorry, this is not a ‘twilight saga’ going on, this is LIFE (my gosh, that sounded so heavy…). Anyways, I feel that life should be as colorful as possible. Even the blacks and whites are required to form a visible contrast, all the blues are needed to enjoy the yellows and greens and reds and all other colors! There should be a perfect blend of every emotion in your life. If a person has never cried, he can never experience what a hearty laugh is!

Struggle is an integrated part of life…at every step one has to struggle to bear the fruits of success. A mother struggles to get her baby out of her womb, and then the baby struggles to walk, speak, and learn. Students struggle to be outstanding in today’s booming competition. A degree holder struggles for a good job and a dying person in his death bed struggles for the last breaths of his life. Struggle cannot be eliminated…right now even I’m struggling with words to get my thoughts out of my mind!

Focus and concentrate on YOUR WORK ONLY! That will increase your efficiency manifold and reduce the time you daily pour in for your work and you will be left with plenty of time to spend on other things too. Bitching about others can get you simply NOTHING! Just a little time-pass and a bit of relaxation from hectic routine…well, it can be achieved other ways too…not necessarily you need to BITCH about anyone for your personal pleasures!

Each day should be viewed as a gift for it will never return again. People make news about 11.11.11 or 12.12.12 for such dates will come after a century now. But actually, each date is unique and we will never see the same day again in life, so why waste it? Make it memorable; don’t just let it pass by. View each day as a surprise, a wrapped gift, a packed present…believe me, every night you’ll end up thinking about the surprises you actually received!

Make the most out of opportunities served to you, grab the chances, take risks for you are different from all the rest and you are the only ‘one single piece’ in this entire world. Don’t bound yourself, free yourself from every chain and let yourself fly, for once, do whatever your heart wishes to…for once just let go of all thoughts from your mind. Let go of all fears and thoughts about: “what will be the circumstances of this act in future?” Try everything new, wild, crazy, what-so-ever your heart wants you to do.

You like a girl? GO TELL HER, maybe she also likes you? Maybe she’s just waiting for you to approach, or maybe she’s just too shy to admit it. At least let her know what you feel about her. Who knows if she’s the one who is destined to be the mother of your children in future?

At least give yourself a chance and prove yourself. Don’t be a ‘chocolate syrup’ that settles down at the bottom of coffee, be the ‘whipped cream’ and stay at the top. As you enjoy coffee while it is hot, so enjoy your life while you are young and energetic! Remember, the time will never return again…a lukewarm coffee is either left or warmed up again. But life cannot be warmed up once it is COLD! So, drink it before it becomes lukewarm, live it before you REGRET later! One life…

Hostel (if you have got the chance to experience it ever) is the most amazing part of one’s college life! Even after decades, the memories remain as fresh as of yesterday! Those late night gossips, playing cards till morning, going to college without sleeping even a second in last night, watching random movies whole night, bitching about the other college fellows and trying your hand at cooking late night, making Maggie or tea or just ending up with some unimaginable disastrous results!

Students from different and distinct parts of the country come together in a hostel like a family. Helping each other in times of need, sharing your culture and gathering knowledge about other person’s whereabouts, everything is so interesting! Hostels depict a mini-world, where all cultures, come together and share space! Hostel life teaches us something that is very necessary to have in us: ESSENCE OF ADJUSTMENT!

Many students before joining hostel are great tantrum throwers at their homes; who don’t know how to adjust with their younger siblings. Some just don’t care about their belongings, and some are so careless about their own stuff that it keeps on wandering here and there while in home!

But hostel changes EVERYONE! Though a little, or more, every student experiences some changes in his/her personality! When it comes to living alone, away from home, without parents or guardians, living with someone, and sharing a room, adjusting to the limit, all the brats transform into sweethearts! When they are exposed to REALITY of life, they realize the value of everything!

Many of my friends are living in a hostel, and some of them are loving it now…but one thing for sure, it has changed them a lot! Earlier some used to fight and throw tantrums for buying new phone or new dresses, but now, believe me; it doesn’t matters to them whether they’re carrying a Blackberry or a Samsung or a Nokia 1100! It doesn’t matters if they’re wearing Gucci or some Indian brand! It REALLY DOESN’T MATTERS ANYMORE!

I’m happy that I have clothes to wear, good food to eat, good facilities. I feel blessed, especially when I see ragged and naked children begging on traffic signals, I actually feel blessed! Living in a hostel exposes you to REALITY big time! Living without family is no doubt very tough. Some of my friends always thought they’ll make friends; life would be fun, living on your own, cleaning up your own room, no servants, no mom screaming for breakfast in morning! But now, whenever I ask them about their hostel life, they just say one thing: I miss school days more! I miss it when mom used to wake me up every morning; when dad used to scold me when every time I was late for school. I miss it when I fought with my brother for a piece of sandwich.

In hostels, they have no-one to wake them up and scream at the top of their head to make them get up. Nobody cares if they’re sleeping and missing college, or even dead! No-one scolds them if they’re late at college! Even their family members have changed since they’ve joined hostel, they’ve started LOVING them MORE! It’s not that they are not used to the love, but it’s that, sometimes, the family just becomes diabetically sweet and shower upon love, that they are not used to receive! DAMN! Some say they want their old folks back, scolding and screaming at them all the time; they want their old siblings back, who used to throw them out of the house, and not welcome them home with teary eyes every month!

A hostler change into a TRAVELER, a NOMAD rather, who roams from home to hostel, then again home at weekends or month ends or semester ends! A person always comes across REALITY or what you may say “REAL WORLD” once in his life…where all his friends may leave him…he may be left alone…and there maybe no one for his support. That is the time one realizes the importance of a FAMILY! Some people, who are always by your side no matter how far you are; the people who always make you feel special and important, no matter how less you visit them. So, always take care of your family…sort out disputes, make your parents feel special, take out some time for them, tell them you love them, and show them you care for them. God bless your parents…God bless you! One Life!

Republic, err…no! India is now addressed as the ‘Rape’ Public with all the crimes going on at a massive scale, and the government officials maintaining a constant silence like ‘Barfi’…well, at least he managed to say his name in the movie, but here, the people in power are simply mute to the pleadings of common man, deaf to the cries of victims and blind to whatever is going on in the nation. With so many candle marches and protests held against the government, no action has been taken till today, i.e. 03rd January, 2013. December 2012 will be remembered as a black month in the history, but for how long? The government officials are taking the ‘three monkeys’ symbolized by Baapu (Mahatma Gandhi), far too seriously. He symbolized ‘see no evil, hear no evil, and talk no evil’. But today the politicians have adapted to simply one motto ‘see nothing, hear nothing, and say nothing’.

Such shameless people are in power today that they don’t even resign after being allegedly accused for such repugnant corruption cases against them. We vote for them, elect them with a hope that when we will need them, they will come to our rescue, help the people; but opposite happens. Women are publicly molested, people are exploited and the nation is raped daily with all the corruption cases and frauds in the country. Not only sexual harassment, but people are exploited daily emotionally, mentally and socially. Not even the social networking sites are free anymore.

That was one girl who was raped on 16th December, 2012, and the nation woke up. But government is still deep asleep! The accused are still alive while the victim is dead. The matter is not whether those 6 rapists will be punished or not, but the matter is when will all this ‘STOP’? When will India become truly free for girls and women? We cannot even dream about going out in our own town, Ludhiana, after 8pm, save those big metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore etc.

Today people not only demand justice for the departed soul of the victim, but a strong rule and fast track courts to handle such cases in a bound time. But the question arises; will any of the demands get fulfilled? Or the people will as usual become quiet after a few more protests and marches? Will the victim be forgotten and people will consequently get over it? Or this calls for another revolution in India?

I heard some people demanding that girls should be taught martial arts and karate and other defence activities. But what if they are attacked by 10 or 20 or even more men? Over powering those men looks easy in movies and Bollywood drama flicks, but in reality, not even a black belt can do that with ease. Instead of teaching protection techniques to girls, how about teaching ‘NOT TO RAPE’ to men? Instead of making girls physically strong, how about making men ‘respect the sex that gave them birth’?

This topic has endless discussion and infinite view points, but what I felt, I jotted it down. It no doubt invites so many conflicting issues, but that’s all I felt, and thought to add in my site, so here it is…

Lastly I’ll conclude by few lines of my own:

I sacrificed so much for you, brother.

I loved and cared for you always, boyfriend.

I gave up so much for you and your family, husband.

I gave you birth with so much pain, son.

I am the ‘woman’, without whom your existence is impossible!

And what do you do to me? Rape me, molest me, kill me and end it all?

This is how I get re-paid? Today I demand an answer, today I want justice…

It was specifically the second time that I was visiting Mussoorie and Dehradun, in my entire life till now, that my family decided to take a stop at ‘Haridwar’ and spend a night before we could proceed further to relax and enjoy our winter vacations in the queen of hills: Mussoorie. Everyone agreed to visit the holy river ‘Ganges’ and have a snaan (bath) in it, but due to overly cold weather, we stuck to just splashing some water on our faces, I (to be honest) didn’t want to do that even for I read an article about ‘The Ganga Pollution, a cause of concern – research by IIT-Kanpur Professor’ a few weeks back only, and even dipping my hand in the water made me nauseous. Sorry, but this is the truth (I don’t intend to hurt anyone’s sentiments!!)

So, we reached Haridwar at around 8pm, and it was freezing cold (not to forget the fog!) and we reached The Holy Ganga by 9pm. It was all dark and secluded, unlike the usual evenings, when one can’t even find a space of two foot steps to stand by. We all bought a little basket with a diya (earthen lamp) and some flowers, scented leaves and some incense sticks. The pandit initially demanded only Rs. 10 for the puja, but the amount rose to significant Rs. 200 as the puja was over! Then I remembered the movie ‘Oh My God’ by Paresh Rawal, where he brought the truth of pandits and priests in light, and enlightened their ways of befooling the common man on the name of God. But we couldn’t negotiate at that moment, for the priest also asked for Rs. 2500 more if we were interested in any further puja or donations. But we all simply chose to be quiet and washed our hands in Ganges, prayed in silent and moved on. I had to dip my hands in the water for I couldn’t argue with mom who is a devoted religious personality in the entire family!

Next morning, we all decided to visit some temples and also see the ‘Ram Jhula’ in Rishikesh. It is nothing, but an ancient bridge over the Holy Ganga. We watched some ancient temples like: ‘Swarg Asharam’, ‘The Gita Bhawan’ and continued our journey. The guide with us tried to mislead us and also provoked us to buy a ‘Rudraksh’ (estimated of worth a few lakhs) in just a few thousands (that proved it was a forging!).

Next we took a boat to cross the holy river and reach back to our car, and start with our journey to Mussoorie. We got off the boat and started walking along the banks of Ganges and meanwhile I was shooting some awesome shots of nature and hills, with river flowing speedily, making it even more serene. I took a few shots, and then my lens just got stuck onto a ‘saint’, who was rubbing the sand of the river-side on his body. He was dressed in loose saffron clothes, his hair all stuck up together, untidy white beard and lots of malas (garlands and ornaments) in his neck and arms. He had a jute bag with him in which he may be carrying some food or vessels, or may be clothes? I didn’t know, but the wheels of my mind churned and I was forced to think about if these people actually live a peaceful and contended life? Were the really happy with their life? Is it the way to abode to the heavens? I can’t imagine even one day of my life without electricity, internet and all the facilities that made the human race lazy and dependable, but this is the truth!

That man was wearing a few clothes in such a cold weather, don’t they feel cold? I was packed up with sweaters and jackets, but he was barely wearing two layers, and with his bare legs and feet, he started walking. The picture shown above is the actual picture of that man; unfortunately I couldn’t capture the frontal side, for we had to follow a different path. I was nearing the car, and my mind was filled up with questions. Was this the way to get salvation from the circle of births? If yes, then WHY? What about all the rest of the people who are far, far away from such a lifestyle. People like me, or you (reading this on computers via internet, dependable society!). He carried so little with him, and we have so, so much and still cry for more. He didn’t wear shoes, but we have multiple pairs, and still are not satisfied. He didn’t had much food, but we have pizza hut, dominos, café coffee day, and what not! But still we go to try the new Italian restaurant opened in the city.

What is MOKSHA (liberation)? The true definition might be different for each of us, but for them Moksha means living independently, till the last breath. Living with limited supplies, enough to keep them alive, and keep them away from all the moh-maya (hedonism) of this world, and more than enough to keep them happy.

I thought deeper and deeper…we were going to stay in Fortune Resorts in Mussoorie (rated as one of the best hotel chain in India), does it matter? NO! We were going to have a luxurious week ahead, but will it lead me to internal happiness and satisfaction? I don’t think so. I may end up craving for more, and being greedy instead, or just being plain about it. No amount of money or luxury can provide internal liberation, rather the person just ends up being avaricious and as per the mythology of Hinduism, his soul wanders and his cycle of re-births never ends. But is it the fate of around 6.5 billion people (if we roughly ignore a number as large as 0.5 billion, for all the priests and pandits and moulvis of the world)? Will all the souls wander and will they all take birth again and again?

The questions are endless and answers are limited and contradictory. The best thing is to find the answer within one’s own self and define liberation on our own terms. Till then, keep thinking, keep travelling, keep talking to yourself and know yourself within…one life!