Ten Guilty Pleasures.

Firstly, I stole the topic. I was out of any topic to write about, so I decided to surf the internet for some good topics to write about. And, I found this. FYI, Just the topic, the matter's all mine!

So, the ten guilty pleasures I have include:

1) Being cynical and critic-al about almost everything.
I've tried being very good, and have also tried loving my surroundings, but something inside me pushes me to the brink and causes me to spill out only cynicism. I would love to feel what loving the world was like, but my mind doesn't permit me to be amused. 
I was once told by someone near and dear, when I told them I loved the pyramids, that, they found it weird, and then said, 'It's weird from you, because I've never seen you be fascinated by anything!' And that is true. On reflecting, I realised, that I hated almost everything, and the worst part being, I love hating. 
I am guilty for this, since I've hurt feelings and sentiments, at times I go on to the level of criticising people whom I'm supposedly supposed to respect. But, it's fun. It's great from within to insult hate and pin-point everything, and feel like there is no one more superior. 
I am guilty, but hell yess, it's a part of my existence. 

2) Bitching.
I am a girl, and girls bitch. So, as simple as it sounded, that simply I let myself do it. I feel really bad, really really bad from within, when I talk about my own friends and my mind tells me that they've been good too! But, it's an irresistible pleasure, and for this one, I'm truly guilty. I can accept any level of punishment. 
PS By bitching, I mean, simple talking bad behind the back of one individual and discussing their flaws (sometimes the good qualities). Do not take it to another level. Thank you.

3) Being skeptic.
It's good to question things, but not to a level where you doubt what each one says. I have an issue with believing what I'm told. I need to experience it and then be sure of it. For this, I've gotten myself into issues with people, since I disregarded the previous judgments. I don't know if take real pleasure in this, but it sort of calms my mind when I investigate for myself. 

4) Being a morning-person, at 11.00am. 
I know, my mother loathes me for this, and I hate myself for it too. Sleeping is such a drug, you know? 
Legend says, 'Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.' For me it's twisted. It goes, early to bed, and late to rise...still produces similar results. 
I don't like the idea of getting up late, I even scold my brother for it, but it's just an irresistible pleasure! Going to bed and not waking up until nature calls you. Sigh.

5) Eating, rather, over eating.
I've never been on a diet in my life, forget that, I doubt being on a balanced diet.
I'm such a foodie, that I feel I might explode someday. Often people complain about being fat without eating, or being thin after eating, well, I am what I eat. 
Cheese, cold drinks, macroni, pizza, pasta, chole bhature, cakes, cream, and just everything that says 'WHOLE FAT'. It's gotta be tasted. 
I'm pretty guilty about that, for my own sake. I can't fit into gorgeous dresses, and can't flaunt my saree that way I'd want to. But, since I'm said to be cute, I accept my crime, and shall continue to do so. 

6) Not exercising.
Of course, even those who slog in the gyms know that it's a pleasure to sit at home and chop (Nigerian slang). So is it with me. And I am guilty. Yeah, whatever. Shut up.

7) Not being very helpful.
I often do not help my friends when in need. I am not told so, but I feel so. 
They ask me to do their work, and I politely refuse. I feel guilty, but c'mon, I have the right to feel the pleasure in seeing all of you work your *ahems* while I've done all my work. *Evil grin!*

8) Being moody.
It's lovely to follow your moods. To dwindle according to your hormones. I know it gets on the nerves of my friends, but I enjoy it. I am guilty, maybe will try to resist it, but, ugh!

9) Being rude, as if I'm the king of the world. Correction: queen.
I was just rude again to someone. Ugh, I can't help it. 
When people be dumb, and behave all 'Ow, I can't do all of that' I could skin them off, or skin myself. 
It hurts them, and their ego, but I have a huge lot of it in store.

10) BEING LAZY!
I reserved this for the end. Haahh, I am a freaking lazy bone! I can never get myself to work unless forced to. And now I've begun leaving important tasks too.
I am scared if I'll refuse to hold the pen and write during an exam, because three hours is a long while to write. I'm scared if I'll feel too lazy to exercise my brains in a MCQ test. It sounds far-fetched, but it's true. I am not scared of the questions, but am afraid of the idea of such intense labor. 
But, I still have the hope, since I've typed pretty long. 
I am guilty, but it's fun sitting there on the couch setting all around you to work. 

It feels good, being guilty. And that could be point number eleven. 

Ree-Public Day: India.

A great nation, my India is. Not many know, and not all appreciate, but it's one of it's sorts. Every year, on 26th January, the country celebrates it's Republic Day, for it was back then in 1950, when the constitution was implemented. And since then, the implementation has been worth a watch!

In a nation where every year the good ones are awarded, a pretty sad thing resides forever. And that is the fact that the bad forever persists, despite our mythologies, and the hope never dies. 

We're a bunch of people ethical people who either take pride in our past, or expect great results from out future. Well, the present is just what you can see now, in between two glorious eras: one gone, and one, yet to come. 

I thought I'd just list down, statistically, about the country's past, present and expected future. (I know, I should have done this earlier during the day, but I've been trying to construct a DC motor that has now started to spin.)

Well, so the glories of the past include:

1) India is the world's largest, oldest, continuous civilizations! (That's why we remain so religious in all our endevours.)
2) India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history. (We still retain the respect for our non- violent freedom fighters!)
3) India invented the number system. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta. (That's why we take pride in having scams with huge number of zeroes!)
4) When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization).
5) Sanskrit is the mother of all the European Languages . Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software - a report in Forbes magzine July 1987.
6) Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India.
7) India is one of the few countries in the world, which gained independence without violence.
8) India was one of the richest countries till the time of British rule in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus, attracted by India's wealth, had come looking for a sea route to India when he discovered America by mistake.
9) The Vishnu Temple in the city of Tirupathi built in the 10th century, is the world's largest religious pilgrimage destination. Larger than either Rome or Mecca, an average of 30,000 visitors donate $6 million (US) to the temple everyday.
10) Varanasi, also known as Benaras, was called "the Ancient City" when Lord Buddha visited it in 500 B.C., and is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today.
11) Martial Arts were first created in India, and later spread to Asia by Buddhist missionaries.
12) Yoga has its origins in India and has existed for over 5,000 years.
13) The earliest cotton in the world was spun and woven in India. Roman emperors would wear delicate cotton from India that they would call “woven winds.” Mogul emperors called the fabrics “morning dew” and “cloth of running water.
14) Every major world religion is represented in India. Additionally, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism all originated in India.
15) On India’s Independence Day, August 15, 1947, the country was split into India and Pakistan. The partition displaced 1.27 million people and resulted in the death of several hundred thousand to a million people.
16) According to legend, to prevent the builders from ever replicating the beauty of the Taj Mahal, their hands were cut off. The Taj Mahal (“crown palace”) was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (1592-1666) for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal (1593-1631). This architectural beauty has been called “marbled embroidery” for its intricate workmanship. It took 22,000 workmen 22 years to complete it.
17) Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus are studies, which originated in India.

So, we have a rocking past? Without this mysterious subcontinent, maybe the world would not be half of what it is today. (I think so.) 

**यह दुनिया एक दुल्हन , दुल्हन की माथे की बिंदियाँ , यह मेरा इंडिया ! I love my India!**

Moving on, our present. Cross your fingers. It might feel like a sudden shift of frame.

1) India is the world's Largest democracy.
2) There are 300,000 active mosques in India , more than in any other country, including the Muslim world.
3) India has the second largest pool of Scientist and Engineers in the World.
4) India is the largest English speaking nation in the world.
5) India is the only country other than US and Japan, to have built a super computer indeigenously.
6) India has the largest number of Post Offices in the world. (Because we still believe that a letter is more valuable than a text. Call us backward, we take pride in that too!)
7) One of the largest employer in the world is the Indian Railways , employing over a million people.
8) The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982.

9) The total distance covered by the 14,300 trains on the Indian Railways everyday, equals three & half times the distance to moon.
10) Nehru Setu on Sone River is the longest Railway bridge in the whole freaking world!
11) The Kumbh Mela (or Grand Pitcher Festival) is a huge Hindu religious festival that takes place in India every 12 years. In 2001, 60 million people attended, breaking the record for the world’s biggest gathering. The mass of people was photographed from space by a satellite.
12) India leads the world with the most murders (32,719), with Russia taking second at 28,904 murders per year.
13) India has one of the world’s highest rates of abortion.
14) More than a million Indians are millionaires, yet most Indians live on less than two dollars a day. An estimated 35% of India’s population lives below the poverty line.
15) India is the world’s largest producer of dried beans, such as kidney beans and chickpeas. It also leads the world in banana exports.

16) Indians hold prominent places both internationally and in the United States. For example, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems (Vinod Khosla), the creator of the Pentium chip (Vinod Dahm), the founder/creator of Hotmail (Sabeer Bhatia), and the GM of Hewlett-Packard (Rajiv Gupta) are all Indian.

17) India has the world’s largest movie industry, based in the city of Mumbai (known as the “City of Dreams”). The B in “Bollywood” comes from Bombay, the former name for Mumbai. Almost all Bollywood movies are musicals.

18) The Lotus temple is one of the most visited temples in the world, with over 50 million visitors per year

19) India has the world’s third largest road network at 1.9 million miles. It also has the world’s second largest rail network, which is the world’s largest civilian employer with 16 million workers.

20) India is the world’s largest tea producer, and tea (chai) is its most popular beverage.

21) 42% of the world's poor live in India.

22) Half the world’s outsourced IT services come from India, amounting to a $47 billion dollar industry.

23) India is the world's second largest importer of arms and has spent $50 billion on defense purchases in the last decade.

24) India has 568 million more registered voters than the US and a better turnout rate too.

Well, the article's longer than expected, but I can't help it. The county's crazy!! It's still cut so short, it's a miraculous journey: the journey through India!

 

Well, so the future may hold:

1) India's GDP per capita will quadruple from 2007 to 2020, according to Goldman Sachs.

2) In the next three years, up to 25% of the world's new workers will be Indian.

3) Every Indian will be litearte by 2020.

I couldn't fund much on the future, but for sure it's better. I haven't read the 'India 2020', because it's with my mamaji, but I'll reblog once I read it.

And, for signing off, well, here are a bit werid, and fun facts about this wild place!

1) Though the Ganges is one of the dirtiest rivers in the world, bathing in the river is thought to wash away one’s sins.

2) Rivers have played a vital role in India’s popular culture and folklore—they have been worshipped as goddesses because they bring water to an otherwise dry land. Bathing in the Ganges in particular is thought to take away a person’s sins. It is not unusual to spread a loved one’s ashes in the Ganges.

3) Most Indians rinse their hands, legs, and face before eating a meal. It is considered polite to eat with the right hand, and women eat after everyone is finished. Wasting food is considered a sin.

4) Cows can be found freely wandering the streets of India’s cities. They are considered sacred and will often wear a tilak, a Hindu symbol of good fortune. Cows are considered one of humankind’s seven mothers because they offer milk as does one’s natural mother.

5) India experiences six seasons: summer, autumn, winter, spring, summer monsoon, and winter monsoon.

6) 17 major languages and 844 dialects are spoken here.

Now, I'm exhausted. Combining information from almost everywhere!!

For more, try: www.indiainvites.com/lighternote.html

Hush, THANK YOU!! <3

HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY! 

Corruption: The best thing that gives rise to the worst.

Just for you guys, I've picked up the guts of writing about the inner truth and revealing onto everyone, what the boards are indeed all about!

Corruption, it's a serious thing, that's not almost, but has brought out nation on the verge of losing everything that once gave it dignity. And this starts in the institutes that ought to teach us things for a corruption and ill-manners- free tomorrow. But, things aren't always as easily done than said.

We all, experiences a share of internal corruption, when the 'external' visited. For the first time in years did children pick up their books, turn the pages and studied, and for the first time in any examination, did the teachers allow the students to share a part of their knowledge.

As one of my friends said, "If not for the corruption, you wouldn't be happy today, since you would have got a zero when it came to the salt." He was indeed right! If not for the corruption, we would all have flunked big time! But, the problem comes up when everything is taken to be for granted. 

As long as I titrated and got the wrong readings, I was cool with it. The moment I got to know the right reading, there I left aside the burette and pippit. The teachers taught us how to take a chill pill even when you know nothing in an examination. Pretty saddening. 

The same friend also said, "Where have we learnt cheating from, it's from them!"

Corruption needs to be combated, and when you know that it extends to such deep roots, where even the fear of one 'external examiner' sets all the highly educated and disciplined minds in fear, action is required.

I know, I know! The future of the children. But, you've done what harm you needed to to their minds already. Rather, practice could be made more specific than cheating oneself. 

Overall, it was an eye-opening and pitiful experience that fetches us all, all the damn marks! 

So, take glee in that! 

Cigarettes: The Killers That Travel in Packs!

Doesn’t it amaze you (that is if you’re a non-smoker) how people have pleasure in drawing in smoke and letting out smoke? Maybe I’ve got it wrong, but for sure the pleasure includes trying to choke oneself to death eventually.

Personally, it amazes me, or rather, shocks me!

Over here I won’t talk of developed countries where you have well demarcated places for the bunch of people who want to carry on their choking business, but am referring to the yet-to-be-developed nations like India. Here, we have smokers, chain smokers, whom you can find everywhere at any time. Early in the morning, at bus stops, they smoke on the faces of children, so that they can engulf them in their part of the world that is susceptible to dying of cancer. In the afternoon, they’re smoking under the shade of the tree, and in the evenings, out on the roads, with their pals-for-life, are wandering about exhaling puffs of not-so-fit air.

I think it’s weird how they continue to do so, and how the sellers continue to sell it, and moreover how the producers don’t feel the guilt for manufacturing them.

“Cigarette: A fire at one end, a fool at the other, and a bit of tobacco in between.”

Aptly described, since if it weren’t a fool, he would know how useful the tobacco was, but not to him, but to the plant, Nicotiana tobaccum for saving itself from grazing animals. But we’re smarter than the cows and goats, so we chose to sniff in some of the poison, because we’re smart, just so smart!

Ignorance kills, but the most shocking part is that they aren’t ignorant. They know it causes lung cancer and can make them sterile, but they go on. Our movie theatres have enough of “Dhoomrapaan Se Kark Rog Hota Hai” adverts every time. The cigarette boxes are not devoid of the “Smoking is Injurious to Health”. Yet, they chose to die. And what’s worse is that they chose to kill too.

A few of the harms, I searched up are:

Head: Headaches are bad enough, but the risk of a stroke or Alzheimer’s disease would make you think twice.

Eyes: An increased risk of cataracts is bad enough, but people who smoke have four times the risk of developing muscular degeneration.

Mouth: Oral cancer is six times more common in people who smoke.

Chest: Your lungs are certainly at risk if you smoke. Many of these conditions are ominous, but smoking may also increase the risk of developing chest colds and other nuisance conditions.

Heart: Coronary Artery Disease, Atherosclerosis, High Blood Pressure, Elevated Cholesterol.

Abdomen: Smoking causes pancreatic cancer and abdominal aortic aneurysms, as well as heartburn and ulcers.

Reproductive system: Males and Females: Sterility, impotence, prostate cancer, early menopause, still births, placental damage.

And, to know more, keep smoking!

Smoke Strawberry, not Nicotine!

Source: www.lungcancer.about.com

Wanna quit? www.smokefree.gov

Shock yourself: 

As I Look Up, Straight Into the Sky.

Lying on the mat, no worldly restriction by my side,

As I look up, straight into the sky;

I see:

I see the birds flying,

With easy floating desires,

Chirping and gliding, within no bound wires.

I see a cloud floating by,

Light as lighter could get,

Making me wish that free my heart would someday get.

I see a plane zoom by,

And the strength in it makes me sigh,

The wish of having a no-man world seems to die.

I see then a rainbow,

After the evening shower, looking like heaven’s prize,

Every part of numbness seems to have received its feed through my eyes.

I turn away, as I could not see the sun,

Its gleam and shine, caused my brows to frown,

And again I’m brought back to look at the shadows it cast down.

-आ कां क्षा .

Keep Calm and Live On.

Finally, I’ve found some solace. Have been doing what I hate seeing others do, sticking my eyes on lit up screens (a still doing it, but this is a bit different. As I see it, at least!) Finally, I decided to write.

These days, the ones I’m going past, and so are my friends, are taking their toll on us. Not because we’ve been all so bad, but so that we don’t turn out to be so. The onset of 2013 has been a heart-breaker. With tests and exams, mocks and boards, we’ve been showered with all kinds of interesting pieces of literature. Modern day literature.

Being under such pressure does make you strong. “What doesn’t kill you makes you strong”, I know, but this one’s  a bit lesser than killing, but more than just bearing. Actually, sometimes, it’s nothing.

The day for each one of us, (maybe just me) begins with an alarm that plays titanic’s ‘Every night in my dreams, I see you, I feel you’ at 6.00am, and then goes into snooze mode. And if I feel too clever, it shuts up for the next twenty-four hours. But, that how it begins. Then, by 7.00, you’re all set to shatter your surroundings. Not really.

Now, from that start till the end at 1.00am, all I can recollect is some amount of optics, amines, DNA and at times a bit of Aunt Jennifer’s tigers. A bit of chopping, mumbling, singing and dancing goes on, but it’s pretty vague to be mentioned.

The day passes by, and what we learn is retained, hopefully. The next day again greets me with ‘Everynight in my dreams, I see you, I feel you, and that is how I know you (PHYSICS!!).’

What I mean to say is, the fear of forgetting how to live, how to express, how to see the beauty in things, how to be creative, how to do something artistic, how to sing and dance, how to be spontaneous, how to smile and greet; should not be lost. That’s why I had a resolution that would help ‘me’ be intact.  Poetry should go on, and the rhythm of music should always follow you. Academics is mandatory.

We’re all living a life, in which tools we made to help ourselves govern us. Somewhere or the other, we’re just mechanical and dead. Maybe, not even living. Living quite arbitrarily. In this crazy race, in this tremendous fight for peace, let’s just live on as if we were living.

Let’s let the rain pour not on us, but into our lives, let the winter take with it the stiffness and coldness of our souls and heart. Let summer heal us from within, and let’s just do what we can do best if we try to: LIVE!

Lines from the wake up call:

“Near, far, (peace and solace) wherever you are,
I believe that the heart does go on.
Once more you (happiness) open the door,
And you're here in my heart,
And my heart will go on and on!”

Cheers, to nothing!

I sit in bed, covered with one of the coziest quilts I’ve ever come across, with the laptop on my lap.

I want to write. It was my resolution that I would write more, since I was losing the working abilities of my right cerebrum. I tried writing a few articles previously, but I lost interest in the topics midway and shut everything.  Today, I’ve decided to write, not about anything specific, but just as leisure.

I’m not in a mood of writing strong, nor do I want to joke about. Am feeling pretty neutral about everything at the moment. Have had some hormonal ups and downs, but feel much more stable.

The room around me is slightly messed, but I prefer it that way. I just had a nap, and won’t be studying stuff today. I kept away from lenses, since, as I said, I feel a little neutral, just wanting to be able to see.

A police van just passed by, at least they’re working. The neighbor’s dog’s barking, let it to its content.

Now, I’m losing interest in this too. Feeling like my hands will just drop.

I thought of writing a poem, and left it midway too. Wrote three stanzas and felt burdened. I’m just lazy. Or maybe, I need some time and space. Exams don’t let you have them.

I’ll stop now.

I’m tired. I think it was better to leave a topic that wasn’t a topic in the first place.

  

Coffee? To add to nothingness?

Cheers!

Buh-bye.

Introspection: The Call for Equality

It’s past twelve now, nothing really late as these days my sleeping time has been shifted to 1:00. It feels rather refreshing than tiring. The mind’s all clear, chores have been completed, lessons have been learnt and every block in the checklist has been rewarded with a tick.

So, again, it’s pat twelve, 00:20. And as they say, even an atheist is a half believer by mid-night; I’m all in a philosophical mood. Not that I’m an atheist, but because I’m a night-person.

It’s so silent that all I can hear is the ticking clock, the wind outside, my breathing, the sounds from the laptop, the most annoying, the typing sound, and of course, the loudest, the voice, I’d rather say, of my mind. And it’s clear, calm and peaceful, as if I were meditating.

So, after done weeping a bit over the injustice done with one of my friends (I know, isn’t that very something? But it happened naturally. I just felt bad.) And I realized that inequality and injustice is such an eminent part of our so-called-social society.  

Girls from boys, homosexuals from straights, poor from rich, disabled from able and animals from humans-forgetting that we’re way worse: only few of our highly developed mind’s way of discrimination. For more ideas on discrimination, look into your own mind, you can find many. After all, you’re human too. (So am I, and it’s indeed shameful!)

Overall, the problem of the world lies so much in the fact that some lives matter lesser than other lives. 

Maybe reading too much of biodiversity and conservation has rendered my mind to think about the world with a global perspective, but c’mon, think! Thousands, indeed thousands of species are dead today. Extinct. I take the blame. It sounds so small, since we’re used to hearing crores on television, hundreds of crores, but a counting up to ten thousand should make you realize what point I’m making here. (Now, you can do the counting after you’re done reading! Just add one more to the magnitude.)

Let’s move away from animals. Who cares, right? Well, who cares for you? Ever wondered? In the whole vast universe, would out planet even count? No! But you still think your life matters, right? Don’t the poor have the right to think likewise too? Of course they don’t! Do they contribute to the GDP? They just make up an illiterate bunch of population. But they’re living, and that counts. They’re what contribute to the immensity of us, Homo sapiens. Reduce them and you’ll see where you stand.

Speaking of inequality, animals are never spared, and humans aren’t treated equally. Ask yourself if you can talk well enough to someone gay as you would to someone straight? I recently came across this: There are thousand species known to have homosexuality, but only one that has homophobia. Again, aren’t they human? Don’t they have the same feelings, and are they less humane? No, they’re more humane than you. They fight every day; take a walk in their shows and then go ahead to support your religion ever so blindly.

And if that isn’t enough, welcome to discrimination amongst the straights. Men and women. Do I even need to elaborate after the world knows the present scene of India?

Well, talking of the highest, the men, mean men! Have they spared their fellows? Blacks and whites, Brahmans and Shudras, Muslims and Hindus. Give it all a halt. Introspect.

I could go on, till the end of everything, as is the power of anthropogenic destruction, but I too need to put up a halt. It’s late, and I need to do what’s been a secret to scientists for a long while: sleep. In the sense: why we sleep.

Fine, I deviated. Coming back, we’re all a single unit, one living unit called earth. Mother Earth. It’s life that creates us and feelings that unite us. We’re heading towards a dead end, and there’s a U-turn. Let’s take it. We’ll be the change.

After all, if we’re all done waiting for the end of the world, let’s not think about changing the world and making it newer and better, for all.  

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. “
-Thomas Jefferson. 

आ कां क्षा .