Hopelessly Hopeful

Life is what you make of it, literally. You are creating your own reality at each moment, at each breath that you take. So, why create something sad or unhappy? Create something unexpected, surprising, and who knows, maybe something a little risky too. After all,  life mein risk nahi liya toh kya kiya ? Although, that doesn't mean swimming through the gutter water of waterlogged Gurugram! It means more than that, it means swimming with the sharks. The fun is in beating the sharks in their own game and winning it even when you reek of blood from your open wounds. When you are stuck in a situation, there comes a time when you don't want to be bothered about it anymore. You just want to say, 'Enough, I have given too much mind space to you, let me move on to something else.' And, when you say that, you feel a certain lightheartedness about it, you start feeling to be yourself. You connect with your inner self. And when you do so, you don't find a boring you, you f...

She often wonders how sometimes life comes smacking on her face. Just when she wants to forget things, go about distracting herself, laugh with friends or simply work to numb her senses, things take a turn towards a signpost that bleeds her heart out. The cards were dealt and she was winning at it. She was finally defeating that dreaded pain and hurt. And, that's when it happened. She was at Cloud 9 when the thunder struck and thrashed her to the ground. As she lay there, bruised and hurt, she wondered what just happened. But she knew she need to get up. She mustered enough courage to get going. She lifted her aching limbs slowly and with great difficulty stood up. As she wobbled to regain her strength, she was hit by a double whammy. Another unexpected blow, a cloud burst and her very being was threatened to be swept off. They tried their best, but they were never prepared for her resolute self. She stood by the deluge, rooting herself to the very ground she knew will n...

I chanced upon an Osho talk a few days ago, wherein the spiritual guru said something so relevant about this question. He said that when it comes to doing something wrong, we never consult anybody, we don’t even listen to our conscience, we just do it. If it means hurting someone, be jealous of somebody, inflict our anger or hatred, we just go ahead do it. But, when it comes to doing the opposite, as in doing something good and right, we bottle it up. We say let the right moment come and we would do it then or let me consult someone before doing this. Question is, why do we delay taking a decision that we inertly know is right? It might be because doing something right requires courage. It is often against the norm or the general tide. It could be something challenging or even life-altering. And, that’s where the problem arises. Reminds me of a line from ‘Step Up 3’. “It’s never easy to take the most important decisions in life.” And, of course, all the important dec...

So when the puppy love strikes, you feel the butterflies in your stomach, the world goes round and you hear music in the air. Happened to all of us when we were young, happy and without a doubt in our head.  As you grew old, you wised up. You became cautious. You started to trust less, even the one you loved and married. You made boundaries around yourself. You were inaccessible. But, isn’t that just the opposite of being in love. If you love someone, you need to be vulnerable, you need to let yourself get hurt, and understand that nothing is perfect, and of course, that there is nothing called ‘happily forever’… It’s this expectation of ‘being happy’ in love portrayed in movies and books that creates undue pressure in any relationship. You want your love life to be ‘bookish’ or ‘filmy’, with Raj serenading you in the laps of Swiss valley and Simran running to catch the train. Ask yourself, do you really need that bull crap in your life? Won’t it be better to be ...