I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn.

I have always believed, there lives a fire within me. Fire is my element. Fire draws me towards itself like I'm a fly, cursed to live and die in its flames. While we're celebrating the festival of fire (The festival of light some would say, but potayto-potahto!), the fly couldn't be more excited, now could she? 

I've been at my father's back for the last two days to come out with me and buy the Diwali lights because our set breathed its last this year. While he acts as nonchalant as possible, I am grown enough to see how much he enjoys my love for fire and light. Today, on Dhanteras, I started sulking for the same reason and he switched on the T.V. He hates to see me sporting a long face (a girl, AND his firstborn), so within ten minutes, he had gotten dressed and was asking me my plans for the porch this year!

Behind my dad on the scooter, I have this habit of staring at the road - At people, at the little shops, and during Diwali, the decorations and the crackers on display. While we proceeded, something that I saw pierced my heart and tore it apart. A little boy, four years old at the most, barefoot and dressed in hand-me-downs that were probably given in charity, was being pulled off the main road by his slightly older sister. He was trying to cross the street to go over to a shop on the opposite side which had a coir bed full of crackers on display. The child's eyes were lit, and in his eyes I saw that fire which draws me to fire- luminous and innocent, beautiful and excited, like pools of magma, yet not looking to sear anyone or anything. The children were untidy and under-dressed for an autumn evening as cold as this one. My heart leapt out to them. Isn't this supposed to be the festival of joy? Don't those children deserve to light a few crackers and get a whiff of their childhood? I asked myself these basic questions and grew sad, pledging to myself to give these children a little Diwali. While on the street, I saw more children like them. Some shopkeepers gave these homeless children a few incense sticks and some small crackers. Words haven't yet been coined to define the joy on those faces. Even more children walked away from shops distraught and crestfallen after being shooed away by less generous shopkeepers. Overall, I saw misery. I saw innocents being deprived of the joy that I was so anxious to buy. 


I wished for these children to come to my house for my mother's awesome Chicken Tikka and to celebrate the festival with us. For them to be bathed and cleaned before the Puja. Yet, none of this will ever happen. They'll forlornly roam the streets on Diwali, when I shall be enjoying myself too much to see. 

Everywhere, on Facebook and Twitter, I see people pledging to have a cracker-free, fume-free, "green" Diwali. What I wish for is much more basic. I want a Happy Diwali. Not just for you and me and the people I know and will wish over WhatsApp on the day of the festival. I want a Happy Diwali for all of these people and all those people who I did not see during the drive today. I pray for a Happy Diwali for all those whom the fire won't engulf in its charm. Equality is a foolish person's grope in the darkness. I wish for equitability. It is mindlessness to expect one person to go around combing out all the poor and homeless kids they see and bring them closer to the light. However, a lot of those children can enjoy the festival if you put one firecracker and one sweet in the hands of one cheerless child.

Have a happy Diwali, everyone! 

Ten Tomes and a Basketful of Memorabilia.

The recent trend that surfaced on the internet has led me down memory lane. Oh, the amazing 10 books challenge. I started working on mine as soon as I saw the trend going around the internet. I was secretly willing at least one of my reader friends to nominate me, and one of them did!

I was transported to the wonderful time when I got the opportunity to bury myself in these great works, and how they shaped my life back when I read them. I remember how Little Women was the first classic I ever read, after reading the story about how Jo got her hair cut to furnish her mother with some extra money in a school text book. I literally begged my mother to get the book for me at the Scholastic Book Fair. I remember writing essays and letters and my diary in Louisa May Alcott's style of writing, because I'd read it so many times over - reading it again as soon as I'd finished. Heck, I'd quote from the book in casual conversations with people. I remember feeling like clumsy Jo who had a hard time handling her crush on Laurie when I was dealing with my first crush. I also remember listing Josephine March as my favorite person in the world in people's slam books. As I grew up, I continued falling in love with a lot of fictional characters. I remember sniffing back tears in class, while keeping P.S. I Love You and Love Story hidden under my desk, as people who lost their loved ones to the Grim Reaper. I remember being alone in a new city and reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, it aiding in the process of me growing up. So many books, so many memories.

Ha! Look at me. I started writing today thinking about Lisbeth Salander, but I guess I couldn't stop about the rest of them in a few sentences. Each one brings so many thoughts and feelings alive, that its impossible to wrap up short. Salander. Oh. My. God. Mostly, all my favorite heroines are those who are independent, courageous women who are happy with a partner, but equally great alone. Jo goes through life alone, grieving over Beth, struggling with guilt, but strong as ever. Holly loses the love of her life, but she not only survives, but "gets by with a little help from her friends". Mariam. Laila. Caroline. Tessa. Cleopatra. All wonderful women who have left an indelible mark on my attitude. But Lisbeth Salander. I hope and pray to the high heavens that there are MANY Lisbeths out there, who bring their situations under control, all by themselves. Ones who tattoo old perverts who take advantage of the physically weaker. Ones who are armed with a taser and mace spray and go into combat without batting an eyelid. Women who would not let their physical structure get in the way of their will. Lisbeth is diminutive. Tiny, even. And yet, when she strikes, she burns you to the ground. She crushes her gigantic half-brother and her abusive father to powder. She's somebody who has faced manhandling and has been a victim of all kinds of abuse ever since she was a child. But she has learnt to attack. Despite her rocky exterior, she falls in love with Blomsvist, which turns out to be unrequited and she just walks away. No fits, no tantrums. The more I talk about her, the more she awes me. The woman is my hero. 

I'm no feminist. I'm all for equality of the sexes, but sometimes, everyone needs someone. A woman needs a man as much as he needs her. While we all date a couple of douchebags at some point in our lives, finding the one during our lifetime is as essential as anything else. But these women worked around all the spitballs that life threw at them and came out victorious. They all found happiness, sooner or later, but were heroes in spite of it. As a reader who's fallen in love with these characters for an eternity, I urge people to read all of these delectable pieces of literature. They'll leave a mark on your lives as much as they have on mine.

Bidding Adieu

I stood at the middle of my drawing room, tears piercing the back of my eyes, threatening to tear my ego apart and come rolling down.Why did each goodbye have to be this haranguing? I mean, I've been saying a lot of goodbyes in the past year. The time to say goodbye comes even before I'm done basking in the glory of the 'Hello'. You see, I'm a toughie. You could say so, I guess. I'll cry my eyes out when reading a book, or at a movie, but never when I'm in a two-person situation. Crying when saying goodbye? It's sitting there, right next to impossible.
I saw him leave, inevitable, obviously. He stayed as long as he could, and then he couldn't, anymore. Everybody has his/her life's work and I understand that we need to keep doing it to keep our sanity. I have two choices from here on out : I can sit and cry after he leaves (which I briefly did) or I can grab a tissue and get on with my life's work. While I sit tight and wait for the tears to fall when I'm comfortable in my loneliness, I decide I'm going to take the separation positively. I swear to myself that I will resume working out, eat healthy, and watch the obscene number of films that I've been procrastinating to watch for the past year. Of course, I slip more times than I stand up. Instead of working out, I sit like a chimp and spoon clumps of processed cheese into my mouth. Instead of watching the new, un-watched films, I do a rerun of F.R.I.E.N.D.S and laugh hysterically, and watch The Fault in Our Stars, and cry like Augustus Waters was my boyfriend. But, this too will pass. It'll be morning again tomorrow, and I think I'll do the twenty prescribed Suryanamaskars. When I'm done however, I'll drink some water, eat some cheese and watch those films.
Goodbyes are pathetic. Hearing them, and not hearing them are equally unpleasant. The worst thing is to not deal with the reality, and that is this: "What goes around comes around". There will always be, repeat after me, a better time.

Tailormade in Heaven

For a long time in my life, I had always been let down by people whom I knew as friends. I made new ones, the older ones left - for good. My paranoia had reached unnatural heights, so bad that I never trusted anyone I met. To me, they were all going to go away, soon. Acquaintances, not friends, I used to remind myself.
Ironically, this was the time the best relationships I've made in this life, blossomed. Quickly, I had found friends in three other weirdos who didn't fit in everywhere they went. There were more people who were wary of us than those who were nice to us. After a few turf wars (Girls' College, politics bound to perchance), we'd charted our territory. We were inseparable. From cracking the dirtiest of jokes in class to being the only people to not know the starting time of an exam (people hated us :P ), we did it all. The best dreams end the earliest, I guess. We were separated after one and a half measly years of togetherness, Fate be blamed. God knows I wanted to spend an eternity with these lovely people. No, I didn't lose my girlfriends to girl-ego fights. It was a sheer twist of events that took it away from us. While I've had my share of bad, nay rotten, luck when it came to friends, I've had some amazing luck too.
We consider ourselves lucky if we get to meet once each year. Often, when one of us falls asleep early, she's woken with 200 unread messages on the WhatsApp group we're part of.
While most of us have a lot of friends, we're lucky if we find just one who will literally give an arm for us. I have three.

(P.S: Love is too small a word to describe what I feel for you three. We'll wait for the English Language to evolve, girls.)

Eat. Pray. Love.

Have you ever stayed up all night with your favorite person and watch the dawn slip out of the dark, dark night? 
Have you heard the birds urge and beckon the brand new day?
Have you seen a baby, totally unrelated to you, and been unconditionally in love with it? 
Even more basic. Have you ever loved? A person, a pet or even a plant? 
Has a kid ever grabbed your finger and have you had the urge to protect it? 
Have you watched someone fall asleep on your lap and been overcome with a feeling of joy and peace? 
These are the few boons of the mechanical world we survive in. I remember this one line from the film Troy : "Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed.", and while I had my share of swooning over Brad Pitt while he said this, I realized how achingly right Achilles was. The beauty of this life is because everything is so temporary. So mortal. If you're looking for permanency, you're in the wrong place. While you enjoy a hot, creamy cup of coffee with the one you love on a beautiful, shiny morning, be prepared for it to be the last. Enjoy each day like it's your last. Bucket lists? Have you been able to chart out your time left? Then go with the spontaneity! Never once push your dreams behind. Do everything that's possible today, TODAY!
Be in a relationship that means something to you. Sing in the rain. Dance on the wet grass with your feet bared. Unplug. Take a walk. Buy a pet. Heck, adopt one! Feed a hungry child. Eat a lot yourself! What's the point of watching your cholesterol levels if you  don't know where you're headed in life? (Having said that, please work out equally hard. You might kill yourself if you stuff your face with too much of the wrong stuff!). Take a LOT of pictures. Write your memories in indelible ink. Love unconditionally. "Because you'll never be lovelier than you are now. You will never be here again".

(P.S : The title is the name of a book that I absolutely adore. There's no copyright infringement intended.) 

Love thy Neighbour?

Yesterday, out of the usual, our doorbell rang around 8.15 PM. That is the time my parents take out to sit with each other in the porch, bringing themselves up-to-date with each other and us. At the sound of the doorbell, all of our eyebrows threatened to challenge the great skies. Who could it be? NOW? I went to the door and a middle-aged lady stood there, beaming at me. Weirder! She asked me the quintessential question everyone in the building seems to be asking these days, "Mummy hai?", and to say the very least, I was relieved. "MOM!".
My mother came back inside with her funny grin saying, "What a weird lady! She's moved in new and wants a get-together at her place to get to know the people around her." Unsocial beings that we all are, we sniggered at her naivety (read: joblessness)!
Introspecting, what's so weird about it anyway? A woman, new to a building, chooses a nice little evening tea party to get familiarized with her neighbours. The world is a small place, sure. But so small? We've stopped caring about everything apart from ourselves, our jobs, our incomes, our families and our lifestyles. Where's time for friends? Sure, we all have a few of them, but are we making new ones? Do we want to? Do we like people who ask us to their homes to get to know us? There's always an initial awkwardness around friends. Does that mean that we stop trying to make new ones? This isn't just about me, my parents or my building. Society, in general, has been reduced to a selfish version of itself. At a reunion, people will be seen comparing stats about their overachieving children, rather than catching up with their friends. Leave your shoulder chips at home. Keep an open mind. One might end up making friends at any phase during one's life. Being ready for it is key. And who knows? Maybe I should go attend that tea party! Make a few new friends.

Change

Each evening these last few days brings with itself a silken glory in the form of rain-drenched clouds. Each evening brings with itself a melancholy I hardly ever feel, otherwise. This beautiful, colourful, soft shine of the unfathomable sky will invariably transform into the darkest of nights. The breeze, the clouds, the purple and orange of the firmament blending in with the sinister green of the Dalma range seem so tender, yet so temporary. Every evening, I sit near my window and will the evening to be with me just a little bit longer. But that's how God ordained it to be. The day always gives way to the night and the night is always much, much longer than the satiny evening and the sunset sky.
But here's the deal. The night too passes. The beautiful Aurora tramples all over the mighty, dark night and paints a soft colour all over the Earth and the Sky. She makes the trees golden in her happy glow and the birds wake up and take note of the cheer that the dawn brings with itself. She rids the world of all the sadness that the night brings with itself. The golden glow of the dawn doesn't bring melancholy, it brings joy. It signifies that the day is upon us. It finishes our trials and tribulations and takes us wherever we want to be. The morning, to me, is hope.
The only thing that's constant in this world though, is change. The Sun, after it's run in the sky, will set and it'll be evening again. The evening darkens into the night and so on. The cycle, irrespective of what we want, will go on. But morning will knock on our door again. So here's what we do. We achieve. We work hard. We prove to ourselves and to the world that nothing knocks us down. We beat the night down to it's knees. And when its morning again, we revel in the glory of the day and enjoy it to the fullest. God knows, after this night is over, it'll be day forever - and it'll be the happiest of days.