Wednesday 29 April 2009

Frustration at its peak

One of the things I am sure people would love to abolish forever from their lives; an irrevocable phase of prolonged frustration doing the rounds till it naturally wears off. But the tale doesn’t end there. The core of frustration could be anything, lack of jobs, excessive workload, study pressure, family problems, and social conflicts to name a few. One of the most severely doped cases of frustration is the torrential threat of unemployment, basically referring to no proper commitment to external work. A recessional phase as such where people are being royally kicked out of jobs is a sad sight in this era. Possible reasons could be boredom, an ingenious seductress tempting multitudes of unemployed candidates with inundated time and leisure. The most unfortunate consequence of boredom is that it sticks to us, initially as an unwanted guest and later, becomes an addiction. People smitten by lack of work find it extremely tedious to come out of it, partly finding safety in its shell. The secondary symptom of frustration is desperation which is purely psychological, reason being a frustrated soul is bereft of taking proper actions to eradicate his problems, let alone finding alternatives to keep the mind occupied. Free hours often stimulates the ‘devil’s workshop’ to rotate the wheels of pessimism at full force. This is what makes us think that nothing can be done in life; at least till we find something that captivates our interests.

The power of sacrifice


Some of the greatest classics ever to be portrayed on the silver screen moved me to tears yesterday. I do believe that words have a penetrating impact on people who are vulnerable to sentiments but, to get carried away by something you have known for years is a rare sight. Passion of the Christ had a language of its own, the language of sacrifice. Although major portions of the movie highlighted blazing torture and blind faith, there were soft, reverberating words filled with love and selflessness toward mankind. Jesus of Nazareth was tarnished with guile accusations of breaking temple laws for which he was expected to pay the price of mortality. Therefore Jesus, ‘The lamb of God’ wholeheartedly accepted His commands and embraced death as a gift of Paradise. He was no philosopher or priest of a higher order, but the benevolent son of God who resisted every element of sabotage to spread His loving message. Every bit of bread served at the last supper was a part of his preaching to his followers, the humble yet scintillating power of sacrifice. Every ounce of blood squeezed out of his battered flesh integrated to form a river of forfeit and tolerance. He was crucified in incarcerating darkness, only to be resurrected in enlightenment.
The milking tenderness of self sacrifice indeed breaks worldly barriers and limitations, opening several windows to a season of pure heartedness and peace. It is one of those qualities that tangibly defines humaneness in itself or, the epitome of humanity that rules all other qualities that escort us to Him. It is believed that a person, who procures the quality of being selfless throughout his life, finally finds his place in serenity intervened by fleeting activities of mankind.

Sunday 19 April 2009

The Jewel of faith and hope


Wish I could call this a fictitious miracle, until it chose to show up in real life, that too in front of my eyes!

Having retrieved my knowledge of Christ’s resurrection at Mt Mary’s church, I walked past the pathway leading to the main entrance of the Holy abode to get to the other side. I climbed the spiral stairs of an open church that escorted me to a bigger version of the Crucified saint. A wave of remorse swept through my mind when I realized that I had offered all my candles to the main cathedral where one is bereaved of lighting any within the church premises. I quietly put forth silent prayers and rushed downstairs to join my friends at the end of the lane. A partly molten candle grabbed my attention for few peaceful moments, the meager time period that allowed me to take up a very sincere yet precious decision. I finally had a chance to light a candle as per my wishes.
I lit the candle at one end of the open church. I was tad unsure of its consistency for the wind blowing northwards had a violent rush that could easily defeat the tiny source of light. I cupped the flame with my palms to ensure that it keeps burning. The candle constantly kept me on my toes with its flickering and fluctuating flame. The wind grew strong all of a sudden, blinding my vision completely with cluster of dust particles encircling, rising above the ground. I was amazed at my own determination of protecting the candle from the powerful gush of air; this was one of the moments when I could feel the presence of continual faith and hope. I found myself profoundly concentrating on two things that mattered to me the most at the moment; the flame and the crucifix that I felt deserved such humble offering. To my own surprise, the candle continued to burn with brief periods of weakness and alternate spurting of tall thick aglow. I stayed there for what seemed to be really long in accordance to my watch; all focus diverted from the flame to reality. At the spur of moment, I was barely aware of the fact that all this time I was guarding the candle from the destructive winds. Eventually, one hasty move from the candle diminished all the faith and hope embedded within the flame. Ultimately, the gleaming epicenter of light lost power to natures roar.

Sunday 12 April 2009

Freshmen foes

At one corner of a family restaurant, my dear friend was shredding the eatery bill; not wholly, just the edges.
‘This damn thing should be in pieces by this time!’ her frustration was clearly evident on her face when she said that. I told her to proceed with her current activity without spoiling her surroundings but she wouldn’t listen. In a way, it was tough for her to imbibe anything because she was tormented by the kind of work she is now forced to do, for the next two months. I can hardly forget her excitement when she told me about the workplace.
‘It’s a huge posh glass building with a sophisticatedly dressed watchman at its guard. Plush furniture, classy sofas and peaceful work atmosphere; everything adds to that place! I am in love with my work already!’ she said.
‘But you haven’t even started with your job. Looks like that place has boosted your confidence to accept your work as they give you’ I added. It was good to see her in such cheerful spirits after several days of undue pressure due to a mandatory job quest. Little did I know that I would receive a call from her on the very first day saying ‘My job stinks’!
A freshman’s life takes you to the peak of rippling anguish at the time when gathering work experience is extremely crucial. For somebody who hits the bulls-eye on the first few attempts is considered the luckiest in contrary to those yet struggling in the quest. An employed fresher has a typical outcome toward his job. To begin with, if anything touches the delicate chords of self-esteem and ego, it stimulates the lava of frustration to spurt in disdain. We youngsters are so accustomed to being pampered back home that any kind of authoritative imposition bereaves us of a positive outlook or optimism of any sort. Boredom royally seeps in, uninvited and finds company in an already demotivated soul, one of the predictable symptoms of a fresher surrounded with nothing but work and little or no friends at the workplace. Ultimately, with all the loneliness and annoyance creeping in, the fresher is left with no choice but to accept that life is not all kudos as it seems from the surface.
I don’t know what is in store for me in the near future but I can already see myself slogging like a pig in the next few months. It is then you will find me at the corner of a family restaurant shredding paper...

Tuesday 7 April 2009

Evil Influences-Part II


You and I are witnesses to the dark pits swallowing humaneness from our souls. Most of us are even deliberate victims of intoxicating drugs and booze, leading showmen of black markets and masterminds in milking money out of illegal businesses. If none of the above has managed to influence you, then a part of your past life is certainly playing the cards of mounting frustration, anger or disdain. People who don’t belong to the categories mentioned above are passive scapegoats of untimely displaced aggression. What stimulates evil minds at work is yet a mystery left unsolved. Several homes are mutilated of their bearers and strangled to death without a trace of their reminiscent. Cases of rape, robbery and ransom are amplifying at an alarming rate. Ordinary working class men are left shattered with dispair, wallowed in the darkest possible feelings of inutility and distress . The world is no longer a safe place to live now. ‘Revenge’ has finally seeped through intellectual thinkers to make way for uncanny greed, fleeting desires and sadism. Such is the expansive nature of evil whose vicious elements have poisoned every aspect of nobility in men.
I have a tale to share with you. A newly wedded girl comes home to a skillful doll maker, a dutiful and ambitious mother-in-law. The daughter-in-law is caressed and tended like a blooming delicate flower, providing her with abundant leisure and comfort. She becomes an obsession for the doll maker and a subject to the old woman’s only passion in life-carving dolls out of wood. The girl fails to understand the reason behind her eerie possessiveness and suffers in silence for doing all that is not expected out of her- cooking, cleaning or working at home. She is a living doll with no expectations or life of her own. She tries to discuss it out with her husband but he turns a deaf ear to them. One fine day, she decides to put an end to all her issues and weeps for vengeance. The girl from hell arrives at her doorstep and invokes vengeful motives wrapped in a red string. The string of vengeance, once untied brings about fateful consequences for the person you choose to punish in return to your sufferance. The girl is left with no choice but to get into a contract with the hell girl which says, if you pull the string you will have to give your soul in return. After your death, your soul shall be taken to hell…
The girl seeks her revenge and the old woman is escorted to hell. What turns out in the end is even worse than expected. The girl’s husband turns out to be an exact replica of his mother, clearly intending to make a perfect doll out of the young lady who has suffered so far and is destined to suffer still. And after all this, the young bride is yet to pay her debts off to the hell girl by delivering her soul to the demons below…
"When a person is cursed, two graves are dug..."
(courtesy: Jigoku Shoujo-Animax)

Monday 6 April 2009

Evil influences-Part I


Disclaimer: The inputs of the content given below is inspired from the book 'The unseen world of angels and demons.' May I add that the content means no offence on religious basis and contributes little for its implementation of any kind. The subject is purely a reading matter and should be considered nothing else but the same.

For many long years, our ancestors struggled to unveil the mystery of life put forth by the Supreme power. It called for a surpassed era of profound research on religious grounds and evoked religious beliefs encoded within the history of mankind. It was only in the recent years that Basilea Schlink, one of the ancient philosophers of the kind, inferred upon the very purpose of human existence and the cause of perpetuating battles of morality. ‘The unseen world of angels and demons’ grabbed my gaze for its fortifying concept and the enraged letters that threw fire in every sentence against the evil. It rightfully justifies the genuineness behind the good against the deceitful intentions of the treacherous. With the growing devilish influence in many million minds, we can now believe that the world thrives in semi darkness.
It is believed that the court of God makes way for thorough goodness and purity. Angels who serve God serve humanity for human beings are considered to be a superior creation of the Revered one and an immediate imitation of God himself. One of the first angels to be created in his court was Lucifer, a bright, angelic prince, also known as the ‘light-bearer’ in paradise. He was the epitome of might, honourably bejeweled with every precious stone that one can manage to retrieve. He had only one flaw that shattered all expectations of divinity and glory, the hunger to rule over heaven. Albeit being aptly punished for his wrongdoings, Lucifer roasted through negative emotions and spewed his anguish upon the inhabitants of planet Earth. The fallen angels who fell for his tyrannical motives were from that day onwards named ‘demons’ and the ruler ‘Satan’.
The book further plunges through the redness of guile and sinful practices that are making us hollow and bereft of true humaneness. The author claims that the blanket of crime surrounding us is nothing but scheming motives of the devil. It dives through the concept with varying instances of the present day world. How far you can go on to believe this is only a matter of choice, although it makes us think and rethink about the mysteries of life and the many victims of cruelty and deceit.

Friday 3 April 2009

One life to love...


Disclaimer: Teen pregnancy is a highly sensitive issue hoarding a major bulk of social issues within. The content bears no intention of offence or of spreading obscene snippets through worldwide web; hope I have done justice, enough to prove my point.

While medieval issues of mankind, particularly the stringent superstitious practices of our ancestors have long gone occupied dog eared books, some of the real life events can be correlated with those terrifying episodes. Most of these occurrences can be termed as mere alterations of the past while some of them are tragedies straight out of historical references. Amongst the poignant practices of sati and child marriages (still evident in rural and urban India), the civilized society makes way for intricate problems such as premarital intercourse and teen pregnancy. Unfortunately, even the power-driven forces within the globally recognized NGOs are having a tough fight in this struggle.
Two years back, the reel world projected one of the most controversial movies which was, I must say a bold initiative towards highlighting such crucial affairs. Sixteen year old Juno becomes the spice of school gossips owing to her pregnancy. When abortion becomes a discarded option, she chooses to give the unborn for an adoption. What really amazes me is not the attitudes of people towards her pregnancy, but the calm ambiance that circumvents the motion picture throughout. The atmosphere at the girl’s house is not very tense and the girl’s parents are in for all her decisions. The entire issue fades away like a whiff of unwanted odour in the end, leaving behind a slightly tranquil impression on the concept.
This is how people are abroad, we are taught back home. In India, such issues are analyzed on the basis of the society we live in. Such concern on a broader basis in order to preserve respectability and self-esteem often makes way for insecurities and undue fears. Albeit only off-late, the modern sections of the society are well tutored about such problems, there is always a difference in opinion. For instance, teenage pregnancy, although disapproved of, can gather social support as well as disdainful comments from the same section of the society. On the other hand, a huge chunk of rural India still remains under the shadow of sheer ignorance and illiteracy. The stigma of blind faith that holds this section of the society is a backlash to the overall progress of our nation.
In the North Western regions, young teenagers are forced into relationships that they are not ready to handle. Practices of child marriage are very common and rampant as it calls for festive occasions and blessings. As a result, many young brides are subjected to early pregnancy consequently inviting a series of health hazards. Girls are barely exposed to youthfulness when they are bounded by responsibilities of the household and coping with pregnancy, not to forget the fateful events that follow the untimely death of a husband leaving her no room in the society. The economic and social desperation harnessed by the supposedly inferior members of the society, costs teeming young lives and mortality of the unborn.
The ironical background of this issue ultimately calls for one thing- no matter how you take it, exposure to such delicate matters need to be emphasized on the basis of the right time, maturity and the individuals will of acceptance. To conclude with, we do not need another thirteen year old with his arms filled with a diminishing future and an added responsibility to live with the rest of his life.

Wednesday 1 April 2009

Yet another thought...

It hardly matters on which day of the week you choose to walk down the moderately filthy streets of Pink Corner to eavesdrop in budding gossips or informative conversations. Every evening you will find chain smokers and occasional drinkers coining their grief and happiness in effervescence. These are undeniably top notch executives or well-to do undergrads grinding cashew nuts and work pressure with utmost pleasure. While most of us tend to become passive smokers thanks to the continual transmission of soot, it helps us to get acquainted with first hand information (not the front page headlines of a major newspaper) of any workplace in particular. Most of the time, their topics are confined to jobs and job-related issues, otherwise, discussing gizmo's and entertainment and back to business. This is because working class heroes have hardly any space left for other thoughts; they can hardly afford to live multiple lives. Competition is sucking out soulful lives yearning for a slice of success, intoxicating many ambitious minds. As a result, money and money alone invades and rules the thinking factory, closing all doors of peace and happiness.
Look down from your window and you are sure to find the youth dominating your streets, either rushing for classes or suffering under the hammering heat on a quest for jobs. From a distance, they all look like ants marching to and fro your locality. Walk down the stairs and try being a part of them; their eyes reflect events waiting to confide themselves, elevating spirits swaying in merriment contradicting famished hopes withering in unpleasant memories. Each of them is taught to think big, materialize their visions and slog to procure a PhD in survival tactics. Naturally the youth is fenced with added responsibilities blinded by the colours of educational perks and prosperity. The aftermath of seeping through premature exposure to the world of diverse work culture and milking money is irreparable. The undying thirst of earning easy money fades away with time when consequently boredom creeps through hollowness and monotony. The lucky ones who employ themselves at the right time barely have a choice but to thoroughly imbibe their jobs and inject the resourceful nuances of work through their veins.
The very concept functions like a melting ice-cream; lick it before meltdown, eat it before the flavor fades and devour it whilst it bears unique essence and mellow. The world thrives on changing spheres and trends, gradually increasing rapidity and pace, making survival an uphill mission to accomplish. Echoing the words of an underground musician, that day is not very far when fellow humans will be left quarantined of all providence's of Mother nature, only to die in nestling hunger for more…