KAHIHI

We all have heard about great people, the famous ones, the successful ones, and so on. And we have also known that the key contributor of their success and fame has been dedication, hard work, perseverance, obsession to achieve that something. We give a great thought to these things. We spend hours on discussing how these great people achieved it, what made them follow their dream with such equanimity while still having a bubbling fervor in their bellies.
However, seldom do we think that even can achieve what we desire.
And it is neither impossible nor difficult, if practiced religiously.
What we call dedication, focused approach, determination is actually an energy that we transmit through our thoughts and actions that in turn attract the things you desire. Read Paulo Coelho’s Alchemist or Rhonda Byrnes’ Secret or simply watch SRK’s Om Shanti Om where he says, “Agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho to poori kaynath usey tumse milane ki koshish main lag jaati hai.”
Rarely have I seen people approach a thing with positive intent.
I was once waiting for an auto near a school. It was exam time, perhaps. A group of young boys were discussing how the exam paper will be, “fadu nahi hona chahiye, apne ko answers yaad nahi aye toh,” utter nonsense, I thought. Their fear then transmigrated into viscous thoughts of how to cheat in the exam, making chits, showing answer papers by sitting in a particular manner. The nervousness was leaching in gradually, which evidently would have made their learning evaporate. Had all this time been utilized to discuss what they had studied or discussing that let the paper be of any level of difficulty we will crack it, the entire feeling would have been different, a positive feeling could have made them feel good and that feeling would have made handling the situation simpler.
I see husband and wife cribbing about finances, domestic issues, children etc. If that constant cribbing solves the problems, no worries, go ahead and suppurate as much as you want. However, it does not, sadly. It only makes life more miserable. It brings in more irritability and in certain cases even creates cracks in the relationships. Instead if you remain calm, always have a smile, and tackle things cheerfully, life indeed will become beautiful. It is no use wasting precious time in weeping about the things that bother you. As a substitute, utilize that time in working towards achieving things you desire, something that will bring contentment to your life be it material desires or at emotional or physical or spiritual.
Same is true with dissatisfied job, broken relationship, ill financial conditions, etc. etc.
We have always learnt from our school times that opposites attract, however, that is true in case of magnets and physics. But we are talking human dynamics here. We are not magnets. We are a powerhouse of intellect, emotions, comprehension.
We are different in a way that we can think, analyse, interpret, adjust, and communicate. Utilize all this to target and achieve things you desire. And pursue them all throughout. Only one single thought should run through you of what you want in life. Negativity, pessimism will only help in accumulating nuisance value which can be encashed only for heart attacks, blood pressure, stress, insomnia. Where following your dream with a strong focus will bring happiness, cheer, joy, respect, and success to you. You decide what you want. The choice lies with you, within you.
Right from the time of Mahabharata in which Arjun saw only the birds eye whereas all his other brothers saw trees, leaves, sky etc to the time when my father use to show me a small magic by burning a corner of a paper using a magnifying lens, the whole point is about focus. A strong focus makes you strong from within, confident, and powerful.
Focus on what you want and not on what you cannot. Be with likeminded people who share thoughts similar to yours, who desire similar things as you. At a subconscious level keep thinking about your aspirations and act on them at your conscious level. Keep your thought process going, keep envisaging yourself as if you are someone you wanted to be, you have everything that you wanted to have, the things, bring in some habitual changes.
Life is like a mirror. It will show you exactly what you put in front of it.
Happy Living!

Children are so much soaked in violence that it won’t be surprising to hear them talk about it or go ahead and do it.

I decided never to get into a relationship. I have devoutly consorted to this resolution for over a decade now. Every year I just renew this resolution. And with every passing year my confidence in my New Year resolution has deepened. Till date I don’t have a concrete rationale why I should fall in love or have a companion or get into a relationship.

For me getting into a relationship is farce where nothing is true. Even the words “I love you” or “tum mujhe acche lagte ho” are perfunctory. Those words look and sound beautiful only in the start, only to fade away eventually. The words are good to strike off the chord, begin the communication, however, later the communication lines get jammed up, and later things are directly taken for granted without a thought to other person’s intentions. Where does the essence of getting into relationship ooze off?

Most often, relationships make one sacrifice on self respect and dignity. I know many people who had literally begged to a girl to get her nod to accept their proposal. I am still confused about what is there so much to die for. Girls brutally exploited those boys to get free bike rides, watch movies, and eat at the Taj, Marriott. The megalomaniac boys showered their hard money on their stupid girlfriends. Not that I don’t have that kind of money but I find it foolish to spend it in return for holding a hand along the sea shore or getting a kiss in return.

I ask many what makes them so desperate to get into a relationship. Answers range from Mercury to Pluto, with our without logic, sensual to emotional but none to convince me.

I have been observing an imprudent friend of mine lately. He has been smitten by the “I-need-you : you-are-my-life : you-make-me-smile : you-are-the-one” bug. This insanely-in-love friend of mine just doesn’t understand the logic of ‘shut it-fuck it-forget it’. The girl smartly plays “ringa-ringa-roses” of words with him and he stays amused by all that. I wonder what makes him stay so optimistic about the entire episode. He falls to the every excuse she gives him – ‘what’s the hurry’, ‘time will tell’, ‘we still don’t know each other well’, and so on. My silly friend takes all that and sleeps off with sweet dreams in his head and smile on his lips. Idiot!

I don’t understand how time will tell anything. Aren’t we supposed to plan our time, schedule things, and make our plans work in accordance? I understand there is no hurry unless you don’t mind holding shivering hands or kisses with hollow toothless mouth or don’t expect children at the age when only function the reproductive organ can do is micturate. And when does one plan to know each other well enough? Most of the time my friend doesn’t even get to talk to the one whom he admires so much. All calls go unattended, SMS unreplied, there are only specific time windows when calls can be made. It is all so conditional and unrealistic. Well such a case, most certainly the time when you would have actually got to know each other is during the old age. And I thought true relationships are unconditional and beyond any time factor.

I see break offs, divorces, on-time-weddings all around me. There is zero patience in relationships today. There was a time when I read about foreign celebrity divorces in newspapers, see divorces in movies, then saw my own parents going through it, and then seeing it among my friends. My belief in relationships has shattered with each passing day and my belief in not getting into one has strengthened exponentially in the rising ratio. I hate it when relationships are sought desperately turning a blind eye to the fact that you lay at the mercy of other person’s wish and will.

There are people who pity me, laugh at my misanthropic (which I am not, people have assumed it to be so) life. I just smile back with a thought, ‘let’s see whose smile lasts longer’.

At times, it surprises me what is so much about getting married. I was waiting in the queue to buy a ticket of Guzarish movie, when I overheard a girl, ahead of me, talking on the phone with her friend, perhaps, about how her parents are so desperate to get her married. “I feel like running away from the house…bloody f&#$,” she said with a disheartened tone while turning back to check if anyone had noticed her saying the “F” word. I saw a frown on her face, full of awe and stress.

That girl was a stranger. Though there is nothing only against girls that I want to comment, most such victims that I come across are girls. I know at least six such girls personally. I know only one such male victim. However, as much as it is unacceptable in our society for a girl to remain a spinster, the same holds true for a bachelor boy cribbing about his marriage or about the parental pressure, and hence boys usually go unnoticed. Thus the entire focus shifts to girls – the same cult which struggles and shouts for a 33% reservation, and for equal rights with men akin “kandhe se kandha mila ke chalna hai with the male bastion” succumbs to parental (and society) pressure often seeking pity under the excuse, “it is simple for you males, it is different for us” or “you guys won’t understand what we have to go through”.

How? Why? I don’t understand.

Primary reason could be our ethos which is obsessed with the norm of settling down, having a family, and living happily ever after (hopefully). Parents assume unnecessary burden of getting their children married and get desperately after it as if they need to heir to pass on their dynastical legacy – a 800 sq. ft. flat at the most with a little left over cash if not everything is spent on the marriage ceremony. What a faux paus!

Does all this really work? I know of a girl who could not bear the agony of being pushed into wedlock, and she finally married someone only to be divorced in less than 12 months. The other similar case that I know is still struggling to settle down with her forcefully chosen husband even after 3 years now.

What ultimately was the use of all those pressure tactics? Just a transformation from one agony to the other.

However, there are four daring ladies that I know who have defied the social norms, objected to their parents’ torture, and taken upon singlehood as their pride. I collectively call them, “The Bold & The Beautifuls”. They are not extremists though. You can call them selfish in a way, and why not, they follow Ayn Rand’s (a female) philosophies, the epitomes of objectivism and virtue of selfishness. “Romantic love, in the full sense of the term, is an emotion possible only to the man (or woman) of unbreached self-esteem” and “I consider marriage a very important institution, but it is important when and if two people have found the person with whom they wish to spend the rest of their lives—a question of which no man or woman can be automatically certain. When one is certain that one’s choice is final, then marriage is, of course, a desirable state. But this does not mean that any relationship based on less than total certainty is improper. I think the question of an affair or a marriage depends on the knowledge and the position of the two persons involved and should be left up to them. Either is moral, provided only that both parties take the relationship seriously and that it is based on values” is what Ayn Rand professes about love and marriage respectively. And the four bold ladies follow that.

These girls hate listening to girls (or boys) who blubber about their marriage tensions. “F*$# off,” they shout simply, “it is for you to decide whether you want to be a lover on whom true love and compassion is bestowed or a slut who is screwed by a same customer every night for that is what he has married you for.”

When argued that at end of the day you need a companion in your old age, someone to share things when you go back home, pat comes the reply, “I don’t need one of that kind in exchange for spreading my legs every night. I would rather need good health and enough money to sustain for rest of my life, and a friend/care taker/companion but not necessarily a husband”

I love when they talk about their singlehood with so much of dignity. They don’t miss giving roses or getting expensive gifts on Valentine’s Day. They don’t sad about there is no one hold their hand or fondle their breasts in the dark corners of the theatre. They don’t miss being kissed or touched.

What is the problem with singlehood? After all, it is all about you being happy.

If you are a single and struggling to find that someone to match up with perfectly or surrendering to your parents’ undue desires then think again. There is nothing wrong in being single. It is just about changing your point of view and attitude. Don’t mourn. Nothing has gone wrong.

In fact there are many things that you can do and enjoy being single. Reconnect with lost friends, go pubbing, read extensively, draw your career roadmaps, set milestones for yourself, plan a vacation, and the list can be endless. Be sure to be disciplined though; don’t be a wild bull. There is nothing as satisfying as enjoying a wholesome delightful life, where everything is yours. Soon you will apprehend the fun of being single, the advantages it has, and singlehood is not a bad thing at all.

It is not something bizarre. Singlehood does not make you look like a loser who has nothing left in life or because there is nobody to love you. On the contrary, it makes you stronger, realistic, and independent. All that it takes is change in approach and strong belief in the self. You have to love yourself and enjoy your own company. If you cannot enthuse yourself it is quite likely “that someone” may not enjoy your company for long. Don’t feel sorry for yourself, in fact mollycoddle yourself, make yourself your priority in life, decide on your pace to lead a content life.

It is not a blight being a single but an opportunity to explore yourself and evolve as a better person. The knowledge of everyday ordinary reality will dawn upon you. A good psychologist friend of mine usually says, “your best friend is just another you.”

Marriages are certainly made in heaven but an infinitesimal error can land you in hell.

Enjoy your freedom. Love thyself.

My niece and I visited an amusement park last weekend. She had been after me since many weeks. Not able to further confront her frowning face, we packed our little bags with the essentials, and drove to the amusement park that had recently opened on the outskirts of the city. More than imagining about the fun we were going to have at the park, I was jollied with the enthusiasm my niece had in her. She was singing all the way, waving her little hands to the kids on the road side, licking the chocolate bar, crunching the potato chips et al.

We reached the destination as per our schedule. It was fun. Lots of joy rides, games, ice creams, and bites of sandwiches. At midday, we took little rest on the lush green lawn under a widely spread banyan tree. I noticed my niece had fixed her gaze on something else. Bright colourful balloons floating in the air had become her fancy. She had instantly fallen in love with the red, blue, yellow, pink, and white shades of the balloons. I bought her one of each colour. With strings of those balloons tightly clutched in her left hand and the right hand gripped in my left palm, she walked hopped all through the way till the parking area. We were heading back home.

My niece had become very possessive and protective of the balloons. She had tied them to a corner of her bed. She took a look at them at least ten times in a day. She kissed each colour once in her every visit. Worried that someone might steal them, she never took those balloons out to play with her friends. Yet she rushed back to her room often while in middle of the game to check if her balloons were in place. She use to go back with a smile. She was so much in love with them.

Eventually with each passing day, she noticed that the balloons were getting smaller and smaller. The smile on her face was making a reverse curve now. Finally one day, she found all her balloons have disappeared and only pieces of rubber remained. She cried a lot that day. She insisted that she wanted the old ones only. I had to surrender. Though it was too mature a statement for her tender age, I had to irrevocably explain to her that nothing is permanent, nothing lasts forever, and one day everything fades away and so on. My niece told me that she will buy new ones, if she wants to, when she grows up; till then she will just be happy about the moments of happiness she had had with those five balloons. In a span of one week or so, my niece had graduated from a series of emotions – happiness, obsession, insecurity, sadness, mournful, and finally maturity.

While returning from office that evening, crammed in the traffic jam, my words to my niece that afternoon resonated back to me. I could draw many analogies based on that, most principally about our interactions or relationships of our day-to-day life. I kept thinking to myself that every relationship in our life is like those little balloons spreading color and joy and making a difference to what we are.

Some relationships leave everlasting impressions in our lives and give us the strength to lead our life till the end with just the fond memories of those relationships. Like how those balloons introduced my niece to different shades of emotions, relationships too take you on a trail of feelings. At times, relationships give you a reason to experience fullness, make you feel stronger, guide us through the difficult times as support, strength and aid us physically, emotionally and perchance spiritually. Some relationships become an integral part of your existence.

Sometimes, we feel that a particular relationship and the things happened to us as they were like a God’s gift especially for us. They are in our lives for the reason we need them to be. They make an impact and difference to who we are.

Yet eventually, no matter how strongly we tend to hold on to it, the relationship hits a roadblock and everything turns into a void. Worst is the fact that sometimes relationships end for no fault of ours, like the balloons disappearing at their will for no fault of my little angel.

People simply walk away. Sometimes they force us to stand up and put a period to the relationship. The fancy of “my world ends at you” soon turns into a fallacy when the same person ends up everything, and you are left staring into the infinity about the next step. You stumble, your crawl, you drag yourself but the person had walked away, too far, too soon.

Relationships sporadically teach us something we have never done before. The mourning and the pain might lessen if we accept the fact that every act has a reason. All we can do is accept the reality, love, and cherish every moment spent. Though it may seem like the end of the world, in reality it is not. Just that it needs some courage. There can always be a new beginning. Though a particular relationship is irreplaceable, a new relationship may be on its way that will shower happiness and love on you all over. You need to welcome it smile, optimism, and little caution perhaps. Don’t shut yourself because something did not work earlier. Open your heart to new ones and embrace the beauty of life, the beauty exists because of every relationship. So let’s love and respect what we have while we still have it for it is certain that “Nothing Lasts Forever”, so before it exhausts live it to your fullest.

History of mankind in short is war between good and evil. Even our Indian mythologies believe and prove it’s always ‘truth that triumphs’. But is the truth always the truth? Isn’t it’s definition incomplete without a lie? What is good without evil? These ever-puzzling questions have been marvelously raised in an intriguing Japanese anime–series, “Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion”.

Produced by Sunrise, it is undoubtedly the best so far, showing almost every human emotion, and justifying the fact that ‘Good might do good unto somebody, but it’s still bad for another’.

Set in post world-war period in 2017 a.t.b, it’s a story about two superpowers, the tyrannical Britannia and The Nationalist Chinese Federation. The Holy Britannian Empire is a symbol of absolute tyranny for the Japanese, as they have stripped the Japanese of their rights, their freedom, and their name. The Japanese are addressed as “Numbers”, the residents of Area 11(the new name of Japan), for example.

The Britannians torture, harass, and indiscriminate the Japanese people. The Emperor of this kingdom, Charles VI Britannia, proclaims that “All Men are not Born Equal. Inequality is not Evil”. A kingdom whose ruler is that wretched is sure to be the same. There are rebellions among the Japanese to overthrow the regime. However, they are crushed mercilessly using a Humanoid powered armor called the ‘Knightmares’, a scientific innovation of unimaginable power, which constantly evolves throughout the series to become a formidable weapon for our scientists to ponder upon.

Lelouch Lamperouge, the hero of the movie, is a young Britannian student and vice-president of the student council at Ashford Academy, a carefree school with a carefree student council. Leading a simple life with his blind and physically disabled sister Nanally, of whom he is very fond of, he secretly harbors a ambition to overthrow the Britannian Empire. He never tries anything rebellious until destiny meets him on his track. That meeting sets off a series of marvelous and enthralling events that go on to change the history of world, and probably the perspective of the viewer about the true facet of truth. Lelouch though an ordinary Britannian, has an extraordinarily troubled past. The series is itself a revelation for him about his past; what he has believed and what actually has happened.  Often, a quiet and obnoxious boy, he has a brilliant strategic mind, owed to his exception chess playing quality, and a heart-rending love for his sister Nanally. He gets what he wants and doesn’t care who stands in his way.

Geass is a power of the kings. A mind power, which accustoms to whom it has been bestowed. This Geass is a binding contract between an immortal and a human that implies the fulfillment of a wish of the immortal by the human. It is an unparalleled power beyond the science humans have achieved. In an interesting meeting, a witch called C.C, gave this power to Lelouch. This C.C. then becomes an integral part of the rebellion that Lelouch leads and in knowing his past and the answers he is finding. Lelouch has an ability to turn the will of the people he sees, and make them do things he wants them to. As there is limitation to every power, he can cast his Geass only once on a given person. Though the Geass has an everlasting effect, the tests that he carries out for testing his only weapon are also amusing enough.

The first war that Lelouch fights with this Geass against the Empire is almost with no resources and a handful of rebels. However, it was enough to strike fear in enemy’s heart or that of Prince Clovis, the King of Area 11. Then he adorns the mask of Zero, a rebel with a cause, a dangerous enemy, a powerful leader and a fighter for the injustice against the unarmed. What Zero embarks on is a dangerous path of treachery against a powerfully armed and scientifically dangerous Empire. But the rebellion he leads is not for Japan but to create a world wherein Nanaly could live in peace and with love. His ambitions take him to form a group of rebels known as The Order of Black Knights. Leading this group he gets recruitment in many forms even from Britannians who are fed up of the regime. One such man is Diethard, a byte-hungry media-man. His involvement in the rebellion shows the power of media the way it can transform a terrorist into a hero. Diethard states an astonishing fact that ‘Journalism is not information but Human Creation’. What is stated about the power of media in here is also a present-day situation in our country.

Suzaku Kururugi, best friend of Lelouch and his worst enemy, is a flaw in all of Zero’s plans. Always in Zero’s path Suzaku wants to change the system of Britannia from within. Lelouch and Suzaku are on the opposite sides of justice each going for the same heading. Suzaku, also like his friend has a troubled past, which is slowly revealed throughout the story. CC, the witch is depicted as a heartless immortal but still very endearing in the end. Charles VI Britannia the Emperor is bestowed his power of Geass by C.C. and another V.V his brother. The short forms do sound odd but their names are not known even after the series ends. Another mystery. One of the more characters that strike the viewers is Euphemia, a really lovable and kind girl just like Nanally.

Having a varied cast as such it gets into action with the murder of Prince Clovis wherein the viewers get another hint as to who Lelouch is. Introduced as the successor of the Throne of Britannia the shroud of mystery begins to grow around Zero. Even the Black Knights do not know of his identity. For them, he is a man alone who will lead them to victory, who will liberate Japan an idol to follow. For him they are chess-pawns to checkmate the king. Based on such startling human nature it slowly enters the supernatural world of Geass.

What becomes of Zero and his rebellion the Black Knights and his passion to murder the Emperor Charles is too thrilling to watch. What Zero is, is a mixture of coldness, strategy, winning and an unmatched oratory, ironically all for the sake of his love for Nanally. The story has a serious tone; however, some of the most comical characters like Count Lloyd, nonetheless a genius, even it out.

The end is so superbly done that none could ever have predicted it. The simple end shown and the way Zero builds his Empire of Black Knights for the downtrodden just destroy the very basis of our foundation that ‘the good can never be bad’.  What are the reactions of every character in the series, their motives for the actions they take, the nature of the actions they take justify themselves slowly and gradually. There comes a point wherein you have no idea which side is good and which is bad. They are both the same. In the end even the truth can’t be justified without a lie. The whole point of the series being epic lies in the fact that it’s still a good versus evil battle but here the good takes a turn for the worse.

'Behind every Great man there is a Crime’ this is what the series tells in the end. That there cannot be only good and only bad, both coexist. There is no definition of good and evil it’s only a perspective. But in the end it’s still a human world where everything just cannot be perfect and it shouldn’t be.