I Pretend

Why do we pretend? Why do we pretend to be something or someone that we are not, that too, on a daily basis?

I mean, take my example. I pretend I love photography, whereas what I "love" is my studies - the studies which will make me a mechanical engineer in 2 years. I pretend I am happy and nice and stable, whereas I am happy, I am stable but being nice all the time - that's not me! I pretend I am positive all the time - but only I know that my thoughts lead me astray at times when I am left alone!

We pretend - to such an extent that now, it's just becoming a way of life for us. We are pretending and in that process, we cross the fine line between who we are and who we think we are. Then when we realize we have we have crossed the dividing line, we stop, turn back and evaluate ourselves. Sometimes, what we have become since we crossed that line is amazing - we might have become a better person in the process of pretending. But sometimes, the pretenses alter you to such a degraded level that when you look in the mirror, you feel like smashing your head in. That's bad.

"How we think soon changes into how we speak. How we speak soon changes into how we act. How we act soon changes into our character. And our character - it is our second nature. Hence, think on the right things!"

The Bible talks about reaping what you sow and hence sow a good seed - to surmise. If we pretend like everything in life's good, happy and prosperous, soon enough we will see that being fulfilled in the tangible form.

In the stressful life that we live today, it becomes imperative that we pretend that everything's fine. It is the one pretense that I am in favour of. Otherwise, if we didn't pretend like all was fine, we would end up suiciding! I used to think that pretending is like role playing. But no, when you pretend that everything's fine in your life and your surroundings, you are making your mind accustomed to the good things.You are making your mind believe that things are going to be good. It means you are sowing a positive seed in your mind, making it believe that it is a fertile land. That is a good thing. And as they say, believing is everything, soon enough you'll be able to see things falling in their right place, things changing to their rightful colour, seasons changing and things realising!

So, why aren't we pretending?

Silence - When Gets Louder

The Late Nelson Mandela

It is okay to shout and be heard if no one listens to the silence in your voice. But, I have seen the world change by a silence so loud that even the largest screams and shrieks of people died, when the one silent but determined voice spoke up!

Today, the 6th of December, 2013, witnessed the death of a world leader, Mr. Nelson Mandela. Yes, he was a world leader. He changed the way people perceived humanity, in more than just one way! Yes, I live in a country which was freed by Mahatma Gandhi, but I was indifferent to this fact till date that one man can bring about a reformation changing and recharging lives around the world - the lives of black people by eradicating racism! So, yes, Mr. Nelson Mandela, after Jesus Christ, has made me realize that it is possible and that if one man wants a revolution, really wants a revolution, then the entire universe conspires for him to have it!

The people who knew Mr. Nelson Mandela  have been recorded saying that "Madiba" (as they called him) was a soft spoken person, who preferred speaking in a soft and calming voice instead of ranting and chanting that we witness  lot these days by our youth. Well, there goes the difference! He was a person who knew that the country was as important to him as his family. However, just because he was a politician by profession, he did not bring his work home to intrude his private time with his family! He knew when he needed a break from his profession as a 'politician' and when he had to switch to the profession of a 'father'.

Now, compare against this the present scenario of politicians, especially Mr. Narendra Modi and Mr. Rahul Gandhi, who are these days busy with the "promotion" of their political parties. They shout in sabhas on top of their voices to prove a point. The effect of this act - neither the point gets proven nor do the mindsets of the people change! At the risk of getting arrested, probably in the near future, I have posted this today. I am confident that, if only all the leaders around the world learned a little from these trend-setters like Mr. Nelson Mandela or Jesus Christ then we would have been living in a better world - the Earth would have been a better place to live!

But, alas!

Bother Persists

It is always nice to share a little something of your life with the people around you. It makes you get the overload off of you and, in some cases is also beneficial for the people around you. Gives a little perspective.

Equality - it is an abstract term. It is as intangible as air or a thought, but just because of that, it does not mean that it doesn't exist. It most definitely exists - but some have to snatch it away from the hands of the wealthy while some receive it as a gift of their existence, as a pity offering.

Equality indicates a state wherein no human being is different from the other or can remain indifferent about the other. The entire human history is a witness of the level of struggle and perseverance that mankind had to adhere to in order to maintain the EQUALITY among the regular people. There were revolts against the superior powers and the monarchs in order to re-establish the ideas of equality in the kingdoms. When people decided to bring about the equality to the commoners, no building, no empire, no government could restrain them. It was some inevitable occurrence that no one could contain and no one could orchestrate. That is the power that a determined human stand could ever hold.

People died fighting for equality. However, initially this fight was for bringing the lower strata of the society into level with the higher strata and today - it is the other way around. Look, no one can deny the fact that the so-called poor and backward people of the Indian society have taken ill-advantage of the reservations given to them by the government. On my part, I won't even say 'ill-advantage', because that would be wrong. They have taken an advantage similar to that.

I am studying to be an engineer. The fees that I, as an open candidate pay, is Rs. 1,08,000. And the SC/ST/OBC people in my college pay Rs. 14,000 only for the same course. I would like to point this fact out, particularly. Why this inequality? Why?
Now, I am pursuing a prestigious course, so I don't mind the fees. But if I am paying such a huge amount, shouldn't someone pursuing the same course, with the same merits as mine, pay roughly the same amount? Or, shouldn't there be some kind of scholarship exam for the reserved category, on the merits of which the handful reserved ones can reduce their fee amount?

These are some of the things that have always bothered me. And I thought of sharing them with you. Isn't it a bit maddening? Where is the equality then? Are we still supposed to fight for it while the poor people get away with it?

For The Ones Who Run This World

Dear Girl, 

I know I've fallen really behind in posting on my blog! It has been around 6 months since I last posted. But, as the name of the blog suggests "The Thought Which Got Caught", I can undauntedly and shamelessly say that lately (since a long time) haven't been thinking much! But it was just today evening that a thought personified itself to me.

When I was just a child of about 5 years, my mumma first asked me what I wanted to become once I grew up. And to this I spontaneously replied that I wanted to be a pilot. This may have occurred because I live nearby The National Defence Academy of India, where the airplanes and jets and MiGs keep hovering over relentlessly! Later in life, only two years after, my mumma again asked me the above question and my reply was an astronaut. This was after I heard about the news of Kalpana Chawla's success at NASA and her mission to space on the spaceship Columbia. And again I would like to shamelessly mention, that my dreams and aspirations have changed meagerly to tremendously over all these years.

Why do parents have to ask the question "What will you become when you grow up?" so frequently to their kids? Why confuse them with their priorities in their life to such an extent that by the time the child grows up, he/she has lost the sense of being a good human, first! Not once did I ever tell my mumma that I wanted to become a good human being first! Not once! Though if I would have told her, she would have been a prouder mother!

See, there is an old saying that goes, "Be kind and kindness will come around!". Along the years of the maturation stage, the child often forgets  his priorities. He forgets that being good and adjusting to his surroundings, are the pathways that will lead him to his success. Instead, we all, even me, resort to ways of cheating and envious wrong-doings to achieve our goals, our aims. Then along the way we might make some relations to benefit us instead of relations to make us happy. We make relations according to the altitude of a person instead of his attitude. The values and attributes don't occupy an important place, once we have shifted our priorities to being a good engineer, doctor, chef or whatever it may be!

Try to ask this question to yourself today, right now, "Who am I gonna be today?"

You can be the daughter whose laughter and fun keeps an entire house filled to the brim; you can be a sister who provides the safest place to her brother who is so macho that he won't cry anywhere but behind closed doors in your arms; you can be a girl who just sweeps off the ground beneath her boyfriend's feet; you can be a mother who has raised up her teenage children so well that they prefer to stay home most nights than go out with their friends!


But most of all, you are the woman, who when gets out of her bed in the morning makes the devil say, " Oh no! She's up!"

Bulahat Official Promo

Prashansa Punjabi Photography Showcase 1

Goliath of a Cloud

Today I travelled to Talegaon - Dabhade, a sub-urban area of Pune itself. Those from Pune or living in Pune might very well know the weather that we experienced at around 7 pm in the evening. Now, for those who don't know, the weather that we experienced was an orange-ish rainy one. The sky was all orange and the winds blew as if just the next minute the skys would turn on their taps!

The way to Talegaon is all highway only. It later connects to the Expressway to Mumbai. We city people have a rather "modern" habit of rolling up our car's windows and switching on our ACs and listening to music and that's what we call 'a drive'! I do that too! But this time, it was subtly different!

On our way, the clouds came in and the winds became stronger. The orange colour started to fade and a tint of black and gray started to mix in the sky as the evening fell. Through my window, which was still rolled up, I looked into the sky. And, oh my! I saw a huge cloud (or clouds), as black as night itself, covering the entire horizon! As and when that giant moved forward, it covered every silver lining of oh-so-innocent clouds, it covered the shimmering light of every tiny little star that wanted to come out and show itself and every tiny shrub of the hefty mountains that wanted to survive what could be a storm! There was just this one Goliath, and David was nowhere to be found! However, it hadn't begun to pour as yet!

Later, we had to make a quick stop to buy my baby cousins some chocolates. For the same reason, I had to get out of my car. So I got out, went to the shop, bought two 5 Stars and turned around to come back to the car. The moment I stepped on the ground, a huge breeze came and swept all the dirt lying on the ground into a mini whirlwind. This forced me to look up at the sky. And when I did look up, I saw a massive, black tuft of a cloud staring right into me. Though it was a beautiful sight to watch, I forced myself into the car as the chances of a really heavy rain were more than just possible. So, I climbed right back in. And believe me, that very moment, it poured!

As we drove further, we came to the Sahara Stadium area and there was a match going on. A thought, then, just passed my mind: "Man can change the face of the Earth. But he can't really change the sky! Though many people might have cursed the rain that fell, but the ground below rejoiced with overflowing joy as her wishes were fulfilled when the sky became heavy and monstrous and when the winds whispered into her ears 'The rain is here!'"

And knowing this, I thought myself to be so small and minute a living being in this really big universe!