Resolution

 Reclaim

Rekindle

Rebirth 

A beautiful prompt for the new year 2023 by Poet's and storyteller's  united 

Resolution

Rising from water

I rinse my soul

Of uncleanly remnants

Belonging to a rabid past.

 

I emerge calmer than

the wind which breathed

Life to my nose

Regaling gales which knocked

my wind before

will just leave my soul sour

I pledge to do that no more.

 

Fresh start

From ashes apart

Will bear fruit

Only if you stop being everyone’s favorite fool

Be ugly, Be astute.

 

 

 

 

Ludo Queen

So in lieu of my recent continued obsession with the game ‘Ludo King’, I have come to the conclusion that life is very similar to a game of  Ludo. Most people think it is the oversimplistic Snakes and ladders and a few would like to think that it is a complicated game of chess. The fact is that while in Snakes and Ladders we have ZERO control of the game and we are essentially leaving it to chance , in chess we are the masters of our own destiny. Neither situation really reflects life as it is.

 

Life like I said is a game of Ludo. It is the culmination of a seemingly predictable algorithm coupled with pure roll of the dice and strategic movement of your tokens. There are 2 ways to play it – either aggressively look to take out your opponent’s tokens to move forward or play the safe game and focus on the moves which will lead you to not be killed. It is fight or flee all over again. But again it is a question of responding to what the situation demands of you. Sometimes if you chicken out of taking the token which is right in front of you , others might start attacking you thinking you are a weakling . Or sometimes, while all your tokens are in the safe zone guarded by luck you might get cocky and try to grab what is not yours and end up back in square one.

 

So don’t be a cock or a chicken. Be your own wonderful self! Trust your instinct always. The gut always seems to process past defeats in a better fashion than your logical brain .

Earn your coins , enjoy the journey however tumultuous it gets. If all your tokens are back in the hut , don’t give up automatically. Atleast in the algorithm based universe perseverance has a price. Remember, giving up never has no upside! Also remember that this is just some elaborate game and it makes no sense to take it so seriously. Death might just be the end of a simulation for all we know. Okay. I am going to stop typing now :P

 

(365 words)

Helen Killer

Little lessons

So I have been thinking of linking up to this blog party for a while now and finally came around to doing it.  

When I think of 'Little things Thursday' the first idea that pops to my head is to share the little nuggets of wisdom I have gathered in my internship .Oh btw I intern at this Tax Law firm. Don't worry I won't bore you with tax...too much :P

1) No field is boring if you have the passion for it.

me when high on life.

...........Says the girl who loved History in school <3

 It is not always love at first sight with all the subjects.It is in fact hate at first sight with some, in the face of horrifying technicalities. But a love borne out of understanding will always be more meaningful than mere infatuation. I guess this rule applies for almost all matters in our lives. 

When Randall in This is us said he was really passionate about weather commodities I laughed. Surely people did such professions only for the dough? But being surrounded by people who live eat and breathe for Input Tax Credit and SEZs and WCO ruling and Exemption Notifications I realize every field is lovely in its own way..

2) You just gotta hang in there

................says the person who has quit more things than she likes to admit. 

When the going gets tough , the tough gets going is the kind of lame proverb which ignites me to quit things.Honestly, I just love to just  get rid of it all the nonsense and snuggle up on my bed most days. However , after facing a week of amazing highs and horrible lows and still floating around I feel enriched. Things are never as bad as we imagine it to be . So face your situations head on no matter what. At best you get what you want. At worst you get stronger from the experience. Why do we quit things again? Oh right because we are scared of what will happen. Just be scared throughout . Next time you will get used to it! 

3) Input Tax Credit 

.............Since I promised some tax :P 

Input tax is the tax you pay on the raw materials and preparatory stuff you put in to make your final good. If the government taxed a person for the Egg and the omelette he sells , he would go broke. So they have this system where you can get credit (like store credit) for the inputs you paid and cut it on from the amount you have to pay finally to the government.  

And in India under the new tax regime of GST they have reduced the rates of taxes to restaurants but they have also removed this ITC system for them. So that is why the costs might change only a little.

4) I type in a very systematic , organised way nowadays. 

Bold , underline and very justified ;)

Ta ta! you're free to share your big lil lesson of the week in the comments section! :)

Rockstar

I Rebel

Don’t compromise

Non conform

Break Glass Ceilings

Only for it to shatter all over me

Cuts deeper than wound

I persist

Keep flying towards the star

My scars sing to the world

That I am a rockstar

And now I wave down at them

Because I dared to climb up. 

Fly

When you delete more than you write

It means you aren’t letting yourself fly.

Fear of falling and all the eyeballing

Constraints of prompts

Ideas not blossoming into posts

Clogging of words

Maybe too much powder with too less water

Makes it all too mushy

The word flows only when the thoughts and the passion

Are in right proportion.

But every idea needs its own recipe

And you find it only if you make it up as you go along

So fear not oh heart of mine!

Make mistakes

And stop all the deleting.

It’s very annoying.

Start flying~

Walking the Walk

I stand before 2 roads

Hoping it will lead me to my yellow brick road

Eventually leaving me at my dream destination

Only that I don’t have a dream or a destination

Let alone a way to reach the way to reach it.

Maybe life isn’t about reaching a happy place

It is about being happy whilst while we reach it.

The only way to know for sure is by walking the path and 

not forgetting to

enjoy the breath taking view.

Look straight~like the eyes of god. 

( The object of this challenge is to write a poem in no more than 10 lines. Frame of reference is 'The Cross-roads' quoted from Kwesi Brew's poem, The Mesh. For Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads)

Silly Billie

Here comes Silly billie*

Along the lines of my mojojojo

She was a silly billie *

My chikni Chameli ,

A wild cat to her inner core

Untamed by mere homo sapiens.

She unleashed her claws every chance she got

Scratching more than the surface of

Every person she met.

She was a silly billie

My very own chikni chameli.

Not a Soft kitty

Not a Warm kitty

And definitely more than a little ball of fur.

Cats get things done

Humans don't .

Queen of the concrete jungle

She looked down upon everyone

With a smile of smug satisfaction. 

Silly Billie

All behold and worship our very own Chikni Chameli

I miss her though.

* billie in hindi means cat

written for poets united midweek motif 'cats' 

The F word.

Failures rock.
A year back , no one would have believed that I believed this. Now , people at least try to listen to me when I try to convince them of this. Baby steps.

It is easy to believe in something when it is only an ideology and you don't have to experience it in action. That's why most people are hypocrites. They don't want to be but usually the gap between concrete action and lofty thoughts swallows 'em up. I always believed that I didn't care about failures and it is a stepping stone to success and etcetera etcetera. Only when I experienced it , I could take a proper look.
Initially it sucks , pains a lot more than you think. Nobody likes change and when things don't go your way it is highly frustrating , stress inducing. Everything feels like falling apart . The same welcoming world of yesterday seems to be menacing . But these so called failures are actually good for you and I will tell you why.

What are these failures anyway?
Society manufactured standards of practice which every person is forced to follow by pressures of socialization such as family , community and organised institutions. However , cool we like to be and not care , every human being lives in a community and social disapproval goes a long way in shaping one's attitude.
Okay , I realise i sound like my 11th standard sociology textbook. Dry , abstract and boring.
Let's lighten up with cliched examples. Eg. The 10th standard board exams are a redundant concept. Nobody should care about those marks. But , most people care about it because these marks are used by families as indicators of intelligence and social prestige. I know a certain family member who makes a list of all the kids she knows who are writing their board exams that year and calls them to check their marks. This inordinate amount of curiosity is the reason why kids run to America lol
What I have realised is most of the failures are not even failures. It is such a strong word with so much stigma attached. They are minor setbacks to one of the possible routes through which you can attain your possible goal.
So hereon I'm gonna use the word setback.

So why does failure setback rock?

It makes you think! I wouldn't be writing this original content on my personal property if i didn't suffer a setback. Usually when one attains what they want a tad too easily , all the problems get swept under the carpet. We just want to enjoy the fruits of our victory that we ignore the weeds. Till they grow long enough to coil around our necks. Minor setbacks make us trim our gardens better ,i.e , keep us well aware and in control of our weaknesses, I would rather lose my way in the play offs and peak during the knockouts rather than have a perfect run in the leagues and choke due to my deficiencies in the finals. 

Usually people who are used to success , define themselves with it. When they lose , that's why it hits them hard. They feel incomplete without it. They even loathe themselves and hate the version which doesn't have it. Accepting and loving who you are is very important and that is not going to happen with the constant halo of success hovering around you. Your happiness should never rely on a contingency . Happiness should be found even in the darkest of places and shouldn't be concentrated in one holy spot. It is the journey and not the destination, I mean sure , if the destination is fun that is definitely an added bonus, 

People have a very narrow definition of success and planned road drawn towards it. Life is never going to let that happen and that's what makes it so interesting. Nobody can control fate and people used to success know that in their heads but never feel that truly until the door is abruptly closed on their faces. It makes you more creative and takes you to paths never travelled before to reach that goal. So it keeps you fresh. 

So failures make you a better at what you do , makes you love yourself for who you are , makes your happiness more intrinsic and makes you creative and understand the uncertainty of life, It is the best teacher there is. 

Most importantly it makes you

STRONGER to take the next blow and probably stand up and deliver the next punch. 

And shows you the ones who truly care. Because life is about those people. You need someone to share all that hyped up success with,

(P.S - All pictures are borrowed)

So yes. Don't be afraid to fail. Don't think of what might happen if x goes wrong. Something can always go wrong. Just give it your best shot and move on. Enjoy your failure , like you enjoy your success, There is nothing derogatory about losing. 

IT IS OKAY TO FAIL. 

But , Have you?

The day has come

where Meredith is without Derek

Castle is without beckett 

and there is no sex scene in game of thrones 

I repeat ,

and there is no sex scene in GAME OF THRONES!

The day has come , 

Sachin is seen without his bat 

his perfect persona somehow incomplete ; 

csk is without a match

its heart still beating 

in the million hearts of its faithful fans

The day has come 

you are finally out of college 

All those million dreams 

you got in bed early for , 

have suddenly become real.

Point is , the day has arrive 

But , Have you?

Be careful what you wish for , 

they so often say.

When you shut your eyes

a bit too tightly 

you tend to get removed 

                                                                          far away from reality 

You open your eyes 

sudden glare of reality 

overpowering your dreamy eyes

into tears of submission.

Wearing the cooler of attitude 

through the seemingly 

eternal summer of reality

can shade your perceptions forever 

in almost irreparable ways.

Only time will tell, 

if you can outlast your

current state of affairs 

But Don't 

be too happy if you do.

cz the winter hasn't arrived yet 

but maybe this time 

you can arrive first. 

Hold on.

(A poem ,a song? I don't know , what I just wrote down. But , I wrote it with all my heart - at least the tiny broken pieces left of it )

P.s - all pics taken from google only. 

HOLD ON

Hey you!

This moment ain’t permanent.

Embrace it.

I know it ain’t a new gospel

Or something.

But it is true.

There will come an international relations paper

Which gives you the feeling

That you aced it.

Embrace it.

Because it ain’t permanent bro.

This moment when you

Open your contracts question paper

Well prepared with all the

Expected questions of the

Last 5 years.

And life/god/nature/paper setter

Decides to ask that 20 mark question

Which has never been asked in the past

12 years.

Remember!

This also ain’t permanent bro.

Don’t embrace this godforsaken moment

Try shrinking it away by

Not giving it enough importance

Don’t repress it though ,

You might get cancer.

But that is because

Everything causes cancer nowadays.

Please hold on to that moment

When your lady love

Walks down the aisle

Clothed head to toe in white

And love , full of life.

Because

You might lose your best friend in a

Helicopter crash

And your lady love loses her left leg

And blames you

And you end up having to leave her

Since you forget when you laughed last .

Thank you Shonda Rhimes

You have taught me

That this moment ain’t permanent.

Damn you T.V shows.

If that isn't enough,

You are one moment in the 6^th grade

Declaring you’ll all be besties for life

And the next moment

You are walking down the same streets

5 years later ,

With not even 1 bestie in sight

Separated by change in schools , colleges,cities

Not

Your dramatic fights , jealousy or treachery

Just

Life simply moving on

With or without you.

Time makes us forget , not care any more

Just move on to

Another set of unrelated events

to be embroiled in &

Which we strive to find meaning in.

We will never learn

To cope with all the broken hearts

And badly meandered relationships

The least we could try

Is to

Hold on to this moment

This beautiful one which you

Hope to recall

When a lorry is coming out of nowhere

To take your life

That safe moment

When your dad holds your hands in his

So casually yet so reassuringly.

That crazy moment when

You jumped off the seat

Watching a very funny movie with your friends.

Or quite simply

The ones after a very good meal.

Because brace yourself babies,

Life is just behind that curb

Waiting to bulldoze this

One moment

With a million messy ones

Hold on.

After August 15th

We have all studied history at primary levels at least.

Oh no. You don't get to yawn and leave today. Today is the day I have decided to write - after 3 months- So , Please read me out . 
Everybody seems to hate history and me being an exception to this rule, hates the current state of affairs very much. So much, that I started questioning some haters why they hate the topic so much. One of the standard responses is that why should we care about something which happened so long back? England is not ruling us anymore and we're even beating them in cricket now :P
While I can go on an on about how past experiences are invaluable to current scenarios , how history tends to repeat itself and how the mere fact that the area I was born in or the wooden table I am using is so soaked in history that I often can't help but get intoxicated with the romanticism of it all or how there are so many different civilizations which had so much in common and difference , I am not going to.
In this post we're going to address the problem of modern history. Modern history? That word sounds very oxymoronish to be true.

One of the major problem with our education system of history in India is that there seems to be a total disconnect from what we study and what we see today.  While it is pretty cool that Mahatma Gandhi walked miles to collect salt from the British and that we stunk of socialism in the independence era , nothing seems to correlate with what we see today.
The freedom fighting politicians of the yore seem to be substituted by blatantly corrupt ones of today. While we read about socialism and Nehru everywhere , we hear more about FDI in retail and the far reaching tentacles of globalization and capitalism.
Indian history to us Indians seems to end with August 15 , 1947  when India achieved independence. The very few who elect political science for high school or college degree learn a ridiculously more amount about our country.

We're stuck in that moment

Isn't it time to acknowledge that what happened for the 68 years afterwards to be also included as history? Not an entire subject , that would be asking too much. But at least 2-3 chapters covering important topics like the Kashmir issue , language reorganization , 1991 liberalization reforms which certainly changed the history of the country.
If pundits are unwilling to label it as history then it is about time that we give importance to political science as a social science. I was literally flabbergasted when a very well learned friend of mine, who studies architecture currently, told me that she didn't know Pakistan and Bangladesh were the same country before 1970's . :O
And it gets worse. When i told others about her ignorance , I found more from unexpected quarters.
This problem rises in significance when we take the rate of change happening around us into consideration. Every decade sounds like a different era and with the rate of growth of population and science and technology being equally precariously scary , it is time we read history according to modern contexts.
India has stepped into a new era or believes it has stepped into a new era by electing Narendra Modi into power. This is the first time a non congress alliance has got such a huge mandate and we can be pretty sure that the lawmakers would want to 'rewrite' history soon enough. Citizens must be offered an unbiased version of the riots , partition and violence which has been plaguing the country.

Things to be added in a social science textbook :

1. Partition - No point acting like it never happened. While independence was a huge victory , the partition was quite the opposite. The fact that Mahatma Gandhi never celebrated the independence is conveniently ignored. Some light on this hasty yet historic blunder would remove some prejudice we carry about our Pakistani neighbors. Both sides suffered . Sick of all the pakistani hate posts. Half the people don't know why/who/how we got separated but carry the hate though :/ 
2. Kashmir - Before yelling that article 370 is unconstitutional Indians must be taught ( unbiased ly ) how  really Kashmir was created. While demanding that Kashmir be ours is truly patriotic , learning what exactly happened before harping ill informed propagandized news is truly more worthwhile and patriotic . 

   

   Too beautiful to suffer :(

3. Hindi - There surely must be a lesson on the reorganization of states according to languages , the tensions and unity it created. The language politics , the true current status of hindi - the official and not the national language of India. 

A crash course on this would really enlighten many of us on current issues . Unlike science , every person can have an opinion on social science topics and well informed chapters on current historic problems would at least brighten us enough to not sound like illiterate buffoons on social media . 

Thanking you for the patience if you did read me out

Samyuktha (Semi) Jayaprakash