Looking Like An Escaped Convict.

What is it about passport size photographs that makes all of us look like escaped convicts? I, for one, look like the kind of person whose photo parents show their children to scare them into drinking their milk or eating their vegetables, otherwise I'll come get them. We aren't allowed to smile. Just stare blankly into the camera with lights shining on our faces. We look terrifying. Especially me. I look like a juvenile kid who got on the wrong side of the tracks and is getting her first mugshot for drug dealing or whatnot. 

How does a smile distort one's features that we aren't allowed to do it for our passports or visas? I'm not talking about a full blown 'Jokeresque' smile, but a small one (although, my friends say my smile is as wide as the Joker's). So that we look at least happy. And NORMAL. Not psychotic mental patients who want to burn your house down with you in it. I get scared of my own photo. If that's how I look when I'm not smiling, it's quite disconcerting. Maybe I should just smile more. To be on the safe side.

Attacking the Blameless

War. What is it good for?! In my opinion, we should just listen to music, eat good food and be content with what we have. Discontent is the reason we had the disastrous World Wars. Everyone got greedy and wanted to conquer the world to make it their own. News flash, that's impossible. Us human beings are a selfish lot. We don't let anyone or anything live in peace. We've cut down numerous dense forests to build ugly skyscrapers. We've endangered so many animals just to get their fur, or the ivory from the tusks or something. We use it in the coats we wear, the bags we carry, we mount stuffed heads on our walls. Don't people get creeped out wearing or carrying something that used to be alive? Don't those crazy morons that hunt for fun have nightmares that the stuffed heads of the animals they've, will come to life and devour them whole or trample them? We are such a self absorbed bunch that we don't even get that the animals are living things too. Why are we waging a one sided war against animals that have done nothing to deserve the treatment we give them? Don't they deserve to live? They wouldn't be wandering into cities if we weren't destroying their habitats. And they wouldn't attack us unless they felt threatened. And they would feel threatened only if we invade their habitat and come at them with those monstrous guns of ours. 

Everyone deserves a shot at living their lives to the fullest. Them, more than others. Because they haven't done anything to harm anyone. They do what they do to survive. They aren't evil. They aren't conniving and they most certainly aren't the ones responsible for global warming. We just HAVE to mess everything up, don't we? Who are we helping by committing unspeakable atrocities on blameless animals? All we are doing is creating imbalance in nature. Attacking innocents who are powerless against guns and bombs is unfair and cruel. The ones we don't kill, we cage. No one should live in captivity. It's unimaginable for us to spend our lives in a box. Not being able to do as we please. These animals were born free. And they deserve to be free, they deserve to run wild. They definitely have a better grasp on what's good for themselves than we do. It's only when they are free, that they can defend themselves. They don't need the animal rights activists to fight for them. They'll do just fine themselves. It's us that needs to learn how to fight fair. 

Uncommonly Common Violence.

In Nigeria, Boko Haram continues it's kidnapping of young girls. In Pakistan, the Taliban attacks it's own people. In the United States of America, there's a story of a shooting taking place in a school, a college or some public place. The world becomes an increasingly frightening place each day. Each day, you hear of another tragedy. Another casualty.

And the most tragic part of it all is, that we turn a blind eye to it all. Because it isn't happening to us. Or to people we know. We sympathise, yes. Our eyes tear up when we see Malala Yousafzai delivering a moving speech and continuing her fight for girls' education. A grown man doesn't have the courage that she, a 17 year old, does. But none of us want to be a part of it. We don't want to be part of the fight against the evil that plagues our world.

How does someone get so brainwashed that they take up arms against their own people? All in the name of religion? Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, at their very core, all preach the very same thing. Being honest and true. None of them tell us to be rabid in our beliefs. None of them tell us that we have to turn to violence to get our voices heard.

Trust us to screw everything up. A war doesn't solve anything. Blowing up things doesn't solve anything. Blowing YOURSELF up definitely doesn't solve anything. It's an insult to one's religion to turn to violence in it's name. No God would ever tell us to invent weapons of mass destruction. No God would tell us to kill innocent people. We are so hellbent on playing God, we don't realise that we are destroying ourselves. And it's not just violence in the things we do. Violence has seeped into our words. The way we speak when angry or annoyed is violent. As much as we hate to admit, violence is a part of our lives, of us. And the only way we can rid ourselves of it is by trying to do something that can make a difference. We are so used to hearing bad news, we hardly react to it anymore. It's time that we get up and do something. React. Show outrage. Show grief. Show spirit. Show courage.

An Almost Fatal Obsession

My mother is a huge fan of Anderson Cooper and never fails to watch his show everyday. As a result, I get at least some idea of what is happening in the world. A few days ago, he was talking about the "Slender Man stabbing". The Slender Man is a fictional character that stalks, abducts and terrorizes people, especially children. Two twelve year old girls in Wisconsin were huge fans of this character, almost obsessed with him, and believed that by murdering someone the Slender Man would appear to them, as that was how the tale went. They concocted a plan to kill their best friend, by luring her under the pretence of a sleepover.

After stabbing her 19 times they left her there. Luckily she was spotted by a biker and taken to the hospital and saved just in time. What is happening to the world? How did this even occur to the two girls? At just 12, they're devising plots to kill people? And it wasn't out of anger or anything. It was some demented obsession with a fictitious character who kidnaps children. They almost killed their friend. Can you imagine the trauma she must have undergone? The poor thing must be scarred for life. 

What I don't seem to understand is, how could those two girls get so influenced by a fictitious character? When did they stop differentiating between reality and fiction? And how could such thoughts even enter their heads? How could they even contemplate murder? Aren't kids supposed to be all innocent and sweet then? They almost succeeded in murdering somebody, who was their friend. The world is going completely crazy. With people of all ages having access to the internet, how can anyone keep their children safe and innocent?