What Sets Us Apart

We're currently doing 'Paradise Lost' in our Literature class and we were given a short introduction to Adam and Eve. All of us have some idea about them. According to the Bible, Adam and Eve were the first man and woman created by God, who were banished from the Garden of Eden for eating the forbidden fruit. What I found out today, was that they ate from the Tree of Knowledge. God didn't want mankind to have knowledge. As a result of this one mistake, mankind lost immortality and lost Paradise.

The only thing that really had an impact on me among all this, was that God didn't want us to acquire knowledge. I'm not religious, but I get it. God didn't want us to question. Because where there are questions, there's dissatisfaction. And all of us know that there's never an end to dissatisfaction. And there was probably no room for discontent in the Garden of Eden. We were given one instruction, and we couldn't follow that. We gave in to temptation. Although I do resent the misogynistic way they portrayed Eve as the one who ate the fruit. What? A man can't be tempted? Women need to stop being considered the lesser sex. But that's an argument for another time. 

So, we, as a species, have this thirst for knowledge that can't be quenched. Animals don't wonder why they eat a certain thing, nor do they feel any compulsion to change their diet. They don't question their role in the food chain. It comes naturally. I wonder if we are really better off. With this crazy thirst for knowledge, we've introduced the world to global warming. So, basically we have issued a death sentence not only for ourselves, but for the poor animals who've done nothing to deserve it. But it is this thirst that sets us apart. Makes us who we are. I repeat, I'm not religious; but these stories- these myths, have, at the root of them, a fact, a truth. And it'll do us some good to acknowledge that. It's never too late to learn our morals and values again. Maybe there's hope for us yet.

Being Your Own Kind Of Beautiful

Look into the mirror. What do you see? Considering women are the ones who are considered the vain creatures, you'd think we'd be fawning all over ourselves. Our hair, our eyes, our perfectly applied mascara, our clothes. Instead, all we see are the flaws. We see the extra amount of flab around the waist, we see the creases in our dress, the zit on our forehead. We spot our flaws, before anyone else sees them. As my mother said, we forget that Narcissus was a man.

We see flaws that no one else seems to see. For example, I see my broad forehead, the not-so-great skin, the weight I could lose. We don't accept ourselves as we are. We think that there's always room for improvement. And while that holds true to a certain extent, we shouldn't let it control us. We can't let it influence our self image. We can't let it ruin our confidence. We don't get that, when we can see a flaw in ourself, the girl next to us also sees a flaw in herself. We're not perfect. We weren't meant to be. And we shouldn't kill ourselves trying to be a certain way when we know it's not who we are. All of us are beautiful, we just need to believe that. We need to learn to believe in ourselves. 

Be your own kind of beautiful. Don't listen to what the world has to say about the definition of beauty. What do they know? The epitome of beauty seems to change every now and then. So, believe. Smile. That's not much to ask for, is it? 

Seeking Redemption

There are a lot of social experiments being done these days. To see how people react to a situation that's seemingly not their problem. A random girl being harassed as she returns from college and when she asks for help, no one steps forward, believing that it isn't their problem.

On a lonely street, there's a van with tinted windows, from which emerge heart wrenching screams, and yet most of the people who pass by, continue to walk on.

A man lies bleeding on the road, about 1 km from a hospital, begging for help. Yet, no one wants to take him, nor call an ambulance. 

The ones who silently watch this happen are even worse than the perpetrators. Because they know that something unjust and traumatic is occurring before their eyes, and they don't think that it is their responsibility to offer help, to call the police, or call an ambulance. Is this what we have come to? We don't have the courage, or rather the humanity, to step forward and help someone in dire need? Be it, a child lost, wandering and crying in a mall or a young girl just wanting to go home in peace. By not helping, we are destroying ourselves, knowing that we might have been able to do something. Knowing that it could happen to someone we know, that it could happen to us. It's the easy way out, looking away. By pretending that it isn't happening, we block it out, shut it out, lock the memory and throw away the key. But living under pretence has helped nobody. Because, at the end of the day, we are the ones who have to live with ourselves. No one should have to live with guilt weighing down on their conscience. Take a step forward, speak up, help. Not just to save somebody else, but even yourself. All of us seek some sort of redemption. And instead of searching for it elsewhere, we have to find it in ourselves. It's never too late to make that change.

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?