A Portal To Different Worlds

While waiting for a friend at the club, I decided to pass my time in the library. There's a certain peacefulness about it. It's calm and serene and tranquil. The silence isn't awkward or forced, it's natural. It's as if it were a place of worship, you instantly shut up the moment you enter. 

As I sat and looked around, I noticed that the few people present were probably around the age of my grandparents'. Not a single person even close to my age group, other than the librarian who peeked at me suspiciously over his desktop as I ventured around the books. As if I would do something sacrilegious.

There's something truly amazing about libraries. It's always welcoming. It's a rainy day? Come on in! There are several heartwarming books for you to read. A broken heart? We can empathise. You don't have much time to kill? No worries, there's still plenty for you. A library is like a therapist. It's a solace, a sanctuary. Most of us don't realise how calming it is just being there. Surrounded by pages that tell stories-not just of the characters that the authors create, but also the authors themselves. The most beautiful writing is one that has incredible honesty in it. Because writing isn't about getting words down on a page. It's about giving a part of yourself to your reader. Otherwise, it's just superficial and you really aren't fooling anybody.

So, my advice to anyone who wants it, spend a little time around books. You don't have to read them if you don't want to. But being around them is a start. I'm sure you won't be able to resist. It's a portal to magical worlds. Who doesn't want that?

Dark is Beautiful

We Indians are quite biased when it comes to skin colour. The light-skinned are instantly considered superior and better looking than the dark-skinned. Frankly, this bothers me. How does the colour of one's skin determine if one is pretty or beautiful? We're so obsessed with making our skin fairer that we spend god-only-knows how much on cosmetics that vow to give lighter skin in a few days. An entire industry thrives on our desire to have fair skin.
Beauty can't be determined by just the colour of your skin. You could be the fairest of all and yet, still not be beautiful. And fairness isn't just considered a prerequisite for beauty; it's also a prerequisite for success. How can brands like Fair & Lovely and Fair & Handsome send messages to the people that using the cream gives you "the power to shape your destiny"; and fame and fortune. Only you can determine that. Not some silly cream, that probably doesn't work. And since when does being fair and lovely and fair and handsome go hand in hand? Loveliness is something that comes from nurturing, from good values, from a kind heart. And handsome? Well, isn't Matthew McConaughey the sexiest man alive? And how many of us have dreamed of a tall, dark and handsome hunk sweeping us off our feet?
 I understand wanting to look the best you possibly can. I do. What I don't understand is, completely changing the way you look. Do you really hate yourself that much? Or do you really think that everyone will look past you just because of the colour of your skin?
Some of us have to learn to love ourselves. For others, it comes easy. If you don't love yourself, how can you ever expect to be loved? We were meant to be this way. Why would we want to change that? It isn't easy, I know. When you're surrounded by advertisements that tell you that fair skin is gorgeous, you're bound to look in the mirror and feel inadequate about yourself. The "seduction of inadequacy" is too hard to resist. I take that phrase from Lupita N'yongo's speech. But why should we let a billboard or some brand tell us that we aren't good enough? We all come out perfect into the world. Not caring about colour, about size. We can be the best versions of ourselves, we can't be someone else. We're only deceiving ourselves at the end of the day. Believe in yourself, in your talent. All of us are meant for something. And we shouldn't go screwing it up by obsessing over something like the colour of our skin.

A Futile Search For Inspiration

I seem to be suffering from a lack of inspiration. I want to, I really want to write, but the words just don't seem to come. I'm so desperate, I'm reading articles on the internet, hoping to get something. The Oxford dictionary defines inspiration as 'the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative'. Sounds pretty darn inspiring, doesn't it? If the writing doesn't explain it, I'm being sarcastic.
The thing is, I don't get it myself. I don't get what inspires me. It's almost as though it comes from within. It's a reaction to something, to someone. It could be someone you know or a total stranger. It could be a song, it could be something someone said; heck, it could be food! It's something that no dictionary can describe. That feeling? Of the words flowing, of the paintbrush moving? It's poetic, almost. You'll never actually see it, but you do feel it. You feel it when you read a beautiful story, when you see the works of an artist.
 I've read some of the "inspiring" quotes that are online, and frankly, they really don't inspire me. Stories inspire me. TED talks inspire me. Some movies inspire me; The Blind Side, for one. Elizabeth Gilbert, in one of her TED speeches, called her inspiration the 'elusive creative genius'. She said that people once considered works of art and beauty, almost divine. So divine, that us mere mortals couldn't come up with it. There had to be some divine or supernatural intervention of some sort. She also said that treating creativity like that takes off the pressure. Because, if you screw up or produce something mediocre, it really isn't all your fault. Also, you don't act like a smug shmuck when you produce something brilliant, because all the credit can't be given to you. I am yet to produce a work of brilliance, but that's a pretty great idea, isn't it?
One of my favourite books,'A Geography Of Bliss', says that if you look for happiness you'll never find it. It's the same with inspiration. When you yell to the high heavens asking to get inspired, you're unlikely to get a response. The truth is, you just have to keep trying. You'll churn out total rubbish sometimes, but sometimes, that elusive creative genius of yours, might just take some pity on you and lend you a hand. And then what, you ask? Magic, of course!

Taking a Step Back

A friend told me, that I jumped to conclusions much too soon with the Bible. She said that perhaps. I should have sat through the entire thing, and then gone on to form a proper opinion. As much as all of us dread criticism, I could see her point. We make a lot of errors just by jumping to conclusions. We lose out on opportunities, we lose potentially great friends; basically, we make mistakes-some gigantic, some not so major.What I did, was that I ignored the good, and saw only the negative.

My mom told me, that if the world considers something great, you have to give it a fair shot. You may not like it, you don't have to; but you have to see it for yourself. And then if you don't like it, it's okay. You have justification. You don't prejudge someone on the basis of what someone else says. You can't say that you hate the works of Picasso, without actually visiting one of his museums. The same way, you simply can't say you won't read 'Lord of the Rings' or 'Harry Potter' just because you don't want to. or you don't like books. These are books that have shaped generations. These are books that have fostered dreams in budding writers. I think everyone can be a book lover. They just have to find the right book. According to me, 'Harry Potter' would be a good start.

Coming back to my point, I do have a tendency to jump to way more than just one conclusion. And once that happens, well, there's no stopping me. Today was a bit of an eye-opener actually. Sometimes, taking a step back is all that is required. Because, taking a step back gives you a new perspective. It makes you think from someone else's point of view. How much ever we would like to think that we are the center of the universe, we really aren't. What IS at the center of the universe, we may never know. For the time being, I'm just going retract my opinion and once I'm completely done with the Bible, I'll officially have my opinion. Till then, I'll find something else to write about

Religion is a Misogynist

As I've been doing Milton in Literature, I decided to read the Bible as that would give me a better perspective on Paradise Lost. I haven't read beyond Genesis yet, but I have come to one conclusion-if religion were to be personified, it would be a misogynist. No, really.
Women are portrayed as impure, as temptresses, the weaker, the lesser beings. How is that fair? Women who were good with healing and midwifery were accused of witchcraft. Men felt threatened by a woman in a position of power.
 India's most famous early legal code, The Laws of Manu (Manusmriti), says that a woman is a liar and a sinner. That it is in their nature to seduce men and that a husband can leave his wife if she has only given him daughters; and and and! She should never be allowed to assert herself independently. She always has to be in the custody of a man-be it her father, brother or husband. How evil can you be to compose something like that? That, if a woman overhears Vedic chants by accident, hot molten glass has to be poured in her ears? How can one be capable of such cruelty against your own race?
I haven't read the Quran, but after doing some research, I found that it does say that husbands have a right to hit their wives, if the men fear highhandedness; man is superior to woman-he has to manage her affairs. A direct quote from the Quran is-The Prophet said, "I looked at Paradise and found poor people forming the majority of its inhabitants; and I looked at Hell and saw that the majority of its inhabitants were women.". The Prophet said, "Isn’t the witness of a woman equal to half of that of a man?" The women said, "Yes." He said, "This is because of the deficiency of a woman’s mind." . Women apparently, deserved only half of what the man deserved. 
Now, coming to Christianity, which was actually what prompted me to write this post. In Genesis, right at the beginning- God created Eve because he wanted a helper for Adam. He creates her from Adam's rib. Eve is the one who tempts Adam into eating the forbidden fruit and is cursed with painful childbirth and the domination of her husband. Lot tells the villagers to rape his daughters instead of the angels of God; his wife is turned into a pillar of salt for disobeying God and he sleeps with his daughters when drunk and impregnates them. And this is just the top of the dungheap. 
One thing that all religions have in common is that, polygamy is perfectly okay if you're a man. The woman was created for only one purpose. To serve. The man could do anything, ANYTHING; and he would still be considered superior and it would probably be blamed on the poor woman. How can books that supposedly preach the word of God say all this? my blood boils even thinking of it. I'm not saying that the people who follow these religions are misogynistic pigs. The ones who actually wrote it... Well that's a whole other story. What if women hadn't finally gotten up and said,"Enough"? Would we still be subservient and willing to endure abuse at the hands of our families? The saddest thing is, that some people still believe in all this. They think that as it is the word of God, it must be true. What a world we live in, don't we?

You CAN Always Get What You Want.

How many times have all of us heard the phrase-"You can't have everything"? Innumerable, I'm sure. But the truth is, the ones who do get everything they want are the ones who ask for it. If you don't ask, no one's going to hand it to you on a silver platter. 

You'd think that it would be pretty easy if all you had to do was ask. But therein lies the problem. Most of us don't know how, or rather, are afraid to ask. An employee doesn't know how to ask his boss for a raise. A student is afraid to ask his teacher a question, at the risk of sounding stupid to the class. Why are we so frightened of asking? Because we are afraid the answer will be no. Or the answer will be humiliating. Or both even. We'd rather simmer with resentment at not getting our due, than actually working up the courage to take a step forward and grabbing what we want. It's what differentiates the haves and the have-nots. The "haves" aren't afraid of refusal. They see it as a challenge. They work around it. Find a way. Whereas, the "have-nots" simply take the easy way out by not doing anything, by not saying anything.

How can one word have that much power? That people don't even want to take a risk? At the end of the day, it's just a word. We say it all the time. We say it to admonish little children when they ask for dessert before dinner. We click on it when browsing the internet to shut down a pop-up. We say it to overzealous salesmen at malls. If we use it all the time, why are we so afraid of being at the receiving end? How can we presume that the answer will be no? We're underestimating the person we have to ask. We're underestimating our own needs, underestimating ourselves. Sure, the answer can be no. But that doesn't mean it'll always be no. You have to believe you deserve it. Because if you don't, you'll never get it. Don't be afraid to ask. It's harmless. What can they say? No? It could also be yes. Is that a risk you're willing to take?

Writer's Block

I'm experiencing a severe case of writer's block. There's a lot that I want to say, but when I sit down to write it out, my mind goes blank. While I call it writer's block, my mom calls it sheer laziness. A bit of both, perhaps?

So, what does one write about when they literally have nothing to say? Well, if Milton, Bacon, Shakespeare and the other greats,of both the old and the present, had thought the same thing and stopped writing whatever they were in the middle of, we wouldn't have the epics, the poetry, the voluminous novels. We wouldn't feel what we normally feel when reading a particularly interesting novel. In a way, we feel the author owes us the privilege of getting his or her best. We are reading their books, after all. How would we know how they think, how they dream?

The truth is, years later, if we look at what we've written, we won't know what it was that we wrote when inspired, or when under compulsion. We won't be able to tell the difference. So, coming back to my point, what use is it to stop writing saying you have writer's block? It's just a state of mind anyway, isn't it?