Second thoughts

         Broken Friendships. Failed Relationships. Forgotten Dreams. Empty Promises. We believed them to be forever. But then does forever end the way we die? or is it the beginning?

         It is beyond my understanding that why do we meet new people in every phase of our life. Because everyone comes for a specific purpose and time. Some disappear in a blink of an eye. While, some stay no matter what the season. In life, we have the good apples and the bad ones. Few in our lives are the good apple, while others are the bad apples. The bad apples teach us some life-changing lessons; maybe we need it, maybe we don't. I mean why can't everyone just be a good apple? If i had my way, I'd make sure nobody had any bad experiences. Every person adds meaning to our life, leads us towards the direction we ought to go. But then why do we break friendships and why do we fail in relationships?

        We dream of achieving so much in a short span. Mostly, we dream about fame and money. But we also dream of never-ending love and being with those we love and care about.  But our dream for momentary pleasure overpowers our dream of love. We choose one over the other. Our worldly 'needs' outweigh our hearts 'desire'. In our conquest of achieving fame we forget the power of love. And someday we will pursue these forgotten dreams.

        We, humans, do two things very often and without giving a second thought. Just because it is cool and easy. First, swear. And second, Promise. There's no cure or prevention for the either of them. We promise too much and much too often. We seldom realize the value of promises being made. I believe if you promise something to a dear one, come what may, keep your word. Not for your own pride. Not for the devil named 'ego'. But out of respect to your relation with that person and the bond you share. And trust me, your heart will always be happy. Just imagine a world with fulfilled promises. <3

        We fight with the one's we love. And we fight for them with others. We fight with them for their love and care. Because only your heart knows that no matter how much you fight with them, they'll always love you. And they will always and forever be the precious people of your life. These 'precious people' may come in your life for a temporary period or maybe forever. Secret to be happy is to cherish them while you have them with you, Create memories - bitter and sweet, love unconditionally. And you'll never worry about happily ever after or a forever. because you already had a lovely beginning and a memorable middle. :D

       So next time maybe, you're in doubt about a friendship or a relationship, or maybe you're thinking of giving up on your dream and those promises, Stop and think why you came so far? Is what you 'have' worth giving up for what 'may be' ? Give your doubt a second thought, and i'm sure you wont just give up. Keep smiling! Stay happy! :D 

Happy Endings!

           Exams finally get over and i return to the love of my life - the TV! ( yes you read it right ) So i happened to come across 'The Santa Clause' Series being aired on one of the movie channels. Trust me, the little kid in me didn't want to go to sleep, though i was tired and sleepy as hell. The movie made me reflect on these little things of life - our little actions, behaviour, thoughts, etc. 

            The movie more or less advocates about keeping the kid in you, alive. When we grow up, we see things from a different perspective - one filled with logic and facts. There is no place for delusional things like magic and hope. But if you observe a child, he has this magic in his eyes, spring in his step and innocence in his actions. He believes in his parents and people who shower him with love and care. He demands nothing but love and affection. And that too, in abundance. He wont doubt you for a moment and will have complete faith in you. He embraces you with all your strengths and weaknesses. Loves you unconditionally and will only demand love in return. He will consider you his 'own'. He'll bring a smile to your face and brighten up your day. He believes in fairytale. And that wishing on a star makes your wish come true. That Li'l bundle of joy, however naughty, will teach you lessons of life despite having no wrinkles on his face and grey in his hair.

            If you come to think of it, a child is smart and wise than us - grown ups. We grow up and we grow apart from each other. We grow apart from those we love, things we believe, etc. People we loved turn into people we loved once upon a time. And things we believed in become delusional and nonsense for us. We trade the magic in our eyes for 'worldly pleasures', the spring in our step is burdened with responsibilities disguised as 'chores' and innocence is replaced by 'Practical thinking'. We fail to trust those we love and we love those who don't trust us. We seek everything, but love. We doubt intentions of every person who is good to us. We embrace people who have their pockets filled with money and who have a status worth showing off. We are more interested in searching 'arm candies' rather than establishing some soulful connections.We are in love with the idea of being in love. And we feel let down when the love we receive isn't in tandem with our idea of love. For us love is nothing but "mein tumhare liye chand-sitaarein tod launga" (I'll bring the moon and stars for you). We compel ourselves to believe that fairytales are a myth, that there is no such thing as a 'happy ending', we seldom believe in 'Happily-ever-after". No amount of wrinkle on our face and grey in our hair will be able to make us realize the value of people around us.

            So, why think so much? why don't we just have faith and put our trust in god and hope for the best? why do we give up so easily? why do we believe that happy endings are just fairytale stuff? Maybe its time to wake that li'll kid in us! and it's time to enjoy your lives, believe in the power of love and have faith in HIS plan. And maybe its not about the happy ending, its about the story! 

Message in a Bottle

       I was reading this book "Message in a bottle" by Nicholas Sparks. And most of you will agree to have fallen in love with almost all of his books, especially "A Walk to remember"! It is the epitome of love, it teaches you how to love, and what exactly it feels to have loved deeply and lost! It is about the crazy love, more about love-at-first-sight and things that make your heartbeats race and makes you go 'awww', while managing to make you cry, you feel the pain and hurt of those fictional characters as if it were happening to someone you knew or worst case scenario, it was happening to you itself ( god forbid )

       The story is all lovey-dovey and heart warming throughout, up until the climax. It made me realize what a great role 'Destiny' plays, how amazingly talented it is in its work! Two people, complete strangers, who are totally oblivious to each others existence, their lives get entwined in a fairy-tale way. They both have loved someone deeply in the past, losing their partners to fate. But destiny brings them together and how! And making everything perfect, the same destiny that brought them together, separates them! But before that happens, it gives them a reason to fall in love all over again, to fall in love with someone, to fall in love with life, in general. It helps them create memories together, that would be etched in their memories forever. Their world changes overnight, the gloomy, mundane days are now filled with love and warmth, hope and re-affirmed willingness to fall in love. Take a bow Mr. Destiny! First, bring two people together, make them fall in love with each other, more importantly they fall in love with 'love' itself. And then Mr. Destiny shakes it up a little, turning everything upside down. The wise men said, "If it was meant to be, it will always be". All of this, just re-affirms our faith in love, making it deeper and stronger.

       I don't know what is to have loved and lost and i really don't know what it is to fall in love either. but by what I've seen, heard and read about love, it's a beautiful feeling. But i know that most of us claim to be in love, but that makes me wonder. Can you really love someone selflessly, without any expectations in return? I guess all of us are in love with the idea of being in love. And there's where we lose the real essence of it! The book made me sit and wonder about many things of life, in general. One things for sure, in this game of life, Mr. Destiny is one big game changer and a very powerful and experienced one at that, too.

       When you are in love with someone and you know its for real, but then destiny separates you forever, where there's no hope or even the slightest chance of reunion with your loved one, there's no slight possibility of being with that person again, hugging them, telling them how much you love and care for them, why are they brought into your life in the first place? Ofcourse having them in your life, though for a brief moment is worth it but if death could separate you so soon and so easily, why would fate come up with a story like this for just anyone?

       One  question that the book answered, made me realize that that "happily ever after" can be for a short time, 'perfect' need not always be 'forever'. But then does forever end the day we die? or is it then the beginning?
Still a mystery ...! Stay happy... !  Keep Smiling ..!

P.s: This article is inspired by the same book, just random thoughts that lingered on my mind as an after-effect. ;)
P.p.s: To all those who haven't read it, do read it.
You surely don't want to miss out on something that takes your breath away! :D 

The Other Truth

     Someone tells you "you're my world" and you tend to believe it. Someone tells you "you're the most important person in my life" and you believe it yet again. Someone tells you "you're the top most priority of my life" and as usual you believe it once again.

     Humans are made in such a way that they tend to believe anything and everything that makes them feel loved, special and wanted. It's the way we are tuned to listen to our hearts more as compared to our mind. Although, we very well know that our heart might fall prey to false emotions shown by any random person but mind will always find the logical reasoning for each and everything that happens to us and those around us. Sometimes we know the truth, yet our heart compels us to believe 'the other truth' - the one that makes us happy.

     Sometimes we are busy finding answers to questions we already have answers for, but these answers aren't what makes us feel right. So, our dearest, Mr heart tempts us to build a world of our own, a world of 'make-believe'. We have our own customised versions of truth and everything happens as we would want it to, only in that small fantasy world of ours.

     For instance, we know that something we desperately want to happen, wont happen. But our heart forces us to find a ray of hope, perhaps a silver lining. I really don't know why we do it but maybe the truth might cause us a lot of pain all at once and that will leave us feeling terrible. While the heart will make you want to believe things that don't exist, stories that aren't real and feelings that aren't true. This exactly explains why we still believe in fairy tales, where a knight in shinning armour saves the damsel in distress, where love stories have a "happily-ever-after", where pooh has only one piglet and where Cinderella finally meets her prince charming !

     The heart consoles you for a while and lets the truth unfold before you in parts. Does it cause pain? Yes, it does, but in instalments. Maybe that is manageable for most of us. So rather than dealing with the pain all at once we choose to suffer little by little, piece-by-piece from time-to-time, as it allows us the liberty to gather the broken pieces one-by-one and get ready to face a little more pain.

     We wish for lives that don't exist, love stories that aren't real and believe that something like magic and luck exists. So yes lets face it, there's no magic and there's nothing like luck. But I have to say that if you work hard you might get lucky, but that's rare, because most of us don't believe in making the effort to get something or keep someone in our lives. All of this is just to fool ourselves and trick our mind and heart to believe something that doesn't exist and keep ourselves happy for a long time.

     All of these memories, songs, love stories, 'happily-ever-after' tales etc. are nothing but ways to keep us glued to our own make-believe world, our world of fantasy. All of this just to avoid bursting the bubble we live in. These things force us to not let go but to keep trying, work hard and fulfil our dreams. But the question remains, how much can you keep trying? and what will happen if one day suddenly we have to face the reality we were trying to avoid? These questions baffle me and I'm sure in some or the other phase of our lives, we all go through this pain and confusion. Whether to accept the TRUTH and move ahead or wait there and keep trying! Is the 'other truth' really worth it? Maybe, Maybe not. Go figure it out for yourselves!
 

Love. Smile. Believe.

       All along this journey called life, we meet many people, build many relationships, create memories - good as well as bad, we love a few, care for them, receive love and care from those around us, make people feel special and a few make you feel special too. Then there are few bitter moments, fights, hurting others- knowingly or unknowingly, lose someone you  love, have misunderstandings... these things tear you apart and make you feel worthless. All of this makes your story. We don't realize, but all of this - each and every thing - however small and irrelevant event in our life makes our journey worth the while. 

      After every happy moment there has to be something that tears you apart. Just like after every bright morning there comes a night so dark that it scares you, but after every such scary dark night, comes a bright new morning... This promise of a bright morning and the hope in our heart, makes us live each day of our life. Similarly after every failure, every heartbreak, every loss, there lies ahead of us success, love, care, happiness - in abundance! 

      "If you don't see a dream come true, maybe it's not "yet" time ..."  It is this "hope" that is instilled in our hearts that makes us pick ourselves up every-time we stumble and fall. We should take both the good and the bad things in our stride and move ahead. People come into your life for a purpose. Everything happens for a reason. We wont realize this right away, but one day it will all make sense. When happiness arrives, say, “Welcome, Make yourself comfortable." when she  leaves, ask her to leave the door open behind her. Similarly even when people leave you, let them leave, but do believe in the bond you shared, the memories you made, keep full faith and trust in your relations and they will find their way back to you! Have faith in god and his plans! 

                                                                                                               

      When you reach at the end of the rope, tie a knot and hold on! And remember, there is light at the end of every tunnel. The only difference is some tunnels are short while most of them are long, dark and scary. It's how you deal with these long, dark and scary nights that matter the most and this is what makes you strong. 

      In all this chaos and madness of life, remember to wear your best smile and be happy, feel happy and stay positive. All the ups and downs, every failure, every heartbreak and every other thing that puts you down is just making you strong, making you realize the worth of what you have, to treasure everything and everyone around you. 

Keep Smiling and Stay Happy! :D 

Little things that matter ...

           The base for any relationship whether it’s with your parents, siblings, friends or that special someone is trust, love and care. It need not be expressed each and every time you meet or you are together, but it’s those little things, unspoken words, silent gestures, or just a simple hug that matters the most. Even if you don’t talk to each other for a long time its normal, when you meet everything is just the same. It’s not the expensive gifts, precious pearls or grandiloquent stuff that matter. It is that one sweet text or call telling you that “you are being missed!” or maybe “Hey I just thought of you!” will be enough to make someone’s day. At the same time, completely ignoring that person in your life, may not only create a vacuum in your own life, but also leave that person feeling lost and alone, as if suddenly someone had removed them from the life supporting system.

          If you care for someone, show it! Don’t think about the consequences because all that matters is you and that one person whom you care for. If your bond is really strong and deep-rooted, it will stand the test of time. But if it is just up on the exterior and is weak, if it hasn't been nurtured the right way with enough care and love, it will definitely fall apart, taking you along, leaving either or both of you shattered.

          There’s no course that any institution offers in learning how to maintain relations with those around us. Neither are there any rules that are a sure-shot guarantee to a harmonious life and a peaceful atmosphere around you. People say that do this, do that, don’t behave like this, etc etc. But trust me, all of this is just personal experience, it may or may not be true. None of this is rocket science; all you need is a positive perception to everything. The deepest and the strongest bonds have to go through the test of time, if it stands, then well that’s the way it’s supposed to be; but if it doesn't, find the faults and make amends. If you've been through thick and thin together, that relationship defies every theory and set of rules on this earth.

          It is not about give and take, it’s about giving without expecting anything in return. I know, all of this is easier said than done. We expect from those whom we are super close to. Most of the times, they meet your expectations, but there are times when they fail to do so. It’s about how you react to the uncertainty, the unfulfilled expectations and promises. Of course you will feel terrible; you’ll feel let-down, ditched or back-stabbed (whatever suits the situation). Just ask one thing to your friend, “Is this why we shared so much, created so many memories, gone through everything together, was all of this – momentary? “ and I’m sure if that person is true to you, the answer will be a no and you can work things out. Also, don’t forget to ask yourself a few things, "Does this one thing change everything between the two of you? Does this define your relation? Is this how you planned your fairy-tale?.”  If it’s genuine, your mind and heart will be in unison and will help you find a solution to the chaos playing in your head.

         

          Either of you will have to put aside that little devil named ‘ego’ and just forget every wrong thing that happened for every right thing that has happened and is going to happen. If this devil succeeds to seep into your heart and mind, it will kill every feeling, make you feel worse and will leave you confused. Often people say if something was not meant to happen, it won’t. Agreed that destiny plays a major role, so does your own genuine efforts. Then you have people who keep saying that if somebody leaves you, it’s not the end of the world, move on. I agree that it is not the end of the world, these are personal choices that people make for themselves and you don’t have any say in it. It’s just that few of your dreams come crashing down from cloud nine to ground zero and it hurts to the power of infinity.

           It is said that the “greatest gift that you can give anyone is your time, your attention and your love.” It’s an advice to all those who want to keep their bonds with those around them strong forever, try this. It costs nothing at all except a few bundles of smiles, a few kilos of care and your precious time. It’s the cheapest gift you could give to anyone in this world and it’s a sure-shot guarantee that it will bring a smile on the face of your loved one. It takes few seconds to break ties with someone, but sometimes it could take more than your entire life to regain the trust, love and care someone ever had for you.

P.s: This is my article which featured in my college magazine- H L Times! ;)
Feedback/criticism welcome! :)