Parents and Children

I know all of what you do are meant truly for our well-being, that the intentions are absolutely noble and you only have our best interest at heart. The problem is what constitutes as a virtue to you or rather a vice to you might not be one when you look at it from my perspective. If you let your apprehensions and prejudices and inhibitions and more importantly your value system dictate what I should do or should not, then you are fundamentally destroying everything you have tried to inculcate in me.

YOU have taught me to be independent, to use my ability to think and weigh and choose accordingly what is right or beneficial for me. YOU have given what you had to give and if I, today, are at loggerheads with your value system or your conventions and I desire to chart out a path that I think suits my disposition, then YOU need to stop for a second and allow yourself to trust me against your wishes. Before you jump out of your skin and use the typical parental rhetoric of me being insensitive and how things used to be in your time.

Because if you do that, then I need to remind you in all humility that your time has passed. Just as mine will maybe 20 years from now on. Just as my children's will be when they are 50.

Your children are NOT expected to abide by your system of morality. Because times change and through that changes many things. One of them, particularly in the context of our country is that, the glorification of sacrifice as an instrument of expression of undying love and intensity has given way to being selfish in pursuit of happiness. If it could be had today, it should and will be had today. The second would be a just and necessary utter disdain for what will become of society if we are to be hedonistic. While I appreciate our eternal commitment to hypocrisy in every sphere of life, when we criticize others inspite of having lovely skeletons in our own cupboards, this concern about society forgetting who constitutes them is perplexing. Why not for a change think of our own happiness and fix ourselves first before taking such an honourable job of fixing the society?

Now, why do I still rant about YOU and not just screw it and go ahead? Because I want you to be part of the time when the world appears to be a beautiful place to live in. And hence, I yield. Every time. Hoping that someday you will look at it from my end and try to out-think yourself and allow me to be me. You are important irrespective of whether you can take a call on my life - you are the one who has given it to me.

We are not at war. We shall never be. And if you intend to remain rooted to your conservatism and your ideas, then as a worthy son, I have to do what you have always taught me to - stand up for what I believe in even when I see you warming the opposition bench, for I cannot allow you to let me let go off something which I know for sure is right and let you realize that in hindsight, when we have lost the most precious resource called time.

Realizations

There is nothing profound in any of these. Yet over time, all of these have been buttressed repeatedly leading me to believe that there might be some element of truth to all of these. These are my realizations collected over the last decade or so:

There is a poet in everyone. Its only a function of the surroundings and the inspiration which is the foundation of great creation.

If you are selfish, you won't have friends but life will be convenient for you and you don't have to make considerations at your own expense.

Goodwill is an asset but one which hardly gives you any tangible benefits.

When someone loves you, you will just know it and once you do you will never mistake it for anything else in life. It will cease to be an impostor and will welcome you with open arms.

Whether life is beautiful or a sack of stone bags is purely a transient state. It takes one moment to change everything. Either you come crashing down or you rise up in exultation. Whichever way, it is at the least, always interesting.

Sometimes, a look is enough. Much much more than a hundred words exchanged. Sometimes, one word might be more powerful than all of what we have spoken since we learnt to speak. Sometimes, silence can be deafening.

The only thing which I have always carried with me and which I cannot live without are memories. They are my greatest friends and my sworn enemies.

Heartbreaks are essential. Without them, you lose out on one of the most important learning of life. They teach you to be sensitive and humble. They make us know that we are fragile and worthy of love.

The joy in the voice of your friends who are happy for you is something to cherish. It is then, that you feel that all the time spent being with them might have been worth it.