Caution-Life Taken For Granted!

             It is a weekend. You and your spouse love to celebrate the weekend by going on a long drive. You get down at your favorite food joint to enjoy your brunch. Your day end is sealed by the mall and multiplex plan wherein you do a lot of window shopping and a bit of actual shopping till you get tired and then watch a movie.

You might also want to make plans to chill out with friends and on some other occasions; you are attending some social events. Apart from these activities, you also want to indulge in junk food, you have to surf the net, you need to meet and greet some random people, you love to hog on your favorite ice cream and you desire to get lazy and just lie on your sofa doing nothing.

Isn’t it surprising that unconsciously you perform so many activities in a day! You talk, you smile, you enjoy, you breathe and most important-you live. Every moment you use almost each of your senses. And while you are following this routine, one fine day you meet with an accident. You are hospitalized and almost get into a vegetative state.

Did this thought get you petrified? Indeed, it is petrifying. God forbid this should not happen with you. However, as a human being, we do not know what our tomorrow or even next moment will be like. Nature can be harsh on anyone at anytime. Someone meets with an accident, someone suffers a heart stroke, someone gets paralyzed and there are innumerable other ways of suffering.

Still, when we are hale and hearty, we tend to live the life recklessly. We are too engrossed in spending the days as they come, await the next day and keep worrying and planning about it. We hardly treasure the moment we are living in, the little joys that we are blessed with and the untold luxuries we get to enjoy. We ignore the importance of the breath we intake as a fit individual. We are indifferent to those countless activities that our normal senses allow us to do.

On the contrary, we whine over those things we do not have. We are busy comparing ourselves with others and are in fact insulting the creation of nature. ‘I wish I had straight hair like her’, ‘I wish I was as lucky as him’, ‘My life has become boring and monotonous’; the list of our complaints is endless. Nobody seems to be satisfied with what they possess. To sum it up in a line, life is taken for granted by us.

I, too, am a species of this genus. I might be leading a life which others are jealous of; loving relatives, wonderful friends, ample of amenities and luxuries frilled to a comfortable life. These advantages were never chalked out by me although I was enjoying them, until one fine day. It was the day when God decided to teach me the lesson of my life. It was the day that changed my perspective towards life. It was the day that told me others should not repeat the mistakes made by me or thousand others like me.

It was a day just like any other day. I was returning home from office when I met with an accident. It was a head injury with quite a blood loss. I was in hospital for 3 days and was later advised complete bed rest for at least 15 days at home. The week that followed the day of accident was horrendous. A persistent headache, a continuous drowsy and sluggish feeling, energy level running in minus caused me to be nailed to bed. I was given more medicines than the morsels of food I could eat at that stage, which only made me further sick. As days advanced, I also realized that the injury on head caused a mild jerk in my brain giving rise to minute complications in the wiring of my body as my hearing and smelling sense were affected. It was then that I fathomed how much is provided to us by nature but how thankless we are for that.

Although my injury could have counted trivial than what numerous others undergo, I felt that I had almost seen death a couple of miles away. The moments when I was wriggling in pain in my bed, I remembered the happy me. As if reels after reels of my life were playing in my head contemplating on my smiles, my laughs, my mischief, my joys and wondering how none of those things I was able to do at that instant although I wished to. I realized they were the things that are to be cherished. Every fraction of these moments has to be lived and enjoyed completely.

We cannot put a price tag on happiness saying this was a small happiness or that gives me bigger happiness; for happiness in any form is bliss. I learnt it the hard way. This will remain etched in my heart forever. I want to carve this same message in the minds of as many people as possible and this is a small attempt in that direction. Life is a precious gift gifted by nature. Value it. Do not take it for granted because you get to live only once. 

Doting Dads

A lot is always said and written about the caring, loving nature of a mother. We read poetries, compose sentimental messages and listen to heart-wrenching stories about the proficiency and capability of mothers. Beyond doubt, they are worth all the praise showered on them and should be saluted for their extraordinary potentials.

 But, for a minute, take a break and think about that stupendous personality called ‘father’. Fathers are always the unsung heroes. They are the ones who will go about accomplishing their task as a responsible parent without a murmur and sans any pomp. They are the towering mountains who will face storms and strong winds so that their families are unharmed. 

Fathers are the ones who, after a hectic day at office, will go to the shop just in time before the shutters go down and get that best dress for their little one’s birthday. They are the ones who have to lead by example. They are the role models for their sons and the first love of their daughters. Like a coconut, they appear hard for the outside world but are tender and full of love from within. And yes, they are proud of each of their role.

As a kid, I had seen my father donning various hats just for us, with élan. This moment he was our buddy playing cricket with us, the next moment he would become a magician. We adored that magician because he would get us our favorite toffees from weirdest of places like our ears, our nostrils or our head when tilted.

When I was an infant, it was him who would take me into his lap and sing lullaby or his favorite songs for me. He was the one who taught me my first dance steps. When I learnt those steps, he was my first audience. Right from planning the annual trip to our weekend getaways and from driving down to the destinations to becoming the photographer and capturing moments, dad has done everything for us.

While doing all this, he would be at the peak of his energy. Not even once, did he whine, complain or seem to be tired. While he became a philanthropist and taught us to be good human being, he would also share some mischievous moments with us.

From him, I learnt what stage courage is and he was the one to write my first speech for me. The process of teaching and learning is endless. Merely through his convictions we learn so many things even today, that we feel we are too ignorant.

I believe dads around the world must be the same for their children and I am sure, hundreds and thousands of people will be echoing my thoughts. This space will fall short to actually describe what fathers do for their kids. I have been lucky enough to get not just one but two dads-my father and my father in law. From them you learn what it means to walk that extra mile for someone just to make them happy. 

Dads are superb, and this belief multiplies when you are a daughter (or a daughter in law) and are showered with love and care from these doting dads. Happy Fathers’ Day to all the awesome dads.

Be A Man!

         “Only when manhood is dead-and it will perish when ravaged femininity no longer sustains it-only then will we know what it is to be free.” quoted Andrea Dworkin, a radical feminist and writer. She must have said these words way before 2005 when Andrea expired, but they are emphatically resounding in today’s context.

          Bizarre it is that no woman feels completely safe in the society today. The society, of which she constitutes half the part, the society which nurtures and grows because of her, no more looks like a safe haven to her. Wherever she goes, she is always under the scanner of prying eyes and sleazy minds. The disgraceful hoots and whistles or vulgar comments are add-ons to these shameful acts.

          Our society loves to play games, and one of our favorite games is the blame-game. For every misdeed of ours, we look for someone to shift the onus on. Thus, when men are blamed for misusing their manhood, they point fingers towards women for overtly displaying womanhood through provocative dresses and luring figures. They are criticized for travelling alone, being out of the house late at night and working independently. Is it a true concern or the insecurity of mind that does the talking?

Can we have an assurance that men will not be incited if women are fully clad or are not social or do not travel alone late at night? In that case, why women in villages are raped, why the small girls who are physically as well as mentally yet undeveloped, raped, why women are raped in the confines of their house by known faces, blood relations or friends?

A temporary lust of man becomes a permanent torture, disgrace and trauma for the woman and her family. Whether we talk of hundreds of Nirbhayas, who are barbarically raped and succumb to the ordeal immediately, or of thousands of Aruna Shanbaugs who perish slowly but daily like a slow poisoning, or those innumerable others drowned in anonymity, grief and trauma is inevitable. Victims are dying, being comatose, getting permanent physical disability or are losing their rights to normal and happy life, while the culprits are moving around fearlessly in the society and progressing in their life with pride.

I am not a female chauvinist or a radical feminist to shout inanely for female rights but it pains as a member of a reputable society to see the social fabric being nibbled down slowly. Let us save the society from going to the dogs. Just as much it is the need of the hour for the government to make stringent laws, it is for us to take pledge to be a man, and not a leech.