December saga: In between 'Coffee and contemplation'

While waiting for a cup of coffee in a quiet corner of a cafe on a very close friend's birthday party, you come to realize how funnily and quickly time flies away. Decembers always give you a sense of closure to what the year has given as well as taken from you. 

There are no enough answers for both and that is where the charm of time lies. A year before, I was waiting for my graduation hat and looking forward to welcoming 2013 on a note of achieving greater heights, not just professionally but personally as well. While, the fact of having graduated was yet to sink in, time had already come to fill in application forms for higher studies. Six months into 2013, I was cribbing about how I should not have opted for further studies, and contemplating on how I could have consequently saved myself from a lot of unwanted stress. 

Photo: Priya Baid

2013 became a year synonymous with meeting different kinds of people, making new friends and losing touch with many others and yet it gave a lot more than it took away. Indeed, it was upsetting to not have some people around or to see good friends going away from each other but it was equally enriching to learn the circumstances that made these difficult decisions, a part of the learning process.

If the year was harsh in its treatment in some ways, it was kind in many others. If the year was full of troubles, it was full of fun moments and moments of togetherness with loved ones. If the year was a mirror of understanding patience, it was also reflective of how that same patience has limits. If the year was a testimony to pushing oneself beyond capabilities, it was also a reminder of how fate plays a tremendous role. If the year was a roller-coaster ride, it was a ride worth remembering. If the year was full of expectations, it gave the courage to live with disappointments. If the year was full of useless banter, it gave a lesson on how to deal with one's inner thoughts and emotions. If the year was full of mind boggling activities, it gave some tears and moments for silent contemplation. This, being one of them. 

Photo: www.google.com

Meanwhile, my friends tease me on the silence that envelops 'in between'. This, 'in between' moment just adds on to the numerous others that have come, stayed and left me with several invaluable realizations. Among these realizations, I realize the air envelops in the smell of my cold coffee. I get back to my friends and the coffee, in the hope that these reflective 'in betweens' remain, December or no December!

The 'shor' about complexity!

Sitting in a gender studies class, i often wonder (yes! I need to do that) if we have made our lives more complex and complicated than its ought to be, followed by more deconstructions and reading between the lines in depth than is necessary and giving too much thought to things that really do not have much meaning! I appreciate that the human mind is thinking and trying to understand complex issues but too much criticism in the veil of 'constructive criticism' does not seem fit always and tends to drag on leading to habits of thinking and thinking too much without any gain.

 

Consider, for example, finding out the meaning of each and every dialogue, monologue or imagery whether an advertisement or a film or lyrics of a song for that matter. The problem does not lie in pointing out the 'wrong' but the problem lies in pointing out the 'wrong' always and being the so-called critic till the end of the day!

 

C'mon!

There is something called life and such things are part and parcel of it but delving too much into everything is highly problematic because it automatically increases the vulnerability of the group which has yet not been affected and has remained more or less ignorant of the matter. Uproar follows on matters that need less control contributing to the side-lining of the major issue and that does not help the cause.

 

It is not a bad idea to stick to tried and tested methods...the so-called Stereotypes as they are not always re-inforcing anything different from the way the society thinks and acts and as such, it is not a compulsion to change. No matter, how good the notion of breaking barriers and bringing about change remains, but the fascination with the whole idea of making things too complex remains a problem with many and the fact that relative and more equivalent issues do not find enough space is a subsequent problem. In simple words, we get caught up with too small and petty issues that the significant issues do not find footing!

Keeping simple things simple has become complex these days!

 

Blaming it on the Media, law and Judiciary or us as individuals might not help much but can we for a 'CHANGE' , keep things simple? Food for thought!