Much Ado About Nothing

I'm not an atheist. I'm not an Agnostic. I do believe in spirituality, I do believe in Karma, I do believe in religion. But I believe in the religion called humanity... where all humans are considered equal, irrespective of the many criteria we've come up with to help in classifying them. I believe in everyone being treated equal and according to me, it's our duty to help in the same.

One thing I don't really like these days is the glamorization of festivals that has taken place. I agree festivals are meant to be celebrated but there's always a nice way to do it. My friends often complain that I do not "enjoy" festivals.... My reply to them is that, if "enjoying" means what everyone today is doing, I'm happy in my non enjoy state.

Let's take Diwali first. I don't get the point in spending thousands of rupees in buying crackers and then eventually burning them.... for what?? Please tell me why. What is the need of increasing air and noise pollution when the festival, traditionally is only about spreading joy and happiness and beginning life afresh.... Where the hell do the crackers fit in? And please don't give me the you-are-a-Jain-hence-you're-talking-like-one theory. I'd rather spend the same amount of money by helping the people in need and help them regain a grip over their lives than burn them up. There are so many people who need help, just try going to a Govt. hospital once and see how people lose their loved ones due to paucity of just a few grands, which we spend without thinking twice.

Holi. Farmers are committing suicide all over the country, the Vidharba belt in Maharashtra to be particular due to water scarcity...... why....? Due the the extra couple of million litres that has to be pumped in your house so that you could "enjoy" a festival. Never mind the death an entire family has to die because of your "enjoyment". Sorry, I cannot and will not indulge in anything so obscenely heinous. Even though this makes me just one amongst a billion people in the country... so be it.... I'd also like to tell Raj Thackeray that his love for fellow Maharashtrians would be justified not be kicking non-Maharashtrians out, but by fighting for his own Maharashtrian brothers by not letting them commit suicide, by proposing and implementing the construction of dams and ensuring a regualr water supply to the farmers all year round. Mr. Thackeray, this issue needs a higher priority.... it's about life and death here.

One festival I don't celebrate for personal reasons is Raksha Bandhan.... I mean due to social obligations and formalities I do have to tie rakhis to my cousins.... but somewhere down the line, I often wonder... does this piece of thread mean anything to anybody? My aloofness with RB is due to the fact that I don't have a brother and for people who say that doesn't make a difference, I beg to differ.... That makes a humongous difference. The bond is missing. The feeling is missing. The assurance that an elder brother's hand on your head gives is missing. I know I have lots in life to complain about the few little things that I don' t have. But this time of the year makes me feel really lonely... and this time it's not because of the lack of 'someone special', but because the absence of a brother and the presence of cousins who are either too busy to come to get a rakhi tied or are too small to understand what the piece of thread means. All I know is that when I needed a brother figure on whose shoulders I could cry on, I didn't have one. When I need a brother to kick people's asses when someone spoke shit about me, I had to silently pray that if not a brother maybe a friend would do the needful. When I needed someone to want to break the bones of the guy whom I liked but cried for, I had to make do with the pillow. I feel so jealous of my friends who have brothers who call them 1000 times if it's raining too heavily, who take them out to shopping with his own money, who are possessive of their sisters to the point of claustrophobia, who can see everything in the world but just not tears in his sister's eyes. I don't have a brother, agreed, but then I do have friends who care for me.... and I'm happy about that, but just not at this time of the year.

About Friendship's Day and Valentine's Day.... All I can say is that do we really need a special day to celebrate the presence of special people in our lives?? I think it's just a lovely way to have Archie's and Hallmark owners' kids spend a couple of lakhs more every month. You can't celebrate FD by tying bands one day only to have them strewn on the floor the next... This is the reason I never get bands, and not the 'Gujju' genes of saving money. But I do reply to people's messages regarding the same, but this year I didn't....had fought with all my best friends for the first time just 2 days prior to FD.... I felt like throwing my phone outta window with every ensuing message that I received. FD and VD, I think, should be celebrated in reality by finding time for your friend/lover who need you even if you're totally submerged in the sea of your problems.....for I do the same, and hence advocate it.

I really feel that rather than making a show of emotions just on one day, why can't we rather show it as empathy for others? One thing I know for sure is that the day I start earning, after I send my parents on the Europe tour that I want to, I will give away some amount of it back to the society. Life is all about making other's lives worth living as well na. If you can please help anyone you can, even your friend who's down just before your exam. Trust me, if that person is a true friend, he/she will never forget the gesture.