The Doom We Created

In a world this negative, sometimes little good things looks like a silver lining. A stranger helping you out, being praised for your great work, fining that extra money from yesterday jeans that you had forgotten about. These things make a day good. I feel good finding extra money or food, sometimes that happiness goes away after I look at the news or turn on my computer. All day what I can see if death of this, killing of that, racism here, rapes there. It feels that everything good in the world as all but vanished and we are left with the sadness and worthlessness.

America is going through the problem of racism, mass shooting, police brutality, no gun control and having two excuse-my-expression idiots in the presidential race. UK is struggling with Brexit and what not. India is having its own set of problem like rapes, honor killings, inadequate governance. There is also worldwide problem of ISIS, terrorism, global warming and environmental damage.

Sometimes after going through everything and thinking about that, I often end up feeling that there is no good in the world. In poor countries, people are suffering from lack of food, drinking water, basic amenities and in the “rich” countries, people are suffering from stupidity of having problems like being homophobic, having lack of humanity and what not. I mean, seriously, there are people in the world that don’t have anything to eat or drink and all they want are basic things and then there are “people’ in this world who kill people because they don’t agree with their religious views or the way of living.

So, what if she loves girls and/or boys and what if he has a husband not a wife, they are humans, worthy of same self-respect, dignity and right that “normal” people have.

Dear Christians who think Bible is everything,

1. Your god is not a white. He DOES NOT have a white skin or blue eyes. He was a JEW. Born in Jerusalem, Israel; brown-skinned, dark eyed who was an outcast. Stop acting like your faith is the greatest.
2. I tried to read Bible. I started from the Old Testament. I stopped when I couldn’t get the answer whether Cain married his own sister which was incestuous or whether there were other people on earth in which case Bible is nothing but a load of crap.
3. I am very pro-Jesus. He was the man; an outcast who saved humanity, but don’t you think that it is too much to say that the person walked on water or created wine from water. I mean he must have been a great man, but creating an institution on it. Isn’t that a tad bit too much?

My dear Muslim brothers and sisters,

Have you gone through Quran? I mean really gone through it. Half of you cannot. It is written in Persian and whatever the priest tells you, you guys do. There is nowhere written that gays should be killed or stoned to death or women should be not giving any rights.

1. Quran is a beautiful holy book. One that needs to be read and understood properly.
2. Terrorists like ISIS, Lasker-e-Toiba, they don’t know shit about Quran. If they had, they would never be terrorists and would know the actual meaning of Jihad.
3. Prophet was very pro-women and all the shit that has be said against women, fatwas published is all done by the priests who were drunk with the power they got.

I am a Sikh myself. I know all the rules and regulation of my religion. Sikhism was based on just one fact that God resides in every human being, no matter good or bad and there is only one God; the One who is eternal and omnipotent. He does not belong to any religion or person. Our Gurus were Hindus with followers of all cast, creed and religion. However, just like any religion, we have forgotten all about their teachings.

1. Guru Nanak said that we should not pray to any idols, for God is everywhere. We people have created pictures, idols and photographs of him; placed him everywhere from prayer homes to bedrooms, even cars.
2. Last Guru, Guru Gobind Singh said that our holy book Guru Granth Sahib was to be considered the last Guru and no one else after him should be considered as Guru. Our society has created Gurus and Baba such as Nirmal Baba, Guru Ram Rahim and more to whom religion is a great path to earn money and build an empire. They have cases of money extortion, harassment, rapes against them and people follow them as if they are the incarnation of God themselves on our blessed Earth.

For God sakes, Do you guys have brains or are you born without them?

Dear Hindus,

Your religion is awesome. Vedas, Upnishads and Gita are great great source of knowledge. Nevertheless, Why are you guys set on converting the whole nation? You have more than 1 crore gods; a different god for a different remedy. I think I read somewhere that they considered that all these gods are actually manifestation of the all-powerful almighty. Guys, why don’t you worship the supreme almighty themselves? (Genuine Question)

They have pandits or holy men who with astrology can change the life of a person. They can make or break someone’s destiny. Wear pearl for controlling anger, green for luck, blue of marriage and these are all according to the sun sign you were born under.

Two people can only marry if their kundili(s), jaman patri or birth horoscope is in perfect correlation. I have a friend who is with a guy for more than 9 years. They have been through up and down together, but cannot marry because families are not agreeing, as their horoscopes are not in good correlation with each other.

My mother says you should not question anybody’s faith. What if that person has a stupid sense of faith like being a white supremacist, or fanatical Muslim or thinking that their faith is the best and everyone should follow? I cannot help but say something. It is like the human inside me says what happened to the brain that this person was born with?

Humanity is beautiful. We humans are beautiful creation. Whether you believe in Darwin or God, we are the advanced creation better than animals. But are we? Are we better than the animals who kill because they need to survive not for pleasure? Because what is happening in the world around us, all makes me believe that we are worse than animals. We are killing our planet, each other and the humanity itself.

I think that if Ice Age or apocalyptic doom of humanity happens and there is a choice of starting over, we should opt for starting over rather than staying the way we are.

Don’t you go

Don’t you go,
when life gets troublesome
leaving me to pick the pieces
of our lives.

Don’t you go,
when days are listless
and tedious
making me fend for myself.

Don’t you go,
when you have no love
in your heart
for I will have love for us both.

Don’t you go
when dusk of our lives is near
as I will be there standing
with the sun.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist: Does It Changes Lives?

A book or a movie brings out different emotions in different people. Some might take them as words that are to be read, enjoyed and forgotten; for others they signify thoughts that might change the way they look at the world. The Reluctant Fundamentalist (book as well as the movie) is the tale of young man who realizes that one’s own country remains with a person no matter what choices they make. A person always returns back to the familiar comfort of one’s own culture.

You might be an Asian living the “American Dream” or a British enjoying the opportunities that the world provides or just a person who is trying to make the ends meet and live a life that you have dreamed since childhood. No matter who you are, where you are and what you are; one’s own country like culture, family and tradition is one’s own.

In India, I see people around me who love to show how modernized and westernized they are. Why give an example of others, when I can tell you about myself. I am a modern girl and I am proud of it, because this open-mindedness had let me see the world, which provides opportunities that narrow-minded people cannot see. I own 4-5 pairs of jeans and assortment of t-shirts while I have about 3 suits, which I only wear when I go to Gurudwara or if I want to look traditional or when there is a function that calls for it. I don’t how to read Punjabi (at least not fluently); nevertheless, with all my modernized clothes and thinking, I still love big fat Punjabi weddings and want one for myself.

I love each and every minuscule festival that happens. From Diwali, Dusshera to Gurpurab(s) and Holi, I love how different is my culture and my country. I respect and like the culture of people across the globe but I definitely do not like the people who always believe that their culture is best. I mean every country and culture and religion have their own strengths and shortcomings.

In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Changez wants to live the American dream for he sees that in country there are not many opportunities. He sees is father- a poet- though established, but not earning much. In the Asians, especially Indians and Pakistanis (for we are cut from the same cloth), there is a strong case of providing filial duty. We children want to provide for our parents, be their rock; and this is what Changez wanted to do.

Forgive me for saying, but 9/11 was more tough on Muslims around the world than it was for the Americans. Yes, people lost families and death and terrorism can never be justified. However, think about those people who are discriminated because of their religion and color. Just because you are a Muslim, it does not mean that you are a terrorist. A work of 2 mad men doesn’t mean that others should be harmed or victimized. Ku Klux Klan were (sorry for the expression) fucked up people who thought that white supremacy is everything and they were Christians, so should everyone around the world victimize Christians because wrongdoing of a few people. They bombed school buses, shot people, massacred and lynched them—same thing terrorists are doing. Terrorist not Muslims, same way it is Ku Klux Klan, not Christians.

A person when thinks of living in different country than its own home and wants to make it is new home, is disillusioned, disappointed and disheartened when he is not welcomed with open arms but placards asking him to “go back to the hole he is from”. That is not only heartbreaking, but also totally disrespectful. And that is what happened to Changez. Disillusioned and disappointed to from the country and life he wanted, he came back to what was his and was hated by people across the globe.

No matter how much terrorism is there, we have to keep in mind that it is not the religion that is bad or asks for death and killing. It a few people who have wrong beliefs and understood the religion in a wrong way. Why blame a religion or culture for the work of a few?

I think what Mira Nair and Mohsin Hamid want us to know is the fact that terrorism and religion are two very different things and shouldn’t me mixed together. It is the Humans who are wrong and mis-guided not the religion or culture of a country.

Am I right or have I got it wrong way?

From Punjab to Rajasthan via Haryana

First day of journey started with us travelling to Rajasthan via the green-fields of the Punjab and a few cities of Haryana. In the early hours of the morning we had a quick stop in Jind (Haryana) to visit GurudwaraDhamtaan Sahib. It is believed that anybody who is visiting Huzoor Sahib (Naned, Maharastra) should visit here first and then only his journey would be a successful one.

Small canal in Jind

Dating to the era of Gurus

Collection of old swords in Gurudwara Dhamtaan Sahib

A brick klin or factory in Jind

Gurudrwara Dhamtaan Sahib

Even though the general notion is of the fact that Rajasthan only has desert is not at all true. The part of Rajasthan that connects with Punjab is filled with “sarso ke khet” (fields of mustard). This green part extends in almost half of the Rajasthan. Whole state is occupiedwith little towns that are miles apart from each other. At night came the desert. Cold and empty, I could do nothing but stare and the vast emptiness and abyss it symbolized. The spiky thorny trees and small bushes acted as dabs of green in the painting of brown. We travelled through the desert expanse in the mid of night, getting lost in the small town where we were supposed to stay.

It was about 2 in the morning, when we reached a small town in middle of nowhere. Everybody in the mini-bus was tired and all we wanted was a place to sleep. Being a small town, believe me or not there were actually no hotels. We searched for Gurudwara on the GPS and found one. It was for one hour that we moved in the silent city.

You have to see the city when the whole town is asleep. It is quiet yet somehow there is life underneath all the quietness.

At about 4:30am we reached Gurudwara. The light was on which meant that priest was awake and was doing the morning adulations. My grandfather went to the door and knocked loudly. At first, there were the sounds of a person beginning the day. It seems that the loud knock shocked the priest out of his wits. At the sound of the knock, he switched off the lights of the place and was suddenly very quiet. We waited for a long time and soon it was 5:30am. For an hour, we waited in front of the Gurudwara and nothing happened. The priest (kind off) disappeared. I mean at first the place seemed alive with the sounds that were coming…..such as sound of water being drawn from well and sound of a person moving here and there but as soon as we knocked everything went quiet as if there was no one there.

We finally moved. Drivers were tired, children were tired, adults were tired and we young adults were tooo tired. There were actual waves of tiredness going back and forth. J It was about 2 hours later, we reached a place called Neemch (nee-mch)in Madhya Pradesh and found a place to get fresh and stay for an hour or so. It was after we had food in our tummies that the incident became anecdote….and that too a funny one. From my Nani Maa to my Mammu and my little sissy…we all started laughing thinking about what the priest was feeling and how much afraid he would have been to hear loud knocking in the wee hours of morning.

An old, decrepit and dilapidated builading in Neech, Madhaya Pradesh

(P.S: I know I am too late with this. There was sooo much on my plate and I was tired: emotionally, physically, literally and figuratively; nevertheless I have been regularly posting small snippets of words, I like to call poetry. I would love it if you guys would check it out and give me your views.)

Open letter to Men, Women and Society

Whether it was centuries ago or in present “forward-thinking” world, women have always been given a second place. Most people will call me a misunderstood feminist whose heart may be in right place but mind is not. Nevertheless, I need to write this out and I need this out of my head.

We live in a world where we have read books like Gone Girl & more and have agreed that females could be as fatal, as brutal and as cruel as men if they want to. However, there is one think that we don’t know and that is the fact that no matter what we say, what we do or how we behave, men have, since the last thousands of centuries, believed that they have the right to own a women. Own as if she is a house, cattle, property or a bloody thing. And even now, nothing has changed.

“First world” citizens, you might think that this happens in “third-world” countries where there are uneducated and narrow-minded people and constrictive religion like Islam or even Hinduism. This is not true. It is not the religion that is narrow or constrictive, but the people. Corrupt, power-hungry people with no belief in God and neither in the religion, who have turned this into a joke. They would do anything for their needs and their power. The prime example of this viewpoint is the true tale of Soraya M. A woman whose only mistake was the fact that she was, not with her want, was married to a greedy, abusive man who wanted to marry a fourteen year old and was stoned to death just because she restricted. The wrong use of religion, power and authority can be seen. It can also been that society is nothing but herd of sheep who don’t have their own set of mind. Seriously!!! In what world is it ok to marry a child of 14 to a man of 40, a man who is father of four?

In every religion, a woman is given a place next to God. In Christianity: She is Mary, mother to son of God; In Hinduism: she is Shakti the amalgamation of Lakshmi, Saraswati and Kali; In Islam: she is Fatimah, for whom Muhammad himself said, “Allah, The Most High; is pleased when Fatimah is pleased and is angered when Fatimah is angered.”

How come that woman the revered being in all religions that humans on this earth follow are turned into derogatory, sub-humans who can be stoned to death, put in four walls and used as property? Can anybody give answer to this!!!

A woman is supposed to be respected, not leered at, or to be used as a sex object or to be used at a property that men can barter with to fulfill its needs. You cannot do that. Basic humanity says that no person can do that not even a woman herself can do this. You cannot abuse, depreciate or spread rumor about fellow females just because you don’t like them. In what sense, is it right? Would you want this for yourself?

Dear Men,

You believe that you are the stronger species, the species who is supposed to provide and protect. I am sorry to break your glass house, but you are not providers nor you are the protectors. We are. As in men and women both. One is incomplete without another. How are you supposed to lift yourself up when you push us women down? How can you call yourself educated and open-minded when you come home and order the females in your home to do all the work and treat them like servants?
Grow up. Be Human.

Dear Women,

Stop thinking yourself as dainty dolls or damsels in distress who can only be saved by the knight in shining armor. Be your own hero. Fight for your rights. And for God sake’s stop blaming the men for the chances that you were so afraid to take up yourself. There is more to life than beauty and appearances. Don’t be beautiful outside. Be beautiful inside. Be a beautiful brain. Don’t give the humans (men and women) chance to call you beautiful bimbos. Be beautiful brains.
Rebel. Take your chance. Make a difference.

Dear Society,

Let us breathe. We are supposed to be unique. God wouldn’t have created us all different is he or she wanted to place in the same societal mold. Let the men be. Let the women be.

The Travelling Chronicles (I)

Whoever said the people who don’t travel, never fully live their life was definitely right. Travelling is one of the best things in life {obviously after Pizza…. and chocolate (definitely Chocolate)}. Travelling broadens horizons and makes us see, what a small place we occupy in the big world.
To live in India is the best thing. Not only, I get to experience the new cultures but also with each different district, city and state, I get to learn something about my own country. Being a Punjabi means summer holidays at grandparents’ home, every year with a “pakka-pakka” family trip. From childhood, I had seen almost each city of Punjab and a little bit of Himachali hills. However, as I grew up, got a job, and moved to Chandigarh, things have been a little monotonous for a while. {To tell you guys truth, I am not much of an extensive traveller, though I want to be. Nevertheless, I have been to pretty awesome places and this series will be all about it. }
This Christmas, my whole extended family planned for the trip and you won’t believe how excited I got as I came to know where we were going. Trip was to “Nanded”. Located on the banks of Godavari river, Nanded is the second holiest site in Sikhism and it called city of Gurudwaras. As Nanded is in state of Maharashtra, that means I actually crossed the North India for first time and travelled to Western India.
Now travelling to Nanded is quite easy. You can either book a flight or book train or even bus in advance, however tricky part is the fact that all this planning and booking is to be done months in advance. Another characteristic of being a Punjabi is that we are utterly spontaneous, which means we started planning one week in advance, which led to us getting no bookings in flight, train and bus whatsoever. However, did it stop us? No Way!!!!
:)🙌🙌
My fabulous grandpa rented a sort of “Mini Bus” which could seat about 15 people in all. The “holy” trip (as my Nani Maa loves to say) was instantly transformed into a fun-filled family road trip and fun we did. From funny sleeping clicks to new sunrise and sunsets, every day was different.

It hurts

Being human is tough. However, I also wonder that do other beings that are present here go through the feelings that we feel in our everyday lives. Maybe they do.
There are just so many emotions. From happiness to weird feeling where it seems that we are stuck in an emotional abyss feeling nothing. This life is easy…emotions make it complicated.

Every time I write, I pour what is going on inside me. My psyche, my emotions, my life is out in the open for people to unravel and see. However, immediately I am done, it seems that I am sinking in an abyss with has nothing. No emotions. I feel depressed. Not exactly depressed but just emotionally tired and exhausted.
I try to be happy, keep talking about things that actually don’t matter. Try to listen to over cheery songs. Nothing helps. I usually end up crying…about nothing. It is like my soul wants to cry out all the negativity.
I am happy person. I have a life and people around me who love me and I am thankful for that everyday. Nevertheless, this emotional abyss happens once a week, and I usually end up crying in my pillow…acting as if everything is fine. It is something I never shared.

Do any of you feel this sadness, depression  and feeling of abyss that strucks out of nowhere and hurts so much?