Childhood isn’t a child’s play!!

Childhood – The one phase of our lives which is the most memorable with loads of memories, many things to learn, early friendships, loads of mischief, food, play and what not. That phase of our lives when we dint have to worry about how to shape up our careers, we didn’t have to worry about how to earn money and also didn’t have to plan on how to save it. Needless to say they are the most cherished and care-free days of our lives.

Looking back at my childhood, I can remember climbing the guava and Badam trees which were present in our home. Playing gully-cricket with friends in colony, play ice-pass and loads more. Though I managed to score decent marks all through the schooling, I am sure I haven’t spent more than an hour and half or two for studying. The school day was only for 5.5 hours long and on every single day the school had one class which was not related to studies – be it sports/ music/library or the like. At the end of the day, there was no stress on us and it really didn’t matter if it was a quarterly exam or the main exams.

Times have changed and so has the way one enjoys one’s childhood.  The way our parents enjoyed their childhood was different from the way we did; and now, the way the present generation spend their childhood is completely different from ours. Today, every child is spending a minimum of 8 hours in school followed by tuition/tennis/dance/music classes (Not sure how many of them go to such classes with interest rather than for the reason that their parents want them to go). And when they are done with all these, they spend the rest of the time by getting addicted to the gadget world: be it play stations/ PCs/laptops/TVs or whatnot. Seeing this, I am not sure if the kids these days are really enjoying or if they have time to enjoy their childhood days and if they do, would they hoard these memories for the rest of their lives like we used to? But then after a minute or two of thinking, I would convince myself thinking that this would be the worry of every generation and it would continue like that for a long time to come.

Speaking of childhood and the innocence it generally is associated with, I am not sure if the today’s kid is being allowed to retain his/her innocence until they reach that appropriate age. Be it TV shows, advertisements or the films, everyone is bent on pushing the limits of a kid and want to corrupt the younger minds with irrelevant information at their age. Until a while ago, I used to believe that a way a child evolves majorly depends on the parents. But with the advent of so many ways of communication and entertainment which throw so much information onto us, I tend to believe it’s not just the parents that the kids are influenced by. There are so many ways in which information is being flooded into the young one’s mind and not every channel be scrutinized before its allowed for the kid. Can it? When an innocent mind is flooded with irrelevant details, who has to be blamed for the lost innocence? Is it the kid? Or the parents? Or the society as a whole? Honestly, I am not sure if there would be a definite answer.

I’ve seen so many kids who behave way beyond their age. For example, a 6 year old speaking of killing the villains mercilessly and enjoying some pleasure describing the scene, an 8 year old speaking of a movie hero which in so many ways resembles to a college girl describing her new found crush to a close friend! And then so many other ones who talk way beyond their age and the parents proudly showing it off as if it were some skill! In both the above cases that I have mentioned, there was no parental discretion in what the child watches on TV or what kind of movies the kid is exposed to. And even if there is, most of the films that we get to see these days are labeled ‘U/A’ and yet seem to have most of the content that would clearly make it an ‘A’ film. And then there are those innumerable ads which are given clearance by the censor board to be aired on TV.

To conclude, I am not sure if the post has a logical flow and I am also not sure as to what this post talks about – Is it about the faulty censor board or is it about the education system or about the entertainment industry or most importantly is it about the responsible yet ignorant parent? Honestly, I am not sure.  All I intend to mention is that in today’s world, it’s so easy for a child to lose his innocence and miss out on loads of things associated with childhood and that it’s primarily the parents’ responsibility to ensure that it doesn’t happen.

P.S: This post came up after reading a couple of articles and debates relating to the recent ad by a leading mobile service provider in India which starred a young boy and girl probably in their early teens.

I Am Back..

Well, Here I am. On my own blog after what feels like years. Statistically, this post comes after a year and half from the previous one, but I guess I’ve not been regular for over 2 years now. The urge to blog hasn’t gone away, neither did the love of writing, yet words seemed to fail and time seemed to slip away and I am back here after a long gap. I am not sure if I can say I am back, coz I’ve not left the place. I have been around reading all the ‘good old’ blogs every once in a while and silently admiring the passion that keeps one hooked to writing.

When you think in your mind to write down something, thoughts keep flowing and yet when you actually sit down to write, the mind seems to be like a blank paper. I am not sure as to what to write and what not to write and it seems to be more difficult than to write that 1^st post of yours.

In the past 1.5-2 years away from blogging, I’d like to believe that I’ve evolved into a more mature and responsible person than I was earlier; both professionally and personally. Amongst other things, somewhere in the middle of 2011, I’ve given up my ‘Miss’ status and entered the ‘Mrs’ Phase. :)Yes, I got married!! Miss. Mystery has found her Mystery man and entered into a new phase of life.

For a girl, who has never lived anywhere but with her family, moving out and setting up a new home seemed so painful and laborious. With all the help from the parents, things seemed to be easier than imagined and turned out well. Though managing household chores + full time job seemed a little hectic, with a little bit of planning and considerably good help from the Mr., I’ve got used to the routine and it doesn’t seem tiring or boring anymore.

In spite of all the things that have been happening around me at a rocketing speed, all I can say is blogging was never forgotten. Thoughts kept coming up and the urge to blog was always there, yet laziness seemed to win the battle and lower the interest to blog. So here I am, yet again, eager to blog and with a hope to continue this habit of mine for a longer duration. Until I am back with a new post, cheers to life and all the wonderful things it brings along!!!

– Signing off,

Mystery

Death

About two years back I have written a post about death and how uncertain it is. But time and again I am stuck with the uncertainty that surrounds it and saddened by it.

It’s not about my death that I have thought about. In fact whenever I have thought about my death, I would imagine the people who would come to the funeral and how sad they would be. Might sound weird but honestly, I have liked the thought of people feeling sad for me, rather feel glad that I shared a wonderful bond with each of them. Call it sadistic pleasure or whatever, but it makes me happy.

But that’s not what I am talking about right now. What scares me about death is the thought that it my strike to someone I know, some ones I love and all those precious people in my life. Even the thought of losing someone is painful and having to see someone live with it is even the more painful.

I have not encountered death from close quarters until I was 20. The 1^st person I saw lying dead was my grandfather. At that time, heartless it might sound but I felt that he has had an eventful life and had passed away without much suffering. All my worry was how my grandmother would be able to survive with the fact that there would be no on to live with her in their home, no one to irritate her, no one to argue with her for every small thing and  no one to share her thoughts at every point of time. I felt bad for my mother who was going to miss speaking to her dad on phone. And of the many people on whom my grandfather had an influence on. My grandfather had an eventful life but while he died peacefully, the rest of us moaned for him and had to endure with the pain his death caused. I wonder why it has to be like that…

A friend’s mother passed away recently and I was at loss of words to even talk to him. I have never known her but the thought that she’s not going to be there with her family made me sad. I could only imagine the amount of pain it might have caused to the family. I had no idea as to what I could say to my friend. I knew that nothing I would do would lessen the pain. They say time heals all the pain. All I hope is that time passes soon and this friend moves on with all the happy memories that are left.

Endings are never happy. Any relationship which ends leaves the few people involved in pain. But when life comes to an end it, it leaves many in pain and the fact that nothing can be done to bring back the person or mend the relation with the person is even more painful. One might say it’s the cycle of life it has to come to an end at some point of time. We might accept the fact but when reality strikes, isn’t it hard to digest the fact??

P.S: Just a random ramble.

Rains, Ramble and Books

Well…I have been away from the blogosphere from quite some time now. First it was the work load then it was the writer’s block (really???) and then for some reason I lost interest in blogging as a whole. Have stopped reading blogs and have not visited my own blog for quite some time. After all this, now, I feel like writing something. Hope this feeling would continue and I would blog more often.

So what have I been doing all this while? Reading books, watching movies and yes, putting in more time for the office work. Have read quite a few of Jeffrey Archers’ books and with every book of his, I have become a great fan of his writing. The way he builds up the characters in his books and how everything falls in place in the plot is really amazing.

I have also read the whole of Twilight series in one go. It was good for a one time read and I honestly did not understand the reason why people especially girls went gaga over the series! Yes, I am not a teenager and the book was not intended for my age, but even in my teenage, I am not sure if I would have had a different opinion than what I have now. The concept of vampires, werewolves and the triangular love story with a human was, for some reason not appealing to me.

It’s September and it’s still raining heavily in Hyderabad. Every day turns out to be a rainy day and I seem to both like and dislike the rains. I wonder how we can perceive the same thing differently based on our mood. The same evening drizzle which turns to a downpour seems to be so pleasant when you sit in the balcony of your home but you end up cursing the same rain when you are on your way to home from work! All in the way you perceive things!

A New Day

With the sun come new aspirations and new beginnings.

The days might not turn out to be as expected but down the line, when we look back, such days will come back to us as memories. Some bitter, Some somber. But many others sweet and memorable.

——————————————————————————————————————————

I might dislike getting up early in the morning, but I simply love the mornings!

It gives such a fresh and an inspiring feeling..

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Sitting on the terrace and watching the sun making it’s way into the world.

With the cool unpolluted air passing through,

Looking at people who are getting ready for their day,

With no clue of what’s going to come their way,

The Newspaper boy who goes about throwing papers into everyone’s house,

The Milkman who wants to rush through his job and get going,

The aunts/maids in the neighborhood cleaning their verandas and putting Rangoli,

The older kids running here and there to get ready to schools,

While the younger ones sit and watch their siblings hurrying,

And there you are sitting lazily and observing the world moving on!

Early Mornings!!!

BLISS!!!!

— Signing off

Mystery

Summers remind me of…

Summers remind me of..

..

Of no schools/colleges and no home-works to complete,

Of seemingly innumerable holidays and loads of time at hand,

..

Of playing ice-pass (hide and seek) in the red hot sun,

Of playing all day and playing a deaf ear to parents worries of getting tanned,

Of playing gully-cricket and breaking the window panes of the neighbors,

Of climbing the guava and badam trees and enjoying the mehanath-ka-phal,

..

Of Power cuts and more power cuts,

Of eating the cone-ice creams as a competition with friends,

Of the petty fights in the middle of a game,

Of playing with marbles and what not,

..

Of bugging mom to try out some new recipes and give us something new for breakfast/snacks,

Of late night sleeps and long chats with family,

Of Mom making Avakaya and we the kids enjoying the first taste of pickle,

Of marriages and the endless discussions about the food, clothes, jewelry et cetera,

..

Of going to grandparents home and enjoying the delicacies prepared by Nani,

Of sleeping in the verandahs in the night and

Of getting up early with the sun,

Of cousins’ get-togethers and loads of chats,

..

Of having mangoes, coconut water and tatikaya munjalu,

Of quenching the thirst with lemon juice, Rasna, Cold Drinks and the like,

Of dad getting something or the other for us to eat while returning from work,

Of the maar-peet with the ice cubes and mom’s scodlings for wasting the ice,

..

Of getting new uniforms/dresses stitched for the new term,

Of the wait to make new friends in the new year at school/college,

Of the excitement of going to the next academic year and

Of buying new books and spending a whole evening putting covers on them and sticking fancy stickers,

..

Of the afternoon siestas,

Of cycling competitions,

..

Of the comfort of sleeping below the fan after a tiring day thoroughly enjoyed,

And Of the carefree childhood days which went by sooner than expected.

Note:

1. Tatikaya Munjalu, also known as Toddy palm seeds come from the coconut fraternity. Yummy in taste, these are generally found in the coastal areas.
2. Avakaya a.k.a Mango pickle. Here in Andhra Pradesh, making pickles is an yearly activity with all the mothers coming together and preparing the pickles and the kids getting the ‘honor’ of tasting it first and giving feedback as to if any of the ingredients is more or less in the pickle.

Honestly, I am Confused

Wondering what the title is about? Well those are two of the awards i received from two of my blogging friends.

Not-so-long ago, Nancy awarded-cum-tagged me with the Nameless award

Per the rules of this tag, i will have to tell the readers 7 things about myself  that they don’t know about but are true.

And very recently Kanagu very honestly 🙂 passed me the Honest Scrap award

For this award-cum-tag, i will have to list 10 honest things about myself.

So I am conveniently mixing up both the tags and listing 10 things about myself.

1. I have learned riding bicycle on a guys’ cycle. Back then, my brother used to have this Heros MTB cycle and all I could do was sit in the back when he is driving. Seeing my plight, my brother decided to teach me how to ride and thus started the huge task. I used to get on to the cycle and instantly sit on the seat(without trying to balance or anything) and try playing with the pedals and my poor brother used to push the cycle all the while trying to balance it and make sure I don’t fall down. After a number of days and with neighbors laughing at the way I try to ride, I managed to ride it and yes I was perfect in riding. Though I got a chance to ride girls’ cycle later on, I didn’t quite enjoy the ride as those cycles were very light and delicate when compared to the guys’ cycles 😀 (ya ya I was a tom boy).
2. I like to follow sports and having an elder brother at home who watches everything including tour de’ France to ice hockey made me watch several sports. But I have never bothered to find about the technical names or terminology used in the games. For example in tennis, I know when a player scores a point and I know when he is at advantage but I do not know what a volley is any other ‘word’ means. Like wise I do no not understand terms like yorker/gully used in cricket 🙂
3. Back in my school, when anyone asked me the standard question ‘what will you become when you grow up’, I used to give different answers at different times. If only wishes were horses, I would have become everything right from a nurse to a teacher, or a pilot or a journalist or a teacher or a police officer (like kiran bedi) and not to forget a lawyer too.
4. I am generally a positive person and believe that whatever happens happens for our good 🙂
5. I neither drink tea nor do I have coffee. My relatives are really confused as to what they should offer me to drink when I visit their homes.
6. Sometimes I like to address myself in third person 😀 and needless to say people around me get irritated when I do this. Bole tho Mystery is smart and behaves the way she likes. Got it?
7. Though I hate to admit it and even hate to watch them, I do follow a few couple of Hindi soaps. When a new serial starts, I would like to watch it for a couple of episodes and then realize it is yet another stupid serial and stop following it. The problem is, even after several months when I tune through the channels I’ll stop by the serial and start following it. The reason being, any idiotic serial even after taking a one year break, you can understand the whole plot by watching 1 or 2 episodes 😐  By the way anyone watch Mahi Way aired on Sony?
8. I plan a lot. Whenever I take an effort and plan something the chances that I do it as per plan are very less. Be it the schedules for studying, or the exercises schedules or the to-do lists in office. If I sit down and list out everything, somehow I am bound to not follow it. Call it mismanagement or over management, it happens  😦
9. I prepare these speeches which are like the one SRK gives in OSO. Though I never got a chance to deliver these speeches anywhere, I have them drafted in my mind. Like what if I score state 1st in my 10th results and the like. High expectations?!! I know! But what if I luckily come 1st and don’t know what to talk when the journalists come to me? 😉 😀 Planning is good, right? 😎  😎
10. I do not understand most of the English songs 😦 Either the sound of the instruments is more or the tone of the singer is different I just can’t understand most of the songs.

Phew!!! I have managed to successfully complete the tag. Now that most of them I know have already been tagged, I pass on the award and the tag to everyone who comments here 🙂

A Writeup

From a long time I wanted to write. For a while, work kept me busy, which was followed by certain personal commitments. And then i lost interest in writing and after getting done with all these, I wondered what to write. Not that i did not have anything in mind. Time and again a new idea used to pop-up in my head. Some ideas died the next day, some made it to a notepad and the remaining few remain as drafts in WordPress. At last, I realized that something is better than nothing and started with this which is neither a post nor an explanation.

All i want to do is write something,
For i write for none but for myself.

Be it a ramble or be it an opinion,
Be it my poetry or be it monologues,
All i want to do is write something.

For me, writing is neither a hobby nor a habit,
Neither is it a passion.
It’s something which i enjoy doing
And would always want to continue doing.

This blog out here,
might be just another site in this big virtual world.
But for me it’s something close to my heart.
It’s my world and my take on it!!

— Signing off Mystery

A Post to Begin the New Year

L.I.F.E.

I wanted to write something about life

All I could think was that it is like a knife.

A knife is a tool which is very useful

But while using, one ought to be careful;

Similarly, Life is something which makes us wonder

And when struck by something one has to pause and ponder!

After multiple use, a knife wears down

It has to go through the chisel to strengthen itself.

Life is also a roller coaster ride,

It’s the hardships that make us stronger and make us raise our heads in pride.

A knife can do anything from cutting vegetables & meat to humans,

The use of it depends on the person who handles the Knife

Life too can be made into whatever we choose,

Its success or Failure lies in the hands of its owner.

To this piece of poetry, don’t pay a deaf ear

And Enjoy the New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S: Please ignore the lame attempt at my poetry and enjoy the New Year. It’s better late than never, Wish you all a Very Happy New Year. Will Be back with something interesting

The Poet in me also wrote:

An Attempt in Poetry

Smile

Telangana- A New state is a solution?

Protests, bandhs, 144section, fasts, heated discussions among friends, relatives, in the office among colleagues, combined with a bundle of uncertainty -that, in short is how it has been around me for the past one month. I always had this feeling that the regional news or rather news from AP seldom appear in the national news but now when I flip the channels, it pains to have A.P. and its politics taking the center stage in the national media and that too for all the wrong reasons.

All of it started with a fast-unto-death by K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) demanding separate Telangana state and he ending the fast after 11 days following the announcement of Union Home Minister’s announcement that the process for formation of a new state would be initiated.  Though I have nothing personal against him, I dislike him to the core for raising tension among people and dividing them for his greed of position.  Resorting to emotional blackmail and playing with the emotions of people is an inexcusable crime and he has been achieving a mastery in both.

Had he been so much interested in the welfare and development of the people of Telangana, why wouldn’t he develop his parliament division and show it as an example for the other parts of Telangana? I bet it would have been a strong point on his side had he developed his division with the funds allotted and said that ‘This is what development is, and how the region can prosper with proper governance and it is for this reason that I demand a separate state which will ensure the development of the entire region’.  Had he done that may be I would have supported him but that did not happen and I am sure will never happen. And by this it is clear that it is he who is primarily discriminating against the people of Telangana.

Having said that, I do not deny the fact that the Telangana Region is under-developed when compared to the other parts of the state. Having lived under the rule of Nizams for a long time, and having been ruled by people (post-independence) who think of nothing except them it is for sure under-developed. But does having a separate state solve the problems?  Everyone who is acting like the champion-of-telangana-people is interested in the CM post the new state would create rather than the welfare of the people.  Why haven’t the leaders who are now demanding a separate state developed it in their limits? Both the M.L.As and the M.P.s are given funds to develop their constituencies and if these people are not able to develop the region with the resources they have now, how can we expect them to develop it if a new state is formed?

One more thing that puzzles me is the reason why the MLAs from the other part of the state have resigned after the announcement by Chidambaram. True that not many are happy with the idea of a separate state but isn’t there any another way to show their displeasure than submitting resignations? What about the non-co-operation and other methods we employed for getting our independence? Election in India is a costly affair and takes in a large amount of the tax-payers money, but still our politicians are hell bent on wasting our money and go about submitting their resignations as they please.

I do believe in de-centralization of power which will help in better development of the country but that need not mean breaking the country into more number of states. De-centralization need not mean more number of states; we already have a government at centre, state and the local municipal level. If true development were to be achieved, isn’t this system good enough?  After the Nizam rule, 9 districts of Telangana have been merged with the then madras presidency. After a while, the state of A.P. has been formed on a linguistic basis and had I been living in that period I am not sure if I would have liked that either. Why can’t we forget what has happened in the past and strive to make a better future rather than digging up the past and making a mess of it in the present?

Assuming a new state forms, going by the news ( The demand for a separate states of Harith Pradesh, Gorkhaland and few other states have hit the headlines after the Telangana issue) I am sure other regions are also fighting for separate states and if we were to break INDIA into further states how do we aim to achieve a stable government at the centre? With 28 states now, in most of the elections, we have a coalition government and if more and states are formed, all we can expect is that the central government formed by a coalition of number of regional parties and there by having lesser and lesser stability.

I fail to find a difference between M.N.S, which says that Marathis should be ruling, living and enjoying the resources of Maharashtra and the leaders demanding a separate Telangana state on a similar logic except for citing development as a cause. I might not have neither the age nor the experience to analyze the issue but if it so clear for someone like me to understand that all this hue and cry has been created only to satisfy the greed of the politicians; I wonder why many others do not.

All said, I don’t mind being in a new state of Telangana but I wish to be ruled by a person who has some brains and though he/she eats away public money, I wish that the person would be using at least half of the money for the welfare of the people(Level of Optimism 🙂 ). Though I was no fan of the Late Chief Minister Y.S.Raja Shekhar Reddy, I feel that all this wouldn’t have happened if he were alive. Had he been there, he would have handled things by hook or crook and avoided this mess which the state is presently in.

P.S: This post is just my personal opinion on the things happening around my state and I don’t mean to hurt others feelings whatsoever. All I want to say is that Development and not a separate state is the solution to all the problems.