Musings

MY JOURNEY IN COVID TIMES – ketaki waykole

March 25th, India closed its door,

2 yrs ago, NEET locked me indoor

Family time increased, Stress levels decreased

April, may, June, July

Books, mom, dad and me alive…

Covid and comorbidities,

A deadlier combination than eye perceives

My dear dad now admitted in hospital

Waiting for the virus’ disapproval

August brought angst,

Covid, mom, dad and me still alive

Mom and me quarantined at home,

Amidst allopathy and ayurveda we did roam 21st century,

we connect with space,

Yet, when virus wields it’s disastrous mace

Dad and us disconnected,

Our body and mind deeply affected!

September brought blessings,

Hope, mom, dad and me all alive

After 6 months I walked out,

Much like a brave scout

Entered another battle,

Another diseased exam I had to settle.

13th of September noon, Probably immune,

without neet on my calendar

Joy, mom, dad and me very much alive. –

An Everyday Sky

Jyotsna Issar

The icy glass has a palm traced, with the gushes of air hitting the window pane,

it’s soothing and calm and warm inside, where she stands, craning her neck to see the sky.

The beauty it radiates has enough power akin, to hold humans captive in its burnished skin, with pouring inky tresses waving and wounding, around the timid hopeful ardour surrounding.

It starts with a faint sapphire, painting the world with a set of fresh desires, the misty cotton vapours swim in the pool, and the birds chirp and dance until the noon. the water’s then replaced by the lime, with the sun that brightly shines,

it’s mellow and warm with amber light, as it slowly sets for the evening sight. it muses with the spectrum of hues, experimenting with shades of pink and blues, it’s also ginger and tangerine some days, with a silver lining and some golden shades.

Then knocks the night sky, painted with a black dye, Black but still lustrous enough to mesmerise, the gloominess is just a disguise, with a white sun and the shimmering slaves, this is how an everyday sky behaves.

Dr ujwal kumar akula

JR1 Medicine Dept.

there’s that light of happiness that shines brighter

even thru the darkest of the dark

piercing it , penetrating it and finding its way to the surface.

life-force is strong until u are !

which does make a difference……….

stay weird stay crazy and live life…….,.

Disclaimer : All views expressed in the blog are solely of the writer. The institute in no way subscribes to them. This is just a platform for creative expression. We have taken efforts to ensure that the sentiments of any person, religion or organisation are not hurt by the content.

Fake it, till you make it.

By: shuvangi singh
This is something we have often heard or practiced ourselves or probably will in future as well. Because at that point somehow it feels easier to just put on a smile instead of answering questions, or just being a subject of gossip.
But ask yourselves, can someone fake happiness and be actually happy? I don’t think so. We always try but it doesn’t work, does it?
We try to be happy, cheerful, very chill in front of people, maybe because that’s what we are known for, always smiling and positive”. We try to live upto their expectations or try to avoid the drama, or we just don’t want ourselves to be the source of the negative energy in the room.

After years of doing so, pretending becomes easy, it’s almost a part of you now. It’s now difficult to get out of this cycle, this routine.
At the end of the day, it is still so exhausting despite the pretending part becoming easier.

We all have our low days, few of us more than the others but we don’t want to show that to the world. We don’t want to seem weak or emotional or sensitive so we try to act strong each day, hiding our emotions behind a straight face. These suppressed emotions hit us later time to time making it even more difficult.

I have realised over the years that “it’s okay to be not okay” sometimes. Its just fine. Don’t block it, don’t fight it, don’t act. If you are not happy, don’t force yourself to pretend, don’t put on a smille. Let it come to you with all force, accept it. And then let it all go. Know that it is going to pass, it’s just a phase. Deal with it instead of running away. Don’t get too comfortable in this phase also. work on yourselves, improve, do things which make you happy, eat healthy, do your skin care, exercise, talk to the right people. Just Breathe.
You’ve done it before you’ll do it again.

Space and Multiverse

Prajjwal Priyadarshi

The ambiguity of this limitless universe amazes me each and every moment. There are lots of theories and postulates of human existence or how the lives began on earth and dwelling into it opens up another plethora of realms of possibilities. The atoms, molecules, matters, our imaginations, the unknown positive and negative work forces in all of us, the neurons, beating of heart, every exhalation and inhalation, everything appears to be carved out in a perfect balanced manner to drive through the balance between the time, actions and our existence. As they always say that the time is relative, maybe we could be relative too, or as some theories say some planet species are maybe the gone or anticipation of all of us, our past and future. Or maybe the horizons or the threads creating the universe connected, we may die here to be welcomed again in a different world or some other mass in a distant away galaxy across many black holes may be harboring another earth containing each one of us just in a different time zone. In the Oxford book of modern science I even came across a theory of ‘Multiverse’ which points out towards multiple universe which had everything of particles time space mass and also us. Maybe while I am writing this, another big bang explosion somewhere might have taken place, and somewhere my ancestors would have just been born.Time is relative, but there are many more things relative. Our existence is relative. Dwell into this further, the vastness to be explored expands more.

हम इज़हार करते है

BY Palash Jethaliya

हम इज़हार करते है

कई तरह से

तुम्हे समझा नही पाते

ये और बात है

हमारी खता बस ये है की

इश्क़ का इज़हार

सीधे सीधे नही किया जाता हमसे

वरना तुम्हे भी एहसास हो जाता की

इश्क़ तो हमारा भी किसी से कम नही|

Imperfection is perfect!

By Prajjwal Priyadarshi

So, as I talk a lot about mental health, peace and realising self worth and even run a page where have heard out many people problems and try to help them with some counselling and advices, plus also this is mental health awareness week, so wanted to talk about Happiness. Made an instagram post too about it, sharing it here too the writeup.

With mental health awareness week going on, let’s talk about happiness.

I read somewhere Ultimate happiness is a myth that we chase till our graves. Doing small things daily out of routine or finding peace in whatever the most tiny thing you do is happiness.If you have a problem, the first thing you got to ask yourself is whether you can do anything about it, if yes go do it. If no, why to worry? But that’s ideal and we humans are far more than ideal. Once you have some issue, and you keep stressing over it, then that stress itself becomes an issue too. Why have 2 issues when you already had 1?Whenever you are facing something, it’s not mandatory to find out of box ideas to come out of it. ‘Don’t feel sad, you are strong, forget this and move on’ this line is shit according to me. When something has hit you, and being a human you are bound to have emotions. Don’t try to overly suppress it, take your time, calm your mind, just stick there without giving up, eventually you will be fine. Don’t escape emotions, deal with them and upgrade yourself such that even if I face same situation next time, yes I may get hurt again, I may fall down again but my reaction to that adversity will be better than my reaction when I previously faced that.We all are imperfect in this world. Some more, some less. We shouldn’t live with that imperfection in my opinion and definitely strive towards betterment always, but most importantly taking care we are there to lift ourselves up if we fall, it’s okay if we take support to get up, machines too need mechanics to push them when they get malfunctioned. So it’s okay to take the extra push but not being dependent on it. Try making yourself better each and every day taking care that you are striving towards that greatness and your journey is even if hectic but happy one, and you are willing to strive through it.It’s okay to take breaks, it’s okay to take rest, it’s okay to commit mistakes, it’s okay to cry, it’s okay to feel sad, it’s okay to feel like giving up, everything is okay while you are being yourself and while you are Living and to live each and every moment imperfectly but with satisfactory dissatisfaction is most important.

MINDING OUR OWN BUSINESS….

By Shagun

We Indians are well known for our long, rather too long nose. Our noses are so long, that we easily sniff out something fishy in our neighbor’s house. Our eyes are so sharp, that we see beyond closed doors, and concrete walls. Our mouths are often busy gossiping about the newest affairs and the juiciest gossip. And if anyone tells you that gossiping is a trait restricted to women, I would like to use this opportunity to quote a research by the university of California, which says men and women share the same amount of gossip and dedicate the same amount of time to it.

Recently a video went viral where a woman was beaten on the main roads in the city of Ghaziabad in UP. The man kept on pulling her hair, and beating her the way you and I wouldn’t even beat a punching bag. When the woman tried to get up, she was further beaten by a chair. Vivid images, I know, but not triggering enough for the ‘bystanders’. The video had evidences of people going around. Some of them paused to watch for a second or two, others kept on going on, in their lives. The passersby were women, men, and even children. Nobody, not even one came in the way. No one called the police or tried to intervene. For once, Indians minded their own business.

Gossips are an integral part of our lives. We love talking. We bond over it. We love sharing stories, we keep on talking until it is actually something to talk about. We have this tendency of differential mutism, where we keep mum about the things that are worthy of the time. We do not talk about sexual harassments at work place. We refuse to go tell the HR if someone is misbehaving with our colleague. Because harassment is someone’s private business. However, someone’s relationship is a thing for public speculations and judgement. We turn a blind eye when someone is being bullied, and still manage to live with ourselves. We are so indifferent, that 85% of bullying incidents take place in front of someone. We keep quiet when we see someone taking credits of someone else’s work. We sometimes even pass a remark about how dumb the person is, for being taken advantage of. But we are very quick to “loudly wonder” how a woman would have rapidly risen to the position of power. And more often than should be acceptable, we are convinced that it is not hard work.

Someone’s recipe for Dal-Makhani is shared in a kitty party, but the same party has never heard about the woman’s domestic struggles. Dowry, domestic abuse, violence and even marital rapes are shushed. 90% of sexual offenders in cases against children are people the kids knew about, but it is a randomly broached topic. But someone’s non-binary love preference is suddenly the gossip of the hour. We mind our businesses, when we come across something even mildly inconvenient or unpleasant. We overshare when the pain isn’t ours to bear.

May be it is time that we fight off the ‘bystander syndrome’ and actually learn when to mind our own business and when to not.

THE GLASS WALL AND THE GLASS CEILING

By Shagun

The city of Mohenjo-Daro was planned in such a way that the “acropolis” or the upper part of the society was on a higher pedestal and the poorer or “less important” part of the society was built on the lower grounds. Since the whole city was in the Indus valley, the lower pedestal or the working class constantly had to face the floods, in addition to invasions, and deal with it. This further deteriorated their condition. The wall of demarcation still exists in the society. It is transparent, perhaps made of glass, and hence ignored by the inhabitants of acropolis. But it is there. This wall effectively prevents transmigration of people from the lower strata to the upper one.

Am I talking about the economic segregation? Yes and No. I am talking about each and every sector where the disparity and demarcations are loud and clear. I am raising voice against every ground where all humans are not treated as equal. I am questioning every forum, where each and every participant is not given a fair opportunity. And trust me, we all shall lose count if we start counting such pedestals. The up rise in the west, popularly termed as “black lives matter” movement is a just proof, as to how little we have come since the era of apartheid and slave system. The disparity in the wages of the two genders shows that will still do not value female labour as much as we value the ‘other gender’. The privilege of not knowing about genders other than male female and trans, shows how little we acknowledge their presence. Pride movement aimed to legalise their existence and relationships, but the wall prevented them from normalising it. A lot of us resent the reservation on the basis of caste, the same group of us, do nothing to make work and living place more inclusive.

“The wall in discussion is definitely evil. Who built this wall? Who has spread this negativity?” It’s us. We all came together to build the wall. “But I am a female. According to the discussion I am still not treated as equal at some fronts . Why would I create the wall?” We all are the citizens of acropolis at some forums, and the live down town in some. We create the wall, when we are privileged, and try to break it when we live down town. We all are at fault and the cause of problem, and we all are the sufferers.

The glass wall needs to break. And we can break it only if we all work together. The clause here is, that that wall can be broken, if the people in privileged position too work towards its demolition. All of us, irrespective of our position, need to be more sympathetic, kind and most importantly inclusive. If we are at the position of privilege, we need to lend hands to help people come up, or level the land equal for all of us. If we are at the position of disadvantage, we need to empower not just us, but every one around us. We need to educate ourselves and rise together.

Barriers can be broken, inequalities can be levelled, horizons can be expanded, if we work towards rising beyond the glass ceiling.