“it was a cry / meant for no one / but the moon—”
— Sujata Bhatt, from “The Langur Coloured Night”, Collected Poems
Don’t touch me if you don’t mean it.
The War Boys (2009)
I think millennials don’t want to have children right now because they’ve seen their mothers (baby boomers) make up for what they missed out on from becoming young parents. The ones I’ve seen have failed miserably at doing so.
“So the myth in our society is that people are competitive by nature and that they are individualistic and that they’re selfish. The real reality is quite the opposite. We have certain human needs. The only way that you can talk about human nature concretely is by recognising that there are certain human needs. We have a human need for companionship and for close contact, to be loved, to be attached to, to be accepted, to be seen, to be received for who we are. If those needs are met, we develop into people who are compassionate and cooperative and who have empathy for other people. So… the opposite, that we often see in our society, is in fact, a distortion of human nature precisely because so few people have their needs met.”
— Gabor Maté
ɴᴏᴍ ɴᴏᴍ 😋
— I'm glad your sickness, Marina Tsvetaeva (translated from the Russian by Elaine Feinstein)
I don't know how many times I survived myself without telling anyone.
-V. J.
I’m Not…
I’m not the girl who would tie your tongue.
I’m not the girl who turns your head.
I’m not the girl you’d ask to prom
Or even on a date.
I’m not the girl who likes frills and lace.
I’m not the girl who’d be flirty or flighty.
I’m not the girl who you would daydream about.
I’m not the girl who everyone sees,
The one who beams beauty, radiance, and so carefree.
I’m not the one to be in the foreground.
I’m not visible to anyone.
I Am…
I am the girl you’d pass in the halls,
Who’d probably like you from afar, but never say a word.
I am the girl who’d sketch or write,
My words never reaching your heart or eyes.
I’m the girl who stands in the rain
That mixes with her tears and drowns out her cries.
I am the girl who is always the second choice.
Why on earth would I ever be the first?
I am the girl some would torment
Because I’m different and hide in the background.
I’m the girl that’s invisible to you.
The one you’d never remember until we meet again.
Do you know what I mean when I say that sometimes I don’t have any feelings or emotions? I’m not in a good mood, or a bad mood. I just sit there, by myself, and think. I over think sometimes. I think about what has happened, what will happen, and what could have happened. I think about you, I think about what’s wrong in my life, I think about how I can get myself out of this stage, I think about why I got here in the first place. I think about everything and anything.
We live in a world, where people are influenced by others of their kind through mere words, the power of speech, as they call it, has an effect far greater than most physical,aggressive actions, but "the feelings perceived are not necessarily the feelings expressed", which in most cases, leads to an exaggeration of facts and in our very case led to the birth of the mother of numerous social evils, that we, as a species, face today. We call this glorified form of tribalism, Religion.
It is astounding that years of people just talking about the existence of a higher power can convince their sons and grandsons of firm, unquestionable and rather unreasonable faith, when the same generation, for centuries, would not even believe that oppressing half of their population i.e. womankind, would not do harm, if not better.
Let me present you with a hypothesis, What if, a group of early men witnessed a bolt of lightning? What if, they started to believe that there were people in the sky that caused them and frightened as they were, felt the need to please these gods through sacrifices and offerings? What if all this offerings made them expect a divine reward? And what if all this misconception spread around like an infection, calling for discrimination towards those who refused to concur?
This hypothesis has several conclusions. Humanity fears that which it doesn't understand, it worships that which it fears and expects rewards for it's actions . As for the spreading, I believe that "Religion is just a chinese whisper game stretched for too long".
And the final conclusion is that people aren't very accurate when it comes to first impressions, often judging too soon about the nature of something, even if that something does not exist beyond their three pounds of grey matter.
"Religion is a fool's answer to another fool's question." People look for meaning in the physical world, they seek their place in all that comprises the cosmos without realising that the answer to their question is subjective, it doesn't have to be out there in religious texts, written by delusional old men, it exists in the mind, created by people themselves.
Now the question arises, why did the need for such a misleading lie of a system exist?, the answer is a simple one, hope, every man is a hero in his own story, and when this hero is spat on, knocked down, he can't help but give in to vulnerability, depression. This man and every other man needs this, beautiful lie, as a drowning man needs a rock to cling to while he catches his breath and there's nothing wrong with a system that gives him that, and I know that I'm no one to deprive them of that . But there's a whole another way to look at it, the man may never learn to swim if he doesn't let go of the rock that gives him a false sense of hope, that he will survive without battling the waves. Now I ask you to what end, are we going to allow this false sense of hope to take control over our actions? , the sooner humanity figures that out, the better, and if not, well then, "May God help us all".
-Pranjal Yadav