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Showing posts from 2019

Spiritual But Not Religious

Today is a special day. I have decided to break habit and write about a subject that makes me extremely uncomfortable. Uncomfortable for two reasons, a) it is a deeply intimate and personal topic for me, and b) it has been the cause of the greatest friction between me and those I love, and has often given me intense pain.  My inability to identify myself with a single religion. Now, this may not be a great deal for a lot of folks, but it was for me, and my conservative family. It has influenced every single choice that I have made in life, from what I’m going to eat to who I’m going to marry. And I didn’t even realise the extent of its impact until I decided to introspect, and find answers to all the open ‘whys’ in my life. It is perhaps, the one part of my identity, of my being, that I guard most fiercely, and would like to be known for.     People who know me closely, know that I am a rebel at heart. I cannot be told what I have to do or must do by force

The Song

Funny things, these songs, The ones you used to hum along, How they go deep somewhere, In places that should not be there, Bringing memories from crevices deep, Buried secrets from under the heap. One such song came my way, The one that made we sing and sway, He asked me if I was around, Was I lost or could I be found, He was looking for a person specific, He made it sound pretty terrific, Where was the girl with incessant chatter, Born to make the ceilings shatter, The one that took pride in mathematics, And everything that was scientific, The one that had a spine so strong, And she wouldn't always play along, The one who always sang her heart, And danced with a grace apart, You could hear her laughter from far away, She knew she could just seize the day. Where is she now, that song asked, Why is she quiet, her voice so masked? Why does she not dance anymore, And sing along the songs of yore, Why is she tired, why doe

Does Love Really Conquer All?

I was a believer, I truly was. I believed love was overpowering. We could 'mend' people, lives, ideas, relationships, the Kashmir issue, everything with love. But no, we cannot. There really are people who don't feel empathy. There really are people incapable of loving. They live among us. The narcissist jerks who make businesses multiply manifold, those who throw people under the train to fulfil ambition,  those who celebrate when religious riots break out, because they derive their power from hatred, those who tell us that it's OK to kill, that curse befalls on them who do not worship their God. And I see them winning. They leverage Easter deaths to win votes and spread more hatred. And they win. Do you know why? Because hatred and anger are all consuming. It takes a special intelligence, an awareness of our humanity, an education of our heart to understand that we are all humans, children of the same God, and our liberation lies in love and compassion, in empath