Let us regain the true spirit of Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you! I merely love this festival of lights, Christmas trees and beautiful view of the street filled with the talks of red-headed people! Santa Claus has always been the king of Christmas and the beard as white as snow on his happy face has captured the hearts of young children all over the world. When I was very young, I always imagined the silhouette of King Santa slowly walking towards my room in the cold yet pleasant darkness and placing my gift under my pillow. That's what my parents used to narrate to me when I used to screech in happiness and carefully caressed the gift in my arms as if it were an innocent baby. 

Giving and receiving gifts is one of the best 'oh my gosh!!!' moments of this joyous festival. All would anticipate excitedly for their gifts and would tear open the gift wrappers as if they are about to procure some secret treasure underneath the sparkling layers. But at that moment, the gift is no less than a secret treasure and we value it from the bottom of our hearts.

Gifting something to someone special is marked by immense love. Unfortunately the mark has faded over the passage of time. The sweet and memorable period where one exchanges gifts with someone special has now become a target of a flashy price tag. People are expecting expensive and sophisticated gifts in Christmas. The true magic of Christmas has lost it's essence in this commercial paradise.

If emotions are valued less than the cost of the gifts, the joy of gifting decreases and the stress rises. That is because dejected individuals are the ones whose expectations have failed to take the image of reality. No one likes to see their loved ones with sullen faces during the time of Christmas. So it leads to certain amount of stress. That is when the true spirit of Christmas slowly starts losing it's hold. 

This true magic encompasses only the emotions behind every gift. Placing a warm blanket on the shivering hands indicates the emotion of warmth. Offering a small lantern to a fearful wanderer depicts the feeling of hope being passed on, so that the wanderer could follow the light. Gifting delicious cookies to a fragile face indicates the emotion of care through which his hunger could finally take it's last breath. Offering a pair of shoes could lessen the pain inflicted by the scars on someone's feet. 

Christmas is regarded as the festival of joy but is everyone happy? Some are but many are not. If each one initiates a selfless giving, joy would spread like an avalanche and the number will increase who always cheer in unison: Merry Christmas!

Where is humanity?

Any religion has shaped itself as a core part of our identities. Every religion possesses it's own mythological stories and the impact of its influence is huge in the minds of the followers. I imagine religion as a vast ocean. There are huge ships sailing on the ocean. The ships vary in it's size and colour, the sailors differ because of the varied languages, culture and race. But everyone's medium of transport is the same and that is the vast deep blue ocean. Religions have many names and engulfed within them are varied customs and traditions. But the base which supports every religion is the same. That is humanity. 

We all are aware of the fact which I have mentioned above. But many have manipulated their own religion for their vested interests. The ideas of manipulation are then passed onto others and slowly and gradually the volume of minds under the rough blanket increases. Who is the one to be blamed? The person responsible for manipulation? But why would he do it? There is must be some reason behind it. As all say that there are two sides to every story. 

World is divided into good and bad people. There are bad ones because they must have gone through some nasty experiences, which you or me could not even imagine of. This implies that there must be some bad ones before the new bad comers. Another division which is so popular nowadays is good and bad religion. People belonging to a bad religion are bad. There maybe many good hearted ones but they are ill-treated and deprived of love which really turns them bad. The conflict rises like rising flames. At the end, no one wins. Any revenge cannot be victorious where humanity is being confronted with fatal death. 

I try to recollect the Stone Age period which I studied in History. I wonder if religion existed at that time. The time where survival was the only priority of man. But there maybe fights occurring. So is conflict the outcome of religion? Maybe. That's because some people fight in the name of religion. A person is not treated well by a person of a xyz religion. There are chances that the victim feels every individual of that particular religion is a devil and this feeling spreads. It even spreads from generations to generations. Revenge rises at a same velocity and a time comes where humans only blame the religion. No one knows who started it and no one knows how would all this end. 

Humanity is at stake. Revenge has become the head of all human relations. Thousands of candles are lit and yet the war continues. People say peace is the solution. How can peace grow? If the fights stop. How can the fights stop? If understanding builds up. How can understanding take it's stand? If people just forget about the nationality, race, gender, caste, class, religion and remember only one thing. 

We are humans.

Cooking: A cool experience to enjoy with loved ones....

I remember writing notes about cooking when I was in 6th. I can't exactly recollect the cause behind it but the first line is still embossed on my mind: cooking is an art. I didn't have any idea about cooking at that time. It never occurred to me as interesting. There were students in my class who had already learned to cook some dishes as the teenage years commenced but I considered myself as a 'black sheep of my group.' I didn't even bother to learn few tips from my mom.

As years passed by, my first experiment on cooking was making an omelette. I tried to push my interests onto the unpredictable path of cooking. I term it as unpredictable because sometimes an unexpected drop of blood becomes a painful ingredient.(wink*) Egg is my favourite and hence I felt delighted in the process of making an omelette. I used to proudly exclaim to my relatives that: I know to make an omelette! Well, it's not a big thing but for me it was. 

Being a housewife is not a piece of cake. I have seen my mom struggling day in and day out and I used to feel sorry for her. I have always made a grumpy face whenever she used to present healthy food in front of me. "Isn't there something interesting?" would be my first response. I feel most of the kids have the tendency to make such a response. In some situations I had come face to face with the sudden outburst of my mom's anger. 

"Stand in the kitchen whole day and try to cook something as your mind battles with the heat! That is the time you will realise how difficult cooking is! Be grateful for what you get as you don't know how it feels to die in hunger!" My mouth converts into a straight line and I kind of feel ashamed of myself. That is the time when I don't feel sorry for my mom, but I actually empathise with her. 

I then took a silent vow and promised myself that I would start helping my mom in cooking. I realised that a little help could make her day. After all even our moms deserve a hang out with their friends and some time for themselves, isn't it? The vow is still in progress. 

Cooking is one of the best way to spend time with the parents. One day my dad decided to make a fish curry. I started observing him and tried to cut few vegetables by myself. It's a very funny experience. I didn't know how to hold a knife properly and my hand would tremble with excitement and fear. My dad would look at me and say, "this is not the way!" and his remark would be followed by my mom's laughter in the next room. He would keep me occupied by asking me to remove green chillies or tomatoes. I would become confused because of an unsuccessful search in the fridge and my mom's comment would make me laugh harder: Oh! (in exaggeration), she will take the whole day to find them! The entire experience would be composed of dedication, fun and a dawn of realisation which consists of one single message: Cooking is a cherish able experience to rejoice with the loved ones. 

This amazing art has developed tolerance in me. It has also taught me the secret behind a wonderful recipe. That secret is love. It is an ingredient which makes any dish so delicious and mouth-watering which no five star hotel would be able to provide you. That is why home made foodstuffs are the best! 

YOLO- You live only once!!!

This article is based on the topic YOLO- You live only once. Things which I would like to do before I depart from the world....

'You live only once' is an utterance so popular. We all wish to lead a life where there is adventure, excitement, happiness, love, fame and success. No one would dream of leading a monotonous life riddled with boring routines! Just like you have framed a picture which consists of shining present and mysteriously awesome future of your life in your mind, I would also like to share the framed photo which I have designed and has huge impact on my mind and soul. Just like anyone else, I want my life to turn out as a magnet that attracts only smiles and laughter. In order to turn this dream into reality, I wish to become a writer before I lose my earthly existence. 

Writing turned out to be my passion since I turned 13 years old. I had developed immense love in reading novels and later I decided to pass on this love to the fingers which could pen down ideas of my mind. From that moment onwards, I dreamt of being a writer. At the beginning I wished to be a novelist but slowly and gradually my heart exchanged routes with the one which would inspire me to evolve as a blogger. 

I want to lead my life writing captivating articles which would capture millions of hearts. I am sure this passion would be entangled with other varied experiences which could be breath-taking and eye-opening at the same time. I don't wish to become a great writer. Rather I would like to become a writer who is consistent. A life whose core is writing and where there is no pressure for perfection. I will love to read the articles of other writers and their inspiration will turn out to be a cherry on the cake. 

Traveling is another motive of mine. I feel that traveling and writing go hand in hand. Traveling will help me to develop a flexible heart for understanding people whom I have never met, it will gift me a new vision to feast my eyes on the nature, beyond my grasp of imagination, it will surprise me with a unique taste for which my taste buds would thank me and finally it would shower upon me with experiences to make me capable of widening my soul further. 

I would love to pen down all these experiences. Peace will be at its abundance and as my eyes will blink with fading yet beautiful images of entire journey, a faint voice will sing in my soul: Yes, I have lived my life fully! 

You are changing everyday.....

True love. Is this a concept or a feeling? I don't know and I feel that most people are still unsure about it. I have never been able to define the word 'love'. From the days of childhood I have heard that one must love and take care of their family, relatives and friends. We love our families. We say that we even love our friends from the bottom of our hearts. Keeping that in picture, I have come across situations where I have said 'I love you' to my best friends in school. But at the same time, I hate it when they change over the spasm of time. This results from the change in priorities and I have found myself saying this to one of my childhood friend, 'you have changed a lot!' 

A deviation in the attitude conflicting with the one playing in our minds brings anger. Slowly I tried to come over it. But as I came over it, I sensed that my idea about the love I feel for my friends has changed. The feeling is still the same yet the perception has decided to take a new road. I realized that understanding people brings more love than merely celebrating parties and circulating gifts. A change in attitude will shoot out the bad feelings and replace the black hole with love. Can that be understood as 'true love?'

Break-ups have become a daily routine. People have also started celebrating break-ups. Ending up any relation has become so deep rooted and there are many who take it so delicately. I don't want to consider them as the insensitive ones because everyone's life is different and thousands of experiences and reasons encircle their current personalities. But sometimes it feels as if fights and conflicts have turned out to be the only solutions. Love blossoms and then continuous arguments blacken it deeply. Hatred comes out and the relationship ends. This is how I have imagined it. Why does the feeling vanish into thin air? Because of conflicts. How do the conflicts take shape? Because of egocentricity. Promises disappear into the realms of anger.

Earth has become a fusion of two worlds. One world is deeply marked by hatred. The other one by love. We all know fairly the reasons behind these two words. We watch news broadcast where wars between countries are being dramatically explained. We watch it, analyze it, criticize one of the nations and take side of another. If we find any one who is supporting the opposite nation, we start over a debate with that person as well. Small-sized fight has begun. We watch latest shows with our friends and later discuss about the actions made by the characters. Some actions reflected selfishness and in an animated discussion we say how truly we hate that character. But at the same time if we see our only friend mingling with some other guys, insecurity swells up in our minds and we start acting differently. We talk a lot about books whose stories depict unconditional love but if it's your birthday and your bf/gf didn't turn up with a gift, you turn red as a tomato.

In this entire article I tried to emphasize reality within the hemispheres of totality. I would not like to suggest any measures to improve relationships because that is totally up to you. You are your life's master and your actions will add colors in your life. Mere experiences with people or reading articles changes our attitude towards love and hatred. It gives birth to a new perception and things start changing. You are changing everyday. We all are changing everyday. It is an amazing feeling to view the world in this way.