Seriously, Dil se... ;)
The GIRL in BLUNTS...
I used to meet this girl everyday. She was awe-inspiring. But that was ages ago. We do not see each other anymore. She was the girl in blunts...
The girl who was placid outside... but turbulent inside. The girl who was reticent in conversations but articulate in actions... whose countenance wore a shroud of shyness but whose mind galloped a thousand miles a moment... The girl who would hardly see you in the eyes... but her eyes were the mirror of her soul. The girl who did mess up with a few people but never apologised because she didn't believe in shallow apologies and the hypocrisy of forgiveness. She was meticulous... she was a brave-heart... she hardly gave up on things... she was innocent! She would seldom pay heed to compliments and criticism... because those were outside her territory of interest. She was one girl who didn't mind being labelled 'arrogant'... feigning niceness was certainly not her way. But she was a really cool person... who left me one day, on the pretext that her non-existence would be the key to my survival.
That key opened the door to the breeze that kissed my tresses... and the locks brushed past across my face... My laughter would ring with merriment. They didn't need to peep into my eyes because I had my glasses perfectly in place... and all my nightmarish fears swept aside beneath the carpet of my smile. My mind would constantly be at work... but would choose to go places in tandem with my heart, which more often than not, ended up complicating the scenarios. I would readily apologize... accepting mistakes gracefully became the golden rule for a peaceful co-existence. I was vulnerable... driven to ecstacy and gloom... stirred by the ripples of praises and flak... People would drop by saying I am a nice girl. Somewhere down the line, I became two-faced... one of which was pretty. And that's how I became human.
I'd look forward to meeting that girl some day again. She was awe-inspiring. But that was ages ago. We do not see each other anymore. She was the girl in blunts...
On 'being judgemental'...
Alfred Lord Tennyson had once remarked,
''Once in a golden hour,
I cast to earth a seed,
And up there grew a flower
That others called a weed.''
While this is a free-flowing satire on how the world is judgemental about you, it won't be less than apt if you say that people hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves. The contexts in which I'm writing this down are infinite. However, it all boils down to just one thing - if for once, we all stop being catty and judgemental about the happenings in life and the people we bump into everyday, the existence could give out different vibes altogether. The better ones, that is.
The grim fact is that we all indulge into it... every second of our lives... The media pronounces it... the social network echoes it... and we enjoy it. Who doesn't have a hearty laugh in the afternoon after going through those Alia Bhatt trolls, that are so 'in' these days? Or the Sarthak Agrawal memes, which are currently the flavour of the season, thanks to his whopping 99.6%? But spare a second thought and you won't find it amusing, I tell you. Alia Bhatt isn't around in the industry to show off her general knowledge. Sarthak Agrawal is just a regular kid who delivered what others couldn't, despite the hardwork and intelligence... may be because the lad stayed afloat a bit longer when others had already given in! And if we have forgotten to draw the line between 'entertainment' and 'mockery' or 'constructive criticism' and 'being judgemental', then I must say, without fail, that we are being really nasty in our approach. Why we end up sizing others up stems, more often than not, from our own insecurities and shortcomings in life and sprouts from ''The grapes are sour'' tendency.
I remember Rahul Dravid telling one of his interviewers, ''You must know where you're coming from if you want to know where you are going.'', thus underlining the role of personal and family history in every individual's life. Talking about Dravid, it is gratifying to know he hung up his boots before the era of trolls set in! Champions like him certainly do not deserve the dumb treatment we, the audience, dish out these days. Coming back to where I'd left, before we resort to passing judgments even about those in our vicinity, let us respect that there could be a lot of history engraved on the other side of the wall. What the world sees is just a blandly painted collection of bricks. And even before anyone could peep and look over the other side of the wall, the person realises that the massive crowd is already busy scribbling sh*t over this side! And while it does make the targeted one's life quite a bit of a struggle, it also distances our 'what we are looking at' from 'what we should be looking at'. Being judgemental seeps deep down into our mechanism of operation. To find ourselves in better spirits, we need to take a walk down the street of idealism because that is a kind of blueprint for our actions, which seldom do we bother to adhere to. People might say it doesn't work. But idealism, though a mirage, is a projection of our higher self which constantly tugs at us... nudges and whispers to us whenever the caravan isn't in the right gear!
Winding up in the context that I had begun with,
''Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.''
- Voltaire.