Friend

A friend in need is a friend indeed- aren't you aware of this proverb? Well, I know you must be thinking what crap I am exactly talking about. Is there anybody who hasn't heard of this proverb? Now my question is who is a friend?You must be even more angry and thinking have I turned into a philosopher?

Ha ha ha! no my dear friends am not a philosopher and would not like to be one. I am a bit confused about this word friend. The definition and concept of friendship has been changing and it is perhaps the most changeable word the dictionary has ever produced. Why? 

Remember the famous song from Sholay, "Ye dosti ab nahi torenge.....torenge dum agar tera sath na chorenge" Can anyone sacrifice his or her life for his/her friend in this century? Well, if you can people should buy a ticket to see you or you should be a strong contestant for the Noble prize for peace. By this time you must be thinking I don't believe in friendship or I am a typical pessimistic kind of a person. No, my dear friends. I am not at all being sarcastic at the word friend but trying to be a bit rational or realistic. The silver-screen pushes us into a world of fantasy and utopia where each and every relation is exaggerated to an unrealistic point. They talk of the impossibility of opposite gender friendship (only Bollywood) "ek ladka or ek ladkhi kabhi acche dost nehi ban sakte". Now you must be giggling after reading this line. I have laughed my heart out again and again whenever I have heard this dialogue. They come out with films like Jane tu ya Jane na to prove their point. I have number of friends of the opposite gender but never did we contemplate over this statement. Oh My God! then something seriously wrong with us because we are good friends? Again if you are very good friends of the same gender they come out with films named Dostana, Girlfriend. Then can you anyone tell me with whom are we supposed to make friendship? Someone elder to me then Oh no! It can be Nishabd or Joggers Park or even worse Choti si love story. 

WE are pushed into a world of conflict and chaos by the silver screen. We take their pseudo worlds to be true. I will not give any definition of friendship because a person who has one knows what it feels like to have a true friend.With the passage of time the definitions of friendship have changed like: If my friends allows me to cheat or helps me in exam he/she is my friend. Or If my friends lends me his bike for my dating he is my friend...Or if i want money and my friend gives it he/she is my friend. But the reversal of action will turn the person as your enemy or an unfaithful friend. Newton's third law is rightly applicable thus in this case every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Have you ever been back-stabbed by your best friend? Previously I was into the notion that we have a best friend or a bestest friend. But when your so called best friend stabs your trust, your faith can you really call this person your enemy? Its really difficult to paint a villainous or fiendish  face out of the face which you thought divine. Your heart bleeds profusely and the sympathies that you get in and around your other friend circle is like the antiseptic you apply to a deep cut. Your wound is hardly healed by it. Actually "I think its a mistake to ever look for hope outside of one's self.”

Nature thirst

I am enthralled, ecstatic and overwhelmed today as my heart leaps to the sweet music of nature. My mind is filled with the fresh imprints of nature. Good God was my mind in slumber so long as I failed to notice the ways of nature? I had gone for invigilation in the 3rd floor of my college building. With the strike of the bell as the students buried their heads into solving their paper, my idle mind felt bored at such a mundane duty. I decided to peep through the window for a change. Wow! amazing, wonderful  was my first feeling and the words of William Wordsworth had started ringing in my years- April has put a spirit of youth in everything.

Yes, I witnessed the youthfulness, the vibrancy of nature. I look at nature everyday but that is with disgust. The summer scorching sun brings a frown to my face. But today the same sun appeared with all its awe and beauty in front of me. It looked like a golden ball and the rays like the hands of Midas, which could turn anything into gold. The sun gave me a feeling of warmth, youth and rejuvenation instead of headache, trying limbs and sweat. The lush green trees and the G.T. Road in front had altogether a fresh appeal to me. With the trees nodding and swaying their heads to the ethereal notes of nature my eyes soaked in the pleasant green color of nature mixed with love and care.” To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon the verdant green hills is the most perfect refreshment". As I stood behind the window, I had a pent up feeling. I felt more like a captive shackled and chained by the slavery of man and nature. I was unable to break free the iron rods or run down stairs to sip in the juice of freedom running in my blood. Why couldn't I run away from everything and be one with nature? I failed to answer to the beckoning of trees. The roads made me homesick. I wanted to run and put my head on my Ma's lap. The scorching sun was much more soothing and pleasant than my room with six fans. How truly did William Carlos Williams say In summer the song sings itself.

The song, the dance of nature till then went unnoticed. I did notice the proud face of nature and also realized how its ravaged mankind and society with its fury and rage. The images of Tsunami in Japan a few days back flashed in my mind. The benign face of nature can make us feel that she is very passive. But Mother Nature can make and wreck anything and everything. I never before took a philosophical look at nature. Was my idle mind responsible for such a realization? Was the idle romance about nature my homesickness? 

I really don't have an answer. Rabindranath Thakur wrote 'Nirjhorer Sopno Bhongo' one fine morning, Wordsworth wrote about Daffodils. But I am not a poet. This is not poetry. Wordsworth said that: “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility”. May be after ten years when I remember this day my prose may turn to poetry. I may get inspiration from the Muse to write something immemorial. I don't know what will happen in future but I only want to say in tune with the saying: Each season has its joys to treasure, to lift one's spirits and bring us pleasure.

Money

 “Money is like a sixth sense - and you can't make use of the other five without it”

This five lettered word is the most powerful thing in today's world. We can laugh, enjoy, bring the world at our feet with the help of it. Again we can live a wretched life and be unhappy and keep droning without it. People like Bill Gates have become legends because they have money. It is more powerful than any weapon in this world because with the help of this we buy weapons. There are philosophers and rich people in and around our society trying to profess and purify human minds by saying money can't buy happiness . It not everything in life.Spike Milligan aptly said, "Money can't buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery."
Imagine a situation or an utopic world where money would be abundant. Money would lie like rocks and pebbles in the road. The trees would have money instead of leaves. The so called Money plant would actually yield money. Then could money rule this world? Would people really kill each other or fight to become super powers? Or could be then jokingly say  Money, Money, Money sweeter than Honey?

Its is common saying that in this 21st century emotions have become useless. People really don't care for it. Then my question is would people really start giving value to emotions?  Bo Derek, the American Actress, has said very rightly, “Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping.”Well, our society is infested with criminals, murderers , cheats, traitors.There is a division among these miscreants also. The first group is related with money and the second group with people's emotions. Strangely enough our government has stringent laws for the first group of criminals but the second group is never brought to book. If I murder somebody it is a crime and i will be punished but if i murder somebody's faith and trust i am scout free. Well, personally i feel the second is more heinous crime than the first. Once you die your soul is free from all the turmoils of life but with the later your life becomes a hell. You are surrounded by an enigmatic world of traitors, cheats and you shaken completely so much so that you stop trusting yourself. . Then can money really solve this problem?
"Money can’t buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery". — said Spike Milligan. Well, the abundance of money can help us in building a society free from the evils of burglary, robbery, theft and in some cases murder.The only other group after the rich whose only concern is money is the poor. But the second problem can hardly be solved with money. I believe that a cheat is always a cheat. A cheat is like a blind man and if you follow him or rather dare to trust him you will definitely fall into ditch..
Things lesser in quantity is always valued. I hope this scarcity of money, this inequality or class division in our society has made MONEY more powerful than before . As the days are passing it is becoming more powerful. Its high time that we become and not sell our emotions and values at its hands.As the famous Russian born American novelist Ayn Rand rightly said,“Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.”