THE REAL ME

Is it just me or do you all wonder sometimes about the kind of person you’ve grown up to be? I guess it’s just this age we’re in. Teenage frankly is such a strange phase…one day you can be feeling like the most magnificent person to have ever walked on Earth and same day, you can be doubting every part of yourself while laying on your bed at night. No matter what it is, it’s the se years that shape us into the person we’re gonna be for the rest of our lives and today I’m just here to give you a glimpse of who I’ve become after 16 years of my life.

I’m the girl who loves to watch sunsets, enjoys staring into the night sky and still gets just as excited about rainbows as a 5 year old. . I’m the girl who picks up beautiful flowers off the road, the one who snaps a pic every time the sky is a pretty colour and the one who can just sit and admire nature for hours on end. I’m the kind of person who’d always go out of her way to help a friend, comfort them, make them feel better about themselves and happy. I’m too empathetic in real, like no exaggeration, I cry whenever I see poor people while on a drive. I value relations soo much and sometimes care a little too much which has not ended well for me most of the times to be very frank, but I’m determined to never ever give up on that kindness. Since I’m being brutally honest today, I admit I get insecure about myself a lot of times, sometimes jealous of others and even scared that people I value are gonna replace me but I guess that’s what makes a good friend. I’m the person who has the courage to raise my voice against wrong, even if it means I have to go against Narendra Modi, I’ll always stand up for the right thing, no matter if people consider me too uptight or too straightforward or too ethical.I dream of making a change in the world, like basically meri bhot hi activist wali personality hai. I’m the old school kinda girl, I still dream of a fairytale and cheesy love story you know that accidental meet-up, flowers, love letters wagerah wala stuff. I’m A to Z obsessed with cricket, like legit shouting “Howzat” at my house and jumping like a maniac whenever India wins. Also, one thing I should have mentioned at the very start is how mental I am when it comes to my birthday, so much so that I start the countdown, like, 6 months in advance. I love listening to music with the lights off, I love beaches, I love reading novels and I’m vvvv short. 

So yeah, this is who I am. I’ve always denied it, never accepted me for me but now I do, with all the flaws, with all the mistakes and with my chudail like laughter too. You’re absolutely free to judge but I’m so so proud of the person I’ve grown up to be. If you choose to stay even after knowing the real me, I’m thankful and if you don’t, I’m thankful for that too but this is me and I love myself. 

INSIGNIFICANCE IS SIGNIFICANT!

The streetside golgappa vendor who never fails to remember to give you that extra meetha paani after you become a regular visitor...

The friend who rolls their eyes at the same time as you when someone passes a sexist comment....

The 3 people who stay up till 12 to wish you on your birthday...

The day in school when you prefer the longer route from the washroom back to your class and have so many gossips and inside jokes along the way...

The time you hurt yourself while cycling and a stranger goes out of their way to help you...

The day you reach home from office late, take in the delicious aroma of the food but find the dishes still covered...

The time someone remembers your favorite show or your favorite song or watches the show you recommended them...

The time when a lunchbox full of chhole bhature turns empty within a jiffy in school...

The day a seed planted by you long back finally turns itself into a plant adorned with beautiful flowers...

Moments like this.

Life is nothing but a beautiful chain of small and insignificant moments like this. The joy felt by the soul in these little moments is what makes all the struggles we've been through worth it. But quite surprisingly and very often, it's these little moments that go unappreciated and people don't seem to realize the power they hold. We get so caught up in superficial things and the daily hustle and bustle of our life that we fail to truly enjoy these moments...fail to enjoy what actually matters.

Go out there and try to give someone else a few of these moments as the way they influence an individual's life is just amazing. One smile of yours may make a stranger's day, a pizza party for dinner maybe what makes a friend's shitty day end well (tbh it make anyone's day end well) and one act of kindness might be all it takes to restore someone's faith in humanity! 

These little moments matter...they matter more than anything else as only when we look back in our lives do we realize that they're actually the precious ones and it's perfectly true that sometimes things that we consider insignificant hold the most significance.

WHAT WE THINK GENDER EQUALITY MEANS vs WHAT IT ACTUALLY MEANS

 There are many flaws in the world we are living in but gender equality is something people have been thriving to achieve since ages. And this time I am talking about gender equality for BOYS , not for GIRLS !!! Yeah , it may sound weird but somewhere between trying to get equality for girls we have completely forgotten boys have their self-respect too.

I say this because I myself have observed it many times. When a girl slaps a boy, it’s always believed that he deserves it and she must have had a reason whereas if the opposite happens it’s believed that the guy is characterless. Now tell me what is a guy supposed to do ? Should he just stand there and witness his self respect being reduced to shreds? Most people(especially girls) have got a very wrong perception of equality. A boy has as much right to hit a girl as she has to hit him but people don’t seem to understand this. 

In most cases where a fight involves a girl and a boy, people tend to listen only to the girl and ignore the boy’s explanation. Just because a girl is involved, people think there can’t be 2 sides of a story, recent example being the Zomato delivery case. It’s commonly believed that a girl is innocent until proven guilty and a guy is guilty until proven innocent.

Considering a different scenario wherein a guy hits a girl and it’s his fault even then teachers or other people will directly scold him and listen closely they will scold him not because he hit her on the wrong thing, not because she got hurt just simply because he hit her and she is a girl. Doesn’t this straightaway prove that girls are weaker than boys , that they can’t give a guy who questions their self-respect a befitting reply? People give a girl everything served on her plate and call it equality. How ironic !! Even if the guy is at fault, the girl should fight for her self respect is it’s important to her and let him know who he has messed with. I, as a girl would rather be hit by a boy and hit him 5  times harder or say sorry if it’s my fault that complain to people like a crybaby because it’s way better than listening to ‘tu toh ladki hai tujhe main maar bhi nahi sakta’. This statement never feels like respect or equality, not for 1 sec but seems like boys  are telling girls that they are weaker than them.

And I say all this because I have heard a thousand times in my life that “ladke ho ro mat”, “ladke ho paise kamao warna shaadi nahi hogi”, “ ladke ho weak mat ho” but I have never once heard anyone say “LADKA HAI RESPECT KARO”!!!

I urge all girls specially to now expect being treated like a princess when you are not treating boys like princes!

WHAT WE CAN DO - AND HOW ?

Where do you want to stay once you grow up ?

If you are in your teens, the answer to the above questions will most likely not be India because according to most people, India is now not a country worth living in. The main reason behind that being all types of pollution, the beyond control population, the riots that keep taking place and the increasing crime rate. But if my opinion was to be considered on this matter, this is completely the wrong approach. If everybody just runs away to a comfortable and simple life  rather than finding a solution to all these problems, trust me, there won't be a country named India after 100 years.

Now, most of you will be thinking that what can we do , we are just common people ? But it will surprise you to know that you can do everything you want and you can change the whole system, all you need is a bit of determination because it is perfectly quoted that Rome wasn't built in a day.

And most importantly, we ourselves are the cause of all these problems that we are running away from.

First off, talking about air pollution, they are common people like us who burst firecrackers thinking what harm their little amount of crackers would do to the environment and then wear masks the next day cribbing about rising pollution and abusing politicians. Hypocrite is indeed the perfect term for such people. 

Coming to the increasing crime rate, again, they are common people like us who just give importance to marks and think that there is no life beyond marks. They neglect the need to inculcate moral values in kids which makes them commit such heinous crimes later in life. 

Thirdly, and finally, the riots that keep taking place are again due to the faith of common people like us in stupid and illogical superstitions and our stubbornness to prove our religion superior to all

I just request all of you to make some small changes to yourself and you will see what change you have made to the society. A small step, and India once again could be a country worth living in and a country you will be proud to be a citizen of....

#ChangeYourselfChangeTheSociety

Palak

#THE INSANE ONES

To all those who never left an opportunity to irritate me....

"THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS WORLD TO BE PRIZED MORE THAN TRUE FRIENDSHIP"

Of all the different relations that we indulge in, friendship is definitely the best. It is just the feeling that no matter how many times you fall, someone will be their to pick you up...but only after they finish laughing !!! It is perfectly quoted that 'God sometimes forgets to tie two people in a blood relation and corrects his mistake by making them best friends' . We have the liberty to choose our friends because they are for a lifetime. Whether you need someone to laugh on your stupid jokes, a shoulder to cry on, someone to bunk a class with, someone to share your problems with, someone to eat lunch with during a class , someone to support you or someone to execute your crazy ideas with.

One of the best qualities of friendship is to speak complete nonsense and have that nonsense respected. Friendship isn't a big thing....it is just millions of little things and loads of amazing memories. Having those weird and completely senseless conversations with your best friend and thinking that if someone else heard you, you would be put in a mental hospital is probably the best thing ever!!! Best friends are people who can keep a conversation going, no matter how random the topics get.

But choosing friends is a certainly difficult task because it is absolutely true that ' As rare is true love, true friendship is rarer'. Not every other person you hang out with or laugh with is your friend. A true friend is not someone who nods when you nod but someone who corrects you even if they have to go against you. They don't always keep praising you while talking but stay true behind your back. Friendship is the most important relation in any phase of one's life and a best friend can make you laugh so hard when you don't even want to smile. 

Also, one thing I would like to say is never end a friendship due to a small fight or because of something someone said in anger because in the end it is never the fights that matter but always those 4 a.m. friends. When it comes to me, friends are the most important people in my life and I cherish every moment spent with them. 

Thank you, thank you so much all my buddies for being the best friends ever, for being there for me, for being my partner in crime and for giving me loads of amazing memories. This corona has made me realize that friendship is crucial to remain happy. I might never say this to you but just remember that all of you are really important and special in my life and I just can't thank you people enough.

We all should definitely thank our friends and let them know how much those weirdos mean to us !! So, just go ahead and tell #THE INSANE ONES in your life how special they are to you !!

THE FAST FORWARD BUTTON....

Hello, my past self, wondering of course what the world would be like after 10 years while flipping the pages of your school textbook or playing your video games ? Oh sorry ! I forgot an introduction. I am your future self; the Palak of 2030 and I have come here to quench your curiosity about the future and tell you what the world would be like in 2030.

I know you must be thinking that after 10 years, there will be only buildings and skyscrapers to be seen wherever your eye could take you, that robots will dominate the world, that humankind will be fully dependent on technology, and that people will have time for everything except for their family and friends, and that in a nutshell, the world will not be a place like living. But, just so you know, it's nothing of that sort. It is true that the last decade has been the decade of technological advancement and an era of digitalization but after facing many crisis in the last decade due to their disregard for nature, people now understand the value of resources. 

I am very well aware of the fact that you would want to know how the coronavirus pandemic ended and as a matter of fact, it came as a shock to people all over the world that it suddenly disappeared even before a vaccine was created. Nobody till date knows how that happened but suddenly the new cases started dropping and then nobody was getting infected. Although we continued following all the protocols for 2 more years to be on the safer side, now everything is back to normal.

Talking about technological advancement, let me tell you about some of the inventions that exist in today's time : A machine to read people's mind has been invented , and no doubt its a very big disadvantage for children !! , robots now run stationery shops, grocery stores and are used to distribute relief material in times of natural calamities, drones do deliveries of couriers and sometimes even give lunch boxes to students when they forget it !As for scientific discoveries, a new planet supporting life has been found in a distant galaxy !!!! It was really a turning point in the history of universe-related studies and a proud moment for all space-lovers. That planet has people living on it and they communicate with us using radio-electric signals. 

Coming to the water crisis, it's still a problem but 99 % people now understand its importance and it is conserved in all ways possible. A very innovative idea  to conserve water put forward by a 14 yr old 4 years ago has proved really useful. It was to collect the rainwater at terraces and then the same water was used for 1 month for the use of the house or the society and the number of gardens has been increased to let the water penetrate into the ground.

But the one thing that the world still fights for is communal peace and harmony. Some people's thinking continues to be conservative and they brainwash people in the name of religion but I know one day this will be eradicated as well . As for me , I work as a space scientist in ISRO and run an NGO named Harmony Foundation. As the name suggests it is a foundation encouraging communal tolerance.

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So, now this is my present self talking to you !! As I was fed up of the lockdown...I tried to press the fast forward button and go ten years into the future, I knew this wasn't possible in real life but in my imagination atleast, it is possible !! And I really do hope that the world is a better place to live after 10 years.....

Palak

WHEN MY HOME TURNED INTO A RESTAURANT....

A slight change in routine is absolutely what one needs to take a break from the dull and monotonous life these days. Doing something which we don't usually do relaxes us. 

So,keeping this in mind, we made the last Sunday quite a different one for us. Although difficult, we somehow persuaded our parents to change our home into a restaurant; my mother being the chef and my father being the waiter for one day. And making those innocent faces always helps me in getting my demands fulfilled and I think that applies to almost all children😜.

The day began like a very normal one but then suddenly , out of nowhere, this idea struck my mind. And my sister was intrigued after listening to my idea. We asked our father to make a menu card and it included all the things that would make anybody's Sunday a marvellous one!!! And the name of the restaurant was decided as ' MUMMA'S KITCHEN'.For breakfast we had hot dog and it was really mouth watering and a treat to the eye. The lunch was an authentic Indian one with Butter Roti, Tandoori Gobhi and Dal Tadka along with green salad. After this, just to get the complete feeling of being in a restaurant , we asked the waiter aka our father to get us the lemon water bowls for washing our hands. But the only weird thing was that we had to give all the orders according to the menu already decided.And for the dinner, to begin with, we had paneer tikka for the starters followed by Veg Biryani in the main course. As it's a universal truth, a meal is always incomplete without a desert but thanks to my mom, she took care of that and we ate Shahi Tukda for the dessert which is really the best dessert I have ever had. It was so tasty that even writing the names of those dishes makes me crave for them again. The day ended with me lying in bed and thinking that what parents can do for kids...nobody else can.

So, this was the way we spent our last Sunday and it is a day which is now forever engraved in our memory . Food is something which goes to the stomach always via the heart and when your favourite dish in in front , you absolutely can't think of anything else in the world.All the worries seem to take a backseat. And I strongly suggest whenever you feel low do something which you find exciting, don't  generally do and turn your lives into a festival. Rather than finding a reason to be happy, think of happiness as a choice and a thousand reasons will automatically come along. After all, some me time is necessary to keep us motivated and cheerful in our lives....