Green Grass Blue Sky

The normal, natural course of things is always favored by humans when it comes to the world around. But when the same favor is requested by a human being, it is more often than not, denied!

Oh, it isn't yet another forlorn piece that keeps marveling at the inadequacies of being human. It is a piece that accepts that nature is normally dominant but human will suppresses it so, that every instance new nature keeps emerging...and a new norm is attained.

One may wonder however, what does the greenness of grass and blueness of sky has to do with it? It is with absolute clarity that I can connect these four words with the Vodafone (Hutch) jingle! And I am equally certain that all of us can...What we don't bother to pay attention to is the utter lack of naturality in the advertisement. Given there were grasslands and mountains and ponds and clouds and everything else that nature provides us to feast our eyes upon... but there was a cute, little Pug too in it. It is the most un-natural thing I am referring to! It follows the kid around (ok yeah, dogs do that!)...it brings the kid whatever it wants...without even being instructed to do so ( yeah that happens to, but come on! Was the Pug psychic?!)...it slept on its back, imitating the kid (can you buy that?)... its even out in the damp, rainy time to be 'wherever you are' (I had a dog, he hated damp. You can't fool me!)...

Now the contention is not to deliberate over an excellent advertisement, but to observe how human will, over-rid nature and produced a masterpiece out of it! I believe that it can't be so difficult, therefore, to alter a nature that is inherent to a being.

Its not only philosophy, obviously not! Its a belief deeply rooted in the fact that people do lose weight!

Not the "biggest loser" type only...but 5lbs, 10lbs here and there...people do it all the time! Now why does the need arise in the first place? Because its in the nature of those indulgent people to seek happiness in food. And believe me, its not a disease always! Its not an emotional inadequacy either...its simply nature!

I can't help it if I was born underweight and decided as an infant to make up for it all my life...i DON'T want to help it if my idea of a good time is having chocolates and ice creams to gorge down! ITS MY NATURE!!!

But then its also my will that I won't be beat down by my own nature... I don't want the torment of browsing a fashion magazine all my life! I want the satisfaction of being as hot as the pages that my fingers flip through! But in this clash between WILL and NATURE, I want both to reach a compromise... The passion for food must not be replaced by anorexia and bulimia for the will to win and the nature must not prevail by making a BMI of 27 seem unavoidable!

After all...if a Pug can do it, I sure can :D

Undependable Independance

Freedom is bitter, freedom is sweet.

It feels like raindrops and it feels like heat.

It breezes away the worries of the heart that beats.

Freedom you are mine...

without you I am not human, I am meat!

The sentiment is well understood by all (black, brown and white; alike). Its so well understood that it morphs into any meaning one wants it to have. For we are free to interpret freedom in our own way. In the smallest things we do in life, we want to be free to make the choice. How we live life should be our business not anyone else's. How we cling to the past and how we plan for the future, how we love and how we hate, who we love and who we hate...we must have freedom for all that!

It happens or it doesn't is another story altogether. Most of us don't even want freedom to that level that it is acutely felt... most of us are happy with the notion of freedom at the national level, community level and cultural level... for an individual, freedom doesn't seem to account much. We all have acclimatized to the notion that "man is a social animal" and so independence is not real, its just a matrix pulled over our eyes until the social human nature obligates us to behave in a way that defies freedom.

So you are free to be you until the world wants otherwise. Of course independence is cherished and a quality admired by many. But not without a dash of disdain...

If you are independent, people will hail you for your individuality...but a green monster in them would always want to see you crumble and seek dependence.

If you believe in free thinking and free living, people will appreciate your guts and glorify your nerve...but a conformist in them would want to see you fail and fall back on common knowledge and living with the world.

If you are free enough to wear you heart up your sleeve and put yourself out there, people will pump you up and pour over suggestions...but a cynic in them would always want to tell you one day "there is no such thing as true love".

So as dear as freedom is to all of us and as dearly as we covet independence, its the sublime greyness of human nature that makes it surreal. You can depend on it for as long as you are prepared to be "out-standing", an aberration, an anomaly, an outlier...The moment you decide to be free and yet belong somewhere, you are lost! Individual freedom of thought and action is never conforming to anything that the society thinks is a way of life. Independence is encouraged but actually not expected of anyone...

Everyone must have a role model..or a mentor...or a pillar of strength...

Why that is necessary, nobody waits to brood over it! Eventually, people who keep striving for a free existence (in every sense) are left deliberating the life they made on their own. Their mistakes and their successes are their own but there is always a nagging doubt... was the independence really worth its while?!... Life would have been so much easier had I not been so free...