You Matter

"The magic is all around you.  You just have to find it."

                                                   - J. K. Rowling

There are times in my life when I wish I was born into a different world, a different person, with a different life.  Perhaps a Demigod, a wizard or a witch, or even a Tribute or Time Lord.  Such people have experienced loss I cannot imagine, face death at every turn in their lives, and yet, sometimes I wish I was one of them.  Because they matter.

People who have saved the world matter.  People who are heroes to others, they matter.  And people like me?  We're just ourselves.  Sometimes, I can't help but imagine- If I died tomorrow, would it even make a difference?

Except that it would.  Maybe not to the President of your nation, or an alien species out there.  But know this, if you die the next day, it will matter to your family.  To your friends.  And honestly, that's more important.  It's all right to not be an inspiration to every person on the planet.  Even if you've brought a smile to a single person's face, inspired or consoled someone, in your entire life, you have fulfilled your purpose in life.  No matter what happens, you'll always matter to those people.

That's what magic really is.  It's not a bunch of spells, or learning to fly or become invisible.  It's a feeling.  The greatest feeling in the world.  Being with the people you love, reaching out to your dreams, just feeling content.  That's true magic.  It's not in another universe out there.  It's here, all around you.  And if you can spot it, you're greater than a Demigod, Witch, Tribute or Time Lord.

Because you're the most important, the luckiest, the true human.

Just make it through today...

I'm a normal person.  A teenager.  Someone with normal problems.  Fears.  Fights.  Pressure.  Problems that seem endless, an identity that seems faceless, and sometimes a life that seems lifeless.  But there's a bigger picture.  A new world out there.  A world that could hold anything in store.

Sometimes, ending it seems like a solution.  I don't mean committing suicide!  I mean the subtle method of ignoring your problems.  You turn and walk away, expecting it to help.  But it doesn't.  Because when you run from your problems, they run after you.  And they catch up.  

But you just gotta make it through another day!  Tomorrow may or may not be better, but the hope, that something will bring a smile to your face the next day?  It helps you get through this day.  Its okay to run out of solutions, or even will.  There's just one thing you can't afford to run out of.  Hope.  Even when your life is engulfed in darkness, a ray of hope can pave the way to happiness.  Just make it through today, and preserve some hope for tomorrow.  Just make it through today, everyday.  Just make it through today, because tomorrow is a new day, a new beginning, a new life.

That crazy thing called friendship

"Friendship is the only thing that can match up to family."
                                                        - Don Vito Corleone

So I came across this line while going through the novel- The Godfather, and it got imprinted in my head.  Because its true.  I don't know what we'd all do without friends.  Even if we sometimes want to kill them, even if they frustrate us and sometimes ignore us, we ultimately go back to them, because that's how friendship works.

Friends can be strange things.  You start the friendship with a "hello", and it could end there.  Or it could grow to the point where you're happy to see them.  Or it could grow to the point where you go completely crazy and retarded when you're with them, and you simply can't imagine your life without them to turn to.

Everytime you have a terrible day, you go to a friend and talk about it.  You have a crush, the first person to find out is your best friend.  You kill someone, and your friends are the people whose help you'd take to hide the body.  

You fight, you laugh, you cry, you even feel like killing each other, and ultimately it all turns out to be okay.  You're friends again, because there's just no other way.  You have to talk to each other, because you can't even help it.  Sometimes it feels like an obligation, like your friends are extremely stupid and you just have to be nice to them.  But one day you wake and realize you're just as stupid as them, which is why you need each other.  Because that's how friendship works.  A single group of people, ready to take on the world.

The Dying Habit

Its something all teachers, and even parents complain about. Its the dying habit of reading.

Now, I've been reading since, well, since I learnt to read.  Sometimes I think I was lucky.  I found all the good books.  I can't imagine my childhood without that pile of Tintin comics.  

This may seem a rather exaggerated description to some people, but a book is my own personal universe.  It takes me to another world, helps me forget about my problems.  It shows me people with problems far worse than mine.  If I had not read Harry Potter, I might never have appreciated that nobody wants to kill me.  If I had not read Lord of the Rings, I would probably never have understood how horribly, horribly addictive and dangerous power can be.

About two decades ago, reading was the only source of entertainment for most people.  So they read.  Now, we have televisions and computers and play stations which are great fun.  Computer games teach us too.  Perhaps they don't teach the values that society wants children to learn, but they do have a message for us all the same.  (And now, since I believe I have successfully established that I am not some orthodox hater of change, I shall get back to my original topic).

But just because we have other sources of entertainment doesn't mean we can shut out books.  Reading is...beautiful.  Nothing matches a good book.  Books such as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Narnia...they were my childhood.  Harry Potter taught me more about friendship and bravery than anything else.  Don't ever give up on reading, because every book has something new in store.

And if you don't enjoy reading, you simply haven't found the right book yet.

Revenge

Well, I don't know how many people watch it, but there is a tv show called "Revenge", in which there was a quotation,  "Two wrongs can never make a right, because two wrongs can never equal each other."

In the movie, "Batman Begins", Rachel Dawes says that revenge is about us trying to make ourselves feel better, and therefore revenge and justice can never be the same.  But can anybody really define justice?  Can anybody really define what is right and wrong?  Does anybody know perfectly well what is best for people, and how they can have it?

Revenge is for us, its what we choose to do because we want to.  Justice is what we should do.  If these two co-incide, it is rare.  Yet whenever we are wronged, the first thought that comes into our mind is revenge, not justice.  Why is that?  I think its because we feel that if we are the victims, there is nobody else to fight for us.  We have to do it all ourselves.  So we just do what we need to do for ourselves to feel better.  

But if we want to fight for a better world, then justice is our only revenge.  Because revenge cannot be justice, but justice is the best revenge.  Yet people tend to be more satisfied by revenge, because they mould their own revenge.  Justice is justice when it is decided by somebody else, who can form a fair and unbiased opinion.  Again this is tough, but if you believe in what is right, then this is your path.  People may not be satisfied by justice, because sometimes what they want may not be just.  That is why we choose to take revenge.  But revenge is a cycle.  We get hurt too.  

It is a rather tough choice to make for a victim.  Sometimes, we really don't have a choice.  Sometimes, justice is judged by the wrong person.  The question is, can we really tell for ourselves if it is right or wrong?  Can revenge make us feel better if we get hurt, or hurt innocent people in the process?  Does anybody have a good enough understanding of justice to decide it?  Do we ever manage to have an unbiased opinion?

Half empty vs Half full

You know what they say about trying to please everyone...about how that's impossible?  Well, I suppose it is. After all, everyone seems to have some enemies, some haters.  Let me take the example of myself- I have friends, I have enemies.  Or take the example of a man who nearly everyone knows- Mahatma Gandhi.  While my entire nation seems to respect him, let us not overlook the fact that even he was shot dead by one of his fellowmen.

So why is that?  Why is it that no one manages to please everyone?  I believe its because of one thing which differs in everyone- perspective.

Any situation can be twisted by its viewers according to their perspective.  Its up to you- whether you want to see the glass as half-full or half-empty.  The reason interaction with others often makes us wiser is because it allows us to see things from a different perspective, which we may not even understand, but is important all the same.
Basically, any situation can be made from good to bad, or bad to good, depending on the way you look at it.  The power of speech, which every politician, every leader and every revolutionary uses, works only if you force the people to look at the situation from a particular perspective.  Perspective is an aspect of the human mind which is so simple, yet so deep that it has the power to alter reality.  Yes, alter reality.  Because a change of this perspective is what calms down a panicking person, fills a person devoid of hope with the energy to fight, and causes the most violent, impulsive person to analyse a problem coolly.
So try to get different perspectives of a situation before judging it.  No perspective is right or wrong.  The glass is both half-empty, and half-full.  Yet it is important to form a perspective, so why not form one which would yield the best results?

A tribute to those whom nobody remembers

I recently went on a school trip meant mainly for historical education.  And I have to say, history does become a lot less boring when you see the forts...the architecture...the planning...all that beauty.  Somehow, (at least, this is the way it is with me), it evokes that feeling of nationalism, which generally gets buried under all that practicality and selfishness.  And it also instills a certain amount of anger at people who write messages like "I love you blabla, please come back to me" on the forts' walls and such.  Sure, they have their own way of thinking, their own logic, etc, I get that.  Still, I just feel that just because you don't appreciate something much, it doesn't give you the right to vandalize it.  Anyway, as much as I appreciate the architecture, I must admit I feel rather differently about the rulers.  The number of people who were tortured, hanged...well, I wasn't there, so I can't judge...but, who knows how many of them were innocent?  I guess that being a normal citizen in a country where power defines good and evil, I do have an understanding of the misuse of power.  I can't express how much I'd appreciate it if every architect, every artist, every soldier whose blood and sweat went into establishing an empire was remembered.  So many soldiers died, so many prisoners (God knows how many of whom were innocent) were hanged, and yet hardly any of them are remembered.

As they rightly say, history is written by the winners.  So all those nameless, faceless prisoners, were probably working for a cause, perhaps even a good cause, which was just considered wrong because it wasn't the cause of the ruler.  If any of them were innocent, and their names went yet unnoticed, here's a silent tribute from someone who didn't know them, their cause, or their life, but regrets their wasted life all the same.

Forget everything for a moment and just be happy!

Sometimes, I feel people really, really exaggerate their problems.  I mean, come on.  There are kids who have iPhones, iPods, PSP's, all the worldly gifts, and still keep on whimpering.  Seriously, come on dude.  There are people who can barely afford food, people who'll be executed if they say something against the people in power, and yet they find reasons to be happy.  Oh, and teenagers?  Don't even get me started on them! (And saying this is weird since I myself am a teenager, but I'm talking about the majority of teens, especially the attention seekers).  All that stuff about how they're "insecure", or "heartbroken", or how their life is ruined because they gained a pound of weight, I mean, come on, seriously, cut the crap.  You've got your entire life lying ahead of you!  And for God's sake, stop complaining so much.  Ten years down the line, what would you want people to remember you as?  The people always crying about their problems, or the people who could always find reasons to be happy?  There are times when I feel that the only reason people whine so much about their problems is that they're trying to attract attention.  And there are people who actually give them attention! (which is something I seriously don't understand, after all, its one thing to be a shoulder to cry on, and another to encourage people to be unhappy by giving them sympathy).  Only today, I heard of some perfectly young and healthy person dying and it made me think, "I always underestimated the statement- Life is too short to be anything but happy."  People get cancer and realize they have a month to live, so they start looking for reasons to be happy.  But if happiness is what we all seek, then why wait for cancer to come and tell you to be happy and enjoy your remaining life?!  Even if you can't use your life to "help everyone in need" or "change the world for the better", why waste it on sadness, tears and whining?  So just eat some fried chicken, drink a cup of coffee, and smile!!!  Because if there's one quotation with no contradiction, it is "Life is too short to be anything but happy!"

The Perfect Imperfection

The Perfect Imperfection

I wonder...when people talk about "perfection", or trying to make ourselves perfect, or when people blame "God" for making us a flawed race, what are they actually complaining about?  And why?  Isn't imperfection the whole reason we're alive and progressing?  If the early cavemen had everything figured out, what would they be but robots?  What would we be but robots?

I personally feel that if everything was perfect, our lives would be but monotonous replays.  If there were no problems, there would be no solutions.  If there were no solutions, would we have anything to "feel good" about?  People like Newton, Einstein, Da Vinci, wouldn't there intelligence go waste and unnoticed if mankind already had everything figured out?  Would we have anyone to look up to?  Anything to look forward to?  Any reason to get up in the morning the next day?

Problems are the whole reason we have jobs, rewards and solutions.  If everybody was completely honest, active and generous...if there was no evil, would we become evil without perhaps even realizing it, because we never knew what evil meant?  Because there is evil, there has to be good to contradict it.  If there is no evil, would anybody appreciate good?  If there is no failure, would anybody appreciate success?

Folks, we are the coolest species ever.  We can feel, think, do like no one else.  Our flaws make us perfect.  So, appreciate your flaws, because they have their own role to play in making your life beautiful!