Fighting with inner demon!!

My last post ended with a semicolon,, so this is the final part which I was supposed to talk about. In my last post I talked about project semicolon and the ordeals through which people with problem such as depression has to go through.

I have titled my post as “Fighting with the inner demon”. The demon which I am talking about is not some mythical creature. It is in fact something which exists in our brain. It is something which pushes us towards the darker side of our soul. The demon could be anything: it could be stress, a problem, a memory, an incident… it could be anything. But the most difficult part comes when we can’t understand what this demon is or we can’t recognize this demon of ours.

But it isn’t that difficult. When you are completely honest with yourself and introspect yourself thoroughly you are definitely going to find this demon, which is actually the root cause of your entire problem.

                                                               image source

Many times, finding the demon is easy. It is there only, inside us. But when the matter comes about accepting it, many of us get the cold feet. It is a true fact. We don’t want to believe that this demon is eating us up. We then live in a complete state of denial. But you know what does being in denial leads to?? The growth of your demon!! So acceptance plays a huge role in fighting that demon away.

Next step is coming out of the closet. Now this phrase is usually used with discussing or rather revealing someone’s sexual orientation. But here I’m using this phrase collectively for all people who had been hiding something from the world because of the stigma attached to it. We all know that telling the world that we have some mental stress or ailment is usually frowned upon and hushed down in many societies. But I want to request you, please come out of your closet. There is nothing to be ashamed of. But, choose wisely about the people to whom you want to pour your heart out. My suggestion is to confide to your immediate family member. If you think that is not safe, then tell it your closest friend. If none of this is suitable for you, then go and search for the support group in your city. If you come from a remote corner of the world, then find some online support group. If even that is not possible, then maintain a journal and write all these feelings down. I bet you… if you follow one of the above options, you would feel some weight has been lifted from your heart!!

My last step is fighting and killing that demon!

There are many ways in which you can shut out that demon forever in your life.  One of them would be making peace with your inner self. If something wrong happened in past, correct it. If your life is not the way it was meant to be, then make it your way or deal with it!!

Some demons are just scars which can’t be corrected or dealt with. For that the solution is to simply avoid them. Avoid the scenario in which you get low or depressed. Keep yourself busy.. Channelize your negative energy into something constructive. Workouts, meditate, paint, draw, sing, dance, write, or watch a movie!! Do whatever you like!!  These steps are surely going to kill that filthy demon away or send it back to faraway lands!!

So this is my way of fighting with the inner demon… if you have any more suggestion…then please do let me know!!

Project semicolon: why your story is not yet over

Recently I came across a pic in a social networking site, and it really moved me!!

The pic was of person’s wrist having a semicolon tattoo. That really intrigued me. I followed the hashtag and found out that it was about a certain project semicolon. The Google bug bit me and soon I was reading about this wonderful project which was started by Amy Bleuel. Project semicolon is a help group which motivates people who are struggling from depression, suicidal thoughts, self harming habits, anxiety and other mental illness. A little history about the project from its website.

“

 This began in the spring of 2013, when Project Semicolon Founder, Amy Bleuel wanted to honor her father whom she lost to suicide. Through the semicolon symbol many related to the struggle of depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide and their will to continue on. The title, “Project Semicolon,” also represented a goal – to believe that this is not the end but a new beginning. “

image source

Now for all of you who is wondering why the symbol “;” , i.e of a semicolon. Well, when a writer doesn’t want to end a sentence, they use a semicolon. Similarly, here the hope is to reassure the victim that their story is not yet over. And that’s such a great hope they are giving out.

Many of us can’t even understand the pain a depression patient goes through. The saddest part is that they don’t come out to people about their suffering because we all know that mental illness has some stigma attached to it. Also the patients are afraid to confront with themselves and admit that they are suffering from it.  A survey says about 5% of total world population suffer from some sort of depression related illness.  That accounts for the people who admit to it, but there are many other who are living their lives in a dark shadow.

These are the people who need reassurance and help from us. You may never know, but someone in your family can be suffering from it! A simple request to all of you… if you fail to realize their pain, then please at least don’t make them a subject of mockery!  

I really appreciate what this project is doing. I would request you all to go their website once and understand the concept in much better way. You can read about the website here

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Those who suffer from such problem and are reading this article … I wanna give you a BIG virtual hug!!!

But wait,,, this article is NOT YET OVER!

I will continue this part soon where I will talk about addressing the inner demons;

Finally

Three cheers for project semicolon!!

7 types of irritating passengers you will meet while travelling in Indian railway

The summer vacation ended in India recently and I am sure most of you would have taken a vacation to either meet your relatives or simply to explore new destinations.

Being one of the largest railway networks in the world, the Indian railway carries more than 23 million passengers every day. With so many people travelling from the train, we are bound to meet every type of passenger during the journey. While every person has some bad traits, these traits get highlighted during the train journey. Here is my list of the types of irritating persons you will find in Indian Railways.

1. Gossiping Aunts.

These are the army of middle aged ladies who gather around two opposite seats and cramp up together to gossip about each and every person living on this planet. And you know what is the worst part, subconsciously you get involved in their conversation and thus you get know some amazing facts such as someone’s daughter eloping and someone’s son being sent to prison!!

While the ladies are not the only persons who are the chatterbox, it’s the gentlemen as well!!!

This brings me to my next point.

2. Political Uncles.

These are the breed of men who survive on newspaper. If you listen to their conversation properly, you will get to know that the government is responsible for everything bad happening in our country. They would blame government for each and every step they take and act as if they have all solutions to the world’s gravest political issues. They pretend to be the greatest diplomats, having the answer to problems such as world hunger or even alien invasion!!  But gets tongue tied when you tell them to elaborate their ideas…..

3. Wailing babies.

We got men and we got women… then who is missing? Babies! Now, I don’t want to sound rude, but babies have tough time travelling in the train. They feel claustrophobic and really uneasy thus they cry a lot. Now having full sympathies with them, I would like to highlight the plight of fellow travellers . Nothing gets on nerves as bad as wailing babies. Worst case scenario: a baby wailing during night!!! Last May I was travelling with my aunt and my darling god daughter on a train from Ahmadabad to Mumbai. She was only four months old and she was really uncomfortable during the journey. She was very fussy and the only thing which soothed her? The lullaby “hush little baby”. I and my aunt sang almost half of the journey, making the fellow passengers learning the lines of the lullaby by heart!!!!

4. Mr. /Ms. Theater

They carry with them their latest tab/laptop/mobile/phablet (did I miss something?). But they intentionally leave behind their head phones, because their sole intention is to entertain the whole compartment. They put on the latest Bollywood movie they have (which they got by illegally downloading from internet or from a friend who illegally downloads them) and enjoys it shamelessly. While you try a lot to distract yourself from the corny lines said by one of the Khans of Bollywood, you still get involved in the movie, glancing on the screen from time to time. Then Mr./Ms.  Theater suddenly gets tired and all sleepy and without any warning, turn off their gizmos and goes to sleep, leaving you wondering about the climax of the movie!!!

Oh and wait until they wake up and put on some Honey Singh’s rap.

5. The chit chat initiators.

They are people who get easily bored and long distance journey is sort of nightmare for them. Though they do not qualify as gossip mongers, but they are still interested in knowing all the mundane details of their fellow passengers. I don’t know want to sound rude, a friendly banter in a long journey is ok I guess, but introverts like me don’t like it at all!!  And yeah! Wait until they bore you to death by the story of their own miserable life!!

6. The litterers.

These are the people who are solely responsible for keeping our trains so dirty. Almost everyone have come across a compartment which is littered by peanuts shells, wafer’s packets etc. they are lazy morons who don’t even think before throwing the garbage inside the compartment. According to me, this people should be arrested immediately and sent to do community service which involves picking up garbage from the trains. These are the idiots who are responsible to make our country dirty and thus we are striving so hard to make our country clean or “swacch”…..

7. The newspaper stealer.

They sit beside you or opposite to you. And then, you commit the biggest mistake of your life. You start reading a newspaper. Even though they own one paper , they are still interested to read yours as if it has map of hidden treasure island. So while you are reading, they move their head in such an angle in order to read articles, which may even put a gymnast to shame. When you get irritated by all those movements and you decide to put down your own newspaper, they go back to reading the one they own or worst, ask you give the paper to them as you are not reading “at the moment”!!!

So this was my list of irritating passengers found on Indian railways….

Have you encountered any such passengers or am I missing someone?

Do let me know !! 

All gifs sourced from here

Equality is here…but where is the dignity?

The supreme court of the united states(SCOTUS) gave a landmark ruling and legalized same sex marriage in all the 50 states of the united states of America. The 5-4 ruling by the judges lifted the ban of marriage from the 14 states. It is truly a huge step taken by the country thus making it the most populous country to legalize same sex marriage and the 21^st country in the world to do so.

So when I logged in to various social media…everyone were celebrating it by painting their logo /dp with rainbow, which is considered to be flag of LGBT community. Today when I was going through my  Instagram page , 9gag , a popular social media website posted a pic celebrating the equality of love.(9 gag had also changed their icon from black and white to rainbow coloured

which was pretty cool). The comment that pic got were really harsh. Religious fanatics were really condemning this decision, stupid homophobes bashing the decision and ignorant people making ridiculous comment. I am not against people expressing their views, but some comments were really harsh. Plus there are many platforms were you can get your views expressed, but I am really against stupid ranting on social media. 

But these things made me to ponder over the fact that does equality also brings dignity?

Won’t there be any hate crimes against the LGBT people? Won’t there be any bullying and discrimination. Maybe this law is the step which may also change the perspective of people…but that seems like a long road.

This judgement has some contrast with the Ireland public referendum. The people of that country voted to legalize the same sex union. So this shows the progression of the mindset of people in that country.

All this words coming from a guy whose country has the draconian law of Article 377 which bans all sort of same gender activity! But there is some hope in the transgender community. The supreme court of India recognized transgender as the “third gender” and has passed a law to save them from discrimination in jobs, education and other civil rights. Things are looking up for them as recently Dr. Manabi Bandopadhyay became first transgender person to become a principal of a women’s college in West Bengal. A first of a kind in the country. The mentality of people here is still in the olden ages and acceptance maybe yet to come in this country.

One thing is for sure though,, that we should grant all people the rights they want and allow them to live as they like. There are far more serious issues to be tackled in the world but unfortunately we are yet to resolve problem as simple as love!!!

Finally

Three cheers for equality and love!

           

Oh fate! why art thou so cruel!!:

Something terrible happened today….. Our valuable got stolen by a pickpocket.

A brief history before I narrate the incident…

My mom had gone to Mumbai, to attend some family occasion (in my previous post I have stated that almost all my relatives lives in Mumbai). So I went to Bhubaneswar, to pick her up from the airport and then board back train to my home (which is in Noamundi). Today morning at 7.45, we boarded our train and after we arranged our luggage, we settled in our seats. My mother was then shocked to find the chain of her purse open!! She looked inside to find that her wallet was missing from inside!!! We look around but that didn’t help. Another shock welcomed us after a few minute when we found that our cell phone was also missing!!( a brand new Samsung Note 3 L ) . When did this incident took place,, we don’t have any idea. There is definitely lose of money as well as an awesome gadget and we are taking all the legal action which is possible. But we know that it is as good as gone!!! We may be down for a little days, but well,, that was our fate….

But talking about fate… here the interesting thing that happened….

So, my mother had got some attire for our family friend, and she gave us the money for the thing that she had asked for. My mother told me to keep the cash in my wallet, and I did keep it, but then I found that my wallet has swollen because of all the cash so I put it back again in my mom’s wallet!! Now I am literally cursing myself for putting in back in her wallet!!

And yes about the cell phone….

I usually keep it in my back pack or in my pocket…. But I don’t know why, today, while we were in a hurry to get out of house to catch the train,, we put in my mom’s purse!!

Just think about it,,, two things which was never supposed to be in a place,, gets in that place somehow,,, and get stolen!!!!!!  

And yes,,, do we have any suspects??

Well we saw a porter inside our coach who seemed a bit odd. Now I know it’s wrong to put allegation on someone without knowing the truth,,, but guess what? We asked the passengers around us about that porter… and to our shock; everyone said they didn’t hire any porter!!! One of the passengers told us that it may had been that the pickpocket was disguising as a porter. We don’t know what’s the case,,, but to my fellow Indians travelling from the Indian railways… beware of such people…..

But my question remains the same….

Oh fate! Why art thou so cruel!

Finally,

Three cheers for the pickpocket

He/she really was smooth in getting his/her job done  : /

World Environment Day:

Hey there everyone,,,,, today is World Environment Day….. a day when all of us will shout the slogan of going green and then promise to be more “sustainable” in future and then we may even click tons of pics while planting a sapling, which will sure to get you more than hundred likes in Facebook and Instagram or Retweets in Twitter! So? Did you click your “green”-fie today and then just went to sleep forgetting to water those sapling of yours…?

Sorry for being sarcastic but I know we all are a bunch of hypocrites…who would only like to shout on these things, and blame government for everything ( that’s the easiest way out I suppose).

We can’t ignore about environmental issues, I mean we REALLY can’t!

First thing of all,,, my habit of knowing the significance of a date. Well as per Wikipedia ,5^th June is celebrated as world environment day because on that day United Nations Conference on the Human Environment began way back in 1972.

Every year they come up with a slogan for environment day and this year’s is

 'Seven Billion Dreams; One Planet; Consume with Care' ,again thanks to Wikipedia.

If you think I am going to give you a lecture about global warming and pollution, then you are absolutely wrong. Just a humble request , if you really care for environment do something for it… and those who don’t, then please don’t pretend to be Mr./Ms. Green in front of your friends .

And my fellow Indians…. Two facts for you:

13 out of 20 most polluted cities in the world are in India.

Ganga and Yamuna ranks in top most polluted rivers in the world

So we really need to act NOW!!!

Finally,

Three cheers for Planet Earth!!

The last page:

No, don’t get the title wrongly! I am not stopping to write this blog. Today, the last page of one of the most important chapter of my life was completed. Today was the last day of my College.

So, my Semester got over today…(hope it explains the long absence of post…apologies for that!!). Along with the exam my college life ended today. While I have always dreamt of how this day would be spent (like everybody would hug each other and would get teary eyed), but to my surprise no such thing happened. I mean, yes, we did get nostalgic, and there was tons of posing for the infinite picture shots and the selfies/ussies. But none of us was treating this day as some sort of tragedy!!

Though to be very honest, the reality is yet to set in for most of us. The majority of my friends were still in the delusion that the sems has just ended and we will all meet after a month of vacation. But that is not the case. I guess we all will realize the situation when we will go to work or go to another institute to pursue higher studies. The absence of those silly friends, the good old college building, the patties available in the canteen, all these things would create a pang in our heart!!

So, what’s next?

Well, we will try to distract ourselves with the new chapters in our life. In my case, I would be looking forward for my first job, which I will begin later this year. It is so strange that though we miss the past moments of our life, we all are eagerly waiting for the new journey, hoping it would be best for us.   

So am I going to miss my college? Well, I won’t miss the college, but I will definitely miss the moments spend with all my friends.

I  still want to complete my post graduation, and I am sure in some years, I would be enrolling myself into a new college. But I’m pretty much sure; it won’t be as  fun as my graduation life!!

This board which is installed in my college has one of the best quotation to define life.

Hope to follow it through my new journey.

Finally, three cheers for College life!!

Three cheers for OEC( my alma mater)!