Should you be an optimist after all?

Little did you know about the universe when you were just born. All you had to do was survive with what was provided to you for your needs. You cared the least about the world, you had no idea who you were, what you were doing here and why you were even here. Well, at least most of us do not know the answer for the last one!

You were a tiny little creature for hopes, aspirations and dreams meant nothing to you. And then suddenly you grew up to be this gargantuan person with millions of thoughts, imaginations, wishes and so much more that life looks all the more complex to you. Living feels all the more difficult. Facing this truth makes you all the more miserable. But you haven't lost hope yet, have you? You know its all going to be alright and everything is gonna head to where you want it to. Call it hope and it does throw this enormous bright light on you and people appreciate you. For they might have different names to it. What some call positive hope, some confidence, some faith, I call optimism.

Kalil Gibran, the Lebanese American poet once said, "The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns. The pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose." Optimism is the positive energy that makes people rejoice for an unfound victory. Being a mega optimist myself, I see it as a phenomenon that makes the self recover from a huge loss and still count on the next opportunitiy thinking, ''That's a definite score!" Perhaps it might not be, but this positive feeling about what has not been faced yet keeps me going. I heard this quote in a presentation and I cannot explain how much sense it makes. "Things in life work O.K in the end, if it is not O.K, it is not the end." But not everybody can afford to be optimist and I don't know if that is genetic or depends on the way a person is brought up. And I am most certainly not arguing for optimism here as the same concotion doesn't work out for everyone.

But what is interesting to ponder about is, is being an optimist the magic therapy after all? Should we not see the thorn while looking at the rose? Checking the box before doing it and having to uncheck it in the end paves the disastrous path way to a complete loss of self esteem. I wish I was arguing about how wonderful being a pessimist is as the reverse process of the above makes us smile. In most cases, failures are the biggest mysteries for optimists, for they don't know how to handle them. From what I have observed, people of this breed have given some pretty grades for themselves.

May be life is just a swing from the two corners of an unnatural circle that keeps changing shape, that keeps getting bigger as we go all ready to burst. And we have got so much stuck to the optimistic corner of the circle that one fine day it pushes us so hard, and so violently that we break open the circle falling far outside it. Just when we realize it is not after all that simple, just when we feel the pain of a failure, just when the thorn beneath the rose hurts us, we think "May be, I should have seen the thorn as well!" Again, being a realist is not what I am arguing for here.

Different people and different mindsets are just different enigmas. Different things render different cures to different levels. What works best for you is only known to you. Being an optimist is still what the world wants you to be, because that is what enchants people, that is want brings light not only into your life but also into the lives of all the others around you.

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Random Thought

It is strange how non-living things sometime speak the language of love to us. How surprised will we be if a whole entity of things which hardly mattered to us before, suddenly becomes all the more important that we are ready to quit many things in life for that? I have wondered many a times why the word "love" is related only between human beings more often than anything else. To add to it, these days love is more related to making love in that cozy little bed with a naked partner.

I have always developed an affinity with the place that I am living in. To be more specific, the place where I enjoyed being around. It was my school first, my small home town and I am not ashamed to say that I cried when I left that place. Of course, you might argue that it is for the people there and not for the place. But I certainly have a major disagreement with that because I tend to miss the tiniest details of that place which forms a part of the whole entity of being called school or hometown.

How many times have you felt nostalgic when you returned to your childhood place and saw that huge banyan tree across that school building where you spent loads of evening playing with friends while waiting for your dad to come? Is that because you miss your friends? Nope! Thats because human nature tends to relate incidents to places and hence we develop a bond with the environment.

I am finishing my work contract next month after 7 months. I am gonna badly miss it. Something that hardly mattered before...!

A Ride to Africa

Ellen was lying calm down on the ground. It was a small tent made of thatched roof in the midst of the thick forests of Ghana. Her cheeks resting on her right arm, she was wetting the ground with her tears. She was one among thousands of women who were living in that camp in exile. She belonged to one of the oldest ethnic groups in Liberia called Kwa.

She had nothing left with her. Her mom was murdered brutally in Liberia a few years back. Her dad and her brother were forced to join the army a year back and since then, she had not heard from them. She escaped from Liberia with a group of Liberians to Ghana a year back. And that was the start of a miserable life for her. Ellen had to do all the menial chores for the locals to get a meal. Sometimes, she had to clean toilets to get a rotten bread and she badly needed that. If she fell sick, then she had to run without food.

Liberia is a country rich in natural resources like her neighbors Guinea and Sierra Leone. Diamond mines, iron and other metals were present in abundance along these regions of west Africa. In fact, Guinea had more diamond mines than Liberia or its other neighbor. The president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, a man known for his greediness, backed by a big group of tribes invaded Northern Guinea to take in possession the rich diamond mines. This war was greatly opposed by Guinea and also by Sierra Leone which was living in the fear of being invaded next after Guinea. So they partnered with each other and thus began the civil war of Liberia.

The Buduburam Refugee Camp at Ghana, that homed more that 42,000 refugees from Liberia was proving to be expensive as well as a head ache for the Government of Ghana. Though the United Nations was strongly supporting their presence in Ghana, the crime rate and the standard of living in Ghana depreciated because of the presence of these tribes. The government could neither send them back, nor could take an initiative to stop their inflow into their country. It was then that the Government of Ghana, that could withstand the troubles of the Liberians no more, came up with a brilliant and crooked solution.

Yet another tear, and that dried her eyes. She could hardly move her limbs for she was so weak. Ellen loved her 7 year old brother very much. Her brother and she went to the same school in Liberia. Though half as old as Ellen is, her brother was as matured and as smart as Ellen was. Initially things were quite smooth. But later, when the troops from Guinea and Sierra Leone joined together to defend the Liberian army, a lot of Taylor’s men went down. This greatly troubled him and he ordered the kids and all able men to join the forces. That was when the men and women started to fled out. The unfortunates, including Ellen’s dad and brother had to hold guns.

The Kwa had its own set of rules and regulations. The tribe would not allow men to marry twice, kids had to stay in forest for sometime to learn hunting before they can start their education, the women who were raped had to stay away from the whole community and they were not even allowed to talk to men and many more. The Ghanaians identified these and made good use of them. The government of Ghana formed a big anti-refugee force unofficially to control their population and scare them back to their country. The troops were camped near the Buduburam Refugee Camp. Whenever they found a Liberian man alone, they shot him and if it were a women, they raped her. This way, they curbed the refugee population and ceased the good living conditions.

Ellen was a victim!

P.S: And you thought I was writing a story?? Names are fictitious. But a lot of these are still going on in west Africa. This is only a bird’s eye view.

How many times have we heard of a war in Africa in BBC?? They go unheard. Life in Africa is not the same as it is in the rest of the world. There are 54 countries in Africa. How many can you name?? A 5?? Or a 10?? And there are 45 countries in Europe, how many can you name now?? A 40?? Or the whole 45??

Close your eyes and put yourself in their shoes. You and I might have probably been shot dead. Appreciate your life. Thank everyday you live. There are many under privileged people living in this world. When you complain the next time, simply put this question before yourself,

“ Am I suffering more than them??”

**This post was written in haste. Hope the message got conveyed.**

Wows And Phews

It was 7.15 AM. I just had my breakfast and was ready to school. And my brand new bicycle was waiting for its first ride to school. Excitement every minute, enthusiasm reaching no bounds I put on my shoes and socks, grabbed my lunch bag and placed it in the basket my bicycle was fitted with. Tightening my bag on the carrier at the back, pedaling slowly I started riding my bicycle majestically. With my head up, waiting for someone to ask, “Vignesh, is that a new bicycle??” I made my way to school. As soon as I reached school, all my friends surrounded around that new entrant giving expert comments on why I shouldn’t have bought that and why I made the right choice buying it. Off goes the school bell at 7.30 AM and we all gather at the assembly hall for prayer. I had my cycle keys in my pocket and I couldn’t resist myself from feeling it every now and then just to make sure I have it with me. Irresistible joy!!

I went to the parking area at the end of every lecture to ensure that my bicycle is safe. It was a very long day. Have you ever felt like wiping the smallest pinch of dust on your new shoes?? As and when you find some dirt on it?? That was exactly what I was doing with that newbie too!

“Ding Dong”! Bus Stopping! Yet another bus stop with tons of people trying to make it inside the heavily crowded bus. Air-conditioned and highly clean, one of the best busses I have ever been on. I looked at my watch and it said, “7.15 AM”. I will have to get down in the next stop, take a train to the terminal. From there, I will be getting into the complex bus which will take me into the island. Inside the island will that Mercedes Benz van be waiting for me to board. I think I can make it on time to work today at 09.00 AM.

It was 04.00 PM and off went the bell. I rode my bike back home. Dad was home too, a bit early that day.

Dad: “Vignesh, there seems to be some exhibition in town this week. Do you want to go there?”

Me: “Wooow! yes! We can go there today daddy.”

08.45 AM: I am almost in the island. And there I see my company's Benz. I get into the van, switching on the TV and holding the newspaper in my hand I flip through the pages to find innumerable number of shows, performances, exhibitions and advertisement of shopping malls.

“Phew…”

Throwing the paper aside, I closed my eyes and asked myself, “Is this what you always wanted?? City life??”

Renovation Time!

To Be Back Soon!