A Real world?

Why is it so important to look good in a picture, to look thin, fair, stylish, a superstar? Especially when its 2D and it can't fathom what person you are, what you think, and how you really live.
Why do we give so much importance on looking good for the whole world. Why is there that underlying competition about being a Greek God or this hot babe. Why has a good day become directly proportional to a hundred likes on a random picture on Facebook.

An uncle, a family friend was telling me few days back 'You know nowadays you can't just look at pictures and go see a girl for arranged marriages, they don't look anywhere close to what they actually look like in real, the world has become so fake.' It's so true, we all want to look like film stars! I am glad I escaped the ill-effects of this fad, and wasn't disappointed when I met my husband. :)

I wonder why life has become about posing and pouting for the camera, and why camera has really become such a big deal. Its like every other person you meet claims to be a photographer...duh?? Like all other hobbies in this universe have suddenly vanished. I never had a dslr probably because I still don't get it, why do I have to be either a great photographer or photogenic, at least as long as it's not my profession. Well but peer pressure caves in on everybody I guess. Probably if I was some model I would think differently, but now.. here I don't see how the quality of my photograph is going to change my life.

Capturing a moment, mobile cams can do that much better, at least if the point is not about having this great picture, but really the moment. And I don't think you are going to run and find a dslr when you propose to your lover and he/she accepts, when you whisper to each other during your wedding, when you tease your friends over a reunion, when your baby talks for the first time, those beautiful moments nothing can capture but your heart. I always tell my husband, I wish we didn't have any photographers at our wedding, only because I don't want to get married to be seen or captured by some photographers, but I want to share that moment with people who truly love me, but sadly I'm not sure how many people at my wedding even saw me getting married!! I know for sure that in my life the best moments no camera has captured, I can only share those thoughts with somebody, cannot share a picture for proof.

A friend was telling me recently a little depressed, 'Wow, you know people have such interesting lives, so many events,they are always putting pictures on fb, it's like I have nothing to do.' And it suddenly hit me what this could be doing to the many people who don't share their lives in public. I told him' Don't let anyone make you feel you have an uninteresting life.. Some people talk about stuff they do, probably much more than they actually do, some don't but trust me every person's life in this world is equally interesting and unique. I am glad you are not in this club'

I remember how a few years back, we would genuinely have much more fun and pretend much less. How people were content in their closely guarded lives, how we weren't a slave to being liked by everybody or the attention.I hope that time comes back. Where your number of friends on Facebook doesn't make you more liked, number of followers on twitter doesn't make you some idol, and LinkedIn contacts don't make you a reliable employee, employer.
 I hope this world becomes more real, because honestly I would rather have an interesting life in real than one for the camera(defined public), and I would rather be liked or hated for my qualities than be judged on how some camera makes me look. Lets toast to the real world!

Nine of Us

Something I wrote long back , but never posted.



We ran on the beach

we sat in the sun

on the rocks by the seashore

frolicking in fun

never knowing what we were etching in our hearts

a lifetime of togetherness, through thick and thin.

hashif A saint who isn't defined by his saintism

divya A carefree dreamy girl waiting for her beloved

neethu Always mature laced with funny one liners

sweeta The sensible girl who was always right except one

soniya Always dragged with us to places unknown

tania An innocent girl under our wings

athira Always in love or searching for it

saleem His two loves gymming and a pretty girl back home

bejoy Serious of the lot who kept us well grounded

As we clicked pictures by the red stoned lighthouse
witnessing a beautiful sunset
posing for the victory of a day well spent

the colors of the sky, sea and the red love
filled our hearts..
promising never to part

Musings

Do you feel closed, unhappy at times, even if you have everything you ever desired all around you, but still futile in a sense. Does it all seem meaningless, worthless. What if it was easy to run away from everything for a while knowing you can come back and just be normal again. But thats not easy. When you leave, you leave for real, thats the hard part, and you can't come back, maybe you wouldn't even want to, but thats something else. But don't you wonder sometimes if another path would have been more green, more colorful, more calming.

But thats life, you always live here thinking you can be somewhere else, or maybe you work towards putting yourself at that place you desire at some point of time, hoping for a better tomorrow like we all say. But we are a funny race, we reminisce the past and wonder about the future, but we almost never live here, now. Oh,.. only if that was that easy to achieve. If you could block out everything and just be here. Maybe people who can achieve that can be happy, I guess thats what all these 'supposed highs' do, they help you block out?!

Often, especially when you are alone, everything feels so surreal. Try sitting for an hour, with nothing to do. Its impossible to not go into past mode, it just almost always happens. When I look back now, those hard times seem silly and easy, makes me wonder what the whole big deal was about, but I guess exams are difficult on a child, heartbreak on a teenager, jobs on a graduate, they are all difficult at those phases, perhaps I will think later when I'm 40 that 20's was easy. But its funny how you never think like that when you are there. We are always trying to go back in time some sense.... to native towns, to childhood, to being single, to previous jobs, or looking forward to go to new places, get married, have kids, and to newer opportunities. But why can’t we revel here, with what we have, with the present. Why is that so difficult? Is that because we think so much, we keep craving for things we don’t have ,or is it because we are genuinely not happy. Perhaps time will tell.