Sunday 24 January 2016

Dreams born out of fear...

I'm a firm believer of dreams. Dreams, if believed in and strived for, do come true. Even with the excessive exposure to television and video games these days, I'd like to pass on the pure, unadulterated gift of dreaming to my next generation. But do we ever wonder how our dreams are born? Do we dream of becoming someone or doing something because we really want what we dream or because we are scared of becoming someone else or doing something else that we loathe? I found out the origin of my dreams and it didn't turn out to be delightful. If there's one thing that I've wanted since time immemorial, it would be independence. Independence didn't mean only being financially independent. I always dreamt of being empowered enough to take my own decisions and own up my failures. Whoever saw me as a child still talks about how my games were always about going to work carrying my mother's "vanity bag", teaching, treating patients, refusing to get married and spend my life doing household chores...However, on further introspection, I realised how this idea of independence appealed to me simply because I didn't want to end up being like my grandmothers - asking for money from their husbands for every need, quietly accepting the humiliation of being explained how hard earned money should be spent if their husbands don't consider the expenses justified, not being able to speak out if they don't want to get pregnant any more, not being strong enough to walk out of a toxic marriage, putting up with abusive fathers for years...I didn't have a very coherent idea about being independent. All I knew was that I didn't want to grow up to be one of them.
Set Theory in Mathematics explains a beautiful concept called Complement Set using Venn Diagram. If all Sets are considered as Subsets of a Universal Set U, the Complement of a Set A would be U\A which includes everything under the sun other than A. My attempt to escape the life my grandmothers have had has forced me to become everything other than what they were even if I didn't originally have the taste for some of the things I have done during this attempt.
The sudden and painful realisation of not having an original dream of my own, independent of others' influences hit me hard. Would I be a robot without dreams if the persons playing an incidental role in forming my dreams simply cease to exist?

Pants, jacket, midi rings, loafers - Linking Road, thrifted tank top - B.K.Market, lipstick - Red Plum by Colorbar




Sunday 3 January 2016

Another year, nothing more, nothing less...

As I stared into the midnight sky lit with the crackers from New Year's Eve, I couldn't help suppressing a chuckle. People making merry, watching popular actors dance and crack jokes in the idiot box, drinking and passing out in shabby hostels... celebrating is a diverse exercise indeed. What would remain unchanged on the very same day after a year is the desperate attempt to leave the failures of the past year behind and pretend, even if for a few days that everything would be all right in the coming year.

I, for one, belong to a different school. The burden of things that should have been completed in the year gone by weighs me down every time. The oh-so-familiar sensing of mistakes that would be repeated once more scares me. And the sheer boredom of the year ahead tires me even before the year has actually begun. And, just like my all time favourite poet Plath, I too keep wondering then,"is there no way out of the mind?"

Kurta - Colaba Causeway, ripped denims - Jabong(and DIYed by my love Debi), rings and earrings - New Market, silver kolhapuri - Shreeram Arcade, bindi - mom's, lipstick - Wicked by Colorbar


On a more cheerful note, I turned 26 and realised that I quite like the idea of slowly turning into a lonely old lady with an opinion. In order to celebrate ageing, I chose to go ethnic with this kurta I had bought during one of my random Colaba trips and never wore later. With age, the effort associated with accessorising is also proving to be tiresome. Hence, I go minimal on most of the occasions these days. Having no winter here in Mumbai doesn't help the layering lover in me though.

How did you usher in 2016? Lonely and unceremonious like me or grand and blurry?