Home is Where the Family is

 Home means a lot of different things to different people. For some it is a place where you can spend the remainder of your days in luxury or a place close to your favourite haunt or somewhere there is quiet along with peace and serenity or maybe the ideal big house with a dog and a picket fence. Although all these scenarios are appealing, for me home takes a human form. It is my family which forms my home.

 

As said by Jenji Kohan “Wherever you are, it's about the people you're surrounded by, not necessarily where you lay your head.”

 

Home is not just four walls and a roof over your head which you return to at the end of the day, it is somewhere you find solace and feel safe. It is the people who greet you when you return.

 

This belief has been strengthened in the recent situation. Earlier my day consisted of me doing my work and only meeting my family for the dinner we had together that too not more than 3 days a week. But being locked at home with them for over 5 months has made me realise the importance they hold in my life. Our familial interactions have increased from having one meal together to sitting down for every meal, spending time together after and sharing each detail of our lives with each other. It is not like we haven’t had our ups and downs, one moment we are sitting together laughing and the next we are at each other’s throats.

 

Living in such close proximity to my parents has only further enhanced the feeling of home. We have even adopted new hobbies which mainly consist of cooking and trying to make new things. The amount of baking me and my mother have done in the past few days will surpass the amount of food I have made my whole life. Every other day we try to make something new and fail quite a few times like the time our thin crust pizza turned into a stone crust pizza.

Not only that, me and my family have moved quite a few times that I remember of (not vaunting the moves that took place before I was 2) and I have never felt displaced or foreign in that new land. In an unknown territory I knew I could rely on my comrades that is my family. Wherever we go being with them has made me feel like our home can be anywhere not only at one specific place. Wherever, I may be as long as I am with my family I will never feel displaced.

But despite all the fights we have and all the taunts I receive for lazing around half the day, I would rather live with my family then without them because without them this house is not a home and my home is where my family is.

MY ARTISTIC JOURNEY

“the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.”

This is what the dictionary describes art as. In the machine language that’s what we say. But me who is a simply simple simpleton of Simpleville doesn’t get this in there. I describe art as a medium of unwinding. Not only that it’s a pass time, stress reliever and for when I just want to laze around.

Art is a part of every aspect of life. You are doing your work, the words you write is a form of art. You are saying something, the words you are saying, hmm some notes are being hit. Even when you look outside your window you are looking at the best example of art.

Even though art is everywhere I practice only one kind of it. Well, maybe not as art is everywhere. Well let’s start from the beginning.

So, as we know Trial and Error is a part of every life. My first art form was learning Casio. Learnt it for 2 months and left it.

I used to go to art classes and did some acrylic canvas paintings but my teacher relocated.

Then I started learning Kathak which I learnt for year and did a performance then bye-bye.

I also learnt freestyle dance but now I don’t dance.

But now I like drawing, sketching I don’t know what you actually call it but I like it.

 So let’s start my artistic journey from where I remember it. I basically started with word doodles. Didn’t really succeed but enjoy it a lot.

That’s when I did my first character. I searched for cute doll cartoons to draw and found a great tutorial. And voila! I had my new passion. After realizing that it turned out so good I continued. I started sketching chibi dolls and manga dolls by just looking at pictures.

I then tried to do a more mature character-design ,it wasn’t quite successful but enjoyed it a lot.

I continued drawing characters from the web and now adding improvisations, with trying my best to add shadows and shadings without having learnt it. Just tried my best from looking at them. I tried my best by looking.

 I then tried to do stuff apart from these cutesy drawings. Like objects, actions and not dolls.

I also dabbled in water color. Mainly giving  my original characters a new look. I am trying to learn how to blend colors together.

 

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I constantly try to improve myself and will keep updating.

IDIO[MA]TIC POEM

A few days ago we were celebrating English Day or Book Day in our school. We were supposed to make a poem using idioms. So, I just wrote two poems that did not make sense to me. But my friends told that they do make sense. I believe them and here they are.

MEANINGLESS POEM #1

The Rhyme Scheme of the poem is ABBA. In this poem the narrator judges the book [board] by its cover and gets cheated on. However, the betrayal has not been mentioned and neither is the way in which it had taken place. In fact, the poem gives no clue how he had been cheated on except after it had taken place. The narrator was furious after that and was anger-driven and how it cost him everything.

I went on a run

And saw a board 

Saying 'Take Off Your Work Load'

I jumped the gun

And went inside 

But haste makes waste 

I had an ax to grind 

I beat a dead horse

I had no remorse

I was out of my mind 

I had lost my head

I had hell in my hand basket

I laughed in her face

Gave her no space

But it was an arm and a leg 

Then I had to beg

I was back to square one

With a chip on my shoulder

An anger hoarder

Which I had to shun

And now everything is in the bag  

MEANINGLESS POEM #2

The Rhyme Scheme is AABB. I started this poem using idioms ,but then at the end I gave up and just cared about rhyming because what rhymes makes sense.

As high as a kite

Full of spite

An ax to grind

A contract that does not bind

A back seat driver,

was my rival

At a baker's dozen 

My heart was frozen

But still I was head over heels 

With a smile, my heart he steals

But haste makes waste
And love was a paste I did not want to taste

Now I am going back to the drawing board 

Without love I was bored

But he had a chip on his shoulder 

He crushed my heart under a boulder

In the heat of the moment 

I said I didn't love him

Now I'm in despair

With no love to spare

Full of disdain

Nothing to gain

Money my only support

I had lost all hope [for any love].

Hey guess what, here is the MEANING 

We can also perceive these poems as two sides of a coin. In the first poem the narrator has been betrayed by someone unknown, maybe the narrator of the second poem betrayed him. Maybe the betrayal is that she refused his love. In the second poem the idiom 'chip on his shoulder' has been used to describe his anger which can be connected to the line in the first poem 'I laughed in her face' which refers to his refusal, later on as part of a revenge. The heavy cost the narrator of the first poem had to pay may have been losing his one true love. I didn't really write these poems with this meaning but while I was writing them here I just thought that maybe they could be related. Even though, the first poem has kind of a happy ending, it  mostly shows the side effects anger. In addition to that, the second poem tells us how the narrator let her ego overcome her and betray her love leading to sadness and a life in isolation as she began the chain of betrayal.

P.S. these poems are fictional and do not relate with me or anyone I know. I just went with flow.

“Karna’s Wife: The Outcast’s Wife" - Kavita Kane : Book Review

“Karna’s Wife”: The Outcast’s Wife, written by Kavita Kane is told from the point of view of Karna’s second wife ‘Uruvi’. Uruvi the bubbly princess of Pukeya, the only child born to King Vahusha and Queen Shubhra. She was the world to her father. She was a Kshatriya princess and as a young gal she used to ride her horse with the Panadavas- Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahdeva. She was the favorite of her self-elected foster mother Kunti (also the mother of the Panadavas).  Even though, she was handed everything on a silver platter and could have chosen any groom for herself;  she dared to love Karna. Karna aka Radheya (the son of Radha), a sutaputra as he was adopted by Adhiratha, the charioteer. When she chose Karna over Arjuna at her swayamvar, havoc broke down. Arjuna had to go through the same humiliation Karna went through in Draupadi’s swayamvar.  

While reading the Mahabharata, everybody overlooks the character of Uruvi. This book describes her emotions and her point of view about the events taking place. We get to know the relation between Karna and Uruvi. This book describes how Uruvi went against all odds to marry Karna, breaking all the social norms to do so.

It shows the life story of Uruvi. She dared to love and marry Karna. Then she had to strive for acceptance by his family while, the Panadavas broke all relations with her. Her foster mother Kunti was more than happy to know that she was still marrying his son. Karna was baffled about the ongoing events was eventually love-stricken by Uruvi’s kind eyes, round face and her tendency to lighten up the room with her bubbly personality. Shona (Karna’s younger brother who considered him god which he was) was not ready to accept her and felt it was unfair to Karna's first wife Vrushali; who he loved. She eventually found a place in Radha and Adhiratha’s heart.

She constantly tried to fulfill everyone’s wish (also her own) by advising Karna to break all relations with Duryodhana (the eldest Kaurava). But he always disagreed as he was indebted to Duryodhana as he was the only living soul who helped Karna when he needed it, when he was getting publicly shamed at the archery contest at Hastinapur several years ago and declared him king of Anga.

Now the story of Mahabharata continued the treacherous game of dice played by Duryodhana and Shakuni against Yudhishthira where he lost his brothers, his kingdom and his wife. Where Draupadi was ordered to be dragged by hair to the royal court that too unfortunately during her menstruation. Karna then encouraged Dushasasna to disrobe Draupadi. But due to lord Krishna’s blessing her sari never seemed to end, meters and meters of sari (lord Krishna was just repaying Draupadi of when Krishna hurt his finger and Draupadi tore of her sari to help him). Due to losing their kingdom they had to go for a 14 year exile.

Hearing this Uruvi was disturbed inside and out and left Karna and went back to Pukeya (Uruvi was pregnant at this time). Uruvi before going to Pukeya stopped at Indraprastha and apologized to the Panadavas and Draupadi who admitted that she had loved Karna but only rejected him as she did not have the courage to go against the society.

After the exile the preparation for the Mahabharata began. Lord Krishna also revealed to Karna that he was the eldest Pandava and the son of Kunti. He also suggested that he could end the war by revealing to Pandavas that he was their brother and also informing Duryodhana which would cause them both to step down from the throne and offer it to him. He refused. Same was done by Kunti but Karna refused. She then asked him to promise her that he would kill no Pandava and use the divine weapon only once.

Duryodhana made Bhishma Pitahmah his commander but he refused to fight with Karna in his army as he already knew Karna's true identity and didn’t want to lose him. So Karna couldn’t fight till the 16^th day when Bhishma Pitahmah was stabbed completely by arrows. On the day of his death his chariot’s wheel was submerged in the ground and was not permitted to remove it. That is when he was killed by Arjuna.

After the end of the war the Pandavas apologized to Uruvi and accepted Karna as their brother. He was then cremated by lord Krishna as per Karna's wishes. Duryodhana apologized to Uruvi too and was disappointed that Karna thought that he was so selfish that he wouldn’t give up the throne for the only person he truly loved.

At the end Krishna took Karna's last son Vrishaketu under his wing who was the last person to know how to use the divine weapons. As promised to his mother, he never became king of Hastinapur.

Although, this story is about Uruvi; Karna's wife, I was deeply influenced by the life story of Karna. Abandoned at birth; he earned his own name. Always reminded of his low birth; he earned his own valor. His true and utter devotion to his friend, Duryodhana was something nobody expected to see. He was not perfect. He made good and bad decisions. Karna was the only one in Mahabharata’s warriors, who always had to fight to earn what he wanted to have, despite having born to a princess. He neither had the royal life like Pandavas, Kauravas nor was destined to lead the life of a common man. He is an inspiration for everyone out there, who wants to tell the society/people around him that he decides to be what he wants to be and not what others think/perceive him to be. Of course he had to pay a price for it, but his life was a proof to everyone that life is not fair.

My Visit to Yog Gram-Haridwar - May 2018

My trip to Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Yog Gram, Haridwar was an 8-day trip.Starting early on 23 of May, I boarded an early morning train with my mother and grandparents. We reached Roorkee station and began our 1 hour road trip to Yog Gram which was through a road filled with ditches and potholes. First, minus point! We finally reached Yog gram which was not quite intriguing at the first look, a land surrounded by cottages everywhere with roads dividing them. We went to the reception to register our arrival , and I thought it was going to be similar to a hotel stay, but who knew that this first gut feeling was the contrast of what was going to happen ahead.
We reached our room and it was so much better than what I expected but not up to the mark of mother's expectations.We then went to the doctor to get our treatment and food allotted. Well, we were already late so no treatment for us but we still attended the first yoga session.Then we had dinner ,guess what-it was horrible, like who has boiled veggies, pulse soup and dalia (porridge) anymore. Well, after a tiring day we slept a sound sleep.

The next day began at 3:30 am in the morning. We went for our jalneti, kunjal, eye-wash and enema session.By, 4:45 am, we were done and began our journey to the morning yoga session. It was very informative. It taught me many new yoga practices like asanas and pranayamas and the Surya Namaskar. I had breakfast of dry fruits and watermelon afterwards. Subsequently, we went for our morning treatment, where I  got a Partial Massage and a Hot Cold Hip Bath. Then I had an hour to rest before lunch (or torture)which was apple and watery soup. The afternoon treatment was Hot Cold Compress, Calf Massage, and Lapet. I rested till it was time to the evening Yoga session. It was now time for dinner. After this day, I realized that no day would be easier than this.


It was the same routine everyday with a little bunking of classes from my side. One day, we skipped the evening yoga and took a stroll around the vast property of Yog Gram. What a beauty! It had a pretty lake with options of boating and horse riding. We then visited the VIP quarters of Yog Gram, namely Niramayam, it was amazing and very lavish.

On the last two days, I got Panchkarma treatment. I got the powder massage and the steam bath done. The powder massage consists of herbal powders being rubbed in an upward manner. After brushing it all down we sit in an steam box and wipe all the powders off. We are restricted from bathing for 30 minutes and we are not allowed to apply soap for 3 days. 

On the last day, I got a Rose Honey Massage. A mixture of rose, honey and milk blended together in a mixer is applied to our whole body except hair and it nourishes our whole body and brightens it. After getting a Rose Honey Massage I took a steam bath once again. And then was all set to go back home. We reached the station and started our return journey. I watched "Tiger Zinda Hai" on my mothers mobile phone and ate the first normal meal after a week and I swear, it tasted nothing less then heaven, though it was simple railway provided meal. I reached home safe and sound and felt glad to be back in my own room. 

Overall, it was a one of its kind experience for me. It was my first exposure to Yoga, Ayurveda and satvik diet. I hope to learn more about these philosophies of life but I am afraid its tough and requires a lot of dedication and discipline.