Blame

Blame is an easy way out, to clear your name, the doubt.
But what the consequence is, no one comprehends
Fights it causes, makes matters worse,
No end reached but still the end it is for all.
Why can’t things be said as they are,
Accepted and moved on with, make a fresh start?
Is it so tough to make the relationships work?
To be humans who accept their errs?
Let’s leave the scorn aside for a while and say what’s in the heart,
Make a new beginning of this disgraceful debated last part.

© Shruti Chopra

Freedom Writers: A Marvel

Sometimes I wonder where do people get the courage, the motivation and the will to make themselves absolutely secondary and do good or at least try to better lives of other people from. It amazes me that people can be so selfless in nature. We all try and do our bit for the other and none of us – or at least most of us aren’t completely selfish in nature but we can’t also claim to be completely selfless. Some people are lucky that their calling happens to be selflessness, some people are lucky that they get the chance, but what is most appealing to me as a person is that someone so ordinary, like you and me, takes the chance given, goes out of their comfort zone as we call it, do what they like and do it their way and still make such a marked difference.

Privileges are something most of us take for granted. We don’t always realize that at some parts of this world there is an entirely different world! We don’t always think that there are people out their fighting a war, a battle for survival everyday and I don’t mean the soldiers of our country. Many a times these battles are forced, are ‘man-made’ and honestly need not even be there. Privileges aren’t something materialistic, something money buys but it is basic things like freedom, a family, an education, a job, a meal, a roof.

I call Freedom Writers a marvel because of the truth there is in it, because of the reality it shows and it changes, because of the good it strives to bring about without preaching. Freedom writers is about giving a voice, about giving a future and about giving hope. Freedom writers as an organization is about making one realize that nothing is impossible and that fighting without a reason, just because you are told to is baseless. Freedom writers the movie made me aware, made me realize, it inspired. It showed, at least me, that many a times we don’t know what we are up against and why we are up against it. Do we go after things or people just because we have been told to or because we have a reason backing our actions? Is following the norm essential even if it is the wrong way or being the first one to get up and make a change because it is the right thing to do?

Erin Gruwell, on whom the movie is based, as a character in the movie, is on the face of it just like you and I, a young person wanting to become a teacher because she likes the aspect and the idea of it, married young and happy with her life but wanting to make a change. You dwell a little deeper and you realize that she has the innate quality of putting someone else before her, for a better good even if that means letting go of her life, of her pleasures. She has the will to go those extra steps to make this step a successful one. She has the determination of doing things the right way but her way, about getting things done even if that means bending the rules a little. This is what I mean by courage. Courage isn’t merely going out there and showing how brave you are, courage isn’t not being scared, courage is having the will and the nerves to do what you believe in and make it happen. It is putting everything else on stand – even you if required to make a difference, however big or small it may be.

“With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.”
- Keshavan Nair

Choices

'Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.'

Choices are a part of life. Every minute you are to make a choice. To either do this or to do that, but what happens when the choices are such that don’t just change the moment but the life ahead of you? Such are choices that scare people, which bring about confusion, anticipation and a gamut of other emotions? Thinking about a few things and the choices that have been made till now and the choices that will have to be made in the future, got me thinking and dwelling into deeper issues and reasoning’s. The two main choices, we assume that change the way our life goes, the way we lead it, depends upon our academic (career) choices, and our choices in relationships.

What does our tomorrow bring, what does it hold for us and what is the reason for tomorrow happening the way it does? Our life is based broadly on joys and sorrows, on happiness and sadness, on loss and gain, on belief and disbelief, on right and on wrong.

'We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them'

Everything that transpires in our life is ultimately because of our choice. Some people may blame their decision on someone else or say they were influenced but it still remains their choice, because it was their decision, them choosing to go by the others decision. Subconsciously or consciously we are always deciding the path for tomorrow, whether it is the way we want it to be or the complete opposite.

Each morning is a new day and each morning we choose whether we want to take a decision, make the choice to move forward or to just let it all go, like a river that will never again touch the shore. There are many moments in our lives when we find ourselves at a crossroad, at the T junction, anxious, perplexed, without a roadmap. The choices we make then, in that very moment, set path for everything ahead.

The most important thing in life, and maybe even the simplest but contradictorily one that is toughest to do is to stand by your choices, to accept them and to honor them. To think through them so that tomorrow, when things don’t work out there might be disappointment but no regret.