What do people thank you for?

Hi there..so..today's writing prompt by LYL is "What would you be happy and excited to help others with even if you didn't get paid?". Well..I would love to help people plan their travels and holidays. I would love to take pictures of them in holiday spots/special occasions. I would love to look after their pets when people go for holidays/travel for work occasionally. I would love to do grocery shopping and pay bills online for the elderly. I would love to help people set-up their own aquarium and aviary. I would love to help somebody plant a garden or to de-weed it. I would love to proof-read what people have written.

What really makes you angry about the world?

Hi there..So today's writing prompt given by LYL team is "What really makes you angry about the world?". Even before I got the prompt, I was thinking about writing on the topic "What makes you alive?". It's kind of two sides of the same coin I guess. The things that make us mad are the things we are passionate about and when we see them being treated as less than holy, our blood boils. The things that gets to me the most are the hypocrisy and intolerance in this world. In all of it forms. We never express our love and gratitude towards our loved ones or anybody for that matter. We don't even give them a flower to show it. But when they die or leave us, we make such a big hue and cry, we cover the dead body with garlands after garlands. We want an educated son-in-law who won't take dowry for our daughters, but want the maximum dowry possible as per prevailing market conditions for our sons when they get married. We want to be able to play loud music in our homes, but can't tolerate our neighbours doing it. We make a hue and cry over increasing vegetable prices and drive a hard bargain with the vegetable vendors on the street, but have no qualms in burning a deep hole in our pocket every weekend at the nearest mall/Cineplex. We want to send our kids to private schools and colleges, go to private super-speciality hospitals for healthcare, even have our own means of transport irrespective of the pollution it causes. But we want govt. jobs so that we can earn without working. We don't want to pay taxes, but we want the govt. to provide top-notch infrastructure. We become addicted to the things that kill us slowly. For many, it's job-security, relationship security and status in the society etc. We learn to kill our soul, we know it's the wrong thing to do, yet we encourage others to follow suit. We ask them to conform to society's double standards. We worship goddesses, yet rape even a month old baby girl. We worship Mary who conceived out of wedlock, yet we stone unmarried mothers to death. We say we care about nature, yet we don't think twice about buying a plastic bag to carry our groceries, nor do we really stop and ask ourselves "Do I really need that thing?" when a sale is going on. We just keep grabbing and consuming and destroying and complaining that nobody does the right thing because that's easier to do. We master the art of self-destruction, yet spend millions of dollars on self-help books. We carry so much of violence in our minds, but proclaim peace and love for everybody. The world really is a scary place.

The Force Awakens

Hi there, I'm writing a blog post after a long, long time. I've taken up Live Your Legend (LYL) Team's start-a-blog challenge and enrolled in their 7-day blog writing course today. I had taken this year's new year resolution to start my travelogue this year and I guess it's always better late than never..There are 2 more days to go in this year after all :-) Although I was an early spectator to the blogging phenomenon when it hit the country in later part of last decade and follow some really good bloggers (TAIWIKIWDBI, OPOD etc) even today, I never really blogged much. A couple of posts..that’s it..I’ve always been a more-of a paper and pen kinda girl..I write down my feelings when I can’t handle them anymore in bits of paper and then destroy them. It’s therapeautic..but sometimes I wish I had kept some of them because I think I’d written some beautiful poetry as well..But my idealistic old self who used to reason that I create for myself alone, not for anyone else kept me going on the destructive path. But it’s time to change. It’s time to stop all the self-destructive habits and thought processes that I have mastered. Time to unlearn them and start on a beautiful journey of self-love. So this blog is going to be my sounding board..where I think out loud..just for myself. I hope that someday when I look back and see some of the posts, I’d be pleasantly surprised to find that I’ve written some good stuff. So here’s wishing myself all the very best. May the Force be with me ;-). Luv, Ananda