Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The Optimist Taking a Break From Optimism

The following was my facebook status update yesterday. It got a lot of attention because well it was sorta unlike me, the dark emotion not the intellectual piece of writing fyi. The thing is, creativity comes when it does and the context is not of our own choosing so what the heck. Talha pointed out that the status update could actually be "mini post" in itself.

Note: It wasn't this long originally. I added stuff to it. Its hardly 300 words. This is weird for me because its so tiny. Now I'm just rambling to make it bigger :P

When we're young we are told to do anything that makes us happy, not talk to strangers, dream, have a wild imagination, be spontaneous, ask questions to learn more. We think our parents will always be there to take care of us, that love is unconditional, every grownup who smiles at us is awesome. Life is colour, life is sunlight. There is still the good guy/bad guy distinction thanks to cartoons, we hate homework, and studies. Whatever happened yesterday was history. The only thing that mattered was today.

And then we grow up. We realise we can't do everything that makes us happy because there's a society to answer to, we are told to stop dreaming and be realistic, that our imagination will be the death and starvation of us someday, we question our parents' mortality and their depleting healths (I know that's grammatically wrong but pluralising gives a better effect) , we wish we had studied more, or had worked harder. We are told to get out of our individual "bubbles" and face reality. We will eat our own words and extinguish our internal fires with our own hands. The colours and light we thrived upon seem to make us squint. We'll realise even love has conditions, people are not what they seem and smiling is no measure of character.

We switch spontaneity with round the clock planning, we'll realise some questions will remain unanswered forever and some answers make us learn more than we bargained for. We realise how mere strangers have the ability to transform our lives. We stop being thankful for today. All we have are the regrets of yesterday. The only thing that remains is the good/bad guy distinction, with a slight upgrade. We realise that more than any bad guy or any enemy, it is our own self that has the ability to finish us off without assistance. We will be our own worst enemy yet forced to be everyone's friend.

Hoping she comes back to her normal crazy self soon,
Sara (burgundy) Q.

P.S : Why the hell is our cricket team wasting time with Bangladesh? Just got the winning six alert. Afterthought.

11 comments:

  1. Finally one of us posts after a long time :P
    I've wondered about whats written up there for a long time, and while I don't think I have the answer, I think I can empathize. I can't really think of a parent that can look a child in the eyes and tell them the truth of the world around them. I'm sure they want to, after all they want to protect us. But knowing the reality of the world that the child will have to face one day, maybe its best to let the child believe, for a time at least, that the world is a wonderland. They won't get a chance to see the world that way again.

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  2. and you guys are back 

    Talha A.B its ur turn now 

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  3. At long
    last! A post. Well the blog lives…after an absence of six months you guys have
    finally written a post albeit a rather small one, but a post nonetheless. 

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  4. 'Ignorance is bliss'


    As long as you are unaware of the problems of the world, you are at peace. The only thing that makes our childhood care free is the lack of understanding of the real world. The world that is unfair, unjust and cruel!

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  5. When the optimist takes a break from optimism, its not good. I liked the topic of the post. and yes, every child is told to laugh, dream, have wild imagination and learn because thats what is going to help him in his life ahead when he learns what life has in store for him. We do think that our parents will always be there and yes they are always there by your side supporting you and caring for you, that love is unconditional and yes it is, whats conditional is not love at all....

    When we grow up we do realise certain things, we have certain responsibilities. About the regrets of yesterday, yes you are right to some extent. Its those regrets that make us both learn from past and at times hold us back from progressing ahead in life. Its up to us, how we use them, do we learn from them or we just let ourselves live in those illusions of what if I had not done that......  And yes 200% agreed that we can be our worst enemy or our best friend....

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  6. Yes the world that is unfair, unjust and cruel, but life has its ways. There are good people in it as well :)
    Its all about the optimist coming back from his vacations from his optimism :)

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  7. agreed. The best part of life is childhood, no doubt....
    wo kaghaz ki kashti, wo barish ka pani.....
    Every parent wants to protect his child from the heat and cold of the world (if i have it correctly). 
    Its all about how we percieve and all of us realise that our parents were right when they took those measure, its all about putting ourselves in their shoes, perhaps when we ourselves will be parents then we will realise....

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  8. I assure you I'll blog in before Talha does. Or maybe he'll see this comment and get fired up to beat me :P

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  9. I never realised how much I was being associated with lengthy posts until this one came along. I was under the impression this was more friendly to the eye :P
    Nevertheless I'll be back with the 1000 word brigade soon enough. If ppl are willing to read I might as well right?

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  10. I think it was one emotional day that made me write all this. I don't regret writing it. The darkness in us is a part of us and I for one have no issues with letting the world know about it.  Its only fair I guess. 
    The thing is, I, being the optimist totally want to come back from that break and eventually I will. Actually the song Omair has mentioned, "woh kaaghaz ki kashti" is an excellent example. I heard this song many years ago, in our car when my dad bought a Jagjit Singh CD and insisted he wanted to listen. I remember, amidst our anti-ghazal protests how my mom said that we'd never get the true meaning of this song till the day we grow up and realise how simple our life was a decade ago. And well, I finally get it. The song. The lyrics. The torn yet calm voice.

    But the thing is, my mom also said that the true measure of man comes out in the open when he can make every piece of his life count, enjoy every aspect of his life and well, age. Because with every age we do have challenges yes, but I dunno this beauty of time too. When I was a kid I used to tell my mom how lucky she is that she's done with studies and well she is isn't she? But that's the thing, we'll ALWAYS have something to worry about and always something or someone to kill that worry. Circle of life?

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  11. Wow that's a lot of negativity up there! (The comments,not the post. I, of all people would know the optimism and its breaks that Sara Q has.)  I agree that everyone has those oh-i-feel-so-rotten days, and yes, when we grow up, life unwraps itself in the weirdest of ways. But most of us don't realise it's as unexpected for the parents as it is for the kids. The reassurance they give is not just a bunch of words they have to say, but are actual things they believe. And then we grow up. And give them new sets of challenges almost everyday. And break their bubbles like they break ours. So yeah, it's pretty two-sided, all of it. 

    P.S. waffles! :D

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