Ah!! Monsoon Season...

"As dark gray clouds gather in the sky, it reminds me of eternal gifts that our Mother Nature has presented to us.”

Truly, nature has her own subtle way of expressing love and affection to us. During monsoon season, when tiny rain droplets fall to the ground, the sky gives an impression of an estranged mother who is shedding tears in joy on meeting her beloved children. Though, it seems like a philosophical illusion, yet portrays the kindness that nature has showered on us by creating monsoon season to enjoy.

If someone denies its desire to get wet in the rain, probably he or she is lying. A little kid in us who is lost in ages of maturity suddenly pops out when it sees tiny droplets falling on to the earth. The temptation to get wet and enjoy the raindrops falling on our body is irresistible.

In metros and cities, we can see the joy of monsoon on everyone faces. Kids dancing on streets, elders enjoying rain in the balcony of their house and women preparing hot pakoras and coffee for everyone in the family are hallmark of first monsoon rain. And what else the romantic lovers want better than the rainy season to spend some intimate moments with each other. We can see them sharing a common umbrella on a local bus stand or going for a long drive to invoke those romantic moments that were kept in backseat thanks to scotching summer heat. In its own elusive way, it somehow justifies the renowned MasterCard advertisement that says “There are some things that money can’t buy, for everything else use MasterCard.” Truly, these moments of happiness and sense of togetherness are priceless and cannot be bought, rather felt and loved. Ah!! Monsoon Season.

In rural areas where agriculture is the primary source of income, the season of rains bears a special significance. Faces of hope gazing at sky towards smallest of cloud spread, anxious look of farmers at their fields on which their future depends and community prayers in villages for timely rains are traits of anxiety of people in rural areas just before the monsoon season. In some manner, this ambience is explained rhythmically in a song from Aamir Khan’s internationally acclaimed movie ‘Lagaan’ that goes like “Kaale Megha Kaale Megha, Paani to Barsaao”.

And why not so when two-third of our population is directly or indirectly related to agriculture for its livelihood and nearly a quarter of country’s economy is dependent upon agriculture. For them, good monsoon not only brings the bumper harvest but consequently also improved standards of living.

Indian Culture has a long tradition of using festivals as medium to mark the beginning and conclusion of any season. Consequently, there are many festivals associated with the onset of monsoon too. In Rajasthan, ‘Teej festival’ is held every year in July and August months to mark the advent of monsoon. During this festival, women pray to almighty for good production and buy new clothes and jewellery in anticipation of good monsoon this year. People in Meghalaya also organize a festival called “Behdienkhlam” to invoke the blessings of god for bumper harvest. This festival features religious ceremonies and dancing around a water pool called “eit nar”.

One of the prominent Hindu festivals that mark the beginning of rainy season is ‘Naga Panchami’. This popular Hindu festival is dedicated to Ananta, the serpent upon whose coils Vishnu (The Rain God) rested between universes. People offer milk and worship snake images in temples on this day to protect them from snakebites that are common in areas near to the riverbed.

But, the biggest of all festivals is ‘Sri Jagannath Yatra’ that is celebrated all over the country with much delight. During this festival, the chariot processions of Sri Jagannath are taken throughout the main streets. The biggest of the processions is held in Puri, Orissa where people from all over the world come to this small city to participate in the mega event.

The significance of Monsoon season is much more than giving us enjoyment. In India, rivers are the major life lines on which the country’s population is heavily dependent The rainfall occurs during the Monsoon season fill these rivers and its tributaries with enough water to feed people all through the year. This rainwater is used primarily for drinking and other essential purposes and any shortage of it can create severe problems like drought for us.

Also, good monsoons are a big necessity in our country where farmers rely more on divine help rather than government authorities to bring water to their fields. Timely rains not only solve their water woes but also help them raising a good food production that is so essential to feed such a huge population like of us. With good monsoons, the level of groundwater also increases in urban areas and consequently solving water problems that occur during summer season. Though we are still very much ignorant about water management techniques. With strategic planning like proper canalization, creation of man made reservoirs and water management techniques, we can utilize the natural rainwater in much more efficient manner to boost our agricultural growth as well as solving urban water problems.

The romance of the Indian monsoon, with its abundant rains and lush green landscape that has been rhapsodized down the ages in verse and song, can be promoted as a "unique" tourist attraction. Monsoon in India are exquisite and to fillip the tourist activities during monsoon season, the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has mooted the idea of providing tourists “a unique experience” in the form of “Special Tourism Packages”. A CII study paper has recommended states like Kerela, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttranchal, Sikkim, and Himachal Pradesh to promote themselves as Monsoon tourism destinations by introducing special schemes to attract tourists within the country and all over the world. These schemes will generate new employment avenues and also help government earn precious foreign exchange that International tourists will spend during their stay in India

Monsoons in Kerala are the most enchanting in India. With green pastures at its best, it is the most sought after destination during rainy season. The state is promoting itself extensively in the field of health tourism especially Ayurveda. The equable climate during Monsoon and natural abundance of herbs and medicinal plants in its flora, Kerala is fast capturing the attention of International tourists as a prime destination to visit during the Monsoon Season. With its abundant water reservoir of waterfalls and natural lakes, Northeastern region is also fast emerging as a hot monsoon destination among local as well as International tourists.

The phrase “Expressions of love and happiness cannot be taught. They come to you naturally,” says it all. Every living entity shows its love for the rains in its own magical way. Immediately, after the rain plants seem to be thrilled and grow much faster and greener with new branches shot up. We can also see peacock dancing in the rain or scurrying of partridge on green fields to show their happiness on arrival of monsoons. In true sense, rains symbolize the life itself. When dark clouds cover the sky and start showering raindrops on us, I heard everyone around me saying “Ah!! Its Monsoon Season.”

Struggle in this Struggling World

Struggle is not just another word but inherits within itself many conceptions, helplessness and reflection of our modern society that relies on this word to escape itself from life’s realities.

Struggle, in our society, is tagged with those unfortunate ones who are not able to meet expectations in eyes of other people. Struggle, as the word is powerful enough to put down motivation burner of many who are striving hard to achieve something and Struggle, is no less than social venom, which slowly creeps into our mind once we find road to the goal a bit difficult.

But questions arises is that are we justified for using this word so often in today’s competitive world where almost all of us are strugglers in one aspect or other?? Some of us are struggling in meeting our professional goals, many of us are struggling to manage our personal life and several among us do not know where to start even!!!

Sadly, though, we have no one but ourselves to blame for that because we have made ourselves so accustomed to this word and use it at every single available opportunity. Let’s take an example when we see one of our friends struggling to find a job, we do not think a moment before uttering these words “Oh God!! Poor Fellow is struggling to meet his ends”.

Rather than using such depressing words, how about saying “ Hey Dude!! This is god’s way to test your inner strength. Keep trying … I know you will get an excellent platform soon to showcase your talent.” These encouraging words can indeed give your struggling friend a new confidence and strength to walk during this testing phase.

Sometimes we forget the basic fundamentals of life and faith in the almighty. Nothing is permanent in life and struggle is just a small parcel that life offers to us to give us inner strength and remove weakness inside us. Don’t we take yak!! Tablets when we are ill. Why??? Because these tablets give us the immunity to fight against diseases. The very same way, life gives us the “Struggle” tablets to remove weaknesses we inherit during good times and to give us the new strength to face coming challenges in our journey of life.

Today, we see more failures and personal defeats than what we used to have in the past. The problem lies within us. We never go soul searching to find out the reason behind the struggle. The reason is our loneliness and we are usually left alone to fight against all problems. And one thing is for sure “It’s not easy!!!” May be that’s why a wise man has once said “ We can lessen the burden of problems on us by sharing them.”

So how about sharing each other’s problems and help out each other during Struggling times? The need of hour is to share sense of responsibility and cross this god created obstacle called “Struggle” together because Struggle becomes more struggling when you need to fight alone on your own.

Once a wise man said “It is always easy to break a single wood stick than a pile of wood sticks when bind together.” Today, if we need to reunite our struggling world, we must unite and fight all odds together.

Aren’t you tired of calling yourself “I'm feed up of Struggle in this Struggling World”? Honestly, At least, I’m!!

Mayank


P.S: - Friends, please drop in your comments on this Article because writing on Struggle was itself a struggling job. But thanks to my friends, I managed to clip together some of the points on such a struggling topic which is so vast that it needs series of books to cover all the points.

Sex- is it a naked violence or an eternal truth???

What do you think about sex- an unforgiving sin of Adam and Eve or sharing of true expressions between two souls emotionally and physically?? Frankly speaking, I’m confused and most probably, many of us too.

Since ages, our society is frantically divided between two aspects of this god’s pleasure gift. One section justifies the openness of these wonderful feelings that bind two souls into one entity forever. They justify their statements on the behest of human evolution and freedom of expression. The other section doubts its integrity and calls it a curse of an open society. These people justify their statements with increasing unrest in the society and pour out the entire blame on this so-called ‘Naked violence’. This fight will go on until we ourselves try to find the eternal truth behind Sex and why god has given us the power to share this highest level of emotional feelings.

Undoubtly, sex is a virtue and necessity in its own regard. It is the power of sex because of which we evolve on this earth since ages. No matter how different opinions people have about sex but not a single entity can raise an eyebrow on the true happiness it generates when we dip into this deep ocean of physical love. We all love it yet sadly we all refused to share our personal opinion on it.

The question is whether it is ok to keep sex under wraps and let everyone go through the natural biological cycle to find out the real essence of sex themselves or there is a need to guide them; teach them about how it is being done or what’s the right time to do it??

Sadly, the whole situation is exaggerated by the media especially among western culture where openness has given rise to single parenting, child abuse and growing violence among adolescents. Today, almost every advertisement is a naked expression of arousal display. Even an advertisement on men under garments has some kind of glamour attached to it. Why?? Do they expect women to wear men underwear in so called open society?? You ask advertisement agencies and they call it a nice marketing strategy. If that is so, we must expect sooner or later five-year kids teaching us on how to wear condoms. This is a pity situation and this is what we call ‘Naked Violence’ i.e., unjustifiable display of sex with no real essence.

If we go and watch a movie today it never finishes without a steaming scene between the reel characters. You ask them and they justify their act by saying that they have no inhibitions in showing their beauty or personality. If that is so, do we expect them to make love in front of their real-life kids??? If not, then why on screen where they are watched by millions of kids and teenagers who take them as their real life idols.

We all need awareness if we really dream of an open society. Sex Education at primary levels is a very nice idea but it must be added with moral values to teach them about the significance of this slippery platform where they often slip and fell down. But the question is that whether it is enough or there is lot more to achieve.

You ask any wise man and he will respond to this question by nodding his head positively. Sex Education is must in today’s open society; though not only to adolescents but to all. Be it middle aged men and women who often spread their legs to get feel of unknown territories (extra martial affairs) of this mystery island or old uncle and aunt who often debate behind the bed sheets on when to stop doing it. The fact is we all are swinging our swords with blind folded eyes without realizing the real significance behind this pleasure called Sex.

In my view, Sex is a stamp on a relationship that only stands out physically but emotionally too. You ask any couple in love and ask them about their sex life. They will always tell you about the emotional level that they reach while having pleasure. They don’t need big size pleasure parts to reach climax but contribute their pleasure to compatibility they have between them.

Sadly, though we hear often about rapes, extra-martial affairs, one-night stands, three somes, four somes, and nth somes. This is nothing but negative forces to fulfill our sexual desire without realizing that we are entering a dark pit where no matter how deep we go, we will never reach the eternal sexual feelings which we always crave for since ages.

It’s time to wake up and find the real truth about what is a need of this hour- an open society with naked violence or an open society with respect for other gender, comfort zone before sex and knowledge of the right time when to enter this pleasure of eternal truth.

In nutshell, SEX is a three letter confused word that is often debated. Why is it so and how we can know abt the real essence of SEX.... Well, I’m still evolving myself into this…. I hope you too are....