“Beauty and the beast” the childhood classic which changes its meaning as we mature.
The protagonist, Beast is locked inside a forgotten castle and only love can save him from becoming a beast forever. Luckily Belle(beauty) falls in love and saves him from becoming a beast forever.
What is the relevance of this Disney movie in 21st century?
If we look closely
The beast had locked himself in a castle made up of bricks of insecurity, cemented by self doubt and polished with despair.
He locked himself in this big castle with his talents personified into objects which were fading away like his faith.
Beast despised each and every ounce and inch of his body and used to curse everyone around him for his appearance. He had given up on himself but his alter ego still had hope.
In the story, Beauty comes from the outside world and in a matter of weeks both of them fall in love.
Have you ever noticed that when one gives flowers to someone, then the fragrance of it lasts in the hands of the giver. Similarly when we love someone it has a positive impact on us as well.
When the feeling of love revives in this poor soul his beastly appearance melts and a beautiful man appears.
Throughout his life he was this beautiful man, then what caused him to think of himself to be a beast?
What causes us to think that we are ugly?
Nowadays
Beauty has become a combination of the slot machine;of trends.
In the early 2000s
The combination appeared to be
Petite Figure+white skin+thin lips
In the early 2020s the combination appears to be
Busty Figure+ tanned skin + fuller lips.
If you’ve watched mean girls then Rachel mc Adams was ridiculed when she gained weight in her hips and now,
thanks to the kardashians, all the girls want to have a busty figure.
Earlier, the Africans were made fun of for having a fat lip and now girls all over the world are poking their lips with needles in pursuit of the perfect pout!
Why do we keep on manipulating our own beauty to hit jackpot on the slot machine whose nature is transient?
The mirror on your wall can show you the beauty aligned with trends, but can this thin layer of glass polished to make you see what you reflect, make you feel beautiful?
When you stand in front of your mirror, do you see your beauty or feel it?
If beauty is intangible then what are we trying to find in our mirrors?
If we don’t feel beautiful and start drowning in self hate then should we seek the hand of a surgeon or a therapist?
We look the most beautiful when we accept our beauty and embrace it.
So let go off the castle of your mind and let your inner beauty guide you out of a reality which doesn’t exist.
In these days where the corona crisis has massively hit a country as huge as India in terms of population it is a big responsibility for us as a society to contribute tangibly and insubstantially to bring this havoc back to a healthy and peaceful state. The delegates of Serenity E-MUN revealed utter enthusiasm while debating their views on this crucial current topic and joined hands with the ABLE Charities, which has been serving humanity since two years now. They run an orphanage and schools in slums where they feed over 400 children. The fees of the respective delegates were directly deposited to ABLE Charities to increase transparency in the donation process and fight the plight of those in need. An unanticipated twist took place when the virus spread and challenged humanity after decades. It should be each person’s responsibility to help overcome these arduous times for the following reasons .
The corona virus has left humanity in a state of awe from the lowest rungs of the society to the elites. The stringent healthcare measures have compelled and restricted each person to perform major part outdoor activities amidst four walls now. It is disastrous for each being and has hit rock bottom, no force has been able to stop its spread yet.
To begin with who has been the hardest hit because of its spread, we can evidently point towards the impoverished strata of the society. After the commencement of the official lockdown, the economy shattered leaving the poor especially with no definite sense of living, earning and settling. Yes the business tycoons have suffered huge losses, the markets have crashed and the economy has found itself in ruins but what about those who do not even possess the bare minimum to sustain themselves and their respective families? Considering India in this case, a country with the second largest population where approximately 22% of the people are below the poverty line, it becomes extremely difficult for the government to find measures which are lenient or provide even a tad levy to the society holistically.
The migrant workers of Assam for example, are stranded in states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu etc. They have no source of earning and are caught in a dilemma. According to the world economic forum, India has about 130 million people working as migrant labourers who have been a part of the major contentions considering the wholesome negative effects of the lockdown. Defeating the purpose of social distancing, these labourers gathered around the borders to get back to their villages, making it hard for the bureaucracy to function as well. Well, it doesn’t remain fair enough to blame the vulnerable in a bleak situation as such, right? Another example of the child labour in factories and industries, those who are illegally employed and forced to work with little or no means of income and are left famished by the end of the day, is another case in point. These children are thrown away on the streets without even having the knowledge of nearby landmarks, direction or the region as a whole. According to the national daily Indiatoday, the Nobel peace laureate, Kailash Satyarthi urged the prime minister to look into matters of child labour and child/human trafficking to save these children from dying and help them succumb from their injuries and diseases.
The above stated examples are one of the major bones of contention during the corona crisis. These people are many in number considering that 93% of the population in India works in the unorganised sector. They’re vulnerable in both senses- catching the virus as well as spreading it.
It’s highly crucial at this point for the government to take extensive measures and find a definite solution to minimise and eventually eradicate the problem of the poor and vulnerable. The two types of them mentioned above literally form the largest of the groups to face problems such as- lack of basic amenities, lack of awareness and knowledge of the safety measures against and details of the corona virus, lack of medical facilities etc. . Well there are many other groups of people as well, somewhat in the same category but with different jobs and endeavours facing similar problems due to the crisis. The central government and state governments must make it a point to take decisions which lie in the favour of such unshielded groups, they must provide the prime medical facilities in a way that it reaches all the people in need and must keep the stringent practices in place to make sure everyone is safe and secure. On a personal level, we as individuals must religiously practice social distance, we must donate as much as we can for people who’ve been caught in an uncanny situation like this without their will and we must respect the doctors and police personnel deployed on streets amidst the chaos of this crisis. It’s agonising but it’s necessary to keep morale up and provide tangible services as much as possible.
I entered my allotted classroom and was stunned to see all the groups already made.
The rich ones, the boring ones, the studious ones all segregated.
Before conversing to a person we check their Instagram profiles because a certain standard of living has become a prerequisite for friendships.
We all know how fancy cars one owns or how palace like one’s house is or who they are friends with, through their profiles on social media.
The society is being sucked into materialism which is slowly hollowing our lives.
(You can’t feel emotions from possessing emotion less things.)
Is this excessive knowledge a Boon or a Bane?
Why are we judged on things we have no control of?
Till the time we are adults our lifestyle is maintained through our parents income, which we have no control of ; we can’t choose to be the son of Ambani or the person begging on streets.
When we choose lifestyle as a basis of forming friendships,
What happens?
Ask yourself
Why do we take substances in the presence of these people who we call our friends to feel happy
when friendships should make us happy?
We keep on forgetting the fact that friendship is not the starting point but the end product of being peers of a journey called LIFE.
Why do we polish our social media accounts when we, in real life feel tarnished?
Why does the youth often land up on sites which give them an option of staying anonymous even when they are famous?
Why do we feel tranquility in anonymity?
It’s because
Sometimes we feel all the actions we took in the past which kept on accumulating as our personality weren’t always what we wanted to do, in the first place.
They say actions define who you are but what about the thoughts, that gave birth to these actions?
We feel this APP is our ‘REFRESH BUTTON’.
All we do is that we seek a safe place where we can be our most natural selves in between a bunch of strangers.
This veil of anonymity pours confidence in our being to put our most raw personality forward.
These apps free us from the anxiety that keeps coiling inside Of us for the acceptance of being loved for who we are and not what the circle has made us.
Maybe,
The girl behind the books at school gives you peace at night under the name girl666.
The day we realise that ‘friendship’ and ‘lifestyle’ aren’t related is the day we give birth to purity in relationships.
If you don’t agree with me then why do we go to therapists, to talk about our feelings when our contact list contains more than 100 names?
Have the courage to be called a hypocrite rather than making the same mistake knowingly.
To be a nationalist, as the term grows derogatory each day, I strongly believe that its roots must always be derived from the respective historical background of the country. India has by far faced many difficult times, partition being the most hard-hitting example. We fail to respect our history, we fail to logically align our opinions by taking frameworks that do not fit in this era and finally, we fail to place the facts correctly before defending ourselves. The idea of history itself appears daunting for some and astounding for others. A mere subject preference- acceptable, but detesting it is solely impermissible.
Basic historical knowledge: A BOON
Our analysis becomes a tad weak when we begin discussing about certain topics, certain socio-political topics in particular. Ever wondered why? I write this particularly to lay down the importance of history, especially our country’s history filled with dynamics. A country high in its millennial population requires a basic knowledge that should also involve history in and around their current atmosphere of acquiring knowledge. This uncanny universal notion of history being boring and irrelevant is scornful to many levels.
We all believe in continuing with past religious and ritualistic practices but why is it so hard for us to study its roots and traces? Why take it as something always related to rote learning rather than a learning based on intrigue? The point of studying history of a particular era of a particular country is not always about being passionate (although passion is incumbent), but trying to understand basic facts of what happened in your country and to your kind. We have been able to place together various events in a somewhat chronological order, this has helped us to understand people of the then era, which eventually helped us in understanding people in general; we understood various economic processes and transactions and drew parallels with the present day economic standards; we got an idea of the identities of different sets of communities and the people within them- their differences and similarities helped us build a constructive society that we have in today’s time; and most importantly, we have been able to differentiate between the wrongs and excesses committed back then, so we could simply not repeat our mistakes.
LEARN and UNITE.
Had it not been for political history, would any one of us know why the emergency happened in 1974-75 and where it went wrong? Had it not been for economic history, would any adult take into consideration about the various economic crises India faced? If that had not happened, would our economy ever be stable considering we’d ignore the core reasons for its failure in the first place? Had it not been for a socio-cultural aspect of history, could we ever think of having such diverse and magnanimous schools of thought of nearly each and every religion still place? Had we not studied about our nationalist struggles during and before achieving independence, do you really think we could have kept this mammoth of constitution in place, the world’s largest democracy as we claim it is, why do we think we are too equipped to deal with such complexity before examining the basis of all of this by taking the historical foundation? It is impossible to bring about changes today, without knowing the past, without knowing WHAT TO CHANGE per se.
Oh, but some of us still treat history with zero respect, we encounter it initially as a disdainful subject, a subject not even worth of being labelled as a ‘subject’ and a completely discredited and debilitated one.
I pity such incredulous beings. I pity their knowledge which resembles a half filled barrel of ‘intelligentsia’. I pity such ignorance.
Constructive criticism.
Many of us tend to be critical of our modern history and those involved in its making. But what we do is ignore the fact that we are what we are because of them. No one serves as a perfect being, of course and those men and women were not perfect either yet they form a huge part of our history. We blame Pandit Nehru for former failures, we tend to disrespect Gandhi’s perspectives a number of times, we hold opinions based on incomplete information many times and fail to look at the positives holistically. Yes, there were many failures and contradictions between people and their parties, but our former leaders made efforts that one could not even think of at that time. Probably why they are extraordinary and find place on paper and in discussions.
Criticism is allowed. Framing opinions is allowed. What is not fair is to base them upon half read articles, reports and write ups which do not have any official veracity in historical evidences and taking a single experience of negligence or failure and then making it a generalisation.
How to make it interesting?
History is full of mysteries, dynamics, revolutions, agitations etc. This is what makes it quite different from other subjects. If there is genuine interest or one wants to gain interest, we can pick any and every thing up that in general which fascinates us and begin researching on that as EVERY THING HAS A STORY, A HISTORY BEHIND IT. If we are willing to study more in depth, we can choose our topics wisely- a particular country, religion, tribe, specific war etc and begin reading snippets regarding the same according to the timeline, eventually expanding areas around it. I agree it is endless, but I also believe that gives us a drive to dig in and know more with a sigh a relief or satisfaction after having done so. It makes us wonder, it makes us ponder more vividly of what actually happened then, of what could have happen, it enhances our creative imagination and opens doors to extrapolation and exploration. History is not called the mother of all subjects for no reason.
If that were untrue, archaeologists, anthropologists and historians would immediately stop developing more theories, they would put a halt to their ongoing excavations, lose their jobs and render unemployed. And if that actually ever happened, the temple at Ayodhya would have still remained as disputed of a site as ever.
For being there with me unconditionally
If you were a person, you’d be the perfect lover
Alas you’re not, but you’re perfect just the way you are
I remember when mom first showed me my bed (the bed that you are very much a part of), I was drawn to you
Maybe it was your proximity to the plug-point
Maybe it was something else,
But that’s irrelevant now.
I’ve been with you my entire life.
Well, two technicalities-
First,
*On* you
but it feels like you’re with me
So how does that really matter?
Second,
It’s been 7 years and I’ve been stuck here for much more than that, but it doesn’t feel like I was ever truly comfortable before you.
Second of all,
Thank you.
For not leaving me.
I know you can’t, seeing that you’re an inanimate object and whatnot
But I feel like I owe it to you.
Everyone left
But you.
Thank you for keeping me warm
When I massaged my wrist
With a tear-stained razor blade
Thank you for accepting my tears
And making them disappear
And helping me forget them
Thank you for that one time I spilled milk all over you and you had to be in the balcony for a week.
That was the worst week of my life, I promise you.
Thank you for coming back just the same.
I couldn’t have gotten to today without you.
See there’s so many comfy chairs and memory foam mattresses
and all the pillows and beanbags and hammocks in the world
And they’re all supposed to be comfortable, but it’s just not the same
Thank you for being my confidante
Thank you for the times I slipped my PSP underneath you and you didn’t tell mom.
Thank you for not telling her about the razor blades
I kept beneath you,
Thank you for not telling mom about the pills in my drawer-
I know you can’t see but you probably know.
Today wasn’t great.
Thank you for letting me sit here
Right now
I’m sorry I’m spilling water on you,
My hand is shaking- shivering rather
And I can’t do anything about it
Today you feel nice and cozy and warm, like everything’s going to be fine,
This is clearly by design
I wonder if this is what a pet dog feels like,
Getting a final hug before they’re put down
But the roles aren’t exactly the same here, are they?
The dog doesn’t ask to be neutered
And the man knows of the end.
Yet again , I am standing where roads are multiple but only one , I can choose . Whichever way I take , somethings , I’ll gain , somethings , I’ll lose .
One decision of mine , and my whole fate will be changed . And this call has to be spot on , because this can’t be rearranged .
Whom should I listen to ? Which advice should I follow ? How will my present be affected ? How will it change my tomorrow?
The choice of the road lies with me . Each road holds the future I can’t see…
Connotation 