Anecdotes and Realizations

 Hear ye hear ye! The boards are coming and there's no stopping them anymore. The life purpose for all children Indian, the only reason we were put in school for the 10 years before this and the examination for the value of our lives so far. We grew up in our simple schools - studying for the sake of parental validation and not getting yelled at. In 9th grade, we laughed about the importance given to these god-forsaken exams and tittered about the stress our teachers and seniors were under. And now, we repent. The boards seem to have a symbolic meaning to the Indian population. Sort of like a growing of age. Its like a Robert Frost poem. It could have just been a homeless guy lost in the woods or it could be the "contemplation of man's relationship with nature and societal pressure". This exam seems to be our crossroad, except there's no GPS, it's a one-way road, and choosing the wrong road is the end of your life. The fear of the board itself is secondary, in...

Bodies. Such a big part of our social profile but one over which we have the least control. As soon as we see something, we feel like sharing our Vishesh Tippani. We feel that the world will be left in a sorry, despondent state unless we heroically step in and tell them what we think about it. We feel that telling people exactly what we think about their life is an act of grace. We are after all doing it with good intentions.  Look, I get it. In prehistoric times, if you were looking for a partner, a ripped,six-foot man would have been useful to protect you from well, being eaten by a bear, a mammoth, or whatever was around back then. But today, when the biggest threat from the wild is mosquitoes and where we can protect ourselves, perhaps a spouse could be someone more than a weapon.  Everybody's looking for that ripped, six-pack, muscled-up guy or that flat-stomached, heavy-breasted girl. Your beauty is relative to whatever people hold as the most beautiful in the world. The...

 I thought I'd sown up all the tears in my blue dress I'd used thread made of shining pure salt It took me months to repair, their nails were so sharp, and now I'm sitting wondering what the point was I thought I had made the taps all leak-proof I double-checked and triple-checked so many times But then I woke up one day and felt the world slide Like everyone was moving and I was left behind I thought that the skeletons of my past would die I never thought they could climb out from a grave so deep Then why is it that suddenly I feel like I'm the creep Why does the look of my face disgust me? I thought I'd got my restart I thought I could abandon all the ghosts of my past But here they are again, shining in my face I don't know if I'm confused or silently weeping in pain And all I want to know is - was it my fault? Was it my fault that caused the earth to crack? Are these little lies from a darker source Or is this as far as my shallow heart goes? And everybo...