Gag bag

Kill me, kill me now,
You bang your fist and get up.
You hate everything, everyone,
You hate the lunch, the same old tea cup.
You hate the screen, the keyboard, the mouse
Which you can't live without while in your house.
The easy chair, which you so adore,
Suddenly doesn’t seem that easy anymore.

You came here, on your own.
Priding yourself, you were so very sure.
You awed the magnanimity, everything looked so perfect.
Your joy was beyond measure, and so so pure.
But all that vanished,
All the promises were suddenly hollow.
You feel cheated, is this what you had thought?
You know very well though, this is what you asked for, and that is what you got.

You don’t understand, you just stare.
You want to pity yourself, you want someone to feel your plight,
You feel no one understands you, that there
is no one who can now set things right.
You feel only you are going through this torture
That only you are being fired at from all around.
You feel its only you who is gagged,
And the only one who is bound.

Look around dear,
You will see a hundred thousand more of you,
All of them caught up in the same jam,
In the same mess which you are into.
They are stupid not to complain!
They are crazy not to protest!
But the moment you get that paycheck,
You forget all the rest.

Why not learn to enjoy the other things in life,
Than crib over the ones you can't change.
Why not fix things which are in your reach,
Than try going for something out of your range?
You have got everything you wanted,
A great family, good friends,
You have the strength to find openings,
In even the most horrifying of dead-ends.

You have experienced victories like none other,
You have achieved that which others only dream.
You are the candy of every eye, the envy of every mind,
Your life is a birthday cake, with lots of extra cream.
For a perfect life, there isn’t much more,
And internally you know it too!
All you lack is a little strength to face it,
Or rather, the strength to accept it.

Life can't be all that goody goody.
It has to be a bit bumpy too.
After all how can you feel the soft petal,
If a thorn has never pricked you.
There is the day always awaiting,
After the darkest of the night.
When Mr. Bachchan said “Need ka nirman fir fir, neh ka awhan fir fir”.
Didn’t we all praise him for being so very right?

Pride yourself for having so much.
Hope for more, yearn for more.
Strive towards it, achieve it.
You know you can and you will, for you always have.
Feel yourself to be lucky,
Things for you have always been safe and warm and nice.
There are millions others who will give up anything,
To be in your place, to be you, without thinking twice.

Take it easy kid, relax!
Leave your worries for tomorrow.
Take rest today, smile, laugh, help and get helped.
For you know, that there is joy after every sorrow.
Forget the tensions, the pressures and the deadlines!
They are here to come and go.
Enjoy the small things when they are here,
That smile makes your face radiate brighter than the sun you know!

I have had this thought many a times. Well, as we know, I rant on it many a times. But I find it very hard to fathom, that with the new demands that the companies ask of from their employees now, there is no one at home to take care of the kids. And personally, I find it very wrong, cause there should be someone, and that too someone from home itself, who should be raising the kid, rather than have baby sitters to do the same.

We can't expect the child to grow up and be instilled with qualities and characters similar to us if we play no part in its upbringing. And that is very wrong, cause be it however you are, I think everyone wants to raise and spoil their baby in a very personalized way. And the new world as such knows this, accepts this, but does nothing in order to solve it!

The society should change. New norms must be put forth. The work hours should be reduced, or atleast adjusted so that at a time, there is atleast one parent taking care of the baby, of one another. The increase in the divorces, the spoilt children isn’t just a coincidence. It’s a direct effect of the entire corporate blow up we experience now a days. Everyone feels about it, everyone knows its wrong, but no one does a thing about it. This directly leads to the woman in the house giving up her job, her dream in order to fulfill her other dream. Isn’t that wrong? Should the father not have a equal role to play? Is money earning the only job he has to complete, with everything else left to the mother?

There are ways to counter this, even in the current scenario. And I think for this, there should be growth in the minds of the father (or the male ego). One of the great things about a woman is the maturity she shows as she grows and feels that the family is her responsibility. There should be a similar growth among boys, to feel for their family, to help out in activities and to make everyone feel that well besides just the money, there are a lot of ways in which one can make the household feel more homely.

The thing getting lost in all this is the time people can give to one another. After working from 9 to 7, I don’t think any sane person can expect to come home all fresh and then cook up the best meal in the life, have the best movie played on TV and watch it, and then go to sleep early to get up early again. This is mere fantasy. There is a lot to housework than just cooking, and there is a sense of realization that should come up within the individual that well, as much as I am tired, I have to help at home too, because this isn’t a one persons job.

Another thing to realize is that well, since we don’t get time for another, why not spend time doing chores together. It is faster, more fun, and easier and leads to work getting completed too. The worst scene to see is the husband coming home, changing, and putting on the TV, sitting there, relaxing while his wife is busy making arrangements. Then he eats, finishes with some anger from the company being thrown about casually on the family members, and then get up. Leave. And log on to the internet, make a few calls under the pretext of work. Well ya, all that is important too, but think of all the things you are putting at stake while doing all this.

It’s difficult to cope up with the tension. And the obvious way to come out with it is anger. As much as it is right, one must not forget that all this is the same thing going on with the other person too! And instead of resolving things with anger, there are many better ways to calm you off, cool yourself down than this.

Well, not much use after ranting on endlessly. But all I want to say is as we are advancing on all fronts; one of the major short-comings has been growth on the male side. And it is this which atleast boys need to work on. We call ourselves forward, we call ourselves that we are improving with the days needs, but are we really?