dear diary

It was a mental health hospital.  Distributed bananas in the female ward, nothing much. Their faces spoke their stories in one glance. Someone's laughing, someone's grieving, someone's trying to steal others' bananas, someone's lying on the floor, yelling, someone's so normal-looking that you wouldn't ever realise that they are mentally unwell, someone's coming up to you saying that they are building their business, someone's expressing immense gratitude in Gujarati over a simple gesture of giving bananas, someone's staring at you trying to give you a full smile but can't.  All of this made me realise how we take life for granted, time and again! My highlight was the 50-year old lady who said she was building a website and knew RHA (Robin Hood Army) already. This conversation was so real yet painful. She could have been an entrepreneur, you know. Alas! The condition. The dream of hers, stayed with her despite the condition. Life's short. ...

I often read spiritual texts and yesterday I was reading this famous text by Adi Sankara, the saviour of Hinduism & India back in 700BC. where it said: एतन्मांसवसादिविकारं मनसि विचिन्तय वारं वारम्  Translation :  Do not get drowned in delusion by going wild with passions and lust by seeing a woman’s navel and chest. These are nothing but a modification of flesh. Fail not to remember this again and again in your mind. I was forced to think, why always a woman. Despite powerful woman narratives on Gargi, Maitrye, Durga, Kaali, women are often treated not as protagonist but an object of temptation, someone who is nothing more than a mere distraction to a man, and this could go on and on to a point when I could reach the peak of my modern day feminism.  Well, fortunate enough, I know I am like the waters that contain the shape of the container and I know for one, that if I continue the thought, I might as well start my activism against men. LOL So, again fortunately, eno...