Aaloopuri

The morning today has a certain charm of hustle yet tranquility. I pull my diary out to capture this moment, not through the lens of my camera but through the lens of my eyes, my mind. I read the newspaper about halfway, I'll save the rest for later. As I sip my warm coffee, I gaze out the misty windows of the bus. The city is awake, headed downtown in the peak morning hours. Slow moving cars make way for my bus like a shoal of fish on the arrival of a whale in the sea traffic.  The streets, damp from the drizzle last night and still trees watch us go by to the office buildings waiting for it's dwellers. The floors of skyscrapers slowly lighting up for another busy morning. Yet I find a certain comfort amidst this hustle, which perhaps city rats are bound to. 

Today, I find myself surrendering to the majestic view of the night lights again. Just when I find myself in a sweet spot of my seemingly miniscule existence, having the privilege to do what I cherish the most and excelling, regardless of outside opinions. This is a seldom felt contentment within myself after a long battle with emotions triggered by factors beyond the scope of my control. I resort to the nightfall of this beautiful city to spill all my thoughts, yet again. The reason being, factors beyond the scope of my control, yet again. Only, now I feel the strength within me to face this myself. With my playlist, a cold breeze and the glimmer of lights, I have made peace to deal with whatever odds I get on my way. 

I stepped out into my balcony today, I hadn't been there in a while. Perhaps the cause was my annual hibernation, still I somehow gathered the courage, motivated by my love for the heavenly view of night lights. Soon as I stepped out, the world seemed rather huge to me, just like the time I first stepped out post 3 months of COVID lockdown. After limiting my world to the fourteen feet walls of my room, it looks seemingly enormous without a roof over. The western disturbances have been quite harsh this time. After a heavy shower at dawn and a whole day of drizzling, the weather was pleasant and accompanied by chilly winds. I pulled my hoodie over, plugged in my earphones, played "alleviation" on loop and I was ready to be teleported into a dimension of thorough peace. Leaning relaxingly on the railing, I dropped my chin in my hands and gazed at the night lights until they blurred in my eyes. With a couple of sufi songs playing on loop and their melodious and soothing rhyth...

When the great noble prize laureate ‘Gurudeva’ Rabindranath Tagore exclaims “where the mind is without fear, and world is not fragmented by boundaries” [1] he emphasizes on the liberty that is innate in the human soul. Likewise, the prolific poet James Kirkup imparts the values of universal brotherhood when he says “no men are foreign, no countries strange” [2] . So why do we even need enemy lines drawn, which segregate us in all aspects? Why do we have to dispute upon imaginary lines and who gave us the right to claim a piece of land as ours?   Considering that we are just another species to set foot on Earth we have just as much right over any piece of land as any other species. But humans are not just another species as of now. We have been responsible for creating these lines by bloodshed but also globalization, we have ruined our planet to the point of no return but we are also constantly working towards replenishing it. Moreover, it becomes essential to have borders to ...