Corona Thrive

By: Divya Ramachandran

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I think all of us have had more than a sneak peek at how life can be over the rest of

the year and possibly, years to come. We hear a lot about how our future is going to

be entwined with the current epidemic. So it’s up to us to figure out ways to thrive

even in its existence.

Lockdown has been hard for all our spirits, but my creative side saved the day and

many months, when I was stuck alone at home in Bangalore! Challenging myself and

building on my existing skills became a way of life.

I figured it would be a nice idea to let you all know about my creative pursuits and I

hope it will inspire you to ponder more, learn more, and create more!

Illusions have been a fascination to me over many years, but all I did was look at

images and ogle at them, impressed. But these tough times got me to pick up a pen

and a paper and try them for myself. A great inspiration for illusions has been M.C

Escher : https://mcescher.com/. A visionary in terms of physical construction of

images and construed versions of reality. Below, is some of his work.

Since his work was quite complex, I tried a more basic version of illusions, which

proved to be just a start to my deeper journey into illusions. And here are the results!

By Divya Ramachandran

Decode The Mysterious Misery

By: Jahanvi

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“When your chest aches and your head is swimming with all of your faults and

all of your flaws and you can’t seem to find your  footing, remember that the

fear is a liar. That you have been here before, and you will breathe again.

Remember that you are enough. ALWAYS ENOUGH.” ~ Joshua

You’re not depressed because you still laugh at jokes that are funny, you still

smile watching cute baby videos, you enjoy good music, you dance and

appreciate and live. But when it’s all dark and lonely you feel that there’s

something broken inside of you, there’s this sweet sadness that is ready to

engulf you and you start crying. And you put yourself to sleep wishing and

praying that everything’s gonna be fine. And on some mornings you don’t

wanna get ready and be all happy and want to give up and it’s okay!!

It’s okay to give up and be all sad and mourn for things you lost and things

you couldn’t do. Grieve, for it’s your moment. Feel the pain, feel the

emptiness, feel the loneliness because when you’ll stop feeling it that is when

it will actually be over. Don’t cut out on the lows for if you don’t feel the cold

you won’t know how beautiful warmth is.

I once saw a movie and I got stuck up on one dialogue and My mind still is

stuck on it. It was,”Our hope is if we add up the one mores they will equal a

lifetime, and we will never have to get to the part where we will have to let go

of things we love.” But that’s not real, is it? There are no more one mores.

And I know it’s not easy because sometimes to honor your wishes you have

dishonor your memories. A million unanswered questions, sleepless and

restless nights where you stare at the ceiling wanting to cry and wanting to feel just something, mornings where you wake up but reality doesn’t change and you realize that it isn’t a dream, it’s difficult.

Crying listening to the old songs and hating the emotions that you once loved

feeling. Remembering all those little moments you had and accepting that now

things are gone. It’s terrifying. And sometimes you hold onto the hope so tight

that you keep it in your heart, buried, because that’s all that you got.

"It’s not the same, it’ll never be the same. No matter of how big or small your pain is, it is important and it matters."

"But you gotta feel it all because the one way is letting it all out.

Writing it all I realized that I’m the biggest hypocrite of all because feeling weak and crying is something that I couldn’t control but did. I’m gonna let it go too but I’m not going to complain because it doesn’t matter if you drown in a 7 m deep pool or a 70000 m deep ocean, u’re gonna die out of drowning. So stop comparing pains or sorrows.

Let us start from ourselves and feel everything to the fullest. Love the people

that treat you right and let go of the ones who don’t. If you get a chance, TAKE

IT. If it changes your life, LET IT. It’s not gonna be easy but it will be WORTH

IT and let’s make GRATITUDE greater than REGRET.

By: ~Jahanvi Bhola

Relationships 💑

A view by Varsha Venkataramani

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"What are all the complications of a relationship?" they asked. "Relationship itself a

complicated one!" came my answer.

You may wonder why I stated it in such a way.

Have you ever thought why some bond breaks?

They would have been the best and dearest friend once upon a time, but now it would have been

the complete reverse case scenario. No communication, no texts, no talks. Everything would

have been seized.

From sharing each and every thing, be it happiness or sorrow to gossiping about everyone, once

there was a strong sisterhood between those two girls, but now they don't even wish each other on their birthday!

"They were so cute together as a couple! I liked every social media pictures of them. Admired

them for that chemistry! But why did they got separated" our thoughts on seeing most of the divorced couples!

And many, many ,many more relationship goes futile! Be it in case of friends, lovers, couples,

brothers or sisters, or some other important relatives.. And I see in certain places, the bond

between a Parent and a child is itself in a weakened state!

So why this happens? What are all the root cause?

"The major factor is we expect more! We tend to be in a state of mind that wishes to receive the

love from other person, than to give it to them". We often come to a misconception about particular person or an incident without actually knowing the truth! We believe what we feel, rather than taking  a step further to know the truth behind!

"Why it is always me who should go behind them, let them come if they truly love me"

"Why can't he/she make a call?"

"Why didn't he/she tell it to me first?"

"Why is he/she hiding something from me?"

tend to run in our mind, when things don't happen as we expected!

The other person would have been in a severe traumatic position, may be they would have

wanted some solitude time to spend, they would have thought if sharing things may put us in a

state of sober, so would have avoided it!

We should train our mind to think it in an optimistic way, rather than troubling ourselves with

over thoughts!

Over thinking is one such monster of relationship!

Possessiveness, Ego, Jealousy, Dominance are the real time killer of any relationship!

Silly doubts, anger, childish behavior, taking superior power over the other person, considering

oneself as the best person, taking pride and proud about oneself, not giving the needed priority,

negative remarks, pessimistic thoughts and most importantly MISUNDERSTANDING are the

ingredients to spoil the human relations, however strong they are!

There are two types of people:

1.The one who don't ask sorry what ever the situation is.

2.The one who refuse to accept the sorry.

No one can save these kind of relationship from being broken!

Things aren't as smooth as they appear! They are tangled in every possible aspect!

We need to see deeply into the underlying factors of human emotions rather than superficially

seeing the expressions.

Here comes the 3As of a strong relationship:-

1.Accept

2.Adjust

3.Apologize

"We should be ready to accept our mistakes"

"We should adjust ourselves, without complaining about the other"

"We should apologize the other person's mistake when he/she realizes it and comes forward with a Sorry"

There is this one quote which I personally follow,

"If it is important to you, you will find a way; if it isn't, you will find an excuse!"

Remember:

"It is in our hands to make a bond or to break a bond!"

Be wise and be nice!

Varsha Venkataramani

(Writer, Speaker)