From the world which was dominated by labour intensive care; physical interaction; and sedentary living, we have come a long way into the world which is capital intensive; technologically driven, and which is also smart, economic and is becoming sustainable.
Besides all these social, political, and economic terms, what also has changed dramatically is human to human interaction. There are more emotions outflow, social media is bringing people of different places, cultures, and ethnicities together. And thus the idea of “love” has been changed miserably.
People have the tendency to love, and different kinds of love with respect to different people – family, friends, and life partner. No person is devoid of love. But what has changed is the interpretation of it.
Instead of falling in love with “the person”, people have been falling in love with their features. It’s the story of social media driven world. You see someone – he is handsome, he dresses well, and he holds a guitar and can sing. You immediately begin to get attracted to this person, don’t you ! But being attracted to and being in love with are totally different. We’ve discovered a word “Crush” and apparently that means I’ll love you until you fall in love with me too. You love them, not love them love them, you love them to make them fall in love with you. So, you go in relationship with this guitar person, you’ve already fallen in love with him and now you get to know him. And soon you realise that his feet up the desk isn’t sexy anymore. You see, everything wears out, he is handsome now but 5 years down the line no one knows how he’s gonna look; he sings well but you can’t possibly listen to his songs everyday, that’s annoying. And soon as you over get used to these features, you fall out of love for the exact same reason you fell in. You’d be wondering why then many relationships last for a lifetime. It’s because one thing never wears out, and it’s the person himself. If you fall in love with “the person” first and not his guitar stuff, you’ll realise that you can find different reasons to fall for him everyday.

Every relationship or friendship that lasts lifetime and the relationship or friendship that fades off has one thing in common. It’s that they all get boring after a while. I don’t see any reason why some friendships or relationships work and some fade away. You’ve been with someone for long, then you go to a new place, discover new things and boom, everything else wears out. You’ve been with someone for long, you meet new people and boom, everyone else become one boring story. And that is why when people say that “Love is a feeling” , they are wrong. I agree it’s a feeling alright, but it’s just not it. Feelings fade away, they always do.
So why other relationships lasts for life while other results in betrayl or falling out of love ?
It’s the commitment that matters, it’s the efforts. Every relationship, every friendship gets boring. That’s the truth, what saves them is the efforts you put.
And perhaps that’s the problem of the people of today. They are not willing to put the efforts, because jumping from one person to other seems easier. People say, “I felt for that person before, it made me happy but I don’t feel for that person anymore. I feel for someone else now. How is that my fault ?”
True, it isn’t your fault. But it’s also true that you didn’t love that person enough, or you didn’t love him at all. Love is confusing, it truly is. Every other thing that attracts our eyes becomes the definition of love. People misinterpret it and that’s why relationships fall out of order.
I watched a series called “How I met your mother” , Ted Mosby says in one of the episodes, “You’ll be surprised to know how easy it is in life to part ways with people you love, so when you meet someone, you try to keep them, you make every effort to keep them.”
And it’s one of the truest things I have heard. When you truly love someone, be it your partner or a friend, you constantly make efforts for them. And that’s precisely is love. When you make enough efforts in a relationship, you find different reasons to love them everyday and that’s why only few of the relationships work. It’s just like cracking a prestigious examination. You can’t just sit and let it come to you. You wake up everyday, you study hard and you go grab it. And that’s love too. You can’t just sit and relax once you’ve found someone, you gotta wake up and put efforts in the relationship to make it work.
You pour water in the plants everyday, little by little, to help it grow, for its flowers to blossom. Why not in a relationship then?
Love doesn’t come easy, just like that big examination. More often that not it results in heartbreak. But with proper and honest shower of hardwork and efforts, it comes to you, and it stays. And that’s why most people don’t like the idea of love, they either hate it or laugh at it. Because people today are not willing to put the efforts required. They want love to come to them and stay as if they are the masters and love a servant. And when they get bored of it, they throw them away in despair and breakdown and ask for a new one.
Love is a prized possession, it’s everything you need in life but it doesn’t come easy. You have to be willing to get up everyday and commit to it.
That is why they say that when you have someone who loves you to no bound, you’re the luckiest person on the planet.

Dear Someone,

Hi there ! I don’t know how to begin. I never know. And may be that’s why I make things complicated in my life. I jump to things, without making a start. I rush into things, sometimes without thinking anything and sometimes after overthinking it. I’m not perfect, I never have been. And therefore this letter too won’t have a start and it won’t be perfect either. I’m sorry.

Life……is a journey. A small but complicated, A large and simple. We get out of our home, we step on the road, and we discover ourselves on it. Sometimes, we get to choose the road on which we have to go, and sometimes we don’t. But both these roads help us grow and discover. When we step out, we often believe that the road we choose will be full of sunshine, with trees on either sides, birds would watch us and sing, we’d see a rabbit running and hiding in the bushes, a freshwater lake flowing peacefully, and the people remarkably friendly. For the initial part of the journey, we feel like we made the right choice, but is it though ?
The minute we start experiencing things different than what we had expected, we begin to doubt ourselves, the harder the journey gets, the more we begin to hate ourselves.

Depression was on such journey for me. It was a beautiful morning when I stepped out. Chose my road, and there I went. But everything began changing. I lost my shadow, the birds went into their nests, the rabbit in its hole, the lake froze and the thick cover of fog surrounded the place. I could have walked away, but how could’ve I, I chose that road and it had to come out good, at least that’s what I expected and that’s how it had always been, so I began to run deep into it, only to find myself isolated in a dense dark horrific limbo I couldn’t get out from. And now the self-hatred part began. I chose the road and it landed me here, I began to loathe myself. I hated myself so much that any opportunity to escape the place was lost in front of my eyes. Because I saw nothing but illusions and self hate. The place was unforgiving, it grasped pleasure in my suffering. It was like a demantor from the Harry Potter. It demanded me to feel the pain, it demanded me to suffer and the more I suffered the more it smirked. I thought of ending it one day, but this torturous place didn’t let me die in peace too.
And hence, after months of suffering, I accepted where I was, I accepted that my road will never be full of sunshine again. My birds were dead and my rabbit was lost. The lake was just a barren land now and this was where I had to walk and learn things and spend rest of my life. I became the place I was living in.

This was about the road I chose to follow.
But somewhere in this world, there was someone who chose the other road once. She was a girl who never needed sunshines and birds, she was the sunshine wherever she went. She was the magic, not the black one, she was the one that healed people. But she was a human after all. Day in and day out she did these things for people but there were some mornings where she would wake up empty, nothing. She would cry the night and not let anyone know it.
It was one of those nights where her heart was heavy and eyes were teary. That day, she chose not to follow the road she used to and instead let the fate decide the road for her. She was on a different road that day. She went and made the loathful places look beautiful.
As she was walking down the lane, she found a place that was usually different than the rest. It wasn’t new for her, she used to see this type of place everytime but she never went deep into one. But today, she had let fate decide her journey and so she decided to check the place out. As she came deep into it, she found someone. There was a boy who was sitting alone with his hands on his knee and his head down counting the pebbles on the ground.
She came to him, and he didn’t even realise.
She extended her hands and greeted that boy with a Hi.

The boy had met people, but the place he was in was despised by everyone. People would come to him, give their sympathy, turn around, make foul statements and would go only to never come back again. She was no different to him. He changed so much that he couldn’t see the glitter in her eyes, the magic in her smile, and home in her long thick hair. He was casual in his reply, but the girl didn’t turn around and went away. She sat down next to him. This was different now, the boy was astonished thinking to himself how come she didn’t hate him for being where he was. Why didn’t she walk away and left him alone. But for the most part, she didn’t know either because it was fate who had asked her to go. But the minute she sat down next to him, she knew she wanted it. Perhaps she could relate to the boy, to his pain, endless nights, and harder days.
She talked to him. Her sunshine was back. She spent days, months with him. She listened to him with absolute zeal and talked about herself too. She pour words of wisdom, love, and care. This went very well and the place eventually began to light up. One day She held his hand, and asked him to walk with her. The boy hesitated but could do nothing but put on a smile which was absent for god knows how long.
She took his hand and made him come out of that loathful place.
And now here he was, back on the road again, with the most beautiful person he met in the journey. That he, was of course me.

So, dear “Someone” , I just want to tell you that I have not forgotten any of this, I have not forgotten you. I have loved you everyday since the day you held my hand for the first time. You have been the best friend I could ever ask for.
And the eventuality made me realise something – any road we walk on, is full of pain, suffering, and joy. May be that’s what life is. We think we know the road better, we know the life better and we make decisions, but perhaps life knows us better than we know it.
May be it was fate and the other reluctant road that brought you to me. Honestly, I don’t care. All I care about is you.
I told you I wasn’t perfect, this letter won’t be too. I make mistakes, I hurt you, I make you feel bad, but above all that I know that I love you, and I always will. And I promise, I’ll never leave your side, whatever the road we walk on.

……..but eventually, someday, she’ll move on. She’ll start over, with someone else. Someone will come around whom she will fall for…but no, he couldn’t love her the way I have always loved her.

He would get at the restaurant early and order her favorite cold coffee expecting her to drink it and be happy, but he wouldn’t know that she’s very picky and likes her coffee very strong.
He would look at her smile and think how beautiful it is but he would never notice how beautiful she looks when she puts her hair behind her ear.
He would watch her eyes glimmering but would never know how beautiful the baseline between her neck and face is.
She would come to him exhausted after 12 hours of deadly work, all covered in sweat, he would think she looks hideous but I would hug her and think my god she’s so perfect.
She would ask him to walk her, he would, but I’ll also make sure that she doesn’t walk on the vehicle side of the road.
When she would want to just talk and take everything out, he would chip in his part of the conversation but I would just stare at her and listen.

I don’t want him to read her soul the way I do. I don’t want his eyes to meet her like mine is supposed to. I don’t want her to wake up at his Good Morning texts. I don’t want him to know about her past, about how she has always been smiling in the days of betrayal and heartbreak, and why flinches everytime someone talks about it. I don’t want him to know how strong she is. I don’t want his hands to touch her scars where mine are supposed to.
I know I’m a little messed up, boring , and miserable, may be sometimes I know I don’t treat her the way I should, but I can’t see anyone treat her better. I know I love her, and she’s my girl, and she’ll always be.

Dear Joseph Francis Tribbiani,

How are you?

Yeah baby ! Pretty awesome I guess !

You’re 49 years old now as I’m writing you this, and I bet you’re as much fun as the Joey in his 20s and 30s.

When One decides to start watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S , do you know what line cracks them up and intimidate them to binge watch the entire series ?

Yes, you guessed it right.

That line by Chandler

And I want a million dollars.

But I found my love in the show in your first line. When Ross enters the coffee house and in a very depressing voice greets “Hi” , what you said made me giggle.

Ross : Hi

Joey : This guy says Hello I wanna kill myself.

Haha..it’s still just as funny.

You see I was just in my 12th standard when I first started watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S, so I had very little idea about the theme of the show, about the characters, about the lives they were living. I stopped watching the show after 2 seasons there, and it was only after a year did I begin to binge watch it again.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S was the first sitcom I watched and when I shifted to a new place, I started from the beginning because since then I had lost everything.

This guys says Hello I wanna kill myself.

I laughed at this one, yet again.

But then again, you weren’t my favorite, naturally. Naturally, Chandler was the favorite one. Everyone loved Chandler for his wit, presence of mind, punch lines and of course Sarcasms. Sarcasm was new for me and I must say Chandler introduced me to it. I didn’t like you for you were a little dumb, someone who was chasing women all the time and then dumping them after sleeping with them. I hated you when you left Chandler alone in the apartment and shifted to a new place. You left him with Eddie, how couldn’t I hate you.

But when you came back to him and what happened from the fourth season changed my perception entirely. Even though you didn’t love Kathy, you were dating her and Chandler shouldn’t have kissed her, I agree. But you gave up Kathy for him, ultimately. That bitch cheated on you, as well as on Chandler. I believe you became an entirely different person since then. Your friends were everything to you, you lived for them. Lord you peed on Monica, and I know if you had to you’d pee on any of them 😀

Oh Joey ! How mature you were managing the relationship secret of Chandler and Monica ! If it hadn’t been for you, they wouldn’t have kept that a secret for long, and hadn’t been for you, things could have gone more chaotic. I don’t think any of the other five could have done it.

You hated Emily. We all did, and I still hate Ross for leaving Rachel just like that. Ross had to move to a far distant place because Emily didn’t want Ross anywhere near Rachel. Ross was a fool, and an asshole. He never saw what he was becoming, but you did. You were the one who was most disappointed, angry and hurt by Ross’ decision as it would mean disbanding of the gang. No one cared enough to speak up, but you Joey, you did. You couldn’t digest the idea of Ross moving away and leaving a void behind in the group, and that too with Emily. You loved him, and when Ross got mad at you for that, you simply apologised and supported him. How can you be so innocently selfish and selfless at the same time !

You gave up Super Hot dancer Janine for Chandler and Monica. You didn’t even bother twice, could they have done it for you? I don’t think so. Phoebe was so disappointed when she found out that she was 31 and not 30. She wanted a perfect kiss before turning 31 and you gave that to her. Hell you promised to give it a shot in nuclear physics just so David could come back to her. 😀

How cute Joey, how innocent. But these are just the highlights of what you had been to your friends, an absolute gem.

Do you know when you had me completely ? The point where I decided that it is you whom I going to cherish my entire life, the point where I learned that it was you who held the true meaning of friendship?

It was when you found out that Phoebe was pregnant. (It was Rachel who was pregnant but Phoebe took it on her as Rachel didn’t want anyone to know). You didn’t think about anything then, you just focused on Phoebe and her baby. You didn’t think a bit about your life, your future, you went down the street, bought a ring and you proposed Phoebe to marry you. Because it was a dangerous world out there, especially for a single mom and of all the people, you stepped up. I couldn’t even begin to fathom the courage it must have taken. But you did it despite everything. You were ready to take Phoebe’s hand just because she’d face dangers once the baby arrived. This one particular scene, this one particular gesture has taught me everything about friendships, and life. When you genuinely love someone with all your heart, you always put them first. You do what’s best for them even when it asks a compromise with yourself. You do everything to keep them safe, and happy. And the friends who are worth it will always cherish your love for them.

Time went by and you fell in love with Rachel. It was the first time you actually felt for someone, and we felt for you. That feeling of love was so strong you even took the happy dog into depression. You couldn’t tell her, for Ross, your friend. Even though Ross wasn’t together with Rachel, and you shouldn’t have worried about anything, you decided to leave the town just so that Ross and Rachel could virtually be together. You were ready to sacrifice your love, you friendship, your entire life – for a friend. Even though I have learnt a great deal about friendships, and love from you, I don’t think I could have done the same.

Ross, the person who cheated on Rachel in the first place, made her life hell. Married Emily without even thinking about her, was ready to not see Rachel forever just to be with that bitch Emily ! That guy was mad at you because you fell for Rachel, because you could keep her happy more than anyone could, and you were ready to sacrifice everything for that guy. If I could stand in front of you, I could seldom look you in the eyes for you are one of the greatest examples of the fact that true friendships, true love still exist.

And now here we are, 15 years later, you’re not over her yet, aren’t you Joey ?

I know that feel, to love someone unconditionally. Watching them helplessly, together with someone else and not being able to do anything about it, and not getting over them, ever.

I know you wouldn’t admit it, because Hey ! You’re Joey, you don’t get feelings ! But I know, you’ll swallow your love, your feelings, everything just to see Ross and Rachel together because that’s who you have always been. Someone who always puts his friends first, even if it means him being unhappy, forever.

If I could become half a friend you are Joey, I would consider myself the best friend anyone can ever have.

Hope to see you soon.

Until then, Take Care.

Yours

Ayush.

I know many of you would be wondering what 5th of June means. I mean “Humans” and “Earth” sound okay but why he would put today’s date in there. It’s because 5th of June has been designated as World Environment Day. Seems very cliche, doesn’t it? The same old crap that we have been reading since high school. We loved environmental studies in our school, didn’t we? It was much easier than Science, much more entertaining than History, and much more scoring than Maths. We hardly put any effort in environmental studies and we got very good grades that lifted our overall percentage generously.
But we have come a long way since then, and so has the environment. We may be advancing towards IOT, Machine Learning, and 5G technologies but the environment in which we are advancing is dying. I would continue the same old crap of Air Pollution, and Water pollution so if you want to skip it casually like you did in high school, you are free to do it now.

In the second half of 20th century, when the world, after the horrors of nuclear bombing and was engaged in the cold war, we first took the pollution seriously with initiatives such as Earth Day. The Industrial Revolution of 19th century had come a long way and countries were fully equipped in their industrial development especially the countries who were engaged in the World War.
The coal was in the large scale use at those times, and in 1952 LONDON suffered from a devastating smog which was resultant of the unregulated coal use. More than 4,000 people died and it was named The Great Smog of 1952. A few years earlier in Pennsylvania, industrial air pollution created a deadly smog and killed more than 7,000 people. It was on the account of many of these incidents that we decided to take pollution control to the global level. We have come a long way, true, for example, the Montreal Protocol which was signed in 1987 is one of the most successful protocols of all. It set binding limits on the developed countries to control their emission of pollutants which was harming the Ozone layer in the stratosphere. As of today, we have recovered 23% of the Ozone layer and it is expected to recover by 50% till 2040.
But if on the one hand we were recovering ozone, we were damaging the other things.
From the term pollution, we shifted to Global Warming, and from Global Warming we have now shifted to Climate Change, and let me tell you, this is as real as they get.
The world is getting warmer, it’s already 1 degree C warmer than the pre-industrial level, and do you want to know what effect it has on us?
According to the Global Assessment report on biodiversity published by IBPES in April 2019, “The rate of global change in nature during the last 50 years is unprecedented in human history. 75% of Earth’s land surface and 66% of Marine environments have been significantly altered, and that over 85% of Wetland areas had been lost.”
It further says that these changes have been driven directly by changes in land sea use; direct exploitation of organisms; climate change etc..
According to the report by Intergovernmental Panel on climate change earlier this year, while the world was warmer by 1 degreeC than pre-industrial levels, some part of the world are already 1.5 degree C warmer than the pre industrial levels. And don’t be surprised when I tell you that a handful of those areas lie in India.
So how does 1.5 affect more than 1 ?
The impact of 1.5 degreeC is much more than what was anticipated earlier. The world is seeing a greater rise in sea levels which is causing floods and tsunamis; increased precipitation and higher frequency of droughts and pushing millions into poverty; hotter days and heatwaves are bringing in new health impacts; more intense tropical cyclones and increased ocean acidification and salinity.
The developing and low developed countries are the worst affected from the climate change, particularly India.
India still has 49% of its people engaged in Agriculture, which means that any impact of climate change will directly impact the lives of 49% of our population and indirectly the rest of the country. Indian agriculture is still mostly rainfed as 60% of the areas don’t have irrigation facilities. You can imagine the impact on the lives of people when there’s less or more rain. The regions in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu are already facing severe droughts frequently for the last 5 years. The rate of suicide among the farmers has gone much higher than before. Food inflation has squeezed the savings of common man, and altered their diets altogether.
Of the 10 most air polluted cities of the world, 4 are in India with Gurugram topping the list. I live in Delhi, and I frequently travel to Gurugram, and when I see the report and when I see the place, I’m not at all surprised. You must have noticed that the in period around October and November, the news is mostly concentrated in Delhi NCR regions. And it’s because of their air pollution. And the main drivers of this are the farmers (Punjab and Haryana) themselves. Kharif crops are sown in March and April and are harvested in October November. Now when they harvest the crops, tonnes of stubble (cut stalks of cereal plants sticking out of the ground) are left in the field. Now the farmers get very little time between cutting the kharif crops and sowing the rabi crops. So, for them the best way to get rid of the stubble is to burn them. Now, when tonnes of stubbles are burnt, you can imagine the impact it can have on the surrounding regions. All kinds of dangerous gases come out, they react with the ozone in the atmosphere and you get to see what you call the smog. The premature deaths due to air pollution in India is much higher than other countries. But it’s not like the farmers don’t have the alternatives, they have. Machines are available which can help in getting rid of the stubble, the farmers can sell the stubbles to government and they can use the stubble to produce ethanol which can further be helpful in blending with petrol which can directly lessen the pollution out of vehicles and also take the prices of petrol down relieving the common man. But it doesn’t happen, why? Because the machineries are in private players’ hands and govt is not yet ready to subsidise it as the farmers can’t afford themselves. SO, you see how a little initiative can solve the problem of pollution, better income for farmers, and the core inflation ? But let them ban the firecrackers instead because that’s easier, innit ?

The seas around Maharashtra and Gujarat are one of the most polluted seas of the world. Do you know how much plastic we dump in the oceans and the seas? A garbage truck of plastic every minute. That’s right, let that sink in. The persistent organic pollutants from industries and agricultural land float around the ocean at low concentrations, but their hydrophobic nature concentrates them on the surface of plastic particles, the marine organisms feed on these plastics and die. They also release chemicals such as Bisphenol A which further endangers the biodiversity. India has a population of 1.28 billion people living around coastlines, and the unprecedented rise in sea level and the plastics pollution will force them to migrate. More than a billion people are likely to migrate due to climate change till 2050, imagine the impact, imagine the chaos. One example was the Kerala flood we all saw last year. All of you would know that it was dam mismanagement, but how many of you know that the flood was also caused due to climate change. The Madhav Gadgil report had earlier warned the govt to stop the exploitation of eco sensitive zones of Western Ghats, the central govt tried to ban the construction and work there but the govt of Kerala and TN protested against it. The result was a devastating flood killing hundreds, displacing thousands and spreading deadly diseases.


We boast about the better managements, better cure, we develop vaccines, build new hospitals but we seldom talk about the prevention. We always live by the attitude that “let’s do it, whatever comes we’ll handle.” And this very attitude has taken us here. We can’t stop the world from warming upto 1.5 degreeC of pre industrial levels, even if we stop the emissions completely at this time. We can certainly stop it from going any above than that. For that we cannot possibly rely on our Govt’s determination on climate change or the synergy in geopolitics. We constitute the world, and it is we who has to take the initiatives. Start small, like segregating your organic and plastic wastes at your home and dumping them separately, or by better management of water at your premises, don’t think like it’s your water and you can do anything from it, even if it was, it isn’t anymore.
This is the last figure I’m gonna show. According to the WaterAid report, India’s rate of groundwater depletion has gone upto 23%, and the metro cities are gonna run out of groundwater by 2022.
75% of Indian population don’t have drinking water at their premises, and 70% of drinking water is contaminated.
yes, we’re living in such a scenario.
I could focus on what the govt should do, but I would really like to focus on the people and what they should do. I could write many reports and many factors but these few mentioned above are one of the most important ones and people need to be aware of this.
Do your bit, Save the Environment, or we’d not have one to live in.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton