THE PARK

The green leafy tree,
With a stroke of breeze,
Sweeps so free,
As it's trying to unfreeze.

The crimson petals slowly fall,
Swinging slowly to the ground,
From the leafy tree so tall,
The petals were earlier red and round.

The wind around the trees,
Like a satin blue cloth,
Blows cool enough to release,
The farmers suffering from drought.

the little blue birds come,
To perch on the branches,
And keep staring at some,
Love birds on the benches.

The floor clothed with grass,
Gets bathed with dew drops.
Jolly faced kids in a mass,
Play without fearing the cops.

When tired after a game,
The kids take a nap,
As cuddled into a frame,
On the caring mother's lap.

Some smile, some frown,
Some lives are in dark.
Some are never let down in this glorious park.

                                                                             -Somya Mishra

THOUGHTS AND THEIR IMPRINTS

 Some call it a 'dragon'; some call it a 'flying serpent'. I chose to create my own rather than just giving it a name.

 I sat back and thought, "What is it about lips that fascinates people so much?". I thought of figuring it out on my own and woah!!! Now I get it!!!

This penguin truly knows how to pose. ;)

When aggression and beauty come together, the end product is always  magnificent.

SAINTLY PEACE

With a tedious search for peace and a slow instrumental, the only image that struck my mind was this. This seemed to be the best way to end a stressful day. I, finally, find myself at peace after looking at the results.

THE SHELTER THAT REMAINED UNSHELTERED

                                                              A summer inspiration

While I was sketching it out, all my focus was on making the last branches perfect. One thing it made me realize is that we really never look at the root because we know that it's strong enough to hold on to what comes out of it. We generally look at the end-result and appreciate that. It's actually the strong root and the base stem that is giving all the strength to the standing tree but picture-wise, the branches beautify it more. Anyways, I love what I have sketched :P

DROP OF ILLEGALITY IN A SEA OF LEGALITY

                She was a girl of 14, innocent and unaware of the world she was going to enter. She was trembling with fear when she realized that she has lost her family in the huge bus accident. There was nobody she could approach for help. She begged and ate and sat on the footpath. Her pretty face attracted many but the rags took back the attraction. This lady of 48 spoke to her, picked her up and took her to a place where she assured her of food and life security if she co-operates. Her co-operation demanded a lot of patience and silence when men touch her wherever they want treat her however they want just because they paid for her. Her co-operation also asked her to be quiet and not disclose to anyone about the bruises on her body because of getting whipped. That so called secure place was a brothel, the lady was a pimp and the girl was a prostitute now.

               This above situation is an imagination of a place where brothels and prostitution are illegally run. Now, let’s just imagine it prostitution was legal, what the situation would be.

                     Section 2(f) of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 defines “prostitution” as “the sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes”. This act and all its implications would come into effect only if the acts were complained of. The prostitutes are not kept in a position, physically or mentally, to go and complain about such issues. Even if they are confident, that happens at a stage when they are used to this life and don’t find any reason to move out of that lifestyle.

                 If prostitution is legalized, the money that they earn can be taxed upon and this will ultimately benefit the nation’s Government and the country’s economy. On the other hand, these prostitutes will be recognized and will receive a certain respect for contributing towards the country’s economy. This will eventually reduce prostitution or completely eliminate it because the people running this business would reduce doing it as they will be aware that now the whole of income is not going to be with them and they need to pay taxes. Now that there income will reduce and they will need to be more careful about the prostitutes’ safety, they will not do it as they have been doing till now. This is when a woman in this profession can claim her safety as per Article 21 of the Indian Constitution which mentions about right to life and to live with dignity. They are not being able to do it now because they know that what they are into is illegal in nature and they will be sacked in the first place for doing it.

               In order to substantiate the contents of Article 21, Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 came into force. It may sound weird to see a woman involved in prostitution complaining of “sexual” harassment, but a woman in such profession consents for sexual act and doesn’t allow anyone to harass her in this process. There is huge wall between consensual sexual act and sex involving harassment. Section 2(g)(i) of the Act mentions “appropriate Government” while defining a virtue of an employer who falls under the purview of the statute. If the statute considers units of appropriate Government or local authorities to be an important criterion for the security of women against sexual harassment, then making prostitution legal and brothels to be enterprises or units subject to Government will definitely secure women and bring down prostitution eventually.
There are some known fifteen countries which have legalized prostitution. Out of these, Greece has also included prostitution as an actual job in society where the employees get equal rights and have to go for health checkups at required intervals. Apart from Greece, Ecuador is a place where everything related to sex work is legal. This 'everything' includes selling of one's body, running a brothel or even being an employer there. They say that prostitution in itself is not illegal in India but running a brothel is. If running a brothel gets legalized then forced prostitution will completely eliminate. In this case, the 14 year old would have fought for herself under all laws protecting a minor and a woman.

I have just put up the way I look at things. Any other opinion or different point of view will be well-appreciated and accepted.

MONOCHROME THIS TIME...

The Direwolf!!!

"Sometimes it lasts in love and sometimes it hurts instead"

                                                         - Interpretation taken from 'Someone like you' by Adele

"It is time to shelf the armours and ammunition, and live in a violence free and peaceful life"
                                                                                                                       - An interpretation by my Dad (NANA)

POURED IT OUT

           

                   There are very few moments when we tend to overlook the negativities in life. Generally, hardships, hurdles and negative energies attract us more than any existence of positivity. In the past few days, I have been recalling a few of them. There are people who emit negative energies to the farthest possible extent; there are people who manipulate things in a way which would suit them well; and there are people who have forgotten how to smile.
                    In spite of the presence of the above, there are wonderful people who will listen to you calmly, who will stand by your side, who will make adjustments to suit you and who will do little things to bring a smile on your face. For the first time in my life (the counting starts from the day I gained the general facts of life), I think I should not care about everybody. I am not supposed to be the one available to people who are never available to me. I don't feel the need to compromise or sacrifice.
                   The feeling of "last" few days of student life seemed to be a huge thing just like the first few days. Everything in my life is different today. During all this time, I have fallen in love, tried my best to give up on love, got hurt, done stupid things, been forgiven and have forgiven, trusted people and learnt how not to trust certain people.
                    After jumping from the "student" phase to the "employee" phase, things were difficult, but I'm proud of myself that I have learned many things now. Things seem to be undone but I am still happy that I have earned something. Scribbling all of this here is a relief now. Everything has a perfect time. Maybe this is the perfect time when all of this can be actually felt because this is the time when I'm actually missing some real jewels close to my heart and yet I know I can't go back to them or have these days back. 

THE 'RANGABATI' MUDDLE

         

              This is my first post on a legal issue where I put a step out of my world of art and enter into this world of reality. For the past few days what has been troubling me is the slow growth of my beloved Odisha. I work in Bangalore and I have found people who consider Odisha to be backward. I get back at them with all the rich culture and the beautiful tradition lecture.
             Recently, I found the massive circulation of the remixed Rangabati song on YouTube and many other social networking sites. I was finally happy to hear that people have come to know about our music and have loved listening to the same in a loop. This was pushing our culture to the forefront.
               But, this did not last long and then popped up a copyright issue claiming this song to be an infringement. I'm sad that the progress of our culture in the nation has come to a standstill, but at the same time, I'm also happy to know that the law relating to intellectual property has gained relevance in Odisha.
                 They fight over the issue of 'public domain'! Dude! a work comes into 'public domain' only when the copyright over it has expired. In India, a copyright expires sixty years after the death of the authors and our author still live. Not taking the permission was kind of "underestimating the power and knowledge of an Odia!". We showed them that we are not going to sit back!
                    Saying all of the above and thinking from a young Indian's point of view, I think the copyright owners should take a reasonable royalty, impose a penalty for not taking permission and let the remix remain untarnished. This is helping Odisha become famous and bring out the real colours of Odisha in a modern way. The breaking of "ranga" from "rangabati" is just a part of the remix to bring out the modern music effect to this 1977 song. However, even if 'ranga' refers to 'third gender', what's wrong in addressing a 'third genger' as beautiful?

This is one platform where I can open up my heart and mind. I did so. I hope it reaches out.

-Somya Mishra

MY BIRDY FLIGHT

Have you ever felt like a bird?
I have... That feeling was like winning a challenge and standing above many others who had never seen me.
When I stood there and waved my hands gracefully, I could see shocked expressions on faces and also some happy faces. The shocked faces brought in more confidence than the happy ones. I felt like a bird flying much above the crowd and even higher to show the crowd how swift my flight can be.
 With me, there was another small humming bird bearing a smile on her lips and innocence in her eyes. Even without a word, the was a lot of connection between her thoughts and mine. I will keep this tiny bird close to my heart always.
This feeling of rising above your generally assumed personality is equal to flying like a bird who spreads her wings to embrace every hurdle and overcome it.

HAIDER

Innocence and rage,
Held on to each other,
When the extremes knew,
That they were strengths for each other.

With heart filled with love,
And mind drowned in confusion,
"To be or not to be"
Came out as the resulting situation.

Respect and Hatred,
Battled with each other,
But none could stand victorious,
As on the other side was his mother.

When blood relations parted ways,
And new relations bloomed,
There was a balance of emotions,
And faith's existence was doomed.

Living upto many expectations,
And crawling into many hearts,
It became a perfect combination,
Of a soul's shattered parts.

With a never giving up artist,
And a bunch of unbeatable makers,
"Haider" is a work of art,
Giving huge profits to the bakers.
                                                        -Somya Mishra

बारिश

वो बारिश ही क्या जिसमे भीगे नहीं,
वो धूप ही क्या जिसमे जले नहीं.
जो ना देखे तुमने कुद्रट के ये नज़ारे,
तो समझो दुनिया की गोदी पे पाले नहीं.

जागती है सूरज सुबह की बारिश के साथ,
तो दिल करता है के ये दिन कभी ढले नहीं.
जो ना देखे तुमने कुद्रट के ये नज़ारे,
तो समझो दुनिया की गोदी पे पाले नहीं.

बारिश भीगती है बंजर ज़मीन को,
जैसे दिल में वापस आया हो एक सोया एहसास.
जो ना महसूस किया हो तुमने इस खुशी को,
तो समझो दुनिया की गोदी पे पाले नहीं.
                                                     - Somya Mishra

SECRET OF HOPE

Do you believe in having faith and seeing it come alive exactly as expected?

One such incident took place today. I just realised that hope is not merely a word of motivation; it is an act of having faith. whenever you act in a certain way and have the determination in your mind that a certain result is expected, no power on earth can stop it from happening.

This again brings my thought back to the "Secret" by Rhonda Byrne where she had written that

"There is no such thing as a hopeless situation. Every single circumstances of your life can change!". This statement is very true. In this book she talks about the Law of Attraction and I actually saw that work right in front of my eyes. There are positive as well as negative energies all around you; only the ones which you attract towards yourself will come to you. The magnetic energy flowing in the air gets attracted to similar forces coming out of one's mind when it comes to emotions. This denies the theory of "opposites attract" but tends to function perfectly with one's brain. Hope is one such emotion.


When you are hopeful and certainly want a thing to happen, the best way to attract the positive energy is to have faith in your hope and work for it with full determination because you tend to attract your dominant thoughts. So, choose your thoughts carefully because thoughts attracted to certain strong emotions usually turn out to be pieces of creation. I don't know how far this piece of writing is valuable to many, but I am certain of the fact that this piece has contained many experiences within its fencing and it will certainly be helpful to many.


                                                                                                     -Somya Mishra

YIN-YANG ALIVE!!!

A busy daily schedule and so many dreams yet to come true. Standing in a crowded bus, I find this above expression on many faces. Bangalore is a city with hopes and opportunities. While struggling for a single meal everyday, I visualize the life of any yuppie in a new city with lot of troubles. One month looks like "ONE BIG MONTH" where it has become difficult to plan out things for everyday keeping the daily schedule in mind. So, sitting in my firm, the existence of this Chinese Symbol struck my mind and forced my to type it down.

Come out of your house and look at the road once! Will you find every person satisfied? I bet even you have a dissatisfied look on your face standing in the heat right now. The more difficult the things look, the more pleasing they will be once they get over. In a way, it is better to continue with the particular thing and not get done with it. Life seems to be pointless when you divorce seriousness from fun. The combination of these completely opposite phases of life brings out the true essence. This combination or union of the opposites is the YIN-YANG.

People tend to misinterpret the symbol as the depiction of union of man and woman only. It is a depiction of all union of opposite forces of the world. I am a person who is quite courageous to face all different situations without thinking about the consequences and afraid of few outcomes at the same time. This has helped me understand myself. This union makes my life peaceful. I would be making a fool out of myself if I lost the courage by only worrying about the consequences. It is possible that I may also look like a wierdo if I did everything without caring about the outcomes. Sometimes, we need to let go of the bounds and free ourselves while sometimes it is extremely necessary to bind our souls with certain limitations of reasonability. This bond is one of the perfect unions of opposites which brings out peace in your life. Similarly, the union of fun and seriousness will also bring our the essence of variety and interest in life. It's time you bring out the YIN-YANG in you!!!