Millennial Conundrum!

What does it feel like to be a millennial and live in the world where everything can be swiped left or right? Everything is available with the click of a finger ? What does it feel like to have everything you could only imagine right by your footsteps? If it was 70 's or before that, it definitely sounds like a happy life where you have more supply to meet your demands. But are we happy? Are we content? Do we love ourselves enough?The answer to is No! Our lives are lackluster, despite having everything . Why is that so? Do we really not have everything we need or have we lost our genes to be content? Yes you heard me right, probably our genes are modified upon the boom of millennial generation, I mean what else can explain this phenomenon of grumpy faces and pained hearts. I am no different so this year I promised myself to get to the bottom of it. If you know there is a problem, well it has to be fixed after all a stitch in time does save nine. Flashback more than a decade ago, when I immigrated to the United States, my brother had visited me from Minnesota. My first shopping spree was 2 shorts , few t shirts that my brother bought me from Walmart and shoes from Payless . It was a small city in Iowa and Super Walmart was the only big thing there, and till date I vividly remember as to how overjoyed I was. I thanked my brother like gazillion times and was super excited to don my Walmart outfit. Through the years, I waited tables in a Punjabi restaurant, worked in Taco bell, booth in the mall and every time I bought stuff in sale, I felt accomplished- the kind of joy that was incomprehensible. I was a poor undergrad student that was juggling between a full time blue collar job and acing my exams yet I was happy. The only pain, I felt during those days was if the library was packed and my favorite spot was taken. The only hunger I had was to study and to prove my worth. I did just that, I graduated Summa Cum Laude as one of the toppers of my graduating class. My hard work paid off and I beamed at myself with pride. After that when I landed my first corporate job, you would think I was the happiest, but if I were to look back that is when it all started. My millennial syndrome, my materialistic outlook and being dissatisfied with everything. With my first salary, I bought myself a Michael Kors watch and a purse, that was a big thing back then, of course i was proud but was that enough? Nope, I went and hoarded for more and more through the years until I had sunglasses, watches and purses of every color. Well did that make me happy? Nope! because my greed knew no bound. My thoughts wandered like " Its 2014 and no one likes MK, it has to be Kate Spade", or, well Kate spade is so overrated , oh I need something else. I could not wait for 7 days to receive it- Great!!Amazon prime happened-the next best thing in my life. Look at that teeth whitening kit in Group-on its $7 , I definitely need that, or that Beats is on sale for $100, i mean $10 headphone is nothing like Beats by Dr. Dre. It plays music yes but its not hip at all, yadda yadda yadda ...just like that I became a slave of consumerism. I asked myself again, Arjabi are you happy? Nope! I was driving $1000 97 Pontiac Sun fire with no AC in blazing Texas heat in 2008 with a wide spread smile on my face yet 2016 Audi Q3 still made me feel like oh no may be I should have gotten a Q5 with sports feature . Well I don't know when I will ever be able to use the sports feature in Cali with that traffic but I needed it anyways just because I can now. The pivotal point in my life was when the tax return summary came back for 2016. What I see was 6 figured salary summary yet my savings was negligible. I had not taken vacation in 2 years. I had not laughed heartily since don't know when. When I was making 5 figures or even less, I was happier, proud and content. Then I took matters to my hand, I de-cluttered my closet, I closed my alternate checking accounts, I cancelled few of my subscription , I cancelled my kindle subscription, I mean I still like my paperbacks, What do I need kindle subscription for? So I have taken baby steps from the beginning of this year. With the amount I save up this year, I plan on going for vacations. I would rather spend money on creating memories. I don't mind being called stingy from this point forward because I now know being frugal is the way to go- after all my favorite person of all times Benjamin Franklin was a penny pincher and ended up being the founding fathers of this great nation and master mind behind Declaration of Independence. I promise to laugh more often and be happy. In this faraway land, I live with my parents, husband, my sister and my two dogs; my brothers, friends and other families are a call away. We have a roof to live in, good food to eat and lots of love, if that is not going to make a millennial happy I don't know what will. This is a year, I will learn to change my frowns to frolics, my greed to greatness and my measure of happiness shall be what I already have rather than what I need. It is high time for us millennials to stop being frantic about things we can't control. Its time for us to stop treating price tags as our happiness,its high time for us to value real relationships. Its high time for us to get out of our shell and enjoy what we love to do. I like taking pictures and sharing my fitness journey well that is what I will do. We are the generation, that saw best of both worlds-we saw floppy discs and now we are the consumers of nano technology. We live in the world of automation, and we don't have to churn half as much as our parents did yet we are too loud, too proud,too obnoxious and too disrespectful. We tend to take everything for granted. We are the generation that is spoon fed yet can't stop complaining. We tend to dwell on petty matters and not see a bigger, fuller , invigorating picture that is ahead of us. We have forgotten to be jubilant and boisterous and cheeky and not to take ourselves too seriously. Thus it is time for us to join hands and say thank you that we are alive in the greatest time of all. We don't live in war torn Syria, we are not beheaded for not covering our heads, we have freedom of speech, we have aspirations and means to achieve them -Trust me we have it easy. Our windows are rock solid for no rock can shatter it. Our vantage point is much clearer and the glare of uncertainty has relinquished. So lets not waste our lives in sea of uncertainty. Let us not dwell on petty things. Let us learn to be happy and love ourselves, for we are worth it. ~Dedicated to Millennials like me My tale , my words, my life I share with thee!

If words are arms, actions are mercenaries

"Action speaks louder than word"-we have heard about this phrase as a positive connotation throughout but if were to consider it carefully, the phrase does indeed have a negative side to it - 'Action indeed is much louder than mere words.' which means a negative action surpasses negative words by margins. Words are powerful but actions are divine.If words were to be a notion , then action definitely is an act. And by all means an act is what makes a notion executable, thereof the notion then becomes powerful in the first place.Well, my intention is not to fuzz you up by talking in circles about a notion or an act but to set a backdrop of what I am going to be talking about next.Here I go ! I am advocating for countless acts that have led a notion to be as debilitating as it can be.For fathers who beat their wives infront of their children, for women who let their boy friends abuse their children, for thugs who rape an innocent girl walking down the street, for couples that stomp all over each other's pride- let it be known that your action is directly proportionate to countless reactions. You did it! You have done more damage than you intended to do . You have successfully walked all over someone's pride, you have stripped them off their identities and happinesses, you have shaken them from their core, you have shamed them, you have isolated them and moreover you have scarred them for rest of their lives. If it was just a notion that is yet to be enacted, would it then be that? there would be a father who is angry but far from raising a hand , a woman who knows of her boy friends intention to protect her toddler son early on, thugs who are aware of repercussion of raping an innocent soul, couples who believe in talking it out rather than having the situation blow out of proportion . To distinguish the two, 'What if' represents notion but 'this is it' represents an act.When you use words, you have a room to ponder before speaking , think before acting , and there definitely is a legroom before things stretches too far out. But once its done, the damage cant be undone.Like arms and ammunition, that is lying out there and though is perilous doesn't impose any threat until it finds a mercenary to carry out the act, such is the correspondence between words an actions. Therefore, choosing your words wisely is essential but ruminating about your action is much more important- For you could scrutinize your yet to be spoken words or action but the aftermath of a completed action is unfathomable.So, please choose your words wisely but choose your action conscientiously. ~Dedicated to everyone who has been belittled one way or the other !

I am not a political pundit, yet I try to keep myself informed and here’s why you should too?

An open letter to everyone from my generation, I am an 80’s kid , born and brought up in faraway land of Himalayas- my mighty Nepal and here I am today pouring down my thoughts as to why I choose to be well informed about American politics and why should you as well? While growing up, I often heard one of my cousins say that Politics is 'filth or dirt and I simply had to take a pick’, so for all my teenage years my recollection of being politically inclined was just that. It was either filth or dirt or even better both, that’s how I convinced myself and as any teenager would,I didn’t put much thought into it at all! After all who cares about mundane entity such as ‘Politics’ when there are so many appealing things out there to ponder about and to rejoice? That was soon going to change with time. One fine day almost a decade ago, after traveling thousands of miles, I came to the United States in my quest of finding myself and to seek for better opportunities. My interest in politics piqued after studying Political Science as my electives courses to graduate. I found Political Science so intriguing and equally endearing that, I ended up reading up so much on the founding fathers. Oh By the way, it so happens that Benjamin Franklin is my role model, since his life story of rising from a penny pincher to a great man is just commendable and resonates with me in so many different levels , for me to be able to contain it in mere words. From the colonization to civil war to the liberty that United States is able to exercise on modern day, I studied about it all and for a single second it didn’t seem like a boring thing to do at all. It taught me about great men and their even greater accomplishments like the founding fathers. It taught me about fearless women and their fight to be heard, to be noticed such as Rosa Parks and all the suffragists;. It also taught me about the racial war and the struggle of everyone involved to survive and to sustain such as Martin Luther King Jr. It taught me about the political divide in this country. It gave me a perspective about liberalism and conservatism. It gave me a choice to decide for myself if I leaned more toward left or the right. It helped me expand my horizon as to what do I believe in and what am I akin of. It taught me that I had a choice to choose and such liberty shouldn’t go to waste. So that’s how I gradually was inclined towards politics , and even though I still don’t know all the ins and outs of politics, I choose to address the pressing question here! The question or should I say the answer itself lies in the fact that, I at least try to be acquainted about political happenings around me. If I don’t want to consume or support Monsanto products, If I want to be owner of my own body, if I want to have free education , if I want my parents to have affordable healthcare, if I want stricter gun regulations, if I want my personal information to be just mine, if I want my friends to be able to live in United States with dignity , moreover if I want life, liberty and pursuit of happiness then it falls upon my shoulder to do my homework and choose a candidate which I believe will do greater good to my community and people around me. It is my rightful duty to be informed and to be stern about my choices. I can’t expect things to be fixed overnight if I am not willing to participate in deciding the fate of the nation I live in. I choose to be informed about politics because I want to make sound decisions on my behalf. I don’t want to align myself to a person or a party just because my parents,families or friends said so. It isn’t a petty matter. American politics is the pinnacle of world politics and it will make a difference to the world economy in more ways then I could imagine or comprehend so I want to play my part and so should you! Politics might be filth and dirt as my cousin once said, but guess what ? -it falls upon you and me to get rid of the filth and dirt from our living space if we were to breathe in fresh air. It isn’t your burden but your choice and responsibility. Embark in this journey because with your decision and innumerable others’ , that share same vision as yours the candidate you are rooting for just might be the victor which means your agendas are one step closer from being met. There will be obstacles and disappointments down the road but on the brighter side, you get to be the part of this process over and over again and you get to choose a better candidate next time around. It is your privilege and right so exercise it. On that note, I would like to ask all the youths of today to try and understand as to why politics is too invincible to be able to contain it with ignorance, for ignorance doesn’t prevail. Let us join forces with the best of our abilities, to think , to read, and to choose what we truly believe in. After all, Politics might not be instilled on us upon birth yet Politics governs everyone’s life thereafter. ~ Dedicated to corrigible youth of today!

Remembering Sandy Hook Travesty

20 children-my heart is completely aching for those tiny souls who didn't get to know how does it feel like to grow up and for the rest who survived,they have been scarred forever as they know the evil face of growing up so early on that I fear their childhood have been snatched from them..And to the hopeful parents who bid goodbyes to their children that particular morning promising to go Christmas shopping later after the school ended,when in fact they had to hold the lifeless body of their tiny beings,my heart goes out to you completely...Its terribly aching and these tears won't stop.Then,I think to myself,it didn't happen to me nor my family yet like myself there are countless others who can empathize and relate to what happened because we are humans-the most superior being of all..But then,the one who committed this heinous crime was a human too and I am trying to understand how much of hatred does it take to end someone else's lives?? What right does he have???Who gave him the permission?? And deep within I so wish I could tell him that"If you are depraved,angry or hurt why not go to a corner and end your meaningless life???,but don't lay a finger at anyone else...You are a bad man,a really bad one!!!!!" To the 26 victims,I pray for your souls to rest in peace till eternity..To the bereaved family I will pray so that you can muster up all the courage in you to move on and heal...I will forever keep everyone of you in my prayers..;(

Where is my utopia?

Where's my Utopia??? I sulked,I lamented,I cried,I gasped,I frowned,I exclaimed yet the perfection didn't step in..Where's my Utopia???-I sighed...And then A sudden twinge of realization crossed my mind and I thought to myself.."My Utopia's vanished when brotherhood was slaughtered,when blood were shed,when profanity overruled and when life became cheaper than death!!!" Sorry Sir Thomas More,I apologize your Utopian dream will always be a dream now,for reality is far too scarred, far too damaging to even be able to move on from!!!

Time a healer?

They say,"time is the healer, time is powerful, time solves it all!!!" I say"Yes I know it all..I have seen time take a stride and make everything better AS IF IT WERE to have a magic wand;but then until that right time comes,that swift feeling of churning ,crushing and crashing is the most painful!!" It's the times way of saying,"Get used to it!!!"..Getting used to it-that's the right thing to do and hoping time will heal me with its swift touch sooner than later!!!

Making the best out of the worst!

Life is so unfair at times and all the while when one's wailing,complaining and whining;there are others who make the best out of that very situation they are in, not that their hearts doesn't pain, not that they don't realize they have lost everything that they have loved dearly,not that they aren't frail or weak or hurting-they are all but strong, they are all but happy, they are all but complete but then they simply choose not to let life eat them up,not to let agony turn to abhorrence, not to let separation swallow traces of what's left behind and that's how these brave souls learn to tighten their grip to their lives once again. This realization is so beautiful, I cried a little, I ached a little and I salute these brave souls!