To my dear darling nephew....

To my dear darling nephew,

I don't want this to be a sniffy, sentimental letter (because boys don't do sentimental, I know. And nor do I), but if it does end up becoming one, do forgive me. I barely know how to do this: preaching without sounding like I am; but I think I'll be happier for having tried than for not. I know you will probably never read this, and I may or may not have to tell you, if the time comes, but here's what I want to tell you if, for some reason I'm unable to do so verbally then.
I love you and I want you to be happy, darling. I know there are times to come when you will have to make choices: between yourself and what others want to see in you. You feel the need to do things that those older than you judge 'wrong' or inappropriate, but people your age find appropriate. You may feel uncomfortable hearing this, but the older ones are probably right.
There are things that you will consider 'OK' or cool, because they don't affect you now and 'its your life'. And '1-2 now and then never did anyone any harm'. Heck yeah, I don't suppose they did. Maybe you're right. But lets admit it. We never do stop at 1 or 2, do we?
And the truth is, it isn't 'your life'. Its all of ours too. Your parents, your future family and probably mine too. Maybe 'nothing happens if you smoke' for now.
But one day, when something does happen, you're probably not going to be in a position to drag yourself down a flight of stairs, catch a cab and gasp your way to the hospital. You won't be standing alone in that admission line for hours just to get a doctor to look at you. You won't be the only person missing from work because you're ill. Your family will be right there by you, pacing outside the ward, taking phone-calls, taking turns to sit by your bed and paying deposits that will surely be double what they are now.
All because you made it that way, one smoke at a time.
I know I can trust you, but I also think it is necessary for me to tell you that people do things that we don't expect them to, and its normal. But this isn't about my trust or my expectations of you, you see. Its about you and the life you will lead. I want it to be happy; for guilt and regret are the worst emotions that ever plagued man. Sorrow renders you emotionally numb for a while, but guilt stabs your soul and makes you look in turn, for something harmless to blame.
Do what you want to, dear. But try not to want things because other people want them. You are strong in yourself. Don't let someone or something be stronger than you.
Your family has always loved you, and as you grow up, you will start taking it for granted. The liking of your friends will be harder to buy, and hence more attractive. You just want it more. We all did. But don't give up one person's love for another person's liking.
If you don't agree with me, and think I'm a total square or whatever; yeah, I totally get you. But do try reading this again, maybe a few months later. Maybe it'll make sense. Maybe it won't.
Have a great time, do the things you love and don't ever think you're any less than any one of those suckers out there. :-)
And no matter what, I will always love you.

Your loving aunt.

Lucky loser?

You know that thing when you start your day with that hot green tea before your computer and the first sip you take is too hot, so you have to set it down and fan your tongue for a while before you can taste anything at all; and then when you get back to the tea, the tag from the teabag has fallen into it and is floating around on the surface, disintegrating slowly, making your tea all flecked? It's kinda obvious that the rest of the day is going to be pretty pathetic. And then all you can think is, 'well, at least I didn't knock down the mug and slop Chinese antioxidant-filled green tea all over the keyboard'. And then you look up and find 5 'Hy, u der???' IMs from various friends.
You probably don't. That's lucky loserhood.
Most people are just plain winners or losers. The former ought to stay away from this blog, because they never have such days. The latter should flock here in droves. They probably did knock over the mug and ended up breaking it too. And then felt guilty for an hour and a half because it was the 'Aunt' mug gifted very sweetly by her nephew despite parental nay-saying. (Your siblings know you best)
So there are winners. This is not to say that everyone living south of Andheri is included in this group because they went to 'It' schools and sneaked into Ra underage or whatever. Many of these are lucky losers too.
The basic definition of a winner is a person who is happy with himself/herself. So yeah, a whole lot of middle-class kids are way happier with themselves than richer kids, and not because of tele-dramatised values like love and sacrifice and all. Because they just have more potential to exploit and they know it. And they'll probably end up in South Bombay anyway. These guys are the best at at least one particular 'thing' and will use it to the last. They're even titled: "Mr./Ms. Malhar/Umang/Brouhaha" .
Then there are losers. This is not to say you're a loser if you're reading this post or whatever (because then there'd be too few losers in the world). These guys don't lose anything, technically. They just believe they never had it. And it doesn't spur them on to get what they don't have or anything. And we're not wasting anymore text on it.
And then there are the endangered species: lucky losers. Me, anyway. We have it, but we don't have enough. Lucky losers are generally good at a number of things and best at nothing. We're usually lucky in things like exams and receiving iPods from relatives as gifts, but not in getting your act together before judges and definitely not love. Lucky loserhood is boundless and unconditional in its scope.
We can be found in St.Xavier's and in SVP (Kandivli). We could be late to school every single day, but one fine day, the bus we miss daily catches fire on the next road.
We're occasionally bright, so people expect us to 'go far'. And its a miracle that we manage to reach college on time everyday.
We spend long hours writing poems (and blogs) on lucky-loser-emotions in the classroom. On the first bench. And the professor doesn't check our books because he can't imagine us doing anything rebellious. We post our best poems as notes on facebook, and everyone comments on it, telling us how good it is, and how we should consider writing as a career, but the elims for creative-writing contests are always on subjects we don't feel about. Winner subjects.
Really, lucky losers don't have it that lucky.
So, I guess its buh-bye until another day this lucky loser feels like ranting about the injustice in this world. (ie. Winners)
Love and minimised loserhood to all!

Disclaimer: This lucky loser doesn't wish to label anyone or anything a loser (or winner). Any similar characteristics possessed by any reader are coincidental and unintentional on my part.
:-) Have a nice day, everyone.