What Happened When I quit Social Media for a week!

As technology gets advanced, we as humans also get advanced and updated with all the latest techniques which we implement in our daily lives. In particular, the era in which we are all living is also known as: “The Era of Pandemic”, or “The New Normal” or famously known as the “Tech World”.

It’s a fundamental phenomenon as a Human being since civilization that, we tend to find positivity and relieves from our stress when we are in any sort of social activity. Profoundly our youngsters who usually had “Friday nights enjoying with friends” or maybe going on a long drive with loved ones or maybe just chilling around in a beach with their homies is always their favorite part. Unfortunately, the world got standstill and the world collapsed out from the deadliest pandemic ever which changed all our lives.

Living in a situation where we are restricted to go out of the house, we find social media as the best way to be socially active with our friends and loved ones who are far away from us, and in this scenario, the meetups are done through face call, Chats, video calls which are little relief in these days.

According to my personal experience: when lockdown started, then my usage for social media increased and this growth of interest for social media became my addiction in the end. Imagining a life without social media made me felt anxious and depressing whenever I got this notion. This Notion was a state of perplex and also was a phase of my life when I was frightened of my addiction.

Technology brought both Bliss and discontent into our lives, which is also a major part of concern if we look into the darker side of how it is affecting every human, especially at the time when everyone is bounded to be inside their homes.

The secret of Detoxing My Social Media Addiction :

Out of wonder, I tried an experiment of myself which brought an unexpected but successful result for controlling my Social Media addiction.

To control addiction is never an easy job, but all we can do is to strive upon ourselves and one must be having faith in themselves only then they can accomplish their goals.

Things happened with me when I quit social media for a week, here are my accomplishments :

Sometimes Fewer Interactions are good for an Individual: Living in the world of social media, every individual feels like being active to gain a lot of attention and become popular among their friends and communities. But it is always not necessary to interact with people, sometimes not using social media and less interaction is essential as an individual should spend some time with themselves and forget the glittering life of social media. As it is a form of self-care which will help us to understand ourselves by introspecting the inner us.

You are less Anxious and Live a happy life: When a person becomes an addict of SM ( social media)world they tend to feel SM as the “Second Home”, which ultimately put them into a pit of anxiety and lowers their self-confidence, Watching other people who are glorious with all types of luxurious life and wearing a fancy dress makes them feel unwanted and people try to imitate their idols by watching their profile. Sometimes people find themselves useless in front of the bigger celebs who are having all sorts of materialistic things and compare their lives with the celebs.

This itself is a sign when people belittle themselves and there comes anxiety in their minds. When we are using less SM than we live a happy life because all we are focused on is with ourselves and we won’t compare our lifestyles with others. Especially the youngsters should keep this in mind that their lives are not meant for comparing, as everyone has their own life which is beautiful in their ways.

Detoxing is a way for self-care/ self-love: As we can look that the people who usually spend more time on social media are often depressed and sad by scrolling things that are not available in their situation and environment. There are several contents which show us the negative side which provides a negative feeling to the people.

Cutting off social Media also helps to focus on yourself as it is a way of caring for yourself and caring for your health. Being addicted to anything destroys our sanity and deteriorates our health. So it’s better to avoid SM as much as possible.

Instead, explore yourself and find things that you love about yourself. “Before knowing the world, one must know about themselves as knowing the inner self is a way of understanding the world”.

We come out of the unrealistic / counterfeited world: Social Media is a world where everyone is living a fake life. There is no reality, everyone tries to show how perfect they are, but in reality, they are not even confident about themselves. So, it is better to avoid social media and switch on to the real world and live an adventurous life where the world is real and your experiences are real.

It helped me to find my real self: After Removing my social media for a week I realized one thing that I felt confident about myself as no one was there to judging me and no one passed comments, rather living in a real-world where I was the critic of my own life and explored my real self.

The time which I used to spend on SM for hours, were now invested in growing my inner self and keeping my body healthy by some workout and meditation, this helped me to focus on my personal growth.

This was the time when I explored myself and found my passion and hobbies which were realistic.

Social Media is not a bad place, but one must always remember that everything we do should be within limits. As social media is not the real world and we should know the difference between the real world and the unrealistic world.

The Handmaid’s Tale – A Terrifying dystopian Novel

As readers, we travel through many stories and live in those unrealistic worlds that make us feel more realistic the way it is written, some stories imprint in readers’ minds, and some of these imprints in a writer’s mind. However “Handmaid’s Tale” is a novel that is a tormented dystopian story and a novel that kept the readers in an Appalling state throughout the story.

The Gileadean Era: A Foundation intended for the destruction of Humans.

This particular Novel is a dystopian novel that begins with the creation of the “Republic of Gilead” which is formed by a political group namely, the Sons of Jacob which tries to suppress the people of the USA by a strict but environment which is not less than a hell.

The Handmaid’s Tale is a perfect example of How hell would look like if it’s situated on earth. The Gilead Regime is a perfect example of how humans can be hazardous to each other and how they can create a place of agony by being inhuman towards each other and take all rights from the people who are less powerful than them.

This novel is not just about Marxist Feminism, it is not even feminism, it is a novel which talks about suppressing humans who are fragile and powerless and taking away the Right to Speak and Right to express themselves, but this novel is also about how religion is misused against the humans and haunt them in the name of Almighty.

“My Name isn’t Offred. I have another name, which nobody uses now because it’s forbidden. I tell myself it doesn’t matter, your name is like your telephone number useful only to others, but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter. I kept the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure I’ll come back to dig up, one day.”
– The Handmaid’s Tale

A very Important quote highlighting the crux of the novel in these lines is beautifully written by the author who explains to us about the protagonist of the story: June Osborne who was forcibly turned into Offred who was a mere Handmaid of a commander.

This quote draws us the image that how a person loses their identity when their name is taken away from them. It is the very weird fact that we as a human never use our word, but when someone takes our names from us ultimately, we even lose our identity and our real self-fades away with the spark of our name.

The very same situation happened with June and other women whose names were taken away from them and in return, they were made as Handmaids or we can say a sexual pleasure for their following commanders.

As mentioned in the “Historical Notes” of the novel where Dr. Piexoto explains to the readers that this novel is a transcript of a tape recording which portrays us that the whole novel is written with the perception of an imaginary Character named Offred/June.

Gilead has proved that even advanced technology fails in front of religion. This is a very controversial line that even can hurt people’s sentiments. Gilead abused the people by giving them physical, mental and emotional torcher and treated them as an object for satisfying their pleasure.

A Dystopian story that breaks all norms of society –

If you dig into the story, then “The Handmaid’s Tale” is a dystopian novel that is not one element centric novel, but a novel that has divergent themes and elements. The Protagonist of the story, Offred tells the novel with her viewpoint as a form of a tale where she talks about her sufferings in a form of nostalgia and this novel keeps the reader in curiosity through the suspense drawn in the novel. the story has a nostalgia within a nostalgia. Offred living in a hell called “The Republic of Gilead” makes her a fragile woman cause of the injustice she and other women goes through. The sufferings made her a different person as such she came to a state where she was accustomed to be living like a handmaid and for her freedom was never a word to be dreamt of.

She explains to us how not only women but people who belong to other genders were treated like slaves by the patriarchal society. The author shows us that the patriarch society crossed all the boundaries to break down humanity from the regime and The commander’s wives, the aunts, Martha’s, all were like puppets under this awful patriarch world.

When Humankind is lost, it’s the end of Humanity!

There are many segments of the novel which describe to us the real picture of Gilead and how people in this place are humans but are apathetic towards each other. Gilead is a place where things like emotions, respect, pity don’t exist rather is invisible in this hell-like place.

These handmaids are not allowed to do anything of their own choice as such; going out alone, shopping, watching movies, reading magazines, roaming around the streets, and even having their real names are forbidden in this place. Offred reminiscent of her went days when she was an editor, wife, and a mother and lived a bustling life but in peace. Her freedom is taken away and her bustling life is turned into a life that is just a nightmare for every day.

However now she just has to be fruitful to bear fruits and complete the Procreation ceremony, which is a holy custom for the Gilead community but is merely a form of rape that all handmaids go through. “The Rachel and Leah center “also unofficially known as the “Red Centre” is a cell for those handmaids who disobeyed the law and are followed through the punishment which is a form of clearing mistakes of the young handmaids by making them perfect in the eyes of almighty to bear the seeds planted by the commanders according to the aunts.

In Gilead everything was uncanny, love was substituted with lust, Humans were like slaves, those genders who were not under the category of male and female were sent to “The Colonies” which was not less than a concentration camp that ultimately brings death towards them.

Yet offered never lost hope and always protected herself from the devastation and chose many paths to get over from this hell. Later in the story, we see that his beloved “Nick” who was assumed to be the part of “The eyes” helped him to get out of the regime but in the end, they failed to do so.

We can conclude that; this sci-fi dystopian novel was terrifying at all levels which can devastate human minds. It shows that a sinister human can reach any level of madness and destroy each other by being greedy and sinful.

“You see, Humans are always egoist and sometimes they destroy themselves in search of satisfying themselves with worldly pleasures.”

How Literature is getting popularity due to the advent of Movies and Dramas

“Literature since the Medieval times have always been a mystery as well as a fascination for its audience”. As the decades change, their audience preference also changed. There was a whole decade which we all know as a biggest blood-curdling historical events of all time, also famously known as “The Age before Queen Elizabeth, when war and slaughter was the prominent reason and people lost their sanity due to political catastrophes and the consequences occurred when there was a division between the religion and science.”

When people lost their sanity, they abandoned literature and art which ultimately made the audience miserable and fragile. However, as the decade improved, we come to see that “Elizabethan Drama’s” has acted as a helping hand in the history of literature when people were gazing for a source of Entertainment.

Dramas are the mainstream or we can say as the generator of the exquisite source of entrainment since the 16^th century which played an important role to make awareness among people about various social issues which happened during the era. Drama is one of those fabulous art forms which not only traveled a revolutionized journey from the 16^th century to the 21^st century but also have contributed a big number of Legendary works in the history of literature.

Dramas which are worldwide famous in the contemporary world are due to the main reason of fandom among the audience and in this process, the fandom not only goes to Drama but also to literature and movies.

Drama, Movies, and Literature – The Best Trio Ever!

Every era has its uniqueness and flair of creativity in any form of art. Likewise, whether it is Literature, Movies, Music, or drama, their secret to flourishing in the millennial generation is “Audience”. The audience has always been a great critic when it comes to Literature and Movies. Today we have Film and Literature which is established due to fandom among the audiences.

To get fame and acknowledgment from the audience is not an easy task, it has always been a striving job to be likable by all types of audiences. Yet Literature gained its popularity with the upper hand of Movies and dramas. Literature which was uncanny for many people is now becoming like their favorite cup of coffee which has the cream of fandom and fasciation towards literature.

Pop fiction – A New Version of Literature

A contemporary era where literature has grown acceptance due to the arrival of Movies and dramas is not only appreciated by their audiences but they are also a newer version of Preserving authentic Literature so that the fragrance of beautiful texts written by prominent writers won’t fade for the coming centuries.

Since it is an up-gradation, the technique of showcasing literature through the lens of the big screen of the cinematography industry is adaptable and modified. Pop Fiction is more merchandised and the writers craft their stories according to their audiences’ preferences.

The contemporary world is full of bustling lives where the audience expects entertainment to be relatable and which has a good quality of content. So cinematography industry had taken this opportunity as a responsibility towards their audience which proofs them their magnificent works by centering on literature.

Great stories come with a great plot!

Literature is famously known by all the audiences due to great movies and TV Series which either are adaptations or taken from real based stories from literature. When we say literature and movies the Millennial generation always mulls over about one great work but also gives a chill about going back to nostalgia! I guess we all know what it is? yes, it’s Harry Potter ! one of the prominent holiday Series which every child of the contemporary era never fails to reminisce about.

Whether it is plot structure, characters, or the setting, J.K Rowling’s works have been justified more cause of movie series made upon her famous works. Literature always provides us the imaginative descriptiveness of a piece of work and Cinematography provides an Illustrative of Visual and audio descriptions and together they have reached a high amount of success worldwide.

Similar to Harry Potter many classical works of literature are in the airy dreams among the audience cause of excellent movies turned from these works. Whether it is Louisa May Alcott’s “Little women” which talks about how women are striving in this society to acknowledge their identities by their forte and minds or whether it is Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” which talks about a dystopian where women are taken as an Object to played with, well we can never forget that holocaust literature which made us more emotional and sentimental when we watched the movie “Book Thief”.

Our childhood was like a sweet dream which was incomplete without those fairy tales of Cinderella and beauty and the beast which enlightened us with all the moral values.

Hence, there is no conclusion of how movies and literature are excellently mending with each other and providing us the finest edition of the whole thing. This not only keeps our literature preserved but also protected with increasing fandom with the young audiences.

Language is Man-made, not “Human Made”!

This is a very simple title, yet a major loophole that our society is facing for many decades. This is not about giving rights to a specific gender but the suppressions which a language creates in the backdrop of society and makes it a center of concern. Never thought language can create such discrimination against two genders.

In colloquial context we see that every day we speak our language and communicate flawlessly yet we never recognized the ocean of problem which a language brings every day.

Profoundly, the title itself gives us the best example as to how we use the word “Manmade”, linguistically whenever a thing is made by a human it is denoted as manmade. But the question here arrives is that why don’t we spell it as human-made?

There are many endless words where the wordings are based on one gender-biased, for say: countrymen, mankind, etc and mostly these words denote men and women were often neglected or ignored since the formation of words.

“Language has always been a media through which many cultures and communities bounded and created a sense of harmony with each other”.

Whereas we can notice that Gender Discrimination has always been a core of fear since civilization. It has become one of the cliché topics when it comes to feminism and cause of this people are ignorant as they assume that the world is changed and there is no more discrimination in today’s society.

Taking back to the advent of the problem we can observe that many writers, critics have battled to always protect the women community as they are always considered the “weaker section of the society”. We can’t deny this fact but, inevitably, they are still subjected when it comes to literature and language.

How Women are Neglected by Language as Language reflects Patriarchal world:

She says, “Women can either read and choose to stay trapped in their bodies by a language that does not allow them to express themselves, or they can use the body as a way to communicate.”
– Helene Cixous (in; “The Laugh of Medusa” )

This very quote is taken from the famous article written by a critic, writer, and feminist; Helene Cixous who has explained how a woman had gone through repression in history and how literature and language had given an upper hand to the men in society to suppress women.

In “The Laugh of Medusa”, she explains how women should find their voice and the Language is the symbol of how a person portrays themselves. “Writing is for you, you are for you, your body’s yours, take it”. This line highlights that it’s high time that women should raise their head and minds and be themselves by being flawlessly independent and break the walls which portray women as fragile and frail.

The author claims that there is a very close relationship between women’s bodies and their writings and both have been repressed by men for centuries. Literature, in particular, explains to us how women as a writer were hard for the audience to accept them due to cultural prejudices laid against them since ages.

Writers like Virginia Woolf show us the patriarchal world through one of her works namely “Room of one’s own” through the lens of all the women present in the world and the problems they go through.

“A Woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”. This quote is quite relatable for the women of contemporary society, but this was a major issue which women of the 18^th and 19^th centuries were facing, to be independent they always needed acceptance to flourish in their fields and for that, they always needed acceptance which was a great hurdle in their lives. For their personal growth, they were bounded to be under 4 walls and do all sorts of wifely duties which gave the society that women are doing dutiful jibs under their husbands present.

But unfortunately, those women were never accepted who was unique and out of the box because society was not people’s perspective, rather it was the male perspective.

Even in “Room of one’s own”, Woolf mentions Judith Shakespeare ( was considered as Shakespeare’s real sister), her character portrays us the devastation a woman goes through while struggling for getting justice.

It also portrays us that many decades of literature didn’t accept women’s works as they were not considered as talented and rather, they were judged based on patriarchal society.

Females were Disowned yet contributed best Literature:

As when we look into 18^th century British literature, we can see that several female writers have given an immeasurable piece of works which is still remarkable to date.

It would be a disgrace if we forget to mention Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Virginia Woolf, who were the pillars of 18^th-century literature. Whether it is a broody romantic novel of wuthering heights or it is jane Eyre, every writer has spilled their hearts and provided the real situation of women in the era.

Some great writers are unforgettable like J.K Rowling who made us believe in fantasy and made childhood more fascinating by giving us Harry Potter which always provides us nostalgia going back to those days.

Unfortunately, these writers have always struggled to prove their identity to the world, that these immense writers like J.K.Rowling, Emily Bronte, had to change their names to get worldwide recognition. Even in the postmodern age, the situation didn’t change and the process of women hiding their originality, their names was like a custom they followed for ages.

But these female writers never let their readers down and always provided the best piece of art even having so many hurdles in their life.

It’s a long way to go, but still, the situation is better as women are gaining recognition and fame in society, the world, and literature through their masterpieces of works.

A Comparative Analysis on the Movie “Haider” and the Play “Hamlet”

An Introduction:

“Haider” is a movie based on the setting of the insurgency-torn Kashmir of 1995, where there was a massive dispute between India and Pakistan. This movie is an adaptation of one of the classic plays of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. Although the director Vishal Bhardwaj tried to portray the original play as it is with excellent cinematography but there are several incidents which contrast with the play, but many instances make this movie worth being called an adaption of the Shakespearean play.

The contrast in setting:

If we begin with the setting of Hamlet, we see it begins in the ancient fortress of Denmark in the late middle ages of the 14th and 15th centuries. Whereas in the Movie Haider, Set in Srinagar in 1995, during militancy and a brutal Indian counter-insurgency. The setting itself changes a lot of cultural and linguistic widegap that made the play and movie different.

The contrast in Cultural, linguistic, and Religion:

Since Haider is a Bollywood movie and the director tried to make this movie in favor of the Indian audience to make it more likable and hit it was essential to be relatable to the Indian context. When we investigate Hamlet, it has all those autocratic lives of kings and queens and has a lavish livelihood.

Linguistically also there is a widening between the 2 as one is in Hindi with a mixture of Urdu dialects, whereas Hamlet is in old English which also shows that the movie is culturally different in all terms.

Hamlet has been portrayed through the Reflection of Christianity, on the other hand, Haider portrays the political mishappen with Islamic reflection.

At certain times when there is a contrast in culture and norms the effects are often visible and here there are certain differences in the plot whereas the relationship is portrayed in both.

In context to Plot:

There are several events that have been edited in the movie from the play. Such as the major ones counted as: The play shows us the King of Denmark is already dead and the ghost of King Hamlet tells the truth to Prince Hamlet about his murder, as when we investigate the movie it is the character Roohdaar who tells Haider about the culprit of his father’s murder.

Also, the relationship between Gertrude and hamlet is not much affectionate as the way it is shown in the movie about Haider and Ghazala.

All Shakespearean Tragedy Plays has this element of all the characters die in the end. But in the movie, we see that some of the characters like Roohdaar, Khurram, and Haider himself were alive in the end.

If we compare the Themes then substantially all the themes like Revenge, Corruption, Religion, Politics, women, Madness Vs. Sanity is the major theme portrayed in the movie exactly like the play.

One of the most striking scenes is the equivalent of the “to be or not to be” scene in Shakespeare. Haider turns the “to be or not to be” soliloquy into a confessional and motivational speech in front of a crowd in the market square. It is decidedly more public and more political. He uses the hangman’s rope around his neck as an imaginary microphone. Haider also carries a boom box with a cassette player. The first question he poses points to an existentialist inquiry: “Hello, mike testing 1, 2, 3. Hello. Can you hear me?” Like Hamlet, Haider has longed to be heard. He urges the crowd to reflect on Kashmir’s political crisis: “Do we exist or do we not? Chutzpah is our problem.”

Haider Vs Hamlet – A contrast to the Characters:

Hamlet Vs. Haider: looking into the character analysis of the play Hamlet, prince hamlet is an idealistic knowledgeable person who is very Melancholy, cynical in nature and is having a huge amount of Hatred for his own uncle Claudius who has married his mother Gertrude and hamlet has a repulsion towards his mother’s sexuality.

A similar portrayal is in the movie where Haider is a student of “Revolutionary poets of British India” who studies at Aligarh University comes to find his Missing Father (Doctor Hilaal Meer), there he comes to know about his Mother Ghazala having illegitimate affair with his own uncle Khurram.

We can bring to a point that both Haider and Hamlet are closely similar in their character whereas due to some contrast in the context both the characters differ in some situations, but one thing is certain is about both characters becoming insane and the theme of sanity vs madness gives highlight due to the death of king hamlet/Dr.Hilaal Meer.

Ophelia Vs. Arshia: Since the play/movie is also about the tender love story of Haider- Arshia/hamlet- Ophelia, this portrays the role of love which leads to the death of people due to the brutal conspiracies done by Polonius and Claudius for taking an avenge from prince hamlet. Love is taken as a key to a dark plot of killing hamlet by making Ophelia as a medium/ messenger of hamlet.

The same plot goes into Haider too where Arshia was a journalist and was in love with Haider, but her love became a tragedy where her own father Parvez used her daughter to keep a track of her whereabouts of Haider when he was trying to find his father’s murderer.

Both Arshia/Ophelia can be a contrast because Arshia on the one side was a stern woman who took her own stand despite all the barriers of her being a woman in a patriarchal world, whereas Ophelia was very sensitive, and a woman suppressed by other men and did what her father told her to do.

In the end, both die out of the madness of losing their father and love at the same time and commits suicide.

Claudius Vs. Khurram: The evil of the play who dies in the end, whereas in the movie he does not, as Haider changes his ideology for not killing his uncle due to his mother notions that “Intekaam se Intekaam Paida hoti Hai!” In the play and the movie Claudius/Khurram is the one with all sinister mind and political ambitions who wanted to kill his own Nephew and wanted to have full rights on Ghazala/Gertrude. His lust for women and power goes in the end when he was in the verge to die.

Polonius Vs. Parvaze: Father of Ophelia/Arshia who was good close friend of Claudius/ Khurram and was giving a prominent contribution in the dark conspiracy made by Claudius, but later gets mistakenly killed by Hamlet when hamlet losses his sanity. Polonius had the greed of power and money and was as sinful as his friend Claudius.

Parvez in the movie was the police inspector which was helping Khurram with his own daughter Arshia who was in extreme love with Haider.

Gertrude Vs. Ghazala: Married to the new king of Denmark who was hamlet’s uncle. Often as a woman there where many questions raised on her married and love life as she remarried a man which was against the ethics and she had a very fragile relationship with her own son Hamlet, and they did not have an ideal mother son relationship.

In the movie, we see that Ghazala and Haider had an affectionate relationship despite all the hatred between them in the end Ghazala even sacrificed her life for Haider by killing herself with a bomb explosion.

Roohadaar: He was an ISI agent but considered to be the ghost of hamlet and in the play, we do not have any character related to Roohdaar as the ghost of king hamlet himself tells the truth to prince hamlet about his brutal murder, whereas in the movie Roohdaar and the militant group himself tells the murder of the doctor.

Indeed, he was a good friend of the doctor and was in the prison with the doctor and he was the messenger to stimulate an urge of hatred in Haider’s mind towards his own uncle.

Horatio (A good friend of Hamlet): This character is missing in the movie as he was a good friend and played a positive supportive role for hamlet. Also, a reason why the movie and play are somewhat out of context from each other due to some change in the character appearance.

Fortinas: A close acquaintance of hamlet who had faced the same pain of losing father just like hamlet, but we do not know which character will fit the best for this. so, we can consider that this character is not available in the movie as Haider in the movie was often a loner in the movie and beacme distant from his close ones in the later part of the movie.

Conclusion:

Though the tale is somewhat similar in the movie and play but also certain characters and stories are invisible as this makes the movie or the play incomplete. Since it is an adaption so we cannot expect to be the twin of each other.

From in critic’s point of view, this movie can be rated 7.5/10 as it has all those elements of Shakespearean plays and the cinematography of Vishal Bhardwaj which is perfectly splendid!

Taken all the consideration the story is well portrayed in the movie in spite of all the cultural and religious differences with all those political contexts.

Themes of Revenge, women, corruption, religion, politics, madness are common in both the movie and play.

“Jojo Rabbit” – A Humurous,Holocaust Movie !

Literature and the Holocaust –

Recollecting those distressing periods of all times in the world of history, where the Holocaust is considered one of the most prominent events which is still a devastating wound to the Human community. Especially, One of the most terrorizing historical traumas for the Jews.

Profoundly, any form of Art: Literature, Films, etc have held their back and portrayed Nazism and the terrified rule of Adolf Hitler which is famously a topic when discussed Communism. Majorly the movies had contributed their best and still giving the audience a piece of vibrant information about the politics, social life of that time of Nazi protocol.

“Heil Hitler”! – The Autocratic power of Hitler:

The movie begins with the background music of the song “The Beatles’ Komm gib mir Deiner Hand (the German version of their smash single I Wanna Hold Your Hand). This shows us how the Protagonist (JoJo Betzler) who is a kid of 10yrs and Appears on the screen dressed up with the uniform of Scouts of Germany which is a dress commonly for the Young boy who is trained for the war.

Imaginary Friend Hitler: We see that the movie starts where JoJo is Practicing being strong and confident and saying Heil Hitler to his friend Hitler himself – (Heil Hitler was the word people used to wish each other as a greeting purpose) This symbol presents us that Hitler was the god Figure for Germany.

Brainwashing young minds of Germany: Many instances from the movie portray us how the young children were brainwashed and made them the ardent follower of Adolf Hitler. “The Weekend Training of boys’ and girls’’ in the movie where boys were taught to be tough and made ready for the war, whereas the girls were trained to be like a woman and teach the nursing skills if men get injured in war.

Events like, “Burning of books” – A real incident where the kids are trained to burn all books and literature of the Jews. These young minds are taught at schools about the Jews and how much they are not good for the world. Hitler politically tried to depress the Jews with his young generation of Germany so that this war will continue till the end.“Burning of Books” is commonly referred in Holocaust literature which happened during Hitler reign where Nazi Germany main motive was to make german literature flourish by supressing Jew literature.

Structure of the house: The structure of the house, people, and the lifestyle portrayed in the movie is the same as people at the time of Nazi Germany lived.

Theme: A pervasive theme in the film is that of the Nazi party and their anti-Semitic and oppressive regime. The film’s protagonist, JoJo, wants badly to fit in with his fellow Nazis and to ascend the ranks of the party, becoming a soldier.

Johanna Betzler, (Mother of JoJo): She was the fiercest woman who raised his son alone while her husband was at war. She was secretly keeping a Jew at her house in the attic, which her son later got to know, and his life became upside down after the Jew girl’s arrival. The mother was Anti- Nazi and hated wars, this trait of her gave her death at the end, and she tried to raise his son just like her, but his son became just like the other boy of his age who was anti–Jew. Usually we come across certain movies and literature with holocaust elements have this setup of attic where the jews are hidden by there friends as not all germans were bad!

Relationship of Jew and Nazi: The movie represents us how a Jew and Nazi lived under one roof and the differences in their mindsets made them different. But it’s fun watching if you would like a light-hearted, comedy movie with the real events of Nazi conspiracies held onto it. In particular, this movie is best for children to make them understand about friendship, love , life and compatibility in different types of relationships.

Conclusion: Well, it is worth watching this movie as it not only provides us information about Nazi Germany but also gives us the message of “An Anti-hate satire,” “Jojo Rabbit” seeks to strike a delicate balance in using a Hitler-obsessed boy – during Nazi Germany’s final throes. Love, war, Trust, and friendship are also important themes that can be taken into consideration.

“Jojo Rabbit “, is one of the best Holocaust movies which are portrayed with all the fine lines between Nazi Germany and the Jews. The dialogues by each Character make them unique in their own way as all of them are portraying the audience of that period who were under the grip of Adolf.

Abandonment of Human and onset of Fractured family in the Novel: “The Metamorphosis”- By Franz Kafka

Devastation in a life of a Human being comes in various versions which ultimately hollows a person psychologically, emotionally, and sometimes physically too. Kafka’s one of the most popular novellas to date is “Metamorphosis”, which is the best example of Human abandonment from their own society. This novella portrays how a human is outcasted by their own family and left to die.

A Tragic Story of Gregor Samsa –

The Novella begins with a setting of a bedroom where the protagonist is first introduced to the readers, as “Gregor Samsa”, who wakes up from his bed and sees himself transformed into a bug which brings him into a state of perplexing situation of his sudden body changes. He started to anticipate many assumptions of what had really happened to his body in one night but he failed in vain with the running thoughts.

Gregor Samsa was a salesman and a sole breadwinner who had a bunch of family responsibilities piled upon him. Even in the state of his physical transformation, he was concerned about his job and how would he be able to go to his office and catch his train at 7am.

Shock to the family –

When Gregor’s family members came to know about his physical transformation there were abashed and terrified by his transformation and avoided him mostly due to his nasty appearance. They were least bothered about Gregor, rather they were trying to avoid him by looking in this room and treating him like a real bug. Gregor’s father who never had any emotion and concern for his son only treated Gregor as someone who is paying off his debts. Gregor’s mother who loved Samsa dearly couldn’t be able to see his own son’s face as he looked disgusting and she was horrified with his appearance.

The only member who had a little bit of concern was Grete ( Sister of Gregor), who used to feed food to Samsa, but later on, in the story, she also loses interest in taking care of his own brother.

Family becomes Rebellious and Abandons Gregor :

This novella highlights the Fractured Family Relationships and the ill consequences which happened to Gregor after his transformation. His family, in particular, treated him like a disgusting insect which they wanted to get rid of, as the days were passing, Gregor who was once taking the responsibility for every member of his family now became a burden to them.

His father, Mr. Samsa even tried to kill Gregor with an apple, as he hated his own son so much. His mother though loved his son so much but never tried to visit him due to his condition.

The transformation was just a physical pain to Gregor, but the emotional and mental pain he received from his own family who was betraying him every day and alienated him in the end.

Tragic death Of Gregor:

“He thought back of his family with emotion and love. If it was possible, he felt that he must go away even more strongly than his sister. He remained in this state of empty and peaceful rumination until he heard the clock tower strike three in the morning. He watched as it slowly began to get light everywhere outside the window too. Then, without his willing it, his head sank down completely, and his last breath flowed weakly from his nostrils.”

This quote mainly reflects the tragic death of Gregor which created a sense of happiness for his family members. Profoundly, Grete is portrayed as responsible for Gregor’s death, but as we look into the story, we can’t blame only one character as responsible for his death, it is the whole family which should be blamed. Gregor was suffering from a state of identity crisis which brought his suicidal thoughts.

If we look into the story from a critical point of view, we can find that Gregor was depressed and was suffering from a breakdown. Unlike, other men of his age, he was different, he never enjoyed his life and never went to hang out with his friends, rather he was a workaholic and loner who used to be distant from socializing.

As we look into the story, Gregor died in his own room due to the burdensome of his own existence. His family made him feel like an outcast who should be dead and that made him demotivated to even live in this world.

His death was tragic because he died emotionally, mentally and when he was dead from inside his physical state couldn’t bear his body and left him abandoned, so he died tragically.

The ill fate of Gregor – An Alienated living being.

Gregor as a young salesman and even as a son, brother played all of his responsibility in an admirable way, he never disappointed anyone but rather always worked hard in spite of any situations.

When his life became upside down when he became a bug and his transformation made him realize that he has no one in this real world. His family was a mirage of happiness that abandoned him in the end. All his family urged was the money. They were happy with Gregor till he was capable of earning, the day he was of no use his family changed their attitudes towards him which made Gregor feel alone.

The author tried to make understand through the situation of Gregor to his readers that, when a person is physically able, they are treated as a prominent part of the society, but when they have any flaws or deficits in their body, they are discriminated against by there looks and appearances and left alone by criticizing and judging them, which makes the person hollow from inside.

A fractured family basically lives a materialistic life where emotions and understanding are not prominent instead there is always a motive of taking advantage of each other. Gregor’s family were money-oriented people who only urged for money and not didn’t worried about Gregor’s crisis he was going through.

Metamorphosis is the best work Novella which tells about Humans and their family relationships that, if a person is dead their life doesn’t stop as like the flowing water their life moves on and people forget there past like the dawn of other days.

Holocaust in children’s Literature in the Novel – The Book Thief

“It was a place nobody wanted to stay and look at, but almost everyone did. Shaped like a long, broken arm, the road contained several houses with lacerated windows and bruised walls. The Star of David was painted on their doors. Those houses were almost like lepers. At the very least, they were infected sores on the injured German terrain.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

In reference to the novel, The Book Thief written by Markus Zusak which is a Young Adult Fiction and Historical Fiction by Genre gives us a clear image of the best classical works found in the literature. Markus has portrayed a beautiful story about a girl named Liesel Meminger, which is also the protagonist of the story. In which “Death” himself is the narrator and portrays us the beautiful relationship of a Foster Father and daughter.

Foster parenting is most fragile and negative but living in an environment where the background shows us the Nazi Germany War and the Autocratic power of Hitler and suppression of the Jews and the incidents of the holocaust, war and Violence may often haunt and be Depressing for the young Readers.

Why holocaust in children’s Literature?

Here the question raises about Markus is why he used Holocaust in children’s Literature?

The reason can be numerous, but the fine line of choosing the holocaust and Hitler was the prominent and best option because of the reason that Adolf Hitler himself targeted young minds to brainwash them by all political conspiracies against the Jewish people. This fact should be considered prominent, and the young generation of contemporary society should well know about holocaust literature.

Markus Zusak has explained the story of the book thief(Liesel Meminger) who was 10 years old girl living in Nazi Germany with her foster parents. Markus specifically took Liesel as a girl character to explain the scenario of children living in Nazi Germany.

The book Thief novel presents us the elements of contemporary issues in which a girl develops her emotional, physical, mental, cognitive skills and IQ skills with a presence of an ideal father.

Most Prominently, the novel is a complete package of love, friendship, hate, war, suppression under Hitler are the major themes found among them.

Holocaust – A deadly topic among children

Although, Holocaust is one of those terrible historical events which is still a heated topic and gives us goosebumps even to the adult readers. So the question that arises is how Markus have been able to make this as a children’s knowledge and bring the serious topic as an interesting genre among young readers . The answer is simple, as the book is enough to tell anyone why it’s been one of the classic books in the field of literature with a perfect balance of Emotional and feel-good genres.

The Book Thief –

The story is about a 10 yr. an old girl named Liesel Meminger, whose life was always a series of miserable life as she lost his brother at the beginning of the story and her own mother abandoned her and was kept under foster care.

Unlike other foster parents, rosa, her foster mother was always a rude mother who was always strict with her, but definitely her life was beautiful and contended because she had a foster father named; Hans Huberman, who always motivated her to read books and learn new vocabulary.

The whole book is set under the regime of Nazi Germany where it is all about children and their lives out there, where Liesel met many people like; Max ( A Jew, who was hidden in the attic), Rudy( His best friend), Illa ( The commander wife, who used to be good companion of Liesel in her reading time).

Liesel’s life has always been tragic because she was always welcomed by grief, remorse and death. She lost many close people in her life due to death, and that is the reason death as a narrator quotes that: “I’ve touched Liesel many times, but her soul always lets me allow her to live more”. Liesel in the end becomes a successful writer and her journey as a writer explains to us how tragic her whole life was.

Elements of Nazi Germany-

The whole Book portray us the background of which the whole novel was based, as Jewish were beaten, the burring of books, max as a Jewish hiding in the attic, Hans going to war, Young boys enthusiastic and idolising Hitler these are elements in the book portray us the condition of Nazi Germany.

The ending of the book is bit tragic as though she becomes a famous writer , but she lossses everyone in the end of the war. Her foster parents, best friend Rudy all dies and she is left alone. The Book Thief is a perfect blend of War and fragility of a little girl who suffered so much because of a war. This also shows us how death plays a major roles in a way and is always terrible with mortal humans.

Desertion of Lost artists in the Novella – The Artists of Disappearance by Anita Desai

Artists who create the magnificent form of artwork usually portray their inner personality in there all forms of art. They represent who they are, and how their psyche is. The creators of extraordinary art live a life of incompleteness, dullness, and hollowness within themselves.

Their creativity glorifies their inner self and how miserable their life is. All legendary wizards of art contribute incredible work despite having and living a horrible life. Whether it is Shakespeare who lost her 8yr old daughter, or whether it is Franz Kafka who had a fractured/failed relationship with his own father, or whether it is J.K. Rowling who had lived a miserable life striving between her failed career and failed family life while being a single mother, these all examples are basically the real lives of these great writers who imprinted their skills and printed their hands in the history of literature forever.

There are serval times when artists fail living in a complicated society when they are being judged and due to several cultural mishaps, which affect their lives. Likewise, The Novella “Artists of Disappearance” is one among them.

Artists of Disappearance – A Novella about unsuccessful Artists

This is a Novella, which is only one of its kind in its own way because this novel which has 3 novellas within it talks about what happens when the artists fail to satisfy their piece of art? How can an artist fail in his forte? For a writer/ or an artist the art is the reason why they survive in this uncanny world where there is a bridge between the writer and the injustices held against them, which ultimately oppose a writer to create their art! Readers will experience some kind of queries in their heads if they read these stories written by Anita Desai.

The writer had beautifully written these stories especially for the contemporary readers who are bustling their life and don’t have much time to read. But this Novella is amazing as all the 3 stories are somewhere relatable to readers of all ages.

“The Museum of Final Journey” –

This is the first novella of this book which is narrated by an unnamed Government bureaucrat who wanted to be a writer but unfortunately had to suppress his long writing career due to his father’s dream and expectation of his son to follow his footsteps and become a govt bureaucrat. As the story moves forward, we see that in the later years of the life of the narrator when he was a junior official and was posted into one of the remote areas, he describes his past experience as a flashback to the readers.

His experience was something which brought him in a state of apathy when one day an old man who was the caretaker of the “Mukherjee estates” came to the office for a favor to rescue the treasures of the states as some people were stealing it and disrespecting those precious things by exporting it to other countries. The Museum, which was now an abandoned museum for the residents living there, still had authentic elements present in it.

As the narrator quotes that: “While others dreamt dreams and lived lives of imagination and adventure, my role was only to take care of the mess left by them.” When the official comes in counter with the museum, he realizes the art and his life, his life is rusty and mundane like the dust-covered on the treasure’s museum, even if he tries to save the estate the art will be auctioned by other greedy people. When the artist dies, the art is never protected rather it becomes a means for greedy people to fulfill their needs.

The narrator finds himself and the Museum similar and ended his story by having this grief that he should have followed his dream, yet he was a failed writer whose life was hollowed and gloomy.

“Translator, Translated” –

Another story of a journey of a Failed writer, who is the protagonist of the story, named “Prema”, whose life was miserable and uncertain. She lived a mundane life as an English professor in a girl’s school where her own students mocked her and criticized her due to her appearance and her age. She didn’t have any goal and she always compared and envied her life with others, especially with one of her school acquaintances “Tara” who was now an editor head in a feminist publishing company.

When these 2 characters collide in one of the school programs, Tara allowed her to do a translating job. Initially, Prema’s journey as a translator was like a “Carousel”, but things fall apart when she tried to translate an Oriya book written by Suvarna Devi into English which later on ended her writer career ultimately.

Translating is a form of art that depends on how the translator deals with the language and brings the best piece of all. It becomes a sentimental concern if the translated work is not satisfied by the readers. This is what happened in the end, as her translated book didn’t receive much appreciation and in the end, Prema lost her dream to become an eminent writer and went back to her mundane life of being an English professor.

Her failure proves to us that, as the art fairs, the artists die! As the artist in Prema was dead when the art didn’t flourish. Her ability to write was dead when she drained by her own skills and failed with her own existence as an artist.

“The Artist of Disappearance” –

This is the title story of the novella with a protagonist named “Ravi” who had an unfortunate life who had been adopted at a very young age by a very wealthy couple. Even living in a mansion which was located at the foothills of the Himalayas, he never loved his life as his life was not peaceful like the other kids of his age. He had neglected parents who used to beat him up and used to leave him and traveled to Europe without having any concern for their son.

He was always caged in the house and what he always wanted is “Freedom”. This is what every artist wants to be free from the clutches of society, to think freely and exploring themselves.

In a fire accident when he lost his parents, he became to be with himself away from the social life and created much great artwork in his own house. His artwork was so much amazing that people who were filming near the village wanted to expose his work but he denied it and wanted to live an isolated life with his art.

The last story of Ravi proves that an artist is always attached to his work and never wants to leave it. Whether they fail or flourish, art is the reason which keeps them alive.

Though unnamed official, Prema and Ravi failed, their failures in there art form kept them alive from this undeserving world where they are not accepted for their art and yet these artists choose a life living in uncertainty with a certainty of hope hidden in their hearts and that surely one day they will reach their destination.

DIFFICULT ROADS OFTEN LEADS TO BEAUTIFUL DESTINATION…

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“When Everything seems against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it” – Indeed, there’s isn’t a life where difficulties and struggles don’t come.

Someone rightly said, ‘‘If you don’t face any problem in a day, that means you are on a wrong path’’ We often say this proverb about struggles of life. Life is like a roller-coaster, it excites with all those fun frolic jovial moments to distressing moments in our life. Life is incomplete without failure and struggles.

Be a man with honesty and hard work, as it will give us a fruitful life ahead. “A man who struggles will always be the most ideal person in his life”. Life is full of opportunities and risks. In the process of achieving something we all have to sacrifice something, either it is your friends, family, or your loved ones.

‘‘Life is a tree, the more you give efforts by watering your knowledge, skills, talent, and hard work, the more successful we will be in our life.“

There’s isn’t anything in the whole universe that we are not capable of! We will surely meet people in this process of our life who will let us demoralize or maybe manipulate us from our originality.

Always remember at the end of the day, it only you! There is no we, no us, and no everyone. Either it is a professional or personal life, never let yourself down, in the meantime never lose yourself! The most precious thing in the whole world is yourself, we all are unique in our own ways, our originality is the reason why we are existing.

To reach the destinations, one should pull off, all the hurdles by keeping faith in themselves. Life is really beautiful if you are strong enough to face the harsh reality. It’s not a fairy tale, where we are dependent on someone, there is no “The one”. It is you and your hard work!

Your endurance and your perseverance will make you a man of strength.

“Hope” is one of the most crucial elements presents in everyone which will always make you feel alive. To ponder or to achieve any kind of destination a hope is really important one should have within themselves.

Following your dreams and career doesn’t mean that one should be egocentric or selfish! Taking care of yourselves and your loved ones is really important. because we should make a world full of love and belongingness. Loving yourself is the foremost thing which is needed in any kind of dream to conquer! If one doesn’t have any self-confidence in themselves then, no goal can be achieved!

In the space of the difficult roads (i.e.; tour struggles, sufferings, breakdowns) and beautiful destination (your end goal), there is always a transparent line where your happiness is invisible. It is visible to only one who wants to enjoy their lives.

Any Path of life becomes more Fascinating if it has all emotions amalgamated in this beautiful journey of struggle and sacrifices. At the end of the destination, one should always be true to themselves because self-honesty will make us a man of worth. Remember we all are humans with imperfectness inscribed within us since we are born, so we all have certain faults that sometimes affect our struggling life, but one should always remember that the perfect life will never be as great if life has imperfectness in it. So, live your life according to yourself, because ultimately it is you and your beautiful destination!

Is Literature taking us away from the real world?

It is always considered that the people always acknowledge “ what is actual and reasonable” and in this instance often the imaginative world is denied by them!

“Literature is not only a branch of academia which people are fond of for centuries but it has further become into a subject of the matter when it comes to fiction”. It is often unvalued by the fact that literature provides an absurd approach to the other branches of the world that believes in science and not in magical elements.

The fact that one should always remember is that the essence of literature is never gone even in spite of so many prejudices against it. Great writers Like John Donne, William Shakespeare, Rabindranath Tagore have upheld the pride of literature by their beautiful works.

Literature – A Backbone of the Inner society!

A very famous quote of all, which we have known for ages; “Literature is a mirror of society”, yet we forget this quote because non- Literature people are not very fond of poetry, essays, and novels. But one must know that Literature is not only a place for fictional lovers but also provides a reality of the real world.

Taking back to Chaucer’s age when writing was not so popular, yet “Canterbury Tales” was written and unexpectedly it turned out to be the legendary piece that literature holds to date. Being one of the best pieces of all, Canterbury tales was the background of the 14th-century society of England where people believe in god and considered god above humans.

When the English renaissance came people started to believe among themselves and considered humans and humanists as the great topic and wrote about them and their lives.

The whole background history is found in those classical works in the form of so called “Literature works”.

Now when people talk about the history and the consequences of the wars, it is literature that has preserved the whole history in several kinds of books that are cherished and protected by them who understood the purity of literature.

Every drop of works is poured into the petals of history and preserved by these eminent writers who contributed their emotions and portrayed the society of that era through their writings and contributed to the ocean of literature.

For some it’s a “Myth” :

There are several ideologies and theories are done in the matter of literature and they proved that literature is a myth as it doesn’t belong any place in the real world! So the question that arrives here is , what do literarians, bibliophiles and the readers think about?

This is a very controversial concern, as for some “Literature is an emotion which should be presevered for the coming eras, It is something to be conserved so that the coming generation would know the aesthetics of emotions, culture and people“.

As the days are going by, the essence of humanity is decreasing day after the other, but certain emotional norms are still alive holding up because of literature, it is because of Great works like “Romeo and Juliet”, “Pride and Prejudice”, “Wuthering Heights”, that people still believe in love and its pure existence between two people. Even in this era where people are having an ill-fated relationship and are doomed by their own actions still believe that there are certain emotions present In them.

The world is a better place if people love each other and live in harmony. It is literature that teaches that still we all are humans and we should accept the fact that not everywhere facts and logical explanations are approved, rather it is emotional evidence that is more prominent.

Its time to save literature!

Every branch of academia is relevant in some way or the other which provides us the reality check of various elements present in the world , among them literature is one of them which still is remembered and exists in our society due to the tremendous works done by the crafters of literature ( The writers, poets).

Hiding it or erasing it would never be a good thing to do, as aestheticism always protected these works and still popular among people who believe in fantasy and poetry. It is rather a sense a catharsis which each reader goes through which is written by these dead writers.

Though the artists die, the art remains forever! Likewise, The art of literature can never be faded because the artist’s art is immortal, all we have to respond that we as ardent readers should make this immortal art live for many centuries and should never let them fade away in spite of any circumstances which the worlds demand us to do.

The wise always choose the pen, not the war!

“Pen isn’t mightier than the sword.
Pens don’t win battles, and swords don’t Write Poetry.
Mighty is the Hand that knows when to pick the pen and
When to pick the sword!”

Thousands of stories, incidents, events are flourished beautifully with some splashes of ink. Indeed, a pen holds up a power which humans will never have. Everyone wants to be powerful in some way or the other. It can be physically, financially, politically, etc but we all need power because we are convicted to the clichéd topic of “When a man is in power, he is the strongest of all”. It’s our fault that we have created a world where a lion is considered to be the king of the jungle. We have made the world believe that power plays a major role. But have we ever thought that power can lie in the hands of humans?

Power is in our hands!

The strongest are those vintage philosophers and poets, who have a pen with them. Yes, a pen is all we need to be powerful. But how can a tiny pen be so powerful in this whole universe? Ever pondered about those passionate writers of the 18th century, of Victorian-era who still captivate us by telling the class condition and women suppression in that time.

Ever thought about how those writers like Sadat Hasan Manto, Khushwant shah, Ismat Chugtai taught us the value of freedom and sufferings. What made Shakespeare mend to write about the most legend love story of Romeo and Juliet, when he knew it was a time of class distinction. All these eminent writings, poetry which we read now is the power of a pen which amazed the readers of all time.

Pen is a medium

Ink has always been the best media to convey the real scenario of society. The writers have effortlessly portrayed to us how a pen is always mightier than a sword. A pen will always show us the mirage of the real society, where we live. We as a reader forecast many experiences when we read the truth. The authority is with all of us but only some chose a way to remove the disputes and that is through writing. A spot of ink has the power to removes the gap of social norms and customs from our society.

It unites!

Wars, disputes, riots always bridge a gap among humans, but a pen always unites people and their thoughts and believes. Society is filled with humans who are more affected by the glimpse of writing. As people believe in the power of words. Those who know to play with words always win. We have created a society where we have made certain beliefs’ which are not accepted by all and we have been following an age-old system where power is everything. So, it’s time to break those barriers of conventions and realize the reality of words.

Pen and readers are bonded of each other!

The power of the pen is so powerful that it can convey to the audience easily. The pen and the readers are 2 parts of a coin. The audience gets related because of the commendable expression which makes a reader and a pen get bound to each other. Immensely a pen and a reader are bounded emotional with those flickering words which string to their minds.

How Reading can be an Obsession for Creative Minds

“ A reader travels a world of visionary thoughts where his real self creates an extraordinary idol of thoughts without being judged and scared which they can’t do in the real world”.

The above quote straightaway refers to a person who is fascinated with books or popularly known as a “Bibliophile” in today’s era. Often, we as non-readers don’t even consider reading as a daily habit because we are so much absorbed with our bustling life that reading is merely a tedious job and a waste of time.

We have dwelled our body and mind into the materialistic things of the world and in that process, we don’t even invest 1% in self-productivity. Self-Productivity is one of the significant elements in which we all as humans lack in and therefore, the ones who accomplish by being self-productive reach their destination of living a successful life. The moto of our rustic life is also to become productive in our jobs and careers rather than being focused on ourselves.

Reading is not only a key to the unexplored ideas of great thoughts, but it is also a doorstep to explore yourself. Still, you might be reluctant with my perspective of reading books, so let’s give you some major reasons as to what happens if you have reading as a daily habit:

You have a Critical Mindset: When you start thinking out of the box, your mindset and persona are broadened. The more you read the better you will understand yourself. Reading is just not only mere streaming of words by your brain and mind, but it also provides a quick start for your inner mind to think critically.

Reading is like watering your mind and soul to grow in a fruitful manner. So, watering your plants daily provides the roots to live a long time, similarly, reading every day is like you are watering your soul, mind, and thoughts with a decent quality of information that will help you think critically in any situation.

Bingo! Having a critical mind will make your perspective for your life in a different way. The way we think is the way we, our thoughts develop and so our life provides experiences accordingly.

Reading equals No Insomnia: Another prominent cause which we humans face in this era is having sleep problems and living an unhealthy life. Lack of sleeping also gives birth to other sicknesses like depression, anxiety, obesity, etc.

We are addictive to so much of tech life that we have started to ignore ourselves and our body which faces certain inconvenience which occurs by our ignorance towards our body. Spending so much time on social media and scrolling till 2 am makes our eyes tired but still we continue to scroll up. Staying awake makes us insomniacs, that we feel lethargic and drowsy the whole day.

But have you ever tried reading a book, instead of using your phones? Reading is the best medicine to cure your insomnia because when you develop a good reading habit then you dedicate your whole brain and concentration to reading which will help you to sleep faster in no time.

Hence, reading is also a secret to living a long and happy life as it inculcates certain elements that you only experience if you are an ardent reader.

Reading welcomes all sorts of readers! : Most of the times, the non-readers don’t believe that reading is their cup of tea and give up easily due to the fact that, they don’t connect themselves. But one must know that there are several types of genres and sections in books which is easily available and one can choose according to their taste for books.

Whether it is Fictional, Non- fictional, Biographical, Historical, etc, and to be surprised that there are many unexplored sections that are yet to discover. Reading is a vast ocean and when you pour yourself into it, you will recognize a radical change in your personality and your way of living life.

Finding a connection with the book also helps a person understand the book better and improve themselves better. While reading when a person goes through the process of catharsis; it also releases their emotional and mental stress.

Helps to Flush your Intrusive Thoughts: A very common tip to everyone: “When you overthink, write; and when you underthink then read and when you feel both then do both.

Reading is a mental therapy that will help you as a reader to get away from those intrusive thoughts which always make you distant from yourself. To avoid those unwanted emotions and thoughts which runs into your head, you must keep yourself with a good book and read it daily so that your mind will be occupied with a beautiful vibe of quality content.

Remember, whenever you have such an intrusive thought, it is better to do something that will provide your mind with something positive connection between you and the mind. In this instance, reading is one of them that will help you get away from those unwelcome thoughts.

It Boosts your Concentration: Reading can be one of those habits which will help to deal with a good concentration level in your everyday life. Your brain cells are often guided right when they are on the pages rather than being on addictive sites. These days, attractive sites are often a cobweb of distracting your mind by spending more time on these unwanted platforms which will reduce the creative level of our brains and the capacity to think precisely.

Technology advancement has taken the perks of pleasure reading, so in short, when we are reading books, we are helping our mind to focus on the book rather than on other elements.

In short, it’s better to meddle with books and travel each letter of the world through your fingertips rather than meddling with your brain to do unwanted misadventures. Therefore, one should prefer a book to read to keep yourself wise , knowledgeable and sane!

Why current Generation are more vulnerable to Mental Illness than their predecessors?

It is one of the inevitable topics of the millennial generation and that is, “Mental Illness”. It has become one of the terminal topics of all yet it’s high time to focus on our young minds!

So the question here is, why every fourth out of seven has a mental illness? Is it due to a new way of living life? Or is it the society? Well, we can’t blame society for every cause, right? Instead of living in a society, it is us who should be blamed. Yes, the destruction is due to unawareness which we didn’t appreciate.

These young minds are an asset to our bright future, but what they are suffering from is the worst disease of all. Medically, there is a cure to all sorts of diseases but the question is, where is the essence of this disease? Why is this happening in excess amount to our young buds? Here are some of the elements which can be the reasons for the illness present in our young minds :

Giving more priority to the unrealistic world of social media: Teenagers are the most popular groups of all ages who dedicate most of their time to social media and thus, for them, it’s ‘The second home’. They dwell so much in these media platforms that the unrealistic world makes them feel like it is reality.

Specially they tend to create fake personalities in front of their friends and colleagues and when they are avoided or not popular then they think of themselves as ‘worthless’.

It is highly observed that teenagers are dwelling so much into the ocean of social media life that; they start to judge themselves based on; number of likes they got, followers, and people’s comments. This makes them feel depressed and their minds start to break down in this fake world.

Many times, these youngsters are targeted and bullied on social media through certain comments and unknown threats that they don’t even communicate with their parents to provide no harm to their parents.

Fractured child-parent relationship: Contemporary parenting can be one of the elements which lead to their child to depression. Since parents are working 24/7, they don’t give much emphasis on their children and often there is a barrier of communication between the parent and child. Due to the unavailability of the parent’s presence, the child feels more ignorance and often lives in his/her thoughts which leads them to have a mental illness.

We can also see that; these ignorant kids are often lured to follow the wrong path which leads them to devastation as a result.

Academic pressures and Moral dilemmas: Kids these days are often pressurised by their parents to score high marks, study in a decent university, and earn pounds which will raise their status in society.

Often, due to this academic pressure children don’t feel themselves and rather they are distracted and even take difficult steps at a tender age. As we can see those suicides are due to academic pressures is in high rates which are also one of the common factors on the mental health in millennials.

Pandemic – A Misery to the Millennial generation: This is one of the latest reasons why kids these days feel depressed about the new normal. The social interactions which made them feel positive are gone in the realms of social distancing and quarantine.

Attending online classes is one of the tiring jobs also several factors for them not being productive and lack in the concentration of academia. This leads to a very high amount of stress as we are humans and when we are clutched or burdened in result we act opposite to it, so the impact of online classes makes them vulnerable when they are facing so many pressures at the same time.

Addiction leads to depression among youngsters: It is very unfortunate but a fact that the present generation youngsters face different types of addiction in different platforms and therefore they tag themselves as ‘FREAKS’; notably, these addictions vary from one kid to another, some are addictive to social media, some with games, some mislead their minds to pornography world and some are highly addictive towards drugs and sedatives, etc.

There are endless reasons why kids are being addictive but one of the central reasons is due to the exposure to technology at a very tender age. Often, they are misled by their friends and colleagues and due to fewer interactions with elders, they indulge themselves in these forms of bad impact on themselves.

The cure to the sickness among youngsters:

Every disease has a cure at its end and to find this cure is that we should look into the core or the root of the disease. As rightly said, love and acceptance is a human need. The kids these days need parent’s support and guidance and a sense of belongingness so that they wouldn’t feel they are alone.

To bring them to their right place it is the elders who can try some old traditions to introduce among the young minds and let them know about the authenticity of their predecessors. As being together, loving each other and living in harmony can make youngsters feel accepted and so the cause of this disease can soon end.

Youngsters on the other side can also sense their responsibility by being positive and having a good relationship with their family and creating kindness more instead of hatred.

“The Funny boy” – A Homosexual Novel of searching identity

“For me, growing up, I felt like there was something fatally and tragically flawed in my nature and that it was my duty to try to avoid falling for that vice”.
– Shyam Selvadurai

Certainly, we all as a human, face some sort of battle within ourselves, might be towards our identity or maybe our existence. The worst crisis any human can face is the crisis within him/herself. It is one of the dangerous crises any person goes through, and this is what the author Shyam Selvadurai had gone in his own life which he portrayed in the novel “Funny Boy” through the main protagonist “Arjun” aka “Arjie”.

The Funny Boy – A Background :

The novel evidently sets in the early 1980’s at the consequent of Sri Lankan civil war, which showcase us the disputes and riots of Tamil – Sinhalese Historical enmity towards each other. The novel is divided into 6 chapters, in which every chapter has its own uniqueness which makes the novel more explicit.

The 1^st chapter, “Pigs can’t fly”, begins with the Naïve life of the main character Arjie and his reminiscence of his childhood days, where he presents his own baffled thoughts of his own existence of, he being “Different” from other boys of his age. He was anxious and felt that his interests in playing with dolls and girls is a taboo for society whereas playing cricket will make him an ideal boy in the society.

“Life is full of stupid things and sometimes we just have to do them”, Arjie’s Amma says this to him when he refused to play with boys and instead, he likes to wear saree and play, “bride- bride” with his female cousins.

This shows us how this chapter portray us that our society is prejudice towards the gender norms in which all of us are distributed. In one of the incidents when the relatives of Arjie saw him wearing a saree , made him a center of laughter and mocked him by saying him “ Funny”, through which the author tried to showcase us that the third Gender in our society is considered as unethical or as a clown which is irrelevant to the society, namely the title of the chapter “Pigs can’t fly’’, presents us how people in our society don’t accept the people who belongs to the third gender as according to them, pigs represents the people who are transgenders or gay like Arjie are breaking the norms of the culture.

“Any war, riots or a sense of violence happens within the human minds, and politically, language and cultures drift us apart sometimes to establish a war”, this quote is well explained in the second chapter “Radha Aunty”, where this chapter explains us how casteism becomes a hurdle, when people fall in love.

They say that “If two people love each other, the rest is unimportant.”
“No, it isn’t. Ultimately, you must live in the real world.
And without your family you are nothing.”
The Funny Boy

By this quote, the author explains us the tragic love story of Radha Aunty and Anil Uncle who wanted to get marry, but the enmity and disbelief in both the communities of Tamil and Sinhalese made them apart! Indeed, this tragedy is obvious to show us the situation of the Sri Lankan civil war and the rules in which people were abused to be in. Incidents of Radha Aunty where she was brutally attacked by 2 Sinhalese people show us how threatening Humans were demons for each other.

“See no evil, hear no evil”, is the chapter 3 where show us one more Tragic incident happened with “Daryl Uncle”, we can say that the novel has a theme of failed love relationships, casteism, hatred, war, and disputes, as this chapter encloses about the incident of how Daryl uncle died or rather got murdered. It portrays us how violent was the time in columbo when the Journalist like Daryl uncle was abused and murdered.

In chapter 4, “Small Choices”, we get to know about Arjie’s feelings for the male character Jegan, who came to work in Appa’s hotel. This is the chapter where Arjie started to know about his identity but hide from the outer world as it was against the norms, which Arjie felt his feelings for men is Immorality. This chapter also counts about Anti- Tamilians and how these community was making a life miserable for the innocent people of Columbo.

Often, we know who we are, what is our identity, but because of the taboo inflicted in the society, we escape from our originality and behave as how the society wants to picture us. This is what Arjie was doing to be a normal ideal boy, but somewhere he was an abnormal boy (according to him) because of his gay feelings for the character Shehan in chapter 5, “The Best School of All “show us. When Arjie fell in love with Shehan, his perception for life and his ideology of his identity changed when he met shehan and shehan removed all the perplexed thoughts floating in the minds of Arjie. Shehan made Arjie realized that “We should ultimately know who we are! We should not hide identity from ourselves”. This is what made Arjie realize that he should respect himself and his identity. This was the chapter where he was not afraid of who he was and his sexual desires for Shehan was totally legit. In this chapter, Arjie was proud to be himself as a gay and his love for Shehan was compatible.

In “Riot Journal: An Epilogue’’ is the last chapter where Arjie wrote a journal on the effects and incidents of riots and its impact how ruined his life and lost his parents. The books end in a dismal and with a sense of alienation of Arjie and the tragic feelings inculcated and made him hollow.

Funny Boy – A Novel to explore one’s own identity !

Still unending war a human faces within himself/ Herself when it is about recognizing one’s own identity. We Humans have a psychology of hiding our real personality infront of other humans which is basically due to the age old cliché ideology of “Acceptance in the society”, due to which people hide there real self.

As Humans, we live in society and communities in which we have an urge of desire that we need love, cherishment, respect and acceptance in return, thus when we don’t get it we realize we are different from others, which ultimately makes us feel that we are an outcast from our society. so, as a part of community we behave as the world wants us to behave.

Whereas, “The Funny Boy” is the best novel of all which provides you that particular kind of Catharsis if you not aware of yourself!

So, a personal recommendation to the Bibliophile out there , Go check this Book which is not only a homosexual novel, but a novel which is Heartening and will open your insights to understand your real self.

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