“When are you getting married?”

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This is a question the young ‘eligible’ unmarried adults get asked once they cross a ‘certain’ age (at least in India). This question has been around for generations and never seems to get old. Most times they’re awkward, maybe sometimes they leave the young adults in abashment. Although they could often be annoying, with an evident unsolicited match-making intent.

Although the definition of marriage has remained the same, its meaning over time has changed. In the Indian context for example, categorizing marriages are ‘love marriage’ or ‘arranged marriage’ seems like a narrow perception if we go by the definition and history of love marriages and arranged marriages in India. An arranged marriage follows a process of marriage where there is match-matching by relatives, friends, acquaintances of the parents of the groom/bride, matrimonial guides, sites or priests. After the bride and groom meet, there is a courtship period. In the case of Hindus, horoscopes (and caste) are matched and considered crucial. Love marriages are ones where two consenting adults fall in ‘love’ and decide to get married.

Although the concept of a ‘love’ marriage seems pretty straight-forward, historically it was looked down upon in India and in some cases not allowed by the family and even considered dishonourable. This still exists in some regions of India. Eloping became common in love marriages at a point of time.

But what is marriage without love? Yes, one can fall with their spouse after marriage. Yes, couple united by ‘love marriages’ get separated too. The reverse is true as well, where love marriages last forever and arranged marriages break, even if they don’t on paper. Divorces weren’t prevalent in India. A marriage was considered sacred and still is. Divorces have been rising lately though, not because it is a legal agreement. But because of various genuine reasons as well.

Returning to the question of “When are you getting married,” there are many underlying aspects related to the decision behind this response, if one chooses to respond honestly that is. The most common honest response could be, “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure.” Marriage is a union. Yes, it is a union of two families. But most importantly it is the union of two individual souls who decide to become one, through constant companionship, surrendering and love. It is a promise of mutual strengthing and support.

So each person needs time and space to introspect on the aspects related to the decision of marriage. Personal mental and financial confidance is extremely relevant before saying “I do” for another. One’s career and one’s understanding should align and/or compliment with the future spouse’s ambitions for a sucessful marriage. Most importantly, one must be able and willing to submit themselves completely to the union of marriage through independently conscious, mutual consent.

Today, young adults including myself, are faced with a plethora of realities, experiences (probably not long, but profound) and global cultures and tradition. The meaning of ‘love’ too keeps getting redefined, learned, unlearned an re-learned. There are women whom men are attracted to but have no emotion for. There is also the case where they love a woman like no one else and maybe even find attractive but not in a sexual way. There could also be women who give their heart and soul to a person they believe is their soulmate. But then again, broken hearts of women could sometimes even be blinded by the wounds of past hurt that they can even believe that a virtuous man is in fact approaching them only to take advantage of them. It isn’t the fault of anyone. We can’t read minds, can we?

They say marriages are made in heaven, but there are everyday humans who aren’t legally allowed to get married in some countries despite living a life filled with love and companionship despite countless hardships. #pride

Now when I think about the quesion of “When are you getting married?” … I think, are they ready for the response? Can they understand the underlying realities associated with that question? In a world of changing realities, uncertain economies and information explosions that affect and form our minds; in a time of growing anxieties from tasks that shouldn’t naturally cause such, it is not always a simple answer. It sure is never easy. To understand the language of the heart, ones needs to listen to the heart amidst the noise of the new conditions of life we live in.

Q: “When are you getting married?”
A: Fate will lead me to mutual love. Mutual love will lead me to marriage. All else will abide by this fate.

The cobbler: Valuing skill

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Once there was a cobbler who polished shoes at Rs. 5 per shoe. A wealthy man passed by and asked him to polish his shoes but said that he’d only pay Rs. 2.

The cobbler denied. The man said, “I’m going to pay only Rs. 2.” The cobbler replied, “I’m sorry that you are unable to afford my services. Please find someone else.”

The man was furious and felt humiliated. He yelled, “I am a rich businessman! How dare you say something like that?!”

The cobbler simply smiled and replied, “Sir, I do not deny that you are rich. I only say that you cannot afford my services as you cannot pay me the value equivalent to my services.”

The crowd stopped to look at the commotion. Realising that everyone around was looking at him, the man left. In seconds, everyone started getting their shoes polished from this cobbler. Indeed, his service was good. Some people even gave tips.

This may be a simple story, but it applies to most businesses and companies.

1000 mg

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Trigger warning: medicines, mental health

Imagine having to take artificial mind altering (although medically prescribed) drugs every day for 16 years. Well, actually don’t. You won’t know how unless you have.

Taking an aspirin for a headache is a common thing we might do. Sometimes we fall ill and take medicines for a week or two. There are some chronic illnesses though that need to be continuously treated for maintaining health. These illnesses can be physical or mental. Most of us might be aware of the regular precautions of diabetes patients, blood pressure patients, heart patients and so on. These are the physical chronic illnesses that one face usually later on in life, but you never know.

The other category of chronic illnesses is mental illness. Yes, there are mental illness that aren’t chronic and easily curable. There are also mental disabilities, which is entirely different. But there are also mental chronic illnesses like severe depression, anxiety, personality disorders and mood disorders. Depending on the degree of severity, these are treatable but not curable.

So as treatment, a patient of one of these also has to take medication at some point, depending on severity. The medication is usually a daily affair. But there’s also one important caution. The patient cannot miss a dosage, else there are serious implications later. These medicines could be anti-depressants, mood stabilizers or other inhibitors and so on. These medicines affect the brain directly and keeps it at check from releasing access chemicals or too less of it, for example.

Medicines in Psychiatry are usually heavy at first and then tapered down over long periods of time, which is months to years (again depending on severity).

The story of ‘mg’ (milligram)

When you’re taking meds for a mental illness and you’re a patient; let’s say the doctor prescribes you 20 mg of a particular medicine for treatment. Over the course of treatment, the dosage is tapered down…6 months…15 mg….1 yr… You look at your doctor with desperate eyes. But he replies, “Continue 15 mg for another 6 months.” That’s how it goes on. 15 becomes 10, 10 becomes 5, 5 becomes 2.5, 2.5 becomes 1 mg. It doesn’t stop there. 1 mg also becomes 0.5 mg. That’s like a precautionary dosage for depression.

But if you have a bipolar disorder, you are eventually put on mood stabilizers, which are nothing but tablets. But the quantity of composition is greater. 250mg or 500mg of, say, Sodium Valproate. This might put a pressure on the liver. So, the doctor regulates the dosage after some trials and blood tests. You probably should consider it a right time to cut off alcohol. Anyway, when you’re on medication, you do need to avoid alcohol, smoking, recreational drugs and sleeping late.

Also, severity of the illness is always something to look at. The doctor can also prescribe 1 g (gram) or “1000 mg.” Sounds like a bit number for daily medication, right?

But this medication (mood stabilizer) prevents a patient from having a major depression or manic episode. Now that’s a bullet dodged. I’d go without meds any day if you give me an option. I mean, who doesn’t? But the consequences of not having it when it is required is far worse than having to, almost religiously, follow the restrictions and take the medications daily until (maybe) one day when you no longer need them.

(Here’s a big hug to everyone out there trying to making it through 🤗 and kudos to those managing so well. 🏆)

The Bipolar Bear

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This is a story about mental health.

There was once a happy little boy in India. He wasn’t known to be very playful. But he did play for fun. As he grew, there was a time when his family had to move to another city. But he didn’t want to leave this city that he was fond of and the friends he made behind. It made him quite sad and he couldn’t accept it.

His new school in this city was quite different from his previous school too. Let’s say, it was out of his comfort zone. There were kids he came across, who behaved very differently compared to kids he had met before. Although all this was new and difficult to take in, he did realize later in life that the experience did teach him a lot.

In his final year of high school graduation, he was down with depression. But he wasn’t a kid that gives up. He knew that he had two choices – to consult a doctor and go for treatment or to prepare for his upcoming exams and deal with this later. Mental health was a taboo in India and still is in most regions of the country. Also, the boy didn’t want to lose an academic year before even finishing high school. No matter the reason, this was looked down upon. So, you guessed it right – he decided to make the latter choice; prepare for exams and deal with his health later.

The boy was able to study, but complained about unbearable headaches as the exams grew closer. He did okay in his exams, but collapsed right after. He was rushed to a doctor the day he collapsed and prescribed medication. He lay in bed for days. He had lost his appetite and desire to do anything. He would sleep and wake up, still in bed, with no sense of time. He later had hallucinations as well. The boy became afraid and had almost lost the will to live. But then as he lay in bed, one day, he heard a voice inside his head, “This is not your time to die. Go live your life” – and he did. It was summer and his mother started making fresh watermelon juice. This was the first time he had something in days. He also listened to some Worship songs that his aunt shared with him and prayed. He felt better soon, but still had mild headaches.

Their family then moved to another city, a major city in the country. The kid would have loved this city, but he felt unprepared because of what he had just been through. So to resolve any unfinished business, the kid’s parents took him, with hopeful intentions, to a psychiatrist in the city. But the boy was put under heavy medication and that itself caused an overdose and several side effects including hallucinations and losing consciousness.

The family then moved back to the city that the kid was fond of. He was admitted to a hospital there and treated. The initial procedure of treatment was to discharge the unnecessary medication that was given to the boy. After that, the boy consulted a psychiatrist on a regular basis. He is prescribed medicine, the next appointment is scheduled and after several appointments, the dosage is reduced.

The boy liked studying subjects like English Literature and Science. He was pretty good at math. But after depression, he had trouble solving advanced mathematical problems and also reading a book for too long. Anyway, he joined senior high school with Science subjects. But he joined after more than half the academic year was over. So naturally, half the lessons were also over. He couldn’t cope up, dropped that year and rejoined the next year but with Commerce subjects. Now, he wasn’t into commerce growing up, so that might have been a bad decision. But he did learn a lot of things which he felt he should know when he’s a grown up – like starting a company, types of companies, economics, banking, business, accounting and so on. Yes there was a shift from being among the top performers to an above average student, he did make some good friends along the way and also learnt a lot of new things.

He was soon in college in yet another beautiful city. College life was pretty swell too. He again shifted his stream so that he can learn more about Economics. He was among the top performers again. He completed his graduation and and stepped into post grads in Economics. It was around this time that a thought crossed his mind, “I want to be free and enjoy life like my friends. I don’t want to have medicines.”

He did feel good at first, but 6 months down the line, he had a manic episode. He was rushed to the hospital and had to be put to sleep with a tranquilizer syringe. Again there were a couple of medicines that were to be taken. He wasn’t clinically depressed anymore. He was clinically bipolar. BPAD (Bipolar Affective Disorder) was earlier termed as manic depression. It is essentially a mood disorder and a patient with bipolar disorder suffers a host of symptoms which differ when they are depressive or manic. It is a treatable, medically uncurable (so far) chronic illness. The boy, now a post-graduation student, finished his studies and took a break year for recovery. During the recovery year, he had gained a lot of weight, which is quite common in patients under psychiatric medication. Truth be told, he felt like a bear.

The following year he decided to upskill himself and the year after that, he started working. He left the job before he could complete a year. Since it was during the peak of Covid-19 pandemic, he couldn’t get another job. He had a minor manic episode.

He later returned to his hometown, where he was partly unemployed and partly self-employed. This went on till around a year and a half after which he got another job.

Being a patient of a mental health disorder is not easy and can happen to anyone. A person with bipolar disorder cannot work late at night as night’s sleep is crucial for them. So that would mean no late night parties and celebrations or music festivals that happen late into the night. Well, that’s only recreation. This also affects a person’s work life. Other than sleep, they are advised to avoid alcohol and any kind of drugs including cigarettes. Not following medical advise leads to severe headaches and probable chance of another episode.

Some common symtoms of bipolar disorder episodes are:

  • Severe headache
  • Anxiety
  • Restlessness
  • Overthinking
  • Pessimissim (depression)
  • Loss of appetite (depression)
  • Sleeplessness
  • Fatigue
  • Self-doubt (depression)
  • Foggy brain
  • Hallucinations
  • Suicidal thoughts
  • Increase in appetite (mania)
  • Over-spending (mania)
  • Easily agitated (mania)
  • Overflow of ideas (mania)
  • Over-confidence (mania)
  • Talking too quickly (mania)

Not just bipolar disorder, even depression, mania, borderline personality disorder and anxiety disorders and many other treatable mental health issues have restrictions for the patient. Often a smiling and healthy person, may be going through a lot. A little bit of kindness and understanding goes a long way.

Social?

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We live in a time where we can see what everyone is upto through pictures, stories or reels on Facebook or Instagram. We live in a time where we can join a live podcast and even possibly participate in it. Whether we are making more connections there or are we getting over our insecurities of talking out loud is a different story.

What is clear though is that although it is building with our network or helping us keep in touch with our contacts (although being a good advantage) is that social media is changing the definition of being social. Teenagers these days keep scrolling through their Insta feeds for hours, looking at what celebrities and influencers post there. They are even busy turning everything into a reel as if restricting creativity to a game of making the best reels.

Photo by cottonbro

Sure, we are communicating. But is all this truly making us social in the actual sense? Actual friendships; the ones where you sit with each other and laugh, the ones where you go on trips, the ones where you hang out at the coffee house or at the pub on weekends and especially the ones where you can depend on each other in times of need; are fading especially when there is nothing like school or college binding us. We are getting distant. I mean, it’s natural for most old friendships to grow weaker over a long period of time. We can’t actually stay in touch with all of them. But we do need to make a choice to either stay in touch with our closest friends or make new friends for a healthy social life.

Photo by Helena Lopes

Being social in the active form like meeting friends, hanging out and so on rather than a passive from like connecting through social media is also better for mental health as it is more engaging. Unnecessary misunderstandings are also avoided as all communication is face to face. Physicially being present while communicating also helps us overcome our insecurities better, especially with a casual and friendly crowd.

It is okay to have an updated Facebook profile or use Instagram. But if you think it is going to compensate for an active social life, that would be a huge mistake and as human beings, it is necessary to have and enjoy a healthy social life.

My grandfather’s battle against Cancer

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I tell you of a memory when I was a child, so it may be hazy. But, it’s worth sharing.

It was probably summer and we were in Guwahati (India) – mom, dad, my elder sister and me. My maternal grandfather had encountered throat cancer, so my granny called up from Upper Assam to inform my mother. My mother, a nurse by qualification and a home maker otherwise, immediately arranged my granddad to be brought to Guwahati. She did so because there were better medical facilities there and she would be able to take care of her ‘dad’dy in a more direct way.

Grandpa arrived in Guwahati, to our residence, and we starting taking care of him. Mom and dad took him to the hospital as per the norm. Mom used to give him timely medicines and food. I also started spending more time with my granddad. He would tell me stories and have a friendly chat with me.

I used to read a lot, those days. So I started giving my grandpa a copy of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, one by one. He enjoyed reading the author’s works. He read it till ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.’ My grandfather underwent the entire process of cancer treatment. He even had chemotherapy, though he was old. I could see that he would look weak after he came from the hospital. I would get emotional often, because I loved spending time with my ‘Nana’ (Grandpa).

The best news was that he was completely cured of throat cancer. He was a smoke addict, so we thought that was the main reason for the cancer. He did give up smoking while on treatment. He was cured. 🙂

The story doesn’t end here though. Maybe for cancer it does. But not for him.

Nana goes back to Hatiali, to be with his wife, my grandmother, a practicing nurse. He was well for quite sometime, years actually. However, my maternal uncle and his nuclear family started living with Nana and Nani now. Also, grandpa had got back into smoking.

It was early 2009, when Nana fell sick again. He was old and was preparing himself for his demise. He starting reciting the rosary, personally. He asked for forgiveness to everyone he felt he had offended, knowingly or unknowingly.

I did go to see him. He was lying on a bed and was on drips. Probably he wasn’t eating properly. I could see his veins. I asked him, “How are you, nana?” I was 16 back then. He replied, “I’m fine, Ishan! I am well.”

I returned to Tinsukia, where we were residing at that time, a 30-45 minutes car ride away. I had my 10th Grade central board exams knocking at the door. I kept preparing and also thought about my Nana now and then, how he would be. He had asked me for the next copy of the Harry Potter series. But, I didn’t lend it to him. He was dying and I should have, but I didn’t want him to die reading an unfinished book, I guess. Later mom told me, it would have helped.

My nana passed away, right between my board exams. I couldn’t even go for the last rites. I remember I went crazy, momentarily. My parents went to Hatiali and I played loud music at home because I was sad and could do nothing about it. I had lost my granddad.

I did go to Hatiali, during the months-mind, for the prayers and other customs. Many unknown relatives had come to visit. Some known but forgotten ones too.

Thank You grandpa, for your stories, laughter and care. I love you. May you rest well in Heaven.

IMG_20200306_115248

Late William (Bill) Walker, my Nana

A New Alphabet – ABCD

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A for Adorable
B for Beautiful
C for Charismatic
D for Debonair
E for Empathy
F for Friendship
G for God
H for Happiness
I for Intellect
J for Jokes
K for Kindness
L for Love
M for Mother
N for Nature
O for Outstanding
P for Playful
Q for Quest
R for River
S for Sea
T for Talent
U for Understanding
V for Vogue
W for Wisdom
X for Xylophone
Y for Yesterday
Z for Zebra

 

The pieces

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four red apple fruits

Photo by Magova on Pexels.com

Vanquish the dark so you may remember, the pearls you hide in the oysters of your memories.

Ahoy there! Listen.

Listen, dear beloved; listen oh loved one – my pride, my life, my heart and my mind – irreplaceable, my dear, impeccable one. You are the fire that keeps me burning, the ‘light’ of my life.

I feel alive when I realise…

I can feel my heartbeat, my nostrils gush with air, my tongue salivate at the thought of the taste of a glass of water; fresh from the glaciers. The water that I can drink and smack my lips in satisfaction; a feeling that my thirst is finally quenched. I eat fruits kept on a basket, at my dining table, hoping they are healthy to consume…

I pick up an apple and give it a gentle squeeze. It seems firm, not rotten, I suppose. I take it to the kitchen sink and pour hot water on it so that the wax layer added for extra lustre would wear off.

I cut the apple, first into four, then into four more pieces. I removed the portion with seeds and also unfortunately scaled off the skin, I may not be able to digest it. I offer some to my sister and walk towards my room to eat them.

I ate the apples while watching a YouTube video of a music rendition of a great composition of a composer I didn’t know of. I didn’t know the composer before, but the music was so beautiful, it captured my heart. My soul was delighted.

It was a live performance and the audience showed their appreciation too, by clapping at paused intervals and when it probably touched their hearts the most.

Amidst the eating, my throat went dry. So I paused my eating and drank some water. I didn’t feel like eating more, but I didn’t want to waste the remaining pieces.

How can Behavioral Economics Research and Data Science change the landscape of Market Research?

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When a business tries to study its customers, they often assume that consumers are impacted by similar driving agents that make them decide on buying one product over the other. Convenience, comfort, trust, packaging, brand, quality, quantity, features; these agents and others, depending on the field of product and the type of market associated with it. We go with the convention that consumers will make rational decisions and hence, their decisions can be predicted if we adhere to these the needs of these driving agents. But haven’t we observed an entire generation stop watching television for lack of on-demand entertainment without ads?

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Of course, OTTs like Netflix, Hotstar and Amazon Prime (powered by the Internet) have curbed the rise in demand for entertainment in this regard, pretty quickly. Clearly, the ingestion of OTTs did not increase the use of cable TV or even digital TV. Possibly, it might have reduced it further. What OTTs did, was satisfy the consumers’ demand and that’s what my focus is on. Now, this was pretty straight-forward. People had more things to do, so they wanted to spend less time doing things irrelevant to them.

There are other reasons why people prefer one product over the other. Customers often purchase commodities that they can relate to. This statement does not hold for necessary commodities. But it is highly relevant for luxury commodities. This might lead them to buy 10 units of the same material over time, though another product in comparison has better technical features.

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The diversity of consumers’ needs are growing exponentially over time. We can no longer stick to a model still ignores the outliers. I feel, today, we have the resources and technology to work towards including these ‘outliers’ into our framework. We can now actually capture these small, but highly relevant natures of market behaviour.

The answer to these questions is the union of Behavioral Economics (BE) and Data Science (DS). Behavioural Economics studies the impact of psychological, emotional and social factors among others on economic decisions. Data Science is the ambit of anything that can be achieved using data; be it problem-solving, decision-making, predictive analytics or artificial intelligence. Use of DS tools can be used to observe the social trend of upcoming generations and detecting a possible drop in demand for a product that otherwise could have never been observed. Research in this area would also improve the predictability of a commodity going out-of-fashion.

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Consent-based psychological and social experiments can be conducted by researchers and data can be collected for different locations and strata. These experiments should be carefully developed in a way that it requires an action-based response, rather than a verbal response (So that we do not mistake intent with action). All this data can be compiled and new social groups can be discovered (using clustering techniques) with completely different buying intentions or product mix preferences. There can be studies done to quantify the intensity that can be given to how much a person/group can be influenced (regression techniques). For example, usually, a person who answers ‘Maybe’ on a question is more likely to be influenced and change their opinion after a conversation compared to a person who chose ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’

Who would gain?

Businesses, Investors, Economists, Data Scientists and Consumers!

Businesses would gain as they will be able to make better decisions. Investors would gain as businesses would do well and they’d make greater profits. Economists and data scientists would gain as they’d be able to explore greater areas in their field of expertise. Consumers will gain because businesses would produce as per their needs – both constant and evolving.

Unity

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(A sequence of 12 poems)

1. Trinity

blue red and yellow stripe surface

Photo by Magda Ehlers on Pexels.com

I was told to pray to a Fatherly God,
But the Mother’s arms seemed warmer.
I was told to bow to an image,
But that never did leave me less afraid.
Among others who sat reverently,
I stood still, peering at the fire;
away from the works of the farm.

I was a Son to a person with two square bi-glasses,
But I paid more attention to the Eyes beyond.
Following Him like a Lion follows the deer
With great majesty and desire,
Yet no Will to cause a scratch.

A clan of Priests who worshipped the Mother,
My wise Ancestor Head loved me;
Yet he thought to follow the Green of the West
to save His clan.

His Eye’s apple, His only end;
Only so that He begins again.
My eyes sparkled differently,
When I didn’t see this ‘Father.’
Ignorance prevented another Death,
Wisdom made Life immortal.
The Father was born again as the Son.

I loved the winds;
They were always my Best Companions.
Bright, but wintry;
Warm yet refreshing;
Love, yet Death-like…
Was the ambience of this New Heaven
That had become.

A flame,
Bright-red, yet stable;
Surrounded by a ring of Light.

The Father was immortal for the Son to spread the Light He had seen.

2. The Mother

maa-kehti-thi-logo

The child loved the Mother’s warmth.
She was His Strongest Shield.
She was the Best Nourisher.

He enjoyed Her warmth,
But loved the Breeze.
He loved Her compassion,
But the Moist reeds of Grass
Mesmerized Him.

He would Love the Winter Morn,
It was like Home.

These morns meant much,
As they spoke of the Mother’s pain
And Son’s Gain
United by Love.

3. God

altar inside an empty cathedral

Photo by Thegiansepillo on Pexels.com

The Mother raised Her Son to be God-loving,
And told Him stories of the Ever-Loving God.
He loved the Way She narrated them;
Her voice was Music.

Though He followed His Father,
His ‘Mother’ was the First Word
On His Tongue’s Tip
When His Heart desired Anything.

Pain turned into Pleasant Feelings,
Darkness turned into Light,
Love turned Nothingness into Life.

Love created Heaven, the abode of Gods and Angels.
The Beloved Father, now Son,
Was looking upon this Loving Mother
She nourished Her Son.

God was Happy and at Bliss.

4. The Woman

tilt shift lens photography of woman wearing red sweater and white skirt while holding a boy wearing white and black crew neck shirt and blue denim short

Photo by Nicholas Githiri on Pexels.com

A Woman had been born to this Mother:
A Strong, Lively, Colorful,
Beautiful, Young Princess.
She was named after ‘Wealth’
As the Son once loved ‘Wealth.’

She was a constant teacher to Her Brother;
Loved Him as much as He loved Her.
A Fun Sibling Pair,
They fought, laughed and cried;
Yet loved each other,
Like a Team.

She saved Him from all Future suffering,
Without Even Knowing.
She was Energy personified,
She was the Princess of Light.

Lover of Her little
Prince of Light,
The Mother was informed by all Harbingers
She would be Wealthy.

The Son’s constant companion,
His Support, His Protector,
His Love was now His Shield
Whom He was Chosen to Protect.

The Woman; ever Beautiful Daughter of God
Did all that She observed was Right.
She was the Strongest form of Woman
Ever Born.
Wealthy, Illusive, Just, Divine;
Empowered to a Woman Leader.
Invisible yet Colorful,
The Princess of Light
Stood Strong and Invincible!

Beloved of The Prince of Light,
She was Fearsome Darkness
If Anyone caused Her Brother
Harm.

5. The Lady

lioness beside on brown wood

Photo by Public Domain Pictures on Pexels.com

A being revered greater than the Greatest Diamond;
A woman full of Love and Grace
Adorned with the pearls of the Good serpent,
Brings Her hands towards Her Prince in Embrace.

She knows not much,
But sufficiently enough.
Great is Her strength,
Which sometimes even she can’t control.

Her appearance is Pure Divine,
Heavenly and Sacred,
As if the Angels themselves had painted Her.
She wasn’t an Angel, but greater than all of them.

Born of the Lord of Multitudes,
She is a Blessing of the Supremely Divine Mother.

6. The Father

man with black tattoo on his back

Photo by Stephan Streuders on Pexels.com

Omniscient, Omnipotent and Immortal is the Father.
He is the Wisest of the Wise.
A Healer by boon, He is revered as the Protector of His Clan
From all disease.
He was a Father who feared the loss of the Power
He had gathered through His Mighty works.

He had an offspring, born from Rage.
He destroyed anything uncouth.
The Father’s Fifth finger was also lost this way.

But all was good. There’s nothing Love can’t solve.

7. The Prince of Light

The god of Sun begets the Prince of Light,
He does so through the Queen of the Glaciers.
Great was the moment when the Price was born.
The ‘Twelfth’ was born on the Twelfth.
The Earth welcomed this great day of reincarnation.

But despite this joyful birth,
A demoness was ready to strike
And despite Destiny being on the Prince’s side,
He was struck and fell sick.

Heavy was the blow,
Made with venomous milk.
Yet Good always feats over Evil
And the prince was saved.
All that remained was a tiny mark;
A mole, much like a scar.

8. Oceans of Milk

close up of milk against blue background

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

This Prince loved having milk,
Not just in Pure form.
Cheese, Butter, shakes or just milk,
He would eat or drink it all up in a jiffy.

The Oceans were once churned
To make beings immortal
And the most venomous poison was created.

The Prince knew all this somehow,
captured on a strand of His DNA.
He was the Prince of Light,
Lover of Milk
And had come so that the Oceans
would once again flow with stability.

9. The Queen of Light

 

She was bold, yet beautiful;
Cold, yet gave a sense of warmth.
She was the morning sun
And the dewdrops too.
She was pure chaos,
Yet complete order.

She was the perfect counterpart
Of the Prince of Light;
She did fit in with Him
like two ends meet in a cusp.

Her beauty was one of a kind,
yet admired by all.
She spoke in a tune of music
of the Highest order;
Stern, yet sweet.

She was a soul that was
To unite with the Prince of Light
In Light from Fire.

Behold the Princess of utmost Devotion!
Behold the Princess of Victory!
Behold the Queen of Light!

10. The Hill

Are all stories mere plans?
Are all ways already marked?
Questions like these and many more
Had led our Prince to wander.

His Queen-to-be had left him,
The pain inside had burned him,
He left in search of silence
And journey with the Wind.

He walked for miles,
He walked for days,
He walked until
He could walk no more.
Quenched his thirst,
Fed himself
And kept walking on.

Traversing across
Great lands
He finally stopped
“A hill!” he exclaimed,
“And a shrine on top.”

11. The Realization

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The First Jain Tirthankara

He went up a seemingly unending hill,
Making five stops before reaching the top.
Each time a realization dawned,
Something he had to let go
To journey on.

At the summit was a shrine
Like no other.
He was in Bliss,
Surrounded by sculptures
Of great sages.

He stood there,
Closed his eyes
And felt as if
he was scooped away.

A voice spoke to him,
“You are the centre
Of what exists.
Magnify and you will find no end;
Reach and you will have no end.”

He opened his eyes
And fell to his knees.

12. Unity

The King of Light,
Stands afront his people;
His voice echoing his might.

Women and Men,
Cheered him on
As he spoke how it was ‘Then’
And how it is ‘Now.’

It was indeed a story,
Of love and loss,
Of pain and gain,
And will always be
A journey that we can
Take pride we had.

He took his seat,
Looked at his wife
And smiled.
Everything had fallen into place,
Just as the people stood,
In Unity.

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