Bookly-Wookly

 Perhaps God is too strong of a word. But the more I read astrophysics, the more my atheism fails me.  I do not, and will not criticize people's belief in God. Despite it's many faults, I do believe religion gives people immense strength. The belief of God and His miracles have pushed many of us into doing seemingly impossible things. Prayer can bring peace. Relief. Religion can foster love amongst hatred.  Of course, there are many arguments against God that I personally agree with. I will also acknowledge that God and religion are not the same thing. A person can believe in God and yet not be religious. And then there are the agnostics, obviously. Out of the four quadrants that combine atheism and agnosticism (agnostic atheist, gnostic atheist, agnostic theist, gnostic theist), the gnostic theists are the ones that I can never resonate with. I have- at different points of my life- adapted the other three quadrants. Obviously the phases of my life where I was an agnostic...

  A note on how our minds trick us and how planning made my life more chaotic than organized.  I have had those phases in my life- the random bursts of motivation where I would go and buy myself a new journal, label it as timetable, write "Day 1" on the first page. I have always been one of those people who work well when they romanticize their lives. That cup of chai. The melodramatic bollywood songs on a car ride back home. And of course, aesthetic journals and colourful pens and a neat schedule of how my day should look like.  They don't last, unfortunately.  The people who idealize the world can rarely stick to those ideals themselves. It took me some time to realize this. Success does not consist of drawing neat little lines on journals and planning for days ahead. This is what people will try to tell you. This is what they try to sell. Plan your day. Have a list of tasks. Make a timetable, stick it next to your desk.  Been there, done that. Does it work? I...

The human projection of love is flawed. And that is ironic because the human projection of love is "perfect". Love is supposed to be selfless, kind, non-discriminatory. Yet, it doesn't often feel that way. Love can feel heavy. Love ties you down to people, to places. Love brings pain and suffering and attachment. And that's where the divide actually arrives: our expectations of an ideal love and our reality. Because love is flawless, divine and yet, when someone falls in love, we suffer. Oh, how we suffer.  Not because we're in love. Suffering does not arise out of love but out of what we think love is. We don't fall in love with another person, we fall in love with our reflection in them. We fall in love with what they bring out in us. We don't fall in love with them. As a matter of fact, very few people have fallen in love. No, we get attached to people. And there's a huge difference. Attachment brings fear. Why? Because we don't want our lover t...