*1. THE POWER TO HEAL YOU:* Love has a way of giving you a conducive environment to heal. It reminds you that even though the past was tough, you are not alone, it is OK now.

*2. THE POWER TO REVEAL TO YOU WHO YOU ARE:* Getting close to someone makes you know yourself more. Having someone to love reveals to you how much you can love. The person also gets to highlight the good traits in you that you take for granted. Getting close to someone also reveals to you weaknesses and flaws in you; you get to discover you have a hot temper, you have the potential of disappointing, you can fall short. This realization is not to make you feel bad, but to bring to your attention what to improve.

*3. THE POWER TO INSPIRE YOU:* Love has a way of bringing out the best in you…

आज कल भगवान मेरी कोई प्रार्थना नहीं सुनते है। इसकी कोई ठोस वजह मुझे नज़र नहीं आता है |

लोग कहते है कि भगवान को साफ़ – सफाई बहुत पसंद है … मैं घर में और अपने आस पास खूब साफ़ सफाई रखता हूँ |

लेकिन तभी महसूस हुआ कि मुझे तो सफाई करनी थी …. अपने अंतरमन और आत्मा की …. पर मैंने तो ऐसा कुछ किया ही नहीं ….

अब मैं ने तय किया है कि आत्मा को स्वच्छ रखना है | अब हम अपनी भावनाओं को कविता के माध्यम से प्रकट करने की कोशिश कर रहे है |

क्योंकि मेरी कविता मेरी आत्मा है ….जो शब्दों के माध्यम से मुझे एक नयी उर्जा और पहचान देते है | हम इसके माध्यम से साँस लेते है .|

मेरे कलम की स्याही मेरे दर्द को कागजों पर बयाँ करते है … हम अपने विचारों को कविता के माध्यम से…

Stigma of ageing

An older person is defined by the United Nations as a person who is over 60 years of age. However, families and communities often use other socio-cultural referents to define age, including family status (grandparents), physical appearance, or age-related health conditions.

Senior citizens are also known as elderly persons or simply as seniors. Categorically, a senior citizen is a social demographic based on age. Someone who is 35, for example, cannot be a senior. Being a senior citizen typically means that a person is at the age at which they retire from work.

Senior is one of the most common euphemisms for old people and happens to be the one I hate the most. To me, senior implies that people who receive the label are different and somehow lesser than those who don’t.

Of course, the word senior can also be used to signify experience…

We lose our way,
In the ruined cities of chaos,
And secretly tenderness of our heart,
Discovers the hidden signs,
We dwell on the notions of delusions,
Choose the life of duality,
To wear those monstrous veils,
And smile without smiling,
We travel and greet diverse people,
Often judging and comparing,
As our mind is seized with what should be,
We hurt others and forget,
We see things but don’t observe,
We talk about love but breathe in an ocean of fear,
We tell stories but we are scared to unfold our myths,
We learn but never flee the flow of mirages,
But there is something,
Resting at the core of our hearts,
Which claims nothing,
But hides the fire of our experiences,
As it floats in the form of emotions,
We express them and sometimes someone understands them,
As fire burns, ashes float in the air,
To bring us…

A man and his son both riding Penny Farthing cycles, 1890.

A young lady proudly photographed with her bicycle, 1890.

The first electrically-powered taxi in London, 1897.

Businessmen on a horse-drawn bus in Westminster, 1900

Three forms of transport crossing a bridge in London, 1905.
(My guess is that whoever was previously driving the motorcycle was also the photographer.)

A famous London Suffragette on her electric folding scooter, 1907.

A happy lady on a very early type of moped, 1909.

And just like the tea,
I wish I could sip in
All the bits of myself
Without getting the bitter taste.
©️Aditi Anvita (Anvi)

Thanks for connecting, reading and encouraging. Have a Lovely Day.

When friends bail on my plans, when no one is there to deal with or solve my problems, when life is hopeless and unfair, I feel angry. Utterly angry.

Slowly and slowly, however, what I’m starting to learn is that no one, absolutely no one, is responsible for my safety, my happiness, and my problems. In fact the moment I stepped into my university’s extensive halls, walked around the mighty campus, and became a part of the community, I realised that I am one drop in the vast ocean…

I come from a highly protective background where every emotion of mine has always been heard. This little world of mine was my oyster and I was it’s pearl. But out here, nobody cares. My solo trip, too, forced me to rely on myself as nobody seemed to have cared that it was my first time taking 1 flight, 1 train…

A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A man without a country is a connoisseur of humanity, appreciating the universality of sentiment and reason common to all humankind beyond the demarcation of the territorial, cultural, and racial ambits. In that regard, Kurt Vonnegut is not only a great American writer but also an honorable citizen of the world.

Vonnegut was liberal and socialist without being Marxist, but he was also a traditionalist and Christian without being conservative and religious. He was on the side of the underdogs because he regarded himself as one by being a kind of black sheep in the literary circles for his studying engineering, not English literature. However, he wasn’t a grumpy sullen dark literary figure but a funny, talkative writer who stroke conversations with anyone in daily life. Vonnegut refused to lose his days in unsocial solitude…

The idea of domestic servants and their relationship with the masters is superficially romanticized not in the least due to period dramas, such as ‘Downton Abbey’ or Victorian masterpiece theater. In such fictionalized stories, the social dynamics between the classes are often bowdlerized or beautified, in addition to the romanticization of the working class as though to neutralize class antagonism in fear of marring a lofty literary theme. That said, ‘Life Below Stairs’ by Alison Maloney is a documentary of the real people who had to find themselves in servitude of their betters and their live-to-tell accounts of what it was like to be servants.

While reading the book, I could not help but think that the professional domestic service in the capacity of maids, footmen, and butlers was not so much different from today’s social dynamics of at-will employees who provide their labor to employers for livelihood. Of course…

Poetry Partners #136

‘Leaf Expression’, a poem by Mary Anne Abdo of ‘Blue Stained Glass’

Wondering through the forest. I follow blue that turns into auburn, orange and gold. Leaves falling carpeting the woodland floor below. My steps are imprinting a trail for those to follow. An eerie silence is broken by autumn winds. As a tree branch lets go of their colored foliage. Just like a child at Christmas picking up to examine each fall trinket. Mesmerized by the veins of the leaves that are intricately designed. Throwing them back up into the air chasing the wind. Walking down the valley where water meets the earth. A cornucopia of water colored leaves float down stream. Dragonflies zoom from end to end. Trying to catch the last of their summer prey. Their buzzing noise is soothing to my ears. Their wings mimic the surrounding colors of nature’s beauty. Here I…