Revolution 2020 is it???

So it turns out one of my favorite *time-pass* writers, Chetan Bhagat is launching his new book next week. I refer to his writing as *time pass* because as much as I enjoy every bit of filminess in his writing and his books make awesome one-day/one-time reads, they can never be anything more than that to me.As amazing as they are in what in they're probably intended to be, I can never consider reading a Chetan Bhagat book as *reading*. So, keeping debates about his writing aside, this book is titled "Revolution 2020" and rather than wondering about the content of the book, the title itself got me thinking about the year 2020. That's 9 years from now and considering HOW MUCH can be changed in 9 months, the magnitude of change that one will see after 9 years is hard to even imagine. To me , the scariest change and probably the first one that comes to my mind when I think 9 years ahead, is going to be the general state of relationships !


With the downward trend that has been seen , I can safely say they will be the furthest thing from people's minds. Everything BUT that will have priority.With each passing day, I can feel people growing a bit more cold, a bit more selfish, a bit more guarded and A LOT more astray from living lives that just revolve day in and day out around just one person. Importance of things in life have reversed their order and today,I would place a job over a person, work over friends ,because that's just probably how it works. We end up taking most of the people for granted without realizing it and when we do, we convince ourselves that they would probably understand ,even though at times we know, were we at the receiving end of things, we wouldn't either! We live days where we barely spend 5 minutes a day just talking to the people we live with . When we do have those 5 minutes of solace, all we want to do is spend it with our selves. Today, every relationship starts and ends at ME- my choices, my priorities, my goals, my decisions, ME.They say life is too short and sometimes, this hits you , that in the end, you shouldn't be sorry for choosing to live an unfulfilled life for yourself while fulfilling ONLY what someone else expected out of you.


Is this attitude of being "me-centric" entirely wrong ? I don't think so ! Right now everyone is striving hard to find the right balance and find a spot somewhere that comfortably adjusts the chaotic work life and blends it with a quieter, calmer personal space.Most relationships don't break because of personal problems, they just fall apart because two people do not have enough time to work both in their professional life and then come to their personal life and work through problems there too.


This is one of the main reasons for the sorry state of marriages today and contradictory to the popular notion of the high divorce rates being an influence of the western culture, it's because of the fact that no one willingly wants to spend their free time sorting out issues that are both time and mind consuming.It's easier to walk away than to stay and fight , because no one has or is willing to waste that kind of energy anymore. It's sad, but it's true. It's a personal opinion that 10 years or may be even 9 years down the line, marriages will be as extinct as dinosaurs are today.I just DON'T see them working and being the over-hyped tradition that they are, people will be too scared to enter into a marriage and then walk out ,so will decide to live a single and happy life instead.I don't think it's just me, A LOT of people I know, don't believe in marriages anymore. I for one, find them to surreal. Relationships shouldn't be as forceful in nature as marriages are.The constant "in-your-face-24x7" challenge that marriage throws at you is hard to live with. Personal space is necessary, marriages do everything they can to take that away and force you to think it's wrong to have your moments of ," me" time when you can barely manage spending "we" time. A lot of what marriage puts you through is extremely sexist! At least in Indian marriages, it is ! And today , with the kind of attitude that people walk around with, I don't think an institution like marriage which has its century old rule-book is here to stay for long!

As much as this sounds like a western attitude talking, the reality is that people are just getting to know everything they can achieve just by themselves, the fact that in today's world women too can dream, too can have a successful career ,are no longer a "burden" and no longer need to marry just so that someone else can pay their bills , has broken many illusions that marriage had set.

Is it wrong to let your relationships take a backseat? Letting yourself achieve what YOU want as opposed to what you're supposed to want? I don't think it is ! No one has written and laid out rules of life and no one is entitled to do so either! It's okay to make your own rules and want to NOT want the conventional, the traditional and take the path that the "society" feels is the right one ! However, as this attitude is beginning to kick it, whether or not it will be one to stay and accepted as a way of life after 9 years would actually be the deciding factor in making the year 2020 a revolution. Relationships vs ambition is the ultimate battle and whether or not people will be okay with choosing something non-conventional for themselves is the deciding factor ! 

 Talking about conventional, I would LOVE to see a movie where in for ONCE a woman chooses a career over a man and doesn't regret it ! Meryl Streep's role is Devil wears Prada continues to remain my favorite in that regard!

Beatles make me sound wise !!!

And there will be an answer..... "LET IT BE" !!!
These are more than just mere lyrics to one of my favorite songs, "Let it be" by The Beatles, it's a fact too hard to adopt or imply, but it's one which eventually turns out to be the right thing to do at most of the situations.


Letting go is probably one the hardest possible things to do. Whether it's a thought,a dream, a relationship, holding on to anything once it's run it's course of time can ONLY be painful. Yet being how we are, we find clinging on to something familiar tighter than before , simpler than letting go and finding something new, something out of our usual comfort zone. And the harder you clutch on to something , the more pain you build up in the process. 
Letting go is inevitable.It HAS to occur at some point in every situation, profession, relation and pretty much in life as a whole ! No matter how sweet the memories, nothing including life lasts forever ! 


Probably the hardest thing to let go are relationships or any emotional bond for that. We hold on to them so tightly for so long that in the end all you feel instead of love you feel hurt that comes from holding on too tight. Why can't we just bring ourselves to the point where we admit to ourselves ,let alone others, that all good things DO end, just like the bad ones?? Why do we forget that despite the end being near,sometimes we can still continue to take away cherished memories ONLY if we let go ? Why do we find battled endings better than peaceful partings?? Sometimes two people fight for so long to preserve something ,the end of which they deep down know has been overdue, that their fight becomes a lost cause ! Sometimes you fight to not let "things" fall apart despite knowing that keeping them together is just not a long-term solution . Sometimes,somethings have to fall apart ,for new things ,better things to happen and if you let go when you should, NOTHING can take away the value of what you had from you ! In fact, you develop a deeper appreciation of what belonged to you after that!


Endings are of two types: One where you KNOW things end, and One where they ACTUALLY do. The gap between the two ,is the time you take to let go and once you do, you come out a different person. Every idea , every dream, every relationship, that you choose to let go, or that chooses to let go of you, changes you. The people you choose to let go of, leave making you someone new , adding something new to you or taking away something unnecessary in you with them.This change is important , because it's this change that takes you further along life. You soon realize no matter what you give up or what is taken away from you, you will always have something new coming your way. If not now then later, but NOTHING stops life, it doesn't stop even at points where you think it will!


Sometimes you end up taking paths which later turn out to be the best routes for you. The best things in life come when you least expect them, when you take a path not knowing where you're headed, you eventually end up with what you were looking for subconciously. It don't know how it happens,but it just does.....
No matter how much you plan , the best things happen when you let go......And this has happened more than once to me :) Letting go as hard as it is, when it happens, it eventually brings you the best, something you never believed could happen to you does ! And when it does, you realize there is NOTHING in life you can cling on to forever without it slipping away ! So let nature decide the time of everything and just live for the moment, so you won't have to hang on to anything longer than you should when the time comes to let go :)

The sunset is probably nature's way of telling us to not be so afraid to let go .Without the sunset, the possibility of a sunrise would never occur :)