Mediocrity at its best...

I was the older of us two siblings. My brother was younger than me, by a good four years, but as far as talent and genius was concerned, he must have been ahead by atleast a decade. He was a student, par excellence, possessed a golden voice, which though had not received any formal training, could mesmerize any audience. He could play the tabla and the pakhawaj, and was also the best NCC cadet, in the last years of his school. My bro was passionate about trekking, photography and also managed to represent the Medical College Students Union, for a few years. To put it shortly, he excelled in everything, he put his head into. Despite the fact that he was involved in so many activities, he nevertheless has managed to evolve as a scientist of certain reckoning, today.
I was always, wanting to be, what my brother was like. I longed for all the adulation and importance bestowed on him, by all and sundry, and especially from my parents, I longed for a word of appreciation. Slowly and unknowingly, I started looking down on my own identity and in the process, started losing out on my self esteem. I was emulating and living a personality, which was not my own. When, I come to think of it now, I was not a run-of-the-mill student, either. I earned recognition at school as a good singer, won a prize for writing, and was very interested in quizzing. However, I was so engrossed in donning a pseudo personality, that I failed to identify my own real qualities, believe in them and to nurture them. I failed out on creating an identity for myself.
Time for some introspection and catharsis....Although, it is a boon to be able to excel in many spheres, when one is spoilt with choices, it is important to remember, that, each one has the potential to nurture mediocrity into talent. what is needed is belief in oneself, and the ability to focus and persevere.

Author: Jayeeta Sinha Roy

The Minority Community

I had gone out shopping with my mother, a few months back, and I witnessed something, which perhaps, keep happening around us, but which we fail to observe. It is about this peculiar nature of instant bonding, that aged people seem to strike-up between themselves.
As we were seated in a bus, I noticed my mother smiling at a lady, approximately her age, who was having difficulty alighting the bus. As The lady smiled back at my mother, I was a bit perplexed and asked her, if the lady was an acquaintance. My mother retorted that this was the first time that she had set eyes on this lady.
That very day, as we were, waiting for the jewelery to be packed, at the jewelry shop, entered an aged lady, with a teenager, who plonked on the sofa next to us, and promptly engaged herself in an intense conversation over her cellphone, blissfully unaware of the surroundings. Very soon, the same ritual followed. The lady smiled at my mother, my mother smiled back and the struck up a conversation, with the ease, resembling the ease between two school friends, meeting after years. Soon their conversation inevitably steered towards the ills of the cell phone fixation of the present generation, and its impending doom on the social relationship structure.
This bonhomie, amongst complete strangers, left me somewhat baffled, as we were a generation, that, hardly ever ventured to do anything, without a reason, or a dime, oops, rhyme. We hardly, had the time or the inclination, to greet total strangers. And come to think of it, Why should we? There were so many stressful situations to attend to, in our everyday schedules, when we had time between our phone calls. How did these people manage to take things so easy, relax and loosen up, under such stressful day to day existence? Maybe, like all other minority communities, they loved to huddle together and bond big time.... I comforted, myself....However, Even as I pondered, at my realization, I observed that it was laced with a tinge of jealousy. I wistfully acknowledged to myself, that this bonhomie was something, that I would have gladly liked to share, but was something, that perhaps, I would never achieve.