Oh it's a time for joy & happiness
....Of celebrations, parties and letting go
But my heart, it seldom obeys rules
....It wants to let Joy decide when it wants to flow
If joyous times and sad times were in our hands
....We wouldn't ever want to undergo the latter
But life's not like that, it'll give you a taste of all
....To life, your preferences don't really matter
And now the festive wave has passed
....Souls like me can breathe easy then
Emotions can flow again without guilt
....And I'm free from expectations again
The holiday season is officially over, it's Jan mid and it's back to business. And I'm happy to be free again.
"Free? Weren't you free till now?" …. you may ask.
Well, not quite, I was in shackles for a few weeks.
"What shackles?"
I was in the shackles of people's expectations.
"What did the people expect from you?"
Well, people expected me to be happy all the time
"What's wrong with that? Is that too difficult for you?"
Letting people's expectations drive my emotional state is what's difficult
"But everyone is happy, you should be happy too"
I "might be" & "can be", but the problem arises when someone says "should be"
"I don't get it"
OK, tell me this, who created a second?
???
I mean, who came up with this concept of a second, a pal, a shahn
Maybe some man long back
And who said 60 secs=1min, 60min=1hour, 24hrs=1day and 365/366 days=1year?
Probably some mathematician long long ago
OK, and why do you think the guy did that?
To divide time into finite parts
And why would someone want to divide time?
To plan better
Plan what?
Hmmm, to plan things better, things like when to wake up and when to sleep, when to plant crop
Ya, but what is the planning with reference to
The Sun?
Yes, and more actually. The sun, the planets, the solar system, the cosmos
Ya, Ok, I'm with you so far
OK, so time was divided to align man with nature, you agree?
Yes
Now lets come back to 1 person, any one person. Can you define when he'll be happy and when he'll be sad in terms of a formula?
Hmmmm
Ok, think of astrology! Astrology is all about finding that formula for each person, based on date and place of birth, and using that formula to predict the future.
Ok
And what else is the formula based on?
Planetary positions at time & place of birth and at time & place when you're predicting.
Right, so we have nature again playing a role here.
Right.
OK, based on this, different people will experience phases of joy and sorrow based on the relative planetary positions between their birth time and now.
Right.
Now, let's talk about festivals. Who created festivals?
Our ancestors, and festivals are region-specific.
And what were the festivals based on?
Different things, some season changes, some based on lives of great men who lived centuries ago
And what do u do during festivals?
Different things for different festivals
What's common between festivals?
Everyone is supposed to be happy?
Now, keeping in mind the (probable) driver behind human destiny (phases) and emotions (fluctuations between those phases) and the fact that man created months, years etc. to divide time, Do you think the entire population of a city or of a religion or of a country can be going through a happy phase at the same time?
Maybe
But how fair is it to expect everyone to be happy?
I dunno
Most probably, just some of the people in the group are happy
And the rest?
They're puppets of other peoples' expectations. They're happy because everyone is "supposed to be"/"should be" happy.
I get your point.
Some people are artificially happy due to this expectation/pressure. Some others who don't want to force their emotions go into a shell during festive times
Ok.
So the festive season is over, I'm free from expectations and it's time to come out of the shell.
Welcome back.
Hello World!
P.S: Festival blues or Winter blues is a milder form of Seasonal Afflective Disorder (SAD) , which is a psychological disorder in which the patient suffers from extreme depression during the winter/fall season.
Some links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder
http://psychcentral.com/lib/2006/11/not-in-the-holiday-mood-it-might-be-the-blues/
http://psychcentral.com/lib/2006/11/beating-the-holiday-blues/