Question: How Do You Define A Good Piece Of Art?

My lame attempt at a Maieutic (Socratic) Response: "What is Art?"

For me, it is an expression manifested in form of a piece of literature, a song, a video clip, a photograph, a painting. But that's not it!

Good art has to be capable enough to:

• start a dialogue; trigger an action or reaction,
• generate different views from a different sect(s) of people &
• generate a set of views (conflicting or non-conflicting in nature) from the very same person

In my opinion, interpretation is always best left upon the audience. It derives maximum reaction to it this way, with a prerequisite of it being an EXCELLENT piece of work!

Miley Cyrus, a pop artist (who millions of girls have seen on TV as Hannah Montana in our teen years) dropped her much anticipated and teased new music video with Mark Ronson this morning (at 5:30 AM in my country, LOL).

It goes by the name ‘Nothing Breaks Like A Heart’!

First Impression of Miley's song:
Must be about a heartbreak. (Oh, wait. This isn't Taylor Swift, pfft. Boo!)

Second Thought:
Could be about how she lost her beloved Malibu beach-house (the one that she's previously written a song about) and Rainbowland Studio, in the recent Woolsey Fire. Her house, where she lived with her loving fiancé, Liam, burned down to ashes. (Hence, the lyrics "This burning house, there's nothing left").

A closer look at the (now deleted) 9 mini-teasers Miley had posted on Instagram:

1. A broken heart hung from the ceiling (could be inspired from the WRECKING BALL?)
2. A little girl playing with bullets
3. A stranded car with numerous toys laying about in the room
4. Lustful gaze of a man at a stripper performing in a club
5. Protesters with placards "All Or Nothing", "Fight for Miley"
6. 2 little girls standing in a firing range, pointing & nodding at the prop-board (these boards little girl figurines, not the usual ones of a man)
7. More protesters and placards (the one with '#MeToo'.... is it a man, a lady, a trans? You decide)
8. A car being chased by numerous police cars and a helicopter

Lets get to the video itself:

My Interpretation of the music video:

(Everything is a personal interpretation, especially those in green)

It begins with a car chase.

It's been made clear at the very start that "the destination remains unknown". People, supporters alongside the roads, standing with placards that state "We Are Miley" "Fight for Miley". She's referring to herself as a metaphor, perhaps. The 'various law enforcement vehicles' are chasing her vehicle.

There's a bunch of Christian nuns standing in support. Next, we see a strip club and numerous girls performing. There's a priest here. A man who has been introduced before. He has a lustful gaze.

Meanwhile... the lyrics,

"We're broken, we're broken,

Mmm, well nothing, nothing, nothing gon' save us now"

Next, Miley's looking right into the camera, as she sings these lines-

"Well, there's broken silence

By thunder crashing in the dark (Crash in the dark)

And this broken record

Spin endless circles in the bar (Spin 'round in the bar)"

Something about Miley's gaze towards the camera and the content of these lyrics make me think if she's referring to this song as the one that's gonna do rounds in these very bars, and is a call for these strippers to 'break their silence'.

Her car crashes through a wall. This is my favourite part. I interpret it as the wall of Ignorance, breaking apart, to reveal what's actually happening inside. We see two young girls standing on the other side of this wall. These 2 happy girls (engaged in clicking pictures of themselves with filters, the filter of social validation?) represent innocence that exists outside of these walls, perhaps. Completely unaware about what's happening inside.

Next, the car breaks into a second wall where there are 2 under-training girls in the dark alley, separated by this wall, of neglect towards the 'darkness' that this alley is representing. The darkness is a metaphor for the circumstances that led upto it. From innocence, to violence.

Could this represent mental health? Lack of recognition of severity of the situation? That's how I interpret it. Young children exposed to 'social validation' at a very ripe age, turning them from the victims of that darkness, to the culprits behind another form of darkness: Gun Violence, happening inside schools.

Miley, representing all of us, who're willing to take an action, stands in the way of these bullets being shot at their own peers (metaphorically represented by those unusual shooting placards).

Next up, another crash into yet another wall that shelters two female lovers in a hot tub. Chasing by the 'law-enforcement' continues.

We spot a man here in the crowd, with "Miley For President" tattoos. No, it's highly unlikely that Miley's gonna stand against Trump despite having openly opined against him multiple times.

When Trump was first elected president, a crying footage of her had surfaced. A very bold interview with Billboard magazine soon after. Although she did make it clear in that interview that she wanted to be taken seriously, and that's when she decided to get past the hippie-pop phase.

Another metaphorical message for all of us? This Miley standing for what she's voiced against time to time, aka, the Trump ideology.

(This very moment that we speak of this breaking-walls metaphor... there's the Mexico-American border thing going on. Now I don't really have a stand for or against this one. Migration is a pretty serious issue, for any given country.

I think that it needs to be pondered upon that WHY HAS MEXICO COME TO THIS POINT where emigrants do not care about being open-fired at! What has been happening in that country, and why isn't this debate replacing the entire anti-or-pro Trump debate altogether? Is one country's supremacy so much important as to over-shadow the actual cause of the consequent debate?)

There's more, NFL players kneeling in support of the car, as it approaches towards the 'destination unknown'.

Prison inmates, fighting over, hugging, clutching on to the toys we saw in the teaser. They're soft toys. What do these American prison inmates represent? Tell me what you think in the comments section below!

The car finally crashes. Miley and Mark approach the protesters where she's finally crucified to this car, something that she stood for.

Some major themes that Miley and Mark covered in this 4 minute video, and how they’re related to the Indian context:

1. Religious fanatics and all the problems that they lead up to
   
   Corruption within these ‘sacred’ bodies, sponsorship to moral policing with utter disregard to self-policing, etc
   
   
2. The un-defined code of moral social conduct
   
   The issue of 'appropriateness' when it comes to clothes, behaviour, respect towards certain people of certain professions (Strippers, Sex-workers)
   
   Who exactly is supposed to be the judge of these said morals?
   
   
3. All that is wrong (or, right. You decide) with the #MeToo campaign
   
   
4. LGBTQ Supreme Court Judgement: scraping of Article 377
   
   And the rightist-rage/lack of ground level recognition & acceptance towards it
   
   
5. Gun violence isn’t an issue in India, yet
   
   But incidents like the Ryan International, Gurugram incident with the DEPRESSED school kids (I cannot stress this enough)
   
   
6. This artist has been criticised so widely against the “wild” phase of her life: which is something every Indian kid is put through!
   
   In light of constant scrutinising of every action by the society.. how is one supposed to grow, if not by experiments or trial and error, or whatever approach one deems to consider as right for themselves?

What's your take on the video?

Also Read: An Open Letter to My Parents for If & When I Get Married

I Meant It When I Said I'm Leaving The Title Empty!

Can you recall the last time you read a funny statement, in a not so funny, but very very serious piece of text printed in commercial ink, on a paper?

I do. It was yesterday.

After MONTHS.

Now, can you recall the last time a meme made you LOL when you were actually pretty depressed?

Woah... all the time, right? Probably the very last thing that happened before you stumbled across this long ass post. Hell, our feeds are flooded with memes about memes being our saviours. Now, let us talk about that part in the last paragraph where we normalised a severe problem- depression. What's there to talk about? Well, a lot.

Few years ago, back in high school.. an 8th grader, couple years junior to us committed suicide. That doesn't sound unfamiliar or strange if you think about it, right? No matter what school you went to. It's SO common. While I did not know that junior personally.. I can recall a not-very-old incident of a close uncle, my father's childhood friend and business partner for decades, haven taken his life. It reminds me of a statement made by a teacher when the case of that junior was still afresh.

India desperately needs to borrow an element from the western culture.. that of having psychological counsellors in all of our schools and institutions. And they gotta be efficient in their work!

(Pun time: pls no caste reservations for this job profile pls haa GOI!)

It's a need, long been neglected. That was years ago and I can only marvel at the foresight of the woman.. now that I've grown up and know what she was talking about.

All of us happen to know somebody from our immediate family or friend circle having at least ATTEMPTED it. It's the second leading cause of death in our generation (15-29 year olds, as per a WHO report, dated August 2018). Mind you, this takes into account ONLY the reported SUCCESSFUL suicide cases, given the stigma around this cause.

As put forward by Yuval N. Harari, human being is already on the path to that future where we would be able to control how we feel, by having done enough progress in the field of biochemistry. But that is a long, long way to go, at least for being accessible to each one of us. So, definitely, relying on the scientists for this would not be a great idea, at least for now. Sure, we've got plenty options now from the medical field. But-

1. Not everybody is lucky enough to get recognised and counselled.
2. It needs constant supervision (lack of which, generally, has driven them to this point).
3. Why make our bodies a slave to these induced hormones. It is known to drive some of us to the point of no return.

Take that random girl's comment that I came across on a purely visually aesthetic music video on YouTube, as an example. She wrote how it was a typical boring day listening to it, on acid with her pals & how her previous generations would experience kaleidoscopic and sexual blast on LSD. From the looks of it, she was probably on it when she wrote it.

Our societies, relationship with peers and families are going through massive transitions. If you or your (grand/)parents have not already experienced it, you SOON might.

(Well, if you hadn't noticed already.. "Dysfunctional Families" is now a Netflix genre!)

It is bound to have psychological repercussions, and there is no escape. You could however, learn how to deal with it in the best possible way. You could seek help (professional or from your circle) but in absence of that, which generally is the case.. you have to do that yourself.

There is no point in dwelling over the agony or observations that nothing is working in your favour. There is really a very slight possibility, if any, that you will not make it through, after having given your best, and then some more.

Yuval also pointed out in his masterpiece of a book, about the electronic algorithms that have taken over our online behavioural traits. Mankind has had a history to approach priests and astrologers to know if a partner is (/not) good for them. Then came the theory of trusting your heart, feelings and instincts. Soon the electronic algorithms will know us better than we do, even biochemically.

But what choice do I have now? In this very moment, how do I tell if I should be friends with this person? The answer is EXPERIENCE. You'll make mistakes. A lot of them.

"One of the patterns of mistakes I have learnt from is, realising everybody around me will not be able to help me out. It is the hard truth, but nobody owes it to me. I cannot blame them for not being around. That does not necessarily make them bad friends. Perhaps they are dealing with a battle themselves in that moment. I have to deal with mine and learn to not hold it against them. Each friend could be a different kind of a friend (but it should be a good different kind). I do not have to tolerate every person around me in my moments of vulnerability, even in the name of friendship."

Not every friend or acquaintance is good for me.

I might have to be that person saying NO in some cases. It is very essential to root out the negative friends for our growth and stability. Friendship HAS TO BE a 2-way thing. No ifs and buts. By observing patterns, we've to learn what is best for us. It requires some people to hit rock bottom before realising some essential lesson themselves. Do not beat yourself up about it. Specially when in a severely bad phase yourself, do not indulge with the negativity around you. It is possible for it to go either of the two ways- healing for the both of you, or just the opposite.

"Know and act upon what your instincts tell you. Are they really worth losing your mental peace about? Are they around when you need help? That will help you in deciding whether or not to stick around every time they cry help. And honestly, if that is the one time they're around, SHUT.THEM.OUT. right f***ing now!"

I know I keep mentioning my Nani every now and then. She is a really old woman. I would not say age-wise.. because people do live up to their 90s. She is nearly 2 decades younger but I have seen her age like anything after my Nana passed away. Watching her slip into a depression has taught me that even the strongest of us lose a hold of ourselves sometimes. But here is a little something that this terribly sad incident made me experience. My Nana was a happy person, despite an incurable, indisposable termite residing with them in the house. He asked us to eat healthy and do yoga. I never took it seriously. To honour his memory, I initiated one of them, and my inner self has never been more at peace than now.

Take some off-screen time.

I wrote this piece of writing, on paper. This is the first time I have done it for a blog post. Although I would admit, one reason I did it is because of the shitty Mojave OS update that would not let me use my laptop without plugging in the power adapter at all times.. (for the love of your reputation as an almost $1 trillion company.. FIX IT, TIM!)

But anyway, it ended up saving me a lot of time, and was soft on my eyes, unlike the uncomfortable mind-numbing hours of editing on screen. It gives you time to indulge in activities that you used to love pre technology era. That excitement has got submerged by the hundreds of thousands of miles of scrolling that our index fingers have been doing over the years. Take social media detoxes every now and then, if not entirely and forever. How ironical, I made you read such a long post on a screen. But I'm going off now! Wait, before I post a link to this on every platform! xD

The Best Trip I've Ever Been to: A Decision Taken in under 5 Minutes!

Do you happen to know somebody who did fairly well in their lives in almost every sphere- be it excelling in school or recreational activities, from financial to familial responsibilities? Without question- yes.

But very often, we come across successful people that struggle with mental health issues and it comes as a surprise to us, doesn’t it?

Most people believe that managing to earn a successful high-profile lifestyle might be the key to happiness. But let’s get real- we’re living in the 21st century. The truth is that beneath this facade often lies a grim reality that gets overlooked.

Success and 'having it all' does not always mean happiness

So what is it, that humans are seeking to stay happy and content with their lives?

There’s no one answer to this question, because every person and their circumstances could be very unique for us to decode. What we do know is- people need to detach from the materialist worldly expectations from themselves and their loved ones.

Often, the things that cause a web of unhappiness- unintentional invalidation by the loved ones themselves. Questions like- ‘What’s wrong? Why don’t you snap out of it?’ - only make it worse.

The best decision I've ever taken in under 5 minutes:

Last year I was visiting my friends in the city of Indore. The entire year before this visit had been a difficult time for me. I had just lost a seat in Delhi University for a masters programme that I’d always wanted to get into- by 4, FOUR marks!

Besides that, losing my grandfather to his third heart attack, confusion between preparing for UPSC and getting a job, witnessing the person closest to me (my maternal grandmother) break down- it was a bad time.

The Indore trip wasn’t a planned one. But I’ll tell you what- it was the best decision I’d ever taken in under 5 minutes! On the 4th, and the last day in Indore, we spent an evening at Pyra Healing Garden- located at just 35 kms away from Indore, the Cleanest City of India.

And believe me when I say this- IT WAS MAGICAL!

A sense of positivity:

I only spent 4-5 hours at the retreat and the relaxation experienced isn't comparable to any other sort of therapy that I've ever had.

• Yoga is known to neutralize respiration, energy and vitality.
• Psychiatrists are helpful when you need to clear your overburdened headspace.

But would any of these help you when you are involuntarily stuck in a bad place? Clearly, no.

This is where Pyra helped me out. Everybody suggests you to go for a vacation when you need a change. And the reason behind my Indore trip was just that- a change. Visiting Pyra was just the cherry on top.

When we first made a stop at the retreat, it was because it lay on our way back to Indore from Mandu. We’d been travelling for a while and just needed a refreshment break.

Something that you’d never expect a regular travel refreshment break spot to offer, while in India!

The place had hundreds of plants and blooming flowers in every shape and size. The clock ticked 7, but it felt like 6... in the morning! Since it was the month of monsoon July, we were still amidst clouds hovering with us! Right in front of us was a series of 2 sets of plateaus, adjacent to each other at just the perfect picturesque angles!

The refreshment break that was supposed to last for an hour, turned out to be a good 5 hour stay. Two of my accompanying friends and me, took advantage of the rather peaceful suburb solace that we’d unexpectedly landed ourselves in! During our entire trip, we hadn’t stayed this quiet, yet relaxed at the same time.

The aura at Pyra is relaxing and rejuvenating for tired souls that do not even realise how tired they’ve become by trying to suit themselves in the rushing 21st century lifestyles.

Have you ever unexpectedly come across such mindful retreats while traveling? Let me know in the comments section below so that I can visit them next!

Also Read: A Weekend Get-Away Destination near you that’s Not on Every College Student’s 'Places-To-Go' List: Churu