Pax.

Pax is Latin for 'peace'. And I think the world could do with it. Anyone depicting peace as a dove is spot on. Which free bird stays on your hand too long, anyway? They're a pretty elusive species (much to the dismay of hungry meat-eaters). The idea of peace isn't that easy to grasp either.

There's always someone out there to screw your happiness. And if there isn't , life will send someone over anyway. Sanity's getting harder to find. I don't understand how everybody around is becoming as fragile as a pack of cards. Knock one set down and all others around sink, in a dramatic collapse (here's when I remember the Domino scene from V for Vendetta, but never mind).

And somehow, I see people more than eager to pick a fight. They're just the sort of people you'd want to see locked up in a Bigg Boss house (to set the place on fire). That, or make fight clubs for them. Lord knows, they need it. This is a world where dictatorships, violence, technology and culture coincide. And people can't seem to handle it. Everyone's just getting more and more isolated. More stupid. More self-centred. More insufferable. More intolerant. In fact... so  much more intolerant.

If we have to disconnect, why can't we detach from the negativity all around us, instead of those close to us? Why do we embrace negativity and shun those who love us? Why do we become like something or someone we didn't want to, to begin within? My uncle, a reasonably wise person, once said that we are a sum total of the five people closest to us. By 'closest', we mean proximity or maximum level of interaction. You don't need to have an emotional attachment to them. You just need to be around them.

And after some time... you begin to realise you are becoming like them. That's gotta hurt. But it doesn't have to. Stay collected. Stay grateful.

If you've got internet and you're reading this, you're probably also one of the privileged few who don't have to worry about sirens and curfews. You don't have to pray for an air-bomb to crash land into your living room. You're probably not off to war, in a land far away from family.

I'm just saying that there could be worse things that can happen. And worse does happen. Our lot is relatively better.

Even if everyday is a struggle, you do what you have to. Pick yourself up and try again. Shut off those annoying sounds, block out those annoying people, turn down the blinds every now and then. Just breathe. And remember that you are NEVER alone. Take it from someone who knows.