Growing Old Is Optional

Only to children, children sing...

Only to youth will spring be spring...

Children. Those small bubbly things that are the height of your knee and when you walk through a bunch of them, you're afraid you'll trample one(coming from someone the size of me, you gotta accept it) . Yes, that's who the country is celebrating tomorrow. 
Whether its candy-sucking, whining-for-toys kids whose world revolves around love and attention, or whether its teenagers who are stuck between being too pompous to be a kid, and yet not accepted into adulthood, and thus misunderstood and generally left with a feeling of being unloved, or be it those in blooming youth with their future laying itself out ahead of them...that's who India's first Prime Minister was talking about when he said, "Let my birthday be celebrated as Children's day." 
He wanted us to remember the liveliness with which children live the world, and the simplicity with which they look at it, and adore it. He said that adults build walls around themselves in the name of laws and religion and caste and creed, and thus, they are forever contained and limited by the walls. But children, like the roses he used to wear in his buttonholes, are the symbol of youth with apple-red cheeks, full of energy and hope for the future to come, and the future to be hand-made by themselves.

Growing up is mandatory.

Growing old is optional.

Never forget the child in you.

Adulthood is hard to ignore, and sometimes it swoops down on you when you're not looking. Okay, okay, I sound like a depressed teenager, yeah.. but don't you think life was much more fun when the most worried you were was whether you'll miss "Dragon Tales" on TV, or if you won't have a new best friend that week?

But just because you're no 11-year old anymore, doesn't mean your life is over. I don't remember where I heard this, but it's said that if you're 30 years old, you're not just 30...you're also 16 when a girl/guy of your dreams rejects you, you're also 9 when you cried when it didn't snow for Christmas the way you cry for the loss of a loved one , you're also a kindergartner who doesn't want to share his sandbox or crayons whenever you're too stubborn to accept you're wrong, and you're also a 2-year old taking his first steps when you talk to your parents you haven't talked to in 10years.

So it's not about how old you are, it's about how young you are.

So if this fits you, you're the one the country shall be celebrating tomorrow.

Look at a butterfly, and ask yourself, "Where does it get its colours?"

Look at your parents and remind yourself to make them smile more.

Look at your friends and remember to keep in touch.

And most importantly, look at yourself in the mirror, and smile genuinely and no matter how old you are, just for a day, let the child in you live free. Then everyday, never forget how it felt.

There are no seven wonders in the eyes of a child. 

There are seven million.

Happy Children's Day!

--☼Sunny☼

If I Die Young

Sometimes, the things you come across by mistake, add value to your days. Today I came across a song that moved me, and its become famous recently. The Band Perry's 'If I Die Young'.
The song is about a girl who is wondering how it must be to die young. She looks back on her life and realises that she has lived a full life. She goes on to sing about how she wants to be respected after her death.. heartrending lyrics asking them to 'bury me in satin, lay me down on a bed of roses, sink me in the river at dawn..' , to send her away with the words of a love song.
At the end, she asks her family to save their tears, and not to cry too hard, because she lived a good life, and she is ready to let go, in case she dies young.
Sometimes, I love it that songs have parallel stories. The song tells you a story, and the video tells you another. And only rarely are both equally good, and add equally unique and wonderful meaning to the song. Often I am really disappointed that the video doesn't keep true to the story in the song, and usually spoils the way you remember the song. But some songs, have that thing that makes you click 'replay' again and again, and each time you notice something different- the lyrics, the video, the clothes, the background, the people's smiles, the lilting of the voice at particular words, and that's why, people, we love music. One of my English teachers once said, that poetry, can mean anything you want. The poet may have had something in mind when he wrote it, but we shall never know. To each one, the poem is what he sees it to be, and that is why it is called poetry. Every time I listen to a song, I remember it inevitably. And today, I found a song that shall always remind me of one of the poems that I love, and one of the songs that I hope I don't forget.

If I Die Young - The Band Perry.

If I die young, bury me in satin

Lay me down on a bed of roses

Sink me in the river at dawn

Send me away with the words of a love song

Uh oh, Uh oh

Lord make a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother

She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colours, oh and

Life ain't always what you think it ought to be, no

Ain't even grey, but she buries her baby

The sharp knife, of a short life, well

I've had, just enough time.

If I die young, bury me in satin

Lay me down on a bed of roses

Sink me in the river at dawn

Send me away with the words of a love song.

And I'll be wearing white when I come into your kingdom

I'm as green as the ring on my cold little finger,

I've never known the loving of a man

But it sure felt nice when he was holdin' my hand

There's a boy in town says that he'll love me forever

Whoever thought forever could be severed by

The sharp knife of a short life, oh well

I've had just enough time

So put on your best boys and I'll wear my pearls.

What I never did is done.

A penny for my thoughts, oh no, I'll sell 'em for a dollar

They're worth so much after I'm a goner

And maybe then you'll hear the words I've been singing

Funny when you're dead how people start listening

If I die young, bury me in satin

Lay me down on a bed of roses

Sink me in the river at dawn

Send me away with the words of a love song

Uh oh (Uh oh)

The ballad of a dove (Uh oh)

Go with peace and love

Gather up your tears, keep 'em in your pocket

Save them for a time when you're really gonna need 'em, oh

The sharp knife, of a short life, oh well

I've had just enough time

So put on your best, boys, and I'll wear my pearls.

If you've seen the video, read on.

When we were taught this poem, I loved it. It had all the stuff I like, fantasy, a lady, and a love, and a curse. As only talented poets can, Tennyson made the sad ending so sweet and just as much a melody as the song the lady sang. 'The Lady Of Shalott'. How can I not mention it, after this video? Oh, let me tell you, it did strike me a little when she floated down the river. At first, I was all, who'd do that? Then she floated down, and she was wearing a white dress. Near the end of the song, she comes back and hugs her mom and her friends. I didn't like that. The song is about dying. What kind of a video was it if they saved the girl who was dying, and being 'buried at dawn'. If they weren't gonna let her sink into the river with the rising sun, why did they choose to visualize that particular lyric? I admit, I was disappointed.

And then the page of the book she was holding lay open. I leaned forward to see what the title was, afraid the video would stop before I could find out(like that annoying Inception ending "Does it topple, or doesn't it?" Tell me what you think.) And then, it said 'The Lady of Shalott' , and I went "Oh my God, it can't be" . And that is my defining moment in the song. And though I never imagined the Lady to be blonde, let's say I was pleasantly surprised by the song-poem tie-up. The video was about a video of The Lady Of Shalott, and what better way to portray a song about life and death and what goes on, than by bringing in an immortal piece of enchanting literature by Tennyson?

-- If I die young, ♪♪

☼ Sunny ☼