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A popular comic strip can hold many truths about life. We can learn many lessons from Calvin and Hobbes, the little boy and his imaginary friend.
Ever wondered that a comic strip can hold so many secrets to life? When I came across Calvin and Hobbes, the most popular comic strip worldwide, I was filled with awe and a regret at the same time. Awed by its subtle humour and regret for missing such a wonderful piece of art during my childhood. Wrapped in humour and wit are the various truths of life!
Wrapped in humour and wit are the various truths of life! The comic strip revolves around Calvin, a six-year-old boy with profound perspectives on life and his fantasy friend Hobbes (a stuffed tiger doll, which comes to life in his private musings). The child makes you chuckle and contemplate at the same time over the bigger idea making it a must read for all the adults and kids who never want to lose their childhood. After all, Calvin says, “Childhood is short and maturity is forever“. Calvin’s friend Hobbes is a creation of his mind, yet together they explore the world and its endless possibilities. Really, what a gift imagination is! Given below are some of my takeaways from this comic strip.Related Stories “Boys Make Balls, Girls Make Rotis!”: Deboshree, Author Of The Month, March 2018 “Boys Make Balls And Girls Make Chapati”: Deboshree, Author Of The Month, December 2017 1. Know yourself “We all have different desires and needs, but if we don’t discover what we want from ourselves and what we stand for, we will live passively and unfulfilled.” Often we come across people who are not happy with their lives, their carriers, their relationships, and so on. The reason for this being they never knew what they wanted. For example, at my office 7 out of 10 people are those who never wanted to be in the job they are currently in. However, they realized it much later. Not only while choosing a career, it happens even in relationships. So many people sulk over their failed relationships.Never miss real stories from India's women.Register Now However, the truth is that unless and until we know ourselves and what we want from life we are bound to make wrong choices. So, it is important to spend time with yourself alone, to introspect, and discover who we are. My teacher says, “Life is not only beautiful, but very beautiful only if you know what you want out of it”. 2. Life is in the moments “If good things lasted forever, would we appreciate how precious they are?” We often wish that the good old days of our lives would come back. When we were at school, we wished for weekends to come as we hated being at school. However, when we left school for college, we wished the time would go back. Similar was the case when college ended and we headed off to make our careers. However, nothing is permanent in our life. We can’t stagnate as time goes on. Had it been we got all what we wanted, we would never have appreciated it the way we do it today. Life is in the moments that we make along our way. Live them fully, for when you will look back you will realize they were big things. 3. Accept and believe Mrs. Wormwood (Calvin’s teacher): “What state do you live in?” Calvin: “Denial”. Truly, denial is the state of our mind we spend most part of our life in. We are never satisfied with the way we are and often want to live someone else’s life. Often the relations or riches in our friend’s, colleague’s or even a stranger’s life seem to be much better than ours. Rather than accepting who we are and what we have, we wish to escape from our life. If only we could accept and believe in ourselves, brushing aside our imaginary fears and insecurities, life would be a lot more beautiful. 4. Choose between success and principles “Still, in the real world, people care about success, not principles. Then again, maybe that’s why the world is such a mess. What a dilemma!” Little Calvin faces an ethical dilemma while cheating on a test. Whether he should cheat and succeed or accept the consequences for not studying? Through his statement Calvin brings to light the universal problem we allface in our lives when we have to choose between success and our principles. What should we opt for? Bend our rules or stick to it? We fail this test of life on many an occasions. Perhaps, that is why our life seems to be a mess at times because in real world few care about principles. 5. Appreciate nature “Wow, look at the grass stains on my skin. I say, if your knees aren’t green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life.” Exploring new heavens in the womb of nature, lying down beneath a cool shade of a tree and doing nothing but sleep, and splashing or jumping in the ponds are some of the things Calvin and Hobbes do in their afternoons. However, the beauty and magic of nature remains under appreciated by kids of our generation. The advanced technology, gadgets, iphones, and numerous other equipments have become a part of our culture. Nature needs to be preserved and appreciated. For in the womb of nature one can find peace and tranquility. Younger generation must be taught to relish the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples, and pear, the pleasure of experiencing an unconditional love from pets rather than making appliances and equipment the center of their lives. For, nature is its own reward. And, this is not the end. There is much more to learn from the comic. Lessons are endless. Fun, madness, innocence, adventure, and childhood all entwined together in one go. So, have you explored the wonderful world of Calvin and Hobbes? This post was first published at the author’s blog Picture from promotional material of the comic loveyourleisure Comments About the AuthorSonalika AroraAn engineer by profession but a writer at heart, I try to seek happiness through my writing. I am an avid reader, a blogger, and I like to write about books and my reflections on read more...20 Posts | 215,780 Views
Wrapped in humour and wit are the various truths of life!
The comic strip revolves around Calvin, a six-year-old boy with profound perspectives on life and his fantasy friend Hobbes (a stuffed tiger doll, which comes to life in his private musings). The child makes you chuckle and contemplate at the same time over the bigger idea making it a must read for all the adults and kids who never want to lose their childhood. After all, Calvin says, “Childhood is short and maturity is forever“.
Calvin’s friend Hobbes is a creation of his mind, yet together they explore the world and its endless possibilities. Really, what a gift imagination is!
Given below are some of my takeaways from this comic strip.
“We all have different desires and needs, but if we don’t discover what we want from ourselves and what we stand for, we will live passively and unfulfilled.”
Often we come across people who are not happy with their lives, their carriers, their relationships, and so on. The reason for this being they never knew what they wanted. For example, at my office 7 out of 10 people are those who never wanted to be in the job they are currently in. However, they realized it much later. Not only while choosing a career, it happens even in relationships. So many people sulk over their failed relationships.
However, the truth is that unless and until we know ourselves and what we want from life we are bound to make wrong choices. So, it is important to spend time with yourself alone, to introspect, and discover who we are. My teacher says, “Life is not only beautiful, but very beautiful only if you know what you want out of it”.
“If good things lasted forever, would we appreciate how precious they are?”
We often wish that the good old days of our lives would come back. When we were at school, we wished for weekends to come as we hated being at school. However, when we left school for college, we wished the time would go back. Similar was the case when college ended and we headed off to make our careers. However, nothing is permanent in our life.
We can’t stagnate as time goes on. Had it been we got all what we wanted, we would never have appreciated it the way we do it today. Life is in the moments that we make along our way. Live them fully, for when you will look back you will realize they were big things.
Mrs. Wormwood (Calvin’s teacher): “What state do you live in?”
Calvin: “Denial”.
Truly, denial is the state of our mind we spend most part of our life in. We are never satisfied with the way we are and often want to live someone else’s life. Often the relations or riches in our friend’s, colleague’s or even a stranger’s life seem to be much better than ours. Rather than accepting who we are and what we have, we wish to escape from our life. If only we could accept and believe in ourselves, brushing aside our imaginary fears and insecurities, life would be a lot more beautiful.
“Still, in the real world, people care about success, not principles. Then again, maybe that’s why the world is such a mess. What a dilemma!”
Little Calvin faces an ethical dilemma while cheating on a test. Whether he should cheat and succeed or accept the consequences for not studying? Through his statement Calvin brings to light the universal problem we allface in our lives when we have to choose between success and our principles.
What should we opt for? Bend our rules or stick to it? We fail this test of life on many an occasions. Perhaps, that is why our life seems to be a mess at times because in real world few care about principles.
“Wow, look at the grass stains on my skin. I say, if your knees aren’t green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life.”
Exploring new heavens in the womb of nature, lying down beneath a cool shade of a tree and doing nothing but sleep, and splashing or jumping in the ponds are some of the things Calvin and Hobbes do in their afternoons. However, the beauty and magic of nature remains under appreciated by kids of our generation. The advanced technology, gadgets, iphones, and numerous other equipments have become a part of our culture.
Nature needs to be preserved and appreciated. For in the womb of nature one can find peace and tranquility. Younger generation must be taught to relish the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples, and pear, the pleasure of experiencing an unconditional love from pets rather than making appliances and equipment the center of their lives. For, nature is its own reward.
And, this is not the end. There is much more to learn from the comic. Lessons are endless.
Fun, madness, innocence, adventure, and childhood all entwined together in one go. So, have you explored the wonderful world of Calvin and Hobbes?
This post was first published at the author’s blog
Picture from promotional material of the comic
An engineer by profession but a writer at heart, I try to seek happiness through my writing. I am an avid reader, a blogger, and I like to write about books and my reflections on read more...
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My house-help asked excitedly, “I am going for wedding. Can you let me wear your red & black saree? To be honest I was stumped for a moment; I didn’t know what to say but I still said yes.
I lent a gorgeous saree to my house-help for a wedding in her family. Soon I stated getting questions if I would wear that saree again or if I was okay to be seen wearing the same saree my house-help was wearing?
We are all so conditioned to give our used clothes to our house-helps but are we okay to wear the clothes they were wearing?
A few days ago she came excitedly to me, “I am going for a family wedding. I want to wear your red & black saree, Ill wash and give it to you after the function. Please can you let me wear it?”
Sivaranjiniyum Innum Sila Pengalum (SISP) is an ode to all of the lost women, who could have been sports stars, singers, bankers, lawyers, doctors, just... happy, if they hadn't been enslaved in matrimony, and then forgotten all about.
One of the cool things about my mother was that she was an ace athlete and a champion sculler as a young woman in the 1950s and 60s. I only found out about this side of her a few years ago. I imagine her in a paavaadai dhaavani, taking on the mighty Kaveri river so many decades ago.
I recently watched a Tamil film anthology on SonyLiv that she would have liked to watch – Sivaranjiniyum Innum Sila Pengalum, (SISP) that has 3 stories of 3 different women – Saraswathi, Devaki, and Shivaranjini.
Like all the heroines in the anthology, my mother’s talents were sacrificed at the altar of matrimony. She pawned her gold medals and silver cups one by one to pay for expensive textbooks for us or a gift for a niece on her wedding, money for which she didn’t dare ask my father, because it was her niece… I remember how she caressed the cups and how her face hardened as she shoved them into her bag to take to the jewellers.
#ThisThingCalledLove. I met my husband as a stranger for the first time on Google +, and fell in love with him overnight. Yes, love at first sight, or rather, first chat.
I know, I know. The whole Love at First Sight is such a cliché – useful only for movies and romance novels but not something that happens in real life. Heck, I don’t believe in it myself! After all, just looking at a person tells you nothing about them. Real people don’t have labels saying ‘hero’, ‘heroine’, ‘villain’ and so on. But it did happen to me. Falling in love took me less than 24 hours, with a man I had never met until then!
‘Hold on!’, I can hear you saying, ‘How can you fall in love at first sight with someone you never met?’ Read on and you’ll find out.
What we laugh at says a lot about us, as well as the source of humour. Here's an exploration of the thin line between humour and sexism in stand-up comedy.
What we laugh at says a lot about us, as well as the source of humour. Here’s an exploration of the thin line between humour and sexism in stand-up comedy.
By Indu Balachandran, as a part of the Prajnya 16 Days Campaign Against Gender Violence.
The other day, I saw this cartoon of a couple of women astronauts, standing on an alien planet. They were trying to figure out where in the universe they had landed. Strewn around them were some clues: empty beer bottles, pin-ups of Kim Kardashian, car magazines, porn, pizza takeaways… “Hey. Looks like we’ve landed on Mars!” declared the ladies.