Hang It All! Who Killed Jasmine #1/4

Recent headlines about a young Bollywood star who hung herself one fine day in her posh Mumbai home set me to wondering just why a woman so blessed would resort to so irrevocable an act. I dug a little deeper: career and romantic problems, screeched the media, citing the same boring reasons that have led other glamorous stars all over the globe to snuff out their privileged lives.

Well, Jasmine, you certainly looked chic and spunky in those pics the media splashed around — a gorgeous celeb with everything to live for. So what really led you to kill yourself? Were you devastated because another star bagged the role you craved? Frustrated with sparse media and public attention? Or did the knife of shame and despair cut too deep when you discovered your boyfriend was messing around behind your slender back? Did a combination of all these — coupled with secret agonies you’d nursed since you were a little girl — hurl you into the abyss of depression and gradually lead you to tie that noose around your slender neck?

You Don’t Own A Damned Thing – Samsara’s Seven Flavors #6/12

Flavor #2: No ownership. Most of us live with the feeling that we call the shots in our personal lives, that we own our lives. But what does ownership really mean? In essence, it indicates that you control the destiny of a thing.

Let’s talk about how I came to “own” my spectacular home in the hills…say I inherited a nice chunk from my doting grandma, hunted high and low until I found my dream home, negotiated with a real estate shark to buy it, moved my family in, and threw the grandest housewarming party ever. This is my home, right?

But if I truly owned it, how come I lost it? If I accept that ownership implies control of destiny, the corollary is that I own nothing, not even my body or mind. If I did, I’d probably maintain my body in peak condition and suffuse my mind with constant blasts of ecstasy —  instead of getting old and sick and being victim to a range of unpleasant moods.