Act!

What do I do instead of writing my essay? I blog. It’s a good stress buster. As is Twitter. Just saying.

Anyway. This blog is going to be a rather serious one. Only because it got me thinking. Now, before you get all critical, offensive and defensive, this blog is not targeted at anyone. It’s just my general thought. I may be wrong for all I know as I do not know what’s going on in your minds.

So going abroad and studying? Best experience ever. But, where are my qualifications going to play their part? My home. I have two homes so I’ll probably try and incorporate both. But no matter how much I say I am Zambian at heart, I am also partly Indian. And I love India. The culture, food, people, ambiance  traffic, dust, shopping…what’s not to love?

Point being, I am studying abroad. But I want to use this education to help make my country better. Why should I stay here and make a good place even better when I need to improve my country? I am not saying my country is bad. It’s not. In fact, it’s far from bad. Sure we have certain happenings that are not acceptable in society. It’s not like all the other countries in the world have no crime, rape, murders, etc. They do. We’re just not aware of it.

Use opportunities wisely. Don’t improve the good. Improve what needs improvising. Don't complain. Act. Give back to your country for a better future. 

Coffee Coaster = Life's Philosophy

It’s a normal Friday. Sitting, drinking coffee, reading the morning news on my laptop (yeah, we’re out of that era where we used to read this thing called a “newspaper"). Anyhu, I was drinking my coffee and introspection just interrupted my reading. Well, more than introspection, it was “what’s the plan for today?”

“Let’s see…Gym at 9 30, Back at 11 hopefully. Shower, cook, eat, and go to lectures. Come back, waste time, and dance. Hmm. Sounds legit.”

Photograph By: Anupama Subramaniyam

Then I looked down to keep my coffee mug and my coaster stares at me with this big fat question in my face: “Is there more to life than this?”

First I was like, “Bitch. Whacha lookin’ at? You just a coaster. Of course you’re gonna ask such questions if you have a coffee mug’s ass on your face every day.” 

Then reality hit. Not the questions. But why I have such a negative form of a question, let alone in my room, but something I’ve to read every morning when I wake up and drink coffee.

Then again, if there’s a bad, there’s a good. I could say, “YES. There is more to life than just this. But I’ve to wait.” As they say, patience pays. So I’m waiting for that “more” to life. It may be later on today. Tomorrow. Day after. Next week. Next month. Next year. Whenever. But it’s coming. And it’s more. And it’s good.

Send good vibes. Spread positive vibes. Be depressed once in a while. Need to balance things out. But don’t dramatize. Look forward. I’m looking forward to my “more”. Keep smiling! :)

Life

We all love our parents don't we? And of course, our parents loved their parents didn't they? Then I have one question; why were old age homes invented?

Sure everything revolves around money today. That's a fact. Fact fact fact. Am sure Mr Gradgrind from Charles Dickens' 'Hard Times' would be so proud of me for saying this. No emotions involved...just a mechanical life: Go to work, make money, come home, eat, shit, sleep, wake up the next day and do it all over again.

Has it never occurred to the kids who dump their parents in old age homes that their parents could have dumped them in an orphanage as well? Or left them on the streets? But they didn't! They took care of you; when you lied, they scolded you; when you were down, they encouraged you; when you hurt yourself, they took care of you. How do you have the heart to dump someone who gave birth to you? Who brought you into this world? Who made you who you are today?

Life is too short to live mechanically. It's the small things in life we need to appreciate. It's the people in our lives who make a difference. I learned recently:

"One day, you need to have someone with
whom you can look back at these memories..."
Photograph by: Tanushree Dwivedi

It took time, but I learnt to live.

However be the days, I have learnt to live,

Now I have known this, what's happiness and what's sorrow;

Both are weathers of two moments;

Neither they wait nor stay.

Life gets made of two colours, 

Now angry, now placated.

This, this is here...

- Der lagi lekin maine ab hai jeena seekh liya, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.

Learn to live, yes. Seize the moment, yes. Make memories, yes. But never do these things alone. One day, you need to have someone with whom you can look back at these memories. Family, friends, strangers, lovers...everyone means something at some point in your life. 

No Relation

The past four years have been a really long journey, filled with joys, adventures, cries and secrets. A typical teenage life is what I lead. As I read through my old Facebook messages, I could sense a level of immaturity and childishness in my words and sentences. "What was I thinking?!" I thought, as I read my horrible grammar mistakes, the then "cool" SMS language and the constant dots between each and every sentence. As if murdering the formalities and structures of the English language was not enough, my content was even worse. Things like "Chocolates are better than ice cream" and constant attention seeking status messages like "I am depressed." and "Sigh." were seen on my profile. Curse Mark Zuckerberg for having introduced and incorporated the Timeline. Ugh.

Source: Google

Then again, thank Mr Zuckerberg for giving me an easier and less creepy way to stalk my momentary teenage crushes. No am not a creep and yes we all stalk people on Facebook. Get over it. I never understood the big deal about Facebook. I was, obviously, like others, impressed with Facebook at the beginning. It was like shifting into a new house from hi5 to Orkut to Facebook. I bet you guessed my new home even before I could say it, Twitter. Facebook has become a nuisance. Depressed status messages, people making their lives publicly available to all their friends (even those that they haven't spoken to in years!) I did a little experiment myself. It was during my fourth semester examinations and hence more convenient and helpful. I deactivated my Facebook account for a month. During that one month, I realised that I had spoken to my friends more than I usually do, because I was not aware of what was happening in their lives and they weren't aware of what was happening in my life. So tell me again how Facebook helps me become a more social person?

But, do you see the irony? If you are my friend, it is most likely that you're reading this blogpost because I shared it on Facebook. Ah the circles of life. But its like some Hindi serials tell me, "It may look useless, but you can manipulate it and use it to your own advantages." No I am not evil.

I don't see the point of this blogpost. Is it about Formalism? Structuralism? Globalisation? Socialisation? Social networks? All I can say is that I am writing for the sake of writing. I am expressing my feelings through this blogpost. If you'll notice, the first paragraph of this post and the last, have no relation what-so-ever. In the same way, my past does not reflect who I am today and who I will be tomorrow. Live life like it's meant to be - the way you want it. And don't I don't support the whole YOLO jazz (Sorry Drake fans) because I believe in reincarnation, thank you very much.

PS - For those of you who think Twitter is crap: "@autocorrects TWITTER makes you improve your writing. The 140 character limit forces you to master the art of getting right to the point."

The Queen of Procrastination

It's 13:43pm; 

And am writing a poem!

What a way to distract myself,

From a fat book on my shelf.

It's the exam season now;

1 down, 4 more to go.

But how? 

How do I study?

With distractions;

Oh! So many!

Distractions that were never;

Never! So interesting;

During the summer...

It's sad, you may think;

And yes it is,

Because my grades will sink!

But what do I care?

I'll get my revenge!

Many years down the lane,

When am long dead and gone.

My great-great-great grand kids,

Will kill their memories of me,

With a stone!

Why, you ask?

I'll tell you why!

This very poem, 

They will all read!

All because of my boredom;

They perform a bad deed.

I don't regret;

And I will never!

It's all a cycle-

A cycle of life;

From generation to generation;

I'll remain forever,

The Queen of Procrastination.

© Anupama Subramaniyam