Lost in the Stars

Let’s talk about my love affair with space today.

I have always been fascinated by space and all things celestial. I mean, who isn’t? Who can stop themselves from staring at the beauty of a sky full of stars or a pale hanging full moon? Who can avoid having their mind be absolutely blown when they first learn about the nine(Now, eight) planets of various colours and sizes? When you hear that we are going around the sun and not the other way around? Unbelievable! Life as you know it is completely changed. Well, it is, if you’re me.

It started simply enough. When I was very little, I could not get over the magical phenomenon of stars. How those tiny twinkling lights came in the sky every night and disappeared before I woke up. How the moon was a different shape every day. How some stars were brighter than the others. How sometimes I would catch the moon in the day and feel triumphant, just like I felt when I raced the sun and moon from my car window. (And never won!)

Indian culture values star a lot. Hindus have their own branch of astrology and when a baby is born, a map of all the planet positions at the time of their birth is used to predict the kind of person they will become and the life they will have. Thus, my first celestial education was cultural, courtesy of my parents. I learnt about the myth of the pole star, called the Dhruva Tara, named after a little boy named Dhruva. I also learnt about the Saptarishi, the constellation named for the 7 great sages of the Vedic period and many many more fascinating stories.

Then, came to primary school, where I truly and firmly realized that I adored all things to do with space. I loved to hear about the planets, the galaxies, the suns, the moons and the comets. I bought encyclopedia on encyclopedia and read them cover to cover and more still. I thought, I never could know enough about space, and I still stand by that. I even bought a children’s telescope and spent so much time futilely tinkering away at it. (I lived in a metropolitan city and it was a pretty weak telescope, so there was very little hope.) By the time I was 11, I had decided that my life’s goal was going to space and decided that I just had to become an astronaut.

I eventually came back to earth and began to calm down my PDA with space. I expressed my love for it by reading science fiction, more encyclopedias (I was a big encyclopedia kid), watching for stars and constellations whenever I could and most importantly letting people I was comfortable with know every space fact I could remember. As I’m sure they will unhappily vouch, the latter is a personality trait that has still not changed.

As an adult growing up in the heart of urbanity, I hardly get to see the stars in the sky. I adore going on vacations to the mountains or the hinterlands and getting to watch a sky full of stars. There is nothing quite like it. On one particular vacation, we were lucky enough to be staying at a resort that had a high-resolution telescope at hand, and you bet your heart I had a gala time with it. I saw galaxies and the divots of the moon and whatnot, it was the highlight of my vacation, and that is saying a lot because this vacation involved lots of strawberries and I adore those.

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Photos I took through the telescope lens!

I still love finding constellations, saying the random hello to Venus or Mars and if I’m lucky, Jupiter and most importantly, tracking important celestial events and trying my best to catch them, despite the suffocation of living in a concrete jungle. Recently, the big one I failed to see was the comet Neo Wise. I left my house for the first time since the pandemic in hopes to catch it, so you understand that I really tried. On a regular day, there are meteor showers that I rue missing and stay up at night to hopefully catch.

I long for a future where I can travel to catch these wondrous phenomena, where I can visit observatories and get up close and personal with stars, moons, planets, comets, solar systems and galaxies. As I bow out, I wish upon all the stars to always be just as mesmerized by a sky full of stars as I am today and I was at 3 years old. Here’s to hoping that the magic never ever dies!

THIS POST’S QUESTION: Are you obsessed with space as well? Is it like my obsession or completely different? Comment below with what you think about it,I’d love to hear from you!

My Love for Languages

Let’s talk about my special fondness for languages today.

Hello, welcome! Hallo, willkommen! Hola, bienvenido! Namaste, swagat hai! Bonjour, bienvenue!

Now that you are properly(and a little insanely) greeted, let’s get into it, shall we?

Ever since I can remember, I have loved stories. As a kid, I loved having my parents read me bedtime stories and when I could read myself, it was instant love. (And I no longer needed to bargain or annoy my parents into reading me a story, so it was a win-win all around) I had found my passion.No, not stories like you think, but words and in a nutshell, the English language. This passion would eventually grow to encompass not just English and not just reading.

Throughout my schooling, all 14-16 years of it, the one subject that has never wavered from my favourite subject list was English. Other subjects came and went, depending on marks, general understandability, how much I liked the teacher and so on. I studied in an English medium school so, English was everywhere for me and has been one of my strongest assets through the years, due to in part the heavy reading I have done and the amount of attention I have always paid in English. I always tried to have a great relationship with my English teachers(Even when they seemed impossible to my teenage self) because I just really really loved it so much. Just to put this in perspective, my love for it was so all-consuming I sat and read a whole children’s English dictionary for fun. (Really, just get that I was just a giant language nerd.) It is the language I think in and the one I eventually chose to write in, when I discovered a different passion of mine.

My actual mother tongue, Hindi, was a language I struggled with for a bit majorly with writing it, speaking was very natural(obviously); it’s a completely different script, we were not exposed enough to it, writing it didn’t come to me as naturally as English did(again, probably a lack of exposure thing) and whatnot but I eventually found the beauty within it too. During 9th-10th grade my Hindi curriculum was composed of mostly heavy-duty old and new Hindi literature and classics and these two years did wonders to my vocabulary and command in the language. It was then that Hindi became enjoyable for me, I had been good at it for a few years by then but now I liked being good at it and using it. Still, not as much as English because that was my comfort zone, my proverbial home within the world of languages.

I was 11 when I realised I had a major soft spot for languages. We had to choose a third language to study alongside Hindi and English. I took German and absolutely loved it. I loved learning new words, learning to count, trying to read, practising pronunciations, listening to people speak in German and whatnot. I just loved learning languages. Languages, I was certain, were my thing. So, I thrived learning German till 8th grade and even gave the FIT in Deutsch exam(The official exam administered by the Goethe Institut to prove proficiency in german) I ended up getting the highest marks in Speaking and missing the full score by a very little margin. I also loved my german teacher, as has already been mentioned, the teachers were an important part of the equation to me because they had all the knowledge and I wanted nay needed it.

I consider people who know multiple languages to be extremely wise and knowledgeable and the best people all around. (Did you know Audrey Hepburn spoke 5? How cool is that?) It is my most ardent dream to know and speak as many languages as I possibly can. For now, I am somewhere on the road between bilingual and trilingual; I know, understand and speak Hindi and English extremely well and know just enough German to get by, if I absolutely had to.

I’ve realised that my love for languages stems from how I find it crazy how we humans, so different yet so similar, found a way to strings sounds and noise together to mean the same things and eventually figured out symbols and a whole way of representing it written down. I find the different alphabets and scripts and quirks so fantastic. I find the little similarities you can sometimes find in Germanic languages, Romance languages and languages like Hindi fascinating. Did you know that most languages around the world use a word with ‘M’ in it for their mothers? Like ‘mother’ in English,’mata’ in Hindi,’ mutter’ in german,’madre’ in Spanish? How bonkers is it that all these people in all these different geographically distinct places with their own thriving cultures and value systems found similar ways to describe a mother, something they all had in common?

There is much more fascinating stuff about languages that someone far more knowledgable(or the internet) would tell you. (I am warning you though, it’s quite the rabbit hole) The reason I wanted to talk about this particular fondness of mine at this moment in time though is that I think, in tough times like these, it is more prudent than ever to realise that despite our differences, despite the different tongues we speak, the ways some of us roll our R’s or seem to be speaking in cursive(Looking at you, French) we are all at the end of the day, the same; just human beings. On that note, I wish you well and bid you farewell, in the same few languages I greeted(Read scared) you with, in the beginning.

Goodbye! Auf Wiedersehen! Adios! Alvida! Au revoir!(Did you notice the A’s everyone uses here and the H almost everyone uses in their greetings? Languages are SO incredible.)

THIS POST’S QUESTION: How many languages do you speak? Comment below with what you think about it,I’d love to hear from you!

My Love For Mythology.

Let’s talk about my relationship with mythology today.

Hi! Today I will talk about one of the great loves of my life that I don’t believe I have addressed on here in a manner it deserves (Read: aside from a few references to it here and there I haven’t talked about it all) It is actually quite surprising and shocking that I haven’t addressed it on here yet and it has been almost three years since I started sharing my thoughts with you. So, today I share with you one of the bigger pieces of me: my love for mythology.

I was very very young when I had my first encounter with mythology and let me tell you, it was love at first sight. (Or encounter, in this case, but sight has more poetic charm now, doesn’t it?) Being born in a Hindu family, I was very small when I first heard the stories of Vishnu’s many incarnations, Shiva’s abode on the top of the Kailash, Ganesha’s many intellectual and food driven adventures and so many other stories. I heard these stories before I was capable of reading myself and they completely captured my imagination.

As I grew older, I was able to read these myself and reading and rereading the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, which are very famous great epics from India was only the tip of the iceberg that was the world of Hindu mythology for me. The many gods with their many different forms and different powers, the sages with their curses, the Asuras or the demons, entirely fascinated me. It was great fuel to my very active imagination and it was only the start to a love that well, as of now, would last a lifetime.

Then, like many travellers of lands far away, I stumbled upon the Greeks. Greek mythology was and probably is my favourite mythology to date(With the Hindu mythology) The Big Three with their three realms, Zeus with the skies, Poseidon with the seas and Hades with the underworld, Persophone and her travels changing seasons, Medusa’s fixating stare and monsters like the Minotaur or the Hydra were incredible stories to my 7-year-old brain. I also loved it more because of just how similar it is to Hindu mythology. The same many gods, the god of thunder, rain and lightning as king of the gods, the whole big three business, the similarities are endless and can be a post themselves.

A picture of the council of gods I found at http://maggiesemple.com/greek-mythology/

After the Greeks, I found their more disciplined and stricter descendants and neighbours, the Romans. The parallels with Greek mythology were obvious and established but the differences were what fascinated me. Poseidon’s might staying not as mighty as he becomes Neptune, the much higher reverence to Mars, the god of war because Rome fought a lot of wars, the importance of the beauty of the gods in Grecian tales versus the war generals of Rome, it was amazing to me that something born from the same place went two such different directions.

I found this picture at https://www.realmofhistory.com/2018/03/20/15-roman-gods-goddesses-facts/

After that, I stumbled upon many very different mythologies, the Norse with the tales of Thor and Odin, the Egyptians with Ra, Osiris, the eye of Horus and Set’s wrath and even mythology associated with younger religions like Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It is a love that has only grown over the years and an interest that I am highly passionate about. Passionate enough that when I found a friend who loved mythology the way I do, we seriously discussed having a mythology youtube channel together. (It never happened because duh, that’s how most plans with your friends go)

I would be remiss to not mention the wonderful boon that Rick Riordan has been to the world of mythology. His books brought my favourite myths to life in the modern world in the most literal sense and I am so thankful for his books because they have not only popularised this obscure love of mine but also expanded upon my knowledge and love of the Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythology. (I haven’t read his books on the Norse mythology yet but I’m sure they’ll have the same effect.)

In conclusion, this has been my ode to my love, mythology and I’m glad that you could join me on this nostalgic little journey where I profess my love for one of my biggest passions, mythology. Thank you.

THIS POST’S QUESTION: Are you interested in mythology? What is your favourite mythology? Comment below with what you think about it, i’d love to here from you!

 

 

Head In The Clouds.

Let’s talk about aeroplanes today.

I’ve always loved aeroplanes. I always look up when one passes by, no matter what I’m doing (I was writing my high school graduation exams this year near an airport and it was ridiculous how many times I’d stop, it’s a wonder I finished my papers at all!)

How this little epiphany or stroke of inspiration came, you ask? Well today, when I was crossing to the dormitories (Yes, I live in a dorm now, post on how I’m dealing with that hopefully soon!) after dinner ,a plane whizzed by. Among the good horde of people that was there, skateboarding, chatting away with pals, texting on phones, leading singalongs and whatnot, I was the only one who looked up. That’s when it hit me ,how odd is it that we are so acclimatised, so used to aeroplanes now and how far we really have come. A century ago, everyone would have stopped whatever they’re doing and stared at the sky in amazement and would have waved to the passing plane with smiles on their faces and wonderment in their eyes. This little thought triggered another train which made me think of my own special relationship with the sky.

I love sky-watching. I am the kind of person who can make a day out of it. I never grew out of the finding shapes in clouds phase. Hell, my first dream job was to be a pilot. And the best part? I had never ever sat in a plane at that age. When I was 5,the idea of flying off to someplace and going anywhere I wanted, up above the clouds was as fascinating as things got.(To be honest, it’s still fascinating. I think I missed the growing up call.)If you talked to me then about what I wanted to be when I grew up, you’d get a resolute, proud, “Pilot” and a promise to be flown to a place of your choice when I became one.(How I wish I was this clear now, as an adult.)

How the job vacated the dream slot, is another rather sad tale. I saw a movie late at night with my family and way past my bedtime, in which a plane crash killed a whole lot of people, including a beloved character.(Who by the way, was the pilot.)Then that night, I had a series of not-so-good dreams about airplanes and by morning being a pilot was a distant thing of the past.

I went on my first aeroplane at the age of 10. It was a domestic flight but it was a good 3 and a half hours long and the best thing that had happened to me then. The view from above the clouds, the knitted square piece carpet that earth looked like from up above ,the green green forests where I was landing and the helluva ear aches landing and take off gave me are ingrained in my memory forever. I’ve seen an okay amount of things in life for someone my age but I value these memories as precious moments from my childhood.

Since then, I have been on many many planes and seen quite a few airports (Also one of my favourite places, more on them later in his post!) I’ve had good plane rides, okay planes rides, great plane ides, bad plane rides, the entire spectrum.(And over the course of these rides, I’ve also grown out of my ear aches.)I’ve sat in really comfortable seats and uncomfortable, kind of stuffy planes. I’ve watched a lot of movies, read a lot of books, heard a lot of music and had a lot of food on aeroplanes.

I’ve also seen amaaaazing sights from the windows.(Window seat hoggers unite!) I’ve seen so many different colours, shapes and kinds of clouds. I’ve seen a bunch of sunrises, multiple cities, rivers, lakes, countries and even the snow-capped Himalayas. (While going to Leh, Ladakh, India, one of my most beloved trips ever.) I’ve seen the teeny tiny Eifel Tower, wee Twin Towers(Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia),tiny Rome, beaches, oceans, seas and so much more!

(I have not taken these beautiful pictures, these have been uploaded to the internet by amazing photographers around the world, some who had watermarks, some who didn’t. I used these because I felt that these capture views akin to what I’ve seen in a way I could never even aspire to.)

Now, let’s get back to one of my favourite places again; airports. There are so many people, so many hopes, so many struggles, so many stories in that one place. Everyone has a different destination, a different purpose, different likes and so many different goals. Also as a big plus, so many chocolate and book stores!(Just the things you should sell everywhere,if you ask me!)

I find myself fortunate enough to have seen and done so much all because of aeroplanes. It makes travel, seeing the world, fulfilling my dreams much easier for me and unites and joins all of us. So, I’d like to conclude this plane (ha!) of thought that started with a plane with gratitude and awe for this metal tube ,its inventors, the Wright brothers and humanity in general for being who they are with ideas and curiosity and creativity and passion driving us as a species forward.

Bon Voyage for wherever you’re off to (In life or on a plane!) from a plane-aholic!

THIS POST’S QUESTION: What is your favourite memory associated with aeroplanes? Comment below with what you think about it,I’d love to heard from you!

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Where Was I And An Introduction For What’s To Come.

Let’s talk about a LOT of things today.

Hi, hello, everyone! It has been so so long. I’m so sorry for disappearing on you! I’ll explain exactly what I was off doing in the next few paragraphs so I hope when you know you’ll go a little easy on me.In any case,  I’m saying sorry louder and again, for the people in the back.

For the past few months when I’ve gone incognito I’ve been up to two major things. One, those being college forms and results and everything on those lines and two being more interesting and enjoyable(But then I think anything would be more enjoyable that college hopping, as I call it.) a big, long amazing vacation to Western Europe!(Pay attention to this one, it comes up a lot.)

In a more detailed version of events, I’ll explain exactly what I was up to every month that I was gone, what I’m up to now and what you can expect from the conversation that we hold here, though this blog.

In May, I spent the month majorly appearing for what remained of my exams, officially passing and graduating from high school and planning the most exciting vacation that was to come the next month.

In June, I spent half the month in Europe, travelling and taking in all that I could with my family.The other, busier half was spent filling college applications and everything that comes along with that long, gruelling process.(If you’re from one of the colleges I’ve applied to please know that this is a lie and I love the college admission process and couldn’t be having more fun.And also, look at my application again, please?)

Currently, I have finished the majority of my “college-hopping” and am awaiting results so that my college can be finalised and all preparations that go into going to college can commence.The good news is, I will definitely have and be in a college in a month.(Wish me luck because I really really need it ! ) The other good news is, I finally have time to write about the mind-blowing vacation I just came back from and I cannot wait to share it here and document all the amazing memories I have made during the vacation!

So, here is a promise I’m making to myself and here that I’ll try to write something every day.I am going to chronicle the entire vacation day-wise, and I’ll try to post as soon as I finish up posts. I’ll know how much time I need for one once I actually work on one and I’ll work accordingly and I promise minimum one post a week.

Apart from this I’m very free right now to talk so comment, email and DM me if you want to chat! I love to talk to you all!(Email and Instagram account  are on the About page)

THIS POST’S QUESTION: Let’s go back to basics. How are you ,today? Comment below with what you think about it,I’d love to hear from you!

Be a guest blogger on Musings Of A Whimsical Soul: Click here to apply!

 

Why I Love Travel.

Let’s talk about travel today.

Lately,I’ve been getting horribly jittery because I’m in dire need of a vacation,of going to a new place and exploring it.It’s quite impossible to take a holiday these days for me due to my extremely busy schedule so I decided to take all my pent-up travel frustration and make a post about travel and just think and talk about why I love travelling so much.

Buddhist flags at Sikkim,India.The picture was taken by me.

If you’ve been following my blog a little while,you might have seen me do quite a few travel posts.I enjoy doing those, as it helps me in  reminiscing about my holidays and preserving the memories forever,or however long the internet exists.Simply put,I love travelling.I am quite an impatient and adventurous person and someone who really enjoys adrenaline rushes,(My first post was actually about this, click here to read that) so for me travelling is one of the best activities there is.It makes me happy to meet new people ,see new places,learn new languages.As John Green has aptly said, seemingly about me,”I am in love with places I’ve never been to and people I’ve never met.”

Chang La Pass,Ladakh,India.The picture was taken by me.

Travelling makes me a different kind of happy,that nothing else can ever do.All parts of  it; the getting to the place,the walking around,the newness,the beautifully unique things that make that place what it is, are things I absolutely adore.For me,travelling gives me a high that lasts for quite a while,leaving me cheerier,happier,fresher and just all round more positive with a new perspective on life and making me a person  quite different from the one I was.

Sikkim,India.Taken by me too.

I love the new flora and fauna,the new food,the new faces and the new atmosphere.I yearn to see so much of the world,to learn so many languages,to learn about so many cultures and just explore the world,for it is quite a beautiful place and there’s so much of it to see.I have just started on really seeing the world,I’m young and the world is a huge huge place and I want to continue it all my life.I really truly and deeply hope to be able to do that in life,I consider it one of my dreams and goals for when I have grown up to see the world ,to travel,to explore and to really just live life to the fullest.

At Darjeeling,West Bengal,India. Taken by me.

When I go on a vacation,my biggest lookout is for some experience that belongs just to that place,something that cannot possibly belong to some other place,the thing that only that place has to offer because that is what makes travel so amazing for all the travel lovers.These little moments that make you realise your worthlessness,or worthfulness,whichever way you look at it, and just how much of a miracle it is that you,in all your behaviours,features, with all your experiences and quirks have come to exist. It is a beautiful realisation and a lesson in humility that though needed, doesn’t hit you quite often,so if looking at a mesmerizing sunrise(My post about it is here) or parasailing (My post about that is here.)above the world can make you realise that then really, my inner voice asks me ,why not? Why not see this gorgeous world we came to exist in through that special crossing of stars? Why not love the thrill,the action that travel brings? Why not travel?

Early morning in Sikkim,India.Taken by me.

THIS POST’S QUESTION: Do you like to travel?If so,why? Comment below with what you think about it,Id love to hear from you!

This is for YOU.

Lets talk about you and us today.

Firstly, I apologise for the long gap since my last post. I had exams and was too hard hit for time. I’m so sorry. Henceforth, you have the post. I sincerely hope you’ll like it.

A week ago, I achieved what seems so unreal to me and I dedicate this post to that. I officially got 500 followers on my blog.

The fact that 500 people found my words to be of value and something they’d like to read again was highly humbling for me. Words aren’t enough for the gratitude and love I feel for each and every one of you, or even for anyone who has ever read my work but I’ll give it a shot anyway, as words are my most treasured medium of expression.

I thank you, you wonderful person, for deciding to click on this or on any of my posts. I thank you for liking my posts, commenting on them, for giving me feedback and advice. I thank you for genuinely caring about my blog, sometimes even more than me. Thank you for nominating me in tags and awards(Even though I still need to make those posts, I’m sorry for the delay!) and  sharing a little piece of yourself with me in the comments section. I thank you for motivating me to write and making me fall in love with blogging itself. I thank you for making these 6 months (Exactly, today)a truly amazing time for me to grow as a person.I thank you for being the supportive and warm community you are, and I know that I really couldn’t ask for a better set of people to share my views and ramblings with.

In celebration and as an effort to get to know more about you, I thought of asking you guys one question in each post, sometimes to do with it, sometimes to do with the world and sometimes something really basic. I’d love to read all your answers and it would make me so happy to get to hear so many views ,opinions and choices. I’ll ask one this week which would be related to this post but also to the idea. It could be either the first of the many questions I ask you or it could be the only one I ever do. It’s entirely your choice.

Lastly, I thank you again for listening to the Musings of this Whimsical Soul.

THIS POST’S QUESTION : Do you like the idea of a question in every post? Comment below with what you think about it. I’d love to hear from you!

The Last Goodbye.

Lets talk about loss today.

Today, I diverge from my usual optimistic and happy demeanour to talk about something else: Loss. Losing a loved one. Death. Today, I’ll be saying many things I’ve never ever put together before or said and it will be more morose that you expect me to be. These days, there is a lot of negativity in the world, lots of terrible things happening to good people and I hope that if they ever read my words, they find in it what they need most right now. Hope. I’m a firm believer of  the saying, “Hope is the only thing stronger than fear” and that’s what I hope to offer. This will be different than my usual style of writing, because this time I’m writing to make a difference. This is something I feel I must write, in the hope that they do a little bit in the lives of those who’ve lost everything.

For me, death was a foreign concept for a major part of my life. I’d hear about people dying, read about horrible killings in the papers but I’d always, due to my great luck, assumed its something that happened , over there, far away from me. Call it my naiveness ,luck or just a normal thing, that’s the way it was. That is, until it happened to me.

I celebrated my 13th birthday with a few of my close friends, a small party during the exams. I just turned into a teenager and the world was my stage. My paternal grandfather also came to visit, like he did every birthday. He even got me a gift on his own which was new and something he usually didn’t do, he would normally get us money to buy whatever we wanted. It was a magazine that was really difficult to find and one of my favourites, that along with my favourite pen. I loved it, hugged him and thanked him. Usually, he stayed for a few days when he came even if he didn’t plan to, we’d make him, because we liked being with him a lot. But this time, he left the next day itself, he had some work to do and I let him go due to that. The day after, that is, two days after my birthday, my grandfather, my grandpa was shot during a road mugging .In broad daylight. And he, my favourite person to argue with, the person I talked to about languages, the person I taught new things like phones was gone. Just like that.

When I found out, that evening, I was suddenly faced with something I had never faced before : loss. And it was sudden and totally out of the blue. I felt like I was in a bad dream and it wasn’t ending. I knew I was in pain, I was breaking but what caused the cracks to spread and take over ,is the pain of your loved ones around you, who are completely destroyed. The way I saw my parents that night will always haunt me. It still does. It was what, magnified my pain manifold, not the loss of the person but the pain of the living.

That is when I learnt many lessons. One, that different people have different reactions to loss. Some choose to not talk about it and try to act like it didn’t happen, for their sanity and to try to live the life as they know it. I’m one of those people. I ,for all the talking I do, do not talk about my loss. How it hurts. The memories. I just shut off entirely. There are others, like my mother, who talk about all these things. Who truly learn to live with it, or so it seems. Of course it hurts them, but they acknowledge the pain and accept it, which is braver than I can imagine to be.

I also realised that what people say about death is mostly false. No, the person does not continue to live in your heart or anything similar that romanticises the loss of a person. You feel like they’re just across a door or simply a phone call away, but truly they are just gone. Poof. Let me use a absurd metaphor for this. Imagine if your favourite book was suddenly deleted from the world. All copies just vanish and its gone. You can never touch it again, read it again. You can read the quotes you have written down, the words you remember from it and draw what you remember of the cover but, you can never ever read the whole book together ever again. What you do realise is though, that even if you  feel like it hampers you functioning and you can’t imagine existing now , you cherish the fact that you read it ,you  value the memories you have with it and what all it had taught you. You wouldn’t give that time away for anything nor would you wish you never read it. Slowly, as time passes ,you begin to put your own pages back together. You order them, paste them together. You put yourself back together although it takes a while and most importantly, you must remember you can never be the same again. It’s a sign that it mattered, that it took away a piece of you. But the important thing to remember here is ,that even though you aren’t the same now, you’re a you you never were and you’re just as great. You can still spread happiness and be happy, you can learn to live with it and eventually you’ll make peace with it. And even though its now gone, you will always love it from the bottom of your heart.

That’s what you’re allowed to do. The person may not exist anymore but you can still continue to love them and value them. And we the world, the people that share a planet, value the victims of the horrible things happening in the world these days, the way I’ll always value my grandfather.

Valentine’s Day.

Let’s talk about Valentine’s Day  today.(And  a little piece I wrote ages ago that goes with the general mood.)

Valentine’s Day, the 14th of February. Why is there such a hype about it? And why this specific date, I mean, who on this planet had the right and authority to decide that this particular day had to be celebrated as a day of love? Why can’t we just not buy into this commercial gimmick and live all days with love instead of going all extravagantly lovey-dovey one day?

I’ve got the answer. Its simple, short and truthful. We all want to be loved and feel love.If you want to hear it put another way ask Siri what 0 divided by 0 is.   Do it even if you don’t, Happy Valentine’s Day from me.

As someone who’s mother’s birthday and parents’ anniversary is on the same day as Valentine’s Day I do have to make a huge affair about it. Yes, this incredibly unbelievable  thing is true. My father always jokes how every shop turns pink and full of hearts and love related things to remind him that mom’s birthday is coming up. I thank the commercialisation, making it easier for me to find things pink and fluffy, just as my mother likes it. But, doesn’t mean I approve. Because I’m a human being and its our duty and responsibility to complain about every thing we have.(Sarcasm is a wonderful thing, mates.)

Enough being human. I wrote a little piece, an eulogy actually, after reading copious amounts of YA novels and watching a lot of tragic romances. I’ve put it here as I feel that it gets this love thing alright .Its the only thing I’ve written that makes me get all feelsy. Here it goes.

The Broken Rollercoaster

The first hello. The last goodbye. Isn’t that what I’m here to talk about? How it was? How it is, now? But I won’t. Its unfair to him. He’ll want me to say what I truly want to say. He never wanted me to sound like someone else. So truth is, thinking about him is like listening to a lullaby. A soft, soft one. That day when we bumped into each other, face first, mind you, on the day I actually bothered to look good. In one fast motion, he caught me. Saving me. In all the ways person could ever be saved. We had our perfect friendship. We had one hell of a love story . We were on a smooth, smooth  road on rollercoaster pace.

But sometimes, roller-coasters are too fast. They fail, they break and the road isn’t all that smooth anymore. In one fast motion, I failed to catch him. He was lost, in all the ways a person ever could be.

Today, my love, as I write these words, the only thing I would like to say if you are in some form,still here is:

You were my only sunshine. The only thing that could calm me down and make my heart race at the same time. And now, you’ve become my lullaby. Giving me peace. Giving me hope. I love you. Present tense.