When 2016 Comes To Shove…

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2016, Anjali Mariam Paul copyrights, Bangalore, Blogging, Happy New Year, INDIA, Inspirational, Karnataka, Love, Misguided Wayfarer, Photography, Querencia, Writing

Picture Copyrights: Anjali Mariam Paul

Sometimes, the road less travelled by ensures that you get lost, fracture a leg, break down and lose your sanity, amongst other things. Things get better as everything is momentary, nothing is permanent. What is water today might be ice tomorrow… It all depends on how long we want to wait it out and see what we make out of life’s obstacles and challenges. Learn to respect everyone around, be it a 5 year old child or a cow on the road. Your perception of the world doesn’t necessarily need to be anyone else’s and your right of opinion is just the same as anybody else’s. Be kind, as you never know whether your mere presence, your smile or your words could be the altering point in someone’s life. Don’t waste time being mean because that time could be spent in falling in love with a new song or a new book or a new concept. Eat what you want, when you want and how you want despite how you think you’ll look in those figure hugging jeans. It’s not worth giving up that yummy sinful looking piece of chocolate cake. Live everyday like it’s a special day because you never know when it’s going to be your last.

Write about Hitler if it makes you happy, do a nude sketch of someone if that’s your thing, travel to unknown places if you want to, click selfies to cherish every moment if you’re scared you’ll forget it… just stop worrying about anybody else. You are you and you have every right to be YOU!

Don’t try and be somebody else because there is nobody as unique as YOU! Wear clothes which you’re comfortable in, do things you want to do and most importantly… learn to say NO.

Tell your friends and family how much you love them every chance you get because they deserve to know how much they mean to you. Finally, love with no conditions because you’d rather have loved with a whole heart and lost than not loved at all.

A new year asks for new beginnings and here’s mine to being the childish, immature, spontaneous, gluttonous and silly ME!

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When 28 Becomes More Than A Number

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28, Anjali Mariam Paul copyrights, APU, Bangalore, Birthday, Bloggers, INDIA, Students, Turning Old, Young at heart

“The trick is growing up without growing old.” – Casey Stengel

I apologize to my readers (yes, I mean YOU guys who accidentally decided to click on the follow button and have to bear with my posts in your reader or those of you who are forced to read this because you guys are my friends on other social networking sites) for not posting in the longest time but, as you might not have known… I’m back in college!!

This means that most of my time is spent fretting about reading and comprehending what the third electoral system is, what Purchasing Power Parity means, why Marx is a big dickhead, how SOCIETY means a lot more than what I thought it was, where the country is headed with it’s crossing of planetary thresholds and most importantly, WHY I NEED TO KNOW ANY OF THIS?!

After being a working professional for close to 5 years, coming back to college when you sneak a bottle of scotch into the hostel, being hammered and going to class the next morning, worrying about attendance, response papers, grades, open courses, credits and looking like a complete idiot when you raise your hand to answer in class makes it all so overwhelming. I can’t pull all nighters anymore, my body can’t stomach drinking more than twice a week and it’s as though I’ve just realized how relaxing SLEEP is because that seems to be my favorite pastime.

The most entertaining part of it all is I spend more time asking everyone around me how old they are just to convince myself that I’m not the oldest but guess what, most of my closest friends in college are close to 7 years younger than me and I absolutely love it! I didn’t realize it until today that no matter how old we get, our love for comfort food in the middle of a stressful weekend before an Economics test, Hersheys Kisses, a peg of Taliskar Skye when we feel the world is going to crash down on our heads, gossiping, donuts from Krispy Kreme, momos and random talks about the state of the world we live in makes us all ‘same same but different’, no matter how young or old we are.

I might not be the skinny, bad ass me that I was around 5 years ago, with an eye-brow piercing and attitude that would cut you down to size (that’s how I remember myself anyway) and that’s something which has taken me a few months to realize. I have changed and evolved into this person that I am now (whoever that is) and I’ve resolved to enjoy being this ‘new’ me and not have that number shadow my every move.

28 is definitely more than a number to me, it’s more like a doorway to a new life and to think that it took an Economics test to make me realize this… 🙂

This Seat Is Taken!!

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Bus, Chennai, Embarrassment, Friends, Friendship, INDIA, Innocence, Public, Single, Transport, Traveling, Values

I can see the bus closing in and I can also see that it’s empty; I get myself mentally prepared to take that long bus ride home sitting instead of fighting it out with the handle bars. But, as the bus stops and I fight my way into the smelly, sweaty, sticky crowd; trying to avoid body contact as much as possible (i don’t like my flesh touching anybody else’s flesh) I get on the bus to witness the most outrageous act I could imagine anyone doing to me! Every place that appeared empty had a cloth on it. It wasn’t an expensive cloth or anything and it didn’t have anybody’s name on it but the person sitting next to it made it seem that it was some special seat which no one else could sit on but their friends and co-traveler. They made it appear that the little piece of cloth was the saving grace to their relationships with their loved ones. My fat ass could’ve easily replaced that little piece of cloth, yet for some reason I stood there being beaten to pulp mentally by a ragged piece of CLOTH!! My fast legs beat those people but I didn’t have a friend who would beat the rush and save me a seat. “No, you can’t sit here. This seat is taken.” “Sorry, my friend is sitting there.” “My wife will be sitting here.” “My children have had a long day.“

“Damn you people!! I had a long day too. I had to change 2 buses before this one to get here and yes I’m tired as hell but no, your friendship seems to have trumped my fatigue. Yes, you can take that seat.“

I luckily find one seat which didn’t have a cloth on it and sit through my long bus ride home. I was furious initially and as I slowly let the anger subside, I stared at all those people who were travelling together from work and college probably. They weren’t really friends, most of them and if you listened in on their conversation (you have no business to judge!) you can tell that they’re not really close friends either yet, it seems to come as some kind of protocol to save the place next to them so that they can travel together.

I was brought back to school days when I used to take the bus with a friend and I couldn’t for the life of me remember such an incident when I had saved her a seat or that she had done the same for me. Does that mean that we weren’t good friends?! That can’t be true because we’ve known each other since we were 4 yrs old and despite our differences, we’ve always been thick. This act of saving the seat was something sacred that I suddenly felt bad that I hadn’t done it for her. What kept me from doing it, I wondered. Was it the public declaration of our friendship or was it the angry eyes and muffled curses which would follow?!

I was then brought back to earlier days when we were much younger and we used to save a seat for our friends in the van which used to take us to school. The innocence with which we’d announce that no one was to sit there because a friend of ours was getting on in a few minutes. There it was, friendship at it’s purest level when we didn’t give heed to peoples’ curses and were absolutely ignorant of the angry eyes, those simple days when friendship was a lot more than a name to invite to a dinner party.

I smiled a little then, staring at all those people whose innocence beat me to that seat and it made me hurt a little that I didn’t have a friend with me who would go to such lengths and who I could do the same for at any moment given in time. Who would’ve thought that a piece of cloth would teach me the act of FRIENDSHIP. It just goes to show that there is a lesson to be learnt in everything, if you’re just aware.

“Friendship is saving a seat for her on the bus, despite the angry eyes you get from the other travelers.” – Me