Love Poems and me

I am a goner when it comes to love poems. The good ones. Some of them actually make me weepy. So, one day me and my friend decided to have something of “DEAD POETS SOCIETY” thing in the college Library. She fished out one old dusty thick book titled American Poetry. It must be at least 80 years old. Anyway while thumbing through e. e. cummings and other poets, we came across Robert Frost’s The Telephone. Please take a minute to read this poem please. This article would sound like Greek and Latin, if you don’t know what exactly I am talking about. You can read the poem here. 

Right. So read the ending of the poem? It goes like this:

Or did you say–

Someone said ‘Come’–I heard it as I bowed.”

“I may have thought as much, but not aloud.”

“Well, so I came.”

Isn’t this so filmy? I could totally picture the scene: It’s raining and the heroine is long lost in thought staring at the street with a cup of coffee in her hands hair, when suddenly the door bell rings and when she opens the door and it’s – I’ll give you three choices: a) George Clooney b)  Leonardo di Caprio c) Heath Ledger – the hero with a sexy smile on his face leaning on the door frame saying : ” I thought you missed me so I came” . I could totally picture this in my head and I fell in love with the poem. 

So do you love love poems? If so, which one? Let me know. I would love to read them.

Oh. You should totally check out e. e. cummings. This is my FAVOURITE cummings quote: 

Love is the little thickness that makes a coin.

P.S: The upcoming exam is on American Literature – hence this post.

 

Second (read 100th) Time Round

If there is one thing that you should know about me, it is this: I tend to re-read books that I have already read. And each time it’s like the first time.  One book that I absolutely love going back to without any shame is, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I’m not going to dwell on the characters. You know it already. Rather, I will talk about the first time I read this book.

 

I was in 10th grade, and if you know anything about India, you’ll know that it is THE most important year of the average Indian student’s life. 10th grade is what O.W.L.S. mean in the Harry Potter world.

 

Anyway, I was in tenth grade and that meant I was not allowed to read any books other than my textbooks. Which would obviously mean that I would have had to smuggle novels into the house and hide them in the medicine cabinet in the toilet and read them when the rest of the house was asleep. Oh! I am telling you, the toilet is the best place in the whole wide world, to read a book during the darkest hours of the night.

 

I had just finished with the seventh and last book in the Harry Potter series and was on the verge of going into deep depression thinking that I had nothing else to look forward to. And then I had this chapter in History, which was about literature and  this Jane Austen woman and her wit was mentioned. I was about to roll my eyes when I read the next line in my text-book which cited the opening line of the novel as an example of Jane Austen’s wit:

 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that, a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of wife.

 

I was thunderstruck. I will not say that this quote changed my life, or that it was like an epiphany to me. Honestly, I don’t think I truly understood the irony of this sentence until I was eighteen, when I re-read this book again. I am 21 years old now. To this day, there are just THREE opening lines that I know by heart:

 

#1 : It was the best of times, It was the worst of times … from A Tale of Two Cities - the first classic novel i ever read, and to this day this line has stayed with me.

 

#2 : the one I just mentioned before, from Pride and Prejudice

 

#3 : Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of  number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. From Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

 

So yea. I am girl who loves to re-read books. And Pride and Prejudice ONE among the many. And A Tale of Two Cities and Harry Potter series are right behind Austen.

 

 

 

Related articles

• #32 Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (the100greatestbookschallenge.wordpress.com)
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The Night of Nights

This is the night before the exam and here I am bundled in front of  my computer. I have two other tabs open : One for Facebook – in case someone comes online – and the other for YouTube - Music is nice. Let’s just say that I’ve been writing “IMPORTANT” exams for the past 4 years and therefore they cease to intimidate me anymore. 

Tomorrow is a totally different case. I’m talking about the night before the exam. Oh! I need to read an essay. Catch you later guys!

Back in The Game

O.k. This is a confession. No, there is no need to call my priest thank you very much. I was going through a tough time. Nothing that I wrote seemed good enough, no photograph  the “it” that makes photography a joy for me. And as expected, low self-esteem and it’s twin – inferiority complex came over to give me company. It got so bad that friend had to give me the proverbial  ”kick in the butt”. And even then, it took me another month before I decided that enough is enough.

So here I am back in the game.

P.S: My exams start on Monday, so that goes without saying that I will be writing without any “writer’s block” for a month. Have a nice weekend everyone!!

Dunking Mystery

I’m in the basketball court with Shraddha. We’re both taking turns in shooting the ball.  After  a few rounds suddenly something I never thought possible happens: I did a dunk shot. Now, a dunk shot is something that can only be done by a very tall person. VERY tall. I’m not tall. In fact, I’m a midget. I turn around to Shraddha who is gaping at me.

“Dude, it must be a mistake. Let me just do that again.”

“Oh-oh-kay!!”

I shake my head and I try to do it again, and WHOA!! Dunk shot again!! Not being able to believe my luck, I take a third shot without even bothering to ask her and managed to do it a third time. By this time the game area has become silent and I could hear a few murmurs here and there:

“Dude, was that Sammy dunking the ball?!”

“Are you kidding me….”

Trust me, I couldn’t believe that this was real. I mean, this is ME we’re talking about. I love basketball and like any basketball lover this is my dream shot too. But that is not an explanation for me being able to do this!!! During my fourth round (and by this time, I’m showing off a little. Hey every midget has her day!!) Something happened and I did not manage to get a hold on the basket rim and I’m going down. While I’m going down I realize that i’m not hitting the floor. I’m just going going going….

“Sammy!!! Sammy!!! Wake up!!!” I hear a voice calling out for me and i gingerly open my eyes to see my sister looking down at me with a puzzled look on her face.

“How did I get here? How long have I been out?”

“What do you mean GET here? You were sleeping, remember? It’s the middle of the night and you woke me up screaming DUNK DUNK. uff!! What is WRONG with you?! Can’t you sleep like a normal human being? I should be given an award just for being your sister……..”

That explains my new-found talent. A dream. Someone must be having a good laugh somewhere. Glad that I could help.

“I Fought For My Life...And Won” - Sohaila Abdulali #mustread #Vaw #Rape

Reblogged from kracktivist:

I was gang raped three years ago, when I was 17 years old.  My name and my photograph appear with this article.  in  1983, in Manushi.

I grew up in Bombay, and am at present studying in the USA. I am writing a thesis on rape and came home to do research a couple of weeks ago. Ever since that day three years ago, I have been intensely aware of the misconceptions people have about rape, about those who rape and those who survive rape. 

Read more… 1,607 more words

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 3 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

The Beard

Reblogged from Phantasmagorical:

He wrote a poem of twelve stanzas-
Saying how ‘life has changed’,
Since his jaw blossomed in spiritual revelry,
Beautiful black cotton,
Frames his expectant face,
And yet his ears still protrude elfishly,
As they always did.

A beautiful poem

Time of My Life

I don’t know how many of you have actually noticed this, but many Christians tend to take a very depressing and  boring outlook towards life. It’s  so absurd that I’m sure even Jesus didn’t have anything like it in his mind . The whole purpose of him going through all the humiliation and crucifixion was so that we humans would be set free. Set free from being slaves of Satan; He wanted us to love life and celebrate this beautiful gift of God. We surely didn’t deserve it, but he gave it to us anyway.

Sadly,  things have gone out of hands drastically. These days we tend to think of life on earth as something of a punishment. We are constantly being told to think of the after life. We tend to forget that to get to the other side – After life, we must first live our life HERE.  What is the point in Jesus’ crucifixion, if we keep restricting ourselves with the constant worry about our afterlife? Living our life does not include drugs, alcohol and other self destructive actions; it simply means to pray daily,keep doing things with a clear conscience and live cordially with other beings (human and otherwise).

After the long journey of life, when the time comes for you to leave to the other side,   you should be able to go with a smile on your lips and these words in your heart:

                        ” I’ve had the time of my life….

And I never felt this way before,

I swear this is true

And I owe it all to you”

Have a great day guys!!

Angels vs. Aliens

Life is beautiful. Whoever said otherwise, is a sad, sad person. Yes, I agree; there are many horrendous stuff happening in the world.  And yes, life is not a bed of roses. But I still say that life is beautiful. If not for anything else, for the simple fact that a species called “kids” still exist. Science may correct me, saying that there are no different species called “kids”; that they are merely the young of “Homo sapiens” – again, I disagree.  They cannot belong to the same species as us. They are too free with their smiles, sure of what they are and what they want, and when they love you, they don’t love you in quarters or halves; they love you completely. See? They are too different from us for them to belong to the same species as us. You can NEVER ever find an adult smile at you if your cars happen to be next to each other while caught in traffic. Only a child can do that. I’m telling you, this world would come to an end the moment kids seize to exist.

                                       A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on.

- Carl Sandburg

P.S: That does not mean that kids are angels in disguise. Oh no.  whoever said that, must have had a very sadistic sense of humor. They can be  irritating, intimidating know-it-all brats when they set their minds and hearts to it. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if my 9-year-old brother is an alien in disguise. So, no. They are not Angels or Aliens. But they make life here on earth (what is left of it,) beautiful.