Monday 27 August 2012

Thanks for the inspiration

People come into your life for a reason. Good ones, bad ones, they serve a purpose, and sometimes it's not clear to us what their purpose is.

There is a particular person in my life for whom I am profoundly grateful.

Our personalities are very different, and I'm pretty sure that when people see us together, it must confuse them as to how exactly we came to be friends. And when I myself think about it, it is odd - a random piece of fiction was the birth of our friendship and I am happy to say that although we have such different personalities, our friendship has matured and blossomed way past that bit of fiction.

I am grateful for her for many things, but the latest thing she is responsible for is the improvement of my health. I've been lucky this Ramadaan past, as it is the first year I have lost a significant amount of weight. To date, it is about 9kg (for you americans, thats almost 20 pounds).
How did I manage this?
By simply following a diet that she is forced to follow for health reasons (this friend of mine is deathly allergic to ALOT of things).

So, Anu, thanks a lot.
You were my inspiration for this and it has yielded results wayyyy beyond my expectations.

Friday 24 August 2012

William Shakespeare: Sonnet 27

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:


For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see 


Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.


   Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
   For thee and for myself no quiet find.


This is my favourite poem.
It expresses (exactly) what happens when someone manages to invade my head space and heart...

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Technology...innovation or evil?

I spent a week of my winter break at my sister's place. She recently moved to this town called Gordon's Bay (on the eastern coastline of the Western Cape in South Africa-for any non-South African readers), and two of its attractions are 1. it is by the sea, and 2. it is close to my brother, who lives in Strand (also a little coastal town about 5 minutes from Gordon's Bay).

One morning, we were at my brother's place. He lives in the house we stayed in before he got married (the home I was born in) and so it always feels like home for me. As a child, we spent almost every holiday there. So that particular morning I was sitting on the front steps of his house. It was about 10am, and it was a beautifully clear day (which is a treat for us Capetonians in the winter).
But I saw no children outside.
The place looks exactly the same...this road looked the same as it always has...and yet, it is not.

I found myself really missing my pre-teen years, because we spent so much of our free time there. And come rain or shine, day or night, we were outside. We hated being in the house.

And it got me thinking- Technology, for all the wonderful conveniences it has afforded us today, has really stunted the development of children. I was not the most outstanding person on the sports field, but, even now at almost 30, I am still quite co-ordinated. Why? Because we weren't stuck inside in front of the DSTV, X-Box, Playstation or computer. Everyone under the age of 17 met outside every single day. When it was summer, we played everything from cricket to hide-and-seek. Come to think of it, when it was winter, we did the same. When it was Super 12 season, we played rugby. When there was World Cup soccer on, we played soccer. When it was Wimbledon, we played tennis. We invented games when we got bored of the usual ones.

More importantly though, we communicated and socialized with each other, face to face. Not through Twitter, MySpace or Facebook.
We didn't know what cellphones were.

So, innovation or evil? RIght now, more an evil than an innovation.
In my opinion, technology is the direct cause for us breeding lazy, obese, unco-ordinated and anti-social youth.

I shudder at the thought that these kids are going to be our leaders tomorrow.

Tuesday 7 August 2012

The Idea of the perfect one

I am of the belief that two people (as in a man and woman) cannot claim to love each other, really love each other, unless they are married and have lived with each other, faults, shortcomings, weird quirks and all. After all, if you can accept and live with someone else's weirdness and still manage to see what is good and beautiful in that person, then I would most certainly believe you when you say that you truly love him/her.

But.
What is it about people that attracts others in the first place?

I find myself in a situation where I can answer the above question with this: It is the IDEA of someone or something involving that someone.

Someone very close to me, indeed someone I look up to as a parent figure, suggested a person that they felt would be perfect for me. This was a few months ago and now I find myself so attracted to the idea of this person...it makes my heart actually quicken when I think of him.

The problem, however, is that we are not in control of what we want to happen...