A cold week spent in hometown – here are the 5 things I
pondered upon during last seven days…
1: What I am reading…
I got a little distracted from the otherwise jolly but long
tale of the 4 sisters in Little Women, and during the past week, I started a
parallel book that I have been very passionate and keen to read: How Proust can
change your life’ by Alain de Botton. It is a very philosophical and
microscopic study of both the work and life of the great Marcel Proust. It is
hilarious, illustrative, meaningful and above all it does what it promises to
do – provide an opportunity to change your way of living by reading and
examining that of Marcel Proust.
2: What I watched…
I am still due on watching many award nominated movies,
after which I shall compose my own Top 10 from amongst them. In the process,
this past week, with the weather forcing me to stay put indoors, I did watch a
couple of truly inspiring movies:
Jojo Rabbit: this movie was a total surprise for me.
It is satirical, hilarious, wise, sweet and defiant in a new way to the
ugliness of war and cruelty. This movie has a heart at its core, and is
embodied with a heroic journey of a little boy.
Peanut Butter Falcon: a down-syndrome patient breaks
free from an old-people caring center pursuing his dream of getting wrestling
training from his idol whose tape he watches ten times a day. This story is
about making possibilities happen regardless of the impossibilities – because
it is, against the logical terms, always so possible.
3: Snowfall in adulthood...
Snowfall, where I live, is one of those deeply desired
events amidst the dry cold winters. And while it not only snowed but snowed
heavily this time around, there wasn’t that readiness towards the celebration
of having white landscapes all around. As we grow older, we become more aware
of our impulses of wanting to do something with a group, but we also fall into
an assumption based on past rejections that others wouldn’t be so ready to
participate and entertain our childhood feelings about snowfall. From an
introvert’s perspective, when you sulk on such a one-time event, there’s really
no getting you out of there. Then, the perspective about the snowfall, which
was so merry in childhood, shifts to the aftermath of having to deal with the
problems that come with such heavy snowfalls: cleaning the rooftops, slippery
roads, cold hands and feet etc., all of which are not any pleasant at all. What
have you but a sad snowfall?
4: One last undesired thing from 2019...
My semester results
also came out during the past week and it was the lowest it has been in total
of 5 semesters. Luckily, I passed all courses, however my CGPA got a
significant hit because of this low turnout. It is quite disappointing to have
to face such a result not because you were graded unfairly, but because you put
unfair efforts into subjects that deserved more care and study time. Eating the
humble pie, I am more convinced, but at the same time uncertain, of putting
better efforts in the coming semester. If anything, I will be walking into this
semester with some key lessons for sure.
5: Quote that I love so much…
“Human, all too human.” – Nietzsche
However extravagantly cynic Nietzsche sounds in this
declaration, I nonetheless adore him for this! Indeed, we humans are but too
humanly until we are alive and well, how pitiful then to be proud of our race!