The Rebelle blog

It's one of those days, you know when you are feeling low and your self-esteem is at a real zero, that the universe provides hope in unexpected forms. With me, this happened in the form of postcards, not one, two or three but ELEVEN of them. My Dad bought the post on his way back home and I almost cried with joy to see them all.  What makes a random activity like Postcrossing really click with people and invest their time in sending postcards with messages to strangers all over the world? I believe, it is the necessity to claim humanity, to claim the love that is lost in the vast sea pool of hatred, discrimination and diversity. The more connected the world has become, the faster we have lost our shroud of humanity. We are increasingly being divided on the basis of race, colour, religion, economy, culture, geography and politics, of course! Our conscious collaborative is not working amidst high powered business economies and commercial profit ventures. People who come from di...

I guess a lot of things happening lately have put my mind onto a thinking wheel a bit too much. I have been thinking a lot about the sappiness of everyday life and moments that I reflect upon time to time. Suddenly everything seems to have grown in vision. There are things I wouldn't consciously dwell upon but which are now making their presence felt inside my mind. I have been procrastinating about a new kind of project that is totally to my liking and my gut says I will enjoy doing it but I can't make myself apply to it yet. I have drafted the email and it sits in the draft folder since Monday but I just can't make myself send it yet. I keep thinking of possibilities of doing either this or something else that might come along. 'Might' as I must remind myself. The uncertainty of happenings is weighing a heavy hand on my heart. I keep hoping and dreaming about 'that' something which will satisfy and satiate my passion but I can't seem to pinpoint as t...

Fever and cold has me stomping with a rave rage crushing my healthy and happy spirits I've been carrying for some time. A mad cold fury tears my insides trying to understand why a minor sickness drives me to the wall with such misery. I feel terrible about lugging behind deadlines, though people can be really nice about it sometimes. Melancholy and sleep engulfs me in its embrace spiralling me into an endless slumber, with vivid dreams manifesting into my fears thus projected clearly. It's a wonder that our nerves do hold us steady otherwise the chaos that would rule our psyche would destroy people. I realise how November makes me feel all responsible and accountable for the year so bygone. In good ways, nowadays I have accepted peace as a long term reign in my life. I would rather be surrounded in a clear calm mist than be pinned to unclear intentions.  Alas, we will come across events and people that shatter our peace and aggravate us to the point of feeling utterly inc...

I recently reread Norman Lowe's phenomenal book on History titled, Mastering Modern World History, as part of my preparations for upcoming exams. The first time I had read it was as a general reader who wished to know the events and timeline of progression of nations post-war and about independent colonies of the British Raj. This time when I read it as a student interpreting and correlating world events that led to wars, formation of UN, the Cold war era and subsequent disintegration of Soviet Union, it brought a methodical analysis to history as we should see and study it in current context. After reading through school textbooks about the French and Russian Revolutions and their fight for securing and protecting the apex human values of liberty and equality, it became even more important to start reading about the history of humanity that also went through two very disturbing and violent world wars that destroyed nations and people. This book was last updated in 1997, henc...

'Shut your eyes and see', wrote James Joyce. And what is it that we shall see, sadly no one wrote a manual for it. Why is it that some people can see things the way they are while others just fail to look beyond the superficiality we are presented with? I wish there were an easy answer. As I sit here, writing behind the computer screen wishing for a boon to understand the mechanism of finding answers to the many questions that plague my existence, it's hard not to feel dejected and cynical about expressing it. A friend sent me a quote about Zero. It reads as follows:  The terms 'void' and 'zero' do not imply that nothing is present. 'Zero' is a point from which the scope for progress is infinite, and 'zero' is complete in itself.  It's this nothingness I am afraid of, aren't we all? There is a vacuum inside us that we all fear. Some people go insane trying to figure out the meaning of this void that dominates our psyche. Oth...

The shadows engulf me on all sides while I stand in the blazing hot sun looking for some respite from the tireless walking I had been doing all afternoon. I found a large canopy of the Mast tree drooping towards the roadside over the half-broken compound where it stood tall. I always feel that trees have a lot of self-pride for the way they stand tall and long on their ground and a drooping tree is merely an aged soul. Why I am writing this is because of the solace I felt in that intense heat in the shaded enclaves. While walking I was thinking of the story I had been working on for a competition organised by a daily newspaper. As I almost struggled with piecing the sequence of events in my story mentally, I became aware of the surroundings I walked past. The vivid blue mosaic tiles of a nearby recreation centre caught my attention and instantly lifted my spirits. Some colours carry an intense mood changing character like fuchsia, blue, yellow, orange which brighten and uplift a spac...