Flaring passions

 The Japanese author is known for his fictional realism intertwined with elements of mysticism. A perfect blend of simplistic dialogues and settings combined with philosophical musings makes a Murakami story appealing. His non-linear narrative and ability to attract a large audience have seen him reach the pinnacles of success as an author. Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1949 and attended the Waseda University in Tokyo. Murakami opened a small jazz bar along with his wife post-college, running the place together for seven years. The Japanese author had his eureka moment in 1978 seated in the bleachers of the Jingu stadium while watching the Yakult Swallows vs Hiroshima Carp game. An American baseball player Dave Hilton came to bat, and in that instance, Murakami knew he could write a novel. After that, he wrote his debut novel titled ‘Hear the Wind Sing’ for which he won the Gunzou Literature Prize for budding writers in 1979. That was the start of a stellar writin...

So it’s been a long time since I’ve posted again on this blog. While there are several excuses that I could make with regards to time as in handling a job and education, this time has also helped me make some revelations. Seeing how my academic and professional life has been in the past few years, I have already come to the conclusion that the energy you give something could be way more important than the amount of time you spend on it. Whether it was clearing exams, or juggling between jobs and trying to stay a true artist simultaneously. Discipline is essential but I believe that focus has become one of the most precious commodities in our times. I always believed that the modern age was vying for our time and attention, but then I realised that they actually wanted our focus. The people running the ads or controlling the algorithm maybe want us not just to spend time but think obsessively about the new features being launched, the courses or products being advertised. This meant one...

Isn’t grief a wonderfully sad thing at times? It can be an antithesis and oxymoron at the same time. A feeling of despair where you do not want to be left alone yet a moment of inability to have social interactions with a whole lot of people. Grief is all the love that you want to give but gets stuck in your throat waiting for something to relieve the pressure, until which it suffocates the life out of you. It can be a mortifying experience that can hold you, hostage, in your own body with everywhere to go but nowhere to be. Shouldn’t your grief be a little further away from you at times? Sometimes it slowly creeps up on you and surrounds you from all sides before you even realise that it is starting to take over your life. There comes a point where no distraction is enough to cover the demons that have haunted and continue to haunt you. The worst thing about grief is not just the trauma that you face but the fact that there is guilt associated whenever you see an opportunity that can ...

Every now and then a door bangs so loudly that the reverberations leave you startled for days on end. The noise may fade out but the fact that someone who is so close to you can express so much rage and anger is scary. It also tells you so much about what you thought about people. People most often do the things they tell others to refrain from. We live in a world that likes to preach secularism but has already constructed divides in its own mind. A race that loves to harp and crib about almost everything under the sun, yet almost instinctively spills lines such as ‘there is no point in cribbing.’ The point is that there is nothing wrong with venting from time to time. To err is only human but to accept your flaws is divine. It gives the other person so much clarity and also equips those upon whom you have the influence to do. People at times can be very careless as to how their actions and not their words can affect the childhood of people, breeding a generation of people who never re...

Our need to show other people how strong we are at times can be our greatest weakness in a world that is becoming increasingly distant, polarised and lonely.   Grief as we know it can be such a heavy thing. We feel it within our souls but most of the time there isn’t any tangible way of explaining it to others. The longing for something that did not happen; the misunderstanding of something that should or should not have been said, are all thoughts that pop into our heads from time to time. The world teaches you to numb the pain with distractions, with diets and physical regimes and while some of those may work to a great extent, very few talk about the psychological work involved in overcoming grief. The fact that happiness and grief can co-exist in a person simultaneously may seem like an anomaly, but experience tells us otherwise. Sometimes our desire to hide our perceived weakness can hurt those close to us in ways we cannot fathom. Unintentionally we can cause severe pain to t...

  Jai looked out of the window as the rays of the sun illuminated his face showcasing undertones of anxiety and excitement. He was about to go for the school trials of his football team but continuously kept fidgeting with his fingers now. His skills had always been superior to his fellow peers but that wasn’t the issues that was plaguing him. He did not have boots to play, and time was running out. Now that the basic premise is set, let us look at a tale that encompasses a wide variety of perspectives, and the things people would do for their near and dear ones. Jai was getting late for school and Dadu was furiously trying to comb his hair to make him look presentable. He put the water bottle around the young boy’s neck and gave him a tight hug as the school bus came to pick him up. Dadi was busy in the kitchen preparing the meals for the day and Dadu decided to go to the park to meet his regular gang after dropping off his grandson. As soon as he entered, Harish who was alr...