Love Thy Damned Neighbour's Voice

Now I'm sure many of you have dealt with weirdass neighbours at some point or the other, and I'm about to tell you a little bit about mine.

It just so happens that my neighbour's kitchen and my room are kind of close together, and we almost, almost share windows. And let's just say you wouldn't exactly have to strain your ears to catch what they're saying when they're in the kitchen.

Now both the schools that I've attended in my life have been really close by and I would just get up 15 minutes early to reach on time, but my neighbours' kids apparently needed to wake up nice and early and apparently their mother would have to do all the screaming that was required to get them out of bed in the KITCHEN, and no other place.

Example:

Neighbour: 'GET UP,YOU LAZY BASTARD! GET UP! YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL! GET UP AND GET READY, don't just LIE there!'

These words would penetrate the thick curtain of sleep and pierce my brain like shards of glass and  I would actually wake up, and would actually start getting ready, because I'd feel so guilty. 

Yes, she unintentionally rendered me a great service, something which even my alarm (set at two-minute intervals with inspirational messages like 'WAKE UP, FATTY!') had failed to do.

The husband is no less weird, and he'd often tell me when we met downstairs in the morning to 'hurry up' like he told his kids, and I'd smile nervously, tighten the satchel straps and quicken my steps.

So kids, what have we learnt today? 

Neighbours are nice. 

Even if they are complete fucking bonkers.

A Bit of Me Goes

I don’t feel funny today. I feel strange, and there are strange things stirring within me, alien things, reaching out from somewhere deep within me and moulding my mind into a motley of shapes which make no sense. I feel strange today.

Maybe I’m slowly changing, bit by bit, molecule by molecule, my being slowly slipping away like grains of sand through fingers, and a different someone taking my place. She is slightly more confident of herself, she can laugh away things that need to be, her strength, which is still only burning embers, and not a roaring fire, has flared from within her, her eyes smile a lot and her less-than-perfect teeth flash at every available opportunity. She is growing, her steps are wobbly, but ambitious, and she knows that must she fall, she should take it lightly; she can always get back on her feet again.

A resolve is building within me. I must change, for the better. I will try my best to do away with the parts dragging me down, the parts which leave me breathless with despair, horrified with misery and trapped with desperation. I will try my best to obliterate the pieces of me which make me mean, narrow-minded and short-sighted, which only help me observe, not see.

Oh but I am still here, this body is still mine, my laughter still sounds the same, and yet I’ll be glad to lose a little bit of me for good. Just so that something new can find its place, just so that the room has some yellow sunshine, some fresh air and the waft of fresh buds.

It smells like winter now… the mornings are a little colder, the water a little chilly, and my lips a little dry… The days are keener to disappear, and Nature is ready to lie still for a while. And in that stillness is change. I can feel it building, here, there, everywhere.

All that Love

I'd heard about the video before I watched it, and it was with a strange mixture of apprehension and curiosity that I pressed 'Play' for Miley Cyrus' new video 'Wrecking Ball' on YouTube. As Miley's pale face, red mouth and streaming eyes filled the screen, I couldn't help but feel a strange sadness that had nothing to do with any petty issues of my own personal life (and it shouldn't; my exams have just ended!). As the video progressed, and the words I'd never heard before washed over me, I realized what I was feeling sad about; it's love which can push us to the greatest heights of euphoria, and it's love which manages to pull us to the darkest depths of despair!

Love is a masochistic feeling, and every time it makes you feel good, it's actually, slowly and skilfully killing you, taking away bits and pieces that make up your very being, and before you know it, you've given everything up and you are left feeling naked, and you realize that everything that defines you, is at the mercy of someone else. Love, they say, is painful.

What's more, we tend to be blind when we're in love, meaning, when we're in love, we remain woefully ignorant of those people who might Actually care for us, and we continue pursuing someone who might just not give two hoots about us!

Even when we Do come to know about a person nursing tender feelings for us, we feel nothing but a hardhearted sympathy for them, and shrug our shoulders and say, 'Can't help, I don't like him/her!'

Strange, isn't it?

But like Maria Elena said in Vicky Christina Barcelona, 'unfulfilled love is the most romantic.'

Weird is the human brain, cruel is the human heart.