Candid Wallflowers

Post Number 28 : The Eternal Exhaustion of the Overstimulated Mind

Posted on 15 Days Ago by Candid Wallflowers

As the constant buzzing of the phone jolts you up from your slumber, you flail randomly to press the snooze button. You’ve overslept. Last night, you were up till 3, working. Sort of working. You started with the intended task but clicks and scrolls later, temptation led you to YouTube and that was that.

Before you prepare yourself for the world, your phone is already prepared to bring the world to you. As you leave your bed, your phone is your loyal sidekick, informing you via its eccentric art of storytelling – who went to what party, who got inexplicably drunk, who’s ‘feeling awesome’ with 15 others, who has a factually incorrect political rant today, amidst other notifications of you being tagged in jokes and posts that are ‘OMG! So you! You can’t even!’. And that’s just Facebook. You’ve still got to go through Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. It used to be a chore. Now it’s so organic. You’ve mastered the art of skimming through this daily information. You even pride yourself at being able to absorb the most relevant of this daily diligence that you pay to the overlords of social media.

Post Number 27 : Can an opinion be….just an opinion?

Posted on 22 Days Ago by Candid Wallflowers

A fortnight ago, there was an uproar on Facebook. A website called The Quint had uploaded a video with its team member criticising the viral video ‘Bol Na Aunty Aau Kya’ by (rapper?)OmPrakash. The video by The Quint, was particularly critical of the lyrical content, citing phrases from the song and linking it to sexual harassment, rape threats and sexism and demanded its removal from YouTube. To say that it polarized viewers, would be an understatement. The woman who made the video received a harrowing amount of death and rape threats along with harassment online. The comment section of the video was rife with people divided into three noticeable factions – the ‘pseudo-intellectual libtards and feminists’, ‘misogynistic, patriarchal trolls’ and a bunch of people tagging others to spectate the argumentation. What was clearly a battle of opinions, soon devolved into a battle of ideologies.

The original article that was uploaded by The Quint. It has since been taken down on account of excessive abuse that the website and the journalist has received.

Post Number 26 : Happiness and Dress Size

Posted on 26 Days Ago by Candid Wallflowers

Serena Williams recently gave birth to her daughter and the little fan-girl part me of me is ecstatic at knowing that this incredible woman is happily adding a new role to her life. But that is not even half of it. After all, every second, there are four kids taking birth somewhere around the world. So what really has Serena Williams done to makes me this happy?

It’s this open letter she wrote to her mother, Oracene Price:

Courtesy – Serena Williams’ Instagram Page

Post Number 25 : For times when it is just not your day

Posted on August 30 by Candid Wallflowers

You walk out of the room where the results were announced minutes ago. You’re disappointed to not hear your name be called out. The test had gone well, in your judgement. The company seemed like something where you could have imagined yourself to be. You wouldn’t like to admit it, but secretly, you had already imagined yourself there, in a cubicle of your own, working yourself to a higher position year after year. You snap back to the present, a little shattered, rebuking yourself for thinking too far ahead. Some of your friends have made it through. Some didn’t even make it to this round. You try to understand whether you’re grateful for having made this far or dejected for not going further. You wish your friends luck and walk off silently.

Post Number 24 : Tear-jerkers – Tears of joy?

Posted on August 11 by Candid Wallflowers

The year is 1997 and Titanic has just released. People are rushing to the theaters to watch it, not caring that the movie, just like the real life incident it was based on, would end tragically. If anything, the tear jerking end became one of the most powerful scenes in the movie. People couldn’t stop gushing over it, even if it meant they were also gushing tears while doing it. In fact, the sad finale became such a huge phenomenon, that it actually landed up in the BBC’s list of “Movies that made men cry.”

Post Number 23 : Grief in the Digital Age

Posted on July 22 by Candid Wallflowers

In the last few days, grief and loss were a recurring theme in most of the things I read. I read Paul Kalanithi’s memoir, ‘When Breath Becomes Air’. Paul was a neurosurgeon who was diagnosed with a life-threatening lung tumour which unfortunately claimed his life in 2015. His memoir shares his desire to leave behind a legacy, in the form of this book. The book deals with man’s never-ending quest to find purpose in life, particularly when faced with mortality. His wife, Lucy, shares how she struggles to make sense of her and her daughter’s life after this tragic setback. It was a sombre read and one that makes you realize how our perspectives and wishes change as we realize that the years we once thought we had, are now mere months or weeks. You can find more about this book here.

Post Number 22 : Handling Hypocrisy

Posted on July 7 by Candid Wallflowers

I recently wrote an article condemning the spate of memes that targeted people of a certain colour, body shape and race in the name of humour. I was heartened to know that a lot of people shared my opinion. In the coming days, I got absorbed in other events and soon put this issue on the backburner. One fine day, I was enjoying an old video of one of my all-time favourite comedians – the Late Ms. Joan Rivers. For those of you who aren’t aware of her comedic credentials, she was the first female to ever host a late night network television talk show and was awarded an Emmy for another of her talk shows. Her standard style involved her razor-sharp and acerbic wit and her ‘take no prisoners’ approach to comedy was undoubtedly controversial. There was nothing that was off-limits as long as it was funny and she was equally harsh on herself, often poking fun at her numerous plastic surgeries and her relationship with her daughter, Melissa Rivers. For those who got her humour, she was the funniest woman. For those who didn’t, she was an insensitive and callous person with absolute disregard for others.

Credits : buzzfeed.com

Post Number 21 : For the un-ambitious self

Posted on June 20 by Candid Wallflowers

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road would lead you there. – Lewis Carroll

Courtesy – Martin Liebermann (c) martin-liebermann.de

Ironically, I just heard it from a girl in a movie where she devotes her everything to her ambition of becoming an Olympic long distance runner.

Post Number 20 : The Long and Short of Micro-Fiction

Posted on June 18 by Candid Wallflowers

In my constant quest to discover new pages and reading material to follow online, I stumbled across the page of Akshay Dalvi. Akshay maintains a page on Facebook called ‘Words of Akshay’ which deals with micro-fiction. With over 96000 people following the page, I was certainly intrigued. I approached Akshay for his opinion on micro-fiction. He was kind enough to respond. Reflecting on his success, Akshay shared,”I tried writing micro-fiction 2-3 years back but I did not get the attention I wanted. Nevertheless, I carried on with my blogs, poetry and short stories. Upon my father’s passing, I started expressing my emotions via short stories. I started getting positive reactions. Within 3 months, my page went from 3000 followers to 96000+ followers.”

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