How could anyone hate animals?

Posted on 2:34 AM by Shalini | 0 comments

A friend told me today that she hated animals. For a few seconds, I was speechless. I do realize that a lot of people hate them, but I just can't understand it. What's there to hate? They are innocent. She said they were dirty.. and this is the same reason many other people I know mention.

I told her that I think it's very bad to hate them. To me, it is deeply immoral. It is like hating babies, or hating babies cause they shit in their diapers.

What do people expect? For animals to be clean and "civilized" like us? But they are animals; they are what they are. We should just accept that. After all, we could've so easily been born animals ourselves (well, technically, we already are animals..).

I feel so passionately about it.. I was thinking about it for quite some time after she said it. Well I don't want to sound so high and mighty of course, but I feel quite disappointed in her. She has turned out to be so typically.. Indian, in the bad sort of way... I sort of got the feeling that she was like that, when we first met, but I was hoping I was wrong.

What shallow reasons to hate something!

Posted on 3:30 AM by Shalini | 1 comments

in life, this is what i think i want:

i want to have a quiet life somewhere with people i love very much, after i spend a few years being a nomad. i don't want a high-powered career, a high-profile job. a lot of money would be nice but i don't really aim for it.

i used to want to be successful, recognized by society and all that, remembered by so many people years and years after my death, but then i realized... why would i want to be remembered, recognized? there are many great individuals, but society in general sucks.

so these days, i imagine myself in the future just living my life with people love, and one day passing on, my name forgotten, myself just being one of the billions and billions that have lived and died. and this gives me solace, peace.

In my own world

Posted on 2:22 AM by Shalini | 0 comments

These days, I am always alone. Except when I meet Priya and Dhivya over the weekend. In the university, I am alone. At home, I am alone. I do not have too many friends at the university -- not ones I am comfortable enough to go with anyway. I have discovered that even if I do talk to people, even if I am open with them, I just make the same kinds of friends -- the kind I can say hi, hello to around the campus, add on Facebook,... have conversations about things that usually don't interest me.. nothing more than these surface-y relationships. I always used to complain I had no friends, and so I decided it was up to me to be friendlier and more open-minded. So I've tried it for two terms. I was talkative, I was open. But the friendships I've made are so empty.

When I walk along the halls of my school, when I climb up the stairs, I feel so different from everyone, as if I were some alien. I look around, everyone talking, or discussing their class work, everyone heading to class! Everyone so normal, and there I am. On my way with them. But am I really? They are so excited for life, so innocent and carefree, for careers, for marriage, children, family... I don't even have any real idea where I'm heading to or how I wanna spend my life, or when I think I do know what I want, I don't know how I'm gonna get it. I have to confess that there are times I wish I could just die, disappear, like I never existed, so no one will feel like shit. And also because it's freeing I guess, to think of erasing your existence -- all the pain, all the shit, all the happiness.. because even happiness weighs me down.

My family is with me at home, and I still feel alone. It has always been this way, but before, it was horrible because there was so much anger and resentment between all of us. We are okay now, for the most part. There isn't much anger or resentment. We sometimes go out, talk, have some fun. But most days, it isn't like that. I come home, take a long nap, read, go for a walk, use the computer, do my schoolwork,... If my dad does not come home for dinner, often, I don't talk to anyone, about my day, about my thoughts. There are times when I speak to my brother but it is rare. I barely talk to my sister, there is a lot of distance between us now. I don't even feel comfortable talking to her, my own sister.

All of this used to make me feel very actively dissatisfied, sad. But I've dealt with it and all there usually is now is a quite feeling of loneliness. I have my own world inside my head. I read a lot. I go out for walks, I listen to music. I dream. I sleep. I feel depressed from time to time. I cry. I love Savannah more than ever. I hang out with Priya and Dhivya over the weekends.

Priya is the only one who kinda knows I feel this way.

There are days when it sucks and there are days when it is delicious. Just me, in my head.

Well, we will see how long this lasts..

Recent readings

Posted on 9:54 PM by Shalini | 0 comments

I haven't written here in so long. Just haven't been in the mood. One of my friends sparked back my interest in writing here though.

I'm currently reading Memoirs of a Geisha. I was gonna stop reading it midway because some people said it wasn't authentic in its depiction of Japanese culture, and it was kinda boring when the main character wasn't a geisha yet. But I continued anyway cause I felt it wasn't that inauthentic and I usually feel guilty if I stop reading a book halfway through. Plus I wanted to know what would happen to her and the Chairman, her love interest... Hey, what can I say? I'm a romantic.. :P

A Kyoto geisha's life is a hard one.. Reading it, I realize how strict Japanese culture really is. And if Japan was portrayed semi-correctly during WWII (I should find out more about this), I also realized that they also suffered a lot, even before the Americans dropped bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I always just thought that the Japanese were cruel, that they made so many non-Japanese suffer while their own people weren't too bothered or terrorized until the Americans did what they did.

Almost everyone I know seems to think that geisha are prostitutes. Well, they are not. That is a very common misconception. To define a geisha, to explain what one is, does, is very difficult. I am too lazy to explain it.. Look it up on Wikipedia if you please: . It is still a crappy job though... you are there to serve and please men, basically. But it is done artistically.. Haha.

The book has made me really want to visit Kyoto. It is a very beautiful place. There is something about Asians, their architecture and nature.. It seems to promote a feeling of calm and serenity. I like it very much.

I read The White Tiger just last week, and I have to say, it's a very good book. I love the humour. Aravind Adiga really is talented. He does satire really well.. :)

My mind is blank and my head is aching..