Live to Die?

I saw this while going to college

The wind rolled away, swirling around her ecstatic face.  She kept fidgeting with the pair of earrings, marveling its beauty. She’d bought them from a lady on the train. They were for her sister though, who’d surely appreciate the non-birthday gift! With music blaring in her ears, she started making her fingers maneuver through the dust on the grills of the window, spinning the earrings along them, just to watch one fall out on the tracks. Shoulders drooping, she set the lone earring at the counter, letting it watch the tracks for its soulmate.

My friend just broke his iPhone. *sheds a tear*

Everything has a story to tell (except a cracked iPhone since it breaks simply when it falls) and I think this is because we get attached to stuff really quickly. We get fascinated by fictional people and by people we watch on TV, who exist only inside tiny cells containing electrically charged ionic gases. We’re attached to this world we know nothing about. We don’t know why we are alive, yet we’re attached to the phenomenon of existence. We’re possessive about the food we eat and the clothes we wear.

But does all of that matter? Does anything in this world actually matter? When you die, you may realise that your entire life was a dream. You may find out that life doesn’t mean anything and every person who dies just makes up another atom to add to the single cell of another life. Or maybe all of this will matter as you reminisce your existence with everyone else who is dead. If that is the case, the dead club must be overflowing with members.

We live to die. And we die, trying to live.

Thanks for reading!
Kanksha :)

Making the ball (and our muscles) dance

Mind bellowing with agony, the NBA star shut it the pain away and got up. Multiple images of the ball danced. He took the lead and made them twirl on the edge of the baskets' rim.

Sportspeople have always fascinated me. It's insane how they bounce back from injuries however severe they are and win the game for the team. It's like the adrenaline makes them ignore how bad it is and the pain starts kicking in only once the game ends.

I read "Open" by Andre Agassi recently and it didn't disappoint. The book is marvellous and the level of detail is unimaginable. The only way he could have written it is if he kept a diary. You can feel his confusion, distress and anger at every loss, the lack of real joy at every win reaches you as well. He keeps telling us how he hates tennis but like every other person has told him, I gather that he doesn't really hate it at all.

You understand the amount of effort every top sportsperson has to put in to reach there - it definitely isn't just talent. Sports is as much of a mind game as it is physical. It's taking care of your diet and being fit, being focused even when you're having a bad day and not letting your opponent mess with you. It's not about being the best but being better than the other team.

I guess that's what propelled me to engage myself in physical activity on a regular basis. It's exhilarating and exhausting at the same time.

Start working those muscles, Nike Training Club's App is really good for women, whether you're a beginner or a pro. Even a 12 minute workout at home could help keep yourself in shape and build some strength.
Go cycle around sunrise. Make yourself wake up when most of the city is sleeping.
Join classes for a team sport maybe. It'll leave you refreshed and with new friends.

Cheers to a new routine, let's get some of the spirit of athletes in ourselves and pass it on!

Kanksha :)

Icebreaker Ideas and CollegeTips(?)

Unprecedented faces, plastic smiles etched on each,
Among the awkwardness, teachers come and teach.
Four weeks and an icebreaker down,
You've got people willing to dance in class breaks for no reason at all.

College just began. The best part about beginning college is that you build your reputation from scratch however you like - unless your name decides it for you. What is interesting about names is their originality (or un-originality). People whose first name is weird or rather unheard of are called by their first name. But if the last name is the strange one, the surname becomes their identity wherever they go. (My favourite is DaVinci) Name isn't the only identity giver though. In fact in class, we've got an MJDancer and GuyFromDelhi as well. I guess it's important to remember that the first impression is almost impossible to change unless you do something drastic enough to overshadow it, so if you're a fresher be careful about what you do since that's what you'll be known for. :P

I drift, though. How do you get people talking? Some people are reserved and like keeping to themselves, which is fine, but there are others who just need a little push. And that's why you have ice breakers. In my college, Henil, a friend of mine, came up with the idea of a wish box.  He asked people to pen down wishes and announced them in class during the breaks, making people get up and fulfilling them. We had people come up and do TONS of stuff. Needless to say, in the beginning, it's hard. People aren't usually ready to perform in front of 60 others. But  slowly, as a couple of people are good sports, more and more wishes start trickling in and you're having mad fun. Singing the national anthem in class, having a Bharatnatyam session, a yoga one (where all everyone did is breathed and said ohm), people dancing in groups and having a ramp walk along with a push up competition - you name it, and it happened.

Another idea would be having a treasure hunt. Get people up and running from place to place performing tasks at certain ones. Make groups randomly and they'll work together and bond. There is one thing that any ice breaker needs commonly though, and that's an organiser. So if that's not you, go hunt one out in class and try these, I promise you that you'll have fun.

I'm one of those super impatient people who can't stand awkward silences which is also why I kind of hated the first week. But now, I've begun to get used to college and its getting better everyday. Hoping for four exciting years filled with hard work and fun, peopleeeeee!

(This is more of a one-month diary entry than a blog post. Sigh.)
*Hoping no one got bored!*
Share your college experiences in the comments section. I LOVE LOVE LOVEEEE COMMENTS. :")

Thanks for reading!
Kanksha :)

Tattoo A Doodle.

The textbook full of doodles took her back to every moment much better than a tattoo ever would. Tattoos help you remember moments already inked on your brain. Doodles? They take you back to the most insignificant ones. The monsterly scribbles greet you before you're taken to the fleet of thoughts just before you were about to doze off. And that journey is beautiful.

So I was giving away my eleventh and twelfth grade books and notes to a couple of other people and found tiny words and masterpieces which took me back to a study date with a friend in Starbucks where she'd written down a random persons number as he spoke it out loud but never got to pranking him. I came across organic chemistry structures that had been turned into ballerinas and flying houses. And I realised that they reminded me of the exact scene that happened months ago which I found fascinating.

Go ahead and bring out a couple of old books. Embrace the nostalgia.

Thanks for reading!
Kanksha :)