Always

Years ago, we lost Severus Snape but this week we lost the man who did his character utmost justice, in all his complexities and intricacies.

Through out the years, I have always been skeptical of the hero-worship Snape has garnered, his unnecessarily nasty behaviour toward students being justified because he was bullied as a child and the fact that he protected Harry. I don’t particularly agree with the fact that he was ‘good’ all along, but that is what makes Snape more complex. I believe he was always in a grey area between evil and good (where we all quite often stand), with his bitterness and abusive nature drawing him toward his darkest self and then his love for Lily and moral actions drawing him away. He may not have always been the hero he was in the end, and that’s what makes his choice to do the right thing all the more important in the midst of moral ambiguity he found himself surrounded in. He grew into the hero he was meant to be; his salient transformation was everything. It was difficult and it broke our hearts.

What is even more heart breaking is watching Alan Rickman describe Snape’s character, demonstrating his deeper understanding of him than what we as readers or as an audience did. This is precisely why no one could have possible played him half or nearly a smidge as well as he did. But just as Dumbledore said, ” To the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure.” So I hope Alan Rickman is on his next great adventure.

Goals for 2016

While most of my resolutions are hopeless, I do plan on getting a few things done this year. They’re not too difficult and that’s the key.

• Read 30 books (This is my Goodreads Reading Challenge 2016.)
• Start a bullet journal and try it out. (For a conscientious soul like me, this seems like a good system, with room left for personalisation but the key word here is try, because if I don’t like it, oh well.)
• Read a French book (I migrated this goal from last year.)
• Make another Rememberlution Jar ( It’s a nice way to end the year by looking back on all the ups.) Or do something in remembrance of what to be grateful for.

A Very Harry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Everything about this December has been Harry Potter-centric and it couldn’t have been better for fangirl me.

Our class played Secret Santa and thankfully my elf/snowflake is a Potterhead, so I got to give her a Hogwarts acceptance letter which you can customize and print here (you’re welcome)! I’ve also made Marauders Maps (instructions here) and Hogwarts house bookmarks for a couple of people!

After a busy year, it’s been nice to sit and relax at home with a hot cup of cocoa, reading the illustrated copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I checked out the second and third book from the library so that’s a lot of re-reading to look forward to! Not to mention the movie marathon over the next couple of days 😀

So cheers everyone! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all 🙂 May you stuff your face and have fun!

-VD

Happy Diwali!

Light always triumphs over dark…except in the case of Game of Thrones.

Looking to Adopt a Dog?

Over my semester break, I spent time volunteering at CUPA Second Chance Adoption Centre in Bangalore and while I didn’t get to sleep in as much as I’d planned (I sincerely expected to hibernate and re-emerge for the next semester) it was time well spent. While I got to work with a lot of dogs at the centre,  the biggest surprise for me was seeing an old friend. He’s a black Indian dog who I last saw a year ago.

You see last year, I worked at CUPA’s trauma centre every weekend and I’d see different dogs come and go. Then one weekend, I see this beautiful black dog and what do you know, he took a liking to me. He’s got deep brown eyes and enjoys staring into your soul with them. I’d walk him, bathe him and he’d always come over to me whenever I was around. I even taught him how to shake hands. I got so attached to him I named him Toothless (he’s as black as the night fury from How to Train Your Dragon haha). Irony is that this dog has beautiful pearly whites.

Alas, I finished my volunteer requirement at the trauma centre  and stopped going on my weekends. That was the last time I saw him.

Then when I stopped by the Adoption Centre to have a look, who comes padding over to me? TOOTHLESS! (Except, he has since been named Rafiki.) I was absolutely buzzing over the fact that he remembered me and what’s better is that he still gave me his paw. If I were petting him and then my attention digressed to another dog, he’d just grab it again by shaking my hand. I taught him other commands with some treats too. He now knows sit, down and come. He’s super easy to train. Smart dog, huh?

His only idiosyncrasy is probably staring at the tree all day long, looking for squirrels. Neither his concentration or his determination is deterred (I wish I had that dedication for something I love). I’m hoping he gets adopted by someone. A visitor came by looking for a calm and docile dog and I tried my best to talk this guy up.

Anyway, if anyone is looking for a lovable mutt to take home, Rafiki is precious. Also, check out the CUPA website to see more of the lovely dogs they have!

Source: http://www.cupabangalore.org/index.php/cupa-centres/second-chance-adoption-centre

Source: http://www.cupabangalore.org/index.php/cupa-centres/second-chance-adoption-centre

The Versatile Blogger Award!

It’s been a while since I’ve logged on or posted anything and what better encouragement to get back at it than an award nomination! Thank you to Rachel Ann whose blog you should most definitely check out! I came across her blog when started commenting on some of my music posts and she’s made some wonderful suggestions for songs to listen to!

7 little things about me

1. If anyone is keeping count, I’ve been kicked out of a restaurant once in my life. Last year, a friend of mine and I wanted to watch the Cricket World Cup match (India vs. South Africa) but the sports bar nearby charged an exorbitant amount for the cover charge so we headed to a restaurant nearby with a big screen. We were pretty much planted in front of the TV from 9 am and it only became a problem when it hit lunch time and a swarm of new customers entered. The waiters nagged us if we wanted anything else to eat and we kept postponing it to sit a while longer (because the match was at a crucial point!) but finally we were asked to leave in a not-so-polite-manner. In my defense, I really wanted to watch that match, ok? And good thing, because India won for the first time against South Africa in the world cup 🙂
2. My Pottering has resumed a great deal since starting college and if I were to put all my psychological analysis to use, then I’d say it was a form of the regression defense mechanism, indulging in objects of my childhood to deal with the copious amounts of stress that uni provides on a daily basis. (I’m a Psychology Honours student and the workload is grueling to say the least.) But hooray for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as well as the newly illustrated version of the first book!
3. I volunteer at an animal shelter named Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA). I’ve worked at two centers across Bangalore so far: the trauma center and the adoption center and it’s great! Working with dogs is a wonderful way to spend your time, if you’re looking to take up some volunteer work for yourself! Also, please opt to adopt if you’d like a pet!
4. Existentialism appeals to me. I like the idea that the choices we make decide our fate and it is solely our responsibility for how our lives turn out. Though existentialists believe all this free will becomes a burden, I think it also makes us more empowered to take control and stop praying to unknown deities because as Nietzsche said, “God is dead.”
5. I am in desperate need of a vacation. Given the time and the airfare, I’d love to go on the Game of Thrones tour of Northern Ireland, visiting all the shooting locations and drink in that grey countryside. It looks gorgeous in the not-so-obvious kind of way and that’s the best kind.
6. I am easily irked by people who can’t stop talking, either about themselves or in general.
7. Although I am not a fan of How I Met Your Mother, Barney and Robin’s rehearsal dinner at the ice skating rink is one of my favourite scenes on TV ever.

So, according to the rules for the Versatile Blogger Award, you’ve got to thank the person who nominated you (of course), tell that person 7 things about yourself and in turn nominate 15 bloggers who you feel deserve the award! So here are my nominees:

https://asperganoid.wordpress.com/

https://geekgirlsenshi.wordpress.com/

https://jumpyjess.wordpress.com/

https://loveexpressing.wordpress.com/

https://lasuaprincipessa.wordpress.com/

https://ascintillaofthoughts.wordpress.com/

(I know I haven’t quite hit the 15 mark. Sorry!)

Happy blogging everyone!

-VD

3 days, 3 quotes Day 3

Bill from Perks of Being a Wallflower may have become well known for the quote ‘We accept the love we think we deserve.’ but I find that his most thoughtful and insightful remark was about four paragraphs earlier.

“It’s just that sometimes people use thought to not participate in life.”

-Stephen Chbosky

Oh how right you are Mr. Chbosky. Not to mention it’s a successful way to evade the nirvana that is a good night’s sleep. Then again it could be my TV screen activating my brain’s suprachiasmatic nuclei thus influencing my circadian rhythm…

…and once again, my thoughts have wandered.

3 days, 3 quotes Day 2

 

I stumbled upon this quote a while ago on WordPress and wrote it down on a scrap piece of paper. While cleaning out my desk, it happened to fall out and I thought ‘What perfect timing.’.

3 days, 3 quotes Day 1

Hi so I was nominated for the 3 Days, 3 Quotes Challenge by Jaisal (whose blog you should definitely check out btw) a while ago  and I’ve been slow on the promise to complete the challenge. Finally, I have resolved to begin!  The challenge is to post three quotes consecutively for three days so here goes day 1!

Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.

– Claude Monet

This quote is succinct and powerful, resonating with me as both an admirer of art and an artist herself.  Why complicate a beautiful thing? Just loving it is enough. I think that applies to life as well. I tend to introspect and overthink too much and sometimes it’s exhausting so this quote makes a lot of sense in those times.

Anyways, I’m a little lazy to nominate so anyone who reads this can be considered a nominee 🙂 Share your quotes with everyone, it’s fun!

The Creative Blogger Award

I was happy to be nominated for The Creative Blogger Award by Noopur (https://ascintillaofthoughts.wordpress.com) whose blog you should definitely check out! She’s awesome and her writing is amazing so please read some of her poems if you’ve got time!

The Rules

1. Nominate 15-20 blogs and notify the nominees.
2. Post the link of the blog that nominated you.
3. Share five random facts about yourself.

5 Facts About Me

1. I’ve been learning how to draw manga this summer and would love to go on to work out how to do the technical details on Manga Studio (which would require a lot of effort on my part but I’m willing to do it). It’s so exciting to draw your own characters and I’ve got a tiny story line in mind so if I could somehow combine the two, it may lead somewhere. Fingers crossed.

2. As a kid, I loved the colour pink to a great extent where every article of clothing I owned was of that colour. Later, I outgrew this phase and my favourite colour became purple but the one who was most relieved was my mom. To this say, she hates the colour pink because she became so sick of me wearing it. I find it funny. It isn’t a terrible colour! Wouldn’t you love to paddle around in Pink Lake? I would, it looks so peaceful.

3. I may live in a country that suffers from the occasional heat wave and is hot in general but I can’t pass by an article of winter clothing without shelling out the money to buy it. The feeling of being warm in cold weather is so much better than feeling cool in hot weather. I wait for the time of year to wear sweaters, jackets, hats, leg warmers and the whole winter paraphernalia and feel sad about taking them off when it gets too hot.

4. I have to do a research dissertation at uni and it’s a bit overwhelming right now because I have no idea where to start. Too many half ideas and flighty at that. I’m on this verge of knowing what I want and not knowing at all. Hope something falls out of the sky and into my head soon. (Come on positive life forces.)

5. I like anime boys. I wish I had the lustrous hair InuYasha does (it’s so pretty I cry).

The Nominees

1. https://asperganoid.wordpress.com/

2. https://geekgirlsenshi.wordpress.com/

3. https://jumpyjess.wordpress.com/

Anybody else who is reading this( yes YOU) are also nominated so go ahead! I’d love to read your posts so leave me a link!

xx