With Love

A snippet from a letter I wrote to the beloved Shaampots. I think this is good advice to myself and everyone.

image credits 

Don't ever let this world tell you that you are anything less because you are the wind and the bells of hope and every single struggle you overcome, you make it rain down like a desert that gets one day of water but enough to keep it going. Yes, there are many obstacles. Every road you turn, it might seem like a dead end and every step of the way might seem like a bend in the road but every every river you cross and every victory shows that you are sunshine, you are the clouds and when it rains, that little voice of when the droplet hits the ground is reason enough to keep going because you are braver than you think and you are kinder in every way. 

It's been 24 years and you've accomplished so much! Don't compare yourself to others because you are more than enough and your hard work and struggle is real and this world is cruel but don't let it harden you. Take it by the sleeves and wear it like a protective armour. If you let your inner insecurities burn down and wear a coat of ashes of all that others have said about you, it cannot make you weak because they were wrong. They have to be because you're still kicking an you are an inspiration. 

To this one girl who still thinks she can write inspiring letters but fail. She still thinks you're the bees knees! 

The Fault in Our Stars

A friend of mine (and then several friends, random people, readers, goodreads, etc) introduced me to The Fault in Our Stars (TFIOS) so I had to read it and like a lot of people, I fell in love with the book, not slowly at first but gradually from beginning till end. I read it in one go, I was awake at night till I finished the book and yes I shed a tear or two. It was an emotional book. I was a bit late into the club so everybody pretty much had read it by then and we were obsessing over it and it was already in the movie production.

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So when the trailers started coming out, I religiously checked on them, got the soundtrack, watched way too many fan videos, etc and basically just had really great vibes about everything. As a reader, you have the whole book in your head the way you want to be which is why I agree when John Green writes that books belong to readers. TFIOS was mine, I knew it. I knew the story in my head and I knew the lines enough to know when to laugh and when not to. Also as a reader you are never fully satisfied once a book becomes a movie. I have been having so high expectations only to have the movie be an experience of something that I don't even relate to in the book. But then again, as a movie watched I realize that all the inane details in the book cannot be summed up in a 2 1/2 hour screen time, it just can't and even if it did, it would still not be the same. The book reading is a different experience than watching the movie. It takes up so much of you, not just time but so much of your emotional space. Movies also do that, but in a rather different way so I'll stop comparing these two. 

Let's just say the movie was okay and I'm not saying this in a hyped up way that TFIOS fans overuse the word "okay". It was actually okay. Good okay. I liked how the story was brought together, it was sensible, it was emotional but it was also cheeky and lovable, just like how the story I had in my mind. This is not a cancer story it's a story about people who happen to be cancer patients and I like that the movie stuck to that. It was heartwarming. Maybe the trailer just put together all the best quotes and that's why the movie experience didn't add up to my utility. Maybe the people who were at the cinema with me was insensitive to moments when they should be silent or maybe I as a reader think that the moment should be a different way. 

I really liked the Amsterdam parts, it was sad, happy and yet brought in a way that you know they are Hazel and Gus and it was just beautiful and it made you hate Van Houten as a person and made you love understand Hazel so much more. As a fan of the book, I am so happy it got made into a movie because so many people who wouldn't read the book/are unable to/don't want to read the book now has the chance to experience the same story that I fell in love with and that is brilliant. Instead of making people apart, books and movies should bring people together and I think TFIOS did that in its own way. 

I am not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasures of saying true things so I will say this; this story is phenomenal and there will always be people who think it's pretentious (to be honest, it is a little bit) but it is beautiful and it shows the story of people with cancer in a very normal light an shows life through a very different pair of glasses. Whether you loved the movie or the book or both, I'm glad you did and if you hated it, again I'm glad you did because at the end of the day it's just a story and so are we. 

Rating: 3/5

Perks of dating Chuck Bass

Girls are girls, a lot of the times they cannot stop liking or falling for that rich guy with style no matter how much of a douchebag he is. Chuck is the douchebag-est of them all but we still flock by watching his every move, by-hearting all the details in his signature scarf and oozing over his vests, his smirk and the way he talks. Here is why dating him would just be amazing!

He is super duper stylish. This man is never underdressed. Even when he's underdressed he is way more overdressed than anybody you know. With him by your side, you know you'll make headlines just because he's pulling off that $2000 vest so well. 

He understands the importance of gifts. You know he would totally buy you that diamond necklace you have your heart set on and he makes up for his behavior by the lavish gifts he buys. This is the man who would buy you the dress of your dreams even when he knows you'll wear it to be someone else's queen. *swoon*

His smirk is almost as sexy as his smile. This man knows when to smile and when to say just what you need to hear and he does that with so much class you now have the whole male gender in two groups, one Chuck Bass, two everyone who is not Chuck Bass. 

He will always be there when you need him and when your friends need him. This is the man who understands that you make mistakes, that you are no saint but he will stand by you and he will tell you that you are you and that he's Chuck Bass and that he loves you and that's that. You can call him no matter what and he will solve all your problems.

  

He's a family man above all and he values people so much he loses but still he keeps going. We cannot resist a man who is sensitive. Chuck Bass has it all. 

When everything else is going wrong and when the world is against you, he'll wait for you near the bus stop with a dozen roses and you know that everything will be fine because

He's Chuck Bass. Nuff said. 

Would you date Chuck Bass? You know you would! 

The People Project

image from florianweiler, DeviantArt

People are not statistics. 

They are not the sum of the percentages that you give them. 

They are not the squares in your boxes and they are not the pictures in the frames you build out of words fabricated by your own insecurities. 

People are a vision of the things they don't show you. 

People are the truth that you don't want to admit because it would make your argument worthless.

People are the cracks on the sidewalk that you don't notice. If only you looked closer, you could see the little sprouts of new life among old cracks, just poking their head saying "I'm here, notice me!"

Most importantly, people are the total of what they do and don't; flaws and all and people need not be labelled but accepted as just what they are - people.