Ever since the lockdown began, I was thinking about spending my time productively. As a result I've kick-started multiple things but ended up completing none. Partly because I lost someone who was so close to me recently.
Gladly, I brought my Ukulele with me when I came back from Mangalore. I love this instrument so much and buying it was one of the best decisions I had taken overnight. There is something so serene and pleasant about this Hawaian beauty called Makala. The sound from it clears the air and brings a joyful and liberated vibe. I still remember those days in the hostel when Sandy, Deepika, and I would all sit together in a room under the fairy lights, with windows opening to a glance of the starry sky with an uncertain moon and few buildings with their yellow lights creeping to the top. We would play music and end up lying on the carpet, staring at the ceiling and to the cosmos beyond, indulging in conversations about existential bummers.Now, It feels like all those happened a million years ago.
An old friend of paramount importance was my love for reading which I thought once upon a time as an unabating interest. I really wanted to restart it, so just like old times I downloaded Aldiko, a reading app and downloaded many books in Epub format. I wanted to complete reading "The small things are beautiful", which was abandoned a long time ago, in the midway of some irrelevant chaos.
I discovered some very talented musicians through youtube like Mxmtoon and Hozier (My friend Sandy has an exceptional taste in music and always introduces me to new ones). I listen to their music all the time now. What good is life without music! (Of course a rhetorical question). I left my art stuff back at the hostel and couldn't paint anything. I terribly miss it and feels strange because I have never spent so many free days without painting.
After watching La Casa De Papel, I fell in love with Spanish and started learning it through an app called memrise (Ahora puedo hablar un poco de espanol). I don't practice it consistently though. Nonetheless, the joy it brings is exceptional.
Speaking about Netflix, I have watched a plethora of movies and TV series during this lockdown. I watched a movie called Okja (2017 ) recently and it planted a radical change inside me. I have always felt a compassion and was very keen on all animals. I love watching documentaries on vivid habitats of our earth. I have always ended up fondly thinking about how phenomenal our planet is. It is breathtaking.
I have learned about the dreadful fate we bring upon those poor beings too like I have explained in a previous post reviewing the documentary called 'Racing Extinction'. It is something truly heart-sickening.
Whatever I felt, It was actually hypocritical because I was a non-vegetarian. I devoured and savored animal flesh. I paid the slaughterers. As much as I loved animals, I was self-absorbed enough to continue being non-vegetarian thinking about the taste of cooked meat which lasts for a transient time and the quid pro quo for it was the precious life of an organism.
For the last couple of years I was thinking about accepting a vegan lifestyle or at least becoming a vegetarian. A few weeks ago, I was eating chicken and all of a sudden my mind started a figure-ground thought pattern of focusing on the taste of raw flesh in the cooked meat. I felt hesitant and got upset. It was the beginning of something.
After watching Okja, I finally decided to be a vegetarian. Okja does not advocate veganism, but it stirred some strong emotions inside me. Okja is a beautiful, heart-rending movie. It portrays the brutal, unethical, and synthetic face of capitalism in associated with animal cruelty.
I listened to various talks by environmentalists like Ed winters. It changed my life because for once in my life, I was so certain that this is the greatest thing anyone can ever do for our planet. I will be a vegan when I am financially independent because I cannot force a lifestyle on my family. In contemporary India, Vegan products are not easily accessible as well.
This world is for all the species and nothing ever can morally justify buying animal products or eating them. The current pandemic was also a result of animal slaughter and large scale animal cruelty. Let the animals live freely, let's not breed them to murder.
There is a song from racing extinction called "Manta Ray" by J. Ralph & Anohni. It is so poignant as it's from the perspective of all other organisms in the world. You can all listen to it https://youtu.be/f1JiJhWkM9M. It got oscar-nominated for the best original song.
There are few lines that go like,
"Without my home
With no reflection
I cease to exist
And my children
Are dying now
Inside me
My children
Are dying now
Inside me
My children
All I love
All I know
All I've known
I am dying now
Inside me
My children
My children"
Listening to the line "My children" through the singer's voice, we can all feel a resonating ache that traveled to us from the greatest oceans, tropical forests, desserts, frozen lands, and from every other habitat.
Kindness, that is all it takes.
Gladly, I brought my Ukulele with me when I came back from Mangalore. I love this instrument so much and buying it was one of the best decisions I had taken overnight. There is something so serene and pleasant about this Hawaian beauty called Makala. The sound from it clears the air and brings a joyful and liberated vibe. I still remember those days in the hostel when Sandy, Deepika, and I would all sit together in a room under the fairy lights, with windows opening to a glance of the starry sky with an uncertain moon and few buildings with their yellow lights creeping to the top. We would play music and end up lying on the carpet, staring at the ceiling and to the cosmos beyond, indulging in conversations about existential bummers.Now, It feels like all those happened a million years ago.
An old friend of paramount importance was my love for reading which I thought once upon a time as an unabating interest. I really wanted to restart it, so just like old times I downloaded Aldiko, a reading app and downloaded many books in Epub format. I wanted to complete reading "The small things are beautiful", which was abandoned a long time ago, in the midway of some irrelevant chaos.
I discovered some very talented musicians through youtube like Mxmtoon and Hozier (My friend Sandy has an exceptional taste in music and always introduces me to new ones). I listen to their music all the time now. What good is life without music! (Of course a rhetorical question). I left my art stuff back at the hostel and couldn't paint anything. I terribly miss it and feels strange because I have never spent so many free days without painting.
After watching La Casa De Papel, I fell in love with Spanish and started learning it through an app called memrise (Ahora puedo hablar un poco de espanol). I don't practice it consistently though. Nonetheless, the joy it brings is exceptional.
Speaking about Netflix, I have watched a plethora of movies and TV series during this lockdown. I watched a movie called Okja (2017 ) recently and it planted a radical change inside me. I have always felt a compassion and was very keen on all animals. I love watching documentaries on vivid habitats of our earth. I have always ended up fondly thinking about how phenomenal our planet is. It is breathtaking.
I have learned about the dreadful fate we bring upon those poor beings too like I have explained in a previous post reviewing the documentary called 'Racing Extinction'. It is something truly heart-sickening.
 |
| Picture downloaded from Newyork times review about Okja |
Whatever I felt, It was actually hypocritical because I was a non-vegetarian. I devoured and savored animal flesh. I paid the slaughterers. As much as I loved animals, I was self-absorbed enough to continue being non-vegetarian thinking about the taste of cooked meat which lasts for a transient time and the quid pro quo for it was the precious life of an organism.
For the last couple of years I was thinking about accepting a vegan lifestyle or at least becoming a vegetarian. A few weeks ago, I was eating chicken and all of a sudden my mind started a figure-ground thought pattern of focusing on the taste of raw flesh in the cooked meat. I felt hesitant and got upset. It was the beginning of something.
After watching Okja, I finally decided to be a vegetarian. Okja does not advocate veganism, but it stirred some strong emotions inside me. Okja is a beautiful, heart-rending movie. It portrays the brutal, unethical, and synthetic face of capitalism in associated with animal cruelty.
I listened to various talks by environmentalists like Ed winters. It changed my life because for once in my life, I was so certain that this is the greatest thing anyone can ever do for our planet. I will be a vegan when I am financially independent because I cannot force a lifestyle on my family. In contemporary India, Vegan products are not easily accessible as well.
This world is for all the species and nothing ever can morally justify buying animal products or eating them. The current pandemic was also a result of animal slaughter and large scale animal cruelty. Let the animals live freely, let's not breed them to murder.
There is a song from racing extinction called "Manta Ray" by J. Ralph & Anohni. It is so poignant as it's from the perspective of all other organisms in the world. You can all listen to it https://youtu.be/f1JiJhWkM9M. It got oscar-nominated for the best original song.
There are few lines that go like,
"Without my home
With no reflection
I cease to exist
And my children
Are dying now
Inside me
My children
Are dying now
Inside me
My children
All I love
All I know
All I've known
I am dying now
Inside me
My children
My children"
Listening to the line "My children" through the singer's voice, we can all feel a resonating ache that traveled to us from the greatest oceans, tropical forests, desserts, frozen lands, and from every other habitat.
Kindness, that is all it takes.
 |
| Downloaded from wallpaperaccess.com |
