A Little Throwback To 2016

  This is something I found in my drafts, something I wrote almost an entire year ago. To think how fast time flies. 

Amalfi, Italy, 2017

 I am going to be moving soon. I can visualise one of my best friends going, "You are moving..AGAIN?''. Yes, I am. After trying to reacquaint myself with the city life in my two months here in Mumbai, I feel, I am finally starting to see why it is great to live in a city again.

In my time in the quaint little town where the better half of my two years in Austria were spent, I could not imagine losing the serendipity of a little town, but now I do not mind returning to my status of a born and bred city girl.

  There is a lot more to city life than what the movies would like you to believe. City life is not only about the unrelenting numbers of new bars and discos in town, it is much more. It is about the stories that get played out within it. Stories that virtually repeat themselves with small changes included. You  only have to stick around long enough to observe it happen. I did. A few years back when I was riding a train, heading to my German class, I overheard these two women talking about one of their nephews; how he has been engaged to the girl he had been in a relationship for six years with, and how after things did not work out, he decided to have an arranged marriage at the young age of 26 (which is obviously very young) after one heartbreak. You might think, 'Why is this important?'.
Well, a few months ago someone, a former friend, told me that he and his girlfriend of six years had broken up, and that he planned on having an arranged marriage because he had washed his hands of relationships. 
  As I said, you just have to stick around long enough.

  A city is as good as the people living within its boundaries. It is the citizens that make any city worth living in. You could have the most beautiful city in the world but if its people were drab and uninspiring, would it still be worth living in?

   One could say that this post is kind of my way to say that I am going to accept the changes about to barrel into my life. So, here's to all new experiences and new people. 

Naples: A Hostile City?

  

Naples, Italy, 2017.

  Naples ...
  It was at odds with what I had expected it to be. It sounds weird when I say it like that when I did not have any real expectations from this trip because of the chaos of finals week. 

  I was not rendered speechless by its beauty but I did understand its appeal. In my opinion, it quite similar to Vienna, in the aspect of one needing time to discover its magic; its bounty too varied and extensive to be comprehended in a day or two of hastily walking through its streets, praying to God that you don't get robbed. 
  
  Naples' hostile history and reputation often discourages most people to really discover the city as a city should be. It was on my very last night in the city, as I stumbled its streets to find food after a gruelling day, did I stumble upon the realisation that Naples was, for all purposes, just another city with places you should go and places you shouldn't frequent. 

Until next time!

Earning Money For The Sake Of Earning Money?

St.Gallen, Switzerland, 2017

I feel like I haven't written something substantial in a while, so, here goes. 

During one of my many mental soliloquies, I reflected on what I often ask people, 'There is so much of this Earth that till date remains unchartered -' Did you know that we know more about outer space than we know about our oceans? 'How can one be satisfied living in the same ten block radius one's entire life?'

Now, before anyone says, ''money is important'', I know money is important; my question is: What are you earning that much for? What are you clocking all those hours in a nine to five job that no longer excites you for?

Is there a reason for striving to earn so much money that you never need to work again? Do you want to help people with it? Do you want to travel the world with that money? Experience things most people will never be able to fathom? 

My next question is: Do you see yourself doing any of those things, realistically speaking? 

Maybe, it was alright, twenty years ago, to earn for the sake of earning money ... to become a doctor because you didn't think you had any other option ... to get married because that's just the sort of thing one does. In today's day and age, when the entire world is at the mercy of your fingertips, when it is possible to make a sustainable living uploading videos online doing something you love, it is no longer okay to waste away your life in a race, where the goal leads to all these things you never really wanted, to do things you do not full-heartedly want to achieve. 

I say it is downright disrespectful to have all this information before you, ripe for the taking, for you to be deterred by things not being what you are accustomed to. It is no longer okay to be content with going with the heard, when you know that is not what you desire. 

It might be hard, this thing, but so are the things you'll end up settling for. So, although it might arrantly petrify you, you need to stand up for something that you believe you are meant to do. 

It's time we as a generation decided to stop being content, to realise the world's potential,
to step out of our comfort zones and leave behind our sheltered lives because no matter what the setbacks, it's a lovely time to be alive.