Tag: Perspectives

Growing Up #14: A List of Random Little Things of Joy

Alfa M. ShakyaLeave a comment

Sometimes scared of being alone, other times scared of being surrounded by people; tears dripping out incessantly without any particular reason. One moment feeling like you can fight the world, a while later breaking down while climbing the never ending staircase. Some days of growing up can be terrifying. Since growing up is perpetual, the terrifying days are stretched across the horizon.

It’s strange. What can we possibly do.

A wise friend suggested, do random things and ignore everything else to feel better. So here are my list of random little things of joy.

  1. Pet the pets, brush their hair
  2. Sing or upload a song
  3. Dance random moves
  4. Listen to the rain
  5. Have a conversation
  6. Hot chocolate
  7. Be kind
  8. Arrange the closet
  9. Clean the book rack
  10. Hoover the carpet
  11. Crack a lame joke/listen to a lame joke
  12. Read
  13. Write poetry
  14. Record a poetry
  15. Arrange your desktop
  16. Sleep
  17. Stretch
  18. Write some more poetry
  19. Remember the most incredible thing that happened this year
  20. Smell coffee beans
  21. Practice handwriting
  22. Vision your wildest dream for the upcoming year
  23. Visit a book store
  24. Read Murakami San’s stories and wonder about human nature
  25. Watch an animated movie
  26. Make a list like this
  27. Read science articles on Medium
  28. Send poetry for publication (it might just get accepted!)
  29. Stay silent
  30. Turn off the wifi

Growing Up, a series on Growing Up, every Saturday – because Saturdays are perfect for overthinking. 

Growing Up #3: Age is just a number?

Alfa M. ShakyaLeave a comment

Age is just a number, they say.

Maybe they are right, it’s an arbitrary measure of how long you have lived chronologically.  But only if life could be lived in the simple timelines that come ahead. Some days I am 10 years behind, like a kid that I always am. Some days I function like an adult, apt for the time. Some other days I am a toddler, whose insatiable demands leave me heart broken. Some other days I am a philosopher trying her tiny hands at solving problems that may appear 10 years from now.

It does seem age is just a number. Like a river that splits into tributaries that visits different landscapes as it journeys through time, twisted and turned. A part of me lies in the pristine mountains, some other submerged in the waters of the South. Perhaps it would be best to let the streams unwind on their own and be washed into the sea.

No number could ever justify the depth that we have seen amalgamated into one.

Growing Up – a series on well, growing up. Every Saturday because Saturdays are perfect for overthinking.

Severus-Lily: Was It Only Romantic Love?

Alfa M. ShakyaLeave a comment

I know it is not true, because J.K. Rowling herself told us so, and still I couldn’t stop myself from exploring the angle of platonic friendship in two beloved Harry Potter characters, Severus Snape and Lily Evans. Severus’s complex nature and the final manifestation twisted everything. Severus loved Lily too much to let her go even after she passed away. Some say he was obsessed with her and couldn’t move on, and some other love him dearly for the sacrifices he made. It was all ‘L-O-V-E’.

Of course it was love, but what kind of love? Love remains a central theme in the Harry Potter series. It is the ultimate weapon that destroys Lord Voldemort. Lily’s love for Harry, Harry’s friendship with Ron and Hermione, Dobby’s loyalty to Harry. All the characters on the good side manifest love, including the Malfoy’s despite standing with the Dark Lord. So many different kinds of love have been explored in the series, with one of the major highlights being Severus and Lily.

The question isn’t as much as ‘Were these two characters just friends?’, as much as ‘Would it justify everything if they were just friends?’ Simply saying, would Severus do everything he did if Lily were just a friend?

Here’s a small poll I did on facebook to know what my Harry-Potter-Loving-Friends think. Seems like I might not be alone about the different angle in Severus-Lily’s relationship.

Screen Shot 2018-06-06 at 7.09.07 PM

Family is a strong theme running right from the first page of the first book. Sacrifices have been made for families and by families throughout the series. By the end we see that scarifies have been made for romantic love too, by Severus for Lily. Carrying a mountain for family and for romantic love has been an ongoing theme in literature for thousand of years. But sacrifices have also been made by friends, well wishes and everyone who stood on the good side. We have Tonks and Lupin who died leaving their new born son, Harry’s DA friends-Neville, Ginny, Luna, Seamus, Dean who fought because it was right. Everyone risked their lives. And that is why I wonder if Severus would do what he did, even if Lily were just a friend he deeply cared about.

Never in the books is it explicitly mentioned that Severus loved Lily in a romantic way. Sure there are a lot of metaphors the famous one being the ‘Always’ dialogue between Severus and Dumbledore, but then again aren’t metaphors suppose to mean more than what can be seen?

Severus was loyal to the Dark Lord and spills the prophesy made by Trelawney only to realize that the Dark Lord would now kill Harry, who was Lily’s son. Anyone could have felt the shock, Lily doesn’t have to be his love interest for the shock to run down his veins. The guilt of putting your dear friend in danger (and eventually having her murdered) might take toll on anyone. So Severus’s actions could have been his own path to redemption. There’s no saying it wasn’t love, but there are so many other possibilities, other emotions, other kinds of love, which often run under the shadows of romantic love and family love.

There’s so much more. Wouldn’t you agree?