While on a trip last year I got engaged in a discussion about identity and the sense of belonging. My discussant, a young medical student of Indian descent. Born in the UK, she confessed to feeling perpetually out of place. She shared with me that, during several visits to India, she experienced a sense of belonging she'd never found in her birth country. I questioned her further to understand the root of this disconnect: Was it a race issue? Culture? Religion? Morality? What was it? I usually have a pet peeve for privileged people and their proclivity for bogus humility and modesty. Occasionally quick to sling the hackneyed ‘all these privileges don’t matter; I’d rather have the short end of the stick’ response. But something about her disparagement felt genuine. She went on to tell me about how differently she was made to feel as a child. She told me about her largely Indian settlement on the outskirts of London, which was her bastion. She utilized many words to express how outca...
When two rhythms meet, at first they are uncoordinated, but over time become harmonious, this should be the norm but sometimes we find that both rhythms remain out of sync bringing about a cacophony, disturbing to those who are unfortunate to be connected to this event by whatever means. To err is human, the quantum is what differentiates a misdemeanor from an atrocity, and both are based on the depth of the relationship shared by the parties involved. We say things we don’t mean apologize and then regret, and more often than not, our utterance does not evoke the response we such desire, instead it adds salt to injury. This might be as a result of a lack of due diligence on the culprit's part to decipher the right tone and timing to advance a complaint, observation or outright dismissal of an issue. We do things innocently that ends up hurting others in ways we did not imagine, and its worse when it’s someone we claim to love or have loved, who has set the security threat...
Newton's first law of motion states that an object will not change its motion unless a force acts on it. What are the odds of anything traveling unidirectionally, unending without coming in contact with another object? My guess is zero! Even in the vast sky, collision with a bird or cloud is almost inevitable. A linear life is desirable but also unrealistic, nothing works like clockwork unless a clock. Through this realization, we must then anticipate and expect a collision of varying magnitude in our living, and unsurprisingly, our wits are the only safety gear we have, with experiences of self and others as emotional band-aids. Some forces would absolutely displace us, some would deflect, and some, we would try to evade but nonetheless they will come. What happens when a force that changes your life comes your way. How prepared are you to embark on a journey to the unknown? Although incalculable, the most life-changing moments happen in the twinkle of an eye, and the...
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