Sunday 17 July 2011

Finally, I am done with the 30 Day Book Challenge, and not a moment too soon - because it was really turning out to be a challenge towards the end! For the simple reason that when I read a book, I don't over-analyse it - I simply enjoy it and let the words wash over me. So having to classify and categorise books for this tag was a strangely difficult experience. 
However, it made me realise how incredibly lucky I am to have been part of a generation that still read decent stuff. This is not to generalise in any way, I do know a lot of children who read, but for the most part, this vampire-obsession really gets to me. I grew up on a diet of Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie (as did a lot of my other friends), most of today's children seem to grow up on a diet of violent Japanese cartoons and Edward Cullen. And it's not just choice in literature but the whole attitude to life that is different with children I see. When did the world change?
Sometimes I just feel incredibly OLD. I think time is passing us all by and every second is fleeting by, every second we grow closer to the end of our lives, that Big Bang in our own existence- except that we will not explode, but rather implode into ourselves, into the lives we have led. 
And every minute that passes, I am reminded that there is such a lot to do - why, this is just the first month of the last year of university, and already I am swimming in lists of books to read, reference books to look up, essays to go through. And while my cat snoozes away peacefully with her head on my laptop keypad (making it difficult for me to type without moving her head a little, but I wouldn't do that, oh no, she's sleeping so peacefully), I find myself a little weary of life, of growing up and its various responsibilities. But then again, that is life in itself - it must be lived, lived well and lived responsibly (although I know lots of people who defy this convention).
And while a best friend worries about jumping off metaphorical cliffs and how, with the onset of age, we are becoming alarmingly unadventurous, and I tell her that life, now, is more about just being and living than anything else, I realise that somewhere, somehow, we have grown up and shed the adolescent angst, and are learning to deal with life itself as an adventure. No need to prove anything, no need to be 'cool', to 'fit in'. There is no need to jump off any cliff, we have already jumped off it. The question now is, do we go crashing down into the abyss, or do we learn to fly?

7 comments:

storyteller said...

What a wonderfully written post. And you can construct long sentences with no grammatical error. <3 Let's elope!

Anonymous said...

Its amazing as we glide past the years behind, as we retrospect, we see the persons we left behind. A person who was cute and cuddly, tugged up inside loops of clothes. A person with small timid eyes, riding a tricycle, filling the world with mellifluous half-baked words. A person who came back home sun-burnt, sweat soaked, dragging along a huge school-bag behind. A person who posed for humiliating pictures and bunked classes. And now there is one you might leave soon. I am poor with words, I liked the way you wrote it.

I did not read lot of books growing up. I started reading novels after I landed up in a Job. For me it was like the only way to deal with boredom in a IT city. Although I am not as read as you guys are, I am kind of the like a charlatan who picks his own medicine. I always came back to your posts to see every week if there something I have read, and it was not surprising that were not many there. It was really nice to see someone with such fascination for her novels, well I been around people who read much, never saw some one so fascinated about it.

Magically Bored said...

@ Storyteller: Heh. Absolutely! <3

@ Sougatasantra: You have certainly missed something if you haven't read all that much, it's not a fault - just something you've missed. Do read as much as you can, some books are very fascinating indeed. And thanks for the compliment. :)

little boxes said...

lovely read!
and we will fly alright...or we'll have people holding out safety nets for us.
:)

Magically Bored said...

@ Little Boxes: Thank you. The safety net is a good idea. :)

Anonymous said...

Or maybe it's all just a huge bungee jump and we'll all shoot right back up.

Unless someone sabotaged the rope.:P

Magically Bored said...

@ Anonymous: Ah, Neelu, I was waiting for a comment from you. :P