The city was crowded. There was the hum of people, walking dead. Joy was long gone. Now there’s only survival. And money.
She was at work. Watching the outside world, burning with greed. An airplane took off from the airport nearby. People walked by. Nothing changed.
People lived. No life.
This fifty word post is for the “Weekly Writing Challenge: Fifty“.
It’s been just over two years since I registered with WordPress.
The good thing is, my writing has improved. I now find it easier to put things in words and make it sound the way I want them to, mostly.
On the down side, my blog hasn’t grown the way I hoped it would. The reason is obvious. I don’t spend time for The Chaos Within.
The chaos within me is as chaotic as it ever was. But I still don’t do much. I have 90+ drafts as of today. I re-wrote my about page, but didn’t updated it.
I kind of felt bored with the theme I used.
But most importantly, I’ve changed much from the way I was a couple of years ago. And my blog hasn’t changed with me. That’s what’s bugging me.
So, I decided to stop it.
Not blogging, but complaining and procrastinating.
I decided to make the change. I’m giving a makeover for The Chaos Within.
I’ve updated my about page and I’ve changed my blog’s looks.
This is my first post in a new theme. It’s the beginning of a new year for me and my blog. I want it to be bigger, better and represent me.
Happy new year, to us.
It’s been long — literally years — since I abandoned Nancy Drew to the unavoidable circumstance of growing up.
After such a long time, I was able to lay my hands again on the series when I visited a book fair at home.
This book fair comes to my hometown twice a year; in July and in December. And though I have been to the fair more times than I care to remember, I am, unashamedly, every time overwhelmed by the collection they seem to display.
Any vain pride that I have about knowing a lot of books, is just washed away in a huge wave of unheard authors and books.
But it was Nancy Drew that helped buried memories surface. So I bought a Nancy Drew: Girl Detective trilogy. (I didn’t even know Nancy Drew came in trilogies!) This particular trilogy is the Eco Mystery Trilogy.
I started reading the first book and was surprised (like countless times before when it came to books,) with the narrative. All of the previous Nancy drew books I had read followed the third person narrative. This trilogy however, was of Aladdin Publications (whose books I’ve never read before) and followed the first person point of view. That was unexpected. I have never experienced Nancy describing a situation from her view. It was rather bizarre. It had always been the narrator-writer, Carolyn Keene, who told us about Nancy and her friends.
This Aladdin Publications raised a question in my mind: how was the stories originally written? It is possible that the author herself adopted a change of point of view? As always, I turned to Wikipedia. It says that Carolyn Keene was a pseudonym that multiple authors wrote by. So Nancy Drew was a work of multiple authors, the revelation leaves me a little disappointed.
Moving on to other things, there was one other thing about the story that caught my attention than anything else. It was the simplicity of the narration. This is one thing that almost everyone speaks of nowadays. But what I’m trying to point out here is that the books are so simply written that it involves less or no effort to read it.
That’s really important, in any book. As we grow up, we move on to bigger and, what we assume, better books that are merely complicated reads. In other words, they are just simply too tough to read easily. Which is one of the reasons reading has become a chore.
Mysteries are knotted, complicated and twisted. If a writer (or many) can vividly bring crime scenes to our minds, without using twisted vocabulary and grammar, then it is a good read, isn’t it?
Children’s and young adult mysteries like The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys are all great examples of simply describing serious plots.
We do need more of such books, if we are to encourage youngsters to read. Maybe after reading effortlessly and loving it, kids would opt to explore the more complicated plots.
Just a random thought.
India is known worldwide as a country that promotes “unity in diversity”. Well, I don’t know about unity, (or to be more specific, I’d rather not talk of it) but ‘diversity’ — that I can guarantee.
It’s not really a surprise, is it? India is a diverse land, that’s what we’ve been told all our lives.
Now, a few days ago, I had to travel to Chennai from home. A journey that, on Indian Railways, takes 5 1/2 hours during the day and around 7 hours after sun down. On that day, I was on a night train, a non A/C compartment.
It was my first time travelling non A/C. Now, I love third class A/C. (I haven’t been on the first and second classes, so I can’t compare.) You have a bottle stand, a book stand, a comfortable white bed sheet and a super-warm blanket. Sounds cozy? Yes it is.
I, being oh so naive, expected at least a bed sheet in non A/C. Disappointed, I was. As always with Indian Railways.
There was no bottle stand, no book stand, no bed sheet and absolutely nothing warm. And it didn’t help that ‘twas the coldest month of the year here in the South. There were quite a lot of mosquitoes though — OK, I don’t blame the Railways for that — but for the rest, I wouldn’t say I don’t.
But there was one thing on the non A/C compartment that wasn’t on the A/C ones: ceiling fans! And guess what, I got the upper berth. Some good guy thought it would be warm during the night and decided to click on those switches.
Oh, yes it got worse.
Having no book stand, I didn’t know where to put my specks, so I clutched on to it in my hand and tried my best to fall asleep without shattering it. The good thing is, my specks remained intact, but I lost sleep. The cold was too much.
That night was an eye opener. (Literally as well) I thought of all those days I had comfortably settled in the A/C compartment, when there were people, just compartments away, shivering.
OK, maybe that sounded more emotional than I intended it to. It’s the cold fact.
That night, I was reminded how much we value money. If you have more, you get to be comfortable, if you’re willing to spend a little less, then settle uncomfortably. There’s the first, second and third A/C, and then there’s the non A/C. Not to mention the unreserved compartment where you’re not guaranteed a seat. Such diversity. In a single train.
It’s the same nation-wide. Every day, we see incidents, people and habits that are so diverse in nature. And although it’s common world-wide, India always has a special place in my heart.
Not much of a surprise, right? India holds the record for most number of castes in the world. And no two castes are similar. I don’t even need stats to prove it.
Then there’s the financial status. I don’t think I have heard of low class, middle class, lower middle class, upper middle class or the upper class, all mentioned in one place.
Incredible India, huh?
We humans are oh so opinionated. Where ever we go, what ever we do, we always seem to have an opinion about everything.
Take me, for instance. I wouldn’t be writing anything here unless I have an opinion about — well, opinions.
Where ever there’s a group, there’s sure to be opinions. Mixed, certain, unsure, for, against — they come in different labels. But the end thing is same — variety.
Not many people have the same opinions. Yes, we agree with others, but we always seem to have something more to add. Something more valuable, we presume.
Businesses, corporates thrive on varying opinions. Everyone sit together and discuss their opinions — they call it brainstorming. This happens for hours, before they all, almost always, agree with what the boss says.
Now, that’s not the matter. That shit happens every where.
What happens when you don’t have an opinion of something?
That’s me. Yes, it is.
I participate in a meeting, but I seldom contribute. People perceive me as shy and backward. But really, I shut up when I don’t have anything to say.
And that’s not wrong, it’s just a choice.
“But no,” they say, “how can you not have an opinion?”
Honestly, what would a common man know of NASA’s latest research methods? How can one blindly agree (or disagree) that NASA’s funding is too much? (I’m saying that only because I recently read Dan Brown’s ‘Deception Point’)
I can’t criticize the way they make rocket ships or sea ships. I simply don’t know.
How can I possibly justify saying for or against something I don’t understand? I can’t. So, I don’t.
But no, people do want opinions. If I don’t have an opinion, then I’m a fool. (Mind you, there are also loads of highly opinionated fools out there.)
But I think accepting my ignorance of a particular concept is also an opinion. My opinion is that I don’t know enough of the matter, or that person, or that incident to discuss further.
There! I said it. It’s ok to not know. It’s ok to not be curious. It’s ok to be unaware. It’s ok to not have an opinion.
Not having an opinion is stating boldly that I don’t know and that I don’t care.
In case you’ve missed my point: we don’t have to be opinionated about every other thing.
It’s all just my opinion anyway, feel free to disagree.
The Chaos Within 