February 2011
2 posts
“Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing...”
– Buddha (via conneh)
Just one day
it may seem like your whole world can be warped and inverted in just one day; but in reality, every day, and every experience, is the inescapable product of an infinity of other choices, attitudes, and experiences that extend indefinitely into the past- sometimes unremembered or spurned, but never broken. we cannot control the flow of life, but we can enrich and thereby help direct it....
July 2010
19 posts
“Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare,...”
– L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea (via quote-book) (via iseabuoy)
Mid-way Point
I am failing abysmally at this blog thing. As a friend of mine bluntly reminded me, one of the expectations of keeping a blog is at least semi-regular updating, and yet a full week has passed since my last post. This hiatus in writing is not due to any dearth of experiences: the past week has yielded some of the most enriching and transforming moments of my life. But for some reason, every day I...
When You Come Back Down, The Duke’s Men of...
Ahi estás tú, by Chambao— what was playing...
“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle...”
– A heartwarming truth, sent to me by my best friend.
I am gushing with love right now. I don’t know where this bubbling zest for life suddenly came from, but if anyone from anywhere for any reason at this moment approached me, I would probably engulf them immediately with a creamy embrace that both smothered and revitalized them from my brimming stock of energy. I feel love, probably because I have been given it, countless times in the past...
peace3dd asked: Sejal, why are you so awesome? I love you!
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles...”
– - Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
I know the names of all the hotel staff that I have seen or spoken to except for one man, from whom I have yet to extract a single word. (As a side note, I find it interesting that all of the cleaners and waiters the hotel deploys are male, whereas the only women are stationed as receptionists. The opposite arrangement usually prevails in the States.) The hotel employs a single janitor: a lean,...
WatchCrossing the street at midnight
I apologize for my video-taking skills. They will improve, inshallah.
At the hotel cafe
Me: Can I have a water bottle?
Waiter: [scrunches up face into a perplexed frown]
Me: Water bottle?
Waiter: What?
Me: Water. Bottle. Water. [drawing shapes in the air]. Bottle.
Waiter: Hm?
Me: ...
Waiter: Hm.
Me: ...
OHHHHHHhhhhHHH. VOTR BOUTL! VOTR BOUTL!
Waiter: Ahhhhh. [smiles] Votr Boutl! Okay miss, have a seat.
Questions
How do you know when to stop listening to and accepting another’s ideas in order to preserve your own autonomy? Or, how do you know when you have indeed reached that stage, at which your thought processes are being manipulated—not necessarily intentionally or even consciously—but consistently in some way being shaped and sculpted and guided excessively by one person? Should it concern you,...
It is 2 a.m., and I just returned to the hotel from a scheduled dinner downtown. It is a Wednesday night, but blaring cars and pedestrians still crowd the streets and the neighboring grocery store bulges with families, children and seniors alike. My hotel room feels like a sanctuary with the raging chaos outside. This city never sleeps.
““Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the divine seas, dive deep...”
–
what I shall attempt these next several weeks in Egypt
I wish I were a better person— a better daughter, a better student, a better friend, a better citizen of this world. A better role model. But what does “better” mean? I am still struggling to define this term for myself. My entire life, I have challenged myself to become the “best” at whatever I pursued— to this day, I cherish grandiose dreams for my future and...
My Freshman 15 will be gained this summer. A single day has not passed on which I did not voraciously devour some new delectable Egyptian food: The sweets basbousa and konafa must be my favorites, but I have also sampled um ali; rice pudding; puddings galore of rainbow colors; the famous yoghurt drink with strawberry, mango, and honey; crème caramel cake; baklavas; and fresh strawberry, mango,...
Beginnings
I have ventured twice in my life to write a diary for myself: once, when I was in the fourth grade and received a luxuriously beautiful journal for my birthday, with a lavender velvet cover, a lilac ribbon, and a polished silver buckle and key. And once again (the first endeavor persisted valiantly for a month) when I completed my freshman year of high school, exactly four years ago. I just read...
