Never Been Graduated

 2nd March was “Dr. Seuss Day” and I was remembering the time I read the book “Oh, the Places You’ll Go! “. I did graduate from college and school but never had an official graduation ceremony as such. I longed to be “graduated officially” a lot last year. So, to cajole me I started watching graduation ceremonies and reading books of that kind. While searching, I stumbled upon two wonderful books on graduation, they are as follows.

1) “Oh, the Places You’ll Go! “ by Dr. Seuss
Though a children book author, he teaches great life lessons through his book. Some of the memorable quotes from the book are:

“And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)
 
“You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So get on your way!”

“Your mountain is waiting” is the motto of my tough days.

2) “Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination” by JK Rowling
This is a published version of J.K. Rowling’s commencement speech at Harvard University. Usually, people watch commencement speeches, but I am that odd idiot who reads speeches. In the speech, Rowling talks on how to embrace failure using stories from her own life. The book had some wonderful sketches here and there. Notable points:

“We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”

“Life is difficult and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.”

JK Rowling is one of my the favorite authors. And I felt good after reading the book and before writing this post I watched her video again to relive that moment I experienced last year. In a weird way, I graduated vicariously by reading these books. But next year I am looking forward to receiving my post-graduation degree in a Graduation Ceremony.

PS: This is a late post. These days college work is keeping me very busy.

Internet Sabbath

Last weekend my college hostel experienced two-life threatening problems.

• Slow Internet Connection
• Drinking Water supply problem

Problems have been mentioned in the order of priority. Whole of the Sunday, surprisingly I wasn’t online much. Till dinner I was in my room doing some reading, writing and more of napping. At the end of day, I realized that I achieved some milestones unknowingly.

• I did not watch a single YouTube video.
• Spent just few seconds on Facebook owing to bad internet connection.
• Every weekend I try out new apps but this Sunday I couldn’t even open android play-store.

Last Friday, I was trying to build a naive internet-based Phone and two days later I don’t even care about internet. So, this is a proof that I can live with and without internet. (Conditions apply). A question arises everyday are we really utilizing the internet or misusing it?

In the book “Wasting time on the internet”, Kenneth Goldsmith makes us believe that our time on the Internet is not really wasted but is quite productive and creative. This is one fascinating read wherein the author tries to explain that by “wasting time,” we’re creating a culture of collaboration. The author is famous for the “Printing out the internet” art work which was inspired from Aaron Schwartz. Last chapter of the book, “101 ways to waste time on the internet” was quite informative.

But who needs to be guided to waste time on the Internet?
To end on a lighter note
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And I took the road with free access to Internet.

Social Media Updates : A Boon or Bane

I am huge fan of updates. But the application update I did on Friday the 24^th February morning changed my life. Hell, yes, I am talking about the WhatsApp new update which is making it look like Snapchat. FYI, I never had a Snapchat account and I rarely use my Instagram account. So, looking at the update message on WhatsApp. I hastily updated and regretting now. I loved the status option WhatsApp had. Not only me, many of friends exploited that feature for a very long time.

Snapchat introduced the concept of ephemeral messaging but on the other hand WhatsApp is forcing onto people ephemeral messaging. I am well acquainted with the fact that all our lives are ephemeral but 40-60-character freedom is all I asked for.

“But then, as she knew too well, the more fondly we imagine something will last forever, the more ephemeral it often proves to be.”
– Iain M. Banks

In good old days, WhatsApp was my life saviour, it had instant messaging, people received the voice and video call feature with welcoming hands. I personally liked the document sharing option and WhatsApp for web. Recently as part of my master course work, I was studying about the technology of message passing and how efficiently WhatsApp uses it; I was awestruck.  On the very day on which I had to give an exam on this same concept, WhatsApp just disappoints me.

So, coming to the part that changed my life. Now WhatsApp has become a big turn-off for me. The photo status column is taking a huge portion on the screen and I am loathing it big time. (I am not aware of the exact jargon for the status feature.)

So, blessing in disguise, I am spending relatively less time on WhatsApp.

Nostalgic Week

This week was full of nostalgia as I went home for holidays. This was a much-needed break. I had fun time with my childhood friends. I could meet some in person and some digitally. (Thanks to hassle-free WhatsApp video calling and good 4g internet connection.)

The Greek word for “return” is nostos. Algos means “suffering.” So, nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return.”  It’s not just me, the whole world is suffering from “Nostalgia Fever” these days.

I am referring to two trending news; Nokia Nostalgia Tech and Duck Tales Reboot

Nokia Nostalgia Tech

At Mobile World Congress trade show, Nokia decided to bring back a better version of 3310 model. I read somewhere online that people were interested in buying just so that they could play the legendary ‘Snake Game’. It has a camera, a screen, it plays music, runs apps and games, internet; everything a smartphone can do. Hence the world is ready to try out this retro tech, and about me I feel am too good to carry two phones around.

Duck Tales Reboot

DUCK-TALES, OOOoooOOoo!

There is something about the theme songs, one can never forget them even after years.
Disney is bringing back a beloved 90’s cartoon, Duck Tales. This is about Huey, Duey and Louie, on an adventure with their mysterious Billionaire Uncle Scrooge. I loved this show and I remember watching it in Hindi. We are three siblings in the house and I used to find this quite relatable.
Hope the series airs sooner and I get to see it in Hindi.

All thanks to Social Media, people seem to get nostalgic about a lot of things they weren’t so crazy about the first time around.

Zuerst Post

Hello, World !!
I am Deep whose mind many a time wanders into a peaceful reverie. I am a female in 20’s trying to find a purpose of life in this chaotic world. I like books, music, and movies in that order.
I am trying to keep my first post as simple as possible. So why Zuerst? I am not a German but I am currently reading the book “The Book Thief ” by Markus Zusak while listening to Ed Sheeran’s new album ‘Divide’ and planning out a “Logan” movie date in my head instead of completing my pending work on Github.
So previous sentence sums up who am I in a nutshell. And in a way “I am what I write” or “I write what I am”. So in this blog, you can find me write about books, music, movies, food and mundane.

As Lao Tzu said,
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
Hoping this first post will open a new land of posts for me and encourage me to keep on writing more.