Category: literature

half moonshine, full eclipse || summer diaries #2

maya rajesh38 Comments

I was in class the other day (yeah not so much summer BREAK, but it’s just summer) when my physics teacher started on this mountain analogy. My friends don’t like him because he’s prone to incessant yapping and once he begins… he does NOT stop. But this one sort of stayed with me.

He said that we’ve just climbed one mountain (finishing half of high school.) For us, it seems like we’ve reached the peak – it is, after all, the culmination of everything we’ve been working for these past two years. But why assume life is just one mountain?

We’ve got infinite mountains ahead of us, and sure, some may be taller, some may be little hills, but they’re obstacles all the same. They’re milestones, even.

And we did it, we finally climbed our first one. But if we’re solely focused on the next one, we’re just robots; we don’t spend any time cherishing what we have, or what we did. So yeah, it’s important to look forward but I think it’s just as important to stay rooted to the here and now. What’s life without a little celebration?

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summer diaries #1: the weakest shade of blue🌀

maya rajesh23 Comments

I hate this feeling.

This terrible, gnawing feeling inside of me. It’s bittersweet and nostalgic, and I cannot, for the life of me, put my finger on it. But I know I hate it.

The closest thing I could find to describing this inexplicable feeling was the Pernice Brothers’ The Weakest Shade of Blue. It strikes a chord in me; it pulls a string I didn’t know could be strung.

It’s the feeling of an ending. Yet, the start of something new. It’s how you feel when you’re seeing someone for presumably the last time. Or you think of what could have been. When you graduate. When you’re on the fence, and you decide to leap.

And I’m leaping.

Because while things are ending, the weakest shade of blue means
the start
of something new.

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my how-to guide on multitasking 📝 [ft. a little life update]

maya rajesh16 Comments

I read a poem the other day which asked a question that stuck with me: what statistic from your life would you most like to see? It’s one of those whimsical questions, but this was my personal favourite answer – how many hours have I spent doing nothing, and not feeling guilty?

I could probably count that statistic on one hand. But gosh, I wish it was more. And if you’re anything like me, you’re also perenially immersed in lists of obligations, tasks, and the worst of them all: deadlines. I’ve been there one too many times. In fact, I’m still there. Still trying to worm my way out of it all, and stay focused on what really matters.

It’s still the middle of yet another crazy week. We just finished up with a couple of events, went on a day trip to another city (which is where the sunset is from,) exam results are nearly all out, and I have a long, long list of performances all through August. And so, inspired by this current state of craze, here you have it:

A How-To Guide on Multitasking [Maya’s Version] –

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the beautiful impossible || when fate takes over 🌙

maya rajesh22 Comments

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve found the time to sit down and write, and this wasn’t planned at all; entirely spontaneous.

The last time I wrote, it was the end of summer, and since then… life has descended into absolute chaos: me running from class to class, my room constantly littered with books and paper and references and not having any time to stop and think whatsoever. (Unless it’s about which year the Club of Rome was founded because that I’m obligated to know.)

If you asked me, at any point in these past seven weeks, what the predominant thought in my mind was, it would be: when will I have it all together?

When Murphy’s Law gets all too real: everything that can go wrong is going wrong… but then there are moments like these. It’s 11 in the night, and everything’s silent and you can hear the crickets outside, the clock ticking, and the faint hum of your favourite indie song still playing from your headphones across the room. You have school in the morning, but nothing really matters except the moonlight reflecting off of the pool, the music… the quiet.

That’s what makes life worth living.

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summer diaries #2: travel diary — italy

maya rajesh24 Comments

This summer, we travelled to Italy. It was around 19 days of pure bliss: pizzas and gelatos, museums and sculptures and rich, rich culture. It’s unreal how many different people and places this world is home to; we seem to only know ours. Anyway, I write this the day after we landed back home (knowing life’s tendency to cascade into chaos) in the hopes that it’s coherent and does the trip justice.

Europe—with its lush green pastures, quaint towns and magnificent panoramic views—has always been one of those places you could spend ages in. Just taking it all in. Italy is the epitome of Europe’s fascinating beauty.

Italy just so happens to be one of those places where the place looks exactly like the pictures. No filter. It’s like someone copy-pasted their Pinterest board onto it. It is simply unbelievable—almost as though words aren’t quite enough to describe the place (but then again, they never quite suffice.) And that’s coming from someone who practically worships good literature.

We visited five gorgeous places + Vatican City and that’s how this post is divided. So before I digress: here’s Italy, through my eyes.

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