In between bouts of seasonal flus that have felt more potent than in winters gone by, I gained a greater appreciation for existing with the privilege of relatively full health. The preservation and function of our mind and body is a central pillar of our lives that is too often dismissed as the Ulysses pactContinue reading “jaded.”
Tag Archives: resilience
the light.
‘I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time? I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth’ ponders Alice as she hurtles down the rabbit hole. Lewis Carroll describes her descent into Wonderland in three words of humbling staccato: Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end? ThisContinue reading “the light.”
the highs and the lows.
Having put my head down for a year to get the best out of the second chance that I had fashioned, we went on the trip of a lifetime to celebrate. The route through South-East Asia was well-documented and trampled by Western tourists such as ourselves, but it didn’t seem to have lost its wondrousContinue reading “the highs and the lows.”
smoke and mirrors.
One month ago, the word ‘coronavirus’ was nothing more than a rogue addition to my lexicon that had barely any meaning to me. Fast forward to now, and it has been the dominating voice of conversations and collective pandemonium. What was once an abstract idea tucked away in the Far East has now adopted anContinue reading “smoke and mirrors.”
steering.
A rare week of relative quiet has allowed me to re-align myself with what I hope to get out of this juvenile year at the start of a new decade. I had hoped to execute the fruits of what I have so far learned in the last 18 months but, interestingly, I have become moreContinue reading “steering.”
ascending from the husk.
And so this year has settled into a gentle denouement, and yet for much of it, I was anticipating twelve months of crippling uncertainty. The downward spiral of the steepest learning curve to date taught me to not take anything for granted, and that nothing is ever really stable. I have learnt about our misguidedContinue reading “ascending from the husk.”
on death.
One of the great human failings is our inability to handle grief. There are not many things I find more emotionally taxing than trying to process and reconcile the permanence of death, and this is a commonality between us all. It is strange that, despite its certainty, the concept of death doesn’t become any lessContinue reading “on death.”
isolation radar.
I recently watched this video, where members of the public could ask any question to a person from the incel community, short for ‘involuntarily celibate’. There are many aspects of the incel community’s core beliefs that I struggle to reconcile with my own, which includes the subservience of women as an apparent means to reachContinue reading “isolation radar.”
sail away.
morning hue.
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” – Marcus Aurelius
confront sin.
How long until we sink to the bottom of the sea? When will our vices and our personal darkness catch up with us, or can we ever hope to outrun them? How long do we have to lurk in the wilderness, outside of relevance or reverence? ‘Sin’ is unique in that, typically, only the sinnerContinue reading “confront sin.”
flattery fuel.
It is quite tiring to encounter the same malevolence again and again. The same people who are solely determined to belittle and destroy those that are on the path to greatness. It doesn’t even have to be greatness – just any individual who is moving ahead, whilst the onlooking critic curses the quicksand that theyContinue reading “flattery fuel.”
silver medal.
soundtrack.
There is something captivating about the way a grand piano dances that I’ll never be able to put my finger on or emulate in any other context. Despite my ears becoming more well versed with 808s and heavy bass as the typical summer songs start infiltrating through our speakers, hearing Klaus Weissmuller’s ‘fabienne’ and Sampha’sContinue reading “soundtrack.”
become fear.
face of a coward.
The next few weeks will be testing. The imminent emergence of yesteryear followed by a chance to finally confront the truth on a hard-fought-for podium. 362 days I have waited, and for a minute, I had lost hope that I would ever be given the chance to unbury myself. But the build-up has proved toContinue reading “face of a coward.”
ASH CHANDRAHARAN 