fifteen: two hours until the twenties

there is less than two hours left until i turn twenty.

i am absolutely tormented by the hideousness of this reality. i've never been concerned with the fact that time never stops - that at every moment we are going somewhere and that this is completely beyond our control. but that's only because before this moment, i have never had to think of myself as old. as long as you're a teenager, you are far far away from old age. as soon as you turn twenty, it's like you're on an accelerated road taking further and further away from "youth".

i don't want to turn twenty. and yet every time at the clock i am closer and closer to exactly that.

of course, time itself isn't actually real. it's completely constructed. seconds, minutes, hours were all invented in order to make life easier for us all. i could invent a completely new way to measure time, and if everyone else agreed to follow it, then i might never have to turn twenty at all. one day i would drop dead and that would be the end of that.

i would have lived life without worrying about clocks ticking and birthdays passing.

goodbye teens, and an extremely hesitant hello to the twenties.

fourteen: back to reality

so eid this year lasted for three days . it started on friday and pretty much didn't end until sundy night. i sleepwalked my way to uni this morning feeling extremely disgruntled and depressed - monday, and it's back to the reality of deadlines and 9am starts...

as such i've posted some colourful photos of eid with my family and friends, in an attempt to make myself feel better about the cold reality of urban life.

the first photo is of my little cousin shegufta, who as you can see is a bit of a loser. evidence of her loser-ness (as posted on aniqa's blog):

"parent: where are you?
shegufta: in aniqa's bathroom (lie no.1)
parent: where's brishti apu (me)?
shegufta: here with me drinking tea (clearly she's forgotten lie no. 1)"

the second is a photo of one of my bestest and oldest friends ritee (i think my absolute oldest friend is aniqa since i was there when she was born, but i didn't take any pictures with her).

this last image is a photo of ritee's hand, the henna on which was applied my your's truly. when sadia and i went to the mela earlier this year, we were charged FIVE DOLLARS for a tiny henna design which was not even half as pretty as my one (can you tell that my parents raised me as a stereotypical only child?). i could so earn a fortune if i set up a stall there next year...

in other news, i recently attended karishma's 23rd birthday party, a gathering i almost set fire to. observe how this happened:

we were at thairiffic newtown, an establishment which seems to be under the flawed assumption that it is possible to eat pad thai in almost complete darkness. to remedy this situation i gathered the candles of all the kind people in my vicinity and used them to light up my plate, as shown in the picture afi so kindly took.

a few minutes later i noticed a bright light to my right. i turned and observed that the candle lights were getting brighter. pleased by the extra light, i absent-mindedly returned to my food. about a minute later the lights seemed rather TOO bright... so a turned again and realised that my napkin had caught fire! i then started screaming and blowing on the napkin to extinguish the flames, but this only made the fire bigger. my companions merely pointed and laughed at my sad predicament, while my screaming attracted the attention of more and more customers.

finally, my dear friend sabrina had the good sense to grab a full jug of water and pour it over the napkin. this made a right mess of the table, but at least she saved the restaurant from burning to the ground :)