A Millennial’s Love letter : Blog # 338

A Millennial’s Love letter

The other day, I was going through some social media channels. I couldn’t understand many words used by the college goers of the day. So I decided to look them up. Now I am even more worried – of my lack of knowledge of their vocabulary and their lack of knowledge of the English vocabulary. To make things interesting, I have written two love letters below – One by a millennial and the other from the bygone days. Read and enjoy 😊 .

Millennial’s Love letter:

Hey BAE,

SUH? I find you SAVAGE. Even when you are SALTY, you don’t throw SHADE at others. You are so WOKE and FLEEK! I know you will never BOUNCE on me. I feel very lucky to have known someone as RAD as you. I am sure even my RENTS will adore you. ADULTING with you by my side will be so SICK! My SQUAD thinks I am the luckiest dude in the world to have found you. Like, you are GOALS! When I am with you, I don’t feel FOMO. If it is with you, I don’t mind even YOLO.I want to turn your LOLs to ROFLS. Whenever I see you helping someone and going out of the way, I want to #HT to you. The other day, I heard someone #RLRT you that you are a blessing! When I saw you for the first time, I was #SMH. With you, all my #TBT will be so memorable. I mean you are like MOOD personified. TBH, you have become my BFF. All I want to do is spend time with you. I feel most of the distractions I liked IRL earlier to be MEH.

You SUS if I am telling all this to just make you feel good? AMIRITE? And will I always feel this way about you? CHUH!

Didn't understand a thing? Below is a rough translation of the above letter. It is also what a love letter of the yore sounded like.

Dearly Beloved,

How have you been? I wanted to let you in on a secret - that I find you irresistible. Even when you are upset, you don’t talk down to someone. How are you so knowledgeable? Your awareness about everything under the sun is so admirable. I know that you will never leave me. I consider it my good fortune to have known someone as vibrant as you. I am sure even my parents will adore you. Growing old with you by my side will be so full of fun. My friends think that I am the luckiest person in the whole world to have found you. When I am with you, I don’t want to be anywhere else or with anyone else. I know that we have only one life. But I want to spend that with you, each day and every moment. I want to be the reason for your smiles to turn in to laughter. I feel immense respect for you when I see your concern towards others. The other day, I overheard someone saying you are a blessing and I couldn’t agree more. I remember the day when I first saw you. I was captivated. You are all that I ever want to be. If I were to speak my mind, I have found a friend in you. All I want to do is spend my time with you away from the distractions of the world.

You must be wondering that I am telling you all this to make you feel good. The truth is the only person feeling good here is yours truly. Do you also think if I will always feel this way about you? My answer is a loud, resounding Yes!

Why should you attend a literature festival? : Blog#337

Why should you attend a literature festival?

The first thing that strikes you when you

enter a literature festival arena is a difference at large. You will find women who wear saree around their necks, men who wear a shirt cut from a saree,men and women wearing dark glasses, some wearing large glasses without power, people holding large expensive bags, sustainability conscious people carrying plastic water bottles, people wearing hats, people who talk with a thick British English accent and who laugh at the appropriate places and share meaningful glances. Then there are the more common ones - who take pictures with the hashtag installation and put them up on Facebook and Instagram so that so that their friends can perceive them to be cool and evolved or if I may use the most abused word of the season , "woke".

It is heartening to see elderly couple who enjoy the discussions and make notes so that they can discuss them later. In sharp contrast, will be the group of youngsters who talk loudly with no intention of listening or letting others listen and thus invite wrath filled stares.  How can I forget the LARGE bindis and beards! Add to this, some new authors who are so incoherent in their thoughts and the way they speak that makes one feel bad for the interviewer who has to sit through the suffering of an interview with them. A special mention for supposedly creative venue names , many a time which doesn't make any sense at all :).

It also helps the lesser mortals like us, the ones who need to work for a living to get a glimpse in to the lives of the upper echelons of the society. You will see how they can afford to move around ever so elegantly on the lawns of five star properties so deeply moved by the disturbing thoughts of where our society and world at large is headed. You will also hear oft repeated phrases and words - narrative, landscape, individualism, liberal, right wing, toxic masculinity, feminism, urban, millennials  etc. You will also see people asking such daft questions which are miles away from what the panel was trying to discuss. Their only intention is to show off what they think in long winding sentences. Many a time, there are no questions at all-they are just uninformed comments. 

Now that we have covered the facetious side, literature festivals really help us to get exposed to multitudes of perspectives. You get to hear people from the left, right and centre. If the festival is curated with heart in its right place, you will get to understand what people from different walks of life think of issues that we all deal with. 

A lit fest gives you a broader understanding of multiple fields like art, movies, literature, politics and rest in a limited period of time. This happens by virtue of listening to many interviews and panel discussions on the above mentioned topics. Some of the discussions are really interesting, informing and intellectual. Some are well, plain boring. 

The beauty of a litfest is the luxury of indulging ones own mind with a plethora of perspectives. All one needs to do is walk in, sit down and LISTEN. Thanks to the technological distractions around us, this is an ideal place where one can hone one's listening skills which really is the need of the hour for many of us, if not all. In some moments of brilliance, one feels so conflicted when one hears some perspectives and arguments that are so different from what one believes in, yet have merit to them. So go to a litfest and allow yourself to evolve from left to right, right to left or however you would prefer .