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My worst fears have come true. The nightmare has started once again. Trapped in my body, trapped in my head, I am my own prisoner. There is no escape.
Rip Van Winkle emerging from his slumber to join civilisation.
If life was a house, then you could compartmentalise things you did not want to deal with by pushing them into a room which you never enter and forget all about. That is what I had done. I had presumed I could get by without ever opening that door. But as long as that room existed, it couldn’t stay locked forever. At some point you had to deal with what was behind the door, breathe in the stale air, the dust, the neglect in that closed room.
Beauty is not what you see on the outside. Beauty is what you are deep inside, where no one watched.
Everyone gives advice based on the narrow prism of their own experience.
That’s the thing about love. You cannot force it. You cannot fight it. If it comes, you gratefully accept. If it doesn’t, you can’t do a thing. All you do is go about your daily business, hoping it will come tomorrow, the day after, eventually.
Sometimes, it is only when you lose what you had that you begin to value it.
‘Things are only as terrible or as wonderful as you imagine them to be,’ said my father. ‘Always prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.’
Hemlock Society in America, which advocated the right to die and assisted suicide. The name was derived from the highly poisonous herbaceous flowering plant that Socrates was said to have used to take his own life.
It is strange how taking away one sense organ makes you feel completely disoriented.
there is such a thing as too much honesty.
What was worse, I had no one to blame for it, but me.
You always hurt those who love you. That’s all you are capable of.
The shock comes slowly as an afterthought. First you hear the words.
Love is not a contract you sign, where you commit to telling everything to each other. Love is when you feel understood without saying a thing. When you love someone, you accept them in their entirety. The bad bits along with the good bits. You learn to control your jealousy. You put their happiness above yours. You want the best for them. You wish them well. You tell them things that you believe are your absolute truth. You share your vulnerabilities with them. You show them your weakest side. You bank on their compassion. You never expect love to be unkind. And when you lose love, it feels
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humans are inherently selfish. For each person, a tiny headache they have is more important than, say, even a death in another person’s family. That is how it is. For each one, their own problem will seem the biggest, the most consequential. We’re all supremely self-focused, and that’s just what you are doing too.’
Our defeats are magnified in our own heads, because we focus on what we have lost rather than on what we actually have. If we have the love of our parents, if we have people who care for us, if we have a hot meal on the table, then we are blessed.
Life is also a great teacher. Life gives you the exams, but doesn’t tell you the syllabus. It is up to us to set our own lessons.
I was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
No matter how different our parents’ outlook towards life is from ours, the one thing we overlook is that they are always on our side.
But perhaps we aren’t stepping into their shoes. Maybe their yardstick for a relationship is different from ours. Maybe they have their own definition of love and it doesn’t match ours. The measure of what constitutes love is different for everyone. For some, calling once a week and talking for a while is enough expression of love. For others, calling once a day is adequate. Then there are those who like to make short calls several times a day. When it comes to love, there is no one-size-fits-all. Love is tailor-made for the one who loves.
If love should thrive, communication is a must. If you do not communicate, love dies. Also, being busy is just an excuse when people do not want to keep in touch. If you really want to keep in touch, you will find a way. You will prioritise the other person over everything else.
If someone wants to talk to you, they make the time, otherwise they make an excuse.
If someone has not kept in touch and you want to maintain contact with them, you should try to get back in touch once, or at the most twice. After that, no matter how painful it is, you must let go. There is no point chasing after someone who doesn’t want to stay in your life. Let go. That is the best way, and the only way. It will hurt. But then it will hurt a tiny bit lesser the next day. And a little lesser the day after that. Eventually it stops hurting. And we heal. But we will always carry that emptiness where their love used to be.
‘We all need to create beauty in our lives in all the ways we can. Life can be so hard,’
Discovering an old book you once read is like meeting an old friend after a long time.
a garden is a lot like life. We do make a general plan, we sow the seeds. But afterwards? We do not have much control over what happens. We can only hope.’
‘Our mind is our biggest enemy, Ankita. But it can also be our biggest friend. There’s so much beauty in life. We only have to look.’
‘Precisely. When you are confident about what you are or who you are, it doesn’t matter what others say. You must remember that it is their perspective. If I say you have green hair, it is because there is something wrong with my eyes. It doesn’t mean your hair is green. So it doesn’t hurt you.’
We did not have any control over other people’s choices. Yet we beat ourselves over it.
nobody can hurt you without your permission. Remember that always,’
‘You always hurt the ones who love you’
(Just like) starting over (John Lennon) 2. Like a virgin (Madonna) 3. Here’s your letter (Blink 182) 4. The visit (Chad Brock) 5. With a little help from my friends (Beatles) 6. This charming man (Smiths) 7. Confident (Demi Lovato) 8. The book (Sheryl Crow) 9. Killing me soft ly (Fugees) 10. When a man loves a woman (Michael Bolton) 11. A kind of magic (Queen) 12. Total eclipse of the heart (Bonnie Tyler) 13. When you’re gone (Avril Lavigne) 14. Wishing, waiting, hoping (Tony Owens) 15. One moment in time (Whitney Houston) 16. The winner takes it all (Abba) 17. I took a pill in Ibiza (Mike
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