Fault in Our Stars

To all those book-readers out there, you're in luck today! Some of you probably figured what I was going to talk about by looking at the title. Well, good guess! You are absolutely correct! I'm talking about best-selling novel 'The Fault in Our Stars' by John Greene.

For those of you unfortunate souls that has not heard of the book, well now you've heard of it! And I highly recommend you read it too.

The book is just amazing. It's only 25 chapters long so it won't take much of your time. I finished the book in just a day. [Maybe I'm just really jobless]. I'm sure you might like it. The book is from a cancer patient's perspective named Hazel Grace Lancaster. Obviously, since it has cancer involved in it, it's emotional and very touching. Yes, it's one of those books that leaves you with that 'feeling' after you've read it.

Though, I don't get what the hype was all about. It IS a great book but I guess it was a bit exaggerated. A few may agree to this. I guess it was just the hype that made you expect too much and then when you've finished reading, you realize it's just a simple, beautiful book. Whatever it is, I loved the book and I wanted to share it with you all.

The book was also made into a motion picture. I haven't really watched the movie. I'm afraid the movie may not do justice to the novel. People who have watched movies that were made from novels would understand. [We share a mutual feeling] Though I am a bit curious to see what the movie is like. If you've watched the movie please do tell me.

The amazingly crazy thing is that the author 'John Greene' has written only FOUR novels. One of them named 'Looking for Alaska' turned out be a best-selling book and then came 'Fault in Our Stars'. John Greene is actually a nerdy Youtuber! Which is the most surprising part of it all!

Anyhowsss, I hope you all get yourselves a copy and start reading because it's beautiful. There's a sick urge wanting me to give away a lot of details but I don't  want to spoil it for you. Hope you love the book just as much I did. Feel free to leave a comment telling me your opinion on the book.

Take care and keep smiling! :)

Jezi.

Flappy Bird!

A lot of people love certain things. Love can grow to an extent where it becomes an addiction. Many people get addicted to different things. Some get addicted to alcohol, smoking and drugs. Some get addicted to make-up, shoes, clothes. Some get addicted to games and well in my case, get addicted to 'Flappy Bird'. 

Now I'm not a person who's into games and it's highly unlikely for me to get addicted to any of them. Though, recently there has been this big thing on Youtube of people reacting to 'Flappy Bird'. At first I didn't understand anything at all. It seemed peculiar. It was later after a while I discovered that Flappy Bird was a game and it was very famous. It was released on May, 2013 and somehow became really popular in 2014. In about a few months, millions of people had downloaded the game!

The game is actually based on a very simple content. The main objective of the game is to keep tapping on the screen to keep the bird flying through sets of pipes without colliding into them. If the screen is not tapped, the bird will fall and that will end the game. People will earn points on the number of pipes they've successfully passed. Apparently if you reach 50 points, plants will come out through the pipes and try to eat you and 100 points will bring Mario into the game. [Or so I'm told]

The funny fact of the game is, it looks very easy but in reality it's not as easy as it looks and is quite a task to even reach the score of 10! [Looks certainly can be deceiving] What's funnier is, even though it's extremely frustrating when the bird bumps into the pipes, there's a sick urge to keep playing it over and over again! That sick urge is what develops into an addiction. It took a WHOLE DAY for me to get used to playing the game and I'm not even joking but my highest score is 10! For those of you, who are probably now very eager to download the game, I'll give you a heads up, that at first you might get really stressed out. A few people actually might be pretty good from the beginning of the game. 

Maybe a few of you already know about the game and are still playing it. But for those of you, who are now wanting to download the game, remember you can't get the original version. Apparently, the creator of 'Flappy Bird', Mr. Nguyen Ha Dong felt really guilty about the game and it's addictive nature, so he took down the game from Apple's App stores and Google Play stores. Though, a lot of people have copied the idea and the closest thing that you could get to 'Flappy Bird' would probably be 'Floppy Bird' or 'Splashy Fish'. I also have to apologise in advance for introducing you to the game. It is VERY addictive. Plus I'm sure many of you are now probably itching to download the game! [Your welcome!] 

Anyways if you've already got the game or you just downloaded and started playing recently, tell me how many points did you get? And what you think of the game! And by the way, Happy Women's Day to all the beautiful, amazing, inspirational women out there! 

Fun fact:
Nguyen Ha Dong- Creator of Flappy Bird received death threats after tweeting that Flappy Bird was going to be taken down. 

Keep smiling and take care :)

Jezi.   

Horror movies

Okay! Okay! I am very disappointing, I agree. I don't ever think I'm going to be posting about 'bullying' anytime soon. But I will post it! You got my word! 

Now some of you are probably looking at the title and getting all excited! Because come on, let's face it, no matter how scared you get by watching horror movies you still love the thrill of it. It's funny how some people watch horror movies despite the fact that they're probably going to be alone for the next week or can't take a bath for a month! But I guess that's the whole point to horror movies! It's like the directors have a competition on how long they can keep a person scared and then direct the movie accordingly.

If you've noticed every horror movie follows a certain pattern. No matter how good the movie is, you'll realize they all seem to lack common sense. Things that people do in horror movies, people would never dare to do in reality! And that's exactly what I'm going to be talking about. Things that people do ONLY in horror movies! 

1.Moving into the new house: Now if you've watched a lot of horror movies you would have noticed, atleast half of the movies begin off with the family moving into a new house. That's fine. Everyone moves into new houses! What I don't get is, why would they buy a house that's in the middle of nowhere? Literally nowhere! No neighbours! No people! Okay. Fine. You decided you wanted peace and quiet. That's acceptable I suppose. But then again, it's so clear that the house looks more darker and more scary compared to all the others houses! And you've clearly heard the rumour about the house being haunted! Yet they decide to move in!

2. The weird noises: After moving in, eventually after a few days the ghosts get impatient and want you to know they're there and they start making noises. Trust me, if I heard a weird noise, 12 in the night, I would be so scared and not move out of my bed till I see daylight. The people in the movie know it's WEIRD noises and yet they feel the need to investigate! 

3. The lights: Following the 'weird' noises is bad enough. Since it's a horror movie it's obvious the noise is going to come from the DARK ROOM! But somehow those people seem to lack common sense to switch on the light and decide to walk around with a candle, which obviously goes out a few seconds after entering the room. I'm sure all of you switch on the light before you go into a room even without hearing weird noises. Seriously, who just walks around the house without switching on the light? Apparently, they do.

4. The enquiry: Now since they were obviously brave enough to follow the noise and go inside the room with no lights, they obviously have the tendency to be polite and ask "Is anybody there?" First of all there's not going to be 'weird' noises without anyone being there. Second of all even if the ghost was there it isn't very likely for the ghost to say "Yeah I'm here in the kitchen! Want a sandwich?" I just don't understand why they would do that.

5. The ghost-hunting crew: It's has become quite obvious after few days of continuous paranormal activity that the house is haunted and there's a ghost trying to kill them. Instead of running for their life and moving out of the house, they just have to call the ghost-hunting crew [or whatever they're called]. It's funny even how in the middle of nowhere there's a ghost-hunting crew. Everyone knows that when they come, as soon as they step foot into the house, they're going to 'feel' the 'dark spirit'. All that those people are going to do is just confirm that there's a ghost and it's very BAD! [It's obviously not Casper- The friendly ghost] Yet,the brave souls decide to stay in the same house.

6.The recording: Okay so they've already called the 'ghost crew' who confirmed that there's a VERY DARK SOUL trying to kill them. Why would anyone just move out of the house because a ghost is trying to kill them? Why not just stay there and film the ghost? And that's EXACTLY what they do! It's like these people are purposely trying to provoke the ghost. Who in the right mind would do that?! It's pretty obvious the house is haunted so eventually when you replay the 'recorded tape' in the morning there's going to be a ghost! No use in being frightened then! 

7. Splitting up: So everything is perfectly terrible. What do you do now? Of course! Split up! Go your separate ways so the ghost has absolutely no chance of killing you. Atleast if they were in a group and one guy was murdered the rest would be aware! By the time that ghost was occupied killing the other guy, they could've run. But that's just sensible. Can't be sensible in horror movies. It's a crime.

Well that's all I can think about for now! Though all this is just for entertainment purposes and no one really is that stupid [or brave] it still does kind of annoy me. But it's still super fun and I loovee it! What better than a bowl of popcorn and non-logical, thrilling horror movie? 

So if you agree with all the stupidity, leave a comment below and tell me some not-so-sensible things you noticed when you watched a horror movie! 

Fun fact:
Man passed out watching 'The Exorcist' in 1974 and sued Warner Bros. 

Keep smiling and take care! :) 

Jezi  

Dreams

Great day today! Good enough to blog about stuff! In my previous post, I did mention that this post is going to be about bullying and things that revolve around it. Unfortunately, I've kept that for the next post. Sorry folks! I just thought after a deep, quite emotional post, it might be better to have a little more fun post!

Everyone has dreams! Some quite often, some not that often. There are one which are weird and some that seem very vivid, while some which make absolutely no sense and have the least bit of common sense in it that it even makes you wonder if there's something wrong with you. I've had quite a few dreams like that. Trust me, they're very bizarre. But it's fun to dream! It's like you're own personal little world full of fun,stupid,crazily amazing things stored in the back of you're subconscious mind, which when put to work,makes it seems like reality for awhile in your sleep.

I've heard a lot of people say that most things that happen in your dreams, are somehow related to things you think of very often during the waking day. Now, I don't really believe that! Like I told you, I have really bizarre dreams and they have absolutely nothing to do with anything that I think about during the day. Though I do believe it could be something to do with the books I read or videos/movies I watch. For example, I read this one book called "The Secret of Crickley Hall" which is basically a supernatural thriller novel by James Herbert. If you're a 'reader' then I highly recommend the book for you, it's really good.[But if you're not into horror then I don't think it's a good idea] The way the author had written the book and portrayed the characters was just very realistic. The point is, I was so into the book and loved it so much that I actually had a dream with the characters and the ghost from the book. Thinking of it now is really hilarious but at that moment, when I just woke up from the dream it was terrifying! So I'm not sure if it was a nightmare or a dream. Basically what had happened was the 'ghost' was asking me for 'Lily Peel' who was the psychic character in the book. Obviously, I didn't know where 'Lily' was so the 'ghost' decided to break my back bone. [Thank you ghost. Who needs a back bone right?] Like I said, BIZARRE.

Not all of my dreams are that crazy. There are some nice ones which seem to be sensible. I've dreamt of sitting in parks, watching the sunset and some stuff like that. There are also some other few dreams that are pretty relatable and I just figured out a few weeks earlier that it wasn't just me but quite a lot of people have had the same dream! I don't know how many of you reading have had this but I had quite a lot when I was a kid. I would dream that I already got up and was getting ready for school in the EXACT same routine I would do in reality. It was when someone would wake me up, I would realize that it was a dream and I'm actually 10 minutes late. [I always get up late] Now this is quite embarrassing but then again I'm not the only one. I used to dream as a child that I needed to go the bathroom and so I would go to the bathroom just to wake up to find that I have wetted the bed. [You may stop laughing now] A lot of kids have had this dream atleast once, so for parents who were really mad at you're kids for messing up you're bedsheets, this is the story behind it. [Or so I believe.]

You know how people say that dreams are better than reality? Just imagine if you could make your dreams more realistic! If you could control your dreams? Well guess what? There are a few who have the great ability to do so by lucid dreaming. For those of you who are wondering what it is, let me explain. Basically 'Lucid Dreaming' is just pretty much you dreaming as always and BAM you realize that you're dreaming and can start controlling your dream! Lucid dreaming has been on my 'To-do-list' for quite some time now! Though it's not that easy to do. To lucid dream, it takes a LOT of patience. You don't just sleep and realize you're dreaming! If you're interested and seem to have the time and all here's a link on 'Lucid Dreaming for Beginners' http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/first-lucid-dream.html  .It was from the same website that I learnt, somehow practising something whilst lucid dreaming makes you do the thing better in reality. It sound insane but it works! For example, if you practice your Karate moves during a lucid dream you literally improve during the waking day! Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the link to that page. Sorry folks! 

But lucid dreaming, normal dreaming whatever it may be, dreaming is amazing and I am VERY thankful that I'm not a zombie! Proves how our mind works in mysterious wayssss! 

So why don't you share some of your weird dreams? It'd be cool to read!  And I will try to post about the bullying and all. Till then, SAYONARA!

Keep smiling and take care! :) 

Jezi. 

Pain

Words are very strong. Things are best expressed through words. People get to express how they feel through words in various ways. Some through blogging, some very talented folks would do it by writing a novel, let their imaginations run wild. Some others would go by song writing etc. Though I would really like to go through four- lettered words in particular for today's post. Somehow, all four-lettered words all are very fascinating and strong with such deep meanings and emotions. It's amazing how the word 'WORD' itself is a four-lettered word and how people put together a lot of these words and make a difference. There are a quite a few that are very common, for example;the word 'KIDS', the word 'WARM', the word 'SOUL' and so on. Then there are the ones which are deep and so very emotional and are very commonly out there such as 'SOUL' that forms when we take our first breath and then 'LOVE' through which we care, nurture, admire and trust loved ones and then there's 'HATE' through which again we express our anger to the not-so-loved ones and then comes the one that a majority out of the 6.9 billion people in the world experience and that is 'PAIN' and that's really what I want to focus on here for today.

Now, just because I'm focusing on pain doesn't necessarily mean it has to somehow relate to me! Thank the good Lord, I am not experiencing any sort of 'pain' whatsoever. So a lot of you are probably wondering (or even probably talking to the screen) "Then why do you want to talk about it so badly?". Well you see, the reason I came up with this topic is because what I have seen, heard and felt. We'll start with the 'felt' part first, which by the way would make it more clear that I'm talking about pain that people experience mentally and not physically. Well yes, physical pain is pretty painful but it's the mental pain that makes you go beyond limits. [Ok! Ok! Jeesh! I'll get to the point!]

Well I did previously mention that I am not experiencing any pain and that I am happy but I think it would be only fair if I shared a bit of my past 'painful' experiences. Starting off, with my mother's passing away, which, I am sure a quite few of you are very well aware of.My mother's death came as quite a bit of a shock to me. I'm sure it did to everyone! But as a child, who believed so strongly that somehow no one in my family can die, it was a terrible shock. I still remember how I understood what everyone meant when they said "She left us!" but I just could NOT take it in. It was like my brain just couldn't process that piece of information. I still tried to believe that the 'SHE' was someone else and not my mother. It took me awhile. But gradually the words did start to sink in and my brain eventually did process the fact that the 'SHE' was none other my mother and she was DEAD, which leads us to our other strong four-lettered word. See? How just saying dead sounds so raw and just out there? That's exactly the feeling I had! How could my mother just be dead?! That was the first ever pain that I've felt in nine years and trust me it wasn't light. After that horrible I-don't-know- what-to-call-it had happened, I came to India for PERMANENT stay. The lifestyle and the school and the people everything was just so different and overwhelming! To adjust and get used to it was really quite the task and it kind of still is but mucchh better now! Yes, I have had other quite mentally painful experiences but we don't want to get too personal now, do we? MOVING ON..

Now I'll tell you about what I've seen. There's not much to what I've seen but I would like to talk about 'bullies'. Quite a few people get bullied and that's another topic that I will talk about more on the next post( just don't know when). For those of you who do not know what 'bullying' is, let me explain. 'Bullying is aggressive, unwanted behaviour among school children. The behaviour is repeated or has the potential to be repeated over time. Bullying includes attacking someone physically or verbally. To put it in simple words, bullying is when you constantly keep picking on someone just simply because you believe you are better, smarter, stronger than them. Bullying is what we would refer to as 'Ragging' here in India. The small difference is ragging happens more commonly in college whereas bullying ALWAYS happen in school. Bullying/ Ragging has great effect on children. It leads to various amounts of problems. More than the physical abuse it's the verbal abuse that seems to leave such an impact. If the impact is big enough, it could lead to suicide. A great mass of lives were taken due to ragging/bullying all at or under the age of 19( at least from what I know). Sure we were wandering around as little kids telling people, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." Though, I guess that in a particular way it is true because words don't just hurt, they scar. Leading us to another two deep and painful four-lettered words! This all happened because of the uncontrollable amount of pain emotionally.

Well that's all I've got to say about 'PAIN' for now. I have to apologize though for posting just an emotional and deeep post after all those fun and childish ones. I hope after you read this post you don't end up with that unexplainable weird feeling you get after reading great novels or watching an inspiring film (Not saying my posts are very novel-like or inspiring! Just saying you know!).  I really hope to do something good and make in a change in the future about bullying/ ragging. The fact that it can lead to various amount of things (which I will more specifically write about in my next post) is just such a tragedy. Very honestly, after watching videos and a reading a few articles also has left a bit of an impact with me. You could always do you're little bit and help change the world. (Now I'm just going a bit over the fence!)

I will try to keep publishing more posts at a regular basis. Till then AU REVOIR!

Keep smiling and take care! :)

Jezi. 

Boredom

Hey everyone! 

Been a very long time since I had posted anything at all. Surprising at how the days just fly by, isn't it? Well today I'm going to talk about boredom. Yes,  I said it! Boredom. Seven letters that can kill you. 

Ever had that feeling where you just so bored that it was going to eat you alive? Well I've had that feeling too many times. When you're bored, you just don't know what to do. Just sitting there and staring at the television wishing you had something to do. The thing is that when I was a little kid there was NEVER a word called boredom. I never used the word 'bored'. Back then I always had something to do. 

I know I'm talking like I'm all grown-up and I have kids and this all happened 10 years ago but to be honest, that's how I feel. These days all I ever say is 'I'm bored'. It's just that kids now days don't go out much anymore (Mine is a totally different case) and all they do is sit and watch T.V or play games that are very addicting or just go on a social network. There is no recreation or fresh air! (As my family would say) So all they ever do is get bored! (Including me!) 

The thing is when you get bored you feel tired and sleepy and when you feel tired and sleepy you feel lazy and when you lazy you don't move and when you don't move you become fat. And that's exactly how everyone is today!(Including me! No offence.)  For me, I just miss those days when I used to go down the building to play for 2-3 hours and never EVER got 'bored'. Either I would be too busy cooking with my kitchen playset (which I still love) or playing news reporter with my brother (we used a garbage bin as a chair and a milk can as camera! How exciting right?). 

Now, we don't do anything. It's either the T.V or the laptop. Sometimes it really annoys me how I'm always bored and feel really REALLY lazy. The feeling of being bored just sometimes wants to make me rip my hair and run around the house! ( Don't worry I don't) 

But out of all this, there is one advantage of getting bored. You see sometimes when you get bored you don't just sit, you sit and stare at a particular place and think.  Sometimes, it's nothing much but then sometimes you think really deep. About life, about your future, your career and many things. But me I just thought I about making a new post on my blog! 

But even after all this, we will eventually get bored. So the next time either one of you gets bored read my blog about BOREDOM and much more and it will blow your boredom away! ( For a few minutes atleast.) 

Anyways all of you take care.
Keep smiling :) 

Jezi

Burned Alive by Souad

Hey everyone 

First of all I would like to apologise for the delayed post. But I seriously did not know what to write about but now I do ! Its about this book I read called Burned Alive written by a Palestinian woman named Souad. 

Burned alive is a shocking testimony , a true story of almost unbelievable cruelty that speaks of amazing courage and of one woman's (Souad:The author of the book) determination to survive.It is a also a call to break the taboo of silence that surrounds this most brutal of practices that ignores the plight of so many other woman who are also victims of traditional violence. 

Here is the summary of the story from the back of the book cover: 
   When Souad was seventeen she fell in love. In her village, as in so many others, sex before marriage was a grave dishonour to one's family-a dishonour punishable by death.This was her crime,and her brother-in-law was given the task of arranging her punishment.One morning he crept up on her, poured petrol over her and set her alight. In the eyes of their community he was a hero. (Horrible isn't it ? ) 
  Miraculously, Souad survived, rescued by the woman of her village, although she suffered horrific burns.It was the only intervention of a European aid worker that enabled her to recieve the care she desperately needed.She has now decided to tell her story to uncover the barbarity of honour killings, a practice which continues to this day. 

Here is a sneak peak from inside the book: 
 He came towards me , my brother-in-law Hussein in his work clothes, old trousers and a T-shirt. He stood infront of me and said , with a smile : 'Hi. How goes it ?' He's chewing a blade of grass. 'I'm going to take care of you.'
 That smile, and he said he was going to take care of me. I hadn't been expecting that. I smiled a little to, to thank him , not daring to speak.
 'You've got a big belly, huh ? '
 I lowered my head , ashamed to look at him. My forehead was on my knees. 
 'You've got a spot. Did you put some henna there on purpose?'
  'No, I put the henna on my hair. I didn't do it on purpose.'
  'You did it on purpose to hide it.'
 I looked at the laundry I was holding in my trembling hands- that's the last fixed and lucid image I have : the laundry and my trembling hands. The last words I heard from him were ' You did it on purpose to hide it.'
 He didn't say anything more , I kept my head down in shame, a little relieved that he didn't ask me any more questions. Suddenly I felt a cold liquid running over my head and I was instantly on fire. Now it was like a movie that had speeded up , images racing. I started to run in the garden . I slapped at my hair. I screamed. My dress  billowed out behind me. Was it on fire , too ? 
 I smelt petrol and I ran, the hem of my dress getting in the way. My terror led me instinctively away from the courtyard. I ran towards the garden as it was the only way out. I know I was running and I was on fire screaming. But I remember almost nothing after that. How did I get away ? Did he run after me ? Was he waiting for me to fall so he could watch me go up in flames ? 
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This is a must read book according to me , very interesting . Please buy and read the book . Not like any other random novels , reading it is worthwhile . Thought I would share it and spread the word (besides it has been quite awhile since I posted something). 

Anyways take care
Always keep smiling. 

Hope you had a good reading it as much as I did typing. 
Jezi.