between the pages
"By no means all people who live their lives in the absence of company are lonely, while it is possible to experience acute loneliness while in a relationship or among a group of friends," mused Olivia Laing in her meditation on loneliness, The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone. This irony is … Continue reading Table for One: In Praise of Solitude
in a crowded mall, cleaving through, pulsating beats stream into unwilling ears, the heart forcefully unspools a string of dzikr; blanketing protective layers around the heart, a rebellious resistance to the rhythm of this dunya that will soon fall apart. and leave you dancing on your own.
"The enemy of creativity is self-doubt." - Sylvia Plath You know this feeling. This feeling of not-good-enoughness. A lack of self-confidence. Self-doubt, like how Plath puts it, fetters us from doing our art. The impostor syndrome. If you don't know what that is, it's basically when someone feels doubtful of their own capabilities and undeserving of … Continue reading The Impostor Syndrome and How I Try to Battle It
Is there a space for a sunni, muslim, female, who loves the orthodoxy of the faith she grew up in, and the purity of the faith she's learnt to love, who loves God so much she spills His beauty in verse? I hope the world knows we all have a space here. I hope the … Continue reading Unpopular
Ramadhan is the teacher who comes around annually to teach us an invaluable lesson and to change us for the better. This year, it taught me the importance of discipline. Of the underestimated strength of our human willpower. Of pushing the limits. Of mind over matter. See, I thought I needed my cup of coffee, … Continue reading What Ramadhan Taught Me
The oft-quoted idiom 'clothes maketh the man' should long be passé - I believe language is the dealbreaker now. Words are chief in the construction of one's character. It has everything to do with the kind of person you are. The words you speak reflect the state of your heart. So if you speak rotten … Continue reading Language Maketh a Man
My dentist handed me a small, transparent packet with fragments of my wisdom tooth and blood. There you are, you nasty thing. The cause of my pain for the past two years. I stared at the repulsive sight and wondered if this was intended as a sacred memento; a congratulatory crowning of the beginning of … Continue reading Of Wisdom, Woes & Wonders: Tales of the Wisdom Tooth
i’m not a romantic. there, i’ve said it. i’ve never dreamt of a perfect wedding, crystal laced dresses, 10-tiered cakes in a dreamlike setting. i never believed in ‘the end’s and happy ever afters; only unwritten sequels to every final chapter. never liked princesses who needed saving from some prince, i never liked the idea … Continue reading The Unromantic Romantic
If you have no clue what INFJ is, it's a personality type (heard of the Myers-Briggs test?) According to their statistics, it is an uncommon type, although I'm not too sure how rare it is because I can list about 5 other INFJs I personally know off the top of my head (then again, maybe … Continue reading INFJ, Actually
We know it's all mere fantasy when Hermione, in the Prisoner of Azkaban, attended two classes in two different places at one time. But who would've known it can be a reality. Now, we too can be simultaneously present in two worlds. We talk to real people offline while maintaining our availability online. Social media … Continue reading The Parallel Universe of Social Media
