A-Z theme reveal

The A-Z challenge is around the corner, and the blog world is brimming with excitement and frenzied planning.

Today is the day when participants from all over the world reveal what their posts are going to be about. Having a theme is not mandatory, "random" is also a valid theme :)

Last year, I really had nothing much going on at work or in my personal life, so I was looking for some challenge to spice things up. But this year is different. Its busier work days and a lot to accomplish (though I am getting nowhere with it).

Anyway, without much ado, let me reveal my theme.

Let me give an example ( I pulled this out of the internet by the way)

Telling : "You are such a jerk," he said angrily. 

First off, you should never modify "said" with an adverb. Second, keep adverb use to a minimum. They're not evil little words that have to be avoided at all costs, but they should be kept to a minimum. It's far better to SHOW he was angry:

Showing: "You are such a jerk." Dan slammed the phone book shut and threw it at the couch. The pages ruffled open, the names inside seeming exposed and vulnerable against the stark black leather. Dan got to his feet, moving so fast his chair skidded against the floor and dented the new drywall.

Get the drift?

So this April, you will see me take an emotion by each letter and show it, instead of tell it.

Please watch out this space for more, and I need your encouragement, just like last year :) YOU kept me going.

Some serious questions.

PHOTO PROMPT © Shaktiki Sharma

“Burrrrp! Aah that was such a juicy greeny leaf. I feel full and lazy. Time to find a nice resting stop.

Wait! What’s happening there? Are they humans? Goodness, they are everywhere. I wonder what they are doing . Always acting busy and important. Don’t they have a life!? They should learn from me, the great Eastern Lubber grasshopper.  I..Umm..err… eat, mate, err..well..sleep and, uh yes, live life.

Oh my god. I am good for nothing, aren’t I. What’s the purpose of my life? Why am I born?

Is this mid-life crisis?

Ugh! Why am I a grasshopper :( "

PS: Just in time for Rochelle's Friday fictioneers! 

Goodbye.

The empty shelves stared back at me. The room once full of clothes and suitcases looked gloomy and desolate, deprived of the very things that hinted the presence of a fuller household. In a few hours, the bustling nest will be all quiet and well, empty.

Even as we busied ourselves weighing things, calling out instructions and making lame jokes, we were all aware of the undercurrent of thoughts each one was having. That in a few hours, we will be gone. That 45 days went in a whisker. Its funny how we think that not acknowledging the emotion would somehow erase the pain. But it was all around. In the eyes that already started missing us. In the uneasiness of laughs. In the restrained emotions.

The pain of separation stung each one of us.

 Good byes are hard.

As I tell kaku that I will be back in a year, I realize one year is a very long time. It scares me to think what the next year will hold. It scares me that things might change, either for the better or worse and I wouldn’t be there when it happens. That I wouldn’t be there when it really matters.

I  remember the long conversations where hearts were bared and stories of scars shared. On every trip home, I get to see love, care, anger, suppression, respect, disregard, weakness and strength, pride and contempt, all at the same time. And every time, the barrage of emotions drains me because I can never finger what it makes me feel, other than heavy.

There are tight hugs and curt good byes. Tears well up in unexpected eyes. It makes me think if this goodbye was just a pretense. That the tears were just holding on for the right moment. It leaves me feeling if I could have done more than just listen. It leaves me feeling guilty that I am running away, from a family that might be breaking apart. Or maybe it always had been that way. Maybe, living far away from home makes you see the cracks. Or maybe, that's just how families are.

Goodbyes are hard. It makes you think so many things.

Life is made up of choices we make and we don’t make. Some choices are hard, while some are a breeze. You win some. You lose some. Some hurt you. Some hurt others. Life, when giving you something, also takes something. It’s the balance that we all have to find. And peace in the choices we make.

I am still trying to make peace with my choice. 

Would you like to live longer.?

These days, everything seems to be less. And we find ourselves wanting for more. For an average person, the needs are easily met and the wants don't seem to be getting shorter.

We want bigger houses.

We want more salary.

We want more friends.

We want more than 24 hours in a day.

We want to do more things with our life.

We want to achieve more.

Along the same lines, would you like to have more years in your life?

I am asking this question because I recently read an article in TIME that Silicon Valley is trying to hack its way to  MUCH longer life. Millions are being poured. Years are being invested to find a way to increase the longevity and quality of human life. We are talking about adding atleast 100 more years to our average life span.

Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, has invested more than $330 million to research about aging and age-related diseases. Larry Page launched Calico, a research company with the objective of improving human life.

When I learned about the ways that already exist today as a step closer towards achieving this goal, I was dumb-founded.

50 people in the US have paid $8000 for a transfusion of blood from young people of ages 16 to 25. Because it is believed and being researched  (by the company who does this) that young blood has a lot of factors that are important for cellular health and helps the body to rejuvenate itself.

A physical exam, called the Health Nucleus, is an 8 hour long, $25000, head-to-toe, inside-out physical exam that helps in early diagnostics of where your body is heading. It provides you a chance to prevent the diseases that are diagnosed to occur in the future.

These are just to name a few! Looking at where the world is heading and the endless possibilities and inventions, I have no doubt they will figure out something in a few years.

What then? Will you be willing to live longer? If all your friends and family lived upto 180 years, would you still be willing to die at 80? Will life still be meaningful if we knew we have a loooong way to go?

Change is good, but if the basic fundamentals of nature is being manipulated, I cant help but feel apprehensive about all this.

What do you think?


Note: The picture is not the same issue I am talking about.