The White Slate

Honesty. Such a simple word right? Most people hide behind it. The have no idea the power it has over our very existence. Many people would have a similar idea to the concept of being honest but very few actually live up to it. As I walk down the street, I see a couple having an argument, two old men leaning against a double cabin pick up, to me they appeared as if the have conquered everything that has been strewn along their path. A small boy riding his bicycle with an iPhone hooked up to his arm sleeve talking to somebody. From the looks of it, it felt like he was telling his mother that he wouldn't make it home at 8:00pm in time for dinner. I was astonished. This kid who might not be older than 7 years old is living a life I thought was way older than his years. When I was his age, I was a restless kid, always talking rapidly and talking to everyone without distinguishing between family or strangers, friend or foe. The world has changed. The advent of technology and it's existence which makes us feel starved if not given or used says a lot. 

I came about this quote from a blog saying, "I used to lie a lot. I would lie only because it was easier than explaining the truth. And I have finally grown to realize that it’s easier to [be honest]. Being honest and open has actually gotten me further than lying. My parents trust me, and I feel good about myself. And when you feel good about yourself then you know that everything is okay." We all know how a small white lie which we feel can't hurt anybody or anything over time just keeps piling and soon gets out of control. In this whole process we just tell ourselves it will soon pass. Lying to oneself is the most dangerous weapon you yourself have gone about to create. You are a ticking time bomb set to detonate the moment you find yourself in a ditch of deceit where there is no coming back no matter how much you "try" to fix the situation. 

Be honest with yourself and others. If you start lying and you get caught, it's going to be like the boy who cried wolf. Over time no one will take your word seriously even when it is a fact.It's a vicious circle. The truth might sting for some time but it's way better than the pain and hurt that soon follows a lie. You take a stance on the very own beliefs that was made to be undertaken. Be unique. Don't fall into the herd mentality. 

"If Only" STOP!!

It's not even half a day and I'm already irritated and frustrated. Why you may ask?

*Rewind*

I wake up at 6:30 am. The smell of coffee wakening my senses. The incense sticks that was lit for the morning prayers wafting and enclosing the bubble of space surrounding me. It seems after a long time I'm at a state of calmness and serenity. I wake up rejuvenated and ready for anything. I feel like I'm on top of the world. It's one of those rare moments which you just embrace and go with the flow. I get ready for work, Radio 1 station churning out tunes in the background. I'm thrilled. I'm excited. I'm restless. I hope this aura of a moment lasts the entire day. 

I reach the office at 7:30 am. The usual activities take place. Greeting my fellow colleagues, getting the devices started, arranging the desk. I glances at the messages that keep pinging my phone. I decide to ignore  it first, but later curiosity gets the better of me. Greetings. Whereabouts. Newsletters. Subscriptions. People's problems. "Ugh!!", rolling my eyes, I get to unleash the wisdom that apparently I'm supposed to inflict on people. Message after message and I'm like "Well, that was a good 1hr of serenity i got to experience." And that again started the usual pile load of mundane activities, stressing over unimportant events and just overthinking stuff which I know I have no control over. *Sigh*

I'm not a narcissist or an anti social person. I believe you say whatever is needed. Be frank and honest. You never lose anything over that. Being compassionate has always ensured and allowed the continuation of human species when faced with wars, death, extinction and any major catastrophe that has hit planet Earth. It's good to have people around to share both sorrows and happiness. Give and Take. Classic example of what it means to live. But then there are those situations where it gets too overwhelming. Your are forced or involuntarily required to deal with events that you feel is absolutely pointless. Others love to dump their problems on you. Sometimes it makes you feel content as they chose you to share this with and then most days your just the human version of a punching bag. They be like "I have to deal with this mess. Why not bring in another person to split the misery with." This is utter nonsense. You should have a distinction as to what extent can you deal with it individually or as a collective. These people need a bright red smacking signboard that yells out this message, "WAKE UP!!"

That's my rant for the day. I know you would say like don't take this to mind. Let it be and run it's course which is exactly what I did. So any of you out there who feels the same way, just know you are not alone.

Have  a great day!!

I am Groot!!

Marvel. Marvel. Marvel. 

It's never ending is it? So many sequels, So many characters. Sometimes I just forget who belongs to what. Specially when it comes to the Avengers, that's a whole other dimension for me. I would need to sit down, stare at the infinite expanse of molecules bound closely together reflecting a certain spectrum of the white light that stands as a backbone to the habitat that I'm enclosed in. In other word, staring at the wall. I'm going to do a review on Guardians of the Galaxy VOL. 2 my perspective on the movie. Spoilers ahead. 

Leggo!!

So the whole movie deals with Daddy issues. It takes us to the time where a young  Kurt Russell is wooing Peter Quill’s mother to the 1972 strains of “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl).” The exuberant credits sequence then shows us the Guardians in action: They’re out to slaughter an oversize tentacled monster that has four sets of angler-fish jaws, but the battle gets shoved into the background — in the foreground is Baby Groot (he doesn't give a shit), as he wiggles and grooves to ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky,”. Baby groot is cute and adorable.

The team is always cranky and yelling at each other which for me is like pretty much how they deal with life than displaying their emotions. I can relate.  Peter (*looks away shyly*), Gamora ( Girl!! We be #squadgoals), Drax (he be funny bruh),Baby Groot(I wanna squeeze him <3) and  Rocket are a seasoned team, but the movie is all about how Peter got to be who he is.

Early on, there’s a stand-off between the Guardians and Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), the Golden High Priestess of the genetically perfect people of the Sovereign (Peter just lays down the pros of sex). The Guardians enrage her when Rocket does his usual swipe by stealing a handful of precious batteries, and she comes after them with an army of remote-controlled golden attack pods. Ditto for Sylvester Stallone, as Stakar, a Ravager leader who turned against blue-skinned bandit Yondu when he learned that Yondu was selling child slaves on the black market.

Yondu’s got problems of his own — his men, who think he’s gone soft, launch a mutiny.Rocket , Baby Groot and Nebula (Gamora's bionic adoptive sister) stay back to repair the ship when lo and behold Russell lands in his ’60s an Orb sorta flying saucer to inform Peter that he’s his dad(Reminds me of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker). Gamora and Drax accompany Peter. 

Peter takes his comrades over to his dad’s planet. The name of Russell’s character is Ego. His planet, which he literally created, looks like a series of medieval French landscapes and candy may I add. He acts out his past to Peter with mannequins made of porcelain. Did I mention that he’s a self-proclaimed god who wants Peter to step up and rule the universe with him? It's so obvious he's evil. Duh!!

Peter's like completely into his feisty flirtation with Gamora. Drax is so literal-minded and so up front about his imperious male gaze that his every judgmental utterance feels spontaneous. I can relate to Drax cos why keep things hidden when it could be said out loud and everyone knows. Not going to be two faced bitch or an asshole . As for Rocket, his continuous babble hostility and arrogance is his way of hiding ratty self-hatred beneath it). Baby Groot (Oh my! I couldn't get enough of him) gets to scurry and plant a time bomb which he gets confused repeatedly when Rocket explains to him which switches to be controlled, Gamora gets to wield a machine gun the size of a refrigerator, and Yondu gets to do ever more dizzying flights of damage with his loop-the-loop arrow of death. The person who turns out to be the film’s lord of darkness morphs into all sorts of liquid digital forms, and there’s an in-the-middle-of-space farewell between Peter and someone close to him that’s beautiful and moving.

The post credit scenes got me all excited which they teased me with till the end. The theater crew like came in, checked that me and my friend Merlin were still there, got out, again came in, and they knew we ain't gonna leave until the screen goes blank. So there we were, standing near the theater aisle like a bunch of morons who were not invited to the biggest party of the neighborhood (Pssh Like I even cared. (Actually I did) I mean like I'm not desperate (*Sigh*))). And I kept telling people that if they go for the movie watch the post credit scenes. It was worth it. Not sure if they listened to me. Their loss if they didn't. 

That's it for now. Have a great day!! Salut!!

The Eye

Logs onto YouTube. Browses through the recommendations. "This looks interesting. Ohhh how to do a smoky eye. Let me watch." With vigorous enthusiasm I play the video. The beauty guru goes to to explain the products to be used. "Oh ok. I can do this." I'm still at the peak of alertness and excitement. "Ahaan. OK. An eye shadow palette. Wait!I need a primer." But she says you could also use a concealer. I'm so confused right now. Different sorts of brushes." Wait where am I supposed to get all this from?" And does a blending brush differ from the other cuticle shaped brush? This is too much information and tools. "I'm going to sit through this." Restlessness starts creeping in. "I can do this." The video goes on to show the various colors used in highlighting, smoking, blending out. And then pops the winged liner. "OMG!!I can so do that." Topped off with fake lashes and mascara. The beauty guru goes on to say how the look accentuates the eyes and can be used in various types of occasions. 

"Imma start right now."I turn up the music.Meghan Trainor's - Me Too blasting off in the bathroom. Mom yells at me to turn it down.I get all the items necessary for the look. Start of with the base color. "Ok that looks fine. Let me get the darker color." Nervous giggles erupt from within my very core. Blend. Blend. Blend. "That doesn't look bad" But I know how it looked, I was in a state of transformation into a zombie or achieving Edward Norton's eyes from The Fight Club. I take my liquid liner. *deep breaths*. I start from the center and make my way outwards. A flick. *pause* Left eye looks ok. Let me try the right one. Flick*pause* They both look like a pair of siblings who hate each other. *drops of dread sets in* "I'll just extend the other line again." The dance continues. "Gosh it's so hot. Who turned down the AC." No sooner had I done it, I look into the mirror and see a distressed raccoon-human hybrid staring back at me. 

What is this atrocity? I start contemplating on my life and where I have gone wrong. My self esteem has dropped 20 floors down the building. I stare into the mirror, the remnants of what I used to be. I saw a hint of myself peeking back through the eyes, glistening with tears of an unknown emotion. My blood starts to boil. I see the lips in the mirror attaining a feral growl, building deep inside my chest. I wash my face. How idiotic of me, assuming water is going to take off everything. I look into the mirror again. My untamed hair looking wild around my face (most days I could pull off the wild hair with sass but not today).The raccoon has now turned into the ghost: Kayako Saeki from The Grudge. At least my feelings are in tune with the look. A scrubbed face devoid of all the drama that occurred over the last hour vanished. I stare at my chubby face. "I look better like this. Who needs makeup." I put on my spectacles, grab a book from the bookshelf, settle down in the black armchair which my mom frequently tells me has merged and become one with my posterior much to her disappointment and irritation, and proceed daydreaming to a different world of expeditions and evil curses coming to life and infecting everyone.   

What do you mean? Oh oh!!

Has it ever happened to you? You hear a song and immediately feel an instant connection? Like somehow that song is about you or the singer was just looking into the depths of your soul to bring about that emotion?  If yes, then voila, I welcome you to my world. If not, then your just missing out on an amazing experience. 

Over the years I have had many songs that stay close to my heart. I mostly listen to Hip Hop and R&B. I do indulge in Reggaeton and Latin music occasionally and other genres like Pop, Soul and K-Pop.Being an Indian, I'm the black sheep(My words) of the Indian community(Ok they say it but in an indirect manner) Some of them songs to name a few are:

• Love Faces  - Trey Songz 

• Birthday Sex - Jeremih

 

• Chantaje - Shakira ft. Maluma

• Ride It - Jay Sean 

• Push - Enrique Iglesias

My recent favorite has been DESPACITO - Luis Fonsi &  Daddy Yankee(That was in caps cos it was the only way to express my delight and enthusiasm). Most people say that if you keep repeating the same song so many times, you're just going to get tired of it and later on just whine and get irritated at the very sound of it. Me, Nah !! If I say I love that song, I'm going to carry it forever, even make my grand kids listen to it and tell them of the emotions I experienced when I listen to them and they shall pass on that legacy if you wanna call it and so on. 

Have any of you had those moments where you are just bursting and bubbling with restlessness and energy to make your friends listen to the song you adore only for them to crush your soul to say " IT'S OK!!" (How dare you!!) Like what are they even thinking. And they become traitors later on after weeks where you are in the moment of zen accepting the knife that was stabbed on your back only for them to come up to you and suddenly be like "Sheekha!! I love this song!! Have you heard it?" And I'm just here like mentally killing you times infinity cos.......... (I can't even). I have had my fair share of them folks Ladies and Gentlemen. 

When I hear these songs, I so wish I could sing like them. A faraway dream, But wait, hold on. I see something. I see wisps of clouds fanning over my phone. What is it? Could it be a genie. Don't be stupid. BAM!! 
Sing by Smule!! The app is amazing. I may quack,screech and yell as much as I could but the app somehow makes my voice bearable. Go and download it now. 

Well that's my rant for the day. The Frustrated Girl does it again. Hope you all have a good day and be yourself no matter what others tell you to be.

Toodles!!(Gosh!! Trying to be more happy here =D)

"I got Family"

Hola folks. What's cookin? So I'm about to do a review of the latest Fast and Furious franchise, Fate of the Furious aka Fast and Furious 8 or whatever people like to call it.(Fate of the Furious I like) So here goes. Spoilers ahead. Proceed with caution and your own sense of inquisitiveness. 

Leggo!!

So the movie opens with a very sexy song Hey Ma (J Balvin ughgh <3) set in the streets of Havana, Cuba, wherein Dom (Vin Diesel) challenges a random guy(he looked tough) Raldo (Celestino Cornielle) to a street race to defend his cousin’s and new wife Letty’s (Michelle Rodriguez) honor. It’s simple and well choreographed, and it even involves Dom driving an old beat up car that eventually catches on fire.(If that didn't happen I would be surprised like why even bother then). We then see Hobbs(Dwayne Johnson) who has become the coach of an all girl's soccer team which includes his daughter. Mission is declared, Dom is contacted and blackmailed into doing her deeds by Cipher(Charlize Theron)who if disagrees with her plan, Dom's gonna face consequences and yada yada. So Dom gone rougue ya'll. 

The second sequence involves government agent (on and off mostly depends on his mood) Hobbs and mercenary Deckard (Jason Statham, that accent tho <3) in a German prison, who make trading insults into an art form. Like I couldn't even fathom that such a bromance could even happen. It was amazing. Seriously, I could watch these tough guys bicker back and forth for hours. The sequence eventually culminates in an outrageous prison riot/melee fight.
And bing bada boom we have Scott Eastwood folks. 
Deckard, his brother Owen (Luke Evans) and their very bad ass mother have their own roles to play in the sequence of events that unfold. No matter how much of a criminal you are, family bickers are the same for anyone. Chases in the streets of New York, a camp infiltration in Russia in the middle of a barren snow and iceberg laden land. 

The Fate of the Furious can be awfully fun, thanks to its group of lovable, crazy,intense yet relatable characters. Dom, Letty and Hobbs, along with fellow crew members Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Ludacris) became super spies, saving the world from terrorists and having fun doing it. Like Roman tho(he could be my homie) always try to out do his fellow crew members which is adorable and funny but at one point tho Roman, take a break. You know you capable. 

I wish I could recap the rest of the movie and break it down to each and every scene, but where's the fun in that. The rest could be your imagination or better, Go watch the movie!! Like what are you even waiting for? Stop reading now. I mean it. 
GO!

Survival of the Dumbest

That's right. I said it. Charles Darwin and all the naturalists can argue and even put me at the stake and burn me. They would go on to say that only the fit and the selected through natural selection has the ability to adapt to their environment. Where a phrase like "survival of the fittest" becomes relevant is in discussions about what is known in ecology as "selection theory," or ideas about the trade-off between the quantity and quality of an organism's offspring.

Over the centuries it has been a battle, gore and bloody as species tried to dominate and stand the victor. Behavioral repertoires of humans, apes and other mammals have become remarkably complex because of the adaptive advantage they've provided as the time between birth and reproductive maturity has increased. On one hand, this allows for evolutionary fitness to be maintained. 

Now what I want to stress here is about the 21st century where instead of just trying to survive on a biological aspect, it has more to do with how economically you can survive given the impact of globalization. They say knowledge is power. But is it though? Most of the times we see that those who know they have the ability to do well in terms of personal and social wellbeing tend to tone themselves down and go with the flow. It is because they know that when the time, comes, instincts would kick in and they could do more. But for those poor souls who have no clue on what is to be done and are so ignorant of things happening around, they seem to have it easy. They have no worries in the world. And the irony is things turn out well for them. They never had any expectations so whatever they do, it goes in their favor. And do they appreciate this luck? Nope. They still sit, whine and argue on how the world conspires to be against them.

 WAKE UP FOR GOD'S SAKE!! 

You yourselves are putting you down. It's like unconsciously you have tied your leg with a sack of stones and immersed yourself in the ocean. My dear fools (I'm trying to be as polite as I can), you can do better. Smell the coffee and instead of wishing go get a cup you lazy folks. 

Cross species: Yay or Nay?

Recently I was going through an article on LiveScience about why are we fascinated by Human-Animal mates? It's been a hushed topic over the centuries. Everyone's  curious and wants to know but "What would the world think of me when I raise such frowned upon topics?", said everyone ever.

We have all heard the childhood fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast where a beautiful girl is trapped in a castle with a monster and who eventually fall in love or the other fairy tale of the Princess and the Frog where a kiss that could break the curse ends up turning the girl into a frog too. In both these stories we notice a similar pattern. Animals be it a mammal or an amphibian/reptilian coming in close contact with humans.Stories in the book represent oral traditions from a range of locales, including India, Ghana, South Africa, Greece, Ireland, Japan and the West Indies. In the tales, humans couple with a variety of beasts — there are monkey grooms, and tortoise brides; princes bewitched by frogs; and princesses who marry snakes. Since it was a tale passed on over generations, it was considered romantic. Is it so? Isn't anyone finding this a whole new level of creepy?

Well it's no surprise for the science fiction genre to talk about animal experiments, half breeds and cross species living in the world as suggested in the books like Congo, Jurassic Park, Next and so forth. Is it a bad thing? No. It's just we have grown up with conventional ideas and thoughts imprinted in our very living and existence. If tomorrow someone wakes up to find that there are humans mutated to be half reptilian and half human, well, it was bound to happen.

I shall stop my wild train of thoughts because if I go on, there's no telling what might happen.  I might as well turn into *loud pop and poof she has disappeared*

First Time for everything right!!

Hola amigos and chicas. Already have two blogs out there. Started this one cos the seminar conducted in college demanded it. 

So my name is Sheekha Girish, born and raised in Abu Dhabi. My native origins are from this upcoming,booming,soon to be city called Kannur in Kerala,India. I do have my roots from Gujarat and If you are an Indian, no I'm not half Gujarati half Malayali, just that my dad's side of the family has been in Ahmedabad before India got independence and well we currently have the 3rd generation who were born there.I'm a TV fanatic, a bookworm,  I listen to Hip Hop and R&B which when I tell people leads to them raising their eyebrows and going like "What do you mean?". And I would be like don't judge a book by it's cover and the whole defending the stereotype battle goes down. Most times I emerge victorious.I did have a previous blog which was up and running till 2016 June after which it just refused to open (Maybe I was shut out).So here I am. In this new domain. I'm not restricting myself to just one category of things. There's gonna be music, TV shows, movies, general topics and loads of awesomeness in store. So I won't tell you to sit back and relax because One: That is cliche and Second: You might not even be interested or eventually get bored. But for now Hop on board.

Will keep you posted.