#82 Who burned the food?
Saturday, September 17, 2022
It was a lovely morning yesterday, a cloudy sky with no signs of sunshine. A kind of weather that makes you sit outside and contemplate for hours. It was one of those days when you feel you have left all the chaos behind and are on a peaceful journey ahead. And then chaos hits your door! Half asleep, I heard someone banging the door, asking us to evacuate the room as the firemen were on their way. YES, FIREMEN!
With no clue in sight, I grabbed everything my two little hands could hold and jumped out of the house. While I was searching for the part of the house that was burning, LAFD was already at the door! Not that we are lazy and do not care about our lives, it’s just that LAFD do their job sincerely. They reached our house before we could get out from our room. Anyways, a part of me was still searching for the burning house, which was nowhere to be seen. Further investigations with Alex (who called up LAFD) revealed that the house was not yet on fire because of her presence of mind. She called up LAFD because she smelled heavy gas coming from the kitchen and her lungs started to choke as soon as she entered the kitchen. A few of us agreed with her claim because even we had experienced the same “heavy gas“ smell last night. After unfolding a pound of drama in the open spaces of 1036W, the reason for that smell which Alex [and we all] thought was that of leaking gas, LAFD closed the case by saying and I quote - “THIS SMELL IS OF BURNED FOOD AND IS COMING FROM THE TRASH. PLEASE THROW OUT THE TRASH”. Yeah, we were standing outside in our pyjamas early morning, while LAFD inspected our kitchen, because someone burned the food. Mahn, this is life. From what felt like a non chaotic morning, quickly turning the table to a chaotic one and suddenly turning into to a dramatic morning - I experienced it all.
Long story short, I had fun!
Talking about life reminds me of the 3Ls to live by, which are love, liberty and learning. Each one of them is non-episodic and depends on each other. There’s no love without liberty, and vice-versa, and without these two - there is no learning. You cannot just chase only one because chasing butterflies come with operational challenges. Balancing all the three is honestly a struggle, if you have found the right weights to balance them off, congrats!
Struggle reminds of the question we deal with everyday. Before I come to the question, I want you all to close your eyes(not now, do it after reading) and tell yourself that starting from now, you will never take anything for granted. Be it the means to make healthy choices, your relationship, clean water to cook food, a conversation with parents, voice of a loved one, family time or the free dhaniya that the sabze waale bhayia gives you. Coming from a country which has ZERO respect & value for dhaniya, I find it difficult to even spend a penny on it. Apparently, dhaniya is called cilantro now and it’s price is $2. Yes, you read that right, It costs us $2 to garnish our dal with dhaniya, sorry cilantro. However, there are a few people living with me, who come from a country where they don’t consider it as a sin to spend 2$ on cilantro. There is always a bunch of cilantro lying in some corner of the refrigerator. How much cilantro will I use to garnish my dal? Should I commit a sin and buy a bunch for myself or should I use the one lying in the refrigerator?
To use it or not to use it? That is the question.
On Tuesday I got lucky to ride in a Tesla. Guys, the hype is real. The feeling you get while sitting in a Tesla is quite something. However the most amazing part is that I was sitting in an American car, driven by a Chinese driver and all we talked about was how India is all set to be a superpower in the coming decade. These are little things that you, as an international student take pride in. Talking to the Chinese guy reminded me of the fact that we are all humans at the core.
You’re Armenian, I’m Kenyan. You’re rich, I’m poor. You’re upper class, I’m lower class. You’re black, I’m white. You’re Jewish, I’m Christian. I’m a man, you’re a woman. You’re old, I’m young. You’re urban, I’m rural. You’re cool, I’m not. You’re a racist, I’m woke. You’re gay, I’m straight. You’re a conservative, I’m a liberal. You’re a citizen, I’m undocumented. You’re this, I’m that.
People really like labels. Seems like we sure have figured out a whole boatload of ways to divide and separate themselves from one another.
A FEW THINGS KEEPING ME AWAKE
Article: Humans are all related, why Borders?
YouTube: Learn To Be Alone
Song I am listening to: Paradise
Thought of the week: "The smartest moves often lie in what you choose to not do."
MEME OF THE WEEK
SARCASTIC REFLECTION
Here are the last three posts if you were too occupied to read them -