Anecdotes and Realizations

I used to scoff at the "MUN kid" stereotype. Obnoxious, bratty, condescending. "You don't know that also aa?"  I was not that kid. I was the kid who aced the tests, who would write an opinionated essay but whose ears would block out when handed a microphone. The one that said 'phew' after getting off stage. Going from that to winning awards at Model United Nations conferences was a plot twist Abbas-Mustan couldn't have predicted. 2023 was just one new experience after the other and I forgot to sit back for a minute and reflect on how much I'd changed. It was when my first grade teacher Kamakshi Aunty commented on a profile photo of me addressing a gathering saying "I'm so glad you finally overcame your fear of public speaking" that I realised that a change had happened at all.  In kindergarten, I was given an important set of lines in a skit for Independence Day. I came to school lines in hand, stuffed into an uncomfortable Nehru co

 It was recently Valentine's Day. The day where we commemorate the violent death of a saint by giving each other flowers and chocolates. Maybe when Oprah dies we can burst party-poppers.  Valentine's Day has lost its fervour. Sure, the consumerist "bonanza sales" and "heart-shaped pizzas" made the rounds in our circle but noone truly cared about the day. But I did. I always did. As a child, my favourite movie was always 'Dil to Pagal Hai'. Madhuri Dixit has a scene in which her friend (named Anjali, ironically enough) asks her why she spent so much money on herself for Valentine's Day. Madhuri replied that until she found the one destined for her she would love herself. She then proceeded to hop, skip and jump into the arms of a young Shahrukh Khan.  I never expected love in that sense. I didn't make sense of it either. It was just something that would happen one day I used to think. But coming to a new school changed my idea of it a little b