treat people with kindness

especially your teenage self

Sep 03, 2022

this week’s Thought (singular)

signature accessories are so important. there’s a world of identity in rings and scrunchies and pendant chains and clips on t-shirts and perpetually chipped black nail polish.

i recently came across a video of me dancing at an apartment function from fifth grade. ten y/o jahnavi was trying. awkward shuffling, stiff limbs, an obviously-crippling insecurity, forgotten steps, and zero stage presence.

i deleted the video, of course. i abhorred seeing that version of myself, and it took me not ten seconds to hit the trashcan icon. but the incident got me wondering - doesn’t ten y/o jahnavi deserve some kindness?

there are countless embarrassing moments that i’ve got from the past. middle school google plus profile; seventh grade diary entries gushing about logan lerman, suraj sharma, and chris evans in the same sentence; emails to friends with too many capital letters, too many emojis, and way too many xD emoticons; a high school performance where my voice cracked, and a creative writing exercise from tenth grade that’s the single most pretentious poem to ever be written - i could go on.

but that’s why i adore the concept of the grand scheme of things. in the grand scheme of things, those were the first 18 years of my life. 18. that’s barely anything. that’s time given, specifically reserved, and objectively dedicated to learning. learning who you are, learning where you fit in.

sure, i’ve got tons of embarrassing memories, some immortalised in video format, of my adolescence. each and every one of them makes me cringe, wondering how i was ever allowed in public, regretting my very existence. i’d prefer to watch them all burn than watch them at all. but, ten y/o jahnavi doesn’t deserve that.

instead, compassion and gratitude is what i want to send back in time. she was doing her best. she was figuring things out. she’s the reason i’m typing this and thinking about her in the fondest of terms, however awkward and stiff and insecure her dancing was.

embarrassing things happen everyday. the other day, i got caught talking to a stray cat in my apartment. i mispronounced the name of an artist that i pretended to have heard about and got called out for it. again, i could go on. but the point is that we’re growing, we’re learning, and we deserve to give ourselves compassion and gratitude.

there are so many things to cringe about already (just watched an episode of koffee with karan). why add this to the list?

ps: i wholeheartedly still endorse the logan lerman diary entries.

pps: it’s that month where change happens. we will welcome it. happy september!

black and white cat on gray concrete floor — Photo by Dim Hou on Unsplash

English Recitation Competition

Gone with the Swallows, Ameen Rihani

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

 But why
                       One clings
                       And sings
                       To things
                   That die?

Window, Forough Farrokhzad

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I come from among the roots of carnivorous plants
and my brain is still
overflowing with the terrified voice of the butterfly
they crucified in a notebook
with a pin

Lying in a Hammock at a Friend’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota, James Wright

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Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,
Asleep on the black trunk,
Blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
Down the ravine behind Duffy’s empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
To my right,
In a field of sunlight between two pines,
The droppings of last year’s horses
Blaze up into golden stones.
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken-hawk floats over, looking for home.
I have wasted my life.

A Picture!

*a cute lil’ wall, discovered at the garuda mall food court*

Middle School Book Review

The Queen’s Thief Series by Megan Whalen Turner

one of the most delightfully convoluted plots i’ve read. it spans six novels, each one more complicated than the last, and has some incredible twists and surprise reveals. a bit of brainwork is definitely required, but the action, adventure, royalty setting, and characterisations make it worth it.

The Good Side of the Internet

Controlled Burn (an essay on Forough Farrokhzad’s life and poetry)
For Farrokhzad, one of Iran’s most famous and beloved 20th-century poets, this fire has a purifying quality, a sense of self-possession that lingers in the air like smoke. Dead too young at 32 and forthright in her dissatisfactions with Iranian politics and gender hierarchies, Farrokhzad wrote poetry as a kind of arson; it annihilates. But afterward, something happens: the most essential structures remain, the most essential self. Everything superfluous burns away.
“Woman” Is Not a Genre: Why the New, Female-Led Rock Revolution Is for Everybody
Every few years, music fans are asked to mourn rock ‘n’ roll’s death. Apparently the genre is in worse condition than Keith Richards himself. The eulogies often bemoan the so-called lack of great rock bands these days — a scenario Forbes described two years ago as amounting to there being “no Led Zeppelin for the current generation of music fans.”
But when the media asks questions like, “Where have all the rock stars gone?,” what the writer really means is, “Where have all the charismatic, platinum-selling white guys in tight pants gone?”
Tacky is back! (don’t miss the Very Famous Magazine website)
Meet the internet aesthetic romanticizing “the glamour of getting by.”
A map of Bengaluru from 1992 (very cool! very wild!)
Older Generations Have Been Calling Kids “Too Soft” for 100 Years
If you feel that way, congratulations, you're doing your part to continue a historic tradition