You-Want's Life

I have always wanted to go to Paris since late 2013.  Paris has long been promoted through various forms of media, but I was either too young to notice it, or too naïve to appreciate foreign cultures. When I watched Disney’s blockbuster animated film, Ratatouille, I was somehow unmoved by the breathtaking details the creators included while designing the beauty of a well-lit Paris at night; I sadly did not pay sufficient attention to the settings of Mr. Bean’s Holiday when he roamed across Paris from La Defense to Paris Gare Du Lyon. But as a Taylor Swift’s fan, the release of her music video for the song, Begin Again , quickly grasped my attention. Having been filmed in the French capital, the music video introduced Paris in a romantic, dreamy, fairy-dusted light. I fell in love with Swift as much as with the artistic direction their team has taken for the 4-minute long video. Paris is widely recognised as The City of Love. That became a key reason for Swift’s team to fly to Paris...

Winter is a beautiful, beautiful season when it snows. The world is in shades of white and blue, and the gloominess of the sky feels only much depressing. However, it’s in the weather which I find the most fitting time to process and heal from the past. As snow falls, it blankets everything, like a shield of comfort and beauty over the scars on your skin. I see frosty mornings with sunlight shining through forest foliage in different angles and suburban streets becoming a state of art in the snow. Anything hideous seems to receive a glam makeover and any pain would feel numb and perhaps doesn't actually matter anymore.  So despite the cold, it’s a hopeful reset.  And when the sun comes out the next day, shining over the white town that puts me in awe, over and over again. I see beauty still exists in something so utterly temporary. I then remember all the times when I think I have everything I have ever wanted forever but still fear losing them. I think about how unknown the f...

Having come from a conservative country, nudity is a huge taboo. You can’t avoid the sounds of ‘yerrrr’ or ‘yuckkkk’ when somebody in the room (or in sight) is naked. Someone is bound to make a reaction. Yep, that’s where I came from.  Being put in a boarding school hostel near the country’s capital where open showers were practised as a sign of brotherhood, it was a rare glimpse into that Western culture we so commonly see on TV, where students openly shower after some sports sessions but nobody makes a whine. It was hard to assimilate into that environment at first, for sure, with my heart racing anytime I had to go into the shower room and if anyone entered the space when I was in there. But I’ve learnt a thing or two there after a few rounds- it’s not that bad being seen naked- the question to myself was, why was I ashamed of my body? Too skinny, or too small? Was I trying to hide anything? In the world of highschoolers and teenagers, body image discrimination could be a huge t...