fledgling

Words, those beautiful masterpieces, with letters carefully handpicked like fragrant herbs from a garden. A word can lift a soul and yet shatter hearts for good. The letters, if plucked with grace, strung together carry free emotion trapped in a heart, and some crushed under the weight of pursed lips. A word can be a weapon to glue souls together and yet rip them apart. Some inspire a warm flush of butterflies, and some a distant, forgotten ache in the heart. Many carry the smell of midnight oil and the scholar’s despair, of a battle left unconquered and unfinished. Infusing the beauty of thought in words is an art perfected by some over years, some a lifetime. I let the art soak in my blood and veins, sink deep in my heart, until I truly own and cherish it as a whole. I let it run through my fingertips and watch them create profound meaning, as the art sculpts clumps of letters into a masterpiece to leave an imprint on every witness. A pen, no greater than the humble pencil, has been ...

Hello readers, this is Maanasa here. I have a milestone to share with you - I just turned fourteen! Turning fourteen has been a confusing yet awakening experience. Speaking of confused, I have been pondering over how this milestone will be introducing me to an upgrade in difficulty and the urge that I need to push myself harder. If there's one word that could summarise my present state, it would be confusion.   I am confused now more than ever, of what the future holds ahead.  You could compare this with an eclosing butterfly, a painful yet meaningful transition of my true self. This year has been all about learning, unlearning and relearning what I have known all my life. I am in the thick of identity crisis and I'm still figuring out who I am, as I observe my younger self slowly chipping away and evolving into a more mature, future self. The beliefs and ideals I had depended on slowly began crumbling, with new experiences and new thoughts. Often, I am not sure what to b...

I still remember that night. I was about to finish my first draft, my very first post. That second of exhilaration when I pressed 'publish' – a beautiful moment I enjoyed alone in the liquid silence of midnight. Three years have flown by since that night. That first day still feels like yesterday. I am so thankful for the numerous opportunities that have been thrown my way, which helped me grow as a writer and hone my skill. Thank you Fledgling for nurturing my naive self. Fledgling was my origin, the birthplace of my thoughts. Over time, Fledgling became a witness of my growing, refining writing and gave me space to grow and correct myself. Every post has been a milestone for me, and it's been overwhelming, to see how far we have come.  The passion writing ignited in me has kept me going for three years, through patches of self-doubt and frustration. Sometimes, dry spells made me question why I was on this journey and if it truly was worth the effort. Yet, every time, that...

  2020 has been testing the capabilities of mankind.  For some, it meant losing their jobs. For others, it broke relationships and snatched the lives of millions. For people like me, it was an interesting time that forced me to introspect and reap answers within. Since the beginning of the year, the troubling instances that followed - the pandemic, protests, and the global loss of faith in the future has left little hope and faith; rather, fear has taken its place. Is this a mental pandemic ? More and more people are losing their peace of mind, getting sucked into the toxic, hungry quicksand of the media. Many of us couldn't manage to get a good night's sleep without tossing and turning in our beds. Although the mental impact isn't obvious, it has been a tiny worm slowly chewing at our peace and well being. What an irony the past few months have been.  Mental health has definitely seen a dip this year, considering the distressing media consumption least spoken about, the ...

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls" These are lines penned by renowned poet Rabindranath Tagore, during a time of bloodshed and captivity. More than a century later, these lines still resonate with the average millennial, for we find ourselves in a crisis never met before. As Tagore says, we may be bound in our homes, but we are still free men and women in our hearts and minds. The virus may have locked us up in our homes for months, but it definitely hasn't strangled our minds with metal chains. In fact, it has provided plenty of food for thought about the future of our nations. We have still found a way to regain our lost freedom by letting our minds explore endlessly. As a citizen, freedom to me means being able to express my thoughts freely. This pandemic has managed to accomplish the impossible - breaking the vicious cycle of our hectic schedules. ...

I feel torn in different directions  My heart feels ripped into strands Just as the wounds began to heal, My soul and life amending the faults And pretend like one happy union The acid in my life Melts those those scars Are the cries of help and distress I hear Not from the battle I fight with Life, But from the quiet, muffled struggle within myself? Sometimes, those scars melt , And escape my eyelids in frustration. How long can I put up this grand act? That I am whole, complete, and unscathed While I struggle to keep my broken shards together? How long can I soothe these cracks in my soul, With balm, that when Life rains on, Melts and runs like my tears I feel my body and soul fighting each other, Something that hasn't ever seen peace And now the clashes are something I cannot explain. Where do I belong? In my safe, little cocoon Where only I exist? No, that suffocates me. In the world of family and people? No, it confuses me. Is this battle ever going to quieten? Where do I belo...

KD Karuppu Durai (2019) Cast : Mu. Ramasamy, Naga Vishal Director: Madhumitha Genre : Dramedy Synopsis : Karuppu Durai, an bedridden man nearing his eighties, wakes up from his coma and runs away from home, when he learns his family has been planning to perform ancient euthanasia on him. Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Puts a smile across your face" ‌This is a humorous, uplifting take on 'thalaikoothal', an ancient form of euthanasia that placed the shameless monopoly of precious life in the hands of the very children that one nurtures. How ironic, I feel, when one's children can decide when you breathe your last, when it was you who breathed life into their very bodies? The story starts with Karuppu Durai, an ill man in his eighties, lying in a coma. The film begins with an beautiful, rustic monologue of senile innocence in the raspy, mellow voice of Karuppu Durai. But, to wake this comatose man, all it takes is a whiff of his daughter's biryani to get his engines ...