About Me – Naveena Prasad M
Life Without Zero Wins
While writing this piece, I’m nibbling on a caramel lollipop, tasting the memories of my childhood. At this moment, I feel like having made a major achievement, survived 25 years. Being born in a specific culture, specific religion, a specific family, having a specific car, a specific friend group and even a specific Instagram account affects your life these days. Even having a douchebag (but loveable) sibling changes the way in which your life is crafted. So your journey and mine too is unique and not imitative.
Navigating through school and college, it was all a struggle. First it was to get high scores, then to make popular friends, and to get into relationships. But finally we give up on many things, the above listed were things I gave early on in my life. Slowly I settled to the rhythm of life and now I’m used to it.
But no one’s life is without zero wins.
There were small victories here and there. Maybe it was a competition that you got into (though you didn’t win, still you participated with damn good competitors), or it was a friend you made who still remains to be in your emergency contacts. Or like me, you were also once a little girl who was shy to speak in English but today holds a Masters in English Literature and write in that foreign language.
I mostly argue and think more in English than my mother tongue.
However my mother tongue, Malayalam is one of the most beautiful languages I have ever heard, read and spoken. The poems, the novels and the cinema are just marvels born out of creative minds. They make me amazed when I realise of how much of a beauty that language holds for me.
Hence proved, I’m from Kerala, India.
That doesn’t mean that I appreciate any other culture less. Living in India means you’re gonna be bombarded with different languages (some which you never heard of), tons of dialects, different religions, festivals (even same festivals, celebrated in different ways) , and finally my favourite (drumrolls) different dishes, different rices, even same dishes with massive difference.
I get so much influenced by people and places, even my handwriting changes according to who sits next to me. I haven’t travelled far and wide (hopefully I can some day), but I studied and worked in Hyderabad and Mumbai. These bustling cities gave me the chance to taste different biriyanis and vada pavs, hot and sizzling filled with flavours. The cities also gave me a bunch of good humans to love and a few goofy phrases of live with.
I think this is all about me. What about you?
