I’m baaacccckkkk!

Hello my lovely fellow blog enthusiasts!

Hope you are all wonderful and well. I just got back from our amazingly spectacular interstate escapade with my gorgeous sis Mayunka and we had the time of our lives!

We went to see the great night show of the Italian Masterpieces Art Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria which was awe-inspiringly jaw dropping, being the lucky few to have ever witnessed these great masterpieces in the World only made the entire event that more tantalising!

Then we had the shopping adventures that were naturally, a focal point of our whole trip, but by far, the best time we had together was jogging along Melbourne’s famous Yarra River, we definitely looked like locals then :p

Shared some great food at restaurants that were open till 3am the next morning and walked till our feet screamed in agony at being tortured as unfairly as they were. Had some fresh, hot donuts & crepes at one of the many popular street food stalls and generally laughed and frolicked like there was no tomorrow – exactly the way a holiday should be, wouldn’t you agree?

Anyway, it’s good to be home, as always! Looking forward to reading some of your wonderful posts I have missed over the last couple of days, See you around 🙂

Could we be any more screwed?

A lot has happened in the World this week, as it does every week.

We’ve had a Soccer World Cup finish, Australian Swim Legend Ian Thorpe has come out as being gay, a few choice celebrities (no names being mentioned) have gone around doing what they do best, being social misfits and poor examples of role models for those who tinker on their seats edges wondering what their next moves are going to be, and something else I quite can’t recall. It’s on the tip of my tongue, so I’m guessing it’s semi important?

Oh that’s right, that little pesky thing the World is snappily entitling The Gaza Strip. Maybe not as catchy as Brangelina, but then again, it isn’t quite as important either, is it?

I mean how could an entire nation of people in devastating upheaval and pain, a clear brazen example of genocide occurring under our very noses in the twenty first century, a blatant demolishing of the very concept of human rights, truly compare to whether Germany actually deserved to take home the inanimate Gold Cup, the gender Ian Thorpe chooses to spend his private life and nights with, and whether Justin Bieber’s crotch shot was a misguided PR stunt? The answer is simple, it can’t.

It’s not bedazzling enough for all of us, sitting here comfortably in our arm chairs in our own little private havens with our fingers securely brushing our remote controls ready to tap the buttons lightly to change the channel every time a haunting image of what’s occurring in the Middle East has the audacity to interrupt our lives and assault our screens. I mean, how dare they? It’s happening a world away, why should I care?

I’m not here to make a statement on who’s right or wrong in this war occurring on the same planet we all share, but what I am incensed about is our extreme powers of “de-sensitsation”.

Who’s right or wrong is hardly significant really, what does matter though is the mammoth loss of life that the rest of us couldn’t care less about. I am met with a lot of anger and opposing comments every time I dare to broach this subject, you know the kind – scathing hate like “Why should we interfere?”, “They don’t want us to get involved”, “It’s their problem, not mine”, “If they’re too stupid to understand, that’s their fault”, and the undulating list rolls on.

Hailing from a nation that prides itself on never having invaded another’s home, I couldn’t agree more. The rest of us shouldn’t interfere, because the message that gives is that we don’t think you’re civilised enough to deal with this problem on your own, but how does that justify turning a blind eye to the pain and misery of our fellow brothers and sisters?

How does understanding, making our children aware of what seething animosity results in so that they learn that war and inflicting torture on one another is not the solution, not make this world and our conjoined futures better? How does not teaching one another that no matter what our creed, caste, and colour, that we share our basic human emotions of grief, agony and turmoil at losing a father, a mother, a brother, or sister and our children, not be an absolutely imperative lesson to study for all of us?

Is the media to blame? I think this is far too simplistic and just another brazen example of ‘passing the buck’, shifting responsibility onto someone else humans so easily partake in to feel better. As hungry devourers of news, why do the people so often forget that the real power lies firmly enclosed in our palms? The fact that you chose to click on the photograph brazenly displaying one of the Kardashian sister’s blaring bikini clad behind more than the one that excruciatingly portrays a mother’s incomparable desperate desolation at the loss of a child as she clutches her daughter or son’s lifeless, dismembered body to her bosom, begging for it all to stop while she cradles them both into oblivion, dictates what the media gives you.

It’s time we take a little bit of time out of our busy reality television watching schedules and participate in a little reality check of our own. Try and think about how it would feel to be in the middle of that tumultuous turbulence and what you’d experience if you truly believed you were all alone and that no one else cared enough to think, even in fleeting, about how your life was worthless.

This world is never going to improve if we don’t stop for a moment and think “what am I doing to make this better?” Make your voices heard people, the powerful in our society don’t own half as much as you believe they do and they know it. They’re just waiting for you to fight for your basic human right to tell them that.

Sometimes life just can’t be put into words, no matter how hard you try

I think most of you by now are fully aware of my absolutely obsessive passionate lustful love for words, but I am, at times, stumped when I look at the wonder all around me, which is what brings me to this post.

This piece of writing is a little different because today I am going to be talking about how words just can’t cut it sometimes, and this is where I take my hat off to all of you wonderful photographers out there!

As some of you may have noticed, I’ve added a page to this blog today titled “Photographer Extraordinaire” (just in case you missed it) directing those of you who are interested, to my amazingly superbly talented sister’s blog – mayunkasharmaphotography.wordpress.com.

I am sure all of you would have caught on pretty soon after you checked it out (because I have like the smartest bunch of followers’ eva!) considering our scary family resemblance. My condolences by the way, just when you thought you could barely cope with one of us, I give you another.

Mayunka is mind-blowingly, mind-bogglingly, awe inspiringly talented when it comes to clicking photos. Now I know what most of you are thinking – “sure she has to say that, I mean she’s her sister”. Am I biased? In all honesty, most likely, but I am willing to put my buck where my mouth is, so go ahead and check out her work and see for yourself.

Mayunka has taken all of my photos here (including my book cover) and is marvellous at natural landscapes and profiles. Plus she is heaps nicer than me, so feel free to contact her for any work you may be interested in, or even just for a chat (she’s a motor-mouth!).

Or, you can contact me (if you’re shy) and I’ll pass it onto her when we’re on talking terms, which is 99.94 1/4% of the year – just in case you’re wondering 😉

Enjoy!