Month: October 2019

Conflict and Storytelling

Throughout history, humans have found a way to record their lives and adventures; whether it is in cave paintings, stories and myths passed down from generation to generation, or even the written word. As societies have continued to grow and evolve, the function of stories and storytelling has evolved with it. While some functions like

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Connection Needs To Be Remembered

Whenever I stand in the front of mirror, so many questions start appearing. I’ve almost solved every one, but two words leave me in a very difficult situation. Only these two words create puzzles. I have tried, but found that without solving them, I cannot proceed. If this was the case, then how could I

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Human Being, Human Becoming

“I don’t feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning.” – Michel Foucault How do we become who we are? And how do we become something else entirely without knowing who we were,

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Write me a story

‘Write me a story,’ she pleaded. I could see the enamoured and enthusiastic desperation behind her eyes, lit afire. She held me close, running those fairy-tale fingertips through my hair. Her familiar figure, like flames alight, sculpted mine simply by the way she perched herself upon my knees. As I studied her smile and kissed

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We cannot escape what we are; we should not have to

“I don’t feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning.” – Michel Foucault. In considering this quote from Michel Foucault, we might juxtapose it to the often expressed ‘you can make of yourself

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Let Them Eat Cake

Henry Ford knew most humans were somewhat restricted in their thinking. He, on the contrary, was an innovator – one that many would say was “ahead of his time”. That is an interesting phrase and while none of us can bend the borders of space and time and be truly ahead of our time, there

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Of Being Stuck in Place

Some of Foucault’s words definitely resonate with me; he said that the main interest of life is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning. But how can you address that expectation when you never exactly knew who or where you were in the first place? If you don’t know where the

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At the Heart of Conflict

When it comes to crafting a story, to create a world in which the readers can lose themselves and hide away from everything else, there’s hardly an immovable set of rules we have to follow, because no story cannot be told. Yet, as I stumble across this quote from Veronica Roth, where she talks about

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Conflict: If nothing else, it’s poetic

When I was a kid, I used to have this feeling sometimes. A profound feeling of loss stemmed from existing. As crazy and frankly hilarious as this sounds, I felt that I lost the chance to be at utter peace. I felt that if I weren’t ‘here’, I’d be somewhere better, wherever ‘better’ was. Now

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Henry Ford, a Visionary of More Than Just Automobiles

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” – Henry Ford Henry Ford was a visionary in his time and remains a legend today. His innovation of the mass-produced automobile, made available in an affordable price range, changed the world as people in the early 1900s knew it; creating

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What I Want?

The constant rise and fall of throaty exhaust notes expelled from the tips of the tailpipes played like a symphony.  The notchy transmission propelled the car forward as each gear was pushed to its limit.  It was black with a lot of chrome, a sports car.  A childhood dream realized.  The top was removable and

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Conflict or No Conflict? That is the Question!

“If there’s no conflict, there are no stories worth telling – or reading.” – Veronica Roth. An interesting statement, and one that could be interpreted in many ways.  At first glance, it suggests that a story must contain conflict of some form to be worthwhile telling, as though stories without some kind of conflict are

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Innovation and Ford

We are fascinated by the innovators that dominate the headlines. Mark Zuckerberg, a social media hegemon, founding Facebook in his dorm room at Harvard. Elon Musk, ushering in a new era of electric vehicles and space exploration with his companies. Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, founding online e-commerce markets that came to dominate the entire globe.

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Being and Becoming

When you stare into the mirror and look at what is reflected, who do you see? Sometimes, I do not recognise myself in that reflection. A sense of unease crawls up the back of my spine. I do not know who I am. We all do not know who we are. We are conscious, yet,

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I Know Who I Am, But It Doesn’t Matter

When my biography is written, I would like it to go like this: “he was born in a small agrarian community in the Eastern part of one of the poorest countries in West Africa, the eighth child of a poor peasant farmer who depended on the proceeds from his small farm to cater for his

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They Refuse To Bend Until They Break

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BEND UNTIL YOU BREAK. YOU JUST HAVE TO STAND UP. “I’ve been pushed as far I could stand to be pushed. I had decided that I would have to know once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen ” Rosa Parks. The statement quoted

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Don’t Fear Life

At the time I finished this piece, I found out that I am over 9,700 days old! It may not amount to much when I tell you that I have lived for a little over 26 years, but I sincerely get the feeling that I have lived for twice the duration, but have done less

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School: A Place to Loosen your Mind

How would you describe a school? A place to discover yourself or equally, a place to loosen your mind? It’s difficult to say, as everybody thinks differently. I would not be able to say what goes on in your mind, just as you would not be able to say what goes on in mine! One

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All shall be well

And then there is utopia – a Panglossian utopia – where we live in harmony for ever and ever amen, sans rancour, argument, disagreement or… conflict. But what of the scientific method, Hegel and his dialectic, of opposing ideologies and beliefs, of two steps forward and one step back, and of what goes round, comes

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My New Identity

My enthusiasm to embrace change began one day when I noticed an incredible phrase: ‘Embrace the Change and shape yourself’. I peeped through the windows of my home in my childhood to notice this small phrase on the top of an Ice-cream seller’s street cart. Immediately, I marveled and approached the merchant and inquired why

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