Flowers live longer in a Graveyard

Sometimes, when you feel like you have found everything you realise it was, is and will never be anything. Some people make you feel as bright as thousands suns but, don’t you see that they also bring with them the potential of darkness that thousands suns couldn’t brighten. When you are with someone for so long, don’t you see that they become more fragile with each day? That so long can become no long and did you not see that? As it turns out, I stopped seeing after a while. I didn’t see it.

I have been wandering around aimlessly, looking for nothing in particular. Obviously, I was blind and I have been blind. One day I woke up and knew that I was blind and the knowledge ached my burning eyes. I now wanted to see something, anything. So I looked around. Frantically, desperately, endlessly. I saw nothing.

I was on a random bus which was headed somewhere I don’t know, I didn’t care. I was looking. And after a very long time, I saw something. Flowers, flowers in a cemetery. Have you seen this?

Flowers live longer in a graveyard.

I have bought flowers for someone, they die eventually. Someone has bought me flowers, I tried to render them but they die eventually. But, you place flowers by a grave and they live. They live longer.

Can death give someone life? Can death give someone hope? Or is it just death which lives longer? They come in all colours and you often wonder if someone places them here this morning. I got off the bus, I had to know.

I couldn’t touch them, of course I was terrified. But, I was happy. There were flowers around me. So, I wondered if someone placed them here this morning. But I looked around and flowers everywhere looked just as fresh and alive. Did someone place all these flowers today morning? That’s not possible is it? These flowers have been alive for all this time, I do not know how long.

Do these flowers live longer here than in my vase because someone tends to them? But who would look after flowers in a graveyard. Perhaps, it’s the hopes and dreams and love that they stand for. Can someone’s memory be enough to help you live longer… Can someone’s sacrifice make you stronger? Can someone’s absence make you grow fonder?

Perhaps it is in the state of mourning that one finds true solace in. When you love something, someone so much you often find them only when they are gone. And I would spend all my days in this state if it makes me feel the way it made me feel, in that cemetery. Do you think death could ever bring me happiness? I don’t mean death as in when someone does not live any longer. I mean death of dreams, and hopes, and relationships. Could the dead within make themselves live longer?

I wouldn’t know. I guess I am surprised that I hadn’t seen this before. But I knew in that moment, Flowers live longer in a graveyard.

Week 3: Progress

Janet Echelman’s 1.8 London soars high up in the wind

“Look up”, said my friend, as I pushed my way out of Oxford Circus station. Looming over Oxford Circus, suspended 180 feet above ground, awestruck, I see a colourful netted art sculpture floating in the wind.

Janet Echelman’s 1.8 London, was one of the 30 light installations at Lumiere London Festival held during 14^th January-17^th January 2016 in West End, King’s Cross and Mayfair.

Thousands of people gathered below the web-like structure, were constantly looking up to the sky and back into their smartphone screens. A Lumiere London volunteer helped my curiosity, guiding me to the app that enabled me to interact with the artwork. Onlookers could alter colours and patterns creating a ripple effect, each unique and unlike the previous.

In those few moments, many strangers expressed, together, with 1.8 London as their platform, creating unique patterns with each other. In her TED Talk, American sculptor and artist, Janet Echelman reveals that forces of nature and their cycle of interaction inspires her to create interactive artwork to bring people closer.

1.8 London was inspired by the 2011 Tsunami in Japan. Its title is based on the number of microseconds that the day of the earthquake was shortened by. “The sculpture’s form was inspired by data sets supplied by NASA of the tsunami’s wave heights rippling across the entire Pacific Ocean,” says Echelman studio.

It is netted out of high-tensile fiber, originally created for NASA astronauts’ space suits, that billows and changes shape with the wind. Janet Echelman says that her art is influenced by fishermen’s net that she witnessed when she travelled to India.

There was an element of wonder in the air, eyes filled with reflections of the colour from the sculpture. People spoke to each other in hush hush, interpreting what it said to them. Children tapped their phones rigorously while constantly looking up, “Look look! I did that.”

Yuuna Kubota, 23, a Japanese student at City College, remarked “It is good to honour a tragedy by bringing people closer, remembering the disaster in the form of art.” Unlike Yuuna, not many people in the square knew what 1.8 London really was about. But, that did not keep them from admiring this beacon of colours and hope.

On a wintery night, Janet Echelman’s 1.8 London was by far my most beautiful connection to this ever luminous city, London.

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Media Monitoring Post 3

Its been 2 days, but the tragedy continues to unfold. Here are some interesting notes from Day 3 of Media monitoring.

What struck me as the most interesting aftermath of the Paris attacks are, more attacks. This time, France bombing claimed ISIS stronghold, Raqqa in Syria. Paris has declared the massacre as an ‘act of war’ and shall retaliate. The CNN is its story, ‘Air Strikes in Raqqa’ reported that these strikes are symbolic and France is stating its power and readiness to protect its territorial integrity.

France has begun an international manhunt to find the perpetrators of Paris attack. The chase has moved to Belgium where 2 people have been detained in connection to the Paris attacks, reports Wall Street Journal.  There are believed to have been 3 teams attacking Paris simultaneously. One of the posed to be a refugee and came to France via Greece…

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Media Monitoring: Terror Attacks in Paris

Media Monitoring Post 1 (Again)

Tracking: The Terror Attacks in Paris

Sorry Folks, I had a change of plans and decided to monitor the coverage of the attacks in the capital city of France. I did so because it is breaking news and occurred 3-4 hours before I wrote this blog.

How I first got to know about the terror in Paris was when at 9:37 p.m. I saw the colours of the french flag on the Wembley Stadium.

Agence France Presse was the first one to report the Paris Attacks on their twitter handle. Their first tweet, ‘#BREAKING Multiple attacks in Paris, at least 18 dead, police say’ was the first update. Their other tweets continued providing witness reports and ground situation report.

The BBC World Service aired breaking reports on their Newshour Show. The BBC is expected to run a live blog about these attacks and already has…

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Media Monitoring Post 2

Tracking: Terror Attacks in Paris. Day 2

And the aftermath continues…

On the 14th, there were a lot of explainers flooding the internet. Everyone is anxious to know what happened in Paris that fateful night, who did it, and why. The explainer, ‘Everything we know so far…’ by Telegraph was interesting in particular. It took on a human angle and continues to be constantly updated.

I came across an expert analysis piece on Vox which comments on ‘Why ISIS would attack Paris?’. This story takes a strategic angle on ‘major shift in ISIS’s global strategy’. This is followed by a detailed interview between the reporter and Will McCants, author of ISIS Apocalypse.

Amidst the chaos of the terror in Paris, there was a gun scare in the Gatwick Airport. A frenchman with an Air rifle and a gun was charged after the Airport was evacuated. This story…

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My Media Diet

It is my Media Diet. I am on a Diet, finally.

I am studying Journalism at University of Westminster. This is my task for Week 2 for my module Introduction to Journalism. You’d find this very interesting. If you haven’t figured out already, media diet is an analogy for the media I consume all day long! Here is me tracking a day in the life of an aspiring journalist.

Saturday, 10/10

9:00 a.m- I woke up with my phone. Log onto Facebook, saw a few puppy videos and then a few cute babies. Found a really funny listicle on Buzzfeed, ’24 things All Australians say when they’re in London’. I click on Buzzfeed and find another interesting story, ’22 Of The Most Powerful Photos Of This Week’. Now, I check my Instagram. A few pictures of food bloggers, Kim, cats, Vines, Kylie Jenner, Travel diaries.

10:30 a.m.– I walk into my kitchen. Switch on my T.V and watch Channel 4…

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