Sunday, August 27, 2017

I'm a super-absorbent sponge

This weekend I stayed back from going home. Now without the pressures of lectures and exams, I am free to roam around. The only way to hold me back it seems is to tie me to something, or else, off I go. 

The place I stay during the week is very conveniently located in a centralised location of the capital city. Because of this, I am able to participate in various events, that hardly happens in my hometown.

The appearance of migrant birds in Sri Lanka begins end of August and goes on until early April. Today, I joined a lecture on migrant birds, organised by a local birding club. I'm very new to birding. And to be honest, I was never fascinated with birds, but with exposure at the Jurong Bird Park in Singapore and observing various birds around my home garden, my opinions on birds have changed. Today was an introductory lecture and tomorrow off we go to a wetland park to see what birds we can observe. Fun. I am worried I'll oversleep and get left behind. 

I also did the mistake thinking it was a good idea to stick around for a second lecture on orchids. This lecture coincided with the lunch hour, so I was somewhat hungry and restless. The lecturer was so fascinated by orchids and was bouncing around the podium, but I unfortunately failed to be as fascinated as him. I suppose there will always be a divide between zoologists and botanists. I did learn so many new facts about orchids though. 

An Indian Pita - a common migrant in Sri Lanka
(Source: Wikipedia)


While searching for images of Pita birds, this image came up on the suggestions! Now I feel hungry. 
(Source: sfgate.com)


I also watched the Gandhi movie today. Gandhi is a truly interesting character and what he managed to achieve in his lifetime is mind-boggling. 

These are some of my favourite sayings of his:

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.”

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”

“If we are to reach real peace in the world, we shall have to begin with the children.”


Sunday, August 20, 2017

Greener aspirations

It's not like I had a lot of options to choose from when I took an unorthodox route in continuing my higher studies. Normally, people go from good universities to better ones, but I went from a university that brags being top 10 in the world to a university that ranks somewhere below the 2000th spot. The quality of education between the two universities is not comparable. The former consisted of top notch facilities, the brightest and most accomplished experts in their respective fields as educators, and syllabuses covering the most recent advances in the field. In comparison, the latter had a mostly outdated syllabus and much lesser facilities. In contrast, the latter also had a slower pace of learning, more inspirational educators from the Biology field and lesser competition. Though it was a privilege to be able to attend my previous university, it also taught me that extreme competition and rigorous assessments can kill the joy of learning.

What we actually take from a university education is not concrete knowledge. 99.99% of what we absorb during lectures and memorise for exams will be forgotten. I know this well since I returned to books after a long gap of 9 years. Instead, what stays with us (besides the degree scroll and transcript) are a fascination/hatred of the subject, fuel to develop our own abstract ideas of our subject and the skills of knowing how and where to find the resources we need later on. The fascination and development of abstract ideas are greatly helped by having inspirational mentors and lots of field exposure.

One week ago, my coursework ended. No more lectures, no more exams. Yay! No more meeting up with the classmates as a group. I'll miss that. I didn't feel the stress of working 4 days in the week and doing a Master's course for 2 days in the week thanks to them. They were fun, they were helpful in my studies where I failed and I had a brood of young ones to "look after" which gave me a strange sense of satisfaction. Although I have a tendency to want to run away from the sight of human babies, there is a certain maternal core in Shu that melts for animals and young humans.

I invited my classmates over for a farewell tea since I am the host of this city of Kandy. Not everyone could make it on the same weekend, so this farewell tea had to be stretched over two weekends to the slight dismay of my mother. Why couldn't they all come on the same day?? She had to make her special "cutlets" for two weekends and help clean the house without my help since I had exams on both weekends. They enjoyed the food, she got along well with them (especially the boys) and they really liked her company, so I never heard any complaints from her after that.

Like having friends from various countries is fun, having friends of various parts of Sri Lanka is also fun. We have invited each other to our homes for the times to come. Surely, like school, some classmates will drop off the radar, but a handful seem like keepers (like all of you reading my blog!).


On the map of Sri Lanka, that's me and the University in the middle with the red marker, and the origins of other classmates are represented by the small yellow stars. it also gives an indication of how far they traveled on a weekly basis for lectures.
(Image: Google Maps)


If some of the classmates play their cards right, they'll end up in big places. My simple expectation of this course was to be able to tie my interests in the environment to any related career. I suppose I will be content to float around like a feather or an average Joe in an area coinciding with my interests. For them, there were bigger stakes; escaping poverty, going for the overseas experience for the first time, getting good jobs, getting big titles, having better social status, being able to rise up so they can help elevate the status of their disadvantaged communities, etc. I sincerely hope the trade winds will be in favour of their sails after this course.

As for me, I'm happy. I've turned greener since I arrived in Sri Lanka about an year ago and started the course and my environment-related job. I enjoy doing mini environmental projects at home. I'm constantly thinking of ways to increase the biodiversity around the garden like putting up feeding stations, growing more flowering plants for the bees and growing more fruit plants. I'm currently in the process of making a registry of fauna in my garden. The next project is to make a small pond! For now, I am happily occupied and not too worried about what the future will hold.

Now begins the harder part of independent research component of the Master's course! With no prior experience in formal independent research, no peers for moral support and no strict schedules to control me, I have to battle many internal demons like procrastination, Facebook and laziness to be a successful researcher.


Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Time for a service

I find it really hard to focus on writing lately. I'm not sure why. At first I thought it must be because I am usually busy, but no, I've always been an occupied person. And I always make time to do the things I like. So it's not that.



Maybe my losing touch with writing has to do with feeling detached with my authentic self once again. Maybe my ego has been slowly growing with too much praise and Facebook likes. Or maybe I've reached a place where all that I've realised so far about myself is serving me well, and I see no need for further growth for the time being. Maybe I'm selectively focusing on only the positive aspects in life and refusing to acknowledge the negative aspects that lurk at the back of my mind. Maybe I feel more exposed and less welcome coming to this blog now, unlike earlier when it felt like a safer refuge for expression of the good, bad and the ugly. Maybe current circumstances have pushed me towards the slightly extroverted end of the spectrum so the introvert in me has silenced. Maybe it is time to moult, leaving that old casing behind.


A moulting crab (Source: Giphy)


Whatever it is, our sense of balance in the core is slightly shaken and it's about time we went back to time-tested methods of repairing ourselves. Shu, why do you address yourself as two people? It's creepy. I know, right?

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