Thoughts in and out of reason

  Source. This was the first book I purchased from my first salary almost 15 years ago, so this is a re-read for me. While the book remains the same, I and the world have changed drastically. It is the best and worst book to read in this time. 1984 is a dark, depressing novel about a dystopian world where everything and everyone is controlled by the state ( Big brother is watching). Orwell creates a terrifying world where the food is bland, everything is in short supply, the country is always at war, relationships are non existent, and the sex is without pleasure. This is a state which tell everyone what to do, who to speak to, what to eat, how to behave, who to sing praise to, and what the "truth" is. e.g. 2 + 2 = 5. Does this ring a bell? Such has been the book's influence that many words from it such as newspeak, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Big Brother and Room 101 have entered the English language.  Source There are only a handful of characters in the novel. Winston, a...

The last couple of weeks have been shattering. The epidemic wrecking unimaginable havoc all over the world. And then events which happened at the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem spiral out of control and a war breaks out between Israel and Hamas. I know quite a bit of the history of the region and the reasons for the continuous conflict, but I always like to understand more. These days YouTube has become a good source, apart from of course reading. So I dove into learning more about the history of the region.  I stumbled upon  this  6 - minute long video. It is based at Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem. You might have heard of this place as it is in the news these days. This is an Arab neighborhood, and the residents who have been living there for decades there are now facing eviction by the Israeli state. You might know that this region has an extremely complicated history which I do not want to go to. ...