Thank you for joining me on my journey to find ecstasy, we have a long ride ahead so get comfortable!

Hi quarantine-world.

I am Jasmita Shah and this is your free ticket to my very conventional world. Yes, I want my readers to come back here, looking forward to something interesting yet I categorised my life as ordinary but that is because my life is just like every other teenage girl’s, nothing out of the blue. At least that’s what I think on most days but on others, in my head, I am a devi sent straight out of devlok to save the world but we’ll get to that later.

So, I am a seventeen-year-old girl born and brought up in a small city called Vadodara in Gujarat, India. I have never stepped a foot outside my country and I am not complaining because my father has filled me with patriotism. I have also inherited my obsession with Hindu mythology, shayaris, books, and good food from my father. My other interests like therapizing people, procrastinating, overthinking, singing and gossiping were also some sort of a gift of genetics I am assuming, but we are still trying to figure out where this love for words comes from. Well that brings me to my family, I grew up in a huge house overcrowded with a family of twelve with my grandmother as the head of the house as my grandfather passed away right after my first birthday. We all moved into smaller apartments when I turned eleven. So mother- Meghana, father- Jignesh built a small piece of heaven for Sakshi and I, until big sister moved away for her master’s degree eight months ago. I was raised with a lot of love, strict principles, and attention; some would say enough attention to make me a narcissist, so there is no childhood trauma coming up. 

Life has been good; god has been kind. 

I could never write my story without Pratha Amin’s name being mentioned. I met her on the first day of school, we must have been three and half years old, and we have been inseparable ever since. Well metaphorically, because she moved to the states after we turned fourteen. I have pretty much had the same group of friends forever as I went to Delhi Public School for thirteen years, making it my second home and people there an extended family, but I transferred to Navrachna International last year for the IBDP programme there. I am still a loyal dipsite at heart, and yes I have been tagged in all those DPS memes, so please don’t bother, thank you very much.

If you read carefully, you must’ve noticed a lot of things have changed for me in the recent past; both my confidants- Pratha and didi (who look like twins by the way) moved away, I moved out from the comforts of my second home to foreign grounds, and did I not mention that we are witnessing a global pandemic!

The world seems to be in chaos and yet this lockdown feels like a standstill. I don’t think my generation was ready for this. I thought we had time, we could still turn this global warming scene around, WW3 was far away, we had time! Clearly that’s not what is in the cards for us. This is happening, people are dying and we are helpless. Okay, you are right, we are not helpless. We can save lives simply by lying in our beds, so I hope you are all staying home and making sure people around you are staying home, because we really need to flatten the curve as soon as possible! India has been through a lot; we do not need this.

Anyways, I need to be productive and do something bigger than myself in this long self-isolation period. So this is me trying to be productive and entertain people, maybe.

I’ve been writing for years now, I know it’s nothing special since almost everyone my age is a writer; an Instagram shayar, a blogger, a storyteller, a YouTube slam poet and I swear I am not judging, I too have tried them all, because let’s be honest, GenZ is a generation with overflowing emotions and no vessel to pour them in, but we do have easy access to the internet and so here I am, like many others, saying things I wouldn’t if we met on a street but surely preach if we had an hour to spare.

This blog will have no specific format. It’s just me writing about my observations, my thoughts and judgements on other’s thoughts, but I will also share some works of fiction, some random write-ups, anecdotes, some “Instagram shayaris” and slam poetry. Please bear with me.

Did I forget to mention that I am a feminist wanting to pursue psychology along with literature? Well yeah, that’s that.

Any sort of criticism, or feedbacks will really be appreciated.

Also, if you don’t have a blog to share your thoughts and feelings, I swear I am a good listener. If you conduct a background check on me, I am sure you’ll find some good ratings in the friendship section. So, don’t hesitate in seeking a friend in me.

This was just an introduction to my little conventional world. I hope this helps you to judge me a little and if not come back tomorrow to actually see some of my work.

I’ll be waiting right here because Modiji has asked us to stay right where we are, remember?

Stay indoors, stay safe.

I hope I entertain you a little in the next few days or just make you wonder about life because I have seen seventeen years’ worth of things and I am still wondering.

Yours truly,

Jasmita Shah.