Distinctiveness - Travel and Lifestyle Blog

  It's not always that you find a book that mixes sadness and humor to good effect. However, Gail Honeyman's work - 'Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine' is that rare exception that fits the mold. It's has a very unglamorous take on depression, but that is what makes it so real. Sadness isn't fashionable, despite what the movies might suggest. It's not beautiful, it's not charming. Its bittersweet image is a fraud; sadness is entirely bitter and not even remotely sweet. Eleanor Oliphant, as you might have guessed, is not at all fine, even though that is what she claims to be. Isn't that how we all face sadness? We completely deny its existence, we fight the tears when they need to be shed. We often refuse to deal with the darkness, seeking momentary distraction instead. We often fight a lonely battle in the confines of our hearts, gasping for air even as we sink deeper and deeper. Sadly, the journey from sadness to normal isn't a simple a...

  We were a gang, a tribe before this day arrived 24 years ago Few dates have a sense of grief attached to them. They arrive every year, a new day, a new morning, yet the old sadness that lingers in their window curtains never ceases to exist. Time is but a spectator at their doorstep, incapable of exercising her power of regeneration. Unable to heal. Unable to cure. Unable to dismiss tragedies in her waves. I often think about how all of us know of such dates in our lives. Some old, some raw. Days when the lights went out, darkness prevailed and hope seemed like a distant dream. Days when life came to a stuttering stop, time slowed down and the rain refused to end. All that remained was grief. This 10th day of January is one such date. A day from a distant past, yet one which reminds me of an ageless pain. This day whispers to me in a slow sad tone now, speaking of the one who left us more than two decades ago. Reminding me of all the conversations we never had, the movies a...