Tag Archives: Blogging

Day 93

Celebrity-worship and hero-worship should not be confused. Yet we confuse them every day, and by doing so we come dangerously close to depriving ourselves of all real models. We lose sight of the men and women who do not simply seem great because they are famous but are famous because they are great. We come closer and closer to degrading all fame into notoriety. – Daniel J. Boorstin

It’s 6: 35 PM on day 93 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Appam – bread made of rice batter –   and beef curry  for  breakfast,  tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no one has donated so far today but I did make the $25 donation  on behalf of the person that sent me money via PayPal yesterday – I wanted to get the money out of my account and into my campaign ASAP so as to avoid even the appearance of impropriety – feed myself myself Batura – deep fried bread – for lunch,  help my brother make Custard – every time he tested the mixture he had the same thing to say needs more sugar LOL 🙂  –  attempt to get myself off the wheelchair and onto the bed – I love my mom but every time she sees me struggling to do something she just comes in and does it for me – it makes me feel so incompetent 🙁 –   and exercise for 10 minutes  – I should really buy my brother a gift of some sort thanks to him the exercise session didn’t long – he was on my mother’s back –  quite literally – LOL 🙂

Yesterday while on Twitter I was excited to read of a man in Berlin who was cured of HIV by means of a stem cell transplant however, my excitement quickly turned to deep dismay when I realized that more people were taking about The Golden Globes then a man being cured of HIV don’t misunderstand what I’m trying to say I fully acknowledge that everybody has the right to freedom of speech and I would NEVER dream of infringing on that right all I’m trying to say is that with a right to say what you want to say  comes a responsibility to say things that will make this world a better place. Is it just me or have people lost sight of what’s really important?  🙁

Day 92

The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.” – Morrie Schwartz

It’s 6: 43 PM on day 92 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Appam – bread made of rice batter –   and chicken curry  for  breakfast,  tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for most of the day –someone made a $25 donation to my campaign via PayPal which I will upload to my page as soon as my dad gets back from wherever he is  – I used his credit card to make donations on behalf of those who send me contributions via PayPal –    feed myself rice and curry for lunch – and exercise for 20 minutes  – my mother went easy on me today when I said we were done she just let it be truth-be-told I think that she was just too tired to argue with me LOL 🙂

A few weeks ago, my cousins – let’s call the oldest Anna and the youngest Christina for the purpose of this blog – came to visit while I was wring a blog post about how sad I was that I wouldn’t be attending Christina’s wedding I knew Christina’s curiosity would get the better of her so I copied and pasted everything  I wrote onto a new post on WordPress and closed the Word document – or so I thought – a few minutes later  I clicked on something by accident and the Word document popped up and despite my best efforts to close it before she got a chance to read what I wrote she had already read it – I thought I would die at that very moment LOL  🙂 – but after the embarrassment faded and the colour of my cheeks returned to its normal shade I  realized that having feelings  and not expressing them is equivalent to not having any feelings at all. Are you afraid to express your feelings for fear of rejection? 🙂

Day 91

You think you’re alone, but you’re not the only one – Unknown.  

It’s 5: 00 PM on day 91 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Sweet potatoes with a dip consisting of yoghurt, onion and chilli  for  breakfast,  tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – something happened while I was tweeting I was stuck by the crushing realization that unless you’re celebrity or someone in a position of power most people will blow you off when you ask for a donation – I thought I would try my luck and ask Alyssa Milano (the actress who played Phoebe on the popular TV show Charmed) for a donation only to find out that she too had started a fundraiser for Charity Water and raised $19 220. 38 with 18 days still remaining till the close of her campaign – don’t get me wrong I am very happy that Alyssa is using her influence to change lives but I just find it frustrating that when Alyssa asks people donate freely whereas, I could ask a thousand people and have no one donate  🙁 –      feed myself rice and curry for lunch, exercise for 30 minutes – I was in so much pain but I just kept saying without pain there would be no pleasure over and over in my head and before I knew it, it was over 🙂 – and practise picking up the newspaper – every time I picked up the paper I had put my hand on a hot iron – it was like there was a civil war going on between my muscles – not fun at all 🙁

We all have days when we want to scream, yell and throw things at the wall and today as I was struggling to pick up the paper I thought to myself who has to practise picking up the paper and then I realized that there are thousands if not millions of people worldwide have Cerebral Palsy and although I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy I found great solace in the fact that I was not alone in my struggles and this I guess is the massage I’d like to pass onto to you – whatever you’re going through in your life  there’s someone somewhere who’s going through the exact same thing you are. Have you ever had a shared experience with someone who you thought you had nothing in common with? 🙂   

Day 90

“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.” Mother Teresa

It’s 8: 19 PM on day 90 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Batura – deep fried bread –   and chicken curry  for  breakfast,  tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for most of the day –I must have asked about 50 people for a donation and I either got a kiss off or a I congratulate you on the great work your doing – I feel like pulling my hair out 🙁 –  feed myself rice and curry for lunch, go visiting people – it was heartbreaking my father had to check if there were any other people in the house – people other than the people we were intending to visit – before he finally put me on the wheelchair and took me into the house 🙁 – exercise for 20 minutes  – I was having too much fun teasing my grandma about her appetite or lack thereof to be in pain LOL 🙂 – and feed myself bun and chicken curry for dinner.

I met this elderly gentleman today and we got to talking when we were done he went back to the other room to talk to the adults and I overheard him say to my parents she’s such a happy child and despite my annoyance at being referred to as a child I couldn’t help but smile because his remark proved the theory that I’ve been living under for the past few years – you reflect to people how you feel. What do you reflect to the people that you interact with? 🙂

Day 89

Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away. – Barbara de Angelis

It’s 1: 53 PM on day 89 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth,  exercise for 10 minutes – just for a change of pace I woke up early to exercise and it was so much fun that I think I might carry on doing it for the rest of my life 🙂 –   feed myself Puttu – [pronounced put] ground rice with layers of coconut –  and bananas   for  breakfast,  watch TV, feed myself rice and curry for lunch tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign  – a posted a tweet stating that I would give a shoutout to all who donated to my campaign from 2:40 PM to 3:40 PM –no one did 🙁 – and watch the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – the special effects were GREAT but the storyline left a lot to be desired 🙁

There‘s a thin line between passion and obsession that’s what I learnt while I was staring at the giant movie screen in front of me and thinking to myself I wonder if anybody donated please God make somebody donate a loud thump for the speakers snapped me back to reality momentarily snap out of it and enjoy the movie I instructed myself after the moment had passed and it must have worked because I didn’t think about my campaign again until the credits started rolling LOL. Have you ever been guilty of crossing the line between passion and obsession? 🙂

Day 88

“Politics is the art of postponing decisions until they are no longer relevant.” Henri Queuille

It’s 6: 22 PM on day88 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself  All-Bran Flakes  for  breakfast, watch the movie Night and Day with my brother and sister – I will be honest the only reason I wanted to watch it was because was because Tom Cruise was in it LOL 🙂 but it turned out to be a hilarious movie if you like action, comedy or romance this movie is for you – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – life is so strange I spent the best part of three hours asking people for donations and the one person I didn’t ask ended up donating $100 LOL 🙂 – feed myself Batura – deep fried bread –   and chicken curry for lunch and exercise for 10 minutes –I had to do my exercises by myself today because my mother was otherwise occupied trying to get my brother and sister to stop fighting over the Pineapple Juice   – I was laughing my head off LOL 🙂

Every day I watch the news and hear of some or other summit taking place somewhere in the world and yet I am hard pressed to find change coming out of any of these summits, and I can’t help but wonder if the money spent hosting the various summits wouldn’t be better spent, donated to well- deserving organizations who work tirelessly to ensure that every human being has what they need while our so-called world leaders sit around a table and talk. Which aspect of leadership do you think is more important communication or action? 🙂

Day 87

Nowhere on your birth certificate did it say life would be fair.” Trevor Jones

It’s 4: 19 PM on day87 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself  All-Bran Flakes  for  breakfast,   tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for most of the day – I didn’t get any new donations today but I did get another one yesterday evening  – a special thanks  to my friend, Emma (@sapphire100 on Twitter) for helping me spread the word about my campaign – feed myself curry and rice for lunch after which I had some Custard – I made a huge mess of it by the time I was done it looked like half the Custard had ended up on my shirt instead of in  my mouth LOL 🙂 – change my shirt – it took me AN HOUR just to unbutton six buttons – I was so frustrated but something inside me told me that I could do it so I chose to carry on and before I knew it I had unbuttoned all the buttons on my shirt – I was SO happy 🙂 –        and exercise for 5 minutes – my mom was busy so she didn’t have time for a  long-drawn out exercise session – I was SO relieved LOL 🙂

Every experience you go through in this life either breaks you or makes you and as I was unbuttoning my shirt I thought to myself my life is unfair and my counterparts may be able to do the things that I can’t but I’m gonna bring equality to my life simply by perceiving every negative or challenging situation. Has changing your perception changed your life? 🙂    

Day 86

You’ve got to go through hell before you get to heaven” – The Steve Miller Band.

It’s 6: 15 PM on day86 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself  Oats  for  breakfast ,listen to music on YouTube – I heard this wonderful song by Justin Bieber called Pray – it brought tears to my eyes – feed myself  Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and beef curry   for brunch    tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for most of the day – finally after a 17 day donation drought one of my Twitter friends made a donation – thanks God I know that was you … REALLY appreciate it  🙂 –    and exercise for 15 minutes –  I felt like someone was tearing my hamstrings on purpose – I have never had a child but I bet you anything childbirth is less painful than the exercises I do on a daily bases LOL 🙂

Today morning I woke up willing to tweet for as long as it took me to get a donation but by the 20th tweet I was thinking what is the point nobody cares and at that moment I realized something that I will carry with me throughout the course of my life – the people who don’t quit – even when they want to – are the ones who will end up on top at the end of the day. Do you give up prematurely? 🙂   

Day 85

Love your country.  Your country is the land where your parents sleep, where is spoken that language in which the chosen of your heart, blushing, whispered the first word of love; it is the home that God has given you that by striving to perfect yourselves therein you may prepare to ascend to him.  ~ Giuseppe Mazzini

It’s 5: 58 PM on day85 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself  Oats  for  breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for most of the day – I don’t know how Non-Profit Organization do this on a daily bases –when I started this I  thought all I would have to do is set up my Firstgiving page and tell people about it and they would donate boy was I WRONG LOL :)–   feed myself  curry and rice for lunch and exercise for 10 minutes –  today was a GREAT day I barely felt any pain or discomfort 🙂

When people think South Africa they think Nelson Mandela, Table Top Mountain, Robbin Island all of which are an integral part of South Africa as a whole but there is more to South Africa then our many Nobel laureates and World Heritage Sites we have:

  • A variety of wildlife (which contrary to popular belief do not roam around free in the streets but rather are in zoos or national parks)
  • Beautiful beaches
  • Good food
  • The finest wine
  • Great music (see videos below)
  • Wonderful movies (Tsotsi won an Academy Award for  Best Foreign Language Film of the Year in 2006)

Day 84

If what you’re doing isn’t working then do something different – Dr. Phil C. McGraw

It’s 10: 43 PM on day84 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself  a bag of chips  for  breakfast, learn about Exact Equations – I am so happy I’m almost done with Calculus 🙂 – watch the movies Legendary and Prince and Me 4 – I whole-heartedly recommend Legendry it’s all about showing up for life –    feed myself banana  for lunch, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – still no new donations – I just want to SCREAM 🙁 – drink tea by myself, feed myself  Pizza for supper –attempted to change into a clean t-shirt – I got my head out but didn’t have much luck with doing the same with my arms  but hey tomorrow is another day 🙂 –     and exercise for 10 minutes – a big shoutout to my sixteen-year-old sister – Neethu – for helping me out with my exercises today – I know that I get most of mommy’s attention because of my disability but please know that you are NOT invisible – I SEE you 🙂

A good leader must be able to adapt to the current situationchange what’s not working and continue with what is – I learned that yesterday when I was reading Conversations with Myself – a book by Nelson Mandela – and with that said I have decided to change tactic slightly with regards to how I get donations for my campaign – I am looking for a sponsor who will donate $10 each time someone tweets for example, Wal-Mart Water Challenge to Wal-Mart. If you’re interested in sponsoring my water challenge then leave a comment with your contact information or email me at nishavarghese_1991@hotmail.com and I will get back to you ASAP 🙂