It is the end of summer
He just lay there, cotton buds in his nose, a white sheet covering his body. His peppery hair fell on his forehead. His eyes that had always glinted with mischief were pursed shut.
Prerna Vij
Studying Vigilantes, Indian politics and political violence. Sometimes, I watch romantic comedies.
Book Review- Rahul Bhatia's The Identity Project
I came of age in an India that was already traipsing through rapid social and institutional transformation. I was 19 when the Bharatiya Janata Party came into power for the second time with a sweeping majority in 2019. Shielded by my privilege, life continued albeit not without hiccups. I was 20, when the anti CAA protests gripped the country and I learnt to recognize Hum Dekhenge as a rallying cry. I was 21, when North East Delhi was gripped with a communal riot; students at my alma mater gathered in droves to organize and send relief materials to ease out the pain of those injured. My political consciousness moved and shifted as I studied and witnessed the politics of my country. Friends, family, family friends were suddenly awakened from a political stupor(or so I had thought for a long time). Drawing room discussions quickly devolved into shouting matches and accusatory fingers pointed towards complacent people for their inability to witness the current regime as anything but revolutionary. I was 22, when I first tweeted something about the regime and instead of measured consideration received a barrage of hate in my dms and replies. I was 23 when my well meaning Professor indicated that my application for a scholarship to study the current regime might not receive due consideration because of its political nature.
Prerna Vij
I give it a solid 5/10. Gold is SO out of style
The politics of the Big fat Indian Wedding(The Ambanis)
Prerna Vij
On Writing
When I was in 5th grade, my school had three different exams for the languages we were taught. We had the grammar exam, a literature exam and a creative writing exam. You would get prompts or pictures in the creative writing exam and you could write whatever in the two hours we were given. I remember chewing on my pen, trying to write up stories that mirrored my favorite authors. Which was basically Enid Blyton. I was in awe. How could someone write characters I could read again and again. Children who went swimming in creeks and ate pot pie for breakfast. And so I would sit in these exams, and try to write to life those same characters that I was moved by. If someone had been able to run my stories through turnitin then, I would definitely have failed for plagiarism. But I did not know that at that point, there was such a thing as a logical flow, or a workable plot. I mean one of the stories I wrote for my Hindi creative writing exam was about a friendship between a horse and girl.
Prerna Vij
On Grandparents
I must admit, that most deeply personal things I have ever written has featured my grandparents. In an almost cliche, all of my personal essays to various colleges in my undergrad were about how my grandfather was an inspiration-- and his untimely death a monumental event in my life.
Prerna Vij