Tag: Birthday

Turning 30 and all that comes with it!

The Big 3 & 0

A few weeks ago, I finally entered the big leagues, welcomed by a mini-pantheon of close friends who had beat me to the 30s. My wife, on the other hand, relished the moment as she is still in her 20s. For now, I’m letting her have the fun, though the countdown has begun for her remaining months before she joins the gang.

We conducted a small celebration at home, made all the more special by the presence of a lovely angel, my baby daughter, who incidentally also turned 3 months old. To top it all off, I finally got my FIRST EVER tasting of tiramisu cake!

And it was YUMMY!

It would later dawn on me that with my 30th birthday I had now spent a third (and a little more) of my life in Edmonton, having first landed in the city in 2009 for my undergraduate studies at the University of Alberta.

I would spend the night reminiscing upon my adventures since then, having accumulated 12 years worth of wonderful memories in this city. With a few more weeks to go until my doctoral defense, it certainly felt daunting that the years had flown by so fast. At the end of the day, I’m thankful to all the wonderful people I have come to meet over these years, and of course the enduring support of my wife, family, and friends!

Enduring a Heat Wave & Getting Vaccinated

Speaking of endurance, the first challenge of my 30th birthday would be a painful heat wave cooking most of Western Canada, for well over a week. My body adapted readily by recalling its prior memories living in the heat of Egypt and Sudan.

Unfortunately, the going would be tough on my wife and my baby daughter. What had once been the bliss of beautifully maintained sleep schedules and playtime hours would be overturned in a chaotic, sweaty, and tiring frenzy in keeping my two babies cool and safe.

Literally, the three of us for most of that week.

On a positive note, the occasion would demonstrate that we have a tough little girl in our daughter who would remain in great spirits despite how exhausted her parents were. The end of the heat wave would coincide with us successfully registering and obtaining our second dose of Covid vaccinations, getting us one step closer to being fully vaccinated.

Beware the Strong Baby

While I initially commended my body for adapting extremely well to the heat, the sudden plummeting and normalization of temperatures would be too much for my now 30 year old body, causing me to fall sick.

This would be further aggravated by a jaw injury imparted to me as a gift by the “gentle” fists of my baby daughter. In what had been a playful habit where I would I allowed her to punch my face, the repeated strikes upon my jaw, pronounced by her new-found strength (thanks to her weight gain) weight would inflame my jaw.

The amusing part of it all being that she absolutely enjoyed punching the crap out of my jaw!
Reality of life

All of which brings me to where I am now, after a week of painkillers and jaw exercises, nearly ready to jump off and fly away from the proverbial tree that is university, with my thesis defense looming in the horizon.

Setting aside studies, I spend my days joyfully alternating between my new responsibilities as a father, while maintaining a constant spam of resumes that I email out to relevant job opportunities. So far, I haven’t had much success, but hey, a journey ain’t no fun without any challenges.

All the while, I strive to persevere and keep moving forward. while preserving my inner peace as per the words of the great master himself,

The Shining, Turning 29, Magical Beans, and everything else!

It has been a productive affair at the working-from-home factory these past two weeks. Let’s get right into it.

The Shining

Upon insistence from a good friend, I finally read my first Stephen King novel in The Shining. Having watched Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of the novel, I went into it expecting a little of the same and was pleasantly surprised by the major differences I found between the adaptation and the original.

Under the current circumstances of working from home and pandemic regulations, the book certainly left its impact with its vivid imagery of psychological terror during isolation. Simply, I enjoyed the novel despite the periodic lulls in tempo I felt throughout the middle-course of the plot before the rising crescendo to an awesome finale. 

Having spent much of the last two weeks doing a fair bit of brainstorming on my word-processor for my new novel, alongside late night story-boarding sessions for my comic book, I couldn’t help but relate to Jack Torrance’s frustrations on getting his writing done, and “correcting” my artwork.

Turning 29

The last week of June also witnessed a great feast hosted by my partner in celebration of my birthday. 29 years old and catching up to the 30 mark, it was a nice and simple celebration at home.

Looking through some old photos amped-up the nostalgia factor. It felt like only yesterday that I had arrived in Edmonton (10 years ago to boot) ready to start my undergraduate studies at the University of Alberta.

I couldn’t help but feel a measure of pride in thinking how far I had come in my journey. I also felt humbled and thankful to everyone who had helped me get to where I am today. The very same people continue to motivate me, even now, to persevere and work hard toward my dreams and goals.

So, a huge thank you to my loving partner, Leina, my ever-loyal family, my rambunctious and motley crew of dedicated friends, and my mentors and teachers who continue to provide me valuable lessons to this day. You guys are the best support crew anyone can ask for and I count myself lucky to have such a family.

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Magical Beans

They say with age comes patience but despite turning the leaf over another biological year in my life, patience wasn’t a luxury in my latest exploits in figure drawing.I managed to knock some sense into myself eventually but until then I was mostly slamming my head into a wall trying my best to overcome my difficulties with the next set of lessons in figure drawing.

These lessons covered the magical beans to be dissected in analyzing the human figure, and I wished it was as easy as advertised on screen.

Good news is I’ve discovered the up-time in my ability to learn a new skill in figure drawing checks in at a consistent four to five day basis. Bad news? I still suffer the Jack Torrance fever when it comes to being patient about getting to the next stage, and will have “correct” said behavior. I can mostly chalk it up to my eagerness and enthusiasm to get better as fast as possible.

Moving on from these magical beans, my gesture drawing has been seeing better days, as I now embark upon the next set of lessons on observing the basic structural forms of anatomy, starting with an assignment in drawing animals!

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45 second gestures. Still got a ways to go…

Everything else

Progress always helps, and having researched a good bit on the subject matter of my new novel, I have been able to brainstorm a good bit and all that remains is to tie up the initial threads to the plot following the main character. Meanwhile, my comic book seems to be going in reverse as I unravel the plot threads in the process of fleshing out the artwork in large storyboards with my amateurish drawings  (for now, at least). 

With that, the curtain falls upon the happening of these last two weeks. I hope to see you all very soon with another post!

Turning 3, and 28

On June 28, 2019, I turned 28 years of age, and The Pensive Reverie completed its online journey of three years with 83 posts, and a sum total of 105 followers. A lot has happened over the last three years, but first I would like to give a big shout-out to my followers and fellow bloggers who have been supportive to the blog’s growth. Thank you very much!

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Looking back to the night of June 27, 2016 when I published my first post in “Introducing Me, and the Pensive Reverie!” I had made a humble goal to reach at least 100 followers on the blog. Three years have flown since then, and having achieved this goal, I’m now even more motivated to further expand and build this blog, not to mention update my personal profile and status! That first blog post began with the question, “Who am I?” Three years down the road, I can now confidently ask myself a different question (one that builds on its predecessor), “Who do I intend to become?”

My name is Ajay Peter Manuel. I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, my home. I hail from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. As a teenager, I traveled around the world with my family. I would complete my elementary education at Cairo, Egypt, followed by my secondary studies at Khartoum, Sudan. I was around 19 years old when I first set foot in Edmonton to begin my higher studies at the University of Alberta. Following the completion of my undergraduate studies in Astrophysics, I would self-publish my autobiography, Our Last Summer: A Personal Memoir, in the summer of 2013. With the book’s publication I would acknowledge an annoyingly persistent identity crisis, and in the years that followed, with the help of my loved ones and friends, overcome the greatest obstacle in my life: myself.

Having learned the price of freedom and individuality, I embraced the mistakes and regrets of my past, learned to live my present, and to happily look towards the future without fear and hesitation.  caption

This journey would culminate in the publication of a second book in A Little Bit of Everything, a treasure trove of memories involving the friends and family who had helped me along my journey, and most importantly my partner and soulmate. Back then, I wished to become an individual who “integrated his various passions in education, innovation, writing, art, music, science, critical thinking, accompanied with an endless appetite for life” and I continue to work hard on that front.

I’m happy to say that I have found my true-calling in becoming a writer and an artist. As I currently pursue a doctoral degree, I intend to further hone my skills on both these fronts, so that I may one day reach my penultimate goal of “sun-lighting” as a prominent science writer, and “moon-lighting” as a writer/comic book artist and animator. My dreams remain as far-fetched as they usually have been, but I can’t deny that as an individual my journey with The Pensive Reverie has motivated me to meet these challenges head-on, and with confidence.

Settling into the fourth year of this blog, I intend to stick to its original message in sharing my life’s adventures, hobbies, and interests. For all incoming and future visitors, I welcome you to read and engage with me on the posts I have written thus far, and hope that you enjoy them. For my current friends and followers, thank you very much once again for your support!

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Passage Of Time…

Gazing out the window, I observe the tempestuous motion of clouds in the sky. The chill of a wet breeze strikes my skin as I swing along with the rhythmic motion of the trees in my neighborhood, dancing to the progressive wind. Relaxing in the comforting solitude of my humble abode, my reflections render a view across time, allowing me to travel back, and revisit the nostalgic memories of the past that led me to my current life.

A journey that began in a small corner of the world, I awakened my dreams at the sight of the luminous lamps of fire that lit up the night sky of my hometown. Contemplating on the questions that beset my curiosity, I stumbled forward, on and on, desperate to seek answers. Soaring upon the wings of my ambitions, I ventured forward into the unknown, finding strength in the arms of three beings without whom I would not be the man I am today (Mom, Dad, Sis, I love you).

Bidding farewell to our last summer, I would pave my own path in life, meeting various personalities along the way, experiences with frequent beginnings, and ends. Reinventing myself over, and over, I eventually discovered my grounds in who I wished to be in the place of another’s heart, completing a journey that brought me full circle to the little bits of everything I found in her, and appreciated in life (Thank you, Leina).

Time waits for no one…and so I wish to fall briefly into the wrenching melancholic, and bittersweet nostalgia of all that has come to be in my life so far. To the friends, and family I have met, and who have supported me along the way I give you my deep-felt thanks. Though we may be distances apart, seeking our own ends in life, our memories together will forever remain in my heart.

Now, as the tides of time push me forward, I find my resolve in the joy of our times together, and remembering those happy days we shared. Embracing the present that is built upon those memories, I find my reason to smile, thankful for all that I have been given in life. Alighting on my 26th birthday, I look toward a new, and grand horizon of adventures to follow. Thus, I’m led forward by the me of tomorrow, who holds my hand, and filled with dreams of the future, but supported all the way, by the me of yesterday, who holds all of our memories together, and follows right along…in what has been my life, or rather a passage of time…

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Cherish the memories of the past, Embrace the present, and happily Anticipate the future…Time may progress inevitably, but it is our choice to make this life, a moment that transcends eternity…

Happy Birthday Sis!

Having a younger sibling isn’t always easy. One moment you find yourself the center of attention, and then all of a sudden, your thunder seems stolen when all everyone talks about is the newest member of the family. At least, that’s how it seemed to me when you entered my life. Little did I know it would be the beginning of a wonderful, and life-long journey of friendship to follow.

I can never forget the day when I first met you. You were the most beautiful baby I had ever seen in my life (you still are, for me). Approaching on my tip-toes, I had come to your side, looking down with great intrigue as you lay fast asleep, your deep breaths coming with the gentle rise, and fall of your full-sized tummy.

You eventually opened your eyes, closing them almost immediately into a narrow slit. The light must have hurt you, but you didn’t give up, as you opened your eyes a bit wider, struggling before they tuned in to focus on my own. It was then you pulled back your lips, your face radiant with a fleeting smile that left me speechless, and overwhelmed. There was no doubt whatsoever. I knew then that this was my baby sister smiling at me, and in  a moment that tied me to you forever, I was utterly, and irrevocably smitten.

You would soon become my best-friend, and my greatest nemesis. You would have my back whenever I needed it the most, and also turned out to be the best partner in crime I could ever ask for. You brought the best in me, and still do so to this very day. Over the twenty-years of our journey together, there is not a moment that I would want to change. While our dreams, and ambitions may take us to different destinations, I can never forget our beginning,  a moment that will always bring us together.

Happy Birthday Annie. On this day, I want you to know, I love you, and will do so forever. Nothing will ever change that. To me, you are and will always be the light in our family, a vibrant flame I wish to protect, and hold dear for all my life.

HappyBDay

Turning 25…

I am now officially 25 years old. I’d celebrated the annual turn of my biological clock (yesterday) which culminated in the usual exclamation (courtesy of a close “friend” of mine):

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I have a habit, on the eve of my birthday, to recollect, and contemplate upon the memories of the year prior. This year’s celebration came with a twist, as I found myself looking ahead instead to the goals I’ve committed to, and hope to realize by my 26th.

The shortlist would include:

(1) The completion of a new book (as well as the start of a bunch of writing projects spanning various genres such as manga, science fiction, and politics).

(2) The completion of my Masters degree (and the subsequent pursuit for a PhD, in Robotics).

(3) A family reunion in the near future, along with various opportunities for short trips around the world to exotic locations (time-permitting).

It’s an ambitious endeavor, but I’m more than ready to see it through to the end. Having saved up some money to gift myself on this occasion with a portable keyboard (a Yamaha PSRE-W400, to be specific), I’m hoping to play out the melodies of my life of the next year as a beautiful composition,

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that I could one day look back to, and just go,

Jokes aside, I’m very happy. I can’t thank my family, and my girlfriend Leina, enough. You have both supported me at every turn. You are the best! So how did I celebrate?

To be frank, it was quite simple.  I had a great time with Leina, during our Shakespearean date, to a live staging of Romeo, and Juliet by the FreeWillPlayers at William Hawrelak Park (a show I highly recommend to anyone who is in Edmonton.)

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The stage was set for the beautiful Shakespearean tragedy at William Hawrelak Park.

The play was a wonderful reminder of the literature study I had done on the same, almost seven years ago in high school. The project’s requirement was a critical analysis of the play’s major themes, in a report of maybe a few pages. I took things to the extreme, submitting instead, a 50 page act-by-act analysis, along with a personal statement, to my distraught professor.

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I “really” appreciate your enthusiasm, but really..?

Having thoroughly enjoyed the show, it wasn’t long until I took a leaf out of Romeo’s quips,

“If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”

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That’s what I’m talking about!

to woo my partner. Rightfully so,  I was bequeathed my gift, all thanks to your eloquent words, William!

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Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the date. Walking back home from the park, against the backdrop of night, Leina, and I had an open view of the sky, bereft of urban structures, and the flickering dance of stars that grace the heavens during the summer season. It was a beautiful sight to behold.
The stars provide a sense of eternity, in their constant appearance.  I can’t say the same about my life, always in motion, and inviting change at every window of opportunity. Learning to accept this was a difficult process, and played a significant role in my struggle to come to terms with my identity. But, in the end, I’m well aware that without such a struggle, I would not be the man I am today, nor would I be surrounded by the people who have supported me every step of the way.
25?  It is an interesting number. I highly anticipate the adventures that lie ahead.
I’d like to thank my family, my friends, and my partner, Leina, for all their love. You all made my day.

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ARIGATO MINNA!!