#feel like this is the experience of a lot of indian kids

[evermoredeluxe]

i'm indian-american too, and i feel like there's so much cultural strife around family. like my mom, dad, and brother are my whole world. i love them and i'd do anything for them. but sometimes it's really, really hard to feel like there are tears in the family unit and in our lives that can't really be fixed. and everyone has their own way of avoiding it that sometimes compounds in a really shitty way, especially when all of us know what/who the problem is but no one can confront it. so obviously i don't know your situation inside and out or anything, but i get some of where it's coming from. it's so great to have this closeness but also SO hard sometimes. especially while you still live with your parents

i understand you so very much. and i live with my parents too so best believe i understand that dynamic. it’s easier with my mom, but like with my dad, it’s just so many conflicting emotions. everything i do in life is possible because of him, from studying to living in general. but then there’s so much toxic stuff he’s done (which im not gonna share) that makes me go “how can i be grateful to a man who did all of those things? but how can i not be grateful either?” i feel like i owe stuff to him. with my sister, i feel So Much for her regarding what she has gone through, but my cruel bad brain won’t let go of what she put (past and present in different ways) me through. but i sympathize so much with that i will lie to her face every time about it all being okay. all of them are my world, and i love them and hate them at the same time.

[foldingfittedsheets]

No one made any distinction to me when I was growing up when a word wasn’t English. Andale was just another way to be told “hurry up,” and I was certain other parents told their kids, “Watch your cabesa,” when getting into the car. I laughed myself sick the first time I saw Dragon Ball Z because a ladies name was Chi Chi and I only knew that meant boobs.

All my moms family was brown and I desperately wished I was too. I wanted beautiful black hair like my mom and dark skin that didn’t burn. I didn’t like when people asked my mother if she was my nanny when they saw us together. I didn’t like that people told me I looked like my dad. They just meant I was pale.

I’d proudly announce to people that I was Mexican and become furious when they gaped or disbelieved me. My dads side has no cultural roots. When questioned my dad shrugs and says, “English maybe? I dunno.” I just wanted to be Mexican growing up. Alas, I’m only a quarter descendant of an immigrant family who vehemently didn’t want to be Mexican.

My great grandmother announced that we were American now, not Mexican. She embraced American culture as much as possible, while never learning English. My nana was put into school and punished anytime she spoke Spanish. She got caught halfway between both languages. Forced to spend her childhood raising her younger siblings she never learned to cook tamales with her mother and her friends.

When she had her own children she didn’t teach them Spanish. She used it to gossip with her own friends about them on the phone and resisted teaching them more than to come running when she shouted “Araña!” to kill a spider for her.

Thus came my mom, with her brown skin and dark hair, adrift from her culture but treated as lesser by her adopted one. My great grandmother would rejoice to see me as her descendant, white, ignorant of Spanish, the perfect American she wanted her family to be.

When I was born my nana shouted, “What’s that red on her?” only to realize it was my hair. She delighted in her palest grandchild, telling me often I was her favorite.

I’m used to the disbelief now when I tell people I’m Mexican. I can laugh and show pictures of my mom. My friend from work joked to me that I’m always coming out of the closet, over and over, because both my minority statuses aren’t as visible as her black skin.

I was recently lamenting this to a white southern friend the same one I cast psychic damage on during a DnD day. “I wish I could feel more connected to my culture, but I’d be such a fraud pretending my life is the same as other Hispanic people.”

“Skin color doesn’t matter,” he announced blithely to the choked outrage of our Indian friend in the kitchen, “You’re just as Mexican!”

I regarded him in astonishment and said, “I think skin color matters a lot. I am Mexican, but I don’t have the same cultural roots or experiences of people who are perceived as Mexican. My family didn’t pass the cultural heritage down. I think a lot of immigrant kids feel this way but it’s different for me.”

He rambled about how I’m just as valid and I quietly disregarded his advice. I could try to reconnect with my roots, but I know I’d just be another white girl pushing into a POC space.

Instead I make tamales by myself, sweating over the steaming corn husks, and I snap at people who make racist jokes about my family to me, feeling safe because my skin is the same color as theirs.

[punkpandapatrixk]

🎡Cosmic Messages for Workers of Light ♦︎ Timeless Pick A Card

Those of you who’ve always had a feeling that you were born to do something important; those of you who’ve recently been feeling like you’re being called to something higher than the mundane; YO, this reading has appeared in your Reality now to signal that the lights are green~🥝🥦🥑

Many people have been on different timelines that are now converging as one singular trajectory of where Humanity is heading. It’s a little bit more convoluted than that tho, because we each experience this Game a whole lot differently, too. But essentially, we’re wrapping up karmic cycles and entering a Golden Age of Workers of Light~★

Technically speaking, the essence…the theme…of the New Age of Aquarius is accountability. This is an era of accountability, folks. People can no longer be supported by any kind of cosmic power to perpetuate deceit and the misuse of knowledge.

‘But when knowledge is abused or put to the servility of coining wealth for a few, without respect of the treasury which all inherit, then humanity departs from the machine and all is toil without profit. For the false-hearted who would tear knowledge apart, diminishing the light and shielding its beams from us, will make mechanicals of us all.’ – excerpt from Manifesto of The Guild of Artificers; The Steampunk Tarot

What’s your current timeline? Which trajectory of the future of Humanity are you on? This reading serves as a prelude to what’s going to be revealed more in-depth in the ‘Lion’s Gate Portal to XXX’ PAC~💋

INTELLIGENCE: Mission Mind Control (1979) on Nuclear Vault

TECHNOMAGY: Probability Alteration and Luck (Energetically Programmed Audio) by Sapien Medicine

deck-bottom: XXI The World Rx, Silver Geographer (Francis Drake) & Priestess of Shine

[PAC Masterlist] [Patreon] [Paid Readings]

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 1 – You’re Going to Change the World by Making It Innocent Again

ANGEL NUMBERS: variants of 585, 627, 657, 757, 818, 828

the meaning of NOW – 6 of Pentacles Rx

Have you ever had glimpses of imagination, or a sense of knowing, or it’s just a feeling, like you were dropped to Earth by mistake? Perhaps it’s a feeling as if you were a Greek god banished from the realms of the gods and entered Earth as a form of punishment? Or a bit of a feeling like you got scammed and arrived on the wrong Planet? LMAO Why am I thinking of that Bollywood movie called ‘PK’?

The alien kid arrived on a strange Planet: Earth. And Humanity—Indian primarily—befuddles the living shit out of him XD I think you’ve known for quite a while that you’re not from around here. You’ve never really fit in. I think you weren’t treated nicely by most people—could be your own blood ‘family’, could be your schoolmates, teachers, neighbours. Just basically, you’re seen as a bit of a freak.

It’s hard for you to feel a sense of community. No matter what stage of Life you are in, it’s always felt like that. If at the moment of reading this you’re older in age, I think you’re managing a lot better now. You’ve learnt to be OK with your own company because you’re the most smartest and interesting person you could have conversations with. But if you’re comparatively younger, you’re probably still going through the motion, and that’s OK, because it’s just part of the lore building ;P

bridging the future – King of Wands

The simplest truth about your existence is that you aren’t meant to ‘grow up’ in the same sense as most other people do. Growing up is a wonderful thing, of course, we all need to grow up and become smarter and amazinger! But what doesn’t sit right with you is people’s twisted idea of ‘growing up’ is all about. To most lame-ass Humans on this Planet, ‘growing up’ means abandoning the core essence of what makes you, you.

On this Planet, ‘growing up’ means letting go of your innocence and simple kindness in exchange for survival and brutality (in the workplace, I guess). Here on this Planet, ‘growing up’ means burning your passion to ashes; not living Life fuelled by a burning passion. Here, ‘growing up’ means being punished for authenticity and the childlike courage to question authority. Growing up, here, means becoming complicit to evil abuse of power and greed.

How are you supposed to comply to any of that? Don’t you realise how pure your Heart is? Your sense of justice is clear since day one. It’s something you may not be able to express clearly but you know what’s right and wrong on the basis of what’s good and bad for people as….just people…not numbers or statistics or traffic or casualties. ‘People are PEOPLE, dammit!’

you’re going to MAKE IT – 3 of Cups Rx

You’re befuddled? This world is befuddled! If you’ve chosen this Pile as your main pile, you have it written in your Soul’s blueprint that you’re going to be involved in the politics of the world. Yes, some of you could become politicians or activists, but even those that aren’t interested in any of that, you’re still going to have opinions and perspectives that touch on the subject of Humanity and how psychopath politicians are fucking things up for Humans.

You know what I mean? Some of you could become world players that implement new laws and principles in your society. Some of you will have the power to influence public opinions so that people begin to demand accountability from their corrupt governments. Back to basics, baby. What is Humanity, basically? What does it mean to even be Human living in a Human World, basically? You’ve questioned all of this and you will one day have a platform to extend this musing to a larger audience.

The lights are GREEN now. You’ve experienced so much personal conflict with people who don’t understand your values, all so you would learn to forge connections with people who are just as innocently passionate as you are. That was your training ground, bitch~♥︎ Your personal experiences were a microcosm model of what’s going to sweep out the entire world in the coming decades, if not centuries.

Basically, it's time nations started actually taking care of their own issues before they raid and destroy other nations for resources is what your Soul is understanding.

TIMELINE🔻💛

daydreaming – Gold Magus (Johannes Faustus)

engaging in Reality – Priestess of Innocence

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 2 – You’re Not Confused; This World Is; So You’re Alright

ANGEL NUMBERS: variants of 111, 123, 222, 414, 444, 647

the meaning of NOW – 9 of Cups

Head in the clouds, baby? You’re the type of person who has many dreams and ideas, and it’s like, it’s easy for you to get interested in all kinds of pursuits. But then, it’s also just as easy to lose interest in all of those novelties; it feels like your heart and mind are always being pulled by newer interests or topics. I’m reminded of this meme or whisper that says something like, ‘Not tonight babe. A YouTuber has just posted a 4-hour video about a topic I’ve never heard about before.’

You like to study new things or basically just drown yourself in new hobbies/interests because you’re trying to make sense out of your very existence. I think you’ve felt incredibly confused your entire Life. If not ‘confused’ per se, it still feels like you’re lacking a sense of direction. You don’t really know what’s the purpose of being here on this Planet. You’re weirded out by the fact that you’re not motivated by the same things that others have convinced you to get excited about.

‘Why am I not motivated by these promises and achievements? Damn, I simply can’t be motivated by something as unromantic as that. There’s no Life in any of those pursuits. My God, what should I be interested in for me to motivate myself to make something out of myself? I really don’t know what to pursue in this world. I don’t even know how to live…’ So you continue to daydream but your heart is quite heavy sometimes.

bridging the future – Ace of Cups Rx

Pile 2, you are magic, you know that? Being the way that you are, you aren’t in the wrong for being rather ‘impractical’. If anything, you’re so high-vibrational that you still remember that physical manifestation comes from the dream world first. I think you’d resonate with being a very Feminine person, aenergetically speaking? Maybe you have a strong Moon/Neptune placement in your birth chart as well.

You remember on a Soul level that all dreams can become real as long as you keep on to them. Your being a dreamer who dreams ‘too much’ is not wrong; it is this world that’s too rigid and restrictive. It’s grotesque how society has set up so many rules that limit what a being as divine as you can and can’t do/create. They say the sky’s the limit; in your case, your faith’s the limit.

There are many wonderful things that you want to make manifest but you often tell yourself that you’re dreaming too much or that there’s no way someone like you could ever achieve that. That’s where you’re doing ‘wrong’: the not believing in your own ability to create your dream Life. Remember that successful people usually say that the Life they have now exceeds even their ‘wildest’ dreams.

So dream wild. Dream big. Even if you don’t believe you can exceed your expectations, can’t you still believe that you’ll manifest something very similar?

you’re going to MAKE IT – 9 of Wands Rx

Stop stopping yourself, OK? Stop gaslighting yourself for fuck’s saké. Right now, you need to stop believing that Life’s supposed to be hard work and lived logically. You literally deserve to get paid for just existing. That sounds extra narcissistic but hope you get the idea. This modern society that favours hard work and believes that only after you’ve worked really hard can you then be worthy of a lot of abundance is stupid. This world is confused. People have forgotten the essence of dreaming and living in ease.

Some of you will resonate with being a fairy or an elven soul, and so you believe from the depths of your heart that people should be allowed an easy existence in harmony with nature. Some of you will resonate with being a futuristic alien android being who believes that human lives can be made easy with the right use of technology.

All in all, cosmically speaking, your Soul came into this world to be a ‘lazy’ genius who will switch things up for Humanity so that everybody can have an easier time existing on this Planet. Geniuses are never lazy, bitch. Not in the mind! If wanting things to be more streamlined and easy to do makes a person ‘lazy’ that’s hilarious. So what’s a not-lazy person? A low-IQ idiot who perpetually works hard because they got scammed by capitalism?

TIMELINE🔻💙

daydreaming – Green Magus (John Dee)

engaging in Reality – Priestess of Ambition

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 3 – Illuminate Others’ Paths by Simply Expressing Your Truth

ANGEL NUMBERS: variants of 211, 217, 303, 522, 814, 999

the meaning of NOW – 3 of Swords Rx

Do you know that you’re an energy worker? I almost feel you’re a miracle worker. You’re somebody who has a special power in the way that you express yourself, whether in writing or spoken. It’s not so much what you say or write or do, it’s HOW you say or do or write your truth that moves people’s hearts. You have the power to stir some shit up in people’s aenergetic fields LOL

You have both the power to destroy your enemies and heal those who want to get better in the world. If your power is speech, it’s the aenergy with which you talk that empowers people. Ionno, think JFK, MLK? Or some fascinating YouTubers who make us feel like, ‘Oh this guy/gal is my spirit animal!!!’ It’s their aenergy, right? Same with writing or any other thing that you do. It comes natural to you to create some kind of a ripple in people’s consciousness.

For other people, just tuning in your aenergetic space stirs them. That’s why you experience a lot of extremes. Good-hearted people feel immensely healed, comforted and uplifted in your presence or when they talk/text with you. But the false-hearted ones, they also know there’s something about you that calls out their bullshit even when you’re not ‘saying’ anything. There’s something about you that inspires people to be better! And that’s fucking annoying to narcs and the losers of the world LMAO

bridging the future – 10 of Pentacles Rx

I see that you’re honestly not the kinda person who’s ambitious about changing the world, about influencing the world. Not in that ambitious manner like some activist or whatever. Your Soul is very incredibly superbly soft; you ain’t an activist, you’re an artist; you ain’t a fighter, you a lover, baby~ So I get that you sometimes don’t really know what to do with yourself XD Like there’s this desire to heal the world, but you don’t think of yourself as someone who’s fighter enough or strong enough to do any of that.

WRONG. You’re the kinda entity who’s already doing all that healing stuff by simply being the amazing person that you are. Your aenergy is like a combination of both Pile 1 and 2. The half of you is superbly soft and dreamy and you’re so kind and empathetic; the other half of you is fiercely protective of those who are hurting, and you do a lot to make things better and easier for them—in your own practical, seemingly small ways.

The good news is, you really don’t have to be a fighter if it doesn’t suit you. Basically, you just have to be yourself and express your truth. In whatever way you find most suitable to you. Your power lies in your communication, self-expression, connection. You’re going to be a trend-setter, babe~ A trend-setter of authenticity, yup, ‘real authenticity’, ironically; not ‘fake authentic’ that’s propagated by a lot of narcs on the Internet LOL

you’re going to MAKE IT – 3 of Pentacles

With narcs who are pretending so HARD at being good, you know it’s all skin-deep; it’s all just jargon. And they’re gonna get really good at weaponizing self-love concepts to justify shit behaviour, deadbeat behaviour, toxic tendencies, gaslighting atrocities and all that shit, you know? With you, your VIBRATIONS can’t be faked, let alone emulated. The world needs a role model like you. That’s why you’re going to make it. Your Soul Mission ain’t just about you, babe~

You’re literally going to be the example whom people bear witness for what being authentic is all about. They will watch you and come to their own conclusion what a genuine soul looks like. You’re reminding me of Dr Jordan B Peterson. Yep, that kinda vibe. Be weird all you want, be scandalous all you want, the right people will see that your INTENT has been good all along. And in that sense, the people who CHOOSE to view you badly are the CLOWNS, and they’re gonna be proving that to themselves.

In essence, most people’s idols are all LIARS!!! You’re meant to break that, destroy that, and usher in a new era of influencers/celebs/thought leaders/spiritual teachers/all kinds of public figures that actually operate on Light—real information and real intent—instead of fake-ass jargon that lies to people’s faces with semantics and optics! Your aenergy is insane it’s literally gonna change the world massively, and upon finding this reading, you’re riding on the winds of CHANGE so get fucking READY, bitch~! \`★_★`/

TIMELINE🔻🧡

daydreaming – Green Astronomer (Nicolaus Copernicus)

engaging in Reality – Priestess of Illumination

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

[PAC Masterlist] [Patreon] [Paid Readings]

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Madhubala (Mughal-e-Azam, Barsaat Ki Raat, Mr. & Mrs. '55)—The Venus of India; heart-throb of all who saw her; responsible for the sexual awakening of every single desi lesbian I know (including me!) And my god, she is breathtakingly beautiful. Look at the subtle grace with which she moves, and that smile - the kind of radiant smile that can make you laugh with sheer delight, or cry because of its hidden pain. Those wild curls! That Cupid's bow! The way she tilts back her head and smiles at you with mischief dancing in her eyes! She has a way of looking at the camera that makes you feel she's sharing a private joke just with you; it's something about that quizzical twist of the lips and eyebrows. As an actress, she is inimitable; she seems to effortlessly inhabit roles ranging from a heart-broken courtesan to a laughter-loving socialite. Fun fact : she's had quite the fan following in Greece! Stelios Kazantidis even wrote a song as a tribute to her.

Linda Darnell (Hangover Square, Unfaithfully Yours, A Letter to Three Wives)— Her dick is ENORMOUS. She was Fox’s resident bad girl for a while, and she was goddamn sexy during it. She could also play sweeter, and she was still beautiful when she wasn’t crushing men beneath her heels, but also she sometimes crushed men beneath her heels and it was really hot

This is round 4 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Madhubala:

An icon of Bollywood, who was well known for her beauty and has continued to inspire performances and songs into the 21st century. She was at times described as "the number one beauty of the Indian screen" and "the biggest star in the world".

SHE IS EVERYTHING AHHH. JUST LOOK AT HER SMILE-

She's been nicknamed the Marilyn Monroe of India and was one of the highest paid actresses in the Hindi film industry (the term Bollywood did not exist yet) during the 1950s. Also an extremely talented dancer and singer

SHE'S JUST SO STUNNING, like seeing her eyes IMMEDIATELY CAPTIVATES YOU, THE DANCING, THE BEAUTY!!!!!!!!! She worked in Bollywood for over 20 years and passed away at a sad early age of 36, BUT THE IMPACT SHE HAD WAS UNMATCHED!!!!!

That sassy sideways glance she does always has me WEAK AT THE KNEES. And when she's making silly faces at the camera to mimic someone ahhhh my gay little heart <3

Linda Darnell:

LOOK AT THOSE EYES. She redefines sultry and dreamy.

ok i have a lot of feelings about linda darnell. she was so complex and messy and talented and just such a tragic figure and deserved so much better. her mom basically ignored the rest of her kids in favor of pushing linda into hollywood, which led to her missing out on a lot of childhood experiences, prevented her from enrolling in college, and caused some mental health issues later in life. it’s especially heartbreaking that she met such a preventable end so early in life, and i always wonder what might’ve happened if she had been able to make more movies. she also disliked the hollywood social scene, which i think is totally valid of her. anyway, i loved her in a letter to three women and unfaithfully yours, and especially in no way out, which i think is one of her better roles, really showcasing her acting ability. and the fact that she never really got recognition keeps me up at night,, in my heart she has all the oscars

[starryalpacasstuff]

Knock Knock Boys: A Queer Asian Lens

I didn't watch Knock Knock Boys as it was airing, because it didn't really seem like the kind of show I'd be into. However, this post by @lurkingshan and @waitmyturtles' enthusiastic recommendation convinced me to give it a shot. Having binged the entirety of the series in a day, I can say that the show was an absolute delight to watch.

I've seen plenty of people talking about how wonderfully sex positive the show was, so I'm not going to bother with going too much into it, but I will say that the drama clearly showed the kind of sex education and awareness that is desperately needed around the world. I also really liked how Lukpeach and Latte were the ones responsible for pretty much all of the sex education in the show. It was very realistic in that, in my experience, it's extremely common for teenagers and young adults to get a majority of their knowledge about sex from their friends and the internet. The show had a very clear message about the importance of talking freely about sex with younger generations, because the taboo on the topic only harms teenagers in the long run.

Now, besides that, there was one more issue that I thought the show did wonderfully: it showed how asian kids are often hesitant to discuss things with their parents because they assume the worst in the beginning. I'm having some trouble articulating this, because it's such an abstract, ingrained concept to me, so forgive me if this is incoherent. I'm also generalizing my experience as an Indian, so please do correct me if I'm wrong here. That being said, having been raised in a society that values respect and listening to elders without question, discussing alternate ideas with parents can be a very difficult thing for most of us. It's easy to assume what parents would say to an idea and decide that trying to convince them otherwise is a task that is either futile or requires too much energy.

The best way I can describe is that the mindset becomes "It's better to ask for forgiveness if you get caught instead of asking for permission straight away". For example, had Almond asked his mother if he could stay with three other guys, she would've most definitely flat out refused, since she would've had a lot of preconceived notions about the idea. But, because Almond is able to show her that he's happy as he was, she was perfectly fine with him continuing to stay with the others. I think that's the hallmark of most asian parents, they want us to be happy but they're convinced that they know what kind of life will make us happy. They did something similar with Peak and his father, but my feelings on that are a little more complex, so we'll come back to this.

Peak and Thanwa, man. I loved Latte and Almond but these two just stole the show for me. I know some people felt frustrated with Peak's dallying and hesitance, but I just felt so sad for him, and something about his situation just hit very close to home. And Seng, the actor that he is. One particular moment that stuck with me was the scene when he leaned against the door while Jumper attacked Max. I must've rewatched that moment half a dozen times, because his acting was impeccable. I will say, I wish that they'd given us a better resolution on the arc after Max, but those are mostly minor quibbles. What I really wanted to talk about was the arc with Peak's father. Peak gathering the courage to tell his father with the support from his found family was beautiful. The scene at Knock Knock House the day before Peak left was one of the most magnificent, emotionally charged scenes I've seen in asian ql in a while. Coming from a societ wherein arranged marriage is the norm, the storyline hit hard in all the right places.

But. I did not love the resolution of the arc. I think we've had some conversation about how some shows try to be both in the bubble and out of the bubble simultaneously, and the last two episodes of the show felt a little like that. From what we knew about the father, it felt almost too easy for him to simply accept everything right away. There should have been some struggle for reconciliation. I know that the show has a theme of assumptions and lack of communication disrupting parent-child relationships, but in this case how fast they move on just seems unrealistic. My cynicism aside, even if we assume that the father wasn't homophobic, there should've been more of a conversation on the breaking of the engagement! The social implications, the father asking him why he didn't say anything for so long, Jane's involvement (how did the father know that she knew about this?). The only argument I can see against this is that the father, while initially put off by the revelation, chose to act otherwise to support his son. But then, he most likely wouldn't have insisted they take his car. And there still should've been some sort of a conversation about the engagement. Arranged marriages have a purpose; it's to provide financial and social security. I find it extremely hard to believe that a father who arranged a marriage for his son wouldn't have so much as discuss the implications of being gay with him. They tried to have the engagement have consequences with the wedding banquet, but the resolution for that really only made it worse. This is cynical of me, but I simply cannot suspend my disbelief enough to believe that the entire wedding party was perfectly happy with the turn of events. This whole resolution just seemed out of place in a show that was otherwise so wonderfully grounded in reality while still being absolutely hilarious. I think, if the show had done something a little more similar to GAP, it would've felt more realistic.

All of that aside, I really did enjoy watching the show. It was hilarious and heartwarming, and the characters were absolutely wonderful. The resolution of the final arc did drag it down a little, but I would be lying if I said that watching two queer couples get to celebrate their relationships with their community didn't warm my heart at all (Also, side note- Jane having a girlfriend was a brilliant subversion). All in all, it's a great series. It definitely felt like something new and fresh compared to the kind of qls that I've been watching lately.

[reasonsforhope]

"FYI to the non-parents out there, it takes at least 15 pairs of shoes for a child to grow from a toddler to a teenager—that’s a lot of trips to the Footlocker.

Fortunately, an Indian entrepreneur from Pune has designed a line of shoes that slowly uncurl as the child ages, intuitively solving the problem and reducing unnecessary manufacturing waste.

Called Aretto, the shoes were designed by Satyajit Mittal and his childhood friend Krutika Lal. Their innovative knitted uppers are designed with all the qualities a parent would want their kids’ shoes to have—durability, flexibility, and washability.

“Children do not wear the right shoes for the first ten years of their lives,” Mittal, who designed the Aretto shoes with consultations with concerned childhood podiatrists, told The Better India.

“Between zero and three years of age, children’s feet size changes every three months, and you need roughly 15 sizes between zero and nine, before attaining final foot size at 13 years. We figured out the problem that while feet grow, their shoes do not.”

What the podiatrists explained to him was that children have a broader footprint than adults, due to their not having worn shoes for most of their lives like adults. Tens of thousands of nerve endings provide the feedback needed for children to understand how to use the miraculous musculature in their feet to walk and run.

Most infantile and childhood shoes don’t consider this, and based on the frequency at which parents need to buy new shoe sizes, proper foot function is probably never even taken into account, and the occasional stuffing of toddler feet into shoes too small or too large, can disrupt this critical muscle development.

“We wanted to give children the right fit for all cycles. We chose one shoe to cover three sizes that allow 18 mm growth. We took inspiration from how a flower blooms from the bud stage to the fully-flowered stage. The transition happens organically every day. We applied this concept to the shoe,” said Mittal.

“We started working on a shoe that flexes as per the feet. Simply put, as and when the feet grow either from the front or back or sideways, and when a child wears this shoe, it expands accordingly and takes the shape and contour of their feet. That’s why children feel comfortable wearing such shoes,” he adds.

The shoes are priced between Rs 1,800 and Rs 2,600, ($22 – $31) and are available internationally as well, provided that international buyers have either an Indian bank, or Google Pay, Amazon Pay, or WhatsApp Pay.

The shoes are fairly new on the marketplace but have already generated 21 lakh, or Rs 2.1 million ($25,000) in revenue."

-via Good News Network, 4/10/23

Note: This is very mundane in some ways, but it's also something that's going to legit make a difference for some kids/families. One annoyingly regular problem/cost off the backs to parents.

Also, can say from painful experience that wearing shoes that don't fit or aren't supportive can Fuck You Up longterm--some people just get the pain from it sooner than others. So this design sounds fantastic

[liamknightlotl]

Hatgang Art! With headcannons^^

Roy is white lol. Gets his eyes from his dad and most other features from mom. I gave him longer lashes because I like to think him and Rick are distant related. Will probably need glasses later but won't use them. He's unlabled duh Bros like 13 - 15 :) .

Most teens start exploring but don't know by then or st least from my experience.

I like to think Ross looks more like his dad but has his moms smile and he really likes it. Gets old band shirts from dad too. He's white (mom), Hispanic and Egyptian with a little of Indian. Just mixed doesn't know everything from his dads side. Very punk very grunge cool kid. I usually draw Ross somewhat androgynous and I wanna say he's questioning. so he / they!

Tallest untill they get older and then Roberts got him beat by a long shot but their about the same height.

Robert will eventually be taller than his brother >:]

He's Mexican and white mostly Hispanic tho. Love drawing his hair. Him and Radford I give very textured hair. They both look like mom. Robert is a trans boy! (Like me 🤭) unlabled other wise.

Like the idea of poly gang but not as much unless their aged up. Seen a lot of uncomfy art when you open Google💀 aged up also has other headcannons but another day another drawing

Didn't render this as good as I usually do just a chill doodle :)

These boys are my comfort characters in this fandom beside wage gang but the boys are just more relatable to me . Lemme know your headcannons if you feel like sharing :))

[tommystummy]

So, I have a doubt ( I am a straight women ,27 and Indian ) is it a crime that White man is attracted to white man in US bcoz I have seen a lot discourse that u only ship bucktommy bcoz they are two white man , So if they are both white they can't have feelings for each other , I am genuinely curious bcoz I don't know the dynamics in US or races in that country .

If you are uncomfortable to answer this I can understand

Thank you

and I just want to say I also really would like to Ravi to be main in S8 and rooting for Ravi begins and Tommy begins and Haters gonna hate no matter what the ethnicity /race/gender if that isn't your ship

Ok so if I understand this ask correctly you’re asking why people say “you only ship them because they’re two white men” as a negative for BuckTommy and the answer is essentially that due to racial dynamics in the US, Eddie is considered not “really” white because he’s Latino (more accurately he’s Mexican, Latino is a cultural group the same way Dravidian is, for example) and Latinos experience a lot of discrimination in the US. So the implication is supposed to be that someone is being racist for shipping Buck and Tommy over Buck and Eddie

See, on Tumblr, there’s some people that think you can’t just dislike a ship, it has to be proven as immoral for other people to like it at all, so they pick the opposing ship apart to “prove” it’s “problematic.” Hence why last week someone tried to lie about the only BuckTommy scene in the episode to try to say that Tommy responded to Buck’s attempt at connection by “bringing up Daddy kink out of the blue” (if you watch the scene, Buck says “I guess we both have daddy issues” and the flirting continues from there) or trying to say that Tommy calling Buck “Evan” is proof he doesn’t respect Buck/is just like Buck’s parents/etc or that calling him “kid” makes him a predator. (All real things I read in the tags of that post btw)

Of course what makes this funny to me is that I have actually been in a fandom where two men were shipped together primarily because they were white men in close proximity to one another, to the detriment of the canon relationship between the white man and the Latino lead: Teen Wolf. I am very aware of what happens when a barely-supported-by-canon ship between two white men takes over the fandom and starts pushing out fans of color and letting racism against the other characters run rampant. This is not that. People ship Buck and Tommy because they are dating.

[metamorphesque]

its so comforting to see someone unbashedly love their country and culture. the way u write and speak of it its so refreshing to me. im from india and well, the state of our country isnt good our fascist leader is successfully dividing the people and its so rare these days to find ppl just simply love where they come from, culture and language without any hate for anyone else. so i absolutely adore it when i see u talk abt armenia its like one can see how much care u hold for the language and the country. wishing for peace and sending love x

I am sorry, dear, that dark clouds are looming over your bright and colorful land of magic. In my lifetime, I’ve had the pleasure of encountering a few young Indian people (both in real life and online), and I have a lot of love and respect for your nation and its culture. I am sure that brighter days are awaiting both our homelands.

You see, what I’ve noticed is that some people often confuse their fatherland with their government. The hatred that they have toward the latter often taints the love and respect they ought to have toward their homeland. But, once and for all, we must remember that these two are not synonymous. Fatherland is a place where the roots of history, culture and identity intertwine. A fatherland is not just a geographical location; it is a sanctuary of shared memories, values and traditions passed down through generations. It represents the collective spirit of a people, their history, struggles and triumphs. To call a place one's fatherland is to cherish it as a cradle of life, as one’s own home.

To me, the love one has for their fatherland is like a mathematical function that always moves towards infinity (its designated final value) but never quite reaches it. One can never love their fatherland enough. There’s always something more you can do, there’s always something better you can do. I guess the vessel that carries one’s love toward their homeland is only ever fully filled when one gives up their life to protect their fatherland.

I can only speak from my own experience – I was raised historically and, more or less, politically conscious. When you’re a six or seven-year-old impressionable kid and you visit The Museum of The Armenian Genocide of 1915, you see the photographs, the articles, all the documentation that exists – firstly, you’ll never be the same again, and secondly, your naïve childish brain thinks that, as you’ve always been told, whenever someone commits a crime or does something bad, they get punished. Then I looked around and noticed that these heinous crimes, these massacres, were not only left unpunished, but the whole thing was swept under the rug by the world, as if it never happened. Then you grow up, sharing borders with the enemy, the dagger of war swaying upon your head, with every new day bringing more and more deaths of Armenian soldiers serving on the border. You see your enemy disrespecting you, your history and your culture. You see them erasing your history and your culture … and all of this is accompanied by the crickets of the world. Then there’s Western Armenia calling for us, a topic that I plan on writing more about. And at last, our Ararat that you can see so very clearly from Armenia …

And, alongside this, there’s this immense pride you feel in being an heir to a nation that created a culture so distinctly beautiful, a nation that gave birth to luminaries such as Grigor Narekaci, Sayat-Nova, Hovhannes Toumnyan, Vahan Teryan, Eghishe Charenc, Daniel Varujan, Paruyr Sevak, Misak Metsarenc, Silva Kaputikyan, Hovhannes Grigoryan, Vardges Petrosyan, Martiros Saryan, Sergey Parajanov, Shahan Nathalie, Gurgen Yanikyan, Monte Melqonyan, and the list goes on … the nation that invented color television, ATMs, hand-held hair dryers, coffee machines, PET scans, MRI and so much more.

Have all of this brew in your soul and dare not to love and cherish your fatherland – you can’t.

[martian-astro]

Psychology rambling

I feel like the majority of psychology experiments are so stupid, cuz they're gonna be like "hitting a kid makes them feel scared of you" and I mean..yeah, what else did you expect, dumbass??

But then every once in a while, you're gonna come across that one experiment that completely changes your perspective on life, for me, this is one of those days.

So, there's this very famous rat drowning experiment, in which rats are placed in buckets full of water to see how long they survive. They found out that domesticated rats had a higher rate of survival than wild rats, despite the wild ones being more fit and having better swimming ability.

So basically, what the experimenter discovered is that, where rats were helped in the past and had hope of being saved, they kept fighting in the belief that all is not lost. However, when they did not have this prior experience of being "saved" they gave up more quickly. (This experiment was very cruel, like all psychology experiments)

There's a lot of controversy surrounding this experiment, with people saying "we're not rats, so this doesn't apply to us" and while I do agree, I also disagree, not with "we're not rats" but rather the fact that we're not similar to them, I feel like we are.

I've always wondered why women don't leave their abusive husbands/ boyfriends and I know that there are a lot of other reasons, but I personally know women who are the breadwinners and their husbands do NOTHING but they still don't leave, and I think that one of the reasons why this happens is because (especially in Indian society), whenever something happens you become so used to not receiving help, to hearing "you have to adjust" , that even when you have chances of survival and freedom you just don't take them and I'm probably not writing this in the way that I want to, but like this is one of the reasons why so many women just give up. This is also why having supportive parents is so so so so important, research has also found that women who have supportive parents are more likely to divorce their abusive partners than women who don't. This makes so much sense.

[cupidsbower]

Going to the movies

There's been a lot of talk lately about the "death of the movies" because people just aren't going to the cinema any more.

I've been thinking about this, and why I don't go to the movies very often these days. In the past I'd go at least twice a week -- once on Thursday to whatever new movie came out, and then again to a speciality cinema to see the latest Hong Kong or arthouse movie.

I stopped doing that a while ago. But why? There's lots of potential reasons, but most of them don't feel like the whole story...

It's not just because I'm a Grown Up now, with a real job and all that, because in the past I was a proper adult and still went often - I did it for twenty years.

It's not just because of streaming. Sure, I get my speciality needs met that way more easily, but I like the experience of being in the cinema. So why don't I?

It's not even because I got out of the habit during Covid, because I'd cut back before that.

All of these have obviously had an influence, but I think one of the biggest factors is that a lot of current movies just plain don't interest me enough to see them at the cinema. They're so bland and boring, with barely an A plot, let alone a B plot. When I discovered Bollywood movies last year, I suddenly wanted to watch movies again, because they were inventive and had proper plots. But here's the thing - local cinemas show Indian films now, so I could go and see them on the big screen. And in fact, I've seen more Indian movies at the cinema than non-Indian movies in the last 12 months, but that's not really saying much, as it's still not a lot of movies. Plus, Jawan on it's own accounts for three of those viewings (along with Dunki and Crew).

Reflecting on it, I've decided that I want movie-going to be part of my life again, so I've put together a list of the movies I think I'm going to see this year in the cinema.

June Kalki 2898 AD

July Sarfira Fly me to the Moon Deadpool & Wolverine

August Stree 2 Borderlands

September Wolfs

October Jigra Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video Venom: The Last Dance

November Wicked

December Welcome to the Jungle Karate Kid

So that's my potential list. I may add or remove movies, but some of them are Must See: Venom and Kalki in particular. Kalki looks like an absolutely absurd dumpster fire and I can't wait - I already have tickets. And Venom? Be still my heart. I love those two nerds!

What are you going to see at the cinema this year?

[brighterdaysarebeforeus]

This went…slightly off the rails, I think. I really only wanted to put a quick reference to the whole Mumbatten scene and ended up…rewriting it. Again. (>.<) god, that’s embarrassing. Anyway, enjoy!

Part 1 here

The whole ‘canon events must happen to all Spiders’ debacle that Miguel set off lasted a lot longer than Miles was expecting. Time stretched differently across the multiverse, which he hadn’t known or been expecting,and which had thrown him off of his semi-regular cycle. All this to say that when he finally went back home, it was the nearly four months from his initial leave date (the day of the block party and his dad’s promotion), he was still battered and bruised from several different fights (starting with O’Hara and, ironically, ending with O’Hara), he still actually had to fight the Spot (who had landed back in regular 1610 New York approximately two minutes before Miles did, that was kinda lucky, right?), and the cherry to top it all off, he’d missed his rut and could already feel it —

Wait, wait wait wait. Wait. Let’s back up.

So Gwen finally found a way to visit, and showed up the day before his dad’s official promotion. They hung out for a bit, and then Miles realized that she’d had an ulterior motive for coming to his dimension. Which, weirdly enough, had to do more with the Spot than him. When she pulled up communication with an unfamiliar woman who’d sent her to a different dimension to catch the Spot, Miles made a split second decision to go after her.

Finding himself in Mumbatten was…an experience. He thought that having different dimension Spiders in his New York would be as different as things could get, but he was…very wrong.

Mumbatten was loud. Yes, New York could also get loud, but not this way. There were people everywhere talking in Indian. Scooters with more people on them than they were designed to hold, Indian music playing nearly everywhere. Traffic was similar enough, surprisingly, but there were more clotheslines than Miles had been expecting, and the buildings were shaped differently. It was an entirely different sort of beauty than Miles knew from his own New York, but it was still breathtakingly beautiful, and the Spider who protected it was no different.

Pavitr was bright and funny, and Miles liked him almost instantly. He didn’t particularly care for how fast he clocked his crush on Gwen, and Gwen clearly hadn’t expected the younger Spider to point it out so blatantly. Still, Miles was down for helping Pavitr as much as he could, considering how long the kid had been Spider Man for (seriously, six months and the kid got a watch?? Miles thought he’d been doing a great job at being Spider Man, he’d been doing it for over a year on his own, why couldn’t he get one?) and considering the Spot had initially come from his universe anyway.

Also, and Miles in no way ever wanted Pavitr to figure this out, his alpha instincts kicked in around him almost immediately. He wanted to protect this (apparently beta) Spider he barely knew, keep bad things from happening to him and his world. And, honestly, that meant following both him and Gwen to Mumbatten AlcheMax, despite his sporadic glitching, to help stop the Spot. He’d tried to show off, tried to display to Gwen and Pavitr a new trick he was working on, and though he’d just nearly had it working —

Omega pinged on his senses, and before Miles could even try to figure out what was going on, there was an additional Spider.

He was tall and thin, and Miles felt himself going haywire in the rush to protectprotectprotectprotect this brand new person he didn’t even know, this omega who quite literally came out of nowhere. He turned to Gwen instead, slightly indignant when she clearly knew this new Spider, and feeling his instincts to impress flare up when Pavitr thanked this new Spider for breaking the barrier he’d been trying to break. Not only that, but then! Then, this new Spider gave Miles advice on how to do better next time, and also implied that Gwen, an alpha, spent the night at his, the omega’s, place recently.

It was a lot. It was a lot for Miles, especially in the middle of a fight, and a fight with the Spot to boot. He tried to show off where he could, but it wasn’t working like he hoped it would. Because of Spot, of course, not because of anything else. Miles wasn’t even sure who he was trying to impress at this point; on the one hand, there was Gwen, who he’d had a crush on since she’d introduced herself as ‘Gwanda’ and he’d stuck his hand to her hair on accident (the way she’d physically snapped her compact mirror shut and later verbally snapped at him about her new haircut had made his blood boil in the best way).

And on the other hand…

Look, Miles had been focused on Gwen, kind of. Hung up on her, on one of the only other people his age he’d known who would understand the dangers and risks and rewards of being a Spider. He never really cared to make overtures at others in his universe, omega or otherwise. As far as he’d been concerned, Gwen had been the be-all, end-all.

But now Hobie. Hobie, with his spiked mask, his vest, with his pink outline every time Miles got close, with his guitar and his boots and that super enticing omega scent he kept catching whiffs of…Miles found himself trying to show off for him even as he tried to poke holes in the other Spider’s logic (“I don’t believe in teamwork!” “Aren’t you in a band?” “I don’t believe in consistency!”). He was failing, miserably.

And then when the Spot got away, and Mumbatten’s AlcheMax started falling apart. Pavitr looked to them, and so did a bright pink Hobie, and Miles automatically gave out the orders to get things done quickly to save the civilians. He’d felt a burst of pride that was quickly popped when Hobie agreed to do what he said even as he pointedly mentioned it wasn’t because Miles specifically wanted him to, and he and Pavitr worked to get civilians to safety as quickly as possible. In this, they worked together much more seamlessly than they had fighting the Spot, and by the time Hobie and Gwen had dropped the AlcheMax building, everything was almost peachy.

And then Pavitr had to save the bus, and couldn’t save the Inspector in time, and Miles saw his opportunity. He could help Pavitr, he could get noticed by the Spider Society Gwen was a part of and get himself an inter-dimensional watch to see Peni and Peter and Noir and Ham again, he could prove himself as a viable alpha to Hobie Gwen, prove himself to Gwen.

She tried to stop him, clearly worried about him, and he reassured her as best as he could before jumping into the fray after Pavitr. And he did it, he saved the Inspector, he saved the little girl, and though Gwen was the one who pulled the rubble off of the three of them, Miles found himself looking for Hobie in spite of himself.

He was still caught off guard when the Spider himself grabbed him from behind, shaking him and crowing praise in his ear like he couldn’t help himself. Miles felt warm all over, smiling up at his bright pink outline as best as he could even though it wasn’t clearly visible through the mask; though he’d stopped tensing up when Gwen appeared to be all right, Miles found himself relaxing even more now that Hobie was for sure ok. He’d barely even registered the people cheering for them all, the way that all four of them were waving back and Pavitr was almost bouncing on his feet. Hobie still had his arm around Miles, and though he wasn’t quite sure of what was proper or not, Miles found himself wanting to wrap himself around Hobie in return.

And, honestly? That was an entire can of worms he did not feel like opening. Ever.

[jayflrt]

hi Alice i just had a question

this user on Tumblr said she's wary of muslims because of her bad experiences with her (she's Indian so given muslims and hindu don't have good relationship in that country)

and other users are saying that's wrong because her trauma doesn't give her the right to generalize a whole religion and that is right but I also think it's okay to be wary and watch out for yourself if you have bad experience? that user said that she knows not all Muslims are like that but i think it's a victim mindset to be on guard all the time around people of that community?

sorry for random info drop but I was sa-ed by a member of church as a kid and even though I am christian I feel like I have to protect myself from them whenever I go to church. i don't even visit church that often by the way and i don't feel safe near pastors. that and I'm scared of being alone with men in general/am wary of them really even though I spend time with my male friends and family members. so even though not all men are like that I feel a bit insecure and I think it's okay? because I want to protect myself?

am I wrong for thinking that?

i just want to know what you think because my dashboard is a mess and everyone is being childish and trolling her and i think you are the only one who can give a rational answer because im confused 😭

oh i'm not sure i can speak on this exact situation because i don't know the context or what's going on 😵‍💫 but i can give you a general answer based on what you've given me

i'm indian and one of my closest friends is muslim!! i have other muslim friends too, and yes i'm in a western country so i have more experiences being exposed to people of different racial and religious backgrounds, but even if you're in a country where there's not as much diversity, it's important to be open-minded and unlearn bias when you're talking to people who don't share the same racial or religious background as you

i think everyone is conditioned by their environment in one way or another to feel certain ways. for example, someone who grows up in an area surrounded by a predominant race might not have the same experiences or perspectives as someone who grew up with a lot of diversity around them. again, idk the situation but it's not necessarily islamophobic to recognize that someone who happens to be muslim did something that affected you negatively, but it is islamophobic when you start to believe that everyone of that religion is the same way

and i'm really sorry that happened to you anon! that's such a horrible experience to have to go through and i hope that person rots in hell :( but i do think that's an example with more nuance. you rightfully do keep your guard up around men and pastors, and even though it's true that it's not all men and not all pastors who would do something like that, statistically it's been enough for women (who haven't experienced something like that too) to be wary around men, which is a much different story than stereotyping an entire religion. and from what i'm understanding, there's no animosity from you toward everyone who believes in christianity but more so just men in general because of your trauma. unfortunately, our society is built in a way where men are in positions of power and there are statistically far too many cases of men taking advantage of women, so i don't think it's wrong at all to be cautious around men. all women unfortunately have a responsibility to protect themselves around a potentially dangerous man

muslim people though have had a long history of being demonized in media because of islamophobia propagated by western countries. there's a clear sign of prejudice if you associate a negative experience to everyone of that religion. there are dangerous people of every race and religion but i think that person would need to reflect on why they can't separate their traumatic experience from the religious identity of whoever it was that gave them a bad experience!!

i hope this made sense 😵‍💫 i feel like there's a lot more to unpack here but i hope the person you're referring to eventually stops falling for harmful stereotypes!!

[tododeku-or-bust]

☀️Raybearer, by Jordan Ifeuko

I am so full of emotion rn, having just finished this book. So I'm just gonna list off all the top great things I've found during this adventure:

The protagonist, Tarisai, is a Black girl. God knows I would have loved to have this when I was 13 bc I was (and am) a fantasy fiend. And she fights the status quo that is the unjust system she lives in, that wants to weaponize her in many ways? I'm seated! 🔥

Reading this as a grown Black woman, I feel the frustration at the world behind it. I feel the frustration, from a Black Woman Author, when I see the world around me making the same poor choices over and over and parroting it "unity", "justice", "peace" and "order", especially at the sacrifice (instead of the priority!) of those who need us most. That's what's filling me with the most emotion, though there are so many things I relate to in this story. I feel....seen. seen, heard, validated.

I read more characters of color in the first 20 pages than I have read in 27 years of fantasy books EVER. The countries are fantasy, but the characters' names show the influence. (Nigeria, China, Korea, West Asia, India, and more). The author is putting everyone's "brown ppl break the illusion of fantasy" bullshit in the DIRT.

The main romance is between an Indian boy and a Black girl. I've seen that ONCE! Very rarely do we get interracial romance where the Black person is the girl, let alone in pairings between different people of color! (Black girl characters deserve to be loved XOXO)

Queer people exist in this universe and it is no sweat. Like, they just do!

The plot of this book!!! It's some heavy shit fr! It keeps you on edge as you follow Tarisai. She's weighed down by so many expectations, and you want so badly for her to break away from it and do what is Right. I love a 'Sins of the Parent/Lineage' story, and I especially love a (thanks ATSV) "imma do me" story.

Imma reemphasize this bc it's my favorite: one point this book has that I REALLY appreciate is that it emphasizes the idea that those who want to change the world should be willing to do so at the risk of themselves. So often in our society it's always "things will get better but you have to suffer in order for us to get there, not Me-," and its frustrating bc a lot of those who speak a big game politically are usually never the ones willing to go First. The claim that things will get better is always at the cost of someone weaker and less heard.

The worldbuilding of this book is rich. You will be plied with visuals and information in this universe. And if some of the cultural concepts are confusing (given that we live in a White Western default world for writing)..... Learn it. Get comfortable with it. Kids should grow up learning new things in fantasy (I had to learn Irish to read some books and I'm better for it; you'll be okay!)

This is more personal, but I love reading about my hair in fic. Curls, coils, locs, braids, beads, afros like clouds. It's so nice. Our hair and skin are beautiful and I want to see more that actual effort put into describing us in writing.

There are a couple things that I think could be better/paced differently, but overall the experience is very, very good. I am absolutely going to buy this and the next one in the series. Jordan Ifeuko did an excellent job with this and I would highly suggest it.

[youremyheaven]

Ok let’s bring up a lighter Vedic topic I’ve been wondering about for a while now LOL (as an Ashlesha myself ts is getting out of hand 😭). Hair colour!

Do you think hair colour can strengthen or weaken certain placements? While dominance in my chart is not the most obvious I do consider myself mostly Ketu, lunar, and mercurial (in that order too).

And I’ve been all sorts of hair colours in my life, but primarily I’ve been brunette, blonde, and now back to my natural hair colour of black.

I feel like since going black - mind you I’ve barely had my hair this colour in my life with me alw dyeing/bleaching it - has strengthened my Ketu and has drawn more Ketu themes into my life. But for a very long time I was a blonde and despite having a weak sun natally I do feel like that placement was strengthened during that time and brought on many solar themes into my life & solar people as well!

It could very well just be the influences of whatever dashas that were running at the time for me but I do truly wonder if hair colour can influence you in that way 🤔

i think any change we make to our appearance can influence us!!

a lot of people do this subconsciously. when we end relationships or want a "fresh start" we usually cut our hair which is a way of releasing old energy. some people never cut their hair because they have learnt how to transmute that energy to spiritual power (many indian sages never cut their hair)

claire had made similar observations about tattoos and how we subconsciously get tattoos that reflect our placements/transits/dashas etc

ive never dyed my hair so i cant speak from personal experience but i feel like some people's reputations change remarkably when they dye their hair?? like Shakira has pitch black hair but she became a world-renowned star with her curly blonde hair. Mariah Carey is another person who is known for her dyed blonde hair (theyre both Punarvasu Moon) Marilyn Monroe is another example, Katy Perry did the opposite (she's a natural blonde and has dyed her hair black since she was a teenager) Angelina Jolie is also a natural blonde but has dyed her hair black since she was a kid. And I do think making physical changes of any sort influences the way we interact with our chart. if we try to cultivate beauty in a healthy way, we enhance our Venus and as a result become more magnetic and draw in more light and energy. if we try to cultivate beauty in a destructive way (eating disorders, extreme cosmetic enhancements etc) we might still draw in energy but for the wrong reasons?? ive changed my style a lot over the years and I feel myself channelling different parts of my chart accordingly or perhaps different aspects of my chart activate themselves and demand to be channelled through my style who knows lol

[anonaga]

have any headcanons for Ian and Natalie?

YES. MANY.

Whenever Natalie is sad, she'll refuse to put on her nice clothes and claim she doesn't like them today. This is because Ian will have no choice but to help her find new ones, like a bonding experience, she likes having him involved in her life.

Ian was the first person to know about Natalie's crush on Ted (sorry you guys can't escape tedalie in this), and he RELENTLESSLY made fun of her for it.

Sometimes Vikram sends them extra money out of generosity only because he knows at the end of the day that they are still his kids.

Ian does Natalie's hair a lot, she loves having it braided when they're just staying in the house.

Natalie isn't huge on reading, neither is Ian, but they both will sometimes read together in the same room just to bond over it.

Ian is a horrible cook. That's it. He cannot cook for the life of him.

Natalie hates music most times, but Ian put her on some of the few non-classical artists he likes, so whenever they do listen to music, it's usually that. Ian does have a secret, VERY secretive love for some of Madonna's old songs that he wouldn't tell a soul about.

Despise being posh and rude, they treat their maids/butlers/tailors/workers extraordinarily well. Bossy? Yes, but they pay them well and are polite to them.

Ian spends a lot of time working, so Natalie is always bored and usually has to entertain herself, he feels bad for leaving her so bored most days.

Both really love indulging in staple Indian food sometimes together, they both really like it.

Natalie HATED Cara, Ian and her didn't last long, she stays around as a friend though.

Sometimes Ian and Natalie talk about what would've happened if Vikram married Hope instead of Isabel. They think it would've been better for the family, even if it meant they wouldn't be born or would be related to Amy and Dan.

On all holidays, they always gift people the best gifts. Not just expensive, but for birthday's and Christmas, they spend weeks figuring out what everyone like's if they don't know already. Ian keeps a list of what they all like, and they usually end up getting everyone separate presents from one another.

lmk if you want more :33