Why I am not choosing Substack over my own (this) website?
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By Satyam Ghimire | Date: 2025 May 23
By Satyam Ghimire | Date: 2025 May 23
Date: 2025 May 29
Date: 2023 July 17
Date: 2023 July 17
By Satyam Ghimire || Date: 2024 April 4
Also available as a YouTube video.
I love watching happy, uplifting movies. Movies that feel like a relaxing trip on a summer's day. Like About Time, Peanut Butter Falcon, Fantastic Mr Fox, Wall-E, Harvey, and so many more. So when I came across this recommendation about Secondhand Lions on reddit, like always, I first doubted it, and then was blown away. Not especially because it was way more comforting or inspiring compared to other such movies, but because it actually solved like so many of my problems regarding the meaning of life and nihilistic thoughts. Now it isn't surprising to find a masterpiece of sentences or monologues in unexpected movies.
Like Pixar casually dropping the greatest speech regarding criticism in its masterpiece Ratatouille. Or the alley way monologue from the 1945's Harvey starring James Stewart. Or the famous “your move, chief” monologue from Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting. But the way Secondhand Lions answered my questions in this particular scene is, well, life giving me hints. Now I won't spoil the movie for you. It stars Michael Caine and Robert Duvall as main actors, and the movie is basically a careless mother leaving her son to these two old man's house when they are in no mood to babysit anyone. But anyway, the scene starts with a little boy character finding this old man character by the lake at night. Sleepwalking. ...continue reading...
By Satyam Ghimire || Date: 2024 April 4
It was as if only yesterday, I got the internet connection for the first time and so I wanted to watch movies that would make me cry. I came across one top ten list after searching the exact phrase and it had at the number one spot a title: Grave Of The Fireflies. That was my introduction to Studio Ghibli. I wouldn't watch Only Yesterday for another two years, as it didn't promise me some fantastical and magical story like Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, and Ponyo, neither did it hinted some innocent romance like Whisper Of The Heart and Howls Moving Castle, nor did it assured a story that will make me cry like Grave Of The Fireflies. Only thing I found appealing about Only Yesterday was the 100 percent rotten tomato score, the score only three movies have ever achieved from the Studio, all directed by Isao Takahata. Similar to this quote by Mhairi McFarlane in her book “You Had Me At Hello”, I think there are some characters to whom we can say, “I know it's you.
I am going to be like you. Not today. But eventually.” For me, one such character is Taeko from Only Yesterday. She is 27, with a life and a job in the city, but still clueless with no future plan and a chronic longing for something unknown. Taeko, being 27 and unmarried, keeps rejecting the marriage offer her mother has arranged for her. ...continue reading...
By Satyam Ghimire | Date: 2024 April 3
By Satyam Ghimire | Date: 2024 January 27
Date: 2023 July 17
Date: 2023 July 17
Date: 2023 July 17
By Satyam Ghimire | Date: 2023 July 17
By Satyam Ghimire | Date: 2023 July 17
By Satyam Ghimire || Date: 2023 July 17
So here I start. I don’t know how to write this, and I don’t think there are any rules. Even if there are, you can't come knocking at my door and threaten me for the ones I broke. I won’t be here by then. This fact has made me feel safe. I am 89 years old, and today is not my birthday. In about twelve hours, I will be gone. Everything is planned. After completing this note, I will put it inside an envelope and put that envelope pressed under my clothes inside the cupboard. It will be safe there. Then I will take out the old rope from the shelf of that dark room and throw it around the ceiling fan. I will climb the stool then and make a tight knot around my neck, give it two jerks, smile, and step on the edge of the stool. The first time I thought about today was about seventy years ago. Motivated by something I read, something I found really inspiring and quite a truth at the time. It was about the dependency of humans on each other and that of animals. An animal doesn’t depend on another animal when it is old or when it is young. Although some animals do take care of their children, they do so because of the pure reason of kindness and love. It is only humans who are afraid to die alone.
I know this already sounds silly, but I don’t know. No, I don’t feel neglected or unloved. I am just tired. You don’t need to care about me. I am 89. This is not some child taking his or her life over a small cause. How much of my life am I going to cut short anyway? Thirty minutes? I just feel I have something to say. When I was young, I had thought of going without writing a word or saying anything to anyone. Just a long stare at the wall till I lose and awaken myself and notice some tears in my eyes. That might be mysterious and wise. But I guess at those times, I had nothing to write about either, except all the horrible things that had happened, how much I was through and all that, and honestly, that’s not something quite my type now. At present, I don’t want to be mysterious or wise. All the wise men are coined wise because they actually said something. A silent man has never amounted to anything, except a fading figure in the background. This is the last piece of evidence of my existence in this world, so I will not waste it. ...continue reading...