From the Student Notebook

21/02/2021 10:54 PM

Sundays are necessarily uneventful. I lay on my bed in an invalid state of torpor until dusk before I motioned to my desk to regret the time I’ve lost. The theme chosen for the blog this week is phobia. I must begin something. What is there to be said about phobia that isn’t already common knowledge? The team perhaps wants quirky titles for fears that don’t have a name yet. Like, seriously? As if the farce of thousands that now exists isn’t enough! I must admit that it sounded hot as we voiced it out yesterday. But now…

Anyway, there’s a week left. That is time abundance.

22/02/2021

11:15 PM

Fact: Fear of garlic is called alliumphobia.

Possibility: An alliumphobic walks into an onion-themed bar by mistake. He runs out, gets back in his apartment, locks the door. But the fear has overtaken him. As he closes his eyes, there’s garlic behind the door, garlic under his bed, garlic near his pillow. One unruly piece of garlic finds its way into his mouth…only to work its magic on him and reduce his blood pressure. He picks one, swallows it, then another. The man is cured. He writes blogs to promote garlic for the rest of his life in a tale of happily-ever-after.

23/02/2021

9:00 PM

Fear, like jokes, sprouts from surprise. Our very own sense of expectation can be the root cause of panic attacks and all-other-pernicious-sounding-terms. Of course, there are more scientific, much boring answers like genetics and environment, but I’d rather not go there pretending I know the stuff best. The readers want something original, and at the same something easily accessible. Accessible, yes, can be done. But original?

Wait, why is my hand shaking, my breathing uneven, my forehead full of sweat?

What if…what if I’m expecting too much out of me?

24/02/2021

10:47 PM

There could be three parts to the blog. One, the write-up. Two, the pictures. Three, the title. And there could be three parts to the write-up. One, the introduction. Two, the body. Three, the conclusion. And three, the conclusion, can make all the big difference. If missing out on conclusions were a sport, I’d probably win some medals. I think I fear conclusions. And the statement only makes as much sense as a milk-drinking vegan. But perhaps the fear of conclusions isn’t a phobia because the fear is very, um, rational? It has to be so because apparently terms such as arachibutyrophobia hinting the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth have set the standards of irrationality pretty high.

Now imagine an arthmophobiac, someone who fears numbers, or more precisely a mathemaphobiac (no explanation necessary), being taught about their fears being “irrational”. Project Mayhem 2.0.

25/02/2021

4:00 AM

There’s a lizard on the wall. I’m protected on my bed by the mosquito net. A scream would really help but I’m unable to let one out. I can see the little creature move around the wall staying as far away from me as possible. Three hours of lizard-watching and I think I might be herpetophobic.

It makes me wonder about all my fears I haven’t discovered yet. It reminds me of the blog and everything that keeps me away from writing it. Responsibility, failures, love, I fear everything. But what if the only possible way to taking one first brave step is by acknowledging these fears? Even if not by names, by an inner sense of understanding? What if originality isn’t as complex as I picture it to be in my head? What if the blog lacks a conclusion…or simply doesn’t conclude the typical way it is expected of?

25/02/2021

7:00 PM

Possibility: A blog in the format of some desperate diary entries that is an exaggerated account of how pi vs tau works. The audience ponders over the deepest of their fears and posts the least ridiculous ones as comments.

Well, not bad.