"Barefoot" by Zaharia Stancu

"Don't you forget, Darie!"

An urge that I have carried with me throughout the years. I read it the first time while I was browsing through some English grammar workbook. Then, it resounded once more from a novel written by Maria Arsene ("Just keep in mind that your memory is to be left as inheritance so that it does not perish along with you. Remember that! Remember that!).

Today, I have followed the urge, but without mediators. While reading the novel, I realized that it is better that I have discovered it only now. For I have a different mindset today. All angst and distress presented in these pages, that seemed to come to life and cry themselves the truth we had forgotten or we wish we had forgotten by now, echoed differently in my soul. From time to time, the novel made me remember the novel "Raised from the Ground" written by Saramago. How odd to be able to better understand the Romanian literature by seeing it through the eyes of a Portuguese one! 

Maybe the peoples are more alike than they know. And the language barrier is totally nonexistent when it comes to those who have lived the same experiences. Actually, Zaharia Stancu states this fact in the novel, by mentioning that 'the hungered recognize themselves just by a mere look', and they do not need to say a word.
Truth is what abounds within the novel "Barefoot" by Zaharia Stancu. Unfortunately, one truth still endures with us:
"
'A woman that has not been beaten is like an unchained mill...'
'But you've just said you love her!...'
'That's why...' "

The ending of the novel left me with a recommendation to carry along with me from now on:
'Try to see in them all their true and deep meaning, Darie!'

The Invisible Guest, 2016

Secrets, secrets and some more other secrets. The unforeseen, the human nature, fidelity, love, fortune, fame and family relationships. Here are a few of the ingredients to this exciting movie. Scene after scene you will be dazed by new clues, making you doubt your opinion about the culprit's identity.
In a nutshell, a succesful entrepreneur is accused of murder and, under the pressure of time and the appearance of a new witness, he must offer as much information as he can in order to strengthen his case and innocence.

(photo source)

A must-see movie!

We are different, and this bestows charm upon us and our world.

A beautiful campaign has started in Romania. A campaign that has education at its center. I was invited to write and proudly accepted the invitation.
I pondered about the perspective; whether to write from a teacher's point of view (given the fact that at a certain time in my life I was proudly called Miss - teachers know the meaning of this) or a pupil's. I chose the second perspective. We were all pupils once and we know better than anyone else the issues in education. Especially because now we get to understand some from a different approach. I am amongst those who believe that experience can make opinion.
And my opinion is stated below:

When you are a child, you do not understand why people stress on the importance of plain writing. If one is ambitious, one tries and tries until managing to obtain something acceptable. If not, one remains with a heavy heart, knowing that one has not fulfilled the expectations. One tries to master the letter a, but something does not add up. It's true, the letter written by one is a little bit edgy, it has irregularities and some erasures. But one can understand it. I have understood it, my mother has understood it, and even my class mate, Mircea, has understood it. 

Mircea is appreciated. He has a plain writing. But the numbers give him headaches. Sure, he can write them, but he finds it hard to calculate them. I have tried explaining my method to him, but I clearly saw on his face that he did not understand me. Hm, maybe the ability to make calculi is just like the plain writing! People having this skill boast about it; and the people that do not, hide as much as they can in order not to be discovered.

My name is Ana. I have both skills. I have a plain writing and I am great at calculi. It's harder for me, though, to rest silent. I like to talk. Actually, I have just found out about it, from a friend. But talking calms me down and helps me focus. When the class is silent, and we have to write and make calculi, I find myself reprimanded. Would you believe me if I told you that I don't even realize when I start to talk?! It happens, somehow, without me. Just as it happens to Miruna when she tries to write plain. She puts her tongue out. I have told her that it is not nice to do that. Ok, theoretically, no rule of good behaviour is breached, but it is not nice to put one's tongue out to someone. The notebook does not mind. How could it mind?! Well, maybe it does mind when she covers it in ink stains.

The ink is blue. Actually, it also comes in red and black, but we, the pupils, are only allowed to use the blue ink. Sometimes, the heaviness of this rule makes us rebel. And during those times, we find red ink and write with it on the last pages of our notebooks. The bravest of us all keep those pages. So what if the teachers or parents find out that we have used another color of ink?! We wanted to see how it is to write with the ink reserved for adults only. We wanted to feel adults. It did not last too long, but we liked it. We, the pupils, we reckon that it is not a great offence to want to write like an adult. If we write like an adult, maybe our suggestions would be taken more seriously. Maybe even encouraged. We, the pupils, are hard-working and we want to learn. And we write now in red ink so that you can take us seriously: we are different, and the differences between us should not be used in order to make us compete with each other. Maybe you could encourage us to obtain results out of pleasure and not because 'Maria has a writing that is plainer than yours'. We do not like this. We have signed in red. We, the pupils.

'Fifty Shades of Feminism'

To openly state nowadays that one is a Feminist seems to me a deed of great courage. And that because one must face public contempt. When hearing the word Feminists, people envision angry and harry women that hate men.

The book 'Fifty Shades of Feminism' tries to debunk prejudices regarding Feminism. Not only that Feminism takes various forms, but it continues to self-update itself year after year, whether we realize it or not. Fifty women give their opinions regarding this movement, idea or way of living, if you wish. Fifty opinions that make one realize that one did not know, actually, everything about Feminism. Opinions that make one wonder and start cleaning the dust upon one's own prejudice.

A book that must be read by women and men, boys and girls, teenage girls and teenage boys and everyone being under the impression that they have understood the entire spectre of their existence.