Today is -- or was-- my birthday. It didn't feel special or anything. Just a day, an ordinary day.
12.05am The first SMS came in. It was from Taiwo, the first girl I ever had a crush on. Primary 4 then. My God!
12.07am My sister calls. Birthday wishes. I wish she'd just go to sleep.
12.08am It's Az now. I'm surprised. (She's a girl I've been "eyeing" recently. Pretty thing.) Good sign though.
12.14am I sleep... Hope I wake up.
07:35am I do wake up. But with a headache and a slight fever. I had slept off on the couch. Ouch! Five messages on my phone. Seven missed calls. My eldest sister, Lizzy, and some strange numbers. Well wishers, I hope.
08.30am Chi calls. I don't want to pick up but I do. We broke up a week ago. She won't let go easily though. I try to be nice. I am, surprisingly. Would the other ex-girlfriends call? I wonder...
09.00am I get ready for church. I haven't been to church in a month. My Pastor has been asking after me. Today, I have to go. I can't afford not to be grateful to God for another birthday. I get to church late as usual. But, better late than...
12.28pm LL calls while I'm in church. I wished to talk to her. Her voice is like a lullaby, gentle and velvety. I enjoy hearing it. I have a very very soft spot for her. Yes, I know.
01.15pm Church is over. We head home. Jollof rice and chicken awaits.
01.25pm I get a call from Arigbs that I have to see the CORA people for an update on their website which I happen to be designing. 2pm, the meeting is. Too short a notice. Can I make it? I wonder... There and then, I decide not to. It's my birthday after all. I'm entitled to some rest. After today, I can start working like a donkey again.
02.05pm I start watching a movie -- The Crucible. Crazy movie. Disk skips at the most interesting point! Gawd! Freaking Alaba boys!
02.29pm LL calls. I'm happy. I don't know why...
02.45pm Pack my stuff. On my way back to my apartment in Surulere. My family doesn't want me to go. Too bad. Work starts tomorrow again.
03.16pm On the bus. I'm getting depressed. My fever is peaking. My head is splitting. I taste nothing on my tongue. A thought crosses my mind. I shiver. It won't be fun to die on one's birthday...
04.01pm Sino calls to ask if I am at Surulere. She wants to come over with a friend. Good.
04.15pm I try Arigbs's number. Can't get through. Want to inform him I won't be able to cover the bukARTeria show by the Crown Troupe today. Again, I can't be on duty on my birthday. Come on!
04.45pm I'm getting worse. My body is hot all over. I pick my phone to call LL. I stop. I lie down. I stand up. I try to do something. I wash my dirty plates. I play a game on my computer. I'm losing my mind.
05.15pm I start re-reading Purple Hibiscus.
06.30pm Sino comes with her friend. They bring me a cake. Brilliant! The only gift this poor boy has received today. I serve them some rice. NEPA brings light. We watch Desperate Housewives and a little bit of The Crucible. Disk skips again. Bastard!
08:15pm They leave. I'm alone all again. But not really. I connect to the net. Eghosa is online. Great! We start a chat session. It's smooth and good. I read Uche Nworah's post on Binyavanga. I'm mad. I post a comment on his blog and yab the guy small.
10:50pm Eghosa starts to say something about an Asaba Massacre. Part of the civil war. National troops line up about 700 Ibos. They shoot them to death. I go mad. These things happened in the same country? Why was everyone keeping quiet about it? Complicity. I can't take it. I search the internet and I'm shocked. Everyone was mad during the war. Everyone was freaking mad. Half of a Yellow Sun begins to make more sense.
11.15pm Eghosa goes offline without warning. I'm left alone with Cool FM and some rice. I get moody again. I reflect.
The exes didn't call. I expected T to, after all I called her on her birthday. Pity. Y didn't call either. She must have forgotten. E didn't too. Not surprised. She never cared anyway. Lots of my friends didn't even remember that it was my birthday. Pity. A guy who loves a lot of people, who lots of people only care about on the surface. Pity.
Maybe I'd make some changes to my life today. Care less about some friends. Care more about my spiritual growth. Care more about my fellow humans. Start writing a movie script on the war. Revive a blog that has been lying fallow for over a year. Re-think my opinion about life.
What's in a birthday? Another year gained or another year lost? Another step further away or a step closer? A testament of life or a testimony of death? Time to feel happy or time to feel depressed?
I really don't know... I hope I'd be better tomorrow.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Just an Ordinary Day
2 comments:
I posted this in response to your silly comments on Uche Nworah's site. Why do you need to moderate comments? Lets see if you will publish this on yours.
“The foolish and the uneducated have little use for freedom.”
Most of the replies to Uche’s post (and they could all be coming from one source) indicate a level of monotonous pettiness that has now become the order of the day ever since some uneducated Nigerians discovered the use of the Internet. Uche has spotted a something erroneous with someone’s bigoted opinion about members of his tribe, and he is not allowed to pass judgement on his own blog! Unreal!
An impostor regrettably named “Angry Warri Boy” feels that the only way he could face up to Uche’s views is to serve cheap insults and in the process offer nothing more than expose his own prejudice. He then backs himself up by posting under other names and dropping anonymous comments. Anyway, let me forcefully invite myself to your audacious “insult-trading” world. My name is Chinyere Kalu, I am Igbo (No apologies), and yes I am offended by the article that Uche’s post attends to!
Anyway, “goody-two-shoes” claims to be a member of some faceless writers’ workshop in Lagos. I am assuming that he also purports to be a writer, well I can tell him this for free - Nigeria will never be indebted to you and/or your esteemed knowledge on the subject. You only serve as a reminder to many others that free education (UPN in your case) can sometimes be wasted on certain individuals. To cut you some slack, and absolve you from a lot of blame – Nigerian education has undoubtedly failed you.
Let’s take you seriously for one minute, and I know this might sound unfeasible. In your low-impact haste to make yourself heard, you failed the simplest of tasks. You failed to read accurately the article that you ‘appear’ to criticise. It was a botched effort and I sincerely want to believe that someone didn’t read Uche’s post to you. Either way, make yet another effort to get it read to you again!
At no point did Uche refer to Wainaina (not Wainana as your response states) as a SHE. He even posted a picture of Wainaina for crying out loud! And unless you ‘bat the other way’, its pretty apparent that Wainaina is a guy! So that was a cheap shot, not that you will know one if it smacked you full in the face, just like you wouldn’t know a well written article if one rolled over you. God help your writer’s group. What is it? A meeting of the brainless?
Now to your other ‘points’ – speaking to you as one Nigerian to another – how loutish. You state that Wainaina is also from Gikiyu (kikiyu), so what? Is your head so far up your backside that you can’t seem to see how dim-witted that observation is? Since he has such a weak opinion about his people, he could have left it at that. You seem to ‘think’ that his people would ignore his remarks just because he is one of them. How clever. And then you go on to write about “false-fidelity-bank-I-love Adichie-sensibilities”. Was that your infantile way of exposing yourself as a bigot? Your juvenile behaviour doesn’t stop there. You also remind us that you hated literature while in school because of the ‘likes’ of Uche. Was that the real reason? Judging from your submission, I think that the reason why you couldn’t ‘crack’ the subject runs much deeper than that. I will suggest you try the mirror therapy yourself, and see what stares back at you. “An uneducated person is like an unpolished mirror”
You ask the writer to go back to Secondary school and take a comprehension lesson, another regrettable but expected comment. Well that is rich coming from a yob like you. You sign off by reminding the writer that ‘our’ people will not let him get away with rubbish. Was that meant to be a threat?
I wouldn’t bother commenting on your next post, and the anonymous ones that follow. They all reinforce my conviction that intellectual midgets like you should be kept away from the use of the internet. You said you were discussing Uche on your blog, and you also talk about his 15 minutes of fame? Pity! Uche lest you haven’t noticed, has appeared on CNN and the BBC. The closest you will get to any of these news outlets is thru your neighbour’s TV Set!
And to Ayotunde Girl, who could be Warri Boy in disguise. Spitting venomous bitterness? Being Childish? Are we all reading the same post? Or are you a paid up member of Warri Boy’s fictitious writer’s group? How untrained. And what exactly was your point?
None!
Another reason why Yar’adua must address the educational needs of our people with intense exigency. The likes of Ayotunde Girl may have escaped, but he owes it to every Nigerian not to fill our surroundings with her type!
And then there is Shylle, a wannabe comedian. You had me in stitches! You must be a very funny person, as witty as “The Binj” – NOT!
‘Brown-nosing’ Binj wouldn’t get you anywhere; trying being your own person, I am sure your ‘brain’ can do more. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life as a cheerleader and watch your superior brain deteriorate? But then again, maybe you should not be allowed to make your mind up.
“Your African characters may include naked warriors, loyal servants, diviners and seers, ancient wise men living in hermitic splendour. Or corrupt politicians, inept polygamous travel-guides, and prostitutes you have slept with. The Loyal Servant always behaves like a seven-year-old and needs a firm hand; he is scared of snakes, good with children, and always involving you in his complex domestic dramas. The Ancient Wise Man always comes from a noble tribe (not the money-grubbing tribes like the Gikuyu, the Igbo or the Shona). He has rheumy eyes and is close to the Earth. The Modern African is a fat man who steals and works in the visa office, refusing to give work permits to qualified Westerners who really care about Africa. He is an enemy of development, always using his government job to make it difficult for pragmatic and good-hearted expats to set up NGOs or Legal Conservation Areas. Or he is an Oxford-educated intellectual turned serial-killing politician in a Savile Row suit. He is a cannibal who likes Cristal champagne, and his mother is a rich witch-doctor who really runs the country.”
Welcome to the world of blogging...
great! About time you 'opened' a blog! And dont you DARE stop!
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