Fatima's Archives

A few weeks ago, I read a book called ' Punished by Rewards ' and wrote a detailed review on it. I hadn't thought of posting it here back then, but just this afternoon, I was studying about motivation for my A level psychology exam and could not help but notice the stark contrast between the perspective in my textbook and that of this book. Anyway, I closed my textbook, reread this review, and decided to post it here because the world needs to know more about this. I would love to hear your comments and feedback about this, so you can leave them below if you wish. I studied the book quite thoroughly (and wrote loads of notes on it) so if you have any questions, feel free to leave them below and I'll try my best to answer them. Here's the review now. Title: Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise and Other Bribes Written by: Alfie Kohn - American author and lecturer in the areas of education, parenting, and human behaviour. Publ...

Around this time yesterday, I made a decision that has been eating me up inside since. Writing about it is just an attempt to clear my mind of it and remind me of why I did what I did.  Now this isn’t something most people would consider a big or important decision, but for me, it was. I was faced with two options - one of them involved not doing anything, hence I might as well say that it wasn’t a choice but a necessary outcome of the current situation. The second one was entirely different, opting for which would be an active, conscious decision on my part. It involved working very hard to achieve something that, were I not to make that choice, I would have gotten anyway. Why then, might you ask, did I even bother to think about it? Obviously, it would be so much easier just to take something you’re being offered right away, than to go the long way just to get the same thing in the end. Why did I even think of it as a choice? Well, as Albus Dumbledore once put it, We must al...

Hey there! I wrote a poem. This one took a lot more thought and effort than most of my poems - which are usually spontaneous, raw and emotional - that I don't post anywhere. I thought a lot about this idea and took almost a week to complete it. I also had to cut out several words, rearrange certain stanzas, and rewrite it a couple of times. I'm quite pleased with the result though - I think this is the best piece of poetry I've managed to write so far.  I would appreciate some feedback on it, if you have any, as I know this is far from perfect. Also, let me know if you have any suggestions for what kind of poetry I might write next. I could do with some new ideas. Here's the poem now: It is easy to dream When the eyes are closed -  When the mind is numb.  When there is no expectation Of life or living -  When there is no burden to carry.  But when the eyes are open -  And the mind can see What the universe has to offer. When the hea...

Last night, my brother casually mentioned that Ramadhan would begin in around twenty days or so. If you keep track of the Islamic calendar, this might not come as big news, but being oblivious to changes in dates and months, I was shocked. I had been aware that Ramadhan would, this year, begin at the end of April, but it still seemed to be a while away. Until I realized that it was April already, and the holy month was just around the corner.  It wasn’t the fact that Ramadhan was coming that shocked me. It was the fact that so much time had elapsed which we hadn’t kept track of at all. Right now, twenty days have passed since I last left the house, and not much has happened since.  In a normal routine, twenty days mean a lot. They can be enough to complete a couple of chapters of studying and get a lot of work done. When travelling, twenty days allow for a luxurious tour. When you start a new sport, twenty days are enough to get in the flow.  And here, twenty days ...

Hey! I haven't posted here in a very long time, and might have stopped posting altogether had it not been for the circumstances we are in. Covid-19 has probably changed the life of every human being on the planet, and that too in a very difficult and frustrating way. And like a lot of you, I've had quite a lot of thoughts buzzing around in my mind, making it difficult to focus on anything. So it occurred to me that I might as well write them down - for writing helps me think better - and even post them here. So here's the idea: I will be posting on this blog more frequently than I used to, random ideas and thoughts that I think a lot about. Don't expect those posts to be very profound and well-written, since the objective is not to create fine pieces of literature but to unclog my own mind by writing about the things that are clogging it. I hope you find them worth reading - if not, you don't have to read them. I find it quite interesting how this pandemic has mad...