Moon snails are a family of minute to large-sized predatory sea snails. Naticids are predatory, feeding mostly on bivalves. They will also attack almost any other shelled mollusk they encounter in the sand, including other moon snails. The moonsnail envelops the prey and then bores a hole through the shell using their radula and an acid secretion. Once the shell is bored open, the proboscis is used to consume the flesh of the prey. The hole in the shell, which has a “countersunk” appearance with chamfered edges and which varies in size according to the species, is a characteristic diagnostic sign of moon snail predation.
Photo credit: © 2012 Piotr Rotkiewicz
Not really psyched about how this is turning out but I am learning a lot about mixing acrylic and colored pencil…
thangka painting
(source: bodetam.us)
She posted this on Instagram. Such a babeeee
omg.
Sometimes I feel that desis (South Asians) lead very destructive lifestyles. We internalize so much hate and negativity and let it seep in to every aspect of our lives but continue to deny that that negativity exists. We have complicated relationships with our parents, our siblings, our relatives, our friends and in many cases, we don’t allow ourselves to break off toxic relationships with blood relatives because our culture looks down on it. Kids tolerate their parents or get used to them and their physical, mental, emotional abuse because anything else isn’t an option. More often than not, daughters are victim to even more abuse, even from self-proclaimed “open and egalitarian” parents.
When we try to speak up against something that offends or hurts us or try to argue that a cultural practice is unethical or disgusting, we’re told we’re too Amreeki. “Baqwaas band karo. Tum desi ho, desio ki tara ro. Ye american panchod do.” (Shut up. You’re desi so act like a desi. Stop trying to be American). So we end up internalizing all this hatred and some of us end up living secret lives, sharing little to nothing with our families and being as compliant as possible so we can maintain a civil relationship with our parents.
Then we’re married off to men and women our parents deem suitable for us. In many cases, we’re not given much of a choice in the matter; we may not be forced to marry a person, but the amount of pressure placed on us leads us to eventually cave in. If we dare try to have a “love marriage,” so much negativity will surround the wedding and marriage, that it’ll be doomed from the start. Regardless, getting married means a whole new cycle of abuse from in-laws for the woman. For the man, well, he has to choose to let his family abuse his wife or stand up for her. Unfortunately, in my experience, very rarely do men defend their wives.
I cannot comment on other South Asian religious communities because my knowledge is very limited and it would be unwise of me to speak on matters I don’t know of, but I can speak about Islam. Desis proudly declare how well we follow Islam and how we’re much better Muslims than others (when that is an incredibly un-Islamic thing to say), but we do very few things Islamically. We abuse the notion that parents should be obeyed no matter what. Everything is inaccurately justified by Islam. When you try to show that to your parents, they say they know, lekin dunya me rehna hai to karna to parega (but we have to live in this society, so we have to do it). The fear of people and society is put ahead of the fear of God and it’s absolutely disgusting and frustrating and preventing us from making effective changes in the way we do things.
And of course, as with all posts I make on any subject, I write from my own observations, experiences and stories I hear from people, or even from the news. There are many desi people who do not have lives like the one I described, but unfortunately, a very large percentage do, and that frustrates me to no end.
First two paragraphs, ding ding ding!
“I liked Michael Jackson before he was dead“
Macaulay Culkin (source:instagram)
