Arbitrary Notions

  “ This thing of being a hero, about the main thing to it is to know when to die. ”-Will Rogers When he woke up, he had no idea that the world around him had changed. He got out of his bed and was greeted by his reflection in the mirror. To him, all seemed the same as it had been before last night's events. A same tangled mess of hair which refused to settle, clothes that could do with a little cleaning, and the undying little ray of hope in his heart that his life will change someday. The only new thing was a hint of pride on his face after last night.

At the start of this financial year, I found myself in a weird situation. I had loads of free time. My office did not think I needed to work and hence I was passing my days sleeping, eating, and daydreaming, but mostly sleeping. (No it is not great, more on my job separately) It was at this time that I had a sudden burst of energy and I made a list of things that I needed to watch. It included TV/Web series, YouTube channels, movies… not just new but old and classics too. So, armed with this list I began to watch a few movies before giving in to my laziness again (Do not judge) . One of the classics that I saw at this time was the 1998 Shah Rukh Khan starrer Dil Se. The only reason this movie made the cut was the songs. The songs have been on my playlist for a long time and I could never remember if I had watched the movie or not. So finally, I decided to give it a watch.

[Disclaimer: Fictional Post] (Dedicated to my latest blog reader. Thank you for inspiring me to pick up the pen again) ‘Beep’ With that innocent sound, the door swung open to what I strongly believed to be modern slavery. I groaned and moved in lest the guards decided to check why this one person is standing and staring at a perfectly common door. Thus, began another day of slogging through the emails, bitching about colleagues and using tools provided by Mr. Bill Gates to move a little closer to buying the invention by Mr. Steve Jobs for myself.

14/05/19   07.41.03 PM It is said that in your last moments your life flashes before your eyes. It’s a lie! You might say what does a spoiled brat teenager living in upstate New Delhi know about all this. Well, I do because a few moments ( not even seconds ) ago I lost control of my new Honda City. It was a gift from my dad for my birthday which is coming up in a couple of days. Obviously, I took it out for a ride with my friends, and we had a few beers on the way ( YOLO! ). It shouldn’t even surprise you. Because that is my stereotype, isn’t it?

A s the whole world goes gaga over Avengers: Endgame, I am stuck here watching YouTube, Netflix, Hotstar, GoT, IPL, and whatnot. This is not because I don’t want to see Endgame but rather because the only friend available to watch the movie with me is, well, married ( self-explanatory ). I have never watched a movie alone, and I don’t intend to start now. With the plan for Avengers delayed, I have taken up to books and web series ( no dearth of content around ). Luckily for me, TVF decided to release the second season of their web series Tripling in April ( I know it was released whole 3 weeks before Endgame but I found it recently, okay? ). Tripling season 1 was adorable and brilliant, so I was excited to see what they got this time. These are my thoughts on season 2 of the sibling road trip saga from TVF. ( I will try to avoid giving out any spoilers but c’mon this isn’t Endgame that I can spoil for anyone. It’s been out for almost a month so most of you must have already seen it ...

AI= Artificial Intelligence, an area of computer science that emphasizes the creation of intelligent machines that work and react like humans. Y ou must have heard the phrase ‘AI will take my job’ ( or some variation of it ). While I was employed in the tech job I always thought ‘Yes, this is going to happen. They will automate my work, and I will not be needed anymore.’ Heck, they made me automate the work I was doing! For some reason, every manager always got excited hearing ‘automation.’ I hated it, but I did it and got loads of time off. This was two years back when I wasn’t as wise as I am now.

T he only audible sound was his heavy breathing. It was dark in the cupboard and his back was hurting sitting slouched in there for the past hour. Maybe it was over. Maybe it was safe for him to come out now. Vishesh moved his head forward to the glass and squinted his eyes to look outside. The low light made it impossible to see but there was no sound. He pushed the cupboard door and climbed down. The electricity seemed to be off. The main door stood ajar which was the only source of the little light illuminating the house. It did look like he was safe now. He swiftly moved towards the door and slammed it shut.

I am not the kind of person who gets affected by deaths of celebrities, or so I thought.

मैं खेल रहा था आंगन में  जब तुमने आके हाथ मिलाया  हुई दोस्ती जो तुझसे तो बगीचा मेरा मेहकाया |

The lights went out and I was suddenly engulfed in pitch darkness. I had just sat down and was glad that I took that decision at the right time. You don’t want to be standing and waiting in the dark when there is no guarantee on how long the power would be gone.

Browsing through the Instagram’s ‘people you would like to follow’ during the mind-numbing time that my office hours have become, I came across this one girl. Clicked to open up her profile and like most legit profiles up on Instagram, this one too was Private. ( Reminder to self: have to make my profile private ). This girl had a Blogspot link up in her description and being the curious person I am, I opened up the link. Reading through a couple of posts I could say she is good.  As I was about to go back, I came across a post on her thoughts on Tamasha. Now, you have to understand, this is what I consider my soul movie so I had to check out what she had to say. ( On a related topic here are my thoughts on it . Check that post out too ). It really delighted me knowing she had understood the movie and was all for it. So I can, by default say I would like her. 2 things followed this Blogspot stalking: First, I went back to Instagram and requested to follow her without a second ...

R eality shows are entertaining, especially if you are not taking part in one. There is a curious kind of satisfaction in watching a desperate group of unknown people thrown together and to have them fight it out for the ultimate prize. These have always been popular right from gladiator matches in ancient Rome to Roadies on MTV today. The only noticeable change being the cut-throat competition has become less literal and more symbolic( thankfully ). There is another reality show genre that takes place every year with lakhs competing but it has not been televised ( yet ), maybe because of the extreme nature of the content ( someone pitch this to MTV now ). I am talking of course of the admission process for the higher education in India. CAT should have a proper logo and theme song. Here is my suggestion for the logo, cool right?

I was in the fields, a dry barren land. As far as the eyes could see there seemed to be no sign of life. The dusty land underneath my feet was cool which was weird because the sun was shining bright overhead. The land was divided into plots by trenches. The plot I was standing on felt like it belonged to me. There were withering plants all around me. I started moving forward, careful not to crush any of the plants. 

(The Prompt for this piece was: Delivering a message in an unconventional way)

W e all have a voice inside of us; you know the one I am going to talk about. it is the one which will stop you from jumping around in the puddle of water after the rain, the one which gives you about a million reasons why doing that 'childish' thing is not a good idea,

The world is a stage but the play is badly cast – Oscar Wilde This is one of the statements that probably Imtiaz Ali tried to make in Tamasha. If you think about it, it was more of ‘Why the play is so badly cast?’ the question that he tried to address.

R ains! I love the rainy season! I always look forward to the day when those thick gray clouds take over from the scorching sun and give the effect of night ( more like late evening perhaps ) in the middle of the day. After all the teasing with thunder and lightning when these bearers of relief finally decide to take pity on the mortals below, the feeling is something else; the petrichor, the sound of rains drops finally making it to the earth, all of us taking a collective sigh of relief and a lot of us spreading our hands out of the window to feel the rain drops fall. That cold droplet of water hitting your hand somehow makes you feel that time will change and get better in the coming days.  This is that time of the year when all of a sudden everyone gets a craving for pakodas and hot tea. I doubt there is a better feeling than to sit at home, tea in one hand with a plate of pakodas in front of you and watch the rain cool everything down.

I t has been a year today. Not for my joining date at work, that’s in another two days. Not for this blog, god that was in March, please follow on facebook for regular updates. No, it has been a year since I left home to earn on my own and ‘become independent’.

[ Disclaimer : The events that are described below are more or less real. Some may vary in intensity depending on which metro you are in.]   Image found on Google

Or is it? Maybe… I know I am not the most qualified person for this topic but hey, it’s my blog. I have seen people ‘falling in love’ during their school days. And I am talking about the serious commitment, many a times in college too. But I guess college romance is a little more understandable. As for me, I don’t get it. You don’t have any kind of clarity on where are you going to end up and here you are ready to commit yourself to a person for all your life. You can’t commit yourself to studies but yes a romantic commitment is totally fine.