Open Up!

It's almost a decade now, when Matthew McConaughey won an Oscar for Dallas buyers club. And during that ceremony, he perhaps gave the most inspirational and yet pragmatic speech. He said that we only need three things in our lives. Someone to look up to, someone to look forward to and something to chase for.  And I think it's a minimalistic approach. And I too believe that it's the right way. We fill up our minds with so many things, we forget the basics. We forget why we started the very thing. We get fed to the grind economy, to generate and then spend.  I don't have any problem with that, but while doing this we all are entering in a cycle of infinite comparison. Like the saying goes, we have entered the era, where we only see the greener grass on the next garden. We are looking so much outside, we are losing the art of appreciating what we have, known as Gratitude.  We forget to acknowledge the love we receive, or the work we do, or the little things we enjoy. And a...

 One of the perks of being an ambivert is that when you feel indifferent from the surroundings you can choose to become an introvert.  And every introvert has an advantage. They are aware of their thoughts in a very good way. They understand the source of the feeling they are currently having. Confused? Let me simplify. When a person gets some sort of feeling in any situation, that feeling is always associated with some sort of change in the environment. The change could be tangible or intangible. Often intangible. And people often are unable to identify the exact source and this makes things frustrating. You might have experienced this yourself or with people around you. And this is where introverts get the advantage of being comfortable with the solitude, ability to stay alone. When a person is comfortable in being alone s/he gets to spend time with her/his thoughts and feelings. Every feeling is linked with some sort of thought and thoughts never arrive alone. They are link...

Summer rains have a special place in my life. They show us that no matter how things get heated, one rainy cloud is good enough to cool things down. And obviously, for few moments, every human becomes still, in this fast paced world. Have you observed how fast life has become? Or maybe I belong to the age group where I can feel this. Youngsters don't feel it, old folks don't care, middle age people don't have time to observe due to various responsibilities. But my age group, the millennials, I think we see the world in different perspective. Somehow life has become a rapidfire multiple choice quiz. You gotta keep selecting one thing after another, you just must, else you might become irrelevant in society. But then I ask myself sometimes, is this how I imagined my adulthood. Ofcourse many of the things from my 'Someday' list are there, but something is still missing. And I can't point it out. It's like I'm driving at high speeds, taking timely brakes, t...

Nothing. Before there was nothing, and after would be nothing. Life is all we have in between. But we never appreciate life, untill someone close leaves us. Leaving us with grief, just grief. On the infinite canvas of time, our lifetimes are nothing but a blip. It's there, and then it's not. Our existence is mere a blink of an eye in the fabric of this universe. So insignificant. But What's significant anyways? It's everything that we value the most. It's our hearts that decide what's significant in our lives. And often it's the people we love the most and care the most. Not the materialistic world. And when a person leaves us, abruptly or not. The only emotion they leave us with is pain. And there's no way to run away from it. There's no solution to feel better. There's simply nothing that a person can do. Just pure helplessness. An then there's grief. Grief is emotional suffering you feel when someone you love is taken away. It's that t...

There are stories. There are good stories. And then there are stories which touch your soul. One such story is written by Markus Zusak, named as The Book thief. Narrated by the death itself, it's a story of a kid from Nazi Germany. Her name is Liesel. Living in a foster home, with her new Papa and Mama. But life is not fair with her. She has memories of a brother, she lost on a train. Her new mother is awful cook and pretty tough on her. She has nightmares every night. As she starts to live this new life on a place called Himmel Street, stuff keeps happening. She makes a best friend Rudy, who's has crush on her. Her father teaches her the art of reading from a book she has stolen from grave yard. And hence the title, the book thief. And then there's another important character, called Max. Who is a Jew in a Nazi Germany, who is given shelter in her basement. You go on a journey from a train, to a football match on street, to stealing apples and bread. From playing accordion...

It's a phenomenon which a writer stumbles into once in a while. Basically s/he is not able to write anything. Somehow, the thought cycle which connects to words resulting into something meaningful is broken.  In other words, Monday blues. Unable to work. But this is little different with a writer. In an office, there will be an external enforcer (a Boss, in fancy words). But with a writer, it has to be a force within. An Intuition. But that's the thing, right? The urge, the motivation, the intuition, at times, just fades out, once in a while. When the linearity of life just stops bothering you. You fall in love with the concept of dormancy. Basically you become a couch potato (Until your mom starts to scold). But I feel, sometimes this block is a necessity. In terms of  industrial engineering, it is called mandatory buffer. A system should never be run at its max capacity all the time, or it will fail. Just like humans.  In life too, we keep figuring out what's next, all ...