Beyond Boredom

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 I am bored out of my mind,
Only if there was something to find,
A puzzle or riddle of any kind,
To leave this mind-numbing boredom behind.






My brain is starved for some stimulation.
A physics problem or some math calculation,
To engage my mind in deep concentration,
And break free from this dull stagnation.

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All time highs

India is Akbar Birbal and Tenali Rama: हमने कभी फर्क नहीं किया

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A lot has been happening in our country over the last few weeks. There has been a lot of talk about it in every form of media available. I myself have been giving a lot of thought to the processions happening all over the country. It is a very complex and complicated issue. On the one hand, I cannot even begin to understand and comprehend the emotions of hundreds of millions of people across the world, who have their emotions invested in this and their joy on the 22nd of January and Ram Mandir. And my love to all of them. It has been a long battle, and they finally got what they had always wanted.  In a serendipitous moment last night, while engrossed in reading Walter Isaacson's "Elon Musk," I came across a chapter about Twitter, talking about Elon Musk and Parag Agarwal. This prompted a train of thought in my mind about the millions of Indians relocating to the USA annually. I imagined a future where, perhaps, a century or two from now, people of Indian origin would con...
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The rise of the extroverts?

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Assertiveness has become a survival skill. If you aren’t assertive, you are not going anywhere. More than your skills and capabilities what matters in the world is how well you portray what little capability you possess. You might be the genius who came up with the concept of the hype cycle (#gartner), but if you can’t market yourself, it is no use. In a world where everyone is trying to make an impact and make themselves more memorable, the ones who speak constantly are bound to be remembered. This is the era of the extroverts. The ones who can speak their way through life. People who surf the world on confidence and aggression. In today’s world, “ Jo dikhta hai, wo bikta hai ” and this system has an innate bias towards the outspoken, no matter how daft. Okay, that is a little extreme, but if you are not completely dumb and chatty and can speak your way through a bunch of conference rooms, congratulations, you are it! If you are humble, people are going to walk all over you. N...
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College Life != Best Years of Your Life

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Everyone, literally everyone you meet will tell you that your undergrad will be the best 3 or 4 years of your life, and there will be nothing like it again. Those of us who are yet to go to college eagerly look forward to it, and those of us who have completed our undergrad go down the staircase of memories and nostalgia. Having completed my engineering about three years ago, I can certify the notion that college life indeed is a lot of fun. You have independence but don't have to worry about the realities of life yet. Not quite yet. I myself have had a wonderful four years filled with Maggi, cheese garlic naan, lots of cheap alcohol in beach shacks and one particularly shady bar, road trips, and conversations on footpaths that end only when the sun shines at you. But let's just stop here and think, if what everyone claims with such gusto is actually true, and estimating that our average lifespan is about 80 and college ends at roughly 21, that means the best part of our l...
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Think Non-Fiction is Boring? Think Again.

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The Dichotomy of Crop Top

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I have always had a problem with crop tops. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have a problem with people wearing them. You do you. I was just never able to comprehend them. For me clothes are mostly functional and comfortable. They can be trendy and fashionable, but comfortable at all costs. I hardly wear anything that makes me feel physically or mentally uncomfortable. This is why I don’t get crop tops. And I know I sound conservative and judgmental, but I’m honestly just coming from a place of trying to understand what about them makes me uncomfortable. So my husband and I are finally watching The Bastards of Bollywood. Great show. And I vocalize this thought to him. We try to figure out why. Both of us being consultants, we started to break the problem down. What I realized is that I don’t mind crop tops, but I cannot understand what beyond the male gaze is the value of this. I am sure people who wear them find them incredibly comfortable. But this begs a bigger question.  To what e...
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Turning Twenty-five

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Birthdays are a lot of fun, if you are a kid. As an adult, birthdays become annoying. I think it is a bell curve, wherein the beginning you don’t care about your birthday because let’s face it, you are much too young. This interest or enjoyment increases with time when you are a kid and finally understand that birthday = gifts, and then comes back slumping when society thinks you are much too big to be wearing a birthday cap and blowing out candles. I am one of those people who always dread their birthdays. Somehow because you expect your birthday to be special, and as a grownup, there isn’t much special left to be done in life, ice cream cakes are not a novelty anymore and any money you get goes towards your credit card fund and not to buy a magnifying glass and playing detective. Somehow there is too much pressure on birthdays, and hence the dread. You've got to party, you have to have a good time, and in achieving that, simple things that otherwise make you happy fail to ...
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Tug of war - your decision

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There is a popular game in India called Rassa Kashi, or commonly known as tug of war. It is played a lot in India and there are proper tournaments and competitions for it. Athletes train regularly for it, basically it is a not just a game, here it is a sport. This game usually has two teams on the opposite sides holding a rope, and trying to pull it towards themselves. If you have ever noticed, it is a pretty thick rope, and holding on to it when it is being snatched away from you is pretty hard. Firstly there is a lot of friction involved when the rope is being tugged on by two ends, and due to that friction a lot of heat is generated and your palm may get burnt, also secondly, holding on to something so tight when someone else is trying to snatch it from you can give you bruises, and not just those tiny ones, deep bruises and maybe even cuts. You might be wondering why I am suddenly talking about this. Well, I have a good reason for it. I am trying to draw an analogy t...
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Where do we come from?

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We are who we are because of where we come from. My god, so many W's. Bear with me. This is a good one. This is something that I have heard people say a lot, but I finally understand what it means. Theory padhi thi ab practically samajh aaya hai.   You may agree to disagree but what I have come to understand is that who we are is heavily and I can't stress enough but extremely heavily dependent on our family background. When I say family background, I mean how are parents are, what their nature is, what was the atmosphere of our house and how we were brought up. And this influences us in ways we are not even aware of. Our personality is our family, our background and our experiences. Our likes, dislikes, triggers, turn-ons, reactions, confidence, issues have all come from our families. We are more like our parents than we would care to admit. In fact, we millennials think we are different and unique, we think your personalities are unique, haha, they're borrowed. You...
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Five and a Half Years and a Lifetime Ago

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As I make my way from the airport to Bangalore city, nearly six years after I departed from it, memories flood back to me. I reminisce about the time I spent here, recalling one of my closest friends who used to reside near the airport, close to that massive mall. Instinctively, I yearn to visit her - the version of her from back then, in that old neighborhood where I used to travel long hours over the weekends just to be with her. She was like a home to me during those times, always there when I needed her, whether it was after getting too high from smoking up or during moments of conflict with others. We would spend hours watching random TV shows and engaging in heartfelt conversations. Mornings would find us cuddled together, reluctant to face the realities of our adult lives and the responsibilities that accompanied them. I remember driving through the chaotic Bangalore traffic for two hours just to be by her side when she was sick and alone. Our bond was akin to that of family; in...
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The Last Man Standing at Jyoti Nivas College Road

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It was the first week of August in 2016, I believe, when I rushed to Bangalore to start my internship a full month after everyone else. It was my first time in Bangalore, and I remember being intimidated by the city itself. It was very different from everything I had known. The very next day, I was to start my internship at a management consulting firm called Zinnov. I knew one college senior who worked there, so it was a relief that I’d have a familiar face around. I entered, filled out a heap of forms, and then was ushered to another building on the same fateful “Jyoti Nivas College road,” barely 20 steps from the main office. The words BSR arcade glared at me as I entered the office. The HR brought me to the first floor, where I saw about 20 people working on their laptops. I was introduced to everyone there, but I barely remembered anyone's name. I was assigned a seat and told to wait for the manager, who was busy with a meeting. I opened my laptop and waited for it to start. I...
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