Death by meeting

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I have woken up
But I'm still not awake
I might look interested
Believe me, it's fake

I am sitting in a call
But my mind is away
I'm wearing a jacket
But I'm thinking of may

The screen is out of focus
And I'm stifling a yawn
I'm sitting in a room
I'd rather sunbathe on a lawn

I have woken up
But I'm still not awake
I might look interested
Believe me, it's fake

I am nodding along
With affirmative sounds
You're paying me in rupees
But I'm spending in pounds!

I pretend to understand
and scribble on my pad
please end this call
or I'll end up mad!

I have woken up
But I'm still not awake
I might look interested
Believe me, it's fake

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All time highs

General people appreciation post

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 I cannot get to sleep, so I decided to sit in the balcony. And it is frikking cold, and there is music playing in my room, well where is there isn't. I have recently been feeling a lot of appreciation for the people in my life and wanted to pen it down.  Two days ago I got my much awaited first-ever promotion. I was alone at home when I got the call. I was beyond elated. I called all my friends and family to share the good news and then sat in front of my laptop. Then I decided to call up a friend who didn't respond to my somewhat cryptic message "call aa gaya". I call her and give her the news and the first words out of her mouth were "saman uthao apna aur aa jao" which translates to pick up your things and come over ASAP. And that is all we want in life, someone to say that to us. I love this woman very very much.  Umm secondly, I don't know if this happens with everyone or just me, but in the last couple of years, I have gotten really close to my cou...
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Sometimes, Stop and look around

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We get lost in the tailings of daily life. The laundry that is becoming a mountain, the fridge that needs restocking, and the Roomba that needs to be cleaned. And on top of all of this, there is Mark Zuckerberg trying his fucking best to make you addicted to a social media platform that is known to induce anxiety, fear, and loneliness in people. So we don’t have time. Or so we think. I think sometimes we need to take a giant, deep breath and just look around. Look at where you are. Look at what you have achieved. Appreciate it. Appreciate it not because, oh look, other people don’t even have this, but because, hey, look at you. You got here. You dreamed of being here. You worked to get here. And you did. Take a beat and enjoy it. Somewhere between the laundry and the traffic, we have genuinely forgotten how to enjoy the things we once desperately wanted. For instance, I have been working at Accenture Strategy for about 4–5 months now. I had been applying here for almost three years and...
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Where are the "Friends" now?

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It's been 11 years since Monica and Chandler moved out of the apartment. That was one big moment for the group, after which they all really did grow up. Their lives went into six different directions, but they still try to keep in touch. The keeping in touch does not go very well with their busy lives. But they try to meet at least once a month at the coffee house, and swap stories like old times. This has now become a tradition. Also they always always go to Monica's place for thanksgiving where she cooks them a delicious meal and the kids run around and have fun! Monica and Chandler moved to the suburbs with the twins, who are now 11 years old. Monica is not only a chef at one of the best restaurants in NY but has published two cookbooks as well. Chandler who started on a new career path is now booming in that field, He is working at a great advertising firm, but he prefers to work from home (at least half the time) and stay with the kids. They have a perfect littl...
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The Room of Forgotten Things

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Last week, I had a really lovely dream and woke up nostalgic and happy, with almost a smile. Context: I took a week-long break from work, so my mind was quite at ease and not worrying about meetings and deliverables.  Alright, so coming back to my dream. I am in my college room (the one I lived in during my 3rd year). I was maybe visiting campus or coming back after a break, but that wasn't very clear to me. Alright, so I am in my room, and it is very cluttered and full of things such as books, photographs, clothes, guitars, harmoniums, pens, notebooks with a clothing line going right through the middle of the room, and whatnot.  As I took a closer look at the things in the room and checked the cupboard, it started returning to me. These are things that I have lost or forgotten about, all sitting in that room for me to discover and explore. There is a pile of books, and atop is a Manchester United book that I had gifted my husband last year on his birthday while we were in Goa...
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Bonded in Ink

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Traditions make us feel closer to those who came before us, keeping their presence alive in small, familiar ways. They remind us that we’re part of something bigger—a history, a community, a shared experience. They give us a sense of belonging, grounding us in who we are and where we come from. I recently got a tattoo on my wrist. A Marathi word written in Malayalam. Since then, every time I look at it, I think of my grandmother—my father’s mother. She passed away when I was 12. Next year, it’ll be two decades since she left. We weren’t particularly close, just the usual grandmother-granddaughter relationship. She’d ask me to save sweets for my dad, and I’d tease her by eating them right in front of her. Just to annoy her. When she was paralyzed on her left side, I was a little scared. She invented a game—letting me pinch her left arm as hard as I wanted because she couldn’t feel it, but on the right, she’d react dramatically. I remember her in her little granny bed, sometimes scold...
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Think Non-Fiction is Boring? Think Again.

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You think non-fiction books are dry?  You think there’s no story, no suspense?  Just a bunch of facts or perspectives with nothing to keep you hooked?  Then you are very wrong, my friend! Non-fiction books can be incredibly addictive. Once you step out of the fictional world and into the reality of non-fiction, you’ll see the scales tip. Every decision carries weight. Every move has to be calculated, because unlike in fiction, when someone messes up in real life, the consequences are real. Watching people factor in risks, make tricky, bold, or even borderline insane decisions will leave you anxious for them. It doesn’t matter that it happened years ago—you’re right there with them in that moment of panic and uncertainty. Non-fiction also teaches you empathy in a way fiction can’t always achieve. You live through the triumphs and failures of real people, understanding the weight of their choices, the courage in their risks, and the humanity in their flaws. You begin to se...
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The Authority Problem

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What a wonderful world it would be if we could send every man who refuses to acknowledge the existence of an alternate opinion or way of doing things to a rehabilitation centre. I am certain we have all had our fair share of experiences with such men. More so as women, because somehow, when we present an opposing view with confidence, there is wonder in their eyes.  It is the expression a child has when taken to Disneyland for the first time; utter disbelief, minus the excitement. Their minds, rusted shut by decades of unquestioned authority, struggle to process the audacity of a woman not only having an opinion, but having the nerve to say it out loud. Appalling. Off with her head.  But of course, this remains nothing more than a fleeting thought in their minds. In reality, they either ignore you entirely, or if they have had some degree of social conditioning, they acknowledge your point and promptly overrule it. There is also a third kind, the most dangerous of the lot, the...
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The Blockchain of Trust

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I have been working in the technology space for over a year now. And it has significantly shaped my thought process and decision-making. I find myself seeking logic in every aspect of my life, to the point that I have started annoying people around me! One fine day when I was driving back home, it hit me. Trust is the foundation of how we operate. Certain people are closer to us than others because we trust them more. We believe in them. This trust is an underlying component of every friendship and relationship. Actually, let me rephrase that, it is a quintessential ingredient, without which your recipe is going to be incomplete and your friendship bland.  We all have our network of trusted friends, the individuals closest to us in this world. We would want these relationships to continue for as long as possible, and if something happens to even one of them it would be devastating. So there I am in my car, listening to Coldplay, pondering if there was a foolproof way to optimize t...
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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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That Bulb Needs Changing.

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That bulb needs changing. Yes, that is correct. And I think this one line is going to sum up my experiences as an adult. This bulb could be a metaphor, or in fact, it could be a real bulb. What I am trying to indicate is that being an adult means that something, somewhere in life, is broken and needs fixing. Always. All the time. I don’t think this is a phase, I think this is a requirement for adult life. As soon as you enter your late twenties and early thirties, all the appliances in your house conspire together to never let you be at peace. They talk and collude. They create a problem small enough to be annoying, but not big enough to warrant immediate action. It exists in that perfect sweet spot of constant background annoyance. It has been an okay-ish day. My "micro-manager" gave me feedback on how I failed to peer into his brain, picking the exact words he would have used in an email to the client. Yes, that is an actual expectation. (Sam Altman? Elon Musk? Can we get m...
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