30 days of the Quarantine

-
I have been in a writing slump. There are a lot of things I want to talk about but somehow when I sit down to write my mind is completely blank. This along with the fact that we are in a pandemic and I have a lot of time, I have decided to do another 30-day writing challenge. I am hoping this would help me get back into the rhythm and get the creativity flowing.

So here is this year's 30-day writing challenge. Starting today I am going to put up a post every day for the next thirty days. Here is the challenge. 



Comments

Post a Comment

All time highs

Think Non-Fiction is Boring? Think Again.

-
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...
Read more

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

-
Image
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...
Read more

The Gravity of "Us"

-
Image
I am very much a family person. I love my family. I love my immediate family to death, but I also love parts of my extended family. Not that all of us are great, or characters straight out of the movie Hum Saath Saath Hain. We bitch, we gossip, we do panchayat, we take offence, we give offence — the whole nine yards. But somehow, we still manage to be nice to each other. We still manage to love each other through all the lies and backstabbing. We fight over petty things, but we also forgive easily — well, most of us. And we’ve had big fights. Fights where it felt impossible to come back from, and guess what? We came back. We might bitch about each other, but we fiercely protect each other from the world. Yeah, I can bitch about them. Geetika, you keep your trap shut. Think of it as a bunch of us being held together by clay. Sometimes, someone comes loose, but with just a tad bit of water, it’s an easy fix. But of late, I think the clay is starting to harden and become brittle. Guess g...
Read more

A Different Metric System

-
Image
We have to get our upper lips waxed and our eyebrows threaded And remove every single strand of stray hair and the world, the world calls it much-needed "self-care" Men in boxer shorts is totally okay and their ball sacks are free agents but a visible bra strap is a call for some chiding and our camel toes, ohh they definitely need some hiding Tanning is a very big problem and blackheads are the mortal enemy There are different creams as per the time of day Girl, without perfect skin, how ever will you slay? Looks are what “matters” the most for us Your beauty decides your worth   Honestly, no one cares if you are feeling fine Well, of course, the industry has 400 billion dollars on the line These double standards have become the norm boys will be boys, but girls gotta stay in form So buck up woman, it is time to dress, We've got the whole damn world to impress.  
Read more

The weird girl and the sea.

-
Image
I recently read in a book called "The Trust" that if it is love at first sight, you should run in the other direction, as fast as you can. But that is not true in my case of falling in love with Goa! Goa has a piece of my heart. You must be thinking hmm Goa is a pretty good place! The beach, cheap booze, extreme chill, I get it how one could want to go there but love? Isn't that a bit too much? Well, let me give you guys some context. For me, Goa is my second home. It is where I have spent four wonderful, blissful and adventurous years. I did my engineering from BITS Pilani Goa and over the course of those four years, I fell in love with the place. The brightly colored houses, the air which almost smells like the ocean and even the incessant rains. For the world it might be a place to chill, party, get drunk and basically have a blast, for me its home. It would be safe to assume I have a Horcrux hidden somewhere in Goa. I know Goa so pretty well, and it knows me t...
Read more

First year :a look back (19 June, 2013)

-
So, after one full year, which now seems to have gone by very quickly, I sit here thinking about it. This one year has changed everything. I still remember the very first day when I stood at the gate and looked at my college, my home for the next four years. It was nothing I had imagined it to be. Rather, from the first look, it seemed pretty bad, and I thought to myself, "How will I do it?" But then, as I took a closer look, it did not seem so bad. So what if the roofs had moss all over them, and what if my room was in the extreme corner? It was my world now, and I had to make the best of it. I met a lot of people and made a lot of friends—some lasted only for a week or so, and some are still beside me, partners in crime. College is a place where you make your own decisions and your own identity. And every single decision counts and adds to your personality and gets stuck to you . You meet all kinds of people here, some who are like you and some who are comp...
Read more

Where do we come from?

-
Image
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...
Read more

Turning Twenty-five

-
Image
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 ...
Read more

What I would rather be doing

-
I'd rather get a brain freeze or camp in a tent than sit with a cast and my torn ligament! I'd rather go to the gym or in winter I would swim I'd rather study for an exam have dinner with the extended fam I'd rather eat broccoli and have my car get a dent than sit with a cast and my torn ligament! I'd rather clean my desktop go on a date with a mop I'd rather wear a fluffy dress I swear I would clean up my mess I'd say yes to all plans and go to every event than sit with a cast and my torn ligament! I'd rather break my iPhone dance to a stupid ringtone have my headphones get lost pay double the shipping cost I'd figure out my taxes and log every dollar I spent than sit with a cast and my torn ligament!
Read more

"30 Days of Notice Period" - #15

-
# 15 Put your iPod on shuffle. First 10 songs that play This would actually be fun if I had my old iPod with me. It has songs from so many genres and eras that would be left astonished by my taste in music. My iPhone barely has any so this might be a weird list!  O Saathi Grenade - Bruno Mars Hey Jude - Beatles Main Rahoon ya na rahoon - Gulshan Kumar Do din hi madhu mujhe pilakar - Manna Dey (This is a part of Madhushala) Kanha - Shubh Mangal Saavdhan Love you Zindagi - Dear Zindagi Bane Pujari premi saqi - Manna Dey (This is a part of Madhushala) Jiyen Kyun - Dum Maaro Dum Fernando - ABBA 
Read more