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

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

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

"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

Let's Start Small

-
In the last year, I have come to realize a few things about myself. Or maybe I have changed and these things are a part of the new and improved Shiro. If any of you have been following my blog, a year ago catastrophe struck and I packed up my bags and moved away, closer to home. I believe we can never heal in the environment we were hurt in, so I left and decided to change my life and everything I didn't like about it. It has been a little over a year since I left 2063. The house I had found after 2 months of roaming around the streets of Bellandur and made my home. The house I loved, with its twinkly lights, the balcony overlooking the lake, and the plethora of bean bags lying around everywhere. I loved everything about it. It was my home. I felt at peace there. Okay go getting back to the point,  what I have realized about myself is that I like to be placed into challenging positions. It makes me stronger. Somehow over the last year, I have transformed into the sword of Gry...
Read more

The stolen shot glasses

-
Image
The winter refuses to end. It gets warm for a couple of days, I declare that winter has finally come to an end, and what do I wake up the next morning? Ahh! It has rained again, so crawl under your blankets people. This touch and go winter game, has caught up with me. Unable to go to work, I decide to work on my blog today. I was going through my older blog posts and came across one called Clutter, where I talk about how all the clutter/junk we have in our lives is not non-sensical junk but actually tidbits of memories, each telling us a different story. This post reminded me of a very sweet story, that I think deserves it's own post. So here it goes. I call it "The stolen shot glasses". I think it was my 4th year and I was hanging with a couple of my friends. It was the four people, three of us dual degree students and were always neck deep in assignments and labs and projects and whatnot. Chemical engineering put a serious damper in our college lives!  So yeah, one...
Read more

Five and a Half Years and a Lifetime Ago

-
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...
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

Fragments of Identity

-
Image
Spending a couple of hours in an Apple Store, waiting for my dad's new iPhone to update, turned into an unexpectedly introspective moment. This sleek, glass-walled environment morphs into a stage for human stories, each purchase unfolding its own tale. For some, it's just a routine swap from one model to the next. But for others, it's a milestone—a symbol of ambition, success, and even celebration. I find myself noticing the curious details around me: a steel balti oddly placed on the table, an unexpected relic in this minimalist setting. Nearby, two men with a young child hold onto their new iPhone, looking slightly out of place. For them, it seems like a defining moment—perhaps a reward for their hard work. In another corner, a group of girls gathers around a shiny new pink iPhone, giggling, snapping selfies, and enjoying their new purchase. A newlywed couple sits nearby, their smiles suggesting that the phone in their hands might be a wedding gift, a token for the new ch...
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

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