The Words with Wings

 You'll meet these guys once in 5-7 years and suddenly remember how you used to believe you'd take over the world. And maybe that hasn't changed as much. Instead, our definition of "Taking over the world" has. It meant ruling the world at that time, but now, one of the most significant achievements would be beating the patriarchy while making the men in our lives feel as peaceful and confident as the sweetest people they are.  It's funny how our principles don't change much, even with the adulting we churn under daily. I was chatting with a couple of my school friends last week, and we realized that we're at an age when people around us are getting married while we struggle to build our careers. We realized our will to be "Girl Bosses" never changed, even with extremely different careers. But it's definitely not all positive when we think about it. While we were gossiping about how people getting married never really believed in having an...

I have exams for my third module starting next week, so I thought, why not gear up, before I head up for all the "module end" parties this week, I should look into what the syllabus looks like. I got up and got my notebook and pens ready. I wanted things to be smooth, so I decided to find the coolest-looking pen in my stationery drawer. And there was a sudden realization that so far in my life, I've had the privilege to experience all kinds of romances possible, and that made me wonder if I don't romanticize my life enough (and the answer is that I don't). To walk you through these different categories, I've had a school romance where you look for each other in the corridors just to blush on their first appearance, a coaching romance where getting a ride home is the most romantic thing you can think of, a college romance where you wait for each other's schedules to match to go out on a coffee date, an office romance where you wait the whole day just to spe...

 Today, I suddenly got the urge to bake something I haven't baked before and I thought of baking an orange almond tea cake. As an update, it's in the oven while I write this blog. As soon as I placed that cake tin in the oven, a sense of satisfaction and peace dawned upon me and it made me appreciate my love for baking again. This made me wonder how some people misinterpret feminism as "women leaving traditional gender roles and adopting more male-dominated roles." The only issue with that is that these "feminists" start looking down upon the women who actually enjoy activities like cooking and crocheting and women who choose to be caregivers, nurses, and homemakers.  We, as a society, need to understand that feminism stands for equal opportunity in all areas. The choice, however, should always be dependent on each individual. If a girl chooses to be a chef, it should not end up raising the eyes of the "feminists" since it is her choice. Additional...

I turned 23 this year and this year hasn't been any less than a roller coaster ride so far. I experienced everything I had experienced at least once before this year, but it was still so new to me. Let's do a case-by-case analysis (look at me turning into a corporate slave and flaunting my corporate jargon). I shifted first to a PG and then to a 1RK (Trust me, I swore to myself that I would never shift in a 1RK because they're tiny but I think I found a home here). I always assumed that living in an apartment would be like living in a hostel, but it feels different somehow. Don't get me wrong, I like living by myself because it gives me a chance to work on myself every single day but adulting hits you hard when you've to prepare the next day's lunch after returning from the office. And god knows where all the unclean utensils come from. I don't even own as many utensils as I end up washing every hour (overlook my slight exaggeration but this is still the que...

 Let's see where we end up with this question by the end of this blog.  Talking about my life lately... Got tired of drama with my friends, so decided to take a break and give myself some space. Started dating (again) and that's not as bad either - I almost forgot what it feels like to go on dates where the other person is actually your friend and doesn't end up asking what my food choices are. Work has been okayish in the sense that every day, I say "I'll conquer the world as soon as I work on my resume and start applying for a job switch" before going to bed. I started living in a 1RK (that's basically a room with a mini kitchen) and god knows where all those ants are coming from in my room. Ohh yeah, and I've been getting ill a lot lately and some people would say that the weather change is the reason for my throat infection. To them, I say it's that healthy and fresh orange juice that I drank last week (I always knew healthy food items don'...

I've lived within a 30 km radius of the India Gate all my life but it was only recently that I finally got to see it. Now, open up your imagination and come on this journey with me! It all started when one of my office friends visited me in Gurgaon. Oh! And he had a scooty (trust me, that scooty is the star of this story). So, we sat and talked and soon, realized that the weather was nice outside, so we thought of going on a quick 5-minute scooty ride. We met after dinner, so had no intention of eating something. Now, we started and the cold air felt good on our faces, so we decided to extend this quick ride. I'm not sure what we were thinking at that moment but we decided to go and touch the Delhi airport and come back. This was about 30 minutes away from my place - felt doable and here starts the adventure. While on the highway, we started seeing some signboards with directions to the India Gate on them. We ignored it for a while but within the next 5 minutes, I was like ...

There's an electricity outage at my PG, so my mind wandered into daydreaming which made me look back on the past year and the numerous new experiences I had all these months. I'm grateful for all these new experiences, even the bad ones because they made me come closer to the people I have in my life. Let's start with the good experiences first. I think I'd like to make a list for this one and I'll try to keep this one in chronological order: Rode an ATV in Jaisalmer I went to my first open mic (I tanked it but it felt amazing to talk out one of my previous blogs on stage) Attended a food fest (it was such a crazy experience and the irony is that we had to visit a restaurant post the food fest since we were super hungry when we left the fest) Earned my Bachelor's degree Had my first girls' trip to Goa Lived at a hostel on vacation for the first time on that trip Shifted near my office and met my tribe of girls. These people made me realize the importance of ...

"Eventful" seems like a small word to describe the crazy February I had. This month involved moving out of my home and shifting to a different city, dancing on stage and wearing a lehenga after years, going on dates, meeting old friends, and even that's not all. Let me go through all the events chronologically. My office is in Gurgaon and I'd been traveling to the office since last year but lately, I'd started getting horribly car sick, so shifting near my office seemed the right way to go about it. So, shifted to Gurgaon at the start of this month. This was also the time that I started getting into the dating world again (Didn't really work out but I felt ready to finally start dating again). Soon after shifting, it was my best friend's parent's silver jubilee function, where the dress code was traditional Indian outfits and we also had a dance performance planned. The only thing about that was... I hadn't done both of those things in the last 12 ...

I met a couple of my school friends after years today and the peace that came with this visit was unsurpassed. Just a couple of hours together made us realize we're at a place in life where we never anticipated being as school kids. All of us have grown into our unique selves but we still have certain traits that have remained constant over all these years. For instance, I still need to learn how to walk and not trip over imaginary things, one friend forgets about the world when she's around food, and the other one still thinks it's easier to derive formulas than to learn them. Once you enter a corporate setting, you become a more sophisticated person, even if it's not intentional. Maybe it's the environment or maybe it's the work but the folks at your office see a version of you. They might never get to see the "Innocent school you" or the "Wild college you". Eventually, even you start forgetting that part of yourself. But meeting those chil...

 I recently watched a movie named, "Serendipity", which means "Fortunate accidents". It made me realize how we come across so many fortunate accidents in our daily lives and don't really appreciate them enough. Just today, I was driving to my friend's place and something exciting happened. There were four traffic lights on my way there and as soon as I reached each of them, they turned from red to green, so I didn't really have to wait even once. It was such a small thing but it made me so happy. I told my mom about this when I returned and she said, "Now you can wait peacefully the next time you find a traffic light to be red, hoping that maybe the next one turns green as soon as you reach there." So, in a way, such little things help you stay hopeful and keeps you going. Every time you meet a person and feel like keeping them in your life, it is serendipitous because even if it is for a short period, that person reflects hope and happiness. I...

 So, it's been a while since I wrote anything. The same old excuse - "Been busy! Trust me." And even I don't know what else to say. The past few months have been no less than a roller coaster ride. Before last year, all of us had a specific task to do. We had the defined goal of studying  (and enjoying the childish pleasures of troubling our teachers and finishing all the food in our friends' tiffins even before the lunch break started) in school. Then, we started college and the ultimate goal at the end of those 4 years was again already laid out - yeah, to get a job! But now that we've started with that job, we no longer have any set rules to follow. Now, we can choose any road and become whoever we want. And I know that sounds amazing but it comes with its share of confusions. You just have too many choices! You can continue to do what you're doing. You can look for a better opportunity. Or you can even do something completely different and change your ...

I recently had that one and only "Mango Doubles" ice cream, only to realize how some things never change. As adulting hits, you grow out of your old habits and interests. But does that mean that you suddenly start disliking those things? I don't believe so  —  we just tend to forget about them, so whenever I get an opportunity to get in the shoes of the "kid" me, I jump onto it and hence the "Mango Doubles." This applies not only to our hobbies and interests but also to our friends or even our first love. So, as they say, "you never forget your first love," and I couldn't agree more because that is the most innocent form of love you have ever experienced in your life. If you're super lucky, that first love also ends up being your last. But for the rest of us, the first love just means a lot of happy memories and some sad ones. After a point, you don't even want to remember why things didn't work out with them, rather you just ...

My university requires us to complete one semester of internship as part of our course. Ironically, I chose my internship in a management consulting firm to fulfill the requirement of my engineering degree. So, an internship is basically putting up with long working hours for being underpaid. Let me talk you through my experience so far. I started my internship in January and it was "Work from Home" then. My office re-opened on an optional basis in March and excited as I was, I planned to go one day. I was really thrilled and eager and dressed up in a lovely formal outfit to seize the day. That day, I spent the whole day wandering about in the office, meeting some new people, and taking office tours. My senior knew that it was my first time in the office, so he was sure that I wouldn't work much and I didn't. "First day at the office" seemed like a valid reason to not work. I came back home and was very tired from all the meandering. It was a really fun day ...

This is what my best friend suddenly said to me one fine morning and it made me realize that isn't it what all of us are doing? Aren't we all always chasing memories? The memories are what keep us going - both the good ones as well as the bad ones. The good ones give us hope to make even better memories and the bad ones keep us grounded and help us rectify our mistakes from time to time. This reminds me of my favorite line from the song, "Lost Stars" by Kiera Knightley. It goes as follows: "Are we all lost stars? Trying to light up the dark..." Because yes, we all are lost stars, who keep going by making memories along their way. These memories are like bright stars in our dark and difficult times. They keep us from losing faith in what's good in our life.  Our memories help us win over all the bad times because the sun shines brighter after every cloudy day. There are different kinds of experiences associated with every memory. Those experiences make us...

 The short answer is "NO!" But you may wonder if that's true because you've met some gullible people in your life who trust everyone. Have you ever tried thinking from their perspective? Maybe they aren't gullible. Maybe they just trust in giving people a chance to be trusted. And why would they do that, you may think? That's because they believe in the magic of trusting and being trusted.  Have you ever thought about why all of us crave being trusted? Why do we go the extra steps just to make our close ones feel protected so that they can share all their good and bad experiences and thoughts with us? The world will explode if people stop trusting each other. That's why we try to find people who we can fit in our inner circle and who can be trusted. But what happens if that trust gets broken someday? That is always a possibility but we don't completely stop trusting everyone because of one bad incident. This is because of that ray of hope within us. Th...

If we look at what course I've been studying for the past 3 years, then I sure am gonna be an engineer. But does getting a degree actually make me an engineer? I don't feel like the answer to that question would be yes. After all, what good is an engineer who can't answer questions related to his/her core branch of engineering (which is Electronics and Communication in my case)? In fact, I am someone who's not even fond of gadgets. Youngsters are obsessed with getting high-tech phones and laptops every now and then, just to stay up-to-date with technology. But I find this trend stupid because why do you have to waste money and buy new stuff, even though your previous one is working perfectly? Any tech-savvy person reading this would come up with a debate on why it's important to carry out those upgradations but that won't change the fact that I still find it useless.  Anyway, engineering is such a technical course that enhances a person's ability to dive dee...

 I've started watching the show "Gossip Girl" recently, which is about rich children and their families. They have these crazy messed up lives, changing (and sometimes even exchanging them) among friends and enemies. Indians like us cannot relate to this philosophy because even if you end up being that rich, the societal norms here don't make these situations possible.  Now, if you're wondering why do I still watch it if I can't even relate to them, it is because this show seems like a perfect example of "Embracing the mess". Their lives are massively entangled but they still take out time to be happy and to introspect and bring about necessary changes. I can't help but think that if they can put up with all their shambles and still have fun, why can't we do the same? At the other times, it makes me realize that they need hookups and new partners to enjoy life, while just the funny taste of blueberry shake makes my day. Maybe it's not tha...

Painting is one of my many hobbies and painting on a canvas seems like a privilege and you'll get to know why soon. A white canvas has immense opportunities. It depends on your mood and will as to what you want to do with that blank canvas. You can use any medium and any art style to portray just any idea in the world. Seeing a blank canvas gives me hope and possibly the power of having control that at that moment, it depends on me what I choose to bring to that canvas. Life is seldom under our control and doing things that make us feel that control again, even if it's for a short time, gives us strength and hope that things always turn out to be beautiful in the end. When you come to think of it, aren't our lives similar to blank canvasses? We don't know what's ahead of us, yet we aim to achieve it. School students are aiming for the top universities, even though they don't even know what the course of study may be like there. University students are working so...

 Don't all of us feel this at some point in time or other? But what does this even mean? How do we know that we are the person that we are losing? Is losing yourself all good or all bad? These are some of the many questions that I had been thinking about recently. I would like to present my perspective on these. You may have a feeling of "losing yourself" when you experience a change in your lifestyle: maybe you have stopped focussing on your hobbies, simply because you don't have enough time while juggling work and/or studies. But it is at this time that you need to figure out either the reason that is affecting you so much or a way to not turn that change into a habit.  I can't say if losing yourself is all good or bad, but I think it may be important because losing ourselves made us grow into who we are today. But if you ever realize that you are losing yourself, ask this question, "Do I want to become the person that I'm becoming?" This will answ...