The Words with Wings

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...