2015 in Review

My dear blog readers,

I know I have been as irregular as the monsoon rains for the past year. Thanks for sticking around if you have followed my blog since the beginning of the year. For those of you who are new, welcome. You have arrived at my blog at a great time. 

You all must be familiar with the word 'yearnings'. Now we dream of so many things when we are small. One thing that I have always wanted to become is a writer. Yes, it is in present tense. I started this blog as a feeble attempt in that direction. But then, life happened and I have not been able to pursue this interest. The yearning is back now!

The past year has been monumental. I was able to travel around a lot, become a certified foodie and settle in the most awesome company that gave me enough time to pursue all my random wishes and helped me gain many new experiences. It is a shame if I let this year slide by without recording all the awesome things that happened. So I have decided that I will write down all my travelogues and memoirs of 2015 in the coming days. So stay tuned !

Until Next Post,

Gayathri

P.S.: This midnight inspiration comes from going through the pages of National Geographic Traveller India. I saw a couple of places that I have been to this year and relived the beautiful memories associated with them. So here I am. 

Stop Stereotyping, Humans !

The picture says it all. Humans need to take a break. Take a chill pill and relax before God/Aliens - whoever created us and watching over us decide to hit a reset button.

My Facebook feed has been overflowing with the comments on a school kid being arrested for bringing a home-made clock to school. While most of the posts were in support of the kid, there have been few votes for the other side too. Forget about religion, I think it is just a sad state of affair for humanity that a school kid can even be suspected of doing such a thing.

I have a thirty minute drive from my office daily and today's drive was usefully spent thinking about this. While my brain was making weird connections that started with the above mentioned incident to a hot discussion I had with my friends once, it finally came down to one thing. Stereotyping. The problem with us is stereotyping. We do it everywhere. We generalize everything. I think our brain is wired to generalize as a part of the evolutionary cycle. We live in a world where our brain processes tons and tons of data and to make sense out of it, it tends to categorize things and slap a label on top of it, thus successfully stereotyping it. That is just how our brain works. But like in every dataset, there are outliers. This concept, though a very important one in statistics, somehow seems to be missing in the human brain. So it is only fair that we make an exception ourselves and try to consciously make the change in our attitude. Stop stereotyping and be more inclusive of things that are different from the general conception.

I am a victim of stereotyping but then I have learnt to rise above it. Every time I hear something stereotypical, I calm myself down and try to determine if it is worth my time to explain the concept of outliers. If yes, I launch into a huge monologue of how everything in the world is wrong due to stereotyping and the need to look beyond it. If it is not worth it, I simply move on !

It is high time that we stop doing this !!

P.S.: I had a bit of an overdose of the incident today and the above rant is a result of it. 

Memories

She was scanning through the crowd, lost as usual when she noticed the stranger. He reminded her of him; the one that she had always wanted to forget. But try as hard as she may, the memories always came back. She had filled her empty heart with layers of memories above his. She had once called him 'her Sun' and now couldn't help wondering perhaps if that was the reason his memories seemed to flare through the layers with scorching heat.

P.S. This is in response to 'Lillie McFerrin Writes' five sentence fiction 'Scorching'. A little late I would say, but better late than never !

P.P.S. I know I have been away from blogging for a long while now. Hopefully the dry run has ended. 

'The Thing' for you

You know,  I had 'a thing' for you. I don't really understand how you missed it. But, I am sure I have always had 'a thing' for you.

Yes, it might be hard to believe. But I did have it. I am positive. What else do you call all the extra attention I gave you ? Do you really think I would do things I did for you, for anyone just like that ? No, I am not such a noble soul. Did you know ever wonder why I was being so obviously soft on you when you screwed things over? When the whole world was against you, I stood by you. Even when you pushed me away from your side, I was there. Hanging around the edges. Waiting for you to see 'the thing' and let me back in. Even now, when you have literally started a new chapter in your life, I am still here, exactly where you left me. Hanging on a cliff by a thread, still having 'a thing' for you.

Totally Numb

There is a saying 'Don't push a person so much that they no longer care'. Yes, I think that has happened to me. I no longer give a f***. There are pretty serious things happening to me, around me and in my life and I have got this laid back attitude. I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing. Nothing seems to get to me these days. Its like I am sitting in an easy chair and just watch myself plow through days. 

Yes, I was in a bad situation when I first started getting this feeling. But now, things have improved. In fact, things are great now. But still, I am not able to get myself feel things. Yes, that's it. I have gone numb. Totally numb. 

Liebster Award

Thanks Shanx for nominating me for this award. I have never done an award post before. But yes, things have to change. Shanx blogs at Embark With My Thoughts. I am really a big fan of the small fiction stories that he writes. They are quite poignant. Do check out his blog. 

Here are my answers:

1. One crazy serious moment that you laughed out loud at (a serious and dense atmosphere )

I had slogged for hours on a particular project at work. We finally completed it and there was mailer thanking all the hard work we put in and they missed my name. I come to office and I see my colleagues gazing at me quite seriously. When I heard what happened, my first reaction was to laugh out loud. I couldn't believe my bad luck. That pretty much settled the situation. (It is another story how I ended up in a corner later, not so happy )

2. The most notorious thing you did in your school days (embarrassing will work too if you’re fine :D )

I was always the ideal student at school. So nothing much there.

3. One movie/book/story that you really loved and the reason (doesn’t have to be romantic. If it’s horror then better)

Movie : The exorcism of Emily Rose - Being the late night owl, I had the habit of watching horror movies alone in my room. Now, I was there watching this particular movie and to anyone who have watched the movie, I do not have to explain the significance of 3 00 AM. It was one scary movie. But what was scarier was the time I finished watching it. 3 AM. I was petrified and I clearly remember every sound getting amplified in my head.

Book : I love reading. So picking a book is difficult. But I can write about the most recent book I read. 'Losing my religion' by Viswas Mudgal. I really loved this book because I had a bunch of friends who had gone through a similar experience (not all the entrepreneur stuff, but the other ones). So I really connected with this book and I could not stop talking about this for sometime. I even made one of them buy the book and read it.

4. How many times or days/moments or did you live any, were you totally survived on your friends money and stuff (obviously looting it all away because it’s yours)

No. I am always cautious about my financials.

5. A place that’s not famous in your city but you would want to go there at any point of time because it’s your favorite (shouldn’t be famous I say)

There is a small restaurant 'Liquid' near my home which serves the best maggi ever. I have really made it my thing to take anyone and everyone who visits me there. Chocolate room also features in the list. I have been there with all my favorite people.

6. Which super hero fan were you in childhood and how did you try to imitate them?(ever tried rotating in circles like ShaktiMaan ;) )

Ha, Got me there :) We had only doordharshan at home when I was a kid. So yes, ShakiMaan it is. But, never tried imitating him though. Always took his instructions of 'do not imitate this at home' quite seriously.

7. What would you do if you had money like Uncle Scrooge (no, I am not giving it to you. You’ve to imagine it)

I know it sounds a little cliche. But I would really start an NGO and try to help women and old people. Having lost my grandparents, I cannot see old people on the street. My heart goes out to them.

8. Reason you love your blog

Well, I started my blog when I was in college and it has seen my transformation from a naive, idealistic college girl to a hopefully more mature woman. It has been my venting place during all the emotional turmoils.

9. A place if you were allowed to visit immediately. What would it be? (write the first one that comes to your mind in a second)

Europe. I was at Germany for an internship during college and would really love to go back.

10. What’s your favorite food that you can’t help but eat at anytime and wouldn’t mind going lengths just to taste it.

I am a big foodie. So anything and everything. But my greatest weakness is dark chocolate. I just cannot resist it.

11. Love Rain? Love reading? (write about one awesome crazy moment about rain and reading if no to rain. If you love rain and reading plus writing, we’re already friends then :P )

Reading and Rain. We are definitely friends. I have already written so much about rain. But yes, I had the most craziest moment in rain very recently when couple of friends and me were caught in the middle of a heavy downpour. After waiting for an hour under a small roof for the raining to subside, we got tired and ran to the tea stall in the rain to grab a cup of chai. Well, after we got wet once, it was full on fun. Jumping into puddles in pouring rain, trying to navigate knee high water in a scooty, getting lost in the rain, I did it all on that day.

My Almost Home

Chennai. Well, what can I say about it ? May be if time had a rewind button, I will go back to a time when I had a two hour argument with my colleagues on all the good things one can find in Chennai and record it for prosperity.

Chennai had always held a special place in my heart as it had been my summer haunt during my childhood. I had the cliche vacation time where I was packed off to my grandmother's place the day my holidays started. Only for me, it was not the cliched trip to the village considering the fact that I was living in an almost village town. My summer vacations were in the city. A city where I will arrive every summer religiously to soak in the glory of my grandmother's love. A city where my grandmother was not afraid to send her young grand-daughter to buy milk and chocolates in the shop next lane. All good things come to an end and did my summer vacations in the city when my grandmother moved to a different place.

My second chance with the city happened when I did my Engineering here, from one of the most prestigious colleges in the heart of the city. I completely loved the freedom and I still remember the adventure I had in my first solo trip to hometown. Thinking about it now, I guess Chennai has really been my theme since college. My communications seminar was on Singara Chennai. One of my projects was based on the notoriously famous Coovum River. We had walked across the city along the river collecting water samples. Window Shopping at T-Nagar was my favorite stress buster and I discovered my craze about earrings there. My friends used to have a hard time, trying to get me back to focus on the streets.

Call it fate or destiny, my last minute career decisions led me back to Chennai when I was all set to move to Delhi. The past two years have been quite a ride. Many a time, I have turned to the beaches to sooth my silent rants and rages. I discovered the 'foodie' in me through the restaurants the city has to offer.

Having been in the city for six years now, I can call it my almost home. On its 375th Birthday, all I can say that this city is the Best. It will always remain my Singara Chennai. Or rather 'Sennaaii' as one of my friends calls it.