Society and Lifestyle

  “What if I did not clear this interview?”,“What if they did not like me back?”,“What if I fail?” There are incessant “what ifs” waiting for you to call them out and build on them. If you are a horror fanatic, you know that saying the name of the demon out loud makes them more active. The same applies to the ‘what ifs’. These are the demons of our lives. Amid these questions, ranting or venting is so easy that we hardly try to figure the answers. The answer to, what if I fail? can easily be deciphered. The problem can be solved by just turning 'what ifs' to 'even ifs'. But all these questions are inducing fear and pulling us back from taking any step forward. Rather than preparing for the upcoming event, we are questioning ourselves again and again. Darius Foroux’s “Win your inner battles” , used a different approach to understand fears. According to the book, when men used to hunt, the fear helped them warn against some grave dangers, for example, being lynched by...

"Surroundings can help a person grow or stoop" I believe that the environment of an individual plays an important role in his/her growing process. Just as a tiger’s behavior depends on whether it is born in a forest or a zoo, humans’ behavior is also directly proportional to the environment they lived in. For instance, a tiger is supposed to be a vicious apex predator. This criterion is fulfilled by many tigers living in a forest but not the tigers born and brought in a zoo. In a zoo, it hardly knows how to hunt. Remember the incident from the Delhi Zoo, when a man fell into tiger enclosure. It did not hurt him until the onlookers throwing stones at him to shoo him away. Only after the attack by the audience, it grabbed the neck of the man and went towards its den. Many articles claim that ‘grabbing the neck’ was an attack but I think it was not. The tiger never knew how to hunt. Moreover, this is how they carry their cubs as well. The basic instinct was to save the man fro...

Do you ever ponder what sort of a friend are you?   Are you putting in same amount of efforts as others to have that bond? I was thinking about it and I realized all my friends are well aware of my “anti-social” behavior. I cannot talk to an individual every day. FYI, this is not because I am busy but I literally have nothing to talk about. I feel silly to share information which is not related to you. My brain automatically filters out the information that does not concern you. And this applies to everybody, including my best friend. I remember having this conversation with my best friend. I asked her, “How do you feel that we do not talk or chat or meet every day? What are your thoughts about our intermittent talk sessions?” She calmly replied that it is a part of my personality. Her theory says that it is not necessary to give everything out but to be there for each other. Efforts are necessary but it does not mean you cannot have your own space. I agree that my idea of spac...

This is not just a list... The pandemic has made our lives even more monotonous than it was before. Since the first lockdown, I have consumed a lot of online content. Few days back I was watching “The Devil Wears Prada” again and I realised how much I want to resonate with the protagonist or sometimes even with the strong side character. I watch movies where I can connect to the story or find some part of my life in it. Few of these stories stay with you for a long period of time. Evidently, “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani” is one of those movies and is an absolute delight for many of us. Why do I think that? Well, I have a list. First, let aside all the latent characteristics of the movie, we all want a trip with friends. You may have travelled with your friends to some really cool places but are we ever satisfied with just a few? I know I have an uncountable number of trips to go on.   Second, the characters justify every road towards the future. If you are a topper, your hard work wi...

 "I've had choices, since the day I was born. There were voices that told me right from wrong."  Before buying any book, I always check the reviews online or select the book which is highly recommended by others. Based on these recommendations and reviews, I started reading Yuval Noah Harari’s “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”. Following are the remarks by some famous personalities. “Interesting and provocative… It gives you a sense of how briefly we’ve been on this Earth” ―  Barack Obama “Jaw-dropping from the first word to the last… It may be the best book I’ve ever read” ―  Chris Evans And hence began the quest to complete the text. I must say it was a roller coaster ride. It started with an amazing perspective of evolution and agriculture revolution and then it took a turn towards coins (How interesting!!). I jumped ‘the scent of money’ to land on ‘the law of religion’ which was quite interesting, not the jump, the topic. I was trying hard to like t...

These days are difficult, let's be easy on ourselves. These days are truly horrid. The newspaper is overcrowded with the death rates and active cases of the Coronavirus. The first news we get through media channels is ‘this many cases reported and this many deaths in last the 24 hours. Moreover, whenever the phone rings we pray it is not what we think it is. It is hard to keep up in such an environment, hard to be positive amidst such negativity. I have chosen not to read or watch what I cannot handle. I am a little extra sensitive when it comes to such information. A day before yesterday, I cried over Kobe Bryant’s and his daughter’s pictures, I don't even know why. Adding on, I visualise images in my head quite comfortably. It is hard for me to read about the floating bodies in Ganga and not imagine the scene. Hence, I have decided not to look up to the news, creating a panic situation within me. Yes, we have only one life and we have to make a difference. But it is not n...

"I might have misunderstood the signs and it is completely my fault." Did you ever just assume and picked up the wrong signs? How many times have you predicted someone else’s thoughts? Recently, I happen to come across a little funny and stupid habit. I tend to assume a lot. I assume that I will get that job by just praying. I assume that the other person likes me even when he did not say so. I can assume anything. It hit me yesterday, how easily we can assume other’s thoughts and move on. I made a friend who was nice to me but I assumed and I moved on. Do we ever think about how the other person might feel? It was not at all difficult to think whatever was convenient to me. But what about the empathy that we used to speak of? "I understand" but do I? Everybody is saying do not think about others, do whatever you want to. But just like every fundamental right, some requirements should be fulfilled. Yes, we have the freedom of speech until or unless the words are...

  We all had that one conversation that was the need of the hour. Do you remember why exactly you chose that one individual? Is it for a piece of good advice, good words, or you just needed a good listener? I had that talk with my cousin a lot of times, mostly when my head is in a bad place. She never made it seem difficult for others to talk. After few talks, I realized it was never about the advice, it is always about listening. She had the patience to listen to the rant and never made me look foolish about it.                                               Few problems might seem futile to you but that one person who confides in you may take them very seriously. Once, a younger sister came to that cousin to talk about her recent heartbreak. There could have been two reactions, either she would have chuckled, and said, “You cannot be serious about this, you are too sm...