The Other Side of Life

When I was young, 2020 was far away. A distant future that will arrive some day. What amuses me is that 2020 is almost here, With none of the futuristic things expected of this year. I was expecting to travel in flying cars everyday. Zipping and zooming through a clear airway. And yet here I am stuck in traffic as I write this. Weaving between potholes, that resemble an abyss. I imagined we would be no longer eating solid food. We would be swallowing only food substitute pills for good. I was thinking about this while gorging on a huge dinner, The pills better come soon, so we can all be thinner. I remember we thought some of us would stay on Mars, And we could visit each other in space cars. I know Elon Musk says it will happen soon, But for now we're stuck fighting with earthly real estate goons. Science fiction books did predict one of the trends, They said we'll have more robots and less human friends, This one they got partly right, we must ...

If the order of nature was the other way round, If animals were free and humans were bound, I wonder what cages in the zoo we would be put in, Where animals would point at us, stare and grin. This cage here is the Corporatus Sapien species. You can see how they are split into Boss and worker bees. They are often seen huddling in rooms, pointing at a screen with images If you listen carefully, you can hear jargon in their cages. Let's move on. This cage is the Techno Sapien species. They are always on the mobile phone and have "social" tendencies". They are often seen moving their fingers on the screen in a continuous motion Scientists believe their fingers are optimised for "scroll" locomotion. Here what you see are the  Videogamus Sapien species. They live in alternate game worlds of their own fancies. They are often seen shooting and shouting at the screen. They look violent, but are mostly harmless, just too absorbed in the scene. ...

The good news first! In my blogathon, which started a few days before A to Z, I complete one month today, i.e. 30 days of writing every single day. I feel stupidly proud of this. I will write more on this after the blogathon actually finishes. Till then, here's the Day 25 post of A to Z challenge: ************** Here's a list of dialogues I know for a fact, kids today will not understand: "Hang up the phone, I am trying to dial-up the internet." "The site's loading. Should be done in 30 minutes, I bet." "Damn, I clicked the party photos, but forgot the camera roll." "Only 23 pics per camera roll, please exercise control." "Shhh. Waiting for my favourite song on radio, so I can record it." "The cassette tape has come out again, shit." "Now press Record and Play together to record the song." "When you are recording, resist the urge to sing along." "Argh. My favourite so...

I remember in my last A to Z blogathon too, for X, I had a bunch of mathematics problems.I stand by my logic I gave back then. We need to upgrade our math problems, otherwise how would kids relate to them? Here's a look at a modern mathematics examination paper. Time given: 10 minutes Q1 On his calendar, Jack has 5 meetings everyday, Of which in 30%, he has nothing to say. 3 in 5 times, the meetings have no decisions in sight, What's the rate at which Jack must accept a meeting invite? Q2 Leena posts an update on LinkedIn, And gets likes at the rate of10 per min. A typical "Linked Influencer" has 3000 likes per post, At what rate per min, would Leena reach there almost? Q3 A fake news goes viral in 2.5 hours, Make that twice as fast if it's about a favourite politician of ours. How many fake news detectors per hour would it take, To control the spread of fake news, for sanity's sake? Q4 As a software engineer, Robin makes $10...

Bright colours flash in front of my eye, Text in different fonts and sizes fly, Swivelling text and confusing views, Don't worry, I'm not describing a seizure, its just daily news. Someone's shouting on top of his voice, The moderator shouts louder, as if he has no choice. It's a cacophony of drowning opinions, Don't worry, I'm not describing a wrestling match, just TV news and it's brilliance. Everyone's cornering one man in the fight, He starts abusing, much to the anchor's delight. He shouts, TRP's are going to rise this night! Stay with me, we are still talking about news, that's right. In the middle of an intense, raucous debate The anchor shouts loudly, I agree with you, mate! And then goes on to give his personal opinion on the air, I am still talking about the 9 pm news, I swear. They put people on the spot, saying the nation wants to know As a part of the nation, I wonder if that is so, If I ever expressed the ...

Girl : Roses are red, violets are blue. As per Facebook, I'm in a relationship with you. Boy: Roses are red, violets are blue. I think I'm ready to share my WiFi password with you. Girl: Roses are red, violets are blue. I just did an Instagram Live declaring my love for you. Boy: Roses are red, violets are blue, This is getting serious, I deleted my Tinder account too. Girl: Roses are red, violets are blue, Do you remember, last night on the phone, I told you what I dream to do? Boy: Roses are red, violets are blue, Umm. Yes. You looked beautiful as you spoke. I love you. Girl: Roses are red. Violets are blue. You don't remember? While talking to me, were you playing Pubg too? Boy: Roses are red, violets are blue. Excuse me, weren't you on browsing on Instagram too? Girl: Roses are red, violets are blue. You love your phone more than me, I think I'm through. Boy: Roses are red, violets are blue. Your Facebook status says you are single. ...

On the day the last of Avengers comes out, I'm one step ahead in thinking about, The next big superheroes for our times, Who will inspire us and fight the crimes. Presenting to you, the FocusMan Nothing at all wavers his attention span, Villains distract him with personalized recommendations, But he is unaffected, much to their frustration. While the world gets swept in a binge watching whirlpool, He keeps his focus on the crime and remains cool. Don't for a second, discount his superpower, When you're in the vortex of distraction, FocusMan is the man of the hour. The next in our cast is the FactMan, Eating fake news for meals is his plan. His radar starts beeping when a news goes viral, He squashes it on facts and pulls people out of the spiral. FactMan's current mission is the WhatsApp news factory, To save Uncles and Aunties from the quackery. He will consider himself successful on his test, When UN actually declares the Indian national anthem as ...

After much consideration, I have come to the conclusion, I am made up of a two personality fusion. Let me introduce you to the two parts of me. My Today and Tomorrow Personality. Today Me is wise and thinks about the future. Tomorrow Me is lazy and has a good sense of humour. Today Me knows that tomorrow I must exercise Tomorrow Me decided watching a movie and not gym is the best choice. Today Me set an alarm to prepare for the marathon. Tomorrow Me snoozed and got back into bed with a yawn. Today Me has decided we are quitting social media, it's done. Tomorrow Me, scrolling through Twitter told me, one more day hurt no one. Today Me read an article and decided to amend ways. From tomorrow, we are eating healthy, no more junk food days. Tomorrow Me was prepared to act all wise. When it got distracted by the image of cheesy french fries. Today Me told me, you are watching too much TV, From tomorrow, you are reading books, we end this watching spree. Tomorrow M...

I must tell you, I had the worst nightmare last night, I would be understating if I said it gave me a fright. If I weren't crying, I would even say it was comical, When my digital world suddenly became physical. Everything I saw on the internet, Suddenly appeared on a real world set. It all started with a small action, When a friend posed and said, give me a reaction. Next thing I knew, I was just having a drink, When an acquaintance pushed her photos to me and said tell me what you think. I politely replied, I'm sorry, I don't know you well. She said, don't worry it's not for you, it's just to make me feel swell! Annoyed and hungry, I walked into a shop, I browsed many types of chips, but liked nothing, so I stop. The real horror started when I step outside, And found the salesman from the store walking right beside. Everywhere I went, he started following me, Saying, I know you want chips, why won't you buy f...

When you're born in a world of instant gratification, Trust me, the world is no vacation. Everything in life, you are given right now, But expecting speed makes you bad somehow! Like when he was just three years old, And learning alphabets was his only goal, After three attempts, he told his master, Honestly, asking Ok Google's much faster. When he was older, they gave him a test, Gave him just one marshmallow and said wait for the rest. He pretended to wait for 5 minutes, with a yawn. Then ordered a marshmallow packet from Amazon. They put him in a one mile race for fun, And told him he had to be second to none. He said, I know everyone gets a gold medal somehow, Why run, I'd rather just have my medal now. One day his Dad sat him down, And told him a meditation class had come to town. He closed his eyes for a second and told his Dad, I just finished meditating, quick Yoga is the latest fad. Once, they went out for pizza and were halfway through, When h...

Imagine, a thousand years from now, Through our lives, historians will plough. Asking these existential questions, About how we lived and our material possessions. "Each of them carried an intelligent device, That could answer any question without thinking twice. The answer we need to uncover is this, Through this intelligence, did they find true bliss?" "Why did they record their lives on social media? Was it for pleasure or for the purpose of academia? What was the level of dedication they had, Instagramming pictures of food, before digging in like mad?" "Never before, never after, has this been seen, More social connections than you can ever glean. Everyone they knew was just one message away. And yet loneliness couldn't be kept at bay?" "It seems like this civilisation thrived in ironies. Like having the best of healthcare and yet, the highest of anxieties. Or quitting jobs and going on treacher...