The Other Side of Life

In an ironical twist of events, I now find myself looking forward to Mondays.  What's the secret to this, you ask? Immersing myself in dark, morbid entertainment over the weekend. That's the path to enlightenment. It started quite innocently. One crime mystery show, with a little blood and gore. Then a few suggestions from Netflix. And then a few more. Before I knew, I was too far down the rabbit hole, tumbling along the dark dark world of crime, forced to come gasping out for breathe on Mondays. And just like in Alice in Wonderland, I got curiouser and curiouser because in mirrors that are black, I saw our dark future, I made wrong choices in the stupor of turning into a Bandersnatch, I was stunned into hearing hard core criminals speak their mind and share their deepest darkest secrets.  I know what you are thinking. Why did I not stop? Because Netflix is like an Indian mother feeding her kid. She cannot take no for an answer.  Doesn't matter if t...

I just realised that for the past 5 years, I have always written a post in the first week of the year. How uncharacteristic of me to do that!  And even more uncharacteristic of me to not continue the tradition! So here goes! Happy new year to my two and a half readers. 2018, you were big in so many ways. I finished my second masters. I moved to a new country. I moved to a new job. I deleted Facebook. I suddenly seemed to have more time on my hands.  I read 20 books in the last six months.  I traveled to 4 new countries in the last six months.  I played SO much Catan in the last six months. And more than all these changes, it's probably the mental changes that mattered to me. That I got out of my comfort zone, made friends, made a social circle, interacted with so many new people, stayed alone for a few months, made a new country my home, stayed a few time zones away from my family. So many barriers broken in my mind. I feel stupidly proud of a...

He shouted loudly, "Ok. Jump!" "Next pose. Back to back." "Next pose. Hands up." "3 pictures done." And he handed back the phone to the one being photographed. I watched amused at the whole sequence of play, while in queue for my own photograph.  This was in the Pura Lempuyang Temple in Bali. It was beautiful, and why not, after all, it was 3rd on the list of the "Top 10 most Instagrammable locations" in Bali as per Buzzfeed. Just one catch though. The place looked nothing like what it looked like on Instagram.  We scratched our heads and stood there, wondering where the water had gone. The Instagram pics clearly showed a temple gateway and its stark, unambiguous reflection in water. Except, there was no water!  And yet, people were queuing up to take a picture. If there's anything I have learnt staying in Singapore now, it is that, if there is a queue, you join at the end -  it does not matter if it's for a...

I laughed when I saw the horror movie Scream 2. And it seems, I now have a good reason why. Back when television content was not available at a click of a button, at your whims and fancies, when there was no Google to answer all your questions, the biggest change in our lives was the introduction of cable television. And t he cable TV guide, of course. Every month, when the cable guy came for the cheque, he would drop a cable guide, with reams of pages full of lists of television programs, sorted by time, in a really small print. It required skill to get through that. And I thought I had it. One fine afternoon in March, right after school exams got over and we got the only vacation in the year, when there was no homework, tests or things to do, I decided to watch a movie. I poured over the TV Guide for an hour, trying to decide what to watch.  I pushed my pudgy finger along rows of data, trying to find just the right thing to watch. After much mental debate, I lan...

In crass Hindi, this moment would have been aptly defined as "Laut ke buddhu, ghar ko aaye".  Exact translation would mount to "Fools return home" and that's what this post is. So, after taking a break from work, doing a second Masters, getting a job in Singapore and moving countries, I am back on the blog.  Who would have thunk? An year back, I had no idea this is what I would be doing in an year. But then again, do we know what we will be doing an year from now?  Lesson learnt. No planning, no guessing.  Just keep exploring, keep doing new things, keep learning, keep meeting new people. Things will happen. Trust. Like a fool (who returned home!) So, while I discover this part of my life, Singapore, I thought I need the blog more than the blog needs me. Because moving countries is not in the least as glamorous as it sounds.  There's the whole deal with selling all belongings which you have hoarded lovingly over the years. A...