Showing posts with label whine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label whine. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

#FirstWorldProblems

मेरे जैसों की struggles भी गजब हैं आज कल
जो है उस की कीमत नहीं, जो ना मिले, चाहत है वही
हर चीज़ की home delivery है
purpose  के लिए कोई app नहीं
Ambition है, patience नहीं
Boredom से बड़ी कोई problem नहीं
कभी छोटी चीज़ों से भी घबरातें हैं
कभी किसी बात का भी डर नहीं
Problems का answer भी दारु में ढूँढ़ते हैं
Celebration का भी धुँआ है वही
Knowledge  है, wisdom नहीं
Anger बहुत है, empathy नहीं 
Relationships  हमेशा  complicated ही रहती हैं
पैसा चाहिए, पर पैसे की कीमत भी नहीं
Commitment सबसे censored "C-word" है
Options चाहिए decisions नहीं
बस चले तो हम जीना भी outsource कर दें
इस आसानी से मिली ज़िन्दगी में excitement enough नहीं । 

Inertia

हम हैं क्योंकि,  बस, हम हैं
हम ना होते तो बदलता कुछ नहीं ।
ग़म मेरा तेरे ग़म से कम सही
ग़म का ना होना, ख़ुशी तो नहीं ॥




I am, because, only just because I am
If I weren't to be, no one would give a damn
Your problems might be bigger than mine, my boy
But absence of sorrows is not joy.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Sometimes I wish...



... that I was super attractive and super dumb.

Then I would not have to work and I could still be rich because all rich people want to be with me and spend money on me
And the best part - I wouldn't have any existential questions at all.
 
 
Sorry for being sexist and sticking to stereotypes, but I say - being a dumb blonde is super awesome!!
 

Monday, February 14, 2011

No love lost!

Good morning, and welcome on-board what feels like a bad week coming. Or at least, the start couldn't have been insaner. It feels wrong to crib in the morning, but short of kicking myself (and including that), this is the best I can do. So here's what happened:

After the thought of the longgg flight to Chennai and the long day and week ahead made my sleep disappear over night, after I got out of bed at 4 feeling refreshed with a 2.5 hour sleep, there I was trying to get to the airport at 530 in the morning when the car broke down. Had Einstein been around and amnesiac, he would have probably rediscovered relativity seeing how long and short 15 minutes are early in the morning - the 15 minutes of sleep, too little, the 15 minutes of car breaking down, too much. And just as I managed to reach the airport 2 minutes too late, I realize to my horror that I forgot my wallet (with all my money, cards, ID proof et al) at home. The ah moment of taking out change at 1030 pm returned. The sleeplessness kicked me on discovering that the next flight out is only at 850, and the guilt of asking my dad to wake up early in the morning and bring me the fateful wallet has sapped all my energies for the week already. And hence, here we are, suited booted packed and sleepless, waiting at the airport for Dad to come and the flight to leave. For all the work I was supposed to do in two hours in morning getting pushed to late at night. For more sleeplessness.

Yes, you can go awwww now. And repeat that when I crib about working so hard on Valentine's day, with no one to swoon over. Double awww. 

And double yawn. Damn.

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Restless

Restless tonight
No sleep in sight
Waves of questions
rise and crash
Thoughts pop
Collide and dash
Meanings threaten
To disappear in a flash
Lightning, thunder
And then rains lash

Restless tonight
No sleep in sight
Fear reigns
In an empty night
Asks questions
Is the future bright?
Vulnerable, should I
Give in to the might
Or let destiny, distance
And my soul fight

Lightning. Thunder.
And then...

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Unhappy, here's why


Somebody recently had pointed out that this blog has predominantly negative or neutral posts. Part of the reason is that of late I only write a post when in a certain mood. Now, after writing more of those crappy ones, I figure why I've been unhappy.
I've nothing of those three, if you count out one crappy job.

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Low

It's a bad night
- one of those.
I try a deep breath
through the nose
so it relieves the ache
living in my chest
If only for a moment
I get some rest.
I feel alone
and worthless
angry at the world
stupid, aimless.
Just like the stupid rhyme
of these lines
I feel crappy and shredded
by Naxal landmines.
(see what I mean
I dont even have words
the motivation is dead
but phoenixes are stupid undying birds)

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Over rated

That's what being nice is.

Being humble, polite, considerate, sensitive, liberal, respectful. Not saying things you feel in the heat of the moment because they are mean, exaggerated and not fully true.

All of it, is simply over-rated.

Being who you should be, is over rated.

SO mad at myself.

UPDATE: Comments are back. Still mad at google.

Friday, April 02, 2010

On why google is evil

We have always known it's a bad thing one big fat company's servers hold so many bits and pieces of our life stashed with them, and a few clicks by someone somewhere could affect us unjustifiably, still until it happens to you, it feels like cynicism and some more. Now, after suffering a virtual homicide of some sorts in blogosphere, I'm forced to wonder - is it time for an un-google-ification. Here's what happened - all the comments I've ever made across blogs, including on my own, have vanished. Without as much as a trace (or an email). Sucks!

That's more than 5 years worth of comments. Did I have no right on them at all? Or the people on whose blogs they were made (like him). I've posted a complaint and stuff, but don't see any help forthcoming. What next - tomorrow this blog can just vanish in thin air? Or, horror of horrors, my gmail account? Makes me furious.

Do I need to prove to google I'm not a spamming bot but a real person - has the world come to this already?


Google is evil.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

...

It's just been one of those days where nothing went right. Except I got to sleep in an hour or so extra because my work was tied up to a client meeting in the afternoon.
Everything else, has pretty much gone the difficult way. Not horrible, yet, but difficult and painful.
And I just can't think straight right now, with a mountain of work in front of me. Work that I barely understand and deadlines that are likely to leave me dead, literally.
I still can't work.

Pardon the cribbing, but more and more these days, I get the feeling this life is not worth living. Despite the job, the city, the people, the love, the hate, the dreams, the pain - all highs and lows budgeted in - there's no point in existing. It's like an NPV negative investment, my life.

For once it's not the drama queen throwing out words. It's just something I can't explain anymore. Or have the guts to face.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Unequal

Read this somewhere:
Never make anybody a priority in your life, when you are just an option for them...
Easier said than done. Too much time. Such little to smile about. Going a little crazy. :)

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Farewells

The worst part of being in a 5 year dual degree thing at IIT is that not only your own batch, the 4 year variants, graduate before you, even your junior batch's 4-yr species finishes up a couple of week before you. That's so unfair that it even beats the irony that your department and your hostel actually give you a farewell in fourth year itself because it is more convenient to them when you are not going anywhere! The only possible thing worse I can imagine to top an extra year of torture is being invited to a reunion with the Graduating class 2009 instead of the entry year 2004 couple of decades from now.

So, while I await the final two weeks before the thesis defense, I attended tonight the one farewell that we still gracefully get, the one at Director's lodge. The place is beautiful, the dinner was supposed to be better than it was, and it is kinda nice seeing all those people. And then I was asked to speak something on the behalf of outgoing batch by the dean. I said something random, half out of the last Hostel mag article I'd written, and was thankful that almost nobody was listening, except the profs maybe.

The worst part though was the decision to wear a sari, with a slightly oversized blouse that aids my accumulated fat from the last six months and makes me look soooooo fat, I only realized how horrible after looking at the pics! :( I desperately need to lose some weight, and all that putting off till sem end because I did not want to gym alone and could not sustain exercising by myself turns out to be the worst ill effects of laziness. Time to say farewell to this extra laziness, and the extra flab, eh?

Monday, April 06, 2009

Innocence

is a heavy price of growing up. Alas, it's almost inevitable, preserving every ounce takes so much effort.
It's an awful feeling.

But nobody understands.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Next is what?

Here, I changed the blog template. I liked the picture at the top more than anything else, and wanted a change anyway. So I changed it, and unless a LOT of people crib about it, and unless someone finds me a better one, I'll stick to it, for it's too much work, albeit such is the state of joblessness and boredom in my life right now (and expected to stay for some time) that work most of the time is a good proposition. However, not this, let this be tweaked a little if needed, but let this survive!!!

So, next is what? I came back to an almost empty hostel today evening. Had a little work, but mostly home and college are equally boring now, and equally lonely. What a contrast this is since those early years here when I hated staying at home, and so much exciting was always happening to life here. Now it's a terribly purposeless, friendless existence, where each day is no different than the rest, and the only difference between my room at home and at hostel is the availability and quality of food, and the answerability and freedom of killing my time. Worst part is, things don't look as if they could change for the rest of my tenure here, that is, till I actually start working. And even then, there's this question, where do I stay? Assuming I get the Gurgaon office, the choice between living at home (which is 35 long tedious kms away from office) and living on my own somewhere in Gurgaon isn't as easy as it seems.
For as much as I hate the commuting and the restrictive atmosphere at home, I don't really have a life anymore, can't imagine anyone I could possibly live with (people don't even like talking to me any more mostly, I'm that boring) and it's a lot of hassle of it's own.
Still postponing that particular question at the moment, fathoming what to do next is an immediate awful question. Reminds me of a certain book titled "How Opal Mehta got kissed, got wild and got a life". Pacy, fun, page-turner of a one-hour read. Wish my life was that happening.

For now I find solace in watching the beautiful foggy night, quietly celebrating Dravid's century (finally! yeyyyyy!!) :)

Friday, November 28, 2008

Job-hunting-II

General Observational Expertise Pvt Ltd has temporarily outsourced its primary services to Random Funde Inc, thanks to cost-cutting necessitated by recession.
Latest report attempts to give random recruitment season gyaan and details the businesses that seem to have done considerably well in 2008. Let's have a look at the top 5:
  • Law Firms: Bankruptcies, mergers, takeovers, mass pink-slips, law suites, increased stress/hate/passion crimes, cost-cutting, contract breaches and what not. Everything is in a turmoil, and the legal department is busy!
  • Mental Health Industry: At number 4 , the people selling advice, solace and anti-depressant drugs have had a good year. Everything from rising prices to disappearing jobs to sinking stocks to rising crime and terror is driving the blood pressure up, happiness low and stress to the sky. As relationships rock, as MBAs kidnap for money, as people ask for divorce because of stock market losses, as someone loses a lifetime of saving...somebody is still making money! Sad :(
  • News Channels and agencies: More masala than ever. A new crash, a new headline. Another bomb blast, another breaking news. More the recession, more the number of people needed to cover it. The less said the better here, for everyone knows how bad news makes better "copy" anyway!
  • Politics: The runners-up, and an eternal bull of the market. The US elections and its coverage seem to have dragged on and on forever till more people across the world heard of Barack Obama than the heads of state of their own country. The world voted for a Black American president, almost. And now, India has its own political season red hot with elections in states on, and general not too far away. The pitch has been rising all year, with each party crying themselves hoarse. Madam Maya wants a bigger pie, Congress is afraid of doing too much lest something backfires to combine with anti-incumbency, and Mr Advani knows it is his last shot at the top job. It's business out there, folks, and rising prices and falling jobs, is actually good for business!
  • Terror: A winner by a fair margin! Bombs have put up a consistent show all over India this year. They invented a new brand of Hindu terror to compete with the mature Islamic terror so that the brand war killed peace and logic and helped the market grow further. Special Saturdays were introduced and unprecedented production levels achieved so even 26 defused bombs in one city in a day did not mar the show. People dying was a regular efficient event capturing new markets including North-east. And now they have pulled off the mother of them all, attaching the heart and soul of India, openly firing at innocent people and forever tarnishing a city, a people and a hope. Way to go!
:( :( :(

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Not too little, not too much, not just right either

It is relatively easy to ward off extremes when you need to. In any case it is relatively simpler to decidedly label them dangerous and unbalanced, to choose with certainty whether to adapt to the extreme style, or the stay-away-from-extreme style. 0's and 1's are fun too, sometimes. Somethings in life can work in that binary mode, sometimes for the good too, but all other times, when you've decided to stray away from the end-points or are forced in the grey anyway by an induced sense of judgment, an apparent need for balance or by the simple unacceptability of one and unattainability of the other. Whatever be the reason, more often than not, the rule is to avoid the extremes. But that is the simple part, or implicit then is the need to find the balance, the optimum on the infinite points between 0 and 1. As one can put it, the need to find the right shade of grey.

This threatens to develop into a familiar philosophical question of right and wrong, morality and subjectivity, so let me steer the conversation to this one bottom-line: That if it's not too much, and not too little, it doesn't yet mean it's enough. Obvious, you'd say. False bottom too, that one, for it drills down that long deep hole, where you do not know which way to steer to get to the "right" place. Where do you go?

Khair, I know there are no easy answers, and I'm not looking for any either. I just know I'm in that place in the middle where balance is elusive and extremes remain frightening. I like the idea of not doing anything at all a bit too much these days, and holidays have firmly established the "inertia of rest", which I'm hoping to finally snap out of tomorrow. But not today.
This despite the fact that plenty interesting has happened of late. Lots of nice people have just turned up from somewhere or the other. Doc has returned from US. I met sweetheart Arpz (love you!) and also Ted (after long) not too long ago. Yashshri is in Delhi. Shantanu is getting married in three weeks and he even invited me, though I can't go because my cousin is getting married the same weekend. Other than all this, the placement madness, albeit at top gear, is not as maddening as I'd feared it would be. I even have shortlists in the two companies top of my list. And studies are okay too, despite my missing almost all classes these days. Just have to submit the paper soon and my project would be calm. And I'm just back from a decent break at home, with lots of sleep. So, bottomline of the rant is that most things are fine, good, yet something doesn't feel okay.

Which is why I snap sometimes, albeit temporarily. Gripped by fear or numbness, silence or hysteria. Short-lived, but intense. Do not know what it is. Two nights ago, it was panic though I was perfectly silent and calm outwardly, because dad wasn't feeling well and had a bad case of indigestion late in the night. Four nights ago, it was numbness, when I did not understand how to feel, how to act, how to think. Last week, it was pain, silent again, but entirely unreasonable. And sometime ago, it was irrational hysteria, draining away all my confidence. You get the picture, right? So I just stay silent now. It's the only thing that comforts, and also, hides the Fear. The lack of reason in my life is apalling. I've been called emotional, hysterical, over-dramatic, impractical for the nth time of late. And it's all true.

I am downright stupid. Sue me.


Thursday, July 03, 2008

The night time.

I didn't know this, one of the side-effects of listening too much instrumental music is that you start thinking on the rhythm. Here, look at how words ruin a great song, if you can make out which:

So awake in the night time
Wandering about
I want to ask what
I'm doing around
I want to know why
I wouldn't sleep
I want to know what
I want to keep
Lost in the night time
Looking for a plan
I want to want
and I want to know I can

Will I ever reach where
I really wanna go
Just what place is that
will I ever know
Reaching out in the darkness
Will you understand?
I just want to want
and I want to know I can.


Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Things hardest to let go-II

The emptiness has set in already. Thirteen more months, 382 more days in IIT to go (hopefully not getting a degree extension). Phew! And the good times have already slipped past. Dual, or 5yr integrated degree that IIT dishes our, sucks for the simple reason that it has an extra year where you're the ghosts of the campus, who hardly anyone knows and nobody cares about. All your friends have left, most of your courses are over, you've even been given a farewell as the "batch of 2008" and nobody needs you anymore. But you still have to live here one summer and two semesters an oblivious life. Hmmm...but how do you let go of the habit of running into your friends in the institute who've suddenly gone too far, at least physically, or of msging them for momos and maggi, or of random nightouts? Why's it so lonely out here? Where are the people?
...and suddenly, there's nothing to do. A stupid project can only take so much of your time. What do I do about my workaholism? Especially when I've gone out to refuse all regular extra-curricular stuff for the coming year, the kinds I've been doing forever in IIT. Suddenly, there's so much time, and no activity. I'd planned to start working on a book, but so far I can't get myself to write a word. The plots in my head dont look convincing; I'm just so uninspired. Seriously, folks, give me an idea. Or a summer job which I can do with my project without traveling much in the heat. Or social work? Anything...

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Relief??

The semester is over, finally. Grades pour in tomorrow I guess, and though it's been academically a bad bad semester, at least I'm passing in all courses for sure( :P :D)! Yesterday when I submitted the final assignments of this semester, it felt a little relieving but surprisingly not light still. Work is light now, but there is still more or less a continuum with the Project (that's going to keep me here all summer, damn it's hot) work asserting itself. Especially after that horrible presentation on Monday. I cried almost an hour after it; my mood was already low and there was still plenty of work, but I'd nevertheless put in 8 hours for that presentation of which nobody saw a slide. I hate my department!
In fact most things I've seen happening in IIT since the majors have been ugly, something nobody will fall in love with IIT for. Millions of people outside this campus think this is the greatest place of all times, the best and all that crap. Lakhs of students dream about making it in here, but inside, there's so much filth at the wrong places and 80% of all students dream about getting out asap by the end of their term. This semester profs have had a field day with failing students. Sure, students have been at fault to some extent, but a large part has come without warning. Humanities alone has failed more than 150 students, most on attendance. There's a course where 33 of 44 students have been failed due to attendance, another in my dep has 28 casualties and there are a couple that have like an F at 65 or an audit at 80 or a C- at 75. Talk about being ridiculous. 75% of all people I know in the graduating batch currently are facing a serious problem in some course or the project. People will now have to forfeit IIM calls because some professor is heartless enough. And then they wonder why most IITians don't come back to their institute with love. Our batch was to take up a physics course in our final year, and some of us did it as extra credits, simply because our dep curriculum didn't have any physics courses in first year when all other deps had. And it was tough, more so because it used all JEE concepts and tricks which we haven't just forgotten, they're completely irrelevant to us today. It took me some scare and effort too, to pass it. IIT system is rotting, there are so many ills it makes me nauseous at times. But student say is limited, and the higher ups won't change anything. Plus, the attitude of mostly everyone sucks. Student politics is mostly a shame at the calibre of the students in this campus, but worse than that, even good hardworking people have this attitude for working for a post they want to hold next year rather than because they hold one at that moment. And since I'm blunt enough to say this ( and also refuse point blank a post in the next placement team), I get more than my share of brickbats. You know what, I'm cool with it. I've worked like a maniac four years, I want to try something different now. I want to just...disappear.
The sem's over, but the relief is not coming in. Most of my friends would be leaving soon. It's going to be a different life soon, one I'm not too relieved to enter into.

Still, so long and thanks for all the fish. And someone please magically cure this IIT system. It's gonna take a few lives more :(

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Low.

I'm feeling low, exactly low and nothing other than low, just in the way the word might have been first coined to precisely mean, I'm feeling low like that. And this feeling, the setting of almost everything in my life at the moment is almost exactly the same as a few years back. All that furore and I'm still just where I was, just as alone, just as disappointed, just as closed in my heart. I feel for a moment as if my heart has shrunk and shut and all the warmth and affection in it has evaporated. But I know better, for not all love can disappear. Yet I feel nothing good alive inside me and it's a dangerously dead feeling. I could be dead or alive and it would make no difference. I'm not hysterical or weepy, that's one bad habit I've largely managed to put under some serious check and I'm glad for it, but this peaceful blanket is unnerving for the sheer silence of it, for the sheer immunity it provides from everything around, and for myself.

I feel so terribly inadequate, and that insecurity does not arise externally, because I feel inadequate for myself. Yes, I feel cheated and angry and disappointed with a few people, a few things. Being ignored angers, but being ridiculed without deserving it makes you cry without a whimper. It's amazing how little you mean to anyone and anything, esp when you thought you should have meant something. It's amazing how easy it is for people to walk all over you even though you were there for their need not that long ago. It is a feeling that threatens to kill all kindness and all care inside you, which is a really really dangerous thing. IIT is a bad place; it teaches you all the bad thigs about the bad bad world, important as they are, in a really harsh way. That's probably why surviving IIT is an achievement, and IIM maybe more so, with everyone willing to sell everyone out. It hurts to deserve something and not get it, but it hurts a lot to deserve a little respect and get a lot of ridicule. After so much...God knows I'm tired of the brickbats, and no I don't want any bouquets.

The reason why today reminds me of those days, those times is that I absolutely do not feel I need someone to share all this with now.(A good rant is a different thing, and this post is getting so long hardly anybody would read it, so this is essentially about talking to myself, and I like it)Nobody feels close enough and right enough any more to open up to, and in a way that's a liberating feeling because the habit and expectation of being taken care of makes you postpone sanity and self-care a little longer, and because it hurts much more when nobody shows up when you need them. It's an awesome feeling to not need, to feel low and be okay with it and to remember to fend for yourself. I grew up like that and it's good to see I can still survive like that. The good thing about these days, these times is that everytime they seem unlike those days, those times, someone comes along to gently remind you that 'hey,it's your problem, don't bore me with your stories and just do what you want' or 'hey, you're supposed to fix my problem instead and understand what I need and walk off, thats your job'. It feels nice to have a place, after all, wherever it is. And just like those days, anybody could count the objective 'parameters' in my life and claim it's a good life, but nobody would want to be in it, nobody would want to be me. Except me, of course. I like being me, esp this illusion-shattered me who knows her problem is her chronic disease of investing trust everywhere, but wouldn't do a thing about it.

This semester is coming to a close, and everytime I begin to think about it, it completely overwhelms me. So much has happened in such little time that I don't even know what all has. Exams start monday, and God knows my acads are f***ed big time this sem, but my will to work, to study, to fight, to even try is awfully hard to find. I wish I could crib, "why me?", but I know better. In some instances, I wish I could also complain "why not me?" but I know the futility. You know, you could do so much and still fail at it, just like those times when you do only a little and luck helps you incredibly a lot.

This last year has been so so harsh. Such little good has come out of it. People have come and gone and come and gone etc, life also came and gone and came and gone and toyed with my spirit, my resilience till it got tired of the mochery. And now, at the end of it all, at the end of four years, I feel so empty, so numb, so...finished. And not even in a depressing sort of a way, just completely matter-of-fact empty. As if my job here is done. And although there's still one whole year which I have no clue how I will survive and my head goes into a frenzy trying to look for a point to it every single time, I don't feel I have it in me to live. I will survive, eventually, because there's no reason to just quit, but really, in life's journeys if you eventually come to the same point as you started, why do we even move? Why do we even try? No matter how much you do, how much you slog, how much you love, and how much of yourself you kill and sacrifice, how come it's never enough? Why should I go on?

PS I may be low, but I'm perfectly sane. I will take care of myself, thank you.