Scribbly scraggly

There has been a piece of writing that we’ve met with that’s made us all stop short and take notice. It could be a piece of motivational writing (hey! How come these things do exactly what they’re supposed to do? Am I missing something? Some simple formula that work, just works, because you have internalized it correctly. Just get there, do the thing and move ahead. If the cosmos conspires to help you do something right, why should you fight it? Accept it with both hands and step off into a better day. I promise tomorrow is full of challenges again. It’s up to you to ace today and be present tomorrow for the whole drama. Anyway, the thing that moved me now is: https://medium.com/@benjaminhardy/how-to-accomplish-more-in-30-days-than-most-do-in-365-and-get-back-on-track-2eecb5726dba recommended to me by my father. If this is life's chain of events in progress, I'm grateful for that piece of Dharma and karma. Take it, on!

I’ve often said that love is a conscious decision you make; to be “in love” and to learn to love someone are processes. It is true you can never love some people or places, while some others are far more amenable to kickstarting warm feelings within you. But contrary to what glossy romantic films or books might try to condition you into thinking, love is not something that “just happens”. You’re not a passive observer, swept off your feet. The head over heels thing may happen for a minute, for a day, but you would ultimately snap out of the chimera and come to your senses. You then evaluate and make choices. You might play a game with yourself – check if you feel the same funny, fuzzy way after a while, in several moods, in different seasons. See if you are tempted to change your mind. See if you are trying to convince yourself to stick to your resolve. It does not essentially mean that the lane you picked is bad or that it is bound to be fraught with difficulties. It may hint – o...

It’s been the wont of this poor parenting generation and everyone else around, from experts to those poor lay-parents (that’s poor twice! Well guess what, I’m a parent too, let me wallow some more, while I’ve got you) alike to call children special. Ever since you were born, you’ve been told you were special in every sense. Oh so adorable, cute, brilliant, and whatnot? If your parents have tempered this “special” with a “to me” caveat, you’re in the minority. And some way across the board, as you pick your way through life, you begin to aspire to be special, or to continue to be special. Once the *unconditional love* concept has been grasped, you, me, and everyone else around who has been born human would do well to recall that special is something has to be earned. You work and work at it, and work some more. It’s not a status quo. You do not qualify and then keep the title for life. It is rather tacky to expect that. Without having had much time for your inflated ego to go ...

When do you know you’re ready for something? Applying for a job or walking down the aisle or deciding to have a baby….. It’s all about how ready you perceive you are. You look at the pros and cons. You might decide that one or the other point is no longer relevant to you. You feel strongly on some points, and think the others are not worth considering at all. Would you say you’re kidding yourself when you say some factor doesn’t figure at all? Who decides whether something matters or doesn’t matter? The person who’s making the decision. What sticks and what doesn’t is decided by you. The truth is, the perfection that dangles in your mind’s eye is a myth. It doesn’t exist anywhere except in your imagination. Does that mean you dismiss your imagination altogether? No! You keep the vision that stirred you up in the first place, because it keeps you going. And then, you look for the best-fit that you can muster with what’s available. Put something together and do what it takes to mak...

Alas I’ve reached this point of publishing a post full of advice. Having been at the receiving of advice galore, well-meant and other kinds as well, I kind of vowed to myself never to be a bore. I have in times present and past, been the receiver of confidences, and still consider myself a good friend. I offer advice when solicited, particularly if I feel I have some authority on the subject, or some experience in the said domain of affliction. Having become a mommy, as in the case of many other Indian women, I feel that I have transcended a great, life-altering experience. Advice and life-plans have been flung at me, regardless of my disinterest and discomfiture. I didn’t love every moment of my being a mommy. I’ve had plunging lows, and I cannot say I am above them, by any means. Then, wonder of wonders, wherefrom have I started to spout advice? I tell my just-married friends not to have kids too soon. There is bitterness in that. And then I tell them what they are going to do...

Of late, as I've become an addict of the lifestyle, self-improvement and human-interest oriented articles on Huffington Post, I've started to wonder what makes them so true to life, so suitable to my current situation and state of mind. Weren't blog posts supposed to be undirected musings, boring soliloquies, inscrutable liturgies on subjects that only generate apathy but never interest? Well, if I had thought that, I've apparently been reading the wrong kinds of blogs, and looking in the wrong places for interesting stuff to read. The truth is, human nature is interestingly divergent, yet strikingly similar. Scores of people have been in the same situations as I am in now, they've had similar experiences, chuckled at the same social gaffes, shaken their heads over the same misgivings, regretted similar blunders and bypassed the same obligations. For it is inherent to human nature to second-guess, share fears, look for justification, and gang up where possible...

As a writing and reading addict, I subscribe to the newsfeed of several news websites, and enjoy being fed trivia, facts, conjecture and opinions from around the world. While all these sites win over the other in being awkward at some point or other with regard to language quality, presentation and sensitivity, they are indisputably neck to neck in vying with each other on who gets the headline in first. To make such a comment, one hardly need follow the newsfeed for a week or two. The stories reported are the same, the content presented is hardly variant, but the spot is open for the news channel which brings in the story first, and it is pretty much anybody's game right up to the point the browser refreshes itself and brings in a whole new bunch of posts. As a result, browsers are on the tick-tock more than ever before, and the parade is sometimes so much livelier than the noteworthy NYSE trading ticker tape. Hey, this keeps the others on the toes, and I am sure it contribu...