Noises.

Noises.

I whisper, “Sshh”. The noises continue.

Aarrggh! “Sshhh!” They don’t stop.

“Stop!”, I shout. They don’t stop. They won’t stop. Flash.

  I wake up irritated. My ears can catch no noise anymore. No more voices. No more noises. Just pitch black darkness in the room. Pin drop silence. My ears work harder to catch some essence of life. And then there is some. A  distant barking of some dog in pain. Or so it seems to me. There is somebody supposedly talking softly into the phone. Or maybe to themselves? Who knows? My eyes smartly adapt to the darkness. I see around. I grab the water bottle. Water is relieving, I believe, when it goes down your system through your throat; more so when the system throws it out through the eyes. 

Hmm.. So? Time to go back to sleep, I guess. I lie down. The clock’s ticking. On and on. Looks like I can go back to sleep again perhaps. 

And then.. the noises return. “SHUT UP!”, I shout in my head. Only in vain. They will never leave me. They will never abandon me. The noises…

What the Selfie Means to Me

It all started with our daily no-sense-conversation during the much awaited break-time at work. My friend began to narrate last day’s incident. Apparently, her brother was the proud owner of an expensive phone, which he happened to mistakenly drop on the floor. The poor thing’s once-pretty screen shattered into pieces. According to my friend’s narration, her brother’s first reaction was “I hope the front camera is still working. Warna main selfies kaise lunga (How else will I be able to click selfies)!“. She, obviously, was more concerned with the overall health-and-well-being of the phone (mainly by virtue of its price tag – as normal people should be – at least as per my understanding).

No matter how weird the kid’s first reaction was, it is inevitably indicative of the latest trending thing today –the selfie fever! Admit it or not, at one time or another, we all have been guilty of contributing to this trend. Whether it be one of those days, when all you want is a perfect picture of yourself, and you can’t trust another living creature with such a vital responsibility, or that moment when everyone on the floor necessarily needs to be a part of the picture (leaving no one to click it), we all have been on both sides of the lens, at the same time. However, here I am trying to investigate the deeper meanings that this trend signifies, about us, as a generation, and more importantly, as a society.

There is more to the picture, than what meets the eye. Quite literally here. Behind that smiling picture of yours, more correctly called: “selfie”, is a loner. It is a person who likes to be clicked, but probably has no one to click that picture for them. It is a person, who chooses not to share the desire to be clicked, even with the closest people, but does choose to share the click itself, on a social networking website, with people they barely know.

Funny thing is, selfie is not always about you. Catching up fast, is the group selfie trend, wherein a group of people, click their own group picture, managing to accommodate all in one picture. They say it’s a great way to make the perfect memory. But are we so busy making memories, that we have completely lost track of the art of living-in-the-moment? Are we so worried about what we are losing, that we tend to completely ignore what we most definitely have? Is the present not good-enough, that we constantly need evidence to remind ourselves that the past was good? Maybe, the questions are too far-fetched. Or maybe, they are not.

As far as I can humanly remember, the happiest times of my life, are from my childhood. The most precious moments, the most heart-felt laughs, the most authentic smiles, the most delicious foods, the most memorable trips – everything that defines “awesome” dates back to my childhood. I happen to remember every single detail, no matter how old or irrelevant it might be in the present context. Strange part is: We never had a camera. The stranger part is, we never felt the need of having one.

That makes me think; probably the best moments cannot be clicked. Or more correctly put, the best moments do not have to be clicked. When the picture becomes more important than the object of the picture, it’s time to put that camera away, and remind yourself, to live in the moment, and not in the picture.

Keep smiling. Not just for the picture! :) 

A for Awesome !

I am an on-and-off reader. There are days when I go on and on reading stuff. I am so engrossed in multiple books at the same time that nothing else seems to matter. Days pass by and so does the reading fever. And then there are days, when I don’t read at all. I don’t feel like picking up the newspaper. I don’t like the sight of a written word. Then there is a phase between these two extremes, when I force myself into reading, for the heck of it. I reluctantly pick up the newspaper, telling myself it cost me a rupee or two. I text multiple people to suggest me an interesting read. Then I put in all my reason to choose which one will bring me back from the other side, back into the lovable world of words. And so goes on the cycle.

But all this while, there is one thing that I never miss reading. It’s called the 1000AwesomeThings. It’s an award-winning blog that’s also been supposedly turned into a book. I believe most of you would have read it as well, or heard of it, or stumbled upon it. But I felt the need to write about it.

The idea is quite simple. Neil writes about one awesome thing, every weekday. The thing can be as trivial as the joy of getting gas just before the price goes up, or Thinking it’s Thursday when it’s Friday, or Seeing someone laugh in their sleep. The list can go on. Some posts are long. Some are as short as a sentence. And some post-titles are enough to brighten up your day.

The amazing part is how a thing as little as “Watching something download really fast” can make you happy. And each day is filled with so many of these trivial things. And each day we experience something of this sort. But how many of us really take note of it, and feel thankful about it: About the little joys that life is filled with; the little gifts that we are blessed with. And what IS life anyways, if we take away these little joys from it! Neil lost a friend, but he chose to see the brighter side of life. And what a gift it is! To show a million people the beautiful side of life. We live our lives on the edge. We look at each day as if it were a battle. We cry about so many things. Some are really sad. Some are not so much. Some are completely unworthy. Truth is, It is all in the mind. It is liberating to just know that a simple change in outlook can change your entire life. At the same time, it is surprising that the things that bother us so much, can only be dealt with by our own selves.

I like reading the posts on this blog, because they make me happy. And I hope one fine day, I will be able to see all these awesome things with my own eyes, and will not need somebody to point them out to me.

So next time, you use your remote control without having to even look at it; or find a hundred-note in your old jeans, or catch a bus at exactly the moment it is going to leave; hold on, pause and feel the awesomeness of the moment. Because that might be the most awesome moment that you are going to live that day; and probably just that feeling could be enough to make the rest of your day as awesome.

Happy living !