Now and then, before and after
When I went back to our table after picking up my lunch today, Vivek asked me about the queue. I said it was short. He immediately left…
When I went back to our table after picking up my lunch today, Vivek asked me about the queue. I said it was short. He immediately left for food and found things to be the exact opposite. Instead of getting into the long queue in place, he returned and said, “When they were handing out luck, you must have gotten plenty.” I replied, “Yes, but the queue was very long back then.” [This conversation would have read far better in Hindi.]
You can’t impress everybody. In fact, you can’t impress even some of the few people you originally planned to. That’s the game of impression. However, it’s different for dogs. They don’t care about leaving an impression on anyone. On the contrary, they leave an impression on others. For instance, Ranga makes every single visit to our place memorable for those who bother to visit us. If you are a man, he instills fear and danger in you. If you are a woman, he brings out the mother in you.
I’ve been having headaches since the past weekend. Migraine. It could be either because of the changing weather or because of my reluctance to wear prescription glasses. Either way, I spend the day in pain and then punctuate the night with sleeplessness. There is no greater curse than the curse of sleeplessness. I must have said this before but it’s worth repeating. Yesterday, I was thinking of those people who died after getting shot in the head while they were in the middle of suffering a headache. It’s hard to decide whether the shooter did them a favour or not.
Do you ever get that feeling you’re not doing enough? You are not alone in this. It’s a common feeling except that people don’t admit out in open. Posturing is important. Everybody else is vrooming past you on the racetrack while you remain stuck in a 10mph wheelbarrow. Once you click the comparison button, you’re basically inviting yourself to a quicksand party. This anomaly has more to do with your lack of drive than anything else. As clichéd as it is, your fight is with you. Also, those who genuinely understand personal growth tend to know how to bargain the circumstances better. All things said and done, nearly a third of your job is to posture and hide that you don’t know what you’re doing.
Speaking of the change in weather, it is sad to witness the grand change. This is my fourth winter in NCR and amazingly enough, how there is a stench of consistency in the air. The plants in our balcony are slowly dying. Birds are vanishing as they’ve got better things to do now than grace the vision of my binocular. Viral fever and flu and endless barrage of sneeze are not only making their presence felt but also establishing dominance, especially in office space thanks to shared tables and elevators. All things said and done, this is my favourite season despite the thick blanket of smog and pollution waiting to sneak into our nose. That said, the only way Gurgaon could truly redeem its city cred is by making snowfall happen somehow.
Not very long ago, I was very close to disbanding ChessNuts, our mini-chess club/house. After last Sunday’s unexpected spike in attendance, that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Two participants traveled close to 3 hours to be a part of our club. I think that tops the cherry of our weekend adventure so far. I don’t see myself spending even an hour on traveling to Delhi and we had online friends — who happen to be two of the finest chess player I’ve known personally — coming all the way from Ghaziabad and West Delhi. I almost felt guilty. However, at the same time, they raised the momentum. Coming Sunday, even if 10 people show up, that means 5 chessboards will be occupied. And that is more than what it takes to stay true to our gathering. We don’t have titanic plans; we just want people to stick to chess for 3 hours (3pm to 6pm) and that’s not a lot to ask for, now, is it? Unfortunately, the answer is no.
Does Elon Musk know that he is the coolest person in the world? If not, somebody should tell him regardless of the situation he is reeling under. Quite understandable that the man dealing with the level of ambitions he’s dealing with wouldn’t care less about people’s opinion but still. If you are the coolest person in the world, the least we can do for him/her is letting him/her know the truth.
When 2018 began, I was full of resolutions and hopes and dreams. We are on the edge of October and reality can’t be farther from…well… reality. I haven’t learnt how to dance. I haven’t learnt how to read or write in Sanskrit. I haven’t learnt the sign languages either. I still don’t know how to whistle. Nothing. Absolutely nothing have I done anything out of the box. The only saving penny dropped thanks to my continued interest in learning about birds. I got started with trees too but the progress isn’t anywhere close to their avian counterparts. I also managed to get back to fitness and read a lot many more books — not that quantity matters — compared to last few years. As a wise old man once said, “Nothing really matters but you should try your level best. Also, I didn’t say this.”
Since my summer visit to Mangalore, I’ve been obsessed with that city and can’t really wait to move there. In all fairness to myself, my freelancing wife and our useless dog, it’s quite a ridiculous idea. Compared to Gurgaon, opportunities are scarce over there and yet, somewhere deep inside me, I feel that this transition will materialize sooner or later. If I succeed in finding a fulfilling writing-related job there, I wouldn’t mind a pay cut either. Anyway, Mangalore is a much cheaper place to live than NCR. If you’re from my dream city and are reading this, you know what to do.