They are called sun signs but they allude to the placement of our stars. Yes, yes, the sun is also a star. Thank you for going to school. However, I find it extremely cute when people ask each other about horoscopes and then proceed to make assumptions based on set traits of those sun signs. Today, astrology might be laughed upon but human history is intertwined with all the cultures accepting the role celestial bodies play in our wellbeing (or not). Some of the greatest scientific figures reached astronomy through astrology.
Me: “When is your birthday?”
He: “I don’t believe in horoscopes.”
Me: “Well, I believe in stars. As well as the fault in them.”
The greater truth is, I am only interested in spotting stars and identifying them correctly. I am least interested in their personal lives.
When you tell someone that you love them, what exactly do you mean? Do you cherish the better qualities in them? Natural characteristics like beauty and intelligence? Or is it kindness and warmth? Or do you admire the skills that they have honed? Or is it a mix of everything in the bag? What exactly do you mean when you claim to love someone? Would you still have those feelings for them if they stopped being so thoughtful and nice to you? I think about this a lot because I’ve arrived at a (petty) conclusion that it’s impossible to love a person wholly. It’s always these tiny pieces we care about and try our best to ignore the rest.
If your challenges drain you out, you have worthy challenges. Anything from improving handwriting to increasing stamina to losing weight to even gaining weight. A task has to be heavy to be worth carrying. If everybody could complete 40 laps of the swimming pool, then what’s the point of your buoyancy? That said, it’s also perfectly natural for a challenge to defeat us. There are bound to be days when you don’t feel like practising or can’t resist that piece of dessert. Part and parcel. What matters is we keep pushing ourselves to reach the other side of the summit, and there is only one way to do that — by reaching the top. Once you get to the top, you finally acknowledge that it wasn’t that tough. And here’s the trickiest part: you’ve got to maintain the momentum, can’t loosen your grip on your goals. We must remember that more deaths happen on the way down from Mt. Everest than the way up.
A young friend of mine, who shall remain unnamed, recently told me in Gurgaon that he is open to the idea of ‘servicing’ unhappy wives. Without getting into the dirty details of this business proposition, he believes that there is nothing wrong in helping those who are helpless. Which suddenly starts making sense, when you add the layer of charity. Out of curiosity, I asked him about terms and conditions, if any. Only two from his end: she has to be unhappy and she has to be below the age of 42. I ignored the (un)happiness angle and quickly jumped on the number. Why 42? Because my friend is a major Douglas Adams fan and thinks The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the best book ever written.
Speaking of my Gurgaon trip, I met another colleague-turned-friend who loves confiding in me. My innocuous personality makes people spill their beans in my presence. Which I discreetly spill on this blog with you, my beloved readers. Anyway, he was first introduced to beer in the hostel and has been a steady ‘connoisseur’ for over a decade or so. He even attended Oktoberfest to “enjoy the best foam ever”. Since I am a teetotaler, I can’t relate to any of this nonsense. However, what he said next shocked me.
He: “I am giving up beer.”
Me: “Wow, are you turning clean?”
[a little pause]
He: “It’s time to pick up hard liquor.”
In case you can’t stand your parents, for whatever reason(s), I’ve got news for you. There is no escape. For good or for worse, there is no way you’d be able to discard your origins. What you can do is assess your relationship with them and try to reform (them) or conform (yourself). What our parents do for us can’t be reimbursed, either in time or money. That’s just the way it is. You can’t put into account all the sleepless nights and headaches you gave them over the years. Parenthood, for lack of better poetry, is a thankless job. The trick is to be grateful for what we got in this bargain, and not focus too much on the negatives. We will continue to be the living memories of our parents. The goodness in you was rooted by something you were rooted in once.
When somebody you truly adore has their birthday, you tend to be in a fix because you want to celebrate it in a loud manner. After all, this day doesn’t arrive twice in a year. If you can think of a nice gift (that the birthdayer can genuinely use), lucky you. But if you are like me, who has little to no sense of what needs to be gifted, then you are left with nothing but your words. Birthday wishes are gestures of the purest order. Yet, birthdays don't mean anything in true sense; it's a necessary reminder of how time is passing by. And we are constantly changing although stuck under the illusion that we haven't changed at all.
One day, I will compose my imaginary conversations with my imaginary friends and release it on Amazon for profit. Until that happens, you are welcome to eavesdrop.
Student: “What is the most important thing in the world?”
Master: “To be aware of what's going on.”
Student: “About the world in general?”
Master: “No. Your many worlds.”
I recently read a BBC piece on Nalanda in Bihar and there were several extraordinary elements mentioned about this place of learning. As is the case with human accomplishments, what has to go up will come down. Which reminds me of what Warren Buffet said about the changing market: 30 years ago, Japanese companies dominated the top-20 list; that isn’t the case anymore. The point being, decline is a part of every story ever narrated. When Nalanda was burned by Bakhtiyar Khilji, there were so many scrolls in the campus that the place was consumed in flames for three months straight. So much was lost to ignorance. After eight centuries of buried silence and apathetic attitude of post-independence leaders in India, the university was finally revived 9 years ago. It has a long way to go and most probably will never achieve the pedestal its originator stood on in the past. Lastly, to my dismay, I learned of a station called Bakhtiyarpur in Bihar and I hope it has nothing to do with the fellow who gutted the campus in the 12th century.
The largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, is larger than the planet of Mercury. On average, Mercury is the closest planet to ALL other planets. Venus is the only planet that doesn’t have a tilt and hence has no seasons. The temperature at the earth’s core is about 6,000 °C – the same as the sun’s surface. If you could stand on the equator of Mars at noon, your feet would be pleasantly warm while your head would feel freezing cold. Jupiter has the largest planetary magnetosphere in the solar system. If it were visible, it would appear to be more than twice the size of the Sun when viewed from the Earth. Saturn is mainly composed of the lightest two gases known, hydrogen and helium, and it is the only planet in our solar system whose density is less than water. Uranus was originally called George. Its two largest moons are named Oberon and Titania, after Shakespeare’s King and Queen of the fairies. Neptune was discovered in 1846 and it took until 2011 to complete one orbit of the Sun. No, we aren’t supposed to talk about Pluto here.
I relate to the part where you claim to have an innocuous personality that people relate to and end up sobbing stories on your shoulder. It's the same with me. But sometimes it gets too much. Don't you think? Someone confiding in you is also a responsibility but not the one that you can carry on forever. However protagonist begs to differ.