Beyond 'S'

After finishing a fantastic second season of Master of None, started going through Ansari's Wikipedia page to come across that he has written book on something he was dealing with through his series. So I got the book and I've been reading Modern Romance- An investigation. Reading this, I'm kind of feeling that in a way we feel we're a generation who've seen the best of both, now I feel that we've lived the best now we're just turning into 'not so nice' people. The way we play some form of competitive games over the various apps available to us, where the texts are a way to hide from the actual conversations or the way our personalities are judged over the way we use the dictionary, grammar, emojis and how we sound over a text. After some level there is an understanding dynamic between the two, but until then it's this uncertainty that might come off as confusion or in a judgemental form, might be a loss of something that could've would...

If someone could write a code to find the frequently used word by me in the past few months, a word that would feature itself in top five would be Dahej. The place I look for reasons to get out of even if it means travelling forty kilometers to watch a film. In an overly crowded, fitting people in corners keeping the doors open travelling away from the ‘Mein aur Meri Tanhaayi’, that is the isolated experience of Dahej. Plugging in, listening to some Ed Sheeran- looking around and wondering, what am I doing here? As I try to adjust into my seat. The loud tracks of Badshah in the vans do distract me, the spits of pan do distract me but in this chaos of our lives, where I can’t even hear my voice- distraction is a routine, is a form of concentration. Then we arrive, to a land where Uber is only an app on your phone and not a reality. The weekend kicks off- Boss Baby. Easiest getaway from the world possible- The parallels it draws about being an adult from a baby’s perspective and about...

Bananas- The fruit most of us love. We consume the good of it and dispose the peel. Something that we ignore to notice is the way the peel makes people fall down, if not disposed rightfully. After extracting the good, if you leave it on the streets to decompose, it’ll get back on the human race by making someone slip for someone else’s action. This sounds like the story of every grey character towards the black end we’ve known- the bad guys- or the villains that we’ve come across. So who are the good guys? Bananas??- Maybe. So let’s talk about Batman, the universe with a quite a lot of grey characters. Batman was trained by mercenaries who wanted him to destroy Gotham, become a ‘peel’ to Gotham slip it off its course of downfall and mark a growth of a new civilization. But he does become a symbol, a symbol of ‘right’ among all wrongs- he becomes the peel in the dustbin. When the peel is in the dustbin, instead on the street- it’s in the right place, doing the right thing. Not on the ...

When you’re walking around the mall and see a piano playing itself to a set tune with a barricade around it saying- “just enjoy the music from a distance”, but deep down, you wish you were wearing a suit or tuxedo, jump right in, start playing it and the whole mall breaks into singing and dancing- You’re still not over La La Land. At least I wasn’t. From the way it flows and you find it difficult to put the experience of it into words. Just like something that cannot be explained, but experienced only in a dark room, on a large screen through four seasons- a perfect symphony of the love for dreams and dream of love. Something that could make you remember the most inanimate thing, that you’ve forgotten and stays in the cupboard or the last time you played it. A guitar that you used to play for the fun of it, means a lot more and you wish it was here, with you. When Bollywood that thrives in music in creating moments falls short in front of a magical musical, and you know it’s someth...

If you’re A poet A misfit A dreamer A schemer A rebel A loner A doer A thinker Please For the love Of the universe Don’t change A piece of blue paper with these words on it was handed to me on a bowl with many others, with different quotes to it. The universe chose this for me, amongst all the other chits of paper, stuck between my fingers as I lifted it from a ‘bowl of quotes’ placed at our table along with the bill at a café, in the narrow lanes of Udaipur. With partially digested pasta with pesto and a shot of caffeine in the form of Irish coffee, I was hit with strong words making me ponder about- What am I doing? - in middle of the largest state in the country. Of all the café’s in all of Udaipur, I walk into this and this little blue paper falls in between my fingers. I was lost in a sea of thoughts, each word playing on repeat in my head as I walked down the narrow lanes towards Bagore ki Haveli, again. I couldn’t hear the words of my friends, just s...

A city where the Silk roads doesn’t seem to move smoothly like its name and places named after LIC policies- impatience is available on the go. As the metro moves seamlessly without disturbing the life below, a couple of ‘not so’ strangers (who know each other) decide to get a cup of coffee, in a Fortune 500 US Based Outlet in a mall, which is considered an architectural beauty. Travelling up the hills, away from home to meet a person who travelled towards home, from the state of ‘Amma’, a day late, as the roads weren’t silky enough. The orders were placed and they both would forget what they were about to drink, especially the one who just said ‘Anything is fine’, as it was being placed. A brownie was added to it, which wasn’t cursed. They didn’t have anything to catch up, but sitting on a wooden table next to each other with exotic cups of coffee placed in front of them, looking out into the lives of people that didn’t matter and looking into each other’s life as it would change dr...

The leaves are starting to fall again. Wow!! Looks so beautiful! Why do they fall?? Why is it happening in slow motion in my head, is it because I’ve been watching a lot of movies lately? They are falling down as the wind plays with it, spins it around, caress it, feel it- so romantic. Does anything like that exist in this inexhaustible variety of our lives? They are dying and yet they are loved, they’re old and on their final journey and yet they’re loved. Maybe it’s because there is no expectation from the wind or the leaf. As it touches the ground, it’s dead. Moved around in its grave by the speeding vehicles, by the kicks of disapproval, heartbreaks that we experience- As their soul moves to a new tree, ready to blossom, to grow as a new leaf- The repetitiveness of life, the never ending cycle. What is he talking about? Does he also get lost in his thoughts while I’m talking? Why is he dressed up so well? Did he get placed? Or is he telling how they rejected him? Does he actually...