In a predominantly online world, the old are left alone and clueless
According to the Britannica, loneliness, distressing experience that occurs when a person’s social relationships are perceived by that person to be less in quantity, and especially in quality, than desired.
Loneliness, distressing experience that occurs when a person’s social relationships are perceived by that person to be less in quantity, and especially in quality, than desired. The experience of loneliness is highly subjective; an individual can be alone without feeling lonely and can feel lonely even when with other people.
In effect, researchers agree that loneliness is a state of mind. …
Life Lessons
While everything else in the world is relative
I know the title and subtitle are highly debatable. Let me just state my point of view here.
I tried to come up with a list of aspects of life that are absolute. It was tough to come up with such a list.
Consider wealth. Wealth is always comparative, isn’t it? Person x has 3 bungalows, 5 cars, and a yacht. Person y has 2 bungalows and 5 cars. Person x is obviously richer than person y, right?
Consciously or unconsciously, we are always measuring our wealth against what we perceive as the next person’s wealth and trying to find where we stand. …
THIS IS US
Merely writing or hearing the word gives me the creeps
I have been scared of Ls for as long as I can remember
When I was a little kid in middle school, we lived in Chennai, India. I remember being petrified of the Ls in our home there.
I will be referring to lizards as L because saying or typing the word, especially the part that goes ‘zzz’ makes me jittery. It is strange because I do not have the same problem with the word blizzard.
Ls in Chennai were big and dark thanks to the harsh Chennai sun I suppose. They scarred me for life with their ugly looks. There was something about their skin, their ugly expression, and the way they swished their tails when they spotted prey that made my skin crawl. If I saw them on the stairway wall and ran up out of fear, they’d run faster than me on the wall, and that scared me even more. …
Some of our best ideas are lost because we do not journal them at once
Most of us started out as writers because we have something to say, about almost everything. But one of our greatest fears is that one day we will run out of ideas. I have that fear too. Strangely, that fear is reducing as I fill books and other places with ideas. I now have so many ideas that I am confused about which one to pick and write about. That’s a good problem to have, I guess!
When I started writing seriously a few months ago, I read lots of articles about noting down ideas, carrying a notepad at all times, regular journaling, and so on. I followed some of these pieces of advice and added a few of my own over time. …
Those elephants in the room that no one tries to do anything about
You are responsible for managing a team. There is challenging work ahead for you and the team. You need great team members and you need them to start being great from day 1.
That’s what every manager dreams about. A self-motivated A-team that picks up the work and delivers stellar results.
Reality check: While this scenario is not impossible, it is VERY rare. Managing teams and getting the kind of productivity and excellence required is hard work.
I have been a manager of people for well over a decade and have observed a wide variety of people, circumstances, and behavior at the workplace. …
These writers have talent, style, class, and more
I’ve seen many posts on Medium where writers call out other writers who inspire them. One post that caught my eye was Let’s Get Engaged by Melissa Bee. What a lovely and kind way to let our favorite writers know how much we appreciate their writing.
I’ve been wanting to write at least one such post for a while. The idea has been marinating in my head. Sometimes a writer is in my head for a bit and I think about how good their writing is and how much I enjoy reading their posts. This happens on so many days. I have a small collection of such incredible writers in my head now. …
It changed my perspective, and will definitely change yours
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been on my reading list for a while. I finally finished it, and what a read it was! I would not be exaggerating if I said it changed my worldview.
Americanah was unputdownable for the eye-opening information, the breezy writing, as well as the overall narrative. I think I’ll be reading it again … and again.
The book traces the journey of two lovers Ifemelu and Obinze through their starry-eyed childhood into adulthood as they chase their dreams and build their lives. This post is not a review of the book. …
Life Lessons
My mom is pretty famous in my home though.
My mom was a very wise and practical woman. I feel like she missed passing on a whole chunk of her most useful genes to me.
She was always very sensible in her approach to most things in life. I never saw her lose her cool, behave hysterically, or otherwise lose her composure under any circumstance.
She had several gems of advice. I love them all and have begun to value them more and more with each passing year. I’ll share one of them here.
Get up and walk around!
That was and continues to be such an oft-repeated sentence between my husband, my kid, and me. Mom passed on almost 4 years ago, but this gem still echoes in our home. …
Humor
And is very time consuming
Goal —delay waking up
Set the alarm
Snooze the alarm when it rings
Calculate how long it takes to get ready
Figure that you can sleep for 5 minutes more
Reset alarm
Snooze
Switch to Plan B — skip bath to save time
Recalculate time to get ready
Reset alarm
Snooze
Panic about having overslept
Another round of calculation about the time required to get ready
Switch to Plan C — pack breakfast, eat in the cab
Another 10 minutes saved
Reset alarm
Wake up
Panic
Goal achieved — successfully delayed waking up by half an hour!
Wrote this for a small contest. 100-word limit poem based on the theme ‘procrastination’. …
