Random Contemplations

It's a bustling afternoon. The air is getting chilly, marking the start of winter. In the west, the sun starts disappearing below the horizon & the orangish-golden light starts fading away. Amidst all this, a soft glow pierces through the growing darkness, sending colorful rays of light in all directions. Within an hour, every window & every balcony on every street is adorned with dazzling lights. The vivid red, green, blue, yellow & pink lights stand out against the pitch-black night sky. Colorful clay diyas, beautiful lanterns of different shapes & sizes & intricate rangolis add to the dazzling splendor. The mouth-watering smell & sight of ladoos, chaklis, karanjis, shankarpale & chiwda fills the air, making our tummy rumble. This is Diwali, the festival of lights. It was originally celebrated to mark Lord Ram's return to Ayodhya. However now, it has become an occasion not just to clean & decorate our house, but to light up our achromatic life ...

A few weeks ago, I attended actor Ashok Saraf's felicitation ceremony, where he was felicitated with the Shivshahir Babasaheb Purandare Award. I'm usually not interested in such stuff, but I decided to go because a small part of the play 'Jaanta Raja' would be performed. Honestly, I'm not into plays either, but I figured that it might be interesting. I don't remember half of the ceremony because I find formalities boring & often too long. I also don't remember what Ashok Saraf said in his acceptance speech, but I clearly remember how the entire theater went quiet when he started speaking. Everybody was listening eagerly to every word he said. He showed humility & commanded respect at the same time. I've never seen such an authoritative yet modest person. I've only watched one of his movies, which I barely remember, but I feel extremely grateful & honored that I got a chance to see such an eminent personality in person. After a short brea...

(Warning: Spoiler Alert) Almost every avid reader has at least heard of Khaled Hosseini's 'The Kite Runner'. Being a passionate reader myself, I had to issue it the moment I saw it. I've read many books about war & death, but none have ever been so traumatic as this one. 'The Kite Runner' is the story of a young boy named Amir living in Afghanistan in the 1970s. His life wasn't perfect, but things were going well, till a local kite-fighting tournament shattered the lives of him & his friend Hassan. Their lives were never the same again & to top it off the Russian invasion all but ended the last chance of a reconciliation between the two. However, many years later, Amir is forced to return to his homeland. The quick trip turns out to be a long journey during which he finds out that his entire life was built on lies. He must now try to make amends, even risking his life to do so. Khaled's writing style is one of the best I've ever come acro...

 Craving–that irresistible urge, that unshakable desire to have at least one bite of that Snickers. But what does diet culture tell us? 'Snickers are processed junk food. Here, have chocolate coated dates stuffed with peanut butter.' And then we end up eating 10 dates trying to avoid that tiny harmless Snicker. Now, I'm not saying that cravings are always good. Sometimes, regular cravings can be a result of binge eating, subclinical malnourishment, imbalanced blood sugar, lack of sleep or addiction to stimulants including caffeine, sugar & drugs. If that's the case, then ignoring those cravings might be a good choice. But if you're like me & rarely have cravings, then from my experience, you should satisfy it. A few months ago, I started craving ice cream so bad. There was a lot in the freezer, but as I's already had it the day before I decided to have some chocolate. The minutes went by & I kept eating, but the craving only intensified. I grew frust...

I had a fixed routine during my summer holidays this year: exercise, study, have lunch, draw, go to my tuition, have dinner, watch a K-drama & go to sleep. But as the holidays started coming to an end, my routine started falling apart. At first, I was okay with it, but after a few days I became lazy, going back to spending hours on my phone. I felt as if I had no control over my life. I've always hated planners for no apparent reason. Maybe it's because I felt that I'm capable of doing my work without any help. Even self-help. But with college looming up ahead, I went ahead & bought one. I wrote down a few things I had to do daily, one of them being meditation. And I did for the first 3 days. But on the 4th day I didn't & was about to make a red mark when I thought, 'What is meditation anyways?' I looked it up & to meditate means 'to focus one's mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual ...

For a long time, I'd dreamed of being an author. I wrote a few short stories, but I quickly lost interest. Then I found out about blogging. Though I didn't think much of it at first, I soon found it interesting. It didn't take me long to decide that I wanted to start my own blog. But it was easier said than done. I looked up about blogging online & there were 2 major steps given on every site—choosing the topic of the blog & the blogging platform. That's when I realized that it wasn't going to be easy. So, I took the help of the internet & asked my dad's friend, who's been a blogger for more than 10 years, for some tips. I also started writing some new content & editing my old ones. It was apparent to me that there was no similarity whatsoever between them, so I decided that I must include the word 'random' in my blog's title. When I felt that I was ready, I clicked on 'Sign In'. The first thing I had to do was put in the ...

Trends come & go in all fields-- fashion, food, technology, music.... the list goes on. There're tons of new trends every year, out of which some become really popular. They stay for years, even decades, while some don't, but may end up coming back after years. One trend which has blown up in the past few years is eating organic & healthy food. Organic food is any food item grown without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides or other artificial chemicals. They don't absorb these harmful chemicals, which is good for our health. Healthy foods are basically the same thing. They're believed to promote & maintain good health because they contain vital nutrients or have low sodium or fat content. Eating such foods is definitely good because our health is affected by what we eat. But too much is often bad & food is no exception (though I wish chocolate would be). First of all, organic food may not really be organic. Research by the U.S. Food & Drug Ad...

2020 will always be remembered as a historical year filled with despair, loneliness & boredom. Healthcare workers were on duty 24/7, people lost their jobs, loved ones died & everyone was cooped up at home. No one had thought that not just a country or a continent, but the entire world would be facing the same problem at the same time. But the pandemic wasn't just a problem-- in a way, it was a solution. People with a hectic lifestyle started slowing down & found that they had time on their hands to do whatever they wanted to. Kids who wished that there would be more holidays, or no school had their wish come true (kind of). Parents who wanted their children to go to school had to refrain them from going. Life had turned completely upside down. At first this change was accepted happily (it's not like we had an option anyway), but as the deaths increased, so did the lockdown. And the increasing lockdown increased not only the negativity, but also creativity. We sta...