Oblivion

 I have always been afraid of ghosts and I do not mean that in a philosophical way. I am legit scared of ghosts. Firstly, let's define what a ghost is. It is essentially the spirit of a dead person that has supernatural powers. Why have I come to be so afraid? Maybe it is those late-night shows of aahat I watched as a tiny kid or my obsession with the show Supernaturals where Dean and Jesse fight ghosts and other supernatural beings on a daily basis.  Let me give you a reference point. There is a popular Bollywood movie called "Bhool Bhulaiya" in which Vidya Balan has given a terrific performance as a mentally ill person who is perceived as a ghost, and while watching it I did everything but shat my pants.  These past few years, I have been able to overcome my fear to a great extent. Being by myself, I didn't really have an option. I had to be strong-willed. I had to overcome my fear. Majboori ka naam Mahatma Gandi. But in the last month, the feeling of fear has come

I had three packets of Maggi tucked away on a shelf to be consumed in times of need. A hectic day at the office or a fight with parents, you get the point. Today was a hectic day. After 15 hours of back-to-back calls, I go to my cupboard hoping to have a delicious bowl of Maggi. It’s been a while since I have Maggi. I put the noodle cake in the pan and looked for the tastemaker. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I must’ve been mistaken. I tear the entire packet looking for it. Nothing again. I look inside the cupboard. Empty. I have a water-soaked cake and NO tastemaker. My flatmate who was making Ramen, urgh, happened to mention that the other flatmates used my Maggi masala packets, not one, not two, not three, on his idlis he made in the morning. You cannot comprehend my state of shock followed by agony. You do not do that to someone’s Maggi. It’s an honor code. The relationship between a Shiro and her Maggi is a special one. You don’t just trespass and that too for idli! I stood there thinking

 I had never been a geography person as a kid. Actually not in college as well. I would grunt and groan when my half-drunk idiot friends would start talking geography and associated trivia on the roof of the shady bar we used to frequent. My interest in geography is pretty recent actually. So, the book I am going to be talking about here is " Prisoners of Geography " by Tim Marshall. Okay, to begin with, this is a frikking amazing book, especially if you are a geography noob like me. As the cover says the book talks about 10 maps across the world and how the geography in those 10 regions has affected the fate of that region, the growth or the lack of it, and how it still casts more than a shadow over the politics that govern the region. I think by the time I finish this review I will experience semantic satiation toward the word geography.  There were two things that really made the book a great read for me specifically.  One is the fact that the book is split into 10 disjoin

Hello, this is my first official book review. I do short-form reviews on Twitter just for fun, but never a long-form review. Why now you ask. Simple. I am annoyed, irritated, emotional, and sad, and also menstruating and my brain is refusing to work. So, here I am trying to write a decent review for the book I finished reading in the last 2 weeks or so. Like most of my blogs, you can expect tidbits about my personal life in my reviews as well.  I have been a pretty regular reader for the last two years at least, managing to read over 20 books in one year. But somehow since the beginning of 2021, I hadn't felt that connection with a book. I was forcing myself to read. I did feel some sparks and very brief periods of passion for a book, but all short-lived, that is until I picked up this book called " The Spy and The Traitor " by Ben Macintyre.  A little context to how I came about picking this book up. My really tall glass of filter coffee AKA Brownster was visiting me, an

So, what has brought me back to this blog after a while? The increasing number of cases and hence a little bit of panic. I got covid myself back in November end. It was bad, but I was with friends, so we managed. Since it had been about 4 odd months, I decided to get myself tested for anti-bodies, and voila I still have them Despite this, I am anxious. There is nervousness in the air people. Let me list down the reasons for my current distress and panic Reading tweets of people's brushes with covid My aunt's entire family got covid recently The building that I live in has 29 odd cases of covid. Of the 30 floors we have, 9 have covid patients. So literally, living with covid Dad went to buy medicines, the shops were out of crocin and glucose. Extremely basic medication I cannot, simply cannot live like we did last year. Holed up in our houses. The thought of having to do that again send a shiver down my spine The 2,75+ lakh/ day reported cases of covid in the country. So we are

 I am fucking irritated and annoyed. If you are a woman on your period you might be able to empathize with me. But quite a bit of my irritation is not due to my menses but due to the lack of simple/ basic information regarding menstruation amongst men. For my peers who have spent about 25 odd years in this world, co-existing with women, most if not all men seem to have shockingly limited knowledge of menstruation. I can understand blaming our education system for not teaching this enough and our society for not talking about this enough, but I cannot absolve men of all blame when it comes to their minuscule knowledge.  So for all the men out there, here are some facts that you need to understand and a few pointers on behaving with women when they are on their period. We will start with the first section. What are periods? Some facts and no figures (don't worry) Basics first, so every 25-40 days (yes this range is different for every woman), our body releases an ovum and prepares fo

 I cannot get to sleep, so I decided to sit in the balcony. And it is frikking cold, and there is music playing in my room, well where is there isn't. I have recently been feeling a lot of appreciation for the people in my life and wanted to pen it down.  Two days ago I got my much awaited first-ever promotion. I was alone at home when I got the call. I was beyond elated. I called all my friends and family to share the good news and then sat in front of my laptop. Then I decided to call up a friend who didn't respond to my somewhat cryptic message "call aa gaya". I call her and give her the news and the first words out of her mouth were "saman uthao apna aur aa jao" which translates to pick up your things and come over ASAP. And that is all we want in life, someone to say that to us. I love this woman very very much.  Umm secondly, I don't know if this happens with everyone or just me, but in the last couple of years, I have gotten really close to my cou