A vent in the Delirium

I took a pause in life and realized. I have already lived the best part of my life . I could not believe at first that before hitting 30 years in life, the best was already over. Then saw some photos of the past and looked at all those glorious years pass me by. It all came rushing in after that – life indeed is a nine days’ wonder. When did it all get over? When did it start? Was it I who changed? Or everything else around me? Could I have stopped it? These questions leave me baffled. It frustrates me that I, being the sole proprietor of my life, have no clue as to when I lost its most precious riches. The only thing I know now is that I am not getting it back. I was so busy in the daily, mundane, repetitive, boring race towards death that I never realized this ever happening. I am writing this blog as a eulogy to that great time spent with so many friends. Friends who lived together, who traveled across India together, who partied every other day - got hung over every day,...

One of the most popular post on social media on Mother’s day is the one proclaiming that each day is a Mother’s day and one day is not enough. But the irony is that this post is visible only on Mother’s day. The true realization of the post has come a little late for me. I never denied the importance of the sacrifices that are made by mothers but neither did I stop and took note of all the small and huge sacrifices made for me. I was too happy in my little world with no responsibilities and unbound freedom. All the talk of self-made, independent individuals is a myth. We are all but a sum of the sacrifices of a lot of individuals. Above all our mothers. Seeing my brother raise a child has made me aware of how impossibly difficult a job it is. Managing work as well as home along with two kids seems to be an impossible task. But this is something my mother has done all her life. Midway through this difficult task of raising us up, she was also dealt a painful blow. One that p...

Our group of friends shifted hostels in the second year and took rooms close to each other and the friendship grew stronger from there with each passing day. Thus was born x0x-ers (3, 4 – 0 – 1, 3) i.e. rooms 301,303,401 and 403. We spent countless hours planning trips, parties, discovering music and other random shit. Goa is a destination every college group plans to visit during their college days. This was one trip we just had to make. After hundreds of hours spent on planning the trip, many last minute changes and one person pulling out we finally managed to make the trip with a bunch of our European friends joining us there for what would be the most memorable trip of my life. I as a writer am incapable of putting in words the sheer fun we had on this trip so most of you would not realise how beautiful some of the moments were. Day 1 I arrived before everyone else travelling from Mumbai. Riding 30 km on a scooter solo from Madgaon to Calungute was a sign o...

Someone who recently read my blog made a remark - "2011 was a good year for you (your blog)". There is a lot in common between the year 2015 and 2011 for me. 2011 was the last year of my engineering and this is the last year of my MBA. These two have also been the most significant and undoubtedly the best periods of my life. Aptly then, the expression of solitude (blog ID) and a vent in the delirium (blog name) happens when these good things come to an end. Ending is painful, specially when the last bits have been the best so far. The worst part is, that you can't do anything about it. It is like a slow death when you see yourself dying in front of your eyes. You know that you are a student for the last time, like the very last time, ever in your life. You can live another 60-70 years and still probably these will be the last times you had so much fun with so little resources and so many friends. The world outside is scary. It is judgmental. It expects from you. It...

We have come a long way from the days when computers existed only in labs isolated from the outside world. Today we are talking about internet of things and ubiquitous computing with computers all around us from refrigerators to cars. One company which has been a part of our world throughout this fast paced transformation of technology has been Microsoft . It made computing simple. Computers existed for a long time but it became a part of our lives only with Windows. Technology without accessibility is of no use and Microsoft’s greatest contribution to this society has been making computing accessible to all. My first interaction with a computer was in school. I vividly remember going to “Computer Lab” with our shoes off in long queues. It was the only place with an air conditioner on campus. The computer-lab day on the timetable was the most awaited day for the students. It was also our first introduction to Microsoft. We learned that the system in itself is just a...

The human mind is hungry for reason - a reason for every failure. The lust for reason demands justification for everything that happens to them. But so many times things happens because someone was at a wrong place, at a wrong time or with a wrong person. There isn't a reason to explain why every time it's you who has to slog to achieve small things in life while your friends have had it so easy in their lives. Why is it that you had to support your family while others were enjoying their lives? Why is it that in the same world some don't have enough to afford a meal a day while others are spending lakhs to fight obesity? Why is it that for some sex is the ultimate pleasure while for others it's their only means to support family? The irony is that the world is after establishing a just and fair society in an inherently unfair natural environment. There is no parameter to decide what fair actually is. Is death sentence a fair deal for Nirbhaya's rapists? I...

Social media and its inhabitants, the "netizens", are a prominent force in today's world. They have exerted their influence in reviving a few dying careers, making super hits and igniting revolutions. The power that the online medium possesses is immense and the biggest reason is its openness. Netizens are not bounded by territory, nationality or any such biases of the physical world. This gives social media the power to distribute information to millions of people across the world at a rate which is unimaginable by any other medium. These potentials of social media, however, have seldom been utilized for social reforms. Majority of social media reforms have been for political change or pure entertainment. Social media's first prominent use in political reform was probably in 2009-10 Iranian election protests when after the controversial election of Ahmedinejad and subsequent ban on media meant that all news that came from the country was through the social medi...