whimsicalsunflower

Do you also take pictures of the sky when it’s painted in pretty colors? My photo gallery is full of such pictures. I can’t get enough when the sky is a mood . A vibrant one, one that I love, one that makes me feel warm and fuzzy, courtesy—the sun. My grandpa said that you should look at the rising and the setting sun. I get it now. Life has become such that I’ve somehow become a part of the daily hustle-bustle. Wake up, freshen up, take a shower, do not forget to breathe in the fresh morning air, and strut out of my house with my backpack. As I’m rushing to the train station, I see the sky is a beautiful shade of orange, and the artist is on the canvas itself—glowing, looking at me. I look back and think to myself that life isn’t that bad after all. The morning rush begins a little past 8 am, so I board the train earlier. As we are all moving to the beats of the train compartment, I see many faces. Some are snoozy, some are asleep, some are lost in their thoughts, some are already clo...

"It goes to show that everything you want in life you get. And you can't work for it. It just comes to you." - Michael Scott. Serendipity. That’s what the show ‘The Office’ is for me. My friend recommended this show to me and I reluctantly agreed to watch it. I'm so glad that I'm one of those who took the leap and didn’t jump off the ship post the first season. Generally, the first seasons of shows lay the ground for the series and plant characters as seeds. Whereas, in The Office, I found myself questioning the ground and the seeds seemed like they weren’t seeds. But, what kept me sailing through it is the sheer randomness of it all. Isn’t that how life is? Isn’t that how we are? I think most autobiographies can be named ‘Psycho Lives Inside’. We’re all weird in our own ways, making our way through this weird world while trying to fit ourselves in a weird little box called ‘normal’. The Office flips this notion on its head and celebrates this weirdness. Literally...

I’m sitting at my desk trying to make sense of everything. Am I ever going to get the right job? Am I a decent artist or do I have imposter syndrome? Where is my soulmate? Is life always going to be like this? Well, welcome to my Monday. I often hear people say ‘Monday Blues’ and wonder why blue? Blue is my favourite colour and it brings me joy which Monday doesn’t. It’s the start of a new week. A new week. While I’ve hardly processed the last one. It’s interesting how we associate moods with the days of the week even before we experience them. Mondays are for defrosting from the weekend, Tuesdays are for shredding off that slumber, Wednesdays are for midweek blues(the colour again), Thursdays are spent waiting for Fridays and finally, Fridays are spent trying to close as many things as possible in the first half and mentally logging out in the second. Mondays are particularly difficult for my now freelancing bum. I don’t know what to do in the morning, while someone somewhere is r...

We have all been to the movies in our lives, haven't we? Where the lights went off and we found ourselves in a world that is different from the one we know. And as we stepped out, something felt different. What is it? The same goes for when we finish reading a book. What changes? Fiction has the beautiful power to pull us out of our heads and take us somewhere new, somewhere unthinkable. It makes us step out of our realities and let ourselves go in someone else's story. And in the process, we end up empathising with someone we barely know and probably doesn't even exist. Isn't it a beautiful coincidence that 'Fiction' and 'Empathy' are both seven-lettered words? I have grown up watching and reading Harry Potter and it has changed me as a person. It taught me values and lessons which I wouldn't have learnt otherwise. Makes me wonder if my mother hid my acceptance letter. The author takes us through the life of a young boy named Harry, who stumbles int...

We all have moments in our lives we regret, don't we? Times when we've been wronged and times when we have wronged someone. And somehow, these memories pop when we least expect them. When I think about these moments, I just feel like calling it a day and curling up in my bed. I feel regret is associated with not being able to let go of something. It stems from our past and the past is supposed to be where it is.. in the past . Sure, some things could have been said or done differently and they probably would have yielded us different results. But here I'd like to paraphrase Murphy's law; What's meant to happen, happens.  The universe works in mysterious ways and we are not in control. Do take this with a grain of salt. I'm not saying we shouldn't have regrets. Having regret only makes us more human, it grounds us. If we can right the wrong then we must but if it's out of our control then we must learn to slowly let it go. As we know, life isn't that ...

We all keep hopping from one plan to another, from one thought to another, from one experience to another. And amidst all this hustle bustle there are a few things that make us stop and smile. They keep us going when life weighs heavy on us. They're our safe place. So I thought why not share some of my delights, my happy things, since the list cannot be generalised. Side note: I almost went on the tangent to intellectualise it; "happiness shouldn't be pursued" and all that jazz. But isn't it something to be felt and not thought?  Well, on with the list then. Here goes:  Movies and Shows Taking me away from reality and letting me fly with my imagination? Hell yeah! I'm in for that journey. That's exactly what movies, tv shows and web series do to me. They not only in some way help me peep into the world out there but also sets me free to explore something unthinkable or inexperienced. I often find myself quoting from pieces I've watched and I'll be ...

 "One can speak poetry, just by arranging colours well." - Vincent Van Gogh Sometimes life gets overwhelming, doesn't it? There is so much to feel, so much to unlearn and just so much to deal with and before you know it, a year has gone by.  They say express yourself. But how? Sometimes words don't seem enough and at times like these, I turn to my childhood companion- Colours . I remember jumping around whenever my parents got me new colouring books. This love for colouring then slowly poured in drawing. I would always find myself scribbling something on the last pages of my school diary or making doodles around my name on book labels. Heaps of drawing books; pages and pages filled with my sometimes unexplainable, sometimes wishful whims. No technique, no strategy, just "vibes"; as what some people describe my illustrations today. Even though I digressed further away from my canvas and colours as academics took domination, we met each other again, like old f...

I left my job, had a heartbreak, lost a few friends and messed up my painting. And the cherry on top of this 'ugh' cake is the pandemic. Although, I must say that the lockdown has given me plenty of time to think things over... to start over.  I've always found myself on the lookout for new things (the evil need for constant stimulation). I don't jump from one thing to another, I accumulate things and then one day hell breaks loose or as my therapist calls it- burnout. And now it seems like nature has intervened and asked me to stop and this time not to accumulate things but to sort them. As I sat with my thoughts, I got scared. Why? Cause the answer to all my questions was 'I don't know.' What's my next job gonna be? I don't know. Will I ever find love again? I don't know. You get the drill. Philosophers call this thought liberating but you know what, I don't know. So one day, I decided to confront this 'I don't know', not with a...

Hey. I hope you're doing well. Just thought I'd stop by and say hello and also, share my thoughts on the 'situation' we're in.  First things first, let's rid ourselves of any judgement. It's a fairly new situation and we're all trying to figure it out so.. no judgements. Let's just be nice to ourselves (already!) So I've been up to a lot of little little things. Having no job and quarantined gives you a lot of time. Yeah, I left my job and just before I thought of running into another one, the universe had different plans. After consulting with my therapist, I've decided to slow down and do things I like/love, irrespective of the results or seeing them as potential 'skills' for my resume (screw you capitalism!) I thought of just vibing with myself so I walked down the memory lane and made my first stop at drawing. Oh! My first true love. 'In the brush doing what it's doing, it will stumble on what one couldn't do by ones...

Its been a long day. What I did? Nothing. Spent my time pondering over things I neglected in the past- me. Somebody asked me to describe myself. Well, I don't really have an answer to that. However, I do have some glimpses of myself; some I like, some I just accept. I'm a fallible human being and it took me oh-so-many years to accept that. See? That was a glimpse. So yeah, going about living my life, not drawing a personality for myself, makes me wonder if I'm being zen here or just safe, hiding in the shadows of my thoughts. People have come and gone from my life and so have their opinions about me. I just went with the flow. Became those opinions when I was around them. So it left me confused when they drifted and made me crave for answers. Side note- 'drifted away' feels like we're still trying to hold onto to the person while 'left' feels so devoid of hope. Anyway, coming back, so I decided to just stop. Put that annoying sound of opinions in my m...

A glass of whiskey and a bowl of chips, I was meandering in my solitude. A bottle of beer, you were having a good laugh with your friends. I gazed a moment longer than I should have and you caught that. I let out a sigh and looked away, still feeling your gaze. So I looked up again and I couldn't see anything but those eyes. You walked up to me and greeted me with a 'hello.' Munching on a chip, I replied, "hey". You struggled to find words and what an adorable sight it was! "Dance?" I blurted. "Um, yea, sure," you replied. A level of comfort ensued as we started to tap our feet and sway. It was your favorite song, you told me as we danced. Not too close, not too far. Catching each other's glances midway. My grin knew no bounds. "Karaoke begins now," they announced in the club and you pulled me up on the stage. Something I would never do on my own. We sang our hearts and throats out. I giggled, y...

According to Google, a meme is an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with slight variations. I wake up in the morning and conduct my routine check up. I check Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Snapchat. I go back to my normal chores for 5 minutes and then I'm back to my tea party of the above mentioned. The tea party is all about going through memes on Facebook and having a good laugh. Apparently, that has become my idea of having a good time. The idea is my life. Memes are innocent. They are beautiful. They are funny. They save me from social interactions. I don't need humans to entertain me. Humans are overrated. I've got my brain and pictures for life sustainability. We live only once, why not die with a good laugh? But seriously though, when and where did these memes come from? Heaven.

Facebook updated. Whatsapp updated. Instagram updated. Wait, what? Why is Instagram like Snapchat and Facebook, Whatsapp like Snapchat and Facebook with the Whatsapp emoticons? Results of a failed proposition with an application? C'mon, Mark. My life seems less complicated than these cocktails of applications. All I want to do is connect with my friends and family whom I cannot practically meet on a daily basis. Honestly, I don't even have much of a social life and the one's who really have, have no time to sit and upload pictures and statuses on all the applications under one banner. For the ones like me, enough with the societal pressure where I have to make sure that no pictures are repeated on the applications. Already my social life is as good as the opposite of it and now this. Asking to uninstall? Well, too late. I've already caught the bate. 

As I go through my news feed on Facebook, I land up on this article talking about a movie called Lipstick Under My Burkha. I immediately tap on my screen to know more about the movie. So the story revolves around 4 women- a college girl, a young beautician, a mother and a 55 year old widow who explore their sexuality in the movie. The movie is backed by the cast Ratna Pathak Shah, Konkana Sen Sharma, Ahana Kumra, Plabita Borthakur, Sushant Singh, Vikrant Massey, Shashank Arora, Vaibhav Tatwadi, Jagat Singh Solanki. I didn't need more motivation to go to the cinema hall to watch this movie. Although my motivation bubble was popped by the Censor Board of India who has, apparently, banned the movie in our country. The film was screened at the Mumbai Film Festival and also Tokyo Film Festival, from 25th October to 3rd November, 2016. The film is slated to mark the opening of the 17th edition of the New York Film Festival 2017 which is the oldest Indian film festival in the US. Al...

Heads up, this is a little of a film review and a little bit of social commentary. Also, I still haven't seen the movie. Let's begin. So I woke up on a Saturday morning to read something as bizarre as it gets. A movie review of the movie Badrinath ki dulhaniya. What's the bizarre part you ask? Well in today's day and age, with the progressing world and times and with a cast like Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan, who are considered as the youth icons, what was that movie? A joke? So, the movie review mentioned of this particular scene from the movie which showed Varun getting molested in a foreign land. And to back that scene, a comic sound plays as the scene unfolds. Um, what was the joke? A man getting molested? Well, now we know who the joke's on. For starters, a highly sensitive topic like molestation is misjudged. Secondly, the casualness around the topic is alarming and third, would it still be a comic scene if Alia's character Vaidehi was molested? Talki...

To start with I'm a huge fan of normal physical books. I still go to a library, rent and purchase books. Yes, I'm emotionally inclined to them to the level where I smell a book before reading. Well, normal books are the books we find in book stores or libraries; like novels, comics, Science  Fiction , satire, drama, Action and Adventure, Romance, mystery, horror, self help, guide, travel, children's, religious, science, history, math, anthologies, poetry, encyclopedia, dictionaries, comics, art, cookbooks, diaries, prayer books, series, trilogies, biographies, autobiographies, and fantasy. As the world progresses, so does technology and one such product of this progress are e-Books. They are the compressed version of normal books, supported by technology, that are more portable than normal books. As per the definition, it is a book publication made available in digital form. The central idea was to provide maximum convenience to the readers around the world. e-Books use d...

Web series are episodic installments of scripted or non-scripted videos uploaded on the internet. It is a part of the web television. They can viewed on laptop, desktop, mobile phones, etc. Initially, I was exposed to a few of Indian web series; namely- Permanent Roommates, Pitchers, Humorously Yours, Tripling, etc. Talking about web series we cannot miss out on Netflix. It originally started as a DVD rental services provided by mail. Then it expanded into online streaming. Its services operated in over 190 countries in January, 2016. Netflix debuted its first series- House of Cards in the year 2013. Then it expanded in production of films as well as TV series under the banner "Netflix Originals". So far Netflix has over 93 million subscribers worldwide. It is an online platform to get access of various TV shows, movies, web series, etc. What caught my attention about these web series is, primarily, their content. It is refreshing to watch and suprisingly, very relatable....

With the post title like that I'm sure you know what I'm trying to talk about. The other day, I desperately wanted to listen and watch my favorite song, I landed on Youtube. I type the name of the song in the search text box and one click on the link and I'm eagerly waiting for the song to play. The moment is here.. 'Salon nahi! Livon!' for the next 20 seconds. What? Where is my song? Why this ad? Will it make me buy Livon? No! Maybe the ad would have worked(for me) if it was at the end of the video.(just a suggestion) I'm curious about how the discussion about the idea, of dropping ads before the video, would have taken place. Of course, YouTube is one of the huge media platforms to help promote, advertise brands. Although the placement of the ad needs to be worked on. An advertisement would have worked better if I was a happy consumer of my favorite song which would have set me in a positive and accepting mood for an advertisement. The advertisements ar...

Weekends are one of the most hyped part of our lives cause- holiday. Some people prefer staying indoors whereas some prefer exploring outdoors. Weekend pops and so does a plan. Pizza, cola and movie. Giving my plan a deeper thought that it has been ages since I hit the cinema hall to watch a movie. Reason you ask? Let's try figuring out. Ever since childhood, I was a huge Bollywood movies fan and I still am. Saturday meant going out for a movie with parents or friends. If we missed a movie at the cinema hall then we had to wait for months for the movie to arrive on television. But now I give the cinema hall a pass, download the movie instead and watch it at home. It is economic and time saving to watch movies at home but does that mean that the internet is eating up the market space of cinema halls? Of course, people still go to watch movies at cinema halls but the 'download' culture seems to be on a rise. Makes me wonder what the future is gonna look like for us and cin...

Standing out does not mean that someone is better than someone else. It means that someone is a better person today than what they were yesterday. The journey is to evolve and not put someone else down. We are all on the same ground, in the same soil. It’s all about how we make the most of our time, here. If you have ideas, work on them. If you have dreams, fulfill them. If you have opinions, place them. If you have doubts, ask. If you feel stuck, change the road. If you feel lost, search. If you feel sad, cry it out. If you feel happy, share it the world. The world needs no competition. The competition was made with the aim of happiness. Happiness was never in the destination. It’s in the journey. A journey you have to travel; by yourself, for yourself and with yourself. You’re the path maker, here. Believe it. Go ahead! Take every opportunity to make your journey memorable. Have no regrets.  You owe it to someone special...