The Big 3 Zero

Everyone adores  hero - a strong protagonist; be it in the movies or more in the world of sports or life in general, we all want someone better than us that we can identify with and look up to. However, the closer you get to reality, the definition of a hero starts to take a varied shape.  The difference between these heroes and the fictional story of what we've imagined them to be is just that - the fictional heroes could be damn near perfect, and most of the time, they are the winners. Cut to real-life, and this poses an interesting contradiction about the heroes we adore and admire - the world glorifies their success, maybe even makes a story out of their struggles. Still, no one except for a select few close to them knows what their struggle truthfully is. Unlike some of the fictional heroes, these are real people at the pinnacle of achievement due to their expertise and divine intervention, but they have some of the same follies and misgivings as  mere mortals. ...

As a manner of expression, writing is uniquely cathartic; the only thing that would come next to it is playing a musical instrument.  In these times where FOMO prevails and expression is wasted through terse social media posts, the kind of writing I miss is one that served as a refuge for the recluse. The kind where you freely express yourself without caring about popular opinion, or even the opinion of the ones that care. Just like playing the guitar, it'll take some rounds of strumming, some learning of the chords, and some frustration - but when the notes come together and you strum and hum along, magic will be made. Thank you, Dr. NO - for being the one who inspired and re-ignited the spark! 

We live in interesting times. With the world available at our fingertips, we would've thought life would be easy.  Instead, the deluge of information makes it such that we're more and more afraid of missing out - on things we didn't know even existed yesterday, and most of which won't matter tomorrow. This may sound funny (or coming of age) for a technophile millennial, but the pandemic has made me more and more aware of the dichotomy of being "connected" while being "isolated". To quote Elon Musk on a Joe Rogan interview, we've essentially become cyborgs with our phone being our extended self. Where do we go from here?  To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, we've built our tools; have they begun building us already?  Have we mastered who we are, before we rush towards who we could be?  Should we linger in the present, just being,  or push onwards with gusto to invent the future? Do we make strides outwards, or dig deep and look inwards?  Does it a...

I may be a million miles from "home", but seeing the national anthem play and the Indian Flag hoisted in Tokyo brought tears to my eyes. Neeraj Chopra - Olympic Gold - Men's Javelin Throw - Tokyo 2020/21 I was reminded of the couplet by Dr. Andaleeb Shadani देर लगी आने में  तुमको  शुक्र है फिर भी आए तो  आस ने दिल का साथ न छोड़ा , वैसे हम घबराए तो  What a gift to an entire nation! So proud and grateful!  As a child of the nineties with a deep love for sports, I've learned to follow the Olympics with an iota of hope and a reserve of reckless optimism for days like these. I wish and pray that this gold, coupled with brilliant medal performances and almost victories in categories like golf inspire a generation of kids to become athletes.  Even if they don't all become medal winners, I am hopeful that their temperament, shaped through sports, will pave the way for a "New India". Onwards! Jai Hind! 

Imagine a stretch of road not too far from home.  Hilly, and a little winding. Empty, but just enough to not seem barren.   Narrow, but wide enough to let a car pass you by.  An old tree blocking the road, as if it stood its ground while the road was built around it. Picture yourself riding your motorcycle in all your millennial glory.  Throwing caution to the wind, almost literally. You feel the breeze as it brushes against your bare cheeks, drying away some tears that rolled off. Maybe this is what joy feels like - an almost synchronous alignment between moments, with no thoughts in between. You smile at these fleeting moments as you zip through the road, changing gears and steering through the uneven contour.   You reach the temple at the top of the hill, the flag on the temple's mast fluttering in full glory.  Disembarking, you say a silent prayer for moments like these - where your past doesn't matter...

Nostalgia used to be an expensive emotion, but it doesn't seem that way anymore. Not only have smartphones become cheaper, but the photos, memories, and notes that get stored in our iCloud, Google Photos (or Picasso if you were old fashioned like me), and Dropbox have collectively brought down the price we put on memories as a generation. Long before smartphones and cameras were ubiquitous, photographs were reserved for special occasions and stored in well-designed photo albums. These albums would occupy a special place in our homes - typically in a loft ( maaliyu being the colloquial word) , where everything else was stored. This is where they stayed unless there was a special life event, and more often than not, it wasn't a happy event. It may be a child moving away from home for college or work, or a family member passing away. There was value - intrinsic and extrinsic in these memories that we sought. Nostalgia made us feel like the past was better than we remembered...