Graphic Musings

I'm stuck in telling myself what I'm feeling. I draw dotted lines and lined dots letting the unacknowledged emotions flow through.. What am I feeling?

Holidays with Harry- Beyond the role

 "I got the role I want. I'm happy with it." I shared with harry about my shift in the role. "I get to work with a lot of teams and understand a lot of new processes."

Listening to my thoughts, Harry advised nodding his head to my words, "That's good. Now, you can work on your role. And this is where you can think of going beyond your role. Think where you can contribute a lot. Look at the areas where you can put more efforts and bring meaningful change in the work," 

"Yes. Rather than sticking to what I ought to do. I can make my work more effective by going beyond the role. Thanks Harry."

Day 5 of 15- Lockdown Days

Azhar had prepared for Iftaar. Lassi of two glasses. His favourite chana and a few fruits. 

It has become a routine of having Iftaar thanks to Azhar. We spend the whole day waiting for each other to finish the calls. I'm free when he has a call. He's free when I got a call. Both of us pick up a book waiting for the other's call to get finished. 

In this way, we spent whole day. Today I reflected on how different was lockdown at previous year. Will it gonna be the same? Azhar asked. 

I don't see any difference. From now on, there's gonna be more pain, death and destruction as the world is trying to balance out the imbalances. 

I'm worried of how our future is turning out to be.

Thought of the day- Change is the constant

 Last year, Dyu and I were staying together passing the time in our own ways during lockdown. I used to paint, write, read, sketch and do alot. Dyu used to read, talk to friends and cook. 

Both of us took long walks at evenings watching the mountains and the sky in meditative states. Dyu once said, "After a few years, we may move to different places. I doubt if we get this kind of place and views." 

I looked at the mountains and didn't want to leave anywhere. Comes another year, we're in another lockdown. I may have to change the place soon. Dyu left home. Azhar joined me for company. I got new friends in the town who got affected by COVID and are quarantined. There's a lot that has changed in the course of the year. Never I felt that the change would be this soon. 

Day 4 of 15- Lockdown Days

 After a sleep rebound of 12 hours, I felt normal. Azhar had his sehri at early morning. Both of us began our day and went out for groceries. This time the lockdown is different. During day, it looks normal. Everyone are roaming around. Except essential services, everything is closed but, still there's a lot of crowd and commutation. We went to the nearby supermarket. We were told to wait outside till other customers get out of the supermarket. Too little to called super market. For Sirohi level, it's the biggest super market. We got all we need. We went on to get a few vegetables and diary stuff. We spent an hour outside. 

During afternoon, I caught up with work and read a bit. At evening, we got into full rigor for Iftaar. We made a lot of dishes and had a heavy iftaar. 

While Azhar was offerning prayers, I took a walk on my terrace. Grateful to spend quiet evenings in this town of Sirohi. As soon as Azhar joined me. Over the conversations, we spent another hour, discussing the timeline of our lives from the year of 2019 to 2021. 

A few calls were made and I'm all up for writing a few letters to friends. Day well spent. 

Soliloquies- Professionalism

 I had a few books in my home. Mostly related to business and management. After I got interested in writing, I bought books of different genres. Now, we have a lot of books at home. I encourage my dad to try reading a book rather than get glued to the phone. Today, in the conversations, he mentioned, "I'm taking a book along with me to office." He explained,  "I open the book to read but, my conscious mind doesn't allow me to read in the office as I can do a lot of office work rather than relax." 

I'm glad he picked up the book to read and also inspired by his professionalism. He wants to do office work in the office but not anything else. 

Movie- JathiRatnalu

Day 1 of 15- Lockdown 2021

 Same as the previous year stint. We had a curfew for 2 days and then comes the lockdown at the midnight. This time, there's a space for traveling and essential services. All the private institutions and offices are closed. We woke up to the work mails and got onto the calls to catch up virtually. 

With the series of work calls, I spent most of my time on laptop and phone. Post calls, Azhar and I went for a drive to purchase a few groceries. Looking at the deserted roads, and bazaars, we realized that there's lockdown in real. We couldn't believe we were relooking at the old times. 

We explored the Sirohi King's palace which had three boats. There's no water body at near place. I doubt where this king would take these boats. 

We rewatched the premam movie and listened to music. Caught up with Geetika & Pallavi over call.

Soliloquies- Be yourself

"Are you 26 or 27 years old?." My friend asked.  "Yes. I'm 26." I replied. Here, at this place, do not regard me as 25, 26+. They do not take me serious. That's when I try to have this beard and moustache. My friend laughed at it and said, it's not just about how you appear but, it's about the personality. It's how you talk, how you present yourself. 

Yes. I never thought of it in that way as well. Do people really take me seriously? Do I feel it or is it the other way?

A Musical Journey Through The Years | Hariharan | Talks at Google

God bless you Hariharan. 

Memories- Huddles

Photographs were always of a memory and the memories always had a lot of people in it. I feel abundant to have so many people in my life. Here are few of those memories. 

Stories on Wheels- Window Seat travelling

Sat at the window and looked at the passing various trees growing at various heights. As I crossed the border, I could see more coconut trees. 

 

Stories from Sirohi- The Love Story

Class after class, Pallavi got tired and wanted to break. I'll read out this story, I volunteered and took this book, the Little Mermaid. It's a love story between a mermaid and a human. It's a beautiful story that a few twists and happy ending in the story. As I read the story, I enjoyed the poetic prose and discussed with children. Talking with tweens about love, they were shy to open up. Enjoying the cute love story, I prompted children to guess out and think of what  made little mermaid do what she did. 

At first, we showed only pictures and asked them to guess the story. Later we narrated the story. Asking about their guesses of the story, we asked, "What you thought of mermaid and human?" "Friendship. We thought they were becoming friends."

After friendship, what happened? I asked the students curious to know how they'd come up with their conclusions. 

"Dosthi. Uske baad Shaadi." they replied. It's interesting to see what children think of love at different ages. 

 

Stories from Sirohi- Son or Daughter?

 We were celebrating our 4-year-old friend's birthday in another friend's house. Frequenting my friend's house with gifts, groceries and balloons, the land lords got to know about the birthday party. On the eve of birthday party, I walked out for some groceries. The land lady looked at me and asked, "I thought it's boy's birthday. Is it girl's?" There's more than finding out if it's girl's birthday, I realized. "Yes, it is," I replied. "Dono ladki ee hai?" she retorted showing her two fingers. "Yes, both are daughters only! I replied. 

Curiosity, it may seem but, the underlying thoughts of asking behind son or a daughter, I could hear a lot of questions that weren't spoken. "Are you celebrating this grand for a girl's birthday? Don't they have any son. So pity." And a lot of condescending thoughts, I could hear from the old land lady's questions. 

Boy or girl, how does it matter??

Corporate Lessons- Flame Blame Mails

During my college days, I sent a flame blame mail(I didn’t knew it had a term, flame blame then) to my principal of the college.  She printed out the mail and had it on her table and called me in. “Abhinay, do you know our words have more power than we estimate. We need to use them wisely.”

Hot headed, young and mad, I could never relate to her. “You can relate more when you will get into your first job.”  Envisaged right, I recalled her words, when I saw a couple of mails in my mail box written by a few colleagues. ­

It's not advisable to throw our words in anger as they're gonna stay and sometimes can drag us down in many ways. Then I learnt how I can't afford to use my words in reckless manner. 

Thought of the day- Writing

The art of writing from a memory and experience.

When we are inspired by an event, person and experience, we can write immediately about it. If we postpone, we'd have to rely on our memory of the experience rather than the experience.

The quicker, we reflect, the better we get a lot from the event, experience. Whenever I  postpone reflecting through writing, I tend to lose a lot of details and the way I memorize the experience do not let me to dwell into a deeper reflection. 

 

Gratitude Tales- Fragrances and friendship

Whenever I walk into Geetika's beautiful room, I enjoy the scented candles, sweet aroma and pleasant vibes. Geetika by acknowledging my fondness for fragrances, writings and all the little things, she has got a lot of things(everything was not meant for me :p) from her place. "I know you will like this," Geetika handed me the lemongrass scented candle, "also this," she pointed out to the essence oil and gifted me a lot. 

I like the way Geetika hand out the gifts. Thoughtful and no expectations. She handed out everything with a warmth smile. Thanks Geetika for everything!

Stories on Wheels- The anxious 60 minutes

I reached the airport early to spend some time at the airport at ease and then fly to Ahmedabad from Hyderabad. Listening to Shashaa Tirupati while getting into the flight has become the norm. I got into the carrier and went on enjoying the music, trying to avoid the flat intonated air hostesses' messages. 

Twenty minutes in the flight, we got out on to the runway and got stuck. Anxious, I turned off my headphones and waited for the crew's message. There wasn't any. We weren't moving further either.  The flight was returning to the pit stop. People were undocking the stairs, some cargo carrier was brought and pipe was linked. We sat in the flight for 60 minutes, clueless of what happened.  After an hour delay, we got back on to the runway, flying high safely. Thanks Indigo for reaching us safe.

 

Soliloquies- The Silent Time

 Attending hospital and watching a lot of people sitting in the waiting area, I ponder on what can go in a lot of minds. There's a lot of suffering. When I reflect on my thinking, I realise that it's tough to stay in that mental space. The loved ones are struggling through pain and we gotta wait for our turns for treatment or tests. 

During this waiting time, there's nothing much that can solace us. Not the distracting phone nor the random thoughts. I tried distracting myself with phone but, it's hard to not think of the test and the resuls. Also, I realise this is the time, we can reflect a lot on suffering. There's a lot of suffering around. I began observing the people around. It's saddening to see many of us in pain. It's futile to get distracted in these places. It's better we accept the reality and reflect more on our lives and suffering and deal with it rather than running away from it. 

In that way, the silent time in hospitals are good to heal ourselves and relook at the way we see LIFE.

Raconteuring with Rahila- Places

Dad worked in TamilNadu for 3 years from 2007 to 2009. In 2007, I lived in Gudiyattam(vellore) for a few months. That's how I got to know the places, Katpadi, Guidiyattam, Pernambut, Ambur and a few more places.  After a stint at Nellore and Kadapa, in 2009, we shifted to Chittoor, 30 odd kilometre away from Vellore. Dad commuted daily to Vellore and I studied in Camford English School, Chittoor. 

In 2021, after 12 years, I returned to Vellore, trying to remember the first days of my visit to Vellore. Also, now I know that I have a friend in Vellore, I have special affinity to this place. 

    Visiting coffee shops and the other places, I wished that I run into Rahila and their family, just like how we met on social media after 12 years. Not all my wishes turned true as she had to leave the town for an urgent work. Nevertheless, she suggested me a few good places to check out. 

I visited Hundred's Heritage on Rahila's suggestion and I love this place. It's coincidence that I had my dinner at their regular spot. Imagining my senior visiting all these places, living in this city, I do not consider Vellore as some other random town. I have this connection as I'm connected through people. Thanks Vellore for having me. See you soon next time.