ThoughtProvoking

When is it really hard to say bye to something? I guess when you cherish the time spent at that place or with that person or on that idea! Only miss the sun when it starts to snow Letting things go has become as fundamental a skill as adopting something new in this world, with the constant landscape shifts we have. In any relationship, what often ends up happening is the person who is pulling their end of the string apart has newer green pastures to explore and everything glittering with fresh experiences. However, the person who is still static holding the other end of the string has to deal with the void left behind. It takes a lot of time to water the seeds of relationship, either with a person, place, or idea, and once the roots of it strengthen, the goodbye in it becomes much harder. There might be disproportionate investment in the relationship: you might have poured yourself much more in terms of connecting to a place, familiarizing yourself with the surroundings, and the place ...

"Who are you?" asked the elderly man. How does your world feel when everything around is alien? There is no grounding left for any element belonging to this environment you are in. The question sent a shiver down his son's spine. He was bewildered to experience what it's like when someone you've known your entire life fails to even recognize you.  "I am your son, Dad. Do you remember my name?" said a broken Ram. He had slowly built the courage that this day would come; however, nothing can prepare you for a simple question that snaps the reality of years of memories built together. "Ohhh, I am trying hard to but ... it's ... all hazy." his father responded with a heavy heart. Do you start feeling guilty when everyone else in the world establishes a connection with you, but you seem to have them all untethered in your head? Does it become a simulation of life than living life itself, when something as trivial as recognition of the elements b...

A title famous for all the right reasons, but something I feel being increasingly influential in my personal life as well.  I was waiting at the signal today and saw someone cross one end of the road, waiting for the other end to turn red. The first thing they did while waiting was pull out their phone to doomscroll. Can we not go a few seconds without tuning into the digital world to focus on crossing a busy road? There are a thousand different distractions to capture our limited attention, making it harder by the day to focus on a single task for a prolonged period of time. Funnily, as we focus on increasing the length horizon of tasks being carried out by LLMs, there is an inverse decrease in the amount of time we can focus on a singular task ourselves. Claude ruminates more than humans do now, and while it ruminates on the task the human gave it to do, the human themself switch between three different windows to glean more random information. With AI slop flooding everywhere, I...

Growing older (oops already a quarter century?), I have started to realize that out of all the resources we get to play with in this game of life, time seems to be the most finite quantity we have. Spending this resource on people seems to be getting harder by the day! Are times spent with people only meant to be remembered and not meant to be relived?  There is an apparent growth of connectedness that is bringing in the feeling and expectation of being in touch constantly. As a result, are we pretending to be connected with everyone through these means but actually getting more distanced? What if we could spend less time texting our thoughts, and put in more effort to meet them in person to spend quality time? In this world, the word "BUSY" has become too busily used. Humans nowadays are accustomed to being so engrossed in living out their time that they forget to live in it. We have somehow reached a stage in a virtual world where virtual happiness is given more priority. I...

Staring at a baby, it seems that it represents the infinite value of life. Their lives are not bound and valued by external factors like wealth, appearance, or power. This value innate from the first breath in each of us does not diminish, but somewhere down the line, we forget about it?  We are still as alive and human as the first day, yet we have lost that childhood within us!  This childhood loved and cherished playing in the rain. It smiled at everything and had the power of erasing any gloom. It was filled with energy to question everything and never bogged down by the pressure of it being a stupid question. Who decides what's stupid? This childhood we possessed never cared what anyone thought about its actions. Nowadays, we all are in a rush to fill our empty pockets with happiness yet we want to do it based on the rules set by society. If you do 'X' you will be happy, if you do 'Y' you will be happy. Where is that child within us who found happiness in the s...

The walls of room B418 called out to me, "Didn't you just arrive to leave so soon?" The question seemed to resonate with me, but unfortunately, we both knew the answer to it. I took one last look at the room and wing, which had become a second home for months, and walked away!  As I walked past Nandini, the jeera majege in the fridge conversed with me, "Will you remember to have me after lunch now?" This question brought forth more emotions in my stomach than in my mind, saying, "I will miss your soothing effect." Glancing over Nescafe in my stride, I heard someone shout, "Sudhir anna one double Maggi." Hearing this line brought a smile to my face. It asked me, "Haven't I been the best escape to mess food?" I replied saying, "Anna one Maggi and hot chocolate." Sprinkling the masala on the Maggi just felt blissful for some reason! The next stop on the way was the Sports Complex! It called out, "Did I not teach you ...

 You are not going to get a definitive answer here instead more questions I am still trying to find answers for! I believe that a word called "luck" to describe the events around us is justifiable.  Ask yourself: " How have I reached where I am currently? ". More often than not your mind will tell you that you reached here solely because of your hard work and persistent efforts put in.  Ask yourself: " Has luck helped you reach your current position? ". Your mind will smirk and dismiss that such a thing exists as it has not encountered proof of its existence. Well, the brain can draw the causality of an event only to its perceived reasonings but does that mean that the other factors do not exist? I am not conveying that your hard work and decision-making skills have not played a part instead asking you to consider the seasoning of luck it had for the enhanced flavor.  Ask yourself: " Did you take birth in a certain family due to your merit? ". Yo...

This is a tribute to the people who gave up their lives at the Jallianwala Bagh massacre on the 101st anniversary. I visited the Jallianwala Bagh once in my dreams. I saw the walls ridden with bullet marks. On passing one of the marks, I heard a voice call out to me from the wall in the silence. It rattled me. It was an old mother who asked me, "How is my son?" "Is he living a happy life out there?". She continued, "He would be married now and would have kids as big as you. If you have any information about him, please tell me". Her franticness and unconditional love felt as if it was my mother asking, and I replied, "Yes, he is doing well." On walking further, I saw another bullet-ridden wall and heard another voice whispering to me. He inquired, " Does mother still asks people how I am? Don't tell her that I am also here. " He further questioned, "I hope she still asks the question with the same fervor? I don't ...

What is the most valuable thing on this planet? Is it the most expensive jewelry set or the most expensive property currently owned by Mukesh Ambani? Well, the answer is none of these, in my view, xP! Let's begin with a story: Once there was a relatively poor poet who was invited to the wedding of the daughter of the richest man in town. He wore rather simple clothes compared to the gaudy ones worn by the other dignitaries. Due to his simple attire, he was shunned and not welcomed by anybody, so he went out and bought a pair of expensive clothes and adorned them. Upon entering the hotel now, he was greeted by the host with great enthusiasm and praised in front of everyone for his poetry. When he seated for dinner, he started feeding the food to his clothes which took everyone by surprise. The host perplexed questioned his antics to which the poet replied that his clothes deserved to eat the food as it was only due to them he had been welcomed. On hearing this, the host re...

Words are as mighty as a sword that is so easy to generate but holds eternal power in them. These words can pierce a person's heart or, on the other hand, can boost them in the toughest of situations! We should always contemplate the usage of them solely due to the effect they can have on the people they convey a message to. Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind    --Rudyard Kipling   The issue, however, lies in humans that they often use them without giving it a second thought. These at the moment, uttered words go on to sting the individual at the receiving end for quite some time. Give it a thought if cracks occur in relation solely due to something which was entirely in our control called words, it is quite painful. Often disgust for someone comes out in the form of words and causes such a wide gap that people take to their grave. What is the point of staying adrift in this one life God grants you if you know that individual has done...

It is a small word but has so much influence in each one's life. It can only be experienced from within and directs our actions. Nowadays, we can stream our movies, book our tickets using our phone instantly; however, our emotions do not work that way. They follow the same principle of a plant: constant care is required each day for survival. There are no shortcuts. The continuous nurturing results in stability, or else the endless peaks and troughs only result in an emotional breakdown. Often these feelings generated within can create a storm, and we do not know how to subdue this storm. We can portray to the world that we are fine; however, these feelings slowly eat into our essence of life if they are not appropriately shared. When some opinions cannot be shared with anyone, it begins to feel claustrophobic where you are encaged in your little space. Keeping your feelings to you unless absolutely quintessential is like keeping birds that like to fly high in the sky in a cage...

Close your eyes and envision the things you are grateful for in life. If the output of this was finite and materialistic, then we have internal issues to be resolved. Don't we often tend to not respect things which we have, taking it for granted in our daily life? A small thing as saying thank you and sorry might be too cliche for some but holds significant value in the opinion of others. An action of remembering your parents and talking to them is as quintessential as doing any other activity of the day. However, our attitude results in the thought that they will be okay, what's the need to talk, we've got more important work to do! The Priority List which we create has a biased priority order. Giving it a look from another angle, and one can realize the true priority number to be associated with the elements much lower in the list. If I love you, I show you I love you every day. Little things, big things. Another example can be sought in the gift of visi...

It's my belief that we all live a life within boundaries not daring to take a step out of it. It's because of this subdued style that we often miss out on many unexplored arenas. We tend to follow things passed down generation after generation without questioning them. Anyone who tries to go beyond these leashes created by us itself is the one who is considered abstract. "Has anyone ever questioned why we all use a QWERTY keyboard and not a keyboard in alphabetical order?  Has anyone ever thought why the clock hands go in the direction specified and not the other way?" Every human being is unique, possessing their own abilities and skills, however the society always imposes on us a collective way of behaving. The problem arises when we try to be the same as everyone else. It creates paranoia as we are created to be different just like every leaf in the world. Why do we fear to go against norms to try things we never have? The collective way of behavior ha...

Parents and Children: The first person one meets when they are born is their mother, the person who bore the pain to bring you into this world. The second person one sees is their father who is their mother's constant source of strength. As one grows up these two pillars of the child's life nourish and mould the child. Having seen this tree grow from being a mere seed they impart it all the lessons they've themselves learnt. However this period is where the child is still learning to fly and hence they are pinned to their parents. The transformation happens when this creature takes flight leaving it's nest that it results in emotional detachment quite often as compared to older times. The foundation which had been built so strongly begins facing mild tremors. Parents, having seen this individual since birth begin missing his presence and it results in a void creation in their life. They do learn the trick of moving on in life however always have  a constant ye...