From shadows to the stars

It was like a scene from a Telugu movie song – wherever I looked, I only saw her name. It could not be mere coincidence. I remember a quote from a book I had once read. “When you really want something, the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it.” That was it, the universe was telling me something – it was a sign – there cannot be another explanation. If you are bemused, dear reader, why this blog has taken a flowery turn all of a sudden, do not worry. The above paragraph describes my thought process when I was infatuated with a girl for the first time (at that time, I was convinced it was love). Perhaps, it helped the universe that the girl I was infatuated with had a rather common name and therefore, it was easy for it to point it out to me. I think this is something we all do. If you're thinking about something or someone, we start seeing references to it everywhere. This is called apophenia, the human tendency to find 'meaning' or patterns from random ev...

It was a Tuesday. That should've been a clue. Tuesday's are inauspicious and I should've known better (Mars 'rules' on this day of the week.. and you know how that works out, right?). But I had no choice. My college was starting on the next day and I had to get settled into the hostel. Okay, I'll be honest. It wasn't all bad. But experiencing stuff like an electricity transformer exploding, getting drenched thrice in the rain, sleeping on a bed with no mattress and waking up to find that a cat had given birth in your room – and all this in the space of barely 12 hours – is one hell of a roller coaster ride, don't you think? Oh and did I mention that there was only one cot in my hostel room that was supposed to accommodate two people. One heck of a way to start a new chapter in your life. After I had dumped my stuff off in the room, me and my roommate (who I was acquainted with even before joining University of Hyderabad) wanted to get to the ce...

RO #1 Have you ever thought about the expression 'lost x kg'. When someone says, “I lost five kilograms in the last month”, isn't the expression weird? It sounds like when this particular someone was walking, suddenly a blob weighing 5 kg fell out of their pocket and they did not notice. Or someone broke into their body and stole 5 kg while they were sleeping. The expression “I shed 5 kg in the last month” sounds much more accurate in describing the process that this person has gone through. RO #2 When a food item smells good, does the taste of this item also automatically feel good to the person eating it? I am not trying to say that if we were somehow to make rotting food (or other disgusting items) aromatic, we would delude ourselves into thinking its good. Consider your daily meal. If we were to make this meal smell better than it usually does, would we feel that it is somehow better than it is every other day? RO #3 I know that they say when in love yo...

He who does not learn from history is bound to repeat it. During most of the 20th century, large parts of Europe were under Fascistic or totalitarian governments. Such a large occurrence cannot be construed as a coincidence. What could be the reason behind this simultaneous sweep of dictatorial governments across Europe? The people wanted a 'strong leadership'. Rattled by the war (the First World War), most of these countries were in disarray. The economy was faltering, the morale was low and people were desperate for a 'strong leader' who would lead them from gloom to glory. This strong leadership is of course a politically correct way of saying 'dictator'. This mood of the people was exploited by fascists to seize power and instill their conservative, authoritarian and totalitarian governments. Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Salazar, Stalin and Ataturk all came to power due to the desire of the people to have a strong leadership (of course, their own c...

Did you ever notice that in the advertisements for cleaning agents like Dettol, toothpaste and detergents, they show that one germ or one tiny dust particle has not been cleansed even after using the product? What are the advertisers trying to show here? Has there been a study conducted from which they have learnt that this is the extent to which the viewers would willfully suspend their disbelief? Do they think that because there is still one germ left and one tiny stain hasn't been washed away by this self-proclaimed awesome cleaning agent, we convince ourselves that they aren't trying to bullshit us? If some stupid idiot had the audacity to claim that all the germs would be killed, would people start rioting? "What the hell is this!? All germs are gone? There's no way that's true, is it!?" But if you are clever enough to show that there's still one valiant germ standing even after it has been chemically bombarded, people will think, "Oh, l...

For years, I have been ridiculing the concept of having special days for fathers and mothers. With the arrival of social media as a central figure of our lives, my dislike for such 'celebrations' only grew, thanks to people posting photos of them with their mothers and fathers. It's very ritualistic in nature. All these years, I have been asking myself, "How is it possible for such events exist?". That was the wrong question. The question is, "Why do they exist?". I will relate an incident that might explain this phenomenon. A school in America really wanted parents to pick up their kids after school very punctually. At first, they put social pressure as an incentive for the parents to be on time. Teachers would stare at the parents who weren't on time or other such acts were carried out to make the parents feel uncomfortable and shamed. While parents were more punctual than in other schools, it was not 100% of people picking up their childr...

A few days ago, I had used the phrase "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!", a famous dialogue from the move The Godfather Part 3 in a situation that was perfect for the dialogue to be unleashed. I looked up to my audience, hoping to see them give me a smile that said, "Yeah, I get that reference!" But what I got instead was them looking at me in a perplexed manner. They did not know what the hell I was on about. This post is not about me trying to complain that nobody gets my pop culture references. Its that its a two way street. When most people drop references from Hindi or Telugu pop culture, I don't get them either. While most of my friends and relatives laugh at their pop culture references, I stand there awkwardly, trying to smile and nod as if to convince them I know what the hell they are talking about. At first, I thought that if I had been in USA (hypothetically, cuz I don't think I'm ever going there), then I would...