The Public Diary

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Being unaware

Sometimes we just act on an impulse, not giving enough thought to what it actually entails and its consequences. Many of these instances are related to childhood when we don't possess knowledge to process the real meaning, only to realise it later in life. One such memory that I have is of the house in which I spent my initial months. My parents used to talk about that house saying 'सत्तसोनौसी'. I used to believe that it is a name of a city where they must have resided in. I had even imagined a milestone board that we see on highways marking directions for a particular city. Despite having seen the house from a distance, since we shifted soon after my birth, I could never connect the dots to decipher it actually. It was only in teenage roughly, that I understood what my parents referred to was सत-सौ-नौ-सी 'House no. 709-C' just like numbers are said in Punjabi. Needless to mention the messed up lyrics that only kids have the confidence to sing out aloud. Given the

Of food and meal choices

- 22:12

I'm not really a fan of yellow dal (moong dal). So, whenever it finds place in our pressure cooker, I have to cater to my hunger needs myself. I prepare some alternative that I would be having as a full meal, which was red sauce pasta this time. Whilst others ate their dal and roti, they tasted my pasta too, but dad wasn't even tasting it. Upon my insistence, he took full spatula of pasta and poured it into his bowl full of dal. This shook me to my core. I mean what taste would he have gotten of either pasta or the dal. Leave alone individual tastes of both, I couldn't even think of eating such a mixture. (While searching images, I found Moong dal pasta recipe. Where's the world going?) But I guess this lack of choosiness in meals is a blessing. Imagine how easy life is when you can eat about just anything eatable. Even I myself get tired of my picky nature. I often complain to my family that at least you have the choice to corner me out and eat your pumpkins, chana da

Anatomical wonders

- 20:00

Don't worry. This is not a doctoral post that would go above your our head. Living in this body sometimes makes you wonder about the alternative ways in which this body could have formed, doesn't it? I call them 'Anatomical wonders', which these are not per se. Or am I only one getting these weird thoughts? I hope not. Starting right from the childhood, just like any other kid on the block, I used to be scared of darkness. The transition from sleeping in a room with so-called 'zero watt bulb' lighting as a baby to sleeping in a completely dark room, relying merely on moonlight or may be street lights, instilled a sense of fear. Especially, if everybody else in the room is asleep but you aren't. Add to it the fact that my sibling, with whom I used to share the quilt, had this habit of sleeping with the quilt covering her face all upto her head. It used to make me feel like the ghost would notice me outright. To solve this potential trouble, I too tried to

Hey Google

- 18:01

Somebody tell google to not keep expectations. They hurt. But I guess it's such a bad student. It keeps on notifying, "Expect rain around 8AM" and then be so brutal to my sentiments that all I can see out of the window is bright sunlight. Don't know how Google is dealing with its own life, given these high expectations. Limited knowledge is a blessing in a way. Imagine the kind of scenarios Google would be evaluating, given it is aware of all kinds of diseases - the causes, symptoms and consequences. You don't have to know everything everytime. But this Google is stuck with endless knowledge base that is only growing day by day second by second, I must say. And here we are. Still going into thought clouds and questioning ourselves endlessly in mere happenings of daily lives. For instance, a few weeks back I was afraid if I have kidney stones. I searched for its symptoms, I had one or two of them. I checked our anatomy and placement of kidneys, the pain was rou

Growing forgetfulness

- 20:58

What could it be that made me take up blogging back again? Not some extrinsic motivation, but influx of considerable number of ideas on this topic. It happened to me about a month ago. I was so overloaded with professional work during those days that I feel I've suffered some loss of memory and even time. These days I am so consumed in accomplishing multiple works in a short span of time that my focus is diverted. Not that I've started to forget people, or something, but I used to remember the minute details of tasks that I executed during the day, which is sort of absent now. A few months back, there was a religious ceremony at my workplace. All of us reminded each other about it two days before. On D-day, I was clad in jeans-top - my usual attire - completely oblivious of the date. Then I spotted one of my colleagues, all decked up, wearing fancy suit and other cosmetics. Without any word spoken by her, I couldn't help, but utter, 'Oh it's that day'. I was lac

Technological features worth trying

- 17:14

Unexpected arrival? So is the comeback for me. However, I couldn't keep myself from sharing this amusing offering of the technology, to be specific, of Google. Awakening the writer within me. How many times has it happened to you that you were humming a song, or maybe a tune, but found it hard to completely recognize the song, or were unable to remember the main lines? Google has found a solution to exactly this crisis , if I may say. It asks you to sing or hum whatever part of the song that you remember and then tries to match it to the closest melodies it has in stock. Wanna give it a shot? Just say "Hey Google" to your phone, (Obvious alert: if you haven't enabled Google, enable it first) And say:- Find a song The screen then asks you to sing or hum whilst displaying an equaliser-like thing, trying to find the song (or judging your singing capability as well.) Trust me, it wouldn't work that well if you are a pathetic singer, or it may work also. How do I know?

Ultra-thin

- 15:45

All of the world is entangled in an unending cycle of gaining weight naturally and then trying to shed it, but none can feel odder than me. I mean when I was younger I didn't realise that I was way thin. I considered myself to be an average weighted girl. But I guess, media channels available today - to be specific - Videos, along with people around, have made me acknowledge that I'm so thin that it may be categorised as malnourished. It so happens that whenever someone meets me after a long time, a comment is bound to come that I've become more skinny, even if my weight hasn't dropped a gram. In my growing up years, those comments were not as frequent as they are now. Perhaps because back then we were growing in length, but as grown-ups, we generally tend to gain weight horizontally. As of now, living in this body for more than two decades, I've accepted my body type and know, for sure, that it is more inclined towards shedding kilos than gaining them. Some say we

Passwords and what not

- 08:31

Raise your hand if you are also lost in the complexity of online security? I know this protective bubble has been built out for our safety only, but given the mental pressures of today's age, isn't it only adding to the burden? You must have definitively understood what I'm talking about. A multitude of platforms means a plethora of ' usernames ' also to remember. On some platforms your name is available, somewhere it is already taken. So, you have to come up with something unique name, if you don't have one already. Another rising challenge is in passwords . You don't need just a passing word, it has to contain a minimum number of letters (preferably 8), a special character and a numeric also. One drawback of this situation is that you can fulfil all these requirements at the time of setting a password, but when you log into the account after days or months, it doesn't show the same requirements. So, one normally ends up entering the wrong password, w

Morbidity: Dead end

- 19:08

What is the best time to have critical experiences? None, right? It had been a really hectic month. Professional pressures and unfavourable events really take a toll on your health. About a month ago, I had my first encounter with low blood pressure. That too at the time when I was driving activa back to home. I, suddenly, started to feel like fainting out of nowhere. Concentrating on one object was troublesome. I thought it will go away, instead, it rose with passing kilometres. Then, it dawned that not only am I risking my own life but of the others on the road as well. So, I stopped on the roadside and felt like calling dad to pick me up. To get some relief, I closed my eyes, but it still felt uneasy; removed helmet to get the burden off my brain, literally but not symbolically. Then got my mask down to be able to breathe in more oxygen. Somehow, I got a little bit of control back and within minutes I was able to concentrate again. Source: iStock I'm not sure if it was due to

Troubles of English-learners

- 20:15

Just when we start thinking that we know enough English, one is surprised on coming across such words the pronunciation of which is least expected as against the way it is spelt. Lately, I read the word Silhouette which I've known for years. It means a figure in a darker shade and a light background to show the outline of an object. It's one of those words of which you know the meaning, but you're not quite sure about its pronunciation. Y ou never use it in your writing and it also has tricky spelling. This time I thought of checking its pronunciation and someday perhaps even using it. I always thought it would be pronounced somewhat like ' Silhoot ' but it actually came out as 'Silh-wet'. Other such words with tricky spellings which you have to double-check are: Psychiatrist: Meaning - A doctor specialising in mental disorders. Consisting of a redundant P and a messed up order of I and A (in some distant thought, it may be to reflect messed up state of

Masks: A Saving Grace

- 19:21

Given the knock of another Corona-wave, masks have made an entry back into our lives. For the good or the worse, effective or ineffective, it sure acts as a saving grace in some of the daily-life situations. I couldn't help but enumerate those incidents when I was grateful that I had a mask on. Once I was sitting in the middle of an argument between two people. Since it was in the beginning years, everyone felt vulnerable on getting their masks even a little bit lower. Both of them shared a good bond but were in a superior-subordinate relationship. So, this superior person was conveying his objections on the work of the rest of us. Those objections were outright pointless. But who would bell the cat? However, that immediate subordinate found himself in a position where he could show signs of disappointment on such behaviour of the superior. I saw "C'mon. Now you will point out such petty things," written all over his face. I was smiling ear-to-ear with no need to su

Accounting Diaries

- 13:10

Around these days, 5 years ago, I was inducted into accounting as a professional. So, no matter how much love-hate relationship you share with your professional life, it deserves a toast. Adding one more piece to my collection of poems. You know you're an Accountant, When you log into the professional bank account more often than your personal bank account. When you've signed more official cheques than your own cheque leaves ever in your life. When you get messed up in a multitude of passwords and dig in for a rescuing little secret piece of paper that holds your credentials. When you maintain and keep track of business accounts more religiously than your individual bargains. When your speed on the numeric side of the keyboard is more than the alphabetic side, And calculators are one of your allies. When you end up opening spreadsheets (preferably MS excel) even when you are supposed to write in (MS) words. When you keep reminding yourself of the deadlines for the statutory

From where to buy?

- 21:08

I always try to make effort to acquire items of daily use on my own. But what if you are placed in a completely new place and you don't know the whereabouts of the store outlets offering those products? "E-commerce platforms come to the rescue," you may have responded in your head. No wonder it is a lucrative option, given the ease and convenience. (Supermarket also wins points in this situation.) Earlier I used to think that I'm the only one in this dilemma of finding the apt place for buying stuff. About a month or two ago, I came to know of some fellow companions. (Roughly around the time when I thought of writing a post on this subject and then started noticing other people. You know how our minds start making connections to some event once we know we are attached to such occurrence in one way or another.) Source: wheretobuy.biz So, my sibling needed a drink, particularly used for health benefits. She had seen my father consume it years ago, so she asked him to br

Craze and its absence

- 17:01

When life happens to you, you can't help but only change your ways. Hold your sympathies. I'm not talking about something tragic, but only the natural changes in your enthusiasm over a period of time. You may feel so deeply about a thing, a trend or even a person; give it enough time, you will outgrow it. Married people related to this one at the drop of a hat, didn't they? This craze of these days is unmissable. Earlier, when a daughter took birth, parents instinctively started to save money for her wedding day. Gone are those days. Now, even the parents of sons have to start collecting each penny as sending your son to Canada (or insert the name of any other foreign country) is as much a liability as marrying your daughter off. Pardon me for the unintentional patriarchism if I didn't mention sending daughters to offshores. Then, there are people who are crazy about old songs. They call it the golden era and the only melodious songs to have ever been composed. Somet

Stupidities on Call

- 21:42

I'm not much of a person who would like to be on phone calls for long. In light of my preference, a memoir of some notable on-call incidents is presented to you. Alphabets can be quite phonic over the call. Suppose, you are saying N but the receiver might hear M. A common practice is to give the other person a word starting with that particular letter. There I was trying to keep the error to a minimum. "It is spelt as B-L-O-G. B for Bag, L for Lovely, O for Ox and G for... Uh... G for... Umm." Thankfully, she got that letter anyway. But how could've I let myself sneak out so gently? I made a fool of myself. I ended up speaking out aloud, "G for Grey. Yeah . Yeah. G for grey." Unfortunately, my job is also of such nature that I have to take and make several calls during the day. So, I have devised pet lines to greet everyone and ask how they're, respond back to them and then start the business. Source: Amazon Once it so happened that I was so occupied

Of Trends and Fashion

- 19:43

Disclaimer: This is a (first) girlish post, so you may or may not relate to it. I often find myself on the opposite side of girlish talks. I wonder how I came up with the idea of this post. Some sartorial choices can be difficult to carry in routine life. When I did shopping lately, I had more checkpoints in my mind before finalising the purchase. A s they say, 'Difficulty is the mother of invention.' I guess that is why I'm summing up my experience here in this post. Oh! Wait. Isn't it ' Necessity is the mother of invention '? Anyway, moulding according to the situation is the best alternative. Even if it is in quotes. In this age of fashion and following trends, it can be luring to buy some clothes purely out of the craze. Following these trends blindly can sometimes put you into a sort of mess. So, if you are planning to buy any of the listed attires, make sure to consider associated points. 1. Frilled Sleeve tops Source: Flipkart These tops are in tren

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