The Public Diary

A few days back, there was this video going viral of the PGI mortuary showing the supernatural presence. It wasn’t that scary as such but the timing that my sister showed it to me did the game. Everyone else was sleeping with all the lights off and I needed to go to the loo. Somehow I managed. The video doesn’t scare me at all now. First of all, a declaration that I believe that ghosts do exist and secondly I would (almost) die if I ever come across any of them. As a kid, whenever I heard here-and-there stories of ghosts I would come running down to my mom for the assurance that ghosts don’t exist and my mom would even say so to pacify me. I used to get scared so easily that I needed someone to be at my back to protect me from ghosts. And this is the reason that I didn’t see Raaz (the scariest Bollywood movie back then) and I haven’t seen a single episode of Aap Beeti (the scariest TV show of that time). When the three of us were seeing Conjuring, our screams we...

I planned to write this post at the last year’s end or this year’s beginning but some things needed to be done before I wrote this one. While the last post showed the darker side of my lifecycle, here’s the one which points out several systems  that prevails in this country called India.  ‘What has happened to her? From talking about here-and-there stuff, why has she moved to the darker side now?’  If this is what you are thinking, never mind I’ll switch back to my old silly self. It’s just that I’ve been holding on to this sort of stuff for too long and thought of finally penning them down. Sometimes, I wonder if it has got something to do with the education imparting system where the theoretical part is stressed more than the practical/result oriented part.  You may find a graduate of a field with almost zilch knowledge of the field level work. It makes me feel like the prevailing system is a mess, where the studies are harder as compared to forei...

Warning: This post is not meant for people who are under depression for it may not sprinkle all the stress busting words that need to be said to such pitiable souls. I always wished to not to get employed as soon as I graduated; for I believe one should have a little gap in between to enjoy the ‘free’ tag where neither you are bound to attend the classes nor you are worried if you’ll get the leave from your office for the day(s) that your family has been asking you to take for the past several days. I was told that it’s not as such ‘the golden period’ but I didn’t bother. And it did happen the same way as I wished it to be. Just that it wasn’t as free as I thought it to be. Just after my final year exams, I was standing face-to-face with the dreaded question - What next? And I was as clueless as ever. I was doing all that I should be doing to get over the ‘unemployed’ tag but the dark tunnel/phase seemed to have no end. I don’t know if I can term that feeling as ‘d...

"Only boring people get bored" ~ Ruth Burke   The first time I came across this quote, I trashed the very idea of it being true. Incidentally, those were the days when I used to complain often, “I’m getting bored” to which none would have any solution. (Phones were not such big sensation back then.) And because I would iterate it time and again that I would end up getting more bored; maybe the repetition of it worked as a constant reminder to the brain that you ought to feel bored. Days passed by, weeks passed by, months passed by. This quote remained in the back of my head and I started using it on others whenever they would tag me ‘boring’ or complain of getting bored themselves. They were literally bored pissed of hearing this quote for umpteen times. Like, they say you don’t get to know when you fall in love, the same happened to me. Over a span of time, I started getting connected with the same quote and now I actually believe in it. It might be the...

Coming from a girl who didn’t really face much harsher things but really felt it happening around; This post is not going to enlist the atrocities against women for enough has been and is being written about it already but it is a mere dedication to the gender I belong to. I’m not really a fan of this gender because …. well, I don’t know why. Probably because the other gender people deal with things in a better way - be it the humour, the stress/worries, or jealousy (or say the absence of it). But the vulnerable position of women made me write this. Once I was in a public space waiting for something. On seeing a women in a jersey of police passing by us, a women remarked, “Women don’t look good in this uniform, right?” awaiting my approval/nod. At first I didn’t really pay attention to what she said and nodded as you do when you’re listening to a stranger inattentively but as soon as I realised what she said I rejected her viewpoint and her reply was, “Oh, they look good! You...

I have been ignoring some topics for a (long) while now. So it’s high time to write them one by one. Disclaimer: The views expressed here are of the author only. Neither they are supposed to bind anyone nor are they meant to denigrate any opposing view point. Here, I’m talking about god and how I define its existence and this disclaimer is the result of what happens if you talk about god in this country. By the way, I didn’t need to give it as I belong to the category which won’t hurt religious values of anyone. Of course, I’m not going to present you some hard-to-counter evidence for there isn’t any, but it’s going to be about the little individual connection that you feel with THE ONE. I may not be at my logical best but then you can’t expect logic from me to convince you about the existence of someone who has created this whole world on which all those brilliant brains live. Starting with the system which prevails all around the world: At every place, every level,...

As I mentioned in the last post, over the time span of two and a half years (almost three years) of Aarush, I’ve gathered too many clues that now I’m carrying them forward to this post as well. ( Hidden Motive: I can bait him in future to read my blog to know more about his childhood) Overall, I can say he is a smart kid and I’m not saying this because he stands in a near relation to me. But because once when I met a kid, I asked him his age generally. He ran crashing down to his mother asking what his age was. It was only after his mother told him that he’s three-and-a-half-year-old that he could answer me.  But Aarush knows it from the time when he was about to turn two. (That is a different thing that now I find it difficult to teach him that he’s going to be three ; after making him repeat several times after me when I ask him again he says, “Two”) He already knows who’s stuff it is: the blankets, the combs, the clothes; and this is when, sometimes, even I get...

It’s high time that I write about him because my clue box under this heading has been growing longer and longer. I am talking about my nephew - Aarush. The demand for writing this post came long ago by his mom. (It’s strange how equations change after the ‘tiny arrivals’; I could’ve written “demanded by my sister” but I chose ‘his mom’.) I would start from the day 1. After getting the news of his birth, we visited him in the hospital. I slightly erred in holding him for the first time; amidst all the wonder of someone being so little, I could see his eyes slightly open as if he were sending signals, we would bond well. By the time, he was in the next one's arms he had shut his eyes and went back to his sleep. But I was also a little upset for I, no more, could enjoy ‘the youngest one’ tag. In the initial months, we would constantly ask our mom “when would he start responding to us/sitting on his own/ crawling/standing/speaking.” After a few months, we realised that h...

Initially, I was going to start this post with “Half Truth is Dangerous than a complete lie” but then I googled the quote and it turned out to be something else than what I had expected. A few of the incidents fall into this category and others remotely fall into this category. Now I don’t know how to start it. Let’s leave it up to you to figure out what it is. When I was a kid, I used to have this friend of mine who would lie often. But because I was a kid and she was my ‘friend’ I didn’t want to admit the 'liar' tag; so I would believe her most of the times. Once she told me that if you take the slightly hard part of the Gulab Jamun (which is its core) and keep it in a refrigerator for 2-3 days then it converts itself into candies. I was so excited to do it. The next time when we brought Gulab Jamuns to our home, I immediately told my mom about this fact and asked her to do the same. She denied it outright. But I still had a hope in my heart; Kids are kids (No Brand Pr...

Attention: Proceed only if you can understand/read Punjabi language, but you can continue to read otherwise as well because I've written the other part of this post in English. Neither it's a parents day nor did I write it on that day. It's said to be on someday of July. (Unless you celebrate February 14 as Matri-Pitri Pujan Diwas initiated by Asaram ) The reason why I've mentioned this day is simply because this post has two poems, of course, written by me, for my parents and to show off as well . Earlier I used to find poems a little boring and 'poetess' didn't feel like music to ears but what to do if you end up being one, though occasionally. PART - I To Mummy Maa nhi kahaundi hai oh mummy, Dil ton hai oh saaf te changi. Gallan kardi hai anek, Par chhupui hai haje vi unhan vch neyaaniyaan wali khed. Gussa kade na kardi jo, Hasdi-Khirdi har pal oh. Bacheyaan naal rhi hai uljhi, Fikr vch unha de rhi hai dubbi, Kadar ...

This day part of the day, the way it has been, I have to write about it. I was comfortably seated, holding a novel that I’ve been reading for a while, occasionally closing it to absorb the thrill/suspense that it had been offering and at times I had my jaw dropped. Probably the earlier choices that I had made while selecting the novel weren’t this good, perhaps due to the genre that I chose this time. While I was reading it, from the corner of my eye I could see a little creature moving, distracted I shift my gaze to it.  I realised that it’s the same little mouse that has been living in our house for a week or so. And in this one week I saw it for the first time, the other times I just failed to spot it which led me to declare it a ghost (After all, I never saw it, even after others telling me it’s there - under the fridge, under the bed…. It would just vanish into the air) I moved immediately to open all the nearby doors to provide for an outlet. Then I fe...