The Public Diary

When my dad lost his phone, I thought that I would write about it as I was in search of a topic. But I couldn't find anything substantial in that episode to write about. Apart from the fact that he called me up in the afternoon to inform me, saying, "The phone has run." I was clueless.  I thought he was talking about the courier guy who must have brought his new phone, that I had ordered online for him to give him a surprise, but has now returned due to some unknown reason. I tried to act innocent and not spill the beans immediately. Thankfully, he was still unaware of 'it' and not-so-thankfully broke the news of his phone getting lost. I advised him and cut the call. After getting all the necessary things done in the evening: lodging the FIR and getting the new SIM with the same old contact number issued etc, (I should cut down the steps, for it's not a tutorial blog on 'Steps to follow after losing your phone') we reached home.  And ...

"I want actual feedback on my piece of work. I want people to criticise it so that I can improve it." A quote also goes: Do not seek praise. Seek criticism.  ~ Paul Arden I get surprised whenever I hear this sort of words coming. I mean how are people able to take criticism so sportingly? Or they are too fine an actor to conceal their emotions. Because I get an instant feeling of 'How can you say this?' on listening to critical comments.  Be it when someone tries to point out errors in my drawing, pointing out parts which could have been better; or for instance, a few months back, when I was told from multiple references that my blogposts had started to become boring and philosophical. Side note:  I got so pressured on getting that feedback that I ended up writing almost two posts trying to deflect from the ' Philosophical ' label. No matter how truthful I felt that was, but I quite didn't like it. I was aware of t...

Amidst the monotonous routine of life, encounters with oldies do add a bit of humour. Not because they have a great sense of humour or anything like that, what I'm referring to are the situations that arise due to their difficulty in operating these tech devices; computers and smartphones to be precise. They say, "Charity begins at home". So I'll start with my own dad who has a different OS based phone. Let me disclose here that his OS is not-so-popular and not at all user-friendly. Poor he! He keeps on facing one problem or the other every week or so and he would have to ask me to fix them. Sometimes it's the app not being opened. So, I update them through their shitty app store. There are times when I'm unable to find one of the most popular apps on that store. I remember he had to shell out a few bucks also once at the dealer store to get the desired app running. At other times and places, it is quite common to find elderly asking how to save a number,...

“All of our family is invited to a program where I’ll be honoured,” my dad announced on an uneventful evening. “Who is honouring you?” “What is the reason for such an honour?” “Where do we have to go?” our Pandora box of questions opened. When he answered the queries, we realized that it was for an initiative that he had kind of supported during his headship days at school. (I would like to disclose here that we belong to that category of people who like to remain in the background, not desiring much limelight.) Add to it the fact that it was scheduled on a Sunday evening – the supposed lazy day. So, we were reluctant to accompany him to the event. He tried to persuade another of my married sibling who eventually backed out of the plan due to her prior commitments and our would-be absence. Poor dad! He had to be there for the sake of honour that was to be bestowed upon him but he was left all alone. ...

That day I decided to take an off from work because the weather forecast had predicted two days of continuous and heavy rains. So I had an excuse. I didn't set an alarm for the morning. Amidst the dawn, I set aside the curtain to take a view of the weather with sleepy eyes and all I could see was a clear sky with no backdrop of clouds. *Shit happens* Moving forward, I had a long pending visit to the doctor that had skipped my mind the preceding weekend. So I utilised the day. I thought I'll take panjiri for him. This gesture was based upon easing the stressfulness of job lives , especially of a doctor. I was trying to be a babe thinking, 'Let's  just make his day,' because once in earlier conversations he had told us that his mouth got watered on listening to the word 'panjiri, "It reminds me of my mother," he had said. Fast forward ---》 The doctor handed over the prescription to me. Before getting up, I gave him the box of panjiri, ou...

Of late, I wasn't satisfied with the way my brain had started thinking. I was often found complaining about my workplace and how unfair life is. Briefly, I was getting a bit thankless (to put it modestly). Deep down, I knew it was a toxic habit so I was contemplating ways to soothe and pacify my mind. I started getting engaged in activities for they say, "Idle mind is devil's mind." I thought of starting meditation as well as it is claimed that it helps in calming the mind. Then one day, I saw a video on Youtube. The speaker was telling about what we should and shouldn't talk about. One amongst the key points was to not to complain. 'Nobody l ikes to pay heed to an always complaini ng person, ' it rang a bell. Amidst all of it, a few weeks ago, I went to my village-place on an occasion. Man, what to say about the quantum of work people undertake there. I saw people literally sweating themselves out in what they call their 'routine chore...

My patriotism post has been interpreted by most as a war of languages between Hindi and Punjabi, no matter how hard I tried to shield the underlying thought. But the truth might be different from what got portrayed. So, clarification: I don't have any problem with any of the languages. I am fluent in all three of them, namely English (yes, even it was slightly referred to in the so-called controversial post but I guess all the focus was shifted to the other two), Hindi and Punjabi. ( Disclaimer : These are not in order of my liking towards them, but I just put them in alphabetical order.)  I can switch to any of them as per need of  the hour. In fact, nowadays I'm often switching between languages even amidst the sentence. That a part of my sentence is being spoken in one language and the other part in another; which I admit is not a good trait as per linguistics. The whole habit generated from the fact that I belong to a Punjabi speaking family having...

Lately, I noted that all of my recent posts fell under the label of 'Philosophical'. I started this label to help me categorise my blog posts into boring (they depict meaningless philosophy at least to me sometimes) and non-boring ones.  Does this imply that I'm becoming boring? Or am I ' Boring by birth' ? I don't know why I got this instinct to slide in my one of the favourite bio(s) that I had put on Whatsapp which was even copied by a dear friend. No doubt like-minded people become friends. Or it's another change that is coming in me. Like I've written earlier as well that I change a lot. And things might not turn/change for better always. I'm afraid if it's a change for worse this time.  Perhaps the writer in me is growing up like we all grew up from listening to stories to taking things of concern seriously. I can recall how I had so many anecdotes to share, how I used to be pumped up for certain things and now I hardly ge...

Second thoughts are nowadays a common phenomenon in my brain. Be it about my routine life activities; or more closely about my writing abilities. People often (though not so often) upon reading my blog tell me that I write well (Should have I eaten the humble pie or not?). Like always, I don’t take them seriously enough. I always have had this belief that it’s not the quality of my writing that is making them shower a few words of praise but the lack of bloggers in their circle. So they are just acknowledging someone who has chosen to opt for this so-called ‘extra-ordinary’ hobby. People who know me personally know how fed up I’m of life and how blessings like ‘Live long’ seem like a curse to me. I can remember that once I was asking God for ‘ Clarity of mind’ and not anything substantial. I fail to understand how can demons like Hirnyakashyap ask for being indestructible. I wonder if it's a newly found problem that needs to get addressed because in my case it...

We celebrated our 73rd Independence Day recently. I admit it was less of a celebration of the marked day and more of ‘enjoying and  lazing around on  any other holiday,’ except for the few counted ones who must have wholeheartedly organized and attended the functions held at the respective institutes and workplaces. I’m not trying to question their patriotic fervour; one should love and respect their country. But how correct is it to hold only one’s value right and criticize others for not having the same beliefs? My views are directed towards state-level patriotism (for I don’t have guts to speak against this nation especially in today’s times where anti-national wave runs high among the citizens).  “I Disapprove of What You Say, But I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It.” A beautifully articulated quote by  Evelyn Beatrice Hal.   However, I would like to add to it ".... in whatsoever way you want to." (Of course, as long as it doesn't c...

Why are all of us in the quest of being the smartest? Why do we feel the need to prove ourselves right, no matter what? “We don’t listen to understand; we listen to reply,” I read a quote somewhere. We nourish in ourselves the vibe of ‘I-know-it-all’. Or more prominently ‘I’m always correct’. We are ready to counter the argument even before listening to it till the end. All of us encounter a bunch of people who find it hard to accept their mistakes. Almost everyone tries to avert taking the blame by conveniently passing it off to the closest person available. Do I need to say that we ourselves are included in the same lot? I’m sure even we’re guilty of the same offence. After all, we are not godly creatures who are perfect. “Thankfully, at least one of them admitted this fact,” God must be saying on seeing my confession. All of this is despite everyone knowing the fact that HUMANS ARE FALLIBLE. God knows who we are trying to fool. One of the people at my offi...

Since its election time, I don't intend to support and publicize any particular party but I certainly am trying to restrain from BJP, particularly Modi. So I tried to perfectly time this post amidst the code of conduct. There cannot be an any better point of time to bash these Modi days. Rather than launching any substantial manifesto apart from ‘upcoming good days’ (or 15 Lacs in each account), all his propaganda during the electioneering of 2014 was based upon highlighting the shortcomings of the opposite party and all that he could do to show others in bad light; ‘How I’m less bad than others’ or popularly called A figure among cyphers . I wonder if the much-needed goodness that was promised during the campaigning days ever came. Just attractive scheme names are what we got in general, signifying more of drum beating and below than par implementation.  ‘Swachh Bharat’ logo found a place on our currency, although the ‘Clean Ganga’ project still awaits its comple...