Author: Samyak

A normal teen with dozens of interests.
Experiences

Deprecation Alert!

Posted on by Samyak

Long time, no see, eh?

Well, just to inform my present set of a couple dozen subscribers, that I’m moving my belongings to a newer blogging platform. 🙂

It’s about time that I leave WordPress for something better fit for my experiments.

In several fields, deprecation is the discouragement of use of some terminology, feature, design, or practice, typically because it has been superseded or is no longer considered efficient or safe, without completely removing it or prohibiting its use.

Wikipedia

In simpler words, it’s about time that I leave WordPress for something that suits my needs better. Something which is simpler, has lesser spam likes and F2F requests, doesn’t look as dated and clunky, and offers me greater flexibility on how my words look like on any screen, any given time of the day.

(Unnecessary bars and junk everywhere; with Sexy Dady liking a post unrelated to their literary genre… 🙄)

Beside all the wrongs, I’ll miss WordPress for the amazing network of writers sharing stuff about their lives, and its remarkable discovery algorithm and SEO. Most importantly, I’ll always remember jumping with joy over the first blog I ever created, spending more time than required on the best theme available. For an introvert of the highest order, the very thought of making a blog and pushing a post seems thrilling beyond words.

I’ve also decided to post a bit more frequently than I usually did. If you are still getting this email and you read things up till here, you may consider subscribing to my new blog via RSS OR following me on Twitter (where I post blog updates among other things). I’m still in the process of getting email subscriptions set up. In short, you have to do absolutely nothing but I’ll always be there to pester you with new blog notifications!

I’m reading more and more, and inevitably writing more and more. Consequently, my writing is (probably) getting better every passing day.

But what can you expect? Oh well, life updates, tech tidbits, and unasked opinions from an engineer/product enthusiast/Indian/yadayada’s perspective. This is a great read on what you might expect from a personal blog. I have something else in the works too, but let’s see if I’m able to bring that project to fruition.

Take care and, of course…

Breathe!

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Musings

A random day in an online semester

Posted on by Samyak

I’ve been trying all morning to get up and get to studying. Not many days remain before my final exams begin. But like many others out there, I had a nagging feeling of being saturated today. As though my WhatsApp group chat screamed pain, in silence.

I didn’t feel like studying. Even my head started aching after all that mental wrestling going on between my body and my mind about being at least a bit more productive and get to the preparation. I fell back to the bed and fell asleep; woke up an hour later.

I think that I’m having the first signs of a burnout — that too, at a juncture where not many days remain for this semester to end. I decided to take action against it, instead of letting it pass just like that. Because I’ve tried enduring the pain without doing nothing — it didn’t serve me well the last time.

It should be obvious by now that simply letting it be doesn’t solve the problem. I need to take some action for or against the flow of things. For a time as stagnant-seeming as this, we need to get ourselves together and embark on a different kind of journey. As we get rid of an absence of light by light, we need to get rid of an absence of motion by moving, even if it seems a little hard to start with.

I’d be pelted stones at my face for this. But I’d been enjoying my time at home until recently. But then happened an extraordinary event; the death of my uncle, which did shook me, but left me with a new perspective about life. It made me think that the question of mortality that I’ve been thinking about all this year — it was testifying itself. That we actually had a limited number of days at our disposal, but we really don’t know how many. That it’s better to be mindful and live the present instead of dwelling over past happenings or let the worries of our uncertain future take over our minds.

Amidst this idea, I was living my life at peace at my home. I was perceived as someone strange by my very best friends. They’ve been facing all the consequences that a time like this could bring to their minds, and it was hard for them to see through the fact that they should instead be happy for what they’ve been getting so far. Many of them been going out in their cars, hanging out with other friends, enjoying a nice workout, chilling through some movies, and having the necessary support with several people who were against the brutish measures the institute laid out for evaluation.

Now after some writing, I have decided to get back to ground zero and take action. I’ve decided to keep flowing in a time of stagnation. There are no hard-bound deadlines for us to follow right now, so we have to make our own. We need to take out our planners and to-do lists and battle out this stillness, while its always there for us to pause and reflect on the nuances of life. We need to diversify — our passions, our friends, our experiences; so that we run at a lesser risk of loss if any of our systems break down. We need to learn — learn to make quick decisions, and even learn to learn better through the powerful medium of the internet; because there are a LOT of things that deserve our attention, but haven’t been able to make it to our focal points because of our busy routines.

I’ll be fleshing out on more of these nuances later on, but right now I’m running short on time. I still don’t know what was the objective of writing this much in spontaneity, but hopefully this serves as a trailer for more things that one could expect from this medium from me; apart from the usual clarity of mind that awaits me at the end of this page.

Let’s get back to work! 💪

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Experiments

Imposter’s Syndrome?

Posted on by Samyak

Sometime around late August, I picked up a project which was by far the most daunting one I’ve ever done. Even before publishing it out in the open air, my apprehensions were skyrocketing. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead as I nervously tried to edit my article for probably like the 50th time.

I picked up a topic that was not only new to me, but something which has scared the shit out of me throughout my life. I have profound childhood memories of those green and red index numbers marqueeing on the TV screen as good-looking reporters blabbered things in English which was incomprehensible to me, even till an year ago or so. The channel? CNBC-TV18.

Ever since my interest in finance and business sparked sometime in the late 2019/early 2020, I’ve been trying to make sense of how stock markets function. I’ve been (not so) guilty to not have spent too much time on this side of the fence, because I’ve been busy exploring the world of tech products even before that. Everything around technology still remains my greater fascination.

But still, it was quite an adventurous deal to research on a news clipping deeply enough that you could write an article on it. I wrote this article for FreeLunch explaining why the stock markets haven’t been mirroring the economic condition of the country, even if that’s what usually expected of the markets.

Now, before it goes stale or outdated or wrong, I want to share this article and get the weight off my shoulders! The markets have been on a correction for like 5 days, but are still showing an overall growth trend. Let’s see what happens… 🤞

Do let me know how do you like it, even if you have the slightest idea of the field whatsoever. It should be a fun discussion, I promise!

The title of this post captures my fears. It may as well be a fact that I might be an imposter. I haven’t spent too much time in the game, unlike my father, who has spent more than 20-25 years exploring the nuances of businesses and funds.

In the end, I just wanted to have some fun. After all, that’s what matters in the end, doesn’t it?

Lemme get back on those assignments I’ve been procrastinating on, while we all wait for a vaccine.

Take care!

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Experiments

100 Days to 2021

Posted on by Samyak

So, I’ve been really busy lately with a lot of things. Most of them are around schoolwork and hunt for internships.

September would probably be the first month since the start of this blog, when I won’t post anything: I said to myself, sadly. Habits are hard to break, you see, good or bad. And when you’re on a roll, it’s hard as well as bitter to go away, just like that.

But then again, I thought: what if I could post about what’s going on in my life, more like a status update instead of a well-thought post. So, here I am, taking 5 minutes off my schedule and doing just that.

As always, I find it a bit uncomfortable sharing the specifics of what I’m upto; all I can say is: it’s just a lot of things. Some of you might know, rest of you would have no clue whatsoever. I’ll let you know in due time, most probably.

Also, I just got reminded from a Reddit post which said that we only have 100 days before the New Year 2021 (you’ve been waiting for it, no?). That’s probably a little sad and exciting at the same time. Sad because most of us barely went anywhere but between rooms of our closed homes, in this weird time of lockdown. At the same time, it’s exciting because we are hoping for better things to come. You see, it’s the hope of things, not the things themselves, which excite us. Because once you get that thing, the rush is over.

I have a lot of things in my head. My head’s going to explode with all those ideas in the shower. I try and keep a note of most of them. Also, I observed that I get these ideas when I’m trying to avoid them the most, for I know I won’t have the time to attend to them. Kind of funny, really.

I have probably spent 10 minutes instead of the intended 5 over this post. A lot of new things coming up, I assure ya’. For now, though, I gotta scoot. I only have 100 days for this year. It has been great for me, so far.

Take care of yourself while I try to make things for myself even better.

And if you really want to take something away from this post, here’s it. Make resolutions for the next 100 days. Use habit tracking apps or bullet journals to track your progress. Don’t make overambitious goals, but keep them challenging. Stop kidding me, you should always have enough time for yourself.

I’m sticking to completing my 2020 New Year’s Resolutions and doing all the work that I have at hand. After all, that’s all I can possibly do.

Till then,
Breathe

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Experiences

Why did I choose a Minor in Finance

Posted on by Samyak

I’ve been a noob with handling money.

Above everything, I don’t wanna remain that way.

Summary of the post 🙂

This has been the case since childhood. Losing money in school, getting ditched by cheap salesmen and cunning school seniors, forgetting to return the money and get back lent money in college, and the list goes on…

I had always thought of myself, unable to manage my finances. My apprehension went as far as thinking about marrying someone good with the sorcery of managing money, that too back in high school!

I’ve always been the science guy in school, captivating audiences with my nerdy facts and odd figures (okay, you may replace “captivating” with a derogatory adjective of your choice). It was the same passion for science that made me think of pursuing engineering (because doing research in pure sciences wasn’t good enough in my parents’ opinion). But I’m so glad I did it, engineering made me realize that a broader scope of the study existed. It was hardly never the case that engineers were restricted to their core interests.

Come to an engineering college. You will find almost everyone excelling in fields other than core engineering! Start-ups, music, animation, poetry, photography and so on. After seeing people dabble themselves into so many different fields, I thought I’d try my hands in some of these things too. I’ve been fascinated by robotics, so that’s the first thing I attacked. I realized how important is it to present yourself and your work in front of prospective opportunities, and that compelled me to take up a couple of marketing courses. My interest in robotics also opened a window to the big and scary world of entrepreneurship in the technology space. After reading about the struggles engineers have had while running their own ventures, I gravitated towards project and product management. How customers have certain deeply-etched belief systems and habits made me realize the importance of psychology and politics. How politics is profoundly shaped by the needs and interests of people, which is strongly fueled by the distribution of wealth, made me understand the value of economics. I could see a connection, and it all made sense! 💡

I took up this course in college: ECON F211 (Principles of Economics), which gives a bird’s eye view about the circular flow of money, the basics of supply and demand, why we trade, competitive and monopolistic markets and well as some popular yet obscurely understood terms such as GDP, stocks, bonds, economies of scale, and so on.

I truly loved the course (thanks to Prof Rajan Pandey ✌). This is where the hostility between economics and me calmed down, which was brewed back in class 9 with The Story of Village Palampur (economics was really a depressing subject back then!). This fantastic course made me understand that there’s a lot to learn about people and their motivation, from the science of the flow of money!

Now, for a financially dumb guy like me, this was like Endura Mass for the frail, like that flashy weight-loss program for the morbidly obese. This was a chance to improve my chances to understand money, businesses and human behaviour, some topics which have been my weaknesses for so long. I wanted to learn everything from the first principles so that I could better understand the high-level happenings as seen in news headlines. This is essentially the reason why I decided to go more of a “formal” way towards learning finance – to strengthen my understanding from the ground up. How money works? What are the various investment vehicles and what are the risks involved with each of them? How can one ensure the biggest bang for the buck? Boring but useful.

I could have done all this without pursuing a Minor. Most probably, true. But if I walk away with a degree certifying what I know (which could open new job prospects), and that pressure of a degree compels me (more on this “pressure” sometime later) to learn something I’d been hating all my life, is a likely an effective move. Some knowledge of the field, I believe, would augment my talent stack as an engineering undergrad. Cherry on the cake? 🍒

One thing that I think students from science backgrounds could be very weak at (like I’ve been) is to understand how important money is and how we can maximize our chances at managing it better. Cal Newport in his bestseller, ‘So Good They Can’t Ignore You,’ goes as far as saying (while quoting Derek Sivers) that money is the “neutral indicator of value” for anything that you want to pursue as a career.

Yeah, so these are my thoughts. Cheesy? Yeah, probably. Fake? I guess not. How will this end? I don’t know. Am I a bit lost? Not gonna lie, but yes, a bit. Aren’t we all are?

But that’s where the fun lies, right?

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Experiences, Experiments

Half Time: 6 months of 2020

Posted on by Samyak

I’ll start off with some good news – we’re already more than halfway through 2020! Doesn’t that sound good?

Well, to be very frank (only to be pelted stones at my face once this lockdown BS winds down), this year has been pretty good for me, so far, in aggregate. There are not many good things have happened with me, but I managed to fix a lot of things on the way!

In a gist, so far, this year was falling into a really dark place, trying to keep shit together, coming out of the burrow, making new friends, talking to old ones and having some cool achievements on the way.

Sure thing, this year has been a rollercoaster ride so far. And let’s face it; we are not sure when will this ride end. There’s simply no mercy for you, even if feel like puking halfway through. But there are some ideas which stuck with me, sourced from here and there, which have really made this year much more… tolerable…

  1. Life is unfair.
  2. Life is bloody short.
  3. It’s often better to be selfish.
  4. It’s better to just minimize losses, if making profits is impossible.
  5. There are only a few things that require your attention, and there are a hell lot more that crave for it.

Here’s a screenshot of my ongoing list of New Year’s Resolutions (not kidding, I’m still sticking with it!).

(You might want to check out some gawky footnotes in the original post.)

There was a lot of thought put behind this list. I’d sound like a madman but I did put in some solid days of research to plan them in such a way that I realize these resolutions, so that I can put this out into the world and thump my chest like a scrawny version of King Kong. 🦍

It’s not that I’ll manage to do 100% of what I plan to, but I’ll adjust my expectations (or just let them be to feel bad about myself) in accordance to the situation. Also, counting every little achievement on the way makes them feel bigger than they actually are! 😬

Yeah, I’ll keep this one short. Don’t hesitate to give post suggestions on anything you’d like me to cover in detail, from all that mentioned here and that Resolutions post.

Till then, hold tight while I brew up something fresh (and much more interesting) the next month!

💨

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Experiments

Coping Mechanisms

Posted on by Samyak

I’d suggest you to skip to the section after the horizontal divider, just in case you lack the time to read too much detail about trivial stuff. If you are lazier, go straight to the next italicized paragraph. If you’re free, however, who am I tell you anything!?

I was feeling like shit by the evening. My PS-1 Quiz 2 finished, and I was the first one to submit it. Since I was fairly confident of what I wrote, in addition to the approval I got to most of the answers from the WhatsApp group we were discussing the answers in, I decided to turn in my quiz. People only managed to point out one thing that I got wrong. As I was feeling impatient, I promptly corrected it and waited for more corrections. Impatiently.

To my pleasure (?), I didn’t receive any corrections after this. So, I thought I’ve done well, that too without asking anything, and I submitted. What I got in return was shocking.

I scored 2.75 out of 5 in the quiz, which was horrendous. What’s more? One of the answers were marked wrongly, and to my dismay, only one of them. Hopefully, the answers will get regraded and I will get a 3.75. But hey, I am already lurking behind in my post-midsem grade. I’m getting an A- (which is not so common in our station, where most of the people are getting an A) and I again scored below average. Why below average, you ask? Well, well, you curious kid, all of these guys learned from my mistakes! In a sense, they used my dead body as a bridge to get across the pit of uncertainty of wrong options. And guess what? Most of them (for I don’t know about all of them) ended up with a 4 out of 5 in the same quiz. They will eventually get regraded to a perfect 5.

So, as I was saying, I was feeling like crap. Let’s replace the cuss words now so that I sound more educated. I was distressed. This was not the first time I did such a dumb thing (well, I still feel I wasn’t that dumb for this, but hey, I’ve stopped being too hard on myself), but it was my fault only, the mistakes I did in the quiz. I recalled all those times where I have fallen into similar situations, much more so recently. I recalled that evil laughter from some of my “well-wishers” which was more painful to my ears than a screeching piece of chalk. I started feeling worse about myself.

But this time, I took the leap. It’s a Monday, the “first” day of the week, so I decided to fix myself of my bad habits and jump into the things which have proven themselves to help me. I went to the TV, not for that fun and frolic show which makes me feel warm and fuzzy, but for that 15-minute HIIT workout I’ve been planning to do and have been slacking off for so long. This was the time. This was the time to fix things, to take revenge on myself.

After a long, long time, I decided to change the way I cope with problems. I didn’t try to comfort myself this time. I decided to punish myself the way I felt I deserved to be punished.

15 minutes of excruciating effort, an unbelievable amount of sweat dripping from my body and my long quarantine hair, partly due to the hot weather and partly due to the sheer effort I put in this workout. I’ve also grown a bit unfit since the lockdown, but please don’t judge me too hard. I was tired, but I continued. I started to fail out on the different varieties of push-ups towards the end, but I carried on. If I wasn’t able to go down for the full push-up, I stood up in a high plank. If I didn’t go for a full burpee, I did the beginner variant, but I carried on.

The last set of burpees was the second best thing that happened to me this month, the first one being all those nice birthday wishes I received two weeks ago (thank you once again!). I maxed out this time, wringing out all that I had in my body. That rage, I converted it into a perfect set of burpees, I finished my workout on a high. I exulted, I felt like a king. I did it. I made it. Most importantly, I recovered.

I’ve been pondering over this for a long time now. I’ve been thinking a lot about mental health and coping mechanisms and knowing oneself and what not, for the past 3 months or so. What gave me the power to share this, however, was the unfortunate incident that one of our rising Bollywood stars suffered. Since then, I’ve resolved to sort myself out and try to help others get sorted too. I’ve decided to work on this condition I’d been in, for years, and take help from you and know about others and myself in the process.

Coming back to the point, I think we are exposing ourselves to a wrong set of coping mechanisms. I repeat this again, mental health disorders are fairly new to us, indicating our mental unpreparedness for the lifestyles we are going through nowadays. Hence, it becomes crucial to look into what went wrong, what was it that we weren’t prepared for? What are some of the obvious stuff we are doing wrong, but is not so obvious anymore due to repeated exposure, a Stockholm Syndrome of sorts?

What I am about to say is purely my opinion, and I may be grossly incorrect here. But I’d like you to note it and point out any flaws that you may find.

For the most part, we very well know what we are doing wrong. It’s usually that we are too afraid to acknowledge it, in apprehensions of being mocked at by those around us. In a similar way, we know what we are doing right. When we do the right thing, we subconsciously crave for an award, a shoutout, an acknowledgement that makes us feel relevant, important and loved. Likewise, when we do the wrong thing, we crave punishment, we secretly feel we deserve to be scolded and shouted at. We want to get hurt so as to balance our wrongs. If done correctly, we get into this state of equilibrium, yet again.

Many times, nowadays, I have observed people getting too soft over what they do wrong. If people feel bad, they try hard to be not-so-hard on themselves. They take their mind off the situation, sweep it under a rug and keep on doing that till they are symptomatically relieved of their plight. If not all, they usually end up with the wrong coping mechanisms, something which leaves them even weaker. Maybe it is being reflected in our education system through special improvement classes for students and compulsory promotions in elementary school. All of this culminates to something worse than any of the previous situations combined! I’ve found myself guilty of doing so too, and I think you’ve come across it as well. Please bear in mind that I’m certainly not in favour of abusive behaviour. If by any chance, someone is a tad too guilty of their actions, climbing on their shoulders and shouting in their ears will do more harm than good. But a tendency of wrong → punishment and right → reward provides a tolerant, simple, easy to assimilate system of checks and balances. Therefore, we should find ways to punish ourselves in healthy ways, if we think there’s a need to do so.

If you have said bad things to your friend, push yourself to say sorry, to do something special for them. If you have cheated on your diet, punish yourself by working out extra. If you wasted too much time playing and having fun, feel free to feel guilty and get to work!

Everything bright and beautiful is not the reality we live in. There’s a natural balance of light and dark, happiness and sorrow, crests and troughs, feeling high and feeling like a trashcan. And I’m happy that it’s so. Imagine how bland life would be like if it were the utopia we dream of? Gah, no fun. Not at all!

Till then,
Breathe!

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Musings

A recent visit to the Campus

Posted on by Samyak

The weather was calm. I stood right in front of the main gate, with no one to accompany me. The mighty, ironclad gate which hosted a big “WELCOME” sign on top; who was it welcoming, though?

I don’t exactly remember when I entered the gate, made the entry and arrived near my hostel. All of this had become so second nature to me. But, well, here I was, on the middle of the road to our sister hostel, all the while looking with intent at my wing. I turned back: a familiar building on an elevated pavement with “LAUNDROMAT” written on top of it. How can something be so familiar and unfamiliar at the same time?

Ah! I realize what was it. The white bags full of washed clothes, of course, bearing names, IDs and room numbers in black or red with occasional appearances of green. The lack of some bags made it all so, strange.

I looked forward and glanced at my watch. 5 pm already. Where was all the crowd that used to chit-chat at the Redi and create all sorts of nuisance? I didn’t get the same welcoming feeling as I usually used to – neither there was the smiling father-and-son duo, nor the pungent smell of Maggi.

I stared at the iron grills wrapping our corridors. The beautifully designed grills, now held dark stains of dirty water on them. If you looked carefully, they were actually yellow in colour.

I don’t remember when did I reach the other side of the grill. The path is so much etched in my head. I probably took the shorter route through the bushes. I stood still outside a door, with inches of dust grinding under my feet. The door had, with cobs trying to conceal the red paint, the numbers 1111 on top of it. I recalled that this was my room.

I looked at the right side. A red Li-Ning badminton bag looked at me with longing, just like I was looking at it. The locks were, surprisingly, still more or less the same shining silver colour as they were. Stainless steel, as they say.

I clasped the iron frame outside my window gently. I withdrew my hand immediately and looked at the thick layer of dust on my hand. A moment later, I realized that I forgot the key to my room. In a gesture of surrender, I clasped it again, trying to peek through the half-closed curtains.

I saw my whiteboard, with markings in black ink I didn’t comprehend. There was my half-pulled bedsheet, which I had resolved to fix once I came back after the vacations, and on the table was my game controller and the cooling pad.

I saw my room. The controller seized all my attention. I moved back my gaze, now looking directly at my badminton bag. I moved back a little further, panned my head to see others’ locked rooms. A tear dropped down my left cheek, which I didn’t even realize before it fell down to the ground with a surprisingly noticeable thud. All of a sudden, a blinding white light shone at my eyes and I threw my hands in front of my face, in an attempt to block it.

It was 7:19 am on the clock already. My mother withdrew the curtains. I was surprised by the bright light which filled the room, that too so early in the day.

Looks like the days are getting longer.

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Experiences

Chernobyl and China

Posted on by Samyak

So, I happened to pick up a TV series after a long time. Not a sitcom, yet something I’ve longed to watch for months. The show: Chernobyl was in talks right after it was aired in 2019. Many of my friends recommended watching it, but I simply procrastinated.

Given the time we’re all mostly free, was there an excuse not to watch it? I started off yesterday, gulping down 3 episodes in quick succession. God knows when was the last time I focussed this hard for 3 hours straight!

The ambience, the cinematography, the characters, the depth of realism about every single thing in the show was so gripping, so chilling, so startling, that you can’t do anything but watch. Intently.

The show starts off with the hero, Prof Valery Legasov, hanging himself, after recording the famous audio cassettes of his commentary on the whole incident. In fact, I got acquainted with Dyatlov’s name before his own. The entire narration, from the first second, arrests you, and leaves you questioning quietly, “What’s next?”

Now, without spoiling much, all I’d say is – watch the goddamn show! But make sure you can stand the graphic content. There’s a lot of it. I have grown up with video games full of blood and gore and still found it hard to go through. All in all, it’s a tough watch, tougher than anything else I’ve ever watched.

Now, why am I writing all this?

At the time I am writing this, the scenario around us is altogether different from anything we’ve ever seen. So much so that I’m able to relate to some things which are being shown to the situation nowadays. “History repeats itself!” I say to myself.

Just as the Soviet Union tried hard to conceal all details regarding the specifics of what happened (till date), China has done the same. Communist governments, eh?

It also reminded us of the way the very scientists who put in their heart and soul into this very work all their lives are thrown out of picture when they are needed the most, leaving the power of decision-making and influencing to the hands of ill-informed ministers and bureaucrats, and wind up once they realise the situation is out of their hands. But it’s too late already!

It tells us to take care of the irreplaceable resources we have: intellectual humans, who can think (and that’s the most crucial thing in a panic-stricken situation) and provide unforeseen insights into problems. It also reiterates the fact that even if the economy can fall and revive, human life is limited. We cannot bring the dead to life, irrespective of the truckloads of cash we try to exchange it with.

It also makes us cringe to the core, about the ego-quenching decisions governments make to hide their flaws from the world. To be so consumed in the intoxication of nationalism, that they forget that they have countries and people around them as well. They forget that humanity comes first – that if you make citizens of two neighbouring nations stand next to each other, you cannot make out who’s from which side of the border.

A fun activity while you are still getting bored of being bored at home – watch the series and put China instead of USSR and amaze yourself.

And yeah, another thing. Aren’t we much, much, much better today? Just think about it. We as humans are not dealing with a vast, new, uninformed crisis for the first time in history. It’s about time to throw some of our less important desires out of the window and think about struggle – isn’t it an organised struggle that makes us so human?

Till then,

Stay safe.

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Musings

Floating with the clouds

Posted on by Samyak

So it has been a while since I have posted anything. Despite having so much time on my hands nowadays, I find it hard to sit down and write something down. I would justify this by saying that I have been doing more of information consumption than anything. I’ll let you know what I’ve been upto, well, soon enough…

So, more as a filler, I decided to post a little poem I wrote back as a pimply, lanky teen in class 8. I even used this poem in my elective’s (Creative Writing) assignment, and this fetched me a solid 9 out 10 😁. While I have lost most of the poems I wrote back in school, this one still remains. Why not see for yourself?

I lay down on the grass, blushing green
And stare up on the lingering clouds
I listen to the symphony of the dancing leaves
The nuances beneath, veiled by giant shrouds

Crisp teak soaked by the gentle sun
Flowers smelling faint somewhere by
The grass smelling fresh and green
As I lift my sight, up towards the seamless sky

Clouds roaming like happy kids of the sky
Basking in the sun’s gentle kiss
I stare, finding a part of myself there
As I heave deep sighs, of utter bliss

Growing a little dark, then brilliantly bright
As if what’s life’s all about
Warm, but there’s the stinging glare
Cold, but the air comforts it all out

Something more than the Palace’s comfort
Something more than the Maestro’s muse
The laziness seems to slow down the time
Just like the gushing winds, my thoughts cruise

Let me have the shade of trees, the cool breeze
Let me think it out all loud
Let me stay tranquilized, in my dreams
Let me float with my thoughts, and the floating clouds… ☁

Background: One fine afternoon, I am sitting at my home. I feel good about the weather, followed by a sudden, strong inspiration to write down something. And yeah, that’s pretty much it. I just love the feeling of getting in the zone and blurting out all that’s in my head. It lasts for a short while, but when done justice, leads to a result worth looking back. 😃

Sincere thanks if you have come this far without speed-scrolling! I have been working on some pretty cool things. Only if I can convince my lazy bum to get back to work before the lockdown period ends, I’ll present it to you soon!

Till then,

Breathe!

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