A Beginner's Guide to Escapism

Escapism, n.
Merriam-Webster define it succinctly as "habitual diversion of the mind to purely imaginative activity or entertainment as an escape from reality or routine."
Wikipedia defines it more vividly as "mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an escape from the perceived unpleasant or banal aspects of daily life. It can also be used as a term to define the actions people take to help relieve persisting feelings of depression or general sadness."

We've got the picture quite clearly by now, haven't we? Escapism, as defined above, is an art in its own right. And an awesome art it is, I tell you! There are a thousand and one ways to practice it, and yet you can never be sure you've done it all. Habitual escapists follow a very simple rule – escape what you can’t change. No matter what the problem, there are always multiple ways to escape it.
I’m referring here to those lords of escapism who have a perfect escapist solution to every problem under the sun. Be it an irksome beau or a hard break-up, bad scores or heavy debt, they can escape it all.

I believe I've never had such an apt idea to write about - something that is so ingrained into most people's existence, and yet hardly ever goes noticed or spoken about. So here’s a beginner’s guide to the most basic of all escapist techniques, compiled and issued in public interest by yours truly - the biggest escapist of all time.

1. Music – the antidote to every ailment of the mind.

Plug yours ears and pretend the world does not exist. That’s what earphones and headphones were made for, weren’t they? To keep out undesired frequencies? Put that to use. Block out all noise, all thoughts. (And all unwanted texts and phone calls too)


2. The Pan Indian Movie Marathon
Drown yourself into an ocean of movies. English, Hindi, Tamil, Korean, Bhojpuri – leave not a single one unwatched. Watch movies as if your life depended upon them. Feast on a movie each for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And before you even realize, you’d be a house of such gross ailments as would literally make you forget what you were trying to escape. Voila! Mission accomplished!

3. Shop, shop, till you drop!
Well, this one’s certainly not for those who are trying to figure out how to settle their infinite debts. Quite the contrary actually. This technique says, shop your way through all troubles. Spend all you have. Spend more than you earn, and more than you’ve saved. Man, will you reap multiple benefits! Your house will be filled with all those items you have always wanted but never needed, and soon you’ll find yourself neck-deep in such shitty debt that all your sorrows would just slink in a corner, feeling dwarfed.

4. Sleep your way through life.
This one’s my personal favorite. Sleep your way through classes; sleep your way through work. Put your phone on silent, keep the landlines away. Once you learn to sleep all day, evidently, you’ll start staying awake at night. And that’s when you can implement #2. Talk about burning the midnight oil. You can even be a daredevil and take a step forward. Sleep through your exams/board meetings/interviews and screw up big time. What better form of destructive escapism!

5. Play the Junkie.

Now this one’s what you’ve dreamed of doing ever since you heard that song Dum Maro Dum. Grab the chance now (not literally though)! Play it up on the impression, while playing it down on the reality factor (that’s what everyone anyway does with the reality these days). Wear hippie attire; don’t comb your hair for what’s like an eon and use those sleepless nights practiced in #4 above, in perfecting that “doped” expression. And then go about telling everyone you’re on dope. Trust me, it’s gonna give you the ultimate kick in life (albeit in the ass, if you’re not careful enough to exclude your parents and the 'Interpol sibling' from that “everyone”)

I think I'm gonna go on and write a book on The 1001 Techniques of Escapism someday. Till then, just keep practicing these simple yet powerful techniques with dedication and you’ll have a guaranteed bright future in the delusional world of escapism.

(Images courtesy - Google)

Sick and Chirpy!

Hey folks!

Okay, I have to admit I've been MIA from my blog for a tad too long. And as much as I hate to own up to it, the thing that compelled me to return to writing today is, well, illness. Yeah. Like most people around me, I am ill right now. Been so for the past few days, intermittently though. Be it common cold, fever, sore throat, sprained ankle, body-aches, over-exertion or bingeing (yes, I consider it a disease in my case), I've been there, done that in the past few days.

So, from great experience do I say, ILLNESS IS NOT GOOD. Neither for the mind nor for the body. It just takes away the joy from life. You may get food served to you in bed, or you may have people fawning over you, asking if you need anything, or you may get to sleep a lot (i absolutely love that part). But you might recall from the very last time that you fell ill - no matter how well you're being treated, you do not seem to enjoy any of it! What's more, you pile up the kilos lying around, and poor brain suffers severe damage working overtime, as you have got nothing to do all day but to think. All you can wish for in such situations is to get well soon. You crave for the sunlight, the chirping of birds, the sounds of wheels rattling on the road and the children playing in the streets. Or not. Maybe then for the hustle-bustle of the metro, a visit to the mall, a shopping spree, a class bunk or a hangout with friends (given that we live in a modern world, not the quintessential one I would rather have wished for). Bottomline - you wanna go out there, but all you get is bedrest and pills.

Come on, it happens with everybody. Working your butt off 24*7 for weeks at end, you end up wishing you'd just fall ill and get some days off to relax. Trust me when I say, that shall never happen. It's almost as if God's off on a vacation or he's outright forgotten he created you. But that's the whole idea behind an illness! It makes a grand appearance right at the time when you most wish it didn't. And that, my friends, is the beauty of His world. Illness brings along with it a deeper message from God. It serves to teach you not to take things for granted in life. Do your work diligently when you're supposed to. And do not wish for things to go as per your whims. Because if you do, you'll end up wishing they hadn't. God knows how to teach his children some great lessons. You'll screw up in no time, wishing you'd never so much as even wished. (well, yes, I've been spending my free time watching movies back to back. This prophetic sermon comes from my watching of a certain movie that might have really been dumb, but it gave rise to the prophet in an otherwise self-proclaimed sadist. Bruce Almighty all the way. :p)

Now for some real-world talk. Some of the things I really hate about being sick:
1. I have a low tolerance to the cold. So I take a blanket to bed when ill, and hence become the butt of everyone's taunts. "We're sweating like hell and rooting for the A.C. while she's cowering in a blanket. " Yeah, right.
2. As I said, illness come at the worst time possible. Holidays are on, and with a jam-packed schedule for the coming week, I hate having to miss anything. A school reunion tomorrow, movie the day after, followed by meeting with a friend who's coming to the city only for a day, and training visit the fourth day, I wonder what'll I be missing. None, God, please! :(
3. The very fact that I'm stranded alone, sick, at home on weekdays with nothing better to indulge in than watching movies and net surfing. Don't even feel like writing most of the time.

Signing off here with an earnest hope to recover ASAP! :)
Take care friends!

And...I'm back!

Hello all!

Here I am, back from my much-hyped summer getaway, and feeling as little refreshed as I never thought I would!

The trip was good. Good because all my friends were together with me and we had lots of fun. The weather was sometimes really good too (though sometimes it really sucked, despite the place being a hill station). We visited Kotdwar, Lansdowne, Haridwar and Rishikesh, all lying in the state of Uttarakhand. It was a bit of an adventure actually, given the kinda conditions we had to live in initially, and the creatures we had to encounter through the nights. I got some great closeup shots of these super awesome companions, which I'll be showcasing here soon. For now, here are some shots of the places we visited and the awesome mausam there. (Did I forget to mention that I'm a bit of a photography enthusiast too?)

I know, I know. The pictures are good. The places were good too. But somehow, and I don't know how, I still do not feel refreshed. Something was missing there, which I cannot zero in upon. And now that I am back, life is in for a fresh start. My industrial training starts tomorrow, and I don't know whether to be excited or dismayed. Guess I'll leave that until tomorrow to be decided!

Which brings me to the point where I peer at the clock and realize it's time to sign off and go to bed. Big day ahead! I'll write tomorrow to let you know how the day went. :)

Goodnight folks!

Wishes do get fulfilled, and how!

Life's great these days. All my wishes, spoken or unspoken, seem to be reaching right into the Almighty's ears. Everything has suddenly become brighter and shinier, making me happier and chirpier (you can pretty well see that).

With my bestie's birthday just gone by and the much-awaited outdoor trip (which I talked about here) due to take off in another 24 hours, I've been keeping kinda very busy these days. And to think I was planning to spend these holidays sitting idle, doing nothing at all. I'M LOVIN' THE CHANGE.

I've been fairly satisfied to see that my frequency of posting has been increasing over the last few days (actually, right since those horrible things called exams got over). But the real icing on the cake of literal bliss came when my post Of Mice and Men... got selected as one of BlogAdda's Spicy Saturday Picks this weekend. Talk about total literal nirvana.


And then my mom returned from her overseas trip this morning, and life suddenly turned a full circle. Now with my new ALDO sunglasses, handbag, wedge heels, clothes and yes - my new phone, finally - I feel like I can take on the world. :P
Here's what it looks like.

Did I hear someone calling me boastful there? Oops! I didn't mean to be so. I am just plain elated right now. My new phone is like, good. Real good. And with all this shopping and packing going on, I hardly have had the time to look inside for some humility. I really wanna be on top of the world right now. Until it lasts, at least. Because right after I return from my little foray up the mountains, my month long industrial training in an Electronics PSU (*yawn*) awaits me. And then I'll remember these days and sigh. So, I surmise, why not live up to every moment? I know you'd agree. :)

So here I am, bidding adieu to all the lovely friends I'm leaving behind. Hope these four days of full exposure to the mountain air give me the high I have needed for quite a while. I'll be back soon. Till then, take care, keep smiling and I hope some of you miss me. *wishful thinking*

The Ultimate Joy

Their eyes look up to you for love and care. Watching their playful giggles and unaffected demeanor brings a smile to your own face. How can you possibly ignore such innocent charm?

I have been associated for the past two years with a Gurukul run by the Arya Samaj, in the Subhash Nagar district of New Delhi. It is a charitable foundation, one of many such gurukuls situated all across India that are a part of Arya Samaj’s initiative to impart education to underprivileged children from across the country.


The gurukul houses 17 boys between the ages of 8 and 15. The kids hail from the north-eastern states of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur as well as from Rajasthan and Maharashtra. They come from underprivileged families, living in places where children are made to do physical labor and education is nothing more than a distant dream. While here, they are sent to an English-medium school and imparted moral education by specially appointed Shastris (teachers) in the form of the teachings of Arya Samaj as passed down by Swami Dayananda Saraswati and the four Vedas. They are even given special training in martial arts (Taekwondo). The kids’ personalities are groomed in such a way as to make them capable of succeeding in today’s highly competitive world.

Two years ago, when my family came in touch with this institution, it felt like a true blessing. We have virtually adopted these children since then. When they arrived, none of them understood a word of Hindi or English. I, along with some friends, used to spend my free time helping them build a base in both languages so as to be able to cope with school. Now they have a tutor to help them with the subjects they are having troubles with at school. My father, who has been my first and my best teacher so far, also teaches them English sometimes. My mother showers them with motherly love and they consider her as their own mother. I visit them as and when I can. We celebrate our birthdays and festivals like Holi and Diwali at the gurukul with the kids. They are also taken on an outstation trip every year, in order to get some recreation during the summer holidays. We accompanied them on such a trip to Dehradun, Mussourie and Rishikesh last year. This year's trip is soon to take off too.

And they are truly gifted kids themselves. They cook their own food. Some of them are national champs in Taekwondo and Kabaddi. Their school teachers tell us how good they are at their studies. Given all the facilities they are getting, no doubt they do not really need us to visit often. Yet, they love it when we do.

They used to call me “ma’am”. I instructed them to call me “didi” (elder sister). In the initial months they were very shy. Coming from totally different surroundings and living away from their families and home, they are bound to feel lonely and insecure. But over the years they have forged a strong bond with us. They look up to us for appreciation and love. They show me their homework, their medals and prizes, their test results. They always ask me when I’ll visit next. I always regretted that I don’t have a brother; now I have seventeen. And I am absolutely loving it. Their innocent smiles touch the heart like nothing else can. The happiness and contentment I see on their faces, gives me a taste of the ultimate joy in the world. It is quite rightly said, you see heaven in a child's smile.

(This post was my entry for the Bucket-a-hope story contest, which got published here)

Of Mice and Men...

Thank you BlogAdda, for featuring my post here.

While watching a little mouse scurrying along the walls of my room the other night, a thought occurred to me. And it kept me awake and thinking for a considerable amount of time. Is there really any difference between mice and men in the real sense? Well, keeping aside the obvious example of the “rat race” that our lives have become in this fiercely competitive world. I see some more similarities here.

One might surely have noticed fleetingly during some random or weird thought process, that we usually only find grey (or dark-haired) mice in our country. One can see them playing around every household, street, garbage bin. But in most of the western countries one will find little pearly white mice running around the corners of every building (that has mice, obviously). Doesn’t the difference strike a chord? Aren’t we Indians, the so called “brown people”, very much like the dark mice, while the westerners, the “white men”, much like those white mice? The color difference surely maintains constancy across the oceans, as well in mice as in men. There, lies my point. If, despite the stark difference in color, the two species of mice both pose the same problems to all the people around the world, why then are the people with differing skin colors treated so differently?

Why are some people treated with contempt, while others with sheer awe? Surely if such impeccable equality can be maintained by nature in its judgment, it could at least be maintained by us amongst ourselves, the human beings, who practically consider ourselves the rightful owners of the earth and the nature.

In the same vein, I asked a younger cousin of mine if she’d ever like to have a mouse as a pet. Her eyes lit up and she quickly replied, “I would love to, but only if it is a white one!” Therein lays my other point. We Indians ourselves are partially to blame for the prejudice done against us globally on the basis of skin color. Every mother in India wants a “fair-skinned” husband for her daughter. Dark girls are still considered curses on the family in many parts of rural and urban India. A friend of mine, Tamil by birth, recently expressed a wish to have a 1.5 lac melanin treatment done in order to become “fair”. I’d like to ask all these people, if we maintain such false prejudices amongst our own fellow countrymen, how can we expect any outsider to even consider granting us the respect we deserve? Talking about rural areas - given the low literacy, superstitions and beliefs - one can still try to understand the cause of the prevalence of such prejudices. But the saying “practice before you preach” seems to fall on deaf ears even among the members of our “educated” gentry, when it comes to such matters. And then they talk about inequality and racial discrimination on the global stage. Talk about hypocrisy, someone.

What more, the fair westerners are going in for tanning these days. They lay on the beaches, nude, all day, just to achieve that perfect “tan”. It has become a fashion statement of late. Dark complexion is as “in” for them as fairness has always been for us.

I wonder when we, the people of the world and not just Indians, are going to realize the importance of being who we are, the way we are, and letting ourselves known by our work and achievements rather than our place of birth or color. We need to learn, all of us do. Learn to respect ourselves for all that we are. And to respect the others for who they are, in order to be respected ourselves.

A summer full of wishes!

Hola amigos!

I return to writing after a long sabbatical, if I may even call it so. But with two harrying weeks of engineering examinations, along with loads of problems on the personal front as well, one can hardly be expected to find and put together the right words to write, and to get them to make some sense too. Too hard a job for me to accomplish. Not that I was actually studying for the exams all this time though. I've just been having a really tough time, personally. And trying not to let it affect my academic and social life took up all my time and might. But not anymore. I'm back with a new vengeance, and it won't take long enough for me to get back into my element!

So here finally is the summer, with the much-awaited summer holidays to accompany. We all have some aspirations when it comes to the holiday season. A long outdoor vacation, adventure sports(alas), vocational classes, books, indulgence in food and shopping - the list just cannot cover all. I just came up with my own wish-list too. Only to realize, it is actually very unfulfillable right now, what with my twisted ankle and the darned period of bed-rest, yet again. But, for the record, am not gonna stick to the bed-rest for more than two days, as usual (today's the second, and I already have plans to go shopping tomorrow.)


Here are some of the things that are on my wish list for this season -

1. A new phone
I know, it sounds weird, thrifty even, but I've been carrying the same phone for the last two years. It pretty much fulfilled all my needs and wants, and it might not be completely high-end or flashy, but it's been a good one. Not to forget it had some sentimental value attached to it too. But now I am up for a change. An immediate one, in fact. But the problem is, I cannot come to decide what to buy! A touch phone is what I've been wanting for quite some time, but then a Blackberry has it's own charms too! So basically, I am confused. Hope to be able to make the decision asap, 'cos I can't live with this one for long!

2. A whole new library
Okay, this one is far too far-fetched. And to add to it, I'd like it to be more gifted than bought. Is that too much to ask? :P
There is this whole lot of books that I want to read this season. The books I recommend every readaholic like me to read. You may check out the list here. Plus, I already have bought three to read up back to back. Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace and The Hungry Tide and well, Stephenie Meyer's Eclipse. Some of you may want to leave that one out. :P But hey, I believe in keeping my read list varied!

3. A Wardrobe Makeover

I need to makeover my summer wardrobe. Need to shop more. To mix and match stuff I already have. Until I end up looking good. Come on now, that's one helluva feel-good thing for anyone, and with that I don't just mean the girls! But as I mentioned earlier, until I can manage to walk straight again, not much of shopping or feel-good things are in the offing for me. :(
So I'd rather just manifest my desires in this cute summery look sported by Leighton Meester, aka Blair Waldorf in the TV series Gossip Girl. I love it! :D

4. An outdoor trip
Yes! Finally something that I am certain about!
So I am going off for four days to this little hamlet-like place in Uttarakhand, called Kotdwar, with a huge group of family, friends and little kids. I hope it turns out the way I am imagining it will, which shall make it the perfect getaway and the ultimate stress-buster for me after this whole stressful semester. And the very fact that I'm going with my bestie Rose, makes it all the more exciting!

I guess I am happy now. At least this last thought distracted me from the pain in my foot and its various side effects. Now I can go and fantasize about the trip and all the preparations I gotta do for it. So I'd like to sign off here on a good note. But be on the lookout, I'm not done writing yet. Rather just started! :D