Half Baked Head - (19) - Proactivity and Productivity

When you bump in to corporate assholes, creativity gets churned and Half-Baked Head is reborn :) The long forgotten series of Half Baked Head Doodles, has a new cartoon by me today.

Women employees are patient, can be creative and they can handle multi tasking, can be mothers , manage house hold work and still love their jobs. There are many such women specially working in Indian companies who are denied promotions or hikes and progress is hampered due to reasons like conceiving , pregnancy or other sickness issues or any other minor/major glitch in personal life which may have temporarily disturbed the office hours! Same applies to men too but as this is about some one I know, there is a woman in the cartoon!

DISCLAIMER: THESE CARTOONS ARE BASED ON EVENTS WITNESSED , HEARD OR GUESSED BY ME!! RESEMBLING ANY BODY ELSE IS VERY MUCH POSSIBLE :)

Click on the image for better view

Alone Vs Lonely!

When I am sitting amidst the green pasture holding a cup of tea
When there is  no one around me and I feel solemnly free
When I talk to myself and enjoy my own company
That is  the  moment I am alone, sensing absolute glee!

Image source : here

Amidst the buzzing crowd full of activity
When I shout, and there is no one to hear my plea
When I talk to myself as I see no silence in the vicinity
Those are the moments, which make me feel lonely!

When I hear to music and can dance like no one  is watching
When I whisper my secrets to myself and do not feel like sharing
When I rule my time and around the clock, can plan anything
Those are the "alone" moments which feel so fulfilling!

When I want to share my thoughts and express what I  am feeling.
When there is no soul in reach, who is actually listening
When there is havoc around and every one is talking
Those are the "lonely" moments when I feel like sulking!

When I write, vent it out and I am at peace with myself
When my write up is not getting rotten from ages in the shelf
When I feel there is someone protecting me, like an invisible elf
Those are the  lonesome moments which keep me get going.

I am a crane,  who is living  with a flock of pigeons
My skill or the beauty of my pen go unnoticed, for eons
I am a fish, trying to swim with frogs around me in tons
I feel like I am surrounded by a mob with many guns!

Lonely and being  alone are  two similar words but are universes apart
One is the forced zone for me to stay, another is chosen by my heart
One is a blissful experience and the other comes with a price
Being alone is  a dream come true and being lonely needs firm practice!!

FOMO - "Fear of Missing Out" and Facebook Deactivation

Originally published at Viewspaper

Few days back, I got this below forward message in whats app and it got me thinking. Actually it got me in a deep self introspection mode.

"Do you know FOMO? Psychologists coined this term recently... It is the feeling that some one else is having more fun or doing something better than you.This fear is often aroused by seeing exciting posts on social media of what other people do!"
FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out

Every word in the above forward message stands true. It stood so true for me that I had to deactivate my Facebook account. In the crowded social network with millions of updates per day, I am sure no one would have noticed that I was missing from there. Other than a couple of friends who actually would have noticed due to missing tagged pics or some posts rest all stayed oblivious to the fact that I was Poof from face book. Even my blog gets unnoticed with out FB. No FB means no readers , well almost no readers in my case. That is the only aspect of my social networking which I deeply miss but as I am blogging at a tortoise's speed, it doesn't matter much for now. But I must say, after I deactivated my FB , a good 40% of my brain got empty and I enjoyed the emptiness. It is up to me whether or not I use it to fill with knowledge, books, news, music, talks, or simply nothing.

The term "FOMO- Fear of Missing Out" exists from quite some time but these days it is mostly triggered by social N/W. I am not saying I have a chronic FOMO but my condition did get severe at some juncture. I forwarded the above message in a whats app group where I have a close knit group of 4-5 girls, and we joked around how we have FOMO syndrome when we compare each others' lives :) Every one who received that message gave a positive affirmation that they are suffering from it. It didn't make me feel better because "COBH - The comfort of being in the herd " is neither soothing nor can work as an antidote to FOMO. Before talking on how FOMO can actually impact and what we can do to subside it, I want to talk on the factors which may lead to FOMO!

FB can actually be considered as the 8th continent of the world. Seven is a magical number, but when something like facebook intervenes our lives with an intrinsic energy and power ,  and changes the math, it sure may lead to imbalance. It is an integral part of our lives. There are many things to do there, like Check ins, check outs, opinions, counter opinions, verbal fights , verbal abuses, pages and posts to like, and now posts get the privilege of getting subjected to other emotions like anger , happy , surprise , being thankful etc. We have walls to be climbed and browsed , walls to slide down in a sea of posts which are not appealing to you and walls to stalk, walls to block, walls to hide, walls to unhide, so on so forth. Facebook gives so many options to customise your features and increase or reduce the buzz around you. It is definitely nostalgic when old photographs, memories and age old opinions posted are reminded, which makes one feel how their opinions, thought process and appearance have evolved for  good or for bad! 

image source : here

Facebook gives a free peep in to every one's lives.  The peep is free and it always will be, the way they state it on the login page :) Every thing is glittery and you feel happy go lucky till you see something posted by someone which you might be wanting badly. You can do anything to get it. If you get the power of  navigating through the laptop / mobile screen and be in that place and enjoy exactly those events, you will do it without a second thought but alas, you don't have such power. All you can do is mindlessly check the updates and move on! When these updates exponentially increase with each day, that my friend may take you to the first stage of FOMO! The fear of missing out is the worst possible fear. Whether you really need the thing you are actually missing or not is an open question! You may be needing it but not so badly. The intense feeling you get about possessing it whenever you open facebook is sometimes irreparable. Yes I shamelessly admit that I am a victim of FOMO. I thought I never was and never will fall prey to such diseases but I realised for every human being a point comes in life when controlling all the senses seems too hectic. A juncture comes in life when life attacks you head-on with out giving you a chance to get stable!

I deactivated facebook for a month and I must say I felt calm. With less buzz around me I felt relaxed. I could read more, be creative, did my work-out more efficiently. A person should be strong enough to not get bogged down by the rest of the world and its happenings but it is OK to not be so strong at times. It is not always possible to carry yourself and feel alright every minute. Before the advent of twitter, FB and all kinds of social web pages we were less exposed to others' lives. It was easy to just live and let live as the updates were minimal and conversations were not perennial. But now FB is the only place where people want to discuss most of the happening moments, add life events , dump hatred or love, do any thing and everything. I am not saying social sites should be banned and I am not saying some one should take the ownership to streamline the process. I am just saying it is tough to not get effected. In my case, I am facing a difficulty in conceiving and I already have a hard time explaining to neighbors and people in office or any one who asks me whether or not I started planning in an exclamatory tone! I am at loss of words, when people ask questions so easily  but questions are guaranteed in life, answers are not. During such moments, when you see hordes of baby pictures on FB with various captions, discussions and mothers and fathers discussing their parenthood at length, you do feel slightly unhappy. It is not easy to dance in joy or party at every one's success. People who take the minimalistic approach are the best but there are many whose emotions and expressions never get stalled. You first congratulate, then you take part in one or two conversations and later you forget but when mountains of updates surround you, it gets tough to forget. It gets confusing as to how much is too much ? How much desperate you are for something gets directly proportional to how much others are achieving it :) It is like Murphy's law!

Recently I activated FB and below is my status update which got many responses from people who are sailing in the same boat. Some responses are shared here!
PS: Identities are purposely hidden

My FB Status: Top three questions posed in INDIA, affixed with the wonderment which generally is served as a combo along with the Question and this is not a scenario just on facebook. It happens inside and outside the virtual network!

1. Are you married ? If you have crossed a mere 21-22 this question is like a bulldozer which clears your patience in no time. If you reach a age of 25-26-27, Public expresses wonder as to why you are still not married ? What actually are your requirements ? If you have some issue? In the case of men a doubt on performance (You know where!) - Strangely women are exempted from this as if having sex and consummating the marriage is just the MAN's act .They will always put forward a helping hand to bring you out of the trauma which clearly is created by them.

2. Do you have kids? Immediately followed by Are you not planning for them? Do you have kids--- this question is like a tight noose around your neck. When you choke , catch a breath and try answering with a funny expression- "No. Not yet!" then the round of questions start, When were you married? When did you start planning? Why you should plan asap! With some ground work done on your DOB, your age and after thoroughly collecting all necessary statistics linked to your sex life, a careful analysis is done and rays of enlightenment are inserted in your head about pregnancy, motherhood, the beauty of it and so on! By the time a person crosses the age of 28-29, 30-31, 32-35 or 40 I think he/ she knows very well about child birth, causes, symptoms , analysis, pregnancies, and all the technicalities or complications of it and can decide when to have it or whether to have it or not. A 25 yr old and a 40 yr old are given tips with equal fervour and enthusiasm. Just because you are a mother or father to two toddlers or may be four, do not behave as if you have decoded all answers of universe! Universe is huge , leap out of that well you dwell in and get a brain enlargement. May be it will help before you get permanently stuck in the coils of the QUESTION MARK!

3. If you are divorced or have broke up with your partner, people around you are extremely curious, immensely sympathetic, behave as if they totally understand you , where as in reality they don't have a frigging idea how it actually feels. What all a person has to go through, the turmoil, the reluctance, the memories, the self-introspection, sleepless nights--- all these are absolutely known only to the person and his dear ones who are facing the brunt of it. If at all you have some dignity or have seen someone closer to you going through this, then you will also have the heart which makes your brain and mouth shut up. Trying hard to make a person open up is the worst decision during any break up! Added to that analysing the situation, pointing out the faults of the sufferer and suggesting rectifications when the wounds are fresh proves you can be nothing but a pain in ass. If he/ she wants to open up he/she will. It is totally up to the person as to what ,how , why and to whom he/ she wants to disclose. Do not cash on the vulnerabilities and do not behave like a prick!

There are many other questions which make rounds in my country or any other country where some of the fellow INDIANS reside! If you are in the vicinity of the questioner, equip your self to give the best possible answers because there is no escape and there never will be. People take offense very personally and strongly here if you are not married or want to stay single or get divorced or have no kids. Beware of the hoodwinked sympathy/ empathy. Save your ass from all the Crass. JAI HIND 

Some of the replies to the above status update were like below.

tongue emoticon

XXX  I face it on regular basis......i feel irritated all d time but can't help..we can't change people's perception in India

 XXX So true... 

XXX True. And if the answer for the second question No , they will suggest so many remedies , like go to this temple, go to this doctor , etc. I was also bugged off.

XXX Haha Indian mentality, can so relate to it,people leave no stone unturned to make you feel guilty for the life you are living and the supposedly wrong choices and decisions they think we make by delaying certain things !There is no escaping the questions and the scrutiny!

XXX I've faced the last two many many times..ughh

XXX Story of my life - the child part

XXX Some people shamelessly ask 'What's your salary' too! 🙈 Slighlty off topic but yeah this also falls under such questions one should never ask people...!

XXX Almost torture how they keep insisting on a 'good' answer!

XXX Well!! Been there! Still not married? No kids yet?? Are you planning your second child? The first one will learn how to share only if there is a second one and all that crap! However my point is this is not restricted just to India - when it comes to uncomfortable questions, it is universal! After living in USA for about 6 years now, I can say these questions have no regional bias!  and yea - to me the questions are not a bother! Who asks them is what matters! If the one asking is a concerned parent or a friend , I will be very glad to elaborate! If it is a nosy freak, I can give an equally apt reply! 

When I activated my facebook account , many said they were glad to see me back and that they were missing my updates . It did feel wonderful to hear that .I don't have any animosity on FB. It is a great medium for people like me who write. It gave me some wonderful friends whom I can never forget but but but ... the big problem which all FB users face is FOMO! It does attack you once in a while, when you are putting all your efforts for something and longing for the same and not getting it. A psychiatrist may articulate your thoughts but self help does work wonders. In my case deactivation helped a lot. I am back after a break but would deactivate again when I feel like! I realised that distance makes you miss or like or enjoy something. Same happened with me and facebook :) I do have FOMO now and then but I redirect to JOMO- Joy Of Missing Out like in the below oatmeal cartoon and make myself happy by reading a book, watching some thing I love, surprising the people I love, exercising or any thing and everything which erases FOMO! Have a good day!

source : here

source : here

The Phoebe-ish Poem

Passing through the fragrance of the roses and the petrichor
I reach the office to sit in midst of the stale cubicles, which is a bore
I catch the whiff of a sudden rotten smell and I look around to verify
I realise it is the stink of the unwashed socks and in my seat I petrify!

I try to turn around and give a filthy look at the person who spoiled the morning
But the smell is so strong that I sit there and think of a way to end the mourning!
I thought of Phoebe and her smelly cat song and instantly imagined me singing one
The lines of which would go like, "Smelly shoes , smelly shoes ,What is he feeding you?"

Sitting in the same room along with you both is the biggest feat!

Smelly shoes, smelly shoes why are you sticking to those feet?
Get rid of them , breathe , relax and just be scot-free!
When the smell drifts off , those feet will be happy and happy will be we!!

Smelly feet, smelly feet , I hope you utter the truth
Should I blame you, the socks or the shoes, on whom should I have the ruth?!
Who among you is actually spreading the stink?
The smell has engulfed me and I am losing the ability to think!

To add to my misery, it has rained, which ruined my day
Because, the strong obnoxious odour is here to stay!
I want to leave the office this second, come what may
But I have tons of work to do and I can only sit and pray!

Dear stinky shoes, I cannot imagine the stuff hidden underneath
And not so dear drenched socks, I wish there was a dryer beneath!  
Anyway you need not take my wrath and face the music
It is your owner who made the pleasant morning tragic!

It is a wonder how a person is oblivious to his own stink.
It is amusing to see that he is happily humming and I am at the brink!
Oh God! Give me the power to lose the sense of smell for sometime.
Or give him the power to disappear from my vicinity and please end the crime!!

PS: This poem was started on a rainy day, at office in my cubicle , the moment I caught the whiff of smelly shoes and  for some reason I never finished it. The unfinished poem was getting stale in my drafts. The smell was so strong that it made me open the draft-post ;-). I finally finished it now in summer when the temperature is high enough to roast me!

PPS: My poem clearly has the Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) style. I started watching FRIENDS Tv show now. Yes I am two plus decades late and my addiction to the show is irreparable :) I love Chandler , Joey and Phoebe the most! A post definitely on Friends, some other day!

Have fun and a great weekend and please wish that I blog more often :)

Enjoy Phoebe's cute song ;)

False Ceilings - Review

Title : False Ceilings
Author : Amit Sharma
Number of Pages : 256
Genre: Fiction

Amit Sharma has been one of my favorite bloggers . I started reading him some where in 2012 at mashed musings which has now moved to http://amit-sharma.co.in/blog/and instantly became a fan. The humour, plethora of emotions , his opinions on sensitive topics which were most of the times in sync with mine, his daddy diaries and many more write ups kept me always glued to his blog. So when I came to know that his book, False Ceilings got published , it was just natural to think of buying it. I was highly elated when Amit sent me a copy of False Ceilings. I would anyway have bought it but the personalised copy made the book more special. With out much ado let me share how I felt while reading the book.

The copy I got

Story line and my Review

The book starts with Aaryan and his , "if - else" statement amusing the readers as they will start thinking, what it is all about. Amit grabs your absolute attention from the very first page and some where the coder in him seemed wide awake. Page by page he connects you to all real life scenarios and tragedies where the if-else happens zillion times! The book keeps oscillating between different eras. In total, there are four different eras, pre independence , just after independence, 1980s and the years spanning from 2017-2060. However different the eras and modes of living are, it all gets hazy as so many emotions from different eras seem similar. The chapters flow seamlessly from one era to another but bemuse the reader as so many characters start dancing infront of him . When the puzzled reader uses all his might to connect the dots, there comes the secret wrapped in yellow cloth which does a parade on mind. 1980s and the then NewDelhi are perfectly captured. The book increased my awareness on tragic events which happened in our country years back, like for instance, I came across Operation Blue star in the book and understood thoroughly what it is for the first time! The scenic beauty of Dalhousie of 1930s and also the later decades is also captured so wonderfully!

The secret which is passed on between the generations  intrigues the readers. For a moment I felt, some sci-fi secret is embedded in it due to the tragic consequences it supposedly leads to, but unleashing the secret was a surprise to me. The suspense in the story was kept intact till the last page. Ultimately I realised that hatred , jealousy and obsession are the open secrets which can destroy the harmony and hamper the bonds in a family. Be it a family or the nation it was shown realistically how open rebuke can lead to severe damage! The blurb gives a peek in to what the book would be narrating and the reader travels from the narrow passages between the hills in Dalhousie, to the busy Connaught place of Delhi and also can visualise the sikh riots and the terror the country faced in 1984. As we enter the futuristic era of 2017-60s, where everything is fast paced , where our soups are in the form of capsules, I wondered has everything actually changed. Aren't the emotions, the love, hatred and confusion still the same ?

Be it Shakuntala , Meena , Lipi or Manohar , Vinod and Aryan , some traits are just passed on from generation to generation. There were junctures when all characters looked extremely blurry to me but then everything falls in to place and head gets clear as the book ends. Other than the entangled human emotions, there is so much more to know from pre independence and post independence eras. The book also reflects the scenario where when one is a continuous victim to other's venomous mind and caustic tongue there is a fair chance that they become venomous too!

All in all , the book makes a great read and will not disappoint you at all. Only desire I had was to know more about the futuristic time-zone - of 2060s. I would have loved to know and imagine more about the technology and how things worked after 50+ years but in any century humans will be humans is the crux of the story! You may feel like searching your own false ceiling and decoding the deeply embedded secrets of your life once you finish the book!

 I am awed as it is just Amit's first book. I wish more power to his pen and good luck for all his future works!

You can buy False Ceilings on Amazon and Flipkart . Do visit Amit at http://amit-sharma.co.in/ and share your views.

Happy Reading to you all too :)

"The Topsy-Turvy Honesty"

We were always told and taught that, honesty is the best policy
Our actions were controlled by this guideline, till we realised it's a fallacy!
Childhood was easy with a heart as clear as water.
As the years get added up, the emotions get complex and we falter!

The feelings we had as kids were either black or white
We had only two answers "Yes or No" and always felt al right
As we grew, the airtight heart started battling and lost the vigour
Not every thing was white or black for us as the visionaries got greyer!

Requesting a simple thing we needed was a piece of cake then
Asking for a favour now takes all our energy and all our might
All our colourful dreams then, always took shape in a happy flight
Growing up meant practicality and made us calculate our delight!

Being inquisitive was an achievement in the past
As we grew, we realised it is an asset to run the race and be fast
Whatever we ask or don't ask, was always provided to us
Being dependable now is an act which is considered as a big minus!

It is a common phrase to say, "Honestly I think!"
We all say it nonchalantly with out even a blink.
But do we always mean every thing we say with or without a thought?
We forget most of the words spoken or heard by us which in the long run rot!

Yes, we are hearing it from ages that honesty is the best policy.
But indulging in honesty sometimes makes everything topsy turvy!
Everyone loves your honesty until you are honest about others with them
Your practice falls flat, when you are honest with them about them !! :)

image source: here

Second Spring Book Review

Title : Second Spring
Author : Sandhya Jane
Number of Pages : 285
Genre: Fiction

Synopsis and Review:

Second Spring is the debut novel by Sandhya Jane which narrates the life and happenings of Avantika a single mother, who has a strong persona and is highly successful in her profession. The book is all about the ups and downs in her life because of the love which hits her a second time, and on reading the synopsis, I felt the book will mostly reflect the hardships faced by Avantika in a innovative way but sadly I am heavily disappointed as page by page, the book felt like a daily soap or a Bollywood flick. I don't want to sound rude, but I was bored after finishing 50 pages. The story was going no where and was absolutely predictable just like any Hindi movie! First few pages made me feel may be this book has more to it than just the love, spark , infatuation and confusion episodes between Rohan and Avantika but I was wrong. The book has redundant episodes and thoughts of Avantika and Rohan. I really felt, the author should have done more work on editing and removing the repetitive lines. Avantika's son Aarav's bond with his mother was some thing I enjoyed as it showed how single mothers can get deeply attached to their kids. Other than this , I liked few tidbits like, description of the corporate atmosphere, the necessity to be quite social and the tactics one should possess to improve networking so as to have career progress. The respective episodes felt real and the author described the projects , meetings and presentations aptly as she herself works for an investment bank I believe. The intervention of Facebook and how lost friends can be searched and found is shown well. The life and episodes of Rohan and Avantika during the time they spent together, and after they part their ways covers 90% of the book. It is possible that the turn out of all the events can be a real thing, but the way it was narrated, I felt I was watching some hindi movie from 80s - 90s.

Source : here

Avantika slogs for the progress of her company and herself but it feels bad to see that she shifts to Missouri (USA) only to forget her love.  By the end of the book, the only thing I could appreciate was that the protagonist Avantika carefully and confidently chose what she wanted , with out falling in the booby trap of emotions once again but even this felt like, I was watching the climax of the movie Hum Dil De Chuke sanam . The book oscillates between Rohan and Avantika's diary pages thrown between infinite number of meetings and office hours. Rohan's family pressures, forced marriage and orthodox beliefs are all highlighted which are day to day problems in India but on this date and time when things are slowly changing , I could not relish the age old story line where he sacrifices himself for arranged marriage and so many lives ultimately get destroyed. The surprising element in the book is Rhea, a kid who is the love child of Avantika and Rohan. This surprise totally failed the story for me as once again , it got too filmy where in kids are born as easily as coffee comes out of vending machines, just by spending one passionate night together. Again it is a possible scenario but I couldn't make myself like it! Sorry to say that the book is too clichéd and I couldn't enjoy it.

I am not an author myself but there is a lacuna in this book even if it had good language and vocabulary. A weak plot, routine story line and monotonous episodes made me want more from the book.

I wish the author good luck for her future endeavours.

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