Ramblings of a 20something girl

As a kid, I was always excited about birthdays. My birthday, the birthdays of family and friends—literally everyone! No points for guessing why I would be excited for mine. But I was equally excited for other people's birthdays because there would be cake for everyone and we would all have fun, plus I could make cards for everyone( I genuinely enjoyed making cards for everyone, so win-win). I remember as a kid, I once asked a bhaiya (who must have been in his late 20s) if he was excited about his birthday, which was coming up in a week. The reply was a nonchalant "eh, yeah, it's just another day." The 8-year-old me couldn't fathom in her young mind why he wasn't excited for his birthday. Wasn't everyone supposed to be excited for their birthdays? Didn't they all have friends coming over in the evening for the birthday party? Didn't they receive gifts from everyone? Didn't they get the chance to distribute chocolates and sweets to everyone in ...

The Indian Premier League concluded yesterday after what seemed like a century. (No pun intended) Both the Gujarat Titans (GT), and the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), who have held the trophy in the past, were one match away from clinching the title, yet again. It was safe to say that it was truly a test of the champions.  The final was ready to take place in Ahmedabad on Sunday. But the final that should have happened on Sunday, shifted to Monday, thanks to the unprecedented rains in Ahmedabad. The postponement of the match led people to take a day off from their work and many of the supporters who had travelled from faraway places even slept at the railway stations just to cheer for their teams and see the jersey number 7.  On Monday, when the match (finally) started, GT took the lead to bat. In their previous 4 matches before the finals that they have played with each other- GT won 3, while CSK managed to beat them only once at their home ground in Chennai.  Considering th...

Cunk on Earth is a five-episode mockumentary series about human civilization that takes viewers on a hilarious and thought-provoking journey through history, offering a delightful blend of wit, absurdity, and astute observations.  At the center of the show is Philomena Cunk (played by Diane Morgan), a brilliant clueless reporter with a deadpan expression throughout the series. She travels the world (as much as the budget of the show allows her), and asks questions to historians, professors, academicians and other experts that will look stupid at the first go, but often provokes intriguing thoughts.  Obviously, the experts are all in the act. But one wonders how many takes it would have taken them to answer each of her questions without laughing.  Take for example questions like, "How did Egyptians build the pyramids? Did they start at the top and work down?” or "Were numbers worth less back in ancient times?" or my personal favorite when in an interview with composer an...

Do you get tired? To the point where you can't do anything more? Your eyes become heavy, the bed looks comfy and sleep is the best thing you can do now? So you turn off your screens, do your night care routine, get ready to go to bed and turn off the lights. Only to find out you can't sleep. I recently found myself in a situation like that.  This started happening almost a week ago. I usually go to sleep by 12. That night, after I had finished all my to-do's for the day and my eyes were getting heavy, I realized it was time now to go to sleep. I got ready for bed, and turned off the lights.  Almost as if on reflex, my eyes were wide open. Two minutes ago, my eyes were so heavy, they could close down any minute. But now, something happened and not one ounce of sleep was coming to me. I tossed and turned for a long time. Giving up the effort to get myself to sleep, I checked my phone to see the time. A bright screen showed 1:05 AM. I couldn't sleep. If I had to describe...

"I'm leaving on May 15th for Bangalore. You think we can meet once before that?" My childhood and one of my closest friends told me this yesterday. She's the second person in my friend circle to tell me she's leaving Delhi. The first one in the group left Delhi for work, six months ago. Since almost half of the group were in different cities, myself included, this was a tricky request because getting everyone together for this would be difficult. Staying in the same city and trying to meet would have been no less difficult, to be honest. I'll admit this news wasn't that shocking, since she had hinted at something like this a few months ago. But when she told me she was leaving yesterday, it did hit me like a punching bag. As kids, we believe that the friends we make when we're young will remain with us forever. One can term this childhood innocence, which is a good place to be before the rocks of adulthood shatter this illusion with reality. The thing ...

I visit Kerala every year.  I have to for three main reasons. 1) It's my birthplace. 2) My maternal grandparents live there along with most of my relatives and 3) During the summer holidays in school, we had to go somewhere for our vacations, and Kerala was the easiest choice. The annual trips to Kerala took a break in 2020 when the Covid pandemic hit the world. With restrictions on travel being issued everywhere, our hopes of going to Kerala were also dashed that year, and the following year, and the year after. By 2022, when the restrictions on travel were eased, we booked our tickets to Kerala ASAP because we could not wait any longer.  I have always been excited about going to Kerala. IDK. There's just something about going back to your roots.           Meeting familiar faces, having jackfruit (Chakka), bananas, coconut (Karikku) and other different kinds of fruits that one gets to see only in Kerala that people grow in their backyard, di...

  I was watching Parks and Recreation last year, when I came across this new concept called Galentine's Day. While this holiday may have been around for a long time (I think?), it definitely became popular and came into the mainstream after it was introduced by Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation  (S2 Ep18- if you wanna watch this, hehe).   Celebrated on 13th February, a day before the most romantic day of the year, Galentine's day centers on the love for the gal pals in your life and celebrates female friendships.  Having studied in an all-girls school for 14 years of my life, it can be assumed that I had girl friends since my childhood. BUT. That wasn't the case. Till middle school, I did not have a close knit group of girl friends. I saw myself as not too girly and would pride myself for having more guy friends than girls since I firmly believed that 'all girls were drama' and that 'I wasn't like the other girls'. I thought I was very cool. But I was...

During one of my catch up conversations with a friend who recently moved to Canada, I was a little taken aback when he started telling me how he genuinely missed Dilli ki Sardi (Delhi Winters) and that Canada winters were nothing compared to this. To put it in perspective, Canada, as of today, is - 3°c and Delhi is 1.5°c. For people who know me very well, know that I don't like and cannot stand winters. The unnecessary layering of clothes, introduction of cold, cough and headaches throughout the season that will last till March, the inability to do a simple thing because your blanket is too cozy, not getting enough sunlight, the water being icy cold.. you get the gist, right? I could go on and on. So yes, I was confused why this guy living in minus degrees with snow all around thought that Delhi winters are worse? And somehow missed them too? :p This got me thinking.   And after a lot of shower thoughts, I slowly realised that it's not just the seasonal change that people look...