BRAToSPHERE

Category: ARTICLE

  • Writing in a cafe

    There is something about writing at home that makes it plain jane boring and the creative juices just do not flow to get the thoughts out of my mind into this digital odyssey. So what do i do?

    Jump into the coffee shop close to my home to get the creative juices flowing and the fingers tapping away to glory. Coffee Shops, or cafes, are the best place to write.

    Coffee sure is a wonderful stimulant for the brain cells, but it is about the cafe and not so much about the coffee. The vibe there is what i personally find more stimulating.

    If you have to write stuff that people would eventually read, you better be in the midst of people. Not that i eavesdrop into others conversation but the whole feel of a coffee shop is that much more livelier and happening, filled with energy. There are a gamut of emotions around to observe and learn from and set our minds free. You just need to look up to find your muse. It is sitting right across your table weeping away into her boyfriends shoulders. Keep guessing. Be innovative.

    Coffee and writing sure have a strong connection. how else would one explain the phenomena of a cafe in a book store that is all the rage across cities globally. The oxford bookstore in CP, Delhi is brimming with people all the times of the day. All kinds of people chatting, browsing books, sipping coffee with tidbits and exploring away. That place is one of the most happening places in Delhi to experience a wide array of diverse people engaged in different moods.

    In the end, it all Probably is a marketing genius (Horward Schultz anyone?) at work, and in the pursuit of being cool we end up patronising writing in a cafe culture. But what the heck! it works!

    p.s.: Writing this sipping on my favourite Kenya estate blend pour over in my neighbourhood starbucks. Writing in a cafe indeed!

  • Rainy season life

    There are times when you feel like just writing. Just penning down your thoughts. There is no good time or a bad time for this. Thought strikes, pen it down. Simple. Thanks to the digital age, we have mini assistants in our pockets all the time waiting to capture the thought. This is one such moment.

    Friday evening. Raining outside. The weather has been playing up the last couple of days, and the rains are joyful. Keep aside the fact, that the mosquitoes and all virals also find the rain fascinating and show up their ugly face during the rainy season.

    Everyone would have memories of the rainy season from their childhood. Good. Bad. Both. I still remember the way I used to spend all evenings staring at the rain water flowing through the slope road next to my apartment, merging with the drain. The view from my second floor balcony made it all feel rhythmic and then I would see people rushing with hands or handkerchiefs on their heads scouting for some shelter. I still fail to understand how the tiny handkerchief protects anyone from this torrential rains?

    Gurgaon rains are different. Most of us privileged lot are well trapped in our high rises without even coming to know that it is raining outside. The temperature controlled atmosphere at the astronomical heights of the apartment keeps us away from the earthy smell of the rain. The only thing kids would probably remember is that they were denied going out to play. Such a sad state. Cities trap you within in the process of freeing up your mind. Such is life.

    The drops of rain on my balcony railings splash on my face and some of it in my hot tea cup. The weather gives a completely positive feeling about it. Thank God am at Home. The rainy season in Gurgaon is a nightmare when you are within the car. The car could take forever to get you to your destination. Such is life!

    Off I am to just stare at the water dripping from the well manicured trees below, and transporting myself on a nostalgia trip. Such is life!

  • Fail to Plan.. Plan to Fail.

    Been forever that i have scribbled anything here. A full six months. A lot had been going on in these 6 months. A change in role, new pursuits in life and a gamut of new experiences. All good.

    But still. This is no reason for me not writing anything here. No matter what, some things still need to be pursued. And this requires planning.

    This just proves again the importance of planning. I had read this cliched saying during my growing up years – “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”.

    Nothing can be more true.

    Lack of a plan implies that you would have to do whatever comes up with no clear destination to get to. Yes, you would get somewhere and maybe that somewhere would not be all that bad, but still – It is not as per your plan. Maybe not as per your ambition. Your dream.

    Planning, be it for a long time frame – like where would you want to be in the next 5, 10 years, or even the seemingly simple thing like – plan for the weekend, is important. Having a plan, and sticking to it as much as possible, help drive productivity.

    Of course, there is a need to build some form of flexibility in the plan to mitigate any external disturbances or unforeseen circumstances, but largely things do go as per envisioned if enough efforts were spent in planning.

    I have been trying to follow this simple method – first thing in the morning, plan the day to the last tee and note it down, and then evaluate the happening at the end of the day. You would observe that gradually within a couple of weeks you are much better at gauging how the day would go. you would be in far better control of your own time and be far more productive.

    In this regimen, you would always find time to write something here, without missing out on any important life event.

  • New Year Plans

    New Year resolutions are made to be broken, or so goes the adage. True to its word, I am nowhere there on any of my New Year resolutions. I think having a date of start to any activity, be it dieting or working out, just does not work. Setting a date in the future for something that you believe is for your good, is a way to procrastinate the thing. Isn’t helping anyone.

    If you are actually kicked about starting a good habit (the so called resolution) there is no better than time to start doing it, than right NOW! You are at your peak motivation level right now and getting to do the good thing right now will hold you in good stead to inculcate the habit.

    New Year resolutions,

    “Will start doing this from next month onwards”,

    “Will do this once this phase of my life is over”

    These are all reasons we give to ourselves to justify our procrastination.

    To top it all, more often than not, a majority of us then justify to ourselves why we should not be doing a particular thing after the date of start has gone by.

    “Oh! I had to quit smoking from Jan 1st 2017. It is already 10 days past that date and I am nowhere there. Chuck it! Will quit from Feb 1st”. Or worse, “Will quit in 2018! 2017 is too hectic and important a year to be going through all this heartache and mood swings”. Classic ways of procrastination.

    Sounds very familiar right?

    Procrastination – One big reason why we don’t achieve most of the things we set out for ourselves and attain a mediocrity level in most of what we do!

    So this year, unlike all my previous years, I have decided not to have any New Year resolutions.

    I would rather have plans. Plans for the year. This has been working at a very sub conscious level over the years.

    Plan for the month and sub plans for the week. Targets for the period and clearly defined milestones and goals to be tracking against them. Yes, there is an element of time again, but this time with a timeline. With targets and tracking achievements. This should help overcome the inherent procrastination.

    I am now completely corporatized!

    Happy New Year folks. Do let me know of your plans for the year.

  • Train to Kanpur

    “La Camisa Negra..”

    Song playing in the headphone, thinking of the discovery of voice program. The naughty kids wails are still audible piercing through the headphones. Sue you Bose QC. Noise cancelling it says. Can’t silence a small kid.

    Am in the train en route to a major town in UP, to attend my Niece’s wedding. Niece’s wedding? How old are you? Well, this one is a long story involving 10 off springs and a huge lineage, better left for some other time.

    Song changes to “Cup Song..”

    Coming back to the train. I am in the Shatabdi train, so called king of the Indian railway trains (Maybe the prince, if Rajdhani can be called the king) hoping that it would be a pleasant silent journey for 5 long hours. Little did I hope that these five hours would seem like an eternity.

    The journey to the railway station in itself was pleasant. Thank you Delhi Metro. Post my experience, when I had to drop my Mother in law to the station, and I nearly got her to miss the train, I rely on the Delhi metro more than the Delhi Roads. Not my fault. The un-predictable traffic. Even Google Maps goes wrong by a large margin when it comes to Delhi Traffic. Well, maybe I should have estimated the travel time better. Or better still, I should have seen the departure time better. 2:15 and 2:45 look so similar right?

    Song Changes to “Tribal..”

    Anyways, coming back to the train. Post the pleasant trip to the Station I was welcomed to the very familiar filthy and dirty station. I think it is high time we get a crusader against dirtying public areas. The 0.5% cess for Swacch Bharat clearly is not working. (No! 1% would not work either. Intention and action would probably work!).

    I don’t know why we Indians cannot keep basics in place. How much more effort does it take to walk a 50 mts more to spit in the spittoon, or discard the empty chips packet into a dustbin. No!  We just throw wherever we need to!

    Song changes to “bumbaya..”

    Coming back to the train, after the dirty experience at the station, I was looking forward to the train. Shatabdi’s are generally clean. I am at the platform at 3:30 for a train scheduled to depart at 3:50. The train is still not at the platform. I kill time browsing the wheeler books trolley, and buy a couple of magazines. The time now is 3:45PM, The train is still not here. I walk to the snacks stall and pick  a bottle of water and just when I manage to wriggle to manage the last currency note out of my wallet, I hear the train’s whistle. The anger of the vendor not having moved to cashless is subsided by the coarse whistle sound.

    I jump on in the train to my seat (Thankfully this is clean) and get ready my arsenal – iPad, Music, headphones and the magazines I just bought on the table in the front. I was looking forward to the short journey. 4:15 PM. The train is still on the platform. It probably would not be that a short journey. Why God? Why? Why does it always happen to the train I am travelling in? Who is this damn lawyer Murphy?

    Song Changes to “play..”

    The train finally moves at 4:25 PM and I settle in my seat. The train is relatively empty and I wonder why? Indian trains are always crowded. I sit by the window side, deep into my iPad reading and occasionally watching the roads outside. Very soon we would be out of Delhi and the view from the window would be full of mustard fields. What a pleasant sight. I already feel like SRK.

    The train screeches stop at 5PM and gets me of the slumber. Wait! Where did so many people come from? How did the ‘not-so-empty’ suddenly get overfilled with argumentative middle aged men and young women with wailing kids? Ghaziabad. UP sure has to be the most populous state in the country. The kid behind my seats starts wailing. He probably does not like my remark on UP.

    Song changes to “My life..”

    This is my life right now. The far from perfect train journey.

    I take up the volume on VLC to 200%. Creaking sound is better than wail sounds. Damn you Bose QC.

    p.s.: Just in case you are curious, the playlist of the music is Running Music Workout 2016