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Fitting in and Standing out

Can a person be tagged weird ? What are they weird about? If he doesn’t act like the group of people he is surrounded by, can he be termed weird?

Human being is a social animal and hence there is always an inside pull to behave like your surrounding people to ensure companionship. Amongst the unfathomable number of ways your genes could be wired, what is the probability that every single person developed in the same way to behave alike and share mutual admiration for being alike? Whatever the society is trying to impose looks like an improbable achievement.

On the contrary, aren't we supposed to embrace chaos in variety? after all, advancement in every sphere was triggered by diverse ideas and ideologies. All the scientific breakthroughs or philosophical revolutions could have never happened if one’s sole aim is to think and act just like people surrounding them.

From a very tender age, we were shown predefined categories and pushed to fall under one of them. Every kid is pushed to become an extrovert or do math as that is more valued in society. They are undermined and discouraged if they don’t have an inherent urge to talk more, be more expressive or do math. Why should we push a penguin that can excel at swimming to fly high? Why do we tag it a failure if it couln't excel at what we perceive to be cool? It is indeed a failure of community to not recognise an individual’s potential and tap into it for collective benefit.

Different skills with a varying demand is a natural phenomenon. That doesn’t necessarily mean we under appreciate someone’s interests or efforts. If we define exactly how one needs to act and condemn any slight variation from our presumed trajectory, we are indeed curbing evolving and taking full advantage of what one can offer. Let’s not ask an individual to abandon what makes him stand out just to fit in!

_Anshi

On another note over fitting is never a good thing :P

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What do you prefer - Travel or Gold

The most adrenaline rush I get is when I explore a new place during weekend, preferably a water body or a place that sings greenery and the most solace I get is when I go to the locations I absolutely love - Marine Drive or the nearby lush green park I frequent. My trips throughout the year are the days which standout when I think of the year that passed by on December 31st. My social media is flooded with posts of my peers seeming happiest when they travel. So is it safe to assume that our generation finds its thrill and satisfaction when we travel and explore?

This is contrastive to how our prior generations got their satiety. They would be delighted to live in the same place their whole life even without venturing to a nearby natural attraction. They would work in the same place, talk to the same set of people and be ecstatic while doing so. Where did they get their dose of adrenaline rush? They had a stroke of glee when they saved and bought some gold or built a house. What could be the reason for this change of mindset?

Is it fair to believe that older generations were more concerned of long time happiness and current generation looks for immediate dose of joy? Or is the reason that the current generation is concerned not only about long term goals but also has an eye on enjoying the current time. As a person from current generation, I am biased to believe the latter is the case with us. If your answer to my question to choose from travel or gold was both, I count you as a supporter to this hypothesis.

It will also be unfair to not credit the older generations for the luxury of choice we are able to make today. They have toiled hard and saved their whole lives which might be the reason why many of us have a safe net to fall back to incase of any disaster and we are hence bestowed with an opportunity to use a portion or our savings on exploring, enjoying and having enriching experiences. Imagine you are a peasant with five kids and your friend suggests you both go to Andaman after you harvest your crops - sounds ridiculous right?

Undeniably there are other socio economic factors that made this change plausible. Advancement and adaptation of technology led to decreased price of transportation. Existence of internet makes us aware of options in the world which indeed induces a sense of what we are missing and what we want to experience. There are more factors in play too. What other factors do you think have majorly caused this change?

-Anshi

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DualWar_PastOrPresent?

Do you ever look at your old pictures and feel blissful? If you often look at old pictures does that mean you are obsessed with your past or you are dissatisfied with your present or you are frightened to face your future or it just means you cherish some good times?

Past generally seems to offer a pleasant solace to us than our present. One might not be the happiest with his/her present but the question remains. Were you a hundred percent happy in your past or is your brain playing a biased game in memorizing only the good parts of the gone days?

If you are doing a job and look at your college pictures, you miss the days of carefreeness.  The days you were not required to toil for many hours, days you could hang out with best friends without blocking calendars and relentless coordination to make just one group call work. Let’s not even get started in how much effort it’s going to take to make a group trip happen to meet everyone whereas in college it was as simple as putting on your slippers and walking towards their room.

All is true till here but are we conveniently blocking some other feelings we had? Did we not hate working on those boring assignments in subjects we didn’t like, did we never curse the hot sun while walking to classes or the humid hostel room we stayed in? What about the time before being placed in a company where we were on nerves to get a job. Almost every engineer’s eyes know how much pain they would go through one day before the exam as that is when their owner decided to start studying.

But when we think of college days why do we only remember the blissful times and wish we take solace by going back. Is this how a human brain functions? Magnifying what we love from the past and making us miss those days and at the same time magnifying what we do not love in our present time. If this is a cycle we are stuck in, will we never truly cherish the segment of life we are a part of?

Hasn’t our first job given us a dose of independence that we never experienced before? Aren’t we able to buy some things we and our loved ones want? Didn’t you finally go on that trip you didn’t go in college due to the high budget? Didn’t we gain a lot of practical knowledge on how the world operates, how people behave and so on in this experience?

Let us just hope we can train our brains to magnify positivity in current times as much as it can in past times as we might end up getting solace, satisfaction and good spirit in doing so

-Anshi

#Past #Present #Pictures # Memories #TimeMachine #Hapiness#HumanBrain#FoodForThought

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Get on to the Road!

Hello world

Introducing to you guys! Tri and Anshi, two girls with curly locks, are lazy for sure and have a  persona that allures.

If Planning, doing and learning is the only conventional way you operate, you might miss out on eccentric experiences that leave a hallmark in memory. Follow your heart might seem to be an overrated expression until you are left spellbound on things that happen when you unlatch from your regular and do follow your heart.

Tired of all the pubbing plans for New Year’s Eve, they decided to get themselves on a bike and drive to Alibaug. The catch was that they have only ridden their bike on uncongested roads till 30th December 2018. A road trip embodies driving through congested roads, highways and muddy pavements and when their brain warned not to go on road trip, It was logical. But when there is an itch to do something from your heart, you get hitched to the idea. So Tri and Anshi found out possible one-day trips and shortlisted Alibaug.

They have rented out a scooty and were all set at 11:29 PM. At 11:30 PM, It was high time for them to sleep to wake up early. But Tri popped a question ‘So do you have your license Anshi?’ The creeping sleep bid Anshi a goodbye now. She battled law of inertia and was now up on her feet searching for her driving license. Both of them were quite relaxed as no venture of them has ever gone without hurdles on way. She couldn’t find it and they slept off.

Watching sunrise is never their thing because they never wake up early. But when it comes to watching sunrise elsewhere, damn are they ready. At 6 AM, Anshi remembered about one purse she left unchecked and when she looked, it was no surprise that license was in the only place she didn’t search before night. They had a hearty laugh as they know things always fall in place after going through a twist of events. They woke up and started on their scooties at 6:15 AM in the cold Mumbai weather and reached Bhaucha dhakka. Their Hands were frozen but hearts were warm with giggling and the thrill that was striking them.

Loading their bikes onto the ferry, they realized that they are the only girl gang who came on a bike. They took pride in it and showed it as an answer to glaring looks people around gave them on the ferry and during the trip. After exploring Alibaug to an extent, they felt a wanting which comes often to them, a wanting for good food. Tri started searching for restaurants while Anshi was busy driving. Planning their food schedule is a sacred activity they do religiously. They entered a restaurant and rushed to the washroom to look at their faces after a long ride. Their faces were tanned and dull, but nothing could stop the beaming smile coming from within.

Tri: Aren't we looking tough Anshi? We became the bikers. Didn't we?

Anshi : Damn yeah! We made it and let’s now take pictures over the pool.

They started taking pictures near the pool. After a long wait, the waiter said that neither prawns nor fish is available. They stormed out to address their craving for the seafood. The good pictures they took near the cool poolside offered them solace while they left hungry. They ended up in a restaurant named Samadhan which is famous in Alibag. After eating, they traveled to Alibaug beach where they felt the sand under the feet and had an ice gola to give their lips a natural tint.

Quite satisfied with the sightseeing they did, they wondered how to go back to Mumbai.

Anshi: How shall we go back Tri? Do u think we can ride all the way back to Mumbai? It’s almost 110 km

Tri: Hmmm. Do u think we can ride for that long? If you want to, we can go.

Their eyes locked at each other and they knew how they were going back on a bike.

They started back with Anshi driving and Tri guiding. Tri drove bike before, but not with someone behind her. She hid this fact from Anshi to ensure she gets to drive. Uncongested highways were the best to ride with full speed and offered kickass fun. When they encountered muddy path along with traffic jam, it was challenging to ride. But having a scooty helped them navigate traffic faster and mantra they followed was copy riders before them. Going through puddles, sidepaths, kutcha roads was tiring but offered a unique experience in itself. It was not any more fun when they reached Mumbai highway with growing traffic, maintaining speed and sanity while their fingers ached and eyes felt very tired. By the time they went to return the rented bike, they were completely tired yet they were ecstatic of the experience they had and memory they created that they will cherish forever- their first ever road trip. They celebrated it in nearby Asian Kitchen with good food. As they ended their day, they had an aching body, tired eyes, and a big beaming smile.

-Tri&Anshi