A Bowl of Elusive

In my last post ( link here ), I introduced you to Siddhant & Ishika. Let me tell you what happened next. So Ishika and Siddhant lived in two opposite ends of the city. Thanks to the traffic and road conditions, reaching her would usually take Siddhant nearly two hours. So, this may qualify as a long distance relationship. Sorry, a long distance friendship. Because Ishika had friend-zoned Siddhant on day one. But Siddhant just couldn’t see her as ‘just a friend’. Their meeting had started something of a chain reaction in his mind, and it was taking a life of its own. They started face-timing from the very day they met, rather regularly. Every evening, she’d call and Siddhant would have to tidy up a little before receiving her call. And they’d look at each other for hours, talking, listening to music together and just smiling at each other. You see, over the past several months, Siddhant had faced numerous bad dates. Dates who weren’t serious, dates who were rude and dates wh...

The day before yesterday, the office cafeteria served Balushahi during lunch. I was in between a heated debate with some colleagues when I bit into the Balushahi. As the flaky sweet crumbled between my teeth, I was suddenly transported to another time, another place. I suddenly had tears in my eyes and a strange pain in my heart. This little piece of sweet had managed to remind of him, my father. Back in 1997-98, I lived in Choudwar, a little industrial settlement near the city of Cutack, with my father and a tyrannous caretaker who abused me. While the years spent in Choudwar, which eventually led to my father's death, were traumatic as hell, they're peppered with some of the fondest memories I have of my father. He had been mostly unaware of the hardships I was being subjected to at the hands of the woman he'd hired to take care of me. But he sensed that she was strict in her approach and every other evening, he'd take a break from work and sneaked me out f...

Of late, I have been coming across more and more instances that point toward the devastating effects that insecurities have on shaping a person's personality. It is terrifying how utterly irrelevant matters are capable of instigating such paralyzing insecurities in our minds. I have broached this topic in many of my earlier articles, specifically referring to my own insecurities. I think it is time we took a closer look at this demon that most of us share. For instance, an ex-girlfriend of mine faced a lot of ridicule at the hands of her classmates in school for being too "thin". This made her insecure about her build and that insecurity stayed with her till she met me. I pointed out to her the fact that all supermodels are slim and people all around are body-shamed for being plump. I have been called names like "Yeti" and "Daanav" for being tall and heavy. But this article is not just about body shaming and its effects. It is about the effect ...