Figuring out sleep

I like sleeping. I do. I like the idea of giving the body and the brain some zone-out time to re-energise for a new day! For the fact that I do not want ugly black bags under my eye, I like sleeping.

But I also think its a waste of time. I mean think of all the things you could do if you are not sleeping! So much more time. Before you decide I am one of those weird ones, I have to say this. I have also fully realised that sleeping enough does good and makes my day productive! I have learnt a lesson the hard way. In first year of uni, when I watched a million shows instead of hitting the sack. Life was like this DOGHOUSE comic!

Recently, I discovered sleeping cycles. Your sleep happens in cycles of 90 mins. More detailed information here. If you wake up in the middle of a cycle, your day is groggy and feels incomplete. On the other hand if you complete your cycle, you feel energetic! Believe it or not, it is true.

I now try to keep a structured sleep pattern. Go to bed at 12, wake up at 7:30. If I do not get the 5 cycles of sleep, I try and take an afternoon nap for 1.5 hours.

I think I can say that I have figured out sleep finally!
(Or maybe not!)


PS: Listen to this wonderful playlist, if you are the kind that likes music while sleeping! ITS AMAZING.

Kelli Anderson

I watched a TED talk by Kelli Anderson. She is a designer, illustrator and artist. She designs things which make the world a more informed place. A more happy place. This is her TED talk!

She talks about some of her wonderful creations like using paper to play music (I am not kidding you) and this tiny postcard, that tells a story of itself!

I have been amazed more than anything else. That designing and art can include the world and its reality. You can include them to change them. To bring imagination to them. Just a plain awesome thought. I have never thought about art in this way. I usually try to draw something exactly as I see it.

Starting today, I am including this thought in whatever I draw. Drawing to change!

Change

I am drinking Milo.

From 'EW-I-cant-even-dream-of-drinking-that' 2 years back to 'ooOO-I-love-milo' right now. Same reaction for Yakult also :P

A lot of my observations these few weeks seem to be about change. It is all around me. I was just talking to a close friend about friendship. She is in a tiff with her friend of 5-6 years. And now she is just perplexed at how people change over such small circumstances. Some for good, some for a while. 

I am becoming aware of a ten million things that have changed in these two years. There is change about myself, about family, about friends and about the air. I seem to perceive everything in a new light every day. I am discovering new things about old issues. Accepting things I wouldn't have dreamt of accepting in the past. 

'Things dont change, we change'

PS: I also noticed how most of my posts are open-ended. I have realized now it works for me most. When I come back to it, I seem to ponder more on the same subject!

I am growing up

It was a huge realisation last night. A couple of dots in the past few days connected last night.

A Facebook friend of mine got married! Yes. She's as old as me, a schoolmate. And she's married! I was mind fucked (Pardon the language, but I dont think there is any other word to describe my state) for a few hours. I went on and on about it. I even called my mom up to share the news. I expected her to be appalled. Well, because I was. She laughed it off. And asked whats so surprising in that. I started gushing at her and asked her HOW in the world was it normal/ or even laughable. She said she got married when she was 20. In my opinion, that was 23 years back and that does NOT count. Anyway, she went on to reason that the girl probably finished her graduation and her parents also thought she should be married. That is not how things work for me. No WAY. Aren't you supposed to be working? Or if you dont want to work, travelling? Or I dont know, do something else. Surely not marrying! To top it all the guy looked very young (I am serious. When I say very I mean 'very') and they even went globetrotting for their honeymoon.

Couple of days back a friend was talking about her cousin getting married. Again, the protagonist of this story is aged 20. She also just decided to get married. Somehow, her being from another country justified the marriage for me. I did not know anything of their culture, tradition or societal norms. So maybe it was normal. We just moved on to lavish weddings and expensive gowns.

A friend of a friend was acting in some movie and I was looking up some details. It was a love story of sorts. But yet again the heroine is 20 :O

And yes thats when it hit me that I was growing up. I wasn't a school kid anymore. I wasn't small or tiny. I was a woman. Almost 20. And it is no surprise that girls my age were making huge life decisions by now. It wasn't about the culture. It was just about time for some people.

Yes. I have chosen to do other things at the same time. I want to get my undergraduate degree, a few years of work experience doing what I love, some money in my bank account and an independent single life before I get into all the family jazz. Thats just me. Some others have made other decisions. There was nothing appalling there. And I am telling myself (as mom put it) 'Dhanya It's quite normal'.

Forgiveness

'Forgiving does not make the person who hurt you feel better, it makes you feel better'

I think this is the only thing I liked about Chetan Bhagat's 2 states. Of course I also made a mental note to think ten million times before I decide to marry a Punjabi boy.

Theres been something on my mind lately. I had a situation with this person. Person X. (I like calling people X, makes me feel like I am crossing them out and marking the target straight on their heart!) So yes X. Lets just say something went wrong, misunderstandings and the like happened and I ended up getting hurt. I felt bad for sometime and then I spoke about it to people, helped myself feel better. Told myself that, that was the end of it and I would worry no more.

Naturally, the episode wouldn't just go away. However, I realised something today, just now. I realised that the episode would indeed go away if I forgave X. I told myself that X did so and so things only because it was justifiable to X. From X's shoes it all probably seems right. So what do I do now. Forgive X. And guess what, I feel good. I feel absolutely relieved. A simple solution to a potentially complex issue.

PS: I think I am becoming Buddha, tch tsk

Taste of a different world from a different view

It was a wonderful week in terms of the couple of experiences I chanced upon.

Mom and I went to T.nagar to pick up a couple of things we needed. I was looking for chunky traditional earrings. I was scanning the platform shops as we were walking past. This one guy had a very pretty pair of earrings and as I was getting ready to show-off my bargaining skills I noticed this kutti(small) kid standing by the side of the store. The store guy asked him to take put mom’s million-specifications carrying pottu from the sides. He jumped up trying to reach the shelf. So I moved forward o help him. Some thing came upon me to talk to this kid while mom bought some more things. His name was Xavier and he went to a nearby school. 7th grade. The store guy was his mama and he used to accompany him in the evenings when he was bored. It was a very tiny bit of my day, those few seconds of conversation. Nevertheless was heart-warming to know him. I left asking him to do well in studies. It went back to my thoughts on how it would be to read minds, to talk to every person I see, to know what goes on in their minds, to know who they really are. Oh and btw, the store guy was impressed with my little rendezvous and gave us impossibly cool prices. Haha.

I was waiting for dad to pick me up from the office campus. There is an auto stand right there and I was standing next to one of the autos. This auto driver walks up to me from behind and suddenly says ‘amma’. I had taken an auto from this stand once before and he charged me SUCH a humongous price that I naturally took a hatred to the guys at the stand. All my protective, survival, just-scared-like-shit, call-it-whatever-you-want instincts came alive and I replied in a rude, trying-to-hide-that-I-am-guarded tone ‘enna, enna, venum’ (What, what do you want?). HE replies in a kind tone. ‘B.A economics nalla padippa maa?’ (Is B.A Economics a good course?) I however overlooked the tone of this question and my instincts gained strength as my crooked mind told me that he was trying to distract me while some other guy would now come and snatch my abg. So I held my bag closer to body and said ‘Yen, nalla padipu thaan. Ethuku kekaringa’ (Yes, It’s a good course, why do you want to know?). He stared off saying how his daughter has just completed her class twelve and that she scored 55% in her exams. Around this time I dropped all guard and got interested. He belonged to SC category. One of the numerous footprints of India’s ridiculous caste system. A child from the Scheduled Castes category is treated like she doesn’t deserve education. The varied sensibilities of the society fail to see that she has scored that mark without the support of her illiterate parents and the luxury of long hours of practice a regular child get. All right, I can go off track very easily. Coming back to the auto driver. He wanted to educate his girl and a college professor advised him to enrol her in a B.A economics course. Seeing me, he wanted to know what I thought about the idea. And I spoke normally. I asked him what she was interested in studying and told him that he should indeed provide her with education. He wants her to earn enough to be independent. It was nice to see how some people were thinking ahead of their peers and not just stopping the girl child’s education after high school. I prayed she fulfils her father’s dream and her own for all good.

It was the one day before I left for Uni. I chanced upon this NGO, which works with poor kids and enhances their education by providing additional tuitions. They teach art, math, songs and other basic enrichments. I went to meet this bunch of kids in Besant Nagar. Sad old government building from the outside. Exciting with colours and patterns on the inside. Much like the kids themselves. Oh my and were they pretty. There were about 20 of them. All were between the age group of 4 – 11. They greeted me with all the warmth. I had planned a little origami session with them. They huddled in circles around and overwhelmed me with their chants of ‘akka akka akka’. They learnt what I taught them with such passion. A couple were quick in the head and even became my teaching assistants. One or two even knew how to work their way around a laptop. That day, I spotted so much potential in that room. It was an eye-opening evening.

Little one-minute things that made me think. The world can be a better place with more opportunities reaching the less privileged. God gives equal capacity to all man. It’s the process he goes through that makes one a grace and another a disgrace to the society. One day, I wish to provide all the opportunity I can afford to kids like these. That’s enough to help India.

JUDGING PEOPLE

See that boy doing his homework in homeroom? … He couldn’t do it last night because he was too busy talking his best friend out of suicide. See that girl, with her face caked in make up? … She’s bullied, she needs to feel beautiful. See him, the one who wears long sleeves everyday? … He covers his arms to hide the scars. See her, with the cheap, hand-me-down clothes? … Her family can’t afford food for half the month, let alone get brand names. See the girl who laughs and smiles at every little thing? … She cries herself to sleep every night. Wonder why she never lets her friends over her house? … Because she’s afraid they’ll see her dad passed out drunk on the floor, as always. See how that girl cringes as rape jokes? … She was raped. See the boy who everyone goes to for advice? … He wishes someone would do the same for him. See the girl who never brings a lunch? … She’s disgusted by her body. See her, with the little waist? … She goes to the bathroom and forces herself to throw up so that she can keep her waist that way. See the boy over there, see the dark circles under his eyes? … He has insomnia, he fears what he’ll see in his dreams. See that girl daydreaming over there? … She has schizophrenia. See the boy biting his nails? … He has cancer and he’s wondering how much time he has left. See your best friend? … She’s addicted to drugs, but she can’t tell you because you wont understand. See that boy reading all about 9/11? … His parents died on that day. See her, with her phone on her at all times? … She’s waiting for a call saying her sister was found after a kidnapping 4 years ago. Don’t judge.

I have judged people in the past. From this day on, I make a promise to self. I wont. Ever again.

Source: http://alonetilforever.tumblr.com/post/3992368091/osee-that-boy-doing-his-homework-in-homeroom-he

The gender of numbers

I have always associated numbers with Gender! Haha, many whom I confessed to found this creepy and weird. But I have, and still do. I cant even remember when it started. Just a few days back, I was telling some friends so and they asked me if I was dyslexic! :O

I am pretty sure I am not. Anyway, I decided to google this phenomenon -- to see if it was common with people or to confirm my doubt of being an alien. Thankfully, it IS common. Quite a number of people have made this confession on blogs. I guess I am human after all. :)

Here goes the list:

1 -- A young smart boy.
2 -- A cute little girl.
3 -- A woman of 35.
4 -- A man of 40.
5 -- A old man.
6 -- A woman of 45.
7 -- A handsome guy.
8 -- A mother.
9 -- A beautiful girl.
10 -- A father.