Life, Laughter and Everything Else

It was well intentioned but impulsive nonetheless. Would $5 be enough? Nah, lets make it 10. I keyed in the letters, my credit card details, scrolled down and clicked "Donate". Within a minute, I was $10 poorer, though somewhat happier. After all, had she not stated on her site that Donating equals to Loving? Though just as an afterthought, maybe I should just make sure it went to the rightly deserved. So I googled her name, "Maria Popova" and clicked on the first Wiki link that came up. It started of with the usual introduction. From Bulgaria, started the website Brainpickings.org that had millions of readers monthly, writer for the Atlantic, Wired etc, once one of Forbes 30 under 30. Obviously someone who had started small and grew to be very influential through her website which I frequented now and then and whose articles would, often at confused and stressed junctures of my life, give me much emotional and spiritual relief. As she stated, it was a one woman sho...

I can't remember the last time I felt I had this much time. Not that I was never the beneficiary of a balanced life within socialist Europe, but I had squandered much of it away, jumping from the consumption of ever immersive electronic devices, forgetful routines and the maintenance of social relationships. A digital detox felt timely. Faced with a swath of unfilled time, here I was blogging again after ages (does creative pursuits such as writing does not fall within digital detox?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ). Time had flown. 2020 is a year that will live in all our memories till the end of our lives, not so much because of what happened, but because of what did not happen. A year that started promisingly with two memorable marriages of family and friend came to a halt as a tiny microorganism proved how vulnerable we humans still were. I remember when colleagues in the office laughed as a Chinese friend hoarded masks so she could send them back home. A month later they were asking her where the...

I am in the middle of negotiating a promotion at work. Being one of the longest serving members of the team with a record of having delivered results and having handled my whole process without any backup, I went in with what I felt was a good justification for a bump in my position. Alas, the person I was talking to was yet another new face, the 7th Manager I had in nearly 2 years. The poor soul had not the least idea what my past achievements were (and probably neither what my job was) and he came up with a development plan that would allow me to get that bump. In other words, he decided to buy some time. I was enraged. While other less experienced colleagues had bosses who pushed for their promotion without asking them to get on any plans, or in some cases, got promoted by pulling the right strings, here I was being cast aside like a fly. Day and I night, I raged about it, insulted, hurt, depressed by this treatment that I felt was the most unfair. Talking about it would disrupt a d...

I wonder what it is abut superheroes that captivate every kid and adult alike. Is it because of how they provide fodder for our imagination? It it because they appeal to our innate sense of justice and our desire to fight for it? Or is it because they provide a reprieve from the monotony and routine of human existence?  I am sure at some level everyone of us starts imagining ourselves to be in those same shoes or donning that very cape or arming ourselves with that super cool gadget. Though all of us have our favourites when it comes to choosing these heroes, for whatever reasons they may be. Mine was Batman for a long time, not simply because I was so impressed by Nolan's Dark Night Trilogy and its soundtrack (oh its so important!), but because Batman was human just like the rest of us. In other words he was the most relatable among the bunch. And then they released Black Panther. There he was the dark suited superhero played back Chadwick Boseman, a character exuding more coolnes...

 It was a night without a plan, a night when the Italian restaurant was fully reserved, when the walk had to be called off because my meeting went on for too long, when we could not decide between Indian or Thai food. Eventually we would decide to order in and between placing the order and its delivery was a lengthy gap that had to be filled. "Acho, do you have wine?", I inquired, knowing full well he may not like the idea of my sisters partaking in the drinking. "There is some in the fridge", he acquiesced. I took out the wine glasses, the very first time the crystalline objects were taken out in the house in the absence of any guests. Then the 5 glasses were filled while the whole family sat around the rectangular teapoy in the living room, every one distracted in their own device, expecting yet another uneventful evening of forgettable conversations and arguments. "How about truth or dare?", she suggested. There was not enough alcohol for the game but s...

I used to have a friend who did not come from the most well-off background. After graduation, he made it a point to jump from job to job and with each jump came a significant pay bump. When I hung out with him, his overflowing paycheck was something he would bring up at some point. "I think including bonuses, I am easily making more than a 100k Singapore Dollars monthly", he would proudly declare. Other than wondering about why was it that he brought it up, this comparison would for that moment make me, who earned about half that, feel poor. Unfortunately, it was not just him. The progression from student to adult life brought about some unexpected changes in day to day conversations. Instead of sports, girls or travelling, suddenly there was increased discussions about salaries, investments, making one's wealth grow. What one earned was often asked and the answer would almost always end up making some people happier and some sadder. I remember once when a friend would op...

"Oh there is so much tension right now. We hate the Indians and they hate us back". I was amused at that thought. There I was with all my Indianness, sitting there with two good Chinese friends, having a nice Korean dinner when a topic about the Indian-Chinese territorial dispute came up. I wondered if any part of her realised that I, despite my nationality, fell into the category of people that she professed she and her people hated? Though I could relate to where these feelings came from. If it was China building man made Islands in South East Asia's backyard and even enroaching onto Indian territory, there was a part of me that would get inflamed by all this. Being Singaporean Indian, I probably had twice as much reason to get angry at what I perceived as the new bully in the block starting to take what I considered was mine. Your country's land was by association your land and if your neighbour took over it, he was asking for a fight. Along with the desir...