Adulting: A toddler's perspective of the new life  

Hello blog,  

How long has it been? I don't remember. But I have been drafting a couple of long-format blog posts. I wrote a couple of things here and there. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to complete them. I have been extremely busy with several things. 

I missed writing and being this 22-year-old nonchalant person who is exposing her innermost thoughts and feelings about pop culture, Indian politics, and travelling. See, I have borderline traits of a baby girl while being all serious and very businesslike. 

Muda kya tha, yar? So here's a life update.  

XIC: The Journey has ended. 

Last month, I put a nail on my time laundering in south Bombay and its colleges. I got my postgraduate degree from Xaveir's Institute of Communications. I met some really interesting, kind, and knowledgeable people there. There were a lot of people who would really take care of you and give you the guidance you need if they had worked in the industry before.

But I had my share of bad days. For this one time, someone I know had a problem with me "YAPPING" and they discontinued their relationship with me for whatever reason they might seemed necessary. They had swelled themselves with pride and wanted to be in a circle that was more like them. In retrospect, I was willing to make the change in myself but couldn't handle the disrespect they had shown towards me. After all, I am human - full of flaws and a sense of self-respect. I couldn't hold myself stooping so low. I had them phased out of my life, and I wish it remained so for years to come. 

I did have a good time, though. I don't know how but I became really good friends with this one person, and it is a beautiful friendship - we cracked jokes, we talked about the usual girl-talk stuff, and most importantly discussed brilliant ideas. I'd say if we had opened our own agency (end game, for me) we would be so successful that we'd be invited to Cannes and have the potential to win awards!!! 

And as for the rest of the clutter - I learnt so much from people with experience. They'd say things like "agencies don't work like that", and give the occasional older sibling-type reality check. You really need to have a good understanding of from whom you'd take advice from. But majorly, they were some pretty insightful bunch of beings. 

The farewell was a quiet and quick affair. Nearly 500 students across the communication spectrum were called on stage and given their degrees. Now, I am just very lucky to be a part of the XIC alumnus community. Moreover, I can't wait for the day to come when I will walk back to this campus as a lecturer. Unfortunately, for the administration department, it will be expensive. 

Being a lecturer when I turn 45. Seems a bit chilly to me. Gone are the days when teachers were considered 'gods'. We are not living in idealistic circumstances, dear readers. Since 2015, I have forbidden my own father to take up the noble profession. I am worried about how students will interact with him. I have known classmates who have repeatedly called industry veterans 'a bitch'. The reason? is a mere decline of a request by the students for a submission extension. 

Recently, I met this man who said, "Mehak, when you were born by that time I had 8 years of experience in the industry." This charismatic man, whom I had accidentally called "SIR" schooled me for 3 hours on the concept of merit and earning designation titles. I mean, he gave me the professor vibes. It felt like I was back to school meeting my math teacher for the first time. 

Coming to the point I was trying to make - this very man, made a great point in one of the meetings. He said, "Gyan is like water". This four-word statement made me think, and think a lot. Gyan is indeed like water. It is so rare. It is so volatile. It is so powerful. The funny thing about this is that Gyan can only be appreciated by the one who understands its importance and can successfully decipher its meaning. 

That's what I learned from my years of being a student. 

Marol Corporate Culture 

Source: 

"Marol Corporate culture haunts me in my dreams" a legitimate Twitter post I had written and published a while back. Marole corporate life is so crazily monotonous. It's black and white, and boring. It has no colour to it - which scares me. If you board the metro from Marol Tech Naka Station - you'll find countless people leading the same lives. They'll be wearing their corporate uniform (formal for men, kurta for women), hanging their Bluetooth headphones ( corporate mangal sutra) around their necks like ornaments, and looking dead tired (hoping for a sooner weekend). 

After witnessing this image thoughts start coming to my head. "Do I want to live this boring life when I am 35?". I know the clear answer is absolutely not. I want to lead an unconventional life. But because I am still in the age of 'figuring things out' I just don't know how to do that. All I can do is stay more optimistic about my future! 

Elections 2024: My First Voting Experience - A vote to safeguard the interest of this nation! 

Readers, we are living in exciting times. Some astrologers masquerading as the "wannabe Nostradamus" predicted a date for potential World War III. But it feels like we are already in it, doesn't it? With the General Elections currently underway in India - the fate of the world's largest democracy lies in the hands of two political parties. 

While I patiently sat across the television gauging over portfolios of candidates and these political parties - to make the right decision I merely relied on the interviews/speeches the leaders from all the parties had given, and of course read the manifestos. In some interviews/speeches, the intent to run the government became crystal clear.  

So there I was. At 7 am sharp, I reached my voting centre with Mom and Dad. Nearly 2000 people were standing in queue to cast their votes. I would say roughly 15-20% of them were first-time voters, like me. It took me three hours to cast my vote. My friends in other parts of the town had a better experience. "Within 10 minutes, we were out," they said. Lucky them man. It feels like traffic follows me everywhere I go. 

The voting procedure was super smooth and an easy glide. Cold water was distributed to the voters waiting for their turn. A man was standing at a distance from the booth, collecting slips. He was instructing everyone how to use the EVM machine. 

It feels great to have cast my first vote ever! I hope those who haven't will not indulge themselves in discussing the political affairs of the country. The thought is simple - if you don't participate in voting (an action that changes the fate of the country based on public opinion), then boss - you don't get a say in public debate. For me, a basic thing like voting acts like an entry into the bigger picture of things. 

May Wrapped: Notes from the digital diary that I had the intent to put in the essay but they didn't make it to the final cut because they made no sense at all, so here it is anyway: 

11th May 2024: It's such a beautiful emotional relationship, we have with fur babies. We give them the love, we didn't receive from our counterparts. And they wait at our doorsteps to lick our feet, and cheeks, and yearn for happy long memories. But it's too sad their time comes to a standstill sooner than ours. (Someone's dog died today) 

15th May 2024: Nintendo Switch is my secret in pursuit of happiness. It makes me so happy when I beat those bloody Disney characters in Disney Speedstorm. I hope my brother makes me the direct inheritor of this device. I do understand when people take a day off from work to play their new video game ( I read it in a tweet). The leave is valid. 

24th May 2024: There are so many things to worry about in this world, and I am more worried about a social media post going live or not. 

Huzzah! 

Fin.