Zen Mode

  From AR Rahman and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy to Midival Punditz and from Lifafa and Ritviz to Prateek Kuhad and Kanishk Seth, these artists might not cover the whole spectrum of my musical taste. But these are some of the moods of my daily life that make their way into my playlist.  Today I am making a bold and 99.9% true statement here: "I have a music taste superior to yours" and I am going to prove it here with some facts and data. This might offend you, so this is a disclaimer. The reason(s) I have better music taste than you are as follows: first, I listen to many genres that you aren't aware of, and I enjoy discovering new artists. It gives you a bigger perspective on why and how you should watch out for different things in this world. Different perspectives mean you are more open as a person to learning new things and accepting and listening to the truth.                               ...

Staying up late till 3:00 am watching football is a common story for me and millions of Indians and billions of Southeast Asians. Messing up with the sleep cycle for 90 minutes of pure joy is nothing for us fans of the sport in this part of the globe. Watching the match with the lights off and your family sleeping in the other room, you cannot increase the volume enough to get the feel of the beautiful commentary of Peter Drury and the local fans singing their chants, but still, somehow you connect and feel the vibes in the stadium miles or kilometers away from your home. I have witnessed some of the most thrilling encounters ever played and celebrated some late winners or screamers (goals scored from long range) on mute. Sometimes you might mess up the date the match is being played on, you might get confused like if the match is on the 16th but IST or GMT, then you have to confirm the timings. But when you get that right and get ready to watch the match at 1:30 am, it feels crazy g...

A-T-L-A-S, and  began the game where we name hundreds of cities, countries, etc. I was a champion at the game of "Atlas." If I had to play "Atlas" today, I might be able to do better. Playing this game made me know the names of places, and it also encouraged me to find out the names of new places across the globe, and there was only one way to do so ,  by buying and reading the latest "Oxford School Atlas". That book was my introduction to the world outside Delhi and India. From class 4 to 8, I bought the latest edition of the Oxford Atlas each and every year and learned the names of the capital cities of every country mentioned in it. I also learned the flags of every country mentioned in it, played lots of online quizzes about flags and capitals and spent my leisure time on Google Earth. After class 8, the obsession and motivation to read the Atlas just died.  Until last year, when I had nothing to do in the pandemic, I found a random video on YouTube ab...