AdFree World 🤓

The only thing I appreciate more than the retina display on my laptop is the Adblock and Adblock Plus extension on my browser. This might seem pretty weird at first, but in reality its like wearing sunglasses to protect from the UV radiation in the world of unnecessary advertisements. 

I know that my blog too shows up some ads, but who cares, I get some money out of it and I have AdBlock plus😉. Sometimes I don't understand, why am I so much against advertisements. I had always been the kind of kid who had very specific demands, and I never enjoyed just watching random stuff on T.V floating around with ads. May be this is the reason I never listen to radio. I prefer listening to my own playlist or watching specific content, at max watching recorded programs on T.V, specifically skipping ads. 

I know there must be quite a few of you who love advertisements because of the mere creativity of it. But every time I watch ads, I feel as though I am stepping into a magical zone where by I am about to be fooled by a glamourised magician.

Recently I binge watched Black Mirror, one of my favourite TV series and I couldn't stop rewatching the episode: "Fifteen Million Merits" which kind of highlights the side effects of a world with too much ads. Imagine a place where you need to pay money to skip ads. Yes, I do agree, business can run only when they publicise their product or service, but I think they are so much integrated in our lifestyle and gotten into our heads that every time I listen to the song "Ink by Coldplay", I remember the tune of "For healthy oil, for healthy people" thanks to one of my friend for ruining this song for me btw.

Children in schools are in no habit of reading newspapers, but in order to increase their vocabulary and general knowledge are forced into the habit of reading newspapers. Which is a good habit, I don't oppose to that but I preferred my news on my black mirror, coz spreading arms 3 feet wide just to read classified was never my cup of tea. TOI app was one nice option until I bought an iPhone 5s. It was a great 4 inch phone but the TOI app's ads took up 3 inches of space and everyday I could read very little useless information.

Switching over to a bigger phone didn't help either, It just zoomed in the same futile information along with nonsense ads. But then came an app which shut down each and every News app in India: "Inshorts". So it is a free app which gave collection of news summaries in 60 words along with  relevant photographs including links to read the full news, for free. I couldn't understand How? I was just surprised by their business model. I always thought wouldn't the mother of Inshorts owner be asking him..Beta what are you doing with your life, I mean you do great stuff I agree, but when will you earn money? Anyways, this app has become an integral part of my life. I enjoy reading worldly affairs on it.

Is there a point to all this nonsense, or is it even a real problem or is it a too first world problem. I don't know about it, anyways I have a preliminary solution for it. Why not have a platform..Just for ads, I mean just select the category and you would find products and services in the order of amount of money the owner pays. I mean a newspaper only for ads. It wouldnt be called a newspaper then it would become an Ad-Paper. Would people read it? I think some people definitely will. Because of it I guess the size of the newspaper is going to drop to about 4 pages, how exciting is that !!

I just realised I have fallen into my own trap, in order to make my point I advertised for Inshorts, Black Mirror, AdBlock, Apple, Coldplay and maybe TOI. Ohh god this world is a Trap!! I wish I was paid by them for writing this stuff !! 🤔

Lights Out !!

So recently I had an electricity breakout at my house. But still there was light, obviously because of the inverter. Also I made sure Internet works, even if my fan wouldn't. Thats what smart guys do you see. They prioritise their life priorities. But no one can avoid a catastrophe. 

A child enters my house and I don't know why attacks the pituitary gland of the house. Now the router seemed to be working fine but there was a slight change. The wire had been disturbed. If you live in Europe or America you wont understand what I am saying. But in most Indian homes the plug point works at a definite angle and if at all it is disturbed It turns into your girlfriend and starts fore-playing with you. 

Not every time you hit a bulls eye on the dart board. Even I couldn't this time and  by the grace of that sweet little devil, My Internet Stopped Working. Now, this situation is relatable anywhere in the world. 

I suddenly had no idea what to do. Thoughts like what am I doing with my life start cringing me. But then I found my 4G activated smartphone which used to show LTE but today it was showing E. That is equivalent to having a car without fuel or buying Nike shoes with no intentions to run. 

Surprisingly I found a strange noise from the other room out of a Black Mirror I had been neglecting since very long. I never knew my T.V works even with the lights out. Then I decided to save myself from the useless trap of unending Indian Daily Soaps and watch News Channel. 

I am in a habit of reading news from my phone at my Western Closet and the timing is so perfect that my news for the day gets finished at the same time. If you know what I mean. Hence I am in a habit of grabbing almost 10 news snippets in a minute. But the news channel was looping the same 15 second clip I had already seen in the morning for the past 15 minutes. 

Finally I decide to switch of the only entertainment present in my life and I thought : Do we need news 24x7 ?

I mean, Is so much information required ? That the news channels would have so much time that they would have to make up Fake News, Show Standup Comedy, Loop Youtube Clips, have Unnecessary Pseudo Intellectual One Sided Discussions even after running such heavy Advertisements.

Now I know that Neither am I presenting you with a solution like: daily news should be compiled & presented to people advertisement free, Nor am I predicting future like: there would be no channels, but only apps presenting information on certain platforms. But people at the top of Capitalist food chain are surely not going to make this happen any soon.

Like a bliss, electricity comes back and the life force in the ecosystem gets restored. I can't imagine of a world where there is no electricity and people have nothing to do but to enjoy the beautiful atmosphere on this blue-green life giving sphere. But the times of chaos brings things of life into perspective and the importance of smaller things in lives are felt. 

The point being that certain tribulations like these give an insight about reality. They distract us from the era of Too Much Information !! which have become our reality and get us one on one with oneself. I hope I face such situations with great strength and I look forward to battling my own thoughts whenever I get a touch of reality. As it is rightly said when the going gets Tough, the Tough get Tougher. 

*And my internet connection gets back to life again.*

Sometimes I feel I have become so Sarcastic that my Sarcasm has a Sarcasm. 

What The Stuff !!

Have you ever wondered that your house has become just a place to keep your stuff. Things are stuffed everywhere to make you feel at home. You are so full of things that you have messed up the most habitable space around you, where at times you go for an occasional cleaning. But that occasion comes rarely and a permanent defragmentation button seems to be "Diwali time". 

You don't care about the stuff lying around you the entire time because, you know you will eventually clean your stuff when all things would have to be organised in a desirable fashion. That happens only because everyone is cleaning their stuff. To add to the pressure, people are also going to visit you to find out how well you have organised your stuff. So I will have to clean my stuff too. But then you find out some stuff that you never knew you had because it was lying under the stuff you knew you had, but wasn't of any use. So finally you clean all your stuff and get rid of quite some of your stuff and give some useless stuff to those who never needed that stuff.

Now you seem to have an over clean abode and you wonder; Why a particular place is empty? So instead of leaving places uninhabited you search for some items in the market or on your shopping app where they always seem to have a sale on products that are already placed at a higher prices, so that you would buy stuff you don't need. In anticipation of poor understanding of the usefulness of the product you ultimately end up buying more stuff to stuff around.

And then you buy some more stuff to fill the rest of the places you just cleaned. And by the end of all deliveries you think now I must be happy because I have got all my stuff. But that feeling never stays permanent, Why...Why.. 

Because You Have Tooo Much Stuff. 

Have you ever wondered why you don't feel a 100% comfortable at someone else's home - because there is no room for your stuff. They have crap all over the place. Anytime you go to a hotel, what's the first thing you do - you unpack your bags and keep all your stuff at different places, you've got to feel homely, because thats how a Compulsive Capitalist Shopper feels at home; By spreading his/her stuff all around. Now that you realise you have more Places than you have Stuff. So you gotta buy more stuff and after some time you notice, you have your stuff spread out all over the World.

Now the problem of stuff doesn't end here, problem arises when you start Losing stuff. You start worrying about stuff you don't care. Sometimes you dont even want to find some of your stuff because it was useless since the very beginning, But you just want to know where that stuff went. 

Have you ever noticed that the moment people lose things, the first thing they say is- it was "Stolen". Its an Ego Defence Mechanism because they cant get over the fact that they could be dumb enough to lose the stuff in the first place. But you still keep looking for your stuff and the longer you look, the stranger the places get. However nothing is really lost until your Mom can't find it. 

Well I know, when you grow old things get taken away from you. Does that mean - I shouldn't be collecting stuff or Does that mean I should learn to lose stuff. I sometimes feel there is a big pile hiding out there which contains all the stuff that you ever lost. And there might be a possibility that the day you reach heaven, the first thing they do is to give you all the stuff you ever lost, like some sunglasses, watches, few wallets, old-school mobile phones, important papers, ID proofs, keychains, few siblings and tonnes of ball point pen.  

Running Through Life

So many people around, I feel intimidated

So much beauty around, I feel deprived

So much intrigues me, I feel confused

Temptations lure me, I lose my way

Discontent with my past, Lost in the present, Worried about the future

Wondered whether life is just a dream..or a nightmare

I started running, I wanted to break free from this body or

 Probably I wanted to tame it, whatever it meant

I was trying to silence my mind blabbering in chaos

So that I could feel peace within and outside

Thoughts cringe me, pulling me back

As I gasped for life, and kept running

Was it compulsion? Or my choice?

Whatever it is, Just kept running

As time passed by thoughts of money, fame, desires chased me

Or was I chasing them, I had no idea

But I kept running, for a reason I was unaware of

I remembered all my dreams, waiting to be fulfilled

The beauty of boulevard, the silence of dawn, the passing woods made me think

Does life run through me? Or I run through life

Or have we both ran into each other, without a purpose?

We breathe all the time every moment we live

But now I am actually breathing, senses come alive

Wind breezes past my ears, Sweat blinds my sight

Heart pounds with an upbeat, an exhilaration for more..more life

As I sustained my breaths, loneliness gripped me, I was alone, all alone

And I remembered the people who supported me throughout my life

Positive memories flooded me

But right now I had no one, People were around but I was alone

Just me and my path leading to a goal, which I was unaware of

I felt inspired as the journey tested me and I told myself to edge on and keep going

Running helped me empty my mind to feel the silence within

It gave me answers without words, It made sense without any reason

I hadn't realised that the journey had not yet begun 

It doesn't begin on flat terrains, It begins where one has to rise 
To keep climbing the slopes of challenge, life is not easy

It begins beyond your comfort zone and that Pain is very real

My fears start gathering, forcing me to say in equilibrium

Fascinating me with the comforts of life, Hiding from me all the truths to be known

But this time I will not let it win

So instead I speeded up, Not just to go the distance

But to shut that voice inside me

As the summit approaches, one realises that

Battles of Life are lost by mind, But won by heart

And on this peak, one sees the past

But was this peak my destination or just a temporary halt

Whatever it may be, It felt good

I paused for a while to see what little I had achieved

But I couldn't stop, I guess it was Passion

Coming down the hill, I was supported by gravity

To run faster and forget about the consequences

I started appreciating the little things in life like 

chirping of birds, rays of the sun, peace of the lake

Adrenaline flowed through me, and I ran till my body gave up

Only then I realised that, Life given to me is a gift

No matter what path you chose, You will reach the destination
The journey may seem tough and long

Why not enjoy it and leave rest to the energy that created us

Only in complete bliss can you merge with the bigger quantum

People started running ahed of me, chasing their goals
and for a fraction I wished to run more in order to get ahed of them
But it wasn't anyone, but my own self that I was racing
I thought to myself that I had won the race, 
even without winning or even participating in one
 But the oblivion of chase is always on

I wonder life is like a puff of smoke

Arising out of nowhere and going nowhere

All I can do is rise higher with it and Disappear.

Are memories really good ?

Now that we have voluntarily uploaded all our personal life on the internet, specifically on the servers of Facebook & Twitter. We have time to actually go down the memory lane and look through our timeline. These experiences were un-attainable before the era of black & white photography, which when viewed brought some nostalgia to our lives, not that it doesn't now, but we prefer attaching a black & white filter to our high pixelated coloured photograph to bring the same effect. But the point is, should we go down the memory lane sometimes or often or may be never ?

Lets try to analyse this situation based on what we have been taught since childhood. The latin phrase "Carpe Diem" tells us- make most of the present and give little thought to the future. Lord Buddha tells us अतीत पे धयान मत दो, भविष्य के बारे में मत सोचो, अपने मन को वर्तमान क्षण पे केन्द्रित करो which means- Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

So things pretty much direct us towards living in the present moment, does that mean we should not think about our  past experiences or does that simply mean we should not worry about what happened before. Is there a filter we need to apply to memories and categorise them as black & white or sepia and edit/delete the unwanted memories. 

India's civilisations like Indus Valley, Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and many old age temples tell us about the architectural history that portray the lives of people in that time frame. So in a way, we are purposefully taken down that lane to show us what happened in  past. Was it because our ancestors wanted us to learn from the knowledge they had gathered over centuries ? Or They wanted to transmit some cultural values in us ? Or Were they equally eager to express their thoughts out front on every wall so as to make the world remember even the tiniest unnecessary detail. May be they just wanted to create history from their present, which they actually have. But wouldn't that violate the very principles which we were taught of seizing the present.

Memory has been attached to us since our childhood, it is because of experiential learning that we do not wish to touch the hot pan again because the classical conditioning integrates into a cognitive behaviour that helps us avoid bad experiences. Some life instances teach us a lot, some are to be remembered and some are to be forgotten. But now that we have so much data to manage as "everything is already on the internet" it becomes quite difficult to handle each and every experience of life in one tone. Our thoughts are posted everywhere by us and we can't even contradict them, even if we want because we start believing that the image which we see of ourselves in the mirror would distort. But thats not who we are, we are liable to change, nothing remains the same neither the weather nor environment. So its better not to create a formwork for ourselves and try to fit inside that space.

But if you become inactive from the virtual world and actually start interacting with people near you, you tend to become socially inactive from people far way or way too near to you. So the "Social Umbilical" can never be permanently cut off.

Photographs take us into the time machine inducing a similar emotion as created in the previous situation. The image triggers chemicals in hippocampus part of the brain which connect us through the Neural Pathways created before. Hence we start sending signals to either re-live the past or create similar situations for the future. Hence browsing through photographs could be effective for creating, a desirable future or an indistinguishable past. But is clicking so many photographs necessary ? Could we live without it ? Of course we Can. But can we live without it ? Of course we Can't.

Most of the data we collect on a regular basis is useless and doesn't need to be added to our timeline very often, I mean the infinite pointless selfies taken from every angle permuted with every facial expression possible. However Groupfies would do :P

Data handling will be an important aspect of the future because of the infinite data we download and upload on the internet. More and more cloud servers and external hard drives to store TB's of data would be required. Although our entire genetic code can be stored on a basic DVD of 1.5 GB. As we are buying more and more data to get a spectrum of information, we are saving lesser information in our brains because we are sure that it would be accessible to us all the time, till the internet remains neutral. It seems we have outsourced our memory capabilities to a smartphone. 

Now that you are doing nothing significant to create history, other than clearing browser history, better take time out to clear some of the data from your Hard Dix (except the genetic code) ;P

UnRoasted India

With the ongoing complex sounding problems like Net Neutrality & Global Financial Crisis, India is facing yet another behind the curtain problem of "Ego Inflation". Indians seem to have a very high sense of Pride for the Nation and even for Oneself. It all started from India being the Golden Bird at some point of time and how can we forget the "Cultural heritage" which we have ruined over the years. 

So what are we really proud of ??

I get it ! that we should always be Optimistic and speak Good but since when did it mean that we cannot handle Offence. People in India just can't handle "Insults". How can a Policeman with an Inferior Income stop me from doing Wrong things? How can a man can make Mockery of my Shortcomings ? Don't you know who I am ?

Well, lets really think upon who we are.....we are the World's Largest Democracy, where the Freedom of Speech under the Article 19 of the Constitution Of India is Honoured but not fully Respected...Why ? Because we are full of Egos and Pride for things that do not matter in today's modern society.

Recently I saw a viral video on YouTube: AIB Knockout roasting Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh and Man!!! they took Insults like a Pro and I throughly enjoyed the show. I wanted to watch it again but the video was removed from YouTube. Why ??Because some Fundamentalists believe it was offensive OMG !! I couldn't believe it.

You Voluntarily signed up for a High Speed Internet connection from your Service Provider with a 5 GHz Router to transmit the Wireless Signal to your costly Macbook so that you could access the world wide web and go on www.youtube.com to watch your favourite channel's video and then you didn't like it. I mean whats the big deal with that, you can dislike, put awful comments and unsubscribe. It wasn't aired on Doordarshan and neither were you forced to watch it.

Its just like asking someone to forcefully cut  Beard or grow one because it is not in accordance with your downgraded likings and disliking. I mean haven't Schools done enough to manufacture students with same mindsets to get jobs in Multinationals or are we still left with Posing our thoughts Forcefully over others.

Our Indian Egos are not satisfied by the click of a button. We need to get things done according to the Genres we like and not let others See, Watch, Hear or Say things that are not liked by few Extremists, Over Ambitious & Overmotivated Ellsworth Toohey's who control Public Opinion.

Why can't we just accept the fact that we don't like certain things, But they Do Exist; Why cant we be okay with the fact that everyone has the right to express and say what they want and not every syllable hurts us to our Core.

This all happens because our country is ruled by Rule-breakers and their Henchmen and not by the Supreme Law which is easily Amended by the Powerful. We need to stop feeling bad and accept the other side of things like Roasts, Insult Comedies this not only helps us see other side of the coin but also clears out the VIP syndrome by removing the air form our Excessively filled blowfish Self-Esteem. 

Now how would you like it if I tell you 

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" 

#LearnToTakeInsults
#NoCountryForFunnyMen

Simulated Reality

"One Tip One Hand, Baby Over, Tipi Tipi Top, Ghoda Badam Chai, Sitolia" etc used to be the terms used till the 90's. But now slowly these are becoming extinct coz' now we have a Simulation of Virtual Gaming on each of our Android & iOS Devices.

We have Candy Crush, Hay Day, Leo's Fortune, Ashpalt, NFS, GTA, Monument Valley, Riptide GP2 etc right in our pockets and we need not to go outside to Play Games or get Entertained. 
Games simulate our mind the same way as we act in real life situations, but the actual action is not happening; So basically we are confusing our brains with our eyes open on a costly iPad Air.

Playing games on computer used to be unacceptable during school days, when Mom used to scold us by giving the threat that "If you play too many games, you may spoil your eyesight"

The irony being, now we teach our parents about the new apps on the Playstore and the question whether "Playing games on iPad/Tablet is Good or Bad....remains an unsolved problem"

But why are these innocent Free Games abysmal after all? And secondly why are people forcing us to play them ? Or are they ? May be not..who knows ?

Grandparents used to tell us to play outside, but we have enclosed ourselves in a room in-order to play with friends around the globe. I loved playing games since childhood & I play them till I Complete them. But nowadays, Games do not end. There are infinite levels in each and every one of them and thousands of incentives to keep you sticked. So what do we do ? Should we Play a Little and Delete or Play only 1 and try to Complete or May be we dont play them and Enter Reality.

Games today are a Trap, although Apps were meant for improving our lives by making a device do more and Games were a part of it too, so as to fill in the void of time.

The integration of Social Networking has "actually" made us believe that we are playing with our Friends. Although technically we do. 

Our body secretes similar chemicals while playing games that it would emanate in Real Life Situations and thus gaming feels soo real and we tend to like it more and more. But the action is not happening in practical life, neither are we able to touch the Object nor are we actually doing Work.

I am not onto the Nintendo where you can Play Tennis and Boxing etc with a small stick in your hand. I am yet to analyse the intricacies of it. But the games we play daily on a flat tablet or computer has Questioned my Existence !

We are only giving commands/signals to get a work done. This is what happens in Day Dreaming, we get a thought and start feeling in the direction we wish to. Only that we do not have to accept any License Agreement, nor do we have Advertisements. But we do have distractions in our mind that stop us from dreaming. So why pay and Play Games when u can Dream for Free ?

After getting Frustrated from 7 games on my tablet simultaneously and waiting for 2 minutes more so that my airport gets upgraded to Level 47 really made me think that all the effort I applied on this silly 7 inch tablet, had I done some Physical Labour, I would have owned a real Aerodrome. 

At the end Conclusion seems simple that we shouldn't play too much Games. But hey, which level are u on Candy Crush ? Coz u keep sending me that extra life as a Good Gesture ;p