Well there aren’t many podcasts that I’m in these days but there are a few that bless my ears…
One of the podcasts that I used to listen to was “Violating community guidelines” by Sarah Schauer and Brittany Broski;
I know weird names but they complimented each other and the funny instances on their podcasts were so hilarious that I often laughed out while working making people think that I’ve gone crazy 🤪..
48 episodes discussing the trends on the social media and what went on during the year 2022 and the end of it,
Started in January of ‘22 ending in December of the same year, Ive found myself to go back to it year after year and boost my mood and give me laugh whenever life pins me down…
These days I’m invested in a podcast called Alan watts daily wisdom and yes they’re sharing the timeless teachings of the philosopher Alan watts through ai in his voice to all the world to listen and view too…
Started a month ago and 24 videos in gathering a whopping 108k followers as we speak (on yt) I’ve found it very helpful and informative by giving me insight to live this life better in ways that are often overlooked…
I’m pretty sure most of the world is suffering with this disease of a very long screen time, hooked on Instagram reels, YouTube shorts and videos, clips on TikTok and many more…
Time seem to pass by so quickly when we are hooked on them that it feels unreal;
You started watching them at 10 at night and suddenly it’s 1:30 before you can see the time on the phone which was there all the time…
There are a lot of things that I use to achieve my goal of reducing screen time a few of them are->
Having a separate phone for doing writing without any distractions so that I can focus when otherwise I would find a way to stop writing and doom-scroll Instagram..
Tracking screen time on both my phones just to keep in touch with how much I used a single app and how much I need to cut back…
Presetting a timer on each app which I use a lot for example I set a timer for an hour on Instagram which is a lot less from 4-5 hours which used to happen without knowing…
Trying to avoid using phones for the first few hours I usually wake up and pen my ideas or any dreams that I had, which makes all of it interesting as it boosts my writing skills and also imaginative skills which help me remember what happened in my dream world…
And at last, I keep my phones a bit away from me like for charging away from me when I have free time so I’d have to walk to it to get it as I’m on my bed, which cuts the interest in getting up and grabbing it a bit more…
There’s so much fascinating things that happened in our past that piques my interest, but if I were to point out a single one of them it would definitely be partition of my country INDIA…
Aftermath of that are still faced to this day, I’ve seen people without purpose and reason just existing on this side and on the other side too, sometimes all one does is question themselves are they born on the right side…?
Being from a family whose ancestors travelled from what is now Pakistan and settled here in India a sense of love and friendship still exists somewhere in this heart of ours, even though a lot of bloodshed happened in retaliation of which we also picked arms and caused harm of equal or more intensity…
Imagine leaving your friends, your ancestral home, your neighbours, your world behind and travelling beyond the line that was etched onto a map and now enforced by setting up boundaries and on it army personnel letting you pass only after checking…
It was chaos, there was so much loss and the place that my ancestors settled was covered in grass that was as high as knees length which contained mutilated body parts of the people who resided here before us who became victim of the violence that took place which uprooted them from the very place that they settled in to raise their young ones…
It was such a horrific incident that the survivors still tell us the tales of the horrors they saw from their very two eyes and all of it plays in their mind like it happened last night…
A truly horrible happening that shaped our very core, fascinating all those who decide to step into this thought of process and try to feel how they must have endured it all…
Thankfully, I haven’t underwent any surgery up until this point of time in my life, but, I’m surrounded by people, who are close to me, very dear to me who underwent surgery, To save them, or try to save them from a life-threatening disease, that was looming over their heads…
My father had to go through a colectomy, to remove a part of infected small intestine, which developed had developed into a fast-growing cancer, that had already spread through his soft tissue, but, his conditions deteriorated after the procedure, as the medications stopped working and we ultimately lost him in late ’23, extremely hard times those were, May his soul rest in peace…
My aunt had to go through multiple of them, another person stuck with cancer, first, the doctors ordered to remove her uterus, which was the center, where the problems began, later it metastasized to her other organs, and detection were made, where tumors were found in her breasts, which had to be removed too, which broke her spirit, as we eventually lost her after a year of fighting the battle against the fast-spreading disease…
One of my cousin sisters had surgery too, she was developing polyps in her uterus, which were making her life miserable, and the history of a mother who passed away with cancer, she took no risks and went ahead with the surgery before it could develop into cancerous ones, which made her life better, as she can live carefree, but, she has to work with caution, as they can develop again, by managing diet, and having routine check-ups…
Being surrounded by, the survivors and the tales left by those who have left us early, remembering and keeping all of them in our heart and minds, as they taught us to never lose hope, until the very last point…
Another day, another great prompt if you ask me, if us humans, each and every one of us had their own tagline, a catchy phrase, or something indicating the type of person they are, or the type of work they do, which would easily cut down a lot of unnecessary conversations, or a part thereof..
Imagine, if you were in need of a lawyer, and on introduction in an informal setting, they said their tagline, like,
“A proficient lawyer, and an attorney with 25 years of experience, tracing the footsteps of (their parent’s business), and taking real pride in their work…”
Doesn’t this make things much simple, like you know what you want and what are you looking for, with a simple introduction that starts with a tagline, and you already know if you want to continue the conversation or not….
But, there has to be some strict laws that are guiding them, imagine someone forging their data or information, (A much real possibility.) just for securing a deal or a job and after that fleeing the scene without a trace, which in fact nullifies all of the effort and dependence on this tagline system….
If you were to ask a normal person about this, they would for sure be expressive of their feelings, and within it, in plain sight where their professional skills would be told in an easy-to-understand way; But, if they were seeking companionship, they would add things that might be common like their interests like birdwatching or going on hikes, or dog walking or something like keeping a garden, which would signify that he takes care of his surroundings and loves animals and such, making them a viable candidate…
Again, we’d have to be careful, that someone doesn’t come up with things that they can’t do, and they added it just to make themselves sound better and get what ulterior motives they had…
NOW, What would be my tagline you ask…?
“A hardworking person, who tries to fit themselves into places that are new and difficult, just to expose and gain enough skills to be a better person, A writer too, who writes without boundaries and seeks new experiences, to be a better storyteller to his kids and grandkids as he ages like fine Wine, coming from a business family, and importance of learning things from scratch makes them always open for new innovation, and skills that can be honed and refined further…”
Cheers 🥂
Love Waakiye 🤍
A table full of people, waiting for someone’s arrival, a person of character for whom they gathered there, much more valuable his time was than theirs…
As they ordered some entrees, a few drinks on the table, slowly everyone’s taglines escaped their mouths, a business owner, a housewife, a diligent employee, a secretary, and a newly appointed receptionist, and in the background, a newly married couple, sharing the same last name, sobbing she was as he consoled her…
As he watched from the corner, waiting for things to settle down, as his phone rang, on hearing the news, he went silent, a single beep continued as he heard the news…
We couldn’t save the people in the vehicle, a drunk driver whose tagline said, “An addict who was clean from the past 5 years…” was in fact drunk and ran a red light crashing into the car in which his wife and kid were, killing them on the spot…
The girl on being a friend of the nurse in the hospital, which their lifeless body came in, and confirming her, of the worst fears…
As he got up to approach them, they climbed into their vehicles, and drove to the hospital, unknown to the happening, he sat there, as he recognized, a similar car, a similar number plate and a similar bumper sticker, before they flashed a photo, with him and his wife and a child merely 7, his whole world uprooted, as the tires screeched and in the parking lot of hospital he was, where they saw the remainder of his family surrounded by news reporters, as he slid past them, he saw, on the gurney, bruised up, scratched and heavily injured body of his wife, and on the other, a crushed one, from the direct impact, on the passenger’s side, A small, little one, his little one, laughing and playing with his toys hours before…
As he screamed silently, curling up in a ball, unknown to how he would face, face this world ever again…
There are constant fears that stay on this mind, bugging it, making it worry unnecessarily, by taking a good chunk of mind and its processing…
Imagine you’re at work, and a random thought comes and interrupts your thinking, sometimes it comes when you’re sitting at your desk, or in a meeting, explaining a presentation, that can be make and break type thing, But, being human, there are many things whose answers are unknown to us, till yet, even with all of the advancements, in the fields of science and technology…
The question in question… “The Paralyzing fear of death and what follows…”
The question whose answer is unknown and shall remain until the near future, but, seeing many from my family taken up by it, and making numerous trips to places like Haridwar, where remains of the deceased are taken and scattered as per our rituals, but, there’s something that even that fails to answer..
WHY, WHY DO WE DIE…?
The fear stays as we watch our elders grow weak, their movements, their agility take fall, they aren’t as strong as they used to be, but, it feels like they are using their remainder, to live, and within a few more years they’ll be using their reserve too, and after that, when we will reach a stage where, their existence will be replaced by us, and our young ones and the cycle shall continue forever…
Maybe, the day we are supposed to leave and go back to the constant, the non-existence of life, or a free space where we reside permanently away from the cycle of life or death, our departure is calculated at the very beginning, so is our birth at the time of our conception, but away from it all, where we live without this fear, the constant fear of running out of time…
Cheers 🥂
Love Waakiye 🤍
Maybe, just maybe, this is how it feels…?
A path that’s darkened, with a door that stays open, waiting for our return, waiting to come back to a place that we left, those whom we left…
Maybe a few moments have passed, as they inquired my whereabouts, where have i been, and with a smirk, I reply, I was just here, went out for a breather…
And, just like that i lived a life, entirety of it, within a few moments, and no-one batted an eye, as we continued to sit in that room, staring at the walls, occasionally talking, letting out a sigh, and someone leaving the room, returning after a few minutes, with changed expressions…
Some faces had dread, some were epitome of happiness, some were neutral, and some had fear that resembled a loss of life or, a broken bone or a severed limb, waiting for their turn yet again…
On this floor, a big hall with uncountable rooms on this side and other side too, stretching as far as eyes can see, with a lift on one side that goes on floors wherever there’s room, last i checked as i went to get a breather, it was returning from floor 1618…
Every breath taken, in a sense, to last longer, than the last…
The pain, like a slow working poison, hurting as its traveling to parts different, and eats from within the being…
A sense of doom, looms over the person, a fear that haunts, reminding, of the change in dynamics, of the responsibilities that were shed, once she was given from a home, to a house, unknown…
Numerous calls, a wish to return, A wish to see the faces of those remaining, BUT, A strict no, stood in the way, As she breathed, drank, dabbed herself in poison, each day, until the blue, overcame her, and there she lay, in a cloth pure white, a call was made…
A call was made, that carefree father’s laughter, turned into nightmare, as tears started to fall, the drive was painful, The words barely leaving, As they saw, their daughter, or what remained of her, in a cloth, PURE WHITE…
Wishing a conversation, a last one, but, unaware of the fact, they themselves closed that gate shut….!
I know this isn’t something to be said just like that, but this is something that I wrote in my notes app when I heard this news…
A relative in my family met with an accident as they were driving to a place away from their home and they met with an accident, the husband and their adopted child escaped with minor injuries, but, the wife she fell and hit her head directly on the pavement, there was massive b;eeding, and in shock everyone was…
Then began the trips to hospitals, they took her to the nearest one, they gave the initial attention and recommended her to another one and another one to another…
After finding a good doctor(extremely rare), he told us(un-officially) that we should take her to a hospital that’s nearest to their home, and they did, because losing someone away from home isn’t something that noone would ever ask for…
After keeping her in a hospital we got the news that she had a blood clot in her brain and some fragments of the bone of her skull punctured into the brain; overnight surgery was the go to for having any hopes of saving her and after that she was put on ventilator for the rest of her time…
After being given a timeline of maybe a week, maybe a month, maybe an year, just after 10 days we were told that there’s no more life in that body, all the chaos that rolled down after that, the fight with doctors and staff, removing the ventilator, her breathing her last as the plug was pulled, remaining was the empty bag of flesh and bones…
After bringing her lifeless body back home, and preparing all the things necessary for the rituals, all until the pyres were engulfed with flames and her remains reduced to ashes….
Thats how life has been, i haven’t been able to think straight, after witnessing a second one this month…
He||, literal He|| of a month…
But, the world goes on…
We wish for her journey ahead to be an easy and blessed one
In a disarray we all were, until we were given the news, now like these flowers once full of life, they lay down, to be a part of the cycle once again,just like we all shall one day….
Waakiye 