experiences – Page 8 – Abhinav Bhatt

Festivities in 2020

A few days ago, I attended a birthday party of my 2-year-old nephew on Zoom. As expected, it was beautiful but chaotic. Most of the guests (their age ranged from 2-year-olds to 75-year-olds) were using Zoom for the first time. At least they hadn’t attended with so many participants. But it was the only way possible. Since it happened online, people who would ignore such parties, also joined in.

That is the basic premise of 2020. People are more connected than ever. We also realize that online is not the same as in-person.

This would be my 3rd time in 10 years away from my hometown when I am going to spend Diwali (the biggest festival for me and my family) in Bangalore. As I write this, it is raining here. I just switched off the lights which I installed outside. There’s hardly any noise of crackers this time. Out of say 50 houses, I see from my balcony, only 5 of them barely show any glitter which looks Diwali-worthy. A lot has happened this year already which has brought more gloom than glee. The picture outside doesn’t really help. And this is all compared to the usual hoopla the festival of Diwali is in Jaipur. If I say Jaipur is designed for Diwali, it won’t be an understatement. Most of the friends here have either left Bangalore or are staying far away.

We could have stayed gloomy and kept it dark. But we did step up and tried to do our bit. Again, I am not bursting crackers, but I did install some Lights outside, we bought dozens of Diyas and Candles, we are making some Diwali special dishes, prepping up to make rangoli, and doing everything possible to make it memorable. We won’t go outside as the pandemic is still not over. This time, we would celebrate it on Zoom. It would be chaotic, but it would still be beautiful. This might give another opportunity to connect with folks, with whom, it has been a long time no see situation.

Happy Diwali to everyone staying away from their homes! And by home, I mean people you care about. Let’s brighten things up!

Sound Check

In your head you might have a baritone of a voice. But in actuality, you might sound like a whistle.

Anyways, I sound exactly like what I picture myself sounding like: Fast, Hyper, and somewhat sparky.

I got an opportunity to talk about Blogging on a Podcast recently.

On the go gyaan, is a relatively new podcast but getting popular as we speak. It deals with discussions on Communication and is made by my friends from Toastmasters. Here are the links:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onthegogyaan/

Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL29udGhlZ29neWFhbi9mZWVkLnhtbA/episode/b250aGVnb2d5YWFuLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tLzg2MDY5YzY3LTg5ZjktMzY2Ni05ZGM3LTNkZTAwNTA1MGYyOA?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwiYqIf3rPjsAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ

Apple Podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/11-blogging/id1525908344?i=1000497926503

What’s in the Title?

There might not be anything in the name but there might be everything in the Title.

Bhujia or Namkeen, the delightful savory made in Bikaner, is world-famous without a doubt (at least for me). Near the old place of my grandparents, there is one particular shop from which we still get our quarterly supplies in kilograms of Bhujia every time someone gets a chance to visit. The shop is called Hariram Namkeen Bhandaar but someone nicknamed it ‘Kauda ki Dukaan’, or the Shop owned by ‘Kauda‘. Now, Kauda was just a slang which actually means nothing. But it was meant to depict the somewhat large eyes of the then shopkeeper, as a joke.

Feeling Trumped!

Although I am extremely lucky in a generic sense as a human. But when it comes to being lucky in winning prizes or monetary bonanzas, I am as lucky as the bird who arrives at the scene later in the morning. I have to really struggle, strive, and scramble to earn something though.

So, today I got an email from my bank that they are crediting some money in my account due to a correction at their end. The amount was substantial. My first instinct was to double-check the source of the email because it could’ve very well been a phishing email or spam. It wasn’t. I couldn’t wrap my head around being so lucky out of the blue. I could hear happy uplifting music and the sun shone brighter.

It was late at night and it was dark and then suddenly…

Most people would’ve had this experience: It would have been late at night. You were hanging out with your friends or cousins and someone pitched the idea of talking about the ghosts and supernatural kinds of stuff they had experienced or knew of someone who had. Surely, it would’ve driven someone to leave the room to avoid that. While, for some, it would have been an experience to cherish, be imaginative, make jokes, play pranks, and what not!

Since today is Halloween, a day not really celebrated in India as such, but still everyone is familiar with it. We don’t really prefer talking about such stuff but as a society, we certainly enjoy horror in one form or the other. Let me share 3 instances like that which faint-hearted people can certainly skip. Heh, no I am kidding, everyone can read and share their own as well.

1408

One time I watched a movie called 1408, starring John Cusack on my computer. I enjoyed it. As they say, it was a one time watch Horror movie. It ended normally, life went on, things became usual.

Few days later, the same movie was being shown on TV. I thought of watching it again. When the climax came, something was off.

When I had watched on the computer earlier, the ending was different. When they showed on TV, the ending was different. Without spoiling, I can say that in one case, a character dies, while in another ending he doesn’t.

That weirdness blew my mind. I tried to think harder whether I actually watched the movie earlier or not. Or it was some new format of Deja Vu I was experiencing. It kept on wondering what’s the deal with this or should I get myself checked.

Turned out that the movie 1408 had 2 deliberate endings. One was the US version while another was Canadian.

It was a temporary but a great experience to feel out of control about what one had witnessed first hand. It was like a dream which feels real. Kind of like limbo.

Good fun.

Here’s its Minimal Poster by the way.

The Manga Guide To… Everything

In Japanese Culture, comicbooks are integral. They not only have comics prevalent in many forms for kids, a large portion of the publication is meant and received well equally for adults too.

You want to tell a story, there will be a Manga for it. You want to tell history, there will be a comic book for that. And, if you want to learn Maths, there will be a graphic novel for that too.