Back to Basics

Hello world, it’s me. A minuscule dust particle in the grand scheme of things. I float, I rise, I fall, I drift, I surrender, I persist, and sometimes I grow. With the other dust particles, I don’t feel so alone. But when I’m on my own I’m reminded of my own continuity.

Continuing without meaning, without depth, and without clarity. I float, I rise, I fall, I drift, I surrender, I persist and I sometimes grow. The process never ceases to tire me out, yet it rivets me. How is it possible that after all that drifting a piece of dust finds itself back where it started?

Is it luck, or destiny? To remain rooted? To remain grounded? Or is it the inability to move forward, being stuck in a wheel, constantly running but never going anywhere? I float, I rise, I fall, I drift, I surrender, I persist and I sometimes grow. A single dust particle looking for some company in this world.

The kind of dust particle that wishes to hold itself through the tribulations.

I float, I rise, I fall, I drift, I surrender, I persist and I sometimes grow.

I sometimes grow.

Quiet Quarantine Quibbles – Cooking Edition

Hello all! In the first post I wrote for this year (in the very first month of 2020), I believed we had had a terrible start to the decade. Fast forward a couple months, firefighting and protests later, we are in the middle of the worst pandemic our generation has seen. For a bit of sense making, I fall into the Gen-Z category of the population residing on our sweet and giving Mother Earth. And right now, she is really angry, tired, annoyed, pissed off (excuse the crassness) at everything we’ve done. And she’s given us, drumroll please – COVID-19.

I won’t go into the details of the same, as I believe those of us who have access to the internet and the power-wielding media, are aware of the pandemic that has taken the world by storm. The current number of cases reported as per today (22nd March 2020, where I reside) is 317, 298 people worldwide. STAY AT HOME IN SELF QUARANTINE AND WASH YOUR DAMN HANDS! It’s for the betterment of the world, and the health of your dear ones. Please share this information of staying safe from the virus to people around around you, especially people who may not have access to resources about it. Click here to be redirected to the World Health Organisation’s recommendations for staying safe in case you’re still not convinced (or need further proof of the severity of the situation), but please, continue reading in case you want to know what this post is really about.

I have the privilege of being able to work from home in these stressful times, and when I don’t have work to do – there is simply a butt load of time to spend. Again, I’m not going to refuse the privilege associated with having the luxury to work from home. I’m lucky to be working in an organisation that gave us employees the opportunity to exercise caution and make an informed decision about going to work, before the situation came to what it did last week in India. Which gives me some free time at home, when the work is done. And I was unsure of how to spend my time, apart from the usual of helping around the house with chores, catching up with family and friends, watching Netflix and napping.

Then, slowly some inspiration struck.

I decided to cook, in the time of the quarantine. Thus came about the idea of Quiet Quarantine Quibbles (Q3) here, just to distract myself and hopefully you, whoever may have stumbled here (Ps. Thanks for reading). I decided to write about the little things that I do at home to spend some time feeling productive. I also want to challenge myself to describe the things I do to the best of my ability only with words to create a wonderful picture of it your mind, rather than providing photographs of the same. Hopefully this becomes a thing, and I become a bit more consistent at blogging. Anywhooooo, back to the topic at hand. Cooking.

I cook regularly since I live by myself. But not so often for my family, at home. So I cooked a big wok full of fried rice and a hot, steaming bowl of chilli paneer (aka. cottage cheese). And once I did that, I baked some cookies, chocolate chip to be exact. And the latest as of today, I made the Instagram + Tik-Tok famous Dalgona coffee from South Korea. It was so delicious.

Today, I’m going to describe the process of making Dalgona Coffee.

I first saw it on Instagram, on friends stories. And I was whipped (pun intended). The caramel coloured cloud of cream softly perched on pristine while milk. I knew I had to try making it, just because of its visual appeal and of course, since it’s coffee. So I followed the simple instructions that my friends had so graciously uploaded on their stories. I took two spoons of instant coffee, 2 spoons of organic sugar and 2 spoons of hot water and put them into a bowl. Used a whisk to combine them.

I was extremely curious to observe the shift from the brown liquid in the bowl to the coffee cream. And shift it did, with 10 minutes of continuous whisking to transform into a light brown, almost tan coloured cream which stood in peaks. I was amazed by the metamorphosis of the mixture, and was eager to taste it. I’m warning you prior, the mixture will be very strong and bitter. Not at its best taste, yet. For that, I added milk into a glass tumbler and put a dollop of the coffee cream on top. Took a boomerang of it to post online, and then incorporated the cream and milk together to the best of my ability. Finally , it was time for tasting! The Dalgona Coffee tasted like the best homemade coffee milkshake ever. I was in heaven, but my only wish was that I could have consumed it chilled. With vanilla ice-cream and a square of milk chocolate.

But to prevent falling sick, I decided against it. (Stay safe, stay indoors, take care of your health and wash your hands). One can dream eh? Maybe when the weather is warmer and I’m not so worried about my throat getting sore due to ice-cream, I will make the Dolgona Coffee of my dreams!

I’m curious to know if you were able to imagine the process of making this delicious coffee. Was I successful in describing it, and painting a picture of it in your mind? Let me know! I also I hope all of you are staying safe right now, and are taking the utmost care of your health. We need to work together now more than ever! Let me also know of the things that you do at home to pass time! Sending loads of love and positivity your way. Good night 🙂

Fleeting

Emotions are as emotions do. But what do they really do? Half of the times they leave us wanting more, feeling that good old dose of nostalgia creeping through our veins. Like when I hear the bass-line harmonise with the electric guitar in Gravity followed by John Mayer’s croons. And other times, they make us feel alive. In the present. Living and breathing what ever it is you’re feeling. But the best part, the very best in my opinion…..

Is that none of them are permanent. They are permanently fleeting in the grassy plains of life, and help us determine what we see. Whether it’s most luscious green against blue sky with cottony clouds, or the murky green that only gets deeper with the rumbling beasts crowding the upper sphere.

The moments that we tend to remember are the ones that are driven and filled to the brim with emotion. Their vibrant hues and shades swirling from our hearts and minds into all of our senses. They show us the important things, they confuse us and fool us into believing things that may not be true. They show us the path yet take us on the most twisted route to approach the very same.

As a person who is vividly moved by their emotions, I have felt the things I’m describing. I’m not just pulling them out of thin air, but I will acknowledge that everyone’s journey and experience of emotions are very different and distinct. But I would like to encourage you to feel your emotions today. Or tonight. Make that impulsive decision, choose to save yourself from that terrible situation you’re in. Give in and go on that run you’ve been avoiding cause of work. Feel what you’re feeling in the moment, take what lessons it has to give you and be on your way. Life has it’s ways of letting us know that not everything is permanent.

And that my friends, is reassuring to know.

6/1

It’s a brand new day and I’m tired away

As the year has begun

I have nothing left to say

To the things that are in the past

And the thing’s I’ve done

I just hope this year

Is a much better one.

I really hope it will be.

Feeling hopeful.

The final 3? (NaPoWriMo Day 28, 29 & 30)

As per prompts go, it’s the end of National Poetry Writing Month! As per my writing goes, I still have a couple of poems to write to fully complete the month. Well, hasn’t it been a ride this April. Almost completing the whole writing challenge is a whole deal for me. Yes, I missed a couple of days but I persevered and wrote as much as I can. I may not deserve to feel this proud just yet (I mean, there are still 4-5 poems I’ve gotta write), but I do. Anyway, the prompt on the 28th was to write about an object thats to the left of where you’re sitting, and next t me happens to be a tumbler. So that is the poem prompt #28 gave rise to:

The tumbler stands tall despite it’s small frame

Assisting children and the elderly alike

And everyone in between

To drink what their hearts desire

But when thrown to the ground in anger

Or even by mistake

The strike of the ground hurts

The tumbler in it’s stainless steel glory

Remains as is

Serving silently (unless dropped to the ground)

And doing it’s duty.
~

Prompt 29 was to pick a tagline of any advertisement, and use that as the title of your poem. I did that quite literally, and decided to begin and end my poem with the tagline. I believe the company that uses this tagline is fairly obvious, so I won’t state which it is 😛 So here’s the poem instead:

Because you’re worth it.

You’re worth being understood

Having all the walls, curtains, masks

Covering your soul

To be pulled apart by careful and tender fingers

With no sketchy intentions.

You’re worth all the love in the world

Enough to carry you from the depths of your mind

High enough to see the light that every one else sees

Emanating from your eyes

And every inch of your sparkling being.

You’re worth everything you think you don’t deserve

What you think you can never

Achieve

Do

or

Create

Cause human

Everyone is learning everyday

And as cliched as it may sound

You’re soon going to be accepted, loved and found

Someday

Because you’re worth it.
~

And now to the final prompt of NaPoWriMo 2017 by Airplane Poetry Movement. It was the word ‘Endless’. I decided to look at the word in slightly different manner, I hope you understand the meaning of the poem, and what it stands for. That’s all i want to say about, interpret it as you please.

Without further ado, here is my response to prompt #30:

The moon orbiting the Earth

Reminds me of my feelings for you.

Twice I wished to pull away

And once I did

But it was all marked by the same outcome.

I’m stuck in the same place.

And when your face lights up,

A smile crosses mine as well

Not only because of my feelings for you,

Because you’re my friend too

And losing you is the last thing I’d ever want

For us two.

Our friendship

Will remain as endless and as strong

As the gravity that keeps the moon and Earth together

Floating and revolving and rotating

Living our own lives, but being there for one another

And still far enough

For me to let you go,

And find my way back to you again.

with feelings purely platonic,

and nothing else.
~

(Photo taken from http://awesomejelly.com/7-strange-things-that-have-been-left-on-the-moon/)

Green With (NaPoWriMo Day 27)

Hello all, today’s prompt is to write about your favourite colour. I like a lot of colours, and with the help of my sister – I chose the colour ‘Green’. And I chose a different approach to it, I hope what I’m trying to say in conveyed clearly. Without further ado, here’s the poem 🙂

She looms behind the backs of the unknowing

Whispering sweet nothings into their ears

Luring them to the depths,

The depths of their own minds

And brings forward their very own fears

the smallest occurrences

The littlest thoughts with recurrences

As often as the impulses jolting through neurons

Adding on to the thinking one often does

Creating nuances that never existed

Coupled with the crushing feeling

Of longing in their chests

For things that they could hold in their grasp

Things that got over too fast

Or things that can never be theirs in the first place.

By this stage,

She turns away with a smirk

For her work is done

And her victims sheen is a sickly green

For they have been bitten by the bug of jealousy.
~

(Photo taken from https://www.freecreatives.com/backgrounds/green-glitter-background.html)

Afterlife (NaPoWriMo Day 24)

As you may have assumed from the title of this post (or you may have not), the prompt for today is the single word ‘afterlife‘. We’re allowed to interpret in any way we want to, and I think the way I’m looking at it slightly different. Here’s the poem, before I get to explaining myself:

I look back on the past and smile.

Where I stand right now,

I thought would be my afterlife.

Call me melodramatic

But I’m surprised I’ve made it this far.

Through the struggles, the heartache and the pain

I’ve managed to survive

With an uncertain smile and staggered breath

And a brain that’s held it’s shit together.

I smile because I’ve survived

And I know there’s much left to come

Life is never easy,

It’s the journey, the messy bits

The stains and scars

I’m definitely no where near prepared to face what’s in store

But if my ‘afterlife’ feels like the life I’ve wanted for a while,

Who knows what my ‘afterlife’

will look like when I would have stepped closer to my dreams

And all my colours

– dizzying blues and magnificent purples, startling greens and a sun-shiny yellow –

burst the seams of my being?

 ~

I’m considering the preset to be my afterlife. This is not written necessarily in my perspective, so just think about it this way. It’s to all the people who have ever felt super alone and felt like they can achieve nothing in their life in the past – but have pulled through. They’ve managed to get to this point where they can look back on the past, and smile, cause they made it.

I hope you caught on to what I was trying to say.

(Ps. Photo taken from http://ntapstalk.boxip.net/colour-picture.html)

Never Slack Off This Much

So, I wasn’t in the mood to write a poem on the 12th. And I wasn’t able to come up with something, so I decided I’d work on it the next day. This continued and continued, until today – which is the 23rd. And I’m so mad at myself. Geez. But I did promise myself that I would complete NaPoWriMo for sure, so I’ve written a weeks worth of poems in this post. The next post will contain the rest of the poems I missed – so here they are!

Day #12 Prompt: “I come from”
I come from places
Filled with happiness and pain
Places where despite the loss
I’ve always had something I gained
Places where the tears
Sometimes outdid the laughs
But that only taught me to laugh harder
With everything that happens
Living everyday, and embracing the past.

Day #13 Prompt: “Newspaper Headlines”
Newspaper headlines 
Strike me when I stare at the dead tree in my hands 
They stare back at me 
Just like puppies eyeing the last treat. 
The few times I read the paper 
They are all I look at 
And they make
Me feel 
Even 
More 
Sad 
Knowing that the world we live in 
Is riddled with things that I don’t have the power to change
So I ignore today’s headlines 
And sit back. 

Day #14 Prompt: Write an acrostic poem (Ps. WAS MY BIRTHDAY!!) 
Bald and very small 
I probably looked at the world and
Retched, wondering why it wasn’t so dark anymore but, since
Then there have been many days where the light became a friend
Having given me memories I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world 
Days like today remind me of the love I’m surrounded by 
A single day that made me feel like I was home 
Yes, home in hearts. 

Day #15 Prompt: Write about anything I want to write about.
Almost 
Saw
Myself 
In 
Your 
Arms 
But 
Remembered 
Distance 
Was 
Just 
As 
Physical 
As 
It 
Was 
Mental 
And 
I
Had 
To 
Keep 
It
That 
Way. 

Day #16: Write a poem in the POV of your favourite superhero.
Water keeps me calm 
Just as fire does, which took me a while to understand 
The earth as strong as my intention 
Which sometimes falters, 
Leaving me gasping. 
But when that does happen 
I breathe. 
My primary element fills my lungs 
And I learn to balance. 
I am the Avatar, 
And the world rests on my shoulders. 

Day #17: Write a poem about myself.
S*****A
A girl who cries every ounce of emotion out of her 
Whether it’s happiness, anger or sadness
Stuck stumbling in the daze of life 
Still finding her calling 
Still finding herself 
Still looking past the cracks 
Her voice makes 
The laughter that she sometimes fakes 
And trying to be the best of what she can be.

Day #18: Write a poem on the word ‘Dirty’. 
Splash! 
The rain batters the ground 
And there’s that beautiful sound all around 
The pitter-patter of rain drops 
And then 
Splash! 
I jump into all the puddles I see 
Coating my self in a thin layer of mud 
Before I am cleansed again by the onslaught of water 
Emerging from the giggling skies 
Full of life 
And  I sigh
I embrace the freeing feeling of nature 
Cleansing my soul, discarding the dirt 
I carried around on my skin and in my heart 
And I put my own peace first 
By just standing in the rain.

(Ps. Photo taken from http://anyaboz.deviantart.com/art/Persian-Cat-Room-Guardian-390915035)
(P.Ps. The cat is very exasperated with me. It’s a reflection of my inner-self right now.)

Rise (NaPoWriMo Day 11)

Hello all!
Today’s prompt is to in fifty words or less, write a poem about why people speak. My poem today is therefore pretty short, and pretty ambiguous. But I’m pretty proud of the simile  I made, so have a look at it 🙂 The poem is titled as ‘Rise’.

(Ps. It’s about something pretty deep, but is lighthearted as well.)

humans speak
to overpower the weak
to place worry in hearts
because that’s what terrors are
why not speak
of love instead
and make people rise
just like yeast in bread?

(Photo taken from http://coolvibe.com/2010/rise/) 

Stones and Nuts (NaPoWriMo Day 9 & 10)

Yesterday’s prompt was questions. Again, I couldn’t post on time. (Much thanks to procrastination and last minute preparations.) This is what I could come up with this time:

Questions

Swirling around

Always found

But never making any sound

As I keep them underground

At the very base of my throat

Cause sometimes

Sometimes

I’d rather keep them there

Than have them curl against my tongue

And listen to words that I’d rather not hear

So they stay

Where they are

Sediments and sediments turn into rock

Leaving wounds that eventually scar

And I forget just how far

deep within fossils are found

In the ground.

So even if I wanted to,

(Heh.)

I can’t make a sound.

Today’s prompt was to write a love letter to something you hate, and yes I hate Cashew Nuts. I know they’re favourite to many, but when you’re allergic to something you’re generally not that pleased with it. Anyway, here’s my poem on cashews. Hope you enjoy! (Ps. I feel like it’s a pretty shitty love letter, but I tried.)

To the best friend I’ve always had,

The Cashew nut.

You’re present in almost every dish at home

Paysa, curries and even bloody curd rice

I can go on for days

Trying to pick you out of everything I eat

So that my throat doesn’t itch

And feel like there’s an elephant sitting on my tongue.

Oh, and the dreaded Cashew Burfi

Everyone’s favourite,

You linger on the tip of their lips

Begging them for yet another kiss

While I groan and hiss

Cause you’ve caught them under your spell

And thanks to that

They won’t stop asking why I can’t love you as much as well.

(Image taken from http://sf.co.ua/id146474)