Who Likes TV?

Everyone can bash the television as much as they want to, call it an idiot box, or enemy of conversation. There is one thing about the television though that shuns all the criticisms against it; it prevents you from missing human companionship too much.

In simple words, the TV keeps you from realizing that you really are alone. Yes, one must be aware of that fact and cope with it blah blah. But, once in a while, it is nice to just sit on a couch with an ice-cream bucket in your hands, feet propped up on the table, watching some mindless TV.

You’re in for an extra treat if what you’re watching is actually engaging. You’ll laugh, and that too in a phase of your life when you didn’t think it was possible. It will then do what no other human at the moment can do: support, console, and entertain you.

I say, forget all complications among real humans! And enter the life of construct! …for it is like being in wonderland… when you come back, your life will still be waiting, but you’ll have a lighter head to deal with it all.

Cheers to television! Because sometimes, admit it or not, you need a break from real people…

Melodies in a Coffee Cup

I would like to keepsake this moment in history. Who knows where I will be ten years from now. My current facebook status will tell you that I am at Starbucks, jamming to Indian music. From classical instrumental to modern upbeat balle balle is playing here.

I have often found myself wondering, how would things have been had I never moved to the US… Would I really be a true Delhi-ite, writing my English with unnecessary “tashan,” speaking the hybrid hinglish, chilling in the “galis,” hitting the bazaars, complaining about India and its politics…or would I still be the nerd hanging out at the college library, having a group study that has too much fun and is glared at by all others, loving my culture no matter what…or something completely unimaginable..

I have always wanted to be able to go regularly to the gym in India, so that I could be surprised by the music I actually know how to sing along with, and get that extra boost of energy to burn some more calories. There’s a special type of pleasure in hearing your old favorite song unexpectedly that choosing songs in your ipod cannot ever replace. A shot of chicken soup for the soul.

In midst of my two worlds, I have often imagined where I belong, or if I belong to just one world at all anymore. I am who I am, and I am where I am. It’s much easier said than accepted.

But, right now, I’m here. I am in Starbucks. I am the girl on the laptop, sitting in the dim light at the corner table, smiling to myself. The violet wall and the modern wall paintings that are meant to entice customers for a perfect coffee setting are in the backfrop. I know I am in Gainesville. I look around, and people have no idea that I am not working on some major assignment, but am instead writing a petty blog post about this seemingly unimportant moment.

In this moment, I am here, with Indian music to hear. I feel nostalgia, but I am glad that I am here, witnessing this moment and understanding it. The Hindi oldies my dad would try to get me to listen to, that I probably never would have appreciated in India, I am listening to them in the library of my college in the U.S., and I couldn’t be happier… My dad would have been super excited to hear about this…he would have gotten it…gotten me…because I got this from him…this feeling, this excitement about the world, this little tiny amazing moment, he would have taken pleasure from it too.

It’s nice, flattering, and simply extraordinary. Sipping India in a coffee cup in an obscure college town in Gainesville, Florida.