Wednesday, March 24, 2010

When nothingness takes over... its beautiful !



Since the past two weeks, I have been busy doing nothing. I’ve wanted to write but the ‘nothingness’ has taken over me, which mind you, I don’t mind at all ;). I can’t remember when the last time was when I did nothing – no job, being at home, no agenda, no plan.

I never really have taken a break. College vacations meant being at home, working on projects and internships. As soon as college got over the mad rush to get into a post graduate college or getting a job became the focus and before I knew it, the big bad corporate world swept me off my feet just a month past college. It took me two years to take the break to study again, not earn and live on someone else’s money, which lead to getting a job as soon as the course got over.

I worked in my previous organisation for almost three years. By the end of it, I was so glad it was all over because somewhere I had burned out. Is it because of the organisation, the system or a very high burn –out rate in today’s generation?

For the first time in 12 years, I am free with no agenda and no plan, and the best part is this is not even a holiday.

I don’t get why we run behind things that hold no importance after a while. Why we want to grow up soon and why we yearn for responsibilities that once shoved upon us are burdens we don’t want to take so what we do is take a U-turn and run back to times which were simple. Sadly, we hit a road-block – its a one way street.

So well, what have I been doing during nothingness –

  • I have discovered the pleasures of afternoon siestas. Life is certainly good when you can sleep whenever you want. My official sleep timing have now become 11 + 3 hours. 
  • I have finally taken over the wheel and enrolled in driving classes, I know its a wee bit late in life but I always did believe it's better late than never (another one crossed from the to do before 30 mega list)
  • I have discovered the internet in whole new way. I swear by www.stumblupon.com . it never fails to enlighten and entertain me. 
  • I spend hours staring blankly at my FB page and quite honestly I’m getting bored of it. Twitter keeps me entertained though. Its fun to know what Shahrukh Khan’s kids are doing and what he ate for dinner. (OK, it is fun – is sarcastic, yet it’s entertaining!)
  • I have started enjoying music again. There are some brilliant artists like Brandi Carlile and Ingrid Michealson I have discovered and become instant fans of.
  • Nothingness has given me time to ponder on what touches me most – Children. I have the time to plan my education project, learn and read more about child rights and welfare. I am re-reading – a long way gone (and am shocked yet again) There are organisations like http://www.child-soldiers.org/home and Amnesty working with child soldiers yet some 250,000 estimated child soldiers exist in the world today. Somewhere something hurts and then one wonders two things –
    • When will I as a person get the courage to get out, get there and do something?
    • When will materialism take a backseat for me?
         The answer is in the questions, and that is the irony. 
  • I also spend hours each day on dubizzle.com, a website on which I am sure everyone in the UAE depends on for everything. I go through it to find the perfect house for myself. Did I ever mention how excited I am to do up my house, my own house! Dubizzle is sale heaven, everything is CHEAP. I know the IKEA catalogue by heart now and instead of my small studio, I am sure I will be able to furnish anyone’s villa in Dubai. (which is not a bad freelance option now!)
Everyone asks me if I am excited about moving to Dubai. For starters, till the visa arrives (and that takes sometime) I really am not going, besides I am keeping all the excitement for when I get there. I am sadly superstitious about my own feelings. Also the astrologer (read here) had mentioned I will not go abroad to stay, so till I prove the B@#$%^& wrong, I am not jumping the gun though come to think of it with the extensive Indian population (did I mention that Haji Ali Juice centre has a branch in Dubai?) he might have considered the UAE a part of India and therefore not considered it abroad.

Nevertheless, I am shopping for funny things used in the kitchen – chimtas, belans, chaklas and all of that. I am also shopping for clothes – Indian advertising spoils you, when you can go to work in osho chappals and denims you never think it is important to own a business suit.

Shopping well, is always fun. 

So, it’s been two weeks so well deserved and well earned that nothing for a long time will compare to this time spent sleeping, driving, random internet surfing and cyber stalking shahrukh and kunal kapoors twitter pages.

Two weeks of letting go. Embracing things that haven’t yet come and living the moment of nothingness.

Simply fantastic!

13 comments:

R2 said...

Good stuff.
Enjoyed the simplicity and ease with which the every day small pleasures have been brought to the fore.

DALLAS said...

WOW super blog!! Why aren't you published yet??!

Unknown said...

All I can say is welcome to the club! Time for me to get back to work though, but enjoy this time while it lasts :)

tofu said...

niiiiice...... maybe you should write a book called idle Tuesday afternoons...

idletuesdayafternoonthoughts said...

@ aarti and dallas - thanks !
@ sangram .... advertising again ??
@ raunaq... yes, very soon !

Barkha said...

Love your blog Aanchal. Keep it up!

idletuesdayafternoonthoughts said...

thanks barkha ... keep reading :)

Unknown said...

Well, depends on who pays me enough, but most probably it's back to advertising...

idletuesdayafternoonthoughts said...

@ sangram ... all the best !!!! :)

June said...

Simple but really nice to read. "Why we want to ...... its a one way street". Great quote, I agree :)

idletuesdayafternoonthoughts said...

@ june, thanks for the grt feedback !

Nikhil Tuli said...

Ohh!!! Thanks for the information. Didnt knew about the stuble site before. It is awesome, and 24 hrs and I have already spend a few hrs on it... :)

idletuesdayafternoonthoughts said...

my pleasure nikhil !!!! happy surfing :)

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