Renaissance Idiot's ramblings

There used to be a time when I lived more on my balcony than inside my room. Now I sit down in the same spot on my study table, facing the window, trying to look out through the negative spaces between the drying clothes. As days go by, I miss how the outside of my window used to look. When I was 12, my family unanimously decided to annexe the balcony into our rooms. On paper it was a great idea; the balconies were tiny and any added space in our small rooms would be awesome. I recall the process of this annexure, with numerous masons working in the house, demolishing a few existing walls and then constructing new walls and windows. I remember thinking how astronomically huge the rooms felt to me at that age, although the extension was barely 2.5 feet in width. I would frequently play cricket in that tiny extension, with no clue of what I had lost. Another 13 years later, now I feel we didn't gain much, the rooms are darker, the quality of space in the house feels low and we have b...

Gregory Samsa wakes up to see himself turned into an insect. I llustration by Richard Johnson. It's my routine: I go to sleep, prepared to repeat the same old daily routine or work. But, when I open my eyes, I cannot seem to get up. As I look down, my arms and legs are turned into a bug’s. Even my body has become hard and resembles that of a beetle/centipede. Now, what do I freak on about first? My body that doesn't look human anymore? The fact that my body hurts and cannot move? Or my work and the morning train that I have surely missed? Gregory worries about the latter and the consequences that will follow if he misses this day or even dares to show up late. It takes a unique level of conditioning where one discards their own wellbeing for work. Written in 1912, I am not sure if Kafka’s time had corporate toxic work culture but he was able to accurately predict and satirise a way of living which would be the norm 100 years later.  Myself, my peers and even my seniors have emb...

What part of myself makes me wake up every day, attend to my hygiene, eat breakfast and head out to catch my bus to work? Over 99.9% of the world shares this trait with me; who want to survive and provide for the people they care about and continue doing the same every day. This is including a minority of sociopaths who can go out of their way to hurt others indirectly in order to further themselves. A notable mention of this phenomenon for myself was in May 2020, when the country locked down and mass hysteria filled the news and streets. I was lucky to live with three other people with whom I shared this conundrum. Every day was somehow a positive start for us who came together to do basic tasks like figuring out where to get groceries from and praying for when will the alcohol shops open again. The Haywain by Hieronymous Bosch c. 1490-9 Bosch, inspired from religious teaching, would paint scenes of people rejoicing in heaven, living on earth and suffering in hell. These were meant to...