Thoughts — Beliefs

I did a stupid thing recently - I decided I needed a break from meaningful relationships in my life. Yup, it felt as dumb as it sounds. But I still think I did it for all the right reasons. You see, society said I need to have meaningful relationships as I grow up, so I went ahead and made quite a few of them over time. But for a very long while now, I have felt weirdly hollow; like I was missing something, I almost felt uncomfortable in my own skin. And after quite a few days of thinking, I...

Quite often I’ve been told by my friends to get out and travel, and (because I have other priorities or a small budget) I would internally roll my eyes and think something along the spectrum of “I got this”, “I don't need to”, to a more wholesome “I doubt travelling would give me anything more than I need”.  I also developed an annoyance towards the repeated mention of travelling (more so, solo travelling) which is quite the trend on social media and dating profiles, to the point where they incessantly use hashtags along the lines of #travelbug #wanderlust that lead...

My family has a long standing relationship with hospitals thanks to bad genetics and an unhealthy lifestyle. This relationship is so familiar to me that the hospital kind of feels like my second home. I know, just like me, there are many people out there for whom trips to the hospital are as regular as brushing your teeth. For people like us, hospitals end up becoming safe spaces.  Actually, scratch that, hospitals are supposed to be safe spaces for everyone irrespective of where they lie on the health scale. This is purely because of the nature of service provided and...

One of my first internships was as a teaching assistant for special needs children. These kids were 5 years old and had an average of four to five break times during their day (as they most certainly should!) Lucky them, right? Although I honestly can’t say the same thing about my very first week there. Every time it was time for a break, I would feel concerned and jittery because someone would end up falling, crying, getting pushed or shoved. By the end of the day, it felt like almost all of them were a little injured in some way...

When I see how polarised the world is right now, I always wonder – how did we reach these opposite sides so quickly and so passionately? Why are we so ready to give in to violence over an idea that was not ours in the first place? From ridiculous arguments on the internet to full-fledged wars that threaten millions of lives, how did we even get here?  According to political scientist Lilliana Mason, our brains are wired to work this way. It doesn’t take much for our brains to switch over to an ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ mindset – research suggests...