Busy as a B...

If someone were to tell a twelve year old me that I would be this busy as at this age, she have laughed at them. It wouldn't be much different if you asked the eighteen year old me... Or even the twenty three year old me. Heck, the 27 year old me would have laughed the hardest.

I've always wanted to be my own boss so that I could do what I wanted to do whenever I wanted to do it. Because I like doing many different things.

But now that I am my own boss and I get to do everything that I want to, the twelve, eighteen, twenty three and twenty seven year old me couldn't have been more wrong.

I am not a hard working person. I take my time with things and don't always take the extra effort. One may even call me lazy and I couldn't care less. But I do take what I really like doing quite seriously... Without taking myself too seriously. And as I mentioned earlier, I like doing many things. Sometimes all at once. And I love every minute of it.

But this month has been like nothing I've experience before. And it's just not ending! Between work, teaching, site visits in the city and outside, workshops and extra sessions and many such activities, I've been having really long days doing too many things! One might even say I'm working hard, but I still believe I'm not. I've been on the edge most of the time and loving every minute of this too, but I wish I had some of the blank spaces to recharge my mind to avoid burning out or even lashing out on unsuspecting friends and family. I've had to pass up a few interesting opportunities and may need to give up a few more temporarily. It's not going to be easy. 

This post is a long overdue acknowledgement of this fact.

Humour me

I thought I should read some new funny fiction books so I went on goodreads and checked their readers choice 'best of humour 2017' list. I was disappointed as all of the books featured on the list were memoirs/essay collections written by TV personalities and comedians! Not a single humour fiction book!

Then I checked lists from the previous years. Found it the same. I found a few fiction humour books in the 2014 list though.

So does that mean no one writes humour fiction anymore? No, I'm sure people still write many funny fiction books. But what sells is whatever TV comics write. Doesn't mean what they write isn't funny. it's highly engaging and observational. But it fits a pattern which I've only inferred from my limited exposure to this genre, so I might be wrong. But they are relatable because we see them and we know them. We can put a face, a voice and a personality to the writing and one doesn't have to use too much imagination. Easy and fun. Perfect reading for your daily commute.

I do like reading humour fiction. And apart from the classics, every once in a while I come across gems like 'Look who's back' and 'The Martian' (which is more hard science fiction than humour.) Which makes me think... Why don't they have a separate sub-genre for Fiction humour just like they have science fiction, fantasy fiction, historical fiction, young adult fiction, young adult fantasy and science fiction and romance. Shouldn't those most funny non fiction book be under 'Memoirs'? They may have to add a new genre called 'Memoirs humour'. A mess of genres but what fantastic and precise categorisation at the same time!

Cause and effect

It's strange what can affect you. At times the most gruesome/sad human interest story can't make you feel much, but a story about Polar Bears starving because of climate change can wrench your heart. Like someone has given you unimaginable pain.

All that anger, frustration and heartache comes out an one single instant and it's quite uncontrollable. And for that moment, I'm quite inconsolable. I blame myself for this. For the dying polar bear and for not feeling much.

Or not being able to express my feelings for people.