musingswhileunlearning

  Before I begin the blog, I would like to thank all my readers that keep me going. It has been nearly three years and four months since I got this blog rolling and I haven’t followed the norms of writing at least 100 blogs in the first year for maximum viewership because this blog is after my own heart. It isn’t a punishment or a drill. I write when I am called to do so. In fact, this is just my 88 th blog but I had to stop to express my gratitude. My views have crossed 60, 000 and I have readers from 113 countries as on date. A shout out to all of you wherever you are, and a BIG THANK YOU and hoping you’d be back again! A HUGE shout out to Hong Kong for maximum viewership followed by India, Israel, USA and Germany in that order. I am overwhelmed by your support. Every time I sit down to pen a blog it always ends up being a social message or something serious even when it was not my intention. My kids roll up their eyes and say “we know” as if to tell me that our fun time also ends

  Are you defensive? Before you say a defensive “No!” think again! We all are or have been defensive at some point in our lives and will continue to be at other points in our life despite the blog! Then why am I taking the pains to even pen this down, you’d wonder?! Well, the effort behind this one, is to understand what being defensive is, why we do it and what we can do to reduce this behavior to a point that it becomes practically non-existent! If you can go back to instances from your past, when someone has asked you as to why you are being defensive or to those instances when you have been quick to answer even at the cost of cutting someone’s question halfway, you will find that being defensive is a reaction, an impulsive retaliation and not a well thought out response. This is because it is our defense mechanism that kicks in from what we perceive as potential danger. It is a knee jerk reaction to protect ourselves- a primal instinct. Think about it; if someone is asking us a

  Credits: pinterest.com Every other meme that targets relationships, takes potshots at women always conveying the message that women can never be understood because they are a bag of contradictions! Women are complicated compared to men, I agree, so here are a few insights to women that you might find helpful. Being a woman myself and having interacted with all kinds of my tribe, and all ages, I believe I am sufficiently equipped to bring out a few points at the very least! Disclaimer: There are exceptions to every rule and these views may sound bizarre to more than a few women and men! Women remember all arguments When women/ girls are part of your lives by choice and even in familial relationships that they are born into, they tend to bend backwards to please you. It is their innate nurturing nature to remember little things that would bring a smile to your face and one genuine word of gratitude or praise in return does wonders for them (the need for external validation unfortu

Short of a month and a half later, we will be saying eager goodbyes to 2020 which has been a different year to say the least. A year that has shown the collective how vulnerable we are, despite our claims of being the most advanced species! If we thought our tribe was invincible, we just faced and continue to face a rude reminder of our limitations. Yet, the benign Universe gives us yet another chance to think more clearly and look at the larger picture. We can still stop disaster from wiping us clean off the surface of the Earth! With so many people having lost their jobs or earning nothing or pittance; with their livelihoods being threatened, it is time that we as a collective, down to the last man, understand the havoc we have been wreaking on this planet and mend our ways. This year has been a wonderful year for me and perhaps those wired like me who needed a lull in their lives to be able to go deep within to find answers. Not that I am not going bonkers like everybody else or t

  24 August 2017 saw my second blog on Blogger titled “Morning Walks: Hate it, Love it!” https://www.musingswhileunlearning.com/2017/08/morning-walks-hate-it-love-it.html   A little more than three years later, in a different location and under different circumstances, due to the pandemic, I decide to write about my morning walk today. These days I walk on the terrace, early morning; anytime between six and half past six! We live in a gated community of five, five storied buildings and even though I live on the fourth floor on one of them, I do use the elevator up to the fifth floor before taking two flights of steps to the terrace. (I shudder at the thought of all those steps I used to climb to reach the Air Traffic Control Tower to get the Flight Plan signed when I was serving in the IAF and even at my fittest best- a comparative term-I used to huff and puff and had no energy left to blow anything down! Somehow, the ATC had a great sense of sardonic humour which put up posters like

Gaslighting, brainwashing, swaying, emotional blackmail or whatever you may call it, manipulation has unfortunately been seen in all relationships, knowingly or unknowingly, to some degree. The most common form in near and dear relationships being that of emotional blackmail, which usually both parties are aware of and which usually has some mutuality in it. It may even be seen as a form of possessiveness or neediness in love. The problem happens when it crosses the level of emotional blackmail and one person uses manipulation techniques in a subtle manner, slowly and steadily, without the other person realizing it to gain control over the other. However, I am not talking about relationships of any kind. I am about to address something that is manipulating the entire mobile and social media crazy world. Credits: reportdoor.com “The Social Dilemma” by Jeff Orlowski is a docudrama that was recently released on Netflix about social media and its negative effects on the entire populati

  The concept of sin and virtue comes from religion. It comes from the need to run a society amicably and without chaos. It makes sense too, especially because human beings had, over a period of time since their evolution, moved away from the natural order, and with their ingenious brain made a life so luxurious and so appealing to the senses that slowly and steadily they moved away from the concept of moderation and began doing/ consuming/ using more than they needed, in every walk of life. The few visionaries that existed would have seen the mayhem that lay ahead if this mindlessness continued and so rules were laid out in the name of God (and away from Pagan concept of worshipping the classic elements) and societies and religions made, as we know it today. Its importance has not diminished in any way but the original intention of those visionaries, slowly and steadily have been interpreted in ways to suit different agendas. Humans are animals but dangerous animals for they have