There is this bucket list thing of mine. I’ve come to a touching distance of fulfilling it, but stop short every time. I have done it in bits but haven’t found the courage or the acceptance of it — it’s to get a tattoo.
This post is an effort to document my 24 years spent in GNFC Township in Bharuch. It is also to record the changes that this place went through in my time. I was 3 years old when my parents arrived here along with my elder sister. I am 27 now, about to spend the last couple of days in this place, as my father is retiring.
Have you ever seen Mad Men? Yup, your job will involve visiting clients’ offices and pitching your ideas to them. It will also involve celebrity shoots and off days to visit the shoot location.
It will also involve you coming up with a brilliant line that eventually becomes the main line that your agency goes ahead with in the pitch deck that eventually becomes the tag line of the product that eventually inspires the TVC spot that eventually airs on prime-time.
As they say, nostalgia is a very powerful drug, and most of us get carried away by the memories of our childhood, longing to go in the past and live like a child again.
I found myself doing the same and hence, this post is a dissection of what I talk about when I talk about living like a child. An analysis of what kids do.
The month of Gandhiji’s birthday came and went really quickly. It seems like here I was, making plans for the 2nd Oct long weekend and here I am, on the last long weekend of October.
Anyway, before going into the specifics, let me go through the overall numbers
Piyush Pandey, arguably the best advertising mind India has ever produced, took more than 10 years to put out this first iconic ad(the Cadbury cricket one).
Khsuhwant Singh, one of India’s most prolific writers and journalists, wrote a Hindustan Times column for 50 years, straight. Yup, a column every week for 50 years! He also wrote every day from 4 Am to 5 Am, every day.
Casey Neistat shot videos and made films every day for more than 10 years, after which he started his daily vlogging that catapulted his fame.
I work in advertising but ironically, I am pretty anti-consumerism. The most I gift anyone are books and hence when it comes to gifting myself, I make myself feel guilty.
The first time I encountered the word “Nostalgia” was while watching TV, switching through the magical portal called a remote control and coming across ESPN. They had a show called “Nostalgia India”. I did not know what the word meant but it had a nice ring to it, it rhymed. And as Vir Das said, we Indians like anything that rhymes. Although it is more of a human trait.
Coming to human traits, how about visiting the most travelled place in the world — the past. It certainly is my favourite place to visit.
In 2007, my grandmother passed away. I was in 7th standard, around 12 years old. While I have faint memories of it, some things really stood out — I remember I was giving an exam when the invigilator asked my class supervisor to let me end the exam early. I didn’t get what was happening. I was rushed to the hospital where I saw more than 100 people gathered around an ambulance. My grandmother didn’t even live at my place, so these were just the ones who knew her through my parents. Those people accompanied the ambulance to Surat, where another 100-200 people joined, and many of them came to Tapi river, where she was cremated.
A monthly review as a way of accountability has been on my mind since a long time. I do maintain a journal that I try to fill every night however, hope this monthly review on a public site will give me a better birds-eye view.
Metrics:
Workout – 14 times
Cardio – 7 times
Mediated – 4 times
Worked on my side hustle(more info below) – 11 days
Writing – 6 days