Swirling in the room
Hands across like a partner infront
Happiness surrounded with flowers on you
You move round and round
Joy overflowing out of the sky
One look in the mirror
Mirror gets shy on the smile you wore
Noses turn red, Lips widen
Room brightens
You become the queen
You forget the worries
Enjoying the tiny bits
Enjoying the flowing music in mind
Dancing to the tone
You immerse yourself in a world of dreams!!
I do not think ‘changing’ is the right word, but I would suggest that the social media gamble is the one thing people need to consider in this era. I am blaming others, including myself. We are so involved in social media that we forget to be mindful of the people around us.
Any place you go now, you will see a bunch of people wanting to do activities which can attract views on their profile, be it Instagram, Facebook or any writing platforms as well.
The urge to seek people’s validation and show one’s life to society while in a negative mental state is a trend in our modern society. I regret to say that I am also part of that group where one person’s like is equated as one person’s interest or love towards you.
I do not know how this can be changed because at this stage, it is beyond control for at least Gen Alpha or Gen Beta, who are seeing the news reports of people becoming millionaires by just dancing in front of a public platform.
It is weird to think that the generation that is shy about speaking in public platforms is now changing and becoming bold, but at the wrong places and wrong occasions. Indeed, the saying feels right: “Technology is a boon and a curse”
What makes a teacher great?
I believe a teacher becomes a favourite of many students because the teacher tried to look at themselves in their students place. If a teacher self acclaim as superior and just wants to finish the subject, only the rank holders would still be remembering them, rest forget as years go by.
A teacher has gone through the same phase once when he or she was a student. A teacher knows when something feels uninterested and when something needs to be stopped based on the response of students. If you are not a good observer as a teacher, you failed at that moment itself.
I will take my mother as an example. My mom is a retired headmistress who was teaching Mathematics in her teaching career. Now, mathematics is the one subject which the majority fear and run away including myself. She was a tough and strict mom at home, but to her students she was their beloved sharada(name of my mother) teacher.
Why did my mom become beloved and how did I know?
During the holidays, mom used to take me to her school since there was no one at home. I was a CBSE student and my off days were different from the state syllabus, mom was a state school teacher. Whenever I visit her school, a bunch of kids would come to the staffroom and smile at me. They wanted to see their favourite teacher’s daughter, that’s the murmur I heard.
How did she become beloved?
I have seen my mom do craftworks in the night, preparing shapes using hard objects or cardboard like a school project she was doing. When I used to ask what this was for, she said tomorrow I need to teach about the shapes and its area. Kids love when they are in curious mode and some objects are in front of them. Mom knows exactly what can make Mathematics interesting to students.
As a teacher she was doing her homework as well. So a teacher who gives homework and does theirs can become a great teacher one day.
I have also had teachers who understood their students well and we then daily wait for their class alone. It is a talent and not everyone can master it.
How important is spirituality in your life?
What is spirituality? I never got a constant answer from any of the sources for this. You live content with life with whatever you have unaffected by surrounding be it people or things around you, that is spirituality for me. I might be wrong here but for me that made sense.
To answer how important it is in my life, I do know it is really important but practically being that person for me looks impossible. I worry every moment when things do not go as I expected. I blame myself or try to be blaming someone else in mind for things not working out in my way. These things in me changed a lot as time went by, but still that inner self has the older self deeply rooted.
For me to be content with life, I need to feel satisfied with what I am now. And I do not think I have reached there. There are lots of unanswered questions in mind which maybe time will tell but it keeps on reminding like an old cassette playing the song repeatedly in broken voice when it gets stuck to the recorder.
But the question is, will we ever be satisfied? If you need to be following spirituality, satisfaction is one word which might be absent in there.
How do you want to retire?
It’s tough and I hesitate to answer this always. After I saw my parents retire, I am more concerned about what retirement looks like.
My parents retired at the age of 60 and they had zero plans post retirement. Hence I could see the struggle they faced to adopt a day where they do not know what is the next work they want to do. My dad somehow found his aligned passion but my mom ended up in a confused state.
One day she would ask if she started tuition for kids since she was a teacher or should she start gardening because once upon a time she loved it. At the end she decided to be a social media writer. I still do not see her as the same as when she was in her career.
All of these things make me think, do I have an answer of what will be done for 4 hours a day when there is nothing to do. And I am not saying soon after retirement, those days will be fun because of the long rest we were wanting for. But then what? Sitting idle? Worry about passion?
One thing for sure, if I know what I will do when I am idle, idle with nothing going on, then is the time to retire. Until then find that answer and if the universe makes you retire early, hop on to a world of passions which can make you feel happy.
Still I do think, what does retirement mean. Just quitting a career does not mean retirement then is it just a gambling word just to have an end of tunnel in the journey of life.
What’s the one luxury you can’t live without?
In today’s world luxury is just fancy and I guess now people are realizing that older generations were right when they said they had a better life.
If you take statistics and compare, maybe the rich have grown richer but the problem is poverty also has grown in a similar fashion. Older generations had only minimal people actually knowing what luxury meant but still they were happy. But now even the person who is earning 20 lakhs yearly is also sad.
The economy boomed, prices rose, the cost of living raised but in between all of these we forgot the roots where we came from.
The bare minimum “luxury” which I cannot live will be working independently, earning money which satisfies daily needs with full freedom and support from others. This is so rare now, people are banging heads over unsatisfied jobs even though they are earning really well with all the support they can get.
For me luxury does not mean you have that one special thing in life, it will always be a space where we live without asking or wanting, breathing air even if it costs a bit from your earning.
So whether it be a pani puri vendor or an IT professional or businessman, at the end what they need is earning with freedom of choices.
If you had to change your name, what would your new name be?
This made me think! My first name Rachana has a lot of memories and my last name Kilingar is quite unique.
My first name given by mom for her fondness in writing, at least that’s what I have been hearing from childhood. My last name is the birth place of my dad which is in Kerala, Kasaragod. Both together make a beautiful pair to my personality.
During childhood I always wanted my name to have been something starting from A or D, so that it would come into attendance initially and not wait till the end. But reaching engineering I was relieved that it is not in the starting batch, at least I have time to look at the struggles of the first batches.
If I wanted to really change, the instant names which I can think of are Radha or Anvitha. I have no logical reasoning behind it. Radha is from recent favouritism towards Krishna and Radha stories. Anvitha is sweet and nice. So one of them may be!
But for now, Rachana Kilingar still feels just right.
So this happened within the same time frame.
6 years into this platform, 6 years into my current company and 100th post.
Nothing magical but a small token of happiness in a world full of tensions and anxiety.
More years to write and more add to the posts.
Writing as a therapy and writing as a passion found a new place in my heart ❤️❤️.
How do you know when it’s time to unplug? What do you do to make it happen?
You know it. The whole universe tells you with all sorts of hints including your body. When something is no more a joy but a forceful action to keep it going then it’s time to unplug.
Let me take writing itself. Sometimes forcing it will make you feel robotic. You know that it’s not coming from the heart. But sometimes it is tough to differentiate between being blank and it is time to unplug.
If what you are doing brings a little joy then there is no need to think of regret or anything at all. But if it is becoming like a ticking time bomb then just switch off.
Do you remember life before the internet?
I do not think after I was born there was absence of internet but for sure not in abundance like now. The broadband BSNL was the connection in home as I remember which was used just for looking at exam results in Windows XP. I also had an orkut account on the 8th I guess. But before that it was just running around with kids of the same age or walking along with mom for hours looking at neighbours.
Now we breathe, eat and live with the internet. But till I was at least age 11, I did not care much about the internet and its hype. Now when I write I feel how peaceful it was, no judgement, no peer pressures of what others are achieving. You had to physically meet anyone if you needed to speak, video call was not even in the picture at that time.
Mornings were Doordarshan news and the tone of its headlines. Then the cartoon channel and my brother was so fond of pokemon that he used to wake up exactly at 8 to watch it. No matter who has the remote, he will get it by hook or crook. Then I was switching between 9XM and udaya music for hindi and kannada songs. The days went like this, and now one click we have a song.
From the era of Mango bite chocolates to Diary Milk, a lot of things have changed after the internet. Pay to live is the motto now where as just “live” without feeling pressurized was then.
In short we lost the simplicity even though things have been brought closer with the internet.
Edited note: That makes my 100th post here without even realizing. Another added boon for the internet.
ಮನದ ಮಾತುಗಳು ❤️🗣️ 