A river’s tale

A blithe river
Young and nimble
Jumping, sliding, slipping, bouncing
Chattering of snow capped mounts
Of trees tall
Of yaks and yetis


Of braided hair
Of joyful tears
Of carefree months
Of winding years


Of the silt of sorrow
Of the dump of angst
Oblate-d by men
And women’s hands


Of heavens opening
With showers galore
Of water evermore
Than she could hold


Of pouring forth
And bringing it out
Of stretching out arms
And embracing all



Villages, temples,
Schools and huts
Boys, men,
Cows, and mutts


All alike in their
Drowned-ness
All in the silence of the sea
All alike in half-lived lives
Just like you and me

TMI (Too Much Information)

I am feeling a little overwhelmed. Honestly, who can blame me? Everywhere I turn, I am bombarded with information. TMI everywhere! Online, digital, whatever name you give it.

And why, I wonder, do I gravitate towards this information myself? I subscribe to newsletters, I join forums, I say ‘yes’ to notifications. And when these arrive in my mailbox, I frown at them.

But wait! But this is not just me. This is a trend!

I see people on Twitter following a 100 or more accounts.

I can’t even keep up with the twenty something accounts that I follow. Luckily, most of my friends don’t tweet every time they burp. Thank god for small mercies.

I just sit at my computer and I receive a hundred emails on subjects spanning the length and breadth of our planet – sometimes about outer space too.

Seriously, am I interested?

And I generate information myself too – painfully aware that each character I type takes up space on some server somewhere, whether someone reads it or not.
I feel I am slowly getting obsessed with online information and its irritant quality. I never have this feeling about books. Probably because I have a choice - I can decide to not open a book. But can I ignore an email that says ‘must read!’, ‘amazing facts about blah blah’, ’10 best things about blah’? My internal filter seems to be failing. I can’t decide what to read and what to give a miss anymore.

What am I interested in? Art? Cinema? Books? UX? What do I like? Chaat? Cake? Pasta? Choosing is so difficult when you have so many choices. When someone offers me vanilla and chocolate ice-creams and says, ‘pick any one’, I can quickly decide which one I want. But when I go to Baskin Robins, I stare at the menu for 10 minutes, decide on something, peek at other tables while eating it, and feel that the others are probably eating a better flavor.

I feel attacked and bombarded with TMI. I am over-stimulated and overwhelmed all the time. Sometimes I try ‘blocking’ or ‘not paying attention’ to save myself from a burnout. I scan, skim, or plain ignore.

So if you want to tell me something, please tell it to me. Don’t point me to a website with a 1000-word article. I don’t have the energy.

And I am sleep deprived. I need an opiate. And a soft bed. And a soft blanket. And a padded cell, maybe.