The Perceptionist.....

A couple of weeks back, I was deeply reflecting over some of the key happenings and events that shook the world in the last six months. As I spent my time, in mere introspection of these events right from the last straws of the pandemic, to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis, the growing stagflation worldwide and the recent FTX scandal along with the massive layoffs at Meta and Twitter, it suddenly occurred to me that in all these scenarios, there was but one thing they all had in common - the never-ending 'uncertainty'.  Uncertainty or as I would put it 'an anxiety over what lies ahead in the future' is usually something that we encounter in our day to day lives and circumstances. Whether it is in our lives as students, as freshers, as working professionals or even as bachelors or spinsters - there are no dearth of examples to explain these small or minute instances of uncertainty that we encounter on a daily basis. This so-called 'uncertainty' forms a unique ch...

It has been about weeks and months passed, the virtual classroom doors remain closed as the final end terms are almost coming to a closure and the monsoons have once again drawn in as the season has already begun, with heavy rain lashing to and fro in and around areas and places of Goa. An intolerable silence and anxiety fills the mind as the young adult lays there in the confinements of his house, waiting desperately and anxiously for the final exams to get over in hopes and aspirations to jumpstart into his dream career and ambitions that he has in mind to pursue in the near future. A cloud of endless thoughts and gruesome worries fill the entire atmosphere, compounded with the stillness and solitude of the otherwise quiet and peaceful village exacerbated with the ongoing pandemic and dire sufferings that have characterized the climate all over the state and in all parts of the world. There is this constant and nagging uncertainty that today leaves us youngsters filled with lot of do...

About a day back, I was pondering over an incessant thought that kept going through my mind, over and over again and this was to do with the whole idea of how the pandemic has affected us all as human beings. As I kept deliberating over it, a sudden realization struck my mind which really filled me with a lot of surprise and wonder, as I kept thinking about how could mankind, being blessed with such a great mind and intelligence allow the pandemic to unravel to such an extent so as to have almost brought the world to a complete standstill? How was it that the greatest of the greatest scientists and people with a great intellect couldn't have stopped the spread of the outbreak? As surprising or rather as strange as it sounds, the inherent limitations or weaknesses of being a human was what had in the whole process been revealed to all of us. To elaborate on this, I was just examining two types of subjects we learnt in school- one being the natural sciences focused on natural phenome...

A new day has dawned. A string of endless WhatsApp notifications is what fills the entire place, as I lay patiently waiting for the professor to send the Google Meet link in order to begin the class. And as I lay patiently in anticipation for the link, a thunderclap of voices fill my head as I try to keep my composure in order to set myself up well for the day..... As the meeting begins, a feel of loneliness, a feel of disconnect clouds my mind as I try to convince myself and make myself feel that I have occupied a virtual seat in the class. A lot of people who are now just mere profile pictures on the screen, the convenience of messaging on chat boxes and the prolonged silence in a virtual atmosphere as the professor starts the lecture brings in a feeling of desolateness and anxiety as I try and adjust to this so-called 'new format' of classes. Professors have turned into mere podcasters as they try to expend their knowledge with the rest of us on call, the frequent occurrence...