The Internet Personified: Dream a little dream of me

I think the comic I did this week (click "enable images" to see it above) sums up my week quite well. I've been so busy with other things, I haven't used my Wacom in a while, but yesterday with a long leisurely Sunday stretching out in front of me--nothing to do, nowhere to go--I suddenly felt the urge to comic create again. As I grow older, creativity becomes more "work-y" and less about the joy of just making things, but drawing is still so fun.

This week in zen: I've had a recurring anxiety problem for a while now. For me, anxiety takes the shape of negative thoughts which go around and around in my head like a hamster on a wheel, making it almost impossible for me to focus on anything else. Sometimes it takes up an obvious physical manifestation like, for example, I can no longer drive over a flyover comfortably because I'm convinced that something will run into me and I'll crash over the side. This sort of extends to long broad highways where everyone is going very very fast and also to most roads leading to the airport, because they're usually high and very zippy. Surprisingly, once I'm comfortable with a flyover (like the Moolchand or the INA one here in Delhi) I can go over it with no problem. I think it's a double panic of being high up and not knowing what lies on the other side.

At other times, it's when you have that one uncomfortable thought about work or a friendship or whatever, and you're convinced things are much worse than they appear and you keep thinking about it until the work or personal relationship has basically ended in your head, and you keep waiting in real life for the other shoe to drop and sometimes it doesn't, because sometimes you are just PARANOID, but your brain won't let you rest.

Anyway, one day this week I was on a full spiral, and decided to try meditation because I'm not so bad that I need to medicate myself just yet. First I got on an app called Simple Habit, which is great, short ten, twenty minutes. Then my friend Nayantara put me on to Head Space, which she's been using for a while and recommends highly. The problem with Head Space is that it's a subscription model so ten sessions and you have to subscribe. But we'll think about that when we get there. So far, meditation has worked wonders for me--even my usually cranky PMS was easy to handle. So yeah. Meditation FTW.

This week in food and drink: Two new old discoveries! One was Nagaland Kitchen for lunch with my friend Niyati. They have great happy hours (one plus one on all their excellent cocktails) and also the best pork ribs I've had at that price. You must go--I'm thinking of becoming a Sunday regular.

Then, after discussing meditation with Nayantara, we all went to Social in Connaught Place. Here you're all like, "Social? You may as well recommend McDonald's!" but the group that owns it has taken over all of the former Odeon cinema (RIP) building, and the Social inside is done up like a school, complete with waiters in school uniforms, desks to sit at and blown up school pictures on the wall. They also have great throwback hip-hop so we hipped and hopped all over the dance floor. Super fun.

This week in podcasts: After hearing about the History of India podcast for a while (including from my Long Suffering, who would like you all to know that he downloaded all the episodes ages ago and I just wasn't interested) I finally got around to listening to it. It helps that the host (who never mentions his name, but here's a profile I dug up on Firstpost) sounds a bit like this very knowledgeable friend of mine, so I'm already feeling quite friendly towards him. Fun to listen to as you drive, and a great way of doing 40 minute recaps of ancient Indian history, if that's your jam. (We also started to listen to S Town, which is all Alabama madness.) (For podcasts, I use an app called Podcast Addict, for Android, where you can subscribe to shows and download them individually to listen to offline whenever you like.)

This week in stuff I wrote: My relationship column is back! Here I am on bad kissers over at Asianet Newsable.

This week in TV: Dear White People on Netflix is funny, topical, pulling at heartstrings and all you need to watch to stay woke. Ten episodes, eminently binge-worthy.

This week in books and reading: Inspired to re-read Little Women after what seems like years. I thought I knew the whole text by heart, but it turns out there were large chunks I had forgotten. Like, I always blame Amy for stealing Laurie away from Jo (let's face it, Amy is not the best sister) but I had completely erased the memory where Jo tells Laurie she doesn't love him, and will never love him "that way." Stand on your principles, Jo! I'm now at the part in Jo's Boys where poor sad Dan has a crush on "princess" Bess and Jo has to tell him it's never gonna happen.

This week in arts and culture: Went to the Theatre again, dahlinks. Oddbird, which is the only place we ever watch plays (so convenient that they have a restaurant and bar built in) to watch Future Proof, this play about a travelling freak show. Quite fun? A bit overacted in parts, but still.. good effort. (Is that damning with faint praise? Everyone else seemed to be all over it though, so maybe just me.) On for a bit, so go watch.

Monday reading list: 100 Indian women on masturbation. ** The best take I've read on the Aadhar stuff so far (i.e not dry and uninteresting.) ** That Pakistani Guy from Silicon Valley has a movie out soon and the New Yorker did a great profile of him. ** Memories of Parsi paneer. ** How India's trolls are downvoting books on Amazon. ** Gilderoy Lockhart is the new Poirot. WTF. ** Hindustan Times is following a bunch of students from government schools around to check out the state of our education. ** Inside India's secret gay lifestyle. ** The most schadenfreude inducing links you'll read today: on the Fyre Festival. ** Juice isn't as healthy as you think. **

Have a great week!
xx
m





Where am I? The Internet Personified! A mostly weekly collection of things I did/thought/read/saw that week.

Who are you? Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, writer of internet words (and other things) author of five books (suppport me by buying a book!) and general city-potter-er.

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