March Braindump

Like I said yesterday, there's something incredibly satisfying about the fact that the last day of this month is also the last working day of the week. I feel like everything falls into place when I write a braindump on a Friday and God knows that hasn't happened in a while.

Just as I was typing that last sentence out, I received a notification on my phone. Yet another blessed human being has shared his location with me on Google maps with the latest feature that allows you to share your location with random strangers. For the past two days, I've been opening up my Google Maps and looking up ways to disable this feature. But since I'm technologically handicapped, I haven't figured it out yet. As far as I know, it isn't possible. But if any of you figure out how to change your Google Maps settings such that strangers cannot send you their location, please help me out?

But can we just talk about this for a moment? Why do people, especially men, think it's okay to try and video call someone whose photograph they saw on the internet? What do they hope to achieve by sending random women their phone numbers, addresses, locations, and photographs? I say this from a very personal standpoint because this has been my experience. In the past eighteen months that I have been putting myself out there on the internet, I have been contacted in this inappropriate manner only by men. And may I add, Indian men.

I'm sure women and men from other countries and cultures can behave inappropriately too but I speak solely from my personal experience. Most of the time, it's infuriating. But sometimes, it makes you take a step back and think about it. What are we doing wrong? How are we raising these boys? What are they being taught in schools? Did they even go to a school?

It's interesting at times but mostly, it's just sad. It's sad because it makes you tired even thinking about the long journey ahead of them and the even longer journey ahead their offspring to catch up with the rest of the world and learn basic manners and social etiquette. It's going to take at least another generation to unlearn certain things and relearn a progressive thought process. And chances are, they'll still be left far behind. It's simply sad.

I'm such a stuck up and controlling (read horrible) human being that sometimes, it frustrates me that you can't control and train other humans the way you'd train puppies. Puppies are so much more straight forward and to be honest, I prefer them to humans. But speaking of, have you guys watched this video yet?

I'm sure you have. But I simply cannot keep myself from going back and watching it a few times a day. That puppy is the best mood enhancer there is and every time I watch it, my heart expands a little bit, making space for more love for more puppies. Adorable!

I just realised that my thought process made a transition from 'downright depressing' to 'extremely happy' in less than a second. I think living in Scotland has made my moods as unpredictable as the weather here. Which reminds me that I totally jinxed the spell of sunshine and unicorns farting rainbows the minute I pressed publish on Monday's post. Tuesday was gloomy here and it got progressively worse for some time. Finally, this morning, when I opened my eyes, I saw the sunlight seeping in through my blinds getting quickly replaced by semi-darkness. At first, I thought that my eyes were having trouble adjusting to the tedious process of staying awake but I soon realised that what I was witnessing was simply Edinburgh weather. I swear to God, it seemed like someone was constantly switching a light on and off outside my window with the way it was sunny one second and cloudy the next. Crazy town.

By the time I fully woke up, it was proper sunny outside but the minute I opened Facebook, I was greeted with a message saying, "Hi Ankita! Rain is forecast today in Edinburgh. Stay dry."

What the fuck? I really don't like it when Facebook tries to tell me what to do. Especially when this advice doesn't match up to what I'm witnessing with my own eyes. I think my main problem could be that they tend to be right most of the time, so when they tell me that it's going to rain even though all I can see are clear skies, I inevitably believe them and get pissed off. Don't literally dampen my spirits, FACEBOOK!

But speaking of Facebook and not being caught up with the current world you're living in, does anyone remember the time when people used to put up statuses on Facebook that were meant specifically for someone in their circles to see? I used to do that too in my Dark Age. My Dark Age was the time when I thought that the people my statuses were intended for were the only people seeing my stupidity. And if you're wondering, yes, it does seem like I'm still in my Dark Age considering how I've managed to turn this stupid tendency into my primary source of income. But I'm gonna go ahead and be a hypocrite now and stand on a pedestal by declaring that I don't do that on Facebook anymore but on an Html page instead. That makes me so much better than the rest of y'all even though you probably don't do it anymore at all. My point is, people have to choose to see my stupidity and I don't impose it on them via their Facebook feeds. Kind of.

But back in the day, Facebook was pretty much my blog as was the case with everyone. So be it a jab for someone I disliked or a long, embarrassing, public comment thread with my friends, I never held back. I just put it all out there for all 1000 of my "friends" to see and in reality, it was intended for just a group of around 10 people who'd get it, engage, and move on. I wonder how many of the remaining 990 grabbed a bucket of popcorn and laughed behind my back. I wonder because I recently happened to grab a bucket of popcorn myself and enjoy two public showdowns. It was like, "STAND BACK KARDASHIANS! Shit just got real."

I hardly knew these people. In fact, I don't even know the actual surname of one of them because they use a pseudonym on Facebook. But ohhh emmm jeee, was that a walk down memory lane or what? I got transported to the beginning of my Dark Age and kind of felt bad for these people because they had a long way to go before catching up and realising that people don't do that anymore. I may be wrong but when I grew out of that phase, I noticed that my friends and most people in my circles did too. So to me, it looks like whoever is still stuck in that phase needs to catch up. Do you relate to what I'm saying?

Anyway, this is why I love my braindumps. I get to go on all these crazy tangents and no one judges me. In fact, I have so much more to say that I'm considering whether or not I should write one of these every two weeks. The only reason I'm stopping this one now is because I can see that I've rambled on for over 1300 words and people these days have shorter attention spans. I don't wish to bore you ever but if I could control and train you like a puppy, I'd make you enjoy my 2500 word verbal diarrhoea. There, that's a good mental image to end this with.

I hope you have the BEST weekend.

See you next week!