People Everywhere

Remember Orkut days? Remember those days where we used to compete to see who had the most friends? Granted, we weren’t even adults yet. Remember those days when everyone had a landline? Remember when we had to write down phone numbers in a phonebook?

I didn’t get a cell phone till I was 18 (this was 2008). How was keeping in touch so much easier back then? I probably had a literal handful of friends, so life was easier?

Social media was quite new then so hardly anyone was on it. Honestly, I don’t even remember how I kept in touch with people before social media.

I have lived in 3 cities (one of those on the other side of the world), met a LOT of people, and had the pleasure to have befriended quite a few of them. Are they really friends though? My friend Ethan used to say this about me: “Shri has a lot of acquaintances, not friends.” Maybe he’s right? Keeping in touch with people has always been difficult for me. So I open this question up to you.

How do you keep in touch with all your friends? It’s a serious question.

When you live in the same city as your friends, it’s easy to meet them in person. How do you do that when all your friends are scattered over the world? And I’m not even talking about acquaintances.

My parents (especially my Mom) have done admirably at keeping in touch with so many of their friends and family. She calls each of her 4 sisters (my aunts) quite regularly and is still in touch with her college friends AND school friends. I always admire my parents for their ability to compartmentalize their life. I have struggled with that. An easy way to cop out of this is the fact that most friends of theirs are based in India.

Video calling during COVID times seems to be the best way out. But that’s not my jam. I’d rather meet people in person.

I try to wish everyone I know on their birthdays. It leads me down a rabbit hole sometimes since I have some very specific memories with some friends.

Facebook has been excellent at reminding me of people’s birthdays. If I have their phone numbers, I wish them through WhatsApp. Americans, please try to use some messaging app because I cannot SMS/text you. Also, I have actively been trying to reduce my Facebook usage so I’ve started saving friends’ birthdays on Google Calendar.

Maybe I’m just a person who doesn’t have a lot of close friends? Maybe that’s a cop-out? Maybe my friend Ethan was right. Maybe I am one of those people who has a lot of acquaintances but not friends?

That’s not to say I don’t have friends at all. My school friends are still some of my closest friends. Since we’ve spent quite a bit of our childhood together, it’s easy to just meet them without keeping in constant touch. I also have close friends from my two attempts at graduation. I think the Indian education system helps you make friends for life because of how much time you spend with the same few people. Of course, you also need to keep in touch after that because life has a way of making people drift apart.

WhatsApp has definitely helped keep in touch with some friends purely because some groups tend to be active. I apologize if I haven’t been as good about keeping in touch as I hoped to be.

Having said that, I want to talk to all y’all, so please respond to this blog post? Or ping me on Insta or Facebook Messenger. Hell, LinkedIn works in a pinch.

I love you all. I hope to see you when COVID eases out. I miss all of you.

Are You Gonna Go My Way?

I have always been obsessed. Not with work like most people I know are. I work when I need to and try to keep a good work-life balance.

No, I used to say I have OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) but I would be doing a disservice to people who actually have OCD. Sure, I am obsessed about certain things, maybe borderline compulsive. But I know I don’t have to go through the hell people clinically diagnosed with OCD have to, many of them on a daily basis.

Just a Reddit post showing what serious OCD really is. And read the comments after. *Trigger warning – Blood and torn nails*

I have OCD, and one of my compulsions is to tear off my toenails… from r/MakeMeSuffer

//embed.redditmedia.com/widgets/platform.js

But hey, let’s talk about my pet peeves/obsessions. Here’s a list of them in random order. (But between you and I, the top ones are some I struggle with on a daily basis)

• English and grammar – Yes, my top peeve is what anyone would call an obsession of the privileged. A little part of me dies every time I see easy words misspelled. Run-on sentences. Go figure.
• Punctuality – Coming back to India has been a struggle. No one is ever on time except my Dad and I. People take IST (Indian Stretchable Time) quite literally.
• Littering – India, and Mumbai specifically, seems to be obsessed with littering. It’s upsetting to see how many people litter but the streets are swept almost every morning so the situation isn’t as bad as it used to be.
• How Noisy India is – Honking, people playing every goddamn WhatsApp video to the public, honking, just the general noise generated by the insane density of people in Mumbai, have I mentioned honking? This is a pet peeve because I have sensitive hearing from all the medication I took for XDR-TB.
• I HAVE to wash my feet every time I enter a bathroom and any part of my feet get wet. It’s an obsession/pet peeve. I don’t know why. This was what motivated me to write this post, strangely enough.
• I HAVE to save contacts in my phonebook with their first name and last name. Pro Tip: If you are obsessed about this like I am, save some details about the contacts in the Notes section of the contact. Definitely helps.

I will keep updating this list when I remember more peeves/obsessions. Tell me if you remember anything annoying you can remember about me?