You then take your usual route to get out of the crowd to your current favourite spot/lane to walk. 90% of your walk is completed only to reach the walking spot, but then, now that you are here, you walk a little more to make it all meaningful.

There is a cute girl on the right side of the lane, she has a dog and a tiny tattoo over her right elbow. “Hmm, two decent icebreakers, which one do I use”. You then decide you are too tired to hold a conversation for now and give up having to go through all that trouble.

You then walk around your spot. For now, let’s say it is the perimeter of a tiny lake. You walk by the lake, complete a few laps then decide to head back home.
A sigh of disappointment seeps through your body.
Before leaving, you have a look at the bank of the lake, a team of ducks are walking in a queue, one exactly behind another. If we look in their eyes, it seems like they have a definite purpose in their minds, moving toward something so solid, that even the ultimate destroyer cannot come in their way. I adore that for a while, and then disappointingly start to walk back home.

I reach back to the area where it starts to get all crowded again, people moving here and there with enthusiasm, mostly chaotic.

Right then, it starts raining. Pouring heavily out of nowhere. A sigh of relief runs through your body. You were waiting exactly for this to happen.

You quickly find a shop among the series of shops on the street, find a spot where rain can’t cause damage to you, and then, wait. You were waiting for this to happen.
To wait.
To wait for something involuntarily. You are not waiting here by choice, it’s the rain which is making you wait. If given a chance, you will return home quickly and get back to whatever you were doing. But it is the rain, which is the culprit.

You find yourself the luckiest to be waiting. It has become a luxury for you to wait, do nothing, but wait for something you have no control over. It is almost an escape. An escape you did not ask for (secretly you did, but who else knows that).

You are so glad to wait, wait while doing nothing, no checking for notifications, no urges to call someone, no ‘need’ for you to be ‘doing’ something. It feels like a blessing to you to be in this position. Your brain now has no other option to do anything else, but wait.

You realise it has been YEARS since you waited for something, especially, for the rain to pass for you to head back with your life. With this fast-paced life, you have lost all the joy in waiting, with everything accessible to you at your fingertips, at lightning speed, the essence of waiting is lost.

Don’t get me wrong here, I ain’t a 70-year-old folk talking about how old times were better. Accessibility is fantastic. Having shit arrive at your feet in seconds is fantastic and waiting can be frustrating at times, but sometimes, it is beautiful, almost necessary.

You then walk by the shops while ducking under the places where there is a gap in between to avoid getting wet by rain. You arrive at a tiny cake shop and decide to wait there until the rain passes away. The aroma of the fresh cake getting baked inside surrounds you and you cannot avoid the temptation to get in and have a bite. You do not hold on to the urges. You enter the shop and order a pastry of your choice. You find an empty table in a corner and enjoy your pastry. You can still see the rain pouring down through the frosted glass of the cake shop, people running around, people, with huge umbrellas walking calmly under it.

You finish, pay, thank and leave the cake shop. The rain is slowing down a little, so you decide to walk by the shops under their shelter for a little more.
You pass by a hair salon, a woman getting her hair done whilst listening to her stylist about why she “needs” a keratin hair treatment.
You pass by a utensils shop, the shopkeeper carving out the name of the customers on the pan they just bought.
You pass by a novelty store, on the showcase of which you see a teenage mutant ninja turtle stuff toy getting covered in dust because no kid finds it cool enough nowadays.

You reach the end of the store spree and notice the rain has also calmed down and is just drizzling a little. You walk back home, dry yourself and sit back on your ergonomic chair. But now, you can feel the ergonomics of the chair. Not because the chair modified itself in your absence, but because you are in a much better state than you were before.

You got your share of ‘waiting’ which you needed for a long time.

You get back to work, and wait for the next time you’ll be waiting. Involuntarily.

The house is empty. You give a strange look but secretly acknowledge it. Now that you know, no one else is in the house, you get back to bed, not to sleep… but to give ‘waking up’ another shot.

You take your own sweet time for the transition of just ‘waking up’ to actually getting ‘awake’. You look at the mirror in front of you and keep looking at it until your face becomes unfamiliar. You question this unfamiliarity a little and then get distracted by another unfamiliarity. 

You were somehow looking forward to this hour of doing nothing, and now you are glad you finally got to do it, after a long time.

After sitting idle, you get off the bed, brew some coffee, tune in to some music, preferably Vivaldi, and wait patiently for the coffee to be ready. Silently sip coffee, trying not to think of any unwanted thoughts, at least not this early in the morning.

Post coffee, you try to make your to-do list. You take your laptop, open up any software which lets you write, and then start thinking of what you’d be doing.

After a brief moment of thinking, you can’t seem to make any decisions. Apart from the basic 

“workout, get ready, have breakfast, go to work”, 

you cannot think of doing anything else. You think a little more, to ‘utilize’ your time better, but still, reaching nowhere.

You realize this is taking more time than actually doing something. You say ‘chuck it, let’s start with whatever I’ve decided already’.

You then take time to stretch your muscles, systematically engaging one muscle after another, until sweat drips out from the pores of your body.

Then get ready, have a nutritious breakfast and mentally prepare yourself for the day. While thinking about all the hustle-bustle you are about to receive from the busy world outside, you open your main door to get to work only to realize that you are in a widely-stretched plain grassland..

A huge grassland with lush green tall grasses right in front of you, without a single life form in your vicinity.

You get startled a little and look around everywhere to assess what’s happening. You get no idea. It's just plain greenfield stretched till wherever your eyes can see.
The sun shining bright above you, with a slight breeze hitting your face.
With such beautiful weather, you look for the birds which happily sing or the insects which buzz usually but, fail to find any.

There’s just one thing which catches your eye. In the middle of the field, there is a train. A train which seems like it’s filled with passengers already and is ready to depart. It gives a whistle. A loud one, almost haughtily. You think this might be the opportunity to escape this unknown place, therefore, drop everything and run to catch it.

The train appears to be only a few hundred meters away, easy for anyone to jog and reach. But for some reason, it’s taking forever to reach you there. However hard you try to run, the train seems to move more and more away from you. Even though you notice the wheels of the train are stationary, you just cannot get closer to it. You start panting and sweating. Your legs get heavier and you cannot manage to move a muscle. You fall down and realize now that this all might be a dream..

You come to this conclusion because you have already had similar dreams where you intend to reach something but just can’t achieve it. Your body fails to do it every single time.

You lie down among the tall grasses, gazing at the clear blue sky, waiting for the real one to open his eyes and end this. While lying down, you start thinking about what you’d be doing when you actually wake up. Yes, you start making a mental list for a person who’s still not quite aware.

You get exhausted, disgusted by the thought that you aren’t even enjoying what is supposedly unreal. You simply wait for it to get over.

Within a few moments, you actually do this. You wake up on your bed, with a proud smile on your face. Proud because you were right about it. Proud because you did not fall for the trap that the brain sets every time.

You sit upright on your bed and watch your smiling face. 

Right then, you hear a whistle. You recognize it’s a train’s whistle. The ear-splitting sound the train makes when it’s ready to depart, almost scaring the people about its departure. 

The smile from your face fades away and it starts getting harder to breathe. 

There is no railway station near your house. Chuck nearby, there is no railway station at all in the city you live in. 

You wipe the beads of sweat off your forehead and head towards the window. You slowly slide one of the window glasses...

The product which we were building named WE citizens, is a hyperlocal social media to raise social issues and make communities that organize events related to helping the environment.
The application is available as a web app, PWA and a native app on the google play store as well.

The tech stack used is Next JS with Typescript along with Graph QL.

I learnt how to work with bigger codebases and how to skim through code just to understand what’s happening.
Honestly, I took the first few days only to understand the code and more about the product. I looked up how to overcome the overwhelm in the initial days and even they suggested to take one thing at a time and understand it better, and then, later on, branch out. (Sidenote: I still don’t know how some parts of the code work, but that is fine as well)

Primarily I worked on building POCs. I built a few features for the WE citizen app as a POC first and upon approval, integrated them into the main app.

I also got to make use of a ton of different npm libraries. Reading the docs of different npm libraries and trying to integrate them on the main app was very insightful.
Most of the time I would spend, inspecting minor issues which popped up on the app and trying to solve them.

Apart from development,
1. I also worked a little on automation testing using testcafe and wrote a few basic test scripts as well for the basic functionalities.
2. Tried to document a bunch of things and gave my shot to writing tech-related content as well.
3. Also touched upon terms like CMS and the tools revolving around them. Integrated a tracking tool (mixpanel) for data analytics as well (only basic stuff).

All in all, it was a great first experience, a helping team, no unnecessary pressure and a ton of learnings.

I’d like to thank every one of them who helped me throughout my journey and also would apologize if I annoyed them at any point.

Thank you for reading, hope this can be of some help, although I don’t know how that’d be the case.

The ‘quiet kid’ is cornered and being bullied by the "popular kids". The reason being; he didn’t bring his own lunchbox. Well, I thought, that was probably the most relevant reason they had, to bully him from all the other thousand petty reasons they bullied him on. I never went and stood for him; myself being a highly unsocial and insecure guy, I never had the balls to do anything of that sort. He always kept quiet, never uttered a word in reprimand.

He was a well-built guy, tall, broad shoulders, healthy in general. If he wished, he could smack down all his bullies single-handedly. Still, he never raised his voice.

The break was over, the good kids tried to arrange the benches back, failed; the benches would remain in a crooked manner for the rest of the day.

History class. The chapter being taught was something related to how girls were made to wear extremely tight corsets, in order to remain elegant and beautiful. The primary duty of women from those times was to bear the pain and look beautiful. The whole chapter revolved around how the women protested against it and finally had freedom. Pretty interesting chapter, for sure, but courtesy of the history class being right after the lunch break, I felt drowsy regardless.

Slowly and steadily, as and how the different dates were getting printed on the blackboard, my eyelids felt heavier than ever to keep them awake. I shut them.

It was simply me and the quiet kid in the entire room. Chairs neatly arranged and clean floor. For some reason, I was not very surprised about everyone else vanishing in the air, and only me and the quiet kid sitting in the room. Like, I was very comfortable with this unknown scenario. The quiet kid simply stood up and swiftly sat beside me without making any noise. I did not move a muscle, more like, I couldn’t care to make any action.

He started speaking, even though I didn’t ask him to, taking long breaths and finishing short sentences. He spoke about how he hates, that the kids bully him all the time. He conveyed to me in short sentences, how powerless he feels every time he gets bullied.

He then switched topics from sports to furniture in the classroom, to the current history chapter being taught. It was more of a monotonous conversation, which involved my occasional nods and blinks.

He then started talking about how his parents were abusive and always fought with each other. He used to often get beaten up and NEVER received any kind of love from his parents. Forget love, he NEVER had a normal conversation without getting hurt in any way. I could sense that he was disgusted from his life, of the continuous torcher and suffering.

THIS, was when I had to put up the energy to talk, to try and console the fractured soul. Well, I was a kid myself, listening to all of this and still having the courage to utter words, was a big thing. I tried talking him out of his situation, helping him seek help from wherever he could and he had to, in order to stay sane.

No matter how I tried to console him, he always recollected some sad memory of him getting beaten up by this father, when he felt powerless, not physically, but he simply couldn’t make his will to restrict, and start sobbing again.

Then suddenly, he slid his hand in his pocket and from there he revealed a small 7mm revolver. I could sense the cold hard metal of the gun even before touching it. The intent in his eyes was pretty clear; he couldn’t bear it anymore. He was already disgusted with his life and had done a few failed suicide attempts. I had no idea, where a teenager could have gotten access to this article, but it definitely had an aura around it. 

He shoved the muzzle of the gun in his mouth. He pressed it at an angle, more like he pointed it towards the brain.

My palms started sweating, heart racing faster than ever before; I couldn’t voice a single thought. Everything gets a bit blurry. The bell rings.

I see the blackboard filled with dates and the important events which happened in those years written clearly.

My body, dripping in sweat. I turn back to see the quiet kid at the last bench. He looks at me, straight in the eyes, gives a slight smile. I see the same gaze in his eyes, the same intent which he had…. when he revealed…. the gun…….

He never showed up the next day, there were rumours of him getting shifted to another city, but I wasn’t convinced with that.
It’s been 8 years, I still think about the guy, that chat about furniture, the gun, the intent…..

I chuckle, but, feel a little guilty about travelling to other places myself, even though I’d taken up all the safety measures and more importantly, went to places with little to no crowd. Nevertheless, it still contributed to something. 

I decide to go and have a haircut. All the ugly hair accumulated throughout the lockdown had to be chopped. My mother resists, since it was Monday, therefore we cannot chop hair or trim nails on Monday. It had been quite a few years since I heard this resistance.

I vividly remember the last time I had heard them was during school when I used to be in a perfect dilemma.

Ugly phase that.

But this time, I resist it and go to the barber anyway.

I get into a saloon very close to my home; it’s a decent little shop, not too fancy, although it was maintained very well. It showed that the owner spent time taking great care of the shop. The shop was almost empty, just one more customer apart from me, and he was almost done. I sit there for around 5 minutes with a magazine kept on the table, until my turn came up.

I notice a pair of earphones lying around connected to a phone.

The barber was a young man, probably in his mid-twenties, slim and neat. The other customer got up, paid, and left the shop. The barber asked me to sit down and asked for instructions on what kind of haircut I needed.

I give him a vague description of what I need.

He started with my haircut and I dived into my thoughts which I had, before coming to the shop.

Halfway through the haircut, I notice a Band-Aid on his wrist.

I get a little curious. He notices me looking at the Band-Aid and strikes a conversation;

“Saline lagwaya tha kal hi :)”

I freak out a little and ask: “Covid patient the aap?”

“nahi nahi, mujhe ek alag si bimaari he, tumhe pata nai rahega…”

I was relieved but had a few questions. I didn’t want to push him, and annoy him by asking unwanted questions, but still decided to pursue…

“Konsi bimari?”

“Hai ek, usme mujhe khud se baat karne, aur akele rehne ki aadat he”. 

I was pretty sure, this wouldn’t be the case, but I still asked him casually

“Schizophrenia?”

He had a sparkle in his eyes

“Arey sir, aapko kese pata hai? Mene jitney bhi logo ko abtak bola he, kisiko iske bare me nahi pata. Siwaay mere ghar-wale aur kuch doston ko chodkar”.

I told him that I’d read it somewhere, and therefore I knew it. But more notably, I was curious about this person now. I’d never met someone with schizophrenia, and at least did not expect this man to have it.

He then went on to tell me some of the stories about his past. 

When he first discovered he had something like this, how his parents and family reacted to it, and how hard it made for him to make new friends. 

It was when he started to notice that he did not function the way he used to before. Simple chores became a task for him and he preferred being alone most of the time.  

His friends and family members also started to notice major changes in his behaviours. That, was when his family had to check him up with a doctor and they discovered he had schizophrenia. They were all dumbstruck. 

How can he have a disease which we haven’t even heard of?

But his family was pretty supportive, they accepted the fact that it is a legitimate thing and it needs to be treated. 

Since that day, he has been going for regular checkups and has had a few operations as well.

He then told me of how his friends never made fun of this fact and moreover supported him in all aspects. 

I was in awe for a while. I’d always assumed these conditions were only meant for people with privileges and finance already taken care for them. But surely, that wasn’t the case.

I did not want to tap into his financial conditions and how that may have affected him, so I kept quiet. But, he himself expressed it in his flow. 

He said, his siblings were well off and supported him and his parents whenever needed. 

“Taqleef to bohot hota rahega fir?” I asked.

“Agar raato me aksar tumhe koi insaan dikhe jo asal me nahi he, aur wo tumse baat karna chahe, tumhe uksaneki koshish kare, aur kabhi kabar tumhe chot pohchane ki koshsish karne; ko tum taqleef bologe, to haa, kaafi.”

I was shaken by now. I couldn’t even imagine all this happening to someone. Seeing my stunned face, he tried neutralizing it by telling something, a little more positive.

He described how, in order to keep himself busy, he always tuned into either music or some podcasts to never let his mind stay idle. His doctors too, suggested him the same, apart from all the medications he was already on.

He was a simple guy; running his father’s hair saloon, probably with a wife and no children. Still, some sorta mental health crept onto his back without notice. That shows how mental health disorders do not give a flying fuck about who you are or where you come from.

Still, he had a few aspirations.

He showed the mirror to me to check my haircut from behind, more like a formality, and I acknowledged it even though I never actually complain about it.

I paid, thanked, and left the shop. Still, the thoughts resisted leaving my brain. 

I still visit his shop, whenever possible.

So then, I headed out in my shorts and a baggy T-shirt. My house is in the middle of the market, so it takes a while for me to even get to a place where I can walk peacefully. It takes me 15 minutes to get out of the noise and find roads that do not have life on them (except the cats and dogs, which I don’t really mind, rather wish for).

But then sometimes, I don’t plan on going somewhere far, so I just wander in the crowded street itself. Simply seeing new people, new faces each day. I just wondered today, that I’ve been to so many walks on the same streets, but never once has it happened that I recognize a face in the crowd (obviously, excluding the vendors who sit at the same place every day). Never has it been that I’ve recognized the guy who was buying lemons, or the women who carried her baby and still carefully picked the vegetables one by one making sure that not one of them is bad, but still regretting after coming back home and realizing 2 of the tomatoes have a hole in them, and the worm is enjoying the cosy watery bed. Even while being aware of the vast population of India, I think to myself, that I should at least recognize 1 random face, along with the details of the earlier encounter. Chuck it.

But today I was okay with having a long walk since I had nothing better to do, so I did my usual routine of zigzagging through the crowd for a few minutes, then starting to observe my footsteps as and how the people around me get lesser and lesser. After a point where I get to a place, where there is no human contact in my vicinity, I don’t know what I do, I just walk. I don’t even know why I am trying to describe such a simple thing and then trying to make it seem something normal people cannot experience. I’m glorifying simple experiences. But isn’t that what writers try to do usually? Pen down something which you cannot put into words, or even if you can, they make it seem so much fancier and real. But it ‘does’ make you feel good, innit?

Anyway, back to the dead street. Talking of dead streets, I usually play this game with myself, a weird one, but then I have nothing better to think while on a walk. I’m sure people have their own games, at least the dog in front of me is playing one that I am unaware of.

So the game is something like, you assume that you are abducted, and blindfolded, and then you are thrown at a place just within  10 minutes’ vicinity from your home. The place can be anywhere, a densely crowded market, or a shady street. Your task is to navigate back home without asking for directions. Sounds really simple right, given that you have “lived” in that neighbourhood for most of your childhood, and you think you know all the places really well. But then, when you have no idea of the routes you have taken and you are just dropped at a random spot, just like how the video game player is (rendered) at the street after he dies.

Surprisingly, it is hard to actually find your way back, and even if you do, you will take a while to figure it out. I’ve lost my way a couple of times even though I was not abducted and thrown here, yet I get lost. A little adventure in the day. Marco Polo-Esque feeling in this concrete jungle. (By the way, did you know Marco-polo had Chinese side chicks by the age of 19).

I’m well aware my navigation skills are rusty, but then this seems too simple and not being able to do such tasks is what keeps me in amazement.

I’m lowkey waiting to run out of new locations so that I’m familiar with all the streets, but then I know I will find a way to get back again, on a random street, unable to navigate back. It’s a good feeling though, I like that, it's something I kind of look up to, at particular times.

This new thing for walks is solely developed by reading Murakami. The way he describes simple ass things and makes it seem as if I’ve never really looked at it in this way is something I look up to.

I don’t know if I am able to glorify `walks` for you, but nevertheless, I’d like for you to try it once.

It’s the next morning, it's 8:30 already. You have snoozed your alarm quite a few times and now wake up at once when you see the clock striking 8:30. You panic a little, then pull yourself together and get ready for the meeting. You reach on time, but not exactly how you wanted the start of your day to be.

The rest of the week goes under a lot of stress. You have several important projects to complete, deadlines to meet and tantrums from the family go unsaid. You cut down a lot of your sleep, a little bit every day, pull an all-nighter midweek and have an unhealthy sleep cycle in general, only under the impression that you will cover all your sleep-related requirements on the weekend!

The Friday hits the calendar, you are excited to complete your work as soon as possible and hit the bed to cover all the sleep. You manage to sleep by 2:00 in the morning, courtesy of YouTube’s brilliant algorithms and your curiosity to know all about the life of the endangered Sama-Bajau tribe. You then ask your brain to play that one particular dream, and slowly sleep, while not thinking at all to wake up early.

The next day you wake up, pretty chilled out and fresh to start a new day. You see your phone to check how many hours you slept and you realize it is just 7 AM. How many times has it happened that you wake up early on a perfectly sunny day, where you initially planned to sleep? You are pretty fresh and decide to utilize this to get a good start to your day by making coffee or probably continuing your book...

Such a huge build-up to come to my point finally: why do we take longer time during weekdays and wake up exceptionally early when its a holiday.

I legitimately researched upon this (to make my early morning “productive” per se). The reasons came out to be quite obvious but interesting at the same time.

1. One very obvious reason is our dread to wake up on a Monday morning. The underlying reason though is that you essentially hate your job/school. Your brain knows internally how much you dislike it and therefore does not bothers to wake you up.

2. On the other hand, if there is a task you got to do that you genuinely enjoy, you wake up even without alarms. (TB to school picnics).

3. Another interesting reason which came out was, on weekdays, the brain knows for sure that you won’t be getting any more sleep during the rest of the day so it tries to squeeze out everything while in its control.

4. Compared to when it’s a holiday, the brain knows that you can get your sleep any other time during the day, complemented with the eagerness to enjoy your holiday.

5. Another reason also stated that, since we force ourselves to wake up early on the weekdays, naturally we do that on holidays as well.

These were a few reasons which I found on the internet and were convincing as well, but I am still unsure about the facts which can scientifically back them up.

After reading all this, I then wondered what might be an actionable solution to this. Since ‘quitting your job/school’ cant be a viable option, what we can hope and try to implement is to make the thing interesting in itself. Either by making friends at work, or doing some “fun activities” to make the thing interesting. Basically, you need to look forward to something, in order to stop getting tormented by Mondays. Now how you do it, totally depends on your context. (Might look that up on the internet as well, according to your requirements)

Yup, that was my short little blog in order to explore more about this particular event. Although this has been happening less and less as and how we grow, I hope you do remember the times you woke up early enough on a Sunday to catch the first episode of your favourite cartoon.

(another very possible reason for you to wake up early, is to...pee. bye)

Starting with the idea and the thought behind it; nothing very serious. I just saw a lot of people around me who were into tech, were building a sort of a video library in order to get comfortable with the MERN stack. I anyhow wanted to dive into making full-stack apps, since I had made a couple of tiny apps only on React js, so in order to move one step ahead, I decided to make this app.

After deciding, naturally, I went through the code of a few other people on GitHub and tried to understand the basic tech they used by watching YouTube tutorials and just seeing the vast codebase, I was overwhelmed in no time.

I procrastinated a lot, even to try to understand and read more about it. I have a very solid reason for that though: In my mind, I had this picture, that the next project I make, should have really good structure and perfectly written code and all that jazz. I had the structure in front of my eyes but I couldn’t figure out how to go about it and what’s the “right process”. So, in all this, I simply delayed the whole thing for a while, and it kept on taking a lot of space in my brain of ‘having to make it’ but not really taking any action.

It was the time of the new year, I was at my Didi's place in Pune, and out of nowhere, (actually from somewhere in the brain, but I can’t really spot it), I had this urge to just make it. I then decided, chuck the whole perfectionist bullshit, let me start at least, I will get a lot of time to make more “perfect” projects.

That’s how I took the first step. I had actually already started it way back with writing some backend code, but since I had no real understanding of it, I couldn’t take it further. So, I started from that place itself. Tried to read/watch more about it and managed to set up the basic server and made simple API routes. That was like a major barrier which I crossed and then on, it was much smoother.

I did not give a lot of thought about what all features I was going to add or how my code structure would be, therefore added a LOT OF BAD CODE. I was unaware completely and therefore messed up the whole “product managing” part of the process, but I didn’t really care as I wanted to focus more on building the full-stack app.

So after making the routes for most of my basic CRUD operations, I moved to make the front end for it. I used React of course and vanilla CSS for the whole thing as I was comfortable with it (Rather feared using anything else because I was not sure). I spent a lot of time on the front end (more like, half the time spent testing the APIs just to make sure there is some problem with the front end itself).

Adding vanilla CSS is a pain especially when you do not follow good practices. No CSS variables, no proper class names, no reusable code etc. So I suffered my share in that domain but somehow managed to make it responsive and decent looking.

Also, I did not use redux and used context itself because it wasn’t a huge app, but still implementing redux would have helped a lot.

Weird things which I’m glad I came across:

1. Infinite network calls because I used useEffect in an incorrect manner.

2. Getting a lot of unwanted data from the db, just because the structure was not appropriate.

3. How I need to ‘parse’ the things which I get from localStorage.

4. Bunch of other things which I’m failing to recollect.

Finally, I did manage to make the app work the way I wanted it to. Thankfully, the Heroku deployment process isn’t hard at all, so deploying the thing was quicker although there were a few CORS issues after that, but they were resolved after a few rounds of googling.

This is how it turned out finally: https://devplays-shub78910.herokuapp.com

Throughout, I basically played, tried out a bunch of things; a large trial error game. Of course, I did learn a lot, which is why I am even writing this blog in the first place.

So, TL;DR would be to just start and not wait for the ‘right time’.

Thank you for reading, Cheers!

Welcome back to yet another trek blog.

This one, not solo though. Gave it a shot, to get along with friends. Also, they didn’t have any tantrums either, so it was smooth. The name of the place was “Tahuli peak” and it was literally, just a peak, unlike other treks where we end up reaching a temple or a fort. Although it has some religious history as well, which is great to read but haven’t yet.

To give some context, we planned this probably 1 or 2 days prior and initially decided to visit PEB fort, again, but through a different trail. But then later finalized this one, because it was easy to reach the base village and also, it’s very less popular compared to other mountain ranges, in the Sahyadri region. This one was also, close to Naneghat hills, where I had already been, so I gave it an upper hand. We were about 6 to 7 people on this one, therefore a lot of noise. 

Great, context done.
We decided to start at around 6:30 in the morning, and obviously, we did not do it. Commenced around 7:15 AM, and took a bus to the base village from Kalyan. A pretty straightforward route, nice and simple. Reached the base village, it had some huts and some shops. Loaded with some snacks, and started walking. We knew that we had to walk on the broad route for around 15-20 minutes until we start with the trail.

As we were walking, we saw a tractor coming which was heading in our direction as well. So we confirmed with them, the path which leads us to the trail. One of my friends tried to save some time and asked if they could give a lift, and they agreed to give one. In the slight excitement of hopping onto a tractor, we stopped the navigation system in our brains, and even when he took a diversion, we trusted him as he was a local, and he might know the routes better. Thanks to that diversion.

We got down the vehicle and walked for around 20 minutes because this path also was plain and straight and we assumed it would lead us right. After 10 more minutes, we discovered that it led to a farm. Yup. A farm, with nicely ploughed land, and butterflies dancing.

The farmer who was irrigating the land, called us and told us that many people come here after losing their track, and asked us to go back to the main broad trail and continue to go on the straight path.
We thanked him and got back to the main broadway.

At 8:15 we started, at 9:15 we were still on the same spot, but with a little extra exhaustion and a few more footsteps calculated on digital watches.

We knew this trek was simple but a long one and needed some stamina to complete it. Therefore we started back on our way (the correct way) and walked for a half-hour straight. Some of them were new to trekking and hikes, therefore they took some time to catch their breath after every few minutes.

The trail was cool; the initial patch was without any trees or bushes, just barren land with scorching heat. But once the hike began, the trees grew denser and made it simple for us to walk.

For real, trees help us in innumerable ways. (Cannot exaggerate it more)
We could see the leftovers of the people who visited this hill for camping, their food waste, and ash which they probably must've used to light a bonfire (I really hope it was just a bonfire and not a human).

After a nice 2 hour hike, we came across a hut and an under-construction temple.
Some of them started to rant and were almost convinced to go back down from here only. But then after rigorous attempts and poll, we decided to finish the whole trek.

We took some rest there, refilled our bottles. The guy who stays there was extremely friendly and accommodating, asked us for tea as well. Since we were exhausted, we didn't mind the sun above us and took some tea. Not kidding, the tea was friggin awesome. Without milk, just tea leaves and jaggery. It definitely recharged us and some new energy rushed through everyone now.

Around 60% of our trail was done and a few last stretches were remaining. The next patches were nice and surprisingly plain. Under the canopy of the trees 'twas cool. After 40 minutes more, ascend began and it was easy as well.

Finally over an hour and we reached the peak plateau. The view was BEAUTIFUL. Again, the realization of the tiny world hits. Again, we go quiet for a while and listen to the silence.

Since it was a group, someone had to try out the echo there, the sound waves bounced back in tune.

We took some time, had some fruits and water, rested for a while.

Since, it was the peak, the sun for directly above us, we decided to go back to the hut and rest there. We quickly descended back down and reached the hut. The owner of the hut was kind enough for him to prepare some khichdi for us (a pretty sweet gesture). And we were also accompanied by some dogs up there, so we had a good time with them as well. We spent some more time, genuinely thanked the hut owner, and finally started to descend.

The trip to reach back down was completely quiet since everyone just wanted to finish it as soon as they could. We obviously completed the descent way faster than we anticipated and reached the base village.

Took our bus back, had some good food before leaving, and dispersed back home.

The thing about going with a group sounds very uneasy and precarious, but there's a different enjoyment with a gang.

Definitely won't get bored, and they'll always be someone to provide moral support as well. So it is more of a personal choice to go solo or in a gang.
Both have their own perks and drawbacks.

Looking at the world from the top of the mountain may be a good feeling. But looking back at the mountain after a tiring hike, and realizing that we completed it, is a whole different vibe.

Thanks for sticking throughout.
Cheers!

Yet another trek blog, because I don’t get tired of documenting them.

This time though, it’s not a usual day trek with a lot of humidity and heat, but a “night” trek. I have been to two other night treks but wasn’t anywhere near to documenting them back then, although this time, I am.

Sweet. So the name of the trek as you might have already read is Irshalgad. It’s a place in the outskirts of Bombay, around half-hour to Karjat. Although, you can reach the base of the hill via Panvel as well.

I was alone for this one. As in, not alone throughout the trek, but not with anybody known except the guides of the trek.

A solo “night” trek is still down, deep in my list. Need a little more experience and of course, courage for that, ngl.

We had to board a train at 10:30 PM and reach Karjat at around 11:30 PM. Initially, there were a lot of people on the train, usual for a city like Mumbai, but as we headed towards our destination, people kept getting smaller in number and for the last 15 minutes of the journey, it was just me and an uncle left in the compartment. Apart from that, I was reading a Murakami book throughout the journey and man-o-man, the whole scene which I was reading was set up on a train, pretty similar to what situation I was in real. And if you are an avid Murakami reader, you know how the scenes get weird, pretty much abruptly. I shut my book as soon as I lost my flow, looked out of the window, gazed in the dark, rapidly moving buildings, hurt my eyeballs. Few balconies contained women putting the clothes out to dry while their baby cried holding her nightgown.

The train slowed down, and I knew we reached the station. Alighted from the train, and very-few to almost no people on the station. Pretty strange though, it was not too late, and for a city like Mumbai, not late at all. Guess, coronavirus has done its deeds here.

Met the group almost in no time as there were very few people in the first place. Probably, just one more group apart from ours. Greeted, refilled the bottles, and found our way to the vehicles which were gonna drop us at the base village. Found a seat in an empty vehicle and thanks to my fate, I got a loud m-f’ing group of four dudes as co-passengers.

The journey began and so did their amplified talks. Nothing interesting though, pretty much filled with sex, slang and other Mirzapur references. Couldn’t help but ignore it and look back into the window, back in the darkness. Not their fault as well, probably must be waiting for an opportunity to hang out and chill with friends (Could’ve found a better place though), never mind.

After simply around 25 minutes or so, we reached the base (although seemed like an eternity with all the ear-piercing sounds). A quick stretch, followed by a quick introduction round of everybody joining for the trek, and we were set for the trail!

Started at 12:30 AM and apparently, it was a 2-hour trek, therefore a target to reach the summit at around 2:30 AM. It was a fairly easy trail. The initial half-hour was a good, steep ascend but anything after that was pretty easy for anyone with a little bit of experience. But then, of course, not everyone is experienced and one has to ‘start’ somewhere.

I’d wanted it to be much chillier, at least with the altitude and time given. But was disappointed, as it was warm and humid here as well. Apart from the occasional sweat droplets on the temples of my forehead, no exhaustion or anything of that sort. Few occasional breaks were taken so that everyone else can catch up and the group does not have huge gaps.

Reached the summit(not exactly) at around 2:30 AM. Just before the peak, we had to set up our tents at the plateau as it was a flat surface, perfect for the tents. Quickly, the leaders started preparing for the Maggi and others helped them to set up tents. Now the weather was better, slightly chillier and just enough to enjoy a bowl of hot Maggi.

 After having our meals, we slipped into our tents and gazed at the dark night sky. I for sure had much better expectations with the night sky. Imagined it to be completely filled with stars and I’d not get bored staring at them. But again, there are perks as well as downsides of living in a densely populated city. The city lights, along with the dense air pollution makes it harder than ever for the stars to be visible.

Soon I got bored with it and dozed off at around 4 AM. Thanks to my fate here as well, I had to listen to “Who was your first crush!?” stories from my neighbouring 4 boy gang tent.

Opened my eyes with very thin rays of sunlight on my face. Got up real quick, as I did not want to miss the sunrise at any cost. The group leader asked everyone who wanted to complete the last portion of the trek to get ready and others to rest if they wished to. Not very far, the last patch was easy as well, with a few huge rocks to cross. In around 15 minutes we reached the summit and witnessed the insane sunrise. Indeed very mesmerizing.

Since the sun facilitated, we couldn’t help but take pictures. After a few quick photo sessions, we got back to the plateau where everyone else was ready to descend.

Without further a due, we started the descent at around 8 AM and very easily reached the base back in a very short period. There were people who were ascending in the morning as well. Few inexperienced hikers asked us for directions and the typical “How much more remaining for the peak?!” questions while hardly catching their breath.

Reached the base before 9:30 AM and the vehicles were waiting for us to take us back to the trains. Caught the train, played a few rounds of UNO and soon enough my station approached.

Goodbyes to everyone and then I alighted from the train.

Sure enough, day treks are fine, but nights have their own magic, with a little extra silence and a little more humbling. The sunrise from the top, like the cherry on the cake.

Hope I was able to document in a way y’all could picturise the whole thing. Drop in the comments what picturized the most.

Thanks for reading the whole thing in the world of reels. Appreciate it.

Before that, let’s understand what “seeing” actually means.

When you see a ball, the light bounces off the object and enters your eye. Now inside your eye, is a whole new world. The iris, first allows the appropriate amount of light to pass in, the cornea acts as the outermost lens. Then the light waves pass through and fall on the screen of the eye called the retina. The image formed on the retina is actually inverse, well, does that mean the whole world is inverse?

Thankfully, the waves which are then passed to the brain, are reformed back to the proper way. Then the proper image is processed inside our brain, and that’s how we “see” the world.

So, when we close our eyes, some amount of light still passes through our eyelids right? That means, we still should see something, and we do. You must have searched it on the internet.

Maybe something like this?

Or like this?

But then, were dissatisfied?

That’s because it’s different for everyone. The amount of light reaching our eyes when we close them varies for each person and then accordingly, we see different images. Some might be moving, some might be still, some can differ colour, some see complete black.

It does definitely vary on the amount of pressure you put on your eyes, may it be through just your eyelids or some external force such as your fingers.   

You must’ve also heard about people “seeing stars” or may have experienced it too, I hope that you weren’t punched though.

So, let’s understand what “seeing stars” means once and for all.

This might happen due to the blow on the head, as you were hit hard, which in turn might have resulted in tears or holes in the retina, which is quite temporary, as you get your normal vision back. Other reasons might be, low sugar, blood pressure etc.

Basically, when your eyes are closed and sometimes when open and watching a clear sky or a wall, you see these small little things which you might find annoying. But they are nothing external, they are something inherent in your eyes. These are called “phosphenes” and are small particles in your eyes that come between your cornea and the retina, resulting in them casting an unwanted shadow on the screen, which in turn produces those little worm type images. Those particles could be anything, from RBC in the blood to any other blood component or an unwanted particle. This is the reason for those little floating particles which you might see.

Let us clear another misconception, how do you visualize a red apple or yellow flower?

We know that white light is nothing but, the mixture of all the VIBGYOR colours. The light under which we see an apple or a flower is also white, then why do we specifically see the red colour? What do you think the apple “absorbs” only the red colour or “reflect” the red colour? It specifically “reflects” the red colour which ironically results in it being everything, but red colour. Funny right? So, scientifically speaking, the apple does not have any components of red colour, still because it reflects it, and because our rods and cones catch it, we casually say that the apple is red.

A black guy next time can definitely defend himself when he faces any kind of racism, “dude, I am literally absorbing all colours, I am pure, and I am proud of it.”

Hope you found the random information worth a read. 

Thanks for reading, I'd like to get your perspective too.

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