What was your first reaction or feeling when you read the title??!

Mine was a smile., the one that comes when you hit that momentary soft spot of peace! and then every other teeny tiny joyous feeling that flashed right in-front of me.

Came across these words on a random day when I wasn’t looking for it. Upon catching my attention, tried looking if it was part of any interesting article or book or just a random dialogue/quote by someone or some lyrics hidden in any of the most unimaginable song – but to my surprise it was only a random sentence generated by AI when it was giving me some paragraphs to match my mood for my random handwriting exercises. (Yes, I do that. Even you try & you will be surprised to see, how we are using our hands for everything else other than for the things its meant to be. No pun intended.)

Felt like it was a queue to my next blog, so here I’m with the title being silence yet to speak anything & everything that is out of context and maybe some sense in between the lines.

You could look at the title in two ways – First one, as an oxymoron – like the sound of rain & the silence that co-exists within us or around us when it rains and the second way, the peace & content that comes along in the evening after a good rain.

I believe everyone or most of us would have experienced both ways, but may be wouldn’t have paused enough to notice them. Even I have been pre-occupied with 50 things running on my mind, but whenever it rains, or even drizzles it’s like something is asking me to look at it and switch off the thoughts for a while – cringe much? But try it, just pause, even if it’s for 30 secs – I know rains are chaotic not always cinematic or dramatic, but if you have been blessed enough to enjoy a rain, take that blessing and let it in., I mean let that feeling in😉.

I know what will your next reaction be, all of the internet is preaching the same thing-pause., but all I’m saying is you do you, and whenever you get a moment to pause, stop & then reflect. Of course, we need to work, survive, be up to date on all the things that’s happening around us. But you know something, we don’t have to know every single thing that’s happening, we don’t have to consume so much of data, this reminds me of a line that I came across while doing the same consuming information thing, it says ‘we are addicted to noise while trying to make every single action of ours productive.’ 

Just try to introspect or discuss with someone around you, be it about the things you are consuming. Try to reason things. When was the last time, you did some activity without playing something in the background or earphones? When was the last time you did something that wasn’t yielding any materialistic gains or validation to you? When was the last time, you just had a conversation that didn’t revolve around reels or trends or mocking someone or arguing? When was the last time you did something just because you like to do it? (No, scrolling is not considered😜)

Maybe the real question isn’t that we don’t pause.
It’s that we’ve forgotten silence can also be productive.

Okay, tell me, When was the last time you wanted to know something and actually asked someone, instead of checking on google or with AI? Definitely it serves the purpose, it may or may not give you the required information, but a conversation that could have happened – didn’t happen. And instead along with checking on internet, you end up scrolling other things and forget the whole point of why you were online. It’s not an easy option, because yes lifestyle now is different, everyone is occupied, everyone is very understanding, or just cool because thinking they are nonchalant. Instead, try showing up, try bothering people (in a good way) – always an effort with intent matters.
Recently, I did pick up my phone and dialed a friend to know something, which could have actually be done through some research or even by just a text to that person. But guess what happened, we spoke about that required information for may be 5-10 mins, then we spoke at a stretch for almost an hour – nothing big or important, not even gossiping, just how we feel about the life that’s evolving for us. We had known each other for more than a decade, but that call was different. Somehow, I had just dialed her on right time & she as well happened to have that call at right time. Both of us understood each other on a different level – this is why humans are primarily different.

Doesn’t mean, we shouldn’t make use of resources that we have. All I mean is we shouldn’t end up just consuming and lose the power of reasoning, understanding, reciprocating. Don’t stop being human. Even I was using Substack at one point of time (definitely in-limits!), to know what was the platform all about, to read up some quirky write ups, some rants, some travel stories, some tech gyan and up until a point where I didn’t wanted to just read what others are saying, but also think and reflect as to what are my thoughts. And eventually lost interest in Substack, when I learnt that investors are now investing on writers & authors in the platform — the big picture, AI would suggest or market the things for which written content becomes the main data, so invest on people who can write about you so that eventually you will be seen when people are looking for you. Yeah so even I kind of lost interest when these writing platforms were being converted to just any other social media, just like how I lost you now in between these sentences. And I know the irony, I’m saying all these through another written content only!

Anyways, let’s cut all the noise and get back to our rainy evenings with ನಿಪ್ಪಟ್ಟು (Nippattu). Yeah, it’s been such a loooooooong time since I had a nice or even just a ನಿಪ್ಪಟ್ಟು. Just imagine, it’s raining outside & just the right amount, eventually silencing out the surroundings and then it’s just you, your coffee & the only noise sound you can hear is you crunching on your ನಿಪ್ಪಟ್ಟು – just imperfectly perfect! Oh, not to forget, hot chocolate with marshmallow! Also, cannot ignore the bliss of having a biryani and then just dozing off under your blanket to the sound of rain! And and never to miss an ice-cream, Belgian Chocolate Scoop (the plain one) –  while listening to your song on a drive! (or be it an auto ride with your earphones plugged in!)

What’s your core memory when it comes to rain or monsoon season?!

Monsoons are a good mixture of rains, breezy weather, and the sunlight during monsoons is another bliss! Monsoon evenings have their own way of calming you, making you realize you are just part of a plan, and letting you know that at the end everything falls into place. If you allow, there will be a lot of things said and heard in those monsoon silence. It makes you sit with everything that you might have forgotten or ignored. Why else do you think people crave for such silences while living in cities. Lot of stories unfold around the monsoon.

The weather automatically calms your nerves, makes you look for your comfort – be it in self, another person, food, tech, book, drive or a song. Every song heard during rain, makes you feel like it was just written for that moment. The stillness or not being able to step out, makes you to cook your favorite meal, catch up on your book, pick a conversation with your people, take that trip & fill your heart and phone with lush green sceneries or even end up writing something that could end up as a blog.

Yes, it was around monsoon when I first thought of actually writing something, something for myself apart for the times I write for people I care for. Writing on a piece of paper – is one kind of experience and typing to write – is another. Both are equally fun, important & it’s a different kind of magic during monsoon to do both of these things. I like how my letters turn when I’m in a good flow & love the sound of keypad that doesn’t stop while typing to the rhythm of rain – an experience that can only be felt. So it’s through the looong silences, great weather and a couple of friends who made this possible. One idiot who just says – I will be your publisher whenever you decide to write a book. Another Jaaneman, who just encourages me in everything that I do and now inspiring even more by already publishing a book. Even now, they would already be the one among the firsts to read this and respond – I know you guys don’t expect it, but thank you and janta wants more people like you! Don’t worry, not saying you guys are perfect, but you are my imperfectly perfects!

And definitely, thanks to every single one of you who takes time to read the long content and then would also let me know how they felt about it or what connected with them – means a lot! So thank you❣️

Let’s keep reading, exchange thoughts, learn things to unlearn, understand and to hold umbrellas for people around us!

“be still and listen to the story that the rain is trying to tell.”

PS: I’ll be waiting for some nice ನಿಪ್ಪಟ್ಟು after this!