Between What is Said and What is Understood—- Part 1

Life is interesting and people make it more interesting. If you look around and pay attention to passerby’s comments and conversations (without being nosey), life would be more fascinating and you’ll always find something to laugh about… something that you can relate to have happened in your life too….

Below conversation between the couple took place a year after they shifted to their new apartment with all new furniture. The couch was already in bad state.

(SHE is a friend and she shared this later with me)

SHE: Look at the couch, it’s broken already… Just over a year.

HE: yeah… should have gotten a better one…the brown one.

SHE: Next time, please listen to me, even if we have to spend a few thousand’s extra, lets buy something nice and worthy.

HE: Ok. We’ll replace it next week.

(Two days later)

HE: I’ve got 3 Tennis racquets, for x1, x2 and me.

SHE: How much?

HE: 2k for each of them and 6k for me.

SHE: What? Why? You got cheap racquets for them?

HE: no no… what I got for them is decent….but I took your advice and got the best one for me cause I don’t want it broken in a year. J Rules apply everywhere right? (He winks and leaves)

Somebody is Watching Me

Sleeping jammed in the little space between my children, I start feeling the space reducing further and further…

Then I hear a little voice…

Mom, mom, mom…MOOOOOM…

I half open my eyes and ask,

What? Want water?

No…

Then?

I am scared…

Hug me and close your eyes and sleep…

No I am scared…

What’s scaring you? (Now I look at him) He gives me a reaction almost like the one in the pic below and says…

Somebody is watching me..I am scared

The darkness petrified child in me wakes up abruptly…

Being the mother, trying hard to act my age, I look around and say,

Look around chellam….there is nothing.. There is no one and this is our house, no one is going to come in, the doors are all locked…

By the time I finish talking, he is asleep…

Then, I switch on the lights, walk around to check if all door are closed to calm myself and get back to bed. It’s just 2 A.M and its going to be difficult to get back to sleep as I really start feeling that someone is watching us. No point trying to sleep, so I decide to browse on my phone and eventually fall asleep…which I did.

Though I’ve gotten over ghosts, I still have the fear of people…all those horror stories of thieves, psychotic killers and recently everyone on the streets with Smartphones. It’s not like 90’s…with internet and cameras literally in everyone’s hand, in no time you’ll get a funny picture message or video of  yourself. Even if no one is around, there are surveillance cameras or at least I assume that the google maps is filming me.

Someone is always watching…

Yup, bitten by the bug

Interviewer: Can I see some samples?

Me: Of course.

I show my work half hoping that he wouldn’t ask the next standard question. But, here it comes.

Interviewer: Do you have them published in a blog? Or something that I can read online at leisure.

Me: Oh no, I don’t publish them online. I write stuff and sell them. (Grrrrrrrrr!!!…I do freelancing to make money and not to entertain).

Then I babble on about how the whole process of freelancing works, how I got into it and why I got into it…(to make money and SHOP…shop…shop oh!!! it gives so much of pleasure when I think of it, everytime)….and I come back to reality meeting the judging gaze of the interviewer. Well, another interview gone in the gutter.

Here is the background to the above prelude…after 6 years of break from regular work, (working in an office—mind it) but working fulltime playing the role of a cook, chauffeur, house maid, freelance content writer and not to forget the most dauting task of playing the mother of twin brats. Suddenly, one day I wake up and decide it’s time I resume my career. Going back to my old job is almost impossible as I don’t have the leisure of time. I have to be back home, do all my regular stuff for the children, home and be able to do more than justice to the given second opportunity to resume my career. So, I need something that would provide me the necessary flexibility and at the same time give me work satisfaction. Based on my 5+ years of freelance content writing experience, like an adult my age, I over confidently decide that I am the ‘right fit’ for ‘content writing’ jobs.. Only to realize after 6 months that the world has changed a lot when I was busy cocooning.

There is so much more to be considered the ‘right fit’…there needs to be proof….laid down plain and blank. In the preparation process, I learnt that one of the common questions asked to an interviewee is, “Do you have any experience?”… (I found it funny that even a fresher is asked this question). Then it struck me… This ‘do you have any samples’ question is going to haunt me and stop me from getting a job. I’ll fail to impress the interviewer and also get lost in the process….That was my Eureka moment….

Time to act and here I am with my first post on my blog aptly named ‘birthofablogger’….I was contemplating naming it as ‘forcedtoblog’. But then I thought, why have negativity added to a name. Who knows? I might end up enjoy blogging…

Yup…I’ve finally let the bug bite me…the blogger’s bug.

(P.s:  The above mentioned conversation is an excerpt from one of the interviews…almost every interview…)