Learning through experience and error

Tagcontentment

That Stranger In Starbucks Who Was So Content That She Was An Anomaly

In The Archive
10 months ago
3 Min read
Add comment
T

On Christmas Day last year, I was with my friends in Starbucks. It was a great week. People from the hometown were staying with me, and I showed them around Delhi-NCR. On one evening, I took them out to show them my Starbucks; the Starbucks outlet which I visit regularly. No, I’m not an inadequate guide, I also took them to other places including monuments, roadside markets and so on. As we...

Read onRead laterAdd comment
Learning through experience and error

About The Content

There are two kinds of blog posts here as of mid-2018 – The Journal and The Words.

The Journals are thoughts, lessons, events that unfold in my life word-for-word and as barebones as I can put them out there.

The Words are creative pieces, narratives, short-stories that take from my life but did not happen word-for-word.

You can read more about this change here.

Like what you see?

Enter your email address below to get blog posts in your inbox as soon as I hit "Publish".

Join 815 other subscribers.

Deepansh Khurana

Blogger and writer from Dehradun, India. I'd say I love coffee but don't we all? I find stories, people and experiences. I blog about them.

Follow

You can follow the blog or me on these social channels. Instagram is where I post musings along with decent photographs so that is the only one I'll urge you to check out.

Instagram

I adore winters. Although, I'm always sick and unwell for most of them. I love the chill in the air, interrupted by gradual sips of tea, coffee, booze, and warm conversation. I love how ruthless the cold can get at times as you're out and about, sitting with your friends, feeling the cold slowly spread around your entire body. Winters in the hills is another experience altogether. The misty roads in the morning and evenings. The slight hazy filter over the entire city. The feeling when you wake up in the morning and want to snuggle in the blanket for a while longer. The feeling when you finally hit the bed at night, and snuggle into the blanket yet again. All of that, and an over-abundance of extra warmth all around you. Everything slows down, and then just stays like that for a lot of months. That's what I used to think earlier. It has come to my realisation lately that calm and cozy winters won't make as much sense if the summers weren't passionate and crazy. As I took yet another walk around town, embracing what is allegedly my favourite time of the year, I realised that you need to be spiraling for slowing down to make sense. With that epiphany, I appreciated summer which is something I had never done before, and maybe, just maybe, I missed the hyperactive energy and eventfulness that had disappeared as the chill began to set in around me. #dehradun #doon #shotbypixel #winters #summers #life #seasons #bloggersofinstagram #writersofinstagram #writing #blogging #random #epiphany #teampixel #pixelperfect #evening #sunsets
Big Little Lions' Find Your Tribe is what I had on repeat throughout my stroll through the city today. As the song kept going, I couldn't help but smile on the idea how Dehradun is only home because my family lives here and how it will cease to be home if everyone I know left it. It's an extreme thought though, I agree, and what of all the times I've had here, you may wonder? Point is, the times were because of the people in it. So, the times will always be because of the people in it. Places, as I realised in Mumbai last month, only hold the significance you put into them with how you romanticize them. It's in all the people you call your tribe. Those who, despite your differences, make you feel like you belong. It's funny but as I listened to the song, again and again, all the different homes I have spread out all over the country, and some even outside of it, started coming to mind. You get the idea. In that one moment, I thought of all the people who feel like home, even some who have perhaps, closed their doors. I hope if any of them listen to the song, or if they have a fleeting thought of a similar nature, they too imagine a home in wherever I stand at that point in time. I guess that's good enough. #jaisalmer #camels #tribe #shotbypixel #teampixel #biglittlelions #findyourtribe #music #nowplaying #musicrecommendations #bloggersofinstagram #blogging #writing #writersofinstagram #life #friends #family #ofplaces #ofhomes #home #homeiswhereyourtribeis
I don't have a grand goal. I really don't. I used to think to have more money than I can spend was a good goal. Then, I wanted to save the world. Then, it was something else. The cycle kept going on. Now, I just want to fine tune my life, and figure out the music of it. I want to see how best can it sound when everything comes together. All elements – the people, the things, the habits, the lessons – coming together to play one perfect song; all elements coming together to play my song. There's no grand goal. There is only a vision plus a little hope that somewhere along the line, as the wheels keep turning and as the clock keeps ticking, I keep finding the right notes and I keep changing the odd ones. Until one day, someone listens to that final piece, and no matter how it sounds, their heart skips a beat. #bloggersofinstagram #writersofinstagram #music #life #goals #writing #blogging #random #thoughts #musings #shotbypixel #teampixel #pixelperfect #madebygoogle #snapseed #amitynoida #amity #college #noplans #noplanisthebestplan #musicofmylife #blah #runninoutofhashtags #red #grunge #indiblogger
Timmy was a little boy. Everyone thought they knew Timmy. Timmy went away for a while. Timmy did it for the first time. Timmy wanted to tell everyone he did it but they were too busy doing other things. Timmy did it again. Then, Timmy did it every day. Everyone met Timmy when he was back. Timmy did it as they watched. "You've changed, Timmy," everyone sighed. Timmy's story sounds familiar because it happens every day. Humans, we're always influencing those immediately around us, and I don't mean this in a bad sense. However, the problem arises when you and the Timmy in the story start doing different things and no longer have an influence over each other. It is at this point that you start to grow differently, for better or for worse, and it isn't until your paths cross again that you learn how large the gap has become. Whether you take it like everyone and declare it as Timmy's fault or not is up to you though, and I hope you understand enough to choose the latter. #blogging #bloggersofinstagram #writersofinstagram #writing #change #growing #grow #growth #growup #life #friends #relationships #changeistheonlyconstant #shotbypixel #teampixel #pixelperfect #madebygoogle #gap #differencesaside #differences #rajasthandiaries #rajasthan #udaipurdiaries #udaipur
Listening to Bastille's Oblivion last night made me think about a recent conversation with a friend which, in turn, made me realise, once again, how most of us are almost always extremely vulnerable. We're always in flux; all of us are going through some issue we cannot seem to wrap our heads around. There's never going to be a human being who is free of bother. There was more though. As someone who has previously been in a headspace where I felt not waking up was better than waking up and going another day, hearing someone close say the same words hurt extremely. I was dealing with my own chaos, and my own oblivion recently. The friend I'm talking about was there every step of the way, irrespective of whether I chose to grab his hand to drag myself of the pit I had fallen into. That's what people, especially those close to each other, are supposed to do. You don't drag someone out; you wait for them to grab your hand. I tried my best to make the friend feel a bit light-hearted but I stopped once I realised all they needed was to know I was there. I think that's how it works, really. You keep helping each other out of the pits you dig for yourselves once in a while, and you keep moving forward together. Yes, you may have some occasional banter, and sometimes you slow the others down, and sometimes the others forget to check-in. However, in the end, the ones who stick together will do so nonetheless. All you need to do is make sure you're there, waiting outside the pit when those inside it are ready to pull themselves out. / Also, this 👉🏼 Earlier this month, I acknowledged how throwing random songs in my stories was a toxic habit that stemmed out of something rather immature. However, music is practically how I have experiences and it is always present in my life. So, I realised I'll share more intimate records of how and what a track made me feel. Instead of just posting them for someone to see. This is a first step. Now, I can do it every Tuesday and call it Tuesday Tunes or something. Unless you have a better name? If that's not how I go about it, I can do it whenever a song really riles me up. There will be a poll in the story. It's up to you!
You know what? Some things never get old. A random kid walking down the street to catch a balloon. The moment you realise you're back home after a long while. A friend sitting across the table with some coffee and food between you. Irrespective of how your life is going, a little puppy will be as cute as it was when you first saw it. No matter how you're feeling today, a baby's laughter will sure make you smile for a second. Maybe, it gets aggravating after but when it starts, you smile. You know what? There's a part of being human that forces us to enjoy the little things. You can be a cynic and refuse to laugh all you want for you've seen the worst of life. You can miss out on the little things if you're willing to do so but you know it too. You know that those little things never get old because those little things aren't little at all. They're the biggest part of what makes you human. You know that, right? I know you do. #bloggersofinstagram #blogging #writersofinstagram #writing #happy #human #life #humanbeings #humanexperience #littlethings #conversations #happiness #shotbypixel #pixelperfect #teampixel #dehradun
Yesterday was a really good day. As much as I dislike societal norms, I think we ought to give a day or two to ourselves. Birthdays are just an excuse, like New Years' or any other day that happens every year, for us to put our progress into perspective. I don't think they serve any other purpose besides that. There has been a lot of learning, unlearning and relearning in the last one year. The time between I turned twenty-one and twenty-two has been a rollercoaster, personally. I've talked to so many people and all of them agree that it's the age. It's extremely eventful and things change really fast. A new friend I made while travelling told me that I'll be twenty-nine in a blink, and I won't even realise how time passed. I think I have a feel of what she meant when she said that. That said, irrespective of how much time had passed, some conflicts in my life have stayed the same... or at least, they had until yesterday. I have come to realise that life goes on not because of certain people or events but despite them. In that sense, all we can do is try and stop controlling situations and take charge of that one thing that we can control–ourselves. Despite how much chaos brewed in the little things, and despite the few major losses that happened between the twenty-fourth of October last year and yesterday, I've also realised that I have a blessed life in most respects, especially when it comes to the people I have in my life–all of them. I am extremely grateful for that and more. That gratefulness is why I want to move forward setting even better examples for myself and improving continually as a person. To be honest, I've really done a lot that I had wanted to do this year but I don't think I'm done yet. I don't think I'll be done ever. I hope I can keep looking at myself every year and always see myself progressing in what feels like the right direction. Lastly, if I ever look back and notice a misstep, I hope I can correct my course quickly. It was an eventful year. Thank you for sending in your wishes yesterday, and I'm extremely sorry if I missed your call. Here's to being twenty-two-years-old! 🍷
I'll leave Rajasthan today. I can take the route everyone takes after an eventful journey and say that it changed me but, it didn't. Nothing happened in the last month which changed me as a person. This trip, if it did anything in the grand scheme of things, only made me clearly see the things I already knew about myself. It didn't change me; it showed me who I was, and it did so extremely well. I've met so many people and collected so many stories. I think doing this was worth it just for those two things. In the end, there's no larger clarity and there's no profound wisdom. I guess, there's only another notch of understanding myself. I guess that's fine. I can't wait to go back home again. I just have one detour and one last stop to make first. #bloggersofinstagram #blogging #writersofinstagram #writing #experiences #rajasthandiaries #rajasthan #jaisalmerdiaries #jaisalmer #desert #thar #thardesert #shotbypixel #teampixel #pixelperfect #madebygoogle #life #travelgram #zostel #moustachehostel #travel #tripend #fullcircle #marchtee
We went to bed at eleven; our bodies were tired and our bellies were full. We lay in bed and looked at the sky without a shelter above us. The moon shone brightly and the sky had some stars. It wasn't as breathtaking as we had heard, and in a way, it felt boring so I dozed off. A dog, from the pack of six or seven which kept wandering around us in the desert, started barking all of a sudden at three in the morning. I guess all of us had dozed off and the barking woke all of us up. There wasn't any talk that happened, and it was only in the morning that we learned all of us were awake. No one said a word as everybody looked at the sky. The moon had disappeared. The sky was full of stars, and there was nothing else. There were just stars spread evenly on a wide dark sheet that covered everything. As I lay there, for I can only speak for myself, I looked at the sky and kept gazing at a star, moving to the next a while later, until my attention was stolen by a shooting star, and then another. I stopped counting shooting stars at twelve. I guess there was no point counting my wishes or blessings. I'm not a believer but for a few hours, I believed in it alright. I don't remember when I dozed off, remembering things and counting shooting stars, thinking I'll never see something as beautiful as that night sky. Then, I woke up, almost instantly, to a sunrise, and just in a few hours the universe had proved me wrong yet again. #ontheroad #jaisalmer #thar #thardesert #rajasthandiaries #campinginthedesert #life #sunrise #stargazing #bloggersofinstagram #blogging #writing #writersofinstagram #shotbypixel #teampixel #nofilters #noedits #madebygoogle #morning #rajasthan #safari #silhouette #desert #bucketlist #travelgram

Blog Archive

This Week, That Year