My father taught me – “There is no substitute for hard work”.
One of the best managers I had (a South Korean) once said – “I will work hard to live”.
I still remember and follow those words.

The strongest of shackles is the desire to carry on.

From the moment you touched the chords of my heart, they’ve been playing magical tunes – from ecstasy to melancholy. No matter how far you are or how solitary I am, I know the tunes will never leave me alone.

You can make friends with vipers but that doesn’t change their nature. People often offer smiles and company as prepaid service charges.

You meant the world to me. It seemed impossible to let go… until I realised it’s me who must leave.

And I wait like the abandoned wooden house that was once a home centuries ago, now isolated from the world by the thicket around. Every weary plank praying for the warmth of footsteps, every wall praying to listen to voices and laughter before all of it breaks down.

I love to see you happy, I love to see you dance… overcoming the sadness inside. Helps me forget my pain for a while. So stay so!

I rediscover your perfection every time you leave – spotless rooms, enough food stored for a few days, everything in its place! If you forget something, you never fail to apologise over the phone for not attending to that. I feel belittled. And as dust settles on everything and the food reduces day by day I realise how incomplete I am without you. Sometimes I wonder if all of it is a sweet ploy to make me feel your absence every lonely moment.

Life is neither complete, nor perfect. You either build it or imagine it. And there are a crazy few who excel in both.

The problem lies not in how imperfect people are, it’s in how they crawl ahead of others to grab it all, how they ignore the significance of other lives. People need habits like reading to continue thinking, introspecting and observing. Why a habit? Because life teaches you the worst survival techniques and a few years of this ‘development’ kills your conscience and soul. Your mind is occupied by your errands even when you step out of your home, any contradiction agitates you. The truth is – life is a cheap but effective addiction, it consumes you quickly. People broadcasting personal moments in FB reels continuously prove that.