chembarathi
Bio
In search of the stories I cannot hold in my heart.
https://linktr.ee/chembarathi
Stories (23/0)
Happiness
A year ago if somebody has told me that happiness is a skill that everyone needs to master, I would have laughed at their face. But so much has changed within me over a year. Now I know that happiness does not fully depend on the job that I covet, or the money it offers, or a mansion that I can build or a partner or Instagram photos from the exotic vacations. Happiness, for me, now depends on the here and now. I have never thought or even aspired that I could ever be content with life. It is something that I thought the ascetics only can do and I am just a mere human who hardly has any control over her emotions.
By chembarathi2 years ago in Motivation
Books that kept me sane
Books have always been my favorite place to hide. When everything went wrong, I picked up some fiction and got transported to another world. My real world problems got buried in somebody else's adventures. This was how my mind worked until the pandemic struck. In March 2020, when we were thrown into a world of uncertainty, I could hardly focus on any fiction. Suddenly life seemed like a medical thriller and I wanted something that would make me feel like I am a living, breathing human being and not somebody else's figment of imagination.
By chembarathi2 years ago in Journal
Anxious People
Anxiety is the equivalent of a plague for our generation. There is not even a single person unaffected by it as far as I know. Some hide it under the façade of extreme pleasantness and for some, it may be rudeness. We suffer in the self-made prisons thinking we are all alone in our suffering. We imagine that we are all broken and somehow that brokenness we treat as something unmendable. Many of our life-threatening problems will disappear if we open up a bit to others. But in a highly connected world, who has the time to sit down and listen without flipping through the mobile phone even once?
By chembarathi2 years ago in Psyche
The Myth of Meritocracy
If you have been working in the tech industry for a long you might have seen the term "meritocracy" highlighted in every performance appraisal related email. When I was in my 20s, I used to believe that all these appraisals based on merit are correct to the dot. Little did I think about what is the basis for measuring merit and who decides this. It is when I am feeling stalled in my career, I gave some serious thought to it.
By chembarathi3 years ago in Journal
Hangzhou
Every year I set out for a solo trip on my birthday. It has become a tradition over the years. So, when I moved to Shanghai, I thought I would have to let go of this tradition as I was completely new to the place. Apart from "Ni Hao" and desperate actions using hands, I could not utter any Mandarin word to save my life. Friends suggested to stay in Shanghai and enjoy the skyscraper view in a nice restaurant. But I needed greenery, a bit of tranquillity and I didn't have any clue on where to find that in the vast landscape of China. Hangzhou came up in a conversation with a friend just before my birthday and I realized that it was the perfect place for my birthday.
By chembarathi3 years ago in Wander
Yellow Mountains
No grasp over the native language, a trek in the freezing winter with nothing other than normal running shoes to support me, and that, too, with total strangers - All these things didn't stop me from getting out of my comfort zone when I came to know that my days in Shanghai were numbered. Suddenly I wanted to experience all it had to offer. So one Friday evening, I wrapped up my work early and caught a bus to Yellow Mountain in Huangshan. With my zero direction sense and Mandarin knowledge, catching the bus itself seemed to be an achievement.
By chembarathi3 years ago in Wander
Carol Dweck's Mindset
In recent years, I have always been proud of the fact that I am trying out different ways to improve myself. I can tick off almost all the things that self-help gurus preach about and it had made such a huge impact on my life. I am hooked on that learning path. It has made me believe that our talents are not given away by birth and we can cultivate whatever skills we want to if we put our mind to it. This is the growth mindset as per Dr Dweck and a fixed mindset is believing that our talents are innate and cannot be improved beyond a point.
By chembarathi3 years ago in Geeks
- Top Story - September 2021
ShanghaiTop Story - September 2021
"Being in love was like China: you knew it was there, and no doubt it was very interesting, and some people went there, but I never would… and then someone passed me a bit of some sweet stuff, and suddenly I realized that I had been to China. So to speak. And I'd forgotten it…." - His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
By chembarathi3 years ago in Wander
The Default Woman
Married, maybe with a kid or two? Definitely with a title Mrs. In recent years, whenever I book a doctor's appointment or even apply for a job, the default title is Mrs. Most of the time I have already told them that I am unmarried. But whenever I get the final receipts, I could see myself addressed as Mrs. Somehow the world does not want to accept me as an entity that can exist without relating to a man. During the first few instances, I was amused. Then as the years passed, I could see that people don't want to see me as I am. It is a common perception and I can't blame everyone for not being able to see a woman beyond these titles and tags. But it worries me a little bit more whenever I am getting such treatment from another woman.
By chembarathi3 years ago in Humans