Sum of Everything

I just read a piece in this week's TTT newsletter, Been There, Felt That. It was called "It is your had work, not just talent". In this, the author talks about how a casual remark about someone's artistic talent irked her... enough to write a small article about how showing up for what you have committed to, day in and day out, putting in the work that ultimately leads to success is often dismissed as "talent", with very little (often, no) acknowledgement to the effort and hard work the recipient of the "compliment" has put in to achieve that success. She went on to say that it is a way of excusing yourself - attributing success to something that is inherent in a person as opposed to confronting the fact that you didn’t achieve similar success because you didn’t bother to put in the hard work. This is something I have been both fearing and struggling to accept for some time now. I have always wanted to be on stage. I have always wanted to perform...

I awake grudgingly at 5 am from a dream I can barely remember. My alarm blares on, and my sister, sleeping next to me grumbles at me to turn it off. It's Monday morning and I have a flight to catch. In Bangalore, that means leaving the house at least 4 hours in advance; 3 and half, if you are lucky enough not to have to stand in line at the check-in counter. On this rare occasion, I am. The one-off office sponsored ride to the airport is smooth, and for a change, I do not plug in my earphones to listen to a podcast or BTS as I usually do. Instead, I decide to enjoy the sounds of nature, with the windows rolled down. I soon come to regret this as the driver, probably a Formula1 aspirant, honks away at anyone and anything that stands in his way in what I can only assume is his winning lap. Once at the airport, I am pleasantly surprised to find a smaller crowd than I expected. I quickly get through security, and then proceed with my airport ritual. I have been flying regularly since I...