Superpowers we all (can) have

Romantic comedies are my favourite kind of movies, making me a romantic who believes in great love. They also just let me forget about whatever is happening in life, laugh, fantasize, and leave me with a wistful feel-good-feeling. Badly rated movies based around a competition where the amazing girl with a tragedy overcoming all odds wins has the same effect. The Oscar nominations  (replace with sophisticated artsy movies, the ones with deep intellectual meaning, and with which you are given the label of having great taste) are great every once in a while too. 

But when I watch action movies, I don't like them all that much. The reason I don't like them so much is because I will never get to be a superhero and save people from this beautiful world full of terrible people. I won't have fingers that can emit sticky material to swing across buildings, I may have a cape but will not be able to fly, and there is no chance that one of my parents is a Greek God or Goddess. (Thank God, I love my parents very much.)

None of us will ever be a superhero. But with all the thinking time I get while I'm sitting alone and trying to think about how to complete my final year project, I thought I'd be a little more productive and make up a list of superpowers that we all can have.

You have been warned though. These superpowers may not help you save someone, but definitely 'save yourself' from sticky situations and probably also be 'happier'.

Are you ready? Of course you are. *Silly me talking to myself.* Let's dive right in! Here are my top three.

If someone ever asks me which chemical I would like to be, my answer would be a noble gas. Because a noble gas does not react. A lot of times in our lives, we are in situations that affect us immensely. And in these situations, we tend to be in a heightened emotional state. When we are emotionally unstable, we tend to do something. And this doing something often is a reaction to the situation. How often have you reacted, and regretted saying something, or doing something, a few moments or days later? The skill of not acting on your emotions - of being able to stay back and do nothing, irrespective of how impulsive you are feeling is the first superpower in your toolkit. Practice taking a few counts, relaxing, and rationally taking decisions.

Now if the skill of inaction is the first one, the skill of communication is the second. Communication is so so so important, I cannot stress enough. It's important at the workplace, when you are interacting with your boss and colleagues. It's important in friendships and relationships where the lack of expression of how you feel could lead to misunderstandings, which could lead to its destruction. It's important with yourself, because if you do not know what you want to say, if you do not mean what you say, or if you do not know what you are feeling, no one will know that for you either.

The last superpower is an amalgam of three - Compassion, Emotion, and Letting Go. I think they are connected. If you feel emotion for people, you will try to understand them. The wanting to understand them stems from compassion. And the ability to let shit go and move on is a display of compassion to yourself. Emotion is important because it is what makes us human. Animals are driven by very basic needs like the need for food and a place to live. Human beings have the power to feel things. They can feel anger, greed, and tune their hate to sing revenge. But they can also feel kindness, be warm, and understand that there is more to life than those basic needs. They can cause global warming, but they can also undo it. They can kill people, but also treat people brushing with death. They can learn, they can think, they can create. And finally, they can let go. They can let go of the bad, and focus on the good to change the status of their life. All of this feels pretty incredible to me.

Had to fix the knee to make them equal. :)

*soft music in the background that signifies that the post is coming to an end*

Whew. That got a little intense. 

Meanwhile, I hope you guys have a super day, a super week, and a super year. Super being the keyword here. (*pun* sadly only computer science students will get it *pun*)

But really, go reach for these inside you and unleash them.

Much love,
Kanksha

PS: I finally have an Instagram so go ahead and type my handle letsgorandomco to follow me and stay updated. I'd love to know which superpower is your personal favourite in the comment box!!

Day 4: Shimla: Kufri and Mall Road (again)

Highly recommend you listening to the audio while reading.

We woke up and got dressed 

Went and ate some breakfast

To be on time Niti as always stressed 

So we had time to take some pictures, aren't you impressed? (At how on time I was) 

(I also lost my chapstick which I found a few days later.)

The photo session continued 

While a couple friends finished their poop

We were rushed inside a bus

Separated from our group 

Not for long, because we reached Kufri adventure park quite quick

That place was just to take pictures and against it, put a tick

We went a level up, till taking a tempo or walking we had to pick 

Walking it was, we weren't going to give so much money and be tricked 

Walk walk walk.

Sometimes uphill.

Always uphill. 

Whine grumble complain.

Too much cold in my nose, hurt in my brain.

Leg leg leg screaming out, 

Me with too much pride to stop.

Trees all around

Walk walk walk.

Sometimes uphill.

Always uphill.

Toy town behind me.

Colorful dusty lane around, everywhere a tree.

Epic view, constantly we would stop and see.

TOY TOWN

We reached the point where there were yaks and horses. A lot of people chose to continue on them. A lot of people who were confused waited till a few of us walked our way through the animal feces to let them know how long it lasted. Smart owners of the animals, keeping the first 100m dirty so that people would hire a horse. 

The prices decrease drastically as you walk a bit, in case you are planning on going there. 

And so we walked

Horses on both sides 

Frightening most of my friends 

Making them behind each other's back hide 

We stepped over stones, we stepped over dirt

With all of that stepping, we started to sweat and feel hot and before we knew it we had reached. 

It did not look like anything great at first. We rushed to the place where we get Maggi. I eat Jain food, so I didn't expect to get any. But Mokshu had the foresight to carry some Jain masala. I was really happy. 

It did not look too great at first.

It proceeded to snow very little. But it snowed. Did I say I was happy? I was so much happier. The last time I saw snow was fifteen years ago when I was six years old. I don't remember it at all. The small droplets, white furry things even smaller than tic tac, they brought huge smiles on everyone's face. Smiles even bigger than the one when I realised I would get to eat Maggi. 

Maggi+Snow =)

We walked towards a place from where we should have been able to see the Himalayas. We didn't see the Himalayas but decided a meeting point and time so that everyone could proceed to Mall road.

Most of us proceeded to a temple without going inside. 

We walked around. It was a lot of walking. But the view was splendid as well. 

Saw the world's? highest go kart here. 

We walked down eventually. My leg was hurting the whole way down. I did slow down. It was still a fun walk back because I loved the surroundings. Nature has a calming effect. Walking also has a calming effect on me, irrespective of how much it made me want to cry. Alright, I'm exaggerating, it wasn't that bad.

And we've almost reached halfway: this part was slippery!

Walk walk walk again to Mall Road. 

Buy buy buy a beanie for friends.

Walk walk walk for food,

to the restaurant literally at the end.

It was so far, I thought we would never reach

But the sunset was beautiful

And we got pasta

And began the walk back to the bus because our driver was shouting at and threatening us.

Sunset from Mall Road

I don't think everyone that day got a chance to appreciate the lights and car-free zone.

We also missed eating cake at the bakery.

But that's the problem with deadlines - you're too worried to complete something to actually enjoy the process of completing it.

Came back to the hotel.

It was Vinchhi's birthday the next day, some people got cake.

There was music.

And some people were dancing.

One person had alcohol from a sprite bottle thinking it was water.

One person spat it out.

One person felt it burn down his throat. 

And one person is now signing offff!

Kanksha

PS: Anyone wants to get spooked?

Day 5: The Bus Journey: Shimla to Dharamshala

We left from Shimla with the reception calling us out for ruining a towel and demanding a large amount of money for it. Thankfully, they hadn't found the other damaged product.

It was going to be an eight-hour bus ride for sure. That meant that it was game time. We played connect - the first and last game of the ride. Almost everyone gave a word, but by the end we were pretty tired of the game and switched to listening to music.

Somewhere in the middle we stopped for lunch. Everyone was dead tired. I went around and took pictures of each group forcing them to smile. Atleast if they pretended to be happy, maybe they'd fake it till they made it. That didn't work out because the food at the dhaaba wasn't mood lifting at all. Thepla came to the rescue for once, and it tasted delicious with cheese and athana. The three of us who took out our theplas felt accomplished since we managed to finish a decent amount of them.

A lot of people picked up snacks. A lot of people used the washroom. And we got back onto the bus.

The bus ride was still just filled with music and people sleeping or trying to sleep from what I remember. Sitting on the last seat was a bad idea because there was no way to balance myself. Beyond a point we stopped caring as much and kept falling on each other.

view from the bus

No one puked in my bus, which was great. The puking people slept the whole journey. I slept off for twenty minutes in the most entertaining part of the journey where the bus driver argued with the police to let him go through a specific lane. The police did not agree to let us from what I have been told. We still went through that lane.

The one thing that everyone kept discussing was the trek. Patel had added the trek to the itinerary and most of my bus was against it (except me and another couple of people). They wanted to sightsee instead, and have a relaxing day, and fitting everything was not possible since there was a time crunch.

I remember towards the end of the bus journey, we were so bored, that we asked Prapti to tell us the ETA every five minutes or something. She didn't.

We didn't have great expectations about anything. Looking at our hotel from far, it seemed very 'okay'. We were more and more skeptical about it as the road was almost the same width of the bus right at the entrance, the cliff taunting it to topple over in the darkness. After waiting for Shrey to come down with the key he had taken away, and allotting the rooms randomly by making people pick a key from a bag, we dragged our bags up to the third-floor room. IT WAS STUNNING. The best room we had so far, and the best one we were going to have (we didn't know that yet.)

Niti was in a mood because she thought her brandy had spilled in her food bag in spite of having multiple layers of safety on top. She emptied the bag only to realise (happily) that it was just a smell, and no leak.

After gaga-ing at the view, and talking to our parents, informing them about our eleven-hour journey, we proceeded to the dining room. The food was delicious. The rice, noodles, manchurian - everything was yummy. And we also got gulab jamun!! Chinese overall after three days of Paneer was great. 

Following dinner, we had a discussion about trek vs sightseeing. I chose trek. But my knee hurting me every time I climbed the stairs made me cancel soon after.

A bunch of people came over to our room. We tried to play black queen. Did we play anything else? I don't remember. I think I was more focused on the heater near my feet, trying to keep them warm.

After everyone left, I toh slept. Niti and Saumya watched a movie I think.

Oh oh, also, I found out much after the trip that Vinchhi's friend from back home had got a room decorated for him since it was his birthday. Pretty sweet, right?

That's all, more later ^_^
Kanksha