The blame game

Posted on by Nikhil Anand

The Blame Game

One of the most commonly found trait in almost every human being is the one pertaining to acceptance of one’s actions.

When things go well, we love to talk about it. The moment something goes wrong, we find ourselves in a situation looking for a scapegoat. It is very hard to accept that you have erred somewhere in your actions.

Imagine how simple it would be if we all be brave enough to take ownership of what we do, and how we behave. If there is anything that you may feel is not morally upright, or something that can potentially put you in a ‘false position’ later on, just don’t do it.

And if you accidentally err somewhere in your pursuit of doing something good, be humble enough to accept it. If your intentions were not wrong, there is nothing that you should fear about. If people still judge you for the apparent unwanted end result, despite you trying to do something good, it is their game to lose, and not yours. You just have to accept your mistakes, admit them.

The very same thing is applicable to speech as well. If you are bold enough to make strong statements, make sure you are equally bold to stand by your words 10 years down the line. If you cannot validate your own actions, and your words, there is no reason why you would ever be respected, by others, and your own self.

When you think everything is someone else’s fault, you will suffer a lot.

Disclaimer: Idea is not mine. The original art was created by someone else. I found it on the Internet.

The used

Posted on by Nikhil Anand

The Used – September 2010

‘The used’ is very close to my heart. I had created this back in 2010. It conveys a very strong message, and the meaning of it totally depends on how the viewer perceives it.

There will always be times in life when you would feel let down by someone, or some situation. You will feel betrayed, and you will feel that you have been ‘used’.

It is one of the most depressing thoughts that one can ever feel. When you know how bad it feels to be ‘used’, why would you inflict the same pain on someone else? Let your actions do only as much as you could handle if you would be at the receiving end of the same actions.

About the picture – I did not create and will not take any false credits for it. I just recreated it. The idea, obviously is someone else’s. I found it on the internet, and it appealed to me big time. I decided to recreate it.

It is about a girl who has been used, and abused. For the society, she is at fault. There is nobody to help her. The telephone line is disconnected. Her voice never reaches anybody. And the pain that she carries in her heart stays.

And here I begin…

Posted on by Nikhil Anand

Numero Uno

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

It took quite some time to come here. I have always wanted to pen down my thoughts for the world to see. This is the first post on the site and I am writing this down because if I don’t write one, WP will put on a default one. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

Autodidact, Philomath

Posted on by Nikhil Anand

When was the last time you tried being surreal?

I have a habit of thinking, overthinking. I can be highly whimsical – my thoughts flicker. With so many thoughts in my head, I decided to put them down at one place. Surely I could have done this in a personal diary, but aren’t we all obsessed with reading personal diaries of people? So how about putting it all down for the world to see…

Who am I?

  • I am Nikhil. As I type this, I am a 20-something guy trying to ‘stay hungry, and foolish’.
  • Yolo-Solo? Lol, yes! I want to try anything and everything that I have ever thought of. And as I do it, I would want others to see. After all, affirmations is all that a human life is about.

I do not intend to convey any specific message through this site, nor do I have a plan of what I will put in it. There is no specific genre that I write on. Whatever I think, I pen it down.

(Un)Popular opinions

  • I have strong opinions on the topics that I come across. Not a lot of people might agree to what I say, or write. But does that stop me from putting things across? No.
  • We all try to settle in to our lives, moving towards the ‘average’, living in the illusion of being ‘successful’. What defines your success? Doing the same thing all the year around, what do you gain personally?
  • If these questions sound intriguing to you, I am sure you will be frequent visitor here.

Let me talk about my life now…The timeline

I was a shy kid back in school, who was an amazing scholar. I focused primarily on studies, and sports. Studies defined what an individual was made up of, or so people thought back then (perhaps, they still do?)

I had no option but to excel in academics. So being a topper – ticked! What next?

I squandered my years 2011-12, before getting back to my groove. A quote from a Professional Development teacher struck me hard in 2014 – ‘Needs create tensions, which forces you to work hard’. My personal crisis at the same time was not a mere coincidence, or so I would want to think. I had to get things moving – find what I liked the most.

Cricket fascinated me the most, but taking up the sport at the age of 18 did not sound too prudent. In addition to that, I had my finances to take care of. I took up Content Writing. I wrote articles for free back then, not knowing it had the potential to make money too.

2014 – Content Writing, Transcribing

The Fishbowl Network gave me my first break as a writer. I was thrilled to see my name in Google search results. But how long can you write only for your interests? Especially knowing you had two square meals to manage?

I took up Transcribing. This basically meant writing subtitles for popular movies, IIT lectures, and web series. It was SkyRay that provided me this opportunity. Do take note, all this while, I was a day time student at Christ University pursuing my Engineering Degree (2013-2017). Working with SkyRay meant parting ways with the Fishbowl Network.

A good thing that happened around this time was a guest post I wrote on Internshala about my time with Fishbowl Network.

2015 – Lifestyle writing, Cricket Journalism

Transcribing paid heavily, but was time consuming. The need of the hour was to find a field that not just paid, but paid for doing things I like, and paid more frequently. I took up Sports Journalism. I wrote for various websites – SportsOval, ModifyLifestyle, TipTopLifestyle, Cerebrate, Youthopia, etc. Some of these do not even exist anymore.

It was fun. I had become a popular freelance writer, and a cool LinkedIn profile landed me freelancing offers. The big break, however, was working with CricTracker. It is an amazing website that delivers cricket content 24/7. With over 5000 posts for the site, I became an integral member of the team in two years. I was happy to quit working for every other website, only to focus on CT.

2016 – Bartending, Broadcasting

Cricket writing continued to be my A game. But now, the needs plus the desires wanted me to jump in to another field that fascinated me. I loved the way Bartenders got their act going. With the help of a friend, I landed a deal as a Bartender at ITC. Another bucket list item ticked.

In addition to that, I wanted to explore more options in cricket journalism. Yet again, it was CricTracker and that helped me getting there. I co-hosted the IPL pre-shows, post-match analysis, and other features during the IPL 2016 for the channel. I was lucky to work with Mikkhail Vaswani, a renowned Times Now sports anchor. Trivia – back in 2009, I was a devoted follower of Mikkhail’s show ‘Dial C for Cricket’ on Neo Cricket. 7 years later, I was co-hosting a live show with him. Ticked!

2017 – FullStack Developer

I am a strong believer of doing things that you like, but not overdo it to make it boring for you. Writing was my passion. But there did come a stage when creative writing had taken a heavy toll, and I had moved to commercial writing. Data dumping was what I had started doing. I quit my work as an everyday writer. My college placements happened around the same time, and I was fortunate to crack the very first interview that I attended.

I bagged a FullStack Developer role at Epsilon. Amazing place to work. Although I was a 9.6 CGPA graduate, I was never a tech guy. And I had taken this job only to support my family, and to justify my graduation degree. Worked here for a while and moved to the next big thing.

2018 – Cloud Engineer

Developing code was not my cup of tea. I moved to network engineering. I cannot thank my lady love enough for helping me get there. Just like every other Computer Science engineer, the green terminal fascinated me. A bit of smart work, and I got a job at the Amazon Web Services – the top crop.

2019 – Author

Now that I have established connections in various fields of work, I am all set to tick off all the items that I have on my bucket list. Stay tuned. This post will be updated.

Here comes the first one: Author

Authored and published two books – ‘Hired – Modern-day Interview Hacks‘, and ‘Fitness Guide for the Absolute Beginner‘. Both books are available at the Kindle store, and Hired is available in the international market in Paperback edition as well.

Link:

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07WYZDFMM

2020 – Work In Progress