Palak Tripathi

Human Psychology works in wondrous ways, and most times- in methods easy to succumb to and peculiar to understand. One such instance is the theory of sending Subliminal and Supraliminal message to the human brain and how it reacts to it.  While supraliminal message deals with exaggerating and posing a statement loud and clear; so much so that the receiver understands it as urgency, subliminal message is an indirect influence of something that may or may not have any significance to the concerned person in real life. If we study how advertising works, it is either conveying a subliminal message or vice-versa. While a big “SALE” message or “Buy One, Get 1 Free” poster is directly telling us that we should buy a particular product and that we can save money on it too, a subliminal message is often nonexistent, but equally powerful, if not more so. Imagine a skin-care company launching a new soap range for kids. It wouldn’t actually sell soaps, because who would...

When you become too much of being on your own, it feels weird, right? to live with parents or relatives once you've already learnt to actually stay alone. the concept and staying "together" again seems foreign; bizzare even. i don't remember when was the last time i thought that there will be a time that i will be living with family members for more than 10-15 days in a go but here we are. it's been 102 days since i have been around so many, almost too many people at once. there are occassional (read: religiously frequent) tussel and hard days, comfort (different sense), laughter and lots of home cooked food and the variety, oh my god the variety! moms often complain that we are lazy and that how do we manage to just survive with our dragging personality of being a couch potato or sleepy head all day.  it's not that difficult to understand you know? we are just different when we get home. We forget the worries of waking up e...

i was pretty anxious about travelling to home after nine months. nine goddamn months! The last i saw my warm home bed was in diwali 2019 and it was pretty difficult to register how many months ago that was. from getting ready in the morning to having my breakfast to taking a cab, all seemed pretty new, like i am doing all of that for the first time, like i was a noob. as soon as the journey started, my head started pounding. so much pain, such anxiousness. telling my mom about it somehow seemed like a good (and feasible) idea to me. i texted in the group directed to my mom that i want my low sugar ginger tea ready as soon as i get home.  the painful journey ended and i got in the car where papa and my brother were waiting for me. before i could whine again, my brother handed me a ghar ka cup and a flask, saying, "ye lo tumhari adrak wali chai" (here is your ginger tea). i can not even begin to explain what it felt like. what i can do tell though is that the tea wa...

The Girl Who Swears By Panache Have you ever experienced that mid-life crises that makes you wonder how our lives are empty and meaningless? Probably yes. But how many of you actually have experienced a panic attack because you thought that your event (Yes, YOUR event) probably would come out as a failure? Well. Let's talk. So I am a media student (from the last three years, duh), and as a practical to our subject called "Events and Exhibitions", we had to organize our own event for the college students. Interestingly, this event was named as the "Game of Survival- 2.0 ". Now why exactly the 2.0? I will tell you. Back when we, the Final year students were in our first year in 2017, the then final year batch conducted the "Game of Survival". It basically included the whole goddamn college students who were divided into teams and played games and enjoyed food and won prizes. That year, it was a hit. And so, our biggest challenge...

The Girl Who Swears By Panache Image Credits: Getty Images/Istock photos As December 2018 arrived, with chill mornings, drop in the temperature and with all those warm fuzzy and furry winter sweaters, I snuggled in my blanket with a cup of Oh-so-wonderful chai (Tea) and opened my social media in an attempt of finding some good literature pieces to read. Seems strange, but social media now has some brilliant writing pages for literature lovers and people are now shifting towards them at pace. What I saw soon after, was a post from someone random (someone random I know) saying, ( And I am NOT quoting) "2018 and me, both are a disgrace to the society". And that person was partially true, certainly a disgrace to the society that person is. #sorrynotsorry I scrolled and scrolled, and found n number of posts defaming and shaming, cussing and cursing the year 2018. One question that I want to ask all the people who think 2018 was bad: Was it the year, or was it YOU? E...

The Girl Who Swears By Panache She swayed past him, like a cool gush of breeze in a hot desert, an angelic beauty. The sweetness of fresh flowers and morning dew made its way through his nostrils as she continued to walk- not looking back, not halting. The fragrance lingered for some more time after she left, and he couldn’t help but stare at the empty space that she created at the coffee table in the cafe, where him- the artist was sitting since four hours, trying to find some inspiration for his next masterpiece. He tried to remember her face, but realized that he didn’t see that angel’s face, just her back and well- that unforgettable fragrance of her perfume. He sat back, and held his pen against the white paper, in an attempt to relive the moment- an attempt of sketching her. He started, or perhaps never started, because how on earth can you draw a fragrance? He tried to remember anything about her- her eyes or her hair, her smile or her hands but wa...

                                                           There are innumerable people whom you meet in your life. Some come to leave, some stay and some may not stay but they definitely leave a wonderful mark that you can never erase, no matter how many seasons pass. I have met so many people till date, who have helped me be what I am today and have learnt so much from them, but him; that gem, I CAN NEVER FORGET HIM. He swayed into my life like a gush of cool breeze, made my life a little better, and left quietly, without announcing. I was eight, enthusiastic and passionate about everything that you can do on stage, from dancing to singing to debates to elocution, but was way too quiet and introvert in real life.  Call me fortunate, but mobile phones were not the thing for kids those days, we were shooed ou...

Dreams are an essential part of everyone's lives. Be it an illusion of brain while sleeping, or a real motivation that makes you stand up to your feet and conquer the world. I, however; once had a mix of two. So I ate the scrumptious "Rajma Chawal" my mother cooked for dinner and adjusted myself on my bed. had I not fallen off the bed, I would have never realized that it was a disastrous dream. So what I saw was a big throne, all gold, studded with diamonds, and I was the one, sitting on that luxurious throne, with a crown above my head. But I was all alone, and all around me was: WATER. Yes, I was in the middle of the sea. And I was half immersed in water. I could feel the coldness and dampness of the fluid up to my knees. THAT WAS INSANE. Suddenly a few seagulls flew towards me and started to fly around my head in circles. I looked at them a got scared as they began pinching and plucking my hair and then I screamed. A real loud, scream. Well, my mom ...

*CLICK* I opened the door and ran to the opposite room- room number 101, with my friend; tightly shutting the door behind me. "Damn, too much of haunted talks for today! Lets just go to sleep now, we have to travel tomorrow." My friend, (say Alicia) said, all sleepy and tired. I was on a college trip to Kurukshetra and Chandigarh with my batchmates and two faculty members. It was our first night in a hotel in Kurukshetra. I was sitting with my squad in room no. 105, which was opposite to my room, which I was sharing with a friend of mine. We were chilling, talking about random things. It was 9:00 pm. After a while, our HOD, who had come to the trip joined us. We all talked our hearts out and shared spritual, funny and uncanny experiences that we all have faced  at some point of our lives. It was 12:00 am now, everyone left except for four people, the girl squad including me. And then the creepy stuff began. My girlfriends started to talk about ghost...

*Beep beep beep beep beep* Rang my not-so-melodious (read: Pathetic) alarm. My hand slowly and lazily reached and felt for my mobile phone and it took me 15 seconds to find it, when I finally switched it off. I rubbed my eyes and tried opening them, hoping to see a pretty little room, with white coloured walls along with butterflies and leaves on them, a huge book shelf to my right, a wall with a calender hung on it to my left, a big window in front of me and below it, a small shelf, with six photo frames holding the best captured memories. But my luck had different plans. Yes, I did see white coloured walls, but they were different. I saw two plump girls sleeping on two different beds, to my right, a not-so-new brown coloured almirah to my left, and a huge mirror in front of me. *facepalm* And I regained my senses and realised that I am not in my own cozy room, but in a PG from the last two months. It took me some time to accept the fact that this particular room which I des...

So this is my first ever blog post, and yeah, I am excited! I never knew that I could write, up to class fourth. However, when I was in fifth standard, our class was given an assignment to write a story, starting or ending from "...that evening...", and that was when I pushed myself to think, imagine and to create. I still remember how I, without thinking for even a fraction of second, wrote almost instantly: "That evening it was snowing. The weather was very cold. Everybody was sleeping. I was laying on my bed, when suddenly from outside my bedroom window, I heard a voice say, :Help help! please save my life"". And after that, I was blank. I had penned down the instant idea that flashed through my mind, and  then I was out of ideas. I got up, ate, played and slept. When I woke up, I got an idea, a new one. I continued, "I freaked out, got up and wondered who it could be calling, and where he or she was. I looked out through my bedroom window....