24 hours of a modern hermit.

One day.
That’s all it’s going to take.
To undo the anxiety and the restlessness.
A detox, if you will.

One day, wake up and reach your hand out of the fuzzy cover to grab the freshness of the morning. Not your phone. It can wait. Don’t let the first thing your eyes witness after relaxing all night be the glaring black mirror and the stale updates.

Then stretch your arms wide and gather all that you love in the universe into your tiny palms and rest them on your face so that it can permeate through your being through the passage of your eyes and through the air you inhale.

Next, once you are done with the bathroom rituals, stand in front of your closet, not the mirror, and think about who you want to be today.
Don’t let the conditioning of your personality, job, prejudice, society, and complexes get in the way.
Today, dress your nature, and nature isn’t the same every day, neither are you.

Head out. Aimlessly. Deny the desperate urge to consult your phone to find out what’s happening where, and who is doing what.
Today just walk. Count the blocks on the pavement. Try to stare down the sun until you are defeated. Sit in abandoned corners that seem like they haven’t had a friendly visitor in a long time.
Smile. At nobody really, just at yourself. And people will smile back.

Sit alone, and order for one. And don’t try to pretend you are waiting for somebody this time,
or don’t start scrolling on your phone frantically till your mind and fingers hurt.
Just bask in the glory of this day. And notice the little things, like how we rely so much on the camera to adjust and auto-focus on things, while you can do a better job of it. Read. Pick up something on a whim, without turning to the back for reviews.

Now think about all the people that you think you hate and find something to appreciate in them. Just for today. You can go back to hating them tomorrow.
But today, seek inwards what you seek in others and appreciate people for the assholes that they are less of today.

Go to a bar. Alone. And if you don’t drink, go to a bar anyway and ask for that vegan/organic crap that hipster kids are into these days. Anything that puts you at ease.

But don’t ask the usher for a table. Head straight to the bar counter and sit down on the stool.
And feel the lights, music, and the peculiar citrus smell common to bars conjure a wild and effervescent whirlpool as you sit at the center of it all. Don’t fret, just chill.
People only care when you care too much.
Remember to have fun with yourself. Just by yourself. You are your best company.
And if you truly are what most of your Insta Stories say, be ‘savage’ and dance alone.

And then Uber the night. Roll down your window and try to chase the moon. Notice how satisfying it is to have this giant orb of radiance, almost like a lunar crystal ball in the sky, the beholder of your future.
And you’ll see that you’ll never catch it. It will always outrun you.
But, when your Uber ride ends, and the driver sheepishly asks you to rate him with 5 stars, look up, the moon will be right overhead, shining the brightest, holding its secret in the stillness of the moment, you will know that sometimes through the chase we tend to lose sight of our-self. And you feel light years apart from yourself, and even though it’s going to take some time to bridge this gap, you can just stop chasing and let your light shine over you.
So don’t forget to reach out to yourself every now and then.
You need you. Be your first love.
Be a happy hermit at least once a month.

And before you enter your house, give 5 stars to that nice Uber driver. Because lord knows that it must have taken all our stars and lunar forces to align to get a safe and pleasant Uber ride at night. 🙂

 I am wearing:

Crop top- Astha and Sidharth
Skirt- Koovs
Hair band- Aldo
Earrings- Streets of Paharganj
Chappals- StreetStyleStore
Leather bag: Streets of Paharganj
Accessories / bird neck piece: Sarojini Nagar

Here i am seen roaming the streets of the Dutch remnants of the magnificent Galle Fort, during my travel through Srilanka.