Shut up!

“Shut up!” can be such a rude remark.

It is a remark generally meant to terminate a conversation. One which denotes anger, frustration, boredom – to the extent that the speaker is asked to stop speaking.

Note that I stated “generally. They could also mean something quite different.

I was chatting online with one of my friends yesterday– a person I have met a sum total of twice and also talked about two times, but whom I consider a friend nevertheless (I tell her all kinds of nonsense – something she tolerates rather kindly). We were generally chatting of this and that and meeting for a cup of coffee some time in the coming days when I mentioned, out of politeness, that I hoped I was not being a pain. After all, she was a working professional and surely had more important things to do than make plans to hang out, sipping coffee with Yours Truly.

Her reaction surprised me.

“Shut up!” she typed.

And as I read those words, I realised that "Shut Up!" could represent something more than anger, frustration or boredom.

It could represent affection. Affection tinged by irritation, maybe. But affection nevertheless.

It was not the first time I have been told to shut up. Something tells me it is not the last time either.

But I am not sure I have ever liked it as much as I did yesterday.

Happy birthday

She is an year older today.

They say age brings wisdom. And patience.

They say she needs both.

Perhaps she does.

What she does not need is a lesson in honesty.

Or in being outspoken.

Or in being there for her friends.

She does need to work on her grammar.

But she does not need lessons in spotting news.

She needs to control her temper. Definitely.

But she does not need to be taught to be sensitive.

Nidhi Singal.

Colleague. Creative Thinker. Close friend.

Spotter of news. Blog entry sensor.

She is an year older today.

Some say she needs to change.

She shows no sign of changing.

And that is good.

Only words?

Words can be quite wonderful. And it was mainly thanks to a stack of them that I had an absolutely wonderful day yesterday. And it had seemed fated to be a terrible day. I woke up late, was not happy with some of the writing I had done and frankly, did not feel inclined to go to work. In short, one of those days when you feel pretty miserable and really sorry for yourself.

And then I got an SMS from one of my friends in Mumbai. We chat frequently but have never actually met. Still, she felt I had helped her out with something (I had only read something she had asked me to) and thanked we rather warmly for it. Suddenly, it did not feel too bad a day after all. I virtually floated around the house, shot myself into appropriate attire and proceeded to the workplace with a good deal of dash.

Things there were, well, a trifle chaotic. And to make things worse, one of my colleagues reacted just a bit sharply to something I said. But just when I was getting worked up and had changed my IM status message to “I wish I could be rude,” another of my online friends sent me a message “Don’t be silly. You could NEVER be rude.” A few minutes later, another one had come up with: “Stop wishing for the impossible,” and had given me a virtual hug! Suddenly, my grin was back.

It was strange. Although it was a far from perfect day at work and things kept going wrong, I did not feel too bad because my friends seemed to pop up and say nice things to me – I was dubbed “a silly sweetheart” by one who had not deigned to reply to my last seventeen text messages, and another had me in splits with her usual loony wit in the evening. I got late for dinner ordered at the office and found a friend waiting patiently for me with her own half-eaten meal, saying “I waited because you don’t look nice eating alone.” And when at the end of the day, one my best friends smiled and pointed out that I was looking rather nice in a shirt that I had feared had been on the bright side, my day was made.

I always keep pointing out that I do not have too many friends and yet, yesterday they all seemed to have come together by some coincidence to make sure that what would otherwise been a lousy day for me turned out to be a lovely one. And they did not actually do a lot – they just said a lot of lovely things and seemed to do so sincerely.

Words can be awesome. Didn’t the Bee Gees sing : “It’s only words, and words are all I have to take your heart away.”

All? I have got news for you – words are more than enough to take someone’s heart away.