I love my addictions.

Writing is my newly found addiction. The list of my addictions has displayed a remarkable variation all these years; it is tough to contain me in a bunch of hackneyed words. There was a time when I was addicted to taking lighthearted laps with full throttle in the town with a bunch of friends; it was frolicsome and the involved exhilaration came as an added reward. There was a time when I was addicted to chewing rolled betel leafs, containing a mishmash of areca nut and slaked lime paste with a heavy coating of aromatic kattha. There was a time when I was addicted to learning the nuances of Microsoft Office; precisely it was the time when Pentium 3 processors were considered to be the most potential candidates, able to overpower an ordinary human brain one day.

There was a time, in my adolescent days, when I was addicted to watching Mumtaz, the silver screen starlet, on celluloid. Like every other teenager, belonging to heartland of India, my heart too swayed with the mischievous movements of her eyelashes. There was a time when I was addicted to perform surgeries at a stretch. In one of those golden sprees, I had performed 34 laparoscopic cholecystectomies (surgery for gall bladder stone) before sun could rise twice. The place was Muktsar, Punjab and 20th centuary was dusking away. There was a time when I was addicted to listening to the breath-taking songs of Adnan Sami. My favorite ones were ‘Kabhi to nazar milao’, ‘Nakhra uska garam masala’ and ‘Bheegi bheegi raaton mein’. With the pacing velocity of time, as Adnan Sami lost considerable weight, his news songs failed to evoke that signature charm.

There was a time when I was addicted to learn the Piano and every night I used to practice on the keyboard till my distal phalanges could contain their anguish. My music teacher, Vineet, a young lad with a remarkable hold over his practiced dominion used to teach me with grand vigor and it was his very subtle and soulful approach to music that I finally learned to make some music. Addictions are for indulgence and I am sure everyone has them. Your personality and the state of your subconscious mind attract certain habits, certain actions to you, and in the long run they metamorphose to be called as addictions. For some, love is the addiction; as for me meditating in the kingdom of Lord Krishna is my latest addiction.