Before anything, if an Indian is reading this, wishing you a very Happy Independence Day. India is celebrating its 73rd year of independence today.
To all the inquisitive souls that came here because of the caption, Welcome!
Yes, I took myself out on a date today. Alone! If that wasn’t clear already.
I have always heard about the concept of going out on solo dates and just spending the day all by yourself, with yourself.
How often do you do that? And no, I don’t mean spending the day cooped up in the room sleeping, as one of them. Even though I do it almost on all the holidays that I get now.
I know, being an adult sucks, BIG TIME.
That being said, why do you think this sudden thought of going out of my comfort zone popped up in my head?
Well, I am glad you asked.
Why the sudden craziness?
If you didn’t know me and this is your first time here, you probably wouldn’t know that I suffer from social anxiety.
Lots of people, crowded places, interacting with people, feeling like being the one always being judged? Yep, that’s me!
So, I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone and do things that I probably wouldn’t otherwise.
And voila, I came across the thought of going on a solo date.
I wanted to go all out and ensure that I do things that aren’t just out of my comfort zone but also ones that I have had in my “to do” bucket list.
I was all set.
I have always believed in the fact that you can’t necessarily enjoy anything if you can’t even enjoy your own company.
So, I decided to give this a go and let me just break the ice and say, I LOVED THE DAY!
I went all out
Before moving forth telling you about how my day was, let me tell you what I did.
I watched two movies – back to back (IN A THEATRE)
I ate sushi for the first time – pretentious (I KNOW)
These two things have always been on my bucket list and I thought, what better day than today to get this all done?
I had been planning for this day since ages. Given that I needed to mentally prepare myself to just go out and be on my own without any kind of buffer (meaning, my friends), I was not that ecstatic.
Don’t get me wrong, I was excited but I was also a lump of nerves in the morning.
But, now that I am done with the day, I am content and I actually got to know and realise that I love my own company more than anything else.
Yes, I didn’t get any of my own pictures clicked because I was too awkward to ask a stranger for a picture but I loved every single moment through the day.
What were the movies like?
Oh, yeah. I watched two movies that released today – Mission Mangal and Batla House.
Without giving much away, I can help you gauge whether the movies were worth the watch or not.
Mission Mangal
About Mission Mangal, let me say that everybody left the movie theatre with pride bubbling inside their chest knowing the entire range of success that the amazing scientists at ISRO achieved with the first successful Mars mission.
Yes, much like every Bollywood movie, even this one had theatrics and “a little exaggeration and a dash of superstitious elements” associated but the movie is a must watch. We always see the end result with such missions, never once realising the kind of efforts that the scientists put in on a daily basis to get it to the place where it is.
The movie left everyone teary eyed by the end, even the guy beside me was rubbing his eyes. I felt better because I wasn’t the only one with tears threatening to fall. The best part definitely has to be the comic timing of Akshay Kumar. The dialogues and the punch lines will leave you in hysterics.
Batla House
Given that the movie is inspired by true events and real characters, I don’t think it is my place to give my two cents on the actual event because I don’t know the actual depth of it.
I might update it later once I have learnt about the overall incident and the reports associated with the Batla house encounter.
But, till then, let me share my opinions on the movie itself.
It isn’t something very over the top that will leave you at the edge of your seat but there are certain twists and turns that did have an impact throughout.
The story has been narrated well and I sat there with the realisation that we only witness armed forced to be the “pillars” of the society who are never afraid or never traumatised because trauma itself is a part of their journey.
That was a myth that this movie broke today. There are some scenes that left me awestruck, wanting to cocoon John Abraham, or rather, ACP Sanjeev Kumar (the character) and protect him from his own mind that was playing tricks on him.
The movie is good enough for a one time watch and if you want to get a basic theatrical representation of whatever that happened in the Batla House encounter, this is a good one.
I thoroughly did enjoy both the movies and never once did I feel awkward being by myself. On the contrary, I felt liberating. For a change, I could concentrate on just the movie without any sort of distractions.
I took myself out on lunch too
Yep, as I mentioned before, I wanted to try Sushi too.
After banging my head trying to find good Sushi places around, I found a good drive in kind of place where they had a good enough ambience and well rated Sushi too.
So, I thought I’d give this a whirl.
I became a little overambitious.
I ordered two types of Sushi dishes – the California Maki and the Shake Maki
The California Maki was the one stuffed with crab, sweet eggs, cucumber and was topped with tobiko eggs.
The Shake Maki, on the other hand, was the one with grilled salmon inside.
I didn’t like them.
Sushi is not my thing. Like, at all. I don’t know what it is but the taste is just too weird and too chewy for my liking.
Yes, it is true that it looks beautiful on the plate and with the addition of the soy sauce, wasabi and the pickled ginger, it does taste a little better, but I still don’t get the hype.
I should have just eaten the ones with chicken in it instead of going all out and trying the “unusual” varieties.
But, the experience was nonetheless good enough.
Would I try it again?
Uhmm, probably not!
The place itself was quite amazing though with the outdoor seating and the sprinklers above to cool you down. So, I might go back there and try something that I actually will like.
Insider info, I was thinking of asking the person who was serving me to take a picture but I chickened out the last minute.
So, what do I think of this all?
Coming round to the final round, would I recommend you doing this?
Definitely.
You should definitely just go out and spend some time by yourself, and just let go at times. I know that it is easier said than done but trust me; it is a one of a kind experience. Challenge yourself and push yourself out of your comfort zone.
During the day, I realised how much of a routine life I lead. I just do the same thing every single day and hardly do anything to reflect back on my progress.
Yes, I am progressing in terms of my career, I am progressing in terms of my development but I never self reflect on my own personal growth.
Today was all about that.
Yes, I took myself out on a day today and I would recommend you do it too. I was about to even get myself roses but then I thought that would be too much, so I backed out.
Yaay.. I think you should try blind date too some day.