Ramya | IdeaSmith @ideasmithy@mastodon.social

BLEEDING COLOUR - new post on well, read it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLuh8ouJEmc/?igshid=1hyb8lw5g2jqf

DARK DAYS - new post

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJVRIWvprRj/?igshid=ayliyiu1hdd5

LESSONS ON BEING LOVED - new post on just that

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIho256p65s/?igshid=2dprtn08vr7y

#Introduction Hello Mastodonians (which I hope is a word you like), my name is Ramya Pandyan. I'm a writer, occasional stage performer, purveyor of all things colourful. I live in Mumbai which is also my identity, my cross to bear and my family. I've been blogging since 2004, a journey that led me into other social platforms, a career in digital and a new identity.

I'm going to toot about #Mastodon (for the benefit of my birdsite community), some poetry, plenty of saree and lipstick pics.

Find a way to be grateful for EVERYTHING.

Falling in love again. Realising I can look away. Pondering which to do. This is a good time.

𝗙𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗡 𝗪𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗡'𝗦 𝗗𝗔𝗬

https://www.instagram.com/p/CMIQ0dZlj0r/?igshid=1q8221fnxdtf9

Women, happy anniversary of the day we get to be the focus of marketing programs (as always except today they actually admit to it). If you're getting paid to be your gender today, enjoy it. Power doesn't always have to be bled for.

THE BOLD TYPE (Netflix) is The Devil Wears Prada from Miranda Priestley's point of view. Millennials are silly, entitled, callous. Fashion types are divas but nice. Privilege is a random trend. Perfectionist work ethic is god. Men are just...around. #RovingI

Long Island Iced Tea. And the random pandemic cravings for things I've never been that big on, continues.

This thread called SHADOW PLAY is also a post here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJXyH0vJu1a/?igshid=1krnl4eng8a8y

Real life isn't like that of course, but it's nice to pretend it's possible. I guess we need our projections as much as we need our brutal realities.

I like reading stories alone. It's almost like borrowing a life to live, that I can control. And when it gets too painful, I can close the book & linger in the shadows for as long as I wish while the story waits for me.

I don't want to leave behind legacies that take years of karmic cleansing to dissolve. It's so unclean, so limited somehow. I'm glad for forgetting, for growing irrelevance, for shifting spotlights & even for shadows that let us practice fading.

How do you want to be remembered, the self-help quest went. Me, I don't want to be remembered. It's hard enough living with the expectations of people right now.

Till one day you will realise that projections are just shadow play. Shadows don't hurt and neither does light. That's the day the part of you that needs love the way the stories define it, dies.

You let that part of you shrivel away slowly, briefly perking up at a morsel of attention, before realising it's just someone testing out their kindness muscles. People like to do that to reassure themselves that they are, in fact kind. More projections.

How do you cope with the pain of being overlooked, of being forgotten, of being seen but not as who you are, of being misunderstood, of being forced into mental cages, of being nothing more but a screen on which other people's projections land?

You don't.

Remember there was an ad with lots of 80s power shoulders women singing "Chodo kal ki baatein kal ki baat purani" and ending with "Hum aaj ki naari, hum chahe Trupti" (which was a brand of atta). Yeah good femvertising times those were.

UNBOTTLING FEAR - new post

What is your relationship with fear?

https://www.instagram.com/p/CMFsDE0Flmf/?igshid=1bjy5khf9i1iz

Instagram seems to have changed their look & Compose method and I'm unable access my old Drafts. The only option is Delete. Anyone else seeing this?

Something about sharp French beards makes me think fuccboi.

Sigh. Hinge dude brags about how 90% of matches are something called whatsapp whores and then wants me to get on a whatsapp call with him. SMH.