Muse of Melancholy

 Lately, I've been spending a lot of time home alone. After spending a large part of the pandemic literally stuck at the hip with one of my closest friends/roommate (Let's call her R), I figured this would be a welcome change. So when I got to know R would have to go into work effective immediately, I fantasized a lot about working out of the coveted living room (you see I was confined to work out of the bedroom) and taking work calls with as few clothing items as possible (to all my co-workers, I apologize for this disturbing visual).  Things, however had a very different way of panning out, and the minute she walked out the front door, I was very aware of another presence in my room. For the first time, I stood face to face with my alter ego, Regina, all alone.  So here's a little bit about Regina. The term was coined by R after I displayed highly unreasonable and uncharacteristic behavior on multiple occasions. Regina is rash, inappropriate, throws diplomacy and subtle...

  "I can't believe we are in the last month of the year already." If I had a penny for every time someone said this.. well, it wouldn't make much of a difference to me because pennies don't do much to increase your net worth. But I'm hoping you get the drift. It's something that I've heard year after year EVERY December. And while nothing seems to have changed in that regard, there's a different tug at my heartstrings this time around, and I find myself mulling over all the missed possibilities and all the wasted time in new light.   While on a very superficial level, COVID lost the novelty it had enjoyed last year; we were left grappling with the remnants of what it had left. A fractured economy, broken spirits trying to deal with untimely loss of loved ones and a general sense of despair which some found a subtle way of burying in smiling Insta stories. It has reshaped my views on life and meaning and doing things I'd otherwise probably shy a...