Intelligent people struggle with addiction. Their minds need more. They have obsessions nobody around them shares. Philosophy. Astronomy. Dostoevsky. Jazz. Quantum physics. Things they know deeply. Things they've gone so deep into that anything else feel like small talk. And small talk feels like suffocation. So... they drink. Work until 2 am. Doomscroll until they're numb. Because there is a gap. A gap between who you are and the conversations available to you. And it's one of the loneliest places a person can live.
My wife's sister is one of the highest paid female software engineers in the Netherlands
Makes an eye popping €42,000
After paying 49% income tax, pension contribution, health insurance, refugee integration contribution, carbon neutrality tax, multicultural housing fund, and EU solidarity surcharge, she's left with €647 per month
She rents a 34m² apartment with 3 roommates
She turns 39 next month
"I have never been happier" she says
This is what European freedom looks like
सर झुकाओगे तो पत्थर देवता हो जाएगा
इतना मत चाहो उसे वो बेवफ़ा हो जाएगा
हम भी दरिया हैं हमें अपना हुनर मालूम है
जिस तरफ़ भी चल पड़ेंगे रास्ता हो जाएगा
कितनी सच्चाई से मुझ से ज़िंदगी ने कह दिया
तू नहीं मेरा तो कोई दूसरा हो जाएगा
मैं ख़ुदा का नाम ले कर पी रहा हूँ दोस्तो
ज़हर भी इस में अगर होगा दवा हो जाएगा
सब उसी के हैं हवा ख़ुशबू ज़मीन ओ आसमाँ
मैं जहाँ भी जाऊँगा उस को पता हो जाएगा
~ बशीर बद्र