From brainrot to brainsoak with the magic of stories
Debleena Majumdar
Co-founder Stotio | Co-founder Kahaniyah | Independent Director| Published Author | Gray haired GenZ
Growing up in Kolkata in the 1980s, power cuts were an inseparable part of our lives. On hot summer evenings, when the lights suddenly flickered out, we would gather on the balcony as my father wove his stories. Ghost tales, folk legends, and what I later realized were PG-13 remixes of Sidney Sheldon’s plots. The deepening darkness around us only heightened the magic, as we sat, spellbound, hanging on every word. When the lights came back on, it felt like a reluctant return to reality.
Holidays meant train rides to my grandparents’ home in a small town near Kolkata. My grandfather, a criminal lawyer with an insatiable love for books, had a house that felt like a wonderland for the bibliophile I would one day become. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves brimmed with treasures: fairy tales from around the world, the first thrill of an Agatha Christie mystery, and even the haunting allure of The Picture of Dorian Gray, which left me intrigued, though I barely understood it at the time.
Both memories share the same thread—the enchantment of stories, the allure of a world filled with magic and mystery.
We grew up in a time when the concept of "brainrot" didn’t exist, and scrolls were for ancient texts, not endless social media feeds. Time wasn’t measured in likes or reels but in hours spent lost in the pages of old books.
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Today, with one-click answers and the instant transformation of thoughts into words or videos, perhaps our brains yearn for a pause, a moment to steep in the spell of storytelling.
“I don’t read.” “I don’t have time to read.”
These phrases echo too often now. As the year winds down and life speeds up, maybe it’s time to step into that dusty, cobblestone bookshop (like the beloved ones on Church Street in Bengaluru), pick up a book that whispers to us, and start the new year with a good, old-fashioned brainsoak.
UX Design Leader | Mentor | Creator | Specialising in UX Strategy, Content Design & Storytelling | Leading teams to build B2C & B2B experiences within unicorn startups and agencies
2 个月Very insightful! Love the term/concept of “brainsoak” — thank you Debleena!
People & Workforce Analytics | Data-driven Insights Specialist | People Leader | Passionate about New Technology Adoption
2 个月I love your storytelling - it's obvious you are a voracious book reader! I laugh whenever I see people reacting with "too long, didn't read" for posts barely a couple of paragraphs long. Effectively they cut off at the bottom of their phone screen, because that's the device of choice to consume this content. My lifelong escapade has been reading and I can easily detect a decline in mental health whenever I find myself too busy to read much. A recent tendency I do love, though, is media outlets tagging an article with the time it takes to read. It tells me whether I want to start something now, or flag it and read it comfortably later, having prepared for this experience. I hope it has a positive impact overall and that it continues!
Vice President - R&D at STEERLife | Pharmaceutical Continuous processing | Drug Develoment
2 个月Love this
Strategy-Revenue Growth| Operational Excellence| CXO/Founder-CEO | COO | Tata Teleservices | Reliance?Retail | Startups-SkillTech| HealthTech|
2 个月This resonates with me! What a beautifully evocative post! It brings back such vivid memories of growing up in Kolkata during the 70s and 80s—when power cuts were more than just interruptions; they were the backdrop to a different kind of magic. I distinctly remember how those schedules of planned outages would appear in the newspapers like an unspoken promise of an evening filled with stories, candlelit conversations, or just the hum of life slowing down. The reminder to rediscover the joy of a good book—one that requires no WiFi, just a quiet corner and a curious mind—is so relevant. Thank you for this inspiring trip down memory lane!