Who is a nerd?

A casual Google search of the word throws up the following:

Through years of pop culture telling us that nerds are always cis male, boring, unattractive, awkward, even creepy, we've internalised the first definition so much.
It wasn't 'cool' to be a nerd when we were kids in the 90s. Every hit movie's definition matched the first one above - a nerd was clumsy, awkward, introverted, had no sense of style, was a virgin with zero sex appeal and was a 'loser' in the game of life. He also probably had a giant stash of action figures/comics etc and that was supposed to be lame. (because cool people don't read, they're too busy looking cool).

The rise of nerd culture

A lot has changed since then.
The late 90s-early 2000s, the arrival of the internet and the emergence of tech-specialized multi-national companies led to nerds going from being on the sidelines to ruling the roost. Bill Gates. Steve Jobs. Marissa Mayer. Elon Musk. Mark Zuckerberg. Now Evanna Lynch, Henry Cavill, The Rock. Nerdiness has gone mainstream, and nerds rule the world. Hate him or not, Zuckerberg and his ilk are the worlds' biggest billionaires now. Female nerds have become mainstream, though there's a long way to go still.

Being a 'female nerd'

As a nerd who happens to be a bi woman from India, my experiences both online and otherwise have been rather interesting.
There is a certain tone of surprise and eyebrow-raising when people I meet discover my nerdy side. I blame all those movies that show female nerds as 'ugly ducklings' who can only be acceptable after The Makeover™. My love life was full of having to dumb myself down so as not to 'intimidate' my dates or partners. At work, I'd have to do that so as not to seem like an 'insufferable know-it-all'. With family and social circles, I had to do it to avoid alienating people.

Now, I proudly claim the label in recent years, after it was used pejoratively to me during the pivotal senior school years and beyond. (sidenote: I have never worn glasses :P).
I prefer reading over watching videos, whether for information or entertainment. I grew up reading books, did not have to struggle too much academically, and have a multitude of interests since I was about 7 or 8 years old. I'd draw and write my own comics, create scrapbooks for my love for astronomy, start my first blog in 2005, be an active part of online forums and communities back then like Gaia Online among others, learn basic HTML to create my own webpage, and constantly stay curious. At college, I smashed through poetry and quizzing competitions, and won a popular Spelling Bee at DU consecutively for two years.
But it was always a rather solitary existence, struggling to relate to others, especially in my own gender, because I never found any Indians, esp women, that I could geek out over things with.

A space for fellow nerds

A constant feeling of being a fish out of water, where my brother, even more nerdy than I am, was the only one who truly 'got' me. The few friends I made online, and a small book club were the closest I came to feeling like I belonged.
Towards the mid 2010s, Instagram was born, and I discovered the side of me that loved fashion and style. I broke into the Instagram 'influencer' space back in 2012-2017, and saw a lot of success, though I was still a misfit. My captions had a lot more to say, and every outfit had a statement behind it. Over time, I lost out to algorithms that prioritized low attention spans over meaningful content.

Building The Tavern of Misfits

Last year (2021), we were in the second year and the second wave of this strange, dystopian pandemic timeline of our lives. I reignited my love for reading after years of workaholism and suppressing this love.
I discovered the Clubhouse app and that became my latest hyperfocus. I found tons of fellow nerds, that I could have actual conversations with. I discovered a goldmine of communities, from books, to marketing knowledge, to quizzing, pop culture references, music, you name it.
I started hosting my own rooms, in the process discovering fellow nerds of all age groups, genders and from different geographies. It was delightful, especially meeting Indians as passionate about the things I was.

And so I envisioned a space, much like the 1920s Prohibition Era underground bars and speakeasies. The inspiration for the name came partly from an online community I'm part of with the tavern reference in its title. A space where anyone, regardless of who/where/what gender can just come in, pull up a stool, grab a beer or beverage of choice and talk music, books and all things nerdy.
I started doing rooms on books, which I now host with Project Bibliotherapy once every other week on fun topics from food in books to comicbooks from the 90s.
I also created The Playlist That Never Ends, an actual Spotify playlist that we keep adding music to, no holds barred on genre, language or country. A requests + chill room!

so, Welcome to the tavern!

This space will include posts on - interesting findings and musings from the world of books and music, as well as my poetry. If you, like me, are bored of being dictated to dance to the tunes of Zucc's algorithms (literally. Have you seen Reels?!) and want a meaningful space to be yourself in, come on in :) Grab a beer, and chill with us. As Steve Jobs once said,

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes ... while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."