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Musings

Happy New Year

January 1, 2017

Reflections — captured randomly one fine evening in Goa

End of previous year & beginning of a new year… this joy & celebration & enthusiasm to welcome the year. While I join the celebration and enjoy the fun, I also end up wondering why? Why this zeal to welcome a new date? Why this eagerness to greet this day? After all, isn’t it just another calendar date? Why to make new resolutions only on first of January? Would it make any difference if new resolutions were to be made on first of March? Why this keenness to start things today and not on any other day of the year? Is a calendar date really that important to start something afresh? A beginning can be anytime, anyday, any moment, why this strong urge for the beginning today?

While I sit back and reflect, I realize once again that it’s not the rational or logic that can give answers to every why of ours. Perhaps for certain things, it’s just good to rely on our belief and have that faith — faith on new beginnings, faith on magic of those beginnings. Somehow the magic of beginnings always remind me of these beautiful lines by Meister Eckhart:

“And suddenly you know: It’s time to start something new and trust in the magic of beginnings.”

So, cheers to yet another beautiful beginning, yet another new year and let’s hope this new year proves to be as magical for all of us as we are hoping it to be today.

Happy New Year to You & Yours from Me & Mine 🙂

Whatever happened to being real?

November 19, 2016
How do you explain that expressing genuine views against some national movements is not equal to being anti-nationalist, but realistic?

How do you explain that not being optimistic is not equal to being pessimistic, but realistic?

How do you explain that not being happy always is not equal to being depressed, but realistic?

How do you explain that not having opinions matching to yours is not equal to being crazy, but real me?

How do you explain that not enjoying large crowds or social gatherings always is not equal to being unsocial, but real me?

How do you explain that not being able to see silver lining in everything is not equal to being negative, but realistic?

Whatever happened to being real!
Whatever happened to being realistic!
Whatever happened to being imperfect! 
Whatever happened to being human!
Whatever happened to being original!
Whatever happened to being you!

Just Keep Moving Ahead

August 28, 2016
I just so agree to this! Something that I have always believed in. Something that has always led me to some path, may not necessarily  to the preferred destination but at least helped me move ahead.
And yet again I am at roads where I am not getting answers to what next in life but all I know from my past experience is that – I must keep moving ahead!
Yet again I am at a phase where fate seems to be really cruel but all I know from my past experience is that – I must keep moving ahead!
Yet again I am in a situation where negativity seems to be dominant all around but all I know from my past experience is that – I must keep moving ahead!
Yet again I am in a plight where helplessness is overpowering me but all I know from my past experience is that – I must keep moving ahead!
Yet again I am in a state where I want to quit fighting with adversities, stop moving ahead but all I know from my past experience is that – I must keep moving ahead!
Yes, sometimes acceptance is the only option you have and moving ahead is the best thing you can do – without thinking too much on what, why and how. 
And I thought a lot about whether to make this post live or not. Does it communicate my weaker side? Does it communicate my emotional turbulence? Well, heck yes, even if it does, so what! For once I want to write posts that communicate the real state of me. After all, as I always say we are human beings who are supposed to have different shades of life, not sure why in today’s environment we are expected to behave like hard coded programmed robots exhibiting only positivism and optimism and happiness (read projected happiness in  virtual world) and blah and blah and some more blah.
Yet again I have learned, any shade of life is ok as long as we work towards getting out of it and perhaps the only way to come out of any state is to move ahead!

Hello World!

March 5, 2016
Hello World! I think it’s an apt title for a post that appears on this space after a gap of almost an year. Sigh! Writing is one love that I don’t want to give up on but somehow have been badly struggling to get back to. Not that I haven’t yearned or tried to get back to my blogs, in fact the number of times I have tried to write a post but have not been able to complete… (another sigh), innumerable! Though I could manage to write couple of posts on medium but then after initial few, a long block again. Blame it on my super crazy schedule now, a demanding child, demanding job and hundreds of other demands in this or that aspect of life. I at times wonder if I will ever get some quiet moments for myself.
I also wonder if it would be a better idea to get back to a diary instead of word docs or online drafts. The moment you get connected to a digital system, it’s simply mind numbing. The number of tabs opened on your laptop or the number of notifications that are beeping on your phone – I at times wonder do I really need so many information about anyone, everyone, anything and everything. Many a times I also take a conscious effort to turn off internet and start writing few words but then damn the real life distractions that are unavoidable now.
But I definitely want to get back to writing again and this time I am trying really hard. Have also thought of adopting some suggestions by others to find some me-time. I really, really need to, if not for anything else but for my own peace of mind and for a better me. Let’s see if I am able to and if I can, I will surely get back to you with my feedback on what worked for me. Until then if you have any suggestions for me, do drop me a note in comment section below.  (Ha ha, high hopes of getting comments when not even sure if anyone of you still come here 🙂)

Look forward to more conversation and interaction with you once again! 

Have you watched this?

March 16, 2015
Just chanced upon this video by Horlicks and within few minutes I ended up watching it multiple times. That’s the power of great content I think, more on that on my marketing blog soon. But coming back to my love for this video – it was actually relatable, totally relatable to me and full of nostalgia. It reminded me of those childhood days, full of hardships, struggles, adversities, yet full of optimism, dreams and aspirations to look forward to. Thanks to our pillar of strength – my mom who was always there like a shining star guiding us to move ahead even if it was pitch dark many a times.

Moms are magical. Isn’t it? Not that I don’t have my share of fights with her on many whats and whys and whatevers but still I think a supportive mom is all you need to make it in life. As my close acquaintances tell me – I was always ambitious, a girl from a very small town but with very big dreams, used to put in honest & sincere effort in everything I did with a hope that someday I will make it big. Many in my family used to scold my mom to not support a daughter’s wish so much, to not let me have a thinking horizon of my own, but she did. Even if she didn’t know how to support, she never stopped me from dreaming big.  Now if I think of it, she actually didn’t have any resource to support me, nor had she got the knowledge or background to provide right guidance to me. Yet she was always there, pillaring whatever I wanted to do with just two lines – “you can do it” and “don’t worry, I am there”. Just two lines – one for faith and one for reassurancewere sufficient for me to keep moving ahead. At times I wonder if any money or luxuries in life can ever be as precious as those simple childhood days? I still smile when I think of those days, sometimes a pleasant smile and sometimes a teary-eyed smile :).

In case you haven’t seen this video yet, do check it out:

BTW, which one was your favorite moment out of it? Mine – the scene where the mom is dropping the bulb for her daughter’s studies. I still remember the way mom used to save candles & kerosene for lamps so that I could finish my studies at night. Oh yes, electricity was a rarity at that place and at that time 🙂

**Nope, this is not at all a plugged post by Horlicks guys, I was genuinely moved by this #LoveYouMaa video so much that I decided to write a post on it. Power of great content, you see!

Anything, Everything, All The Time

November 27, 2014
Hola people! Whatsup? I know I know, all of you are busy like crazy in your fast running lives. Hmmpphhh, well same here. Can’t believe it’s almost December now and this year is ending too! Hope everything is going great at your end.

You know I just attended a great conference, something that I was excited about but it turned to be truly enriching to me in more ways than I had envisaged. While there were many highs about the sessions in that conference (more on those later :)) but there was this one comment by an international speaker that I thought I must share with you all and ask your views on it. As is the case with any conference these days, the speakers were hardly getting any chance to speak as almost everyone in the audience had to speak something after every few minutes, wait let me say after every few ‘seconds’. No I’m serious, people these days have to speak anything on everything and that too all the time. Gone are the days when speakers used to wait for questions, today thanks to internet and the connected smart phones in our hands, everybody in the audience is super smart. Intelligence is available just at the click of our fingers and everybody has profound observations to make on almost everything.  People want to be noticed and broadcast their respective moments of fame on Twitter or Facebook or whatsoever social site that is work-in-progress right now. Same was going on in that conference too, mid way interruptions with “I think this” or “my opinion on this is that” kind of unnecessary comments along with “let me get a picture clicked with this celeb speaker” to “let me post this on twitter before anyone else”. Finally one of the international speakers commented – “You Indians are the chattier lot. No, I don’t mean any offence to you, it’s a good thing but among all present in this room from different countries, Indians have maximum opinions on most of the things.” Well, one look at her expression and you knew how ‘good’ she thought it was 😀 :P. Few of us laughed, few were embarrassed but after sometime, we were back to being the same.

While the session ended but I kept on thinking at her comment for long. Why do we have opinions on almost everything and that too such strong ones? Why do we have such poor listening skills but strong verbal skills? Why do we have this urge to prove “I’m the best” or “I know the best” all the time? Why are we always in a hurry to speak first and prove our point? Why are we always so insecure but trying to project to be oh-so-intelligent and confident all the time? While I personally like the warmth of our relationships and inter-personal equations in Indian culture but aren’t we also too judgmental of each other now? Partly you can say it’s in our culture but I think partly it’s also the age in which we are living in currently. We know too many things about each other now and of course we only know good things about others lives as that’s what we are busy broadcasting socially in our real as well as virtual world. Nobody updates the fight they had with their spouse last night but this one dinner on some rooftop restaurant must be broadcasted to all. And the ones who are having a fight today with their spouse heave a sigh of frustration at this update without realizing that the other one had already gone through similar fights yesterday :D.
Why are we always in this deep need of exhibiting our life to others and why is it increasing day by day? Some amount of competition is good in life but why this competition and pressure for anything & everything and that too all the time? This why and that why and many more whys…

Adding colors and freshness to my space but WIP…

March 31, 2014
Hola people, what’s up? I’m back from what you can call some real crazy travel schedule, festival fun with in-laws side of family, new experiences, new memories & new insights on food, travel and relationships! More on those later (note to self: I must take out time to jot down my experiences, as this trip was different in more ways than one) but this post is just to say a big hello to all of you. It’s 31st March today and those of you working in financial sector or business development roles must be having a crazy time today. Good luck, may this year end on a big note for all of you.
And I had a day off yesterday after what seemed like at least a decade! Yes, it was just another Sunday but few things were different – I was sick, down with very high fever, have fallen this sick after long and hence was on bed for most part of the day. Household chores were ignored, child was being taken care only partly by me but primarily by husband and the maid. Even Mr. husband was at home for a change this weekend and for a CHANGE even maid was around at least for few hours this Sunday! Maids in Bangalore, ufff….but more on this again later! 
So, after long I got to be on bed at least for few hours and I got the time to play around with my blog that I have been wanting to do for long. The last theme that I updated on this blog was almost 7 years back. In fact a quick look on my “About text” told me that it was last touched 8 years back. It read, “blogging for 4+ years now” whereas in reality, I have been blogging for almost 12 years now! Well, have not changed much on “About” yet but definitely have been trying to work around with a different theme. Have added bit of color, changed the layout and updated it with some new design trends and widgets. During the process, also realized that both wordpress and blogger have changed quite a lot now. Blogger’s own themes are not as per current design trends and customizing it with any other theme has become very time consuming and not that user friendly. This blog change is still only partly completed but I’m actually quite liking it. Don’t know when will I get the time to work on it again but trying to at least finish the basics today. Just a bit of color addition and a different layout itself have motivated me to do this post. Hope I will get the time and energy to be here more regularly now. After all, who doesn’t like freshness to his/her space and as I always say, this is one space of mine that I cherish truly and miss it whenever I am away from it for long!
So, do you like this new layout of my blog? Any suggestions for improvement? Lemme know your views please. Bbye until we meet again and hopefully very soon 🙂

Oh that sameness!

November 29, 2013
Few days back, someone whom I follow on Twitter tweeted this and I replied to her this. For the ease of reading, I’m just pasting the content here:
@mathur_vaishali: It scares me, this evenness of spaces. The sameness of flats and buildings; of cars and malls; of people dressed uniformly in brands.
@kanupriyasindhu: @mathur_vaishali and the aspiration of people to achieve that sameness, to do the same as others are doing! Scares me too.
Almost a month now and I again remembered this tweet today morning. A look at my Facebook timeline, pics shared on Whatsapp & the Tweets – oh that sameness, the same sameness and the rush to achieve that sameness! It’s scary! 
I know the person above was referring more to infrastructural sameness all around but trust me if you take a closer look around you, this sameness is there now in almost everything. The sameness of aspirations, the sameness of our lives, the sameness of passions! Not that I am not a part of that sameness. I’m sure that at times, even I have tried to achieve that sameness and vice versa. There are moments when I have felt aghast by actions of some people who have tried to do things to be the “same” even without evaluating where their interest lies or estimating their own potential. 
On many of those introspecting and self-conversation moments, I actually now wonder why? Is it because we really want to be like the other one or is it because there is this competitiveness for anything and everything in our lives now? Is it because we actually aspire to be the same, or is it because there is this feeling within that if he or she is doing it, then why not me? Is it because now we know too much about what others are doing or is it because we are informing too much about ourselves to others? And when I say too much information about us, of course we are informing mostly those ‘hip & happening’ updates of our lives, part of which might be true and part of which is how we would like others to perceive our lives. Is it because we not only aspire to be the same as one person but also like many others with whom we really would not have been in touch with ever if not for Facebook or Twitter or Whatsapp! Is it because we are too much connected, with too many people, almost all the time and at every medium possible? 
Just think about this – in your friend’s list on Facebook, how many do you actually think are your friends? On your contact list of Whatsapp, with how many of whom you think you would have chatted or would like to converse on daily basis if not for those jokes or forwarded messages?
Imagine this – On any normal day, ‘A’ logs in to Facebook and sees posts from ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ & ‘E’ on his/her timeline. Here’s what happens inside the brain of A thereafter – “Oh B went to holiday at this place, looks like an exotic destination, I must go there soon and let me try to find a better resort than B”. “Oh C has posted these photographs that look great but it must not be her skills, it’s actually that NiCan camera which she bought recently! Huh, with a camera like that, even I can be a photographer for sure. Must buy that same camera with better lens soon”. “Oh D has posted pics of his baked goodies, looks yum! Must try to bake these soon. What the heck, when he can bake, so can I and I will be definitely better than D”. “Oh E has started running a blog, well I have been thinking to do it myself for so long, after all it looks good on resume. Must start it soon, I am sure I can write better than E”. And the list goes on & on and see how much A has already burdened her/himself with “to do soon” list just because someone else is doing it. Few triggers here and there, and one “A” is trying to go on a vacation, become a photographer, baker, writer all at one go! And this is only when A saw things done by 4 friends, how about if we just take even 10% of our social networking contacts whose lives or updates are actually influencing us! Impressive stats of self imposed pressure on us to achieve that sameness, no? 
Ummm, I think my wondering is actually going beyond one post, maybe I can write a complete chapter of a book on this. Have I got any fixed conclusion from my musings? No! But the more I think, the more I am sure of few things – too much influence of anybody and everybody can actually be a whole lot of pressure on life! Anybody can do anything but everybody cannot do everything! Don’t be same. Just be yourself because everyone else is already taken! Whosoever wrote these were just so right!

The Talking Parrot Series – 1

October 27, 2013
I have a talking parrot at home these days and that parrot is none other than my little one! Yes, he talks now and that too a lot. Time flies, we always say this, but wait till you have a baby and see him/her growing in front of you. You really will see this term “time flies” in a different light altogether . So, this talking parrot has to repeat everything we speak. At times, his sentences leave me totally amazed wondering if it’s really him who said all this! And the reactions range from Awwww to WTH to Oleeee to WHAT! Yes, yes parenting emotions are all about diversity and that too at a speed which you won’t even know is humanly possible 😛
So, yesterday I was trying out a dress and little one was as usual messing up with things kept on the dressing table. What’s with the fascination of these kids with dressing table and kitchen utensils! As usual my brain was multi tasking and while I was looking at the fitting of the dress, I kept on saying, “Ni No! Don’t throw this! Don’t open that” A total irritated WTH stage I was into when the little one suddenly stopped and started looking at me intently with a smile.
Me to Ni (that’s what he calls himself these days): Ni, Mumma achchi lag rahi hai?
Ni: Aan, Mumma achchi. After a short pause, with gleaming eyes and pointing to his own clothes, he asks: Mumma, aul Ni achchi?
Oh that shining eyes and that cute “Aul Ni achchi”, I immediately bent down, hugged him and replied:
Me: Ale Ni toh hamesha achcha, har kuch mein achcha, sabse achcha!
Ni: Otte. Mumma bi hamesha achcha, hal tuch mein achcha, shabshe achcha!
I can’t tell you how I felt at that moment! An immediate transition to “Awwww” from “WTH” within seconds! I know he didn’t understand what he said, he was just repeating my sentence by replacing Ni with Mumma but still it was such a different thing to listen to it from his mouth. #WishfulThinking by the mommy in me – Wish he will say this someday when he understands the meaning of it as well .
And the mommy in me has decided to document such tidbits of my current phase of life. On those gloomy, clueless, lost-in-life days I must come back and read these to remind myself that life is not only about pre-decided goals, fierce ambition, planned holidays, showcasing our perfect life on social media and socializing with so-called friends! At times, it’s just about living in the moment and experiencing it then and there. For you never know, when one of those moments will actually become memory that you would like to cherish forever! A memory that’s sure to bring a smile on your face whenever you will think of that moment!

MoMusings: 1

June 19, 2012

Remember the mayhem that happened when your baby fell sick for the first time? Yes, yes exactly that! So, it was quite a chaos at our place for last few days. Thankfully nothing to be worried about, just the general cold and fever but then I’m using this term “just the general” only when he is fine now. Ask us until few days back and it definitely seemed to be a big, like really BIG deal! 
And surprisingly more than me, it was the daddy dearest who was hyper concerned for junior. I have never seen him like this before; the man who always sounded super cool about any cuts, fever, cold etc was day in, day out fussing over the baby with such a worried expression that he had to be reminded that it was just a regular flu and nothing else. Like all human beings, even our little one would fall sick and there had to be a first time for it! Phew, speak of the changes in men once they become daddy! OK, I’m unnecessarily trying to act cool, frankly speaking even I was anxious like hell and kept on wondering what to do to calm him down. First two nights I just couldn’t sleep even for a moment and kept on looking at the restless little one beside me. It was so miserable to see our cheerful, super active darling lying dull and crying inconsolably. Don’t remember when was the last time I would have been so worried for something as minor as cold, but then I guess that’s what parenthood does to you. This also made me think about the number of sleepless nights my mom would have spent while raising up three of us. You know we all hear it so many times that we understand our parents better when we ourselves become parents, trust me this statement is cent per cent true and you need to experience it to understand what I mean by this. You indeed get a whole new perspective towards yours and spouse’s parents altogether once you enter this phase of life. Ain’t it? 
Ok enough of Mommy Musings rather MoMusings for now, shall be back with another post pretty soon. I have come to know of this kiddie book publisher who have got some real cool kids’ content. They definitely deserve a mention and review on my blog and I’m so looking forward to finish their series soon.