La Vie est Bien

Its quite true I guess.. Old habits die hard! The passion for traveling and exploring new places that I discovered in my early 20s (a tad earlier would’ve been even better) had to put on hold with Rhea & Dhruv’s arrival and what not.. But there we are.. back to square one! And what’s beautiful is that it’s back with a vengeance! With a little more ‘disposable’ money in hand, it seems to make me a shopping traveloholic (if there’s one such term).. Thanks to the awesome organization that I work with, I have been fortunate to have traveled abroad 4 times in the past 5 months! Now that IS enviable by all means.. It began in March when they asked me if I could travel to the UK for a week for an up-skilling program.. Extremely conscious about what it would mean to the kids etc. but reassured by the hubby, I grudgingly agreed only to be posed with a travel to Bangkok even as I was processing the UK visa. 1 3-day stint to Bangkok gave me the much-needed confidence to undertake fore...

The past few days have been interesting times... The latest found obsession is watching news and reading the newspaper inside out (especially the editorials). With each passing day, the news gets juicier while the tones of the newsreaders gets more dramatic.. With Steve Balmer talking about probable lay-off (almost unheard of), Steve Jobs declaring a sabbatical (owing to health reasons) and the 'Yahoo!' baton in the hands of an (able) woman, and of course America's largest telephone equipment maker filing for bankruptcy, the corporate world surely seems to be in the limelight (for the wrong reasons, perhaps)! Just while the Indian press and media were about to divulge 'almost everything' that existed about this person (or may be beast) called 'Amir Ajmal Kasab' - one of the terrorists caught alive from the Terrorist attacks in Bombay on November 26, 2008- the focus turned to our home-grown (financial) terrorist Mr. Ramalingam Raju. Anyone that has been partl...

Looks like this is the best conversation starter people have devised for the likes of me! Friends and family alike seem to be obsessed with when Raj and me plan to start a family. But hey, wait a minute, aren’t some of these friends older than me if not as old as me or may be just a few months younger than me? But, "No ya, I haven't even found the right person, forget marriage, etc!” And since I decided to marry at 22, even before I attended grad school, I am supposed to be the 1st one to give them all the “good news”. Which reminds me, why don’t people spell it out? Though I still strongly maintain that it is none of their business , I’d still like some novelty in the way the question itself is posed! It all began with me returning home after what seemed like the longest two years of my life (without Raj). Though super excited about being back with Raj, little did I know what awaited me (apart from the graduation celebrations)! Congratulatory calls ended with, “so now the lin...

Guess, with New Year's comes this constant need to change- almost every conversation begins or ends with, “so what’s your resolution for the coming year?” Almost always, I smile sheepishly and have nothing to say – And at times when I feel like acting smart, I retort with the clichéd “resolutions are for those with low levels of self control, not me!” or something cheekier.. But that hasn’t reduced my quest of why thousands, rather millions of people spend time pondering over new year resolutions to simply break them even before the 1st week of the new year ends! Thinking hard about it, I guess it's people’s way of resolving to change for the ‘good’- a willingness to be open to change – something that the future holds for each one of us.. whatever the reason might be, am surely not falling for this trap as of now.. In fact, I am one of those that introspect on the past year and think about what s/he could change about her/himself this coming year- If that too falls into the sam...

Logic fails and loud voice prevails…….Free-riders question stakeholders……Those seeking entertainment question those who’ve faced the music …..Free speech is repressed by, “You do not know the entirety!” When anger and emotions overpower rationality…..When purpose fails and might triumphs…… When you feel like, you’d rather not be where you are…..When all the focus is on the trivial of things….And in turn, serious things become a mockery!! Do you watch silently hoping someone else will speak up….Or defy authority and follow suit but do the better….Or like at many other situations, just hope things will get fine…. As you have day before, yesterday and today!? May be you count... Count on your blessings- a count that will reassure you, you are doing good.. And the curses- they become all the more important! Since the winners in this popularity contest is surely not you!! For now though, things lie in a state of chaos- for that's inevitable too some would say!

The unusual heading and the inspiration for this post comes from a class that I attended yesterday (oh ya for those of you not in loop, am back at XL pursuing my 2 nd year with the other 179 wanna-be MBAs)- A video showing the ghastly state of affairs in the state I belong to brought most of those present in the class to a silence that sounded like death knell and tears to the soft(er) hearted. At the end of the class, a friend and fellow classmate rightly pointed out that the video induced a mere feel-bad factor, and that a little later, we would all go back to our normal life and forget all about it and life will continue the way it has and the way it rightly must! How right she was- 24 hours later, here I am thinking about the same incident and all I can tell myself is “ But then how can I (alone or with others that feel similarly) do anything about it".. Seems like every time we wish to action on something, this “but then” aspect stops us from taking that step required- ...

The inspiration for this post comes from a bike ride to the French Border..For those who are phewing at this blog, and before u think am bluffing, am not. France is barely 6-7-8 kms from where I stay..and when I am in a mood to, I go watch the airplanes take off from Basel airport from near the French-Swiss border- I was amazed to learn that this airport is shared by France and Switzerland and Germany too. It's called the Euro-airport and is officially called the "Basel-Mulhouse" airport- Mulhouse being the French city. Sitting there this morning admist rain drops, I was thinking if I will ever ever be able to do it back in our country. Especially with BBC covering the people v.s police clashes in Indian administered Kashmir , thousands of thoughts crossed my mind.. In the first place, why do we wage wars for a piece of land causing bloodshed for almost sixty years now, and still there's not an iota of peace to be seen on the radar. If u think, I am not a patrio...