Moved!

The blog has moved to... drumrolls.... here

We moved because we were bored with Blogger templates. Here's hopin' that you like the new page, please do let me know if there's something wrong.

I, for one, lurrrrve Wordpress already.

Blogger wasn't too bad either. Bye, ol' friend!

Days of Our Lives

Q. What sort of people sit in a 6-by-4 room with orange and red walls and horrible airconditioning that causes their fingers to freeze in otherwise summery places, and yet continue to be hard at work with hundreds of spreadsheets and charts?

A. No, not NASA scientists. No, not even brave soldiers. The correct answer eeeeez: Strategy consultants at client site.

RIP J.D. Salinger

Just read this.

And remembered:

"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be."

~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, spoken by the character Holden Caulfield

I'm back again, and have absolutely no excuses to offer about that looooong, unannounced absence. But, without much ado and for the sake of posterity, I thought I should come back and do a year round up. Here's what my 2009 was made up of:

January: A 4 hour commute to work everyday and a horrid boss were the highlight of the month. With that stupendous a start, I should have taken a clue and taken the next 11 months off life. But no, we continued to prod along. I'd think the hazy Delhi mornings kept me going. Oh, add to that weekend trips of extremely panicky shopping for the upcoming engagement. Learnt that you can surprise yourself at how far you can go, if you keep at taking the next little step.

February: The most terrible two weeks at work, followed by the engagement.. muchos fun! :) And just before the engagement, I got proposed in the whole down-on-one-knee style which blew me away. Work remained the nemesis of my life. Learnt that it's because of work that I've learnt to value vacations and family-time more.

March: The much-awaited move to Bombay finally materialized! I was almost losing hope, and I was certainly losing my mind. My brother got operated on for a sports injury, which was a real scare. Learnt that life does have terrible timing, and you just have to lump it.

April: The very first month of staying absolutely alone. Strangely cathartic and mighty expensive. Met the Landlady from Hell who was one of the few people who have shocked me more than once. Learnt that staying alone is a big part of growing up. Highly recommended.

May: Met new people and made new friends. Missed home terribly, and had a HUGE fight with the landlady. House hunting in a city that doesn't exactly welcome single people who have friends coming over, eat non vegetarian food, drink and party. Commuting from one end of the city to the other. Learnt that thinking "how bad can it get" is just tempting Fate!

June: Completed a year at my workplace. Recessionary times = proposals for bizarre projects that would get us some business, any business. Enough and more time for gossip sessions, gtalking and late night movies. The fiance's birthday was celebrated with me, his best friend, his mom and grand-mom. Learnt that it does pay to be patient and hang on when you really don't like your job.

July: Moved to a new house finally!! Started working on a huge-ass PSU Tender that took up all my time, energy and sanity. Red-tapism is funny only when you don't have to deal with it. Lost my temper very very often, and not proud of it at all. Learnt that I score in negative on corporate-ness, and can't be diplomatic in the face of utter stupidity.

August: Some more of the madness continued at work. It was sheer bliss the day the wretched
thing got submitted, never to haunt me in my sleep again.. or so I thought. More notices threatening to "reject your bid unless you submit..." and "disqualify your submission in case you don't..." were tendered to the firm with yours truly running around helter skelter to do the needful. Oh, also joined the gym. Learnt that it never really is over.

September: The birthday month! Got thrown into another whirlwind project. Meetings, lists and excel sheets were all I saw. Oh, this was also the month of some really impulsive shopping, totally instigated by the illusion of weight loss, what with all the religious gymming. Learnt that you owe it to yourself to have something to look forward to, at the end of the day.

October: Two months to the wedding, and I was totally unprepared. Mom, dad and aunts were suitably panicked, and in fourth gear by this time. Went home, hogged on gol-gappas, made many many trips to Chandni Chowk, splurged on wedding finery, high heels and other things I'll probably never use. Came back to hardcore mess at work. Learnt that there's no place like home.. Bah!

November: Raced against time to get the work done before the wedding holiday began. Late nights, extreme cribbing and Excel overdose. The day before I was to go on leave brought good news at work, which made it seem like it wasn't all that pointless after all. Was in such an auto-pilot mode that it hit me that I was finally done only when I was on that flight to Delhi. Learnt that we owe more to caffeine than we give it credit for.

December: Got married. It is awesome, scary, exciting, frightening and confusing. I have a whole post planned out for that though. Went on a much-needed honeymoon vacation to Australia and New Zealand, which was really the stuff of dreams. Came back to an awesome-r Christmas and New Year's Eve with family. Learnt that you can always end it in style, if you couldn't begin it so.


.. and that's all, folks! That was my year - much learning, eh? It would have been much worse than it sounds if it were not for my mom - who's basically a woman of steel, and the then-fiance now-husband who I like to think is like a tea bag - you don't know how strong he is, till tested by hot water. Super cheesy, I know dude! :D

I shall be back soon with a few posts: Being Married, A Decade Round-Up and maybe a Travelogue. Happy New Year, my 1.5 readers!! May God bless you with a splendid 2010, with lots of happy times and loved ones. While I'm at it, wish you a very Happy Lohri / Pongal / Makar Sankranti as well :)

The 50th

Yayyy!!

Ladies and gentlemen, at the stroke of midnight, as the world sleeps, this blog shall complete its 50th post today.
Ofcourse, we shall ignore the part that it's already been almost 2.5 years this blog began its existence and I have 50 posts to show for it. Because you see, atleast I have not let it die. It has scraped through bouts of extreme won't-move-my-butt-unless-something-about-myself-who-else-is-interesting-enough and the 'I write when I am surrounded by chirping sparrows, misty clouds and nostalgia' snobbery. And I never promised that this will become a diary of sorts, I just said I'll try to have this survive. I set the bar low in typical consultant-style - underpromise and overdeliver. Yeah?
But I feel I gotta step this up now. Like cater to my audiences. Like write something meaty. Like make you think. Ok.
Ofcourse, this 50th post can't be something meaningless (as it is so far giving the impression of being). Here's what we will talk about today: Me. Surprised? Now, here's the deal: I'll put down - Seven things I like to do, Seven things I like to eat, Seven things I like to wear, Seven of my most prized possessions & Seven people I'd like to tag.

7 things I like to do:

Writing: I have written to vent, to express, to keep a secret and to let it all out from as long as I can remember. I find it therapeutic and complex at the same time. I also think that the childhood, adoloscence and old age are trapped in one's writings. My cousin and I recently read letters we used to exchange about 15 years back, and though the "Fly to" superscribed on envelopes must have made the postmen cringe, those letters are precious hard evidence of a good time had. Sample this: "Brother and I want to come to your house. But Papa is very busy. He cannot absent from office. Mum also wants to come. She will tell Papa we will all go and he can come later." Ahem.

Reading: For a child who would have been more than happy never making eye contact with anyone, digging her nose into a long long book was the easiest way of going through 24 hours every day. Every book I have read has transported me to a world I built all up in my head, the special effects all being mine. So special is reading and living in a strange world to me, that I remember dreaming about those worlds and imagining myself there, discovering new things. Ofcourse, the next day, all the new things were plugged into the plot of the book. No, don't go, I'm not crazy.

Eating: Well, now is not the time to rue this. It's a time to celebrate this. I love food and I am not ashamed about it - a well-roasted bhutta, dripping-in-oil chhola bhaturas, anything in pesto, homemade chicken curry, steaming hot momos from Dilli Haat - give me anything, and you have a happy girl. It poses minor problems like trying to find hippo-sized clothes in malls for human beings, or that of being someone who ends all arguments with "I need chocolate. Will you leave me alone?" But I don't think worries like inching away (mind the pun!) to size XL slowly but surely, and of not knowing how to deal with arguments in an amicable fashion hold half a candle to the state of nirvana achieved after a meal that begins with cheese jalapeno peppers and ends with chocolate brownies.

Shopping: I'm the person who feels like "Shhhh!! they only sent ME that message. I'm going to be the first one to get my hands on their 50% off merchandise. Yayyyy!!" You can show me how the shirt that was tagged 1k last week is marked 2.5 K now with a '60% off' written next to it in font 42 and big bold black, but my mind will not listen. Yes people, all ye advertisers, I'm the one with the dollars in my eyes whom you worship, lure and rob. I'm the one who looks on expectantly on someone else's b'day hoping that one little sidie gift will fly her way as well. I'm the one who has closet-fuls of precious useless stuff. And I'm the compulsive kind of shopper who doesn't even need a companion. Note: I have a wishlist that runs into three long HTML pages. Friends wanting to buy me stuff, mail me.

Blog-hopping: One moment I'm reading about what someone in Nairobi cooked the previous night, and the next I'm reading about Vidya Balan's fashion faux pas. Now I'm celebrating a new mommy's monthly birthday updates, and then I'll be exploring the travel exploits of a dear friend. The options are so many; the mind boggles. Ofcourse, alongside, I can read the status update of various friends on gtalk/twitter/FB - it's almost like knowing what a neighbour is doing, by not always having to ask. It's like a world each one of us carries on our shoulders - ever-expanding, ever-changing and always exciting. Ofcourse, I've been a management student and am genuinely curious as to how people wrote their projects without Google. Respect!

Travelling: Now this is going to be somewhat hard, because the farthest on my travelometer so far has been Kuala Lumpur. Ofcourse, in keeping with the tradition followed by all serious travellers of always seeking intriguing places to go, I have also been to Bhatinda. However, I aspire to travel to virgin beaches where one only sees the colours white, green and blue, or to hidden valleys where one can easily get lost or rainforests where animals of supposedly-extinct species will jump up from nowhere. Now only if that windfall I need (and deserve) will come through!

Lazing: Duh! I mean, weren't ALL of the above hinting at this? What's a week of endless binges and exhausting shopping that doesn't end in a perfectly aimless Sunday. Waking up at 11 am, devouring newspapers till noon, having a big brunch, dozing off again and getting up in the evening for some hectic TV watching - something I do every third weekend. Helps connect with my senses that I lose at work every week. Also has proved very effective in stalling bankruptcy for me. Try it.

7 things I like to eat:
1. Spaghetti with insane amounts of pesto and sun-dried tomatoes, and a generous dose of olive oil.
2. Atta gol gappas @ Delhi roadside, brimming with green spicy paani and those over-boiled chanas
3. Piping hot pakodas with extra-sweet chai, that will always always remind me of the endless road trips made between Delhi and Punjab
4. Blueberry cheesecake with whipped cream
5. Momos - Chanakyapuri, Brown Sugar's, Priya's and Dilli Haat's. I have trouble respecting people who don't like momos with the suspicious looking red sauce.
6. Maggi and friends i.e. Cheese maggi, egg maggi, veg maggi, cheese egg maggi, cheese veg maggi, cheese chicken maggi.. you get the drift?
7. Indianized Chinese of all kinds
Disclaimer: The list above is in no particular order, and is by no means exhaustive.

7 things I like to wear:
1. Jeans. I prefer faded, extremely old and washed atleast a 1000 times.
2. Black. How can I not?
3. Flats. Ok, I am 5 feet nothing, but I still do love my kolhapuris, strappy flats and flip-flops.
4. Watches of all shapes and sizes.
5. Spectacles. I say so convicingly, because I h.a.t.e. contacts. Black half-frames for now.
6. Silver. Of the tinied kinds. I think I have one pair of earrings of the single studded kind, in every colour possible.
7. Kurtas. Fab India, Jai Ho!

7 of my most prized possessions:
1. The people in my life - mom, dad, bro and now the fiance. I always say it's not easy being me and it's even harder knowing me. I'm no diva, but I sure am a trouble child - I lose temper, I yell, I throw tantrums and the worst of all is that I remember and relive all arguments. Yet, there are some people in my life who love me and I am in awe of their patience. If I was them, I'd hate me. Enough said.
2. Greeting cards, wrapping papers, trinkets, bills, notes and other such random stuff - a bag full of these. It could be nostalgia, or it could be my hoarding tendencies, but I can't let go.
3. The oldest phone I ever had. The blue Nokia 3310. It is broken, chipped in all places and so not cool anymore - but it was the first phone I ever had.
4. All my books. All different kinds. But hopefully, the collection will be much larger and better cared for as the years go by.
5. Various certificates for extra currics in school and college.
6. Clothes and other mindless stuff I buy and never use.
7. My old diaries.

7 people I'd like to tag: I'm skipping this. Go ahead, and do this. Leave a link in the comments though :)

Armchair Philosophy on a Rainy Night

Seems like a lot has happened since I last wrote. Over the last few days I have learnt that:

- The idea of home is subjective. Home could be where the heart is. Where mom is. Where dad is. Or the city you grew up in. Maybe where one's friends / siblings are? This might be a part of growing up, but I really feel like I don't always need to be home, to feel at home.

- Whether one cares for the fun of the journey or for the doggedness of getting there, can be determined by how one chooses to lose weight (don't laugh!) So who'd you rather be friends with: the kickboxer or the starver?

- Insecurity is probably the most pervasive emotion. Religion. Sexual orientation. Class. Beauty. Wit. You name it, and you'll have met/heard of someone insecure on those grounds. Uski kameez meri kameez se safed kaise, could be the anthem for our generation.

- Words don't flow. They don't talk. They don't bother. They sit inside of you patiently waiting for ideas to rescue them. Ideas that can lend them purpose. A writer's block is almost always the absence of the perfect idea for the words to borrow meaning from and to be set free

- You can always learn something. Even at your workplace.

Goodnight for now, folks! Will be back here to share more soon.

Ramblings of the Sleepless Mind

So, yours truly has moved to Mumbai. The city of dreams. The sea. The spirit. Slumdog Millionaire. And well, it's all been fine. I am beginning to like it, but dare I say, Mumbai will never be Delhi. The city that's rude, bitchy, pompous, unsafe... yet keeping safe the romantic winter in its January fog, the history in its neglected monuments and the cheekiness in almost everyone.
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I figure I am a sucker for correct spelling. Don't you go nosing in my archives to prove me wrong! It's so bad that I am unable to take anything with an instance of misspelling, seriously. You see, you'd never find me in one of those "Kwik Kabs". I know, it's supposed to be a smart twist to the correct spelling or some BS like that, but their seemingly harmless play with phonetics doesn't quite cut it with me.

Oh, and I figured this after I couldn't focus on a document at work that contained "judgementle". Or that's my explanation for it. Yeah, I'm JUDGMENTAL like that.
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So, I was listening to the very creatively-titled news bulletin "Balanced Views" on A.I.R., and the really nonchalant way in which they announced the killing of 6 people in the Naxal attacks on polling booths in Bihar was rather disturbing. Are we slowly becoming a nation that pushes single-digit death counts to the end of the news bulletins, right after the latest on IPL and the movie reviews? Also, while I quite prefer the stoic and graceful Usha Albuquerque of yore over the Arnabs and Rajdeeps of our bulging-eyes, pen-in-hand-being-pointed-right-into-the-camera, bursts of hysterical yelling times of news reading, I thought the radio non-chalance smacked more of indifference than anything else. A little emotion would not have been misplaced, given that the incident is, well, the worst fear come true for the recent flurry of "Let's Vote" campaigns. I was wondering if the TOI front page photograph of smiling women sporting their freshly inked index fingers had anything to do with doing some damage control on that. But then, TOI is not that smart.
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Do you think Varun Gandhi looks pretty dumb almost all the time? Even in that much infamous hate speech, he looks and sounds dumb. You see, atleast Advaniji and Modiji could have taught him how to do the unethical and illogical in complicated Hindi or loud Gujarati, yeah?
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I have work to do right now. On Friday night. At 1 a.m. To finish by 12 noon. I want to kill someone.
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Someone wise once told me, "When you find yourself planning out your Friday evening at Monday lunch, it's time to change your job." I've got news for Mr. Someone Wise. That way, I won't be working anymore. Profound huh?
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How, how, how do you work around politics at work? Well, I just make rude, sarcastic remarks when approached to comment and end up being on neither side. And that works!
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I found myself wondering about my grandparents today. I've never met them; I know them through pictures and through my parents' accounts. It sure is freaky when someone tells you that you said/did/believe in something uncannily similar to what your grandparents (whom you've never met) would have said/done/believed in.
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I figure I won't ever be incorrigibly unhappy as long as there's Maggi in my kitchen and F.R.I.E.N.D.S. re-runs to watch. Comfort in small things? Shallowness? Can't say!
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Well, alright, I gotta scoot. If someone's still here after all these days, would be good to hear from you!