Endless Randomness

Meet my old friend

2010-11-19T12:15:00.007+05:30

Lifehouse was my constant friend through my teenage angst-ridden years. Unfortunately life got in the way and broke my connection with the band. My musical preferences have been dictated by work for the most part, working at all hindi music radio stations does that to you. As a result all my Lifehouse, Coldplay, The Calling and Puddle of Mudd got replaced with soundtracks of the latest bollywood hits.

A few days back I decided to take a trip down memory lane and revisit all my old music. Oh my god! How I've missed it!! While listening to 'No Name Face' and 'Stanley Climbfall' I also checked out the more recent albums. It looks like the band has grown and matured along with me. Jason Wade still sounds as dreamy as he did when I was 16 but the band's music sounds refined and more soulful.

It's funny how listening to music can take you back to an old place, a time gone by, old friends & old jokes, at the same time filling you with a feeling of peace and tranquility... one that can be best described as 'coming back home'...

Footprints in the sands of time

2010-11-06T18:30:00.006+05:30

A lot has been happening lately. Whether any of these happenstances will be of any consequence only time will tell but for now I'm content just living through them. A few issues still remain unresolved and God has been throwing a lot of mysteries in the mix! Now it's a matter of waiting for these mysteries to unravel and as usual I'm getting impatient.

It feels good to be back after a much needed break. I intend to share some tales of my recent travels with my readers in the coming weeks/ months. Hope some of you still drop by here occasionally :)

End of the ride?

2010-08-19T18:35:00.003+05:30

Hello :)

Phew! Its been months since I checked-in here and presumably since you've checked in too. A lot has happened in between - I've moved on from my old job (wow two years fit into two words - 'old job'!), lived through the best one month of my life traveling through so many cities in the US with my sister (experiences worthy of a whole blog unto themselves!!!) and figured out what I truly want to do with my life. Unfortunately its going to take a while and the next couple years are going to be spent trying to get there!

Re-visiting my blog brings back so many memories... All the crazy, whacked out things I've shared with all of you, the ups and downs you've been privy to and the awesome people I've connected with through this fantastic faceless medium. Not to mention the thrill of having people from all over the world read my thoughts and share their own with me.

However I'm now faced with a dilemma - Should I continue pouring my heart out here, in the one place I've always found sanctuary or is it time I packed my stuff and moved on? Why you ask?!

Well for one this was always meant to be an anonymous blog but over time I kept revealing more and more information about myself till I was finally forced to come into the light. This in turn has caused me to censor myself and often hold back from saying what I've wanted to say. For another, much as I love this blog and everything its brought with it, updating it daily feels like a chore. Writing for me has always come from within but its something I do for myself, not for an audience.

So the bottom line is I'm seriously contemplating shutting it down. Unless I can come up with some very good reasons to keep it alive. Feel free to share your thoughts as you always have!

US in the US

2010-05-26T20:10:00.005+05:30

Freedom! At last!!

All the baggage from the past has been packed up.. now all I need to do is pack my actual baggage.. for my vacation :D This is going to be amazing! Just my sister and me in the US for an entire month. We fly out tonight.

Will try to update this space as often as possible.

Ta! :D

Quotable quote

2010-05-11T22:20:00.004+05:30

My current state of being is best summed up by this quote - It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power

And on a completely un-related note, here is a pic taken in office a few days back. This little doll "Ziyah" is the kid from the soon to be released film Bum Bum Bole :)

It's official !!

2010-05-03T21:32:00.003+05:30

First off a big apology to those of you who've been checking in on my blog expecting updates. I've been MIA for long this time around and quite intentionally I might add. This is meant to be my happy place and the thought of spilling all my sad and depressed thoughts on it has kept me from updating this space. I've been looking for a ray of sunshine and it has finally arrived!

After a lot of planning my US trip has finally come through. So come 14th June and I'm going to be getting ready to take off for a month long vacation. Both my sister and I are sooooooo looking forward to it especially since it comes after years of suffering (in her case writing her IGCSE and in mine a vacation after two years of continuous work). As of now our itinerary includes visiting Long Island/ NYC, Boston, Rochester & the Niagara Falls although we will spend a large part of the trip in Maryland/ Washington D.C.

Any suggestions on fun things to do in any or all of these places are more than welcome. Also want to know if its a good idea to plan to be back in D.C. by the 4th of July to witness the festivities.

I'm hoping to meet up as many family, friends and blogger friends as I can so drop me a line if you'd like to catch up!

Do check back for more updates as I promise to blog more often going forward...

Reality sets in...

2010-03-28T11:48:00.005+05:30

Found myself today

I found myself and ran away

Something pulled me back

The voice of reason I forgot I had

All I know is you're not here to say

What you always used to say

But it's written in the sky tonight

So I won't give up

No I won't break down

Sooner than it seems life turns around

And I will be strong

Even if it all goes wrong

When I'm standing in the dark I'll still believe

Someone's watching over me

Thinking aloud..

2010-03-25T20:55:00.003+05:30

Was just chatting with a friend (after ages!) when it suddenly hit me... I haven't met myself in a while... the real me, the person I am and the person I generally like. The daily chaos has left me with no time to organize myself, think through the issues that are important to me and most importantly feel the emotions I should be feeling. Day seamlessly blends into night as I go about getting things "done". Someone referred to me as the "do-er" today and I all but slapped him!

What scares me the most is this quiet that has taken over me. It's like I've lost the ability to emote or feel anything. Why else am I feeling nothing when there are so many changes taking place, things that will affect my life? Is this calm a precursor to the storm thats about to strike?

Dealing with the madness

2010-03-21T23:16:00.002+05:30

This week was a true rollercoaster ride. While work kept me on my toes (no no not figuratively, literally) Monday thru to Saturday, my social life kept me up well past midnight five nights in a row. And to think I'd been dreading this week for a month now (for completely different reasons)!

These are my highlights from the week that was, in no particular order -
* Caught up with two of my closest pals at a bar by the sea, updating each other about our lives
* Went for an all-you-can-eat buffet with foodie buddies from work
* Organized an impromptu hang-out/ drinking session with work friends at 'Soul Fry' in Bandra, followed by a girlie gossip session that lasted till 3am!
* Got completely smashed out of my skull on Friday night at a friend's farewell & went to work on time the next morning
* Hung out with the family & had grandma over for a late Sunday lunch

On the whole too much alcohol was consumed (the mosquitoes that bit me died of drunkenness haha), too much good food was had, and too little sleep left me kinda dead on Sunday. {Note to self - no more ALCOHOL for a few months!!!!!!!}

Sure there were a few lows too, especially with things changing drastically around here but I can't post too much about them because my blog isn't private & I don't intend to make it private either!

Not looking forward to the new week, but then again I want it to be June soon... How was your week?

A girl needs... shoes :)

2010-03-14T10:28:00.010+05:30

These are the shoes I'm crushing on right now...

Oh purple flats how I love thee! These will look amazing with a white shirt, blue jeans and huge dangly earrings!!

OMG these ankle-huggers will dress up a skirt suit and add so much fun to a boring work outfit!

Pink sparkly shoes... They resemble shoes from a recent dream :)

Aren't these just gorgeous? Subtle yet stylish!

Which ones do you like girls? Oh guys can comment too, but we reserve the right to reject your criticism :D

The Wanderer and Me.. a short story!

2010-03-13T19:23:00.004+05:30

Spent a couple hours with someone this morning/ afternoon. He lives the life I've always wanted to live. Clicks pictures for a living, travels the world on a whim, doesn't get tied down to situations, meets new people and really lives life!

As he spoke of his adventures right from contacting a National Geographic photographer to work with him in NY to getting distant relatives to hire him as the official photographer for a wedding and sponsor his flights to NY, I kept thinking "Damn! This should be the way I live my life". During this 4 month trip he traveled across the US, often staying with friends of friends and people he'd met but once in his life. What I wouldn't give to be able to experience such a life! Then conversation steered to money and how he never has a grasp on his finances. Unlike a salaried employee, he gets paid per assignment. Sometimes the money is great and at others it barely suffices.

I thought long and hard about this. Now as some people might know, I'm not very good at handling my finances either. Come January and I whine about investments and taxes. At the beginning of each month I pay off my rent & bills and only then take stock of the spending money I have available. Rarely does my money carry forward to the next month and if it does it is spent immediately on "random stuff I don't need but always want"... but there's always the current month's salary. If nothing else I know exactly how much money will be deposited in my bank account at the end of the month. Regardless of how little time I have to spend this money or what I can do with it, I know it's on its way!

Much as I'd want to live the life of a wanderer would I be able to trade in this security? Maybe. Am I too attached to material things & comforts in life, so attached that I can't let go of them? Maybe.

It's a sad sad life that we working people live. One day fuses into the next, we make so many sacrifices nobody will ever know.. living away from our families, cancelling on our friends, not being able to make it for milestones in our loved ones' lives.. putting up with people and their bullshit, just for the stupid paycheck at the end of the month.

God I want to break-free of this bond, but unfortunately right now I'm too chicken to do it!

Couchsurfin'

2010-03-01T23:11:00.003+05:30

Today is day three of my three-day weekend... and it's 11.12pm which means I have very little time before tomorrow :( Nothing sucks more than going to work after a long-ish break! Already have a laundry list of stuff to be done tomorrow. To add to my woes "la famille" is headed back to Pune in the morning so I'm definitely going to feel strange coming back to an empty home in the evening.

The weekend has been eventful, quite like my life these days (only in a good way for a change!). One of my BFF's got an offer to work for CNN in London and I'm so so proud of her! We threw an awesome house-warming soiree for the extended family last night which wound up at 3am so you know people had a good time. Also the wi-fi finally works like a dream and Shoutcast is back in my life <>

This afternoon while working on my vacay plans for June I decided to look up "Couchsurfing" because I've got a feeling I'm going to feel a little lost in Boston. Now for those of you who've been living under a rock and don't know what Couchsurfing actually is - It's an international network that connects travelers to each other and facilitates cultural exchange and friendships. And it actually works! How do I know? A friend of mine spent months with fellow couchsurfers in South America and swears by it. Basically as a member you can meet and/or host travelers from across the globe! Sounds like a novel way to meet new people while traveling as well as in your own city. Currently my "couch status" reads 'meet for coffee or drink' but who knows I might be up for hosting people once I get the hang of this thing.

And hey for those of you who are not couchsurfers but blogsurfers... I should most likely be visiting the US in June/July this year and intend to travel to New York, Boston, Rochester, D.C. & Gaithersburg. Would be great to meet up in person so feel free to give me a shout!

Waking up...

2010-02-20T22:28:00.005+05:30

I had a dream a couple nights ago and woke up with a start

I was on a boat, in the middle of the sea with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. It was a lot darker than the pic and there was absolutely nothing but water all around and no oars either. They say dreams tell a story... I think mine did too! The question is - Should I do something about it or pray for the morning to come so I can see this problem from a different perspective?

Thoughts? Interpretations?

The Impotent Indian

2010-02-14T10:08:00.004+05:30

I feel violated, cheated and robbed. Robbed of a happy weekend, one I've been planning for weeks now. Violated by terror elements that traipse in and out of my life leaving me a little scarred and very cynical of the world around me. Cheated by the Indian Government and its safety mechanism in which we blindly vest all our trust and faith.

Last evening just as we came out of watching My Name Is Khan my brother frantically called up to tell me not to drive through Koregaon Park because there'd been a blast in German Bakery. Not thinking too much of it I took the Nagardas Road - Bund Garden bridge route to get home, driving through the many road diversions set up by the cops. Only once we got home did we realise the gravity of the situation. The explosion was a blast by terrorist outfits and so many people had lost their lives & been injured.

Then the phone calls began. Calls from friends & family enquiring if we were all fine. They brought back harsh memories of those three long days of sufferance during the 26/11 blasts. A memory I want to forget forever!

German Bakery is a landmark in Pune, frequented by foreigners and locals alike. I can imagine the number of patrons it would host on a Saturday evening and am pretty certain the numbers being given out by the authorities, as always, are nowhere near the actual casualties! This is supposedly the first such attack after 26/11; the second escape for my family and loved ones.

As a Punekar I feel helpless and as an Indian I feel impotent. Why? Because there is nothing I can do! When the Sena creates a ruckus in my state around the release of a harmless film, I fret over not being able to watch it. When MNS decides to enforce its rules on Mumbai, I hitch a ride with colleagues and try to get home safely. When all shop-owners including large international retail formats are forced to have Marathi signboards, I ridicule the funny spellings. When these goons misconstrue my favourite actor's words and threaten his family, I watch in silence. When terror strikes nearer home, I sit in front of the television and pray for the safety of my family. There is little else I can do!

But someone has to be accountable because I am SICK of words. Sick of being told what to think, sick of being told what to do. Sick of false reassurances, sick of empty promises. Yes I am a "good indian" and yes I pay my taxes. But now is not the time for words, it is the time for positive action. There comes a time when diplomacy needs to be shown the door and now is that time. What good is a Govt that cannot protect its people? No more words please, I want an answer in actions this time!

Funny? I think not!

2010-02-02T22:08:00.004+05:30

Ok so this real life incident seemed to tickle everyone's funny bone at work. Please tell me this (or something like it) has happened to you and make me feel better :(

Time - 6.30pm

Place - 2 kms from home atop the flyover

Ambient noise - Cars honking + swear words flying around in the air

Traffic condition - Nose-to-nose

"Driving back at this time is not half bad", I said to myself, "Another 15 minutes and I should be home early enough to cook my dinner and lunch for tomorrow". Crossing this signal usually takes forever but it looked like I'd clear it in the first shot! Suddenly the car's engine went off. "Oh well it's a downward slope now anyway", I exclaimed as I hit the AC button to switch it off while pulling up the hand brake. Thanks to this one-of-a-kind eight minute long signal I was forced to people watch for entertainment. The motorcyclist in front of me kept yacking on the phone oblivious to the noise around, five idiots crossed the road on the opposite side right in front of oncoming traffic, a happy couple were engaged in an animated conversation.

All of a sudden the traffic started moving and it was time for me to move too. I put down the hand brake and got ready to enjoy the free ride when I discovered that the car's brake wasn't working. A bead of sweat trickled down my forehead as I came to terms with this new development. "Shit! The car's brakes have failed!!". My brain refused to function and the car kept moving ahead at a steady pace, a little too fast for my liking. It was really hot by now, too hot for me to think so I turned the key in the ignition to put the AC on. Voila! I'd regained control of the brakes. Apparently the brakes don't work if the car's engine is off.

My question is - HOW COME THEY DIDN'T TEACH ME THIS IN DRIVING SCHOOL????

Mumbai madness

2010-01-29T18:22:00.007+05:30

Working Saturdays suck. Bad. And the knowledge that other humans have already commenced the act of enjoying their weekend gnaws at the back of my head as I write another email, work on another excel sheet and make another thousand phone calls. Most times the people on the other line sound almost as annoyed as me. Tough luck buddy, if I'm working on a Saturday I'm taking you DOWN with me. Coz I'm crappy like that.

NOW that we have the "whining" out of the way, I have real stuff to write about here. Like my new place which is awesome. The final touches of awesomeness are being completed as I type, i.e. the split AC in the living room is getting fixed. This means I can spend all of tomorrow being lazy watching season 5 of How I Met Your Mother on the couch in the luxury of air-conditioning. Muuuuhahahahahaha <>

Its that time of the year again, the time I cry about having to pay my taxes. As someone rightly said (commented on one of my many wrath-laden status messages on FB) "It's the middle-class that gets screwed". Why? Because the rich businessmen are old hands at tax evasion & the down-trodden have negligible tax liabilities! So while Mumbaiites pay the highest taxes in the damn country, we continue to suffer two hour road-blocks caused by a friggin' tractor breakdown (don't ask!) and pollution levels that will soon make Delhi fogs look like clear skies. Anyway the short getaway I'd planned with my friend has now been officially canned until further notice. Bummer :(

Oh and while on the topic of traffic, Thursday was the worst most annoying jam I've ever been in, made worse because I was driving to work. The morons at the Traffic Police Dept decided to stop all the signals and man the traffic themselves. Oh yeah there were two 80yr-old 3ft pygmie maamus (havaldars) manning the traffic on the highway at the Andheri-Kurla road turn off. They made such a mess of the whole thing that it took me an hour & forty-five minutes to travel 2kms from the highway till my office. And just when I thought I'd be the last person to reach office I discovered that the majority of my colleagues were still stuck in the jam. RED. That is the only colour I could see so I called up the Traffic Control Room & gave the poor sod on the phone a piece of my mind, to the amusement of all those present in office! It was the only fun thing that came out of the ordeal.

In other news I've just finished reading Eclipse & have come to realize that Bella is a bitch. No seriously! She wants to have both these selfless sexy superheros at one time while quite honestly she doesn't deserve either. I wish Stephanie Meyer had written the books from someone else's point of view because this Bella has one convoluted head! OMG... I need to go buy Breaking Dawn now :D

New beginnings..

2010-01-17T17:04:00.005+05:30

This post is special for many reasons. It's my first post of 2010, the first post on my "all new" blog & the first post from my new home! :)

This weekend has been hectic. The radio station I work at completed three years on Friday & a grand party was organized to celebrate the occasion post work. Like most parties too much drunkness & a very very late night ensued.

From the time I've woken up on Saturday (i.e. yesterday) up until 20 minutes ago I've been busy moving houses & trying to get everything to fit in/ work. Honestly I've come to realise we take too many things for granted! After making twenty trips between both apartments, getting the sofa washers to wash the sofa, cleaners to come in to clean the whole place (and I do mean whole place... shelves, cabinets, floors, flower beds, bathrooms... phew), cable guy to set up the cable connection, looking for a new maid (and finding one.. victory!), fighting with the internet guy & finally settling for using my gprs enabled Blackberry to log on - I have finally settled in!!!

The new apartment is much bigger than the old one.. like double in size. It also comes with air-conditioners in the living room & my bedroom, two rooms, two loos (no more emergencies/ fights), a fully equipped kitchen & an LCD TV. Hopefully I will get around to clicking some nice pics & uploading them here but for the time being my elaborate description will have to suffice :) Other pluses about this apartment - two car parkings & an amazing view. Did I mention its on the 17th floor? Now I feel like a real city girl.. haha!!

So less than three weeks into the year I have a new apartment & my virtual home has a new look! So far so good my friends... so far so good!

Ring in the new

2009-12-29T22:48:00.002+05:30

I'd written a post recently about how things change on a daily basis but the big picture remains the same. I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Maybe introspecting is a better word. How is it that some people are so successful in achieving life altering changes through the daily motions (no I don't mean the ones you pass on your throne every morning) while others get stuck in drudgery & rut? How can I bring about some of these changes in my life?

As if God were listening, a few key aspects of my life are already being re-arranged. Mid of next month (next year tee hee! :) I'm moving into a new apartment. While my old place was cosy but tiny, the new place is classy, spacious & a lot like my very first home! Its a city girl's city apartment & I'm totally looking forward to it already. Probably the coolest side-effect of my new place will be being able to keep my car with me. I love my Swift and now that I will have not one but two parking spaces I have no reason to leave it behind in Pune.

The other huge project I have been working on is "It's-about-time-you-changed-your-blog-girl". It is not an easy task my friends! Now I know why the internet is fondly referred to as the World Wide Web. For a laywoman like me changing the look & feel of my blog could easily equal to rocket science. The more I try to learn/ change, the deeper I get sucked in. So I've decided to go with what I like (can manage) & then incorporate suggestions if I like them (read figure how to).

There is one more daily change I'm going to *try* to make but commenting on it right now might be a tad too soon. Since this one's kind of a biggie I think it deserves some more thought & planning! Thankfully I happen to be heading to Goa tomorrow. Hang on this deserves a whole new paragraph.

So as I was saying, tomorrow we embark on a roadtrip, my first ever long-ish roadtrip driving (as in me driving.. myself... and others :) - To Goa! Between the sun, sand, sea & indulgence I hope to find answers to some unanswered questions. Hopefully these answers will help me bring about the changes I want to see in my life.

Oh and as it turns out today was my last working day of the year. And also my last day in Mumbai in 2009. Strangely this thought struck me as I watched the city rush past through the train's window. Kind of like watching the city that's always in fast forward on a 8x forward mode.

This year has also rushed past in full speed. So many big wins & little losses, little wins & big losses but the sum total has brought me to the exact same place I was last year this time. Maybe that's why I feel the need to bring about some change, now more than ever.

HAPPY NEW YEAR people.. see you in 2010!

A piece of heaven

2009-12-25T20:38:00.003+05:30

After successfully managing to screw up my glasses this morning I had no option but to drag my ass to the optician's to get them fixed. (Just for the record, I detest doing anything useful on my Saturday's off! ). With lenses in my eyes & a frown on my face I took the elevator down to the parking lot and drove towards Moledina Rd. Driving sans glasses puts a whole new spin on the word "painful"!

Two minutes of driving, eight minutes of reverse parking & five minutes of handing over glasses led me to the newly opened Landmark in SGS Mall. Now for those of you who haven't been taking notes during my rants.. I love bookstores! Landmark was previously situated next to Dorabjees & I loved the nooks & crannies, the fact that each floor catered to different stuff & that even though it was so spacious, you'd have to squeeze yourself between the racks to get from one aisle to the other. Why do I love crowded book stores? They just seem to have a lot more character!

So when I walked into the new Landmark I'd already decided I'd hate the place. It is afterall a huge open space with everything literally "under" one roof. Little did I know that this would be my columbus moment of the year (you know like Christopher Columbus.. I discovered Landmark. Oh forget it!!) The new Landmark is everything the old one was... and then some. While the ground level houses music, movies, gadgets, stationery & games, level one is filled with all the books your heart could desire. While not really comparable to an attic, I'd say the book section is really warm & inviting and the aisles are still narrow enough for you to bump into random strangers while checking out the latest reads. I spent almost an hour just browsing through the fiction, indian writing & romance sections and locking eyes with atleast two intellectual looking guys!

Once back down I skillfully avoided the movies section and went straight to the toys & games area. From huge Santas to automated BMWs to DIY painting kits, they have it all. Hopefully their in-store cameras didn't capture my awestruck expressions for the bored staff to play back & laugh - a 26yr old behaving like an 8yr old kid. They even had some glowy, hangy creatures filled with water for a little over 100 bucks. If only I'd figured out a use for those, I'd have bought a couple.

Landmark also has the most impressive stationery section I have come across in recent times. They had calendars, planners, telephone directories & notebooks in all shapes, sizes, patterns, colours & paper textures, a hand-made paper aisle, folders, office supplies, pens, markers, pencils, canvas, artist paints, crayons, shading pencils... the list is endless. At one point I felt so overwhelmed by all the amazing things around me I had to take a deep breath to calm myself down. Overwhelmed by awesomeness :) Oh and I may or may not have spent 20 minutes fiddling with a Transcend music player cum digital photo frame cum video viewer type thing.

Landmark on Moledina Rd - a must visit if you're in the city & my own personal piece of heaven in Pune!

Reflections

2009-12-06T16:24:00.006+05:30

It has been almost two years since life turned on its head for me. The comfort and security is making me uneasy. I feel the need to break out again, to do something different, to give in to the in-born gypsy. On the one hand everything feels like it should be - fine, probably even perfect. On the other hand I feel like I'm settling, accepting what life is throwing my way, like I can probably do much better for myself. If I give in now, I might not be able to turn back - it might be too late! Settling is my biggest fear. Not settling down, just settling.. for something. At the cost of what else there could be.

Lots of little new things to write about but the big picture remains the same. Work is hectic but fun. Meeting friends, discovering new facets of the city I moved back to recently, paying the bills & hitting the malls whenever I feel low. Planning a mini getaway to keep myself from going insane with all the mundanity surrounding me. Music seems to help... atleast it keeps me distracted, keeps me from focusing on all the questions in my head.

I need a sea change. Will fate assist me? And if it does will I have the courage to accept the change without letting this overpowering sense of security make me change my mind?

Frickin mad!

2009-11-22T14:36:00.004+05:30

Ok so I'm really pissed off with the sudden onslaught of spam comments on my blog! I don't know how they manage to find their way to my posts and it's driving me INSANE.

These are typically nonsensical comments about trained dogs & pills and other such absurdities that keep posting themselves on my blog. WTF! Is this some sort of a virus? I'm pretty certain clicking on these links will mess up your comps so please consider this fair warning.

Does anyone know how I can put an end to this attack? The most annoying thing is that all comment notifications come straight to my blackberry message inbox between meetings, outings with friends, working on presentations and instantly eff up my mood!!!

SOMEBODY HELP ME... PLEASE! :'(

Living like a guest :)

2009-11-15T19:56:00.013+05:30

Some of you might recall that my brother works with the Oberoi Group of Hotels. He was promoted and moved to their new Trident property at Bandra Kurla Complex soon after 26/11 last year.

While the new hotel will formally open to guests sometime in December, currently families & friends of the staff are being invited to be part of the 'Live like a guest' program. We were scheduled to enjoy the hotel on Thursday, a day after the almost cyclone 'Phyan' wasted a lot of precious time in the lives of us Mumbaikars! Cyclones, tremors, terror attacks... I think Mumbai will go down a lot before 2012!!

My initial plan was to take the day off on Thursday so I could take it easy & book myself for a spa. (Yeah like that would ever work out!). After much deliberation though I decided to go in to work instead because taking a day off when other people are working and can technically call me every 20 minutes doesn't work out so well for me. As a result I missed out on an awesome lunch at the Indian fine dining restaurant 'Maya'. By the time I checked in it was almost 6pm so I just had enough time to read for about an hour before taking a long shower & joining the family for dinner at the Italian restaurant 'Botticino'.

The food kept finding its way to our table courtesy the attentive staff (my brother's colleagues!). We ate way too much food... soups, antipasti, two types of risotto, a main course each (I had the New Zealand tenderloin with mushrooms & asparagus) & two types of dessert. The food was really good and the staff was friendly & helpful. We were also given the best table in the house - a floating table overlooking my brother's restaurant O22.

After dinner my brother gave us a guided tour of the hotel & we took a couple of pics of the place. In the evening we'd called for a couple DVDs to watch after dinner but by the time we got to our rooms it was past 12.30am, ensuring all our previous plans got shelved. The next morning I barely had time to get dressed and have a quick breakfast at O22 before heading to office. My sister managed to go for a swim though & got herself clicked for posterity LOL.

The rest of my week was pretty uneventful barring the customary banter & madness that is now a part of my work life!

Posing for the camera :D

Mom & Sim enjoying some fancy drinks

Hairband in my world = bad hair day. Pics of the two of us together are

getting rarer to come by

Aerial view of the lobby. I love this chandelier

Sundeck by the pool

The swimmer in our family makes a pretty picture in red

Of weddings & other plans..

2009-11-08T13:00:00.003+05:30

Have you ever loved a song so much you wished you could spend your whole life lost in it? That's how I feel about the soundtrack of the new movie Tum Mile. If you haven't heard it yet I'd suggest you pick it up right now! Onto more 'sane' matters...

A close friend is getting married in December. Finally got my tickets booked for the wedding in Ahmedabad this weekend and also managed to meet up with the designer for my outfits. Can't believe I actually toyed with the idea of wearing a saree. The one and only time I did wear one (school farewell) it kept threatening to come open every few minutes. I still remember going home and crashing out for 12 hours from the sheer exhaustion of keeping it together :P

Will begin working on my pet project sometime this week - a trip to the US next summer. Figuring out leave from work + visas + finances is not going to be an easy task! So far the itinerary includes NYC, Long Island, Maryland, Washington DC, Boston, Rochester & Niagara Falls.

It's funny how life comes full circle... I'm back to being super busy (to the extent of not being able to blog even once a week, much less read up on other blogs) and loving every minute of it. Don't know how I crammed in meeting up with friends twice, a trip to Pune, a family dinner, a movie at the cinemas & reading Twilight into the last two weeks! Another work week begins tomorrow...

Everything's changed, it's all remained the same!

2009-10-25T20:17:00.005+05:30

Been too caught up with the daily motions of life (not what you're thinking sicko! :) to visit my favourite place to vent for a while. As a result my blog is kind of dated and not showing up on anyone's reader these days. Thanks to all the recent ups and downs I've had zero time to just be and catch up on stuff I love doing - minus meeting friends ofcourse.

Diwali came and went & fortunately I had three days off to go back to Pune, spend some time with le famille. Mom's cousin (my aunt) was visiting from the US along with her hubby & little daughter who turned out to be one of the most entertaining 8yr olds I've met in a while. She wants to be an actress and a singer & has decided to become a "hollywood actress first because I can't speak fluent hindi". Hahaha... She packed in quite a few laughs.

On the work front things are really looking up with a whole bunch of deals getting closed in the last few months. Unfortunately one of my colleagues moved out of the company last week. So now I'm solely responsible for a truckload of stuff. I've been looking for a smart kid to intern with me while someone new gets hired in my team. All I need is a spunky kid with exceptional written & oral communication and a willingness to learn between the age of 20yrs to 23yrs . Apparently thats a lot to ask for :( Do you know anyone who fits the bill? Someone who wants to learn the ropes of media marketing and be part of some interesting projects? Please have them get in touch with me!

Oh and before I forget (as if!), I bought two awesome pairs of Aldo shoes yesterday. You know the best feeling in the world? Walking into a shoe store with humongous feet (size 10) and being spoilt for choice. Here's one of the two pairs I purchased.. couldn't google the other one and too lazy to take a pic right now :D

You like??

Friends, formula one and festivities!

2009-10-11T19:07:00.004+05:30

So these three words basically sum up my week. And copious amounts of alcohol but that wouldn't quite rhyme ;)

With Diwali around the corner & the festive season underway work has been more demanding than usual. Thursday evening was spent with all my colleagues from office at an impromptu party we put together. This is where most of the alcohol binge happened. Infact I lost count after 3 caipiroskas and 4 vodka shots. It didn't help that I had an event the day after. We've had two back to back events this weekend. The first one was on Friday night and since it was a last minute thingy it took a lot out of us.

The second event took place this afternoon. Noted formula one driver David Coulthard drove down the Bandra-Worli sea link in an F1 car. While the actual drive and the donuts took less than 10 minutes, putting together an event of this scale took almost two months of hard work. We guys were radio partners & did an entire show live from the venue. Got to hang out with a couple of my friends along with my office peeps while enjoying some pomegrante redbull and awesome music!

So onto my crazy Saturday night story... My pal R was here from Delhi for training this week. After spending the week at the Four Seasons along with her colleagues she came over to my place on Saturday morning. We spent the afternoon mall-hopping and shopping and decided to catch some drinks in the evening. We didn't want to travel too far and landed up going to Hawaiian Shack in Bandra. This is generally one of my most preferred hangouts because its really laid back and the DJ plays 80s music! Unfortunately by the time we got there it was 10pm and there was no place to sit. After getting ourselves a drink each we hung around near the bar and started people watching. Two guys, an indian and a firangi were busy making asses of themselves dancing like lunatics. We had a good laugh at their expense before managing to get a small table (with no chairs) at one end of the pub. After a few more drinks and some appetizers we moved back to the bar. This is when the two looneys sidled up to us and started a random conversation. The indian dude had a warped french accent and the firangi was supposedly french. After exchanging pleasantries and informing us that they were both slightly drunk they asked both of us to dance. The indian dude pulled me to the centre of the floor while my friend was stuck dancing with the frenchman near the bar. Precisely five minutes after I pretended to have received a phone call and went back to my friend. She managed to get rid of the firang only to discover some other idiot had been stalking her from one end of the pub to the other. We quickly managed to get out of the place and get to Barista at Bandstand. Spent an hour or so catching up on conversation there before heading back home and calling it a night.

So as you can see I've had a terribly gripping weekend. How was yours?

Three day work week :)

2009-10-03T21:12:00.003+05:30

Ok so this was officially the shortest work week in the year! Drove to office straight from Pune on Tuesday morning, Monday being Dassera and drove back to Pune on Thursday evening because it was Gandhi Jayanti yesterday and the powers that be decided to declare Saturday as an official day off from work.

Managed to pack in quite a lot of action in the three days though including dinner at Global Fusion (second time in five days!) in Bandra. The agenda this weekend was dual-fold -

1. Unwind and;
2. Prep for Diwali because it's unlikely that I'm going to be able to make another trip to Pune before that.

Watched Do Knot Disturb (crap!) Wake Up Sid (excellent + loved that there were two hotties in one film) & My Sister's Keeper (nice but I preferred the book). Also checked out the new & improved Zamu's. The food was awesome and I sat with my legs folded on the couch... Yeah, "unwind" is right!

Got my outfits made for Diwali. This is probably the only indian festival I enjoy celebrating & make it a point to wear traditional clothes for the puja. Spent a couple of hours prettying up in the parlour yesterday and it feels awesome. No major plans for tomorrow except spending some more time with my sister before I head back to Bombay.

I have a really loooong week ahead of me and am going to be working through the following weekend. We have a big event lined up. Will probably blog about it once its through.

Blackberried and other short stories

2009-09-28T00:52:00.005+05:30

Things have been manic in my world lately hence the absence from the blogosphere and my beloved blog! I've recently acquired a blackberry (which I love to bits!) and am trying to figure out a convenient way to post on here from it but am stuck with the formatting text part. Is there any application that allows one to post directly on the blog making life simpler? On the upside, not being able to blog has made me an avid twitter-er. Is that even a word? LOL. Also, if there is an RSS reader that allows me to follow your blogs and post comments on them I'd love to know how I can download it on my BB.

As usual too much has happened since my last post so I'm going to quickly recap things of consequence -

At work: Closed two ginormous deals at work; Been working late nights for almost a month; Today marks the last day of a ten day on-ground event; Have another spate of events lined up in the second week of October; Been bonding with work pals.

At play: Got myself a Blackberry (how did I ever live without it?!); Been out socializing atleast once a week; had two friends come and spend a weekend each with me in Mumbai; Planning my Ahmedabad trip for a friends wedding in December; Called the cops and got a noisy, destructive party canned on Friday night Muhahahahahahaha...

On the home front: Managed to spend time with each member of my family individually; The five of us went out for dinner on my parents 27th anniversary this week; Came back home to Pune twice; Hung out with my brother a couple times in these few weeks which is more than we've done in months now!

And this is why I've been missing here. Hopefully I will manage to strike a balance soon :)

The week that was...

2009-09-13T22:52:00.004+05:30

Long work days. Late nights. Friends. Patch-ups. Hawaiian Shack. Blue Frog. Thousand Oaks. Insane amounts of alcohol. Ball-talking. Twitter addiction. Music. Movies. Music in movies. Celeb interviews. Work plans. Long drives. Cooking lunch for family. Insane amounts of alcohol. Anger and outrage. Phone calls. SMSes. Rains. Driving in the rains. Leisurely lunch. Hair spa. Personal plans. Sleeping in over the weekend. Blackberry Curves. Telly. Forgetting wallet in another city. Panic. Insane amounts of alcohol. Bad cold. Sleep!

And the response...

2009-09-07T22:48:00.004+05:30

Reliance Energy reacts to my mail

Dear Customer,

Warm greetings from Reliance Energy.

With reference to your mail regarding High Consumption issue, we would like to inform you that there is a spike in consumption over the ‘maximum unit consumption’ of previous 3 month. Hence, your billing amount could seem higher.

Also, please note that the below mentioned factors might be responsible for increase in your energy consumption:

1. Seasonal Variations - Unusually cold or warm weather can significantly alter your electricity use. Mumbai temperatures range from 28 to 32 degrees!
2. New electric appliances usage - If you have recently installed a new major electric appliance - such as air conditioner, refrigerator, washing machine or computer - your usage of electricity may increase. Negative.
3. Defective Electrical appliances - Appliances such as air conditioner, refrigerator, washing machine and geyser needs to be repaired immediately if they become defective. Everything works fine, except your damn meter.
4. More people in the house - More people means more electricity will be used. One extra person will use more hot water, lights, cooking, refrigerator energy and air conditioning. One extra body creates more heat, opens more doors and takes more showers. If the number of people in the house is the same but if the people are different it can change the electric use. Some people set the thermostat higher/lower, use more/less hot water, open doors more/less. Etc. It makes a difference. Dummies guide to the universe?!
5. Changes in Life style- Different work shifts, a new baby, and kids out of school for the summer, illness, retirement etc. These are few of the things that can affect life style. They can impact the amount of time spent at home, the number of times the door is opened/closed, the setting on the thermostat, time-spent watching TV, lights used, number of showers. It all affects the amount of electricity used. None of the above plus pointless information does not justify the sky-rocketing bill.
6. Theft of Electricity - There is a possibility of theft of electricity through your meter without your knowledge. And how do you propose I find this thief? Hire a private investigator?

However, if you feel that any other factor is responsible for the increase in your consumption, we request you to write us back within 7 days of receipt of this mail, beyond which we would treat this issue closed. Thank you for writing to us.

Regards,
Customer Service
Reliance Energy

What a bunch of idiots! Yeah I'm bitter.. and 9000 bucks poorer than I was this morning :'(

One step closer.. or am I?

2009-09-02T23:22:00.006+05:30

This week has been neither here nor there. I mentioned something brewing a while back. It's been over 20 days now and there's been no progress on that front. Its unnerving for me to just keep waiting, not to mention completely out of character. On hindsight I should have acted differently and the issue would not exist at all. Early days to mention anything but I promise if something does materialize I will blog about it!

A tiff with a friend seems to be drawing to a close finally. Atleast thats one less thing to fret about in my life. As a rule we don't sleep over a fight in my family, something my mom instilled in us from a very young age. I've probably taken this too seriously because the rule now seems to apply to squabbles with anyone I'm close to! Yeah so I spent a few sleepless nights last week and very many days wearing a fugly scowl. Things aren't quite back to normal now but we're getting there.

Work has been hectic and crazy. I've been working late almost every night, except Monday night when I met a friend for dinner at Cafe Mangii and ran into Imran Khan... and Tuesday night when I watched Quick Gun Murugan with the same friend and then caught dinner at the mall... well, not every night! Infact I was home by 5pm today but in my defense, it was meant to be a half day and we were free to leave by 1.30!!

Come to think of it 'friends' have been very high on the agenda all this week. On the two occasions that I caught up with the same friend for dinner on Monday and Tuesday night respectively we had some pretty intense discussions about life. I especially loved this one line he threw at me - Nats we should stop romanticizing everything.. our professions, people we're around, the city.. because all they ever do is s**** us back in return. Possibly maybe true! LOL. Unfortunately some lessons are hard to learn and harder to remember.

Not going down without a fight

2009-08-30T12:43:00.003+05:30

My response to an electricity bill for rupees 9000. And to top it off...It came with a disconnection notice!

Dear Sir,

This is to bring to your notice severe discrepancies in my electricity bill for the months of May, June, July & August 2009. I have been given to understand that the meters in my building have been changed sometime during this period.

The units consumed in all previous months are in the range of 116-270 but the units consumed in May & June are more than double that number. Since I am a single person living in the apartment and can guarantee that there hasn't been an increase in my consumption pattern, I find this increase rather bizarre and impossible.

If you were to compare the unit consumption in July-08 (385) to July 2009 (700), you will notice that there is a vast difference in the consumption for the same month vis-a-vis last year as well.

Request you to kindly look into the matter at the earliest so that I can make the payment for the amount actually due and not this inflated amount which could be a result of the newly installed meters being tampered with or a billing issue at your end.

Awaiting a timely response.

Thanks & regards,

Natasha

Lessons in "life"

2009-08-27T20:07:00.006+05:30

Life teaches you a little everyday. Today was a long session in the lessons of life for me! I'm going to jot down some of these learnings for future reference (and all the times I make the same mistakes again)

-> People come in various shades of grey. No one is black or white.

-> Never take relationships for granted. They need to be nurtured and treated with care.

-> Every relationship has to go through fire. The ones that survive are built on strong foundation.

-> There is always someone waiting to feed off your misfortunes.

-> Your first impressions of someone can be wrong.

-> Sometimes it is essential to pretend you like someone even though you can't stand being in the same room as them.

-> Some people need to feel important because of their apparent inferiority complex. (No wonder I didn't enjoy watching Harry Potter)

-> I've never been very good at hiding my emotions

-> I'm willing to put myself on the line only for someone who means that much to me.

-> Only the people I care about can truly hurt me.

~The Blogoversary Post~

2009-08-26T22:28:00.006+05:30

My blog completes a year today and after thinking up a million gimmicky ways to celebrate the occasion I've decided to keep it simple. This post will be a recap of all the stuff this blog has helped me achieve, the fun times I've written about and the change it has brought about in me as a person.

Though my reasons for creating this blog were extremely lame I managed to meet a lot of fun people and make some new friends across the globe. Being part of the blog secret experiment made me feel like part of a huge international community of people who live such different lives but share common issues & emotions. Along the way, I've also rediscovered how blessed I am to have amazing friends in life. Capturing these daily activities in the written word has given me a chance to understand myself better.

A lot of my dirty laundry has been aired in public and quite a few of my secrets aren't secrets anymore. Well I guess these are the hazards of living a not so secretive life. I do wish this was an anonymous blog sometimes so I didn't feel the need to censor myself every once in a while.

The most important victory for me though has been getting rid of a lingering pain I'd been holding on to for years now. Yes it's finally out of my life. For good.

So with the past securely behind and the future to look forward to, here's hoping I live in interesting times and continue to blog about them!

Four days to a year

2009-08-22T13:35:00.002+05:30

26th August marks a year of scribbling inane stuff on this space - My blogoversary! Happened to check my first post by some freak chance else I would have totally overlooked this momentous occasion :p

I should probably do something special but I really don't know what that might be. Suggestions are more than welcome.

Life's like this

2009-08-18T22:53:00.003+05:30

Life has been busy these last couple of weeks. The Swine Flu pandemic has everyone running scared and Pune being the supposed "epicentre" has left me a little worried too. As a result I haven't gone home in weeks and probably won't be heading to Pune any time soon either.

In addition to being our Independence Day, 15th August also happens to be my dad's birthday and since neither me nor my brother wanted to hazard a weekend in Pune, the family was here for the second weekend in a row. My weekend was jam-packed with waaaay too much action and going back to work on Monday was not such a nice experience. Mix loads of alcohol plus no time to unwind plus five hours of sleep on Sunday night and you will have a very irritable me on a Monday morning.

There is some other stuff in the offing but I don't want to talk about it right now. Will update when the time is right!

Wrong side of 20s

2009-08-09T11:38:00.011+05:30

The big 26 is here and for a change it feels fantastic. Over the last couple of years I've nursed a fear of growing old but I have a premonition that 26 is the year I finally come of age and turn my life around.

Another thing I've come to realise is I have some pretty fantastic friends. Brought in my birthday with a few of them on Thursday night and got tons of flowers, gifts & wine from the others. My 'rents and sister drove down from Pune and the five of us went out for dinner to India Jones at the Trident post work on Friday.

All in all I've had a great birthday this year and it looks like the festivities will continue for a while!

The five of us

Almost 26

2009-08-02T20:17:00.003+05:30

Since this is probably the last blogpost before my 26th Bday (this Friday.. don't wish me yet) I thought I'd be a little dramatic and go with the title above! For a change I've had a rather nice week.. mildly confusing but mostly fun! Way better than the last few months anyway.

I'd blogged about the two dates recently. Well what do you know?! The guy I enjoyed hanging out with is nowhere in sight (quite literally) and I've already hung out thrice with the other one. Hmmmm... I don't know what to make of this. Maybe I'm just enjoying all the attention and playing along. Unfortunately I don't feel any attraction towards this guy at all though he's a really nice person. Am I being really horrible and leading him on?

While on the topic of relationships - I watched Love Aaj Kal on friday night and it struck a chord somewhere. Maybe I'm still waiting for him to have an epiphany and come running back to me. Is this why I'm in this bad rut of getting emotionally involved with guys I know I cannot have a meaningful relationship with? Probably. Will he ever come back to me? As each day passes the chances of this happening become bleaker and bleaker. Maybe it is God's way of telling me to move on. And believe me.. I am trying as best as I can. There is this line in the film that really got to me. Deepika (the female lead) says, "We need to stop. I need to stop this. Phone calls, emails, chatting online... all of it. I need to get you out of my heart so there is room for someone else to come in." It is probably time I got him out of my heart too... and out of my Facebook friends list. Should I wait till my birthday to see if he cares enough to wish me? He did last year and so did I and that has been the extent of our interaction since August 2008 to date!

Anyway, back to earth. I went shopping for a new outfit for my birthday this afternoon and landed up spending a very large portion of my salary on a whole bunch of clothes. Two new pairs of jeans - one in grey and the other in black, five new tops, a pair of earrings, a pair of shoes and a pretty pale yellow nightgown I'd been eyeing for almost a year. Happy Birthday to me!!

Unveiling the "new look"

2009-07-30T18:31:00.004+05:30

After a long day at work...

Close-up of the new hairdo and glasses

So these are the best pics I could get someone to click of my new look after a long day at work yesterday. The glasses have been giving me a mild headache but hopefully I'll get used to them soon! Had a brilliant day today.. will get around to blogging about it sometime this week!

The week that was...

2009-07-25T13:20:00.006+05:30

It's Monday already! Last week was rather interesting with a few developments (or not.. I really can't tell these days!) barring the time I got splashed with sludgy rain water early in the morning on my way to work.. twice.. on either side.. and I was wearing white!!!

Ofcourse there was the 'big eclipse' & the impending 'high tide' that made the news in B-town but failed to make much of an impression on my life. I slept through the eclipse & skipped town before the high tide could mess with my weekend plans. Weekend plans... well I need to elaborate on the week that was before we go there...

Those of you who have been following my inane banter in the form of written word on this page might be able to guess the identity of one of these two gentlemen! Yes there were two.. two occasions on which I went out with two different guys in what might be popularly known as a date but I don't know if they qualified as such. Hence this post!

The first occured (haha!) last Saturday - we went to watch Harry Potter together and well it was ok. For starters the movie was quite a let down. Add to that sub-zero conversation & not much else! The second one though was pretty intriguing. I have written about this person before and must say I wasn't really expecting to have fun, or to talk about stuff, or to feel this much at ease or to generally enjoy myself at all. No I didn't cook at home. It was just a chilled out lets-meet-for-dinner which turned into a lets-walk-in-the-rain-and-get-some-dessert type thing. All in all it was a surprisingly fun night!

Spent the weekend at home in Pune with family and managed to catch up with past colleagues/ current friends on Saturday night. On Sunday we decided to have an impromptu cook-a-thon with mom making some stir-fried veggies, me throwing together sausage fried rice & black pepper prawns and my sister pulling off a near perfect mango cheesecake. The food was amazing and I guess mom being the world's best chef has a rub-off on us girls.

Now for the most exciting part of my weekend - the mini-makeover. I'd scheduled an appointment with my hairstylist because I couldn't remember the last time I'd got a haircut (probably February!). Now, I've been with the same hairstylist for years and trust her blindly so I gave her a complete free hand on the new look. She promised to do "something different" with it and two hours later I walked out with a fab new cut and red & burgundy coloured streaks. If the compliments I've got since are anything to go by then I should be modelling for shampoo, hair smoothening serum or other such products pretty soon :)

Other highlights of my weekend include getting hit on by a random African guy while trying to get the traffic police to open the tire lock from my dad's car which I'd parked on the wrong side of the road (by mistake!) and book shopping at Landmark. I'm still gung-ho on the whole Indian authors thing so these are the books I purchased - Bringing Up Vasu: That First Year, My Friend Sancho, Knots and No Crosses & Catch 22 (the only exception)

The argumentative indian..

2009-07-20T22:39:00.003+05:30

I was talking to my mom this evening on my way back from work. We were arguing about something that had happened yesterday which had really pissed me off and mom's inability to tell off the person who was responsible for the incident. More often than not Mom seems to be too worried about what others will think and as a result avoids confronting issues. This habit of hers infuriates me every single time!

Anyway the conversation lasted for a good forty minutes with me yelling at mom for the most part. After hanging up though I was forced to recap the exchange (because such heated arguments with Mom always leave me in a bad mood) and it got me thinking... Did our parents ever get into such animated arguments with their parents? Would mom ever speak this rudely with my grandmom and get away scot free? Have our parents given us too much leeway? Hmmm...

While I won't get into the reasons for my annoyance and I still think they were totally justified maybe talking to Mom like that wasn't the coolest thing to do!

Oh and I had a freaking bizarre day today!

Love talk

2009-07-19T18:41:00.004+05:30

I'm going to skip the usual drone about my extra-busy-action-packed-sleeping past 2am daily week and jump straight to the intruiging "love and relationship" conversations I'd promised to write about last time around.

A few of us were chilling post work and talking about the various calls we get on our late night show from people who have relationship dilemmas. Someone said "People these days are happy to call it quits at the drop of a hat unlike the olden days when our parents decided to iron out problems and stay together." I guess this phenomena is driven by the fact that we spend so little time with our significant others. We did a quick spot check amongst those of us who were married and found out that these married people spent a maximum of 3 to 4 hours with their husbands/ wives daily and most of this time was spent while eating meals & in the morning while completing other chores. Infact they even admitted that they spent more time chilling with colleagues in the office than they did with their partner. Does it come as a surprise then when things don't really work out?

The other issue that came up was about functional relationships. I personally have a very strong view about this. Most relationships these days are pretty functional and time bound. Nothing really is forever. It's all about settling because if it wasn't we'd all be holding out for the one person we dreamt of while growing up. With age and maturity you realize that you can't keep waiting for the perfect person forever and start to settle for what feels right right now. Also, since people evolve everyday, what feels right today may be completely wrong for you in the future. I really hope someone comes along one day to prove me wrong, but till then this is exactly how I feel about the issue!

Oh right and lastly, I'd like to know what exactly qualifies as a date. Going out with a guy alone for a movie has started qualifying as a date? You could very well be two friends catching a movie together right?! Does it qualify as a date if it's a movie on Saturday night or if you don't want too many people to know about it?? What if you call a guy over home for dinner and cook him a nice meal... is that a date?

Odds & ends

2009-07-11T11:09:00.005+05:30

Damn I feel lousy about ignoring my blog these days but there is just too much happening and I'm exhausted by the time I get home from work. On the upside though things seem to be looking up and I'm getting back into the comfortable mind space again. Got last year's bonus letter early this week & just found out the money has been credited to my account! Thank God for the extra dough.. what with the recent vacay and dental issues my finances were beginning to look bleak at the start of the month.

So amidst all the general chaos I managed to watch The Hangover midweek. It was definetely entertaining and funny but a tad overrated. Everyone who'd watched the movie had raved about it so much that all through the film I kept expecting it to bowl me over and it just didn't. Also, it was probably more of a 'guy film'. Hopefully I will be able to catch The Proposal this weekend. Oh and I cannot wait for Harry Potter to hit cinemas next week. I'm such a Potter movie freak.. Potter books, not so much. Somehow I can't imagine the stuff Rowling writes about but watching it fascinates me immensely :p

While in Bangkok I'd picked up the new Nokia 5130 XpressMusic phone. Texting on my chinese touch phone while travelling was making my vision blurry. I like the new phone because it looks snazzy, allows me to use twitter/ facebook & check my emails & ofcourse listen to my station while travelling. As you can see I'm a very basic mobile user! Btw I downloaded this awesome application called Snaptu & recommend it to anyone who feels the constant need to update their twitter or facebook.

In other news - I am now a proud member of GroupRecipes with a grand total of zero recipes on my page but hopefully that will change soon.

Wow I have a whole lot of other stuff I want to write about here so look out for a few more posts over the weekend. Had some pretty interesting discussions about love & relationships and I'd love to know other peeps POV on the issues.

Because my job is cool like that...

2009-07-03T20:29:00.005+05:30

You might recall a previous post with pics of a few of my favourite bollywood hotties. One of them was in our studios yesterday. Here I am posing with Imran Khan :) Wish I looked more presentable but.. whatever!

Incidentally he is one of the most chilled out celebrities ever.. no starry airs and totally down-to-earth!

Dentamental

2009-07-02T21:34:00.004+05:30

I've had this terrible toothache for the longest time now.. well about 20 days anyway. At first the pain was bearable so like most people I pretended nothing was wrong and went about my business. Thankfully the toothache completely disappeared while I was in Bangkok so I safely assumed it was gone forever. Ofcourse that was too good to be true and the damn thing resurfaced on Monday.

I barely slept a wink Monday night and Tuesday night was equally bad. Popping pain killers seemed to help for a few hours and being the paranoid patient that I am, I was afraid to take any more for fear of overdosing (don't ask!). Yesterday I finally decided to pay the dentist a visit after work and see what the fuss in my mouth was all about. Turns out I needed to have a root canal done. Past experience has taught me that this is a bloody painful exercise so after a lot of mental therapy I braced myself for it and landed up at the dentist after work today.

Guess what? It wasn't half as bad as I'd expected it to be. Apart from the needle prick when she administered local anesthesia it barely hurt at all. I especially enjoyed the instrumental music playing in the background that helped me relax. At one point during the process though I heard the dentist mutter "Oh no" and my eyes flew open immediately. The next thought that crossed my mind was the silly joke about the worst things you can hear your doctor say and I actually smiled instead of getting all worked up. Hmm.. maybe the anesthesia did something to my brain!

The rest of the session went off pretty smoothly and I got some advice on how to get the numbness to reduce and look less like a cartoon. Managed to freeze my face off with the ice pack because I couldn't feel the ice at all.. haha. Hopefully I'll make it through the night without too much drama. Wow what a fun day I've had! Hope yours was better..

Back to base

2009-06-30T20:07:00.007+05:30

Guess who's back from a fabulous trip to Bangkok and a generally relaxing ten days of doing nothing?! Seemingly this little break was much needed to get my feet back on the ground and my brain rewired.

I went through some of my recent posts and realized that after a whole lot of whining I'd finally come down to posting images instead of writing. Sure things haven't been so great offlate but wallowing in self pity will probably do nothing to make me feel better. Anyway from now on I'm going to try focussing on happier things and ignoring stuff that upsets me.

My trip was particularly fantastic because this was the first time I went on holiday with my dad and sister without my mom being around. It gave me a chance to spend some quality time with them, especially with my dad. Bangkok is one of my most favourite cities in the world because it is a great blend of the modern and the old-fashioned Thai life. It has all the essential ingredients of a metro city and still retains its charm with ferries, street vendors selling thai delicacies and lots of bargain shopping! :)

Needless to say we shopped till we dropped, twice a day, everyday! Unlike my two co-travellers I was rather adventurous when it came to food and tried many different thai dishes. For anyone who travels to Bangkok in the near future I highly recommend The Fifth Avenue at MBK Mall, Marina HK opposite Siam Discovery Centre and the food stalls at the Suan Lum night market. I'm such a foodie that I will probably miss eating all the yummy thai food more than anything else about Bangkok. Too bad you can't get sliced pork neck, shrimp soup and shrimp donuts here in India!

Yeah so I'll probably be putting up a few more posts about the random revelations I had on my vacation and other funny tidbits that made us laugh. Right now though it feels good to be back!

I heart Bangkok

2009-06-20T22:54:00.001+05:30

On vacation baybee!!

Bangkok here I come..!

Emoti-conversation

2009-06-16T20:58:00.004+05:30

SMS conversation between me and someone I've been upset with for a while.

Me - :-(

Other person - :-)

M - 8-(

OP - ;-)

M - :'-(

OP - :-p

M - :-O

OP - :-D

M - :-x

OP - <:0)

M - Oh forget it!!

Yeah this one's going to take a while for you guys to figure out!

Laws of distraction

2009-06-15T22:02:00.006+05:30

I've come to realise that sometimes the best way to get past issues is to avoid them. It is not always important to 'catch the bull by it's horns' and try to 'find solutions'. Sometimes it works just as well (if not better) to pretend the problem doesn't exist. Sure it's difficult to side-step the conflict when it stares you in the face twelve hours a day, so I have come up with the next best solution - distraction.

And this is how it worked for me last week -

Monday: Took the day off work to help mom shop/ pack for her trip to the US. Drove to the airport after dinner to drop her off.

Tuesday: Watched 4 episodes of How I Met Your Mother before falling off to bed.

Wednesday: Bought a cute new denim skirt I did not need but totally wanted. Went out drinking with work friends.

Thursday: Made an effort to catch up with two ex-bosses I haven't met in centuries. Spent the evening at my friend's place playing with her toddler.

Friday: Went out for dinner with my baby sister and sampled some fantastic oriental cuisine - Burmese khowsuey and a mongolian lamb stir fry.

Saturday: Slept in late. Took my sister along for a work thing and then went out for dinner with work friends.

Sunday: Woke up late, went shopping and resisted the urge to buy unnecessary but awesome shoes & jacket. Watched Bride Wars and cooked up some green thai curry for dinner.

Today ofcourse is another day, another week, another blah... and the weekend can't come soon enough!

Gonna miss my mommy!

2009-06-07T12:44:00.003+05:30

My mom leaves for her US trip tomorrow night. She's been planning this vacay along with my aunt for a few months now! They fly to New York and then head to Miami for a few days before leaving for a cruise to the Bahamas. Then they head back to New York and spend a few days there before visiting family in Maryland, Washington D.C. & Rochester. I was meant to be part of the entourage but had to cancel my plans owing to work commitments!

This is probably the longest mom's going to be leaving all of us alone and though technically speaking I live in a different city and at times might not see her for weeks, it's still making me feel a little lousy to know my mom's going to be away for so long! Crazy right? Maybe it has something to do with my current state of being :(

Anyway, I intend to spend some quality time with her today and tomorrow (yes I've taken a day off from work - horrors!) so that I don't miss her too much. OMG I'm being such a wuss... my poor sister is 15 and she's going to have to deal with living alone with my dad for three weeks! :P

Malheureux Moi

2009-06-03T22:15:00.004+05:30

This daily routine of feeling sad is beginning to worry me now!

Inside wants Out

2009-06-01T22:30:00.007+05:30

And this is how I spent Sunday afternoon...

Yes I have a High School Musical 2 notebook - Don't judge! :P

Hanging by a moment...

2009-05-29T22:49:00.010+05:30

This is kind of how I feel right now and there's no better way of expressing it than with my all time favourite song!

WARNING: Breaking Dawn spoilers ahead.. so don't watch if you haven't read the book and intend to read it or watch the movie.

The Simpsons writer and me

2009-05-27T21:34:00.006+05:30

The week has been kind of dull so far, if you don't count my Monday morning emergency trip to the courts. Work has been slow owing to factors completely out of my control and I hate the fact that things aren't rolling any quicker. Last evening I had to indulge in my least favourite activity - grocery shopping! Thankfully the hypermarket wasn't as crowded as it normally is but as usual I forgot to pick up some stuff.

Today didn't start off much better but around midday my colleague suddenly called and asked if I wanted to go to the India Radio Forum. This is a yearly event which showcases speakers from a variety of media and other related fields but is better known for serving as a meetup for radio professionals in the country. I was thrilled at being able to go there and partake in one of my favourite activities - Networking. Met up with my ex-boss (from a rival station) and a whole bunch of other people from other radio networks. Ofcourse now that we're the No.1 station in the city, I had some pretty interesting exchanges with all these folks ;)

Unfortunately I could just attend one session since we got there rather late but it was fantastic. The Simpsons writer Mike Reiss spoke about the show and shared some little known facts about writing one of the most appreciated cartoon shows in the world. He is such a funny guy and had us in splits every few minutes! A friend of mine introduced us after. I wish I was half as funny and/ or nutty as him.

Drink + drive = jail or bail

2009-05-25T21:43:00.004+05:30

So my dear darling brother got caught by the cops on Saturday night on his way back home from a little party at a friend's place. He was driving my car and had consumed two bacardi breezers, or atleast that's the story I was told! The mumbai cops have started enforcing the no drinking and driving rule with gusto these days and were out on their usual weekend prowl.

After a quick breathalyzer test, they decided to take him to the police station. Apparently the permissible limit of alcohol in the blood is 6% and though the breathalyzer reflected a 0.2% he was still in trouble. (All this is being repeated verbatim, he might just have been bullshitting to make sure I don't get him in trouble with our folks!) My cousin drove down to the police station and got my brother out of there after paying off the cops! They kept the car though and asked him to come back on Monday morning to get it released.

This morning as I was on my way to work I got a call from my brother. He was at the court and there was a warrant against him. He had to pay a penalty of Rs.4000/- or spend three nights in jail. So instead of heading to office I had to go to the Bandra court with money and the car's registration documents! I reached there and found my idiot brother with two other guys who'd been caught at the same time for the same offense!

We spent a couple of hours trying to get him out of there and then getting the car released. My poor little Swift looked like it had weathered a bloody storm! In hindsight I think the whole episode was really funny, especially the part where we had to point out our car keys, the ones with the bottle opener keychain.

My dear darling brother and the two other guys who got caught plan to catch up next month on the same date to commemorate the great occasion... except this time they'll call for a cab to get them back home :P

It's finally Saturday

2009-05-23T16:19:00.003+05:30

Phew! Another crazy work week comes to an end. I've traveled so much this week, I had to actually force myself to travel home to Pune but I'm finally here. Passed out last night and slept for like 12 hours. When I woke up it was afternoon already! :)

My week has been action packed both on the professional and personal front and I've come to terms with certain facts. For the time being I'm going to let things be the way they are... can't handle this sudden influx of intrusions in my life all at once. Sorry I've become a little cryptic these days but don't have much of a choice. My blog is not exactly private and I really don't want to complicate my 'real life' by saying more than I should in my 'reel' one.

Plans for the weekend anyone? I've got to compile a CD of the latest bollywood tracks for my mom's cruise vacay next month, help her shop for gifts for family in the US and generally veg out & stuff my face with mommy's cooking!!

Lunchtime woes

2009-05-18T21:45:00.003+05:30

Ok so I've been on this new fad lunch for about two weeks. I call it my 'summer lunch menu'. My meal now comprises of chaas (butter milk) or nimbu paani (non-aerated lemonade) and either a salad or a veggie I can eat without heating in the microwave. So basically I've cut out the roti/ rice from my lunch and replaced it with a beverage.

It's been working fine so far though I'm generally ravenous by dinner time. Today was a huge disaster though. I was hungry at 11am! Ofcourse it doesn't help that I don't eat any breakfast but I don't eat any breakfast ever so why was today any different? I don't know but by the time I sat down to eat lunch I'd kind of lost my appetite midway through my meal. I confuse myself :S

On a completely different note, I did something today that "shocked me back to reality". Yeah sometimes you need to do radical stuff to really understand that you'd made a mistake in passing judgement too soon. Well like my friend just said to me, "atleast now one part of (your) life is approaching clarity". Amen!

A few rays of sunshine

2009-05-16T20:28:00.004+05:30

It's funny how this is becoming a bit of a routine now - one post whining about how life is treating me unfairly followed by another saying I'm going to work my way out of this semi-permanent state of crapdom. I've tried to be chirpy for the most part of this week and do things that bring me happiness, atleast for a while if not forever. So these are some of the highlights of my week -

On Monday my brother and I decided to give our mom a guided tour of our respective work places and extend our Mothers Day celebrations. Mine lasted all of 10 minutes including introductions with co-workers but checking out my brother's new hotel took us almost 2 hours! After that we took Mom out for dinner to this "South American" burger joint called Bembos. Burgers are not my scene is all I can say!

Watched Twilight on Wednesday night and I have a confession to make... I absolutely love Robert Pattinson. He is such a hottie!! Too bad he's 22 and I'm not into younger men ;)

Met my friends for dinner on Thursday night. We went to Del Italia opposite Juhu beach and were seated on the terrace. It's a great place for a romantic date and their pasta in creamy pesto was to die for.

Last evening as I was leaving from work one of my colleagues called me in to the studio for a jam session. So a couple of us sat on the carpeted floor of the studio with tablas and sang ghazals. It was the one time in the last few weeks that I felt peaceful and content just being lost in the moment.

Today was a working Saturday. Yeah I hate those but what can you do?! Hopefully I'll spend all of tomorrow being a lazy bum and catching up on some reading. Might catch up with a friend for dinner... Lets see how the day pans out.

Sense and sensibility

2009-05-09T12:30:00.005+05:30

Thoughts circle in my head but the words don't flow when I try to put pen to paper. Everything seems confusing. Even seemingly simple things have stopped making sense. I feel this constant need to question everything, second guess gestures. Sometimes life reaches a crossroad and one must decide which direction to steer towards. But what happens when it feels like a dead end? Like a deadlock that has no way of fixing itself... for if there is a way out, it eludes me right now!

I figured trying to avoid issues would divert my attention. Unfortunately each and every one of them seem to come and stare me in the face. Yes, even the one thing I'd finally taken control of. I'm in a place where I need answers - from people, from life and from God. I can't go on living a meaningless and hollow life anymore. I'm bigger than this... I'm better than this!

Snapping out of it

2009-05-04T22:35:00.004+05:30

I've been trying to put things in perspective for a couple of weeks now, hence the sudden outburst in my previous posts. After giving life due thought I decided to rid my mind of everything. Why? For one, life doesn't ever play out the way you expect it to. For another, things that are not in my control are not worth my time and effort!

So I decided to get out of this crappy frame of mind and live it up last weekend. Kicked off the four day long break by watching Monsters vs Aliens in 3D on Thursday night. My friend R was down from Delhi and we spent half of Friday driving around and unwinding at The Resort in Madh Island. Planned an impromptu poolside party in the evening with my brother, his friends, my friends and their friends.. yeah it was a little crazy!

Went into the office on Saturday to wrap up some important work and then checked out the sale at BHS. Just for the record if I'm broke this month you know where my money went - on five new tops and two new trousers!! On my brother's insistence we went to this club in Bandra called 'Poison' which was all swanky and filled with skimpily dressed yuppies. DJ Aqueel was playing there that night and the crowd seemed to be loving it despite the lack of elbow room. Nothing like a night of clubbing to drive home the reality that I am officially OLD! R left for Delhi on Sunday evening but not before we enjoyed a longish lunch at my fav. restaurant Out of the Blue and shopped some more :)

Today was the first day of the new profile and honestly it wasn't as horrible as I expected. Ofcourse it's going to be a while before I can make an informed judgement on it but for the time being I'm satisfied using my new clothes as a reason to look forward to work.

Stranger in the mirror

2009-04-29T23:00:00.004+05:30

These days I look into the mirror and I don't see my reflection. Instead I see a shadow of me, of the person I once was. Whatever happened to the strong headed, individualistic and self assured girl who didn't stand for any nonsense? What happened to all her idealistic beliefs? Who is this submissive, unassertive and cautious person who stares back at me?

Sometimes I hear myself talking on the phone and it scares me. The words sound like they're coming out of someone else's lips. The voice is the same but the tone and manner belong to a person who has given in to the strange ways of the world and accepted defeat. I find myself questionning my judgement about people all the time, not knowing whom I can trust!

Life is turning out to be a lot more than I bargained for. Little did I know when I left my family and home to move to this new city last year that I'd have to deal with so many complicated issues.

Why does this always happen to me?

2009-04-27T23:19:00.005+05:30

Things haven't been looking so great lately. After a whole year of loving up my work, I'm being given a new role within the station. I will still be part of the same team but will not be working on the product or the brand anymore. Instead my work will now revolve around supporting the sales team, in addition to my old alliances piece.

This sudden change has left me a little gloomy for more than one reason but I don't want to get into them right now. Just when I thought we were close to making it to the No.1 position, I'm being given a whole different set of responsibilities! It really is a big bummer... and I'm hoping I can snap out of this dejected state of being soon.

Why is it that every time I am happy life does a 180 degrees spin on me? Is being content and satisfied too much to ask for? :(

The big fat Punjabi wedding

2009-04-21T23:12:00.006+05:30

Four days of nonstop wedding madness in Chandigarh!

As some of you might recall I was away (from work & the internet) for the better part of last week. Withdrawl symptoms? Hell yeah.. Thank god for gprs but more on that later. This ofcourse was my very first brush with the 'Great Indian *Punjabi* Wedding' and I'm delighted to pronounce the verdict - It was fan-effin'-tastic! Have always heard of these grandiose punju weddings and I finally got to be part of one :)

We landed in 'C' city on Thursday afternoon and were greeted by a houseful of my friend R's family and relatives. The mehendiwala (henna-tattoo dude) was already working on R's mehendi and creating some intricate patterns on her palms. After settling down into the rather huge shaadi ka ghar (wedding house) we changed into our pretty indian garb and headed towards Panchayat Bhavan for the mehendi ceremony. The punjabi folk singer was more dolled up than most of us, typical, but she belted out some pretty awesome tracks. I tried unsuccessfully to do the bhangra (punjabi dance form) when all the girls 'sisters' were called upon to dance. Fun - yes, pretty sight - so not!

Went shopping at the Sector 17 market on day two since the 'sangeet (singing) & cocktails' function was to take place much later that evening. I managed to spend a mini fortune purchasing punjabi suits... when I will wear them.. god alone knows! The party that evening was too much fun. R's sister and I danced on this retro R.D. Burman track with heart shaped balloons.. it was so cheesy!! Oh must add here.. I looked really pretty in my new black dress.. have got a few pics.. will hunt for them and upload them sometime. A few other friends of the couple had created a 10 minute movie of them with pictures of their childhood, schooling years, college, families, when they met and stuff. It was hilarious but still kinda cool. Like most weddings there was a really hot guy at this one too. Unfortunately I didn't talk to him because I'm probably dumb :(

Day three was the day of the wedding and the afternoon was spent indulging in all the haldi and chudaa rasams (customs). My friend looked gorgeous in her designer wedding outfit and her groom looked pretty spiffy as well. As part of the welcoming team for the grooms family it was my duty to shower the baraatis with flower petals. Later I walked down the aisle with my friend, her sister and her cousin brothers before she entered the mandaap to marry the man of her dreams. It was all so dreamy and perfect with a pretty singer belting out sufi songs to the tune of lounge music playing in the background - They call this genre of music 'Sufi Lounge'. R's sister N and I also plotted to hide the groom's shoes and get some money from him in return. Sadly enough all we got for our effort was Rs.2100/- which was shared between seven girls.. LOL.

So all in all I had a pretty fabulous experience at my friend's wedding. Met a lot of old pals, made some new ones and got to be part of all the quirky ceremonies that define punjabi weddings :)

My flight back was horrible though - The airport authorities took away my cheap alcohol (a bottle of Bacardi Razz, one of Smirnoff Orange and another of Smirnoff Green Apple) and kids kept bawling in my ears. God I hate cranky kids. (Should have known all these were signs indicating drastic changes in my life come Monday)

One year.. what a year!

2009-04-13T20:51:00.006+05:30

Blogging in flashback really takes a toll on you! Not to mention giving you no space to update your blog with even more exciting happenings in real time!! Yes that kind of sums up the last two weeks of my life in a nutshell: e-x-c-i-t-i-n-g! Let me explain..

Just like television ratings, we have a radio rating system called Radio Audience Measurement or RAM here in India. This weekly rating is revealed post 10am on Thursdays so it's little wonder that Thursday mornings remind me of exam-time in school. The RAM throws up ratings on three basic parameters - number of people listening to your station (Cumes), average time spent listening on your station (TSL) and a share percent which is a function of cumes multiplied by the TSL. Geekville.. I know!

Now ours is one of the newest stations in the city. We've been around for a little over two years whereas most other stations have been around for way longer, with the oldest one having been in Mumbai since 2002. When I joined my station in April last year, we were No.6 in Mumbai, out of 7 stations. In January we achieved the No.5 slot upsetting Radio One and never moved back down since.

The week after I came back from Delhi, we hit the No.4 station position in Mumbai beating Radio City. Needless to say we were all elated. More so because we hit the No.2 position in our target group of 20-34 male/female listeners in SEC A&B (SEC- Socio economic classification, we have a very complicated matrix for classifying people according to their occupation and education. Suffice to say these are the high spenders in the market, the guys everyone is after). Ofcourse the downside of this is that you never know what results the RAM throws up the week after. So even though everyone was in a mood to celebrate, some of us tried to keep a low profile.

At 10am last Thursday we were a bundle of nerves. Obviously none of us wanted to show it, so we pretended to go about our business as usual till the clock finally struck 10.30am. The results were in - We are now No.3 station in Mumbai and No.1 in our TG! In addition, almost all our shows are rated No.1 in their individual time bands. The feeling of seeing your work finally amount to something tangible is just indescribable. Soon after I was sucked into writing press releases and getting creatives organized to announce our achievement to the country via newspaper advertisements. Didn't get a chance to revel in the celebrations but this once I didn't really mind.

Today I complete one year of working at my present organization - What a ride it has been! :)

Fabulous Weekend - The end

2009-04-10T22:58:00.013+05:30

Wow.. It feels like I've been writing about my fun weekend in Delhi forever. So much has happened since and I'm still stuck blogging about two weeks ago. Ok so this is officially going to be my last post about the fun I had in our capital city! Can't wait to update this space with news of our latest accomplishment :)

Big Chill in Khan Market is my absolute favourite restaurant and was top priority so after our shopping session we headed there to dig into some sinful pasta and dessert. The drive was long and tiring. Distances in Delhi can drive a sane person insane. We drove a total of 250kms in the 2 days. Getting to Big Chill took forever but on the way 'R' spoke with guy no.2 and told him we'd pick him up after dinner. 'R' had been raving about this place called Turquoise Cottage so that's where we were headed for drinks post dinner. Dessert never happened because we were too full after our pastas!

As we drove up to Connaught Place, I sent a silent prayer to God to make me like this other guy. I knew my friend kind of had the hots for him even though he's five years younger than her! I was sitting in the passenger seat next to my friend so didn't manage to get a good look at him as he slid into the back of the car. We were introduced in the dark and tried to make random conversation on the way to TC's. My first impression of him was that he was too young and slightly immature but I decided not to slot him so soon. We got to the pub and got a table on the top deck. The place had a rustic feel to it and the classic rock music added to the ambience. I sat opposite 'R' and guy no.2 and we ordered our drinks. If guy no.1 had limited social skills, guy no.2 was totally incapable of making conversation at all. He was content trying to paw 'R' all night long while downing his drinks and didn't feel the need to talk. That left me in a bit of a fix. While 'R' was enjoying the attention being showered on her (and I really don't blame her for it), I was trying hard not to look bored and just enjoy the music. Sometime during the night 'R' and guy no.2 managed to get into one of those idiotic arguments juvenile couples indulge in a lot. Oh well..

Sunday morning I woke up with a call from my now ex-boss and good friend 'Y'. She called to invite me over to her place for drinks & lunch. This left me with just about enough time to get dressed, pack all my stuff, do a quick run to the mall where I was scheduled to meet another friend and go over to Y's place. As usual I was the last person to reach! The others had already dug into all the delectable snacks and were a few drinks down. It felt so great to unwind with these people who I generally dealt with on a strictly professional basis. I was given a grand tour of Y's place - loved the way it was done up! Without doubt, the coolest part of my trip was discovering a few new friends, people I'd known before but didn't slot as friends till then.

The afternoon ended too soon as I headed to the airport to catch my flight. Was in a daze from the time I reached the Delhi airport till I entered my house at 10pm. And thus ended my absolutely fantastic weekend. Scroll down for pics from the conference...

Group picture

Our suites from the outside

Right after we arrived at Westin

New entrants to the Mumbai team introducing themselves

The team building exercise - our masterpiece

The Bar

The Mumbai team - before our performance

Lunch at Y's place

Y and me

I absolutely love that red side table!

Fabulous Weekend - Part 3

2009-04-06T21:23:00.003+05:30

Saturday morning I was up bright and early. After a quick shower, I wasted no time packing up my stuff and grabbing some breakfast. Most of my colleagues were scheduled to fly back on the afternoon flight to Mumbai but I was staying back to hang out with my bestie 'R' and was going to head back on Sunday evening. That left me with a day and a half to explore the city, meet (and evaluate) both the men in my friend's life and shop shop shop!

One of my pals from office was nice enough to drive me all the way to Ambience Mall in Gurgaon. Our initial plan was to check out the mall and then grab some lunch with guy no.1 but we had to alter it because the drive to Gurgaon took much longer than anticipated. Indian roads!! As soon as she pulled up in her car, she jumped out and we gave each other a big hug. It had been seven months since we'd last met.

At the restaurant, we were kept waiting for fifteen minutes by guy no.1. Minus marks even before I'd met him! Once he got there we exchanged pleasantries and proceeded to order drinks. Frozen fruity margaritas for us and wine for him. He was much older and extremely dull. His social skills were limited to nodding and smiling for the most part and the only conversation he was interested in revolved around work. At one point he actually asked us to explain what GRPs and TRPs mean. I abhore talking shop outside of work and was beginning to get a little ticked off. Thankfully the waiter interrupted the awkward exchange to place our food on the table. Chicken Caesar Salad was my lunch of choice because we intended to check out the mall right after lunch and I didn't want to feel stuffed and lazy :)

What happened next left me amazed, amused and extremely shocked. We were done with lunch and the waiter got us the bill. Before anyone had a chance to think, guy no.1 turned to my friend and told her she owed him a treat and he'd be happy to let her pay for him! I was stunned...!! Which guy does that? Which guy in his right mind doesn't even offer to pay and instead asks for a treat??! This guy was a complete washout.

The minute we got into the car, I didn't waste a second in telling my friend exactly what I thought of him. He ordered wine and the most expensive dish on the menu and asked her to pay for his meal... If I were in her place I wouldn't give him the time of the day!

The rest of our evening was spent shopping.. I bought three pairs of shoes from Aldo. They're gorgeous and were on a 50% discount. Also purchased a skirt and a pair of shorts from Debenhams, both on a 70% discount. As we drove out of the mall it started to rain :)

Fabulous Weekend - Part 2

2009-04-03T22:17:00.004+05:30

We were all given just about enough time to refill our glasses before moving on to the most important part of the night - the awards ceremony. This is a yearly ritual and a great way to honour employees' hard work through the year. The three categories were:

Station Awards - Three nominees across all departments at each of the four stations
Departmental Awards - Three nominees from the same department/ function across all four stations
Achiever of the year award - No nominees, just one winner

As each person was called on stage the crowd went ballistic. The first set of awards were the station awards and it was amazing to cheer for the three nominees from my (Mumbai) team. We're a very close-knit group so it didn't really matter who won. We knew each one of us had worked our asses off to get our station to where it is. It was a victory for all of us!

Next came the departmental awards and guess what? I was nominated for the marketing award of the year. This came as a big surprise since I'm still 10 days shy of completing a year with the company. As I walked up to the stage, a little overwhelmed by all the recognition, I could hear my ex-boss and friends from office cheering me on. The other two nominees were colleagues from other stations, both achievers in their own right. Even though I didn't win the award it felt awesome to see my work being appreciated and applauded by a hundred and sixty people!

After the awards all hell broke loose as glasses overflowed with everyone's beverage of choice and people crowded the dance floor to gyrate to their favourite bollywood tracks. My favourite drunken boy put up a first class performance yet again and around 1.30pm a few of us relocated to one of the rooms to continue the revelry.

Fabulous Weekend - Part 1

2009-03-29T23:08:00.005+05:30

I've wanted to write about my weekend in Delhi from the time I stepped into my apartment on Sunday night. Ofcourse I was too tired/ smashed/ fatigued to actually get around to doing it! Now that I'm finally rested/ sober / awake I can't wait to jot down all the stories of the madness that went down.

To avoid writing a long and boring monologue I'm going to break this post down into many parts...

The place we stayed at was amazing. I can't think of another hotel besides the Udaivilas that compares with the beauty & luxury of Westin Resort & Spa. With a state-of-the-art spa, swimming pool, snooker tables, fully equipped gym, personal jacuzzi in each room and delectable food it's a pity we spent only one night there :(

Ok so now on to my trip. Left for the airport at 4.30am on Saturday morning and met my colleagues there. All my plans of sleeping on the flight were screwed up because apparently everyone else had had a good night's sleep. After a long and winding bus journey we finally reached our destination at 10.30am and while most of our group stripped and jumped into the pool in less than 10 minutes, I had other plans. As part of the conference we had an inter-station competition lined up and I busied myself by organizing the promotional material and kicking off the campaign. The theme was 'elections', in keeping with the upcoming parliamentary elections in India and we (the Mumbai station) were on a mission to win! I'd carried fliers, posters, stickers, fake currecy notes and a whole bunch of other mad stuff all of which was distributed to everyone at the conference. Our final performance though was scheduled for the evening and we were all waiting anxiously for it.

In the afternoon our CEO shared details on how we'd performed as a company and the goal we need to achieve in the year ahead. It felt awesome to be part of such a dynamic group of people! Once this was over we were all broken up into teams of ten and were given a team-building exercise to complete. We had to design, buy material and build houses with the material on sale and try to maximize our profits from the sale of these houses. Most of the teams landed up miscalculating the amount of material required and as a result didn't end up making any profit. My team consisted of a whole bunch of people from the other stations and we designated jobs to everyone. I had to calculate how much material would be required, raise a purchase order and buy it. Thereafter I assumed the duty of putting together one house. One person cut out all the paper in the specified sizes, another painted all the roofs, someone cut out doors in the walls and another handed out cellotape. By the time we were through we had an entire marketing campaign for our colony of houses, a slogan and a personal swimming pool outside each house. Needless to say we won! LOL. All while making a profit of 1.5 million. Yeah I know I'm being lame.. whatever :P

With only fifteen minutes to spare, we quickly rushed to our rooms to change and get to the venue of the evening shindig in time. Thankfully we were the last to perform so we watched all the other stations do their bit on stage before us. Must say the Bangalore team did a phenomenal job! We'd rehearsed all of once so screw ups were bound to happen. A lot of the props didn't come on to the stage at the right time but since the judges didn't know that we managed to get by with a good score for our performance. What definetely worked in our favour was the fact that each and every person from our station performed on stage. That and all the other drama we'd done around the campaign through the day.

When the results were announced later during the evening, at which time most of us were in different stages of drunkenness, we were declared the winners!!

Mixed doubles

2009-03-25T20:33:00.005+05:30

It looks like another power-packed weekend is round the corner. And unlike last weekend, this one holds a little more promise. Before I share my grandiose plans for the next few days let me do a quick recap of last weekend.

We had an office picnic at Manori beach and almost everyone turned up. Getting there was loads of fun since we opted for the shortcut and took the ferry. Copious amounts of alcohol was consumed and for a change I had very little to do with this! Ofcourse I did star in my very own 2 minute dance performance.. Umm no it wasn't by choice. Yes, it was recorded. No, it will never make its way to my blog!!

So after spending an interesting night with the team I headed back home to be greeted by my landlady, the one that's spent three whole nights here already. It's funny how she issued herself an invitation under the pretext of renewing the lease on my apartment. The paperwork took a few hours but she decided to stay for four whole nights. She leaves tomorrow and I can't wait. Won't go into details but will highlight some of the high points (not!) of this unwelcome visit.

- Would you like to watch a movie with me? Uhhhh NO!
- Why don't you lock your cupboard when you leave? You mustn't trust the maid so much!
- Do you always eat such bland food?
- Where are all the electricity bills? I want them. Why because you need to use them to decorate your walls at home?
- Supervise your maid's work. She does a terrible job of cleaning the house.

KILL ME GOD!

Ok so now onto some serious fun. I'm heading north for the company's annual conference in some fancy spa resort in Gurgaon. Fly to Delhi on Friday early morning (no kidding - 4am wake up!) and am scheduled to take the Sunday evening flight back to Mumbai. As I've already mentioned, there's some good stuff planned out for my two days of chilling. What I haven't mentioned before though is that I'm going to be dancing as part of the inter-station competition thing. Yes I've become quite the dancing star these days! LOL.

Will update this space with information on what really went down this weekend. Hope yours is as fun as mine promises to be!

I'm a weekender!

2009-03-20T23:28:00.004+05:30

Our entire office is going on an overnight trip tomorrow. The plan is to leave from work, take the jetty to the resort in Manori and have a mad time there. Given that my only plan on Sunday is to avoid making conversation with my landlady who has decided to descend on me for four nights, I think tomorrow should be a blast.

Just this morning we also got news of the company's annual conference being held in Delhi. We fly to Delhi on Friday morning and return on Saturday but the evil schemer that I am, I managed to get the HR guys to book return tickets for me and fourteen other colleagues on the Sunday evening flight. Right after managing this huge feat I did a little dance (in my head)!!! I'm going to meet my bestie after months next weekend and we already have each minute planned out. Loads of shopping, alcohol and... I get to check out both the men in her life!!

Ofcourse there's the big wedding weekend in Chandigarh in April but I have too much going on to think about it right now. Hope both the weekend plans match up to my expectations.

See you on the other side of this week.

Time..

2009-03-18T20:25:00.004+05:30

It's taken me so many years to be in the frame of mind I am right now. Hundreds of hours trying to deconstruct the matter and many more putting things in perspective attempting to make some sense out of what happened. When all attempts to understand the situation didn't yield any results, I just put everything away in a little box in my head. Everything. The words that were spoken, the ones that weren't, each and every memory. Even all the material things that reminded me of the past were packed away in a cardboard box and tucked away in the bottom drawer of my dresser.

The few people who know about this never mention it. It's like an unwritten rule that this one topic will never be brought up when I'm around. I feel so blessed to know these people who care so much about me. On the rare occasions that I revisit that time of my life, these people never mince words and tell it to me like it is. That it's all in the past and I should forget about it!

It's been a difficult journey but I feel I'm in a good place now. Sure I have my moments of weakness, like a random message on facebook or a bad day which triggers off old memories, but on the whole I think this is the most peaceful I've been since it happened. Does this mean I am ready to explore new opportunities? Not right away but time they say is the best healer...

Plans.. plans... plans!!

2009-03-14T19:32:00.003+05:30

Life seems to have reached a dead-end. Nothing exciting happens around these parts anymore. Sure I'm heading to Chandigarh for my friend's wedding but that's not till mid of next month - Like a whole month away! I've been feeling whiny for days now and figured the only way to snap out of this state of constant boredom is to plan my next big vacation.

Ok so here are my options -

1. US with a cruise to the Bahamas
Pros - Chance to meet extended family on the cruise, might possibly get a tattoo at Miami Ink, loads of shopping in New York
Cons - Unbelievably expensive, fifteen days off from work, visa nightmare

2. Singapore + Indonesia + Kuala Lumpur + Genting + Bangkok
Pros - Trip with friends, lots of booze coupled with generally bad behaviour, Bangkok (yaaaaaaaaaay!)
Cons - Multiple flights, still expensive, not enough time in Bangkok

3. Singapore + Indonesia + Bangkok
Pros - More time in Bangkok, still meeting friends, booze and bad behaviour
Cons - Bestie might get pissed off if we skip Kuala Lumpur, need to get on travel agent's case to figure out cheap flights

4. Bangkok + Phuket or Krabi or Koh Samui
Pros - Loads of time in Bangkok, easy on the pocket, pristine beaches
Cons - I'm a city person so only the Bangkok bit really interests me!

Hmmm... now I really need to narrow down my options to arrive at one final plan.

Suggestions anyone?

Agony Aunt says...

2009-03-12T19:42:00.003+05:30

...don't agonize too much!

My bestie has hit the jackpot. After enduring "wrong men" and long dry spells she has finally found not one but two new men! And what's more.. they are as different as fondue and mousse (Seriously.. who invented the expression 'chalk and cheese' anyway!). One guy is 22, cute and head-over-heels about her. The other is 32, intelligent and witty. At 27, my girl finds herself in the middle (literally) of both their affections...

She enjoys all the attention the kid showers on her - constant SMSes, enquiries about her whereabouts/ health and late night phone chats. Though she knows this new found attraction isn't headed anywhere she can't call it quits just yet.

The older guy connects with her on a more mature level and with him there's a strong possibility of it turning into something more concrete (also referred to as 'marriage'). Oh and she completely checked out his place recently and gave him a clean chit! Also, he's fairly well settled career-wise!!

So being all confused in the head, she asked me for advice.. and I told her what a best friend should - 'Go with the flow and enjoy the attention! Make the most of these good times.. they won't last forever, and hopefully you will figure out whom to pick sooner or later' :D

It's so true - women overanalyze everything!

Back to reality...

2009-03-11T13:27:00.007+05:30

Wow! It's been a while since I wrote a non-gimmicky post on my blog :D Sadly enough the whole "blog auction" idea didn't go down too well but that's cool. Now I can go back to doing what I do best - being self-obsessed and writing about my exciting (not!) life.

So last weekend was a blast! Had a fomal-ish family function to attend on Sat night so I decided to go shopping for the perfect dress, knowing full well that there was a 1% chance of actually finding something I'd like at such short notice. Boy was I wrong! Not only did I find an awesome dress, but it was in my fav. clothing colour (Black) and on a 70% discount. How could I not buy it?! Just for the record, it looked really amazing on me and I got a few (or many!) compliments that night :)

Caught up with old work pals over brunch at 'Out of the Blue' on Sunday. Now these are not just some friends, they are the coolest people in the world! One of the girlies is getting married in Chandigarh in April and I am now part of the bridal entourage headed there mid of next month. She's asked me to dance at her sangeet but don't think I can cram in dance rehearsals into my tight sched. Oh well.. atleast I will be part of the celebrations and given that we have been pestering her to get married for 7 years now, this is one wedding I am totally looking forward to! The rest of the day was spent shopping with the bride-to-be and vegging out in front of the telly till I finally decided to call it a day.

Today is 'Holi' - The festival of colours! Everyone is out playing with colours and water while I'm sitting at home in my PJs and surfing the WWW. Why? Because to me Holi is the single most disgusting festival ever. Just the thought of letting someone apply toxic colours on your face, getting eggs thrown at you, taking an annual bath only to realise you have to go to work with magenta nails etc makes me sick to my stomach. So while people revel in the dirt and filth, I choose to stay indoors and watch a good movie. Watched 'Seven Pounds' anyone?

Blog Auction ver.3.0

2009-03-08T20:54:00.010+05:30

Given that I've been such a lazy bum this past week, this is going to be my very last blog auction post. This special edition will feature four guys so all those of you who want to bid for them will need to quote their monicker along with the bid amount in your comments.

So here goes....

The 'Hotelier' - Carefree, careless, loves to work hard and party harder, smooth-talker, chick-magnet and as Leo as they come!

The 'Comic Hero Fan' - Writer, poet, idealist, terrible dancer, fancies himself as a superhero and one of the most awesome friends ever.

The 'Free Spirit' - Audio engineer, technology geek, music lover, brightest guy I know, has recently discovered bicycles and is cycling around the city to advocate a greener Mumbai...

The 'Universal friend' - Blogger, creative guy, traveler, friendliest person in the world!

Blog Auction ver.2.0

2009-03-05T21:32:00.006+05:30

Please give it up for our second guy...

Random facts about 'hat dude': Tall, ladies man, always up for a good time, fun when he's not drunk and more fun when he is, self-professed smooth talker and uses the line 'You know me..' coupled with a cheesy smile way too often!

The rules remain the same so get bidding.

Blog Auction ver.1.0

2009-03-04T00:02:00.008+05:30

*Drumroll*

Ok people.. here it is! Welcome to the new experiment on my blog - The first in a series of 'fictitious' blog auctions! The rules are simple...

Check out the photographs on this post and leave a comment with the amount (rupees or dollars) you would be willing to bid for a 'make believe' date with the chappy in the pic.

Who knows, if he thinks you are interesting he might be open to the idea of going on a real date with you!

A few random facts: 23, plays the guitar, creative guy, avid gamer, very tall, extremely well mannered, dog lover, represented India in an international design competition.

Losing and regaining control

2009-02-28T23:45:00.002+05:30

Last night was crazy! Met up with two of my closest pals at this smallish place with the intention of filling each other in on life developments. Little did I know this was going to turn into one of those massive drinking sessions – The kind that ends in someone dropping you home! Given my recent drinking spree(s) I am coining a new term ‘TMA’ – Too Much Alcohol. Yes my friends, such a thing does exist. You really needed to be there to know what I mean. Let me elucidate…

So last night I’m with my two closest guy friends drinking my Rum and Coke (no Pepsi :( ) when one of them decides to do Tequila shots. Tequila is my new enemy! One becomes two becomes five!! So now I can barely walk straight and get up to go to the loo. Ignoring their pleas to walk me to the loo (yes... unbelievable... I know!) I walk myself and am greeted by a rather cute looking guy. Am I too drunk or is there a guy in the ladies room? And of course I have to ask him whether there is a separate ladies ‘room’. He looks at me in bewilderment and says ‘Sure there it is… blah blah blah’. He continues to talk while I go in. Why is it shocking dude? I’ve never seen a loo with a common sink and separate bathrooms, I’m not drunk! He continues to talk… whatever!

Go back out, down a few more shots, one of my friends starts taking pics of the three of us together (cute but hazy… oh wait, that’s just my eyes). Then I go back to the loo… and guess who greets me, again?! Cute-chatty-loo-guy. He gives me the widest grin and says ‘Hi’ as if we’re long lost friends. Now it’s my turn to look bewildered. Whatever! One more quick shot before we head to the Marriott for some grub. All I remember post this is lots of random laughing, not eating anything because I’m feeling throw-upy while the guys think I’m completely spaced and them trying to get me to eat a little, picking an orchid off a bridal car and sticking it in my hair, snatches of scenes of Mumbai on my way back, being dropped off home, coming back to find the lights fused in my room and grabbing my pillow and sleeping on the couch in the living room! I woke up two hours after my alarm went off with an SMS informing me my salary has been deposited in the bank. That is always reason enough to wake up :)

After feeling so powerless after last night’s TMA session, I decided to take some control and tidied my desk and drawers in office. This was something I’d managed to put off for 10 months so after I finished I did a little victory dance for myself. Then I got home, called the electrician and figured out the light situation in my room, called the air conditioner guys and sent my AC for servicing and got my Worldspace installed. Made some fantastic Thai curry and rice for dinner while humming ‘You and Me’ by Lifehouse and overseeing the Worldspace guy’s work. What do you know! The first song that played as soon as my music was up and running was ‘You and Me’. Victory dance part two!

I really needed to get all this stuff done to feel like I’m back in control but on the upside I did manage to ‘Let go and live a little’. Anyone have a more interesting weekend so far?

My next post will be the very first fictitious blog auction… stay tuned folks.

The Curtain Raiser

2009-02-27T18:38:00.006+05:30

The clandestine mail I sent out a few days ago...

Hello gentlemen,

As you may know, in addition to freelancing as superwoman I also author a fairly successful blog on the world wide web which has a whole hoard of followers (aaahhh my modesty kills me). As part of my ongoing quest to entertain these avid readers, I have come up with an entertaining proposition - A series of fictitious blog auctions on my page but with a twist. Readers will be asked to place fictitious bids on the men featured in each of these blog posts and the highest bidder will get a fictious date with the subject of the particular auction. I am currently on the look out for volunteers for this exercise and would like to extend this once-in-a-lifetime offer to each one of you. To participate all you have to do is reply to this mail in the affirmative and send me your best photograph!

On a serious note - I promise to keep each person's name under wraps so technically no one will be able to Adam-tease, stalk or get in touch with you in any way other than my blog.

So, do I have any takers?

Write me!

Nats

So now you guys know exactly what's in store for you in the near future! Exciting much?

The Big 100

2009-02-26T23:17:00.006+05:30

This is it… My hundredth post! Didn’t think I’d last out this long or take my new found diversion so seriously. It feels great to prove someone wrong, even if it’s just myself! To commemorate this special occasion I’d asked fellow bloggers to send in questions for me and here are the answers.

[F]oxymoron asked -

* If you were a verb, what would you be?
Doer

* Adjective?
Classy

* Noun?
Thinker

* What is something funny you've learned as a consequence of blogging?
Bloggers are a unique breed of people. We live off self indulgence and still try to act as if we’re really modest. Regardless of what we write about, it is always about something that’s relevant to us or something that makes us think… so in a sense it’s all about us!! I find it funny that we pretend to write for ourselves and not those who read our blogs. Get real… If you wanted to write for yourself you’d write a secret diary somewhere and not an open blog page!

These are ScoMan's questions -

* Which do you wish you had a bit more of (and why)?
- Brains
- Courage
- Heart : Take a person who finds it hard to show their emotions, sprinkle some cynicism, add a dollop of bad break-up memories and voila! You now have a very heartless soul who doesn’t believe in relationships and doesn’t want to bother giving romance another chance.
- Shoes

* If you were the Prime Minister of India, would you do anything different to what the current Prime Minister is doing?
Our country was attacked by a terror group in November 2008. It is now February 2009. While the politicians in India along with the Prime Minister play ball and skirt around the issue, we the people slip back into our normal routines, trying hard to forget everything that happened like one does a bad dream. WHY? Why aren’t there any concrete steps being taken to bring us some justice and ensure an incident like this never repeats itself? If I were Prime Minister I’d take a much tougher stand against those who have wronged us and send a strong message to anyone who thinks we can be messed with.

* Who is the strangest person you have ever known?
As humans we are all inherently strange. Each person has a unique trait that makes them crazy in their own peculiar way. I’ve met extremely intelligent people who can’t get their personal lives right, people who think out shouting another ensures they are heard, people who will do something even when they know it will hurt them deeply, people who want something really badly and then not want it when they finally have it, people who think showing someone down makes them great/ better that that other person… Infact I’m pretty sure we have all suffered all of the above at some point or the other!

* What makes you mad at a person and how do you usually react to them when you are mad?
When I was younger I assumed everyone was blessed with equal intelligence in this world so little things someone did that weren’t in line with what I thought was right made me see red. Thankfully I’ve become a lot more tolerant of people. However, I still get mad when someone –
(a) Rubs me the wrong way (figuratively!)
(b) Tries to harm someone I love
(c) Is really dumb, stupid or slow… Idiots make me impatient
(d) Speaks rudely. I abhor mannerless people
When I’m mad at someone I usually tell them off and get it out of my system.

* When's the last time you felt your life was at a "fork in the road" and what made you choose the path you took?
In April 2007 I decided I’d had enough of corporate life for the time-being and wanted to pursue an MBA abroad. The reasons behind my decision were aplenty. I wanted a change, wanted to forget the past and move on in a new place and ofcourse pursue my life-long wish of studying in one of the best B-Schools in the world. So like I always do, I gave myself a fair chance and took a year off from life to complete university applications and take the required standardized tests. When none of my top five choices worked out I had to decide whether to settle for a not-so-hot school or go back to working. After a lot of deliberation I chose the latter. It took me a year out of life to understand that you can’t run away from situations and change your life around. The only way to realize your true potential is to take the challenge, step up to the problem and face it head on!

And now a couple Qs from SSG -

* What 5 things would you like to do in the next 5 years?
I love this question and am going to let my thoughts run really wild. The five things I’d like to do in five years (in the order of preference) –
1. Have a baby (or two)
2. Travel to Europe
3. Write a book and get published
4. Make a difference in someone’s life
5. Get completely drunk and let go

* If you could tell your 16 year old self 5 things, what would they be?
I’ve always been reserved with my emotions and actions, the kind of psycho who needs to get it right every time and be all prim and proper. So without a shadow of doubt I’d tell the sixteen year old me –
1. Let go and live a little
2. Try everything once
3. Don’t judge people all the time
4. Watch what you eat
5. Treasure every memory and see the joy in little things

And to wind it up a few questions from my friend Suhasini -

* One good movie and why you think it's good.
Dude I’m part of the entertainment industry and consume more media than most people I know. It's going to be a little hard for me to pick just one! Ok… so the one movie I completely enjoyed watching was this Nagesh Kukunoor film called ‘Dor’ (‘String’ when translated). It’s a simple story about two women from different parts of the country, how their lives are inter-twined with each other and how they both land up helping each other out of their bad situations. If you haven’t watched it yet you’ve missed something. For those of you who don’t understand Hindi I think you should try to watch the film with subtitles!

* One good book and ditto.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey – This book helped me through my troubled and rebellious teenage years. It’s my go-to for all sorts of advice and I’m preserving a copy for my kids just incase every single copy is sold out by then.

* One thing you really want in the next 12 months - from yourself or life or work or anything.
As always my list of wants is unlimited – I want a promotion, a long vacation and a meaningful relationship! Too much to ask for?

This one question is a late addition sent to me by Yourstruly100 -

* Three things you would change about your life at this point
Oooohh.. a toughie! 1. My weight - I need less of it; 2. Crap mouth - Swear like a truck driver; 3. Nothing - I'm happy with life the way it is and have learnt that the best way to be happy is not ask for anything!~

This is also the perfect time to thank all of you who drop in here often. It wouldn’t be half as much fun doing this without regular comments and participation from you guys! :)

Soledad

2009-02-24T23:15:00.004+05:30

Ever since I can recall, I’ve had a fear of Tuesdays. Nothing good ever happens to me on a Tuesday. Infact I’m lucky if the day passes without anything terribly crappy screwing up my day/ mood/ life (in that order!). So I was pleasantly surprised with the events that took place on my usually ‘Terrible Tuesday’. For starters we had an amazing brainstorming session at work, the kind that opens up your mind to new possibilities. After getting out of that discussion I was totally charged up and raring to go. Seeing something in a new light or having a ‘eureka moment’ as I call it generally has this effect on me – Like I’m walking on a cloud without falling right through.

Then of course there was the phenomenal response I received to my new blogging idea. It is currently under wraps till after my 100th post so you guys will have to wait up for a few days. However I promise you this much – it’s going to be loads of fun! Also, I’m going to be featured as a guest blogger on a friend’s blog soon :)

Later in the day I had a kickass meeting for a new movie. If all goes as per plan we should be closing the deal in a few days! Its funny how quickly I bounce back after whining for a while…Hmmmm.

The clock on my laptop says it’s 10.40pm which means I’ve been sitting here in my favourite spot typing away furiously while listening to some rockin’ music from the 80s and eating my Caesar salad for a couple of hours. Really?! It feels like a couple of minutes. That’s how much fun I’ve had just being and doing absolutely nothing.

Next one’s the big 1-0-0. See you then!

I prefer Anoop Dogg to Slumdog..

2009-02-23T22:39:00.003+05:30

Slumdog Millionaire won eight Oscars at this years Academy Awards. Everyone in India is celebrating as if they had a personal role to play in the film's unprecedented success. My worst fears have been confirmed - The world will now watch the movie and peg India as a third world country filled with filth and poverty. Thank you Mr. Danny Boyle.

There is ofcourse a bright side. Two of these eight awards were won by the legendary A.R. Rahman, putting Indian film music on the world map and giving all our other infinitely talented artists a chance to cut across cultures and prove their mettle. I personally feel Rahman has created better compositions, just like there have been better films made in the past. Sadly enough they were never noticed because they lacked the marketing muscle of Slumdog Millionaire. That and a firangi director who has the audacity to show us in bad light and then go on to claim that the film speaks of 'hope' and 'finding a way out of a bad situation in the end'.

Random fact: Did you know that all boys born in India today will be named 'Jai' and similarly all girls born in India today will be named 'Ho'? LOL.

Vicious circle

2009-02-17T22:04:00.004+05:30

So apparently I'm commitmentphobic. Let me explain.

Last week after giving me a peptalk about my not-so-fun day at work, my bestie craftily steered the conversation towards our (mine anyway!) most favourite topic - Her innate ability to fall for all the wrong men. Seriously, this girl has a terrible habit of ignoring all the nice guys and getting involved with the players, knowing full well that it can result in some serious heartache. When I pointed this out to her (for like the zillionth time) she laughed it off as usual and then added, "You know what Nats...don't take this the wrong way but atleast I make the effort. I've known you for the last five years and it's been over four years since you've been seriously interested in someone. And every time a guy shows some interest in you, you run.. FAST."

Hmmm. This is kinda true. No... this is extremely accurate. Given that there have been a reasonable number of occasions during this period, none of which have gone anywhere. I thought about it for a while before telling her why I react the way I do. Apart from the obvious heartbreak I lived through (in front of her eyes), I think I have the tendency to like guys who are waaaay out of my league. And no I don't mean this in a self-defecating way - it is merely a statement of fact! Every guy I have ever been attracted to has been someone who can do much better for himself than to land up with me. And if at the outset I am pretty sure that the relationship has no long-term prospect, why bother getting involved and bringing on the eventual heartbreak? So regardless of how interested the guy might have been in me, I always managed to drive him away by warding off his advances. Infact, this might have been one of the many reasons why my previous "relationship" didn't work out.

She patiently heard me out and then rubbished everything I said. According to her if a guy who is supposedly "waaay out of my league" is interested in me to begin with, then I'm stupid to think he is someone who can do much better than me or better still, someone who doesn't want to be with me because obviously he doesn't feel that way. Also, I won't know whether a relationship has any long-term prospects unless I go with the flow and test the waters. Guess she had a point there!

So can all this mean I am just plain commitmentphobic? Or am I in some sort of time-warp-denial-thing about my previous relationship? Do I have a heart or did that part of me stop functioning a few years back?

Rejuvenating myself

2009-02-15T14:55:00.004+05:30

It's Sunday afternoon and since I've taken a day off tomorrow I'm halfway through my weekend. After the 'incident' on Thursday I really needed this time off to get life back in perspective and spend some time with my family. So far my weekend has been absolutely awesome.

Spent the better part of yesterday at the salon getting my hair fixed. It's been a year since my Extenso treatment and the curls were beginning to come back! In the evening I bought my lil sister a Valentine's Day present - a new Swatch. It's so beautiful !! Mom made chicken stroganoff for dinner and it was one of the nicest meals I've had in a long time.

This morning I watched Billu Barber and managed to buy a charger for my chinese phone. Have already got the rest of the day all planned out - 4pm show of Marley & Me and later in the evening I'm going to my favourite place 'Soul' for Open Mike Night.

Tomorrow will be spent finishing odd jobs like applying for a fresh passport, getting my driving licence re-issued, paying phone bills etc before I head back to Mumbai.

I'm about three posts away from the big 100 and am planning to answer questions from fellow bloggers to commemorate the hundredth post so feel free to mail me or drop your questions as a comment on this post!

Life > Work

2009-02-12T23:30:00.006+05:30

To say I've been peeved today would be the understatement of the decade. Sometimes people just agitate me too bloody effing much and that's exactly what happened today! Ofcourse being at work I didn't think it appropriate to talk about why I was so upset so I decided to just keep mum and go through the motions. Evidently I'm a pretty transparent person because everyone who knows me even a little could tell something was bothering me.

A few colleagues tried to console me, others who qualify as friends tried counselling me, one of them tried to humour me and I snapped at him. Great job Nats! Infact I'd decided early in the day that I wanted to spend all day indulging in self-pity and feeling crappy. Why? Because I felt like it and my mood is the one thing I can have supreme control over. My pity party didn't last long though, what with people trying to guess why I wasn't myself today. At one point I remember feeling an overwhelming urge to cry and I can't promise I didn't.

Thankfully two of my closest friends decided to come over to my place later in the evening. Just talking it out with them helped me get stuff in perspective. Sure we all know that work is just a part of one's life and not one's entire life but it helps to have it spelt out from time to time. Also, today's episode made me realize just how many people actually do give a shit about me at work. Not just the girl who does stuff in the office but the actual person I am.

At one point this morning I thought today was just one of those days - Not worth the effort of waking up but a few people proved me wrong. Thank you guys for turning my shitty day around.

PS: I watched Dev D day before and though the movie was trippy but fun, the music was phenomenal. Watch out for the Dev D OST attack on my blog shortly!

My So(ap)b Story

2009-02-09T22:59:00.005+05:30

This post is not for the faint-hearted!

After thorough research I've come to the conclusion that this is not a normal phenomenon. Mind you when I first realized what it was it freaked me out more than just a little. Which is why a tiny voice in my head forced me to believe this is probably normal and just another example of me walking with my head in the clouds and being really illiterate and unaware of basic facts of life.

So a few months back I got a bar of soap free with something - a Cinthol Deo Fresh soap (yeah I'm going to name the brand!). Said bar of soap was inaugurated last week amidst much fanfare in my head, because I love using new soap.. whatever! After my bath I noticed an eyelash on it and washed it away wondering how my eyelash managed to get on the bar. After this incident I didn't notice anything for the next couple of days because hello who pays so much attention to their soap?!

Day before while taking a shower, I noticed another eyelash on the damn soap... Umm, ok... again? This time I was a little more fazed and gave it a good once over. On closer inspection, the entire bar had (has) eyelashes on or rather in it! How effing gross is that?

Any lawyers out there who can tell me how much I can sue the manufacturers for? I've kept the "physical evidence" with me but here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure... or not!

Wedding wows

2009-02-07T20:02:00.005+05:30

Cautionary note: The author might still be a little buzzed while writing this post!

One of my colleagues got married yesterday and everyone from work landed up at the reception in the evening. My initial plan was to stay for a while and leave, what with today being a work day and all. Yeah... so that didn't happen.

What did happen though was multiple rounds of Tequila shots! And Kaipiroskas!! And other drinks I cannot remember!!! There was also crazy dancing, tuneless song singing, sitting in each other's laps and arguing in raised voices. The sober ones took videos of us making asses of ourselves but you guys will never get to see them!

The weird thing about booze and me is... I just can't manage to fall asleep after a few drinks. And yesterday was a few drinks too many. So I came back home and read for about an hour and a half before clocking in 4 hours of sleep time and heading to office.

Thank God tomorrow is Sunday!

Ask me... almost anything!

2009-02-05T21:52:00.000+05:30

About ten odd days back I'd asked my anonymous blog pal a.k.a [F]oxymoron to send me a few interview questions. I've been meaning to do this exercise (that's right.. even answering questions qualifies as an exercise for me ;) for a while now but between the bag incident and organizing stuff, I haven't had much time to think!

So here goes...

Q: We know what you think about Slumdog Millionaire, but if somebody asked you to choose three movies that accurately and fairly capture modern living in India, what would you choose?

A: I'd definetely have to say Life In A Metro, A Wednesday and Taare Zameen Par. Mind you, none of these films paint a rosy picture of the lives we lead. However, they are a fairly accurate depiction of working/ living in a metro, the constant state of fear in Mumbai and a progressive nation respectively. You can click on the links to read the synopses.

Q: What is dating like in Mumbai (India)?

A: Mumbai is a city of much diversity. Likewise dating in Mumbai has diverse meanings too. For a person with a 9 to 7 (that's right!) job, dating is mostly reserved for the weekends. Also, it's becoming increasingly difficult to meet new people that pique my interest these days. Maybe I'm getting a little picky in my old age. Wait.. you never asked me dating is like for me did you?! :P

Q: I encountered many odd things while traveling through India, but what are some oddities unique to India that you encounter on a regular basis?

A: This one is easy... Highway robbers, terrorist attacks which are becoming increasingly frequent and shit in the local trains.

Q: If you had to be trapped in a blog post for one evening, what post would you choose?

A: I'm going to be impartial to all the fantastic blogs I haunt and say this one. Probably the most meaningful post I've ever written.

Q: How does blogging contribute to your life?

A: I started out blogging just for kicks and never thought my blog would mean so much to me - It lets me say what I want, ignore it when I want to and meet with other people without demanding constant attention and saying mean things to me! And that's why I don't need a boyfriend anymore :P

PS: If you feel like being self-indulgent and want me to ask you a few questions please leave a comment on this post asking to be interviewed.

T.M.I thanks to the FYIs

2009-02-03T19:17:00.003+05:30

Today I received an inordinately high number of random mails from colleagues. Random because they had absolutely nothing to do with my work. The copywriter sent me a script for a promo, the sales analyst sent me a mail on effective rates, the station engineer sent me a work in progress sheet, the creative head sent me a link about some sounds, amongst other strange stuff. Each of these mails was preceded with the words 'FYI'.

Just so happened that I had an important meeting scheduled with a music label. Three of my colleagues accompanied me for it and once it was done we decided to grab a quick bite at a chinese restaurant. During lunch I mentioned that I'd received so many random FYI mails and somehow the topic was changed.

Once back in office, a whole new set of FYI mails decended in my inbox. What the F? Why am I getting all these mails? One particular query bounced off the top of my head so I went across to my creative head and asked him to assist me. When he looked up he had this evil glint in his eyes and a knowing smile. Suddenly it struck me... This was all a plan!

These evil men, all six of them, had gotten together to pull this prank on me. Sending me random FYI mails and then asking one of the others to gauge my reactions. Hahaha.. so funny guys! And now that they know I have caught on they are continuing to send me 'FYI' texts on my phone. Little annoying but immensely funny... full marks for creatiwitty. Watch out for me now! :P

Piecing it all back...

2009-01-31T13:34:00.006+05:30

Last night I narrated the incident to my folks & sister and for some reason we were all in splits. On hindsight it does sound a tad funny. Having my bag lifted while in a moving autorickshaw, then landing up at the police station, the constable forcing me to use the phone (while I kept wondering why he was forcing me to make the one call allowed to criminals), then going back to the place where it happened while simultaneously organizing house keys and some money and cancelling my bank cards, being told by a patrolling officer to sit on the inside because there might be chain snatchers around (hahaha.. right buddy, too little too late!), then finally going back to my empty apartment after lodging a complaint and being told by my neighbour-lady to be careful because they had my keys.

After the initial shock everyone in office had a hearty laugh too and one of the RJs decided to talk about it on his show. In all of this I didn't cry once so thats something to be proud of, especially since I bawl like a baby when I lose or screw up my old stuff. My phone was switched off all of yesterday and has come on intermittently this morning. Hopefully the guy at the mobile shop will be able to procure the chinese charger from somewhere, atleast thats what he's told me. I also replaced my wallet and handbag. My old faithful handbag had been with me for years, which obviously meant I would never find the exact same one in the Espirit store now. My wallet though was a gift from my brother and it was pretty fantastic so my immediate reaction was to want to buy the exact same one. Well, didn't happen. I now have a new Chloe bag and a Christina wallet, both courtesy mom. Oh and my dad got me a duplicate set of keys so that's sorted too. I have a feeling the iPod will be a tough one to replace though.

Pics of my new wallet and bag... What do you think?

Cops and Robbers

2009-01-29T23:20:00.003+05:30

What a screwed up end to an otherwise fantastic day! Just home after spending a couple of hours at two different police stations. Can't believe I made such a dumb mistake after reading so many articles in the papers about such stuff.

My handbag got picked on the way back from work. I was sitting in the rickshaw with my bag on the seat beside me. To make matters worse, I was busy yacking away on the cellphone which made me an easy target. Two guys on a motorbike came dangerously close to the rickshaw, picked up my handbag and fled at an unimaginable speed. I saw it in slow motion, but apparently not slow enough to make note of the number plate or their clothes. All I could recall later was the make of the bike and that they were both hefty guys wearing bandanas.

I was so zapped right after the incident that I couldn't think straight. A whole bunch of random things went through my head - Shit I don't have the keys to the house now! Oh.. my beautiful new wallet. My office ID card was in the bag. Where will I get a new charger for my chinese phone?! I need to block my bank accounts right now. When I finally managed to channelise my thoughts I spoke to the cops in a police patrol vehicle and briefly narrated the incident. They told me to head to the closest police station.

Once there I was asked to narrate the incident again and try to describe these men and their bike. Thereafter a plain clothes cop and his outrider came back with me and the rickshaw driver to the spot where the incident happened. Enroute I got in touch with my banks on the phone and requested that they block my accounts. After determining the exact spot and hence the jurisdiction under which this theft fell, I was escorted to another police station to lodge a complaint.

The cops there made note of all the stuff that was in the bag - Two debit cards, my driver's licence, house keys, my office ID, a wallet, (very little) money, my ipod, a bottle of perfume, mobile charger and the Espirit bag itself in addition to other insignificant stuff. Then they asked me if I intended to lodge an FIR or just complain about the loss. With a police letter reporting the loss I could get a new licence and new bank cards re-issued easily. A case on the other hand would obviously mean wasting a lot of time and effort on stuff that wasn't really of much value. Ofcourse they didn't take into account the sentimental value that a person like me attaches to all my old stuff :(

With the letter in hand I headed back home in the same rickshaw. Thankfully my house help has a set of keys which she left at the neighbours along with a thousand bucks in cash. Now I have other issues to deal with... the F***ers have my house keys. What if there was some document with my address on it in the bag? Then they could land up at my apartment and ransack the place behind my back. Now I need to buy a new padlock for the main door before I leave for work tomorrow!

And to think I had a happy post all typed out in my head when I left from work this evening :'(

Lemons + Spirit = Lemonade

2009-01-26T16:04:00.009+05:30

The lovely and sometimes nutty Antonella has bestowed a rather meaningful award on me. For lack of a better name I'm going to call it the 'Lemonade Award'. The old adage goes, 'When life hands you lemons, make lemonade'. I'd like to believe this was given to me for a reason.. thank you! Now to pass it on...

I'd like to nominate the following bloggers for this award -

Karie: A woman of great courage!

Mikey: The missing piece of the puzzle is round the corner..

[F]oxymoron: For making it thru life's travails ;)

Suhasini: The journey has just begun girl.. the past is the past now!

C.J.: Kudos to you for living in a foreign country and experimenting with some crazy shit

You guys can either hoard this lemonade cart or pass it along to someone you think deserves some credit.

Hotties

2009-01-25T10:37:00.008+05:30

This post is for Anto... because I promised to show you some good looking Indian men!

Imran Khan

Rahul Khanna

Ranbir Kapoor

Akshaye Khanna

Do they still look like Hugh Jackman without a shower to you?

Because I'm not so eloquent

2009-01-22T20:22:00.003+05:30

Okay so apparently a lot of people think I overreacted after watching 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Infact I even managed to get into an argument with my favourite uncle on facebook via the 'comment on status message' feature. (Who the hell invented this whole comment thing anyway?) So yeah it got a little ugly and a few personal remarks were made by either party till finally we realized how juvenile both of us sounded and that the whole world could read these messages.

Well maybe I didn't do such a great job of conveying my exact sentiments after watching the movie and so it came out sounding like a personal tirade against the makers of the film. I will now re-attempt, albeit in the eloquent words of someone else, to clarify my stand.

What you will read now is an excerpt from my current read, 'The Vine of Desire' by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni -

Anju stiffens slightly. Movies about Indians, in her experience, are bad news. They force her into elaborate explanations and exhaustive denials - often to people she barely knows. No we don't eat monkey brains. Or bugs either. Yes, we do worship Goddess Kali, but, no, not usually by sacrificing beautiful virgins. Even movies made by Indian directors, gorgeously artistic, terrifically poignant, and atmospherically accurate, grow problematic in the contextless movie halls of America. Yes, we do have street children. Yes, they really live hard lives. Yes, the police are brutal. Yes, famine happens, and then people starve. Yes, widows are often repressed. Wives also. But there's a lot more to India than what you're seeing here. There's.... The questioners nod. They pat Anju's arm with a familiarity she finds infuriating. It's as though, in seeing the movie, they have gained possession of something of hers that is intimate and shameful. Of course there is, they say, their voices like Hershey's syrup. Of course there is.

But maybe the women in the writers' group, having come from fringes and borderlands, having seen themselves pulled out of shape by the funhouse mirrors of the American imagination, would be different? Maybe with them Anju could talk about how it is when you love parts of your heritage so much that it tingles in your fingertips like pins and needles. You're ready to kill anyone who criticizes it. And then there are days when things about it make you want to drive your fist through a window.

Taxation vexation

2009-01-20T20:29:00.005+05:30

The most dreaded time of year is here again! By the end of next week I must submit all my investment 'proofs' for 2008-2009. If it wasn't bad enough to see a rather large portion of my monthly income only on paper before it makes its way into the government's kitty, I must now give proof of how much I have saved in government bonds and the like so that they don't take away even more money from me. Don't get me wrong... I am all for contributing towards the fantastic roads, infrastructure and municipal facilities... If I can find them. But I digress.

So in an effort to save whatever little money I can, I will be spending most part of tomorrow with my tax consultant. And being the moron that I am, my daddy is coming to Mumbai to accompany me on this fun day out. Yaaay.. we will spend some priceless father-daughter time where he will lecture me on my lack of self-control (read excessive shopping) and inability to save money! Then I will buy him some lunch and update him on my proposed foreign vacay.. LOL.

Oh and this fantastic piece of information just in - Even if I manage to show some investments which will reduce my tax liability, there is no guarantee when I will get the refund for the excess tax paid. To quote the wise man (my Dad), "You have to pay your taxes by the 31st of March but the government will take its time to refund the excess amount". Wow.. tomorrow is going to be so much fun!

Slamming the 'Slumdog'

2009-01-18T15:06:00.011+05:30

I am more than a little pissed off right now. Just got done watching the new film that is making waves internationally. 'Slumdog Millionaire' is being appreciated across the globe for its heart-wrenching story of a slum dweller from the city of Mumbai who wins the ultimate lottery on the Indian version of the hit show 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?'. The screenplay has been written intelligently, weaving the past and the present to show viewers how this chai-wallah with a less than pleasant childhood knows all the answers to the difficult questions posed by the host of the show. Though this may sound like a novel concept, the story is as cliched as any bollywood potboiler made in the early 90s with an obvious ending but lets stick with the plot of my post.

Now here is what I find extremely offensive to my Indian, no, my Mumbaikar sensibilities. The director, in his effort to make this film as 'realistic' as possible has shown Mumbai in the worst possible light. From one of the initial scenes where the little boy jumps into a pile of shit to see his favourite actor to the sudden song and dance on the railway platform in the end, the entire movie is an over-the-top depiction of some westerner's idea of Mumbai, Bollywood and India.

Mumbai is about more than just slums, filth, poverty and crime. It is India's financial capital, the backbone of the Indian economy and a city which sees an average 2.2% growth owing to the immigrant population that comes here to realize their dreams. Mumbaikars contribute almost 40% of the nation's income tax but ofcourse the picture that director Danny Boyle paints before you will have you question this fact. In order to warm viewers up to the lead character, the movie paints a dismal picture of our city and focuses on the dark underbelly without lauding all the other amazing things we stand for as Mumbaikars. Thankfully we know what this city truly stands for - determination, grit, extraordinary spirit and positivity that a movie like yours cannot shake.

What gets me all riled up though is this global appreciation for the movie. It is one thing to make a film with your half-baked knowledge of the subject but it is quite another to make others believe and accept your version of this untruth as the truth. No wonder Americans think India is all about cow dung and poverty!

The Guardian has said that only a westerner could make such an honest film. To the knuckle-head at The Guardian who wrote this - How can a westerner know what Mumbai is all about? Since when did roaming the streets for a few hours while checking locations for a shoot and eating vada-pavs off the road qualify anyone for passing judgement on our city, people and lifestyle? Did these people go to the offices of the Indian multinational companies that employ tens of thousands of humans? Did they check how much Mumbai contributes to the economy of India?

I have always believed that media plays a defining role in shaping people's thoughts and understanding of issues. This is one of the main reasons I chose to be part of this fraternity. Television, radio, the internet and cinema are some of the most important vehicles of social change in the world and by misusing (or misrepresenting in any case) them we do grave injustice to ourselves and a generation of people who will willingly believe anything we tell them.

I know a lot of my readers come from other countries and I'd like to make a plea to you guys. Please do not believe everything they show you about Mumbai in this film as the ultimate truth. Slumdog Millionaire shows but one face of the coin. And while progressive films like Taare Zameen Par get dropped from the Oscar nominations today, hopefully someone someday will win accolades internationally for showing the other face of our nation too.

Images from this morning's Mumbai Marathon

Just because...

2009-01-16T13:32:00.005+05:30

My friend Su stayed over last night. She leaves for Italy in ten days and we had a lot of catching up to do before she heads to a foreign land to pursue her dreams. We stayed up till 1am talking about future plans and how much we've grown over the past one year. I must confess, we also indulged in a bit of male-bashing, which had a very therapeutic after-effect :)

Before I left for work today she paid me such a great compliment. She asked me how I managed to look so 'together' and 'well groomed' that early in the morning. So I thought it might be a good idea to share just how 'together' I can look some mornings! Some being the operative word ofcourse haha

Enjoying my morning cuppa tea

Not just another day...

2009-01-16T00:30:00.004+05:30

It all came together today. Every single thing I've been working towards for the last nine odd months. Little did I know when I woke up in the morning, that this day will be etched in my memory for a long long time. And it will.. for more reasons than one.

For starters, we completed two years of existence in Mumbai today. By 'we' I mean the radio station I work at. Furthermore, we did outstandingly well in the radio ratings and beat our nearest competitor for the first time in these two years. Birthday + fantastic ratings really couldn't have come at a better time! But without any doubt the icing on the 'b'day cake' was when one of our senior members complimented a colleague and me in front of the entire team on helping us achieve this milestone!! I can safely say it was one of my proudest moments at work :)

Then this evening on my way back home my boss called me from Delhi to fill me in on the star-studded event in the Delhi office today. This was the 'big' deal I had managed to close a few weeks back and struggled to pull together since Monday. Starry tantrums, arguments and constant iterations notwithstanding, everything went off as per plan. After updating me on the day's events, my boss went on to tell me she thought I'd done a fantastic job. Two compliments in one day are one too many for me!

I'd called over two of my close friends for a home cooked meal tonight and it turned into a mini-celebration sans wine because I don't drink on work nights. Even if I say so myself, the food tasted brilliant. The conversation as usual ranged from interesting to insane, just the perfect balance to make it a fun night.

What a day it has been... what a day!

Hate is a strong word..

2009-01-14T23:05:00.009+05:30

... but I really really really don't like you.

You know that nifty feature on blogger - autosave? Well, it just F***ed up! And it isn't the first time this has happened. Why must it autosave every nano second? Why can't it auto save every two minutes?! I wrote an entire post just a couple of minutes ago and was nearly done when some idiotic shortcut malfunctioned on my laptop and boom - the whole post was gone because of Mr. Auto Save!! Just when I outdid myself with the first paragraph which read like a piece of literary genius - it's gone :(

On the subject of utility hate - I hate fax-cum-copier-cum-scanner type machines. They have a mind of their own and never listen to me. Infact I'm ashamed to say they scare me just a little.

So much for things that are meant to do you good. Another classic example of things that come and bite you in the ass is the new work thing that is taking up all of my energy and time. This is something I worked hard for for months. When it finally materialized I was ecstatic. Going into the deal I was prepared for the added workload and long hours in the office. What I wasn't prepared for though are starry tantrums, rescheduling flights every fifteen minutes, ego issues about being on the same flight, coordinating to find out what Mr. & Ms. Famous will like as an afternoon snack, the preferred hotel to 'freshen up' at and other such inane crap. Breaking news guys - we make you the stars.. think about it!

Animal Farm

2009-01-13T22:05:00.004+05:30

It's only Tuesday and my head is already reeling with all the craziness that has gone down over the past two days. I've probably been on the phone for over 30 hours! Still, it is the most amazing feeling in the world to see something you worked so hard towards finally take shape. Worth every single mad moment!

While we are on the subject of craziness I must share this story. I was on the way back to my apartment in the local train on Sunday night, just heading for the exit, when I suddenly froze. 'Froze' might actually be a bit of a lie because when I recovered everyone was staring at me. Did I scream out loud? I don't know but get this - there were two monkeys in the compartment. Two friggin' monkeys! On the train!!

Today on the way back from work my sister was filling me in on her day in school over the phone. After the usual whining about homework and nagging parents she told me that her school has bought a horse so that the kids can learn horse-riding. If this wasn't weird enough, she went on to narrate how the care-taker had told her and her friend that the horse is 'past it's warranty period' and 'too old to run fast'. Warranty period? For a horse?? Hahahaha..

Possibilities galore...

2009-01-10T12:05:00.007+05:30

After such a manic week, I want to make sure my weekend is perfect. Already made some headway by coming home (Pune) last night. Today's itinerary includes hair indulgence, bowling, Mamma Mia and lebanese dinner. That and working on planning the long awaited vacation in April.

My head is swarming with possible places - Bangkok (must!), Singapore (maybe?), Malaysia (doesn't excite me much but...), Sri Lanka (hmmmm), Hongkong, Shenzen, a cruise... Bangkok will definetely be on the agenda because I love that city and it has been ages since my last visit. Seriously, am beginning to suffer from withdrawl symptoms now!

Later this year I intend to travel to Italy. Why? Because one of my friends is headed there to pursue her Masters degree and I'd have to be supremely dumb to not jump at the opportunity. Ofcourse it will all boil down to how much money I can save this year which means there's a huge possibility it won't work out :(

Note to self: Must not fall for any more sale ploys!

Endless Randomness

Meet my old friend

Footprints in the sands of time

End of the ride?

US in the US

Quotable quote

It's official !!

Reality sets in...

Thinking aloud..

Dealing with the madness

A girl needs... shoes :)

The Wanderer and Me.. a short story!

Couchsurfin'

Waking up...

The Impotent Indian

Funny? I think not!

Mumbai madness

New beginnings..

Ring in the *new*

A piece of heaven

Reflections

Frickin mad!

Living like a guest :)

Of weddings & other plans..

Everything's changed, it's all remained the same!

Friends, formula one and festivities!

Three day work week :)

Blackberried and other short stories

The week that was...

And the response...

One step closer.. or am I?

Not going down without a fight

Lessons in "life"

~The Blogoversary Post~

Four days to a year

Life's like this

Wrong side of 20s

Almost 26

Unveiling the "new look"

The week that was...

The argumentative indian..

Love talk

Odds & ends

Because my job is cool like that...

Dentamental

Back to base

I heart Bangkok

Emoti-conversation

Laws of distraction

Gonna miss my mommy!

Malheureux Moi

Inside wants Out

Hanging by a moment...

The Simpsons writer and me

Drink + drive = jail or bail

It's finally Saturday

Lunchtime woes

A few rays of sunshine

Sense and sensibility

Snapping out of it

Stranger in the mirror

Why does this always happen to me?

The big fat Punjabi wedding

One year.. what a year!

Fabulous Weekend - The end

Fabulous Weekend - Part 3

Fabulous Weekend - Part 2

Fabulous Weekend - Part 1

Mixed doubles

I'm a weekender!

Time..

Plans.. plans... plans!!

Agony Aunt says...

Back to reality...

Blog Auction ver.3.0

Blog Auction ver.2.0

Blog Auction ver.1.0

Losing and regaining control

The Curtain Raiser

The Big 100

Ring in the new

Hate is a strong word..