Postcards From J

... are wished for you and your loved ones. Thank you for being a part of my blog and for sharing my journey, dear readers. Happy Christmas! Our li'l Christmas tree

While this is *not* my current state of mind, there have been some things over the past few months that have bothered me a great deal.      To those irritants - people, events, circumstances - the clear and graphic message on the rickshaw above is dedicated to you. Cheers!

There was a time when I took the trouble to 'make' stuff like simple greeting cards and bookmarks or recycle things. Like the one time I made a funky pen stand out of half a coconut shell. Or little boxes out of old greeting cards (really easy to make). Over time, being busy or lazy stopped the creative juices from flowing.  So, I've been thinking of reviving the arty-crafty side of me. Over the past few days, I made little birthday greetings on plain paper inked with a black marker for colleagues. These could be pinned to the softboard, so they weren't made like typical cards. I can't draw to save my life, so stick figures work for me. Also, I'm quite fond of doing the block lettering. [Psst, it forgives uneven writing.] :-) Today, I made the following greeting for a colleague from a small sheet of paper, a black marker and colour pencils. The basic sketch done in pencil first, then outlined with a fine tip marker. Final look created using ...

And I wish you both the very best. ... Did you write the book of love, And do you have faith in God above, If the Bible tells you so? Do you believe in rock 'n roll, Can music save your mortal soul, And can you teach me how to dance real slow? Well, I know that you're in love with him 'cause I saw you dancin' in the gym. You both kicked off your shoes. Man, I dig those rhythm and blues. I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck With a pink carnation and a pickup truck, But I knew I was out of luck The day the music died. Lyrics courtesy: Don McLean, American Pie

So many things: Desperately need to hire talent. Good Great talent. People who can write... Write well. Without silly mistakes. Grammatically correct sentences. No typos. Relevant punctuation. Find my life's calling. Or have I found it already? Travel. A bit of a distant dream at the moment, but need to plan and figure this out for 2012. Write. Nay, attempt serious writing. About experiences, work, business, social media, my observations. Too unsure about this. Travel *and* write? Get going. Make the time. Take a leap of faith. Get rid of the exhaustion. Meet more people. Learn from them. Look for alternatives. Turn those crazy ideas into actual concrete plans. Words swimming in my head. And these words need to become actions. Strong actions. No apology. No regrets.

Rick-rolled returns after a little over two months. And this one seems like a continuation from the previous Rick-rolled post .  This one also says, "Shararat Mat Karna" and that bare leg was quite a tease against the copy. What do you think?

Here's a little postcard from Cafe Mondegar's, or Mondy's as we lovingly call it.  I was there on Friday evening with a great bunch of folks, and guess what? I drank a full mug of beer for the first time ever. Not bad considering I'm not a beer guzzler at all. The artwork on the walls capture the world of celebrated cartoonist Mario Miranda. Absolutely love those drawings. This past week has been excellent. Just three working days, but some great insights are being worked upon. The Diwali holidays helped in relaxing the mind, and meeting a bunch of lovely people at a house party, over coffee/kebabs, over double peppermint chocolate, over beer (!), and at the warm Le Pain Quotidien (photos coming soon)... Ah! So much conversation and laughter with excellent company.  Have a great week, everyone. ~j~

My no-shopping vow has taken a terrible beating the past few months, especially because of the ease and convenience of online shopping. Sample this: a watch, books, a pendant, more books, shoes, silver earrings, a bath towel (don't look surprised; it was from the Wimbledon tennis range), some more books and now... just look at these beauties that I picked up at the Aldo sale:   Even after discount, they cost me quite a bit. But, but, but... look at them. Sexy, no? Now I have to find the perfect outfit to wear them with. Sigh. Don't remind me of my credit card statement now. Please?

All I really want to do tonight is write a long rambling pointless post. Just like that. But I must share... I had such a fun Saturday night - which technically lasted just two hours and the rest of the nine hours were actually part of Sunday (pointless information, I know). There was a house party at a friend's since her folks were off on holiday. And what a partayyyyy it turned out to be! You had to BYOB (bring your own booze). And there was tons of food. Everything was super! But the entertainment that happened thanks to the boys doing a song-and-dance was just hilarious. My jaws were really hurting with all the laughing that ensued. Imagine watching three grown up fellows doing crazy steps to Quit Playing Games by the Backstreet Boys! Yes, exactly my reaction. *grin* Oh, and I made a little experimental chocolate fudge and took it to the party. Most people who had it said it was nice. :) So, I'll try and blog the process in another post and maybe you could try mak...

" Kolkata for Durga Pujo . Shantiniketan. Eden Gardens. Mother Teresa. Puchkas and roshogullas. " Just striking off one teeny tiny thing off my very brief bucket list . I would have really liked to actually go inside the Eden but... next time, maybe. This post will be revised. Watch out.

"Go for hurried baths, and then forget all about hurrying. Take midnight showers. Turn off the light and stand in the water." These words by Natasha Badhwar in one of her parenting columns keep turning up in my head every now and then. Even though I'm not a parent, I love the way she writes and I can still relate to most things she writes about. Coming back to the quote above, I generally end up taking midnight showers because I get home quite late and I quite like feeling clean before I can nod off to sleep. But tonight was only the second time I switched off the lights while taking a shower. The first time, it felt great, peaceful and relaxing. And last night as well. Except that I had an A-HA moment too where I learnt... 1. The darkness reduced the noise which all that artificial lighting brings. The only light I had was the hazy streetlight outside diffused by the frosted glass strips on the bathroom window. 2. I felt more aware of where things were...

A visit to South Park Street Cemetery, Kolkata (estd. 1767) turned out to be a super lesson in history and a serene experience. The pictures below are of actual memorials/graves built as far back as 1768.    More photos and posts later...

Nomoshkar from Kolkata... I really wanted to blog a few highlights of my trip so far, but it has been a bit tiring and hectic. Two days and lots seen/eaten/experienced. I have to run now for another round of pandal-hopping. So, here's a little picture postcard for you. Happy Ashtami, people!

A few weeks ago, I learnt a new term thanks to @mehulved : " TIL ", which was basically an abbreviation for "Today I Learnt" (shouldn't it be "Today, I learnt"? Sorry, I'm just being a Punctuation Prude with that comma! :P). So, in that spirit, I'm going to tag all posts related to random web surfing finds as TIL. I had done a few posts like that before. Remember? One was about a brilliant video on The Girl Effect , and then another on a text word art creator Wordle , and more recently about Picnik.com 's photo editing features. And... TIL about this fun NO-chart you can make and it's brought to you by the good people at GOOD. Just 3 clicks are needed: 1. Upload a photograph 2. Write your own question 3. Save and share the result <--- See what I made. You also have the option to share your work with a public gallery or keep it only for your own reference (a link is generated). Try it out yourself by visiting Good Labs' Make Y...

Growing up as a child and as a teenager, I always had a strong sense of my religious obligations. I was an active participant in church services, attended Catechism class with much enthusiasm, took initiative with organizing programmes for others, and in general, was considered a "good girl". While I didn't exactly turn out to be "bad" in any way, my spiritual connection with the Almighty has been on a massive decline since a few years now. Make no mistake though. I still believe in God. Or rather in the idea of "God" - someone out there who's all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful and who we can turn to in life's joyous and sorrowful moments. What I've experienced in the last few years though is a sense of discontent, a disconnect from that omniscient force. And it's only because I started questioning what happened/happens around me; why we blindly follow certain rituals, why we are so concerned with getting others converted to our bel...

I don't know what I'm doing here by trying to write. This week has been mixed. More 'down' than 'up'. And tonight just killed the little excitement I had for my upcoming travel plans. No, I don't want to talk about what really happened. Because, frankly, I do not know what it actually is, and how it came to be. In the space of a few minutes, opinion has swayed, known people became strangers, loyalty is being mistaken as rudeness. And all this is just not making sense. I've always strived to put others in the foreground. I hate the spotlight. Yet, some accusations were made which have left me terribly upset.  So, I'll try to sleep it off. The television's on, but there's nothing worth watching. Maybe I need to remind myself about the sun... it sets in the evening to rise the next day without fail. With vigour, with hope, with peace. Good night.

Beware, this post is a bit of a ramble. Not sure where it's headed. So, 16th September 2011 will be remembered as the day Rahul Dravid, one of India's best batsmen, bowed out of the limited overs version(s) of the game. Paeans were written before and after the 5th ODI versus England at Cardiff. Unfortunately, the Indian team couldn't seal a victory capping off an extremely tough and a winless tour. Dravid, along with Virat Kohli, managed to get an excellent partnership going and their efforts helped the team go past the 300+ run mark. Captain MS Dhoni also scored a quick knock but England has had the upper hand throughout this tour and emerged victors in a rain-marred game. Anyway, I wanted to blog about Dravid. Hopefully soon. For today, presenting just the image above. There never will be another one like you, Rahul Dravid. Thank you for the wonderful memories. PS: Please excuse any typos and weird sentences. I'm way too sleepy. 'Night!

... of being brave. ... of having to tackle so many different things AND being expected to succeed at all of them. ... of expectation.   ... of no expectation. ... of being the go-to girl. ... of the potholes in Aarey that make my back ache. ... of noise, pollution, filth, humans. ... of not being able to run for a train like I used to since three and a half months. ... of feeling too scared to walk quickly, leave alone run. ... of being taken for granted. Every effing time. ... of playing too safe. ... of making travel plans in my head.  ... of dreaming too small. ... of giving. And forgiving. ... of well-meaning "advice" (go to the ortho; get your thyroid checked; lose weight; stop eating junk; don't work so many hours; don't socialise so much; save money; get married). ... of life. Soon. Sent from my iPod Touch

I've been trying some online resources for photo editing, especially since I'm Photoshop-challenged.  One of my favourite sites is Big Huge Labs .Their tagline is simple:  "Helping you do cool stuff with your digital photos since 2005. :-) Have fun with your photos!". You should try it sometime. Another one is Picnik . I had checked it out ages ago and was very annoyed with how slow the site was. But then, I rediscovered it recently, and while there are quite a few of their features for premium users, I still think it's a good bet to do something fun with your photos. Earlier in the blog, I did try the Polaroid (in Frames) feature with a photo. This time, I tried the Sticker (speech bubble) and Text (Eat me!) features. The result? Quite nice, I thought. See: I went to Frames and chose the simplest one after selecting the colours for the two borders.  The downside? You need to sign up for an account and as a 'free' user, you can upload just 5 photos at...

Just realised I've never really had a bucket list. But then again, I'm not the kind to go about making and ultimately sticking to resolutions. (Horrible, I know!) It probably stems from my lack of serious ambition. So, I thought of listing down all that I must do, experience, see, eat, drink, make, travel to before I, errr, kick the bucket... 1. Learn to code.  Nothing elaborate, just one line of something. Any language. I never liked studying 'computers'; neither did I ever take up programming at any point in school or college. The only reason I did opt for the subject in school was because it was a choice between that and needlework (ugh!). Maybe I should ask Dan to help me with this. She's the smartest coder I know. 2. Travel the world. More realistically, India. Some places to explore in the immediate future include: Old Delhi for its history. And the food. Hyderabad for biryani. Kolkata for Durga Pujo. Shantiniketan. Eden Gardens. Mother Teresa. Puchkas a...

It's curtains for our August Blogging Challenge or ABC (Isn't there a Bieber song called ABC?). The idea was to get going on the blogging front on a regular basis, and I'd like to believe that having a challenge helped to a large extent. I'm quite sure I will be posting regularly even after this challenge has ended. And even more confident that Lo  will not disappear from the blogosphere. She totally aced the challenge, no? To the tiny number of my blog readers, first of all... SORRY for the sometimes random posts when I was bereft of ideas. I tried to cheat a little by posting photos, YouTube videos, writing about my frustrations, and just about anything that caught my fancy.  Second, if you're still reading my blog, THANK YOU . Your encouragement and support mean a lot. Special thanks to DeeSeelicious  who enquired one morning on Twitter about any new posts. It didn't really hit me till then that there were actually a few people (other than myself) reading...

So I gallivanted from Borivali to Bandra today. I had an off because of Eid, and besides a family engagement in the morning, I had pretty much nothing to do. Spending a couple of hours at HyperCity was a good idea while I waited for a friend to confirm if we were to meet.  Armed with a bagful of home essentials, I headed to Bandra. Much traffic later, the rikshaw dropped me off at the friend's place. The idea was to drop my stuff there and then grab a cup of coffee and those fast-disappearing jelly squares at Candies. And we did end up going there.  Which is when the floodgates opened. The friend is married with a child. And felt her husband was adding to her own insecurities. "I'm fat" kept getting thrown at me when I was trying to explain to her that she isn't fat. Was desperately trying to tell her that just a little belief was required in her case. She refused to accept any view or advice. Her severe body image issues got me thinking. Is it really...

My song of the day:  "The scars of your love remind me of us  They keep me thinking that we almost had it all  The scars of your love, they leave me breathless  I can't help feeling  We could have had it all  Rolling in the deep (Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)  You had my heart inside of your hand  (You're gonna wish you never had met me)  And you played it to the beat  (Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep) " What a voice!  PS: DeeSee - you better not make fun of her again. #ABC POSTCARD 30/31

The following conversation happened one morning last week on the office shuttle*: Colleague (sitting behind me and pointing to my hand): What book is that? Me: *shows the cover of the book without saying a word* It was Devdutt Pattanaik's Myth = Mithya | A Handbook of Hindu Mythology . Colleague (surprised look): Oh! Why this? Me: Why not? Colleague: Yeah, why not. Me: *smiles* After a full 60 seconds, as if hit by a brainwave but still a little puzzled... Colleague: Are you getting married to a Hindu? Me: Bwahahahahahahahahaha.. . :D * Shuttle = a mini bus that ferries us from the railway station to the office in the mornings, and the other way around in the evenings. PS: Let me know if * this*  font looks better with the blog. Fonts are the only thing bothering me about this blog template. #ABC POSTCARD 29/31

...always get me down. So you'll use Facebook and Twitter and sms for a *belated* birthday greeting, but you won't pick up the damn phone and actually voice those wishes. If that's what I get for investing  wasting my time on this friendship, then I totally deserve it. Thanks, but no thanks.  And yes, it bothers me. Simply because you don't care as much as I do.  #ABC POSTCARD 28/31

So, the unintentional social experiment worked.  - or rather, is working. More details later. Will update this post by the end of today or tomorrow morning. Till then, watch this space. I had turned off my birthday information on my Facebook page last year. Two reasons. One, the sheer number of messages that came in on FB directly, and then because of FB on Twitter or via sms. People got a 'reminder' and hence, an obligation to wish. Never mind if you've not spoken to me in years, or don't know what my life is like, but a FB wish toh banta hai, boss. Plus I don't do a generic Facebook status saying "thanks", so it meant fewer people to respond to.  The second reason for turning it off was but obvious. Getting older is getting progressively depressing - the age factor was looming over, people reminding you that you're not married yet, and worse being wished that "hope this year your happy day arrives". I mean, what the fuck! And yes, I just ...

"Technology addictions can lead to increased stress-levels, shorter attention spans (especially in kids), irregular sleep-patterns and poor sleep, to name but a few." EEEEEKKKKKKKS! The article from where the above line came from actually made me shudder. Looks like I have way too much dopamine in my brain. Now that explains my poor sleep patterns and wavering attention span. It goes on to say... "To give a real-world example: when your phone receives a text, it beeps loudly, and we suddenly feel the urge to check the message. Dopamine (which is especially wired to cues like message alerts) is the cause of that urge." "And so we enter the ‘dopamine cycle.’ Want to know what the capital of Chile is? It’s just a Google search away. Want to know if your friend has sent you that funny e-mail he told you about? Refresh your inbox. Want to see what your friends are saying about the new Harry Potter movie? Just hop onto Facebook, Google +, Twitter, Rotten To...

This morning on my way to work - while stuck in terrible traffic - I got thinking about my work years. In January this year, I completed eight years of slogging it out across three companies (four-and-a-half of those years at the current company). And the only thought I had was: "What if I had another career? An alternative profession?". My primary role has been in the Human Resources space, and more significantly into recruitment. Not the easiest or the best job in the world, but somehow landed myself doing something not by choice. One of the questions I'd ask any young candidate is: "What's your dream job?". Many would give boring and stupid answers. "To become a manager"; "to lead a large team" and so on. Very rarely, someone would have an idealistic "to have a job that pays me to travel - photography, blogging". And the sometimes enthusiastic "to report from a LIVE Formula One race" or "to interview the bigge...

This rikshaw has a message for all you mischievous boys and girls... On the separator between driver and passenger Translation: Don't be naughty!   *winks* #ABC POSTCARD 24/31

Anna-ther hoarding outside a railway station. Wonder if they have permission to put this up. I'm neither a political expert, nor an activist. The past few days have witnessed a frenzy in this country. People are likening the whole anti-corruption crusade by Anna Hazare (or rather Team Anna) to a second freedom struggle. While I understand the sentiment behind this, I certainly don't think you can compare this movelment to what transpired in the lead-up to that August day in 1947. Also, I'm totally against the idea of deifying (is that a word?) a single man just because he has decided to take up a cause. Hundreds and thousands have undertaken causes that never feature in the media spotlight. The media focus on this is another thing. If you have watched the film Peepli [LIVE], you'll understand what I'm trying to say. Can any of us truly say that we will never be involved in any corruption? What about those fake rent receipts or medical bills you got made to e...

The exhaustion from all the Sunday packing and shifting has taken its toll - been rather low and under the weather since the weekend. This morning was a real bitch... Imagine waking up with a pinched nerve in the leg! The pain was unbelievable. Add to it the fact that the home Internet connection has been disconnected and I'm grumpy about that. Now imagine living without the www!!!  I mean, I barely get home around 10-11pm, have dinner, take a shower and sleep. The television remote is not under my control, and everyone gets pissed off if I stay up late to watch something that I want to. You see, the light (and not just the sound) from the TV disturbs everyone. So I've given up on most of my TV-channel-surfing. The Internet is my only saviour for any entertainment! But now, even that has temporarily betrayed me. Using my phone's GPRS is a solution, but trust me, once you get used to tweeting/facebooking/emailing/etc using a wifi connection, life's not the same. Worse, ...