Postcards From J

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, ...

I had a few ideas for a couple of posts - one definitely on Rahul Dravid's batting prowess over this past weekend in the 4th Test (or rather what this amazing cricketer means to me), and the second which was more personal about friendship and its changing nature. Over the weekend though, I couldn't do any writing as the Saturday was spent in rest (which is a good thing, no?) and Sunday was crazy with packing up all my stuff to shift into the neighbouring flat as we're getting some basic fixes and painting started tomorrow. It was bloody painful packing and moving stuff around. And worse when you end up with sixteen bags of your things. Yes, sixteen, belonging to just one individual - ME.  Time to de-clutter? Hell, yeah! In the process of all this packing and sorting, I did get quite nostalgic as I came across certain items which brought back a rush of memories. Maybe I should've snapped some photos of those things so I could've added them here... but hey, I w...

If you read my last post, you'd recall I mentioned I was going to stuff myself at Mohammad Ali Road - the haven for Mumbai's Ramadhan feast. Last evening, a bunch of us (met/introduced on Twitter) managed to brave the crazy rains, a bus strike that eventually got called off by evening, and a train motormen's threat to strike that was withdrawn before it even began and actually made it to this massive food orgy. Now I didn't carry my camera along, but seeing the enthusiasm of @ghaatidancer with her camera, I tried clicking some on my phone just for kicks. Even though they are really sad, I'm still going to post them here because, well, it's my blog and I'll do whatever I want. :P On a serious note, I don't want to write too much today. So, amidst much talk about people going on a fast, here I am talking about a feast...   Presenting some snapshots from my Thursday night-out: Minara Masjid - the epicentre of the food extravaganza at Mohammad Ali Ro...

My trip to Nature's Basket, Bandra on Monday yielded in not much shopping at the outlet. Reason? Everything is nice there but so bloody expensive. Anyway, while I checked out with some meagre supplies, I noticed these nice-looking recipe cards (will snap a pic of those later as they are at home) that you could pick up.  A lady called Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal - who I've gathered is pretty popular in food circles - puts together recipes on these cards (I think she works with Nature's Basket). Got three different ones this time... and I decided to try the simplest (obviously!) of the three: Sweet Corn Salad. If you know me at all, you'll know that I can't cook to save my life. So today, the salad was my lunch... and while I adapted the recipe as per the ingredients I had, I think it was pretty good. Will update this post with the recipe later. Here are some pics I took of my lunch (quality not so great because they were taken on the phone): Top Left: My Messy D...

Random rikshaw thought on a day most of the BEST buses have gone on strike... Look closely at the message in the mirror. LOVE IS SWEET POISON #ABC POSTCARD 18/31

In *extremely* random order: # Portable reading light to allow me to pore into books and magazines in rikshaws in the evening. # Basil leaves to make pesto and then add it to spaghetti with tuna + mushrooms. My bhaajiwali friend didn't have any basil today as well. And the 6 rupees basil at Nature's Basket comes packed with a styrofoam tray. Tsk. # A fabulous 1BHK in Mumbai that won't burn a hole in my bank account (actually put that in iDream - sigh!). # A mortar and pestle. Can't believe it's so hard to find one these days *in* India. Apologies for this stupid post. My brain's on strike and that's all I can think of right now. Blame it on PMS and some other thoughts plaguing my mind. :( #ABC POSTCARD 17/31 Sent from my iPod

Someone I admire a lot sent me this thought via sms early in the day: You have not lived a perfect day, even though you have earned your money, unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you. Hmmm... Got me thinking. Have a great evening, everyone! #ABC POSTCARD 16/31

Looks like a former tennis player called Michael Chang is still in demand... This rikshaw driver certainly thinks so. On the backrest of the driver's seat #ABC POSTCARD 15/31

I've tried everything. Sleeping early. Switching off Twitter/Facebook. Listening to music. Reading. Eating light. Taking a shower. Counting sheep. Requesting for wake-up calls. Everything. Yet, my sleep cycle refuses to cooperate. Mornings are increasingly becoming my enemy. I can never wake up on time. Or even if I do, I just can't get out of bed. Even if I've had 7-8 hours of sleep, there's zero energy to tackle the morning blues. I know you'll say exercise is a great way to boost one's endorphin levels, and thus help fight any stress-induced sleep problems. But I'm not *that* stressed out right now. The first few months of the year were crazy considering the pressures of a project around the World Cup. And post that, a change in role got me thinking in different directions. Some of the new responsibilities have still not sunk in. But those can't be the reasons. I don't know what's wrong. And I really would like a remedy. Soon. If you have a ...

Remember I mentioned that I was supposed to be working on Sunday, i.e. today? Yeah, that's not happening all thanks to the insipid performance of the Indian cricket team. Losing a Test match by an innings and way too many runs in under 4 days is just not done. This, of course, has pissed me off no end. First of all, the fools in white flannels lose miserably. And second, my travel plans were pretty much ruined with the whole you-might-be-required-to-come-to-work expectation. Long Independence Day weekend? What's that? Anyway, I'll admit it... I'm quite relieved not to be travelling to office. I mean, who wants to glide over Aarey Colony's potholes? You have to see these potholes. They are the ultimate torture. Will do a post on that very soon. So, I stayed home the whole of Saturday, and I ended up at a friend's place for an overnight stay. The idea was to do a TV show marathon, but got changed to some movie plan. Due Date and Band Baajaa Baaraat were the DVD ...

01. Call the clinic for an appointment with the orthopaedic specialist. 02. Get a portable lightweight but powerful torch (especially for lighting up the dreaded 'shortcut' path while leaving office at night. 03. Contemplate getting hair cut short. Like really short. 04. Go back to self-made vow of 'no shopping for 6 months unless it's a life and death situation'. And no, books from Flipkart do not fall in this category. 05. Plan a TV show marathon with the old gang. 06. Plan an outing with team from work. Go bowling maybe? 07. Trips to Wai and Jejuri. Must make them happen by September. 08. Read poetry. Finish unfinished books and magazines. 09. Eat less junk and more vegetables. Sleep more and sleep well. 10. Make more travel plans, but with complete focus. Make no mistake. This list is not complete and by no means, definitive. After all, "so much to do, so little is done". #ABC POSTCARD 12/31

Last evening, I visited the spanking new Infiniti 2 at Malad West. Yet another gigantic mall which houses international brands, a food court, the fancy Manchester United Cafe & Bar among other things... It's still not completely operational, so it was empty on a Friday evening. After a bad traffic-filled ride to the mall, I caught up with girlfriends waiting for me and ended up burning my tongue sipping on a hot cappuccino from Gloria Jean's. Now these women had already finished all their shopping. Between the four of them, they had bought SEVEN pairs of shoes. Now, I couldn't be left behind, no? So, on our way out, I insisted on popping in to the Charles & Keith store on the ground floor. It also helped that they were having a flat 50% off on footwear. While I tried a few styles, I realised most of the stuff I liked were sold out in my size or *slightly* big for me. Damn you, feet-in-between-sizes-39-and-40! Anyway, I did pick one pair: a faux snake (or is it croc)...

Terribly upset. In fact, I even burst into tears for a few seconds before being threatened by sounds of some night creatures. I had left office pretty late and as usual, took the shortcut to the main gate where the bus/rikshaw stands are. Now this shortcut is no ordinary route. It's basically a minute away from the building, and you have to walk on an upward slope till you reach a stupid staircase (leading to a residential building nearby), walk across it, and find a makeshift metal staircase that is uneven. If it rains a bit, and if it's late at night, the route can be scary. Not so much for the aforementioned creatures lurking in the overgrown shrubbery around. But because it's uneven, dark (no lights at all), strewn with small sharp rocks sticking out of nowhere, and yes, the general hissing and chirping of nocturnal creatures (ok, they do scare me a bit). Coming back to what upset me... I had taken the shortcut knowing fully well that it was fraught with these dangers. ...

This guy's pretty clear about his intentions... Somewhere around Jogeshwari Railway Station (East) #ABC POSTCARD 09/31

Every morning, on my way to work, I see this physically challenged guy who sits on the Goregaon railway station bridge selling ballpoint pens out of a briefcase. He also has a slight problem with communication and is not always coherent. Yesterday, he was still making his way upstairs when he saw an old lady perched on his spot to beg, and he started yelling at her to get out of there. This was obviously his ' space ', and she wasn't a regular. Watching that moment unfold, I realised how 'space' is such an important concept to humans. We crave physical, mental, or spiritual space at various times in life.  Fighting for space? Clicked at KGAF 2010 In the chaos we call Mumbai, there's always someone asking you to "shift" your butt to squeeze themselves onto that non-existent "fourth" seat in a packed train compartment. We spend all of our hard-earned monies on EMIs for a home loan that buy us matchbox-size dwellings. Our footpaths are e...

The ubiquitous black-and-yellow autorickshaws in Mumbai are a favourite subject of mine. We love them, we hate them, we argue with their drivers who refuse fares, we curse the ones which splash us with muck, and then we thank an assortment of deities as the rickshaws here are still a blessing as compared to other Indian cities. So I thought of putting together a specific series of posts dedicated to the three-wheelers that help keep my city ticking. It's called Rick-rolled! Yes, the name's inspired by a crazy internet meme which I learnt about a few months ago, courtesy Twitter - my current source of knowledge, current affairs and whatnot. Have you ever been rickrolled ? Basically, it's when someone entices you to view something on the internet, and then the link turns out to a video of Rick Astley's debut single Never Gonna Give You Up. Anyway, I'm doing something totally different here. See: Touch me? Hawww! #ABC POSTCARD 07/31

I had started on a post last night, but got distracted for a few minutes and the brother shut down the laptop without telling me. Grrr.  Anyway, there's no time to really write a proper post today, and this week is going to be super hectic. I can already feel it. Add to it, I've just been told that I might have to come in to work on Sunday 14th August because we are short-staffed that day (we work in the 'live' sports space so we're pretty much 24x7). Usually, I don't have a problem with pitching in. But this upcoming weekend also happens to be one of the rare 3-day weekends on account of our Independence Day holiday on Monday, 15th August. I was planning to run off to Pune, visit a temple town called Wai which has been on the cards since forever, and basically just chill out.  Sigh! All plans under a cloud now. On that note, happy Monday to you. #ABC POSTCARD 06/31

"I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot."                                                                                   ~ Marilyn Monroe I'm lagging behind by a day on our August Blogging Challenge. And I just couldn't think of anything to write about... when I remembered this one post I've always wanted to do. About shoes. More specifically, *my* shoes. Let it be known that I was never a footwear fanatic. I don't remember any sole favourites as I was growing up simply because I never had much choice. My feet were always too large for kids my age, and too broad to fit dainty girly stuff. Also, having to wear black leather, and later brown canvas shoes as part of my school uniforms five days a week ensured I didn't really miss out on much. My indiffere...

Thursday writer's block, eh? Lo and Di haven't written post #4 yet. And it looks like we are either busy or bereft of ideas. I'm definitely suffering from both. And I have no clue what to write today. Every morning, I think *this* might make a good topic, or *that* absolutely needs to go on the blog. But neither this nor that makes it because there are too many things to do at the same time. And it's so bloody difficult to write with this ABC sword hanging over my head. It's really funny though... Two people whose blogs I really enjoy reading (and who had gone quiet for their own reasons) showed up on my Google Reader yesterday/today. Surprise, surprise! Here they are: That's What She Says . I've known F since our church youth group days, and her writing is refreshing and inspiring. She's now a mum to an adorable little fella, and also turned British (How could you, F? :P) and I'm hoping she finds some time to capture her new experiences regularly...

My previous post had a reference to Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - the film. It's beautifully shot in Spain, and has a lively soundtrack. Must watch. Also, if you like Javed Akhtar's poetry. And three hot actors! :) This is one of the funniest scenes in the movie where Farhan and Abhay are referring to a teacher from their school days and his way of pronouncing English words. Thought of sharing: And here's a clip of Khwaabon Ke Parinday - one of the songs: #ABC P OSTCARD  03/31

Our Monday Managers' Meetings (MMM) now have a little interesting something to them. Each week, one of the managers is expected to run a small activity for the group. The activity could be anything - a game, a quiz, brainstorming for an idea, showcasing a video or slides on a relevant topic or something totally fun. At one such meeting, the following was the exercise: 1. Describe your biggest fear to the group, and what you do to counter it. 2. Also, mention one of your most memorable achievements ever. Both had me thinking hard. I'm sure I have fears - some even irrational - but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what I was going to say. Finally, here's what I said: fear of falling. As in physically falling down. I do have this weird feeling that I might just fall flat on my face one day and end up with a terrible injury. I also remember waking up in the middle of the night sometimes to find my feet fighting for ground as I was dreaming of falling. How do I ...