Postcards From J

It's less than two hours to a brand new year. 2018! Gosh, isn't that something? Why did I decide to sit in front of a laptop and type this? I don't know. And no, I didn't even have some major breakthrough to talk about either.  Has it been a great year? Ummm... in bits and pieces. Like most of my recent years. What defines a "great year" anyway? 365 days of being happy? Can anyone ever claim to be happy or fulfilled every day of the year? Okay, I'm rambling now. Before I sign out, here are some highlights of 2017: - I grew up. Yes, I lived alone for the most part and I learned what 'adulting' really was. I have lived alone for a while now, but this year was really the test. During 2015-16, there was a lot going on. I travelled to a few countries on work and also for holidays in 2015 and the next year, the family was down as my niece was born here and that was the major focus for everyone at home. And then September 2016, the family vani...

Take a chill pill and maybe some of these too! (Image Source: Unknown; Don't sue me!) In no particular order: # Listen to some upbeat music and sing your favourite lyrics out loud. # Or just DANCE - even if you have two left feet like mine. Here's my current jam: # Think of parents, family, friends, just about anyone who loves you - pretty much unconditionally. # Read old, funny IM conversations you've had with your favourite people. Like the ones I have with Lo and DC... So much entertainment!  (Thank God for search functionality within chat apps) # Check out the Instagram 'Explore' tab and discover interesting people and their feeds. Some of the super accounts I follow: mumbaipaused , marsder , petesouza . Go, check them out NOW. # Dream of Japan.  (Insert your own dream destination.) Somewhere along the Hanshin Expressway, Kobe - Japan | December 2015 # Count your blessings. Be grateful. EVERY DAY. # Pray. Without an agenda...

For some unexplained reason, I've been wanting to blog all day. Write a few lines at the very least. Or at least cheat with some pictures on the photo blog (which needs to be revived). But NOTHING. It's well past 3 AM and I am still wide awake. Dammit. Reading (or trying to read) as many things being thrown at me by the world wide web*! And you know where that leads you... Straight into insomnia hell. Well, I think I'll just go back to reading and dreaming of that next holiday. My desk looks calm, but my mind is all over the place. Okay, enough. Thanks for stopping by. :) ~j~ *PS: National Geographic Traveller India has some great content, by the way. Their social pages on Facebook and Twitter are constantly pushing out features which are quite refreshing. Just thought you should know, especially if you love travel! #NotASponsoredMessage

Wake me up when September... oh wait, even October has ended! Wow... time really flies. Two months to 2015! Imagine that. I have spent the better part of 2014 drowning in work. Most of it, in just one project. ONE massive project culminating in December. When I look back at this year, I feel so many emotions. Love. Hatred. Frustration. Dejection. Pride. Happiness. Sadness. Depression. At so many different levels. But I also feel blessed in many ways. Some power above me has looked after me in moments of despair and need. Things clicked when they weren't supposed to. And of course, I am truly grateful for my family and friends who made my life a little easier. While I continue being busy over the next seven weeks, I do have a few interesting non-work things to look forward to. For starters, Dilip D'Souza - amazing writer and a friend - releases his latest book, ' Final Test: Exit Sachin Tendulkar ' this weekend. I hope to make it to the event. In any case, don...

Birthdays, I tell you. They creep up on you. Just like that. But hey! I'm actually not feeling anything about getting older this year. :)  CPK's Red Velvet Cake. Delish. As for my day yesterday, it was the usual. But we (family) did go to California Pizza Kitchen in BKC for dinner. I've been there a few times before, and the menu's just about alright. The only reason we went there was we didn't want to travel all the way to Bandra West or Andheri West during the peak traffic hours. And of course, for the red velvet cake. It is delicious. For a pizza place to be excelling in something else... haha! But you have to try it out. I quite love it. So, another year goes by. Kris assured me, "you aren't getting older, you're just getting better".  And then when I was being silly, RB reminded me, " oye champ! sometimes i get inspired by you to live the "good life". age is just a number, remember? ;)" Phone...

Life - and the world wide web - have a funny way of throwing answers at you when certain questions plague your very existence. From one of the zillion newsletters I signed up for, here's a quote that spoke straight to me: "You may think that taking a detour in life is a waste of time and energy, but you can also see the detour as a means of learning more about who you are and where you are heading in your life. Being off the beaten path may be disorienting and confusing at times, yet it challenges your creative spirit to discover new and different ways to get back home, into your heart; for your heart is your real home." -- Andreas Moritz Maybe it's time. Time for that detour. 

Hi there! Happy New Year! I know I am three days late with the wishing, but you see I had to travel on an urgent work assignment at very short notice. In fact, I returned on 31st December from a whirlwind 4-day trip of Mangalore - two of which were spent in the train to and fro - and flew out for the assignment on New Year's Day. While I can't disclose where I am at the moment, here's a picture postcard for you. :) This is a little moment I captured for myself today. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year celebration. December 2012 vanished in a blur for me thanks to all the weddings I had to attend. I am feeling a bit jaded and am currently battling a sore throat. Hope to be alright soon and also to get back to blogging about a couple of exciting experiences.  Catch you later, ~j~ PS: I quite like the place I am staying in right now. More importantly, I am enjoying this living-out-of-a-suitcase business. Let's see for how long though. ...

The city has been pounded by relentless rain since Monday bringing life to a pathetic crawl. Imagine Goregaon to Andheri by car on the Western Express Highway taking three hours! Yes, three hours. And we were supposedly in the non-traffic direction. But when there's water-logging, it just doesn't matter which direction you're in. It's the famous Bombay monsoon. Hard. Cruel. Unforgiving. Not romantic, these rains at all. (#note2self: sue the movies for making us believe it's so wonderful to get soaked). And it continues to rain as I tap at my keyboard now. Monday was also THE day for an important decision that had to be made. More on that in time to come. Ironically, I had tweeted late Sunday night about wanting to give up something and that I was open to suggestions. Replies ranged from Twitter (hahaha, not yet!) to rickshaws (one day, someday...), from maida to sugar (totally doable, but needs motivation) and from swearing (which I don't do anyway but tha...

Hi there! This evening, I'm off to Mohammad Ali Road and its environs for the annual food extravaganza during Ramadhan. Here are a couple of old posts I had done on the experience in the past: My first trip ever:  Fasting, Feasting .  Last year's iftaar tweet-up: Eat Street . And Fast Food - a favourite photo of mine (not from a technical perspective, but for how it eventually turned out with its limitations). Today, I'm accompanying a new group - most of them known via Twitter - to the southern corner of the city. It's Friday night, and I'm expecting it to be a bit crazy with the crowds. So, let's see how it goes. Will try and update this post on Monday or so. Not tonight or the weekend because I'm off to Kolad for an  overnight   'adventure' trip tomorrow. I was supposed to take it easy this week, but the social engagements have just been piling up one after the other since Monday. I really need to learn the art of saying NO...

23 days into the fifth month of the year, and I'm wondering where did the days go. And I also realise that I haven't blogged at all this May. Largely, I've been busy with domestic duties and a few social engagements. You'd be surprised to see how much housework can take out of you! May - when flowers explode with colour! In other news, we had a really wonderful writing class at MCubed Library a few weeks ago. And you know what? I discovered that I could write a bit of fiction (meaning something that didn't get inspired by my own life experiences). And that really thrilled me no end. I'm feeling horrible, though, for not doing a round-up of that and the previous meet-up of DD's Travel Writing Bus. Maybe I should combine the two in one post? Maybe. Fingers crossed. And then, earlier this week, a few of us dropped in at I-Bar at Bandra Reclamation (never knew it was packed with so many F&B outlets) for Music at The Big Mic - a platform fo...

Dreamt that I went back to Class 10 in school to study all over again with the same classmates in our present avatars. — vodkaholic (@vodkaholic) April 29, 2012 I rarely recall my dreams. Encouraged by @krist0ph3r who asked me to blog about the one I tweeted about (see above), here are the details:  We are seated in one of the 10th Standard classrooms of my school. No uniforms. My best friend in school, P, is also there. Strangely, I can't recall any other 'faces' or 'names' but it felt like everyone was attending. We were definitely there to study. Definitely not a reunion. P says that now with her child (a son), she's not sure how regular she'll be at class. While I, the single one, am quite enthusiastic about studying again. Suddenly, I notice my bag/books are actually missing. Even my mobile phone is not there. Thinking that I left it somewhere on the school premises, I leave the classroom. First, I go and meet Ravi - the school watchman....

"Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,  The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush.   Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,   So early in the morning..." And then I learned that mulberries don't grow on a bush. Ok. My first memory - and the only one till recently - of the mulberry tree is from childhood. Probably as far back as 20-25 years at least. That tree was in a neighbouring compound but its branches hung over the wall that separated its owners and one of the buildings in our colony. Behind Building No. 2 actually. Where the water tank was. Still is. We'd sit on the tank surface to play make-believe games like Teacher-Teacher and House-House (was the word repetition for effect?). And during the hot summers, we'd happily fight for the red mulberries that were within our tiny grasps. Red because we were impatient. Red because we didn't trust birds or insects or friends enough to let them survive to be purpley-black-sweet. Along with the ti...

No, that's not a typo in the title.  Last year was not the best by any stretch of the imagination. Except for the Indian cricket team winning the World Cup (which didn't really excite me), most of the time we were plagued by rising inflation, rude rickshaw drivers, and an apathetic government. On the personal front, I've had a tough year too - coming to terms with a new role, taking on a crazy project, learning and unlearning so much, an injured ankle (which bothers me even now), still dealing with questions of age and marriage while everyone around is getting hitched and making babies. (But I'm more grateful for the tough times. Those are the experiences that enrich me.) Sadly, we also lost many notable legends who made immense contributions in their respective fields. The names that spring to mind: MF Hussain, Shammi Kapoor, Jagjit Singh, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Dev Anand, Jehangir Sabavala, Bhupen Hazarika, Mario Miranda, and internationally, Peter Roebuc...