Travel Itch

I have a travel itch. A longing that occupies my mind day and night. My heart takes me to Calcutta, my feet take me to Delhi, my wishes take me to Bangalore and my prayers (at least!) to Goa.

I want to experience new sights, new sounds, new cultures, new food. I love Mumbai and I love my home, but I want to deepen this love by missing it once in a while too! ;-)

What ish!!

"What ish?" is my most favourite phrase off late!

My 3 year old niece is in this very cute “What is?” phase and very enthusiastic about it of course. What she does is every time she is at a new place, she goes ahead and explores things there and screams “What is?” for every new thing.


For example, we were at a school for a weekend program and there was this display board where students’ drawings were displayed. She pulled me to that board because she was enthused by the colours and the simplicity of the drawings, made me lift her into my arms and pointed at everything one by one and asked “What is?”

And when I told her, she had to repeat it in that oh-so-cute voice that has not lost its baby lisp. So “butterfly” becomes “butterthy”, flower pot becomes “thower pot”, boat becomes “boath” and so on. More than anything else, it’s the sheer enthusiasm to learn something new!

Every time she showed that repeated something in this voice, I just felt like hugging and kissing her (and of course I gave into the impulse about 99% of the times).

Fear

Fear! Mind boggling.....heart stopping....breath hitching....all consuming fear....fear that makes you want to cry.....gnash you teeth...rip your heart out....anything that will stop it.....fear that has no faith behind it to control it...watch over it.....fear.....that fears nothing...such fear...such weakness....

Fear..such fear...on a day when you should be rejoicing...when everyone around you expects it to be the happiest day of your life....where everyone around you is celebrating and expects you to be at the fore and do so too.....such fear and you are dancing and smiling when all you want to do is cry....cry till it pours out of you...but can't. Fear where you have no one else to listen to you....when you are afraid to be judged....and mistaken and so you have to hide it..... fear...and no faith....

All in a Day's Work: Lost in Translation

So I am working on a project on employee benefits in a certain country....in South East Asia and I am trying to translate the content on one of the websites to understand the health cover offered by the Statutory benefits.

Now I come across the maternity benefits offered and the literal translation of one of the lines is labour action.....I stare at that for 5 minutes and then I realise its actually delivery!

Blame me if you can for laughing because ironically thats a better translation than the word deliver....yeah it can get pretty violent! :-)

2 A.M. Flash!

You know how in life there are some things you are absolutely sure you should do, and there are some things you are absolutely sure you shouldn't do.

Then there are some, which you can't be sure whether to indulge in them or not. Though they add some stress to life, the day you stop having those things in life that fall in this category, is the day your life probably ends as there is no edge, no mystery, no uncertainty that adds the spice to living!

So keep stumbling along, all your decisions are half chances anyways. So are everyone else's!

Delhi Diaries 3: Of Old Friendships

This post has been ebbing and wanting to see the day light (or more like my desktop) for long. But ah time! Wish there were 48 hours in a day....but I digress. So the third post on my experiences in Delhi is to a lovely one hour that I was able to steal with a really lovely friend of mine, who was kind enough to travel an hour and a half one way, to come meet me because I was a stranger to the city.

I clearly remember the last day of college, almost three years back, when we had gone to collect our marksheets, photos, certificates and other paraphelenia which were to become the longest lasting bonds probably with Xavier's (ahhhh Xavier's). That was the last time I had seen Radhika, someone I had shared some classes, some common thoughts and a lot of great memories with. We've been in touch with each other over the past three years via email and occassionally over the phone, but being in different cities, it had been quite some time that we had actually seen each other.

Meeting Radhika was like being engulfed into a warm memory like the one that comes you on a rainy day when you are curled under your blanket and can smell the wet mud. It helped me go back to a time, a phase of my life that I really cherish and in a way miss like hell. There were memories and there was catching up, but most of all there was the comfort of a friendship and common "heritage"...a fresh breath of air.

Thanks Radhika for that wonderful hour, I really really appreciate your gesture!

Delhi Diaries: The Story of My Induction

 DAY ONE:

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 DAY TWO:

 DAY 3 ONWARDS: TILL DAY 7

Survived through most of this due to great company!!