Buying a car keeping in mind the stature of the driver.....

Indira Nooyi moment.... you can be as successful as you want... but when the gas leaks in the house you are still required.... Gosh... some things in life dont change.... DO you believe in the power of curses? Does it really work? Apparently if you curse, you also harm yourself....

Year 2014 ....... I could do with some more of you..... am I falling?

WHat do you regret the most in life? I saw a video recently on a news channel website and it got me thinking... I never believed I had regrets.... till i saw that video... and it got me thinking... one of the first things I thot of was how much i regretted spending time with the wrong people.... wasted time figuring out how to make it work when there were sooooo many clear signs that the other person didnt want to make it work at all.... now I could put that down as my stupidity also..... but the persons involved also cannot claim to be totally upfront about their intentions... yes, my time spent with the wrong people and investing in building that relationship (which was never reciprocated) is something I will regret for my entire life... some people say at least you had a good time... but to that I say... I did... when I thot the feelings were genuine.... but now that I know the feelings were far from genuine and were just convenient, it reduces soooo much of that feel good factor.... do you agree? would you say spending time with someone who turns out to be not geniune to you is a thing to regret? I also regret not doing things for myself many times.... things that I could have done which would have enhanced my life and my experiences so much more...perhaps studying more... perhaps taking care of my health more... perhaps taking an interest in life outside of my work more.... Is there anyway I can erase all of this?

There is no Burmese Kowsuey!

Imagine that! Here restaurants after restaurants serve what is fashionably called "Burmese Khowsuey"... and I discovered that Burma does not have any of that... Ok to start at the very beginning ... I went to Burma on work... at first I was apprehensive... since my trip to neighbouring N

epal was far from a dream.. it was really really backward... Burma was a different ball game altogether... Yangon was clean, nice, leafy city... and the people were so nice on top of it.... not even once did I feel fear walking on the streets of Yangon at night... despite the various stories fed to us.... the military junta ensured that the crime was controlled.... as always I did not take my good camera... and the one that I had also ran out of charge... but the place was so beautiful I just had to click as much as I could.... also much to my surprise I realised that the burmese use the same script as the SOuth Indian languages! so it was like walking through SOuth Indian temples when it was actually Burmese pagodas... one more thing I managed to do was to see the last living quarters of the last mughal emperor.. bahadur shah zafar.. his tomb is so descript and unassuming that I cannot imagine how small the mughal dynasty had become...

Some pics of Mumbai on Diwali... I am slowly getting my lens eye back... hopefully more to come...

Today is Baby George's bday! cant believe 7 years ago he was such a tiny little one .. and now he is all of 7 years!! And now there is a more famous Baby George in the world and yet my Baby George is my special one... Here's to you Baby George... for showing me that I can like children! haha

ZERO DOUBLES

There is something about life coming a full circle that is so true... recent events have made me acknowledge that (in the most grateful manner).... peace....

Acceptance and expectation management are the two ingredients to a peaceful life.... guess I have finally realised what Buddha was saying all along.... Desire is the root cause of all misery...

Well I have been keeping off many things over the last few months... photography for example... i have no idea but I suddenly lost all enthu for the activity.... and I ignored that completely... as also blogging.... I just lost that creativity.... but this weekend some of that returned... perhaps it was because I was in Nepal and so many things seemed worth capturing... and the sad part was that I didnt have my camera with me and hence had to make do with my phone camera....

Kathmandu is a small little mumbai... equally crowded, dirty and chaotic.... with spattering of tourists walking around.... the best part is in the outskirts ... Bhaktapur and Patan to be precise.... what lovely cities I must say... full of lovely sculptures and architecture..... I could continue to stare for a long time.....  Nepal is like a distant cousin of India... somewhat same lang, same gene pool, same customs.... and even our currency works there except for the 1000 rupee notes.... and like all small towns of India all attempts were made to cater to the tourists with some hilarious consequences.... for instance there was the "facebook restaurant"... prompting my friend to comment on whether there was some violation of copyright there..... back of the trucks with the words "dont tuch".... similar to our "horn ok please"....

came back to Mumbai feeling grateful for the small things in life.... here are some pics from my camera.... so no judging

 

A friend just told me that from childhood they were told that they were the best and hence there could never be any doubt in their minds about their self worth and any insecurities...

is that the best way to bring up a child? I am all for self confidence boosting efforts but to make your child believe that they are always right? is that bordering on arrogance??

In a way I guess it is better than being plagued with doubts about yourself.... and wondering whether the other people know more than you.... 

Sometimes you should just accept good enough as being the best.... life is that strange...

Didnt realise that some inalienable truths in life actually were not truths... that there are beliefs that need to be changed... and there are attitudes that need to be changed based on what the circumstances are.....

Am searching for that 16 year old girl who set out to carve out a life for herself in the world... who thot that she would conquer all challenges and move all mountains... who never let the world make her believe that she was secondary to anyone... who marched on... irrespective of the jibes that came her way... who wanted to scale new heights... who never thot gender would be an issue..

where has that girl disappeared?? who killed her?

what do you value the most in a person (personally and professionally)?

For me the most important thing is simplicity... no fuss, complications, angst... just simple... added to that is the requirement to have a person with integrity...

rest I think I can deal with in some measure... except anger and violence...

what do you do when a precious and long term relationship turns difficult or sour... and you just cant seem to relate to each other anymore but both have care and concern for each other... what do you do? you are unhappy, they are left feeling sad that they are making you unhappy.... what is left to do now...

Wait and ride out the storm?? everyone says that......

Really Shreeshanth can get all those women hovering around him only cos of cricket??? Cricket was invented by God to be a babe magnet for ugly men I can see....sorry fellow keralite, I seriously dont have much respect for you...

 

I saw the movie Ashiqui 2 over the weekend...and I have to say that the movie was nothing to write home about.... amateur acting and really tried and tested story.... what was however amazing was that this story was about romance.... and in my view there was nothing but torture in the movie...

the story is very simple... a successful alcholic singer discovers poor, cant feed her parents, girls and gives her the opportunity that you dream of... the girl becomes successful and the boy and girl fall in love... and then the boy develops a complex (not sure what it is about) and starts drinking uncontrollably ... and the girl is left feeling completely lost as to what she did wrong... even on the awards night, he drives past her and doesnot wish her at all... and she runs after him like a puppy dog to see what she can do to help him!!! and he then reforms himself for a while and supports the girl... only to spiral out of control when someone tempts him with a bottle and accuses him of having sexual relations with the girl!!! Seriously???? This is modern India and having sex is not taboo anymore people!!!

The girl goes into a tizzy trying to control his drinking... and even endures him throwing her out of his house... and she sits outside his door and says "I love you!"... yeah, thats one thumps up for womens right.. get beaten and say that to your boyfriend immediately.... she cries, she loses sleeps etc trying to get him to be better... and at one point sacrifices her career for him... she reneges on all contracts just to be with her man ... and even tells her agent that for her "love is more important than career"... I half had the heart to ask her "will you eat love when you are hungry?? Woman, dont you remember you could not even afford to buy rice before your career started".... the agent also tries telling her that she should not waste her life with a drunkard and she shoudl take care of her career... and she refuses to leave his side...

the only redeeming part of the story is that the man realises that he is actually an impediment on her and her success....and commits suicide!!! At which point I felt like screaming out "dude, you did all this drama only to commit suicide???"...... but the important thing is that she was set free by his suicide....

This story is the story of innumerable women in the world... who are with incompetent men and who feel guilty about being so ... and show men that they will adjust and be inferior to them... and take all the stress of being with him in the hope of getting him to be happy... Women are the caregivers... and they care enough to support the man and see him through the worst.... all for what??? to be with the morose, incompetent, insecure, spineless man ? in the process losing all the definition of self that the woman held till she married this man...

Sometimes it is difficult to see the beauty of Mumbai.... actually it is not that difficult to see Mumbai as being only dirty... I have to confess however that ever since I came back from my secondment, my view, attitude and feelings towards Mumbai drastically changed... I had suddenly become critical... almost like the relationship was turning sour... I could find no beauty in anything in Mumbai... A city which not so long back meant the world to me and which made me feel secure was suddenly irritating me... I hated the noise, the pollution, dirty roads and even the people!

Mumbai had suddenly become tooo small for me... there was nothing exciting about mumbai... even the beach began to irritate me cos of its dirt and people's liberal access to it... the systems which seemed to punish people for their simple basic needs... I was fed up...

not that life in mumbai is any better.. but there is some merit in accepting something with all their flaws.... same case for Mumbai.... 

Women took a giant leap, crossed the hurdle and... somehow landed in a puddle...

It is indeed tough being a woman.... I cant emphasise that enough... its a harassment on a daily basis... and constant pressure to be of service to society.... like we have nothing better to do ...

which is why when I hear about commitment phobic men, I wonder - dude? what is wrong with you? we are the ones who should be avoiding any commitment...given that it comes with such unforgiving responsibility, possible loneliness (if the hubby is an ass which is very likely), tension on an every day basis, responsibility for bringing up the new generation and lets face it, at the end of the day, no thank yous...

and women crave for this?? to take on all this added responsibility?? for what???