100 happy days challenge

I came across this website 100 happy days from my ex roomate who posted a pic in FB saying its her room that makes her happy #day1 and #100happydays. I was curious and logged into check what this was all about. Once I opened the website http://100happydays.com/ It was pretty cool and it challenged me whether I can be happy for 100 days in a row and probably realize how even small things matter. It does not have to be a nobel prize to give you a happiness kick. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you shouldnt cheat, else you are just wasting your time.

It has been just couple of days I have been into it. My first take on it is, it is blatantly staring in our face that our lives are so super busy and schedules dont allow us to waste time. Or what most of us think of as wasting time is actually what matter. This we havent realized.

Probably initial few days I would have so much to brag about that it makes me happy. When I thought further that is when I realized, things either get repetitive or you start to have a need to fake the happiness. Are you gonna say your job ... Really.. Dude think hard. You keep cribbing about it and the whole world knows about it. So are you gonna cheat saying my life is awesomer that yours. And this is totally not a competition where we are gonna win over others by proving how happy we are.

Second thing that hit me hard was - I need to share a photo of the thing that is making me so happy in that particular day. Then post it in a social site like FB or Twitter. I started facing the problem that either I am not able to click pic of that thing or not able to describe it or I am not able to access the social media from office or simply forgot to put my entry for the day. Well doesnt this describe our life in short.

Every year I take a resolution that I would call my mom everyday or be nice to my neighbours or will never loose temper. But then I realised I would simply forget after few days, not that I didnt want to put the effort but it just goes away from my mind. How much ever simple it might seem, I realized this is a tough contest and 100 days seems  long. But that is where the fun lies.

Well what are you waiting for.. are you up for the challenge. Lets see you at the finishing line. Hope to be wiser if not saner :)

Hippies bole hadippa in Hyderabad

It was my roommate's wedding. Well it was the perfect filmy wedding that one could have asked for. Ladka ladki close friends, go on a trip to a perfect destination Leh Ladakh, ladki about to get married, ladka confesses, ladki well accepts, convinces gharwale to cancel the engagement ( in real cinema it would have been the wedding but this is more blood and flesh so itna'ich milega ) Two happy families that lived happily ever after ( atleast till now and i believe they will do so :)  )

You know what a love story does to my heart ... it makes me go swoooshhhh. To add it the wedding is in Hyderabad where my roomie was from. ( Most of my roomies were from there :P so this is one of the roomie who just had the awesomest story and the guy was also our colleague :P so all the better ) My office bestie agreed to accompany me to the wedding. Well bestie and roomie added each other on FB after the wedding that is good enough of an acquaintance to go all the way down south for celebrations, free food and exploring.

 This trip means a lot to me because I am finicky. Finicky about travels. I spend my most time, energy and resources planning for one thing - trips and I need it to be perfect - "The people i go with". How much ever i show that I am fine with any company, any sorta trip. well the truth is... it is never enough. I need it to be just perfect. Just enough luxury, just enough time, just enough spend and maximum adventure and more of all maximum flexibility to accommodate numerous last moment additions to see more in the time we had. Basically give it all to the trip and not laze around. And loads and loads of pictures. It forms my memories. Each place we went, probably capture all the situational jokes. And Closest - one can come to was my bestie. Enough i cant give more credit here. Sorry boss!!!

Because it was a marriage between colleagues there was a whole battalion that was planning to come. Just that my plan was to go ahead, utilize the weekend.I had taken KC's camera.

We left mumbai and reached hyd at 4 am. Till the previous late night we hadnt confirmed with the bride that we are reaching and had no clue about where to go. Well yours truely forgot her invitation copy at home. :D

The bride herself ( this is the nth time i am typing bride as bridge :P ) came to pick us up. She wanted a break from all the pampering. :) I thought we girls never get tired of pampering. The first impression of the city was pretty good. The wide roads got me to awe. Even as we reached the house, there was still no decoration. We just realized we are too early for the wedding :P We went inside, met everyone, had COFFEE, Filter Coffee. Let me just say it once more I had filter coffee :) We looked around this palacial place that I have been hearing about for last 4 years and we then settled in her house for planning. We realized she herself has not stayed in the city to know lot of stuff :P Well even I have been there once so I knew only an iota less than her :P Enters Bhabhi. She is this most awesomest person I have ever met. Always elegant, keeping her cool against the hyper lot we were. She knew the city inside out. We charted out our plan with help of google maps. We took bath, ate home made and mom made upma with hyderabadi achars - Yummm

The idea was to cover Salar Jung Museum, eat authentic biriyani, loaf around Charminar, Chudibazaar and
Birla Mandir
NTR Garden
Hussain Sagar Lake
Lumbini Gardens
Himayat Sagar Lake
Tank Bund
Eat Street
Abids
Karachi Bakery

Day 2: Ramoji Film City and returned in time for sangeet and all the dancing around
Day 3: Catching up with friends and actual wedding festivities
Day 4: Golconda Fort and return back in time to catch train


After this trip I was not able to plan anything much with bestie. According to me I would wait for a fun trip rather than just compromise on the quality :) Coz not many can understand travel, exploring is adventure to many but its a religion to few.

Famously Fuming

There are two types of streotyping that can be done. I dont know the tehnicalities :P so lets call it positive and negative. Both bring publicity. Positive: could be "oh she is a leader", "she is positive influence" etc.
Negative would be Justin Beiber or Twilight etc :P You get the point right!

Life was too flat. _________________________________________________ Well I was alive but still it was flat or rather the happenings were too small an impact to be noticeable :P Office has forgotten me for all the work related thing I should have been known for ( You can smell some amt of arrogance :P ) I tried to bring myself to everyone's attention.

I reached out to my VP and asked for new proj. Well it doesnt work that easily. Well it need not work this difficult also :P He thought i was vella and assigned me to some SME. SME actually thought me to be an actual Subject Matter Expertise coz the VP assigned me. I imagined that the SME even doubted his capabilty as I was assigned :P It is good to imagine life to be so good!!!

We started working on Organizational wide initiative but then in due course it was converted into a competition to bring the best in people who were working. The flaw here was the actual workers didnt even know there was a competition. :P First draft was submitted. Keeping my fingers crossed that whether mine would be accepted. This category features in top 3. Not entirely because of me but I was part of a winning team. I now smell team spirit.

The results were to be announced in Quaterly Business Meet. I asked all my colleagues to be come and cheer me. Imagine on the day of QBM, my friends are waiting for results of SME work to be announced. They mention about some fun awards like Clark Kent, James Bond, Charlie Chaplin, Happy Feet and I win Happy Feet. I am supposed to be the positive one. I spread positive influence on others and an ideal employee. After this was announced, my whole group was pondering if i was the benchmark of happiness/satisfaction in organization, then imagine others :P or If this was the case then why even try to improve my flat life :P

The whole idea was like a viscious circle. We walked to canteen absent mindedly. People were staring at me. That was not a good stare ( in my idea) Someone said You sing well. "Sing????" I was little unaware of crazy things i have done a few days before. When I was trying to spice up things in office professionally :P. I performed a jingle. We had our own lyrics to fit an existing song. Ok Let me out with it. It was a Justin Beiber song. OK let me confess it was nicki minaj and justin beiber song. One of the artist would be enough to attract all criticism. I thought the idea behind the video was to showcase fun at work etc. It is out in youtube. and now everyone knows me. I am not sure if i am happy being so famous. Now probably I know why stars wear shades to hide themselves :P

Lessons learnt from a failed relationship

When someone goes through breakup - lot of gyaan is given. Even otherwise we give gyaan but the philosophy quotient on these gyaan tends to be real high. These are typically moments that we can laugh about in the future. Forget about the heart breaks and heart aches, but I am just talking about what we get out of failed relationships.

Initial Reactions:

1. Grudge: how can s/he ditch me? how dare s/he? these are general feelings that swell up inside. Hate the person, hate the world, hate the things lovey dovey and hate all those same things that was so cute somewhile ago.
2. Sadness, Low self esteem. well this should have been in number 1, but i just liked to start off with something strong :) Most of them are in dumps and try hard to get up.
3. Rebels: the rebels tend to ruin things for themselves. Do things just opposite of what they would have done sanely. New habits are formed. might lead to addiction.
4. Loneliness: Well there is a big vaccum created by the person who left you. Not just that but you have not been keeping in touch with your friends, bcoz you wanted to spend extra special time with the special person. So now you dont have a face to reach out to them. ( well just an scenario but it works with majority of normal couples :P ) If not this you will be in "no one understands me phase"
5. eat a lot :) i personally love this part. I would use this an excuse even otherwise

If in teen phase, then you become a love guru.

In the end, everyone learns to be strong, be aware of things or move on etc. But this one is a little different.

Well the story in hand is about a girl Alia who had passion for painting. err the painter??? Ok lets assume she loved the paints and the colours. She couldnt do much paint anything more than the usual 2 mountains, a valley - river that flows between, that would come to plains where there would be a hut with a lone tree outside. a door or a window. It would depict a sunset, with few birds flying in the horizon. Before i forget there would be a boat and oars. many a times there would be no one rowing the boat even though it is placed in the middle of the river. To bring variety there would be bushes around the house. She painted the same stuff through school and few competitions.

When she went to college and  in final year, she met Vikram. Dont jump to conclusions, no sparks flew. Nothing intersting really happened. She went to study further and so did Vikram abroad. Alia was Vikram's lucky charm or so he thought so. or even Alia thought Vikram thought so. :P He came down a few times and met her. She tried to summarize her whole year into few hours of coffee. Time obviously flew, well assuming Alia had an eventful year. But when it was time to part, it was tough. Next year it worsened! They had lesser in common to talk about. What she thought as eventful was not that interesting for Vikram and vice versa. As far as goodbyes go that also changed. It became tougher. Forget tougher they said it a 2 digit times before they actually walked away in diff directions. They came out, Goodbye. Well let me walk you a little ahead. Goodbye. I can take auto from still further. Goodbye. Oh it started to rain. Goodbye.

When Vikram was talking, Alia totally missed it that he had started painting. She was still remembering what all he needed to know about her. Now that Vikram was back to his home, he gets totally engrossed into what he loves the most - Painting. Alia didnt have a passion or a hobby of her own. One thing she was good at - encouraging. Vikram just got better and better. He reached a pro level. Started taking it seriously, took classes. He started making money out of it. :) Good money. Real good money. Nothing else seemed to matter to him. In between all these they tried to work out the unrealistically optimistic relationship knowing where it would lead to.

Vikram was living the dream - no literally. All he could think was painting - idea, concept, colours. More he painted less he was part of this world. Alia would have imagined him like tha painter guy in Heroes - who dopes and paints the future. :P That was not main concern, but they were having lesser and lesser in common to make this work. Chats became dry. At one point it all boiled down to liking his painting in social networking site and on few occasions comments. He did appreciate her enthusiasm and encouragement. His enthusiasm reduced from painting for her to painting and telling her first to just posting it.

Alia wanted to give it a last shot. She started the artist approach. He is a painter he would appreciate art, she tried excelling in something that came close to passion - singing. So that they are both pursuing something - same roadblock, same encouragement and same artisty passion. But things didnt work out the way she expected. :) Just that Vikram didnt seem to get her art. Or he didnt bother. She had only one option - start painting and ask him to guide. Feedback sessions would get the conversation back to where it was. It worked for a while and then she just realized Vikram's first love will always be painting. She didnt want the friendship they had to go awfully bad. All she did was step back.

But she didnt realize, she had herself gone deep into this form of art. She started expressing stuff better. It gave her the calmness. She was able to unclutter her thoughts better. Remove all stress. It got her the attention she needed in social network. Sometimes she hit road block but then there were times when her creativity was at heights. One of her other friend started helping a lot. Together they discovered her style of painting. Few commission came through :) Vikram started to notice her good work. He does guide her.

I dont think you need more details on whether they lived happily ever after or not :P who cares. The point i was trying to make was we are most definitely influenced positively by people in our lives. Sometimes two people are not meant to be together but then sab shayar bante hain apni aalia painter ban gayee ;)

Marathon??? Again??? Ok??? Why Dilli???

After last year's torture to the body, the amount of mental strength it took to complete the half marathon, Ameya has the guts to ask me again for Mumbai Marathon. He was hell bent on brainwashing me. I didnt want to yield. The reason I gave January too far to plan now.

But fate had its own ways, organizing authorities of Standard Charted Mumbai Marathon 2012 decided to restrict the registrations to those who have ran last year and within the stipulated time. Well I did just ramble all the way. Thanks to Ameya, I am pretty grateful. We did patch up in the process.we were not in talking terms since Moby's marriage.So the bottom line is I didnt qualify. So didnt Ameya. So, he started brainwashing me for Delhi, when that also didnt yield. Shail was also enthu this time. The bait here was Shail's cute nephew, who i have been dying to meet. And also if Shail's sis allows I would bring him with me. :) <awwww feeling>

So eventually I agreed.. well not exactly. I was silent on the going but tickets were booked and its the DDay. With hours counting down, i still cant believe it. Well I did buy shoes as well. Nike Air :) yay. Bday gift from dad.

To know the logic - "Why I am running the marathon??" Why I am running in delhi is a bigger question?? I am actually going to Delhi to run. What is wrong with me. Well in the name of adventure or probably just randomness of it gives me a kick. And it also tells me that I am bad at push backs and saying no!!! That was the main reason I wanted to prove to Ameya that I can say no. Well i did say no to Mumbai Marathon. lol

I had been home with a running nose a week prior. But weather at home town just aggravated the cold, the high rise building added more temperature to me, breeze ensured the fever never came down. Popping crocin didnt work, family doctor injected 3 full syringes of paracetamol. What was left was to pump bottles of glucose. The love of family doctor. Worse was the virus spread to kp, gma and worst affected was mom. Poor thing she spent whole days between her and my bday - with cold, cough and fever. All we got was her coarse voice and irked behaviour due to her heavy head.

The whole idea of talking about the fever is just bahana in case i cant complete the marathon. I am somehow not confident of routes in delhi to run away from the route in case i am not able to go on. With Ameya practicing hard for the marathon, I will not have anyone on back to ensure i ll have to finish it. But at the same time, I ll not have company during the run.

Well Go Mambo Go!!! as rachit said. Just go!!! Rest will be written in blog!!!

The Virgin Beach Ride - Hedvi

I am not sure if I can call it a ride as I spent most of the time in the car - as usual the official photographer. So much that i really wanted to put my face out and even my tongue like a doggie. But the AC was on , hence the windows was up.

I was working late, late enough to leave directly for the ride. No brownie points for guessing that. Had a really hectic time. Not just that week, been hectic for few weeks in succession. Had half a mind to ditch the ride. Colleague's nani was hospitalized. Many unexplainable reasons, i was not feeling not upto it.

Vinni calls me from Delhi, "Are you going for the ride?"

"Mostly No!!!"

"Are you gonna go to Delhi to take care of her?"

"No, So shut up and ride" He was of the impression I was not gonna ride because he was not there. Paaji offered I can come in his car. So this trip is gonna be full of comfort.

Still I had plans to give dandi at the last moment when Josh called and did a very good act of emotional blackmail. He nailed it at a point where I couldnt have said NO!!! Shaana!!!

Locha came to pick me up in the morning. I met Raj's wife Mini. Had this instant liking for her as how everyone predicted. Another one of the lovely couple. Close competition from Anand and Shwetha :) Touch wood and God Bless.

Rode till Datta Vada Pav at Panvel. My Wind Cheater did its best to keep me warm but I was going brrrr, hiding behind Locha. We discussed professions on the way. And some random talks. There was more to Locha's sheepish smile. I realized it was never sheepish but contained a mysteriously naughty grin. I met the other - Josh was showing full atti being the Ride Captain and sported a supposedly Ranbir's look in rockstar. Later realized he was under pressure to make it smooth for us.

Had severe headache because of lack of sleep and I tended to hog to offset it. After breakfast and awesome 2 rounds of chai, we started! Addu followed us - I am sure he would have almost half the distance. It is very difficult to get separated. Wouldnt have even reached Penn, Paaji's car's clutch plate was gone. Vedd ji tried as much to drive the car but the car just wouldnt accelerate.

Paaji, Cherryl Mam, Raj, Mini, Deelux spent next few hours waiting in a temple with blaring pious songs.. shor na macha ya toh bhagwaan nahi aaya!!!

Crazy brahmin theories by Punit Ji

The usual gossip with Cherryl Mam

Gaalis to Vinni - Khud toh aaya nahi mujhe bheja diya ride pe

Only time, I got on to the bike was when someone was tired of sitting as pillion. In one such short period of time and best part this was the last stretch of ride for that day ( how dumb giggle thats why ppl were tired :P
 )  I noticed that the clouds were dense enough to cover the moon. Then it struck me, it was eclipse. Oh it was a lovely experience and I would call it the highlight of the TRIP ( would it be fair enough to call it a ride )

Also i got to know why it is actually called as Virgin Beach - The roads were literally pitch dark ( not entirely due to Eclipse but otherwise also) and trust me - we had no clue where we were headed and are we on the correct path.

Finally when we reached, the eclipse was not yet over. That means no food nor chai paani. We were too late to take a dip in the sea. Usual get to know sessions till late night. And ofcourse the Food :) This was the first time i had soulkadi - Maharashtrian dishes. And some photo/Video sessions Thanks to Josh's room arrangements I got to know Shwetha my roomie 

Had grand plans of waking up at 5 am to make up for the missed dip in the sea in the night. I had forgot my chappal at home, so borrowed oversized slipons from a fellow freshbie rider ( Thanks!!! ) Me, Locha, Punit ji, Shwetha and Anand went to the sea. ( psstt.. Anand is scared of water .. Dont tell anyone ) Locha wandered off to become a sanyasi for few hours. Me and Punit could literally visualize Swami Vivekananda in Locha. Awww watta sight. hehhe

Return was the same and as expected. More photoshoot. Gossip. Break downs. Found close friends in Punit Ji, Locha in this trip. :) I am sure you guys regret it :P But you cant help it. Few win and others lose :P

To Phones we had and Phones we Lost!!!

Phones was always a very integral part of me. I was always like Geet of Jab We Met - well i always oscillate between runaway bride and bhaag ke shaadi karna. Both extremes but still... thats me!!!

Not to digress away from the mail point here - ( Alterego sayins - bus innu air time mil jaave tan shuru ho jaandi hai :P ) Me: Wahi toh gal hai Gamli.. mein bahut gal kardi hain.. taan mennu phone di sakt zaroorat haiga..!!!

Mein jadoon college vich sigi mera pehla mobile - Samsung Golden Color ( yeh mennu model number vagarah nahi pata.. aaj kal aana vi bandh karta hona company ne.. ) I used to keep it hidden in the bag. No one should know i had a mobile. Chori da vi darr siga ude naal professor fad na lein.. uda bhi darr siga.

I had to give away this phone to prove that I can control my urge be in touch with people. Not really sure how much it helped. Well I stayed without phone for few months - i guess 3 approx. Then the need arose to have a cellphone - It was Sony Ericsson. With my family having 100% loss rate of Sony Ericsson phone, it was obvious I was not adopted. But good thing it got me an opportunity to strike conversation with Ericsson Country head and get free invitation for their global meet happening then. Hai hai kadhi kadhi mera bhi luck changa nikalda haiga..

Moved on to Nokia basic model, which I lost in Band Stand miraculously - Thanks to Saini saab and heroine!

Motorola model for 2.5 k, had music playing ability Radio.. probably most of what I needed. Good amount of  phone number storing capacity. Yes, this was the model i exchanged with Dad for a nice Nokia High End. That time i was a garib student who didnt have a say!!!

Finally that phone gave up... most of the time it used to give me blank screen. I could probably dial without seeing anything... felt like old age tring tring. Finally my BB loving roommates and Colleagues - Read BB maniacs got me a BB. Suited my need - Big No for touch screen for my sweaty hands, professional looking for a new job and cheapest in the category.  I toh cried looking at the functions.. bcoz I was lost and was not even able to call my parents to inform about my new phone. Then not even 2 days passed I was a true BB addict.

Well there are few brands left - Probably iPhone underway!!!

Everytime I lost a phone, I have lost a part of me. To gain it back... it really took time. I think i understand the pain of breakups!!!