BRAToSPHERE

Tag: life

  • Rainy season life

    There are times when you feel like just writing. Just penning down your thoughts. There is no good time or a bad time for this. Thought strikes, pen it down. Simple. Thanks to the digital age, we have mini assistants in our pockets all the time waiting to capture the thought. This is one such moment.

    Friday evening. Raining outside. The weather has been playing up the last couple of days, and the rains are joyful. Keep aside the fact, that the mosquitoes and all virals also find the rain fascinating and show up their ugly face during the rainy season.

    Everyone would have memories of the rainy season from their childhood. Good. Bad. Both. I still remember the way I used to spend all evenings staring at the rain water flowing through the slope road next to my apartment, merging with the drain. The view from my second floor balcony made it all feel rhythmic and then I would see people rushing with hands or handkerchiefs on their heads scouting for some shelter. I still fail to understand how the tiny handkerchief protects anyone from this torrential rains?

    Gurgaon rains are different. Most of us privileged lot are well trapped in our high rises without even coming to know that it is raining outside. The temperature controlled atmosphere at the astronomical heights of the apartment keeps us away from the earthy smell of the rain. The only thing kids would probably remember is that they were denied going out to play. Such a sad state. Cities trap you within in the process of freeing up your mind. Such is life.

    The drops of rain on my balcony railings splash on my face and some of it in my hot tea cup. The weather gives a completely positive feeling about it. Thank God am at Home. The rainy season in Gurgaon is a nightmare when you are within the car. The car could take forever to get you to your destination. Such is life!

    Off I am to just stare at the water dripping from the well manicured trees below, and transporting myself on a nostalgia trip. Such is life!

  • Time flies..

    It just feels like yesterday when I was in Bangalore, sipping my hot Café Latte in my favourite café in the world. That was New Year ’s Eve. And here we are, with one month of the year already complete.

    Have we suddenly shifted to some other galaxy? Has time started moving fast? The time here seems to be moving really fast and it always feels like a race against time on a daily basis, at every moment.

    Is there something called a leisurely life? At this age, I am afraid, but I believe the answer is No. I remember reading this a long time back –

    When you are young, you have energy and Time, but no Money.

    In adulthood, you have money and energy, but no time

    In old Age, time and Money are in plentiful (hopefully J ), but no energy.

    Such is life. There are always so many things that can be done, but just not enough time to accomplish them all. What does one do then? Just accept that there is never going to be enough time and go on with life?

    A life filled with regret that everything we wish is not getting done? An incomplete life yearning for more all the time?

    Maybe.

    Or maybe not. Maybe we could do with some prioritization and chuck the lesser important things out of our lives. Scheduling and being disciplined helps.

    Like we allocate money for various spends, I believe our TIME is more expensive and we should start rationing how we spend our time. Money once spent can be earned back, but well you ain’t getting any younger!

    One other major discipline to be inculcated is the art of saying NO. No to things, activities, no to people. Like someone had said, it is equally important to know what NOT to do, than what needs to be done.

    I am not suggesting that we all become machines and chuck leisure out of our lives. I totally believe it is important to let loose and chill sometimes, but it is equally important that we chalk out what really helps us wind and commit time accordingly rather than binge watch TV all weekend and then feel guilty of it on Sunday evening.

    Time is the biggest lever we all have in more or less equal proportions and it is up to us what we make of it.

    “Time and Tide wait for none!”

    So, here it is to a productive 2016. Er! The remaining eleven months of 2016 I mean!

  • Off to New York?? – Part II

    Till now, in Anaisha’a journey to NY, we have seen her getting prepared to be off. What happens next?

    It is 4 in the morning, and the cab guy has arrived. Karan, Aniasha’s FRIEND, and she get ready to start for the airport now.

    They hug tightly, and after a real long kiss and a smooch which could not get any wilder,  karan took the bags in his hands.

    “Ah! I so wish I could lift her rather”, Karan thinks within himself.

    Peskina, is also there in her cab. Ready to go.

    They dump it all in the rear of the car, and sit comfortably holding each others hand, in the overtly built Qualis. A quails was necessary to hold that entire luggage.

    She takes comforts resting her head on his chest, and they talk again about the long gap of three months. They have been talking only about this single topic all evening and night now.

    They reach the airport at 5, and it seems like it is just 5 minutes back that they had started from their homes. Yes, the airport, which is a good 30 KM from the city, seems near now.

    After getting the entire luggage on the trolley, and a parting hug and a kiss without giving a hoot to PDA, and the curious looking gaping early morning travelers, they part.

    Karan probably thanks that it is time, and he can now rest to sleep finally after the long sleepless night. He gets back into the same cab immediately and is off home.

    Anaisha, trying to hide her moist eyes from Peskina, who by now is standing next to her in the entrance queue, holds her trolley. She gets her entire house( which has been packed in those huge bags) screened at the x-ray counters.

    She proudly hands over her british airways ticket to the ticket counter lady, and gets herself a boarding pass with BRITISH airways prominently written on it, besides her name. She is proud. Those moisty eyes were now confusing – sad, happy or just sleepy?

    She then heads to the immigration counter, proudly still holding the boarding pass, and thinking of the nice days ahead in New York. She then hands over the immigration form to the officer there, along with her American passport.

    Anaisha was born in America, and lived a considerable part of her younger days in the US, thus the American passport. She has a dual citizenship.

    After looking at her passport, the officer there very calmly tells her,

    “Ma’am. You can go to the “some” office today, and come back tomorrow for the flight”, and carries on with his work.

    Anaisha with a confused look, “You are not serious right?”

    “NO, Ma’am. I am very serious”, he replies with a firm tone this time looking straight into her eyes.

    “You should get this passport stamped at “some” office, but you have not got it done, and without it you are not allowed to board ma’am.”

    He takes her boarding pass, which she has been holding so carefully till now, and scribbles there in bold words – OFF LOADED!.

    She just could not bear that sight. More than anything, I guess the fact that her good looking boarding pass getting smeared was troubling her the most. She was nearly into tears, when the Airline ground staff come to her rescue.

    “We are sorry. You can come back tomorrow ma’am”.

    Her colleagues, 6 in number, all bid her bye and get off from her sight with their equally huge hand bags. Anaisha is there at the airport, all there, alone.

    Flashes of the previous night come across her mind.

    “I so wish I don’t need to go!”, she tells Karan hugging him

    “No Baby. This is your chance. You should”

    “NO. I don’t want to go. I don’t want to be away from you”, She hugs him tighter.

    Little did she know, or desired, that God was listening to her then, and was in a Dabbang mood to be granting her verbal wish.

    It is 8:30 AM, and she has been at the airport for a good 3 hours now, and there is no jugaad that seems to be possible. No other option, but just to get back home, and see what can be done in that “some” office.

    She calls Karan.

    He does not answer. She tries again, he still does not answer the call. After a couple more tries, to the extent, that the telecom authorities might actually consider levying charges on missed calls, she stops calling.

    “He must be sleeping”, the caring girl in her tells herself.

    She waits for an hour there at the airport, hoping for some divine intervention. Nothing happens. Not even the expected call from Karan.

    She, without an option, takes a cab, and heads back to the city.

    All her dreams and thought of the good times ahead are dead for the near future. All that she is left with is her british Airways boarding pass with huge scribbling on it – OFFLOADED!

  • Off to New York?? – Part I

    This story is about a friend and a rather funny incident that happened to her.

    Anaisha. Just a week back she was full of excitement, confusion and in a complete dilemma. She was shifting jobs, and was confused if she should actually take it up. The previous job in a start up was going good, but too taxing, and here she had an offer from an established consultancy. It seemed like a no brainer, but well there were issues. Not too interesting, and so we leave out the details here.

    Well, the most important part, she was flying down to the US for three months for some training by this established consultancy ( let’s call it EstaCon). She was all excited. Anybody would. She was flying down to the US!!

    She was supposed to be flying on 23rd january sunday, and was getting all prepared for it. I remember meeting her on the Thursday before that, and she had just completed a wild wild shopping spree that evening. She had more than 5 bags in her hand, and Ahen, who unfortunately accompanied her to shopping, was carrying another two. She had bought like everything possible, and I had to continuously remind her that she was flying to new York, and not kazhakasthan, and everything would be available there. For gods sake, I am sure RICE of all things would sure be available there!

    We had dinner together that night. Actually it was less of eating, and more of she telling me about all her shopping, and trust me, it took the entire evening to complete the list. I have no clue how we managed to get all that stuff on my Activa driving back home, dropping her on the way. It helped that both of us are not bestowed upon very generously on the body.

    Anaisha’s flight was scheduled at 8 AM on sunday morning, in british airways. Saturday night, she was at her friends place, all night. One of her colleagues ( lets call her peskina) called her at about 9PM asking her if she would join her on the way to the airport next morning.

    “NO, My boyfriend is coming to drop me”, Anaisha replies back in complete haughtiness and with full on attitude.

    “Oh! But can we three not go together?”, Peskina asks desperately.

    “Damn, the cab would get paid for by the company. Why does she just not take a separate one?”, Anaisha anguishes.

    “Oh! No, We got to spend some time together”, with a i-can’t-get-more-on-the face- look Anaisha replies.

    “OKAY. Can you atleast follow my cab on the way to the airport. I am scared of travelling alone you see!”

    YES I SEE.

    “Sure”, and Anaisha hangs up.

    “She wasted precious three minutes sweet heart”, she hugs her guy Karan.

    All night, karan and Anaisha are awake, talking senti stuff about the long gap that they would have to be separate from each other. Anaisha had just, six months back, shifted base to Bangalore to be with him full time, and here she was off seven seas away for a complete three months.

    This is the first part of this journey to new York. The second part would be out soon!

  • Moving to a new ( small) town

    The last post was about the bright future in the small towns, and the huge potential they carry. Here I would like to ramify about some things you SHOULD look while moving to a new city.
    After shifting to hubli, and getting my stuff too transferred from Bangalore, the first thing I did was Unpack ( obviously). Set up my virgin house with whatever little I had, and head straight to Big Bazaar ( yes, hubli has one!) to fill up the rest of the house.
    Although moving sucks, it doesn’t end when you finish unpacking the boxes, and getting more stuff then and there and unpacking it. Every body needs to find certain spots (and a few people) in a new city to make his own.
    There are some things that one should always look down while moving to a new city.
    BARS – These are the places you have the chance to network, hook up, set a date and in short do everything to start your social life. Alas! Hubli just has these shady bars, where you have the overgrown uncles and frustrated sales people, frustiyaying about their bosses. No chick around. But well, Networking is not all about finding chicks. Is it?
    Food spots – As a bachelor, in spite of having a microwave and all the necessary amenities in the kitchen, you would never ever cook on time. Very important to eat a full satisfying meal atleast once in a day. Go find about all the good eating out places ( being Hubli, by all I don’t mean many!) and ensure your daily bread and cereals are taken care for.
    Coffee house – While initially moving in, I did not expect a decent coffee place where I could hang out in the evening. Hubli surprisingly has a CCD( yes, they have managed to get a franchise even here). This is the place, where you need to go to get rid of your loneliness and in your quest to see some live people, and also to give rest to your Facebook and google talk account for some time. Accept it, humans do need live interaction with other humans. Not to talk about the prospects of hooking up with some one.(  here I drift again!)
    Impressing ladies place – You never know when you get lucky, or when you be able to score. So do find out about the existing parks and “local sight seeing places converted to lover’s parks” around your town. Even if you don’t find anyone like me, you can always go there to see other happy people and just dive into the beautiful memories you would have had till you were shifted here. ( yeah, CCD will get boring after a point of time!)
    GYM – If you are lonely, staying alone in a big city, the Gym would be your only partner, and this applies to small towns too. Hubli has a talwalkars( yippee!!). This is the place where you start your not-so-social day.
    Many other things I might have missed out,  which I would keep updating you as I go through this exciting journey called “ Living in the fortune!”