Distance keeps us together.

Ironic isn’t it? But so true. We live in the world of Facebook and Twitter where we are always connected to our closest and most random friends. Faceless strangers know who we spend time with, where we spend our time and what we like to do with that time.
But let’s put a bunch of family members together..and what do we get? Most likely awkward silences, forced conversations and meaningless chit chat. Today this is mostly what happens when families are forced to live  together. By families I mean kids who have grown up, newlyweds or even married couples who have to take care of their old parents!

What works for such families is a little distance. Spaced out meetings, less frequent conversations, less “interference”, fewer questions is the recipe for happy times. People today are more comfortable with closeness on Facebook rather than closeness in the confines of their home. Status updates have become the preferred way to communicate while “How was your day?” Is met with a sullen “Okay”.

Why are families moving apart to move closer? Why are we forgetting that people are here and now and not just an icon on the phone screen?

My team at work

I work with the Marketing Communications team at a large MNC. Work is crazy because we are only two people in the team and are always trying to do multiple things at a time. This leads to a last-minute rush and crazy deadlines where everything is needed yesterday. Of course I love the madness! My friends in the advertising and events industry would agree.

So we have multiple vendors that we work with for various things such as printing, design, event management and more. We are quite used to relying on them, calling them at odd hours, making strange requests and expecting them to wave a magic wand. They usually oblige and Abracadabra! Its done!

Sometimes, it’s just a voice on the phone and an email id. Although I’ve been working here for two years, there are many vendors that I have never met and wouldn’t realize if I met them in a crowd.

Today was a usual day. We have a conference tomorrow so I was obviously swamped trying to finish a thousand and one things, calling up the printer for last-minute prints. And it just so happened that I had to pick up some material from his office.

I went there and realized that there are five other people who helped finish what we asked for. I’ve never met any of them, barely spoken to some of them and really never thanked them for all their work. And they put in as many hours as I do because they are finishing my work. They were a warm and happy bunch, making me feel welcome with a slurpingly good cup of masala chai and monaco biscuits. It just made me realize that although we are only two people in our team, I have a bigger team to support me and I should remember to thank them more often!

Travel Young

This article from Converge Magazine has been doing the rounds on all Social Networking Sites.

WHY YOU SHOULD TRAVEL YOUNG

I’ve seen it posted multiple times on facebook by friends. They’ve tagged other friends. Enthusiastic virtual hi-fives have been exchanged. Plans have been made. That’s how trips materialize right?

Wrong.

Plans are made, hi-fives are exchanged, friends are asked and then one of them pipes in – But what about work? I can’t take leave right now. Or there is a standard – I can’t afford it.

I would know all about these excuses, because I make them often enough. We all do. Making plans to travel is not as easy as it sounds. Not because of the money, or the company, or the time even. Its difficult because every time you travel, you need a sense of purpose, a sense of urgency to see something new, something beautiful and unique. The feeling that this cannot wait till I get old and comfortable needs to drive you. Because its easier to go back home every day, rather than pack your bags and visit another city or country even.

I’ve been inspired by the article. I hope you are too once you read it. If you still need a nudge, here are some pictures from a recent trip to Europe.

 

 

Jealous? Inspired? Excited? All three? Pick a place and off you go!

 

 

 

 

Sunday brunch

Its been a while and this time I come bearing food. Sunday shenanigans with the sister led to some mind blowing brunch. And it was so simple. I made crepes stuffed with oyster mushrooms, cucumber, capsicum and sushi rice. Here you can make it too –

The crepes are relatively simple to make. I got the recipe from here. I tried an eggless recipe since we didn’t have eggs in the refrigerator. And stuffed them. 

Stuffing:

– Heat oil in a pan, add chopped green chilies, finely chopped garlic, oyster mushrooms and stir fry. Add some Teriyaka sauce, honey, salt and pepper. Once the mushrooms are cooked (takes one minutes), take it off the heat.

– Add finely sliced cucumber and capsicum to this mixture

– Cook sushi rice separately and set aside

Now that the stuffing is complete, take a crepe, add a layer of the mushroom mixture, and another layer of sushi rice and fold them. Of course, you can be as creative as you want and add scrambled egg, berries, some raw mango, paneer etc.

 

Its healthy and super quick!

 

That kind of a friend

This post is dedicated. To that kind of a friend.

At 25, I never thought I’d be writing one about my best friend. Because I’ve made so many over the last couple of  years and they all mean so much and also because it just seems a tad silly to go gushing about your best friend like you did in school. I almost feel like a five year old coming home and telling mommy all about how my best friend got the most amazing eraser shaped like an ice cream cone to school!

But gushing I am. Because she deserves gushing. Because something big is happening. Because over the last seven years that I’ve known her, she has gushed every time I’ve had news. Doesn’t matter how big or small my news is. It could just quite simply be that I fit into a dress which was two sizes smaller a few months ago (although that has never happened to me) or it could be as big as me getting a boyfriend! She never fails to gush and be excited and soooooper happy (as she puts it) about anything and everything that happens in my life.

But she isn’t all gush. She’s also the warm I-will-give-you-a-bear-hug so big that you will stop crying and I-will-listen-to-you-whine about inconsequential stuff all night long without complaining.

And its not just with me. I know at least ten other people that she does all of this with. Because she is that kind of a friend.

Her name is Siddhi and most of you who follow my blog would know her because she is bloody important to me. If you are reading this and you know her, I’d love to hear what else you love about her, apart from the fact that she is absofuckinglutely awesome!!

Me: Sapiosexual

A friend introduced me to a new term which is a way of describing ourselves and we immediately related to it. And then I googled it and found this, and I had to share this with all of you.

“Me? I don’t care too much about the looks. I want an incisive, inquisitive, insightful, irreverent mind. I want someone for whom philosophical discussion is foreplay. I want someone who sometimes makes me go oooooh yeeeaah due to their wit and evil sense of humor. I want someone that I can reach out and touch randomly. I want someone I can cuddle with. I decided this all means that I am Sapiosexual.”

So go urbandictionary.com and Karan for actually finding it. You’ve saved us!

True

Aptly named, below is a short note by a very close friend – Karan. Beautifully written, he has summed up life in just a few words. I was spellbound the moment I read it and had to share it with you.  I hope you read it again and again, the way I did 🙂

“Long commute, Traffic, brain dump. Say what you will.

True happiness is the guy with more bottles of beer under his arm than he can handle, the woman with the new shoes, the mother seeing her child eat all he was served.

True contentment is taking a good dump, being in a place where phones don’t ring.

True desire is for a book that massages your soul. A man who listens. And a woman who would cradle you.

True relief is reaching office in time. Even better, not having to go some time. To the workaholic, it’s having finished everything.

True revolution comes from listening to Eminem, Dylan and Lennon. And setting fire to your life’s manifesto.

True life is writ large on the wall of public toilet door. Of loves and lovers that never were.

A true story is a construct. A good story always ends conveniently. A great story lets you think. A phenomenal one keeps you awake most of the night, and then hits you with a blunt instrument in the morning.

A true joke is one that warms the cockles of your heart, and  the perversion in your mind.

True courage is believing. True cowardice is never doing so.

True darkness can visit you in the blinding sunlight. True light may come in a pitch dark room. “

– By the effervescent, adventurous, curious and opinionated Karan Rajpal

P.S. Since this is written by someone else its doubly important that you click the Like button if you enjoyed reading this so that my friend knows that he’s quite the writer!

Love thyself to no “degree”!

I was talking to a friend yesterday and he plans to do an MBA soon. Needless to say, our discussions revolved around the three letter word. He was patiently explaining the process to me about dates and applications and SOP and essays and interviews and the entire hoola hoop that comes with doing an MBA abroad.

So an application for an MBA abroad gives you three opportunities to apply – Round 1, 2 and 3. I had a wholly of questions. And we started discussing his essays, and how honest to God his answers will be in the first round of application. It was all about honesty and being practical, and how he will say it the way it is. Which is great, but what if he doesn’t get through the first time around? Pat came the answer – then I’ll compromise!

And it suddenly struck us how similar a relationship and an MBA application could be! First time around you are yourself, and honest. You hope that the other person would get it. That they would appreciate you for who you are and love you. But you slowly realize that that might not work. And you start changing, a little in the beginning, and then maybe a lot – after a while you might not even recognize yourself. And you do all this, because the person or in this case the degree is very important to you. This is where my discussion with my friend ended. We both laughed at how ridiculous but true this comparison was.

But as I write this post, I realize actually how ridiculous a relationship like that would be. I’m sure this is true of many relationships. But I disagree wholeheartedly. For me, a successful relationship would be one where you are accepted and not changed. The truth in a relationship is when its cherished because of you and not because of who you should be. The future is less important and the present is cared for. Because the stifling, choking sensation that comes with someone trying to change you chokes your relationship too. At the end of a lifetime its but a dull lifeless vacuum because the two people who are a part of it, are not there themselves – they have turned into someone else.

I’ve learnt it the hard way. Its important to love yourself so much that your partner loves you back. Its important to speak your mind against a change that is not acceptable to you. Because you are pretty awesome just the way you are! And you better believe it!

New Year Resolutions or NOT?!

This one is not going to be a long list of my New Year Resolutions but a list of why NOT to have any –

1. They are usually quite ridiculous like “Lose ten pounds in ten days” or “Don’t blow up your entire salary on clothes”! Well who cannot blow up their entire salary on clothes when there’s a sale at Zara?

P.s. My new shoes from Zara. Bought them on Sunday

2. They start and end within one week in to the New Year. I haven’t even started working on the ones that I made last year!

3. I personally hate rules so why should I inflict any upon myself?

4. I have the entire year to make resolutions.

5. Because my birthday is in January *hint* *hint*

French Vanilla vs. Belgian Chocolate

When I started writing this post, I wanted to call this Vanilla vs. Chocolate but then I thought that those are almost unheard of today. Even the plainest of them wants to be exotic so French Vanilla and Belgian Chocolate it is!

There was a time long ago that decisions were taken keeping in mind things like stability, security, practicality etc. Vanilla was preferred – because it was Sweet. Nice. Standard. Safe. Because it was liked by default and it did not challenge your taste buds enough to say – I want more!

And then came the options – it started with Chocochip which was inspired to give you a nutty taste that left you wanting some more. Which later became dark chocolate, which turned in to Belgian Chocolate – exquisite, decadent, sinful, rich, luscious and orgasmic! It leaves behind an after taste which is damn near unforgettable,  and keeps you craving for more of where that came from – unfailingly!

Needless to say at this point that I’m not talking about ice cream here. Our choices in men are similar. French Vanilla will never disappoint you because its safe. It will give you everything that you want, will never fail to make you happy. But are we willing to live our lives in the net of safety and or do we want to feel the thrill of adventure that leaves a shiver up our spine? Because if its ecstasy that you crave, there’s more to life than just French Vanilla!