Brushing Through the Silver Sands...

HRishikesh took me by surprise, honestly speaking I had gone with the intention to just relax. It was a trip organised by my current employer, I must say a very well organised trip.

I have heard of trips that employers take their employees to; from Turkey to Timbuktu, you name it all and most of us "service" class individuals have been there and all this in the name of a conference. The initiative taken by my employer for a total out and out or rather a one on one with nature, of getting to know each other of bonding was something that I appreciated the most.

If you agree, most of us come to office.. work work work... gossip a little here and there.. again work work work... drink a million cups of coffees and teas... lunch a bit here and there.. and have perceptions about anything and everything which may or may not be true especially about the people we work with. A bonding session is so required to "break the ice". To know each other even more better.. Yes its a competitive world, and yes we all are ambitious in our own strenghts to achieve what we've set out for. Along the way we meet people we work with and who actually help us grow. Have you ever realised some people reach a certain level and some people don't and some people are just happy playing plane jane... why does this happen?

In this trip of mine what I learnt was to give everyone a chance to get to know me better, to get to know me for who I REALLY am, they just know me by that pretty face but after that what about my identity that I've set out to conquer.. there is a choice I gave myself.. it's what I want to be known for before I vanish from the face of the earth.. and I got my answer... :)

So any which ways... I made some nice "friends" from work..and I am glad I met them.. along the way I learnt that we all have qualities of being loving, caring, affectionate and basically being there for each other... forgetting from which corner of the globe have we all come from.. surrendering ourselves entirely to nature.. nobody is fat, nobody is tall, nobody is pretty nor ugly..nobody is rich, nobody is poor.. the hierarchy does not exist... at the end of the day what matters.. is how we took care of each other in all conditions.....

The "mis" adventure of Vibha and Ekta (copy-cut-paste)

Vibha - A dreamer
Ekta - Practical to the core
Vibha - Hot
Ekta - Cute (hehehehe)
Vibha - Lover of "true" nature
Ekta - Lover of "almost" everything

When these two crazy friends of mine got together on a trip to GOA.. one would have expected sun kissed beaches... two of them running around like kids... BUT read thier story below and I am sure how much i have enjoyed reading it so would you...

This trip is by far the most unforgettable .. Its more a movie with 4 main characters – As someone rightly put it,
Anoop: The guy who fixes it all, but ends up losing his wallet; The guy who cannot do without the Coffee.
Shan: The guy who claims to be from Miami whose story unfortunately cannot be revealed on FB; The cameraman who loves himself more than his subjects and objects
Ekta: The techno freak without whom life would have been a Silent Drive; Who befriended both the monkey and the leech
Vibha: The Translator-The Kannada pro; whose Never Say Die attitude took us all to places we never imagined we’d visit!

Day 1: Thursday 7:30 PM: We make it to the bus to Goa in the nick of time.

Day 2: Friday 10:30 AM: Thanks to the non-stop heavy rains, we are stranded in a bus in Ankola (just before Karwar). The road to Goa is flooded with water.
4:15 PM: After hovering around Hotel Kamath in Ankola, our Driver agrees to take a chance to hit the roads of Karwar. Our luck is quiet screwed. The road to Goa is blocked with water upto 6 feet high. With rains splashing like never before, thunder and lightning in the daylight, any normal human being would have headed back home straight, but NO. It does not work that way with us.
7:30PM: We decide to hitch a ride to Hubli and take on to Goa from a different route. So we get off at the Ankola bus stand and rush our drenched souls through a crowded government bus to Hubli. Thanks to Whacko, the accommodation in Hubli is taken care of. All through the night we dream of hittin the waters of Palolem, one of the best beaches in India, and head to North Goa in the evening, clubbin at Mambos and few other discs on Saturday night.
10:30 PM: We reach Hubli, check in at hotel Metropolis by 11:30 PM and decide to take a cab to Goa next morning.

Day 3: 6:45 AM: A wake-up call to me from the travel agent totally dampening the spirit as all roads to Goa from Hubli are blocked! Travel enthusiasts that we are, we do not give up hope on travelling! Starting to make a list of places to go, we knock out Hampi, and zero-in on Chikmaglur!
2:15 PM: We take on a bus ride from the new bus stand at Hubli to Shimoga. Having reached Shimoga at 8:30 in the night, we take a cab to Kadur (thanks to Ekta’s mobile-internet skills, we book the accommodation). All with a hope that atleast the next day we try and explore a place we’ve not circled on our map earlier.

Day 4: 8:00 AM: The day starts with Anoop losing his wallet! We are convinced that our luck’s totally turned the wrong way.. Nevertheless we hop onto the cab to a place called Kemmangundi. On the way, we have the best breakfast in 3 days at a small hotel in Kadur. We reach Kemmangundi and all the trouble’s forgotten. It’s a truly mesmerizing place. With clouds all around us, Our spirits are instantly lifted.. Even with the leech bites, monkey attackes and bruises, the 5 hrs that we spend in Kemmangundi seem like all the trouble’s been worth it! But, what next? The calamities seem to follow us wherever we go. Landslide! Since it rained continuously! However, a few hrs later and its cleared. We start our journey back to Bangalore. Absolutely NO REGRETS!

In the end, I just ask this one question. Y are we so AWESOME?
Location: Blore, Ankola, Hubli, Shimoga, Kadur, Kemmangundi and lots of other places!

House Party UK Windows 7 Launch Party

House Party UK Windows 7 Launch Party

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Make a Wish ****

When I was in school, I loved attending my "Moral Science" classes. This was one class where I did not have to put an effort to understand things; which normally would happen to me either in my science or math classes. The aura of my Moral Science class was so nice and positive, I still can experience it whenever I think about it. The greatest lessons in life you learn are actually through your parents, but the learning's of implementation and execution of the lessons comes from your "Moral Science" classes. I was taught to be kind, generous, compassionate, understanding, loving,caring, sharing and giving.

My friend Ranjini and I were gauging on some road side chat the other day; and were speaking about doing some charitable work as God has been kind to us both, in a lot of ways. We were speaking about blind children that her boss works for, and we were speaking about orphans, homeless and aged people whose life is still a mystery. We were speaking about what can we do to make them/someone smile :)
As I mentioned we were counting our blessings... we wanted to at least in a small way help others smile too.. We go through our daily chores of life sometimes with a smile sometimes with a tear... What we intend to do is to bring a smile on the faces of millions of people..
whether you just need to talk about your dieing mother, or you need to send flowers to your son or daughter, or you need to tell your parents that they are the best in the world in a very special way, or even by reading my blog... and all this not measuring upto a monetary benefit..

If you are reading this, and would want to be a part of the organisation by volunteering in your little way either by being visible or invisible.. you can do that.. all you have to do is send in how would you want to volunteer. You can also share stories with us about how have you bought a smile on anyone's face.. :)note down our email address wuas2009@gmail.com
Not that a Big newspaper/magazine/radio channel/TV Channel would be publishing your article but a special blog would be created for the same where your stories will appear...

So start wishing as your wishes can come true... MAKE A WISH

Oh by the way, we have not yet zeroed in on a name for the organisation... kidly help us to do so... :) that will bring a smile to our faces... :)

Many of you would have heard of the "Make a Wish Foundation" if not, a small brief on the same is posted below with website details for you to visit:
Make-A-Wish® Foundation originated in the United States in 1980. It grew from the dreams of a young boy Christopher Greicius, who had Leukaemia and wanted to be a highway patrolman. Chris’s mother along with the larger community moved heaven and earth to make his dream come true. Chris was sworn in as the first and only honorary Arizona Highway Patrolman in the state's history. Inspired by Chris and enriched by being part of the experience, his mother and some others who helped his dream come true realized there must be other children like Chris who could benefit from their wishes being granted. Their inspiration was the beginning of the Make-A-Wish® Foundation. http://www.makeawishindia.org

Indian Born Confused Desi = 62 years Hence

My friend Ranjini and I were playing with her nephew Dhruv and were taking countless pictures of the three of us doing varied gimmicks entertaining each other to our delights. Just then Ranjini remarked that Dhruv is an ABCD (American Born Confused Desi)because Dhruv was born in America. And then I, in a joking gesture remarked that we are IBCD (Indian Born Confused Desi), though we laughed it off as a joke....
But, when I came back home this morning, I let the thought of the situation sink into my mind, and ironically today is the 62nd year of India's Independence.

Aren't we, the current younger(20 years to 40 years) generation of India all "IBCD's", coming to think about it, we commonly converse not in the nation's Mother Tongue but a language given to us by our so called "freedom" givers. Most of our favorite shows on Television or those we download are shows from the west. If we are caught watching a serial that is made by Ekta Kapoor (of Kyunki Saas bhi Kabhi Bahoo thi fame) or Jamnadas Majethia (of Baa, Bahoo aur Baby fame) then we are regarded to be in a different league altogether. Our younger day memories of shows that we have watched will scale down to Small Wonder, Silver Spoons, Who's the Boss, Full House... etc. We have varied interests when it comes to food.. without visiting their original roots.. for example.. a lot of Indians gauge on Chinese take away, Pizzas from Pizza Hut and Italian Cuisine... and trust me... many would have not visited either of the places.

While in our thinking too we are confused... many of us would want to get that degree from a university abroad, we are willing to pay that premium and get ourselves that degree because we want a "Global Perspective" (I belong to one of the many).

62 years hence Indians are only confused... ministers speak about turning growing cities into a "Singapore" or a "Shanghai".. but not knowing what is required to bring about such changes... most of our movies are shot on locations based abroad, so that it gives everyone a visual appeal. Ask any Indian to name a famous Website that they are aware of.. and don't be surprised if you hear of a google or a hotmail.. which again is not "Made in India" but is "Made by Indians"..

With the kind of demands we all go through.. it sometimes gets me thinking of what worth is all this bringing... but the sad part is, on the contrary we live in a country that is totally confused..

Let it Be

I read a very interesting but simple poetry online today, a Gujarati poetry. Though I cannot read Gujarati well, I did make an attempt to read and understand it. The little of what I understood just made me smile.. :)

This poetry is dedicated to anyone who is reading it..

The poetry describes one to live in the present... and whatever has to happen will happen and we have to accept it...

જે થવું હોય તે થાય !


જે થવું હોય તે થાય !

પોતાની મસ્તીમાં મ્હાલે એને રમતારામ કહેવાય !

થઈ થઈને શું થશે!

એની રાખ ખુમારી યાર,

પ્રવેશવાની ધગશ હોયતો

નથી બંધ કોઈ દ્વાર.

આરપાર થઈ જવું નીકળી એક જ છે ઉપાય.

જે થવું હોય તે થાય !

ગઈ કાલ તો ગઈ

એની સાથે આપણે શું ?

આવતી કાલની ચિંતાની અહીં

વગર ઉનાળે લૂ.

આજને જે ઓળખીને જીવે એ કદીયે નહીં ઘવાય

જે થવું હોય તે થાય !

My Journey towards Spirituality

Many of my friends and fellow acquaintances have remarked that I have become quite philosophical these days! Ahh what a remark, must I say, I don’t know whether I should treat this as a compliment or should I treat it as a complaint.

We all are philosophical in our own little ways; we all have viewpoints in our own little spaces of our minds. The question lies in practicing our own philosophy on ourselves. Many of us love giving advices and we love receiving them too; advices are nothing but anecdotes of philosophy, which has got a more hip term.

Many of us would have heard of Bharat Thakur, I had an opportunity to have a brief encounter with him in the month of April 2009.
I, like many had read his advertisement in a daily city newspaper, and thought to myself, probably there is something drastic that’s going to happen to me when I meet this man. With this intention of mine I reached a city hotel. Trust me, I had no idea what to expect, because the ad message was something to do with a meditation workshop, so I thought to myself that probably for once I can learn how to meditate without having a thousand thoughts crossing my mind all at the same time. But NO the meditation workshop did not quite fulfill this thought of mine, in fact it gave me a new dimension. I can go on and on and on of what we did at the workshop but that is not the point. The point is my spirituality hunt began from there on…. And the rest as they say is history….

Spirituality teaches us to be “ourselves” to live for “us”. Religion is a way of life. A fact is that people turn towards spirituality only when they see a downfall in their lives, which is not wrong because it is at that point that you can start a fulfilling journey without being pushed into it by “someone” else. Whether it is Hinduism, Jainism, Muslim, Christianity etc… all religions have one “philosophy” that they follow, the only difference is the way they put their messages across to their believers.

My quest will never get over, because what I have realized now was something that I had known while I was still a little girl. We all are born with an equal amount of an intellect and we all are in the same boat, our destinations are the same, but the vehicle and the mode we choose will differ. As humans we go through our daily rigor and in the process we actually forget our main aim. We get so entangled that at times we get lost in our own knots.
One very important lesson is “we come alone____________________we go alone” the in between space is something we need to fill and achieve at every step……….. That only “you” can do for “yourself”.

And that my friend is philosophy… because it is not what you have done you will remember but it is what you have learn't you will remember…