Keeping up with the pace of life... #Hong Kong Diaries

Today as I was going to work, I stumbled upon the idea of getting back to writing. Just as a way to document my thoughts..

This is my first blog from Hong Kong. Its been 3 months in this massive city. When I first reached this city, it hit me that I was an expat from India. Everything seemed to be scary and intimidating but today as I walked confidently from Central to Hongkong MTR stations I realized that now I "FIT IN".

It took me 3 months to slowly feel this way. Hong Kong is a busy city much like Mumbai, where my husband and I started our lives. Everyone is literally running was my first thought. Everything thing is achieved by walking. I remember me and the kids struggling with walking from one place to another, after our very comfortable stay in Bangalore..

Walking in Hong Kong is more like "Running". I remember thinking "Why are people running here??". What's the hurry!! I slowly understand why people run to catch that train 1 MIN away, when the next train is just 3 MINS away. I understand that people want to reach on time for that Meeting in Office, they want to be back home a minute earlier so they get time with their kids. The fast paced life of people in Hong Kong amazes me but the people here amaze me more..

The small spaces in Hong Kong was always an issue for me when I moved here, but I realize how less people actually need. My minimalist husband makes sure, our life and our home is not filled with clutter. We learnt to buy "only things" we need. We learnt to spend time outside our homes so that the small spaces and lack of privacy is not an issue anymore. 

These are just the basic house keeping things in our lives in Hong Kong but they still hold so much value in what I learn daily. Human nature is so adaptive, hence its always a great idea to keep changing and evolving as we move on in Life.

God Bless!!!

Being Positive Changed my Life

GRATITUDE  / MINIMALISM /SELF CARE
Being positive did not come naturally to me. But I realized the power of  positivity when I started living with one of the most positive people in the world, my husband. I realized that it influenced me so much and made a big change in my life.  Positivity is communicable and so its really important  that one always surrounds themselves with positive people who make an impact in your lives. I stumbled upon this magic and I feel everyone should to.
The key to positivity is vey simple.
#1 : Gratitude: Its very important to understand how Gratefulness can fill our everyday with lots of happiness. For the family we have, for the air we breathe and the water we drink. It can be as simple as that. This drives a person away from the natural and unnatural worries of everyday lives and helps to focus on the good stuff.
# 2: Minimalism: I underestimated this one. For being positive, its very important to be a minimalist, the need for material things to make you happy is what we need to give up. we should learn to be happy with less and realize the simple pleasures of life. Like our home, children , bed. Not a lot of people have these simple luxuries.
#3: Self Care: This is probably the most important. As a mother of two and a working parent, I always thought giving was most important until I stumbled upon a stage in life, where I was miserable and sad. I internalized and realized with the help of my family, that I was not really "Happy"  making others happy. Might sound very selfish, but the moment I indulged in self care and invested time for myself I was able to give more.

Learning to spend time on your own...

Life takes you through a big journey and sometimes you forget how to spend time on your own.

Being surrounded by wonderful people make you take them for granted, that they will always be around. Just then you wonder what you will do when the children grow up, when the husband goes out of town and your friends grow farther away. Loneliness can be quite intimidating and so learning to be alone is an essential skill, especially for mothers. 

Mothers spend most of their time with kids - teaching, cooking, bathing, making them eat and playing. It takes most of their time and effort and at this stage "time" just seems very scarce. But the reality is that kids grow up and will be independent soon and then the void appears.

Cultivating the skill to spend "time" becomes such an important lesson for me too. Nowadays I am trying to learn just that. My action plan is to learn and practice a few skills - blogging, dancing, baking, reading, traveling etc to reach to that point in my life.

I am inspired by so many people around in Bangalore who does this on a daily basis. It's a blessing to have live examples in my life. But only baby steps will make this happen and of course the support of your loved ones (Thank you hubby!!)..

Learn to spending time on your own and you will find that it can be quite fun and enjoyable.

Everyday is a new Beginning....

Stumbled on this blog which I started 5 years ago and abandoned. Went back to reading some posts and I am inspired to write again...

Though this thought has come to my mind several times, I never got up and took action.. So I thought may b 'Today Is the Day'!!!

So here I am 5 years later, with a marriage of 6 years and 2 wonderful little kids and this Blog Heading seems so perfect to the state of my mind - "Life is Truly a Blessing"...

Lots of thoughts have crossed my mind over these years that made me happy, sad, confused etc.. I think it's always great to pin it down so I can remember and share those moments...

Here is to new beginnings, I hope I can stumble on this blog more often and it does not take me another 5 years to write another post... :) :) :)

Cant live without you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is a very dull day at work, so may be I should put my thoughts down.. Yea its been 1 whole month since I am alone in our home in Mumbai. Hubby being in London and the ISD calls being very high is a huge disadvantage to keep away the loneliness. Now that its just one more week for hubby to come home , its time to remember the numerous advice of how responsible in need to be, what not to do and what to do (about food , work , housekeeping , laundry , closing the door , sleeping etc).. Well towards the end of it all , I don't think i did a good job living alone without the person who makes me complete. :-) .

Well, i did survive in this Dangerous City(as my parents call it) and Commercial Capital of India - Mumbai for a month. I think that deserves some kind of credit.. :-) But i realized life is not meant to be lived alone, and how much living for someone else really means so much more..

I think the most I missed would be - the cooking which i totally didnt do at all , and all my drama dialogues explaining my whole day with each detail included when he is back from work...

I can officially say , being a lil bit of a romantic - I missed u soo much and I cant live without u!!!!!!!!!!!

Obsession to Size Zero

I have always been skinny from childhood, thanks to all my running in school and my hostel life in college..

I was always a foodie, thanks to Amma's mouth watering dishes n her expertise in cooking. Thanks to her many experiments i have had all sorts of dishes in the past - Italian, Chinese, Mexican etc etc etc..

Believe me I now feel that everyday i am becoming fat with every meal I have I guess this is true with many women... And the urge to stay slim is always in my mind..

But I cant seem to get myself to exercise or cut down on all that fast food, I guess the overconfidence that i have never been so called "Fat" in my life is making me too sluggish..

I really have a high regard for people who take time out of their lives to stay healthy and slim.. I guess it takes a lot of mental and physical effort to come to take to that kind of lifestyle..

Ya my hubby's green salads do keep my diet on track, but the inevitable pull towards the vada pav, samosa vendors/Mac D, Dominos again draws me back from being any close to being in good shape... ;-)

Even though iv made up my mind a hundred times that " from today i am going to diet" , I really have not come any close to that yet..

But yet again , I firmly resolve " from today i am on a diet"....

PS: I hope Arun does not start laughing seeing this

Ideal Job

I always thought that my career is going to shoot up like a rocket just because i believed that i am a hard worker, But soon i realized there is more than that to being where i want to be...

It’s strange how our parents plan your every move in education with accurate judgment and you feel that they are doing too much and that you know what you want in life. You go on to make ur decision of being an engineer, get out of college to get placed in one of the best IT firms in India.

Just when you think that’s it and that your career is set. All the analysis, coding, testing and documentations gets to you and you experience “Diminising Marginal Utility” {a term from Economic, which was pretty interesting to me by the way} . The interest in the work goes down n down and u go ahead to look for either 1) Another Job or 2) Post Graduation.

Yes I wanted to go ahead and do MBA, and soar ahead in my career. And then, it happened the biggest disaster in a lot of people’s career in all sectors "RECESSION". I wondered if this happened only because I was too ambitious in life. By the grace of God, got placed in a firm and then the story returns.

You learn something new (form the glory of the word ‘Marketing’), and after some time again “Diminishing Marginal Utility “sets in.

Now I realize it’s going to be the same for me and for many others I am sure. My career has always reached a stage (after a year) where I feel I am not learning anything more from my job.

Hmmm is there an ideal job, which always satisfies u, no matter how many years you are working… I don’t think so... Or maybe I have just not found my ideal job…

I guess that’s why they have the HR policies of ‘Promotions’ , ‘Job Rotations’ which don’t really happen at the right time in organizations…

Drama Queen

I was first amazed that Arun called me a Drama Queen... I definitely felt that it was untrue. But slowly i am realizing that i actually am one...:-D

I think the whole drama queen stuff comes from the family (it’s always easy to blame one’s ancestors when it comes to character traits). But yaa I do feel that I inherited most of my traits from my Paaa dearest..

Like him once I come home, I start from the smallest details of how I went to office, spend the entire day there and came back home. In fact if I don’t have any1 to share this comprehensive narration to, then I am very uneasy. So the mobile phones play a very important role in my life, coz I use it when each and every incident happens when I am alone, diligently reporting it to my husband or my mom or pa or cha..

Somehow this has become me now…. Doesn’t seem strange right??

Not to mention, the big stories I make up to have something I really want. The main being “ I was so tired when I got out of bus, was almost feeling like il faint” this is always the reason for me having my favorite snack – “Vadapav”. Also not mentioning that I had 2 was always a secret plan so I can continue to buy more every day. But at some feeble moment I had to reveal that…

I think I put my dramatic sense in everything I try to do and sometimes be a lil over about it as well. I guess on a day to day basis this just helps to make the situation a less tensed, or change the topic , convey that I am such an innocent soul (which I am not) etc. So now im proud of being the drama queen that I am...

Memorable Trip to Agra and Kashmir - Travelogue

It all started with my dear husband planning a surprise trip before our 1st anniversary in April. Of all places he had to choose from, Kashmir was the last i could think of. First i was skeptical of the choice and tried to reason with him how this could be a baad idea.. especially with the scenes of the film "Roja" spinning in my mind..

My family was also surprised and worried to hear about our Kashmir plans. But as the dates came near, i was more sporty of his decision, and just the fact that he wanted to take me to North India, wherei have never stepped my feet made me feel that i was soo special.. ;-)

The journey started as i moved from my office to his office, roamed around in RCity Mall, till Arun's office time was over.. Called every1 in my family to tell them - " weeee r gooinggg". I guess my mom was the happiest of them all, coz its always her dream to be a traveller n see places n experience new things everyday of her life.. We had dinner at RCity and moved on to the station..

Hickups are part of my life and so yea we did end up with a rocky start at the station(which is our lil secret) , but ended up with an amazing journey ... As usual i started my eating spree , buying everything and anything available in the train and at the stations we stopped at.. Saw the Sanchi Stupa's from a distance on the way.

Reminds me at Sanchi, we met this lovely couple from Europe , who have been travelling for 2 months in India, just when i realized that this long a journey is just out of question in our lives. We r too busy planning ahead about our future, money, house, car etc etc etc...I guess this happens only in Europe..

During the journey i noticed the landscape changing from time to time, people working hard on their farms, women clad in colorful clothes and chunni's over their heads... Felt like we were in a different world all together... Just when we noticed that the train goes through Agra and that we could stop by..

Stopped at Agra , 12:00 AM and moved to a hotel which our rickshaw driver took us to( was baaad)

Got up in morning, and headed off to see the "Taj Mahal".. Was super excited about it, entered the building and was really awestruck by the beauty of the place, Could stop but wonder the effort put in to build this 'Wonder'. The heat was draining us , but the excitement kept us going, spend a lot of time taking pics (which was like the MISSION of the whole trip), the next stop was the Agra Fort , another architectural beauty. Read about the time of Shah Jahan and his love to his beautiful wife, his wish to see the Taj even during his time in bondage by his own son. The mystery of the black Taj which never got build (wonder if tht was true).. And it was time to leave....

After a long wait at the Agra Station and almost believing that we r going to miss our train from Delhi to Kashmir, coz the train to Delhi was late by almost 2.5 hrs, by God's grace we made a run to the Delhi Station and praised the lord for his blessings...

I guess it works when me ( the pessimist - keeps thinking we r not going to make it) and Arun (optimist- who believes never to give up till the last moment), is travelling together.. we get to fight a lotttt regarding our veryy different views... :-D

ohh getting in that train was the happiest feeling till then i guess.. Ate as per my demand ofcourse(rice, chapati, sanwich etc etc etc) and went off to sleep, got up in the morning to see the magnificient view from the train. The landscapes had changed from the deserted brown sand and mud to green trees and bushes and flowers.. ohh it was beautiful. Reached Jammu by 8:00 Morning and the entire train was empty. so it was just us and the guy who manages the sheets in AC compartment who took the journey ahead to Udampur.. Ya n tht was a journey worth seeing, bridges, rivers, tunnels, the journey thr the mountains had just begun...:-D

Got down at Udampur to see the army everywhere and yaa i started worrying.. Got a taxi to our first stop at Patni Top. The road journey thr the himalayas had begun and the hot aaloo paratas gave me the strength to go ahead and eat more on the road ahead..

Reached the very beautiful - JKTDC Resort, the place was just amazing and it was so quiet and beautiful , surrounded by mountains filled with coniferous trees and i could see the snow capped mountains from a distance..

As it was getting colder and colder, the room with a superb heater made me a lazy bone... But ya Arun saying tht im not adventorous made me more sporty and we went for a walk... Out on the lawn and up to Patni Top, it made us feel that we r d only ones in the planet... :-) was quiet deserted... Made me wonder if life could be one big honeymoon with no work, no worries and just the 2 of us... No it couldnt be....

Next day we started our next trip to pahalgam, on our own taxi, the breathtaking view as we moved from one mountain to another, crossing bridges(manned by our heroic army) and the river 'Chenab' following us the whole way will always be a memorable experience..Sipping the hot tea n ofcourse munching something on the way made the cold seem lesser n lesser.. Nearing pahalgam( a valley) the landscape had changed from mountains to just farms filled with yellow flowers (mustard).. After 4-5 hours of road journey we reached our lil cottage in Pahalgam, i was euphoric seeing the snowcapped mountains outside our cottage and the view of it from the bedroom.. Again the cozy cottage made me lazy to explore the world outside.. Yet again Arun's challenge got me up and running for the very exciting horse ride to 1200 feet high on the mountain.. This didnt feel like a great idea to me, but the well tamed horse did give me a time im never going to forget , the spots of Kashmir Valley , Mini Switzerland etc really made us feel that we were somewhere on a dream land..

The tiring journey was worth it when we came back and couldnt stop talking about the hospitality of our horse men n the horse ride which we never thought would be such a fantastic idea...

Next day it was time to leave comfort of our private taxi and to continue our journey as a normal traveller in a shared taxi.. The samosa's and bhaji's just added to the joy of the journey to Srinagar, where we were planning to stay on a HOUSE BOAT...

and yehhh we got a beautiful house boat and the visit to Mughal Gardens made our Srinagar trip incredible..

Last but not the least.. i was going to see SNOW for the first time in my LIFE.. Gulmarg is the name of a place that i am never going to forget.. Along the journey i could see snow flakes beneath the trees and the excitement on my face was pretty evident to the passengers in our shared taxi and to Arun ofcourse (who would look at me time to time , not moving my eyes off the window of our Sumo[Somu as called by the Kashmiris' and God knows why :-S)

And i saw SNOWWW... God it was amazing , the place was filled with White Snow, and i have not seen anything Whiter than that... I could stop myself from picking it up and we made our way by foot to our cottage.. God and tht was a looong walk... We picked up a ride after we registered n reached our cottage.. I could believe there was snow outside my cottage and it was night.. Snow fights and photos of the beauty around was our next agenda...

The next day was our trip on the Gondola (Cable car) to 3500m above where we were... The guy gave us a cable car for ourself(honeymoon couple) and we reached a place where there was nothing but snow... We walked on snow, we drank hot tea, coffee.. We tried to take everything in, in the lil time we had there, so we could remember this for a long long time... We saw the ice falling on us and yea then it was reallly cold... I demanded to go back to our well heated cottage and next day we were to go back...

Back to Srinagar and back to our normal lives in mumbai.... The journey as i remember it now was like this..

Highlights being the fact tht i didnt puke during the journey, the food (how cud a foodie like me forget tht), the very warm and friendly people , the magnificient terraine of Kashmir (the beauty of the snow, fields, mountains, trees) the and the best of all the time we had together (a whole week - 24*7) with nothing to do than listen to my 'bak bak' and enjoy each others company, All thanks to Arun's Excellent Planning and Implementation.. Cant wait to go for more trips ;-)..

Life in mumbai

Life in Mumbai is busy, tiring , challenging, surprising , exciting...

One year in Mumbai has brought about mix opinions about this place, some good, some bad...

There is something about the spirit of this place that keeps the residents of Mumbai going everyday.. And its amazing to see that Mumbaikars go about this difficult city with a smile on their faces ....

My initial thoughts of Mumbai was of a High Fundu Bollywood Style place, but the moment i landed here, i found it more or less like any other place I landed in Mumbai after marriage, eager to start a new life..

And yes we did have an amazing time for the past 1 year. Mumbai is a city for everyone and anyone, who has the will to make it and is willing to struggle a lot (be it an actor/manager/clerk/business man/laborer) to reach where he wants. This reminds me of the numerous stories iv heard from people living here , of their struggle, failures, successes, happiness etc.

What the world says abt mumbai is real, every1 is on a race here and the city truly never sleeps...

I had a comfortable start living here, so i guess i never realized the struggle people really go through. An 10 min rickshaw ride from home to office is something 99.9% of Mumbaikars would dream for. I guess both of us earning a decent living and not really thinking of saving did a lot of good for me.. My first visit to South Mumbai made me realize the magnitude of differences in this big city ...

South Mumbai is for the affluent and the North Mumbai for the moderate living. People travel for hours on the rush trains from office to their homes.And the rush does not seem like a big deal for them, coz they r soo used to it. One will be astonished that the city provides shelter/food/water/transporation for 2 million people. I don't think any1 would describe living in Mumbai as comfortable , but all are just happy with what the city provides.

I guess its the same for me now, we have faced a lot of problems - housing /travel / busy work schedule. But the whole spirit of living in Mumbai, struggling to be a success, keeps us going everyday . Im slowly loving this place... I would probably not think of living here forever like all true Mumbaikars ..

But ya as long as im here i think il enjoy this experience... ;-)

Going to the choupatty (beach) , having vadapav/pav bhaji/Pani Puri and corn to eat , walking at Marine Drive in the rain, the view of the Taj and Gateway of India at night would be just some of the memories il take with me when i leave this amazing city...