Impromptu!

You know you are a total dumbass when

you wait for nearly 2 years and admit that you have a crush on someone just few days before his engagement

One of the worst state to be in...

Never

Never reply 
when you are angry

Never make a promise 
when you are happy

Never make a decision
when you are sad.

DND

Celebrate!!!

What would you pick if asked to choose the one day that you would like to celebrate and feel special about? I know its a silly question, but never mind. I think since childhood most of us would wait for our birthday's to wear new clothes, distribute sweets, cut the fancy birthday cake and most of it for the greetings and gifts from the near and dear ones. So, am assuming the majority would vote for the birthday and eventually maybe when people grow up, some tend to keep the celebration low. There are people who don't really want to make a big deal out of it and treat it like just another day. It doesn't matter if its celebrated in a grand manner or a quiet one but I think its a moment to feel special about yourself for whatever you are now despite challenges and shortcomings and embarks upon the journey that life has taken you through on this special day.

Many more happy returns of the day!!! Make a wish and blow out the candles!!! Cheers!!!

My first trip abroad - Part 2

Like I said before Boston is a beautiful place that has a lot of history to talk about. During the initial few days I managed to see the places around and was interested to cover some of the cities around.

A colleague was kind enough to take us to some of the places around Boston in Massachusetts. So, we drove down to Concorde, which has a lot to talk about the American Revolution and history. On the way we stopped by for a bite to eat in Lexington. We had a thanks giving meal which had the turkey cooked in an authentic style along with the cranberry or 'chanberry' sauce (I cant stop recollecting Chandler Bing's effort to make the sauce decades before for Thanksgiving) Slurp. Slurp. After getting to hear a bit about the American revolution it was nice to stop by and take a look at the minute man statue and we heard about Paul Revere's important contribution to the revolution.

As we heard the rangers narrating the story to the tourists we were interested in taking a peek at the bunker hill where the battle of bunker hill was fought. I must be appreciated for my bravery, not for visiting the place which was once a battle field but for climbing the small hill in my 2 inch pointed heels.

We crossed Lexington, Arlington and finally reached Concorde which is again another important places in the history to remember. I always wanted to see Concorde for the architecture but I got to know a little about its significance in the revolution. The place was beautiful and a ranger narrated the incident that took place in April 19, 1775. With eyes closed one is asked to visualize the scene that took place in the 18th century and the thought of getting reminded that you are standing on a field or soil which was once a battlefield brought in some goose bumps.

It was not over with it and we thought of checking one of the oldest houses "The Old Manse house" that is still maintained carefully for the visitors to take a look at the stuff that was used then in the 18th century and its american literary associations. I wanted to take a look at Alicia Scott's house (She write little women while staying in this house) which was in the neighborhood but we settled for the Old Manse house which we thought would have some interesting things to say.

In the mid-19th-century, Transcendentalists such as Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller discussed the issues of the day here, with the Hawthorne and Ripley families.

Hawthorne and his wife, Sophia, started their married life here, and you can still see the poems they wrote to each other, etched on the Manse’s window panes. We could see the writings made out of her diamond ring on the glass panes about some of the saddest moments in her life when she had a miscarriage. Little she would have known that there are people who still visit this place where she and the descendants lived and the information still gets passed on to the future generation.

I know this was a lot of history but yes I love listening to stories and reading about history since childhood, so it definitely was a bliss to visit some of the beautiful and significant places in Massachusetts.

More to come next and it is not going to be about History this time.

My first trip abroad - Part1

What would a wanderlust do when she gets an opportunity to travel for a couple of weeks to the US for business reasons? Its quite obvious that she would want to explore most of the places in every possible time she gets outside office hours.

I was very excited about the trip and hoped to utilize the most of it. I had to hear about the usual complaints from people about the weather, jet lag, food etc but I knew I would be good. Like the majority, all I remember doing in the flight was to eat and sleep for the most part of time. Finally I landed in Boston on Oct 30, 2011 (a day to remember) and there was a warm welcome (oops a cold one, what an irony?) by the snow and it was quite a surprise because it doesn't start to snow that early. Anyway, lets say it was awesome.

I woke up early in the morning the next day and was trying to figure out the meaning of jet lag. I was just fine and I felt nice that I could adjust myself in most circumstances. There was Starbucks everywhere and sipping chai latte in the freezing cold and walking on the streets with a map trying to locate places was fun. The extreme cold weather in fact eased the cold problem that I run into most of the time and I just got addicted to coffee there. Wherever I went I had a tall glass of flavored latte/s and that says how much I was into coffee.

Every day after work I would get back to the hotel, freshen up and immediately step out with another colleague at times wandering just clueless about the destination and dine at some random restaurant. It was fun to initially figure out how to use the T stations, the routes everything on your own with just a map. I never ever thought I would be able to travel with a map and a compass but I did it with the map, maybe the next time with a compass along. Sounds cool, doesn't it? Did I mention that I could not get down in the station I was supposed to but my colleague did and instead I got down in the next station. It wasn't tough to track back despite the fact that most of the streets, buildings looks similar and the fact that you see Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks in every nook and corner.

Boston, being the city with a lot of history and brilliant architecture was beautiful and appealing especially when it was still the last few weeks of the fall season. Along with a couple of colleagues, I went on a duck tour to catch a glimpse of the streets of Cambridge and its significance. I could see the beautiful view of the Charles river from my hotel room and the maple trees with colored leaves was definitely a treat to admire. 

I managed to cover some of the beautiful places around like the New England Aquarium, the museum of science, the museum of fine arts and the sky-walk laboratory. A walk in the Harvard university and MIT definitely kindles the little bit of nerd within one selves and maybe that's one of the reasons I chose to visit the museums around.

Being a foodie I did give my taste buds a chance to explore different cuisines. I stick to the concept of "Being a Roman while in Rome" and like to indulge in the local authenticity and the options available. The hot hot dogs, ham burgers, pizzas, Mexican wraps, cheese melting jumbo Nachos, Sushi, thanksgiving meal, turkey, crab cakes, legal sea food, steak, burritos, ravioli, donuts, cheese cakes from the cheese cake factory were definitely a gastronomical treat. I in fact don't remember the names of some of the Italian food that I had.

As mentioned earlier, a wanderlust doesn't expect anything more than visiting places, walking till the feet hurts, trying some good food and capturing the memories.

This doesn't end here and there is more to say. To be continued....

Tell me your dreams!

I always wanted to know the significance of dreams for the simple fact that it seems like magic. You are here one time lying on a couch or dozed of during a boring class or comfortably sleeping in your bed and all of a sudden you are in some place that you might have seen in childhood but with the people you know as of now or you are in trouble and try to scream for help and you realize that no one can hear you and many more.

There are so many weird dreams and you can associate some of it to the reasons behind and at times you have no clue of the people you meet in this wonder land. I saw a dream that felt so real that in fact I recollect how my hands had become cold and was trembling and the one that I did not want to wake up from. There had been some rare dreams in the middle of which i have woke up panicking and there had been some totally absurd ones at which I had laughed my lungs out.

There were some which I did not understand at all and there were most of the dreams that I had forgot immediately after. When I asked my mother about the significance of dreams, she had mentioned that you see things that you like and at times the ones that you fear of. As a child I felt so annoyed that I did not see Dada in my dream because he was my favorite person and how come I did not get to see him and I doubted the logic. I still laugh about this wondering how stupid and funny I was.

The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.

Thought for the day!

One of my favorite quotes of Jack Kerouac....

Life

Its a fact that even Google cant give the exact answer to the question "What is Life?"

Did your ever notice that whenever you are happy or excited, people don't say "that's life" whereas when you are down with problems and going through a rough patch people try to comfort and also add "That's life".

What is that supposed to mean?

Anyway, I love this original rap by Frank Sinatra and the one by Westlife!

The BIG news!

A big news comes as a surprise most of the time. Could there be things in life that can make you feel extremely happy and totally sad at the very same time? I would say yes.

Let me just get to the point and the big slash great news is that one of my best friends is getting married soon and will be moving miles away. Am very happy and excited about it. The last few years wouldn't have been fun/exciting/adventurous without this person who means a lot and who was always there through thick and thin. A clone of Mother Teresa that we call her is one of the amazing persons I have ever met and deserves the best in everything! Oh yeah, this is one of the emotional moments and it makes me feel sad because things are going to change and G3 is going to miss its integral part.

This means an end to the regular catch ups, the fun filled gatherings, night outs, random shopping, surprises, crazy talks, travel plans, ever pending to do lists, yapping and a lot more. I know that at some point in time one might have to let go of the close ones but it is hard. Like the way I had laughed every single time I watch "Friends", I had cried so hard watching the last episode and I never took a chance to watch that last episode ever again. It almost looks like I am going to see it in reality. This definitely is the "end of an era".

Alright, now back to the celebration mode for the Big day. This means being a part of one of the best moments and would mark my first trip to the northern part of India. YAY!

Here's to a new beginning of another phase in life! Wishing all the best in life now and always! Cheers! Mika & Ch4

Happy Birthday Steve!!!

Had my favorite silicon valley entrepreneur been alive today, it would have been his 57th birthday!

Here are some of the inspiring quotes to remember on his birthday:

1. "My favorite things in life don't cost any money. It's really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time."

2. "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

3. "Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things."

4."When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through."

5. "But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we've been thinking about a problem."

6. "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."

7. "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."

8. "It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy."

9. "Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become."

10. "Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles."

11. "I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance."

12. "Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful, that's what matters to me."

13. "For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."

14. "Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith."

15. "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."

Gratuity

I must tell you that I had been loyal to my previous employer for 4 years and 223 days. One might be surprised to know that I actually remember the exact number of days.

Here's the story behind it.

When I left the Organization I knew that I was so close to be eligible for gratuity, a monetary benefit for ones service but since I did not want to stick around for the next 4 months (Usually one is eligible for gratuity if you complete 5 years in an Organization however it varies from one to another) I was ready to give up on the additional perk and moved out. It did bother me a bit considering the fact that I missed a lump sum by few months but I made the decision looking at other aspects so I thought it was okay.

A week before I had a conversation with a friend and was told that I might still be entitled for the benefit as some employers have the eligibility criteria set to 4 years and 8 months. I got excited about this (I have tons of commitments, you see!) and technically I had completed 4 years and 8 months. So,I dropped a note to my previous employer to know about the details. The request was forwarded in minutes to a different team to get back to me with the details and I kept my fingers crossed.

I kept waiting for the response and in the meantime there were people who raised my hopes by saying that I might receive the bonus as the cut off was 4 years and 6 months. That was a "To be excited OR To not be excited" situation I must say. Did I mention that I left the employer a year and half before? I know what you are thinking, but yeah, I did all this verification a week ago.

So, finally I was thrilled to see a final mail in the morning that read the following:


Hi XXXXX,

Please be informed that the below mentioned employee DOJ as per our Database is DD-MMM-YYYY and DOL is DD-MMM-YYYY.

However based on above details we have checked the eligibility for gratuity, wherein this employee is not eligible for gratuity as it come to 4 Years and 223 Days.

Gratuity eligibility is 4 Years and 240 Days.

Best regards,

YYYY



Gosh darn it..... Did I miss it by 17 days????
Yes, it is a BIG YES and Ouch, it HURTS!

Well, the lesson learnt here is: When in doubt, "damn it, just ASK"!

Food for thought!

Resolutions

It is very common that people come up with new year resolution/s and like I said before I was interested in knowing them.

Here is what I heard:

1. The women in particular care to shed those extra pounds and in some exceptions people without the extra pounds also desire to turn size zero (Is there a minus 1,2,3...n). Its a Girl thing and who would not want to flaunt the chick look?

2. Most of the men want to quit smoking and hit the gym more often.

3. Some want to give up coffee/tea.

4. A few desire for long hair and chose not to cut it for a year while some want to try curling/straightening.

5. A bunch of them want to become early risers and go for a morning walk or jog.

6. Some have made their travel plans to their favorite destinations while some want to spend more time at home.

7. There are people who look forward to confess their love while some want to move on with their lives.

8. Some of them are interested in joining classes like dancing, music, swimming, cooking etc.

9. Few want to become Organized.

10. Taking medicines as per the schedule is also on someone's list.

11. Some desire to buy a 2/4 wheeler.

12. A friend wishes to stay single while some want to get married.

13. Early to bed.

14. Savings/Investments.

15. Reduce drinking.

16. Take stairs instead of elevator.

17. Drink at least 2 litres of water a day.

18. Quit unnecessary shopping.

19. Clear unused clothes from wardrobe.

20. Start dieting.

21. Reduce Anger.

22. Read newspaper every day.

23. Cut down on junk food.

24. Clear loan/CC payment.

25. Not to take any resolution.

Would you like to share yours if any?

Happy new year!

Happy new year you guys! Gong xi Fa Cai!!!

I am back yet again after a BIG gap and I know this wish is quite late. This doesn't really mean that I was very busy but I would answer it with a partial yes and no. The past few months were filled with some exciting and disappointing moments. I'll share some of the wonderful experiences and things on top of my head.

By the way, out of curiosity I kept asking people if they have any new year resolution/s however I was reluctant to come up with a checklist because of my previous track records of breaking them in the shortest span of time and say "Resolutions are meant to be broken". Jokes apart, it was interesting to hear a lot of different things that people wanted to do. I'll talk about this in detail in my next post.


I wish you all good health, happiness and prosperity in 2012!