My world My life

 "You're not stagnating, you're cocooning".  This is surely the most impressive line i have read lately. An excerpt of what i read goes as follows:  "Butterflies do not just pop up out of thin air. They emerge after a period of cocooning. Cocoons are not glamourous. They are not always something to post about. People don't celebrate them and venerate them. But they love a butterfly. You're not stagnating, you're cocooning." Cocooning by definition, is practice of spending leisure time at home in preference to going out, insulating from perceived danger. This term was coined by Faith Popcorn, a trend forecaster and marketing consultant.  Though the term was coined in 1981, it seems way too relevant in today's world. In the times of  information everywhere, too much of exposure, cocooning comes handy. For me, it is more of doing nothing.  One of the reasons why i wanted to take a break, was to do nothing for sometime. Living a life with no dail...

Sep 2022!  This month year would be etched in the history of sports forever! The two GOATS decided to hang their boots from the respective fields. Guess truly can be called the month of retirement, first The Roger Federer and then The Jhulan Goswami! I think everyone already knows Roger, there might be a few who do not know Jhulan. She is the GOAT of Indian Women's Cricket. Been there, representing the country, and a living legend for past 20 years, against 22 years of Roger.   I couldn't watch the last game of Federer, hence, ensured to watch the last series, last match and the final overs of Jhulan today. Wow! what a match and what a feeling it was. A mix bag of feelings, India wining series in England with a clean sweep, with legend bowling for the last time in blue jersey. A perfect way to spend an otherwise dull week.  On personal side, am still struggling with health. Scheduled an appointment with my next doc. This would be the 17th doctor i will be meeting for...

After visiting more than a dozen dentists, and a couple of otolaryngologists, undergoing a procedure, living on medicines and a liquid diet in last one month, loosing a few kilograms, another thing is added to the list - blood pressure shot up to a dangerous level, as a side effect of pain killers (which were as essential as the physiological  needs). Ended up going into emergency, for this BP thing, and  after the dilly dallying's from all the dentists, and listening to all sort of experiments that all these dentists were planning to carry out, finally a GP has diagnosed the problem, and confident enough to start the treatment, accounting for all the side effects of medications.  Keeping fingers crossed for the treatment, thankfully the other vitals in check hence hoping the next update won't be about medics!  

It has been more than a month, that i visited this place, or penned down anything. Actually, have been out of action for past few weeks. So what have i been doing ..specially when am unemployed. Well, nothing. All i have been doing is sleeping, resting, and visiting doctors and medical stores.  Yeah, have been dealing with an uncommon thing for more than two months. Now, at a point, where i can not chew, can not speak much, living on pain killers. Practically, i have been having more medicines than food.  Each day it is a challenge, to figure out how to fill my stomach. All i can do is gulp the food. After all these days, now am tired of having smoothies, or juices, as they do not satiate the hunger.  Have been asking friends who have kids (the little ones), what do they feed them, specially when they do not have teeth or do not know how to chew.  Last few weeks, have been quite knowledgeable. Have learnt so much about chewing and other jaw movements. It makes me won...

"Don't forget: Beautiful sunsets need cloudy Skies" ~ Paulo Coelho I had always loved sky gazing, not on the starry nights, but more on the days when clouds were around. As a kid, finding different shapes in the clouds was one of the favorite pastime.  When i went to college, pulling out a night out only to witness a sunrise by the riverside used to be my escape from life,  or visiting sea-side to see the beautiful sunsets came in handy when i started working. And now when am not working, or actually unemployed, the beautiful skyline with clouds has been a blessing all together. Every evening, i would sit by the terrace, only to stare at the sky.   In all the cases, one thing was common, the sky full of clouds. Somehow, i always preferred the cloud ones to the clear sky ones. In some ways, it has always been therapeutic.  The floating clouds morphing into different shapes, channelized the wandering ideas into thoughts, some of which eventually developed into pos...

A few weeks back, when i had met an old friend of mine, she suggested some alternate career lines for me, which i can try during my sabbatical. One of them was creating customized itinerary or events based on personality, and individual choices. She seemed to be pretty confident that i could very well read one's vibe and create an experience around it. Though i didn't buy it, and laughed it off, by saying " you can start recommending your friends, and once i start full fledged, i will do the book reading event for your book. " She happens to be a writer/poet who has stopped writing. :(  Today, out of blues, another friend of mine(who doesn't know anything about this), called up asking to suggest things that she could do in the city she was visiting for a business trip. At the first, i was a bit surprised, and she convinced me, saying you have lived there, am sure you know nooks and corner of the city. I was like, i stayed about 5 years back, and post Covid a lot o...

As the post title says, what's your music type? Before one answers this question, let's understand what music type means. Based on some researches, one can define your personality based on what kind of music you tend to listen more. Guess we all already agree, that music can define the mood of the person a lot, or people listen to different kinds or genres of music based on their state of mind or mood.  So the question comes to "Is the type of music you listen to, enough to define your personality?" There have been a lot of research on "How music affects our personality" and "How it can be used to define the personality based on trends". And all these research do agree on the fact that music has its impact on the personality and can help us define someone's personality as well.  Or, we can say, music could be read as signature of a person. For example, pop music lovers tend to be extroverted, honest, and conventional; at the same time, rap love...

Don't be surprised on the title of this post. It is inspired from the song with same lyrics, happens to be on my playlist for almost a decade now. For the ones who have not heard this, you may listen it here .  In the last few weeks (before the sabbatical started), I had started binge watching. I was never into watching dramas, or web series or even movies for that matter. Yeah, am late to the party, nevertheless, it good to be here. What inspired me watching these, firstly i have quite good time on my hands. Secondly, my angel had suggested once, "you need to start reading romance".  And i did give it a shot at that time, but couldn't read much in that genre.  Second attempt took me to watching some famous international series, suggested by younger brother. He had somehow managed to figure out, what would i like, and was very confident while suggesting. In his words, "You should start watching CLOY, you would love it!" And it was his confidence that made me...

The second part of the travelogue!  As I had mentioned in the last post, I had decided to take a trip in the month of March, during my month long travel across the country, the destination happened to be the "Emerald Islands" in the Bay of Bengal, better known as Andamans!  Andamans happens to be a honeymoon destination, at least this is what i had heard of before, and the rooms, etc. in the hotels are also designed on the same lines. So going on a trip to Andamans with some unknown people, was a gamble in the first place. And thankfully, we played well!  My pole star had been going on trips with a travel company, and was always full of praises for them. She had been to multiple places before, and had already booked herself on a trip to Andamans. She happens to be a water baby, so, Andamans was a good choice for her. I had been hearing from her for more than 4 months about her upcoming trip, which kept on getting postponed due to some unforeseen things. While on one of ou...

Here is the long due travelogue on the trip(s) that I had in last few months. This entire journey happened over a duration of about a month, precisely for 26 days, can be practically called a country tour as I visited at least one city in direction covering four metros, one tier-2 and a few other cities. The experience of this trip ranged from a temp of 10 C in the freezing winters, a cyclone in the islands, a pleasant weather in the Garden City of India aka Bangalore, humidity of the city of dreams, Mumbai; heat and dampness of the city of joy - Kolkata diaries, the homely weather of the heart of India – Delhi NCR, to going back to the starting point hometown which was sizzling at a temp of 40+ C, almost witnessed all the weathers that this humongous country has to offer. India is a nation of diversity in all terms. 😊 I will divide this travelogue in two parts, not in chronological order, but the way I travelled. First part would be more about travel to meet and greet people, the ...

Yesterday, it was probably the first time, i went to a café and painted. A place which offers to both eat and paint. The first thing that caught my attention was, every table has some paints and brushes with food. People chilling out, getting their creative juices flowing on the porcelain things, relaxing and destressing with painting strokes. I had never realized that painting could have that therapeutic effect on me. Since this was my first chance, and i wanted to play safe (keeping it mediocre), i chose a coaster to unleash my imaginations with strokes and colors. A simple 10X10 size coaster was my canvas now. Instead of brewing some words, i was going to flow with colors, and to my surprise it was gratifying. So we collected our canvases, and started pouring our imaginations on the art pieces.  I took the coaster as a safe place, as the area was small to be filled in. And somewhere i wanted to get the picture on this piece, the one which has captivated me since my last tri...

 Another day of sabbatical, and i tried living up to my decision of doing one new thing each day!  As i mentioned earlier, i went on a trip a few months back (travelogue is  still pending), there i had met a few beautiful souls, and we just managed to keep in touch post that. Yesterday, was a day where one of these ladies had hosted us, for a simple chit chat kind of an evening. She happens to be a part time DJ, which was an additional incentive for me, to pay her a visit. When we were on the trip, she had suggested me to try my hands on DJ stuff, and i did try by downloading the software she had suggested. Post that i was quite keen to see two things - One, her as a DJ, and of course, another to learn how it is done.  She was kind enough to showcase her DJ skills, along with the instruments/mixer and giving us a walkthrough of how it works, and of course, some hands-on for me.  While she was setting up the system, i was torn apart, as she had a soulful place fu...

While discussing about sabbatical, one of my friends had suggested, "Do at least one thing that you have never done earlier in life each day during this sabbatical", and i took this advice quite literally. So, yesterday, i overcame my dislike for shopping and went for "Window Shopping" all on my own. I have done window shopping, to kill time while waiting for someone, or a couple of times, just by accompanying a friend who wished to do so. But doing on my own willfully, this happened for the first time.  When i stepped out, i messaged her, mentioning the same, her response "Share your experience once you are done". So here goes the blog. First thing after deciding so, i called up another friend of mine, who happens to be a shopaholic. She has always been a helping hand, when it came for shopping. When i told her, that this is what am going to do for today, for next few minutes, she was just laughing out loud, and after sharing her words of wisdom, she simp...

Yesterday, was a day where by the end of the day, I couldn't even recall what all exactly I did in the whole day. It was full of nothing. Okay, it had some phone calls with interesting people, full of ideas and gratitude. A good way to catch up on the things I have missed out in the last decade, while I was busy getting a hang of other things.  As the post title says, (oh this is one rare post, where I have titled it before writing), "learnings" I will try listing down my learnings (as a person) in last few years:  No work is small. Respect everybody's job. Some jobs might seem miniscule, but doing them needs lot of courage.  People have their own story, which you never know, or will never get to know. Be considerate.  There is always a reason behind anything that happens. Nothing happens out of blues.  One of the most difficult things is to be yourself, when everyone around you expects you to be as per their expectations out of you.  Silence, honesty, and ...

Today happens to be the first day of sabbatical from work. A decision which came through after so much of internal conflict.  The day started with a weird feeling. I did not have any work emails/messages to be checked and responded. Infact, it felt even weirder, to not have access to official mailbox on phone. In last 5 years, have been so used to seeing more than 100 mails everyday when i woke up. Though as a part of smooth exit, i was out of business operations for last few weeks, but still i was able to keep an eye on what was ongoing. And today, it's not there. Guess it will take sometime to sink in!    I have been asked one question everytime, someone got to know about my sabbatical. Be it friends, family, colleagues ..ehh ex-colleagues now, everyone had this "What's the plan now?" And i had only one answer, "No plans" or just that "Plan is to have no plans!". When i had decided to take this break, i was of the opinion that i would not be plan...

 After more than 2 years, am back with my travel wings. It took a while to break off the shackles, but here I am again, with my wings wide spread, and ready to take that leap of faith. Or may be  I have already taken that, by putting papers. Oh yes, I am moving on for good, and a lot around can not fathom it. They call it crazy, and yeah I do agree, as am crazy, as am late to this party. It would have been the best if I was the one hosting this! Nevertheless, as they say, its never too late, and everything happens at its own time. Coming to what next, well, right now am on a flight. You know utilising the boring inflight time, to pen down the thoughts or may be clear up some space in the tiny brain of mine. Hope i get to do so, by adding some more boarding passes to the bag. 

 Hello, Happy new year! Hope this year is the best till date for everyone! In my last post, i had mentioned about being "Domesticated". Have been wondering if it has been for good or not that great a thing to go through. This is quite a debatable thing. The generation we belong to, has a way of living which is more about living on their own. They can take care of anything and everything, but in their own way. Which is i guess true for every generation.  Every child thinks they have better way of living and dealing with things, than what their parents have. And this may be true to an extent for generations. What could be the reason if this conflict is not between generations but in the same generation. There could be someone who says different people in different ways and it is perfectly fine, till they can be harmony and have mutual respect for the different styles of dealing with things, thoughts. There could be multiple reasons one can list down, for such conflicts, right f...