The tito's curse

2010 wasn't a great year. Infact, it was disastrous. Horrible things happened - both personal as well as professional. I even fell sick for a month! But then as they say, every adversity teaches us something and we have the choice of learning from it and growing. Not every, I would say but most of them do.

Enough gyan done.

They also say that all's well that ends well. And if we go by this then what a year 2010 was. OMG. The end of 2010 marked the end of the tito's curse. What is the tito's curse, you ask? Well, everyone around me, everyone you know and their sister and brother have been to tito's and mambo's at baga in goa. Except, humble mortal, me.

So, towards the end of 2010, I vowed to end the year on a high note and I set the wheels turning. Afterall, you have to make things happen for yourself, right? After weeks of meticulous planning and plotting and convincing and negotiating and a bit of serendipity, lo and behold, I was in goa with some awesome people. It was slow and ordinary till after dinner on the first day when I stepped into tito's. And then I partied. And how. For the next 4 days, it was a dusk to dawn affair in tito's lane. I slept only after seeing the morning light everyday.

Not to mention that it took me days to recuperate after all this madness but what the hell, it was totally worth it.

Going to goa, staying right on the beach, drinking tea (yes, not beer) all day long and partying all night with the most awesome friends. If I had a bucket list, this would have been on it and I would have ticked it right off at the end of 2010.

Crush

There is this blog that I used to read a while back. Then the girl had become negative and her posts were dark. The sun-loving person that I am, I stopped reading the blog till yesterday when I had lots of time to kill and nothing to do.

One of her posts is about crushes. Crushes that I and you have and according to me it's an awesome description of these crushes. You can read it here.

Crushes are great. Atleast I think so. They bring excitement and purpose and smiles and anticipation and palpitations to an otherwise sedate life and don't ask anything in return. They disappear in sometime - 99% of the times. You couldn't ask for more risk-free entertainment. That would be greedy!

chikka mari!!

I remember when my bestest friend Su's dad used to call her "shali mari" and i used to burst out laughing because in hindi 'mari' translates to 'died'. Well, that was not what her dad meant. Her dad was endearingly calling her a sweet little kid, loosely translated from Kannada.

And now 'shali mari' has a 'mari' of her own. The title says 'chikka mari' because having been in bangalore for sometime, I myself have picked up a bit of Kannada and 'chikka' is small. So there you go.



I can't believe that that mad young girl who used to do walk back from college with me is now a mom to a beautiful daughter! And let me tell you Su is pretty mad, the maddest girl I've known. To see her with her daughter is such a joy because this is what she always wanted and dreamt of.

To many more of her dreams coming true!!

Hepatitis E

The illness has kept me company for a month now.

I thought I was having acidity as I had nausea and the mention of food made me sick. Then I started throwing up when I ate and even when I didn't eat. My friend dragged me to the doc who didn't have to do much except look at me to tell me I had hepatitis. He asked me not to go home and get admitted, which I did. That's me, in the casualty ward, getting iv fluid. (I was given a room later)



Many needle pricks, saline bottles, 4 days in the hospital, 4 weeks of home arrest and 6 weeks of teetotalling later, I am doing good now. I was yellow like a clown and I look like a crow after all the weight loss.

The silver lining is that I've become extra careful about the water I drink. Then there is being off alcohol for sometime. Lastly, since I've lost a few kgs, I can eat so many more dutch truffles, chocolate donuts, chocolate croissants, lindts and mithai. Time to honor my sweet tooth.

short sojourn

I went to ISB some time back. I have been there more often than I would have ideally liked to. This happened to be my second of those trips. I had my new camera and loads of time to kill. So I took pictures.

This is the place. That's ISB - Indian School of Business. I've been wanting to study here for a while now.



Thats my humble luggage.



And they had this buffalo statue right in the main lawn. I was touched to see the love and respect for the buffalo. I thought I was the only one. A proud moment in a Haryanavi's life! The buffalo is truly so under-rated.



They have these huge fans in the main atrium, it's not even funny.



And this is the main atrium.



This too is the main atrium and the steps.



The best part was the empty bottles in the girls' hostel room.

My 'Siddharth' moment

No, I didn't meet any Siddharth. Siddharth as in Gautam Buddha before he became the Buddha. Everybody knows his story, right?

So here goes mine. I rarely travel by trains. Thrice in past 10 years or so, to be precise. And earlier when I did travel by trains, it was the rajdhani between Mumbai and Delhi and that cannot be called our quintessential train - let's just say it is nicer and cleaner.

The past 3 times, I have travelled between Hyderabad-Bangalore. Of these also, on the earlier 2 occassions, I reached the station just when the train was about to start. I was very late and I did the whole running on the platform routine and barely managed to get on the train. (Exactly the opposite of what my dad taught us all our lives).

Anyways, long story short, the last time I travelled by train was the first time I spent whole one hour on the platform waiting for a train that caters to the aam aadmi. And I happened to find a spot where the non-ac, sleeper compartment was expected. And to make the story shorter, let's just say, I saw a lot of stuff and lots of people I am not used to seeing. Old infirm couple managing on their own, husband taking such good care of his wife. Small kids crying for treats their parents couldn't afford. And so on. You get the picture.


But what made my heart cringe was this little girl travelling with her sister who was barely 4 inches taller than her and these two were all by themselves. On that station. In a crowd of hundreds of strangers. Waiting for their train possibly for an overnight journey. Hungry. Thirsty. Alone.

I was generally chatting with the girls and they shared my water and biscuits. The high point came when they saw a Ganesha idol being offloaded from the train. These little kids got so excited and ran to look at the Ganesha leaving their one tiny bag behind. And I could not hold my tears back because I was suddenly made aware that these are just children with their tiny hearts and tiny joys. Little kids loaded with so much responsibility, left alone to fend for themselves in a place which can intimidate grown-ups, when they really should be concernless and free to run and play and scream. Especially the elder one - she had to take care of the little one as well.

And THAT was my 'Siddharth' moment. I am not taking off to the forests just yet though. That would make the world a happier place and we don't want that. We want a state of moksha.

Anyways, I had to leave them when my train arrived and I'm sure they are doing well for themselves. They are strong and sensible kids. A little too sensible a little too early.

..and the tan does not go away!

Not that I'm being a girl and complaining about it. Infact, I'm in a way proud of it! I'm happy about it!

Because everytime I look at my arms, I'm reminded of all the trips, all the journeys I've made. I'm reminded of all the treks I've been on, the walks, the bike rides I've taken. All the long drives on which I kept my windows open and felt the wind in my hair. (And the tough time I had de-entangling my hair). I'm reminded of the sun burning my skin. I'm reminded of all the forests, the mountains, the rivers, the highways I've seen and all the moments I've spent with the people I love.

I have been quite a homebody all my life for various reasons at various different points in my life. And it's really since January this year that I've started travelling and exploring, something that I quite enjoy. Since then, I've done pretty well for myself averaging more than a trip a month. The tan is a testimony to that and I'm pretty happy that I've not let the tan on my arms lighten!

As they say, life is a book and if you've not travelled, you've read but one page.

If you want to suggest spf60, don't. I would rather stay indoors than re-apply every 2 hours.