I guess no one really likes farewell parties! While you are trying to be cheerful and wishing luck to whoever is leaving; deep down, there is this feeling that you are soon going to miss them terribly. I also used to feel the same till yesterday evening.  Yesterday, we decided to be a part of one of the largest farewell parties in India – bidding adieu to Ganesha, the God, whom we had invited to stay with us for about 10 days. I have usually associated community events in India to stampedes, traffic jams, manhandling and rowdy, drunkard behaviors. I don’t know whether India has changed, or whether I have, but I…

As I went walking today, I was struck by the sound of loud laughter, muffled giggles, tiny feet thumping as they ran on cold pavements and chitter chatter that perhaps only tiny tots can talk and understand.  I saw a tiny boy, no older than 5, rolling around in a pile of sand, and his friends helping him go deeper and deeper, ensuring not one speck of him was left free of sand. My first reaction was disgust. How could children be allowed to play in dirt till 9 at night. Is no one cared about their health, sleep, education, etc. etc. A little closer look and I realized, the…

Have been quite busy lately with boundaries between days and nights, weekday and weekends blurring into a haze. Life has been about juggling priorities and finding what needs the next set of attention. While I am physically and mentally exhausted, I am kind of excited about this life. Why? -because it makes me feel I am important, like I am working on something big and it needs me to be there in order to come alive.  I have known a lot of people get this excited about work and honestly, I never thought I would join the same league as well. While I enjoy basking in the feeling of being important, deep…

Story time yesterday – I offered to read about fairies or princesses, but had to give in and read about dinosaurs and giant tiramasus (not sure if I still have the name right).  As we learnt about how life started in water and moved to land, we read about  a number of alien looking creatures. She had a number of questions, as always, about each one of them. One question remained common for each – did he kill other animals for food, or did he eat plants and trees? I realized based on the answer to the question, she would quickly jump to the conclusion – Oh! so this dinosaur…

It’s the middle of the night, and sleep as usual is the first thing on my mind, but the last thing that seems to be happening. As I am tossing in bed, wondering how long I need to wait before my mind gives in to the needs of my body, I am woken up by the sound of my phone. Buzzz! I know that’s an SMS and I am wondering who else is as crazy as I am, to be awake at this hour.  Turns out, it is a close friend just checking on how I am doing. As we start exchanging messages, the conversations get deeper and more closer…

Started my evening looking for something I thought would be so easy to find. As I opened a drawer full of stationary items, they clinked and danced to the swoosh sound of the drawer. As they came to a rest and the dust settled down, I realized there was no way I could find the stuff that I was looking for, in that pile of clutter. I took a deep breath and decided to sort some of it. The first most important thing I found, were external hard disks (HDD – the ones we use to take backups of our computer systems). I discovered we own 4 HDD in total (not…

I made some mistakes and in the process learnt something new today. While I am not proud of having committed mistakes, I am pretty excited that I have learnt something new in the process. Since I have started looking at mistakes as opportunities to learn, I am no longer scared of failing. Failure is just a way of knowing that I can do better.  I think for most of us, the fear of failing is not as big, as the fear of making a fool of ourselves in front of others. We can afford to feel bad in our own eyes, but if the world looks at us like that, we are…