About Blog

this blog is dedicated to all the people out there..who are stuck in their clichéd everyday life...but are true ROCKSTARS in their alter egos...(Do you see a Mark Zuckerberg or a Beyonce..when you look at yourself in the mirror??)...I do ..:-) The unusual but identifying stories of a middleclass girl trying to survive in this moral and modern world....:-)

Thursday 31 July 2014

Vacationing, Planning & Scanning the Sky...


Since last couple of days, I have been looking for something or someplace to surprise my better half on our tenth anniversary. Can you imagine surviving ten years of fighting, nagging, forgiving, and all that Bollywood style emotional drama? But so what..atleast we were together in it and plan to celebrate the next tenth milestone in a more enthusiastic and fun way too...fingers crossed :-). We were very young when we got married..just straight out of college..began our carriers and life together. And I can say he has been my silent companion and supporter throughout the thick and thins...

We have one more buddy who has been a spectator of our companionship and togetherness throughout these ten years. We laughed, danced, got drunk, and even cried with it. Before you start guessing and imagining about the third entity in our relationship, let me tell you its our very own Goa.

(pic courtesy - www.skyscanner.net)
Goa is not a place or destination for us. It's our common best friend with whom we have always celebrated our friendship and union. And you know in a marriage there are very few things on which you can agree upon :-). It's our place of solace away from our monotonous and stressful professional lives where we relive our college and courtship days.

Though this is the vacation for which our bags are always packed but the planning associated with it is really frustrating and tiresome. The tedious and annoying task of going through dozens of websites for travel, hotel, sightseeing logistic etc. leaves us cranky and irritated. We always try to dodge the planning part on one another :-)...But this time for a change I got a chance to try SKYSCANNER for my vacation planning.

But before entering the planning zone let's quickly go through my vacation itinerary -

i)  Flights (both ways) Pune/Goa  
ii) 5D/4N Stay at Vivanta by Taj, Fort Aguada.
iii) Sightseeing on Anniversary Day.
iv) Airport transfers.
With a total budget of Rs 1 lac.  

So with this mind boggling list, I visited www.skyscanner.co.in and I must say I am really impressed and amazed. Flights, hotels, buses, and even car hires, it's all under one link and that is so awesome !! The Homepage is really user friendly with all the required tabs under one roof and informative articles like "visa friendly destinations" can certainly give you more option for your destination. The best feature which has become my personal favorite is "Recent Searches". Through this you can save your last five searches and that too without even logging in. It is really convenient and time saving.


While booking the flight I was bewildered by the informative and easy interface of Skyscanner. Sort by price, number of stop over, departure time, airline etc. ..you name it and they have it. But the most useful and practical feature which I really liked was booking a pickup and drop cab to/from airport alongside the flight. No extra effort of booking a cab from your home to airport and vice versa. Chose the flight and transfers too in one go...



Then I moved to the hotel booking section and here came one more convenient attribute of the website. It already had all my data from the flight booking tab i.e. Checkin/Checkout Dates, Number of Nights, and Number of Guest...Wow!! I straightaway started looking through options and to my surprise the prices and deals appeared to be comparatively low to other websites. You get about thirty to fourty options by clicking on one deal link...amazing isn't it..Grabbed a nice deal..booked the hotel...pheww..


As planned, I wanted to hire a car for sightseeing on our anniversary day and accessed the car rental tab. It too had three variant of cars i.e. economy, intermediate, and premium. Off course I chose the premium one for my anniversary..yay!!. and an economy car for airport transfers.. But fun apart, one more VERY useful feature that I encountered in car hire tab was the option to chose the "Driver's Age" of your cab. I know being a female, how much this can help you if you are travelling alone or are on an all girl's trip..Thank You Skyscanner!! 

And the sightseeing and transfers were done too..:-)


Apart from all the useful and functional feature of website it appeared that the price of all services were comparatively low than its other counterparts. There were no extra charges or any hidden fees with any of the deals. The reason for it is Skyscanner is "FREE" for users and takes charges from the agents resulting in lower prices for us. 



And here we are after three steps and less than thirty minutes later. Flight check, hotel check, sightseeing check, transfers check...all done and all in budget!!

We often go to Goa and it has become a cherished buddy and companion of us. We have lot of beautiful memories of it and plan to make more in the coming years. 

But this time I must say and thank Skyscanner: you improved my overall vacation and travel planning experience. Now onward it would not be an excruciating and horrendous process for me. My lot of time was saved and got a good deal too...:-)

Hats off to the team behind Skyscanner too who is doing a fabulous job of sorting and putting all the USEFUL travel data under one platform. I am really bowled over by the user friendly, vivid, and..in budget experience of Skyscanner.

I have also downloaded the Free App on my smartphone. Now I am good to go.

Skyscanner has become my travel buddy for life now...and yes...now I understood the meaning of your name ..surely you are scanning the sky to give me an amazing travel experience...

Bravo Team Skyscanner!!!!  

"P.S. - To have a similar experience like mine, just click on Skyscanner or any bold letter in the post" :-)

This post is a part of Skyscanner travel wizard activity at BlogAdda.com

Wednesday 23 July 2014

What the Black??

(pic - I made it)
Black is the color of successful people; from SRK to Obama everyone seems to be in muse with this one shade. Expert say and I agree with them too that Black adds a sort of crispness and smartness to your personality and demeanor. Sometime I feel this color has an ability to play with your psyche. It can hypnotize you and can very well uplift you from the self loathing mode of yours..whether it's the feeling of confidence you get from wearing a pretty Black dress or having a ride on a powerful Black motorbike..It makes you feel like a star or someone special...Don't you think it's all in the color..I feel so..

Black is a distinct part of my memories and thoughts in one way or the other. So for me the most desired things which are predominantly Black would be -


1) My Grandma's Black Hair - I can give up anything and everything in this world to see those long Black locks of her again. Believe me, she had the same Black hair till the age of sixty eight (she is no more with us now). I want to again see her morning and evening ritual of combing her hair which she use to do by sitting in the porch of our house.. with a bottle of coconut oil in her other hand..For me, that was a sight of eternal beauty and grace..


2) My Father's Black Yezdi - This was the first motorcycle, my

father got for himself after he started working. I have very few hazy memories of me sitting on that bike. But what I clearly remember are the expressions of happiness on his face while riding that first bike of his. I have never seen him that happy even when he purchased series of scooters and cars after that. Imagine a twenty something guy during early eighties having his own motorbike...sheer joy and fun..I want to get that Black Yezdi for him and hope to see the same happiness again..
3) My Black School Skirt - Childhood...ahh..synonymous to no tensions, no worries, and no responsibilities. In winters, Black skirt was the integral part of our school uniform. And winters in school time and that too in North India are equivalent to variety of stuffed parathas in lunch, roasted groundnuts, chikkis...chatting in ground during lunch (to get some sun) and unexpected holidays due to extreme cold weather. So wearing this Black skirt for me was always synonymous to fun unlimited..I really yearn to wear that piece of cloth again..and relive those memories..  

4) A Black Emporio Armani Spectacle - My better half is an avid fan of branded spectacles. Once in an year, we go on a shopping spree for his specs when the sale season kicks in. For last three years, I have been observing him doing online research and zeroing in on Armani's Black spectacle frames. But as soon we go through those frames in his regular spectacle's shop, he always changes his mind and buys a local brand. I guess being a budget planner of the family, he refrains himself after seeing the price tags. I have always argued with him on this and tried several times to get him one but all in vain. So this time I really wish him to have one for himself.

5) A Black Pug - I always want to have my own pet and a pug is on the top of list. But past
hindrances and restrictions like parental consent, housing society rules, my jobs etc etc have never allowed me to fulfill my wish. A shiny Black pug with his small, pretty and watery eyes can melt anyone's heart away. I really want to have one too in near future.

So this was my list and according to me all the classy, fun and desirable things in my life are BLACK...:-)

(Pictures - All pics are courtesy www.google.com)

This post is a part of #WhatTheBlack activity at BlogAdda.com

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Monday 21 July 2014

Can girls be friends??

Couple of days back..the guy gang of my family was discussing a very controversial and critical issue. But before letting you know about their chitchat..let me give a brief of that  incident which triggered the gossip session in my house on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Apparently some female team mate of one of my cousin refused to work with her other female colleague and lost an opportunity to go onsite..can you believe it ...an ONSITE opportunity!!!! (those who don't know ...let me tell you...an onsite opportunity in IT is the only "tinke ka sahara" to face that forty hours weekly agony called office). And trust me, I have seen all kinds of international level politics, battles, and wars happening for that one thing in that small board room (even Namo can take some tips for formulating his "videsh niti" from these onsite aspirants cum warriors). And the refusal was done due to some personal tiff they had some time back.

Well so these onsite lovers of my family were discussing or whispering (they didn't wanted me to hear but I did any how) about the jealousy factors and friendship equation of girls. And out of the whole discussion, the only sentence which struck me (and the opposite team was ready to bet on it) was girls can never be friends...

So to prove them wrong, I decided to make a list of my girlfriends...I even asked one of my good friends to help me out...we counted and recounted several times...(even tried to include our dietitian, parlourwali (beautician), kamwali bai (maids) etc etc once...:-))...but unfortunately were unable to take that number even past five (adding our both).

So was the wolf pack of my family right? Is it true we cannot be friends? I remember sitting in my office cafeteria with one of my girlfriend in lunch time and there comes this girl from some other project...I met her, we talked and she went. But this social behaviour of mine didn't go too well with my colleague with whom I was sitting previously..She told me or I can say warned me to not to talk to her in future and that even included the messenger or emails. What I came to know afterwards was... they use to work in same project sometime back and this friend of mine never liked her ultra urban clothing, makeup, party ethics etc..but the most puzzling part for me was...they actually never talked  personally..one to one..and this verdict was only coming from her appearances and her brand fixation....yup....funny haan...

After these two discussions and my own self-proclaimed research, I have started feeling that we (girls) live in two worlds.. the first one is ours (where the estrogen rules) and the other one is the normal one our planet..our 
pic - wehartit.com
earth...with basic laws and regulations. Our (girls) world has only two types of races, castes, creeds or categories i.e. Jealousy and Non Jealousy...so it's very simple bottom line rule for us...If you are jealous of someone you can never be friends and vice versa..(and let me remind you ...this is a thumb rule for the whole group...so if you don't like someone...your group is there to support you fully)....now this emotion or feeling can very well originate from her having a Jimmy Choo, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Manish Malhotra, or a Sabyasachi. A solitaire diamond or ..don't even go that far...a nice nail art or a pretty dress can aggravate this condition....And the ultimate killer of all (curse FB)....vacation pics from some exotic location...with a gorgeous background and beautiful glowing skin....After all, you can fail to remember anything in this world...but can never forget to anonymously check the profile of the one...who plays or have played with your emotion called envy.. I remember one quote I read on FB sometime back i.e. - "A jealous woman does a better research than FBI"...is it true? I think so...:-).

Now the second anomaly comes as a natural gift to us...(it proves god is not a female atleast)..is the inability to pretend...So if we don't like someone.. there it is bang on the face. .(it improves after few years of experience though)..and this over expressive ability of ours..which I think is directly connected to our hearts..rather than oopar ka mala or also called as brain..deepens the anonymity and the cold war..Now I understand a bit ...why they say men are from Mars and women are from Venus..

Well, I always try my best to be more present in the second part of our world..but..sometimes Burberry and Chanel can be overpowering for me too....:-)  (coming more on this) 

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Tuesday 15 July 2014

A love story...untold..


They met when she was just sixteen and he was twenty four. It was an arranged marriage extended to a span of three-four days. Though he was eight years elder to her, she felt they made an instant connection as they talked about their future. And still after fifty years or so they were at the same place loving, caring and trusting each other. This love story belongs to my grandparents or my nanaji and amma (as we all call them fondly). 

My maternal grandparents played a very crucial role in my upbringing. We use to spend almost all of our summer vacations with them at their place i.e. a remote picturesque village somewhere in Madhya Pradesh. And they used to shower all the love and care in this world on us. I have very distinct memories of asking nanaji to get me something in a very odd hour of the day or urging amma to make some dish in middle of a summer afternoon with no electricity around. And they both used to do it all without being upset on a single occasion.

As I grew up, I saw and understood the amount of love they had for each one of us in the family. And I realised that reason for them being so was their own happy and content relationship. No matter what the situation was, I never saw nanaji raising his voice on amma ever, contrary to his image of a strict school headmaster. No matter what everyone asked for, the food amma prepared was always according to the likes and dislikes of nanaji. To avoid any discomfort to nanaji, she rarely visited her mother's house and the visits always lasted for meager two-three days. Anybody who have been to my grandparents' house felt so much loved and cared for. Can you imagine...fifty years of marriage and not a single fight in front of the kids...no frustration, nagging or bad words for each other??   

pic courtesy - humansfree.com
Unfortunately, amma suddenly left him, us and this world sometime back..just after completing their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Not even thinking for once..What this man will do sans her? How would he survive without her after fifty years of their companionship? Who will tell him...where his clothes are or where his medicines are? I can't even describe in words the impact of her absence on my nanaji...He has not left their house for a single night after her. Sometimes I feel he's waiting for her to come back or dreaming about their good old days.

Throughout my life, I have always seen them as a couple..as my grandparents (a plural entity)...now what can I do to get them back?...I want to again complete this favourite love story of mine... tell me what do...Please!!

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Thursday 10 July 2014

Frustrating ...our job...well ask him..

After working for almost eight - nine years, there are days (which is very often) when I question my identity and purpose as an IT professional (and no I have not attended any Art of Living classes recently). And this self loathing mode of mine deepens when there are team issues, late night meetings, weekend tasks, and biggest of all is a bad tempered team member (and this list can go on to infinity). From entering to leaving office premise, the only mood in which we always are is Frustrated and I can say with full confidence that the most heard and said word of our corporate life is "Frustrated". Don't believe me..ok..just count the number of times you say or think about it in your day ..I already did..The most common one's are "Yar I am frustrated from this job or from this project, or from my boss, or my client, or my salary, or my company etc. etc.". I bet you will not find a single person in IT who can't spell this word correctly.

So to get out of this frustration camp, I attended a corporate training on Self Motivation recently. After surviving four hours of speech of this lady, who rather looked like a model coming straight from a salon and was clueless (I felt so) of our twelve hours agony, I had an Eureka moment . I learnt that "Self Motivation" was the answer of my miseries and I need to find a self motivator in my life. Though I didn't believed her or the concept but thought of giving it a try.

And recently I found one..no he's not Obama or Steve Jobs..he's our society's very own "kabadi wala (junk/scrap dealer)"..I know you might be smiling while reading this...but you can find big things in small
places..right!!. I have been living in this society for almost three years and have always found him sitting on his usual place (i.e. under a small tree) from 8 -7, all days of week irrespective of any weather conditions. People come and bargain with him on
toota foota ghar ka saman, old newspapers, plastic articles, glass bottles etc etc..Sometimes arguments happens for his weighing skills also i.e. "itna kam taula ya utna jyada chadaya" and even investigation happens for his scale as well as weights. But to my surprise, I always find him smiling and happily explaining the rate cards to his customers. He never frowns or appears upset. Now the big question here is - so much patience and efforts for some old broken scrap articles..Well that's what his business is all about..and he values it...He has to keep himself motivated and engaged in all his business activities and there is no escape route for him..

So nowadays whenever I feel FRUSTRATED, I catch a glimpse of him from my balcony or while on my way to office. This self motivator of mine is totally unaware of my muse towards him and is busy right now bargaining on some rusted iron dabba with one of his customer.

We all know this feeling of so called self misery (especially experienced on Monday mornings) is not completely curable..but this notion will give you some relief from it..Just look around and you'll also find a self motivator for you..though not too big or too famous..but relatable.. :-)

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Wednesday 9 July 2014

Dilwale Dulhania and it's after effects..


Last week while fooling around in Mumbai, I came across the famous Martha Mandir...and those who don't know...Maratha Mandir, though being a modest cinema hall is famous  for still playing the movie Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (or better known as DDLJ) from the day it released...can you imagine almost after 16 - 18 years ....and still the shows goes house full on weekends...Well watching DDLJ at this particular venue have always been in my Mumbai itinerary ..though have not succeeded till now.. (thanks to my sibling..who is more interested in his afternoon beauty nap)...

I was in my teens when I first watched DDLJ and from then it has always been an integral part of my life..The story, background, music, characters, romance and everything it had.. which a girl can ever imagine
courtesy - in.com
in her own love saga (ya I thought so)...But the most crucial ones for me were the Bauji and Raj.....Bauji or Amrish Puri because my father had a very similar demeanour like him (he has softened a lot now) ...and I always felt that Aditya Chopra took some inspiration from him while portraying the character. You know when you are a teen you hate every rule of your parents..feel frustrated, bound, rebellious and....imagine in that moment there comes a person who is your saviour, a knight in a silver armour..who will save you from all the miseries of your teenage life (school, tuition, exams, pre-boards seemed to be the apocalyptic events then).. Well that was Raj for me..and trust me Shahrukh has not left a single stone unturned in portraying that character.. Raj..who was synonymous to the picturesque Switzerland, mandolin, hat, cowbell, sarson ka khet..and everything musical and sweet...I endlessly dreamt about him and Switzerland....I always felt that somebody as romantic as Raj was my future...(and no I am not being paid by Yashraj Films for this)...

I know a lot of you might be thinking....whether I met my Raj or not? Well..in a kind of way ya...the only difference...Switzerland being replaced by network switches, cowbells by chat pings ..and project management jargons are the key components of our romantic talks...(more coming soon on this)..but  so what Raj & Simran can also exist in the valleys of networking and project management...right!!

By the way, we all know there is an emergency chain pulling system in our trains...but I think Raj being a foreigner might not have noticed that....poor Simran...:-)

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Monday 7 July 2014

Brazil, Nagin Dance and Moong Dal Halwa


Read the heading....found it weird....ya I know...but before you start to imagine Ronaldo doing some absurd moves or Messi (though not having an ounce of knowledge about soccer, I watch FIFA for him..yup..) eating the famous diet defying & cholesterol inducing moong dal halwa....well guys give a break to your thoughtful visualisation...

Now let me tell you from where this unimaginable combination is coming up...Well we all know (especially girls because we are being denied of our basic right of watching "Jhalak Dikhlaja, Band Baaja Bride, House etc etc..nowdays) FIFA fever is going on and Brazil being the venue as well as most powerful contender for cup is all over the place right now...But you know what (may be being a North Indian could be the reason here :-) )...I always tend to remember the Brazil song by Vengaboys (remember Brazil la..la..la..lala laaaa) whenever I see FIFA match as well as Brazil written everywhere..

Well unbelievable, but trust me...even after almost twenty years of its release its still the flavour of season in North Indian marriage circuit...Still no other song can overcome or beat the madness created by this one
pic courtesy - http://www.indianweddingsite.com/
particular number. Brazil playing on DJ ("the" most important and crucial equipment of our marriages)...believe me you'll forget the electrifying atmosphere of the best rock concert you have ever witnessed in your life...and let me warn you..if you are a non dancer..please move a bit away from the dance floor...because you would not be able to survive the wrath of these Nagin Dancers (sorry but can't find a better word here) ..

I am sure you would have danced in or may be attended lot of baraats till now..but you'll agree with me that this particular occasion is synonymous to our very own (by India, of India, for India...remember the clause we use to study in civics..it fully implements here)....dance style...the "Nagin Dance"..( trying to find the origination of this term).. and sometimes I feel we should patent it may be...or should make it our official National Dance Style...well why not??.. it can come under street dancing....if Americans can why we can't...after all it is the most widespread, everyone can do it type thing...Just imagine how Remo or Madhuri will judge these enthusiastic and energetic contestants rolling on the floor or may be streets??...I can't resist to share one more song which has always puzzled me or I can say the situation in which it is played  is "yeh desh hai veer jawano ka..albelon ka mastano ka"....seriously guys.... are we attacking the neighbouring country next..or going for a 300 (the movie) type battle scene... 

 And after a long tiresome show of the dancing abilities and skills on dance floor...it's time to raid the buffet spread....You know sweets are highlights of any Indian marriage ...and moong dal halwa (I am getting a craving while I am writing this and you'll get it when you'll read this....sorry..:-) ).. is the star of all...and have the ability to give you a sugar comma...A visual treat (thanks to tons of oozing ghee) and an unavoidable sin which can throw your days of dieting off the track...but still gives you the satisfaction....which no other angreji desserts can ever provide... 

I know I have refreshed your memories of the most recent wedding you have attended...or maybe you are trying to find the next date to go...There are lot of features and events of an Indian marriage but I find these three totally irresistible and amusing...I am sure you might be having your own combo too...

And ya that moong dal halwa....which you are thinking of eating right now....just leave it for the dreams.....it's 500 calories ..you know.. :-)        

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