Chasing Sunsets..!!!

Lot of people ask me “Why sunsets”?

Well, I am not really sure what attracts me to sunsets. 

It's somehow the feeling of peace and end of a long tiring day. 

It’s the sense of gratitude that I have a home to head back to and bed to sleep on.

It’s the sense of accomplishment that I achieved something through the day and did something worth.

It’s the sense of goodness that the night is here and it will bring with a brighter morning.

It’s the sense of satisfaction that there are people who’s life I touched.

It’s the sense of happiness to have something worthwhile to do.

It’s the sense of belonging to this universe which shows me both good and bad days.

It’s the sense of thankfulness to all those who made me help go through the day.

I just love the way the sun goes down and melts into a dark night without leaving a trace of its existence but yet leave you longing for more. It always amazes me to see the mix of colours lighting the sky and just looks perfect every single time and has always been a breathtaking experience. May it be in the mountains or on the sea shore, it brings a complete different view each day.

These few moments bring me back to life and feel of content. They make me feel a hope for a better tomorrow and a better person that I can be.

Browsing through the gallery, I realised my love for sunsets. 

May it be Dehradun, Bangalore, Amsterdam, Monterrey or California, I have been chasing sunsets across the world and trying to capture a few of them whenever possible (few of them are uploaded here which I just have handy while writing). I do hope, I get to capture more of them and enjoy the peace they bring along..!!! :) 

Smile is just a message away...!!!

Tired and restless, she laid still on the bed, glaring at the unknown sky, waiting for the dreams to take her in their world. The night was peaceful. Millions of thoughts clouded her vision and her mind drifted from one to another in just few seconds. Controlling her mind somehow, she waved off all the thoughts. Just as she closed her eyes, she heard a beep of the phone. Someone had messaged her. Not sure whether she wanted to pick her cell and check, she left it there for few moments. After few deep breaths, her hand moved across the bed, to pick the phone. There lay a message on the inbox. Wondering what was so important for him to message her at this hour of the night. 

Without opening it, she kept the phone back. Did she really want to know what was in there? Was it a happy message? Will the content shatter her? Many random thoughts again dashed into her mind from the still unread message. Possibilities for what worst the message could be and also what best lay ahead. The past experiences always made her think the worst of situations and be prepared. On thinking from all negative, her mind asked her to check the message. 

She gathered the courage and slowly picked the phone to read it, prepared for the worst. It felt like ages and when she finally read it, her face lit up with a bright smile. :D

She lay on her back chatting for hours and it was the chirping of the birds which made her realise it was morning and there was no sign of tiredness on her face. The only thing to be notice was a delightful and pleasing smile.

How small things in life bother us too much. The digital life has changed the way we perceive things. Communication ways are many but communication itself is so difficult. Each of us perceive the things we read and listen in different ways and that becomes our understanding of it.

A unexpected message from someone can make the day and at times we end up waiting hours for a message from someone to just check on us. So why wait to be unexpected? Just pick the phone and message/call that someone who you are expecting or might be expecting you and trust me, the smile will melt the heart.

The War Feel in This COVID season...!!!

PS: I see around a lot of blogs, social media posts all over the internet about staying positive and happy and not to face depression during lockdown. How it has given some parents time with their growing kids, how world has new master chefs everywhere trying out recipes, how dalgona coffee is made and all perfect body videos. All that is truly needed in this gloomy world these days. But I came back today to share a short story on how COVID for me is like war field. Happy reading...!!

With all the hustle bustle and stress around in the environment and the knock of Coronavirus in India, we all were just starting to work from home and trust me, isn't a good idea of many of us, who though love their home but cannot stay-in at home for longer periods.
Our soldier of the story even wasn't use to it. Being a person who enjoys the company of close friends and good booze and sleep over the weekend, was wanting to leave the workland and travel to the homeland. After all the thoughts and decisions to leave the cozy den, the soldier got ready to travel via air to spend this time locked in the house with all the childhood memories.
The day came and suited up was the soldier, with a scarf over the head, a mask over the mouth and gloved up. The backpack were carefully loaded with a small Dettol bottle, a sanitiser, wet tissues, face wipes and a packet of biscuit and water bottle to quench the thirst on the journey. Also, cleaned and packed were the main ammunition ( headphones and shades to cover the ears and eyes).


The journey started with our suited soldier getting into a public cab where even after pulling the handle, the soldier sanitised the gloves. On entering the airport, the heartbeat was super high on seeing every single person with a mask which wasn't really the case in the country ever before. The terminal entry gates had huge bottle of sanitisers with messages to "Stay safe" and the security was super careful. The soldier showed the ticket and the passport to the security without letting the security touch any of those and moved to the check-in counter. Maintaining social distancing and taking each step careful of the new landmines, the checkin and security was done.  Now was the start of the most difficult part of the war, the long two hour wait near the departure gate.  On reaching the gate, there was a shock on the soldier's face. It was overcrowded than normal. Not even a place to hide to save yourself from bumping people. In search of solitude, the soldier walked around the whole airport to finally find a sweat little spot to stand and not clash into people. There were around 4 people near the place and each more than 20 feet apart and only moving in the radius for 3 feet around them. Each of them passed a smile to the other as they all had the same thought, trying to save themselves from the bullets and land mines all around. As each of the companions left and the hiding spot became empty, the heart beat rose as approached the time to jump in the mad rush of the departure gate where every one wanted to board the flight in a hurry, not realising that this hurry could cause a lifetime loss for them. After 2 hours of stiff standing, the soldier finally approached the gate and clashed and bumped into 3 people including 2 foreigners. Each of it felt like a bullet in the arm where the blood started pouring down. The people were running in every direction. Scared faces around. The happiness of travelling couldn't be seen anywhere. There was a haste to enter the flight, as it would save them from the dying world.
The soldier collapsed on the seat just after entering the flight and opened the backpack with shivering hands to spray the sanitiser all around. Taking sanitiser over the gloves, rubbed it all over, scared to drink water as it would mean to lower the mask and allow another risk to your body. Finally, the flight took off and the soldier waited for the last leg of the war to reach home and maintain a distance from the family..!!!



We all are today fighting the stage of this Virus which is bringing ups and downs in many of our lives. Going through personal and professional disturbances, where a scheduled life has become too uncertain and work hours have either reduced to none or increased to never ending. In this time of crisis, I wish a healthy living and safety for the world around. May the earth and world heal to a better and brighter tomorrow, which hopefully will be seen soon.

Mysore- A weekend gateway...!!!

This travelog is about a random bike trip planned by a few friends for Mysore to witness the famous Mysore Dasara. Dasara is a 10-day long festival which commences from the first day of Navratri and ends on the 10th day of Vijayadashmi.

 Well, we took off from JP Nagar, Bangalore @ around 6.30 AM in the morning after catching a few hours of sleep. Trust me the early morning bike ride is very soothing and a delightful experience. In few mins we were on the beautiful NICE road. Driving on this road is a real pleasure. The morning sky welcomed us with pleasing view till we reached the Mysore road and halted at Kamat Lokaruchi in Ramnagara. A good breakfast and a happy stomach can make a journey a relaxing one and that’s exactly what this yummy breakfast did. We were around 100 kms away from Mysore and planned to make our next pitstop.It was at Srirangapatna to visit the Daria Daulat Bagh and Tipu Sultan Gumbaz. Situated 15 kms from Mysore, this city has its own historic importance. 

Moving on towards Mysore, we visited various places like St. Philomena’s Church, Mysore Zoo, Sand Museum and Chamundi hills.Last but not the least we reached Mysore Palace, which is illuminated with an amazing view in the evenings. The Palace is a host of many cultural festivals. The Colourful tableaux, dance groups, musicians, decorated elephants, horses and camels form a part of the procession which starts from the Mysore Palace. It is one of a kind of experience to witness the beauty of the festival. The spirit of festival can be seen throughout the city and its one of the best day trip from Bangalore.

Teenage Confusions...!!!

Why is marriage considered the final step of any relationship?

Is it really important to give a name to a relationship?

Cant a girl and boy be friends?

The list to such questions is never ending and many youngsters tend to think on these lines at least one in there lifespan. Alas, often they don't get the answers.

Relations, love, infatuations, etc. are very common terms heard where one is not sure (most of us) which is the correct path for him or her when it comes to taking the personal decisions. Peer pressure, professional pressure, family pressure, all these also come along and hence making it even more difficult to have personal thoughts.

When asked, "What do you wish to see in your life partner?", the answers are not every convincing and it is mostly on what is seen in movies or read in books. The reality of what we expect is far from the answers given. It takes a lot time, personal space, understanding oneself which can make us actually have some opinion on our life partners.

Some may not agree and might say that my life-partner is my school sweetheart or my college darling, well yes, that can happen too and that also mostly is the result of the endless phone conversations, small letters, notebook notes that would have been passed multiple times and knowingly unknowingly, the two people understood what and who can make them happy and that of course, is the benefit of long invested time :D

Marriage or tie-ing a knot is probably important in Indian society (love or arrange :P) but what matters is the happiness and well-being of two individuals. We live in the modern world and tend to meet hundreds of people, some actually leave a footprint in our hearts, some become our friends, many just get lost in the crowd and few becomes our best buddies. Named or un-named any relations we make in our life, teaches us something, it uncovers a part or a quality of us which would have otherwise taken a long long time.

Being in the same age group, many questions do haunt me at times and I haven't got the answers to many of them, all I would say is go with the flow and discover yourself. After all,  

"Loving yourself isn't Vanity, it is SANITY...!!!"

The journey with a Driver...!!!

As a lead Driver I was really looking forward to what the journey ahead lay. On going through the requirements and various discussions, it didn’t seem to be an easy road trip. The challenges that hovered included a lot of dependency on Push notifications and Geofences.

We believed our road trip in building this application would turn over the original road trips these drivers take on a daily basis. All the thoughts came true after being on the field with actual Drivers on a CEMEX plant and going with them to various job sites for which CEMEX provides construction materials.

The road was not always smooth and we had a bumpy ride with quite a few road blocks. Slowly and gradually we cleared the field as we reached the milestones. After a long drive of six months and many breakdowns later, being a “Driver” with the real Driver in a truck was true bliss. 

 

A typical day in the plant would start with Clock-in followed by activities like inspecting the truck and informing the Batcher that the truck is ready to load. On receiving the order the app would kick in. Each of the status gets triggered automatically as and when the process is complete like Loading, Loading Complete, To Job etc.  On exiting the plant and reaching the Jobsite, the geofences comes into play and it was amusing for the Drivers to see that it all worked automatically. They could even get the Proof of delivery signed in the application, which is currently a process on paper, and I could see their delight when they nodded their heads. 

 

The trip that started from a meeting room in Garage reached all the way till the CEMEX plant in Monterrey. All road blocks were worth it after seeing a contented smile on everyone’s face in acceptance of the application.

PS: This is a real experience from my professional life.

I am a Sock and help me find my love...!!!

Hey All, let me introduce myself. I am sock and I keep your feet warm and protect you from all kind of shit that can harm your lovely feet. Here I am today narating my story of losing my beloved counterpart. I hope someone would read it and help me find my soulmate.

I lay there in the closet with other dirty clothes waiting for my turn to washed and reused again. My neighbours were a few soiled trousers and shirts and also I could see my community there, some other designed socks. All of us desperately waiting for our guardian to take us to the washer. The wash session was like a huge fair where we would meet a lot of relatives, friends and make few new relations. But like all other fairs, the crowd would be massive and there would be few bad people whom you need to be aware of.

One fine day, my guardian spared some time and took us to a her newly yet temporary washer. It looked quite different from the ones she normally took us to. I was very excited. I would experience some new swings and rides. I happy hugged my counterpart, the right foot sock. I asked her if she was excited and she happily nodded and was jumping to get inside the new white washer. Our guardian sorted us with our respective pairs and put is inside the washer. All my neighbours including me and my pair were thrilled. My guardian closed the door and put in some fresh aromatic detergent and turned on the washer after selecting warm water for our new ride. Slowly the water started falling on us with the detergent mixed. It felt just so good and perfect. Once the water was over us, the ride started. We swirled inside, once to the left and then to the right. Up and down, left and right, it just kept going on, I was enjoying it and so were all others. There was big smile on the right foot sock. I could slowly feel all the dirt being removed from over me and I could breathe in fresh air. This was a perfect ride. It went on for 1 hour. We enjoyed it but were tired and lay aside each other, waiting for our guardian to collect us. I was looking for the right foot sock but couldn't see her but I could hear her voice, talking to a blue colour shirt.
Time passed by, probably 2 hours but our guardian didn't come to take us. We all were dozing off to sleep, tired from the fun filled ride and then suddenly the door opened but a hand came in. I was happy, finally our guardian came, But the hand looked different. I wondered who is he? He just caught hold of our necks and threw us in the basket. My back hurt from been thrown down as I had fallen on the floor and not in basket. The man picked me and threw me in the basket. Most of us were hurt and didn't knew what was happening to us. We all became unconscious.
After some time when I woke up, it was our guardian looking at me with tears. I couldn't understand why she was sad. I thought of asking her, I tried getting up and saw she had arranged all the clothes in a pile with their pairs. I looked at my right to see how is the right foot sock doing and did she notice the guardian unhappy. I was surprised to see no-one on my right. I turned to see on the left and there was no-one. I got up and saw all other socks in the pairs. I freaked out. Sadness took over me too and I understood the reason my guardian was upset. I started crying and seeing that upsetting her even more.
Today, its 3 days after I lost my mate in that massive fair and I and my guardian daily go to the washer to check if someone by mistake took my partner but alas, we haven't found her yet.

My tears have dried up and so has my guardians pain. I knew how much she loved us both. We were favourite pair.
I have understood the meaning for the quote "What's meant to happen will surely happen". But I didn't realise I would lose my beloved in such a way.
A request to all the readers, if you find my counterpart, please help me be united with my love. My right foot Sock.