The countdown begins

October has been a crazy month with deadlines to meet, deliverables to complete and loads of errands to run.

The D-day is almost here. We are flying to India tomorrow. The past few days have been crazy - with planning for the India trip, shopping or rather trying to shop, getting the bill payment organized (so we don’t come home to barrage of late fees), attending Halloween parties not to mention the bottomless pile of work.

 It’s ironic how vacations result in more work before and after. Aren’t they meant for relaxation? The completion of pending tasks, setting expectations, closing off open ends, handing over the projects  and as if that was not enough you get to come back to hundreds if not thousands (depending on the number of days you are gone ) of unread email when you get back! Almost enough to not justify the really short vacations. But India vacations are different. They are long and sufficiently entertaining to keep one from thinking about work.

I am looking forward to the next few days of peace and quiet when I don’t have to wake up at 6 am. There is nothing worse than getting up on a cold, dark morning. Depressing! But unfortunately story of my life now.


Of course there’s only so much peace and quiet you can get in India. But more on that later.  We still have 24 hours to go and loads of errands to take care of before we board the flight and dream of the lazy mornings. Ciao

Another year older

I have never lied about my age. Let’s just say I’ve never had to. Suddenly something changed this week. I was so tempted to lie when a colleague asked me about my age at a surprise party arranged for my birthday. I almost heard myself say 35 before good conscience prevailed and I said “Guess?” Her answer made my day but also got me thinking.  Why is it that we always want to be younger than we really are? ItIronically enough, didn’t we all want to be older, when we were younger?

It’s funny how a birthday changes everything. I remember when, the day after his 6^th birthday, my son asked “Now I’m almost 7 years old, right Mama?” I smiled. Turns out, it’s not just the kids that use this birthday logic. Just a week before my birthday I attended this seminar and had to fill up a form with all my details. So guess what I wrote in the ‘Age’ column? I wrote 36, knowing that my 37^th birthday was coming up. “But I am not 37 yet!”, I consoled myself.  Right up until the clock struck at midnight on my birthday, I was 36. The birthday just magically makes you a year older.  It happens all the time.

What is it about age that unnerves people so much? I think it all comes down to this – what have you done in comparison to what you thought you would by this age? And what have you not done that you thought you would by now? So as I start thinking about this, I realize this one thing. Among all the mundane but necessary things that we do in our life, there has to be a special place for a bucket list. A list that is close to your heart, is full of things that matter most to you, no matter how silly. It could be as exotic as spending a year on that white washed Greek island, as adventurous as going sky diving or as simple as starting a blog.

So this birthday, instead of fretting over getting another year older, here’s to a renewed focus on my bucket list!

Down the memory lane

It was straight out of a story book. We probably did not realize it back then but the more I think about it now, the more I cannot think of a better analogy. Undoubtedly the best time of my life and probably of many others!

Cosy and charming with cute little bungalows on tree-lined streets, each bungalow had a front yard with a few rose bushes. Each house had at least one fruit growing tree with the luckier ones having two or three or more. And indeed we were some of the luckier ones as I remember we had a mango, guava, jambhool (jamun in hindi) and custard apple trees. My cousins visiting from Mumbai found it almost unreal that you could pick and eat fresh fruit without it costing a dime…..…… Welcome to Kirloskarwadi!!

Last night, while looking for something on the internet, I came across these random pictures of Kirloskarwadi (thanks Taral). It instantly took me back 25-30 years…Gosh!!! Has it really been that long? The memories are itched in my mind, still fresh, like everything happened yesterday. I can almost smell the first rain on the dusty streets, how the early monsoon storms that would make a lot of raw mangoes fall off the trees and how I couldn’t wait to get out of the house to collect them.Sigh!
How can one forget those days? Our school which was a very short walk from pretty much everyone's house, still looks the same!

 

The playground that has witnessed several annual cricket tournaments...

And the innumerable 'dabbas' that we shared with friends under these trees...

The endless days and evenings during the summer vacation that we spent playing cards on the verandah, cycling aimlessly around the town, if I can even call it a town! To give a perspective, my current neighborhood is much bigger than the entire Kirloskarwadi!!

And the evenings that we spent playing 'ring'? I don’t even know what to call it anymore, as I don’t know anyone else who played that game; we used to call it 'ring'. Each day, after school, we couldn’t wait to get on the court to play ring with friends, friends’ moms, always referred to as maushis!!

I remember how we used to wait for a monthly event called ‘Dish’ in the local ‘Social Club’.

‘Dish’, for the uninitiated, was nothing but a get-together organized for the club members that included a yummy snack. For a place with not a single eatery of its own, the 'Dish' was naturally much sought after.

The excitement of checking the ‘Notice Board’ for the name of the monthly movie to be screened in the open air theatre was far greater than most.

And how can I ever forget the truck ride on the way back on the final day of the SSC Board examination? And it was not a pickup truck, but a full fledged goods carrier truck! You may ask, who goes to an exam sitting in the back of a goods carrier truck. Well, we did!! And proudly at that!

When it comes to Kirloskarwadi, I can probably talk and write forever, but the one thing that I do not have any words for is for the friendships we made.
Actually, I take it back, I do have a word, one word ...........Priceless!

I am a proud Wadi-kar and this, my fellow 'Wadi-kars', is for you!!

I Need It....I Need It Not....

Finally, I stopped by at the Apple store last weekend. For the past few months everytime I passed the store, I used to make a mental resolve to enter the store the next time I was in the vicinity. And today when I finally did, I was overwhelmed. Not with the multitude of gadgets mind you but the number of youngsters in the store. I felt OLD! All the store associates looked like school kids, probably half my age at best – wait, did I just say that aloud? Darn! So anyway, “So what?, I asked myself  “ I don't mentally feel that old nor do I look it,  so who cares?.” But the truth was I did feel out of place. Everyone seemed to know what they were doing and here I was moving from one gadget to the next, without a purpose.

I was in the store to look at the iPad. I thought I really needed it. Trust Apple, to come up with new gadgets every few months that look so cool, that everyone thinks he/she “needs” it or their lives are doomed. I can testify to this as one of the more gullible customers – why else would I own 2 iPods, 1 iPod nano not counting  the orange iPod nano that I gifted my Dad, and yet rarely listen to any music. In fact, the only music that I ever listen to is what comes on the radio on my way to & from work and the occasional garish B4U music videos that we sometimes watch.

Alright, so I have more music players than I would ever need, but I don’t have an iPad. Imagine what I can do with one – update my facebook status as I cook just because the iPad is compact enough to keep on the kitchen island. Or maybe read the Wall Street Journal as I watch TV or even look at random pictures of friends vacationing on a beach somewhere as I sit in my backyard. But wait, can I not do all this today with my good old Inspiron? So what if it is a little bulky to carry around? As I thought more, it became more evident that it would be one of those fancy additions to my gadget collection, which eventually would find a place in my office drawer, once the initial excitement of buying it died down.

So as I started walking towards the exit of the store, I decided to give it more time. Maybe they’ll come up with a better, cheaper version of the iPad which will justify my ‘need’ to buy it. Until then, I’ll pass…well at least until my next time in the store!!!