My Diary

As i smell my new Bvlgari Omnia perfume on my wrist i also smell wet soil somewhere, it has started raining outside and I am over the moon. The weather in Hyderabad is so good, pleasant and windy. Just love it. Kailash Kher is belting Saiyyan on my headphone and how I cannot get Bawri? Lol! I am living in the moment these days. There is so much to do, settle the home, clothes to fold etc etc but I am turning a blind eye to all that and just doing what I love doing. Reading, lighting candles, setting fairy lights, fun cooking, journalling, walking, listening to music and chai-ing (if that's a thing). Who else loves Kailash Kher? I just love the depth of his voice and the amazing music of some of his songs!

I read a bit more than other years these past 2 years, whatever i could lay my hands on, be it books, information on net, gurus, instagram posts, pinterest etc etc. I realised that there are two ways to deal with questions/ dilemmas/ quandaries/ situations/ issues. You can approach them with a gratitude for all that you have and then seek answers or you could also do the same cursing everything around you and looking for negative situations and patterns. You dont achieve much sulking and complaining. Gratitude for what you have brings peace of mind, gives direction, frees up mental space for solutions and insights. I was not much of a wholesome gratitude person 3 years back. But gradually i have been shifting my mental focus, adjustimg my lens to see positive relentlessly. For instance, i was groggy today morning just before my exam but i redirected my energies gradually by thanking for blessings around me. Gradually i felt so much better and I could see through everything more clear...

I wake up to chilly winters sorrounded by chirping birds and clouds and mist. I havent seen such beauty and peace and quiet in a long long time. Duke insists on going out and i let him out in the backyard where he is gone for a moment and back the next, braving the cold. We make adrak tea and ponder on when exaclty we are going out for a walk. I keep delaying it. My old, lazy self. Duke is my 8 year old Terrier Lab furry friend. Next is seeing my daughter off to remote school in the room next to mine. Then me and Duke go for our long walk waving neighbours and fellow dog walkers out and about behind the anononimity of the mask. These long walks are those i detest the most before starting and love the most when on my way two blocks off my house. Gives me time to appreciate the natural beauty and helps me make to do lists and goals for the day. Menu for the day and salad combinations get done here! Alas, back at home with breakfast served, home cleaned and dishwasher loaded i grab...

Gautam Buddha once said ' You yourself, as much as any one else in the entire universe, deserves your love and affection." Your peace is your own to make and preserve! Its your prime responsibility to yourself. You cant let extraneous happenings fill your ears and heart. Care for the words of your closest and no one else. Let toxic people not be a part of your circle. In this fake world where people show fake lives on social media stick to your closest, i dont say dont be an extrovert but you gotta be ruthless in maintaining who you call your own. Dont be swayed by others opinions. Hold your own, care least of what others think and say. Your competition to be better should be with yourself, do not seek external validation. You are your own beacon.Your belief in yourself should be primary and non negotiable. Others words dont mean a thing except if it comes from the closest of the close. Your belief in yourself often ensures whether you fulfil your dreams or not. I have le...

When I look back on all of these 40 years, I see that I have always channelized my pain to perform my best or ace work or life or clamber mountain tops. This pain was sometimes professional and sometimes personal. Papa always said, 'let problems not define you, defy the problem' ! So, off I went scooting to drown in work, sometimes I found my answers and came out winning. Sometimes, I did not get answers or solutions, yet I always found valuable lessons, too precious to be forgotten. Sometimes I rested and sometimes I moved without a care. On my never ending quest in the corporate I kept on, oblivious of the pains and troubles that I kept surmounting, sometimes ignoring, which I felt became a part and parcel of me. I kept smiling when I lost a friend or a close one either to lack of time to connect or petty politics. I would rather have my attention to patting my back for some little victory somewhere at work or home than sulk or lament! Its been such a beautiful traversing jou...

While life is going at its unusually slow pace we are making friends with being home, taking care of our elderly, being busy without work, cooking watching random Instagram videos and discovering old friends. I could connect to many old friends and loved to see their growth n journey in last two decades or even more. Did several chats with college friends and met a bunch of school friends online and it just reminded how we are not getting any younger and how friends will always be friend. They cheer you and pull your leg like no one else can. I remember something from Little Things on Netflix which went on something like school and old friends are your connection to the past and who know you as you. Don't remember the exact lines, but yeah it did hit hard and is so true. With good old friends you don't need pretensions and they take you away from the rut. Well I have been studying a lot, what with assignments, exams and zoom classes. Its a time to be grateful to each single per...