Taking a Pause

More than a few of my posts over the decade of blogging have been around the "missing hour", "not enough time", "always running around" and of course the "mysterious balance of work and home"

As we all charter through these turbulent waters of "Covid-19" which for all intensive purposes feels like a "pause on life", I sit on my couch which has become my work from home table and ponder on what this means to me.

Firstly, THANK YOU to all the professions deemed 'essential' and risking the unrelenting virus to keep us safe, pantries stocked and above all as I sit and complain on "slow internet" these people help patients every minute to go back home. Their dedication, stories and perseverance is inspirational! So THANK YOU

Secondly, touch wood, we are blessed. We have stayed self isolated, connecting with friends and family over video calls, play board games with the family, cleaning some closets, cooking a lot more and above all in the midst of this realizing what a wonderful and supportive network of friends, family and co-workers I have. 

Work has been busy but no commute has helped the productivity, more check-in calls with teams and definitely getting to know the co-workers and their families since invariably we have some much needed background levity with the group. 

We are all staying paused and positive. Its been an experience! We stocked up on groceries some out of pure fright, some out of peer pressure and some out of "what if". A friend reminded me I love being around people and this must be weird for me. In a lot of ways it has been and in some ways, its been a breath of fresh air also. I am connecting more to myself also in the process also. Something that in my now not so recent Pitt trip I was chided for! It's also been more hair oil days, PJ days, home made face masks, reading, zoom virtual meet ups, video calls and above all just being "chilled". 

Kids have been AMAZING. My gosh, I cant say that enough. Luckily their spring break coincided with this self isolation order, so they have sort of gone with the flow. Of course they miss their friends, there are occasional outbursts of "what now" but they have built puzzles, learned cross stitch, caught up on their worksheets, learning new "computer" skills and picking up chores as much as possible! Our cousins universities shut down abruptly and the two of them are over adding fun to the stay-at-home party. They are such amazing influences on the kids. Above all the 6 of us are definitely making most of this. Coming  week "e-school" begins and we will have to establish "new schedules" again!

Life is "Paused" and we continue to keep it "Positive". I miss my massage place, my eyebrow place, my lazy evening with friends, the 'normal' schedule, the endless chatter with friends, the dinners, the normalcy of life. But I HONESTLY am making the most of the newly filled peace and quiet, the LAUGHTER and relaxed smiles of those around me!

How is your "Pause" been?

No more Night Night!

I love technology, the ease of communication, getting true global experience at your fingertips, be it professional life, personal life or just gossip life!

But technology is a sleep killer.

There was a time in our early married life, when hubby and I would pop into covers and get our favourite books out, read and doze away. If we did wake up in the middle of the night, it would be too painful to start the night lamp and read again. So a glass of water, and plop into bed again.

Sadly it’s different now!

Technology rules. At any time on our bedside, you would find two smart phones, iPad, laptop and lots of chargers and maybe one dust covered book! In the night if I do wake up, I check on V and then come back in covers and just start the i-Something. I might surf the net, play a game, read the news. And then after twenty minutes, I am wide eyed.

And then the glass of water/ walk around the house just does not work. I am awake. And then, the story continues, I am making my to-do lists, researching project work, reading some stuff. Basically anything that should wait is keeping me up in the nights.

I should switch from technology on my night stand to a good old book and glass of water! Of course, it implies I need to get an old school alarm clock

I was Home

No not London but what was and will always be my true home-Mumbai.
I returned after what feels like a lifetime, or half a decade more realistically. Wow! There is something about the city one grows up in, no matter where you go in life, the familiar streets, the college joints, the bus numbers, the crowds, the humidity, the food, just feels natural.

Meeting friends whom one just resumes from where left off, bliss.Having your off spring give you confused look when you say, this is my school, bliss.
Planning the trip to the coffee house just because that's where you always met your friends,  bliss.
Driving past the building where you grew up, bliss.
Seeing the revised skyline, new land marks, revisiting the history, bliss.
Boo for being Home only for three days of which being bed ridden for more than 2.5 days due to health... big Booo!!!
So though I am Vada Paav, Bhel, Chit Chats and Sizzlers deprived.... I was HOME and that's what counts.


Bottom line, being in your true home, bliss.

Bonds of a lifetime

You may be fifty, fifteen... there is something about the bond, the friendship and the camaraderie... of the "sistahood" of our girl friends.
I feel like a school girl, when I hang out with us girls, I may not have met some for a decade, and some I just met ten minutes ago, there still a familiarity, a smile and loads of giggles.
I wonder why they say: Girl cannot be a girl’s friend! It is so untrue.
After parenthood, I do see a lot of changes in me and my relationships. Some good and some not so.. But something stays consistent always!
I remember knocking on my neighbor, a very dear friend’s door often, either for a cup of chai or us just sitting and wondering why "Vivaah" was such a bad movie but a tear jerker none the less. I remember being really scared of telling my girl friend when I was pregnant. I know she'd be super happy but still super OMG-You are gonna have a baby. There are countless coffees at JATC and countless hours spend in chocolate shops defining our friendships.
There are enough planned and unplanned lunches, movies, walks, teas that I still try to get to. I remember fondly "lecturing" my friend on relationships while still figuring out my own. I smile when I think about the first time, my girl friends literally pinned me down in the salon for getting my eyebrows done. Till date, when I step in the salon to get my eye brows done, I laugh! I look forward to my email chain with girl friends; I look forward to discussing why Shrek 3 will be such a good movie or how we HAVE to see Sex and the CIty-2. I enjoy the charm, the comfort and the fun of it all.
I have written a lot of times here and about the need, the stress reliever and the fun factor of friendships. Somehow I feel like I am repeating myself right now...

As I see my daughter growing up in front of me... How she excitedly tells me how she played and whom she played with. I can only imagine the hundreds and thousands of dollars she will also spend on coffees, gatherings, mani-pedi's, chick-flicks and still what she will gain at the end of it will be priceless!

My Love-Love relationship with the Tiny Yellow Paper.

Wow.... lovely news: Post-it's those cute irreplaceable yellow color sticky's turned 30!

They have been in existence for 30 years. And I can’t help but wonder how people managed before them.
People count on my organization and planning skill sets and I count on the Post-It’s! For me, if Post-it's were not there, my life would have been: A disorganized mess!
I swear by Post-It's ever since high school. They were my bookmarks. My notes were color coded with them for the exam time. Yellow for quick reminders, Pink for important, and blue for Have to read before entering the exam hall!
In my masters, I would use the cute fly tags for all my papers. Yes, they were color coded as well!
My friends had banned me from walking down the stationary isle anywhere, since I would need that must have Post-It for something. I remember going to my friend’s office and found myself in his stationary cabinet. I swear he had to pull me out of there! I genuinely thought, I would get over my fascination for the little paper.
But now in work life, personal life, Post-it's have infiltrated even more. I actually worked on a project where we had Post-It's on the wall to signify the progress. Yellow for test team, Blue for DBA and Green for developers. Pink was used for red flags I think. See it’s not only me. It was a group of very smart, efficient workers relying on Post-It’s. I remember making a presentation about Agile technology and talking at least twenty minutes about our post-it usage and the pattern in our madness!
On my desk even now, I will have post it's as to do's. For notes, for back tags, for meeting pointers.
I even use them in the house. I have a magnetic strip post-it. My grocery and to buy things are maintained there. My recipe books are tagged with them. Just last night, I was telling SD, I will put Post-its spelling out basic words like "Door", "Toys" for V to start reading in context of the object. Implying, the next time you come over, in addition to V's art projects, you will see Post-It art around the house!
On our trips, the plan-o-holic me, makes a folder of basic stuff life: Flight reservations, car rental papers, one set of directions (even though we carry GPS) and oh yes, The List. They are separated by my post-it’s as separators.
No, I am not crazy. I am just Post-It addicted! I still get weak kneed if I see a new style of Post it's in stationary rows. Trust me; I could cook up a need for them. My friends trained me well; I avoid going to the stationary row even now. But I would, if I could!
Happy Birthday Post-It! To your new and ever evolving life ahead!

Reminiscing

For some strange reason, today, I am thinking about when I first landed in this country for studies. Landing with excitement, anxiety, fright and yes tonnes of books and two big bags to LAX. Yes, I had visited LA before, but as a tourist, and had only seen the 90210 side of the city. As my uncle drove me in his mini-van (where I had to sit on the right side and not drive!), through the shady neighborhoods, and low buildings to my apt. in campus... man.. was I shocked!
The next few weeks and months, were a blur while I adjusted, met old friends, made new friends.. And studied and gave exams with professor recommended "cheat sheets" and open books! Wow, it was so different.

Here are a few funny incidents that happened around me when my friends and I moved to this melting pot..
A very dear friend wanted to cross the road, and like a responsible person waited. (We were told in orientation not to 'Jay walk' ever!). So the crossing light sadly never turned green (for over 3-4 minutes) for her, she kept waiting. Then in her words: "A firang came, pressed this button on the lamp post, and the signal turned green, he crossed the road! I stood there once again missing to cross the road.. cuz I was laughing so hard at my own stupidity!"
Now, this friend has learned to cross the road but I still have preserved the email from her confessing her ignorance! (Hehe!)
Another friend of mine, would always wonder what was this (writing in exact pronunciation!) "pedzing" on the roads. She wondered, one late at night she came to the library where we were burning the midnight oil and asked: "Guys, What’s with this 'PedZing on the road! I don’t get it". We wondered what she was talking about, went out, checked the roads.. there it was written "Ped Xing" in bold letters on the road. It meant"Ped Xing = Ped Crossing = Pedestrians Crossing".. and yes once again, all of us laughed till we fell on the floor. I am sure, more than half the people who laughed that night, didn’t know the meaning of it until then!
And here is another one... (Not that funny though!) A friend of mine; staunch vegetarian, and a very bad cook. Would every evening go to McDonalds and ordered a Cheese Burger. He ate is, liked it and thought it was a nice patty. He did this for a couple of weeks very ignorantly, never once questioning what the patty was… come on, he had enough McD’s in India to know. One night (again one of those midnighters) we all went to the campus food court. We got the Sub's and he his "Cheese Burger" Needless to say, our jaws dropped and we were all bewildered. He honestly didn’t know, that the patty which tasted yumm... was actually uh.. not veggie or soy based. He felt bad.. very very bad. We could tell...But then after some soul searching he said "Ab kya, ab to kha liya naah, chuck it" [Translation "What now, have already eaten it."] As per him, he still is a staunch vegetarian but loves the McD cheese burgers (Yes my eyes roll every time!)

I can go on and on; with stories of grad school, initial work culture, my adjustments in this country.... some funny, some very funny and some extremely hilarious(!). I am sure you have some too.. so please do share!

It’s always fun to sit and reminisce about these stories. These past years, have been an experience...I have learned a about the culture and traditions of this land and that of my home land. And created some traditions of my own

And if you are wondering, why I haven’t shared my own stories about the adjusting times.. hehe... as the author(!) today I choose to not make a fool of my self... but am sure the "charrrriiiismatique.." story is sure fresh in every ones mind.... and as SD says: "Let everyone figure out your personality themselves.. why publicize it!" ;-)