Diary of an average Indian girl!!!!

Last couple of weeks have been pretty hectic for me. Initially, I was busy settling in my new organization. Then all of a sudden, I had to go to Hyderabad for an official trip. But no complains as I always like a busy life.

Anyways, this post has been long due. Wanted to write something on this topic since long. But don’t know why, something stopped me from sharing my views.

From the time I grew up, I had been hearing the myth called '21st century girls'.

Girls, who are independent. Girls who are excelling in almost every field. Girls who can take care of not only their family but also are a force to reckon in the professional world. Honestly speaking, all that seems a BIG LIE now. Why?? Because the way the things are happening these days make me wonder are we really living in the 21st century.

Every morning when I go through the newspaper, I come across more articles on atrocities against women than any other topic. Young innocent girls being raped, being harassed by in laws for dowry and if not anything else eve teased.

I really at times feel that it’s a curse to be born as a girl in India. Forget the girls belonging to the lower strata of society, I have seen so many middle class families where girls are married off as soon as they complete their graduation and at times even before that. Very few of them get the privilege of going for a post graduation.

I have seen so many well educated girls whose only aim is to get married to a well off guy.

I really wonder how many girls dream of becoming an Indra Nooyi or Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. I am very sure most of them have not even heard these names.

But who is responsible for such a pathetic state in our country. I believe it’s no one but we ourselves. Our so called value system. We all are very hypocritical people. We believe something, we say something else and we end up doing something else.

On one hand we have guys celebrating rakhee with their sisters, promising to protect them throughout their life. On the other hand, we have the same guys making fun of other girls, treating them as objects.
On one hand we have girls talking about women liberty, advancement, progress. On the other hand we have the same women passing comments on girls who drink and smoke.
On one hand we have parents giving good education to their daughters. On the other hand we have the same parents giving dowry in their daughter's marriage.
I know well educated guys, pass out of India's leading colleges who use abusive language against their girlfriends and wives.
I know well educated girls who consider giving dowry is part of Indian culture and its foolish to say NO to a deserving guy just because his family is asking for dowry.

All this really makes me think, where have we gone wrong. Our education system teaches us to respect women. It teaches all of us irrespective of a girl or a guy to become independent. Then from where does this hypocrisy come into picture.

Thinking about all this makes me very feel very sad and angry at the same time. I consider myself very lucky to have parents like mine. Both my sister and I have always been encouraged to be independent in life. We have always been encouraged to dream big and follow our passion no matter how unconventional it might be to others. I also have few friends who are as lucky as I am. But I just wish we had more parents like that.

I like to make it very clear that I am not a feminist. I am not here to blame the guys for the condition of women in our society. I feel women in our country are equally responsible. I have friends (read guys) who respect and love women.
Anyways, being born in a country which itself is called Baharat Ma, its feels very sad seeing the plight of women. However, there is a very famous dialogue from Rang de Basanti "Koi bhi desh perfect nahi hota, use perfect banana padta hain". I just hope we Indians change our outlook and make our country a better place to live. :)

PS: I usually don’t write such serious posts. Its just that I have been reading Chetan Bhagat's What Young India Want these days and I felt that this is one subject, he should have written on.

Soulful Rain!!!

Pristine, beautiful, soulful rain,
Helps me forget all my pain.
As they fall on those silent lanes,
They bring back those beautiful memories again.
Pristine, beautiful, soulful rain.

Memories of dancing in the rain as a child,
Being innocent, naive, enthusiastic and wild.
Memories of getting drenched in the rain with friends,
Laughter, mischief and cheerfulness with no ends.
Memories of sharing the umbrella with her for the first time,
Those enticing eyes, blushing cheeks and breathtaking smile.

Don’t know whether rain is God’s way of showing joy or tears,
But they are definitely a blessing for my ears.
Every time the dark clouds cover the deep blue sky,
I just look at the mesmerizing beauty with awe and sigh.

Pristine, beautiful, soulful rain,
Add hue to my life again and again.

SALE SALE SALE!!!!

Yes, d end of season sale is here:)...The hot topic of discussion these days among my friends is which brand is offering d best discount?Which store has the best collection? What all did they shop and so on :)

Seriously no matter what mood a female is in, you can always bring a BIG smile on her face simply by uttering the word "Shopping”. To add to that if there is a SALE on top of it, her happiness knows no bounds.

I have been asked quite a few number of times why women are so obsessed with shopping. Well, there is no clear cut answer to this. It’s just a part of our system.

There is a very famous quote in the movie, Confessions of a Shopaholic that goes like this “When I shop, the world gets better, and the world is better, but then it's not, and I need to do it again." And it’s very much the case.

Infact shopping is little complicated for us girls. We buy what we love but usually end up hating two thirds of the stuff in our closet. We always have scarcity of clothes, shoes, purses and what not.

Shopping is a very intricate part of our lives. We are happy, we go shopping. We are sad, we go shopping.We are excited, we go shopping. We are nervous, we go shopping.

Few days back I was having a convo with my friend in US. She was kind of depressed because of some professional issues. I still remember suggesting her go for shopping and you will be perfectly fine as if it’s some medicine :P.

She said "No yaar, I don’t even feel like going for shopping." I replied "That means the problem is really grave :P " And guess what, the very day her prblm got solved, she called me and said I m so happy. Will go for shopping today :D .

Shopping is like a therapy. Long back I had heard somewhere " Shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist." and trust me on this it really works :).

Just like love for shopping Age Is No Bar, I am sure even in my 50's I would love to shop and spend a quality time looking at things for my own space. Yeah the only thing changes from a teen to married women shopping is that now she has more to shop for... he he he shop for the room, shop to keep the home more and more trendy going with the new designs. Shop for kids or sometimes for husband also.. then when we get time we shop for our-self...: P

Anyways, I conclude this post with Sarah Jessica Parker's famous quote in sex and d city " I like my money right where I can see it, hanging in my closet"

Till next time, Happy Shopping!!!!

Love...and other basic calculations!!!

Its been more than a month since I last wrote anything. Most of the time this happens due to sheer laziness.But this time I was genuinely very busy. Lot many things happening in life.

Anyways, this post is on Love. One of the most discussed topics in the world.I m pretty sure each one of us can write a book on that. Everyone having their own funda ;-).

However in this post I am trying to decipher what love means to the new generation.

So whats love? Love is basically a series of calculations. We meet someone and then the calculations start, depending on which we decide whether he or she is the one or not.

First, we all have a set of parameters. Is he tall enough? Is she beautiful enough? Is he intelligent enough? Is she hot enough?? Is he rich enough? Is she interesting enough? blah blah...

95% of the people we meet, get rejected in the first instance. They are a BIG NO. Very few pass the criteria.And then we start spending more time with these 'special people'.With every passing day, we start liking them more and more. The begining is awesome.

But then suddenly the next set of calculations start.

Where are we heading towards? Is this relationship feasible? Would this interfere with my career? What will be the future? Most of us back out after this stage.

Then there are those who decide to still go ahead. Love blossoms. A relationship starts.You paint the town red with love. But after some time another set of calculations start.

Is she too clingy? Is he too possessive? Is she too demanding? Is he always busy? These special people suddenly start appearing so ordinary.

Love grows old and you start to struggle.

Again, few back out at this stage. The calculation comes to an abrupt end.There are very few who actually make it work beyond this stage.

So thats basically what love is in this era of facebook and whatsapp.

Its just a simple sequence of calculations!!!

Haa!!! If only love was so simple :)

There is nothing right or wrong with this approach.

Though my take on this is little different. Yeah, there are calculations involved but when there is true love, everything takes a back seat. Love is like gravity. You might have 100 criterias in your mind but as I always say "It just clicks". You can try to go against it, but you really can’t.You can jump off a cliff, trying to fly, but you will not. You will fall. It is inevitable. Similarly, falling in love cannot be prevented. It is inevitable too.

And again love is all black and white. You either are in Love or you are not.There is nothing in between.And if you are smart enough to recognise that it is real, you should be smart enough to fight for it and never let it go.

Life does not give you too many second chances.!!!!

Confessions of a (good) female driver ;-)

Driving has always been therapeutic for me.No matter what mood I m in, it just lifts my spirits and also the spirits of people on road :P (Just kidding).

I started driving a two wheeler from the age of 14.Used to have a trendy those days.Was gifted to me by my dad after I topped the district in my 10th board exams.For the next 6 years it was just me and my trendy. Still remember those carefree school and engineering days.No matter where I went, my trendy used to be my constant companion.Did crazy stuff with my trendy like trippling. Even tried attempting a wheelie once but failed miserably. Anyways, will leave those stories to some other post.

Fast forward to 2007.Learnt driving a four wheeler. Got d license (to kill :P).But somehow did not drive too frequently.
Used to drive my dad's car once in a blue moon and that was it.It was only after I brought my own car in 2012 that I
started driving regularly.

Anyways, enough of my driving history. This post is basically about the driving skills of d fairer sex :). Who is better
on wheels" Male or female". This happens to be one of the most hotly debated arguments since" Which came first, the chicken or the eggs"?

There is a common tendency that whenever there is some chaos on road, the credit for it is given to some female driver.I myself have heard it so many times from family and friends that women might have learned to drive but they lack the basic driving sense.Infact read in an article that according to some research, men are indeed better drivers than women.To add to that, women always find difficulty in parallel parking.

My take on it is little different.I think that how women and men judge driving are two completely different things.For men, the aim of getting behind the wheel is to reach their destination as quickly as possible. Whereas For women, the aim of driving is twofold: to get to their destination alive and without having killed anything on the way :).

For men anything that gets in the way of their destination is an obstruction that needs to be got past fast, whether that’s an old lady crossing the street, a traffic jam or a one-way road.Whereas for women it boils down to one thing "SAFETY". Who cares about time :).

One more difficulty that most female drivers face is they seldom have knowledge about the car mechanics. They get completely stuck even in case of a minor fault.I really doubt how many of them are capable of changing the stepney in case of tyre puncture.This is one area we need to work upon.


Anyways, One of my friend once advised me that it doesnt matter what speed you are driving, what matters is the control you have over your car and that has been my mantra in the last few years.


So the question again boils down to who is better with cars??

Ummmm...well, if the question is who is better with cars, my vote will go to guys but if the question is who is better behind the wheels then there is no clear cut answer. I have seen so many fabulous female drivers. Infact few of my friends are awesome drivers themselves.


As far as I am concerned, I like to believe that I drive pretty okay. I admit that I still am not very good with parallel parking but otherwise my driving is pretty decent. The feedback that I have got mostly from my dad and my friends is that I should drive little slow otherwise I m good to go :).One of d things in my To Do List is to go on a road trip to the uttarakhand valleys.With that note,I guess its time to hit the bed :).

Drive Safe!!!!

Life is difficult

'Life is difficult'. These were the last words of the techie who committed suicide yesterday morning in our office parking lot. This guy was just 23years old and had joined our company a year back. From the time I heard this news, I was wondering what might have prompted him to take such an extreme step. Was it work related stress or had his girlfriend dumped him or some other stupid reason. But whatever be it, nothing can justify his action. I was just thinking what would have been the condition of his parents when they were informed about his death.

I really fail to understand the mindset of people these days.On one hand we boast of being technically connected to each other every minute of the day. On the other hand, are we so alienated that we cannot even discuss or share our problems with our closed ones. I really don’t understand how reasons like failure in exam, stress at work place, heart break can trigger such extreme emotions in us. Why has our generation become so fragile and vulnerable? Why are we so hell bent on proving that our lives are miserable?

Trust me life is as difficult or as miserable as we make it to be. A friend of mine always says "there is no problem which does not have a solution".

If you fail in an exam, what’s the worst that can happen? You will have to continue in the same class for another year. That’s it. Next year you can again appear for the same exam. You might even score cent percent.

If a relationship doesn’t work out, at the most you will miss that person for few days. That’s it. Life will again go back to normal and after some time you will again find yourself falling for someone even better.

I have always been a firm believer of the fact that life always gives you a second chance. So we should make the best use of it. Every failure marks a new beginning.
Each one of us has our own struggle. There is not a single person who has a perfect life.

Suicide is never a solution to any problem.

Life is not difficult. It’s very simple. It’s we who complicate it.
Love life. Love yourself and everything else will fall into place.

When heroes fall!!!

Was thinking of writing something since the last few days. But somehow was not able to come up with any topic, interesting enough to excite my brain cells.

Then suddenly one fine morning I read about the 'Oscar Pistorious case' in the newspaper. Honestly speaking, I was not aware about him before the famous or rather infamous Valentine’s Day shootout. Since then I am following this case like anything. Came across one such article today where I read that he was the first double amputee runner to compete atOlympicsalongside able bodied athletes. His records are nothing short of magic.

Anyways this post is not about Oscar Pistorious or his histrionics.Rather all those people who have fallen from grace during the recent times. Lance Armstrong is one such classic example. Before writing anything on him let me first confess I am a huge Lance Armstrong fan. Yes, I still am. For me and thousands of other sporting enthusiasts, he was a hero. Someone who overcame cancer to win seven consecutive Tour de France. So obviously I was completely stunned when I read about Armstrong’s confession to Oprah Winfrey. Within a weeks’ time he went from being one of world’s all time sporting legend to a cheater, a doper and God knows what else. Similar was the case of Tiger Woods who went from being the most successful golfer of all time, a perfect family man to a sex addict, a national joke. We have many such examples from other fields as welllike Bill Clinton, Ramalinga Raju, Phaneesh Murthy, Rajat Gupta and so on. All these men were geniuses in themselves. Heroes, who lost everything because of the choices they made in life.

But the thing that often crosses my mind whenever something like this happens is ‘Public memory is so short’. In matter of a second that person becomes a villain. He/she becomes the butt of so many jokes. Sporting stars are stripped off their medals. All their sponsors pull out. In some extreme cases they are even jailed.They start appearing in Forbe magazine’s lists like most hated sportsman, entrepreneur, politician, etc. like what happened in the case of Armstrong. All their achievements are washed out just like that.
But is this kind of treatment fair? My take on this is little different. I feel everything in life cannot be in Black or White. Most of the times its grey. But the mass is generally very judgmental. For us, a person can either be a hero or a villain.

I think though these people might have made wrong choices in life, we should not forget their achievements. If you ask me I still want to become as emotionally strong as Lance Armstrong. Someone who despite being diagnosed with advanced stage of testicular cancer not only overcame it but was a living example of the fact that “where there is a will, there is a way”. Then we have a Bill Clinton whom I always consider as a survivor. Someone who despite having faced an impeachment was successfully able to finish his second termin white house. There is also a Ramalinga Raju who laid the foundation of an IT giant Satyam. There are many such examples.

Though I am not trying to justify the mistakes these people committed. All I mean is we should not be always black and white in our opinion about these people. But whatever the opinion be, there will always be an outcry, a brouhaha because that’s what happens “When heroes fall!!!.”

Indian cricket with & without Sachin....!

My entry to SCIT Graffiti13

I still remember when I was a kid, whenever my dad used to watch India’s match on television, my first question to him used to be what’s Sachin’s score?. Yes, that was his impact on me and millions of fans across the globe. Sachin meant cricket to me. Infact I started following the game because of this little genius. It won’t be wrong if I say this little master was responsible to a very large extend in bringing India to the global limelight.

He redefined the history of cricket. You think of a record and Sachin has got that against his name. Whether it be Test cricket or ODIs he dominated the game. Not only his teammates but players of the opposite team also sang his adulations. Still remember Mathew Haydon’s famous words “I have seen God, He bats at number 4 for India.” Shane Warne started having nightmares of Sachin.

There have been innumerable instances when Sachin single handedly won matches for India. Who can forget Sachin’s Sharjah sandstorm where he single handedly won matches for India that too against strong countries. For a very long time it was assumed if Sachin plays well, India will win otherwise there is no hope.

His commitment towards the game has always been unmatchable.Who can forget that he came down to play the world cup days after his father’s demise. He has been a role model for so many youngsters.

Speaking of his fan following, I have hardly met people who are not his fans. Forget the cricketers, even Michael Schumacher was mesmerized by him. Hollywood actor Daniel Radcliffe waited for hours to get Sachin’s autograph. I can never forget India’s match against South Africa in Gwalior where Sachin hammered the first double century in the history of one day cricket. I was in office that day and unfortunately was not able to witness the live match. We all were checking the score in cricinfo. Only thing I could hear from the cubicles was “what’s Sachin’s score?” “How many runs left for the double century? The entire office had come to a standstill when Sachin was approaching the magical figure. As soon as he scored the double century, everyone on our floor stood up and started clapping. They erupted with unbridled joy. I had never witnessed such euphoria ever. That was d magic of Sachin Tendulkar.

He is one such player who has played alongside players from different generations. Players came and players retired but there was one person who was always there and that was “Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar” India’s cricketing God wearing jersey No. 10.
But this morning was little different. Amidst the news on Delhi rape victim, suddenly I saw a small banner at the bottom saying breaking news “Sachin Tendulkar announces his retirement from ODIs.” I was blank for few moments. Did not know how to react. I knew this day would come but I was not expecting it this way. I always thought that Sachin will have a grand exit. He will be carried on the shoulders of fellow team mates and will have the last victory lap on the ground with the crowd giving him a final bow. He deserved it. His diehard fans deserved it. But nothing of that sort happened. He quietly sent a letter to the BCCI just before a series. And this is how Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar bid adieu to ODIs.

Public opinion was again divided. There were few who wanted him to stay, wanted him to play more matches, wanted him to win matches for India. Then there were those who thought he should have hung his boots long back just after the world cup and given chance to youngsters. There were people who were going gaga over his achievements and then there were those who were saying that Sachin used to play for records.
Nevertheless the fact is Sachin has retired from ODIs. We are no longer going to love or hate that guy in jersey no 10. His decision might have been right in hanging up his boots because off late he was not contributing much. He was just occupying a place in team which could have been a golden opportunity for a youngster to become the next Sachin Tendulkar.

But again his contribution to Indian cricket in unmatched. There will always be a void in the team. As some people say he might have played for personal records but the truth is no matter what, his contribution to Indian cricket cannot be matched for ages. The fact is he was a genius and a cricketing God. Indian cricket team will find it difficult to find someone who fills that void because cricketers like Tendulkar are born once in a millennium.

There is no doubt that we all will miss Sachin and his historic. But as the saying goes the show must go on. I think rather than dwelling on the fact that Sachin has retired, we should spend our efforts in filling the void created by Sachin’s exit. As the saying goes “Every beginning has an end and every end a beginning”, we should take this as a new beginning for Indian cricket team.

As far as Sachin goes, he might have retired but he will always stay in our hearts. Every time Indian cricket will be mentioned, his name will automatically come to our mind because he has become immortal in the world of cricket.

PS: This is not just an entry for graffiti 13 rather a small tribute from my end to the cricketing legend.

New Year Resolutions!!!

And it’s again that time of the year when we make New Year resolutions and try very hard to stick to them. Some of us might have already broken their resolutions and unfortunately I happen to be one among them.

I made three resolutions this year and have already kind of broken the first one. Had made a resolution to loose atleast 5 kilos this year and guess what I had a huge pastry yesterday…Though there is still time to lose weight… :P

Anyways my next resolution is to write more. Last year did not really write anything substantial. Actually I wrote few stories but did not complete them. So this year I plan to write as much as I can.

I plan to publish my stuff someday as my friends say I write very well and should give it a serious thought.

My last and most important resolution for this year is to be positive no matter what the situation is.

Circumstances change, people change but the only thing that gets you going in life is the positivity you have inside.

Cheers to 2013!!!
Hope all of us stick to our resolutions and become a better person :)