No one deserves an evening of terror

I belong to a middle class family. I am myself a middle class girl living in Mumbai with countless dreams and hopes. The biggest dream I have is to get a little more success or in simple terms a little more money so that I can live my life properly. This is true with all the middle class families. 

I have seen my father working his ass off for approximately 40 years so that he can provide for his family and send his daughter to college. The middle class is always very scared. Scared of losing their jobs, scared of getting a disease which would rob them of all their savings, scared of the society's pressure to portray a perfect family, to send their children abroad for studying, to have a big expensive wedding of their children and lastly they are scared of everything else. 

A typical middle class husband wakes up on a Monday morning, his only concern is to get to office at the right time. His wife's concern is to make a healthy lunch for her husband and get their children to school. After travelling by busses and trains the husband reaches office already tired. He starts his day with a yawn and a prayer for a quiet day. His wife at home is alone, watches TV, gossips with her friends and does some household work to keep the house clean. The husband comes back home in the evening and proposes to take his wife out for dinner.

They both are sitting at a very fine restaurant, enjoying the meal when suddenly they hear gunshots. Gunshots coming towards the restaurant and they pray for their lives. They pray so that they can live to see their baby whom they have left at a friend's place, live to see Tuesday morning so that the husband can go for work and the wife can take care of the house, live to see all things that scares a middle class family on top of some terrorists trying to kill people without any reason. 

This family has done nothing wrong. They have never missed to pay their taxes, they have never missed a single election to vote, they don't smoke or drink, they pay their rents regularly and they do everything else right. But then why are they laying down on the restaurant floor wishing to live another day? What have they done to the terrorists? What have they done to anyone to deserve this horrific night that would haunt them for the rest of their lives? 

I, a middle class woman, am sick of these terror attacks. We just wait for the government to take actions but I have hardly seen any politicians getting massacred by terror groups. All I see is the guy who has done absolutely nothing dies for absolutely no reason. Every time there is a terror attack somewhere, the news channel gets something to show and the whole world thanks god that this time it was not them. I also said thanked god that it was not in Mumbai but somewhere else. 

I feel for the people of France. They deserved to see such a horrible evening. I have a simple solution to give to these terrorists. Instead of attacking people if they start good education and start building their country, they have the potential to become even bigger than America or China. I feel success is the biggest revenge and they can use their intelligence to improve the standard of living instead of killing hundreds of people. 

Just a suggestion... 

Nagpur Diaries - 2

I can safely say that the heat is getting on my nerves now. The mornings are tolerable but the evenings are the worst. Nagpur is too hot for me and it is just my second day here.

I have come to teach in a school in Nagpur and there are teachers who are not only from the same school but also from neighbouring school. This is an initiative of CBSE to develop the faculty's knowledge. I really admire the men is to women ratio in my class. It is almost 50:50. 18 female teachers and 16 male teachers. This is a proof that we are disproving the stereotype that usually women go for teaching job.

The teachers are all teaching computer science. The 50% male and 50% female ratio breaks another stereotype that men are better in computers than women. There are no bounds to what us women can achieve and it is very commendable to note how far we have come in the 21st century. Nagpur is not a big city in India and these kind of ratios give us high hopes for the women of our country.

I always like to teach females more than males not because I am biased but because females are much easier to handle when it comes to controlling 34 adults. I am much younger to most of the participants here and hence sometimes it becomes an ego hassle with the male teachers to cooperate with me.

I always have some favourite teachers in classes and this time too I have one. She is my favourite teacher because she has the eagerness to learn and enthusiasm for life. She has recently given birth and how I know this is from the wet patch on her clothes over her breasts. I feel it requires a lot of courage to come back to work so quickly after child birth that your breast can't stop leaking fluids. I feel she has to be given a prize or something as I can never imagine doing something like that myself.

Kudos to her...I am feeling very proud to be a women today...

Nagpur diaries -1

When I started my day in Nagpur today, I thought what a pleasant climate this city has. But as it is going towards the end of the day, it is getting hotter and hotter. It is rainy season and there is no sign of rains at all. 

I have come to teach in a school called Bhavan's B.P. Vidya Mandir. It is quite a respectable school established in 1995 if I remember. I have come here as a trainer from Oracle to teach SQL to teachers from schools, in and around Nagpur. As I am the trainer, I am being treated as a royalty. 

The day started with a small inauguration function and the chief guest was HOD computer science of Ramdeobaba college of engineering, a trustee of the school and me. I always feel very shy in these kind of situations. I especially feel shy when I am asked to light the traditional lamp. It is by far the most awkward moment one can be in. You have to not only light the lamp but also pose appropriately for the camera and also clap appropriately when someone else is doing the deed. 

When I was a student I used to get so bored in these functions. And now as an adult ( although I don't feel adult at all) I have to be a part of the programme and also perform impromptu speaking in front of at least 40 people. The first time I had to speak was probably the most difficult one and I had a long speech prepared for the occasion. Since then I have become a pro and can give a speech any time I want. 

I always try to keep the speeches short and also entertaining. I don't like to bore people and try very hard to be sarcastically funny. Funny comes easy to me and today also I proved to be effective and at the same time be funny. Suddenly I sound like I am trying to impress someone. 

After the speeches were over, all the guests were given bouquets. The receiving and smiling at the camera while getting the bouquet is fun but what do you do with it as soon as you sit down. The bouquet was so large that it was covering me up completely. Thank goodness for Vice Principal who rescued my face by taking the flowers away and letting the photographer get some more clicks of my pretty face. 

Today's class has been quite successful. 4 more days to go. I hope me and the 34 others learning from me will survive this training and come out with flying colours,

My Airport Experience

I might have mentioned it earlier that I am a keen observer of human behaviour, so today I thought of sharing my observations of people in an airport. Why today of all day you ask? Because, today I flew to Nagpur from Mumbai in Jet Airways ( a big shout out to my favourite airlines).

The first thing you will notice outside the airport are people who are travelling somewhere and people who have come to drop someone travelling somewhere. You can quickly distinguish between a frequent traveller and a not so frequent traveller. Frequent traveller usually take taxis to the airport as opposed to the others whose entire family come to the airport to see them off.

There is another difference between the two and that is the size of the luggage. Frequent travellers are usually going on a business trip and don't carry unnecessary luggages. They also always web check-in so that they don't have to wait in long lines for the luggage check-in. I too am a frequent flyer but I hate to carry my luggage with me to the cabin. It's because I can never decide how many clothes to carry and I always end up carrying more than I should and need and hence I am always way above the permissible weight allowed for cabin luggage.

Although I am bad at packing but I am not as bad as the non frequent flying families. I always try to avoid families in the airport, especially the one which has more than 5 members in their pack. They always have the most number of luggages as if they are moving altogether and always fight with the poor people working for the airlines when their luggage exceeds the maximum carrying capacity. When the luggage is too heavy, this means they have to pay for the extra weight, which means that they would do either of the two things. Some would just pay and these are the wealthy people and some would try to reduce the weight of the suitcase by taking their clothes out so that they wouldn't have to pay never mind the long line of frustrated people waiting for their turn.

Then another difference is the way these two act at the security check-in. Frequent flyers know their way and will never have any problem with the CISF officers. The non frequent flyer is always carrying something in their hand luggage which is not allowed in the cabin like scissors or a big bottle of water. Once I had seen a lady carrying 5 bottles of water in her purse. I am sure she must be really thirsty or probably didn't trust the water at 39,000 feet high.

After the security check-in is over, you will find the frequent flyers always hanging around the gate of their flight and they would also be the first in line to get in the flight. On the other hand, the non frequent flyers are always busy shopping or eating at the terminal. They get so engrossed in other activities that they some time miss their flights.

Once inside the flight the frequent flyers start asking for water, pillow, blanket or checking in their jackets or pushing their seats behind . Never mind the others who are trying to find their seats through the narrow aisles of the flight, dodging the flight attendants who are trying to fulfil all the wishes of the pretentious frequent flyers. The non frequent flyers are not as bad. They don't move a muscle once they are in their seat as they are very shy of the pretty air hostesses and try very hard not to make a fool of themselves in front of them.

Holly Cow!!! This small blog is slowly turning into a book. I guess I will write a sequel to this blog sharing how people act inside a flight. Ciao!!!

Blow a kiss, fire a gun...

I love watching videos on YouTube and it is kind of a dream of mine to be one of the famous youtubers. Today I cam across a Buzz Fee video on Indians reacting to American Pop Culture Stereotypes. Click on the link below to go to the video. Make sure you also give a thumbs up to them as they post some really good stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul2iNPfVsYQ

Although I found this video to be very funny but I rather like the videos where an American is reacting/trying out Indian stuff. 

In the above video I heard the song Major Lazer & DJ Snake - Lean On (feat MO) again I am pasting the video to their official music video, if you already have not seen it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqeW9_5kURI

The music video blew my mind. As an Indian I am very used to watching colourful dancers doing the so called Bollywood movies in a cheesy way, always in a park or sometimes in a beach. But it was a whole lot of fun to watch the Americans dancing the same way on an English song. Although, in the Buzz Feed video the people are criticizing the way Americans look at Indians but I think we should take it as a joke and a very fun video that we can enjoy watching. 

I didn't feel insulted or feel that they were trying to make fun of my culture. Maybe you need to keep a more broad minded approach. My policy is that you should always learn to laugh at yourself first. I love the dance steps and also the horses in the background. I really hope to get to see more such videos on Indian cultures and hope they are done by some awkward Americans. 

Shared Auto-Rickshaws....

I am a very keen observer of the human behaviour. I like to look at people and that is my favourite pass time whenever I am travelling alone. Today what caught my attention was, shared auto riders.

The shared auto-rickshaws are basically three people sharing the same auto to go to a common destination. I feel the concept of the shared auto-rickshaw is a very intelligent one. Mumbai is a very densely populated city and the number of public transport doesn't match or even come close to the population. That is why you would see people hanging from trains and buses to reach there destination, by hook or by risking their lives.

Coming back to why shared auto-rickshaws caught my attention was this, when someone steps on to our personal space we usually get really closed up or we start backing off from the person to get our space back. This theory doesn't apply when you are sitting close to each other in an auto, so close that part of your arms and legs are touching the other person and it doesn't bother us. It doesn't bother us that we don't even know the person sitting so close that he might as well can feel your pulse. It sounds intimate but it is not even close.

The people who are you are sharing your personal space is usually a middle aged woman with attitude problem or a middle aged man with a stinky sweat problem or a young petite girl who gets squeezed between other fellow passengers or generally a young guy with a backpack and loads of dreams in his eyes continuously looking at the cars passing him by.

The sitting so close to one another in such a small and confined space is really strange to me. Does it make the journey easier because all of them are strangers? Would it have been any different if they were acquaintances? I can't help but wonder.

Some times the auto stops working and all the three are then asked to de board the auto and stand on the side of the road awkwardly as the autowala tries to fix the problem. This situation is even worse than sitting next to each other. This situation involves eye contact with the other passengers and also a lot of coaxing to the autowala to fix the vehicle sooner so that the passengers can sit with each other.

There is always a big sigh of relief when the autowala successfully solves the problem with his vehicle. But god forbids if he is not able to, then the passengers starts looking for another auto, another set of strangers to share the space with till they reach the destination.

As soon as they reach the destination, the passengers never bid good bye or even look back at the people they were travelling with in such close proximity. They move on with their lives until the next ride. I wonder after they have reached the destination do they ever think about each other?

Just another day thinking positive

I woke up in a very foul mood today. Whenever I wake up in a gruff, I usually take a lot of time to peal myself off the bed. This means I get late to get ready for work and then eventually get stuck in traffic. I also reach office late and like that the whole day seems to be ruined by just getting up in a bad mood.

Even though it is early but because my mind is in distress I feel tired even before starting my work. But then I tell myself, I will not let one bad thing ruin my whole day. As soon as I make a concious decision of changing my mood from feeling sad to feeling grateful, I can feel the whole day changing its course on its own. It is that simple and yet many people don't understand or don't want to understand this phenomena of changing negativity to positivity.

I am a firm believer in thinking positive thoughts most of the time. I say most of the time because I am also a human being at the end of the day and the negative thoughts creep into my mind from time to time. But I make an effort to remove those thoughts and replace them with a positive one.

Let me give you a for instance, if I am feeling sad about something I just shift my attention to all the things I should be grateful about or I start watching a cat video online to lift my spirits. This technique works magic. I also sometimes close my eyes and try to meditate and bring my mind at peace again. This is always not easy and it requires hard work.

I still get very emotional sometimes and cry like a baby. I don't hold myself back when I am at the peak of negativity but then I don't let it ruin my whole day too. I simple put the thing bothering me behind and think of something positive. Life is too short to be serious and sad. So enjoy your life and live like your going to die tomorrow.

Movie Review: Dharam Sankat Mein

I was in Ahmedabad last month for some official work. While coming back to Mumbai my co-passengers were Paresh Rawal and Anu Kapoor. After watching the movie "Dharam Sankat Mein" I realised why were they in Ahmedabad.

So the movie starts off with Paresh Rawal being the most racist person in Ahmedabad. He is shown as a guy who not only is proud of being a Hindu but also hates Muslims from the bottom of his heart. Then he comes to know that he is adopted and his biological parents were Muslims.

He tracks his biological father down and in order to meet him he has to convert himself to Muslim. In the meantime, his son is in love with this girl whose father is extremely religious and is a follower of Naseerudin Shah who plays a godman. The girl's father wants her daughter to marry a guy whose family is also very religious. Paresh Rawal is caught in between the two religions and in turn starts to appreciate Humanity.

His Muslim trainer is Anu Kapoor who has done justice to the role and is amazing in the movie. Paresh Rawal was outstanding as usual. Don't know why Nasserudin Shah agreed to play the role of the godman but still he was good.

Overall, I thought the movie could have been shorter and from time to time I felt really bored watching it. If you are a fan of great acting then this is the movie for you. Comedy was ok not too outstanding. The end was a little anticlimactic and totally bizarre. I will give this movie a 3 out of 5 stars. 

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, Lip Tar in color Radiate

I am back with yet another lip product review. I bought this product from elitify.com a few days back and believe me, I am obsessed with it. This is a lip tar by Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics in the color ‘Radiate’. You will get it in a tube form. This will be my first time using a lip color from tube and I am a little scared about it.

You have to press the tube and the lip tar oozes out of it. You can either apply the product with your clean and sanitized fingers or use a lip brush. I didn’t have a lip brush because I never had to use one so I applied it with my own fingers only. I don’t see the need of a brush except that the product is very difficult to clean from your finger tip. This can also mean that this is going to be very long lasting product.

 The tube costs INR 2,290 for 10ml which in my opinion is pricey but given the fact that this price includes shipping from USA makes me feel better about the price. Most of the products on elitify.com is shipped from US and you need to give them at least 14-21 days to deliver the product to your doorstep. It is worth the wait is all I can say from my experience. 

I used bronze smokey eyes and a light contouring on my cheeks.

This color is very cool for the wedding season going on right now. You can wear it with your favorite saree and dazzle the crowd. If you apply it a little lighter it can also seamlessly go with your office ensemble.  For me this is a very good buy and would definitely shop for more lip tars. 

Last thing that I want to mention here is that this lip tar is 100% Vegan. So if you follow veganism then you can use this product without any guilt.

Jaipur Trip

I have to travel a lot for my work and I absolutely love that. I work for Oracle in their Corporate Social Responsibility department which is also know as Oracle Academy. I am a instructor and have to travel to different parts of the country to teach teachers from schools and colleges.

Just last month I got the opportunity to travel to Jaipur, Rajasthan for a training. Jaipur in December is brutal. The temperature down there was just 8 degrees. The training was in one of the leading universities of India, Amity University which is 50kms outside of Jaipur city. The temperature inside the campus was just 3 degrees and I had a hard time dealing with it.

I was completely covered from head to toe. The only thing visible was my face. I don't like cold weather at all and it was really hard for me to face such a harsh climate.

The training was very successful. The teachers were enthusiastic as well as very keen to learn. I was staying inside the campus of Amity University, Jaipur and it is a very beautiful campus.

Jaipur itself is a beautiful place filled with palaces and history. I went to Jaipur a day early to see all the famous palaces. The first palace that I saw was Amber Fort. The architecture, art and culture was over flowing from everywhere.

I also visited a very interesting place called "Chokhi Dhani". This is a place where you can experience the culture of Rajasthan in one place. The food, dance and music all put in one place for tourists to enjoy.

Just before returning to Mumbai, I again went on a tour of Jaipur city. This time I went to the Jaigad Fort which is very adjacent to the Amber Fort and also equally beautiful.

The only suggestion I would give to anyone going to Jaipur for holidays is that do not go on package tours because they do not give any time to actually enjoy the palaces. It is much better to hire a taxi for a day and go around sight seeing on your own. 

Laqa&Co fat lip pencil, Palate Cleanser review

I received my January 2015 fab bag with a lots of interesting products. One product in particular caught my attention was a fat lip pencil by Laqa&Co. I was not actually expecting the lip pencil to be very good. But boy was I wrong. 

As soon as I put it on my lips, I was blown away.  I got the color "Palate Cleanser" which is a dark maroon color. I don't how fab bag knew that I am a fan of dark color lipstick because I am a little obsessed with the color. 

 

The color looks great on me at least or so I think it does. It is also very pigmented and long lasting. Yesterday I had applied this on my lips and couldn't get it off with a tissue paper. I could only remove it with a make up remover. The lip pencils are available in three more shades on fabbag.com.

The shades that are available on the website are Doppleganger, Jammy Bastard and Siren Song. There are two sizes available i.e. 3gms for INR 800 and 4gms for INR1,5000.

I will give a 4 out 5 stars to this product only because I like matte lipsticks more than the shiny ones. But that's me and my choices. It also has mint in it so when you apply it your lips feel very cold. Also it is moisturising which is great for the dry winter we are having in Mumbai.

It is definitely a very good purchase for the price. The only negative thing that I have to report is the plastic packaging which makes it look like a cheap product. I was very sceptical to try it on also but then you know what they say, you should never judge a book by its cover.

Big Girl!!!

No I am not going to talk about the Danielle Steel book here(which coincidentally is the book I am reading right now). I wanted to write this blog because I saw Eat, Pray, Love yesterday. One of my favorite scenes from the movie is where Julia Robert says  'I am having a relationship with my Pizza' while hungrily having a huge pizza.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZY86k2NjTY&feature=share

I relate to what she says very strongly. I have been trying to lose weight since I can remember. I have reduced like around 10 kgs but still I do not feel completely beautiful or satisfied. I am so tired of ignoring or resisting food just because I don't want to the weight again. That doesn't mean I want to hog like a pig and be an obese. I just want to marvel food and enjoy it and not worry about the calories. I am so done with the guilt.

Trying hard not to get DESPERATE!

I was watching a clip from Sex and the City on youtube the other day. In that clip Carrie says when a guy stands under a girl’s window and plays violin or says that he is missing her it always sounds so cute and romantic. But imagine a girl doing the same thing. Standing under a guy’s window and throwing stones at it just to say ‘I miss you’ or call 10 times a day to just hear his voice, sounds kind of desperate. Right?

I don’t know why, but it does sound kind of desperate. If you do this with a guy, then you can say good bye to the relationship once for all. He will never call you back again. And it is not like I don’t think it is desperate. I think it is desperate too. This is the saddest part of it. We girls also think that it doesn’t look good to express our true feelings all the time especially when the relationship is in its initial phase.

You know how my thought process goes (and this is when the relationship is initial and I don't want to show my true colors). When I call my guy and he doesn’t pick up I stay calm and wait for his call. I give myself a good two hours before I give another call to him. I don’t send SMS. I stay CALM. Then I try to make myself busy in work or start reading a book. This helps me to forget about the call for quite some time. Then, when I remember that he hasn’t called yet, I send a casual message just to check if he is busy or not. If he replies, it is good and if he doesn’t, then I start thinking it is over with this guy.

I have been told that this is not a mature way to handle things. So I rethink about leaving the guy just because he didn't call back. When he does call back I try my level best to sound casual like I was not even thinking about his call. So much thought process go into this silly thing. Another very immature thing I start planning is taking revenge on him. I think of making him suffer exactly how I was suffering. 

It is tough being a girl in this world and even tougher to be a girl with attitude. I think instead of thinking whether he would call or not I should get a life. LOL….