The Voyage

One more Quarantine tale, may be the wisdom is overflowing. I’m on my study table, actually, my sister-in-law’s study, because I’m self-isolating in their house for 14 days. Yes, I dared to cross the state border during last few days and I have to be distanced now. New Normal. Anyway, one afternoon, I was home alone and someone was scratching on the glass door. I thought it must be their cat, but she never did that. So I kept pondering, but being pre-occupied with my work, I ignored it. I had an important presentation, which I self nominated to create and present to my team, share my learnings, so I ignored the curiosity. After a few moments, feeling satisfied with my work,  I could not ignore the inkling and came out to see if the cat was alright. She was hiding somewhere. So, I decided to check up on the chooks in the backyard. They are focused on survival and all they know is to consume food and water & lay eggs because that is the job description and natural phenomenon for ...

Cold, rainy, Sunday evening, I was assembling some new furniture at home while watching a Stand Up Comedy act on Prime Video. This guy is talk about how “Reality is stranger than Fiction” the movie on M.S. Dhoni and  briefly mentions Sushant plays the role. For a split second, the image of Sushant Rajput’s poster for the movie comes in my mind. All work done, I happily send the pictures of newly set furniture to my friends and then check my phone and see Sushant Rajput commited suicide in his apartment in Mumbai. I’m shocked, I call up my Ma and talk to her about the actor. My head is exploding. I sit down on my couch, I start going through the online posts and exchange messages with a few friends about what just happened. While Police will investigate what really happened, my gut says it is an outcome of the most Silent Killer - Depression. For almost 2 hours, all I can think about is how Depression is eating away young people in this lockdown. 2 days ago, I had a long conversati...

Bibi - Smt. Jagdish Rani, 1933 - 2020 I lost my grandmother yesterday - a woman who was so progressive and ahead of her time in her thinking and ideas, it startled me sometimes. I accepted what had happened, she was about 88 years of age but it took me a lot of time to understand the gravity of loss. This comes in the times of Coronavirus pandemic restrictions and almost two years after my grandfather’s demise.  While I live in Melbourne, and grandmother lives with my parents in Chandigarh, I was constantly in touch with my youngest cousin over the course of these 5 hours. After a week of feeling a bit more unwell than usual at her age, she woke up, my father gave her morning medicines, she had a few sips of her morning tea, with a lot of difficulty and then she just could not breathe anymore. My father, who is extremely close to her knew in his heart what had just happened but called an ambulance and also called my cousin. And then within a span of 4-5 hours, the cremation ...

This is a THANK YOU and LOVE YOU to all these super-girls in my life. Its always fun to be with the drama queens. In the chaos of grown-up life, sometimes all we need is a cup of coffee, or a whatsapp or SKYPE conversation with one of our girls and life seems to be getting back in order again. There are days when we look back on life gone by and think how we reached where we are today. And one thing that alway pops up in our mind is the people who have been with us through out, some for a long time and some for a short while, always giving us something to remember them for, some memory, some punch-line or some joke. One thing that strikes me often is the girls who taught me, who supported me and told me why life is beautiful and unfair at the same time and why it is OK. Its not feminism or anything, its just an expression of GRATITUDE towards the friends, philosophers and guides - a friend at every turn of this MAZE called life. I rememeber, starting form school, I would made fr...

Its been ages since I last wrote something, esp in the public domain.. "In and Out of love baby".. Its like you know the world exists, outside the realm of ones days and night, outside ones friends and family, other than ones professional and personal life and beyond how ONE likes to confine themselves in some boundaries, THERE IS A WORLD THAT EXISTS OUTSIDE ONES CIRCLE. Funny that this is what came to my mind now that I've finally decided to write something. May be because for last 12 months I decided that my world will be what I see and what I do. I was so adamant on training my mind not to think and feel anything what I wanted to. I've been sleeping really well, because my mind is not thinking at the exponential rate like it used to, about probabilities and possibilities, ifs and buts, do's and dont's, and all that ambiguity of life that I wanted to avoid. After my Australia trip in 2014, after getting my US work visa stamped, I had just one thing...

Why Travel In a Group?? 1. There is a thin like between adventure and risk. While most of us are mentally prepared to deal with the usual problems, but the world of travel has its own little nuances.  One has to be safe first : lodging, guides, travelling at night, night safaris, best foodie places, transportation issues, adventure sports in groups. Its better to in a group , plan better, bargain hard. Harley Davidson Museum in Hobart, Tasmania 2. That weird co-traveller, either in bus or train – remember. You get chatty and then all of a sudden you realize – uh oh. Too much information sharing, is it safe to talk any more? Hopefully he’s not chep or stalker, and you are going to the same destination so are you brave enough to travel with him or you have the courage to say NO to his company and you want to travel on your own.  So be a group, save the dilemma and enjoy what you started for – the journey ahead. 3. The great trek/street everyone told you about. Either its...