Coffee And Karma

For those who believe in law of attraction, the title would make sense :) "So 11 @ Google, huh?"  he said , and murmured E-L-E-V-E-N to himself.. "Yesssss" , she said with a beam in her eyes and a wide smile.. :D "You must have seen Google evolving no?" , he asked in amazement.. "Well, if you look back at last decade of your life, you'll realize EVERYTHING evolved as well. Smartphones vs no smartphones world no?" , she said while fiddling with her phone and a smile on her face.. "But.. how you do you feel? And if I may ask, what would you advice to others?" "Just love what you do and don't count the years. As they say, age is just a number" ;)

Here's my first attempt at a short fictional story. Would love to hear your feedback in comments. Scene 1 Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai A girl, in her early thirties, is waiting for the queue to form for the 9pm play she booked. It's 8:30pm, and the place is beautifully decked up in yellow and red lights. There are posters all around on upcoming theatre shows but the one poster that brings a smirk to her face is titled as "savdhan! dulhe ki talash hai". As she is sipping the cold coffee, she observes the people who are here for the show, and starts thinking about how Delhi and Mumbai have different vibes. "Excuse me. Are you a writer?"  Suddenly these words bring her back to reality. A guy, probably in his mid/late thirties, with black frames is standing next to her.  "Umm, no." She smiles. "though I aspire to be" she murmurs to herself. "Oh, you look like a writer. "  "Really?" "...

Yesterday, I was was watching ' Artist is Present ' documentary and that led me to a series of videos about Marina Abramović. Since I recently visited MOMA, I was fascinated by the concept of Performance Art. This is all about controlling your mind, and not get affected by external situations. Many organizations like Art of Living also preach similar things but with a different purpose, of course. In one of her interview, when asked for an advice to the youth, her answer was: "If you are drawing with your right hand and you're getting better and better to an extent you can draw with your closed eyes, immediately switch to left hand". If you get used to routine, then that is end of everything. If you do things you like, you never change. You do the same stuff again and again. To do something different, it's important to go to different pattern. Here's the video.  Another important point was about "being in present". When you are stan...

Amristar Sep 2015 Quite an eventful trip it was. Although it was a weekend trip, it felt like I was there for a week. The trip was all about eating good food, sleeping well, and enjoying the blessed feeling of being around the Gurudwara :) The trip started on a hilarious and anxious note when I booked an Ola cab which was suppose to first pick my friend, followed by me and then drive us to the airport. Due to miscommunication, the driver finished the trip when he arrived at my place. Even though I was sitting in the cab, Ola app was assigning me a new driver (who was ~10 mins away) when I was trying to book again. The good part was that the current driver willingly helped us in coordinating with another driver, and dropped us halfway to the new assigned cab. The boarding had to start at 8:10, and at 7:30, we were still ~11 kms away from the T3 airport. The new cab was very dirty but all I wanted was to reach the airport. I knew we would reach at very last moment, but at least ...

Going through some of the Humans of Pakistan & Humans of New York and similar pages, I found some gems:  "I don't know but hiding these mistakes right from childhood make an individual kinda introvert. Maybe. I guess the first step in 'opening' ourselves to the world is to let our parents know our mistakes rather than hiding it. And parents, too should be suggestive, directive and inspirating, not scolding." "After 16 yrs of marriage. I have learned love is never 50/50. Someone is always doing more or loving more but that does not mean both people do not love each other. It is a hard lesson to learn and accept." "You can not compare the two choices....people find meaning /purpose in their own way." "Fake it till you make it" "I had a faith. And I returned to it" "Givers have to set limits, because takers rarely do." "Remind me not to date anyone with rigid rules and zero Imagination" ...

Bangalore August 2015 Bangalore was always on my wishlist, but I never had a chance to visit this place. The moment I got a wedding invitation, I knew I had to go :) The city has a charm with a laid back lifestyle and delicious food. I had the BEST rava idlis in my life here from a street shop (which I can't recall the name now :/). The nariyal chutney they make is something to die for. Although most of my days were spent in a hotel attending a wedding, the best part of the trip was the last day which I intentionally extended for exploring the city. One of the biggest achievement of the day was my trip to Art of Living International Center. I'm not an ardent follower, but the thoughts & beliefs preached by this organization aim at helping you finding inner peace and happiness. Beyond that, I stay away from accepting it as a religion as it destroys the core belief of not binding yourself to a religion, caste, gender or nationality. The trip to the Ashram was a...

After a very long gap, it was time to visit US on a solo trip. It was a 3 weeks trip with 2 weeks in California. The time flew in a blink, but when I look back today, I do have loads of memories to cherish. The long US flight I managed premium economy of Delta/KLM co-share and the long hours of the flight wasn't bad. I also manged to see Amsterdam (airport at least ;)) :) This is how Canada looked from flight  :) San Francisco Food Tour (May 14, 2015 ) This was one memorable tour that I did with my team as an offsite activity. Also, this was only time I had to see SF Google office and the city (once again). We did a food tour with Foodie Adventures . The guy (Chris) was amazing and took us through various food joints which I relished to the core. It was all about trying the best truffles at XoX truffles and hearing the owner's story about how he started this business, to eating at Z&Y restaurant (I cannot forget the taste of peanut flavor of tan-tan noodl...