Babbling Away

This is the first time I felt the urge to write, but had nothing specific to write about. I usually have a theme, a thought, a theory. Maybe this urge arose from the fact that I spent the last two hours editing an essay, my head so immersed in restructuring sentences, rummaging through my mental thesaurus for better words and phrases, introducing a little alliteration here and changing the tense there.

After poring over the piece for two hours, I was tired. 'I don't know how people do this full time,' I said to my sister, who's help I had invoked after the second paragraph. Most of the time, I need to be inspired to open up this blog and start typing. Without that inspiration, the words just don't come.

I have a vague sense of déjà vu. I've spoken about this before, I think.

This is what happens, I guess, when a piece isn't planned. Ideas are repeated and the words just tumble out. And before you know it, you're just babblin' away.

Goals Defined

Goals are dreams with deadlines.
-- Prakash Rohera

Swimming Against The Current

Everyone thought I was insane. Well, most did anyway. And had I been at the other end, I would've thought I was pretty darn crazy myself.

For months I deliberated. There were many lists - pros and cons, opporunties and threats (no I'm not being dramatic! It's about my career for Chrissake!), the good, the bad. And finally I chose being at home with my parents with perhaps a mediocre job over a flashy start to what I'm hoping will be a brilliant career either way.

It was a difficult decision. And making that dreaded phone call to turn down the job was heart wrenching. It was like a messy break-up, with me feeling empty the following morning, wondering what my life will be like henceforth.

I won't lie. There have been 'what-ifs' that have crossed my mind, ever so fleetingly. Especially when you get a polite rejection letter. But then redemption comes.

For me it came on the way back from a desert safari, in a bus that was a hodgepodge of Germans, Indians and Iranians, each chattering away in a language that essentially built a barrier between us. We were different, and really, had very little in common. I was wrong, however. We chatted away with the German about Pune, amazed when he correctly called it a 'student's city', and about Raj Kapoor's music that was blaring away on the overhead speakers. And although we didn't converse with the Iranians, the wall came down when one of them played Hotel California on his laptop and we all sang along.

It was an experience I have never had in my three years in India. I found that there is something new to gain in this city I know as my home. And it gave me courage.

This courages emerges from the knowledge that you have stepped in a direction everyone believes is the wrong way to go. This courage emerges from the will to fight a fear - the fear that they may be right. And you push hard as you swim against the current.

The Common Thread

I've always believed that my closest friends are very different from me. Often, many of them are not even remotely interested in my basket of everyday activities. My idea of a nice evening is to sit at home in my PJs, cuddled in bed with my laptop. For them, it is boredom epitomized. I'm the geek and they're the cool kids. I don't like getting dolled up, but they don't step out the house without gloss, eye liner and a matching bag. And sometimes, I've wondered where the bond emerges from!


An outsider's opinion often helps put things into perspective. She was lying on the top bunk in my room, scribbling away in a little book, me on the lower bunk, clicking away online. It was then that she said it. 'You know, you're friends are just like you.'


I looked up in genuine surprise, egging her on to be a tad bit more specific. 'You guys like the same kinda music.' It was like the missing piece of the puzzle. And then the whole picture made sense. If there's one thing we all love to do, it's dance the night away to some fantastic music! Some of my best memories with my closest friends have been at a party that lasted till the wee hours of the morning.


I love microfinance, there's a friend who doesn't. I love to read, there's a friend who doesn't. I'm lazy, there's a friend who isn't. I like to chill at home, there are friends who don't! But if you put us all together in a club with our favourite music playing, there's not a single one of us who won't have the time of her life!