1000 views.... (really??)

I don't know whether to celebrate or not. :P I mean, we wanted to gossip with each other. And we're what 7 or 8 people? If it were just us reading our posts, we wouldn't have reached a 1000 views within a month. Which is why I did some digging into the stats... Here's what I found: -

I (almost) get the Indian & USA numbers. But what I don't get is why people from Germany, Russia & Korea are reading our blogs!? :-D Do you think they are some kind of spies looking to get sensitive information from India? :P I can think of no other reason. It's not like we've written something useful / optimized our posts for the Google search anyway. Neither am I promoting this blog elsewhere. So the question is - where are the readers coming from?

(P.S: If you are one of the Germans or Russians reading our blog, do give us a shout out! :P)

Bought another DOT COM!

source

Don't ask me what the link is.

I really can't tell you now! 

But I was so excited that I had to share it with y'all. ;-)

I already own a couple of websites. I had no plans of diversifying any further.

BUT....... ideas strike in the most bizarre situations!! :-)

So, I've gone ahead and bought another domain name from GoDaddy.

Who's up for "GIPPY" or "GO GOA GONE"?

Both these movies are releasing on May 10th and I'm goin' for one of the two.

Anybody up for it? :-D I think the last movie we all saw together was Fanaah.. after 10th exams (remember)? :-D
Or was it Lage Raho Munnabhai? Dunno.. which released later?

Anyhoo.. both these movies sound good..  I'll probably relate a lot to GIPPI though!

Gippi

Go Goa Gone

So.. let me know if you wanna come with me! I'll buy you an ice cream. ;-)

A Dog Bit Me

hey everyone!
here's something new...
i got bitten by a dog...on my left foot
here's how it happened-
i spotted a very cute street dog on my way back to hostel...i always had this strange affinity towards dogs, maybe because of the unfulfilled childhood dream to owe one..anyways so acting by reflex i went ahead and started playing (in the dog's words- bothering) him by waving my left foot in front of his nose...and before i knew he pounced at me and grabbed my foot biting into it...i was sooo shocked that i couldn't react..i couldn't believe that a dog so cute could do such a thing...i let him sink this teeth a few more seconds before someone came and shooed him away...
i had to take 3 injections that day...and i have more shots left...i got 3rd injection of the rabies course today
:(

well signing off...

P.S.
this story is better if u hear it from me...swati can tell you that...she was laughing her ass off while listening...

The Desi Mem : )

I have neva felt so close to homeland and so full of desi-ness as I do now when I am far far away from home  . In fact I am so proud of being a DESI that I love to flaunt it everywhere  Mind you being desi does not mean being a chindi, hogging on free food(fact-people from other countries are greater "hogger" than us, i think it is just a human characteristic to be ecstatic on seeing the word FREE), aloof people who just want to hang out with their own groups, wear a lot of oil in their hair and eat with their hand. Those are some aspects of us but not something that defines us!!!
DESI in true sense is Someone who is still closely attached to his roots and who neva forgets the place he came from (coz that's what shaped him, gave him strength to dream big and make it come true :D) .And so my friends quoting from IF by Rudyard Kipling, desi can be described as

"Can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
  Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch"

We talk loud not coz we have no sense of manners but because we believe in sharing our lil piece of information with anyone who needs it, share our happiness with everyone coz as they say laughter and happiness is infectious and cry about our problems to whoever would listen sothat they can feel good about themselves when they see that we are in a bigger mess than them.

We touch our elders feet or bow in front of them not because it's culture thing or a just a way of paying respect to elders. There are times when we don't agree with elders, want to shout and scream at them, think they are too old to even try and understand our thoughts. But still we bow, cause each time we do (either forcefully :/  or out of will :)) important lessons of life - respecting differences, wisdom, holding yourself from reacting impulsively are in ingrained in us more firmly and most importantly it saves us from being an upright arrogant ass. Bowing doesn't mean surrender, it means I respect you as an individual with all your qualities. So next time you fight with your mom for making you do that, just sit back and think , Hey! I am getting some of the most important values instilled in me for which others splurge on management books and classes to learn them and still fail.(trust me works sometimes knowing how irritating and demanding some of the relatives can be :P)

Okay tym to stop boring you with my desi gyan. But as a DESI just wanted to share "my lil piece of information"  Btw if you wondering why did i choose this topic, here is a lil about me- I am fun & boring, wild &calm, self-obsessed &"i-don-give-a damn" , nerdy&back-bench-er GAL :D Yep I still have to figure myself out, just like many other things I am in process of figuring out.Currently in States for my masters I have lot to share but the crab in me (yes cancerians are moody!!!) takes over at times and even though i read all of your blogs, neva "got time" (read-din't have mood) to write one myself! 

SO here it is!..enjoy the DESI in you and always BE PROUD OF WHO YOU ARE!

Innovate Within...

This feels amazing, writing something that the whole world can read and generations to come could remember us by.  Salute to the power of Social media. It has unleashed the power within every individual. 

We are living in an age of “innosec” i.e. innovation every second, which transforms our world to a better place. On one hand we are busy gauging the universe and on the other, providing us with excellent connectivity, that is the power of mankind… Being constantly in touch with almost everyone who is important in one or the other aspect of your life, be it professional or personal has made our world virtual. 

With the device (Cell phone, Tab) constantly ringing, I sometimes wonder do we have any peace of mind left to explore and put together our pieces of our own mind and become a better person? How much time do we actually get to introspect? To analyse our lives? Rather, does introspection even feature in our “TO DO Lists”?  Haven’t they also to large extent become business models?

Don’t we do this to ourselves…?

One fine day when we come across a post like this, and realise “ Oh yes, I am missing out on introspection” we suddenly allot some time to it perhaps 2 hours the coming weekend. In those two hours more like a business, we set goals (which is good) and allot time to achieve it. After this our daily schedule excel files have another row added which deals with this aspect of self improvement and how we work upon them is another story altogether.

But, how often do we actually reassess ourselves?

Again, some other time when we come across a post like this.

This time lag is so much that we can hardly recollect the components of the previous list and most of us are too lazy to go to our physical memory cards (The Phone/Laptop or any other device you use for creating your schedule sheets) and get the data. Again the same process repeats. 

While we deal with it as a business, do successful businesses thrive on the basis of 1 day plans or constant real time up gradation of plans so that they don’t lose either the relevance or essence?

Then why do we let this happen to ourselves?

Losing our relevance and essence! Is that what we foresee for ourselves? 

If not, let us spare few moments for ourselves… just 2 minutes before bed.

If we lose out on 2 mins of sleep it wouldn't harm but a loss of 2 mins of introspection would give you pint sized growth. And a pint is nothing to quench the thirst for life… The opportunity cost of 2 mins of introspection is higher than 2 mins of sleep…

So Introspect... 

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” 

― Aristotle

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” 
― C.G. Jung

                                                                                                                             Ahaan well they said so...   B-)

Cheers to life!!!

Shiva...

BYE BYE MUMBAI...

I planned on writing on this blog a long tym back itself but i kept on procrastinating it for reasons i don't know (i think ...Im a lil scared wen it comes to "writing") :P 

Life outside Mumbai is totally different and i dint expect that il hav to face the outside world ol by myself .

It came to me ol of a sudden on one fine night...my parents cal me wen im out in Hyderabad for my training, and say (with happy voices) "U got ur posting in Hyderabad!!! yay!! " and i was like "WHAT CRAP!!" 

Just the thought of not having my family n friends around freaked me out! And the weirdest part is that All my life i have been praying for this-"To live by myself"...I should hav prayed a lil differently-"Live away from my parents with my friends ;)"

But now wen i start thinking about it...i realize that i got to learn a lott because of this change in place....

I searched a room for myself, go out grocery shopping, traveled by auto,cab,train,flight all alone for long distances, manage my money, make friends with random strangers out of need!! etc etc!!... it might seem "so whats der in that" to some of u bt to me they r smthng i hav never done before...

So far my stay( or in my words "survival") here has been just "good"...good because i was imagining worse n not great because nuthng awesome has happened yet and i miss my friends n family a lott( im home sick!!).

Hoping and waiting for the "awesome" to happen..i take my leave

Will keep u guys updated :P

Adios Amigos!

My first post girls- college life...

College life is fun…days that you cherish long after you are actually out of college…AND I still have a year of college life left…yay to that…and   :P to all of you who are technically out of college…

But like every coin has two sides…college life has its pros and cons…take for example the fact that every 3^rd month or so your life is screwed by a predicament called EXAMS…why oh why???

So here I am…writing my first post when I should actually be “studying for exams”..(its PL time folks…)…

As I am writing I wonder why is it that suddenly you find everything …n that inclds all routine, mundane n EXTREAMELY boring stuff VERY interesting? When I mentioned this 2 a frnd…she said its probably LOVE…but I said…

NAH…EXAMS ARE NEARING YAAR…( btw…”everything” does NOT include STUDYING for exms)…so that explains the sudden surge of interest( right frm reading the newspaper twice everyday to watching the tear filled soaps on TV along with dadi…)…

So nw I’l sign off folks…(My exams r nearing every minute u knw!!)…Wish me luck…

PS: kavi…happy r v???

BUILDING DREAM HOMES

For the past five years all i used to think was...am i ever gonna be able to build something.
and here i am....after a year of complete hard work and a lot of mallu chitchat, i can say i have built somebody their dream home.

At first, it was once a month visit to the site for which i had to travel all the way to Ottapalam, (which by the way is a very beautiful place.) and the best part, all expenses paid by the client(oh,how i lived a life of an architect)
my first project
the challenge was the site, it was sloping backwards, with a very weird geometry.
usually houses in Kerala are built on a rectangular plot as its considered uttamam( means perfect)
there are certain old techniques of making a perfect vastu proof house, which were completely ridiculous at least for me, but the client wants what the client wants, so my hands were tied. but turns out i did squeeze in my ideas and was able to convince the client.
i proposed an idea of nalukettu( four side construction with a central courtyard)
since the site was not a proper rectangle the typical nalukettu was not possible. we extracted the idea of central courtyard and planned it out in such way that when one enters the house the courtyard seems to be  in center.
the planning was such that the rooms were pulled in step fashion backward to utilize space and provide usable spaces keeping in mind the vastushastram.
all the ornamentation was chosen wisely keeping in mind the concept and the overall outlook.
i had the experience of going to the site. supervising stuff, and being angry at the contractor.

but, nothing beats the fact that the client loved it.
the house warming happened on 22nd of march, there were loads of guests and relatives streaming in to criticize the house.
all the ceremonies went well..each and every guest was jealous,in India if the guests are jealous, it means they loved the house ;)
everybody wanted to talk to the architect...it was heaven...

hoping to get more projects and achieving new goals..

for more photos of the project visit my fb page " The Graphics Studio"

p.s   hope everybody is not bored with all architecture talk

My travel to another state

Travelling eej soo much phun!Oh. only sometimes.
I was in Bangalore last week for two reasons:
1. To visit  my grandparents and
2. I thought, with hopes galore, that I would be benefited by a change of environment. (I am terribly bored)

The former happened (as it was meant to be) but the latter did not. I guess I was expecting too much. For instance, I had this crazy idea to jump into a bus at Bangalore which would transport me to  Mysore where I would do sky-diving. :P

Haha, sure, laugh away, cynics!

Anyway, my trip was not completely wasted. I threw my money at my grandparents and showered them with gifts (ok, that is grossly exaggerated but you get the point), I met this great friend of mine who's come home from Germany (I know her since we both were 4 or 5) and I met my cousin with whom I got completely sloshed :P (I hope all your lips are sealed, otherwise the 'elders' of my house will make sure this is my last post here).
At a certain point in my complete state of inebriation, I fought with an auto guy in crappy Kannada, managed to catch a bus and come home unscathed and in one piece. Phew.

Also during the trip folks, I managed to attract the attention of a creepy Uncle at the airport (why, why I ask!) who was fervent in his desire to know where I lived and where I worked. After successfully dodging him, I ran into the security-check area and spent the next two hours glancing over my shoulder for the fear of running into him again. Sheesh.

Anywho, all in all, a good trip I'd say. I came home, aided in the exchange of goods (grandmom-mom; pickles, papad and the like) and news (all tam-bhram gossip. Not interesting) and slept. A week well spent.

And PS: Kob, sabr rakhiye. Hum sab ko ass moving and working main thoda time lagta hai. :D
And people, wtf. Moving your ass will aid in weight loss. Promise. :P (Except you Sneha. You stay put. :P)