Things I wish I'd get paid to do!

Disclaimer- These could be potential career options- no kidding! Just that I ain't there just yet ;)

1. Zumba- The most recent activity I absolute love doing! My classes are just twice a week but I am always happy to even follow online videos and practice at home. Zumba is a fantastic workout and it's so much fun that you don't even feel like you are putting in a lot of physical effort like you do at the gym!

2. Doodling- Everyone who has known me since I was a kid knows how much I loved doodling. All through school and college my books were full of doodles. Unfotunately, I have been out of touch lately but people like this lady here- http://her.yourstory.com/rachna-prabhu-1125 make me also think, why not?

3. Story telling- I do like to think of myself as a story teller. I love reading. listening to and telling stories. Listening to my grandparents' telling my mythological stories as a child, remains one of my favorite memories with them. Reading fiction is my favorite hobby from the time I started reading until today as I love getting lost into the plot and the lives of the characters. And telling stories is one of the reasons why I started this blog. Oh and of ourse, there is this guy here who truly makes me think this can be a career option to http://storywallahs.com/

Some things I did recently that mad me experience pure joy! S01E01

Hello again!
Does this post come sooner than expected? That's the whole idea! I promised myself that I'd write more often and that is what I am going to try and do!
This post 2 has 2 objectives- 1. Write more often and sooner as long as I writing about a personal experience so that I don't forget about it and struggle to recreate it later and 2. Try and make my stories shorter. God knows I need some serious effort in editing both writing and speech!


#1 Meeting lil Miss Sunshine Anaaya
A couple of weeks back when I was in Bombay, I met my friends Parin and Saloni and their lil bundle of joy- Anaaya. I have known Parin since MBA days and Saloni and him were blessed with Anaaya around a year and a half back. This was right after our wedding and I hadn't met Anaaya and her parents all this while. I had seen pictures of her on Facebook though and had always marveled at her smile. Anaaya has the most radiant smile and is the most happy-go-lucky baby I have ever met. She undoubtedly gets these from her mommy who is an absolute sweetheart herself but to have a met such a happy baby made my day! We spent a long Sunday afternoon with her and there was no whining and wailing like other babies do. Lil Anaaya was as hospitable as one can get as she played with us and entertained us. 

The reason I am writing this post about is as I said in the title- meeting her was pure joy! I usually like babies but with a major condition- only as long as they aren't crying! But this lil cutie and her smile reminded of the innocence of childhood. How simple, carefree and untangled our lives used to be when we were kids. Our hearts and souls as pure as could be. Growing up was such sham! And yet, just spending a few hours with her were sufficient to fill my heart witch such delight than every time I think of her, I am happy all over again! Thank you lil Miss Sunshine Anaaya!

Another stranger angel!

Hello there!
So here we are again. At the risk of sounding repetitive in the way I start my post, I have been thinking of penning this story for a year now. Another story, another angel who restored my belief in kindness in the most unusual of circumstances. Not to say that I don't believe that kindness exists, but sometimes you encounter it in such unforseen situations that it deserves a post! Even if it comes more than 2 years after my first post on this blog!

I must mention that as this story happened almost exactly a year back and my memory isn't my best asset, I may have forgotten some minute details and therefore some facts may have been mixed with fiction.

Last June, Pratik got his first opportunity to visit France for work. It had been just 6 months since our wedding and subsequent honeymoon but if I had ever made a countries- I- wish- to- visit list, France would have certainly been on the top. And so there was no way I was not going with him! We planned a week long trip to visit Paris and the French Riviera before he would proceed to Lille for work. We planned everything fairly meticulously while trying to minimize the impact on our bank accounts and one such effort was to travel separately from Bangalore to Paris. Pratik's company was flying him with Air France by a fancy direct flight while the lesser mortal was flying with Etihad via  Abu Dhabi. Now the reason I am sharing these details is that it was because of this that I was due to land in Paris 3-4 hours before the husband and therefore, I had to take the difficult decision of whether I should wait for him at the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport or at the hotel. Now, most of you would wonder why this would be such a big deal, right? But for the few who know me closely know how even after all these years I can get lost in Bombay (Bombay btw isn't my janmabhoomi but is the place where I have spent almost my entire life!) So getting lost in Bangalore is very plausible for me and Paris is almost certain! But even then, after flying for 16 hours and trying to stay in my image of an independent, self confident woman, I decided that I wouldn't wait for Pratik at the airport. So much so that in the 15mins of free wi-fi access that you get at the Paris CDG airport, I emailed him that I wasn't waiting for him at CDG and would see him directly at the hotel. This meant that he wouldn't even look for me at the airport once he landed, he would directly start for the hotel. And yes, international roaming wasn't activated on my phone so there was no other means of communication.

Now, CDG airport is ~40kms away from Paris and modes of travel include 1. Cab which would cost ~60 euros, 2. RER train which would be ~20 euros and 3. I think there is a shuttle as well. We had discussed that I'd either take the cab or the RER. However, my decision making capabilities had taken a huge hit at the CDG airport after 16 hours of flying as well as the overwhelming amount of information that I was subjected to at the CDG airport. After hovering around at the terminal for over an hour, I had finally managed to get to the RER platform and catch a train to Gard du Nord. Gard du Nord was ~1km from our hotel and by the time I caught the RER, I knew that if just deciciding and getting on to the train had been such a mammoth task for me, reaching our hotel from Gard du Nord would almost certainly mean I was going to be lost. Not having access to Google maps, walking a kilometre in an unknown country and being subjected to very complicated language and accent to understand was freaking me out! Thankfully I knew enough French to read and understand basic directions, but asking someone for directions and understanding their speech on that first day was absolutely impossible! I got into the train visibly nervous and tired with a suitcase in hand, more worried than excited. Almost immediately, a fellow traveler struck a conversation. Now, I am usually not very comfrortable having conversations with random strangers but when you are alone in a country where you don't know a single person, and fairly convinced that you are going to be lost, you cannot get more uncomfortable even when a stranger strikes a conversation!

I met Kai Carver, an American who was a native of Paris. We got chatting about what we did, why I was there and where was I headed. He google mapped my hotel location on his phone to show me how I could get there from Gard du Nord. When we reached Gard du Nord, he actually got off the train with me and explained me the directions to the hotel. We realised that it wasn't as simple as it looked in the map- there were a lot of lanes around and finding the tiny hotel where I had booked us, wasn't exactly easy. He then suggested that he had sometime on hand and was willing to walk with me till the hotel. For someone who is from Bombay where everyone is always on the run, I found this extremely surprising. Without trying to sound excessively worrisome, this did get my suspicion cells activated! Why was this man willing to help a foreigner find her hotel out of no where on a working day morning? How many of us here in Bombay or Bangalore would do that? I don't know what impression I gave Kai, but he was so sweet that he actually kept showing me the route on his phone throughout our walk to convince me that he was indeed dropping me off to my hotel and not misdirecting me! I also realised that while I knew I had booked Pratik and I in a tiny hotel, this was actually a hotel the size of a match box and as difficult to find as a needle in a haystack! And if I had been looking for it all by myself, there was no way in heaven or hell I'd have found it! I'd perhaps been left looking for it and my husband most of that trip! (Ok, serious hyperbole but this is what I thought at the time!) 

Kai also suggested things I could do and places I could visit in Paris while we walked. We talked about India and France and Taiwan and a lot of other places. We exchanged our contact cards and he offered that I could reach out to him for any other help during the rest of my trip as well. We eventually found the hotel and he asked me if I'd be okay till the husband reached there. I thanked him profusely and couldn't believe my luck in being able to find another stranger angel!

The testimony to this was when Pratik finally reached, he gushed about how the hotel was indeed very difficult to locate and he kept thinking throughout his walk about how on earth had I managed to reach the hotel all by myself! 
At the risk of also ending my article in the same way as my previous one, I was extremely thankful and felt very lucky having met someone so kind and helpful as Kai. The rest of France was also as hospitable and the trip is something Pratik and I will cherish for the rest of ourlives! :)