Category: Life

How not to be “happy”!

Why don’t we wonder why the Doctor doesn’t put the band aid without cleansing the wound .

Why don’t we ask questions when we are told we need a clean face to apply make up?

 Why do we clean the utensils before we cook or eat on them again with no questioning ?
and many more questions popped on my mind . Just that my mind said its because they are things we are aware of ? isnt that common sense ? Come on Bindu! dont ask stupid questions it says.
Then I have another question if thats the case then why don’t we vent out what troubles us ? why do we pretend to be happy and all ok? In the last few days I have had the privilege to meet many strong people and realised that most of us don’t want to confront the truth and all we want to do is go with the flow and live under the presumption that all will be ok . we have always been told and made to believe that crying is for the weaker ones, especially the men (i feel sorry for them). So obviously why would anyone share , vent it out, avoid a volcano from bursting? Its the unaware mode where the mind is dictating what one should do next and with no after taught we operate like robots listening to all the commands we receive at all times . It took a while for me to realise what was happening , the best tool of course is meditation which makes things clearer. When I see most living in a oblivion I thought I should write about this because I am of the belief that life is not long enough for us to learn from our own mistakes so why not learn from others . If there is a problem, its important to choose a person with whom we can share our thoughts and of course one who doesn’t judge . It helps immensely if the thoughts are penned down and read out  , what I am trying to convey is , if the thought has been penned down or voiced out how many times will it occur again? All that the mind wants is importance for what it is saying and the moment we are aware about the thought, it will fade away . Its like we telling someone to stop doing something we can say once , twice , thrice may be innumerable times to someone who isnt listening to us . What if the person listen to us and say I understood , will we repeat the same thing again for a 100th time ? I think may be not(if you said may be yes, then that needs help ;))
I learnt that being vulnerable is not a sign of weakness but its strength to show others that I am vulnerable and its only human. We never know what we get to learn in the process of sharing and how that might change our lives . Ofcourse too much of anything is too bad so if we keep whining then God save us!
Listening helps immensely . Listening to the gut, intuition , people around , soul inside us . All that is happening around may have a message but we need to listen .
I believe happiness is a state of mind , but being genuinely happy and not running away from the reality is the sign of real happiness . not cleaning a wound will only aggravate it no?

“Gratitude” Universe

And I always thought my problems are bigger ..

We at R SQUARE are handling India Inclusion Summit 2016 in November and Rohit is curating the speakers . During one such event he was to meet Priyanka one of the speakers and asked me to tag along . I wasn’t sure why I was going yet happily went with no expectations. We were to meet her near the Ganesha temple inside embassy golf links and thanks to Ms. Google we reached the venue correctly . I see a smiling face walk out of the building and Rohit call her name out and that was when I realized she was priyanka and was partially blind. Now my senses were all alert and watching her as I felt responsible , she said we could go to the cafeteria and lead us without the stick and I was amazed until she almost walked through a barricade and I abruptly stopped her . She then asked me if she could hold my hands and I readily agreed and of course reached the cafeteria and settled there . While they were speaking about her life I was watching them and listening with rapt attention , I clicked a pic too. I thought we had so much stress in our day to day life until I met her . I always believed as humans, until we loose what we have we wont value it and until we see bad we don’t understand what is good .

She spoke about her childhood in a Marwari family , the upbringing . Her losing her eye sight and still leaving home to pursue her career, her struggle in the corporate sea like IBM , her commuting , her passion for dance etc

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It made me think what problems do I really have ? In fact we create problems that we don’t have with all the time we have with us . I couldn’t go for a holiday , I missed buying something , I fought with someone , the traffic jam, no network etc. I was so ashamed at the fact that we live to create problems and people like priyanka to fight the real problems that exists . Who is more capable here ? Need I answer ?

We will at most times have a ready list of what we don’t have. Well who appreciates what is there ? Isn’t our purpose to chase what we don’t have ? Isn’t that how it has worked from years now ? Hasn’t that become our way of living ? I snapped back from all the thoughts towards the “now” and she said she wanted to take a selfie and I happily jumped at the thought of it 🙂

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what we always miss is to thank the universe for the life we have , to thank the five senses without which the world wouldn’t have been the same . The ability to talk, walk, eat , drink , touch when we want is the freedom we own and should be happy about . She said bye and cheerfully went back to her life not before she made me think so much . I have a feeling that IIS is going to change my life with so many stories told and untold .. I can only say Gratitude to the universe for I was again reminded to appreciate what I have ..

If we don’t take care of it, it will be gone

If we don’t take care of it , it will be gone is a dialogue that was repeated twice in the movie, Inferno .

 The line stuck to me , I have been brooding over it . No it isn’t rocket science , oh yes! All of us know about it . But the fact that we are so driven by this “movie” called life that we are on an auto pilot mode oblivious to most things .Oblivious to the food we eat , the road we take , the tasks we do , et al . We are not humans but robots who do things for the heck of it 🙂 . We eat because we have to . We socialise because it’s cool to do it , we dance because our peers do . We smoke / drink to impress others around and this is what I have been observing  . 
 
In this state how can we take care of anything? If it sustains it’s because it ought to or it will until it can . I was wondering what will happen if all of us snap out of the auto mode and nurture what we have . The world will become such a beautiful place to live in and will be filled with prosperity and happiness . All we have to do is be aware and take care of what we have . Everything ends , we end one day which we don’t realise and chase things which may not even remain with us , chase things we can’t take to our grave . We hurt , we fight without realising we are doing it . Can we actually take care of what we have ? Can we save what we have ? Can we be aware ? Can we be humans ? These questions run on my mind . My hope is we do . I hope we live every minute , every day like a new day . Love the one who matters the way we loved the day one we fell in love , talk to our family /friends like they matter the most , eat food like it is the best meal of the day , take care of ourselves and mostly create memories we can always cherish . For if we don’t take care of it , it will be gone 

CLUE for PMS

Hmm.. Not a topic all would like to read am assuming but most will relate for sure , so I thought why not blog and educate you all on what I learnt . If you are a woman who knows or don’t that you PMS then please do read and if you are a man who is a victim of your partners PMS then you must read too. 😀

What is PMS? click here  PMS

I am not a Doctor and I am writing this just to share what I know and its always advisable to talk to a gynaecologist for a detailed info.

Mood swings , short temper, depression, exhaustion etc are a few symptoms and for some reason most men fail to understand that this really happens . I dont blame them entirely for 2 reasons :
a) they are not educated or rather we are not educated on the topic while we grew up and
b) its a woman’s problem and unless one experiences how can they really know? So they are not at fault in my opinion.
Men: Basically if you see your woman all irritated , angry , teary , etc during certain days of every month those are a few symptoms of PMS . No! We are not doing all that deliberately and trust me it is not in our control at all .
I have been a victim until I started working out regularly and meditating .I became aware of what my body goes through and today I am so much in control of my own emotions that I am here writing this. At some point in my life I never knew who was controlling me (read hormones) .Now, the moment I know the dates , I start observing myself and I am aware of my mood. There are times  I snap  or get irritated but completely become aware in a few seconds and change the way I react , basically I am in control. And the fun part?  Most times I end up laughing at myself and the hormones who play evil :P..  Like it is said awareness is the first step to resolving any issue 🙂
I stumbled upon this app called Clue I think on Google and decided to download and voila! it changed my life. This app basically helps us women to keep a track of our dates : the PMS dates , tracks our  moods , periods and maintains a calendar . It basically it alerts me on the PMS date , period date et al and I am all set to handle myself . So I wanted to share this info with all my female friends and also Male friends who may want to learn and understand their woman more and help themselves and their partners “happily live ever after “(I believe that concept exists :))
There are certain things that is inevitable in life and the best way to deal with them is by befriending and being aware of them. Or its a battle that will never end .. Clue will change your life like mine . It has many more info than I have mentioned so Go Go Download by clicking here –> clue
#StayHappy

 

#Keylong (Himachal Pradesh)

While we initially had plans to laze at Manali and just stay in our sit out area with the chai and pakoras another part of us said arre! Go explore , so many places around just go. And the travel bug bit us again and instead of resting we decided to go to Keylong . While spiti valley was on top of the list it was over 200 km and we had to return by evening as we had to head back home the next morning again . So we decided to go to Keylong and that was through Rohtang pass . The journey began with our guide Negi .

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We crossed several waterfalls and mountains . It was cool and green to begin with and I was dressed to keep myself warm and as we climbed high it got Sunny and the mountains I felt were telling me a story . Every mountain was so beautiful , so different yet same . They were magnificent and I felt I had attained nirvana . All I could do was stay silent as it was breathless . They spoke to me so much and all I wanted was listen . Who said we were great artists really?

 

Can we ever match up to Nature and her creations?
The entire route is filled with quirky sign boards obviously sending a serious message like drive carefully in a funny way so that we may register in our minds 🙂 . The journey went on and I felt the chill down my spine and yes it was Rohtang pass. I was amazed how temperature changed and also the view . It was so misty and we saw people walk around in a full body suit , for a moment I felt I was in another planet . We took a quick 10 minute break and had a long way to cover through the bumpy road and the journey went on . I was telling my friends that all of us would have lost a minimum of 300 gms weight each . The ride was such 😉
_J6A8026We stopped  to click some breath taking images . We spotted snow miles away , was it Ladakh, I wondered . So many army vehicles on the road and also the entire stretch was filled with workers and cranes busy repairing the roads for us to travel safely .
We later stopped by for lunch and Maggie I said without blinking an eyelid . I knew that would be the best while my friends settled for Tukpa and momos . After the food , some chai and Parle g biscuits we started again .
Now the mountains were all looking angry , dry and dusty . There was no spec of greenery and the roads were equally upset with us . It was the bumpiest stretch and we didn’t keep the windows down as the car interiors had changed into brown colour with a layer of dust . We reached Keylong clicked some images and read a board which said Leh was 450 kms away … We wanted to go ahead but we couldn’t and consoled ourselves saying there is always a next time and being greedy isn’t good and descended back through the same range clicking – talking – staring all in silence agog .
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We reached back Manali fighting the mist oh wait! Weren’t they clouds that we drove through?
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And Manali greeted us with rain and our host at Tranquil Inn with some mirchi and allo pakoras with chai . We were tired yet felt accomplished and had no regrets for we saw all that we had to and we realised our journey had just begun with this …
Photo courtesy : Rohit Varma
To read more about Keylong read here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keylong

#thetranquilinn

It has been a while since I went on a holiday, was my rant from many months now . It was a Wednesday and we had a work meeting scheduled in Delhi and after the meeting a plan was made to travel to Manali where a friend of ours had a beautiful place. I couldn’t believe my ears was this happening? Excitement took over me and I had to pinch myself several times to make myself believe that I was finally going on a break .

Some images enroute to Manali

It was 12.43 am when we headed out of Delhi on road and the journey turned from highways to ghats . It was early in the morning and the beautiful sun set its eyes on me , I was enthralled by all this feeling alas! I was in a place I have always wanted to be from the time I have known myself . We reached our destination the Tranquil inn by 3 or so and we were asked what would we prefer for lunch . The tired souls in us wanted some comfort food and all we asked was for some rice , dal and alloo Sabzi and they happily obliged. We devoured it and crashed to wake up to a beautiful evening .

The hotel we stayed at and my room

It is such a beautiful place tucked far away from the hustle and bustle of the city . All I could hear was the sound of water and was it wind?

And hell broke loose when I stepped to the backyard of the hotel into the apple orchard, was I dreaming? Thousands of them spread over acres of land and I was like this kid in a candy shop . I plucked one red apple and another green, I wanted to eat what I earned and was in bliss . The evening went away staring into the sky , listening to the river Beas who escorted us from the time we reached the ghat till our rooms and she was still there around checking if I was fine 🙂

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View from my balcony – Apple orchards
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View from my  sit-out
In the evening we visited the market area and my friends wanted to feast on the trout fish which was the specialty of Manali . After a little shopping and stuffing ourselves we were back in our abode which put us to sleep in a jiffy not before I thanked the universe , my stars , my friends for this experience .
If you want to experience peace , good food and amazing hospitality in short feel at home below are the details
Number : +91 9816016414
Peace be with you!

#WeHumans

We work for our family but ignore them for work,
We love our family and friends but are the rudest to them ,
We are aware that life is short yet we reserve plans for future ,
We are good to strangers and bad with loved ones ,
We use bad words on others but can’t handle when it’s against us ,
We run behind a goal and on achieving it the goal changes ,
We express anger loudly but shy away from love,
we preach , we don’t practise ,
We are humans , we know it all but we will continue to do so ..

#Tree

In the midst of the hustle bustle of traffic on old madras road there stands a tree , tall , high and elegant .. I have been driving on that road from years now but for some reason I have never noticed her .. A couple of days ago I was stuck at the signal and was busy watching at the people, vehicles, infrastructure and there she was in the corner .. She looked beautiful and had a charm that I cant describe in words.

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Nothing around her seemed to deter her . Was she used to it or it never mattered to her asked my mind . I couldn’t stop staring at her , she looked hale and was busy dancing to the wind( or was it pollution from the vehicle) . The noise from the vehicles around or the metro above didn’t seem to reach her . She was in her own zone , she had no expectations from us ,Demons . She knew she was here for a purpose, a purpose to give and go away . She was so clear of her responsibilities that she was on the task of supplying oxygen and  providing shelter to many birds and shade to us . My mind was busy giving me more details like She wouldn’t make a hue and cry if she was felled . She never complained . She looked happy …
I immediately snapped into reality with a car honking just behind me at the red signal and saw the irony of us humans who can’t wait when we are supposed to . We complaint even when we have everything and are never thankful to all that we have . We believe expectations is our birth right . Patience is a word  in the dictionary and intolerance a favourite act . I didn’t want to react to the honking so I waited for the signal to turn green and vroomed away on my path. My mind saying “She taught you a lot by not speaking “, I smiled , agreed and I thanked her in my mind .. I would love to be a tree I thought ..

#words

Words .. Words ..
The most powerful tool we own apart from silence ..
It is not always about what we say, it is also about what they heard ..
It is not only about our intent , it is about their situation too ..
It is just a word for us , it could mean life to them ..
It is not always about me! It is about them too ..
Choose them wisely , words can kill , it can make one smile or cry ..
Words can create space .. It can bridge gaps ..
Words .. Words .. Powerful words..