Things To Do Before I Die

A thought crossed my mind today - What if I had only 1 year to live.  I tried to think about all those things I had always wanted to do and if I would ever be able to get everything on my checklist.  Here are a few things...

1. Go on a wonderful holiday with my family.
2. Meet the friends I don't have time to see now, the friends who I've met just once in my life so far and those friends I made on Facebook due to various reasons :)
3. See the places I always wanted to visit (Himalayas, Venice, Mexico and Combodia :P)
4. Signup to become an eye donor.
5. Change somebody's life for the better.
6. Apologise to those I might have hurt (if it was my fault)
7. See a Panda, Penguin and a Blue Whale.
8. Taste as many ice cream flavours as possible :P

I thought I would have at least 10 things that I could share.. oh well.

That would have to be one exciting year!  Somethings I might be able to complete and some might just stay on the list.  

Its been a wonderful so far and the journey is still on.  Life however is uncertain and we might just have to bid good bye without announcements.  It is a very short act and time is actually fleeting. 

We NEED to appreciate the good things in life and forget the things you can't change. There are times when things get real bad and we might think its the end of the world... well its not.  Just remember, no matter how bad things get there is always the possibility it could have been worse (even the worst situations have the ability to get worser :P ).  If you think you've hit rock bottom well.. there's just one way out of there - Up :)

Google Image

A lot of ramblings in this post of mine... Just happened to transfer some of the mess from the head to the blog :P

Meow Menace

This morning I woke up to a loud noise outside my room.  It was my landlady and she was screaming for life.  The reason was a wild cat (non-domesticated meow) had come into the house and was attacking her domesticated cats.

So the rented place I live at is a house owned be a lady who loves animals - especially cats.  She has three cats who live a wonderful life. She cares for most animals and does what she can to help them / care for them.  Now there was this cat who would show up occasionally at her doorstep for some food and she would oblige - the kind loving lady that she is.  But cat (lets call him Jungli) wanted more than just the normal scraps of food.  Even though he lived on the streets and lived life the way he wanted to, he craved for the wonderful cat food the domesticated cats were getting. I'm sure he must have got the aroma of the nice cat food the home cats were getting and he had decided he was going to get some too.

So this is what transpired this morning - when the lady was leaving for work at about 6.30 AM Jungli found the perfect opportunity to break into the house and get all the food he could get. When she opened the door to leave Jungli saw the door of opportunity opening.  He leapt in and ran straight through the hall way and into the last bedroom.  He attacked the first cat he could get his eyes on (now I'm dramatizing this) it was as if the wild one was asking the domesticated cousin 'Tell me where the food is' and the poor cat - the name is Dhanno - was either not able to or was shit scared to say anything while it was being continuously attacked.  This is when the lady started to frantically shout and scream for help, her little baby was being attacked.  This woke us up (me and my roomie) I rushed out to see what was happening.

When I saw the scene I ran to get my long umbrella to shoo it away - Jungli had once earlier attacked the landlady and was a bad bad cat.  The umbrella was useful in separating the two cats but not for long.  This was no cat fight but more like a cat attack.  He ran out of the hallway and into the living room where Patchu was resting.  Patchu is an old cat (about 14 year old) and now Jungli was now attacking him.  I managed to separate them only for a little while - Jungli now didn't seem to care for anything.  He was on an extreme attack mode. I still kept at him with the umbrella and they were separated for a while.  Jungli ran under the chair while poor old Patchu gasped for some air.  Jungli sat under the chair looking at him with I'm-gonna-kill-you-today looks.  He was younger, stronger and wild and seemed to have an upper hand.

The main door was open and I hoped to get the cat out of the door by shoving him with the umbrella.  He would turn his face away when the umbrella hit is face but dit not budge an inch - now right at this moment the landlady saw what I was doing and from yelling for the life of her cat she started yelling at me for not hitting the cat on the face and be a little 'Humane'! Hmmmm, right this moment I imagined what would happen if I were to take an extreme step to save her cat.  I gave thought to these options:

Option 1: Get a gun and blow the damn cat's head off.  The landlady would then stop screaming about the safety of her cat.... and start shouting at me for killing an 'innocent' cat! If she continues to feed the cat that attacked her and was shouting at me for hitting it - even it was for protecting her cat she would not want to hurt Jungli!!! (grr) this was a bad idea!

Option 2: Get a box and put it on the cat so it does not go anyway. The only problem was there was no box and Jungli was under the chair. Not gonna work.

Option 3: Call BMC to take the animal away. That would take forever and may be by then one of the house cats will be killed. 

Option 4: Lure it with food, may be he was hungry.  Could work.

So option 4 it was.  The landlady got some cat food and well that worked - Jungli left Patchu alone and followed the aroma (more like killer stink for me) of the cat food.  The landlady led him out the door and left the bowl of the food outside.  Peace finally prevailed and all were safe again... But wonder for how long? 



Jungli resembles this cat! See the killer look?



The Sale

One thing that no woman can resist is a Sale!  Even we don't need anything we still go and shop :) I was out shopping last weekend - seemed like all the malls were on sale.  Weekends can be a bad time to go shopping and I mostly avoid it especially if there is a sale! You can't imagine the lines outside the trial rooms and then again more lines at the cash counter! If its this bad I just don't shop I leave all the items I picked out outside the trial room and walk out. There are soo many interesting things I can do instead of waiting just to try on those clothes.

Its interesting to observe people during a sale.  There were this mother and daughter shopping, the daughter seemed to like something the mother thought was a total waste.  I heard her say 'That looks like a night gown on you beta!' There were also three guys shopping in the ladies kurta section - one of them wanted to gift something to his girl friend and his mum.  Poor guy gets his male friends to help him, he was doomed.  They were later seen asking help from other ladies about the sizes to pick out.

There are also those supershoppers who go shop hopping during the sale.  They seem to carry bags from every shop that has a sale - makes me wonder where they put all this stuff.  Seems like they get a whole new wardrobe during the sale season. I know some ladies who can shop all day long and they just don't get tired! I have a friend who will walk into shops, does not matter if there is a sale or no sale.  She just wants to 'look around' but she will pick up something and bargain over the price till the shopkeeper had enough and at in the end just leave it and come back. Her answer to why she does that "Just like that!" She bargains for things she know she will not buy - just for the fun of it! I don't think I will EVER be able to do that, its too exhausting. 

Another thing about sales is your luck - its truly a matter of luck to find the perfect thing you wanted at the sale.  Most of the times I find that the stock at a sale is something of a leftover (there is a reason why they call it end of season sale) but sometimes if you are lucky you are able to find something really nice.  Quiet often I end up buying the fresh stock which is not on sale but its fine because I'm totally worth it :P

This sale season I felt lucky, bought some nice clothes - luckily there was no rush even (may be it was the time of day - afternoon, evenings are horrible!)  I would have to be one of those few girls who avoid shopping during the peak hours at a sale. However, this is not the end of the sale - Shopper's Stop sale is coming soon :D

Happiness is a Choice

Whats tough to keep up everyday?... Its a smile on your face come what may.  You don't think its true? Think about the past week and the number of times you have been really positive versus the times you felt negative about things.  If positivity outweighs the negativity then its good.  However, if you were struggling to recollect few moments of being happy or even neutral then its a sign that you could be inching towards depression. 

Its really easy to give up, whats tough is to face the challenge.  The result does not matter most of the times but its the effort that counts....  OK may be the result does matter but we can't get bogged down by failures. If one thing does not work there's a million other things you can do.  There are few people who are good at everything.  But I really believe all of us are definitely good at something - it can be something as small as making the perfect dosa or stitching, flying a kite or just the job you do so well.  The saying 'Good for nothing' is really good for nothing because everybody has a skill and they must be good at something. 

Next time you are feeling low think of what you are really good at and go do it.  Remember all babies fall down while learning to walk . Whats tough is moving up or sometimes to even hold your stand.  I realize what I've written so far might sound like it came from some self help book.  But the fact of the matter is I feel this a lot of times and that you are the only one who has the key to your happiness and sometimes you can even help others find theirs.  It is really important to stay happy, sure there and things we can always do better... there's always a next time!

It is very difficult to always be positive, keep a smiling face and try and see the brighter side of life when everything seems so dull and uninspiring.  There have been times when I felt the urge to write about the sad sad and depressing things in life.  But then stop and think - would this really inspire anyone? Will this do any good? Nobody is interested in sob stories we all have our own.  I would rather read something positive and feel good than read something depressing and sad.   Bad and unjust things happen everywhere - life IS unfair.  Its how you deal with things, turn them around and are able to spread joy. Happiness is a choice and I made it :)

Ending with a quote by the 14th Dalai Lama - What is the meaning of life? To be happy and useful. 

Picture from Google

The Spirit of Mumbai - First Encounter

I completed 5 years of living in this city last month. I've thought about writing something about this place so many times but was just short of words.  Its really difficult to sum up everything about this city. Here is a little bit of something...

Why do they call it the city of dreams? Because decades ago this was the city people came to looking for jobs to provide for their families, start a business or become a part of the great Bollywood in some way or another.  There are so many things on this city about this city that you just won't forget the Nariman Point / Marine Drive is first to flash in my mind.  Whatever you might have read about it - none of it is overrated.  Below is a picture I had clicked when i had been there for the first time.  Don't what it is but I like it. These are marking they made along the pavement.

The Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus is a close close second... Nah, i think it would have to be a tie.  Looking at this station gives me the 'I'm in Mumbai' feeling and I love it!  If you notice, this is such a classic picture.  There is a hand drawn cart and a sedan on the road, everyone's invited :) You must visit this place when in Mumbai.

Click to enlarge

There is a lot said about the Spirit of Mumbai and how life never stops.  It's not that people don't care about each other (it may feel like they don't many times) but when its the need of the hour every one comes together - That's the spirit of Mumbai.  If you are lost you will always get help.  The first time I experienced this was on 11 July 2006 (it had been 2 months since I first arrived).  The first time I felt so close to a terrorist attack.  In about 11 minutes series of seven bomb blasts had taken place in the Western line of the Mumbai local. 

It was past 6 in the evening and I was returning home from work.  As I entered the station a train halted at the platform.  It was platform number 2 which meant I would have to cross the bridge to get it in time.  So I ran making way through the public thinking how slow the oncoming crowd was moving and hoping I am able to board the train.  Just as I made it to the platform train was already in motion and I thought to myself 'Damn, just missed it!'  The next train arrived in about 10 minutes I was able to get in and it was jam packed I couldn't wait to get off.  The train was somewhere midway between the next station and the one I boarded when it stopped.  

Now trains sometimes stop for crossing and we thought it was normal.  It was more than 10 minutes and  it had still not moved.  A couple girls in the compartment received calls that there had been blasts and their relatives were calling to check if they were fine.  No one believed it could be true, we were still waiting for the train to move but nothing happened.  It was more than 15 minutes and we were still stranded when we saw people walking on the tracks they were returning from the opposite direction.  I was standing near the door and did not understand what was happening.  They did not have any expression on their faces.  Seeing the oncoming hoard of public, people in the trains started to disembark. Since there was no platform we had to jump off on to the ground.  We had no idea what was happening we were just following the crowd aimlessly. There were people getting calls about some blasts but it felt like a rumor.  We walked towards the road and tried hailing auto-rickshaws none of them were agreeing to go the direction we were asking about, it seemed weird.  After walking for about 35 minutes we reached somewhere near the next station where we hoped to get a taxi. 

There were hoards of people and seemed like chaos on the streets.  I was scared and very much worried as I was far away from home and had absolutely no idea about the roads in this city.  I had recently gotten comfortable with the train schedule and now here I was stuck in the middle of nowhere.  There were ambulances zooming past us and I thought may be it was true after all.  The bomb blast had actually happened and it was so close, the train I had just missed was at that station where the incident happened. It was spine chilling to imagine anything more. Walking a little further we saw a group of men asking people where they were headed.  They were making some richskaws and taxis stop and getting them to drop people to where they wanted to go.  One person had stopped a rickshaw and was shouting out the name of the station I wanted to go to.  I rushed there and he helped me get in. The rickshaws usually carry 3 passengers but that day we were 5 of us we all somehow managed it and the we started to taxi.  It was only then that I felt a little hopeful of reaching  back to my place.  I tried calling home and letting them know what was happening but the network was not available.   

There was lots of traffic on the road and we were moving very very slowly.  There were people on the street directing the vehicles and trying to streamline the traffic and making way for the ambulances.  This is when I first thought - is this the spirit of Mumbai?  People for people - They were helping out each other.  I didn't know the person who helped me or those who I shared the ride with but we were all in the same boat and we were all supportive of each other.  I remember saying to the lady next to me after hopelessly trying to call home if I could use her phone to call home.  She agreed but only to realised she also had the same problem.  In fact all networks were down that day even the landlines were not working.  The government's idea of shutting down network to avoid panic actually caused more panic - people were worried about their kin who had not reached home.  

Generally it would take me about 30 minutes to get home but that day it took me three and a half hours to get back.  The rickshaw driver turned out to be a very honest man. Despite knowing the situation and place when he could demand more money than usual, he just stuck to his standard meter fare!  When I think back, its normal people that made all the difference that day.  When I got to my rented accommodation, the flat owners were watching the news of the seven train blasts that happened that day.  I just stood there for a while listening to the tragedy that had befallen this city.  I was grateful to God for keeping me intact and reaching me home without a scratch, that night I really prayed and thanked God.  

This is Mumbai where people stand up for each other and you will never feel you are among strangers.  That day through that ordeal I felt like I was a part of this city - another Mumbaikar.

To read about this tragedy go to This Wiki Link