The Other Side of Life

Today I learnt, the exact way in which jet-lag works and my mind is boggled. I had the weirdest, worst possible understanding in my head. And I realized today, how wrong I was. I basically thought, your body clock matches the clock of the place you land. All you have to do, is catch up on sleep. For example, if you are flying to London from India and reach London at 11 pm, India time, which is 6:30 pm London time, it is just perfect, because now, you can immediately fall asleep and not wake up till 7 am, London time, which is 11:30 am India time. Now, you are all caught up on sleep. If you are confused, don't worry. This is the wrong explanation. The real explanation is this. Just because the time shows you gained 5 hours, does not mean your body knows that. (That I did not know this, when this is the exact definition of jet lag, is something so strange and surprising that I am amazed). You don't want to wake up till 7 am London time, but you will get up at 2:30 am Lon...

Do you have a happy place? I never did. But now, I do. Last month, Sherlock and I were on a trip of a lifetime. We went driving all around Ireland and Scotland. Here on, if I use the word beautiful anywhere in the rest of my post, please feel free to report my blog as Spam, because there cannot be a bigger disservice to the places we went to than describing them with an adjective as trite as that. It rained a lot there. Except on one day. The day we went to Cliffs of Moher.  On a bright sunny day, we arrived at the Cliffs of Moher. The geography of the place is quite logical - there are cliffs extending to both sides of the Visitor Centre. You arrive at the Centre and decided whether you want to go left or right. And then start walking along the cliffs. The trail is amazing, to say the least. It overlooks water and one step here and there, you can say goodbye to all that you love. So we reached the Centre and decided to walk towards the right. WIth sun out...

I was flying in a horribly delayed flight on my much haunted Mumbai-Bangalore circuit yesterday. After sitting on the runway for nearly 1.5 hours, the passengers started complaining and shouting at the air hostess. She smiled and tried to pacify them somewhat and went back to her corner behind the cockpit. From where I sat, I got a private viewing into what happens behind the scenes.  She went there and slammed the tray angrily. Her co-steward patted on her back and pulled her cheek to humour her. Suddenly, some irksome passenger pressed the calling bell and she turned back - Full smile back on. I was amazed. Like, really really amazed. I have never ever thought about airhostesses as this human. Of course, they get angry. Of course, they find some passengers irritating. Of course, they bear the brunt of fog in Delhi causing delay of flight to Amritsar, which adds up to the return flight to Delhi and then the flight from Delhi to Pune and from Pune to Mumbai and from M...

Amongst the many mysteries of the human mind, the one that will go on to enthrall curious psychologists and social behavior scientists for long, will be the innate hurry the human being is in, while deboarding a flight. There is almost no logic on earth that can explain that impatience. For the longest time, I thought this was a very Indian thing. But on a flight to Rome, I had that same familiar nudge from my co-passenger - "Go, or let me go." and I realized, it's not an Indian thing, it's a human thing. On one of my numerous Mumbai-Bangalore trips, I decided to design an experiment. I genuinely wanted to know what hurrying up in those few minutes leads to - Do you progress in life faster, do you get promoted, is your work-life balance better, are you happier and the other not-so philosophical questions. So this time when my excited co-passenger nudged me to give way, when the flight tires had barely even experienced the friction on the runway that caus...

If I had to describe the year 2016 in one word, I would choose "Meh". That's exactly how it was. Work, which occupies a majority of my awake life, was meh. Sure, we did some exciting stuff, but nothing the way I would have wanted. When I don't use my brains and start agreeing with others' plans, I become meh. As always, there was a lot of travel for work, which was also meh because it was mostly Mumbai or rural Karnataka, both of which I have had more than enough of.  The one thing I always look forward to is meeting more people and learning more from them. That didn't happen much this year. So, another point to Meh. I should have done something to change things, but that did not occur to me till the end of the year. By the time it occurred to me, looking back at the year that was became agonizingly painful. Meh. Meh and meh. On the personal front, Sherlock made some changes to his work, which was good. But we asked ourselves a lot of...

(This post was a Tangy Tuesday Pick! Yay! Check it our here -  http://blog.blogadda.com/2016/01/19/tangy-tuesday-picks-blogadda-indian-bloggers-blog-posts ) It's ok to feel bad when something good happens to someone. It's ok sometimes to want to shoot with a gun. It's ok to be irritated when someone scratches fingernails on Teflon. It's ok to miss a post or two in your first Blogathon. It's ok to not want leave Goa and come home. It's ok to suffer a severe case of Monday blues syndrome. Its ok if your motivation level is not that of Aragon. It's ok when bad connectivity makes you miss Blogathon. It's ok to eat good food everyday, like Cheese Patty. It's ok even if the food is unhealthy and fatty. It's ok even if you resolved this year to run a Marathon. It's ok even if while eating, you forgot the Blogathon. It's ok to never ever want to go to work. It's ok to sit at home when office has a vintage Wifi network...

Since my readers seem to have enjoyed the previous post on my travel stories, I decided to regale you with some more. And this set of stories, just *had* to be shared. So, you know how we often talk about social media marketing? How India is now a super-power? How rural India is fast catching up with its urban counterparts? How social media's next target would be the upcoming rural areas, where Internet penetration is increasing? Yes? I am also one of them who talks about this. A lot. Its a part of my job description. We quote statistics and we say rural incomes are increasing, hence, it makes a strong case for making malls in rural India.  One trip to these villages is enough to debunk all theories, throw all statistics into a dustbin, crush these good looking presentations and throw back your head and laugh! :D I am not saying there hasn't been any development. I am just saying, us Strategy people need to slow down. The pace of things in rural India i  s  ...

People often ask me this question, "Do you travel for your job?".  Immediately my mind spirals into a vortex with scenes running in my head. Of batch-mates' Facebook check-ins in Dubai, New York, London, Amsterdam. Of check-ins in the Heathrows and the JFK Airports. Of fancy pictures on the top of Burj Al Arab, on the Greenwich Line, of snow and snowstorms. Of shopping in Hong Kong.  And then, like a switch pressed, I suddenly see scenes of Long highways, green fields, thatched huts. I shake myself out of the reverie, politely smile and say, "Not much travel." The fact is, I cannot do Facebook check-ins for the Pasiyadongris and Lunawadas and Dedh Gaons. So, yes, I travel quite a lot, and I travel across the country side, over highways, into villages, talk to farmers, see a side of India most young people have no idea of and no, I do not hate it! :D The thing with travel like this is, you get a new perspective on everything. I know it isn't ideal, bu...

Delhi is always in the news for all the wrong reasons. Women safety (or the lack of it!),  VIP Traffic, CWG fiasco. Hell, they made a swanky new awe-inspiring airport, and even that successfully crossed over to the negative side thanks to it's extra long corridors. Seriously? Corridors? That's your problem now? Come on. Be nice?  I think what the country needs is a dose of some very good Delhi-isms. Things that would make you fall in love with the city! So here's my compilation of must-do things in Saddi Dilli: Picture Courtesy - The Hindu Culture Curry! - You have missed a lot if you have not delved into Delhi's culture potpourri. For starters, The "Music in the Park" series. This concert by Spic Macay invites some Maestros of music to perform in the splendid Nehru Park, and here's where you'll find the best of Delhites. You can spend an evening of delight in the pleasant months of February and March, sprawled on carpets on the grass, listening ...

'Ello! Howdie? How's life? All good? Hmmm? Yeah, I am okay too. Alive. And as you might have guessed, very busy (Hi DI ! ;))!  Don't even ask me what I was up to the last 2 weeks when I didn't blog at all. I'll tell you anyway. A surreal amalgamation of an important meeting, a presentation, work on weekends, the senior management of the company, work, more work, did I mention "The Presentation", re-work and more work. It was like the school Annual Day all over again! Oh and in the midst of all that, the one weekend when I could have taken a sigh, I went on a running, fleeting, blink and miss 2 days trip to Hyderabad. AND Tirupathi. Definitely a record of some sort!  Now that it's all over, I am free as my manager a bird. Like they say, "don't be sad that it ended, be ecstatic." Oh sorry, I don't think that's what they say. Never mind. I am this close to losing my sanity, so excusez moi. The irony and the biggest joke, however, is...

Here's the deal. Eavesdropping, if anything, in my humble opinion, is an Art. Before you judge me (Judging people is also an art. Another post.), have you ever noticed this section of the population, intently focused on your conversations, staring at you, especially in Public transport, dying to catch on to every word you utter, and making it blatantly obvious that they are, well, interested? They are precisely the reason why eavesdropping qualifies into the Art category. It's these immature people who make Pros like me cringe in my comfortable corner. Hence this post, where, you "Watch and Learn", the ART of eavesdropping. Lesson #1 - Act Uninterested Do not make it obvious that you are interested. Take a deep breath, let go of yourself, relax, and sit in a comfortable position. If available, a prop would be good (Explained in Lesson #2). Now, very casually, try to grasp the basics of the conversation. It will take a few minutes, but it will happen. Getting the drift...