The Other Side of Life

I love this time of the year! Because, it's time for a round up! Yay! I don't know about you, but I had a happening year. Between Graduation, Sherlock's knee surgery, living alone in Singapore, Sherlock moving to Singapore, me trying to find my footing at work and tonnes of resolutions to keep up, I had my hands full. I can look back at the year and say, I am glad we went through what we did, because believe it or not, as cliches go, we came out stronger. But, what made me the happiest this year was how hard I worked at my non-work related resolutions. I wanted to read 50 books and I completed my 50th book yesterday. It was hard, but I cannot put it in words, how much it was worth the effort. One of my complaints to myself was always that I didn't read enough non-fiction. This year, I read 15. I just cannot get over that. Here are the 50 books I read: I wanted to write a lot this year. I did it in spurts, but I did write. I did a blogatho...

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...

High time I am honest to my blog's title - Preeti Reviews.  I can't recall why I thought 8 years back that I would be posting reviews of anything on my blog, but I did. And so, I got stuck with this lame URL. What's done is done. After 8 years, I decided to honor that commitment and write a real review. I don't think I can even call this a review. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight is the story of Nike and for me, easily one of the most influential books I have ever read. Probably even the most influential book. Everyone wants to know how Nike became Nike. What we don't expect is the story of a normal guy, with a normal background, a normal upbringing, to fight the worlds to make his "crazy idea" come alive. He makes us all root for him, cheer for him and in doing so, cheer for every person who has ever had a passion and fought for it. I have often said this, that for many of us, careers have become an easy way to play catch. I like marketing. No, I...

I always take pride in knowing that all my blogposts have an underlying theme. That of humour, reality, depth, satire, laughter, truth and me. So today, I decided to do a little experiment - to try and bring out all these underlying emotions in a single line blogpost. Here goes: <start of post> I am getting married in 4 days. <end of post> Funny, Deep, true, laughter and me. See you on the other side of bachelorhood, readers. Wish me luck! Cheers, Preeks!

Are there any awards for consistently infrequent bloggers? I should totally get that! :) But, I have been "good" busy! The type of "busy" that keeps me happy. How have you all been? In good spirits, may I assume? Lots happened, nai? Kingfisher crashed. Europe got messed up. Whitney Houston died. Indian economy is on a seesaw. The cricket team's definitely a goner. SRK too for that matter. Politicians still suck. The master designer rests in peace somewhere, feasting on Apple. On the happy front, George Clooney's hot again. Djokovic is on a roll! Grey's Anatomy is worth watching again. The weather's awesome! And the blog celebrates its 3rd birthday! :) In other words, life is normal. Touchwood. But most importantly, an year of MBA almost comes to an end. Can you believe this? Time flies, and how! Its been fun. A roller coaster ride - Crazy induction days with less than 3 hours of sleep, summer placements, sleeping in classes, non-stop an...

You may find this hard to believe, but I did some serious thinking for this post because I had to tell you something very important. The options I considered: A Serious, philosophical post, something that starts with an Oscar Wilde quote and goes on to describe the Oxford Dictionary definition of "dreams" and "ambitions", etc. Needless to say, the post was neither serious nor philosophical, but downright funny. Result - Discarded. A thought provoking poem or prose. Do I even need to tell you what the result was, considering my best poem is on the lines of "There was a cat, it sat on a mat, played with a bat." You get the picture. A short story on a third person character, which ultimately turns out to be me. I was seriously expecting this to turn out well. But when, from out of nowhere, a blood-curdling scream came in to the climax, I knew I had diverted enough. And so, I decided, I am going to say this the way it is. That is, I will shout at the top ...

*Warning: Another CWG post! Leave, if you are bored already!* Are you watching the Games? Please tell me you are! I am absolutely having a blast here! And this post, is of course about some of my thoughts on the Games.. **** The tickets were so totally worth! I had SO much fun on Saturday at the Tennis finals. My hands are still hurting from all the cheering and clapping we did for Sania Mirza! Too bad she didn't win, but to her credit, she actually played well! Till the last ball. With the crowd cheering her for every shot, there was little else she could do, but hey, she didn't disappoint us. The audience was fantastic, to say the least! My Dad kept pointing out how silent the Wimbledon audience are and how noisy we are, but in our defence, if we don't get to be noisy in Saddi Dilli, where else do we get to? Hmm? Bolo?  The poor Aussie counterpart had a rough time, complaining to the referee about the booing crowds, especially when the collective sound of "Once Mo...

My Blog is probably in a fainting spell right now, what with it's owner posting twice in the same week! Chill. This is just a short FYI post. You know those days when every small thing brings a smile to your face? The Har Chhoti Khushi Ka Celebration days? I had mine yesterday! No big news to the effect of I fell in love, or I got a new job or Patrick Dempsey said Hi to me. Just small little things that made me go :) . So here's my list: I got the Auto-rickshaw at the door step, and beat this - he offered, all by himself, to charge me by the Meter! Get the Champagne out! I don't drink, but this calls for celebrations. There's this bee in my room, which has pretty much made the curtain it's home. I have tried all methods of evacuation. Nothing works! Yesterday, it left. Just like that. While I am sad about losing a friend, can we silently blast a couple of balloons and celebrate in darkness, before the stupid thing comes back on seeing the sugar and lights? Arre...

Ladies and Gentlemen! Thank you for your attention pliss. INCEPTION has been watched. The brain has reached various levels of madness, reality and imagination. While I collect splattered bits and pieces of my sanity, please bear with this little snippet of a post and do not expect any sane post for the next 24-48 hours or so.  In the meantime, if you haven't watched Inception, please, I am requesting you here, please go watch it! It is a piece of imagination, well beyond our times and needs to be watched ASAP! Thank you for bearing with me! Signing out, Still dreaming of Inception, Simply NOT me! ;)

A very important declaration: I, Ms. Preeti, hereby declare, I discovered paradise. On Earth. In my Colony. Somewhere between the main gate and my Block. A few meters from the nearest Guard Post. A few feet from my daily route. A stone's throw from where I walk everyday. A mental block away from observing my surroundings! Point is: I discovered a little bit of paradise. Now, I didn't know what I was supposed to do with this discovery. I was thinking on the lines of a patent, maybe? But a bit of google search and a teaspoon of common sense taught me better. We decided to blog about it and let out the secret. It all happened, one fine day, two weeks ago, during my return journey after a long tiring day at work. The usual bumpy, bus ride across the stinking Yamuna did zilch to lift up the spirits. To make matters worse, I was kicked out of the Auto at the Colony gate itself (as usual), because the Driver did not see himself getting too many customers...

So, my first day in office in 2010 started on an adventurous note. Missed the office bus on a chilly day in Delhi, waded through fog and a subway with no lights, shared the rest of the journey with an irritating office boy, tried the much hyped Noida Metro..You get the picture, right? Not exactly the normal, calm day that I enjoy - which got me thinking about how the daily "nuances" of life have changed in a decade. To be very frank, I don't remember much of the 90's. I didn't have an email Id or a blog back then, to read through old mails and smile at my innocence. I did not have a cell phone, and the landline phone was placed on top of the refrigerator where my hand could never reach. I had never played snakes, and my idea of playing was limited to, or rather not limited to outdoor games! I ran and ran till my legs couldn’t carry me anymore, played stupid games hiding in bushes and plants, jumping across fences, hitting each other with the ball. Oh the times wh...

I wished for something desperately, and it came true..So, I racked my brain for a long time, wondering which of the thousand things I did helped this happen. My first suspect, the zillions of eyelashes I blew off, squeezing my eyes as I fervently prayed for my alluring job to come to me. I can't pinpoint what must have transpired after my full strength blow to the poor little eyelash, but my guess is, it flew across the skies, on the look out for the perfect job for me, landed on the desk of a HR guy in the company of my choice, lodged itself between my resume and his desk, pushed my resume till it was on top of his nose, then did a little jig to catch his attention, and finally threatened to tickle him, till he didn't pick up my file, rush to his senior and get the process going..Yeah, I think that's what happened! Some of you may find my hypothesis slightly incredulous. Only and only because I respect my audience, I decided to keep aside my eyelash theory. So if it wasn...

An innocent remark by a friend recovering from a shockingly awesome trip to Goa propelled me into writing this post..After a rather longish detailed description of the trip, he quipped, "You have NO IDEA how rocking beaches are..We totally ought to have one in Delhi.." To him and to all those souls whose single Goa trip gets them talking about beaches, here goes the post... Well, I do have some idea of beaches, having spent many a summer vacation at my grandparents'  house on the beachside in the tranquil city of Vishakhapatnam ..To give you a slightly better picture of how our itinerary revolved around beaches, here's a sneak peak:    05: 00 am:  The house starts buzzing with activity, the harmony of the Suprabhatam falling on all ears..Just to re-emphasise, I am talking about the ungodly hour of 05:00 am in the morning..(Friends who know me and my infamous associations with alarm clocks well would appreciate the importance of this statement! ) Once you are up and ...

What better way to begin blogging than with a review of a music concert! It was Pandit Ravi Shankar and Anoushka Shankar in concert at the beautiful Nehru Park , as a part of the SpicMacay "Music in the Park" series. I was lucky enough to be there, but so were the other thousand odd music lovers who had turned out in huge force, sharing mattresses and chairs, discussing music, weather and the Maestro. My heart swelled with pride when I looked around at the assorted crowd: youngsters in Kurtas waiting to have a piece of the famous "culture cake", middle aged couples desperate for an evening away from normalcy, old people reminiscing Panditji's first time, foreigners impatient to see what the hyped "Indian culture" is all about. It was a weird mix of people, but a sight that made me proud of the city I had been brought up in. In an almost heavenly weather, good music has the power to take you far away, away from trivial problems and musings, and...