Sunday Funday and the kissa of the Broken Rs. 100 Chappals!

Yesterday was a super blast! Had fun at Falguni's place! Though felt very sad that she and Ajith and the lil baby wont be staying in Pune anymore! The baby is such a doll!!! It felt so good to reconnect with old pals Nilesh and Nilam. Bhagwan unki jodi salamat rakkhe! Mann we really had a good time remembering cool old memories. The food and celebrity spotting at SGS Mall was amazing!
But the most hilarious experience was taking my broken chappal in my hand and hopping from one shoe shop to the other all over SGS mall ( With head turning attention) hunting for trendy, stylish, comfortable, white and more importantly affordable shoes( Yeah I am serious bout all the adjectives used here! And after a long hiatus, I finally found the perfect pair of Chappals that fell in all the above mentioned brackets at Westside after rejecting Mochis, Pyramids and City Walk)! Mann I got a fatka of Rs. 699( Writing 700 spells an even bigger hole in my pocket) due to Rs. 100 chappals that broke all of sudden without any warning signs of giving up on me. I don't know why all the mochis in Pune were on a strike yesterday. We searched for them everywhere from Sanghvi to M.G. Road, all of them seem to have vanished in thin air!! Not a single one was spotted!!
Thanks to them I had to indulge in some compulsive shoe shopping that is going to cause a serious budget interruption. Hehehehe! Thanks to them and my chappals, I had to use my contingency reserves for splurging over expensive shoes! Grrrrrrrrrr (Growl). And also become a mock stock with people staring at me walking with my chappals in my hand.
After that we hit Inox and watched the latest hit Dostana! Even the super salty cheese popcorn were kind of fika in comparison to John Abrahim( He steals the show). Having Banoo scream everytime he came on the screen in his underwear was fun!!! And those dimples just melt your heart! Posing for photographs in front of someone else's AUDI in the parking lot was super duper fun!! Hanging out with friends is so important, you get de-stressed in just a matter of hours! Its like your own customised Psychotherapy where all your friends play a part of the free of cost Shrink( I like the sounds of "Free of cost".......saving on the Bling Bling!)
Your mood is elevated and you unwind and get mentally ready to combat the Big bad Monday ahead!
Thanks guys! Had so much fun that today's Monday is going to just fly by! Looking forward to spending many such fun weekends! And Banoo and Cliff get well soon so that we can hit Sinhagad on our bicycles in the wee hours of a Sunday morning! Just can't wait for that one!!!

Prayers: 21st Nov, 2008

Let us pray for

Curing my best friend of the physical pain that is tormenting her day and night. That has forced her to stop living her normal life. Cease her pain god, and return her to her ebullient self again.

Bringing back the happiness in the life of my other friend both on the personal and proffesional fronts. He deserves all the happiness after what he has given to the world. Let it echo back to him.

Let my college friend get the love of his life. A love that he has chased for the last 5 years without even seeing her or even talking to her. If true love exists, this is it. He has already passed the acid test of exhibiting immense patience. Put an end to his longing. Let her know how much he cares. And let there be a reciprocation of love.

They await your blessings! Let us all pray for small miracles to bring in big difference in our lives!

Life's Big Lesson in a Small Scoop! 6

Get out of your Comfort Confines and Smell the Coffee.
I am writing this article for a very close and special friend of mine. I hope he reads this and realizes the power of acceptance of the situation, adapting to the consequences and moving on with life. I don't want a talented man like him to lurk in the shadows of his past. He deserves all the happiness and should come out of the bygone yesterday and boldly face the new today!

We all live in our own shells cocooned in the warmth of our comfort zones away from our deepest darkest fears. And this is a place where we find solace from the troubles outside. Let’s not use the word troubles. It’s too negative. Let’s make it sound positive with the word” challenges”. So this is place where we find acceptance at our terms, inner peace, may be love, warmth, affection, praise, and a non altering schedule of activities.

While forming the above sentence, I have used the phrase non- altering schedule of activities i.e. continuously engaging in execution of activities that are not dynamic and are repetitive in nature. When we get used to such kind of comfort zones we nearly turn a deaf ear to the challenges in front of us that really help us in propelling our growth.

I will cite my own example, I never used to go to the movie theater and watch films on varied topics. All that I liked was watching comedy, romantic or masala flicks. I was afraid that the serious type of movies might bore me to death; moreover I was afraid I couldn’t control my emotions while watching a tragic scene. However, I realized I was seeking shelter in my comfort confines and started watching parallel cinema, action flicks and even Sci-fi films…genres of films that were on my most disliked list. At first it was a Herculean task to sit glued to these (not my favorite) kind of films. But slowly with the help of few friends, I am over my fixation of limiting the scope of my entertainment. I have actually started enjoying them.

Stereotypical behavior stagnates us and makes us a very boring person to begin with. We do not have many topics to speak on and our experience is limited to few things. Also, this creates an impression that either you are too naive or ignorant since you are oblivious to so many different and interesting things in the world.

President Barrack Obama says we should WELCOME THE CHANGE. And I totally agree with him with Millions of others. In our personal and professional lives, we all are thrown into accidental challenges which we initially feel are beyond our expectations to cope with. We keep on wishing we return to our same old lifestyle and same old companions because we are not mentally prepared to face the new consequences and live upto the extended expectations. But, once we smoothly sail through these, we turn back and realize what we have learnt all along and how strong it has ultimately made us.

It is we who typecast ourselves, we close the doors to new things, experiences and adventures and in turn we miss out on many interesting things that life offers. Self innovation and exploration brings in wonders to your life. It adds the missing zing to your life! All you got to do is come out of your shell, say hello to the new world and confidently embrace a new life!

Cheers to your new life!
Ketaki

Song I absolutely love!

Song: Gagan, Sadan Tejomay
Singer: Lata Mangeshakar

Listen it Here.

It is one of the most melodious songs I have heard with absolutely beautiful lyrics~

Gagan, sadan tejomay
timir harun karunakar
de prakash, dei abhay

chhaya tav, maya tav
hech param punyadham
varyatun, taryatun
vachale tuzech naam
jag, jivan, janan , maran
he tuzech rup saday

vasantik kusumatun
tuch madhur hastos
meghanchya dharantun
premrup bhasatos
kadhi yeshil chapal charan
vahile tulach hruday

bhavamochan he lochan
tujsathi don dive
kanthatil swar manjul
bhavmadhur geet nave
sakaal tuch, tuch vilay

Wonder Years!

Date: Some day of December 2004
Venue: On the stage of the auditorium of University of Mumbai Clubhouse, Nariman Point
For MCJ's Film Appreciation course........
Question: WOW is that me? How slim I was?
Explanation: This pic weaves an integral part of the fabric of my wonder years........
This is a reminder of carefree days when bright yellow slip ons were perfectly ok for a shocking pink top and grey peddal pushers accessorised with a long Rajasthani Jhola.....what a fashion faux pas....But I still loved my style back then! And I to some extent envy that freedom of not being judged on the basis of my fashion preferences! And Yeah no matter what Pink is still my favourite color. It will always be!

I still need my music. Its just that the Radio Mirchi portable radio in the pic has been replaced with a MP3 Pplayer now~
Thanks Rupesh For gifting those leather slip ons to me from Dehradun and thanks Karan for preserving this pic for so many years and sending it to me. So many things have changed since that particular december 04 day, but in one way or the other this pic still gets me all nostalgic!
I sort of redeemed a lost part of me, lived the past for a moment and made a strong comeback to my reality.