Finding Ninnu

I am writing this post just because I had to.
Why? Purpose?
Well...Nothing :) Just some random thoughts.

Long time, did not post anything.
So, what should I talk about?
Lets talk about Passion today. I feel happy when people do things out of their way to pursue their passion.
What? What did I just say???
I feel Happy, when others pursue their passion? Wondering why I just wrote it (though going deep into this thought, I realize it is so much true)
I had so many passions in life. If I think back, there was a time that I loved reading. Hehe...don't know whether I mentioned this story anytime earlier, but have to tell you this.
I was in my college and the exam time was approaching soon. I used to get up early to study. My parents obviously aware of this. Once, there was a power cut @ 5 in the morning and I was studying in candle light. My dad passed by my room gave me a smile and very affectionately asked me to stop studying in dim light. I did not pay much attention, gave him a smile and continued studying.
In no time he was at my desk and and and!!!! His facial expressions are unforgettable. He found me reading a thick book, but it was a "Sydney Sheldon" :P
And guess what! It was not the first time. During school days(And again during exam times), my mom caught me reading "Gone with The Wind" which I was hiding behind a syllabus book. Funny, I don't remember the subject which I was pretending to study, but I remember all books with which these incidents have happened.
Oh yes!! I was passionate about reading.

Then there was a time, I was so passionate about sketching. Every week I had to do one, else I used to become restless. Obviously, I don't do it anymore, and hence few of them have become my priced possessions.

And how can I forget the time when I used to write poems during 12th standard. I wrote 26 of them including Hindi and English.
Why I never shared?
Well, I am trying to search for this diary since 7 years now, but it's lost somewhere :( :'( :'(
It really hurts thinking about that.
O, I did publish one. Hahaha, reading this one after ages now, and it looks so funny now :P
But I was in my teens, and that's a stupid age. So please don't laugh :D

What else?
Shopping, Haircuts, Movies - infact, my movie collection, My First Desktop, those photoshop collages, My Play-lists,  hand-written letters, hand-made cards, travelling, gossiping...
Hmmm!!!
Forget  about passion, I have to balance time amongst essentials now. So, If I wish to exercise in the morning, I have to skip reading News Paper.
Hooo!!! This topic is making me sick now.

Change maadi!!!

Lets talk about something happy. (As if passion is not, but...ok :) )
Happiness?? Why Not!
Yeah, happiness.
So, how would you define happiness? For me, I feel happy when people around me are happy. And I feel happiest, when people around me are happy because of me.
And, if there is something that would make me happy, but would not be ok with Ravi and Chia, I wouldn't feel happy doing it.
What??? So, to sum it up, Happiness for me is now, not to be unhappy???

I don't understand myself now.
I HAVE a happy life, a happy family, an "almost perfect" husband, a wonderful and sweet baby. Ravi supports me in almost everything (Till the time it does not come to car driving :P all of you know it now), shares my responsibility, takes care of Chia better than me. He is simply wonderful. Infact, as they say, my Monday fasts have paid me well ;)

Still, I am not able to change this philosophy of happiness I mentioned above.
Being selfless, you can just be happy about not being unhappy?
Does being happy means being selfish?
Hooo!!! M completely sick now.

One of the strangest post ever.

Tanu, I miss you. And yes, I had been thinking about writing this since we talked last time. (Also somehow I am wishing I shouldn't have got time to write this up and hence think more in this direction and get all confused about my feelings :P)
Wish both of us could have some extra time to chat/talk/whatsapp each other.
Tanu ofcourse means Tanupanti, but somehow this Tanupanti inspires me to LIVE :)
And yes Raji, as promised 2 years back when you were trying to inspire me to write something, mentioning you in my post as well ;)
You see, I am good at keeping promises :)

And guys!! If you are wondering what does this title means, well, as I had no nick-name, so my PG mates nick-named me Ninnu. And I think those Ninnu days were one of the best days of my life.

Finding a Role Model

How does it feel when you are able to see where you want to be say 20 years from now?

I met this awesome French lady "Lawrette" who had come to take one of the travel domain trainings in office. Though the training was for 4 days but because of work pressure, I could not attend after 1st day.
Feeling sad (and guilty for unnecesseralily occupying a seat) I went the next day to apologize.

Before I tell you what we talked about, I would like to tell you my first impression of Lawrette.
I enter the training room, one nice middle aged french lady is already sitting in the room.
Blue eye shades, dark grey mascara, very pretty haircut, to top it all a very smooth and glowy skin...i never could imagine she was 59 if i had never talked to her about personal life. She was old, yet so pretty. Weird combination? O, you should see her once to believe me.

So, I go ahead and apologise having to miss such an informative session where she was not only sharing knowledge on the given topic but also her experience in various travel related organisation and associations. One topic led into another and so on, I did not realize when we had actually started talking about home, kids, husband - LIFE.
And why instantly we connected is because when I told her I have a 20 month old baby, she also started telling me about her life experiences when both her kids were small. She loved raising them, teaching them good habits, teaching them about good behaviour and being polite, teaching them what is right what is wrong. The moment she told me this, I could so well recollect how momji insisted that we should leave Chia with her as I want to work, and how I explained to her How important it is for me to see Chia grow, teach her Sorry , please, thankyou, inculcate good habits and good language.

She liked it when she started working after her second baby. At home, there used to be no time, but at work, she could find some time to relax. She told with a naughty smile that sometimes she used to rush for work to get her space :P
And this reminded me of the first week when i started working after Chia :P

Lawrette before babies, indulged in too many adventure sports, excercise routine, reading etc; but after babies, she hardly used to get time for anything else. Sometimes even husband was forgotten for the sake of babies. People to whome I generally talk would have heard similar stories from me :)

Then I did tell her I do want to have another kid sometime in future but Ravi does not. For which she started talking about the relationship she shares with her brother. They talk a lot and discuss about almost anything and everything, so she also feels that having more than 1 kid certainly makes up for the company and kid is not rendered alone.
To this, I almost remember the statement that i always make to ravi "What fun could possible Garima have without Gaurav? And you would agree the same for Rinku without Shinu" :) :) I felt as if an older form of me was talking about my thoughts and ideology :P
She says "That phase when your kids are small and need all your attention, is like a tunnel. If you plan for a second one, you may think of the tunnel to become a little longer.
In your age, spending those 2-3 extra years would mean something, but you should take it like this: Say your baby is 3 years, and you talk about her 1 year, it's 1/3rd of a lifespan that you are talking about, so it's huge; but at my age, if i talk about 1 year, the % is much smaller and hence that 1 year is nothing to me. Investing those extra years makes so much sense to me now"
Wow! I never thought on these lines.

When her 2nd baby was 5 years, she decided she will start gymming again. When her baby was 9 years, she started playing Piano again which used to relieve her from all tension. She did start reading again, but only after 15 years.
I was little disturbed, rather scared to hear this. 15 years!!!! Man, will it happen to me too?
But then, she started explaining:
"It's just a phase of life. Although I love adventures, but when I look back the most adventurous things that I have done is raising kids. You do have to invest all yourself during the initial years, but then what you get in return, words are less to express those feelings.
It's so nice when your daughter comes to you and say "Mumma thankyou so much for whatever you have done for me."
 :) :) :) "
It definitely was a goose-worm moment for me.

At 60, she does have retirement plans and much more fun and adventure plans after retirement.
I cannot think of that long, but she has definitely inspired me to be even more attached to Chia, find out time for Ravi inspite of the busy schedule and yet have time for myself to indulge in activities I like.
Tough??? Ya! looks like, but it would be interesting trying to work that out.
And why not...this is a blog after 2 years or little less, let me consider it as a start ;)

Thnaks Lawrette for making my day a happy one and giving such an inspiration.

Yet Again...

30th Jan, early morning around 2:30 am, 2nd night after Chia was born!

I was totally bedridden, could not even get up without help.
Little Chia started crying. Till the time her Dadi n Nani woke up, Chia's papa was already up - beside our bed with bottle in his hand.
He was looking lovingly towards our daughter - bottle in a hand, napkin in another - feeding the baby with so much affection in his eyes. Right in that moment - I fell in love with him AGAIN :)

Hi Body and Soul

Personal Life these days:

Have you heard of Snapdeal, Dealivore, kooves etc? Yeah right…sites which you can use to get things for yourself without making your hubby’s temper loose on the amount you spend :P

There was a deal from Body and Soul offering Fish Pedicure…something I was longing for since a long time. I took the deal a week back and thought of taking an appointment this weekend.
I am a happy soul…a relaxing weekend including pampering oneself! What else could I ask for :)

Professional Life these days:

Working as Business Analyst for our business Partners based in Europe. Daily interactions with clients, some documentation, some testing and lots of complaints these days as things are not working they were suppose to.
And yes…I hate Lotus Notes. Outlook was so much better (An inspiration to write this blog)  :-/

Read on for the explaination---

One Fine day (Today):

I am in office jotting a mail to Nicolas:

Hi Nicolas

This is not working that is not working 

blah blah blah…
So I am blocked and cant work.

Thank you!
Garima

‘Send Mail’

Meanwhile, Ravi pings me on gtalk:(By the way, galk is the best thing I like in my office :))

RV: Did not get an appointment for this weekend

Me: body and soul?

But unfortunately, I saw my message was not displayed in the chat window…then where the hell did it go?

The Horror Show begins:

I realized immediately, that this stupid Lotus Notes was performing the Spell Check before sending the mail and it had highlighted the word “Nicolas” for me to correct. Ofcourse…dictionary could not have his name.

To add to the climax, my mail had no other spelling mistake…

Any guesses guys????

Yeah!!!

The mail which was sent to Nicolas was:

Hi body and soul?

This is not working that is not working 

blah blah blah…
So I am blocked and cant work.

Thank you!
Garima

:( :( :’(

Bu hu hu hu

Yeah ofcourse…it was marked to lots of people.

Subak subak :’(

Ok! What can I do next…

Ah! The recall feature and a big sigh of relief! :)

Nicolas being in a different time zone would login only after an hour.

Manager and TL both standing over my head wondering how could I do it???

AND...guess wat?? The Lotus Notes version we are using does not have Recall option!!!

Can you believe that?????

M dead meat!

And laughing stock for the entire team. 

NICE is Nice

Today I got reminded of the time in Noida when I used to go for movie, coffee and McD all alone :) Its not that my frenz never accompanied me...its just that they could not tolerate just every movie in theatre...and i was crazy to watcheach and every one. Nyways!

I m in Nice City (France) right now.

I got reminded of those bachelor singleton days because today there was nobody to accompany me on a city tour of Nice.
I was roaming all alone. Trying to find out routes with a map in hand and having such a sense of directions as i have (poor...very very poor) things simply became hilarious at a point.

I missed the bus at one spot and walked to another spot as next bus wd be after 45 minutes :P (Such a long walk that ravi will let me eat extra for this :P).
I was trying to talk to people and understand from where can I get the bus, or to know the exact location where I am in :P, best part is...all the people I talked to did not understand english, still I managed to converse with them for more than 5 minutes :P U see, bolne ke liye bhasha ki zaroorat nahi hoti...wat an idea sir ji :D, But honestly...i did not understand a single word of 'toi, phoi, kumpho, kumchu' they were uttering.
I asked some lady to click my pic, and got scared when she started talking to me :P

One guy asked time (in french) while i was walkimg. I told him time, showed my watch...god knows he was asking time or what...i cdnt understand the 'toi-phoi-kumphu-khumchu' he was blabbering. He left, i took a sigh of relief and dropped my bag on a chair where i thought of sitting for some time. But, as soon as i saw that guy turning back and coming towards me...i hurriedly picked my bag and started running :P. Can you imagine the scene??

I kept my eyes very strict and ran away from many people thinking they'll rob me :D

Bearing the cold, taking pics, entering an asian restraunt and trying to find out a dish which is fully veg :D...what not!!!!

Man, it was hilarious, it was fun!!!

I had almost forgotten what an idiot stupid kiddo I am without Ravi :P

Good nice day it has been, and now beneath a blanket with coffee in a hand, I am trying to upload some pics and write this blog to capture these memoroes for ever :)

The Flavor of Surprise

It's 28th June -- 11pm.
I am waiting for the clock to put one hand over other so that ma bday wd start, Ravi wd wish me, I'll attend few calls and then I'll doze off. Very very sleepy I was.
What? B'Day cake??..Hmm...already checked the fridge...no traces of the cake.

Letter to God!

My mom is a theist and she has taught us right from the beginning how important and powerful prayers can be. She also encouraged me to write right from the beginning. Letters, essays, cards, 'WORDS' have been with me since childhood.

I was in 2nd standard then, I was complaining mumma about something. She gave an intelligent solution "Why dont you write to God? He'll solve all your problems." :)
Yeah!!! Sounds good. Afterall, i have never written to God, so why not give it a try!

I sat with a paper torn from my H.W. copy (Homework Copy) and started writing.