World Environment Day

World Environment Day.

This day makes more and more sense with each passing year that we humans are successful in abusing Mother Earth beyond acceptable limits.

For someone like me who is passionate about Nature and the Environment, I was all participative in the Environment week celebrations at work.

A part of it was to come up with innovative ideas for saving the environment. And came in some really good ideas! While I cannot take any ideas from office contributions to put it up under my name - I am putting up ideas suggested by one of my dearest friend. I had asked him for his inputs on saving the Environment and I was Surpocked [Surprise + Shock] with his long email of ideas. With his permission, this goes on my blog page - as my acknowledgement for his contribution as well as for the good ideas presented.

1.  The Traffic police should start charging fines which should include planting of trees according to the severity of offense committed. [Loved this one]
2.  There should be 1Re. donation towards the "cause green" on every online purchase made (as we see a boom in Online shopping ) [Absolutely!]
3. New societies which are coming up should be made compulsory to leave SEZ land alone. [NOT at all sure if the selfish Govt. can leave the profit calculations out of this]
4. Car pooling should be implemented forcefully with strict laws. [Hmmm...]
5. Schools should mandatorily teach children how to recycle/reuse newspapers as they are the next generation. [Should start rightaway!]
6. We should discourage brouchers and pamphlets distribution, which would decrease usage of unwanted paper. [AGREE]
7.  New building constructions should include solar paneling.
8. Every house should have a rain harvesting plant/ plan.
9. Use of bio-fuel should be encouraged.(For the unawares - it is condensation of natural waste like animal excreta, fruit residual like sugar cane, coconuts, hay etc.. are made in a block for usage in household and also in industries ) [Good idea]
10. Every society should be taught to make bio gas.
11. Purchase only after clearing your stock of food , to prevent overstocking and wastage.
12. Use of solar cookers by families to be encouraged.
13. Individual houses should be encouraged for natural fencing between two houses - by planting trees rather than Cutting trees and fixing fences for separation.
14. Water usage should be calibrated as per family members and there usage.
15. Use of bicycles should be encouraged for short distances.

These were some of the bright and quite a few very implementable ideas. Each idea even if followed partially till we make a habit of it, would make a difference. Let's take a pledge to ourselves to try and minimise our carbon footprint as much as possible. Happy Environment day.

....& not forgetting - Thank you Dr. Joshi for your contribution! :) .. & Congratulations for earning a place on my blog! ;)

9 myths about Solo Women Travellers!

Solo travelling gets a lot of piqued interest in India. Though I belong to modern twin cities of Hyderabad- Secunderabad; I yet have to yet meet a solo female traveller in person.

Wherever my travels take me & I meet new people, different people express different thoughts about my travelling on my own. There are myths that people harbor about female travellers and here are the oft heard ones that I keep hearing - which sometimes irk me, sometimes get me amused.
Here are the Top 9 that get to me!

1. You must be stinking rich to afford solo travels - Well, I would love to get this true! I plan for each of my trip well and save and save for each trip! Its MY passion - so no one but I takes care of it from planning to executing to everything on between!
2. You mustn't be normal. - Seriously I have had people say this to me more than a few times. I guess in India if a girl travels on her own, it probably is considered abnormal. There is nothing like being abnormal though. It's about following your passion, even it comes to chasing it solo. 
3. You must be an 'advanced' person!: Whatever this means - the message I always get is that travelling on your own means you are one among the flighty types. Just becoz a girl travels solo, they are not looking for Flings! Rather any sane seasoned solo traveller will vouch that is far from the truth.
4. Your family must be too independent - Independent I am. But, Sometimes people express in a way that drives the message that the family does not care enough- to allow you on your own. Far from the truth. Infact I have to give my itinerary details in detail to my family before every travel..& I don't mind that. 
5. It must be easy for 'someone like you' to go out and meet new people: Generally solo travellers are ambiverts if not extroverts. It's a part of the necessary learning in travelling. But not always it is easy to do that. New people always give new vibes, and not all vibes make you feel comfortable.Your guard is a little more high in certain places and yes, I do feel shaky on certain grounds [Literally!]
6. We can be adjusted: I can talk of myself on this. While I am a non fussy traveller, people assume that just becoz I'm on my own, I can shift to the middle train seat, sit in the back seat in some travel car, change of balconied room in some hotel, adjust in the next batch of someplace to let some 'together people' together, etc. Well, I take pains to do all the above mentioned so that I get it right for me. So, while I am an accomodating person mostly, I do not adjust for certain things. Myth to be broken - we cannot be 'adjusted' as anyone pleases at All times.
7. You would get so bored and lonely - Not at all! Ask any of the ones from us; why - that's the precise reason we travel alone so that we can cherish the "my time". I for one, am a big champion for the 'My time' concept. So I am nor bored not lonely... 9 out of 10 times I am blissed out during these very travels.
8. Men are creeps for female travelling alone. - From my personal experience I can say that it is far from the truth. Ofcourse you'd agree continuing chatting up with someone after the basic acquaintances are made and you can sense the body language and listen to your personal GPRS - your Gut. And the times I have interacted with them, I have found they are absolutely normal people, not creeps waiting to lure any female traveller! Sad myth this. [This does not imply to go around loose in making new acquaintances - go with your gut, but Never Ever leave your guard] ... And lastly,
9. It is WRONG to do that!: This statement one can hear only in India. How a female should operate in the Indian society is so wired into the Indian psyche, that quite a few Men have told me it is Wrong to travel like that, as females are not built to stay without support, travel being out of scope. 

Well, to respond to that, I take a walk away from these people rather than telling them away - coz walking away leads me to another new destination!

There is one more thing  I missed out on which I Have to add. That being:

"Don't you drink?.. oh come on it's OK, you can order a drink. You travel so much..surely you would not be a teetotaler" When I'm clear enough with my reply, I don't  understand the need to not believe or question it. I've heard this on two specific occasions - by males and I made sure I was far-far away from those people from then on. [Mostly hotel aquaintances who start off making small talk.. and then try to get friendly.] My safety antenna would have been touching the sky then!!

Those are the few things I have encountered time to time which makes my resolve more stronger to break them. Not to prove a point really - but to just to revel in one of my passions.

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Tere Bin

I've always liked Punjabi songs. They have this instant pep-up-the-energy kind of feel to them and get one out dull moods instantly. Since the time I visited Punjab, I have more started appreciating Punjabi songs. Not all ofcourse are just peppy numbers, there are a lot of soulful songs too which have these Sufi type of beautiful tones to them. And in these some are absolutely terrific! [From my limited exposure to them.]

Here's putting up one of my all time favorites. Tere Bin Sanu Soniya........ Beautifully rendered by Rabbi. And this unplugged version is so much more soulful than the original. The original was taken off youtube, so here is another version of it:
It's afterall the season of Love..  Enjoy!

Tick- Tock We’re 30 – Book Review

Tick-Tock Tick-Tock, it's 6th Feb and the deadline to review for Milan Vohra's 'Tick-Tock We're Thirty' is just a day away! I received the book from Women's web for a review and putting up the same on my blog.
Rushed me into finishng the book by today evening so that I could put up my review here.


The preview of the book on the cover is certainly interesting.

"The clock is ticking towards Lara’s thirtieth birthday and the whole gang is coming together to celebrate it. It’s a pact they made back then to meet when they all finally turned that age. So far, so cool. What isn’t cool is the other pact Lara had made one tipsy evening with Nishad. To marry each other if neither of them were hitched by then"

The basic story revolves around Lara Bagai- Nishad Nath and their friends. They all plan to meet up for a re-union for Lara’s upcoming 30th birthday with her's being the last of the group to turn 30!

As I started the book, I realised it took me a couple of chapters to understand the whole lot of characters into it! It wasn't a bad thing.. but for new readers it would have left them confused for a while with all the Reeti's and Riya's and the Sita's and the Sai's..!

The book picks up pace mid way and that's when I started enjoying it. The goof-ups, link-ups, the joys, the aspirations and more of all the characters at different times in the book is easy to understand then. The language is also easy and readable and would not be tough to follow.

Don't want to give the total summary of the book here... else what will you go and buy the book for! [:D]  All in all, a decent read with some pretty good funny punches at intervals. Maybe if it wasn't just with so many characters to follow, I'd have finished it much earlier.

If one is a relaxed reader, they will sure like to pick this one up!

Rules for a Happy Marriage

I had read this poster somewhere some time back and really liked it. And just becoz I liked it, It made so much sense to put it up here too! :P
Thanks to Google, I got the exact one that I had read.

But putting up something which is already out there on a blog is boring right? Will look like a copy/paste I did. So here's the twist. After the list stated below, I'll put down my Rules of a Happy Marriage too. That makes it interesting for me too. Makes me wanna know how many are in common with the ones found common everywhere.

Here goes the common list:

1. Never both be angry at the same tme.
2. Never yell at each other except of the house is on fire!
3. If one of you has to win an arguement, let it be your mate.
4. If you have to critisize, do it lovingly.
5. Never bring up mistakes of the past.
6. Neglect the whole world, rather than each other.
7. Never go to sleep with an arguement unsettled
8. Atleast once everyday try to say something kind or complimentary thing to your partner.
9. When you have done something wrong , be ready to admit it and ask for forgiveness.
10. It takes two to make a quarrel and the one in the wrong is the one who does the most talking. 

Now here's My list. Its again a list of nine as usual!
 Firstly, I sincerely believe that one should enter Marriage only when one is sure of a strong like for the to-be-partner. It is much easier to build the bond on, if the liking is already established. So I'm not even going to put that point of having a liking as a rule here. It is a default in my rules.
Considering that established, I'd go with the rest of my list in no particular order.

1.  Don't take each other for granted. For this, Atleast once a day, try spending half an hour with your spouse. Not between TV commercials.. or in calls; but a proper "S/He" time.
2. Respect forms a big part of the relation.. Respect each other, each other's immediate families and closest friends. This also means, Never belittle the other in front of your peers/friends/colleagues/family.
3. Never quarrel in front of kids. Doing that will definitely be a problem for the future. Blame game is the biggest rues for a Marriage. Most of the time, Kids make a family complete and if the kids are to witness unpleasantness; rest assured the future isin't bright for the Family.
4. Never be angry at the same time. Yea, I totally agree with this. If one is blowing his/her lid, the other should immediately calm down .. else move away. Both bringing the house down will only make matters worse.
5. Plan your kids! I mean the number! This statement may sound weird to some.. but its equally weird when I hear - it was an accident! And yes,  I have heard this atleast a couple of times...! I mean This accident is going to be an integral part of your life which can change the relation dynamics between the couple. So, Please - Plan!
6. Chalk the important lines. Defining and being aware of each other's personal choices always helps. In being mindful when to draw the line in giving out opinions or even to bind stronger by sharing things what the other likes.
7. Give each other space: By doing this, you simply are giving enough room for your partner to miss you and think of you; as well as time for you to do your own thing too. After all both would probably have an independent social life! [I'd wish even a homemaker to have a social life..!] Being in each other's hair all the time could be SO stifling after a while.
8. Travel : Breaking the rut to discover a new place, with just the two or the family definitely acts as a cementing factor. It also rejuvinates the marital bond.
9. Forgive! : People are different and your spouse is part of the 'people'. Expecting him/her to be attuned to you in each way is asking for a bit too much. There would be clashes.. but Forgiving and not holding each other for the clash makes it a truly loving relation.

There it went! That was my list of most important things... what would be yours? :) 

New Year Resolutions - 2013

2012. A year of many reflections, many realisations and a lot of growng up by introspection.
Coming to terms with the loss of a parent throughout the year was taxing emotionally and physically. This year truly sucked the life out at many phases throughout. But then, I also discovered my actual strengths, my real friends, my couple of anchors - for which I am truly grateful.

As We enter into 2013, I already have some strong willed resolves I am waiting to kick off on.

To begin.. and in commited continuance with the 2012 resolutions:

1] I will learn to let go of pain...Let go of things that hurt, were taken away, snatched away.. or which made me weak and sad. let go. Its a pain nobody can share and sharing it alone is extremely diffcult to bear.

2] Live each day. Consciously and fully. Make a difference where possible.

3] And keep my loved ones near....

The other things which I lapsed out on and wish to get on track in the coming year are;

4] Stop Chocolates/Desserts/Sweets of any kinds for 6 months this year. Kicking Jan till end March. Then a break and then back on resolve again. The sweet tooth does not help me, my wardrobe and my budget :P and this is a no-bargain clause.

5] Start preparing for THE event. That's the only info I can share here at the moment. :D

6] Exercise, Exercise, Exercise. Get back in the mode. Atleast thrice a week. The need to stay fit just gets stronger by each passing year.

7] Spend less. Save more. For the coming months.

8] Read and read more. My reading has reduced by 50% of my normal time spent on it in the last 6 months. And another important reason - Reading heals too.

9] Check my online shopping. Not that I am addicted, but it is pretty convenient and addictive. I don't want to get there, where it becomes addictive. So, No online shopping more than once in 2 months.

10] Build up Cottons and Curious.

Putting them up here each year has helped me in keeping track on the progress of each of the resolves and have a review of them at the end of the year too. Hope the same for this coming year.

May All have a Healthy, Safe and Happy Year!

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