Living (re)defined

Share

"my life is a perpetual question mark--my thirst for books, my observations of people, all tend to satisfy a great, overwhelming desire to know, to understand, to find an answer to a million questions. And gradually the answers are revealed, many things are explained, and above all, many things are given names and described, and my restlessness is subdued. Then I become an exclamatory person, clapping my hands to the immense surprises the world holds for me, and falling from one ecstasy into another. I have the habit of peeping and prying and listening and seeking--passionate curiosity and expectation. But I have also the habit of being surprised, the habit of being filled with wonder and satisfaction each time I stumble on some wondrous thing. The first habit could make me a philosopher or a cynic or perhaps a humorist. But the other habit destroys all the delicate foundations, and I find each day that I am still..."

"You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living. Then you read a book...or you take a trip...and you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second symptom (when hibernating becomes dangerous and might degenerate into death): absence of pleasure. That is all. It appears like an innocuous illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions live like this (or die like this) without knowing it. They work in offices. They drive a car. They picnic with their families. They raise children. And then some shock treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, and it awakens them and saves them from death. Some never awaken."  

~ Anias Nin

I try
not just try to live
but I try to live up
live up to the life..

Paris, je t'aime

Share

I ❤ visiting Paris. Never worked there and not sure if I would like to that since work life could be difficult. I visited many many times thanks to living/life in luxembourg, paris was just 2hrs train/car ride. its lovely place to visit, so much to do and any number of days are never quite enough.

Bridges lined up with lamps, wicker-chair-lined cafe terraces, tree shaded boulevards, charm the city while the grand public monuments add grandeur to remind you that this is one of the most beautiful cities on earth. Every part of city has story and boutiques, street artists, music are fabulous. specially la Basilique steps are performing stage for very many street musicians and very good way to spend lazy weekend evenings with sunsetting in the background, wonderful diverse globally music, friends by the side.. discovering new meaning for wonderful life..

why suddenly this..! just happen to interactive with someone from paris & spoke to friends in paris triggering my cherishing memories of paris visits.

Out of nowhere...

Share

one fine day just recently, out of nowhere I got this facebook message from a stranger..

I lived in barcelona once, I love the city. I have a great romance to have such lifestyle to travel around make silly message, videos,..one day.. some day..

Back...Soon

Share

Got lost in time. with new place, work, new interests/activities, renewed buddies. much happened with much updates to throw. hope to write soon and more regularly.

for now, I still have hands in my pocket


Happy Holidays.. ohho ohhuoo..

today's Crush

Share

Have you ever catch eyes with someone random and exchanged tiny little tickle smile in the corner of your (big)mouth... and all the background vision, sound vanishes and you just wanted to keep following them instead of wherever you are suppose to go(like work).. have you!? then you know what iam talking about..

the usual daily commute, walk-train- transfer to another train.. from home to work. like it is always. but today-- Iam guessing this someone lives somewhere in my near neighborhood and working somewhere near my work place.. shared the walk to the stations, and train riding.. all the way thru. its not that she was drop dead gorgeous.. she is very simple looking smartly dressed(salwar) indian gal.. may be its the salwar.. If I happen to see her tomorrow should I say hey?.. even with the risk of making myself look like an idiot..!!


and today fb's status: why on earth everyone is walking very slowwww from underground/MRT to work... come on people, MOVE it.. show some energy in the morning..

such is the paradox in life.. all that tiny little excitement overcome by daily rage..

Birthday, Unplugged

Share

yet another year pass by and yet another birthday with full of surprises...

As I mentioned, I relocated recently so I had not much plans for my Bday. But it was a pleasant surprise how it turned to be. last minute thought to go for a drink with friend from work. called another friend to join. but he had other plans. so I joined him with no idea where and with whom.. couple of hours later, i was sitting among group folks all random strangers surprising me with one small piece of cake cutting at 12am.. that's how day started.. not bad right!) came back house at 3am. phone calls woke me up at 7:30. around 11am friend invited over for home made lunch. she made rasgulla for me.. the yummeee kind. then lazy afternoon after heavy food, we watched HBO movies - nothing in common & city slickers (both I recommend). around 7pm, the only planned activity of the day- standup comedy with few friends. watching Ted Alexandro live, now twice is awesome.

also I happen to know the organize since I was one of the regulars, he surprised with shout-out from the stage for my birthday. I still dont know how he knows. may be one of friend I was with, she must have told him. turns out another audience member was also celebrating her birthday. show was great fun. then we continued the night with crawling thru city's finest.. so that ended my another 24hrs of exciting, surprises..



One small piece of cake with 3candles to blew,
pizza drinks fondue.
as I woke up by morning dew,
phone calls from loved ones in queue.
with all strength that I drew
from the many exciting years that flew,
I realized people how are blessed like me are very few.
As I get ready for another year with dreams to pursue,
cheers to all the old things and new.

Stereotypes..I(dont)fit-in

Share

I got tagged in facebook for stereotypes which I dont fit-in..

(un)intentionally i try to stay away from stereotypes(fitting-into and also tagging others). Iam typical in that sense- i feel sometime that iam very very different, diverse, yada yada yada.. then i read the poster on my desk "you are unique like everyone else".. anyways- list from top of the mind..:

- I am always so very happy to let the women drive me around for the entire road trip. done that manytimes..

- I have 8pair of shoes.. may be 8 is not too much but that's right some men like shoes too..

- I can walk mindlessly for hours long thru the malls..window shopping(as long as I dont pay)))

- I always wanted to be couple of years older(atleast until now)

- I am not much an intellact or creative then the other guy but I can convince better..

- I always think, there will be a distortion btw what I know, what I will be able to say, and what people will then understand

- when a friend say "life is hard", I always ask "compare to what!" and almost everytime that is not the words they are looking for.

- temptations & emotions will always interfere with our sense of truth, reality & sanity

- almost no stereotypes are broken. we just move from one to another..

Soooo much has happened..

Share

Yes Iam still alive and so is this blog. so much has happened since I was here last.
In chronologically order..: after my wonderfully georgia trip-
Roamed in Rome.. (title thanks to suggestion from an sweet-soul).., I had spent one summer month in rome, very very hot, half naked rome and too many tourists. but still very nice. I manage to meetup with some wonderful, interesting folks. out n about with my new found buddies, testing all possible italian foods, drinks, talking about all shift under the sun.. and all in the name of "the family"(bank's team)). ya, that has become the stand line.. "all for the family". felt i was part of italian mafia family.. unplanned visit to Vatican, I had audience with pop. while it was nice to say that but it wasn't good facebook status message. I had to clarify that it wasn't very "personal"..;) [/no offense pls..]

faced with yet another relocation in life.. but before, last week in luxembourg, the place has grown on me.. (no i didnt cry))i did felt nostalgic when i was packing my bags. kissing good bye(for now) to friends. for many reason- this past 2yrs has been interesting and luxembourg did played its part...for all the contact & friends i made & for all the new experiences..
took a brief break in london. wow, not many place is so wonderful as london under the sun. I dont know for some reason, London always feel like second home. I was relocating to far east and far away from europe which was my home for past 5yrs.. so it was good bye for now trip to all friends in london.. and to london itself.
couple of weeks break at home.. visited home sweet home..it was very short but memorable for few reasons...
-- wonderful date with two & half women. universe played one wonderful trick to get me in contact with these cheerful souls. I met and continued the conversation as if I knew them for ages.. actually, I do know them for age may be not in conversation way. homemade wine.. my receipe & their hardwork.. yummee.. isn't that lovely gift.

-- then another date with another sweet well-wisher..
-- warming for my investments..
-- adding kgs (like I always do when i go home...;/ and now my BMI moved to overweight category..;(
yada yada yada....

relocation from one tiny country to another.. Landed in Singapore: oh boy.. what a change.. things couldn't be any different... for indians singapore should feel like home but I had culture shock.. took sometime to get used to things here.. finding house: singapore is very organized and easy to get settled but i have to say of all the places I moved to, it was here I find it difficult to fix an apartment. may be Iam biased or may be its still fresh in my memory but It wasn't easy and it isn't cheap. finally, I did manage to find wonderful apartment at river side.
and with some already known names, faces finding my feet in new place was made easier... and one recent weekend- frnd living in melborne transited via singapore..stayed in Marina Sands Bay. wow.. awesome place to stay.. very nice poool.. on 57th floor.. 500$/night is worth it and it was very pleasant to catchup with my mate..

otherwise, manage to hook up with some lovely friends(of friends).. that kept some weekends busy in exploring the places (bars/pubs/clubs/restaurants,/..).. and stumble upon nice hippie crowd(from CSurf) and standup open mike event 1st wed. of every month..by comedy club asia. very nice gig. (if you in singapore, would strongly recommend that). got connected to natural loving walking/hiking group & photowalks group. hope to go whenever timepermits.
and with effect to build healthy lifestyle, embarked on some interesting experiences. cycling my new found love.. singapore has wonderful long bike tracks along the coast. it was very activity to bike for couple of hours.. 25km..hope to do that regularly. dragon boat riding: another new found love. joined a team and practice every weekend..hoping to participant in River Regatta competition in Oct. ya hoping..

past couple of months had been exciting, many first/new things, 'if only' /interesting moments.. (like the past 30yrs..;)

Monkeys + Sharing = Humans

Share

Superfreakonomics highlights monkey ability with money, markets, prostitutions, etc.. and how their behaviour is very similar to us humans. In some sense, Its depressing to think that all these millions of years of evolution process has changed much in term of appearance but few in terms of behaviour..

But landed on this(below) interesting question on- what unique to humans? which is not common among other primates.!
Its seems...Interactions and motivation to share.

http://bigthink.com/ideas/18616


Yeah one of the things that, the question of what’s uniquely human is actually a big one and you, depending on who you ask you might get really different answers.  If I had to put my money on something that was actually uniquely human, it seems in some funny way to be our motivation to actually interact with others, in a funny way.  And what I mean by this is that generally if you look at any humans anywhere, if they’re hanging out with other humans they’re often doing something where they’re showing something to another individual.  So you see something cool and you say, “Oh hey, look at this cool thing.”  And to psychologists this is a process of reference, right, so sharing, referring to information out there in a world and it seems like other primates even though you think this is kind of a simple ability, they seem to lack at least the motivation to do this.  This leads to the fact that they don’t have the kind of communication that we have with things like language with nouns that can kind of point to things out there in the world.  They also don’t seem to share their own desires and intentions with others, which leads to a lack of kind of cooperation in a lot of domains, so if I had to put my money on what was uniquely human I’d go with the kind of motivation to share information with others.

Bottom-line: you are a monkey if you don't share.. ;)

wondering around - in Georgia

Share

I had 3weeks of excitement traveling around Georgia. I had no idea & expectation about Tbilisi and its surrounding. All I knew was the recent war between Georgia and Russia. I landed there to find country very similar to India. no traffic rules, pot holes, nice people, religions, great food…my god, food is awesome & cheap (do try Georgian cuisine).

My friend decided to join me for 5day long weekend. Tbilisi is relatively small city so we would walk most to places and taxi was cheap anyways. During week days, dinner was at nice Georgian restaurants recommended by lonely planet. Till Friday evening 9pm we had no fixed plans for the weekend. All came together in last minute. Found one nice english speaking guide to drive us around. We went on roadtrip to the country side of Georgian. Sighnagi beautiful hill-town, Telavi wine region, vardzia caves close to Turkey & Armenia border, Caucasus Mountains valley, which I should say is stunningly beautiful. Georgian wine is nice. Interesting very old churches, cave mountains,… many things to see and do. Unfortunate we couldn’t do adventure sports, since May is still too early we were told. Georgian is orthodox country and one of the first countries to become Christian. ofcourse during USSR days, religion was practiced in secret. Second language is used to be Russian but these day many young people are learning English as second language. I never had any language problem.

Some interesting highlights:
• Indian movies are big in Georgian. Most people mention the (old) hindi movie names and actor/actress names. one TV channel (India Tv)show Indian movies & drama 24x7 with Russian voice over. (and taxi drivers all they want to talk about is how good hindi movies are and how good looking georgian girls are,)
• People are very very friendly, everywhere I go.. in underground train, street corner while walking, etc… some people walk up and ask where I am from, talk about india, movies, etc.. offer to help, offer for drinks,.. not just once but this happened many times during my stay. Meet two guys who offer me to take me around places and took me drinks and meet nice wonderful & her cousins for drinks,.. had fun time with those folks.
• Many Indian students are studying medicine in Tbilisi. I meet one such student, a boy(Mr.D) from my hometown. He is been there for almost 4years and had interesting stories about life in Tbilisi, others students & their background, their hopes & straggles. Hearing those stories only make me to appreciate my life even more. D was explain how he miss home sometime but he doesn’t think he ever go back to india and live there because he is gay (and actually he can’t even live in Georgia forever). He is lovely kind soul, interesting fellow, took me around places and to nice Georgian restaurant will live Georgian music & dance. He was sharing his experience of travelling to Iran and talking about people in Iran so kind and generous. So many offered him place to stay, food… for free. Thanks to couchsurfing.org , which is how he pinged me too.
• Took intercity bus ride to Gori, joseph stalin hometown. Bus ride in itself is an experience. And I noticed Stalin still have some sympathizers. And his old house, his train coach, is part of museum where I could sit in the his chair & his bed… and take picture. Ofcourse it was not allowed but I charmed tour guide lady to take my pictures. she said, since I came all the way from India and she never had Indian tourists there before, She will allow me to take picture sitting in stalin chair..:) I noticed for stalin’s 70th birthday, gift was sent from India. it’s a writing on rice. Its no surprise museum was bad maintained (by Georgian govt.) and you can’t fail to notice many young couples sitting in many corners of the museum complex and on the step of stalin’s old house and making out.
• I hitch-hiked. Yap I did.;D) exciting fun. Should I say anymore..;) I thought only mini-skirts blondes will get rides. But thank god I was wrong. Some kind souls gave me the left. I had no plans or destination; I went in the direction I got ride. And landed in beautiful little historical town Gardabani.

And Unfortunate I would not go to Azerbaijan, Armenia, so near yet so far. If I had to find a word to describe my trip…its Excitement.