Bye 2019, Hi 2020 !!

As we step into 2020, memories of 2019 are flooding in my mind. The whole year passed away so soon and it was a total chaos. I don’t recall doing anything significant the whole year other than completing my regular dose of traveling. There were a few beautiful moments spent with family when the parents visited us here in Bangalore. We visited Pondicherry, Mahabalipuram and Mysore with them. We had some real quality time with Lala bhai and family and Tinu bhai and family. When R’s parents came, we took them to Rameswaram and Kanyakumari. Even though it was stressful but still worth rejoicing. Then there were all these weekend getaways that happened for Mysore, Goa, Chikamaglur and Pondicherry. But other than that it was all about the regular work at office and home. Even the fun events at work were stressful. I guess the only relief was towards the end of the year when we visited Ooty. I enjoyed so much even though the memories of old times kept distracting me. The place is such that it will make you fall in love again and again with it. The best part of 2019 was the year end which we spent in Odisha. It was truly fun. The trip to Konark and Chandrabhaga beach was the last outing for the year and 2019 ended on a high note! Even though I lost a few important people in my life to the vicious circle of life and death but I believe that they have become my guiding angels... watching me n blessing me from the heaven!

2020 started on an equally high note! Had some amazing moments with the family and the extended families too. The icing on the cake was meeting Sai and Pinki Mausi after a long time. Sai is such an entertainer and the one night he stayed with us was so much fun! To start the year with a trip to Puri Jagannath is something that every Odia (especially from Puri) wishes for. I am fortunate to have that ticked off my list! What a beautiful darshan it was! So divine and so mesmerising! The Jagannath Heritage Corridor project which includes the beautification of Puri was worth watching. A drive around the holy town brought back millions of memories alive. Be it the beach or the old lanes that I grew up in or even the roads and restaurants... they all had the same warmth that usually comes from home!

Five days are already gone in January and yet it feels like just a day or two! Life in Bangalore will again get into the chaotic mode... with lots of works and responsibilities to take care of. I did not make a list of any resolutions so far. Nor I intend to make one. My only plan for 2020 is to make it better than 2019... to read more, to travel more, to be a bit health conscious and to challenge myself more in terms of my skills and development. The start of 2020 has been amazing and I really hope to have the same spirit all throughout the year!

Happy New Year!!



Sometimes we are tested not to show our weaknesses but to discover our strengths!!

In Memory of Badabapa !!

As I gather my thoughts to pen down a few words for Badabapa, I realize how hard it is! What can I possibly write about someone who had such an influence in all our lives and who was revered, admired and loved by all around him! I can only sum up that I lost someone who was more than a father to me, more than a brother to my father and more than anything he was to all of us… someone we have always looked up to, someone whose presence made us feel home and brought that sense of family in our hearts. Losing Badabapa has left such a vacuum that is hard to fill!

My early memories with him were what I heard from him. His home at Cuttack was literally my first home! Every time we met later, he would talk about all those childhood and talkative days of mine. I lost my grandfather while I was a kid, so for me, Badabapa was more like him. He was the head of our family! He would be there in all the festivals, celebrations and important occasions we ever had in our family. I cannot recollect any event where we ever missed taking his blessings! We would always visit him from time to time. I remember spending some of my school vacations also with him at Cuttack. When I moved out of home for studies and eventually to Bangalore, I would still make a point to visit him! Even though he would not be keeping well, yet he would always enquire everything about me, my work, my life in Bangalore and would remember those childhood days of mine. In the last few years while his health was failing, his aura was still the same! It was extremely difficult for me to see him bedridden in that state, for he was always one of the strongest persons I ever knew. The last beautiful memory I have of him was when he came to my wedding even when he himself was not able to move. I would probably cherish that moment forever!

Now that he has left us bereaved and went to the heavenly abode, I am happy that he is relieved of the worldly pain and sufferings. The family above including my grandparents and other uncles, will forever remain our guiding angel and bless all of us! I just did not lose my uncle, I lost my grandfather all over again. I will always miss him! May his soul rest in peace!

There are few special people in our lives who never leave us, even after they are gone!

Back To Writing..!!

God knows just how many times I have opened this blog space to write something yet ended up only re-designing it all the time! I never had the inspiration which just killed me from within. Never have I been away from writing for this long! The past one year had been an absolute roller coaster ride! From breaking up into pieces to slowly gathering and rising - I have turned myself into the ever inspiring mythological bird Phoenix! I have become so firm from within that it would take a good deal of effort to break me now! With time, things are better and I am in the process of healing. Finally I found my inspiration - to read, to cook, to travel and to write!

The force behind me to make me write again was Ma! When she found how I have been lying clueless and aimless and focusing and losing my mind only over work, both at office and home... she gave me a good dealing of how and why did I stop writing. I wonder how she got that! She has not even seen my blog or any of my writings, yet she always knew! Guess that's what moms do - know everything without saying!

Ma's words and some bored time made me dive into this blog and read a few posts! The posts made me so happy... it has everything about my life! Such a happy and zealous person I was! Those happy thoughts did the wonder and made me write again and here I am! I think I will write from now on.. not on and off but on a regular basis! Life is slowly becoming stable... the crazy ride that lasted for around 4-5 years is finally done and I am out of the hang of it! So here's a goal for myself - to write/to blog - always!



Remind yourself it's okay not to be okay. Break down, cry yourself to sleep. We all are imperfect human beings!

When Time Goes Still ..!!

It's been a while since I last posted anything even though my life had been entirely a rollercoaster ride. This space is so generous to take me back despite me neglecting it all these while. I am glad that I have something that has accepted me the way I have been all these days and I can rant anything good or bad that I feel. I am so grateful to this blog for capturing all my moments and emotions and have been such a beautiful way of remembering the things. In these few days my life has changed completely and left me clueless. But just as I am trying to gather myself, I keep making even some more memories... the beautiful ones, the precious ones! That's more like a silver lining in between the darkness of clouds.

The thing that I have enjoyed the most apart from reading, is traveling. I guess I can travel throughout my life if I have the company I want. A desired company always makes a journey delightful! This experience is what provokes me to mention something about some of my previous trips.

The first trip to be mentioned is to Pondicherry. My third one! It all started when all of a sudden I got a message from my friend asking me to just go somewhere. Like all earlier times, we kept checking for places/ buses/ hotels and kept on rotating around the same options that we have all earlier times and could not decide. Then after lots of back forth we decided it to be Pondicherry. Train was booked under emergency and hotel was booked just the same day. But amongst all these chaos, we managed to get to the station on time, could plan the whole itinerary just on time. Like my friend says, we are getting better every time! To this, I will just tell you.. We will be perfect when we avoid these last moment decisions. But I agree, that's the fun!

Pondicherry is just amazing, the perfect blend of Indian and Western culture. I am such a fan of French architecture and cuisine and White Town there is just heaven for me! I don't mind not going to the sea or the ashram or any such spiritual place. For me.. for us, fun was just roaming around and gaze the sea waves for hours. From morning we would start from our cute little room and just roam around and explore... halt at Le Cafe and savor the yummy lasagna... talk about previous trips and other memories... search for other French joints to eat... walk around the entire French colony searching that place and finally enjoy a delicious lunch over some amazing drinks! Nothing would beat the flow, neither the heat nor the pain of walking around and the best part yet remained - when you come back tired and drained and yet you can feel the chilling air coming from the slight space of your hotel room! The rush to get inside and that moment was just crazy! The short power nap of two hours, in that chilling AC on top of an eventful day and a bit of alcohol in that cocktail, was just enough for us to come into form for the evening. The agenda for the evening remained pretty much same except that it became musical! We spent hours on the promenade crooning to some of our all time favorite songs. People were passing by, waves were coming and going, evening was setting by, the calmness was settling in and the songs just made the time stop! How I wish that moment to just go on and on!! We were lost, no worries, no tensions, no works, no stress... just pure bliss! The evening was magical!! We stopped only when we felt the roller coaster within us and realized that we were hungry. The second highlight of the evening was the amazing rooftop dinner at Le Chateau - empty hall, dim lights, slow soothing music, pleasant weather, awesome delicacies, classy drinks, great company and a perfect moment! I can still feel that moment as I write! It was just a dream! The dream just got sweeter when we had ice cream after the dinner!

The weekend was spent in just roaming around the local town and the unknown roads of the White Town and all those numerous talks about the place and various other places and the people and lunch again at Le Chateau and snacks at Le Cafe and songs again at the Promenade. And it was just perfect!

A few things worth mentioning that almost drove me crazy and yet adds to this memorable trip would be the crazy auto rickshaw, L2B Lounge (amazing ambience), the super crazy breakfast that we got in our hotel, the waiters at the Le Cafe and of course, the busy Bussy Street with a number of ENT Clinics!

The two days were a beautiful dream and we are still clouted by the memories. I don't want to come out of this hangover!!



People hold on to memories so tight because memories don't change when everything else does!!

A Year Gone, Am Still Here ..!!

Well, I am back to blogging! Not that things have changed or have gotten any better, but it's just that I am tired now waiting - waiting for some inspiration, waiting for something really wonderful to happen, simply waiting. I have now realized that things will happen when it's time, I cannot let anything happen as per my will. But I can help myself, keeping myself engaged in all my activities - reading, blogging, traveling, etc. I see, it's already a year and I did not do much. I read a few books and some blogs and journals but I cannot count that - that was not up to my mark! Only area where I was good was in traveling. May be, it was a way of me escaping from all the prevailing issues. I always thought that would somehow inspire me, but they did as long as I was out of Bangalore. Once I entered the city, I was back to the mundane yet again! All I have is the memories of those places and some amazing flashbacks of the great views, few of which I could capture (as in my photo blog). But enough of those sufferings now! It's time I will start all my activities again, focus a little more on my career/studies, read and write more often and travel a lot!!

As I have started writing, it's worth mentioning a few things that happened in last year. Chuku was finally out of home but not really on her own.. for her elder sister was always there!! Yet that was not meant to be, she left me and moved to Mumbai.. to be on her own! I am glad, she has managed really well all these days and I am also happy with the way she's started taking things - the kid has finally grown up!

As mentioned earlier, I had a great deal of traveling the whole of last year - from Goa to Hampi to Goa again to Ooty to Odisha!! While all the trips were simply fabulous - I would definitely like to put some more words of appreciation to my second trip to Goa and Ooty. While in the first Goa trip, we were bound by time and had only thought of covering as many places as possible.. in the second trip, we were much experienced and had a fair idea of what we really want. In the whole duration of 4 days, all we did was enjoyed the long evening walks on the shore, had amazingly delicious foods, hit the local ice-cream store almost twice a day and simply relaxed and enjoyed! Even though Goa was overcrowded then, yet it could not stop us from enjoying! Second amazing trip, almost at the end of the year was to Ooty - amazing particularly because we went in the off-season when it was less crowded and extremely chilly! The awesome resort we stayed in, the extraordinary views the place had and the super-chill environment and wonderful company - what else I could have asked for!

My year ended with my family at Odisha. This was the only trip, when I was at home all the time - all thanks to cold and fever. Whatever it was, it was still great and I still long to be at home again!

2014 was not that great - at least as I was expecting. But I haven't lose any hope. I still believe things will be fine. I have placed my trust on few things and few people - I know, I won't fail! Fingers crossed!




What won't kill me, will simply make me strong!!