आई

आई म्हणजे नुसत एक नातं नसतं 

आई म्हणजे गजबजलेल गाव असतं!

ती असली कि चार भिंतींच घर होतं 

ती नसली कि घरपण नाहीस होतं!

आई शिवाय आनंद कधीही पुरा होत नाही 

आई इतक दुःख कोणालाच समजत नाही!

माया उतू जाणं, हे आई कडून शिकावं 

आई म्हणजे काय, हे आई होऊनच बघावं!

What I learnt from living out of a suitcase!

Living out of a suitcase for me, on an average, happens every alternate week, some times even more. It is almost always for work and rarely for pleasure. From 2009, traveling has been a big part of my life for various reasons and this day marks 10 years since it began. As a small treat to this element of my life and for completing a decade, I wish to dedicate this post listing 10 things I learnt from living out of a suitcase.

1. Minimalistic lifestyle: "Look for the bare necessities..." I always loved this song from 'The Jungle Book'! It makes more sense to me since the last 10 years. Traveling frequently, really lets you identify the bare necessities. It is liberating in its own way. 
2. Schedules: No matter how many times the joke is on me for promoting schedules, I still believe it helps in managing the mess around frequent travels. I am still in the career building phase and for me the frequent travels call for an addition to the current 'work in progress' status. One of the main things that helps me with handling the fear of missing out is by scheduling in all the important things. 
3. Fitness: It always comes down to fitness, at least for me. With constant change of climate, water and food; if you are not fighting fit, you are doomed. I have had my share of illness and multiple courses of antibiotics in a year to come to this place. Today I can say that I have been able to schedule in timely exercise and smart eating habits while I am at home and during travels. They are entirely different from one another, but they are there and it helps big time!
4. Sleep: I cannot emphasise on this enough as I learnt this thing the hard way. In most cases, I am sleep deprived for several reasons before I travel. Sometimes the change in time zones aggravates its effects. Clocking a good 8 hours sleep during travel is essential. 
5. Journeys: I have met people who hate traveling more than the ones who love it. However, in the defence of the ones who hate it, they were always traveling for work and not pleasure. I give them that traveling for work has little fun to it. But again, the uninterrupted conversations, meeting different people, watching the road, catching up on reading and the list goes on which is just the same when you travel for pleasure. Why taint the experience of traveling only because the purpose of the journey isn't for pleasure?
6. Catching up: The best thing that traveling lets me do is catch up. Catchup on my sleep, writing, reading, organising photos, etc. The best part is when I get to mail or chat with my family and old friends. I literally get to experience the next best thing to actually meeting them. 
7. Reflection: I have been told on several occasions that I tend to overthink. In spite of that, I feel reflecting is an important practice and should be done often. I do it in every possible way, writing down my thoughts, discussing with my core family, seeking advice from different people and it helps me in the most unexpected ways. 
8. Patience: Delays, traffic, break downs or worse, last minute cancellation of travel arrangements. Everyone who travels meets with these patience testing moments. And every time you brave through them, it adds to your patience. 
9. Flexibility: Given the number of roles one plays in a lifetime, it is not possible to travel frequently without being flexible. Unlike the common presumption about me that 'I have everything my way', it is quite the contrary. I never, literally never have it my way! Everything is always adjusted keeping the larger picture in mind. 
10. Home: There is something precious in coming back home, knowing that there is a place where you can be yourself and do your blooming laundry after the travel. People who travel more, know how important it actually is, just because of the lack of time at home. This has helped me in focusing on quality time with my family! That extra effort never fails to pay off! 

मेरे अपने

आज आसमान मुझे देख रहा है, 

सितारें कुछ ज्यादा चमक रहे हैं, 

मेरे अपने जो उनमें बसे  हैं!

शायद वहां रहकर खुश है!

पीछे रहना बड़ा मुशिकल काम है!
रोना चाहकर भी हसना पड़ता है,
सिर्फ यादोंमें जीना पड़ता है,
मेरे अपने जो मुझे देख रहे हैं!

आप वहां खुश रहें यही मनोकामना है
हमें देखते रहे यही आशा है
हमें छोड़कर जाना शायद होना ही था
लेकिन आप हमें अधूरा छोड़कर चले गए! 

Lunch time

A recent visit to a Customer located in an IT park made my day! The office buildings, their landscaping and the overall aura of “world class” set up was nothing less than impressive,  but it’s a part of another story! What left a mark on my mind for a very long time was the ‘lunch time’! We went to a local road side restaurant that served Biryani! The food was delicious, but again, that’s another story!

My Uncle and I had to wait for 30 odd minutes to get a shared table! While waiting I couldn’t help but notice the group of people waiting as well as the lucky ones who got the tables. It was a crowded and a chirpy place with an equal number of men and women! In my almost 12 years of working life, this was the only first hand experience where I saw men and women in equal numbers.

On our way back, without even knowing it, we started discussing this observation as if it was a scheduled agenda! Looks like my uncle and I have a strong a telepathy! His working life of over 30 years had the same experience. He added that in the field of Banking and the likes, you do see women more but they are just at clerical levels. All the top designations are headed by men!

In our society, a lot is said about women empowerment, but very little is done. I feel that IT sector has played an instrumental role for this empowerment. IT sector is probably the only sector where men and women get equal number of jobs opportunities, salaries and designations. It is the only sector which does not claim that "it's a Man's job or just a Woman's job!" It is a place where there is equality in every sense of the term!

- Hinjawadi, Pune to Nashik (February 2018)

7 extremely useful baby products mothers can use

I was a fan of baby products way before I became a mother. The love for them continues even after I became a mother.  Here are the 7 baby products I use and totally recommend!

1. Wet wipes - Nothing wipes off the makeup as gently and safely as a baby wet wipe! 
   
2. Baby oil - I use it to clean my ears, cracked legs (I have a terrible dry skin) and sometimes even face! 
   
3. Baby nail cutter - It is super convenient with a strong holder and perfect for those tiny cuticles! The little magnifying glass comes handy for checking the corners after cleaning! 
   
4. Baby ear buds - I agree that ears are self cleaning and you should never put an ear bud in them and all that. But sometimes the ears itch so much so that I am tempted to tear it apart. Baby ear buds are life savers during those moments! It DOES NOT push wax inside! It can easily remove it instead because its tip is really small! And the damn itch can be calmed down with ultimate satisfaction! 
   
5. Baby shampoo - Excellent cleaning agent for combs, make up brushes, make up sponges and of course manicure wash. 
   
6. Diaper rash cream - Women who use sanitary napkins with wings sometimes get sever rashes! Using diaper rash cream just the way we use it for the babies not only cures it but even prevents it! 
   
7. Baby tooth brush - Perfect sized toothbrush for applying lip scrub, black heads scrub and removing that excess liquid from your mascara. 
   

Have you used any of these products? If yes, do you use it for something else? Also, do you use any other baby products apart from these? If yes, please share them with me. I would love to try them! 

Acceptance

While growing up, I have always been exact opposite of socially accepted* levels in school, college, career, and in every other choice I have made. It was so against the acceptance levels, that I fought body image issues through out my school and teenage. I was trapped in the vicious cycle of self doubt till the mid twenties. And I think I surprised myself, let alone others, with my ability for lacking confidence till the early thirties! That does not mean, now I am a super confident person! But those who have confidence issues, will know, from lacking confidence to knowing that you lack confidence, itself is a great progress! 

It isn't difficult to guess how hard self-acceptance is, for a person who's always tried to fit in and then disappointed oneself over and over again. It becomes a cake walk when you stop trying to fit in! And here's what I have learnt the hard way, the difficult part isn't actually the action to stop trying to fit in, but in making that decision! It is extremely hard to tell yourself "It is okay to not be like ---!" That is where you need the courage, the foresight of the consequences of your choice and really knowing that by choosing the other way will make you happy!

Once it is your choice, you don't need others to accept it. Plus, it was a choice for happiness and not fitting in! The feeling of fulfilment can never make anyone regret that choice. You see, how the cycle of doubt transforms into the path towards fulfilment? So instead of saying "I don't care!", it is better to say "I do care! --- For myself!"

* Social acceptance has very little to do with personality traits and individual talents in general. It evaluates a fish by its ability to fly and a bird by its ability to swim; making both feel like losers! 

At the gym...

Gym changing rooms witness more funny moments than steamy scenes. This is true! I can say this with my own experience for over ten years at different gyms from different cities. So all those Photoshop-ed images that show big biceps and perfect cures, wearing sexy sportswear, staring into the mirrors, is really not true! Well, there is a lot of skin show, it is a changing room after all! But it is no where close to being steamy and sexy! At the most, it can be described as sweaty, smelly and extremely embarrassing at times. From free falls in the bathrooms, to wearing shoes without socks or worse crying every time the regular underwear itches while exercising, the list is endless. I agree these are not funny moments, but if you are an onlooker, they are really hilarious! (Still laughing!)

Okay, so coming to the point, it all boils down to poor packing of the gym bag. I know I know, I am selling the packing list as if my income depends on it! But it really is the root cause of all the crises at gym! Here is my list of gym bag essentials that has never failed me. It might help you to become an onlooker to these funny moments and be a life saver for the ones in trouble (Except for the underwear of course!)

My gym bag essentials -

1. Dry fit t-shirt and track pants
2. Sports bra and sweat absorbing under wear
3. Socks 
4. Gym shoes 
5. Post work out jacket
6. Napkin
7. Gloves
8. Water Bottle
9. Hair band
10. Deodorant
11. Snack box (post workout meal, I usually have whey protein shake or a fruit)
12. Laundry bag 
13. Shoe bag
14. Wet wipes
15. Moisturizer
16. Sun screen
17. Face powder
18. Lip balm
19. Prickly heat powered 
20. SOS medicines (I am a chronic asthmatic patient. Totally recommended for those who have chronic illness)
21. Towel (Only when I am heading for the steam room)
22. Shower slippers (Only when I am heading for the steam room)

p.s: The trick to not lose your valuables at the gym is, to not carry them to the gym! ;-)