Love is definitely in the air….

There has been a long gap between this post and the last post in spite of readership getting almost doubled from 18 to 36 profile visits. Voila, isn’t that remarkable? Only thing is that out of these 36 visits most of the clicks are done by me.

February is a month of love and love is there all around. Violin and guitar strings playing the right chords, classical romantic songs on the hit list, fragrances embracing the surroundings, cute teddy bears, chocolates and attractive roses, heart shaped balloons and philosophical status messages- all making love more lovable. Hold On!! I am not going to talk about tragic star lovers “Heer Ranjha’s” or “Romeo and Juliet’s” or the cheesy love story of Saif -Kareena! There is much more than that to talk about. You just have to move your neck and eyes to remove the veil of secrecy from the love stories whirling around.

Egyptians are perfectly in love with their hard earned freedom, ready to have a perfect candle light dinner with the ‘beautiful’ ever democracy. Love has become absolutely luscious for Deutsche Boerse. The sparkling wedding ring is all set for its beloved NYSE Euro next. Aah… an exchange with 219 years of rich history, almost for which New York is known for, is ready to sacrifice this for its love!!

Have you ever seen a person searching for love? His condition is exactly like the child, lost somewhere in the crowd, who keeps wandering , asking everyone and runs amok, till he finds his family members. Nokia was exactly in the same situation till it found Microsoft, with its smart phones sales declining, losing ground to the real hotties in the market, viz. , smart phones running on Google’s Android , sexy Apple I-phones and dashing Blackberry. Stephen Elop is trying to ignite the chemistry softly with not -so -soft “Microsoft”. Hopefully, this new valentine of Nokia may bring good fortune to it.

When somebody is in love, he or she truly feels ecstatic and so is Face book experiencing, being absolutely loved by all online advertisers (with 13.6% share of online ad display, as per Wall Street Journal) and being the heartthrob with 600 million users! How can I dare forget not mentioning the World Cup 2011 here! Almost every other Indian is madly in love with the game hoping that the history of 1983 will be repeated this time by 'De Ghuma Ke’.

But Beware!!Love sometimes taste sweet and sometimes bitter. As Robert Frost in his poem “To Earthward” talks about love then and now, evident from the two different stanzas, depicting its sweetness then :

‘Love at the lips was touch, as sweet as I could bear; and once that seemed too much; I lived on air’

And bitterness now:

‘Of tears, the aftermark, of almost too much love, the sweet of bitter bark, and burning clove’.

Therefore only time will tell that how love would taste for Sarkozy’s and Berlusconi’s. Love is saltier for the broken heart “Borders” too. When in love, you may commit mistakes, because love is often blind and so did Borders do. The biggest mistake Borders did was, when it transferred its internet operations to Amazon in 2001, including few finance and management gaffes. The lesson to learn: Play safe!! Hey…. don’t get dishearten, love is beautiful too as I said.

I have put enough of thoughts on boil. I have sufficiently stretched my neck and have almost popped my eyeballs out …and now let me do something for my love …. Oh! I can’t play around the trees like Bollywood actresses and sing songs and therefore, planning something special to bring smile on his face.. Love is definitely in the air… Don’t you think so?

PS: The first reader (or should I say the victim...) of this draft is obviously my husband and his instant comment was: “It is more like the play we just saw” and in sophisticated words he used the term ‘eclectic’ to describe it. And do you want to know what his reaction was after we saw the play 30 minutes before? He found that absolutely assorted, boring, unusual and was eager to move out of the theatre as soon as possible… I still believe love is in air as he read that for me.

Being Housewife and doing nothing...

A restless day…kitchen and room are throwing a cluttered and crumbled look, akin to the looks yielding from the clothes lying in laundry basket. Contrary to my daily routine, I am not even trying to reorganize the stuff. I have almost refreshed the pages of face book and Gmail countless times and just doing aimless surfing. Unsurprising to me, the two hands of clock are continuously at work, without waiting for anyone and are showing the time: an hour past noon. As usual, I have wasted several more minutes out of 34560 minutes from the days offering.

Different thoughts are arresting my mind, making it hard to concentrate on any one; neurons performing at their best. After a while, distilling few thoughts, I realized what is disquieting me. And here I come with the word “Housewife” and doing “nothing”!!!

‘Indian Housewife’ is a rare ‘species’ of its type, who has always seen a tough time (don’t read ‘soap operas’ and ‘melodrama). She is a “special creature” on this earth, who is least bothered about the protest and unrest penetrating in Egypt ,Tunisia and other parts of middle East, Obama’s Union address or US- China relationship or telecom spectrum scam back at home. However, she is always interested in many other things in addition to her family. To make the long list short namely in “Economy”, “gold prices”, “inflation”, “real estate” and “automobiles/ cars”, ‘social structure’, ‘fashion/ clothes’ and most importantly “kaam waali bai” or ‘the maid’. Such is the way she has been stereotyped.

When my friends ask what I am up to these days? I am sure when I say “housewife”, they aren’t much excited and they for a minute come into the state of bewilderment, thinking how I am not doing anything. For them the entire day’s work (even without maid) at home is ‘nothing’. Oh Boy!! I am doing ‘nothing’- a very dangerous and wobbly feeling. After all, just longing for some simple compliments like “oh you have such a neat and organized house” or yearning to hear from your husband that “the food was indeed flavorsome” and suppose if you get one, does not mean that you are doing ‘something’. I am now mastering the art of doing nothing.

A marketing student ( teacher is a very demanding word so better to refer as student, and the logic behind it, is the option to keep telling that you are still learning, if you aren’t aware of something…) has now turned into a person doing nothing. How much has changed since then. Do I put my eyes, analyzing discount voucher strategy and how profitable it is for companies? No, but I am certainly interested in ‘Groupon’ coupons. I may be comparing all smart phones not to find out the product strategies of companies behind it, but to get the best one. The pricing strategies no longer appeal me to discuss that as a case in the classroom. Well, discomforting one, but I am more interested in retailers offering better deals so that I can save few more cents earned by my husband.

As far as Google keep helping me in my search for recipes, I am hardly bothered with its fight with “Bing” or that now ‘Eric Schmidt’ is no more its CEO. I am interested in getting a cup of Starbucks coffee whenever I am tired of shopping and buying groceries. Who cares now… that they have changed the logo and ‘siren’ has got a facelift and how would it affect its branding strategies and it going global. Amazon’s business model may be interesting to learn, but for me, timely delivery of ordered item matters the most, which they have done most of the times.

This corroborates, that either way, I am doing nothing. Next ‘Indian (housewife) Idle’ in making and I may be crowned soon. Only thing which I have to do - is to learn to conceal the blushes, surprises, covering my face in the sea of emotion and blowing few kisses in air just like Ms World and MS Universe do, after grabbing the title.

Life as we learn from it…

Three small events……And lessons I learnt…

1.

Snow always has tempted me, given the fact that the place where we currently live almost enjoys pleasant weather and it is ‘no snow land’. I may differ from those who live in the ‘snow land’ and they almost hate it. Well...You always want what you don’t have.

On one fine weekend, my husband and I decided to visit one such place. I was flying high. All wacky ideas were striking my mind. Thrilled with all the fun, I could have on the snow mountain, my joy knew no bounds. With all preparation and after an adventurous drive, we reached the place. The sun was peeping out and it was a great day. The mountain was blanketed with white fluffy snow. My husband decided to snowboard and when he invited me for the same, the very idea gave me a goose bump. It was quite scary to descend from the snow covered mountain, especially more when you haven’t done that before in your life. What I loved the most was watching a 3 year old girl snowboarding. Every time she used to start, she used to tumble down covering a few steps. But she kept trying. Finally I gathered courage and thought of trying. With all fear, I did that, but in the end, it was real fun. After experiencing more than twice, I got more confident and wanted to do it again and again. We changed the level and thought of trying it from a greater height and it was fun with some bruises here and there.

After coming from that place, I realized what I learnt that day. I always wanted to go to that place and experience all the adventures. But the moment, I reached there, I got scared and did not want to try. Once I started doing it (after realizing that I can do it), I got confident and kept on raising the bar. Isn’t it true that all of us dream for something and, thinking of, it gives us a good feeling? But when we are on our way to achieve, we get terrified and we feel like, we can’t do it. It is that crucial time which can make all the difference: to achieve or not to achieve! Realizing one’s potential can bring significant changes. I could never have experienced that fun if I had not given a try that day.

2.

Another day, we went to attend a beautiful girl’s second birthday. There, the hosts organized some games for the children. One of the games was, out of many cards lying over there, players have to collect identical cards in 30 seconds and the winner would be the one who has collected the most. I was watching the kids playing the game with great attention. After all the kids were done, the host said I should also try. Let’s see, how much can I collect. Hiding all my emotion with a smile, I did not know what to do. So much was going inside my mind. What if, I am unable to do anything? Everybody will laugh that I am worst even than a child, if I am unable to perform well. It was such an unsettling thought and probably questioning my superiority. Sometimes I am my worst critic and with all such thoughts, I said it is kid’s game, let them only play. When everybody insisted, I decided to play and I did not do that bad. I got charged. Playing gave me confidence. The point was that it was such a small game, I surely have given tougher exams in life but I still got uneasy. I guess, I was more scared with the thought of my supremacy being questioned and also was bothered about the social impression. Sometimes, you have to fight your own thoughts and conquer them to give you more confidence about what can you do while ignoring the social pressure. And another angle is, sometimes small activities can boost your confidence to a much greater level rather than doing mammoth task. Believe me; sometimes playing with the kids can have a magical effect. And yes, don’t dare underestimate them. Also, may be, in the process you will get some tips to do better in life. So leave your superiority for a second and engage yourself. You will surely be energized.

3.

Last fortnight, I saw much acclaimed movie ‘127 hours’. Much to learn from …. 127 hours is a true and a daring story of an audacious canyoneer who was exploring Canyon of Utah. It is the story of that how a mountain climber survives a tragedy he comes across. While climbing and trekking along the canyon, his right forearm got stuck between a boulder and rock wall. The story is all about how he spends five days and finally amputates his hand in order to survive and in those five days how he remembers all his loved ones. The story actually stunned me. It is true that during the time of crisis or catastrophe, we start remembering our loved ones and it is then we realize how much we love them and how much they have done for us. But why wait for a crisis to realize this…

The story no doubt also teaches us how to retain hope at all times. After watching the movie, I thought the real ‘hero’ must have quit trekking, after the painful experience. But when I tried to look for more information, Wikipedia proved me all wrong. In 2005, he actually climbed Colorado Mountains to a height of 14k ft and he still, is an active trekker.

Such is the life as we learn from it….