Aha, God’s own canvas…

After days of hibernation and hush- hush, I am out of my blanket and have bestirred myself; probably because the trip to Alaska has revitalized me. All beautiful things have the power to do that and there is no doubt that Alaska is drop dead gorgeous. It was an incredible feeling to step down on this picturesque land and Boy nothing can be better than the midnight Sun welcoming you with its golden rays. Had some movie script writer been asked to define the “great land”, s/he would surely define it is as a painter’s best creation, a musician’s most symphonic melody, a poet’s wonderful imagination, a bird’s fearless flight, a writer’s ironic plot, lover’s true love and what not. The unending snow clad mountains, majestic coast line and turquoise sea, glacier fed rivers, waterfalls, mesmerizing ferns, spruces, willows and the wildlife; all trying to embrace you in their own mystic charm. (This reminded me of Yash Chopra movies and I did very much wish to wear a Chiffon sari!) Well….there is no end to it and words really fall short when it comes to describing the divine beauty of the terrain painted by God and I bet you can’t withdraw yourself from its magnetic pull. Nature at its best!!

Going adrift in the wilderness or in the treasures of nature was indeed the best way to celebrate my wedding anniversary. It will sound bit filmy and dramatic but the goodness of huckleberry ice-cream, trees, ocean, mountains, glaciers, descending clouds, seals, whales, grizzly bears, moose and various other creatures - all witnessed the vows of our togetherness.

People say that Mt. McKinley creates its own weather. In the morning, when it was drizzling, we thought we won’t be able to catch a glimpse of the summit. But in the afternoon, the sun peeped out and brought with it a gift of “Mt. McKinley’s invitation” for us. The spectacular view of lofty ‘Mt McKinley’ is still etched in my mind. At an elevation of 20,000 ft, I really felt as if I was on top of the world. I just loved the very sight of icebergs calved from glaciers.

Another good thing about such trips is that you meet different types of people and learn so much from them. I picked up some odd contrasts too. Along with the silence of lakes and choppy waters of sea; gigantic mountains and narrow trails, Ice age and tech era, meandering along the trails and getting an adrenaline rush to encounter wild life or being at peaceful Talkeetna; I got close to watch few visitors.

While going to Denali, we boarded McKinley Explorer (Alaskan railroad) from Anchorage. I don’t know whether it was just a coincidence or something else that we got the coach shared by gray hairs and wrinkled faces, mostly ranging from mid 50’s to Mid 80’s. Yes! You read it correctly the lady sitting in front of us was 86 years old and was travelling with her friend who almost shared the same age. This lady was full of enthusiasm and was capturing every moment in the camera. As the narrator was pointing out, this lady flipped sometimes to 9 0’ clock position and at other times to 3 o’ clock position and throughout, she was energetic to capture and enjoy the beauty of nature. She was a real shutter bug and was in no mood to give up and I was amazed to see her energy level while I was already tired. I always grumble of ageing and not doing much in all these years but watching them, I realize one can enjoy at any point of time in one’s life span. Though you can’t beat age but when an 86 year old can plan to go and explore wilderness, that too with her friend; I don’t think age can come in between anything. And did I tell you that most of the elderly ladies in their 60’s and 70’s were well maintained and decked up, giving me a strong complex.

My experience on the cruise was to the contrary. After driving through one of the most scenic highway (Anchorage to Seward), we reached Seward to board the cruise. While we were busy running outside on the deck on 8 o’ clock and 2 o’ clock positions to watch and spot the marine life, a middle aged Indian couple was sitting calmly. Especially the lady was enjoying the “nature” very calmly. Very rarely did his husband come outside and take photographs. I could see the content on her face and she was coolly watching from inside, enjoying every bit of it. Later we realized that we were too busy taking pictures and videos and missed just sitting calmly- relaxing and enjoying.

Odd contrasts of high energy level and being composed and poised! Whatsoever! One must break routine and go out on such excursions to get recharged. It definitely helps and would fill you with enduring happiness!

Thoughts on Detour

I am with my daily newspaper near the poolside, just to inhale some fresh air. I look around and it seems that spring is back with all its beautiful colors. Weather is pleasant. And aha… my favorite chipmunk who occasionally roams around in the building is there too. The beautiful colors, fresh air and not even the chipmunk could hold me for long and I am back in my room.

It is a bit uncomfortable situation, when you and your bare thoughts are alone!! You don’t have that “mute” option to stop the volume of the thoughts. Both conspire in their own way leading to the place unfamiliar and uncharted. You argue with your own thoughts and it is always a win –win situation as it is either you win or your thoughts. But I kind of like such situations where I am just “me”: the best, good, bad and the worst of me all together; free from all pretensions.

I am not sure whether I want to write this, as my thoughts are still in conflict with my heart and ‘me’. No, I never want to sound so negative! Suddenly the spring colors are losing the sheen, world appear to be transacting and nothing else, though no radioactive radiations are around but the freshness is also not there, suffering and devastation is all I can see.

I fondly remember one of our friend’s son asking his favorite riddle every time we meet him: “the biggest pān (or Paan: betel leaf which is generally chewed) which nobody can eat?”

And he would then proudly answer Japan!

Now I wonder whether he can still ask this question when tsunami and earthquake have already engulfed the third most powerful economy of the world and when nuclear disaster is almost feared.

My thoughts are asking me, “Have you shed a single tear on those thousands of innocent deaths? You even cry when things don't work for you...”

I can’t lie. I answered: No!

Thoughts are playing rapid fire round with me ,“you seem to look busy preparing your weekend plan”.

I said, “Yes”.

My thoughts are back with a bang, “So nothing has changed for you?” and now I shrug and try to answer: No, it is not like that. I am worried about them.

Thoughts in action mode pose another question: “you look relaxed and think privileged that your family, friends and relatives are safe and so you do feel sympathy but not empathy.” Now I am in no situation to answer and I hate my thoughts when they ask such questions. I tried to overrule them by giving all possible explanations.

I want to give a pause to all such thoughts. I start reading the newspaper and find disturbing news. No one cares about real emotions. Doubt if Libyan Arab Jamahiriya as the name suggests is the state of masses. Don’t know if anybody cares about the civilians: Col. Gaddafi or European/ US and Arab forces marching towards Libya? Saudi Arabia is supporting the Sunni ruled Bahrain. On the another hand, Iran’s interest is adding fuel to fire to Shiite revolution ; which is nothing new as they have done it in Iraq and Afghanistan. So the nations are in rat race of grabbing the power and the emotions of the common masses are ruthlessly buried!

Somehow today my thoughts don’t want to leave me, but I want to; just like parents don’t want to leave their kids but they want to when grew older.

Now this one is real bouncer from my thoughts, “Haven’t you start losing emotions? Do you still feel the same way? Do you laugh at the jokes as you used to? Have you not become self centered? Nothing affects you so much”.

It was a real bummer. I feared to say, “Yes”. I speak to myself that I am becoming more like a computer. I could hear the inner voice which is shrieking on full volume and which I want to ignore, “not just computer but Watson!” as it only knows to win, though can’t feel anything.

Trivia…

It was Saturday morning…. Saturday mornings carry special sweetness and who wants to get up early? Gee!! It was 9 a.m. and I was all set and enthused to attend a FREE vegan cooking demo at one of the restaurant. So ‘Free’ and ‘Vegan’ were like music to my ears. On the contrary, my husband was already feeling as if he was in doghouse. The only incentive for him was the hope that whatever the Chef would demonstrate; he would get a sample to taste, as was written in their mail, “come hungry!”

So, I reached there and found that the place was already jam-packed. I finally grabbed a place to sit, though could hardly see what she was demonstrating. While the Chef was demonstrating, the waitresses with beautiful smile (second incentive for someone?) were serving the samples of the soups and stews. Darn…Why on earth do they keep such complicated names of the dishes, difficult to remember? May be, it is the way to glamorize the dish and give a feeling of enjoying something rich.

While collecting the used disposable cups and spoons, the young girl sitting next to me asked the waitress that she wanted to retain her spoon for the next delicacy as she did not want to waste one. Waitress smiled and said “Okay!” Meanwhile the lass gossiped with her friend that the waitress will fake it up and would take out a spoon from one cup and would serve it to her. She will still waste the spoon and pretend that she took care of her guest. Surprisingly, after three serves, I could see in my neighbor’s eye that she was wrong and that she realized of being genuinely served by waitress. Of course, this incident is no big whoop! But it tells that sometimes just fixing the things does not solve the purpose, but fixing it genuinely definitely does. Creating a difference between pretending and being original and genuine is quintessential. Such customers want more authentic experience.

I was wondering that the restaurant took no time in approaching and engaging us, immediately after becoming the member. Getting data is not a problem these days but using the data and engaging and partnering the customers is difficult. The restaurant tried all their efforts to make the cooking event successful (including giving gift bags to some) and in engaging guests. Another day while shopping for vegetables and fruits in a superstore, one unusual thing grabbed my attention. One fastidious shopper requested an associate that she wanted to taste apples. The superstore had no such policy. There were almost 8-9 varieties of apples and this guy cut each one of it and gave it to the lady to let her taste and decide. While removing those cut apples from the displayed position, this associate winked and whispered – ‘different types of customers!’ I smiled and thought he was right.

Most of the times it is not the big things which matter! It is those small incidents that help in creating an overall fruitful experience for customers. I have had many such experiences which are insignificant but impressive. Be it the guide who almost drove his cart all the way to help us in parking at right place in one of the shopping mall or the Clorox strips available outside one of the superstores to handle the shopping cart to prevent infection from other shoppers handling the cart. Or the very friendly exchange policy at one of the apparel store who refunded the entire amount even after the expiry of the term, as they understood the problem or the attendant wishing with great enthusiasm and cleaning the car at gas station while getting the fuel. Such stories are neither spicy as habanero chilies nor interesting as any reality Television show and bring no mirth but are significantly important to make the customers contented. Giving a good experience is like driving on the street and taking care of subtle aspects and not frenzying on a freeway. So piece of advice to companies from a customer: Trivial it may be.., but such small incidents if handled nicely can leave the experience of having some gourmet chocolate … melting slowly and smoothly in your customer’s mouth…

And did I mention the quote by the famous British novelist C.S. Lewis: “What does not satisfy when we find it, was not the thing we were desiring”?

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….