Check out my Creative Writing Workshops website!
Decided to make this so all my workshop attendees and prospect attendees can have a go-to place~
Christmas truffles recipe
Thinking of making these chocolate truffles to hand out to people this christmas. They look easy. Waddaya think?
P.S. This blog even makes egg shells looks good.
(My own) Thought for the day
“It doesn’t matter how you ended up doing what you’re doing now, as long as what you’re doing now is something you are proud of.“
Bye Bye Twenty Five
A friend asked me to make a list of all the things that have happened to me this past year. If they’re good things, she asked me to write them down and be thankful for them. If they’re bad things, she asked me to write down what I learned from them.
At first, I was dreading the thought of turning 26. I’m not even used to being 25 yet, and before you know it, you’re turning 26. EEEEKS!
But then I thought of my friend’s suggestion, and I realized doing that will help me appreciate this past year and make me realize that I lived it to the fullest.
SO, here goes…
Things that happened/things I learned from this past year
~Beginning a full-time job in Gurgaon and liking it (thereby breaking my karma of having jobs in Delhi that suck)
~Meeting many new friends this year (at work and outside), while keeping in touch with the old ones
~The struggles/arguments I had with my parents as individual entities and how I overcame most of them to reach to a position of comfort in our relationships.
~Finding a senpai in faith (Rekha) who could really see what I didn’t see in myself and who could see what was coming my way, when I couldn’t.
~Being able to get back in touch with high school friends and meet often.
~Having a life past 7pm once again.
~Being able to teach Salsa to colleagues after work!
~Downtown pub! No further comments necessary.
~Making a good case for my masters application this time, and making things work!
~ Realizing that I had taken a sabbatical from traveling after not having boarded a plane for over a year!
~Flying to Mumbai to attend Aakanksha’s beautiful wedding, which really made me realize that I need to start thinking about getting married someday. I honestly wasn’t thinking about marriage at all, EVER.
~Discovering Japanese-style karaoke right by my office! saved my life!
~Missing the Mikuro kids and realizing how much I have learned from being their teacher.
~Having a decent earning that helped me live an independent life while staying with family (and realizing how much that mattered to me).
~Learning the hard way that you can’t be a friend to everyone around you. It JUST doesn’t happen. Not everyone has your best interests at hand.
~Discovering the dark secrets of the ways of the Indian corporate sector (that really blew my mind at one point and made me wonder if anyone can be trusted at all).
~Getting my car stolen and noticing my own strength at this point–I was surprisingly calm, knew something better was about to come our way, and just cherished the fact that none of my family members were harmed.
~Being able to study my own past and learn about my tendency to easily dwindle between life conditions.
~Going through the experience of being in a very interesting relationship that had begun to blossom, only to see it disintegrate almost instantly after.
~Realizing how intellectually vulnerable I can get when I am with someone, and that I have no IQ, but instead have oozing amounts of EQ.
~At first, hating the fact that I fell for it, then learning to appreciate that something like this happened to me, and in the end, respecting the person for all the good things and forgiving him for the bad ones.
~Finding out that work hard, party harder is possible, but I might not be capable of it much longer.
~Crying like a baby while watching the last Harry Potter movie with Sanya. It was all ending!
~Learning the hard way that there is a time for work and a time for play.
~Realizing that trust, both mine and anyone else’s, should NEVER be messed with.
~Trying a cigarette and hating it.
~Finding a creative avenue for my literary skills that will benefit students in India.
~Getting accepted to a very prestigious grad school, when I honestly doubted that it would happen.
~Finally trying hookah and hating it even more (sorry guys, just couldn’t do it)
~Meeting people who inspired me as well as people who, through their example, taught me that I must NOT become like them.
~Seeing Sachin Tendulkar play for the very first time.
~Getting a chance to meet some Delhi Daredevils players (Jayawardene, Irfan Pathan, Agarkar, Umesh Yadav, Naman Ojha (such a hottie), Kevin Peterson, and most of all, Ross Taylor!)
~Finding out that Westlife is retiring–makes me feel old!
~Connecting our lives, like never before with Richa and Sanya, my first friends.
~Helping Downtown host a Karaoke night! That was fun. I hadn’t managed an event since senior year at SUA.
~Started getting proposals for marriage—-sooooooo awkward!!!!!!!!!!
~My really close friend, whom I hadn’t spoken to for almost two years because of a stupid argument, coming all the way to Delhi to surprise me at my doorstep.
~Us realizing how much we’d missed of each other’s lives, and then helping each other get back on track.
~Cherishing all the moments I have spent with Pranoy and realizing we are inseparable.
~Watching Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara with the family! It was a really good movie and we all had a memorable time.
~Going to Oonchagaon with mom’s side of the family. Place was LAME but the company was nice!
~Realizing that I’m at my best and often get my way, when I am completely, genuinely, and humbly honest about my intentions.
There are many more, so I may add to this! But what I’ve written so far is probably good enough to consider this year well-spent!
Thank you for being such a loaded year, dear 25! You shall be looked back upon dearly. <3
My Dilemma (in code)
(Well, it’s not really a code, but….whatever….)
Right now, I can only be in one of two situations:
Exhibit A: 
or
Exhibit B:
I can’t figure out if it’s a Jim Halpert situation or a Daniel Cleaver one……
=S >.< X-(
yabaaaaaai~
Bringing a Change
Today is Indian Independence Day, but the local citizen hardly feels independent. Your driving license gets lost. You go to the government with all the paperwork to get a new one. They ask for a lump-sum under the table. If you refuse, your paperwork gets stacked among other files that have gathered dust over the past few months.
You stop your car at a traffic signal but an asshole speeds into your car. The traffic cop rushes to solve the issue. He knows it was the asshole’s fault, but the asshole subtly hands the cop a few good bills, and before you know it, the cop goes back to work, pretending nothing happened.
One 74 years old man, Anna Hazare, followed the Gandhian principle of non-violence to tackle corruption. He went on a peaceful yet very effective hunger strike in April. He got so much support from the entire country that the government was pressured into drafting a proposal for an Anti-Corruption bill. But then it got crafty, and began modifying the original proposal, so that less and less people would be held responsible for any corrupt practices.
Those who opposed the government’s revision of the proposal were being taken for a ride. Now, Anna has, yet again, decided to begin another peaceful hunger strike on August 16. But the government has the balls to tell him that that is now allowed, that he is not allowed to have any supporters gather in the decided public space, that he can only have a hunger strike for 3 days, that he cannot hold a public gathering of more than 3 people, etc. etc. It just proves that the government is so aware of its own flaws and is trying, so desperately, to hide them.
Here’s an article on the current status of events: BBC Article on Anti- corruption bill
Unfortunately, I can’t leave work to support Anna in person tomorrow, but I will, like thousands others, wear a “Mera Neta Chor Hai” tattoo (“My politician is a thief”) on my arm. It is really the bare minimum that I can do. But I hope it will have a positive impact on the people who see it.
