Driving crazy

The day has come!

Finally I can reveal a secret I have been dying to blurt out. I cleared my car driving test today! Yesss! :D

I cannot even describe what this means to me. For years now, I have been dreaming of being able to drive by myself. Despite repeated attempts, I was not able to join classes. Last month, I planned meticulously and enrolled myself. Although I was a bit scared to be in the driver’s seat, I gradually started enjoying the classes. The driving school offers only 10 hours and by the time I got my Learner’s License I was done with 60% of my classes. The test for Driver’s License can be taken only after a month. So I decided to save my last four classes for the end.

I was happy that I got a month to practice for my test. However, I came down with viral flu, conjunctivitis and an unplanned visit to Mangalore also eased its way in. I felt my spirits ebbing away. The DL test can be taken anytime within six months of obtaining the LL but I have a history of leaving way too many things unfinished. I wanted to be done with the test as soon as possible. I have grown sick of people asking me why I haven’t learnt driving despite owning a car. Sometimes, even from girls who don’t know how to drive. I wanted to be the proud owner of a DL (yes I am dying to flash my DL at everybody’s faces :P).

Then God smiled and my dad found a driver who was willing to teach me :) We took our Swift to the University campus where I could drive safely. I had been enjoying my classes. But I knew that the instructor was always in control of the car. Our car did not have the extra set of controls which meant I had to manage everything. I was relieved of the continuous stream of instructions. I had to think on my feet and take decisions. That’s when I fully experienced the thrill of driving. It felt awesome! My confidence grew from gear to gear :P

Soon enough today arrived. I was a bundle of nerves. I tried to keep every rule, every advice in mind. To my delight, the DL test was a breeze :) The track appears huge on paper but we finished it in about five minutes or so. My documents were verified and my photo was clicked. I am officially certified to drive a car now. This has been the best moment of my year so far! :D

#WhatMakesMe

After being such an active blogger last year, I seem to have lost momentum. There hasn't been much to write about either. I did not want to put up a half-hearted post. I want my blog to be my happiness journal, one which lets me relive the beautiful moments of my life. I have always been a cheerful person. My beloved Josephine miss used to say "She is such a happy child. Always smiling.." And that's exactly how I was. I do not remember being sad or angry for too long. I never gave anybody the power to control my emotions. I kept friends at arm's length. My family was the start and end of my world.

But growing up comes with its own set of challenges. Work related stress, social commitments, peer pressure. Involuntarily, my default setting changed to anxiety. From a person who never lingered in the past, I changed to someone dreading the future. These days, I feel like the entire load of the world is on me. Being independent is in my nature, so the constant need for support keeps creating an internal conflict. There is never peace of mind. However, I did feel a bit thrilled when I noticed that I have a pretty good RBF now ;)

So, when my sister said I should resume writing again, the first thought that came to my mind is that I must get in touch with my old self. And what better way than making a list :P

Present me, come meet the past me. Here is some random trivia about me which will help my rediscovery journey in no way! Will keep adding more as I remember/notice.

1. When I listen to a song, I choreograph or create videos for it in my head.

2. I check the release notes whenever I update an app or software.

3. I would love to be a freelance writer.

4. If the gym is empty, I dance like nobody is watching.

5. When I don't like a book I am reading, I look up all one and two star ratings on Goodreads and enjoy people thrashing the book.

6. 90% of the times I get invited, I already know that I won't be going but I say I will try.

7. I get hooked on to collecting random stuff (it's clothing tags and labels right now).

8. I cannot sleep on my back for more than a couple of minutes.

9. I am proud of the fact that many people I know started reading books on their phones because of me.

10. I can stretch my leg and crack my knuckles which never ceases to amaze my mom!
11. I love Oreo and Kit-Kat.
12. I obsessively organize my hard disk during my free time (also my ward robe).
13. I feel unnecessarily guilty.
14. I have a secret massive crush on an Instagram profile named 'atticuspoetry' <3
15. I love playing crosswords and Sudoku.
16. If I find somebody interesting, I stalk them on social media.
17. I have a huge stash of stationery that I think I will never use.
18. Pictures of cats and dogs always make me smile.
19. I dislike talking over the phone. Every time my phone rings, I get a mini panic attack.
20. I have slight major OCD.
21. I read the 'how to use' part even on basic stuff like shampoos.
22. I always break the Kit-Kat bar the way they show in the ad.
23. S.P.Balasubramaniam songs can lift my mood anytime and listening to him perform can move me to tears.
24. I gorge on conspiracy theories.

Book Review: Parva by S.L.Bhyrappa

Looks like this year is meant for long-term projects. I just completed reading the epic ‘Parva’ by S.L.Bhyrappa. The book spans across 583 pages and I had planned to complete reading it in a month. The deadline was essential because the book is in Kannada and looks very intimidating. I had to read the passages aloud for the first few days just to make sure that I was reading right! However, the book is an absolute delight and I was soon devouring it.

Parva is a realistic interpretation of the epic Kurukshetra war. It explores the possibility of a real historical event sans magic and divine interpretation. Every Indian would have heard of at least some story from the Mahabharata, also known as upakathe. Bedtime tales of enmity between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, the infamous game of dice, Draupadi’s disrobing and subsequent exile of the Pandavas culminating in the great Kurukshetra war has thrilled many kids. However, as we grow up we start to question the credibility of these stories.

This is where Parva shines. Amish Tripathi cannot hold a candle to S.L.Bhyrappa in this department. Parva provides logical explanations for glorified exaggerations. Although I would like to do a separate segment about the theories suggested in Parva, the most important one is seeing Krishna as a demi-god, a mortal raised to divine rank. He is described to be a master strategist and an evolved thinker. Each myth is replaced with a believable speculation of what may have possibly happened.

The book employs one of my favorite approaches to the narrative – diving right in. It starts at a time when preparations are being made for the Kurukshetra war. But the point of view keeps changing with each chapter being shown from a different character’s perspective such as Bhima, Draupadi, Arjuna, Kunti, Bhishma, Karna, Drona, Satyaki, Yuyutsu and so on. Even though each person provides a first person account of his/her past and present, the author brilliantly merges them to provide a whole picture to the user. The book forces us to empathize with each character, even the negative ones. I felt the most for the helpless Draupadi and ended up hating Bhishma.

I am nobody to judge a masterpiece. As a personal opinion, I feel the author could have provided a bit more individuality to the characters by providing them a personal style of speech. Also, I found certain phrases repetitive at times, especially since they appear in back to back sentences. These are just quirks of mine which takes away nothing from the book. To be honest, after reading Parva, I can no longer recall the version I have been hearing until now. However, at the end of the day, Parva too is a retelling of a well-known mythological event but one which caters to the intellectual mind.

Inked forever!

Guess what? I got a tattoo!! Isn’t that super-duper shocking? I know :D Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would actually get one. When I put it on my bucket list, it sounded like one of those things which would probably never get ticked off. That is why you should always share your bucket list with your friends :P They will somehow convince you to do all those madcap things you wrote when you were high. My sis is a part of almost everything on my bucket list. Right from a holiday abroad to getting me chopsticks, she is always trying to help me the lead the life I dream of <3 My friends are not far behind. C coaxed me to donate blood. R took me to the match. And now M helped me get my tattoo.

Here is the story. M and I were casually discussing tattoos and she mentioned that her sister got one too. One thing led to the other and soon we were making plans of getting inked. We had to postpone the first time and I almost thought it was not going to happen. Ahem.. Not like I was hoping for it to get cancelled. But nothing can stop two ladies on a mission and one Saturday morning we landed at the doorstep of Astron Tattoo Studio in Indiranagar. I cannot describe how excited we were. M had chosen a cardiogram as her design just to show off her medical side :P She planned to get the heart filled with her kid’s fingerprint, which is absolutely heart-warming. I had chosen an anklet design with the sun, moon and a star dangling from it like charms. A lot of brain storming had gone into our designs and we were as pleased as punch.

As we sat waiting in the studio, we looked at the various pictures put up there. The tattoo artist Pradeep seemed to have done well for himself since the time M’s sis got her tattoo done. It was bright and welcoming unlike the other dark and shady studios I had seen. But man! Once he arrived, I had had enough of his starry airs within minutes. As it is, he was half an hour late but that did not stop him from requesting some more time to finish his lunch. Our lunch time be damned. He went on to rant about how small tattoos don’t excite him anymore. He was polite to us but if he doesn’t feel passionate about something he should not take it up. If he does, then he shouldn’t show his displeasure to his clients. And he was oh so RUDE to his assistant. Even though he talked to us in a very refined manner, we had seen the person he really was. A man’s greatness is defined by how he treats his inferiors, not his equals. But I was not about to tell him that when he was armed with a long needle to poke my skin :P

If I took away his personality from his profession, the man is really good. Very hygienic, understands what you are looking for, works with you on your design but doesn’t like it when you give too much of your input :P He said the fingerprint was not possible :( and outright rejected my idea of an anklet saying it will wear off soon. You could clearly see that he respects his art. Finally, he did a red heart emitting sinusoidal waves on M’s wrist. His highness agreed to do my anklet a bit above my ankle which suited me fine. Here is a pic to fill you with envy!! :D

I still cannot believe I went through with it. I always assumed my family was a bit conservative. Getting a tattoo before marriage would be a strict no-no. Hence I was hesitant to tell my parents. Then again, I felt really uncomfortable about doing something so permanent without their knowledge. It says a lot about how our parents have brought us up. They have always been supportive of our decisions and firmly believe that we will not keep anything from them. That morning, I confided in my mom about my plans. Initially she was worried that it would be very painful. But then she gave the green signal and I was simply lost for words. On my way back home in the evening, I hoped mom would have convinced dad that a tattoo was not such a bad idea after all. I was in for another shock because my dad did not react like the filmy dads at all :D Other than examining the tattoo every few minutes and exclaiming how disgusting it was, he took it really well. I realized how much I underestimate my parents. They are way cooler than I thought!! Well done dear tattoo, you have been accepted by the family :)

Bye bye 2016! You will not be missed (just kidding)

We are at the end of 2016, time to review the year. I can straight away say, without batting an eyelid, that 2016 has been the hardest year of my life. Not only has it been physically exhausting but it has drained me emotionally too. Even then, as you can see, I cannot bear to tell it off :D Let’s do a quick review of my resolutions. I think I have made enough, to last a decade :P

Financially, I have done well. I have managed to limit my shopping and the use of wallets and coupon codes have saved me a lot. I started investing in mutual funds too. Although I have not set up a separate vacation fund, I am saving up. Getting the documents on cloud storage is yet to be done. On the health front, my love-hate relationship with gym continues. I need to work on my diet and sleep schedule. I have definitely scored on the hobbies aspect with my monthly book review and felt crafts. I haven’t found a chance to volunteer anywhere and my cooking is still a bit rusty :P Looking at my Lifestyle goals, I am seriously thinking of rewriting them. I have failed terribly at all except setting up a business. The well-being part is the most neglected part of my resolution list and I feel that is what made my year so miserable.

The long trips to Bellandur has taken a toll on my body. I am too tired to work out, which means I lose all my happy endorphin. Work wise, nothing interesting has come up, creating a boring routine. My promotion has been postponed by yet another year, although I managed to get rank 1 in the appraisals. Marriage has become a huge question mark. My parents are very supportive but every time a proposal doesn’t go ahead, their worries multiply tenfold. Having done well in every aspect of life, I am reduced to a failure when I see my parents disheartened. Also, I realized that I am a recluse by nature. I don’t enjoy going out as much as other people, especially spontaneous outings. I have been pushing myself too hard to be outdoorsy. On the other hand, I do enjoy spending time with my close ones and get frustrated when they don’t plan anything :D I am such a paradox!

The up side is I ticked off an item on my bucket list by watching the IPL match. I explored my sewing and craft skills (I managed to make a never-ending card) and ended up opening my own shop. I got a tarot reading done, which is a first for me. I am the proud owner of a 70k phone (Yikes!!). I was able to take my parents out for a spiritual trip and managed to squeeze in a friend's wedding too. I am still coping with some disappointments but life is all about moving on, right? :) I almost ruined the new year for my sister when she suggested going out for a party and I was too self-absorbed to go along. Luckily, I came back to earth on time and we are now heading to a grand new year party with lots of performances, good food, hopefully Bollywood music and definitely fun.

I still believe I am God’s favorite child. 2016 has been grueling and cruel, only when compared to my younger days. I hope to learn and mature and get my foothold back. 2017 demands changes and I am up for the challenge. Bring it on!

The Reading Challenge 2016

I am not a very enterprising person. But my sister somehow manages to pass on her crazy ideas and gets me involved too. I still remember how she started playing a number of facebook games. Being a gemini, she quickly lost interest and moved on from one game to another. However, poor me got sucked in to those arcade games, always wanting to move higher up the never-ending levels and reluctant to leave a game half finished. This year she set me up for a reading challenge. Half way through the year, she called me from Germany and said she had seen a lot of challenges on pinterest. Given my epub collection and the fact that we are huge bibliophiles, a reading challenge was perfect for us. This seemed to align with my new year resolution too. So we drew up a list of genres we would like to cover. I even made this cute image, just because I could :P 

We created pinterest boards too so that we could track each other’s progress. Soon, my sister pinned her first book. Not the one to be left behind, I started looking for books from each genre and powered the challenge with full thrust. My OCD rejoiced, having found something to track and obsess over. Here is a list I maintained, so that I could tick off or rather star the genres I had completed :D

* Based on a fairy tale - Beauty
   Based on a protagonist having your occupation - Snow Crash
* Book transalated to English - In other words
* Award winning Book - Matilda
   Romance set in future - The Host
* Under 150 pages - Memories
* Book that is becoming a movie - The girl on the train
* Self improvement book - Unposted Letter
* Book written by a celebrity - Mrs.Funnybones
* Book at least 100 years older than you - A Christmas Carol
* Science fiction novel - Deception Point
* Book published this year - The scandal
* Murder mystery - Girl on a train
   Book written by a comedian - Bossypants
* Dystopian novel - Hunger Games
* Book with a blue cover - The Art of Racing in the Rain
* Autobiography - The Diary of a Young Girl
* Book about a road trip - A walk in the woods
* Book about a culture you are unfamiliar with - A Thousand Splendid suns
* Book that takes place on an island - Anne of Green Gables
* Book that is guaranteed to bring you joy - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Princ
* Satirical book - Animal Farm
   Book based on summer - The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
* Political memoir - Malala 

Being competitive by nature, I devoured books one after the other. But I was also careful to ensure that I was not carried away by the challenge. I tried to understand the book’s intent and what I was taking away from it, often writing reviews here debating the pros and cons. As December approached, I realized that I will not be able to finish the challenge with five more books remaining on the list. I shared my sorrow with my sister only to find out that she had made only one more addition to her board!! Now you know how sisters torture their younger siblings :(

Although I have made a mental note not to do any more challenges with my sister, I am glad I did this one. We handpicked genres for the challenge, including the ones we were not very fond of and some that we hated. For example, it is very unlikely that I would have picked up a travelogue and a satirical book was definitely not on my list. I finally read books such as ‘Matilda’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’ which I meant to do since a long time. I even found gems such as ‘Anne of Green Gables’ and ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’. A pleasant surprise came in the form of ‘Animal Farm’ which proved to be much more engaging than I expected. I also discovered a latent prejudice in me, which I knew existed but in much more magnitude than I thought. India and Pakistan share a strained relationship. However, I got to know how strained when my mind refused to read ‘I am Malala’ for the political memoir just because it was written by a Pakistani. I think my annoyance also stemmed from the fact that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014 was shared between her and Kailash Satyarthi from India, which I thought was unfair. I boycotted the book for quite some time before realizing that even Kailash Satyarthi may not be as bothered about this issue as me. Good sense prevailed and I started reading the book. I have found it interesting so far, occasionally smiling at Malala’s showing off, which she deserves to do BTW :)

So, that’s the story of our great Reading Challenge. 20/24 is not a bad score I guess. I don’t know if I will ever complete the challenge. Chances of my OCD taking over are huge, but my laziness is a powerful opponent by itself. So, what do you think will happen? Who is betting against what? :P

Snips n Strokes

Hello people, I have really exciting news to share! It's been one of my ambitions to be an entrepreneur. I have toyed with the idea for a long time, considering various options. Anything involving physical labor is hard. Not only does it demand a lot of time, the logistics are going to be a pain too. Thanks to all my pinteresting, I came across journals and planners. Especially, Project Life journals and Erin Condren planners. Trust me, people take these very seriously. And I can understand why :) Being an insufferable planner myself, this seems the perfect way to combine work and fun. Also, it takes away the pressure of making those too good to be true scrapbooks!

So, coming back to my business idea, I thought why not journaling cards and planner stickers? I can create digital files and sell them on an online platform like Etsy. And that’s what I did :) The fruits of my labor are now elegantly displayed in my online shop *drum roll* ‘Snips n Strokes’ *claps and whistles*. Here, I plan to sell digital art such as pattern papers and scrapbook elements too. It is like my first born baby and I have recorded the date and time of it's entry into this world - 24th December 2016, 7:15 PM.

I have always believed that it is necessary to have a backup skill. In case I happen to lose my job or suffer a burn out, I wanted to have an alternative source of income. Some means of financial stability. Granted, this does not pay much. But it does a lot to my confidence :) Also, it provides the much needed creative outlet I need. I hope to keep working on it as much as I can. I have not started out with huge expectations, but the day I make my first sale will definitely be one of the biggest moments of my life!