Its always about the people and the city...

I was not sure if it may be a good idea to pick on Feminism as a topic, especially after I try and recover from rustic jaws of no writing for a long time but I am doing it anyway. You rarely get a convincing idea when in a block so I won't let go of this beauty once it revealed itself. I was unsure because just like religion or LGBT and maybe Sex, this too is a taboo these days. But I gave a minute to it and realized, it is actually akin to terms like 'gluten-free' or FOMO or maybe even 'Brexit' that everyone seems to be discussing, talking and having an opinion on but knows nothing about. It hits you, just softly at first and then all out...and then some more... It's like the sandstorm you can't exactly miss noticing if you go out on a particularly windy day in Dubai. It may not be evident but it is everywhere, and it has seeped in our veins so much so that it has now probably surpassed weather and weekends to ace the title of best 'Small-t...

I am a girl with plan. I may usually not look like it or may look like being super indifferent to things, but I indeed have a plan. And not just a plan but plans. I have Plan A and then B and a vague idea of Plan C and possibility of D or feasibility of E in my head. Best thing about my plans is that it gives me immense pleasure to be able to execute them- any of them and at the same time I am absolutely fine if things don't go that way because I equally enjoy unknown and uncertainty. Let me also conclude this thought by saying that it is as enjoyable as difficult to be like this. I do have a switch to change gear from one side to another and be fine with any course.   Anyway, while we are at it, let me also say that I like to plan in a grand way. I love to celebrate and it gives me great happiness to make things big. That is why I am always game to celebrate occasions- and most importantly if the occasion is as big as my Birthday!   I love my birthday. I fe...

So you probably got off FB and detoxed yourself, and hence got a life (in which case you aren't reading this anyway) or maybe you travelled to new places and got yourself into the elite category of new-age people who are ready to take on the world. Maybe you quit your job and started that shack you dreamt of. Or maybe you did plain mundane things like got married...   You must have figured and re-invented yourself somewhere in 2015. No? At least something? I hope you aren't lost and still with me. There has to be something you did in 2015 that was a highlight...ending a bad relation or buy a car/house, start your dream job, got a passion, new friends or hobby, maybe ran a marathon. No? Oh. Dear lord. Such a waste. Now you are at the very end of a year and you did nothing.   I have two things to say. One, eh not a big deal. Do something now if you care enough or well otherwise, its just a change of calendar month that will create worldwide confusion...

It can very well come across as a plan full of naivety, what we felt was all about audacity. We were after-all a bunch of dozen over-enthusiastic, highly qualified but under-skilled people travelling across the sea on a mission. We were not sure how and when we would be able to accomplish the task but I am sure none of us had any doubts. It is strange, as many people were involved- in front or working at the back and even the collective wisdom could not see beyond  the valor. And with all this, or rather despite all this, we did it. I think we could because we were simply building hope, and that needs more than just strong cement foundation. So it started after a massive earthquake hit Kathmandu early in 2015 and devastated the beautiful city irreparably. Amidst the efforts of world organizations to pour in help, VolunteerinUAE got involved too. I am a part of this wonderful organization and when they told that they wanted to send a team to Nepal to help build a medical center...

" But what do you exactly want to do? Have you given it a thought? Wanna stay like this or... ?" He too asked this and I honestly couldn't think of a response which would fit into the likes of his binary expectations. It was a long answer. I got muddled, wondering if it was really a long answer or was I falling prey to my tendency of over analyzing and over explaining... This is what I would have said and that is how I felt... The dimensions have changed. The question no more attracts an absolute answer. It is relative. I would say interstellar for that matter. The question is not just 'if' but 'when', 'who' and most importantly 'if at all' Let me try to explain. Have you even been on a hiking trip or for the sake of an example, in Indian context, a trip up to 'Vaishno Devi? (a religious shrine)' If I remember correct, it's a 14 km trip up the mountains. One can choose to walk the whole way or go on ...

“ I'd finally come to understand what it had been: a yearning for a way out, when actually what I had wanted to find was a way in. ” Let me mark a disclaimer of Spoiler because one, it is a reviewer's best practice and two, it makes me feel like a God. While I put the spoiler alert, I'd add that there is nothing anyone can write to spoil the experience of watching this movie. Wild is not really about a story. Wild is an experience, aptly taken from a real life memoir by Cheryl Strayed called  Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. The journey depicted in the movie is that of Cheryl which she undertook in 1995 by hiking over 1000 miles of Pacific Crest Trail. The trail's one end is US-Mexico border and other is on US-Canada. Cheryl took this journey following personal mishaps due to which she spent years of reckless life. It was a kind of redemption...Just the way it usually is. I'll start with what she says in the movie. It sums up how...

I am a love-person. I love the concept of being in love despite the fact that my stance on love is almost same as that towards God. I think its overrated, obscure, too strong to be ruled out but at the same time lacks enough evidence to be rationally accepted. Hence I keep my highest degree of indifference towards these two and try not to fiddle or form/contest an opinion. Of course I believe these two ‘concepts’ are very ‘to-each-his-own things’ and are known to have done wonders to people. So it hardly matters if wonders were based on false notions or true concepts. Whatever works, works.   So yeah, I am agnostic. I feel these claims on God and love are unknowable but I neither rule out nor accept the existence of either. Life’s not so hard or different with lack of certain information on these afterall. But I know one things for which my Love (Oh I still use this word a lot for sake of common acceptance) for Coffee is unabashed.   Imagine you are a normal kid strug...