Its always about the people and the city...

I wanted you like... ..like you came with no return ticket, and I wanted you like you came with no expiry. I've seen the world and met people and heard their stories and I always wonder how businesses and capitalism and all around it works on Love. Expensive flight tickets, that weekend stay-cation, an extension of Visa and everything around it...it is all driven by Love. If people didn't wanna make people happy or be there and stay in life, it would have been so different. Whether it be flight tickets or doctor's appointments, hotel bookings or online shopping...you will find yourself always overpaying because the reason is Love. the anomaly of prices and markets is explained by only one thing...and they thought it could be explained by technical charts. We know that . I met this girl in Moldova who was taking a 1 am bus in snow laden night because that was what she did. She was a Russian dating a Ukrainian and because of some army duty and region specific rules,...

"No." Its not just a word; it's a complete sentence in itself... This dialogue got its overdue appreciation in the hindi movie 'Pink' wherein a lawyer is trying to point out meaning of No on behalf of the protagonist and all women in general... He says this regarding consent and how a simple No is a sentence in itself in all matters of will and accord. I completely agree with it though that's not what this post is about. That's the trigger of my particular thought which got pronounced in following months after watching the movie. My thought was a complete antithesis of the point presented. Later I happen to be attending a training where it came up how one must be assertive and not hesitate when they want to say No. This is known to be a very common problem it seems that people find it difficult to say No. It maybe to reject someone's idea or proposal or in general extends to all experiences in professional and personal life. Last nail on coffi...

It was between sixteen stations, or twenty-two. It was between thirty-five minutes or fifty-one. She was gauging it continuously like she always did. The daily train ride from office to work was precisely thirty-five minutes travelling through sixteen stations. She liked to calculate and reaffirm her calculations, counting stops and time traveled and left to travel. What the commute on train does to you is identifying your defined set of rules and realizing that everyone has theirs. In few weeks you figure out that you are taking the train at same time seeing same people around. You also understand their inkling towards which bogie, seat or area to take. You know the ones who read kindle, and the ones who spend time on candy crush. It’s a continuously recurring Deja Vu. Everyday is so similar in terms of people, behavior and ambiance that it’s hard to distinguish one journey from another, except today. Today was no different on all these aspects except that sh...

Sequels have historically been a failure. They suffer with consequence of comparison, burden of excelling in improvement and challenge of raising the already raised bar. But here I am still. Attempting the sequel to ‘ Practical love, Actually ‘ Partly because many asked me to complete or alter the story, but mostly because the die-hard romantic in me says if it’s not a happy ending, it’s not over. So I attempt to write the story further. I am alarmed and jostling between what should happen hence- should I write through my hopelessly romantic ink or shall I splatter my overtly practical self? Let’s see. This is what happens… Have you done it? I feel there are many people who have. So, have you done this to yourself….telling and bewaring yourself about something before you go ahead and do it? It’s not the normal stance of caution or word of concern you get or give yourself. It’s more like a statement you will make in future when you will be talking about this day in hindsight. S...

He said he was old school while she was ‘the new age kid.’ He said she was a little stupid but nice; she said he was too nice and needed to be a little stupid at times. This was not a love story from the books but in a way it was very bookish. Opposites attract. The simple guy falls for the chirpy girl while the zealous girl likes the simplicity and hesitation that she thought all her male friends lacked. They were friends, are friends. He knew her and the guy she was in love with – the college romance that had blossomed into destination living in. He also witnessed the ebbing away of love by long distance… And then they became animals of conversation. They would sit all night talking about purpose of life. Well a correction. She would rant all night. Asking questions and answering them and then analyzing, proving and questioning the proof. He just listened and then somewhere, the chatty voice slipped in with the sound of clock hands signalling time ticking away, stealing away th...

"It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what. How did he know that?" I've had chills down my spine every time Will Smith narrates this in the movie' Pursuit of happyness' It has been the kind of feeling, or rather a hunch wherein I felt totally in agreement of what he says without knowing or rationalizing it. Cut to a recent self ranting and later me watching this movie again today. I finally had a closure. A closure not in ways of finding a solution or way out of this argument but in fact in terms of why I felt the same way. The incident goes like this... I was on a long flight from South Africa to Dubai after a month long vacation...

"Jism Ma'moon, Insaan ma'moon; this just a machine, khalli walli" The now slightly tired cop finally drove a nail in my head with his Arabic wisdom which he tried to put across in our common language. I understood what he meant, noting down the word in my head to look up later once I was in senses enough to google. It had not sunk in.  Just like everything else in my life, this realization was also delayed...I knew it was something that will have a lasting impression but I wasn't ready to internalize it as yet. I was seemingly functioning normally, knowing well it will accentuate very soon, giving a full impact. Things had slowed down but everything was happening quickly. My beloved car, which now looked nothing less than a piece of trash was blinking gloriously still in the middle of the road, royally guarded by multiple police cars while first respondents continued asking me if I felt ok. I did feel ok. I did back then at least....  After few ...

The concept of getting married, loosely speaking, without going into details or googled timelines started somewhere in the tribes. It began when humans were not evolved enough to rationalize a system, yet enough to feel a need for the same. It started not at a precise time but over generations. It ran its life as it was being established that the male species have to be worthy of being superior (usually physically) while females had to be worthy of being wooed (again usually physically which included aspects of aesthetics and characteristics of child -bearing ability). While this equation was loud and clear in a very short span of time, what took much longer was the idea of making this known. What we simply call  'put a ring' was what took ages as we were not instantly aware of the importance of giving it a structure or making it public.  I have spent time in a Masai village myself where they told me that in old times the men would go on a lion hunt when the age was 'r...

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...