I’m enthralled to reach this magic figure- today as I turn 25, I feel special yet another time.
Though I’m not sure how, but I’m sure there are many fun-filled things planned for the day.
Waiting for this beautiful day to unfold in the most enigmatic and exciting manner…
I wish myself a verrry Happy Birthday. I’m all geared up to rock:-)

An unusual mail jumped into my inbox. It asked for volunteers for some J _ _ _ _ _ D_ _. This was the only info and every other detail was kept a secret. I replied ”I’m in.” with a little curiosity of what it could be.
When I looked at the mail again, I found some obvious hints- Mata Amritanandamayi and Juan Mann smiling at me. Oh is it J O Y H U G DA Y? How is it possible? It is not a college yaar, commmmon.
All the volunteers were briefed about the event and given Blue Tees for the J-Day.
And finally Surprise!!!! Surprise!!!!
We actually had plans for celebrating a “Jhappi Day” in office!!! Isn’t it strange? Had heard of pink day, ethnic day etc, but Jhappi day????
The rule was simple – offer a hug and make some one’s day . Spread the hugs, spread the hope.
We were game. An official mail was sent out saying “It is a Jhappi Day-a free hugs day and the ones in dark blue Tees are the official jhappars who would offer hugs. They are all around you.”

R and I were very excited about it. R wore a “Hug Me” on his chest, bold and clear enough to cry out the message. I wore it on my sleeves coolly.
Enthusiastically, we also taped a printout saying “I’m a hug…waiting to happen” (remembering my Prince Charming we had met in the shop) on our backs. We gave each other a jadoo ki jhappi and began for the day on our mission of spreading love and showing that we care.
I hugged everybody in the module…a friend or a foe, an acquaintance or an ajnabi (alien)…everyone appeared pure & His perfect creation. I realized it was so easy to accept anyone with your arms wide open and a smile on your face.
I even had the courage to forgive and ask for forgiveness, the strength to confess the deepest fears…hug…and shower my love, affection and respect on the ones I truly adore.
I admired and thanked…hugged…
I had the opportunity to know few people by their names, people whom I had passed by several times in the corridors and wings.
(I can now name a few smiling faces I see everyday )
The atmosphere had suddenly turned so friendly, so lively. Every one was so approachable. There was no inhibition, only acceptance.
I had learnt in Art of Living “Accept people and things as they are”. In this simple yet effective exercise I found it so easy to learn.
We finished our work and went from cubicle to cubicle, module to module spreading love and giving free hugs. Everyone welcomed us with equal warmth and affection.
I could feel our happiness was almost contagious. Our zeal and spirit transmitted at a pace higher than that of light.

The concept was inspired by:
• Juan Mann’s Free Hugs Campaign
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Hugs_Campaign

• Mata Amritanandamayi- the hugging Saint
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mata_Amritanandamayi

• Munna bhai ki famous “Jadoo ki Jhappi”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munna_Bhai_M.B.B.S.

I experienced the love that emanated from the bottom of my heart even for a complete stranger!
We were surprised by the feat- R & I hugged almost 500-600 people in a day, something I had never imagined in my wildest dreams!!!
At the end of the day we had a Jhappar’s meet and I saw everyone was in a state of trance-engulfed in the emotions of joy, happiness, satisfaction and peace.
Some moments were captured to be framed in the memories. The Jhappar’s club was officially dissolved with a special note from the organizers – “From tomorrow, we do not want to see people hugging each other.” :- ) hahahaha.

Haven’t you experienced the craving for a jadoo ki jhappi? A tight bear hug that would alleviate all your pains and sufferings? The last hug before bidding a good bye with a hope that you would meet again and then a jhappi on reuniting with your buddies? A hug asking for forgiveness, a hug depicting acceptance, a hug to end bitterness in the relation, a hug full of hope…a hug when you are happy… a hug when you are sad…
A hug that would show that you are loved and cared…the one that gives you the strength to face the world… a hug just like that???
When was it last that you hugged someone you love?
Hug is a connection seedha dilse dil tak (Heart-to-heart). It can transform lives. Won’t you embrace your near and dear ones and the ones who really need a jadoo ki jhappi? After all everyone needs a good hug.
Aa gale lag jaa

“Shameless/useless/manner less! Doesn’t he know that boys are NOT supposed to open ladies purses?” would have been my normal reaction, but I didn’t frown even for once; instead I was smiling at him and looking at him intently. He looked at me and smiled back. It was such an engaging smile that I fell in love with him at once.

A day before P’s birthday, R, S and I were together again at a shopping centre looking for a shirt for the birthday boy. Pick…Drop…Selections…Rejections.
Finally, I had a feeling that we would end up buying “Emperor’s clothes” or “Happy Man’s shirt”
There- and we found what we were looking for.

But I was still looking at him. Not just I, R & S also had their eyes set on him. This time he didn’t look at me. He was busy taking out things from his mamma’s purse. A 10 rupee note here and a 100 there- a pen here and a comb there. I went to him and picked up the things lying on the floor and took him to his mom and granny who were busy shopping.
He was a sweet, little chubby Prince Charming who had come to sweep me off my feet, so what that he himself seemed to have learnt to take his baby steps quite recently.  His mom and granny thanked me and asked him to hug me.
Oh how cute! He wobbled, swayed, lost his balance as he walked towards me. I was on my knees with arms wide open, waiting for him.
I got connected to him instantly. R and S approached us and coaxed him to hug them. But he didn’t.
His family asked him to do a “nosy-nosy” to me. We wondered what that would be. But when he gently rubbed his nose against mine, side-to-side, I could feel my happiness, his purity and innocence. It was cho chweeeeeeeeeeet.
R and S wanted their nosy-nosys too, but he didn’t give, thus making my hug and nosy-nosy even more special. Exclusive! We smiled at each other and I knew that even he was in love with me:-)
When he waved at us, my eyes read a special message on his powder blue shirt,  as if meant for me- “I’m a hug…waiting to happen.”
I ran to him, hugged him and kissed him on his cheeks.
I always love taking/giving gifts from/to my loved ones. But yes, this little one made me believe yet another time that children are God’s gifts to us and I love them more than any other gift.

Vande Mataram!

“Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hain
Dekhna hai zor kitna bazuyein kaatil mein hain 

Hai liye hathiyaar dushman taak mein baitha udhar
Aur hum taiyyar hain seena liye apna idhar
Khun se khelenge holi gar vatan mushkil mein hain
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hain…

Haath jinme ho junoo kaTate nahi talwaar se
Sar jo uth jaate hain woh jhukte nahi lalkaar se
Aur bhaDkega jo sholasa hamare dil mein hain
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hain…

Hum to gharse nikle hi the baandhar sarpe kafan
Jaan hatheli par liye lo badh chale hain ye kadam
Zindagi to apni mehmaan maut ki mehfil mein hain
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hain…”

Happy Independence Day:-)

One of my brothers- A1, a Mechanical Engineer, has joined the Robotics Department of a reputed firm, as a fresher.
He is instrumental in triggering all my cousins to make fun of me (Though he is the one who would be on my side against rest of the world.)
I remember how I slogged as a fresher-stayed late, worked on weekends and how my cousins would intentionally call me up on Saturdays and Sundays just to catch me working in office on weekends:-) On the occasions when I had to miss some important family functions and reunions for some “high priority” releases (which today I feel as least important & useless crap), how they made me feel guilty and sad for not being a part of all the fun and celebrations. They still call me “World’s first Engineer” or at times “ONLY Engineer” verrrry sarcastically (The fact is we are a family of Engineers- my father and both K1 & K2).
I wish I could explain how they had made me a standing joke!!!

Funnily, today A1 is in the same situation as I was in, a few years ago. Boomerang!

He was posted out of his base branch for 2 months and now it has been more than double the period & he is still hopeful that “this” week is the last week, the release will happen for “sure” and then he would pack his bag and move back to Bangalore.
A1 along with his team is working in shifts to meet the deadlines and make the robots perform at their optimal capacities. He is dying to finish off the project and go back from the client site.

Now, whenever I call him up he talks ONLY about robots-that they have 6 robots in the assembly line, some very obedient-who follow all the instructions religiously, some naughty-who move to right when asked to go left, some dumb-who do not budge even if you break your head, some over enthusiastic…

Many a times I jokingly say, “If a robot stops functioning, they might keep you in its place, coz now you know what to do and what not to. Be careful. I don’t think your employer has good motives ”

Yesterday I talked to him after quite some days and we had some silly talks that made me laugh crazily so much so that I thought of writing this post.
Some talks and then -
I: Take some time off and look after your health and eat and sleep well. Go out with friends.
A1: We do have some parties…some cocktail parties…
I: ummm brother…
A1: No Di, I don’t drink.
I: Well, ROBOTS don’t drink;)
A1: They do. They drink BLOOD.
Hahahahaha.

Some more blabber. Then a context-based quote-
I: “There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don’t.”
A1: Hey please don’t talk about that binary, I’m mad working with it so much so that when my Manager called me up and asked me about the production numbers, I gave him a biiiiiiiiiig one-all 1s and 0s. He asked me, “Is it really this big?” And I said, “Enjoy the conversion. Why should only I suffer? : P

A1: I think I’ve got dark circles
I: (Hey you stole my line!!!!) Mebe that’s just the colour of your skin eeelll:P
Or maybe when you were fast asleep at your workplace your robot gave you a good punch (Dil Chahta hai – Akaash style remember?).
A1: Hey can we please keep those robots out?
I: (Yuhhhhhhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuu mission successful)
Useless that is what I’m trying to tell you, instead of asking how I am, or telling how you are, you have told me all about them, huh!

Jokes apart I wondered, here there are people who try to give humane characteristics to robots, there are others who expect humans to be robots. In the office setup, we are expected to be professionals, but are we not human beings to the core??? Or working in front of the PCs, maddened by the passion of money making and emerging as success stories in the “survival-of-the-fittest world”, have we lost the human touch and transformed into emotionless robots? Imagine. Just imagine a world full of such machines. Sounds scary, right? Taming the lifeless robots could still be an achievable task but think of the new species of robots in making.

Friendship..A special bond

Are all your friends who meant “world” to you, at some or the other point of time, in touch with you? How often do you catch up with them in your busy schedules?
Do you remember them all? The ones in first std? The ones in the neighborhood of your first apartment? Your first friend?
But friends are the ones with whom we connect instantaneously even when we meet them after years.
As a matter of fact, there are many such people who have been my dear friends, but I have no clue of where I can find them now.
But it doesn’t mean that I don’t think of them ever. I do miss them whenever I make friends just like them.

Friends are all the same whatever their age or gender is. Wherever you go with an open heart and wish to look out for them, you will find these species with those common “extra-ordinary” characteristics in numbers which may surprise you.

They are there when they are with you; they are there even when they are not with you.
They are there when you need them; they are there even when you don’t want them around.
They laugh when you laugh; they cry when your eyes show the signs of tears.
They call you up when you are just thinking of them…or make those surprise visits.
They love you for whatever you are, care for you whoever you are.
They may fight with you, irritate you and test your patience at times; yet make you laugh, make funny faces and get you out of your lows.
They make you go that extra mile when you feel you have given your best and feel like a loser. They believe you when you don’t believe yourself.
They are the ones with whom you create or share the deepest-darkest secrets.
They are the ones with whom you love to spend time, share tiffins, go out for movies, for shopping…and hours pass like seconds…
With whom you talk a lot and share silence equally well…
With whom you feel happy about yourself!

To all those divine beings who have made my life worthwhile and added meaning to it,
I raise a toast of love, luck, cheers, smiles, giggles and hugs:-)
Dear friends- May you always have a shoulder to cry on and a hug to share your joy.

Friendship is such a pure relationship, though not a blood relationship(You could be doubly lucky to have yours sisters as your best friends though!) it is very special and I feel that is why God has given us the gift of choosing as many of our friends as we want, who would make us complete.
Friends are God’s ways of telling us that He loves us immensely. They are a family outside our family…rather an extended family.
I will not say Happy Friendship day or a week coz I believe it is something that lasts forever. So, Happy Friendship to all those lucky ones who have friends:-)

Note:- This is one of my favorite snaps-my friends with me: Our hands symbolize togetherness. It shows that friends love, care, support and strengthen you. Let all friendships bloom like the flowers in the pic.

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Well, Think again.
I have a flair for naming things…I mean giving names and not keeping names
Let me introduce to you two of my favorite characters-my sisters: K1 & K2, my bestest friends who will make frequent appearances through my posts, who have shared this happiness and fun with me, and who are equally adroit in finding weird names for anything and everything – be it friends, objects, flowers, pets.

BTW, I’m K3

Our love for animals made it almost obvious for us to have pets.
We had some kittens-Poosy (as unique a name as “Tommy” is for dogs. ) the mother with Suzie, Lucy and likes…
I had always wanted to have a pet-dog and few names I had in my mind were- Pizza, Chocolate, Maggi, Cookie and all cutie pie names, a doggy whom I would walk along…pat and cuddle.

We did have one, a German shepherd. Our parents had suggested him to be named “Prince” and we crowned him the “King”…coz we belong to the famous K-brigade, we thought it appropriate to follow the pattern, & I gave up on all those yummy names for this perfect one;)
Forget my dream walk, this huge heavy-weight champ turned out to be an unmanageable spoilt brat who would take 4 of us (Mom + 3 of us) on rounds of skiing!!! We would run after him on roads, jump off compound walls of our neighbors and get him home with all the pleadings.
It would be a sight of sheer entertainment for our neighbors, who would peep through their windows and doors to have a look at our plight.
Amidst all this fanfare, King would come home.
How well he knew how to command the royal treatment!

I’ve spent most of my summer holidays in my school days at Amma’s (my maternal granny’s) place with my cousins, cattle, dogs, cows, buffaloes, sparrows etc.

The very first of our stints was naming a velvet black jersey. We named her “Bobby” and I remember how much painstakingly we made the villagers who would come to our place call her “Baabi”. There began the story. After Bobby, we named every little new born with the same zeal.

We had kittens named as Shahrukh- the sweet, sluggish grayish brown, Salman- the skeletal white one, Hrithik aka Pappu – the colorful spotted kitten and many more.
“Janaana jaat mardana naam”, meaning masculine names for feminine gender. Hahaha. This is a dialog from a Hindi movie. Any guesses?
I remember a funny incident. I, along with a friend, was walking to the college. I was telling stories of the live soft toys we had at home. Completely engrossed in the talks, I missed why a group of students stopped, laughed and moved on. My friend, who by now was very embarrassed, said that it was all because of my stories. I repeated only the last sentence I had uttered. “Yesterday, Shahrukh came and sat on my lap.” And then we had a good laugh:-)
Well, the dialog is from Iqbal.

We had named our carom coins and the names were inspired from the famous DD serial Chandrakanta’s “ayyars” (eg: Barkha). My favourite was Chapala- the white coin with a black mark on it!

No one will believe this craziness but yes we also had fun naming seeds! I vaguely remember that we used to play some funny game with Tamarind seeds {“chinchuka” in Marathi}…and 3 of us loved a “B-shaped” “Appy”

This continued even in college where I was the official name-keeper for naming inanimate objects, finding out substitute names, secret codes, project names, our “satra-se-khatra” gang name (This is another amazing fact that we were a group of 17 girls during our BE days!)

I’ve earned ample of names with love from my dear ones – Ki, TukTuk, RadioMirchi, Kittu, Kidi, Kima, DK, Chiv-chiv hmmmmmmmmmmmm to name a few.

Who says naam mein kya rakha hai? Kya aapne kabhi naam rakha hai?

Janakalyan Raktapedhi had organized a blood donation camp in our office campus.
Quite a few of us enthusiastically reported at the venue.
“Learn to be positive.”
“I don’t need to, coz I’m already A+ve!”
Wow! What had I said? Thought of these lines, without any context but so very apt, when I wrote my blood group- “A+ve” – on the donor’s card.
It is an amazing feeling to know that your blood might save someone’s life.
I will love to do it again and again.
13th Feb – It was a day before Valentine’s. Wow! What a lovely way to show my love towards humanity!

Scene change-
We all know about the news that hit the headlines on the front pages this year on Valentine’s Day.

Point to be noted – out of five of us from my group who volunteered in the blood donation camp, 1 was South Indian & 3 were North Indians & I was the only Maharashtrian!
Why didn’t they think that their blood might be given to a “Marathi manus” whose brethren were behind the lives of some of their very own people?
I wanted to go on the top of a mountain and shout & let the world know that –“Hey look, this is not how a true Marathi would think & act like.”
Maharashtra is known to be a land of saints, who preached “he vishwachi maze ghara” meaning the “whole universe is my home” and derisively today the “sons” of this land are refusing to welcome their own countrymen? Are we all not one family, children of one mother?
It was a day to remember, for it made me happy & sad at the same time.
I realized, just because hatred exists, love rules:-)

Flash back-
My baba was a regular donor (only till recently when he was diagnosed with diabetes) and I always wanted to participate too right from my college days. I had even made few unsuccessful attempts to get into the camp only to be deemed & dumped as “underweight”.

Though I’ve got the inspiration to donate blood from my dad, I’ve got my blood group from my mom!
Hey donating blood is in my blood…

OhMiGod! The Queen just realized how many months have passed without blogging!!!
There are so many wacky ideas, expressions, experiences that went un-posted.
I do not even want to put the reasons of not blogging for all these days (It could in itself be an interesting topic, coz I know few of my friends who post quite regularly & go into the “hibernate” mode more often than they are in the “active” mode )

Some random facts-
I might write in detail about few of them whenever i feel like.

• Blood donation-
  Yuhoooooooooo!!! I’m happy that I’ve passed on my enthusiasm, spirit and energies to at least one person! It was one of my dreams to donate blood & my happiness knew no bounds when I actually did so
• Mother’s Day-
  Wow! What a Mother’s Day! Went out for lunch & watched Bhoothnath (on aai’s demand) and went back swirling into our childhood days. This time it was an extended Mother’s day celebration, had decided to make it a Mother’s week. So, I and 2 of my dear friends-R (M) & S (F) bought some beautiful cards & put our words straight from heart. Mamma was really touched. (Intermission)
• New look-
  Got into a new look – a funky haircut & a dhinchak hair colour: tri-colour (red reflect-global, magenta red and walnut streaks). It’s chic.  Well, even this was an interesting episode- I went to have this makeover with R & S. We had a blast there. The hair dresser must have found R very encouraging & appreciative throughout, coz he literally clicked a snap of every silver foil that adorned my hairdo. R dropped us home on his Thunderbird, yep triple seat! We have had quite a few of these “triply” rides. If you are a movie buff, you might be tempted to know who played SRK sandwiched between MelaRam & the post master from Swades! Well, R: MelaRam, I was SRK & S: the kusti maestro.
• Art of Living-
  Recently attended “Art of Living” course and i loved it for all the simple and innocent things that were contained in the course. It was knowledge+yogas+breathing techniques+fun I knew I would enjoy it right from the moment we began the course on day 1 with our introduction – “Name” followed by “I belong to you”. It really feels nice to belong to somebody.
• Books-
  Read “Gently falls the Bakula” by one of my favourite authors – Sudha Murthy,
  One minute Manager (Well, it is about one minute goal setting, one minute praise & one minute reprimand) Reading “God loves fun” by H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar- This will be one of my prized possessions as I received the book as a gift from my “Art of Living” teacher, signed “Lots of love”:)

         Some books on my list-
        “I too had a dream” – Verghese Kurien
        “How Lance does it” – Brad Kearns

Hope you enjoyed reading these random updates.
Well, this is not all, many tiny-mini updates to follow, so please keep reading…

Sitting comfortably in my A/C office’s cubicle, in an ergonomically conducive setup, with every piece of information at my finger-tips, any near-dear one a “hello” or an e-mail away, a vending machine a few steps away and many such facilities, I still crave for better working conditions…oblivious of the harsh working conditions in some of the other industries in both the organized and non-organized sectors.

It is not just the working conditions, but be it anything, we humans always crave for more…better!

In the super fast-paced oh-so-busy lives, how often do we sit back and think about ourselves (not our need and greed!)? How about thinking of others?
I do not blame anybody, because as a matter of fact we get so much engrossed in our routine drudgery, that it takes some dedication to let the mind traverse beyond the confines of cubicles.
In one such successful attempt, our group joined hands to fight the “nothing-ness” in our lives and follow the inner voices.
We all realized that there was a “philanthropic being” deep inside each one of us.
The discussions kindled us to bring the thoughts of “doing some good to people, society” at the back of our minds, right there in the forum!
After some ground work and lots of discussions we decided to visit an NGO called Santulan. (It primarily works for the children of the stone quarry workers).

We visited Santulan last Saturday. It was an eye-opener.
How could I not think about the people living in the outskirts…far away from the shimmer and comforts of the city, struggling for survival?
How do they live amidst the clouds of dust, the noise of crushers (I thought of how suffocated I feel even while passing by the dusty construction sites on my way to office!), break those huge stones, day and night, in such hazardous conditions for a nibble?
(I thought of how we crib about the quality and variety of food in the cafeteria!)
About their families? Both the parents work and there is no one left at home to look after the children.
Their children should be provided with the basic necessities of life. They should not be deprived of the education and health care. They deserve love and affection.
The innocence of these little ones should not be crushed under the boulders.
They should be encouraged to dream big and live better lives.
Then I realized how fortunate I was to enjoy the myriads of luxuries (taken for granted!) back home.

It was Jani’s (one of my friends who had accompanied us) birthday. We had carried some packets of chocolates. The kids sang “Happy Birthday” for him. He distributed chocolates amongst them (Remember, how we did this on our birthdays in school?). Then some of them presented a “Priya-geet” for us. The birthday boy was touched by this gesture (Actually, we all were. Who will not be?) We have had many birthday celebrations in the office- the cake-cutting and smearing ritual, loads of gifts, birthday bumps, the grand parties thereafter….but this birthday celebration was indeed unique.

The visit has reinforced the feelings of doing our bit for the society.
Hopefully, this is not just the temporary “feel-good” phase, but an actual “do-good” factor that would have a long-lasting impact.
We are happy that we took the first step….miles to go though.
This is just the beginning and we vow to make the most of it!

Note: Much more to write on this in the days to come.
You might also get an idea of how moving the experience was by visiting this blog-

Dawn of a new life…..and transformations!