little nothings...

So, after a hiatus of close to 2 years, yours truly has decided to blog again drawing some inspiration from Mrs.Funnybones. A friend read her book and recommended reading them as she thought my style of writing and that of Mrs.Funnybones felt quite similar to her I am taking that as a compliment (insert the wide grin emoji here ). While I dint get to strike off a lot of things from my 30 before 30 list , I definitely accomplished one. Point number 25 on the list. Not the plural though. So what changed in the last 2 years? I am a lot more patient now. Thanks to the lil tsunami that has entered my life now. I am definitely more fit than I was two years ago. A lot less materialistic. Thinking about which I dint buy a single watch in the last 2 years and bought just one bag. Quite a feat for the shopoholic in me. I am more tolerant towards most of the things (insects haven't made it to that list yet!). If you asked me to describe myself in one word today , that word would be...

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche Evenings in Rishikesh were an absolute bliss. They are meant to relax and while away your time watching the sunset while the cold breeze touches your face. Every evening, during my brief stay in Rishikesh,  we used to sit on the banks of the Ganges with our feet dipped into the water and talk about things. Everything. Things like why we were travelling solo, what were we scared of, if there was something that we could change about ourselves , what would it be and so many other things. Some profound. Some utterly nonsensical.  On one such evening, AY, AK and I were talking with our feet dipped into the water. Suddenly we notice two shining objects far away in the sky; twinkling and one white in colour and the other twinkling and red in colour. AK and I argue that those are stars while AY counter argues saying they are planets.  "No...

I once read in one of those solo traveller blogs that  "If you want to learn something new - travel. If you want to discover something new about yourself - travel solo." and wanted to travel solo ever since... I have always had a thing for travelling and exploring new places (travellers too! ;) ) and decided I will travel solo before I turn 30. My life had been so disorganised and chaotic in the recent past with so little time for myself that I realised it was time I took a break to do something for myself.. something new... something that made me challenge myself to come out of my comfort zone.. something that allowed me to meet new and interesting people..and explore! After a lot of thought and research , I decided to go to Rishikesh and stay at an ashram as I wanted to spend a lot of time with myself, in self introspection and away from the hustle bustle of everyday life.  I signed up for a yoga course at an ashram because I wasn't sure if I was cut out for s...

When someone calls me crazy I tell them they should wait till they meet The Family. I can bet my entire life's savings that you wouldn't have seen a crazier family. I have cousins who discuss for an hour on how cockroaches die. Seriously! I always found cockroaches disgusting. They have no reason to live, yet alone become a topic of discussion. What is more disgusting is people making videos out of the last 3 minutes of their death. Yuck! Common! every living thing is entitled to their share of peace in death. Ok, before you think that this post should have been 'C for Cockroaches' let me go back to the craziness. Did you know that cockroaches can survive nuclear explosions? My craziness started with the crazy friends I made at school. Like we used to call up random people (Thank God for landlines without caller IDs back then) and ask them "We are calling from water department. Is there water coming in your tap?". Very sincerely that aunty or uncle or ...

If I had a million dollars at my disposal, I would run a campaign targeted towards women:  Be Bold. Be Yourself. Be Beautiful. A lot of times women underestimate themselves. they underestimate their beauty, inside and outside. Have you seen the recent dove commercial where women are presented with two doors, BEAUTIFUL & AVERAGE, and how they are supposed to choose one? Click here to view it. And the one they made sometime ago that showed how women really underestimated themselves. I simply loved the expression on the faces of those women who chose 'beautiful' over 'Average' . There all looked confident. I asked myself which door would I choose? Would I go for 'beautiful' or maybe feel self conscious and pick 'average' ? Average because of the fear of being judged ? What is my definition of average & beautiful ? Or would I feel more confident when I walked through the door that says 'beautiful'. Am I beautiful ? And m...

The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear/read the letter A is my name. Then, my brother's. And then, my younger sister's. Then the younger brother's and then the youngest...and so on... All the kids in my family are named with 'A'. There is a story behind it. It is like a comedy of errors; having 6 kids in the house with all their names starting with an A and how everyone ends up calling them with the wrong name all the time.  The funniest part is every time my grandmother scolds someone she calls them 'Anshu' . Poor Anshu.. Ok. getting back to the story. My grandmother's name starts with A, Anantha Lakshmi. I think her name is kind of trendy for her time. I mean, imagine a time when girls were named Veeramani, Venkatamma, Subbama and she is named Anantha. Coincidentally, my maternal grand mom's name too is a little trendy for her time, Uma Devi. Remember that song from Guna... " Devi...Uma Devi... "  My dad was a typical ...

I often think about blogging. It's like I am writing and there is an incessant outpour of words and I'm writing and writing and I wake up to find that its all a dream. Gulp. Everytime I feel like penning down my thoughts and I don't have access to my computer, I quickly note them on my smartphone in Evernote hoping that someday, ..., someday (read that with a 'pause'. I intend to create a very serious effect there!) , all those random ramblings will see the light of internet. My Evernote account is a series of incomplete blogposts . I like to write. But the lazy bug that I am I procrastinate. Forever. So the only way to write more, I thought, would be to join a blogathon and here it is 'The A - Z Blogathon' . I am known to leave lists incomplete and I am not sure how much I am going to accomplish this one and I only hope this time it is going to be different....

Though I hail from a family of entrepreneurs, joining the startup bandwagon was nothing less than defying traditions and norms. Every aunt I knew advised me against running behind companies and asked me to settle down, and I never knew what settling down meant. The only settling down I knew was that of the sand grains that settled down at the bottom of the river to become sedimentary rocks. This post is my experience and learning from the last 4 years of entrepreneurial journey and as I began jotting down points at the back of my mind, I felt any women, entrepreneur or otherwise, would be able to relate to it. Clichés like confidence, strength and yada yada are not on my list of ten things to have, because the fact that you started up is enough evidence that you are a strong and confident woman. 1. A good planner Invest in a good planner. Doesn’t matter how smart our smart phones are, I always swear by investing in a good planner. A planner will ensure that you don’t schedule ...

Yesterday I was frantically searching for something and While I dint find that something, I found so many other beautiful things: old letters and greetings from friends , pics of family and friends from long long ago, things like a diary from class 2 and cricket cards that my brother saved and so many other silly things which actually made me enjoy the search. The typical me would have ended up frustrated and angry for not finding that something.  Maybe the same applies to life too! While we are constantly in a quest for 'something' we neglect the smaller and more beautiful things that bring us a lot of happiness. Maybe its time to slow down and keep our eyes open for the smaller things... And finally I did find that something too, in the least expected place . My Mom bribed me saying she will pay me 2000 bucks if I don't get frustrated during the search and 4000 bucks if I don't find it in her house. See.. keeping control over one's anger always pays :P p...

Turning 30 is a big milestone in a woman’s life. Just yesterday, I realised that I have a little over 6 months before I can embrace the big 30 and that I am yet to strike so many things off my 30-before-30 list. Never mind it will just be changed to 40 before 40. And yeah, while I was contemplating what advice I would give my younger self, I asked my friends and a lot of other women I know what they wanted to do before they turned 30 or what they wish they did before turning 30. ‘Travel Alone’ came number 1 on the list closely followed by ‘Become financially independent’. ‘Go on a trip with girlfriends’ came third on the list. Here’s an awesome crowdsourced list that I thought I should share with so many awesome women around.  Go backpacking Travel alone: When you travel alone, not only do you meet so many interesting people but it will force you to open up and explore Experience a heartbreak : Heartbreaks can teach you to handle emotional pains and makes a women emoti...

OK. So I decided I am going to prove the critics wrong. For all those who thought that yours truly can only write about bullshit, here is one of the few sane articles I wrote. One of my writeup on an awesome startup www.ekincare.com was recently published on the Start-up Hyderabad website. eKincare provides individuals with a dashboard to track and monitor their health in a smart way. Seriously, in the age of cloud we store all our books, photos, music and important documents online and why do we still store our medical information in paper files and records? Personally, I may not have a lot of medical records that I would like to store but this is a boon for people who stay away from home and would like to constantly monitor and be in touch with their parents health. I mean how cool is it to track your parents blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels and more  using graphs online ? For me, its a great way to force my mum into taking charge of her health and getting timely chec...

Usually when I write something I share it on FB and twitter. There is this one particular post that I wrote sometime back and dint share it on any social network, except a few friends. I really don't know if that was a conscious decision or a subconscious one. Maybe, it was the fear of retribution as the entire clan is on FB or probably the 'need' to be politically correct or God-knows-whatever ! I was somehow always the odd (wo)man out in the family. There were literally no cousins my age I always hung out with people double my age or people nearly a decade younger to me. Growing up, I was a witness to infinite stories about MILs complaining about DILs and DILs badmouthing the MILs. And when I see my younger cousins going through the same strenuous relationships, it makes me cringe and wallow in grief as to when this MIL-DIL  equation will change and will be cherished like any other beautiful relationship in the world. Hence, I decided to bring that post out of th...

Do you know how coffee was discovered?  There are several legendery theories.  One says some Sufi mystic observed some unusual vitality in a group of birds and tried eating the same beans and experienced the same vitality. Another says a group of Ethiopian shepherds found their goats dancing after eating the beans and stayed alert for a long time and thus discovered caffeine effects on his goats.   image courtesy: http://www.gifs-paradise.com / Coffee has this thing that stimulates dopamine production and dopamine has stuff that makes us happy!   No wonder coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, right after oil.  I think conversations with  girlfriends have the same effect like dopamine, make you happy and alert! Just smelling coffee feels so nice. Likewise, just the thought of a nice conversation with gfs can make one feel so nice and cheerful!! Really, gfs are the second best thing in the world, of co...

I came across this news today that the Mumbai police are creating whatsapp groups to stay in touch with citizens. How cool! Though whatsapp can get a little annoying and frustrating at times, more often than not it's such a great way to stay connected with friends and family. No wonder the founders got acquired for such a huge amount! Sometimes I feel there should be whatsapp etiquette, just like email and Facebook etiquette. Like people should know how uncool it is to send hundreds of 'good morning' pictures with flower bouquets and hot coffee mugs. And how impolite and bad manners it is to quit from a group just like that. And no, it is totally unacceptable to use a group to chat with one person and torture the rest of the members!! You would be surprised if I told you how girls use whatsapp. Jan Koum wouldn't even have expected that women would use whatsapp it so many ways, apart from all the bitching and gossiping.. Try clothes at stores and send picture...

To introduce yourself as "Hey, I am Omlette. I am an entrepreneur" ( my obsession with the name Omlette ) is very cool. I mean  people find it really cool and go ga-ga when some introduces themselves as an  'entrepreneur'  ( though Omlette is cooler.. sigh!), but in reality being an entrepreneur is anything but cool. You open the net and read all sorts of quotes that say entrepreneurship is fun and  that you live your life a few years like most people wont so that you spend the rest of your life like most people cant and so many other cliches. Entrepreneurship is not easy. Its like bringing up a baby. You cant stop tending to it just cos it is 11 PM and it is no longer working hours. Babies are cute. But when they belong to the neighbor. Ditto ditto with entrepreneurship.  So if you are an entrepreneur and dreaming to make it big, the startup leadership program is the place to be.  My take on why you should be a part of the program . Read more her...

I recently came across a blog post where the author says: I’m 25. I’m a girl. I’m Indian.If you’re an Indian girl above 21 with female body parts; I’m sure by now you have already heard this ‘cute’ question a million times,  “When are you getting married?”. And I replied her saying: "Hello! I’m 28. I’m a girl. I’m Indian. And I'm married. If you are 20+ and married and just because aunts cannot ask you the “When are you getting married?” question anymore, they shift focus to “When are you having the kid?” question. It doesnt stop there and simply calls for another blog post. :) Seriously! Does this ever stop? Annoying aunts and their equally annoying questions.  The 'real' me cannot give in-your-face kind of an answer and i just smile, avoid the topic and try to avoid that person for God knows as long as possible. Hence the virtual me decided on giving an answer to all the aunties across the globe pestering young women with their stupid question. ...

With every other day there seems to be an exponential increase in the number of social obligations, work commitments, stress and a greater effort to be put into relationships.. Relationships are becoming a double edged sword which require very very careful treading. Once broken, they will take a looooong time to mend! From time immemorial, the MIL and DIL relationship has been a very slippery one and almost all movies and soaps portray the MIL & DIL relationships in a very distasteful way setting a negative pace from the day 1. Here's a few tips or guidelines to survive The Monster-In-Law / The Devil-In-Law syndrome. 1) As you sow shall you reap If you cannot treat your MIL/DIL as a mother/daughter , do not expect to be treated like a daughter/mother. Remember, both love and respect have to be earned back. They are not on any buy one get one free offer. Dont treat your DIL/MIL the way you wouldnt want your daughter/mother to be treated. 2) Every lion is the king...

Its been long since I have filled up an application form. The last form where I wrote about myself was long long ago when I had applied for the Masters. It already feels like a different decade. The only forms I fill these days are for PAN Card applications, company related forms and forms for bank accounts, which pretty much a robot can do and you don't have to think.  Considering the fact that I have to optimally utilize the fleeting and fragmented bandwidth available on the upper floor, I decided to crowd source answers for the question "Tell us something interesting, memorable, quirky or unique about yourself." Yeah! I know that is taking something a bit too far.. Actually, it was not a bad idea after all. I really got some interesting insights into myself. Mother India: A little mature. A little mental. Sometimes an adult. Sometimes a stupid. Now you put it into your fancy words. (I am trying to empower the Mother India these days and she seems to be learnin...