retirement plan ready yet?

People make their retirement plans pretty extensively….  

Doing some savings- keeping some unfulfilled dreams- making a bucket list- hoping for them to come true in the final stages of their lives.

I am no different… I have made ’em too.. Although I am too young to make retirement plans- but hard to control one’s mind. 

In fact, my career has not even taken off yet, but I have made some plans… (Who doesn’t) 😉

I want to settle down at a peaceful place- far away from the noises of the city- far away from pollution- far away from senseless chatter of people..

A place where I am woken up by rays of sun and chirping of birds…..

A place where only healthy fresh pure air fills up my lungs…..

A home surrounded by trees and not sky scrapers….

Where people live midst nature, enjoying its gift….

No country specifically- It may be a small town in Norway or Australia… in the Black Hills or in The Alps….

So…do you have a retirement plan yet..?? 

#P.S – these pictures are taken in Simla (otherwise also known as Shimla) – INDIA.

Inspired.

As the release date of a new book by Rashmi Bansal approaches, I am truly inspired, not just because her new book (Follow Every Rainbow) is about stories of 25 female entrepreneurs, but also because I finally see a direction to my dream.

Rashmi Bansal is a writer, entrepreneur and a youth expert. She is the author of four bestselling books on entrepreneurship – Stay Hungry Stay Foolish, Connect the Dots, I Have a Dream, and Poor Little Rich Slum.

After more than 140 posts on both my blogs and heaps of inspiration from fellow bloggers and friends, what gave me courage was stories of ordinary people taking risks to do what they genuinely love.

Enter inspiration number 2 – Amish Tripathi. Economic Times tells his story –

When Amish Tripathi finished writing The Immortals of Meluha three years back, he took it to virtually every publisher in the country. All of them rejected his work, the first of the Shiva trilogy, for reasons as varied as a book on gods would have no readership and that it would have no connect with youth. That’s when the alumnus of IIM Calcutta decided to do the next best thing: go back to his marketing textbooks and chart out a plan to publish and sell the book himself. Tripathi printed the first chapter and distributed it at all bookstores in a unique sampling initiative; alongside he got a movie trailer made for the book and uploaded it on YouTube. A year later, Tripathi published the second in the series, The Secret of the Nagas. Together, the two novels have sold over a million copies. And earlier this month, filmmaker Karan Johar bagged the rights to adapt The Immortals… for the big screen.

Read more here.

I quote Rashmi Bansal,

The qualities that I believe make for success are:
1) being pigheaded (believing in your story and way of writing when no one else will)
2) being ahead of your time (what you’ve written has not been seen before or done before)
3) being I-don’t-give-a-damn (I started doing this for fun, not to make serious money or a big career).

**

So, now I have a dream (publishing a book), I am a pighead (I believe I can do it), I am not sure if I am ahead of my time (everyone has an opinion now-a-days, will my opinion count?) and I don’t give a damn (I really enjoy writing, not for money but to make my thoughts reach the crowd)

**

P.S : I really like the idea of creating YouTube videos and distributing pamphlets for publicity – and mostly I’ll employ these.

P.P.S : Plz help me being one step closer to this dream – cast your vote!

D.R.E.A.M.S

They are either seen
1. With closed eyes
2. With open eyes (more commonly known as day dreaming)
3. With open eyes and a vision of practicality

I would be lying if I say I did not dream in all the three categories. 

Well firstly, the dreams with closed eyes are involuntary. So it is not in my hands to control dreaming. And more often than usual, I forgot those. A few may count Deja Vu somewhere between dreams and reality.

The second category of daydreaming is vastly famous in all mankind. Yes, the female clan have all dreamt about the victory speech after winning a beauty pageant. For more dorky types, maybe the Nobel Prize acceptance speech. For the creative ones, an Oscar or National Award. And for men, or in general, a speech after a token of appreciation is presented. Or after the girl they like says “Yes” 😉

So there is no hiding in that, this category of dreams are for fun only. To let our imaginations run wild. To bring a famous personality in conversation with us. Or to merely imagine how world would have been different if I did not do this, or if I did that. Basically, imagine all the routes not taken, all the journeys not done, all the accomplishments not achieved. We get them here. Dreaming with open eyes.

Then again, there is the last category. A more serious one. They’re more like interview questions. Where do you see yourself down the land in 3 yrs. Or do you see yourself as a manager of this company. Or what are your short and long-term goals. 
These all, we see with a practicality. Unless we belong to age group of 5-15. Because for them, even the “serious” dreams include lists like I want to be a teacher/doctor/engineer/pilot. Those are imbibed in us due to our surroundings, peers and family.

These tender dreams we see at such a young age, evolve. Till they no longer even resemble their roots. An exception maybe, if X wanted to be a teacher, and he did masters in technology which basically qualifies him as an engineer but also opens a teaching opportunity, thus fulfilling his dream. *applause*

Others nurture their dreams, make them more relevant to the present and reality, and work upon them step by step. Many achieve it, eventually. Others, obviously we haven’t heard about them, since they dint achieve anything.

What comes in between our dreams becoming reality depends on numerous factors. Firstly, its feasibility. Secondly, availability of required inputs. And thirdly, time frame.

For instance, I have a dream to build an orphanage, I should first make sure its a feasible project. No I don’t want to start with 200 people at once. Only people like Diya Mirza, who have a star power and people employed under her to do the work, can dream so big. I dream only with ten people. Next is, the resources. Money, food, shelters, clothes for them. Plus their education allowance/ arrangement for job. To be at a stage where I can support ten people, I should first be at that stage. Which brings us to the third point. Time frame. I do not expect myself to win a lottery and start this venture. It will be my hard-earned money, which comes with time. So keeping a time frame of 20 years is a safe bet. Not to forget, by then I will be supporting my kin as well as my elders.

The most essential part of this dreaming is its vision, since that’s the only substance separating dreaming with open-eyed dreaming.

For example, I also have a dream to publish a book in next 5-8 years. But I really don’t know how to begin, what to write, which style to write in, which language to follow. The more I give it a thought, the more confused I get. Should I go into newspaper first, became an editor, or just proceed with my content and approach a publisher. Where to find a publisher, will my qualifications matter, will my book even sell? I have a dream, but not that strong a vision. But I am not giving up on it. Not yet. Not till I have tried at least.

I hope all the people, who deep inside their hearts want it, achieve it. Maybe we all might not live to see our success, but I am sure Einstein, Shakespeare and Mother Teresa are sitting up there in heaven, smiling away to glory.

Dreaming is important. Its the fist step into achieving. As they say, well begun is half done. 

Quotable Quotes :

 

 

Are you one amongst them?

Often, we make choices; a few unsure ones too.

The ones we don’t know where it leads to.

The ones which may be deciding a course of our lives. Or may turn our careers in 180 degrees.

The ones we later – either boast or regret.

.

But my question is, are you one amongst them? Are you in the rat race? Did you take the road less traveled? Or are you aping someone else’s decisions too? Or someone else making your decisions?

Population status of this planet is soaring as I type this, what I wonder is, am I one in a million or just, you know, one in a million?

How do you know? How do I know?

Then I think of our unsung heroes, the ones who died fighting for a cause, the ones who did not get the media/critic acclaim. Or the ones who got an Oscar/Nobel Prize after their death. Weren’t they one in a million? 

What parameter judges our performance? How do we really stand out? If 10,000 people know what we do? Or If we do what those 10,000 people want/expect us to do?

.

Million dollar question. 

Are you one in a million? Or just someone in the crowd who will die in nonentity?

Levels of excitement

This post will start with a journey through pictures in order to reveal the different levels of excitement buid up in me; courtesy my blogs sakshivashist.wordpress.com and cruisingthroughmylife.wordpress.com

   

   

                

Yes…I was absolutely out of words and speechless after I got my “1000 total likes” star, that I decided to print_screen all the previous accolades and copy paste them after editing- upload them here and then it finally started to sink in.

WOW!!!!

I mean, seriously, till an year back I was saying to myself- who has time and patience to blog. And now I don’t miss out on replying to even one comment. It is now a habit to check for pending comments and reply to them before 3 days (at the max).

And I have 2 freaking blogs!!!! Its a double trouble – as I say to my friends. 😉

But yes, apart from becoming an ardent fan of blogging, I have started pursuing others to start blogging too. 😀

Thank you all the people out there who ever visited my blog- or passed by it by just clicking on a “Follow” or “Like” button. It gives me a reason to wake up in the morning and gives me a reason to sleep at night.

I can tell, many people clicked on “Like” without even reading my poetry or understanding it or connecting with my random musings, but I sincerely feel it gives me a boost to reach out to more people, write of more worthy things, make memories and be more expressive and yet never run out on things to talk about. 😉

That is all. I rest my case.

Forever,

the.New.Chatterbox.in.BlogTown

Certain memories are etched in your mind. Aren’t they?

Memories.

We are all here to make them.

We are all here to preserve them.

And still, its hard to keep track of all good/bad incidents in our lives.

For a certain-some-time, you feel “Yes, I will remember this for the rest of my life”. And 3 years hence, its hard to recollect the events of the same day.

THAT is the beauty of our mind. It follows a FIFO algorithm. We make space for more memories and older ones are pushed behind. FIFO or the First In First Out algorithm is described as

The idea is obvious from the name – the operating system keeps track of all the pages in memory in a queue, with the most recent arrival at the back, and the earliest arrival in front. When a page needs to be replaced, the page at the front of the queue (the oldest page) is selected.

For the same purpose, I keep this blog. So that my memories are not lost in page replacement algorithm of my “genius” mind 😉

This picture alone reminds me of a million memories I made in the December of 2011. And the best thing, the pic din’t need any sort of editing.

#Happy.Times

A look at Blog Stats *wide smile*

Its 2013.

A look at my current STATS 😉

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Blog 1 : cruisingthroughmylife.wordpress.com

Posts : 34
Tags : 260
Comments : 642
Views : 5670
Followers : 1121

Country Views :

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Blog number 2 – sakshivashist.wordpress.com

Posts : 57
Tags : 222
Comments : 713
Views : 6364
Followers : 985

Country Views :

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#dated 17th Dec’12

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Points to be noted :

1. The world painted in ORANGE looks cooool 😀

2. Whatever be the stats – I am so so glad I got such a positive response. 

3. Thankful to WordPress for creating such an awesome site!!! 😉

time for “New year Resolution”

We all make New Year Resolutions.

And we all have broken one or all our resolutions. C’mon one can’t be so strict also. Loosening one’s self leash is okay 😉

So here is a list of my past year’s new year resolutions – which I successfully implemented and plan to continue doing so. (Three cheers for self) 😀

* no shop-lifting

* no lying on the face

* eat healthy – put on weight

* say NO to aerated drinks

* no begging-borrowing-stealing : maintain accounts

* call relatives at regular intervals

* lesser *lc*h*l 

So now, the turn for this years’ resolutions. Here we go

* implement the vows taken on Bday

* shop lesser

* say less negative things/think positive

* pray more often

* wake up early 

* work out once in a while (enough with putting on weight)

With that – I pray for a peaceful and blissful 2013 which brings harmony, success and wisdom in all our lives.

Have a good day y’all.

*An update from 2015*

• implement the vows taken on Bday I don’t remember what it was i vowed on bday
• shop lesser no woman sane would add that to a resolution. 
• say less negative things/think positive To a certain extent yes! I think more positive. 🙂
• pray more often Have given up on this one I guess.
• wake up early Done 🙂
• work out once in a while There there!

Plus, I am still keeping the resolutions from way back in 2011 and 2012 🙂

Gave up religion – became spiritual

Born and bought up in India – a country with as many religions as you can count! And the best part – you can follow ANY!

For years I have been a devoted Hindu, followed the N-number of deities, visited XYZ number of temples. And I have read the BIBLE and the QURAN! (thanks to my beautiful friends *i**i*a and *a*i*a who gifted me an insight to Christianity and Islam). I have been to a church, a mosque and a gurudwara and felt equally peaceful thereafter.

I respect all the religions, and in all the dissimilarity they all are just the same. All talk about a divine power, a faith, a check on one’s karma. No religion compels people into riots, no religion forces one to keep hatred for another.

I follow spirituality. 

I believe in ONE divine power. I keep faith in my karma. I feel only good things happens with good people. Yes, there are tough phases, but there is always a silver lining.

I feel loved. I feel positive. I feel blessed.

 

Some links :

1. Indian religions

2. Religion in India

3. Hindu deities

4. Spirituality 

Disclaimer :

Absolutely NO intention to offend anyone!

2 Reality Blog Awards in a week *wink wink*

Nope! You cannot wipe the smirk off my face.. You can try, but you WILL fail 😉

I thought not checking my blog for 2 days was OKAY, not that many comments or likes or activity will be there! But I was taken by a surprise! These two wonderful people Soumya and the Muzer nominated me for Reality Blog Award! 😀

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS to them! And a big THANK YOU.

https://randomuzings.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/reality-award-blog/

http://soumyav.wordpress.com/2012/11/28/the-reality-blog-award/

Below are the rules for the REALITY blog award:

1. Answer the 5 questions

2. Nominate 8 other bloggers

 

Questions:

1. If you could change one thing, what would you change?

the ability to eat chocolates and cheese and junk food, without getting fat.

2. If you could repeat an age, what would it be?

my 10th standard

3. What one thing really scares you?

disappointing my father!

4. What is one dream you have not completed, and do you think you’ll be able to complete it?

studying in the US

5. If you could be someone else for one day, who would it be?

Narendra Modi or Priyanka Chopra

 

My nominees are :

http://author4u.wordpress.com/

http://mylifeisdrama.wordpress.com/

http://pseudomonaz.wordpress.com/

http://ididnthavemyglasseson.wordpress.com/

Well rules are meant to be broken, so only 4 nominations! 😉

Enjoy everyone and Congratulations to the nominees, I love your work!

Life b4 social networking

I worry.

At times, I worry a lot.

Most of the times, there is no solid reason to my worries.

Just the other day I was worrying, my kids will never know how life was without social networking!

So here is this post, for my future teenage son and daughter, how life used to be when I was a teenager.

• We had real friends, and we used to “ hang out” by cycling or playing in garden or gathering at someone’s place for a game of carom/ludo/snakes and ladder.
• Twitter was just the sound of birds!
• To share photographs of someone’s marriage or function or birthday, we used to click the photo with a camera -> get them printed -> arrange them in photo albums -> show to others when there happens another family gathering! Not as simple as click -> tag -> share.
• One was popular after an achievement in athletics or academics. Not getting nominated for an online contest started by a bunch of people. Or worse: best dressed, best smile, best hair competitions for people to feel better about themselves!
• Sending a mail to someone was a BIG deal. School curriculum taught us how to draft an e-mail and for many years we stuck to that code.
• One e-mail id was enough for one family. Later on (after a few more years) every application/forum/form required an alternate email id.
• Blogging did not exist till late 1990s and till 2009 it was limited to only a small group of people.
• Dating was generally face-to-face, not online.
• Bosses were treated as bosses and Subordinates were treated as subordinates  They met socially only on special occasions and family gatherings, not every day over internet after work hours!
• “Time pass” included reading newspapers (not e-newspapers), listening to radio, reading novels (not e-books), gardening etc. Ladies occasionally got together for buying vegetables or sharing recipes while their kids played. Men talked about politics or soccer games by actually physically sitting with other men.
• Acronyms and abbreviations were logical – nt abt nythin v cn mak wid a propr wrd.
• Long distance was tough! Colorful postcards, letters in envelopes and stamps of different countries/states were the trend.

There was no FB, no Twitter, no Gmail-YahooMail-Hotmail-RediffMail, No WordPress, No Instagram, No Tumblr, No Skype.

Basically, things were more REAL !!!

Why I need 21 pairs of Footwear

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People say women take a lot of time to get ready.

I feel I am an exception 😉 I kinda have everything sorted out (blame my OCD for being meticulously organised)

  

These are some basic/essential footwear and here is why I need my 21 pairs of footwear –

1. Colorful flip-flops to go to market
2. Blue-green floaters to go on a walk
3. Black pumps to go out with office people
4. Black heels to go out with friends
5. Black bellies for a casual shopping experience
6. Black flats for the days when I have to go out but my feet say NO to heels
7. White peep toes for dresses with which black footwear can’t be worn
8. Maroon zigzag strapped flats for funky outfits
9. Red strappy flats for comfortable shopping/night outs
10. Grey and light grey striped shoes for walks in the winter
11. Blue and green canvas cuz I can afford them
12. Black and red shoes for solid work-outs/jogs/gym
13. White shoes to wear with my white shorts
14. Black flats to go with my eastern wear
15. Black casual boots for winters
16. Black leather ankle boots for anytime-boot-time
17. Silver zigzagged flats for the dresses which don’t look good with any other colored slippers
18. White studded flats for my eastern wear
19. Black shoes for office
20. Brown bathroom slippers
21. White fur slippers for home

After due thought, I have excluded my ex-footwear, which now belong either to dumpsters or orphans or my cleaner or kids of my cleaner 😉

day after my 23rd birthday *ooooooh yes I am now 23*

The stuff I gave up on – over the years *sigh*

On my 23^rd birthday, I think back and list a few good-healthy-interesting extra-curricular activities and hobbies I gave up, over the past 15 years.

1. Collecting coins – many countries, different generation

2. Collecting stamp – many countries, different eras

3. Collecting dolls – different heights, races, styles, accessories

4. Collecting bangles – varied colors, types (metal, glass, plastic)

5. Origami – different shapes, multiple types of objects

6. Gardening – flowers, vegetables, herbs, shrubs

7. Playing violin – four strings I should have hung up on to

8. Playing keyboard and piano – songs, themes, making music

9. Making craft from waste paper – masks, collage, mosaic paintings

10. Making short movies – for competitions, for friends, for loved ones

11. Playing badminton – a thrilling and tiring game

12. Playing kho-kho – used to keep me fit (see what is Kho-Kho)

13. Glass and Silk painting – the patience and time each one needs/demands

I really hope I can again pick up at least one of these hobbies and by the time I am 24 this list is one point shorter!

TO BEING 23 !!!

*CHEERS*

If my life had a remote control *lost in thoughts*

If I had a remote control to my life, at this time, these are the actions I would take :

Rewind – to stop the incident which leads to a dent in my smile – the falling out of one of my precious 32 teeth

Fast Rewind – to stop the interview I successfully cracked

Forward – see who I FINALLY get married to

Fast Forward – the exams I wrote in anticipation

Pause – the time I made my parents proud after I excelled as top 0.1% of Indian students in academics

Stop – the bullying/ragging I went through

Replay – the dance performance I goofed up on-stage in front of hundreds of people

*****

Dear  Me of 2022,

I hope you have refreshed this list. You just can’t be still hung up on these things 😉

the REAL woman!

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I have seen many jokes, newspapers and critics ranting about how tough is it to understand women! In my opinion, this mentality is because of the bad publicity women have gained over the years, Thanks to silver screen! Most stories evolve around numerous break-ups, link-ups, exaggerated family issues, extravagant life style and exuberant spending on oneself.

In a random order, here are the major points where a Real Woman differs from those predicted in T.V. series or movies

Don’t wear heels 24X7	Have dignity
Don’t indulge in meaningless shopping	Have household chores
Don’t have the time to gossip about men 12 hours in a day	Have responsibility
Don’t always maintain a perfect figure	Have a bad-hair day
Don’t have patience or will to plot games against their enemies	Care about their friends and keep them for a lifetime
Don’t have real-actual-enemies	Read magazines to know about the latest happenings
Don’t hang out with their ex’s and behave as if nothing ever happened	Do read newspaper too
Don’t play games with men as if they’re emotionless toys	Indulge in creative activities
Don’t spent $500 on a pair of shoes	Do know about gadgets
Don’t look picture-perfect all the time	Know how to maintain decorum
Don’t wear make-up all day all night long	Are very intuitive
Don’t look so stunning after they wake up in the morning	Do know how to make sensible arguments
Don’t behave like teenagers in their 40’s

I have to say, a point here and there will vary for most women, but in general these difference increase the gap of fiction and reality.

If only certain realistic T.V shows come up who try to minimize this ever growing gap! *sigh*