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.

Li’l birdie says…

So….. You’re saying I can jump off this window and not die?

I can fly?

No way in hell I am trusting you, man!!!

*Bleddy Human*

Squirrels talk too :D

After Monkeys and Geese….now I imagine my squirrels talk 😉

Can you smell them….?? I can smell them…. Can you smell them yet?

Yea man… I can smell them too.. But I don’t see them… Do you see them?? 

No… I don’t see them… But I can feel they’re fast approaching………

O my GOD ! They’re HERE…!!! Alert everyone!

P.S :

In near future (April end) I am writing a series of “un-posted letters” on my blog and inviting guest posts for the same.

The compilation of this would have letters you never posted…the ones you wrote/wanted to write to your mother/teacher/neighbor/boss/husband/friend/ex but did not.. There is no need for names, you can address them to “an inspiring soul” or “a long lost friend” or “love of my life”..

Leave a comment in case you’re interested to be a part of this.

When it snows in India..

India is crowded place.

We have a crowd of natives which has now crossed a billion plus we also cater a million tourists every year.

Undoubtedly, it is difficult to maintain world-class standards when a certain handful of population still lives below poverty line.

But nobody seems to mind it now-a-days. Everyone enjoys a hill station for a week and pack their bags and go off. Only the indigenous people of such places can complain about the crowd or the living standard because they see everyday – year after year.

The northern states of India are snow-clad for the months November-February but generally have tourist inflow all throughout the year. During winters the main attraction is the snow. And in summer when rest of the country is suffering from soaring temperature these tourist spots provide a perfect get-away.

Not only do these states attract high number of Indians on a summer vacation but tons of foreigners. I assume watching snow fall is an experience people like me crave to have in this same life time.

If in India, there are a certain places one must definitely visit.

Month of March : “In Print”

Month of March

Week 1

Cover Page :

Cover Story :

Week 2

Cover Page :

Cover Story :

Week 3

Cover Page :

Cover Story :

Week 4

Cover Page :

Cover Story :

Overwhelming joy of seeing my name IN PRINT.

Thank you MONTH OF MARCH.

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!

Reaching out through blogs : My article in the leading newspaper of Middle-East

Since I started working as a part-time free-lance writer for Gulf Times, life seems to have taken an exciting new turn..

After the article for working women in Qatar, I have now written about bloggers in Qatar. In this country, blogging is still not considered as a “cool” or beneficial way of social interaction and with my article I try to clear those myths and misconceptions.

Read it here –

http://www.gulf-times.com/technology/233/details/344940/reaching-out-through-blogs

Although Gulf Times did not include photos of all the amazing bloggers I got in touch with, I will attach their photos here as a token of thanks for their contribution.

 

# all photos belong to the rightful owners

Connecting with Nature

How often do you take a stroll in a garden?

How often do you prefer walking than taking a vehicle?

How often you breathe in fresh air?

How often you read a novel under the shade of a sun?

How often do you notice nature’s beauty?

**

Are the above-mentioned things even important to you?

**

To me, it is…

Snaps from my recent visit to Lodhi Gardens – DelhiLodi Garden is one of Delhi’s most beautiful and popular parks. Here monuments are located amidst landscaped gardens. The most prominent are the 15th and 16th century tombs and a beautifully decorated mosque. There are smaller structures belonging to the late-Mughal period as well.

The Lodi dynasty in India arose around 1451 after the Sayyid dynasty. The Lodhi Empire was established by the Ghizlai tribe of the Afghans. They formed the last phase of the Delhi Sultanate.

As there is little architecture from these two periods remaining in India, Lodi Gardens is an important place of preservation. A favorite picnic spot and a joy for morning walkers with lots of greenery and trees.

Benefits of morning walk –

• helps to lose weight    • reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke

• reduces type 2 diabetes risk    • improves lung’s breathing capacity

• helps in the management of stress    • helps to treat hypertension

• protection against miscarriages

• very beneficial for the people suffering from insomnia. 20-30 minutes’ walk after the meals in the night can help to reduce the stress levels and can also helps in the digestion of the food which in turn gives you a sound sleep.

• supplies fresh oxygen and blood to each and every cell of the body which is required for the transport of every nutrient in the body

• reduce the risk of cancer and if someone is already suffering from cancer then it helps in the fast recovery and survival of the person

• improves the brain power    • add years to your life

Most common excuses for not going on a morning walk :

1. I am too busy    2. There are pet-walkers and the stray animals

3. The virtues of sleep    4. Walking is for the old, I work out

5. I play sports – that’s enough    6. Garden/Park is too far

I think we owe it to ourselves – to be connected to nature – make the best use of its gift. We may be too busy today, but won’t we be too late if we don’t take an action soon?

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?

D.U.B.A.I.

Dubai.

The land of riches. Or as I call it, the land of fake-wonders-in-the-world. 😉  … In case you don’t know what I am talking about. See this. or this.

A view from the top 😀

Worst part – I could not locate the famous Burj from far up here.. Maybe next time, I’ll make arrangements for a visa 😀

Pretty crowded, ain’t it? Somehow it reminds me of Indiaaaa…

Not as green as one may think it is. After all it is in the Arabian Gulf.

As the land and waters and my panoramic view trailed off, I started to think what was the best thing I saw in my lay over of 3 hours. And here it was :

the FABULOUS  cow 😀

The wonderful childhood

Kids are cute.

Swings are fun.

You combine both-you get a perfect carefree scenario with laughter all around.

One such incident I was lucky to capture in my camera.

You really should zoom in and check out the expressions of the kids. So excited and keen they got seeing someone click their pics 😀

Well I had an attachment to a particular swing in my childhood. I have written about it too. See here.

Other clicks of the same kids : they were called Nanu and Kaachu 😉

# such cuties 😀 😀 😀

# Venue – Alwar‘s (Siliserh Lake) Rajasthan, India

# December 2012 – the one we survived (LOL)