Still Waters Run Deep....

On a short break to India recently, I was doing something that I always thought I wouldn’t - compare Mumbai and Singapore. Though I in no way am belittling Mumbai, yet constant comparison, even when not aloud, is almost ingrained in the human psyche. Yet the fact that I compared, led me to think what all had changed in me post life in Singapore. I had taken up a job in Singapore on instinct- I just knew that I must work there for a while. Most people advised me to come back to India, especially Mumbai- yet I knew at that point of time that would have been disastrous. Now after 7 months of working in Singapore and 1.2 years of being in there, I assess myself on the things that have changed in me, or that I have learnt. Some are surprising, some expected.  Taste in Beverages: I always consider myself to be an absolutely non-fussy and chilled out person as far as food is concerned. So a strong preference in beverages is a shocking revelation to me. Maybe it is a year’s drink from ve...

At first I wanted to name this, “the picture no one appreciated!” The setting was 80th birthday celebrations of my grandfather. Day 1 was Rudra Homam and Day 2 was the actual function. While day 2 was going to be captured by a professional photographer, day 1 was commissioned to me. I soon got tired of taking pics of the happenings of the day and my cute cousins, and shifted to the below type of photographs. After the function, I was showing the pictures to everyone. From the “oh I look terrible in that pic”, to “nice shot of the function”, to “awwwww” for my cute cousin snaps, the below met with, “why on earth would you take a snap of the fire?”. And this was the response from my generation as well. To which my response was, “how on earth can I not? It’s shining, it’s dancing, and it’s pretty much begging me to take its snap!!” My question on what they could see in the snap was not heard (alright, ignored!) My photographic eye has been usually appreciated by my family, but it lo...

It has never stopped amazing people close to me, that on being woken up in the morning, I have a perfectly sane conversation with them, assure them that I am awake and will do whatever it is that I’m supposed to be doing and promptly go back into deep slumber without even realizing it. Mom says it’s a total lack of will-power on my part to get up. When this happened again last week, I realized the true reason. It’s due to what I call “Real Dreams”.  Let me illustrate.  Last week, I assured my friend over the phone that I was awake. I then closed my eyes, for what I thought was a few seconds. In those few seconds, I had a dream- and its setting was identical to reality. I was wearing the same clothes, was in the bed I really was in, in the same room I actually was in. And in that dream- I woke up.  In that dream, my flat mate came to my room and so did some strangers- and started sawing my closet door citing repair work.  So in the dream, I was awake. And since we r...

Not the Alkaline one. I’m referring to the slang-ish word for Spectacles. More specifically, the person wearing them. Battery is among the words that have been used to “call” me. Others being, Chashmish, four eyes, Soda Buddi, and the very not funny “almost blind”!! A high power of -5.5 , ensures that I am very much dependent on external support for eyes- spectacles and lenses. Have been wearing specs from the time I was 10. I spent a year pretending I could see the blackboard, and moving progressively closer to it to prove I could.  I also tried other tactics like flooding the classroom with lights from all sources, which did make it relatively more visible. I couldn't admit to difficulties, since I had declared to my Mom that I would not get specs (as she has). Until, the headaches, my near empty notebook and interrogation by mom proved, that I could see the board- but not what was written on it! And thus, I was on Spectacles- directly with a power of -2.5. I was the class rep ...

“I need help” I said over the phone. “Oh what happened, tell me”, said my friend, the concern very apparent in his voice. Encouraged, I replied, “Well, I came to the supermarket Mohideen to buy Sugar, but they only have it in large packs. But it seems it will be available in the other supermarket nearby, Al Madina” “Hmm, yeah it will be available there”, replied my friend clearly puzzled as to what help I needed. “Er.. can you   tell me exactly how to go to Al Madina from Mohideen?” I said I was greeted by a volley of almost indecent laughter! Well, I couldn’t blame him. Both the places were about 4 mins from my hostel. I knew to go to both places individually, but just couldn’t figure out the way to go from one to the other! The place is China Cluster, in International City in Dubai. This is where I spent 4.5 months of my GMBA at SP Jain Center of Management. That this incident occurred almost after 3 months into the course didn’t help. My sense of direction has always been a sou...