Life Unpacked

Wow, it has been long, eh? I know, I promised that I'd be writing regularly but no points for guessing that it never materialized. I have a lot to say, yet again; from some shattering revelations to a lovely camping experience at the start of the year itself. I shall save the revelations for the next time and tell you more about the camping part. Well, it was a first; first time camping, first time being away from home for seven days (starting from the first day of February)! Honestly, before the trip I was skeptical that I might get home-sick in a few days (well, that's what happened on my last trip away from home which was for a few days) but surprisingly I didn't feel like coming back home this time! My time there at the camp was crazy, right from the day one. For this, all the credit must go to our former NSS leaders; it were their out-of-the-box ideas and go-for-it attitude that helped the campers break out of their shell and embrace whatever the seven days brough...

I have been experimenting lately, with street photography. And as I just shoot with a point and shoot camera (Canon SX150 IS) on Aperture priority or Shutter priority, and without any device to achieve a blurred background, I am trying to incorporate other moving things to give the background a slight blur. You must have seen that in the previous blog post's picture "Anticipation". Here is an extension of that concept with more objects in the frame. Feedback and criticism would be appreciated. Thanks. "Frozen" taken at Fort, Mumbai. ***** Disclaimer: The picture used here is the copyrighted property of Aditi Pathak. Use of this picture anywhere else for any purpose demands permission to be taken by Aditi Pathak. Failure to do so will involve a legal action against the defaulting party. 

It is Sunday today, exactly seven days ago happened a weekend which I haven't gotten over by now! Let's just break down that weekend into two parts, so that in this post I can talk about the amazing classical music concert that I attended, that musical concert which flagged the start of that lovely weekend. My first proper classical concert it was, expecting a low turn out for it, I went at a time which I assumed would ensure me a front row seat at the Asiatic Library steps (the venue); approximately half an hour before the scheduled time of 6'o clock and boy! How long the queue was! Composed largely of 20s-something people, the excitement they contained for the gig radiated from their faces. A long wait and finally the admission to the concert began and by the time I reached inside there were hardly and seats left! People had turned up in such massive numbers! A bit of adjustment on my part and some on the part of the people already seated freed up some space for m...

Morning of Day 3 was the craziest and sickest thing that happened to me. I understand that after constantly working day-in-and-out and being sleep-deprived one is bound to get frustrated, but how dumb is it lashing out at an another individual? It is horrible, you know, being constantly humiliate; for trying to help others, for trying to co-operate, and heck even for demanding rights for self! Well, that's a precise summary of the scene that forenoon. And after spending three lovely days there, occurrence of something like this did ensure a bitter aftertaste. There isn't much to talk about the performances of Day 3 because I couldn't watch bands other than Sky Rabbit, Pentagram and Karsh Kale + NH7 All Stars, although I did end up listening to a bit of Party Scribe in between as the stage on which they performed was diagonally opposite the Bacardi Stage. Pentagram's act was top-notch and a rare one too, as they rarely perform early evening! The crowd that had gathere...

It has been two days since I last saw you, still I cannot get you out of my mind; even when I sleep all I dream of is you. Yes, this is how much I am missing you. My thoughts about you reach at a point where I wonder is if I don't manage to see you again how will I suffice? Well, some say this is love. Honestly I have never been one of the believer of the "love", so I don't know how it is like but if people say so...maybe it is love. And hence I declare: "I love you, NH7 Weeekender". (Ha, what you thought? :P) Honestly, I'd say that one hasn't "lived" unless that person has been to Weekender. No, I'm not exaggerating nor am I promoting because I have worked for it but the thing is, its a place where you are totally disconnected with the outside world (thanks to no network) and are actually soaking in what's going around you. I was there for three days (three and a half to be precise), totally clueless about the world outside, enj...

So I came across a contest regarding one's "dream" road trip a few days back. Being an adventure junkie and a part-time rover, all of sudden it struck me that I haven't been on a road trip in my life yet. And with it I started wondering how cruel has this life been to me (Ha, I have just exaggerated this line). But it turns out I have road-tripped once, a proper road trip! I suddenly got reminded of it while taking in the scenery of the stretch between Goregaon and Jogeshwari, while travelling to college this morning. The tales goes back to a few years (four years, to be exact), to the summer before I started my ninth grade; plans were made on an impulse to visit my native place for a family function. Everything was done on the last moment, from booking train tickets to packing for the trip. On the day we were supposed to board the train that would ferry us from Mumbai to Patna, after reaching the station, it turned out that the train was running late by 5 hours! A...

A city where millions come to realize their dreams, Mumbai technically acts as a mother to all of them. Theoretically, if we break down the name of the city, it means mother too; 'Mum' an English word means mother and so does the Marathi word "bai". Hence, we can safely conclude that Mumbai is a female figure. But is the female populace in this metropolis safe? According to the statistics, Mumbai is the safest city in India. Still, the pages of the daily newspaper is filled with all sort of wrong-doing against women! Yes, I agree Mumbai's women related crime-rate is lower than other townships in India but it still is not completely safe for women here. Being called names, passed lewd comments at and touched in a wrong manner are few of the misdeeds that females here have to go through on a daily basis! I don't blame this city, I can't as I am a born and bought up Mumbaikar who has considered this metro home  since the time I opened my eyes, sixte...

It has been quite a long time since I wrote anything sensible. Now-a-days my post usually describe "What-I-did". This time, unlike 2011, I didn't do a wrap up post for the year 2012 because of two reasons- First, I was sick last week and second, everything is already documented here by the way of blog-posts, so I felt no need to write an another post describing my 2012. But this doesn't mean I'm not grateful for the lovely year; 2012 happens to be among the best years of my life (well, you can certainly figure out by the stuff I did last year!). Today is the first day of new year 2013 and rather than reviving the glorious 2012, I want to remind myself of a few guidelines that helped me enjoy the past year completely: #1. Day-dream and make realistic plans   Unless you dream of something, you won't think of making that thing happen! But again, dreaming of unrealistic things will get you nowhere. To be frank, I day-dreamed of being a pat of a fl...

Remember about the field trip about which I told you yesterday? Well, it is all below in the photography. The day started too early for me, despite of that getting to enjoy a lovely weather (after so long!) made up for that fact. The trip was in three parts- Nehru Science Center, RBI monetary museum and Prince of Wales museum. The main highlight of this trip was that it lead to completion of two to-dos from my list; Travelling via Bandra-Worli Sealink and driving/being driven on the whole stretch of Marine Drive (in this case, in a bus and not once but twice!). Frankly, half of the trip I was not feeling positive about skipping my tests but soon as the day passed by the negative feeling started fading away. Overall this trip was good. I took tonnes of pictures from a moving bus, out of which only few are share-worth (whatelse can you expect from a 2mp mobile camera?). Anyways, I have arranged the pictures in a chronological order, so that it lends a story-tel...

There are certain situations in which a person lose the control over self, takes rash decisions and does things which is later realized as as mistake. I'm talking about anger here. Different people react in a different manner when they lose their temper- some abuse other, whereas some break-down and some end-up doing things which they regret later. Of what I experience last week; one should never let anger dominate their behavior and turn into some sort-of monster! Because this emotion called "anger" doesn't do anything good but only cause destruction- of relationships, of character, of morals and values. I do agree that a person can never fully have control over anger and the ability to suppress it completely. And this is where channelizing the negative energy comes into play; doing something which calms and relaxes you is a sure way to achieve that goal. To be frank with you all, I too have anger issues. Anger has the ability to shatter my otherwise ha...

So it was my birthday last Sunday (11/11/2012) and I'm updating about it today, after a week to be exact! I'm no longer employing my procrastination as a reason, just lack of some motivation. You know how these vacations are; you have time and that's why you tend to procrastinate, and the problem with working days is; you don't have time still you want to write! Now back to the birthday update thing, this birthday of mine wasn't exactly my best birthday ever but at the same time it didn't turn out to be the worst. No nothing bad happened, despite of that I didn't feel the 'happy-happy' Birthday spirit this time around. Everyone was joyous that day, tonnes of wishes for the day pouring in at every moment, yet I felt that the day wasn't an exception, just like a normal Sunday day to be precise. As this time around my birthday happened to be on a Sunday, I tried to turn the weekend into a 'Birthday weekend' by starting doing things that a...

So I didn't write anything since a really long time.No, it wasn't that I didn't had any blog-worthy stuff but the thing was I really didn't had much time on my hands left. No worries, today is friendship day and you can be assured that I won't abandon you (at least not today). Okay, first with major event #1 that happened last Saturday, on 28th July 2012; A flash mob at Giragum Chowpatty! You guys know how much I love Marine Drive and its adjoining beach Girgaum Chowpatty, so when the entire event's detail was declared I immediately signed in for it. And later on, I discovered that almost half of my class was in for it too. Hence, the entire event for us was some sort of picnic (Yeah, seriously!). In a 'Flash Mob' every participant is supposed to dance, an activity I'm not particularly good at. But, the prospect of having to dance didn't freak me out because a heck lot of must-do activities from my wish-list were on the verge of getting str...

It was exactly this day last week, Friday. Anticipating a quick end to the long instructional day at college, I sprung up from my seat as soon as the news of the day wrapping up early entered my ears. Later did I discover the reason; Motorman strike! You expect a normal person to panic in a situation like this, but me, I was overjoyed because this made me feel like a true Mumbaikar. The idea of witnessing and making my way  through a troublesome situation seemed a great adventure. The grave situation at Churchgate Station Coolly, I reached station and the scene hit hard my day-dream; there were hardly any trains and the trains which plied were terribly jam-packed! I was willing to spend some more time at the station and figure out the best suited plan which would help me over come the catastrophe. Alas! I was deprived of this pleasure by the group of people I sit with at college. Their rush lead me to board a bus, till Borivali, which is two stations before my...

Okay, to be straight-forward I discovered how simply a poem expresses intense feelings in a condensed form! Being clueless about the modern Indian poetry scene, I picked up Ah! Poetry, hoping to get a good exposure to a new found interest i.e. poetry. Ah! Poetry is a book composed of pearls by different poets belonging to different races of life, but united by the passion of doing poetry.  Rarely do you come across a book of poetry by amateur poets!  Comprising over 170 poems, each page brings to you a different saga, re-invoking lost emotions, as if taking you back to that phase of your life and stirring within you a new zest. Most of the poems are loosely based upon and around the concept of love, which in my opinion is severely 'Bollywood-ish" and this is what I think of as a drawback. But again, there are poems on heart-touching and humanity conjuring topics too, for instance the one on 26/11 terrorist's attack on Mumbai named "Yesterday, you shot my Myna...

I generally don't write poems, but today after reading one on a friend's blog I felt terribly inspired. Hence, I wrote this one: Its been too long, That I forgot your face, The one which was with me in every race. Its been too long, That I forgot the weather, The one in which we sang together. Its been too long, That I forgot your ways, The one which used to brighten up my days. Its been too long, That people say I should forget you, The one who filled my life with myriad hues. Well, as this is my first (or second, if you count the poem I scribbled on a blank page during my English lecture in sheer boredom). It would be awesome if you, after reading these verses, get into a critic-mode and point out all the flaws. Thank You. 

Alright, before I start narrating the awesomeness this day brought along; I'd love to thank IndiBlogger for organizing Stayfree Women's for change meet in association with Stayfree India and UNICEF from the bottom of my heart. Moreover, I'm already looking forward to my next meet. I read somewhere on the internet "Don't be timid or squeamish about your actions, whole life is about experimenting with new things", and the moment I learned about a Blogger's meet happening in my hometown Mumbai, I knew I must attend the event. The fact that the venue of the meet was Trident Hotel, Bandra helped my case immensely (You know my college is in Bandra itself, so I happen to be quiet acquaint with Bandra. Hence, convincing my parents wasn't a pain). The day started with a high note; a late-to-rise person, I sprang upright as soon as the alarm's ring hit my ears. Not anticipating or expecting anything extraordinary I started prepping up myself from the d...

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I made a cake! Well, I won't say making "a cake" was a "cake-walk" for me because it was the first time I tried my hands at cooking or baking. Although, the cake tasted wonderful taking into consideration that a first-timer made it, even my Dad who don't like cakes ate two slices! I sweated out in kitchen for two-hours just to make the cake-batter. At a certain point, when the dry ingredients were to be mixed with the wet ingredients, I messed up but, thank goodness the cake turned out to be fluffy and dense. I'm a vegan, hence I had to research a lot to find an eggless cake recipe worth making. Have a look the pictures of the cake below and the recipe too (Don't worry, my blog isn't going to turn into a Baking Blog)..... I was pretty tensed before baking, whether the cake would rise? Woah! I was jumping with joy at the sight of my cake done. Well the cake cracked at the bottom as I inserted t...