FFFF--SPLASH

Ha ha ha as funny is the name as funny was the day . Our compay finally realized the need to give a break to its employees and let them mingle together for purpose other than work and organized something like HO day (Head Office). From last month the enthusiasm could be felt in air, the HO day committee had put its best foot forward to organize the event in the best way possible. 10 teams of around 50 people each were constructed, each team was named on the name of a color, I was in green team .

We had to give names to our teams based on our bollywood theme, so that itself was quite interesting thing to do and after long discussions, agreements, arguments and various stuff , the green team was named as Green Patti (Teen Patti) and slogan was GreenValey Splash le jayenge. Ahha !! I liked both the name and slogan , though there were some very funny entries like Green Paa , Kabhi Green Kabhi Green bt the last one which was finalized was quite sensible ( after a patti is green only na ). The D-day was on 19 of feb , me and my roomy had prepared a dance performance also for the same occasion

That day the atmosphere was really amazing !!! The whole office was decorated , they had put tents all over the compound and then there were dhol walas and music was getting played , vaah !! Asian paints was suddenly not boring anymore. They put tilak on my forehead as soon as I entered the office compound and then I ran towards the swiping machine , I swiped my card and took a long relieving breath . There was so much of enthusiasm in the air, people were roaming around the place with the banners of there team shouting the slogans as loud as possible. I thought I missed the parade of green team, but when I reached towards the assembly point, they were still preparing for the parade and I hold the banner in front and sang again in the loudest tone of mine ‘Le jayenge Le jayenge Green Valey splash le jayenge ‘ , at that moment only I realized whether our team loses or wins , it doesn’t matter , I am gonna enjoy to the fullest. And the day is started , first game was Castle building , I had always been bad at such stuff but then also tried to help out the team by constructing walls of the castle , though they had to correct every thing again but then also I tried at least . my participation was in Go Fish event , which we apparently won , as we followed a different strategy. Actually when me and my partner reached to the venue where Go Fish had to take place there was no one of Green team present there to cheer us up, so I thought ok no one can cheer us but let us use anti cheer policy . And I stood beside the opposite team players and screamed in there ears , arrey not possible at all , you wont be able to do it and all . So due to my new policy , team Green won 100 points , well I dnt think I did anything unfair , and how does it matter after having 100 points in hand . We all danced on dhol for at least 1 hour and vow !! it was wonder full , whole AP was dancing together.Talent round started in the evening and must say !! AP is full of talent, many professional singers and dancers came up that day , so it was finally concluded that just the place is boring and people are not , they are actually pretty cool .After dancing, taking our life out and munching the snacks provided , the photo session started. It was a wonderfull day in all , I enjoyed every bit of it , cheering Green team , dancing on dhol , fishing , anti cheering other team , spoiling the castle , everything possible was so much fun . In the evening we all went to south Mumbai to bid fairwell to one of our seniors who was going to leave Mumbai to join other company and there also we all had great fun , laughed, discussed and remembered old times . In all 19 feb is one of the most memorable day of my life and I think of many.

My New Companion

In last one week my life has changed a little bit , one more companion is added to my life . He is the one who will support my vision and help me to have a better view of things , he is the one who will now relieve me from the heaviness in my head that used to take place earlier . Yaa, this companion which was actually missing since so many days, whom I needed so badly but was never aware of his importance, but when I have him I know how much I required him to be there for me. Finally when I could not bear the blur vision of life any more when I could not take the regular dizziness that I was facing, I changed my mind and opened the door of my life for this new companion .

yups, my dear specs are no less than a friendly companion to me . I can say this thing as it had been now a week since I am having them. When I put them first time on my eyes , I felt quite awkward suddenly the things started seeming much different than used to be without specs. It was very difficult walking with having specs on , the things did not seem to be in a level, and if you want to walk on stairs along with specs then that was simply impossible as I wasn’t able to figure out the real position of stairs and I used to walk just like a kid do for the first time in his life. It was actually funny. In starting days I also reconsidered my decision , whether I was right or wrong about having specs , as in first few days the heaviness in my head only increased rather than decreasing but my friends kept insisting me to have the specs continuously as this will help me to get use to of them . So I followed the advice and now these dear spectacles have become a friend of mine, rather I would say I have become dependent on them , I need them for every thing if I want to read a book I need them , If I want to watch a movie I need them , If I want to update my blog I need them . I don’t know if this dependency is good or bad , I don’t know if I should be happy about finding a solution finally for my regular headache or sad about adding a dependency in my life .but what I know is this, now when these square glasses with a purple frame have finally come into my life what the most I can do to be with them is to be friendly with them . So life has given me one more friend, they will stay forever with me( at least doctor said so ) help me out to have a better view of everything, just like very true friends . So welcome to smriti’s life dear specys !!, hope you enjoy with me.

This Diwali

This was my first diwali away from home , so was a little sad about the fact as diwali used to mean a lot of activities for me like decorating home , firing crackers , having lots of sweets , then dancing till late in night . Vow !! , but I was going to miss everything this time , these thoughts were making me sad. I got relieved a little bit when came to know that my sister is coming to town to celebrate diwali with me , chalo me , my sis and my dear roomy this is not going to be that bad after all . but the things were actually more interesting than had been ever before on any diwali . Before the day of diwali there is tradition of Asian Paints to have a traditional day in the office, when all girls and guys come in traditional wear. For the same I had got the sarees couriered from the home also,
The day whole office was looking really colorfull and everyone was looking nicer than the usual, the enthusiasm for the occasion could be felt in the air . And then the photo session took place, people gave their best poses possible and whole systems department was standing together like a family. That was really a wonderful scene, everyone was looking joyous and in a festive mood.
Well this was not the end; also the best dressed girl and best dressed guy were chosen and were given the gifts also. I was more happy as my roomy only won the title, so the choclates were finally coming home only :) . The following day my sister arrived and we three went for shopping for diwali , this time we bought colors to prepare rangoli also , as being the speciality of maharashtra , I think without this my diwali in maharashtra would not have been memorable . Also we bought some flowers for our flat and diyas(lamps). We cleaned the home and decorated it ( a little bit though ), and in evening we again went out for a stroll in market fully dressed as were in full mood of diwali , we just had a stroll bought few things and came back home . We lit diyas in the evening and also prepared the rangoli. Well that was quite a fun as none of us had ever prepared the rangoli in life before , so we just put some colors here and there and made the simplest design possible .That was looking quite decent though not as pretty as other rangolis on our floor but hey please !!, what else do you expect from a novice , we already ran out of colors and came to know that our estimate of colors that we will be needing was very less , but then also we managed in less colors , less skills and prepared a nice looking rangoli , isn’t it appreciable ?? . And finally we prayed to God and had a blast together . When finally I sat in silence I just thought what is that I missed , actually nothing, just this much came to my mind , I enjoyed like every other year rather to be frank in some ways much more than usual. . For three of us the festival was really colorful, this time we three were family, so I actually never got rid of family, neither of us did. Hmm!! May be this is what a festival means to be joyous and spread the same all around you, may be it is above all the show off that we normally try to do on festivals. Joys never depend on the people around you, in what conditions you are, they only depend on you attitude, if you want to stay happy or not, if you want to enjoy nothing can stop you from enjoying

Our Rituals , Our Shackles ??

Today I am going to write about some subject which does not have any relevance with me own but it’s some thing to do with people who are very near to me. I am going to mention about fasts, today I read in one of the articles in news paper calling fasts or vrats as the shackles of our beliefs and rituals tied by our ancestors carried by us till date . Well , this actually made me think about it are the fasts really so called shackles for us, are the rituals have bound us to starve ourselves in a hope to fulfill our wishes .

Hmm !! may be !!, at first I also agreed with these people and thought that actually there are no certain reasons behind why we fast except few stories and causes that we listen on the day of fasts and vrats . But that following night only
( Karvachauth night ) I called my mom to ask about her health as she might had fast for the whole day and asked her if she is alright and beyond my all expectations she was sounding much more than alright , she said yaa , we just had food . you know your father too tried to not to have anything for whole day but as usual he could stay hungry , so in market he had something but quite honestly called me and told "hey !! I am really sorry, could not stay hungry , I promise I tried my best" and after that my mom laughed her life out, also she told about the gift which papa bought for her as a karvachauth ritual .My mom fasted whole day, she did not have any thing since morning but that hunger was nothing in front of all these joys that she found in all small things. As in this was not the first time papa had bought some thing for mom or ate outside, but nothing could make her as happy as she was this time.
After talking to her something forced me to think that may this is the main purpose of festivals of rituals, to keep people together, to give them a chance of showing their loved ones that they care for them. In teej , when women need to fast and they get gifts from their mother’s place called mayka, the simple bangles make them so happy , all women of the house gather and have food together , they talk chat and do all sort of gossips, is this is not the purpose of this festival to bring all these long separated people together , to give them a reason to talk to each other .
May be our ancestors knew about the approaching fast life and the consequences thereafter. May be they knew that people won’t have time to even wait for some time and say hi to each other, so then why not make some occasions that will force them all to come together and talk and take care of each other. I am not saying that care is not there, it is there, love is there, concern is there but what is not there is time and realization to express it all. This is what makes life monotonous and people feel alone even after having every one around them. When all this is real part of our life , the festivals or our so called shackles give us a chance to keep our busy life style on side and think about others for once . Shackles yups may be, but no to bind rather to tie you up, after all human is a social animal and love has got no virtue until and unless expressed

General Motors Diet Plan (Reality and Perceptions)

After trying out all sort of exercises and ways out what I was left with, was the option to follow a diet as this was the last resort for me to shed the extra kgs that I don’t remember exactly when I put on. The extra kgs came to my notice quite by chance and now I wanted to loose weight as soon as possible, the same time one more friend of mine was following this quite well known diet plan constructed by General motors for the employees mostly above 40 (bt now who will wait till then), to reduce extra weight and she suggested me that why don’t you try it out. Hmm!! The idea was not bad I felt and I went on the diet the very day after

The first day only fruits , alright fruits that was not sounding this difficult but I think it was just the sound as when I faced the things practically , it was not just difficult at one point of time it is quite impossible for you to have a control over your senses and to just have fruits ignoring people around enjoying food lavishly. But once over
( though the day seems longer than other days ), you really feel you have achieved some thing but just the day is over and not the diet ..

The second day starts, when you are going to have only vegetables , now that is difficult fruits alright but vegetables those are supposed to be cooked and cant be eaten raw , As in this was the only reason why human opted to cook vegetables as those were not to be eaten raw Right ?. But now the reverse evolution is happening and people are suggested to go for raw ones Voah !! This is a bit mad, but whatever may be the ancient men were healthier than us. So in morning I boiled few vegetables for me and had some of them for breakfast Oh ! My God!!! That was the most terrible thing I ever had in my whole life I felt like puking but some how I put that inside my stomach and came for office. I brought some tomatoes for the break, having tomatoes sitting amongst you colleagues looks really odd but I made my self understand that this all looking odd is about how you u feel , if you don’t feel odd you wont look odd and yaa !! Things were better in coming days I never felt odd in having my diet food amongst all or having a carrot sitting in KFC, every thing seemed normal to me. How easy it would have been if you could have lost weight also just by thinking this way.The day was a bit longer for me I felt weak and heavy headed but successfully it was over , Yuppie !! I had never thought I will be able to make it

Third day was a mixture of fruits and vegetables and it was comparatively easy, as it was a weekend and we also went out for a movie so the weakness was not quite realizable

Fourth day was the friendship day and that day I had to survive on Skimmed milk and bananas . But the day being the weekend I got up late and unlike diet plan I had 3 bananas and a full glass of skimmed milk , this is like I had three meals together but what to do , when you are dieing of hunger you don’t remember anything not even your die hard commitment towards your diet plan . On an outing with friends you too have something and the whole idea of dieting evaporates some where, but don’t loose heart as there are few more days to go there you can cover up this is what I thought at least

Fifth day was not that difficult as my body was getting used to of staying hungry or totally running only on that much fuel, may be this was the whole aim of diet to make your body used to of less food

Sixth and seventh day were same and rather very smooth as compared to early ones , on seventh day I just had few vegetables whole day and I was feeling rather more than OK hey that’s good , the diet not just helped me to shed extra kgs rather also gave me a good self control . Now when people see me eating they are zapped and ask hey!! you are on diet right and I am actually fed up of telling everyone that its over and the next question that I encounter is ,then is this the real amount of food you have !!, shit !!

A good experience but finally extremes are not what you can be always at all times , moderation is what is required . So after going through extremes sticking to the moderate diet does not seem that difficult to me , May be this is what was required !!!