Life ... As it is !

April 30, 2013

Instagram - April Photo-A-Day Challenge (Days 21-30)

Here are my pictures for the April Photo-A-Day Challenge - Days 21 through 30 :)

Day 21 - Fire

Day 22 - Blurry

Day 23 - Time

Day 24 - I saw this person today ...

Day 25 - Life is colorful

Day 26 - Childhood

Day 27 - Earth

Day 28 - My Sunday

Day 29 - What I wore today

Day 30 - Glasses

April 29, 2013

I propose and my laptop disposes... :P

I decided to take the age-old proverb - "Man proposes and God disposes" to a new definition.

Just when I think everything is planned out, my laptop decides to throw in a monkey wrench to throw me off-schedule.

On April 26th, PB from Over Cups of Coffee blogged on how her blog almost broke. A day later my laptop thought of giving me a similar scare. :P

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It all started when I searched online for an episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. which I didn't have. Being the true fanatic, in order to just view the sitcom, I didn't think much of the warnings that popped-up from time-to-time on my screen. When I tracked down the episode, I get a message - "To view this video, you need a higher version of Flash to be installed."

I clicked - "Install" and that was the last time I saw my laptop respond to my commands. After that, the rest of the day was spent restarting the laptop, deleting or uninstalling unwanted programs from the hard disk, not to forget - simultaneous backing up of my data which I had not cared to copy onto my external hard disk.

Now, my laptop has been crying for a clean format and servicing since God-knows-how-long so this was the breaking point. I was crippled for the rest of the day and for 2 complete days after that. I complained about the incident to LP who patiently said - "Don't worry, I will come home and fix it tomorrow".

But how could I now worry ? :( It was the last week of NaBloPoMo and I wanted to complete my posts . Sigh ! I decided to stop sulking and forget about the whole issue totally.

The LP came home the next day but didn't find time to fix the thing till today. When he tried inspecting it the first time, he gave up since the damn thing just wouldn't respond to anything once it started. Next, he called the customer care service for my laptop brand. What was shocking about this call was that after 15 mins of sharing information with the representative, the lady on the phone said - "We can fix the problem for you for a small cost. And that will be 199 USD." LP's jaw dropped at that very instant and he hung up thanking for the brief services provided.

Now, he was determined to fix the laptop at any cost. In about half hour, he searched for solutions online and completed a full system repair which took care of all malicious softwares and also cleaned up the unwanted things. I still didn't want to jump over the moon before thoroughly testing the fix. So I waited for another couple of hours, tried and tested the laptop in every possible way, verified that all my files were still available and then I finally admitted - "The laptop was fixed." :-) Yippee ! So back to my blog now to fill-in for the missed posts.

So, tell me, isn't it like a mini heart-attack to discover you can't get back to your blog for a certain period of time ?

Worse still, when you don't know how to fix the problem ?

April 28, 2013

Inspiring...

I came across this beautiful video today on a Facebook friend's wall and thought of sharing with you all.

Having lost 2 of my family members to this deadly disease, I find it truly inspiring how there are many others who set out to not just survive but conquer "Cancer".

Take a look.

April 27, 2013

To own or not to own a TV ?

That has been the question for a long time. 4 years to be precise. And yet what started out to be a stupid decision became one of the wisest.

Wouldn't you be surprised / shocked if I told you that we haven't owned a TV yet ? Well, most people do react that way. It all started when LP and I got married. Since we were starting a new journey and since a new life beckoned we cautiously planned on getting the right things for our home to make it perfect.

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Our first year was spent in a rental apartment in India. We didn't have any furniture in the apartment other than an arm rest chair and a bed. The place was otherwise well furnished so that took care of our needs for interior cabinets and wardrobes. We planned to buy our own home at the end of the first year thus putting off the need for detailed interiors. Our lives were pretty busy too. With both of us working full-time, we often returned home at evening hours to cook, relax and get ready for the next day. Weekends would be spent on the household chores, my dance class, outings, errands etc. such that watching TV was the last thing on our wish list. Since my parents stayed nearby, an occasional visit to their place would fulfill our "idiot box" cravings. :-p

The second year, when we moved to our owned apartment, we often dreamt the place would be filled with the right amount of stuff at the right places. Nothing garish, nothing over the top. And thus began our wait for the perfect, exquisite interiors. Now we did have the basic furniture setup thanks to the house warming gifts that we got and the string of relatives / friends we knew we would invite over. But still TV was never on the mind. We progressed to getting a good Internet connection and lots of good movie collections provided by friends for entertainment. To this day, we still have movies lying idle on our hard disks / laptop waiting to be picked up and watched. :-D

We finally purchased a flat screen TV at the end of the 2nd year only to abandon it at home 3 months later due to the onset of the abroad trip.

The last 2 years have been a whirlwind affair with us moving to the US for work and relocating every few months for new assignments. Let me tell you, if there was an award for packing/moving then LP and I would be the proud owners of that award - hands-down, thanks to the sort of vast experience that we gained in the last year. I should also mention the lovely friends we made at every place. Planning family dinners and get-togethers has helped us connect with people and get to know them better which I am sure watching TV would never have achieved. This doesn't mean that we never watched movies ! :-p If you have a bunch of people, a movie projector and good speakers, you never need to own a TV. ;-)

And now, more and more couples share experiences of how their kids are addicted to watching TV and how difficult it is to wean them off. I would love my kids to read and ponder over amazing books and their enchanting characters rather than fixate their eyes over a meaningless reality show.

Now there are exceptions when we talk about classic sitcoms and shows but they don't come into picture until later life. :)

At the end of it all, I am glad that we didn't make an impulsive purchase back then because if we had, then I wouldn't have focused on my other interests. :)

So are you a pro-TV or anti-TV person ?

April 26, 2013

Summer is here... :)

Don't you just love it when the weather is sunny, the flowers are blossoming and you can't wait to step out ?

April 25, 2013

What I will miss here...

It's been only 6 months in this place but these are the memories I will miss in the months to come... :(

See the horses in mid-air :)

April 24, 2013

Packing off to another city...

Yes, we are moving.... yet again ! But though it is a "LOT" of work, that doesn't dim the excitement that comes along with the move.

I have lost count of how many times I have blogged about my earlier relocations. In case you missed those posts, you can read them here, here, here, here or here.

I look forward to -

A new city...
A new life...
A new experience...
A new home...
New challenges...
New friends...
New landscapes, sights and views...
New likes and dislikes ;)
Great food...
Amazing times...

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April 23, 2013

Retrospection

Just so you know, this post may not be of the usual kind. This blog is my writing space for good memories as well as a punching bag for experiences or lessons learnt.

I have blogged about how my equation with friends has been till now. A couple of days ago, I was reminiscing about some of my friendly encounters from the past. Now we don't like to judge people by our will or dwell in the past thinking about them, but it mainly happens due to our experiences with such crowds. I realised there have been acquaintances who were and are still genuine in and out. And there have been others who have been otherwise.

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It's the second kind that usually scare me. Like anyone else, I am a kind of person who values her friendships more than anything. A little over-possessive in that sense. This trait comes due to the wonderful friends and the associations from all these years. On some occasions, hordes of emails have been exchanged to be in touch while on others, it's been a matter of a mere hi-bye relation which has stuck through.

What made me ponder was that in every circumstance, my reactions/thoughts/behaviour has been my true self. But the same has not been the case from the other end. What begins as a great start to an ever-lasting friendship turns shorter than hoped for. Has this happened to you before ?

Like in any relationship, even friendship requires efforts to keep it going.

But what do you do when the efforts evaporate from one side ?
Does it make sense to cling on to that friendship ?
Or do we still continue the acquaintance just for the sake of it ?

The more I think about it, I more blurry it gets. And now I have reached such a point where such experiences have taught me a lesson - "To not be myself". I know it sounds crazy but only because at the end of it all in the other cases, the efforts that I put in seem futile to keep the acquaintance going on.

Being on a cautious front from the start helps me to look at the person with a better perspective.

Have you done or experienced something like this before ?
How would you deal with such a friendship when you know talking about it to the person to resolve the misunderstanding is not going help ?
What if, the person is still the same even after the misunderstandings are conveyed and clarified ?