Sting in my heart.

Food and Dadda :)

I got back from my quick weekend trip back home. Its always so soothing to go back to your roots and come back refreshed for the months ahead.

I always remember my hometown as a sleepy little town whose people love eating :) My trip was to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday. I was always a daddy's girl and wanted to surprise him on his birthday.
Dad and Food are synonymous for me :) Well I remember my childhood days when Dad used come for the
Christmas holidays and it was one joyous food festival. I really get amazed to see how food plays a pivotal role in his life. My dad always enjoys his food and the best of chefs do not manage to score high on his list.
He keeps setting his bar pretty high. I just love the way, he is focused during lunches/dinners.

My dad is a very simple no nonsense man who stuns us with his funny and witty one liners which leave us cracking in peals of laughter...:) On a serious note, the one thing that I remember of him,which keeps me
grounded is related to food. When I was about 11 yrs old, he was having a conversation with his friend.
His friend was telling him that he can really do well for himself in his job. My dad replied very casually that
I can feed my family with rice,dal and alu chokha (its an Oriya delicacy) which is enough for us. Today
when I reflect back, it makes a lot of sense. Though we did not have a lavish upbringing, I am proud
of my dad's values and how we have inculcated it. Dad was into the rural development NGO but he
did not choose the path of dishonesty and malpractice.

Even today as I was sitting with him and saw him enjoying the buffet, I was smiling to myself that he knows to be content with what he has and the smile on his face was priceless. :)

Everyone have their  small joys of life and its food for my dadda. :) This one is for my Dadda...

 You smiled and picked up a morsel,
 You faced all adversities with a moral,
 You stood by your loved ones without any quarrel,
 You made us humans with high ideals,
  Life without you would have been an empty barrel.

My Dadda Strongest :)

I want to be a cat woman :)

Today was a disgusting day at work. When I started my career, I was thrilled and super ready to work my ass off to reach a certain stability in career. Now when I have reached at an important point in my journey, it all feels whimsical. Everything is an illusion. The grass always looks greener on the other side :)

Being in the industry for some time now, I understand the importance of being on top of your game, but not at the cost of being dictated what to do and what not to do. I really need to shed off the ever smiling and humble persona that I nurture and transform into a cat woman. Yeah baby...there are many out there who are stomping ahead.

The bottom line is how do I undergo the sea of change from a self proclaimed angel to a cat woman :) meeeowww

Any Thoughts ;) 

Lowwweee in the Air

Its lowweee all over in the air :) Valentine's day which has found its own spot in our day to day lives. For a change, I was not all hyped up about 14th Feb. Well not sure if its the age just showing up or is that my definition of love is not confined to a single day. If I turn back the pages of my life a few years ago, I would have loved to be wooed away on a romantic date. Things and perspectives change and as they say "change is the only constant". I guess have graduated to the next level or at least would like to believe so :). 

Being the infamous Facebook addict that I am, I restrained myself from posting anything yesterday. It was pretty interesting to see friends and family professing and thanking their loved ones. I am happy for the folks who have found their soul mates and for the ones who are in run of finding someone :) 

I am sure that yesterday would have been a super bumper day for all retail outlets. I was trying to book a table on Saturday but it was quite surprising that all tables were running full for the entire week. I am happy that the otherwise busy workaholic husbands/boyfriends/fathers are trying to spend their time with loved ones. Well before you jump at me with a growl :), I am not discounting the fact that there are quite a few people who on the contrary make it a point to spend time over weekends with their loved ones.

 I think we need to have more such days so that people who otherwise are busy in the mad rat race spend some time with their loved ones. Well at the end of the day, I am romantic at heart and anything to do with love is sweet music :) There is always light at the end of tunnel. 

For all the love birds, my favorite quote from the Bible :

“Love is patient; love is kind
and envies no one.
Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude;
never selfish, not quick to take offense.
There is nothing love cannot face;
there is no limit to its faith,
its hope, and endurance.
In a word, there are three things
that last forever: faith, hope, and love;
but the greatest of them all is love.”

Let there be love all around :)

Higgledy-Piggledy

Today has been a pretty mixed up day with different things running on mind and taking priority. Life was so simple back when we were kids and did not have to worry about the difference between right vs wrong. 

Sometimes in the tryst of being on the right side, we end up doing things which we regret later. I wish people 

understood that they cannot get away stirring up a boiling pot of water and act as if it was grabbed from a 

refrigerator. I seriously wish that the person who is ready to give up things in life for a wrong purpose goes

on the right path for good. I do not know if my talking has helped but I sincerely hope that things work 

out for the good. 

I also wish that the person who has been getting on the wrong side of me understands and values the meaning 

of relationships. Everything cannot always be hanky panky. I wish such people feel sincerely for someone and that someone acts wishy washy with them.  I so wish that person sees the real me and regrets for hurting me in such a way. Sometimes lives greatest lessons are learnt the hard way. 

I so wish things just become clear instead of getting hazy when the sun is about to shine in life...!!

What will you become when you grow up?

A question that's very often thrown upfront on kids..."what do you want to do when you grow up?". 

I had multiple answers to it, when the question was posed to me. I was labelled as the confused kid in the block. When I was a little girl, I wanted to become like my mommy who was a teacher. When I was about ten, I wanted to follow my Dad and become a speaker. Nopes..my dad was no speaker. He was into social and rural development. Well that's the impression that stuck to me when I saw him talking on the microphone in meetings...:) 

As soon as I hit my teens...I wanted to become something big in life. I was not able to decipher what big meant to me. I completed my graduation in science. During my grad years, I was inclined to Mendel's Laws of Genetics. I wanted to get into genetic engineering. In a place as small as my hometown, there was hardly anybody who could guide me towards my new found ambition. I completed my graduation and went on to 

do a course in programming. Nay...I was not at all a tech savvy person. I was possessed by the ghosts of independence. Thanks to my stars, I got into a job which was anything but programming. I got into the technical helpdesk for a famous company. I was doing ok not bad. I survived 2 and a half years without passing out in between. 

I jumped into another company and tried my hand at improving quality of the tasks assigned to me. 

I was lost in crunching data and analyzing the root cause of all failures. I was scared looking day and night at failed transactions..questioning myself...if I was on the road to become one. I jumped out again to a different boat which I had never sailed on. It was interesting at the start of the journey. But very soon, I got settled and thought that I would retire from here. It was about quality again but I was getting comfortable. Life has its own 

plans, I had to leave the company to join another one. I am still working there managing people,processes and clients. It has been quite a roller coaster ride through out with lots of learning and life changing experiences in the process. The million dollar question is that do I enjoy it.....I am still searching for the answers...

My answer to the question that was posed when I was a kid is still unanswered. Let me grow up to figure out what I want to do out of my life :)