SlishaCrazy

In 2018, I signed up to one of those reading challenges to complete 50 books. If I could have done it in any year, it would have been 2018 given the significant amount of free time I had. Somehow I didn't even get through five books. Instead I worked on an adult colouring book and some origami, and also tried to learn python. Come 2019, I decided I should at least try. Also, I took a friend's advice on audiobooks and realised my library had a huge collection. So may be this year, I can read half that number. June update: I have read 19 books in the first half of the year. If I keep that up, I might actually end up reading more than 50 this year. But we all know that's unlikely. Yet, I felt I need to publish now, lest the post is too long. Here is me documenting it - the first half of the year: 1. Origin by Dan Brown (Jan): I wanted to start 2019 with some light reading. But this is beyond light, pointless. This book wasn't expected to be spectacular in t...

Over the last few years, I have struggled to write, and to keep up my blog. I kept blaming how life took over and that I find no time for myself. And then I had a few weeks to myself and I most certainly had a lot of time on my hands and yet I chose to do origami than write. That is when I realised, it was because I had forgotten the joy of writing. I saw a snapshot of a publication of someone I know, who like me fancied oneself as a writer. That snapshot seemed to be snippet of terrible writing, in my opinion, and it felt like it was a reflection of my own view of myself where I am probably propped up by a select few creating an echo-bubble that praised my writing, but in reality, I am probably a terrible writer. (Update: I feel I should explain a little here. That piece of writing from someone I know isn't objectively terrible. It's obviously good enough to be published. But the style is very different from what that writer projected it to be, which has been endorsed by a ...

Yes, feminism is in vogue. It's the talk of the town and the hottest topic these days. That's a good thing of course. The more you talk about it, the more awareness you raise and the more people strive for women empowerment. A women's magazine would generally cater to women, but all women are not alike and hence, they tend to concentrate on the most reachable section of the population. While I have no doubt that all kinds of women read all likes of magazines and watch all kinds of TV shows, I'm going to make some generalisations which I'm sure many of you would scream and shout saying I'm stereotyping. Well guess what, stereotypes exist because statistics say so and as long as I'm not stereotyping a single person, I think I'm alright. I digress. Women's magazines, I don't think have many working women as their readers. Working women may read them, but not fully or not with the same vigour as stay at home women or young teenagers do, only becau...

In love with airports I must be. But not usually. They are not destinations and they are not places where you want to spend time, unless I hear of it's the Dubai airport. Killing time doesn't put me off, but people watching is certainly boring at airports unlike railway stations. Railway stations, I love! Heathrow airport is a beauty and I didn't know it till today. Till today I thought it was a chaotic mass of people and flights. Today I witnessed the Heathrow Minute! While an aeroplane is evidence of amazing engineering, Heathrow is evidence of incredible logistics. And today I think I witnessed it. My flight was in queue and I could see flights in front of it, and flights cutting the queue from other fringes of the fishbone sort of network this was, and the flights in front of us were cutting others in other fringes. They all went one by one on to this long long runway. And when one flight starts moving very quickly on the runway, another already takes its place so...

Is filled with history, overflowing in every step and yet very modern, for all the older architecture was destroyed in the two wars. K had been to Berlin many a times and it is one of his favourite cities so he insisted we visit it soon. And soon we did. I'm struggling to write this post not knowing how to word it. I'm overwhelmed by the history and the struggle that the city went through time and again, and yet how it never portrays itself as victim but takes responsibility for the atrocities during WWII. Berlin is the embodiment of the consequences of war. It remembers everything. It even remembers Warsaw, the city that was completely destroyed by war. Cold War The first thing we did when we landed in Berlin was to head to the East Side Gallery . The Berlin Wall, my readers would recollect from history, was put up in 1961 to keep East Germans from escaping out of the communist reign into the little part of West Germany that was under the collaborated reign of the...

... Of watching a really bad play. 1/5 rating The Valley of Astonishment | Young Vic It's been long since I watched a play, so K and I went to watch one, off west end; for the real thing, you see. The write up, reviews and the general idea of The Valley of Astonishment made it a very attractive play. It was in the Young Vic, and we didn't expect to be enthralled by the acting skills but we were expecting a good play, especially after guardian and independent giving some good reviews. Having watched the play we were left with a strong feeling of being cheated by it. K lost his appetite. Of course, we can't blame anyone else for choosing which play to watch. We just made a bad choice. The play had one normal linearly flowing story of a 44 year old woman, Sammy Costas who had an uncanny memory due to synaesthesia and becomes a phenomenon. And then there are smaller stories in between that are all unrelated but are about various degrees of synaesthesia. And then, th...

This year has been very eventful for me. January: Had a boring new year's party and felt bad about not being able to vote . February: Err. I acted in a play and walked down the ramp at the culfest. March: I read a lot of books . I almost read like a book a day during my wait for my UK visa. April: I went to Mumbai, stayed in Colaba and worked in Nariman for about 25 days which is almost like a dream come true ! (I promised a post and never wrote it) May: I went to the City of London , stayed at Tower Hill and worked on Liverpool Street which was way beyond my dreams ! This was also my first trip abroad. June: I went to Scotland . I got a job ! Followed FIFA from start to end for the first time (London inspired me). July: Nothing happened, including my birthday. I got my US visa. August: I went to Boston, MA to stay for the next 3 months. I enrolled in an all girls college which I have never done ! I heard I failed a course back at IIMCal. September: I went to my sister...

I fell in love with Bombay in 3 weeks, London in 4 weeks and New York in 3 weekends and half a week. I came back from London all romantic about it which wore off in time but I do still like the city a lot. I am currently still romantic about New York and will have to wait and watch if it will wear off. Boston is cute and nice and peaceful which I like but not at the moment designed for me. But Bombay … My heart leaps up every time I am to land/take off from Bombay at night time. I love it when I am landing in Boston during the day when you feel you are landing on water and just when you thought you would, the runway appears out of nowhere. No such airport stories about London and NY looks nice during the day with the Atlantic and everything but not half as wow-ing. Inspiring! That’s the word for NY though. London shows you memories of empires that stood through thick and thin for generations together. New York shows you empires that were built from scratch over a single lifetime....

To Topi And to coincidence that can't just be coincidence. This is a screen shot of when I shared this video in my FB:

Reporting from JFK airport! No there is no free wifi here. I need to have some card with some credit stuff. It’s not like I can pay now also. It says next time you log on to the internet, get credit and use wifi in more than 500 airports, 2000 hotels and some insane cafes. So, here I am posting it from a Greyhound bus to Boston about what happened nearly a day ago. Sitting at the window can give you so many insights into life! Or maybe I am just philosophical because even the light rain outside the glass window at JFK somehow makes me happy. Actually, I have always had a window seat on a place journey. At least I think so because I do not remember not having one. Flying from Kolkata to Hyderabad, I saw an amazing sight. It was night and the sky was dark. We were flying above the clouds and the stars sparkled beautifully. We reduced altitude as we neared Hyderabad and then I saw. What a beautiful sight! Dark gloomy clouds smashed against each other angrily and huge bolts of ...

When i packed all my stuff to leave IIM Calcutta for a short stay at home before I leave for the US, I just had three bags to take: a laptop backpack, a small suitcase with all my certificates and a big suitcase with all my clothes. And it made me wonder! Is this all I need in life ? But no! I have another backpack that I have packed and leaving behind which has a million other little things that matter to me in two boxes that I call memory boxes. They have like stupid things that Peter Gabriel says in song the Book of Love that " It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes And things we're all too young to know" ! But can I carry all that on my bag ?? Quoting George Clooney in Up in the Air : How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life... you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. C...

It’s a weird feeling when you know that particular blog posts would get particular responses from particular people and you do not get them. It’s a bit disappointing and a bit unsettling. And after that if you find that the particular people have not been up in their own blog as well, it becomes increasing unsettling till it takes to a scare. Unsettling is the perfect word for it. Update: One of them is back on the blog; after a month's gap

it's been a long while since I last wrote a poem. So long ago, like 9 months ago that I wrote one last. I did not know it had been this long. It felt so long like may be I don't write poetry anymore. So when all of a sudden I felt like writing one I was scared to put my words down fearing that I might have lost it. But I finally did type out a few words here . I don't know how my effort turned out to me. But I am at least glad it does sound like a poem. :) On a not so different note, I finished compiling last edition of Inquest for this year. (Inquest is an in-house, bi-monthly magazine brought out by Persona, the literary club of IIMC) PS: You have no idea how many times I wanted to put down phrases like 'pen down', put words down in ink', 'ink the words' etc and edited the phrases every time because I realise I do not do that anymore. I just type. I do not remember if I ever wrote with a fountain pen.

Why are there so many 'forbidden' things in this world ? The forbidden fruit, the forbidden forest... Hell! There are 7 movies named ' Forbidden ' according to wiki. Even as kids we all want to do anything that follows 'Don't' before it. I remember whenever I read (and still read) an instruction for anything, the Don'ts always make me wonder what happens if you do and there is an itching to do just that. Why is the word forbidden so attractive ?

Whenever I feel like I m flying I think its utterly important to turn around and connect with your roots. It keeps you on ground. It gives you a reality check. But most importantly, When you go underground, those roots will pull you up and throw you in the air and force you to fly.

How many roads must a man walk down Before you call him a man?... A song written so long ago could never be wrong and never yet be right enough for people to believe it but accept it as an art of analysis. Many let downs still keep up the position when the idea of quitting arises but whether fear or fight, never quit to make it but look out for hope reveals in truth and realise that a small pint can make an ocean worth of it. But then it takes its toll ...How many times can a man turn his head, Pretending he just doesn't see?...

While I was listening to a company official talk about empowering oneself a thought occurred to me. Most of us attribute losses to bad luck! Bad luck is almost always noticed and never hidden. Anything that possess as an obstacle which is out of your hands is termed as bad luck. Good luck on the other hand is less credited. There are very few instances when things fit into place and to referred to it as good luck. Usually we take credit for what we do. Don't you think the failure of Murphy's law itself is good luck and is present in as copious amounts as bad luck ?? And the more important thought: latent goodluck!! How many times had luck knocked on your door and you didn't hear it ? You can never answer. Because if you can, you would have heard it and you would have opened your doors. I have heard people say that someone was successful becasue he was lucky. If one has the same opportunities one can succeed the same way. Think about all the times you might have had opportun...

They say time is a healer It's not It just gets you used to situations

It's 5.15 in the morning and I just spent the last three hours watching ' Samantha Who? ' with my girl friend and reading Contact in between. I love to watch sitcoms. They are fun and short. But I've never been really addicted to one. But this one, it's just, I dunno, I connect. I mean she is scared of elevators, but still gets used to taking them. Hell I m shit scared of those things but I still take them. Now you know what I mean. It's about this really mean person who gets hit by a car and she has amnesia but now she is like all nice and goody and stuff and is really trying to change and be a better person. Who hasn't wished for that? Whenever I do something I am not proud of I really wish i could go back in time and undo. At least I wished I would forget it and everyone else involved too. Well if Woody Allen could write plays on his life Samantha Who is my sitcom I'd like to have written. Coming to think of writing sitcoms, The Big Bang Theory and...

Today's main article in economic times editorial seemed extremely personal to the writer. The tough decision for this month’s column was whether to write about the prognosis for consumer demand in India, post the global meltdown,India slowdown, e-sops (as ET elegantly described vote inducing election expenditure), or whether to write about what lessons placement committees (mostly comprising students) of top-tier MBA schools ought to learn and act on, after the 2009 stressful placement season. This column opted to discuss the latter, because we want to urge future leaders of India Inc to use their intellect and education to courageously depart from the past and do things differently for the different world of the future. If they are content being status-quo-ist in their placement models with the justification of “ hamare khandaan ke purane rivaaz hain ”, they are out of step with the mindset that winning companies of India Inc and the world want and need. These were the first...