Friday, June 13, 2014

Moving on.....

After many months of paralyzing indecisiveness, I have finally decided to move to WordPress. You can now find me at http://theidleist.wordpress.com/

I’ve made this move after a lot of thought and not without some sadness. If I had held on for another four months, this blog would have completed 10 years this October. 10 years! It sounds incredible. And this blog has witnessed my journey from adolescent to adult in these last many years. My older posts often make me wince and cringe, but equally often make me smile; and they remind me of the person I used to be.

But in the last one year, I have lost my blogging mojo. I hadn’t written a single post in 2013. I’ve always been an erratic blogger, but this was the first time since I started blogging in 2004 that I went a whole year without a single post. I needed a drastic change to get me going again – and moving to a new blog seemed like a good idea.

Of course, practical concerns played a big part in this decision. WordPress seems more user-friendly and customizable, whereas I struggle with even basic formatting on blogger. My blogger account settings are messed up – my Google/Blogger account is linked to an old Yahoo email – and this makes commenting on other blogs a massive pain. Moreover, my RSS settings are also weird, and don't allow other bloggers to follow me. Finally, almost all the bloggers I follow are on WordPress so this move would make commenting and following easier.

So, thank you for your patience, and for reading and commenting all these years. Like I keep saying, your comments really make my day. I hope you will continue to read and continue to encourage me to write at http://theidleist.wordpress.com/

See you on the other side!

Friday, April 25, 2014

Happy Fridays

Have you heard ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams? It’s one of the most infectious, fun, happy songs ever.

So infectious, in fact, that cities across the world have been shooting ‘happy videos’ for this song. So about six weeks ago, a friend shared the happy video for Bangalore on Facebook. And I was so taken by the idea that I spent the whole Saturday looking at happy videos from across the world. I shared some of the videos with a friend from Vizag, saying ‘we should do this for Vizag’.

Now, that would have been the end of that. Except that I tore an ankle ligament and ended up with a badass cast for about three weeks. This happened exactly at the beginning of my three week vacation - during which time I was supposed to go trekking in Nepal – so all travel plans were cancelled and I found myself sitting at home in Vizag with nothing to do all day. That’s when the idea of a happy video for Vizag began to really take shape.

Some seven of us got together one Friday evening to discuss it, spent the next day planning, and started shooting from Sunday morning. We managed to get over 35 people to take part in the video, which we shot in just four days. We spent another week editing the video before finally uploading it on YouTube.

It’s been just a little under two weeks since we uploaded the video, and we’re close to a 100,000 views already! We’ve been featured in three local newspapers and one magazine. We’ve been approached by commercial establishments offering to sponsor the video! And we’ve received overwhelmingly warm and positive responses for the video from people across the world. Nike, who directed the video, is so inspired by the response that he is now working on a short film that he wants to do next.

So all I really wanted to say in this post is: go watch our video, right now! And I promise it’s going to make you happy.


Friday, April 18, 2014

Hello Again

Alright, I know I just disappeared for the last year and a half without so much as a by your leave. It’s the longest I’ve gone without blogging. And I don’t really have any valid excuses for the disappearance. Except that I just couldn’t bring myself to put pen to paper…..or finger to keypad.

And while I do have a draft explaining all that I’ve been upto in the last year and a half, you don’t want to read it. I mean, even *I* don’t want to read it. So this post, it’s just going to be about the here and now and it’s going to be all positive and sunny.

Two weeks ago, I joined my dream organization. My aunt tells me that I wanted to work here right from my undergraduate days. I don’t remember that, but this has been my dream organization for the last many years, so I am indeed very excited to be here. Every time I look at my ID card, I feel a thrill of excitement. Every morning when I come into office and see the organization logo, I can’t help but grin. I am also *this* close to sending emails to myself, just so I can see my own official email address in my inbox, but have thankfully resisted so far!

Now this is all well and good, but I am not really a full-time employee here, but only a consultant on a contract for a few months. But that’s enough for me for now – I atleast have a foot in the door –and hopefully this will eventually lead to even bigger and better things. So yes, after a string of disappointments over the last one year, I’m finally at a very happy place.

I’ve also moved to Delhi two weeks ago, to take up this new job. I was ambivalent about moving to Delhi – and the husband was downright unhappy about it – but it’s been lovely so far. We stay in a little house (little being the operative word here) in one of the loveliest areas in South Delhi. The windows look out on to the park behind the house. There’s nothing nicer than sitting down with a book in the living room couch, while looking out on to that view. Or waking up to see a lush and rain soaked park from the bedroom window.

When we step out of the main gate, we find ourselves in front of a 13th century pillar built during the time of Alauddin Khilji. And a few more steps lead us to the park behind our house, which houses a 17th century building from the Tuqhlaq dynasty. It’s incredible to be living in the midst of so much history! A little further is *yet* another park, this one equipped with a jogging/walking track, and sellers of fresh fruits and flowers lined along its walls. There are atleast four parks within a 50 metre radius of my house! I wanted to post pictures but I dropped my phone and cracked it, and now it needs to be repaired before I can use it *sob*

The weather is still rather nice. The city may have bid goodbye to spring, but summer is yet to arrive; so it’s actually very pleasant right now, and we’re trying to make the most of what’s probably the last of the good weather before summer bears down on us. I’m usually home by 6pm so there’s enough light to still go for a stroll in the park and enjoy the mild breeze.

We’re off to Rishikesh for the long weekend. We set out early on Friday morning, and will return by Sunday evening. We will be staying at resort owned by a friend – it looks lovely in the pictures and has been getting very good reviews, so I am quite looking forward to staying there. Nike plans to go white water rafting. I wish I could join him, but I injured my ankle a month ago and have been advised against physical activities for the next one month, so I’m going to resign myself to playing cheerleader. For my part, I’ll be carrying along a few books and doing the three things I’m best at – reading, eating and sleeping.

Have a good weekend. And while I make no promises, I hope to see you on the other side of the week!