Blessed to Have You as My Mother in Law

Sulu Mavashi as fondly we call you, It’s hard to believe you are not with us anymore. We will always miss you.

Sulu Mavashi you never treated me as your daughter in law but as your niece so you were never monther in law to me but you were one of favorite mavashi (autnty, monther’s sister). You were always my support. Without your support I wouldn’t have been what I am today. When I was newly married you always advised that lady of house has a difficult responsibility of striking balance to take care of sasural and maika as well. You always encouraged me to not to neglect my paternal family. You always stood by me in every decision, you encouraged me to go onsite and pursue my career goals.

You are the one who gave Sachin the books for IIT preparations.

You have been always inspirational to entire family, you always pampered, loved, cared everyone in the family and were there for everyone in their difficult times. You were the pillar of the family. You were amazing cook and we always enjoyed whenever we visited you or you visited us, especially I won’t forget Gulabjamun made by you. You were perfect blend of modern yet rooted to Indian culture. You taught us to keep the family together. Lots of things to learn from you, Sulu Mavashi.

You have laid such a strong foundation for the family that none of us will let you fail, feel sad ever. Om Shanti!!

Yahi Hein Right Choice Baby... Aaha!!

I remember the days when I was in search of my life partner. I would say those were the most difficult days of my life. I was not typical marriage material and I was not looking for a typical settled guy. Being a s/w engineer I thought a s/w engineer would be best match for me so that we both can understand each other better and can live a successful married life. But when I actually started interacting with guys and their parents, I came across with weird parameters of matchmaking and I was never a fit for those and I used to think how can a guy and family who try to evaluate me with those parameters be a suitable match for me.
My wish to not get settled abroad was major hindrance to find the best match and I wasn’t ready to give up on that. Another wish of mine was that I should be able to communicate well, share, discuss on all aspects of life and topics with my life partner. He should not be religious. He should be a person with values. All such non typical parameters were part of my matchmaking criteria.
It took me almost 8 years to find me my man, thankfully he also chose me as his lady. (I still don’t know what he saw in me). When we decided to marry, what we had was our educational degrees and some work experience. I remember on our first meeting we discussed outsourcing strategies, economy trends, etc. He did not ask me if I know cooking neither I asked him his salary.
We started our journey with big dreams in eyes and I am very happy today with the time I spent with him. Every day getting assured I made right choice. I am very proud to be married to man who may not be earning in dollars but part of a team developing Indian Products: Trinka, a grammar and language correction AI tool for academic and technical writing and AuthorOne, a manuscript assessment AI tool. We may not have BMW, Audi but dream to have Jaguar :).
What could be better occasion to publish this blog than successful launch of second product, Trinka.

Bucketlist

This is long time pending blog, actually I should have written it just after watching the movie but for some or the reason I kept delaying it. So now taking advantage of long weekend I have decided to write about it.

The marathi movie, Bucketlist, starring Madhuri Dixit (which is one of the item in Madhuri’s bucketlist to act in Marathi movie) unlike typical marathi movies, either comedy or classic, is little glamorous yet giving some message in very casual way. Although it was not counted as classic movie its very close to me as I can relate to the movie and very fact I liked as it gives message in casual way without emphasizing on it.

It talks about importance of organ donation, how a housewife should also have her own identity than to just losing herself in taking care of family, she also should have opinion and views and which should be respected by the family.

But the main reason its close to me as I do also have bucketlist and that’s my identity withough which I am incomplete. And I continuously keep working on it, 24X7 it’s in my mind; although I don’t have time limit for it.

I won’t mind sharing few items that have been marked tick till now.

1.       Staying independently before getting married and earn.

2.       Walking on streets at midnight with friends

3.       Going onsite in foreign countries not as developer but to work with client on requirement gathering for project

4.       To learn driving 4 wheeler and to own it

5.       Camping and tent stay

6.       Watching India playing at Wankhede (although it wasn’t ICC match, I enjoyed watching legends playing it)
7.       Bird Photography

And lot more yet to be marked completed…… that keeps me alive.

Happy Women’s Day…. My mother my super hero…

8th May is celebrated as women’s international day. On this event I came across with many articles, advertises, posts but the one video I loved it. A small baby drawing pic her working mom in office attire dropping her in school being her superhero and that reminds me my childhood. Yup, my mother is my superhero.

My mother always was independent lady, she supported her family, she did not overlook her duties towards kids, husband, in-laws, siblings and friends. She was always asked ‘Oh! You don’t have son’, but she never had that question in her mind. She cultivated not only thought of earning bread butter for self but making our own identity which was her incomplete dream. She led by example. She faced lots of odds but never gave up on values.

Even now people don’t understand girls don’t want to work only to earn money that can be their passion. And I got it from my mother. Even at the age to 72, she is active social worker which she has been throughout her life. She has always been ahead of time.

If I can do 10% of what she has done I will consider it as my life time achievement.

And yes to add to it, she used to drive the car as well.

Secrete of Our Happy Married Life….

Read an article on marriage and triggered me to write this….

Ours is arranged marriage. In case of arranged marriage as we all are aware we meet multiple prospective grooms or brides, talk to them and obviously judge them if he or she can be your perfect match. To do so you first need to know yourself well and then evaluate whether you can get along with the other person. This is what I think as I don’t believe in love at first sight. I really wonder if there is something called of love. I feel if you can respect other you automatically love that person and that was my criterion of match making. You should have some common things to spend your time together. You should have common values and beliefs.
I was against spending lot of money on ceremony, I had wish to donate that amount to Indian Army But this is my unfulfilled wish. The clothes, jewelry, make up were not the things that mattered to both of us. We were more than happy with whatever we gifted to each other. We were more interested in knowing and understanding each other because that’s what going to help us to last our relationship. We were busy making future plans, finding our new home. Sachin was looking for new home as per my preferences that was making me more comfortable with him. We both don’t believe in cast or religion. We were frank with each other. I was able to express my thoughts with him freely that’s what mattered to me.
Since then till today we never gave more importance on gifts, flowers, etc. We see to it we spend time together in activities that both of us like. He helps me in cooking sometimes, we go for walk together. I have developed of new hobby of trekking and walking on trails with him. I think for married couples its necessary to develop common interest which you both can enjoy. We make efforts to make each other happy. Our marriage has brought best out of us. We plan for future together and have common goals in life. That binds us tight.

I will always pray for we to be same forever.

Lived My Dreams

Happy to say I made it.
I don't have any unfulfilled dreams for self.
I worked hard, gave multiple attempts to make it.
Sidi ungli se nahi nikala to rasten badale but never changed my destination.
It makes me complete, contented.
I am ready for next task.... May god give me strength, wisdom, vision to succeed.

Hurricane Irma and Me

Every summer in Florida starts with a prayer that there is no major hurricane. I was happy as August also passed with no storms this year. Just as I was enjoying the Labor Day weekend, we got the news that Hurricane Irma has turned into  a category 5 hurricane and is going to hit Florida in a week. I had absolutely no clue how to deal with this kind of situation. My friends in USA just told me to tune to local news and act as per their advice. This turned out to be the best advice which helped me throughout.

I started preparing for the storm and stocked non-perishable food, water, fruits, torch, etc. To gather these items was not easy as shops were going out of stock. We had to go early morning to shops so that we get essentials such as bread, water, and batteries.

There was lot of uncertainty about the path of Irma: whether it will hit the east coast or west coast of Florida. The state government declared a state of emergency. Mandatory evacuation orders were given for southern Florida as the first landfall was predicted to be there. Tension was building up for me.

Up until Wednesday, we were relaxed as all the models predicated its going to be on the east coast. I was following the local news channel.  People in Tampa also started evacuating. News reporters mentioned on Wednesday evening this is the right time to evacuate if you want to. I was clueless about what to do. We just checked flight tickets but the prices were really high. One of my friends told us about some airlines offering cheap tickets for people trying to evacuate at the last moment, but Sachin was firm not to evacuate, so we remained calm. Thursday morning news update showed that path moved little towards west with lots of uncertainty.  We checked the flight tickets again but by that time all flights were sold out. But we did not panic as the hurricane was predicted to go over land and its severity reduced by the time it hit Tampa.

Friday was the worst day. The morning update showed Irma has gained speed and it has shifted more to the west. Mandatory evacuation orders were given to the coastal area of Hillsborough county. (which is my county). Now the tension started building. Sachin was continuously following news and I was working since I had to complete my deliverables on time. Evening update was scary showing a continuous shift to the west. One model predicated chances of a second landfall in Tampa Bay from the west coast. I was clueless what to be done. I started asking opinions of my friends. They were equally clueless. I called up one of my American client colleague for guidance. She said she will decide to evacuate or not after the 11 pm update. The 11 pm update was more scary. I told Sachin we will evacuate next morning and go to a hurricane shelter. Hurricane shelters were going to open 8 am on the next morning. After making our bag ready for evacuation with all important visa documents, some clothes, and food items, we went to bed. After a few minutes, my friends called up and said they are evacuating to Atlanta (North of Tampa in the state of Georgia) and asked whether we want to join them. And we happily joined them. We got just one suitcase and our laptops and started our journey. To decide at this time to evacuate was also risky as there was lots of traffic jam, gas stations were out of fuel, and there was a high chance that we get stuck on road when the storm hits us.

Bhagwan ka nam leke sab nikal pade. It took us 12 hours to reach destination which normally takes 7-8 hours. We did not have a place to stay in Atlanta when we left. We had one number of Art of Living volunteers somebody had shared on Facebook. They were volunteering to provide accommodation for hurricane stranded people. We contacted them, and in few minutes they replied with an address for us to go to. Saturday morning 6 am we reached Georgia. We started to look for hotel accommodation near the city. Most of the hotels were booked, and the available placed were getting filled before we could book them. Luckily we got one room in a shared house on Airbnb. The owner was offering it for free of cost to hurricane affected people.

We reached at Atlanta on Saturday Afternoon. The room was good, and the owner, Wenwen, was very helpful. She had two dogs. The dogs were extremely friendly. The restaurants and grocery shops were nearby the house so we could manage our stay at ease.

Sunday night the hurricane was going to hit Tampa Bay with a wind speed of 110 mph. We were following live updates on our news channel online and praying for our homes to be safe. We woke up Sunday morning to know that all is well in our community. So were happy about it. Now we had to plan our way back to home. Hurricane Irma had turned to tropical storm and it was heading towards Atlanta. So we decided to start our journey back to home on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, we checked flight tickets, but Tampa airport was not operational. We were lucky to get bus tickets to Tampa on the same day. Very soon even bus tickets were sold out.  The bus was scheduled to leave at 8:30 pm. We planned our day accordingly. Just before leaving for the bus, we called the bus station to check if the bus is on time and they informed us that the bus service is suspended for Florida and won't be operational until weekend. We cancelled our tickets and again started for looking out for other options. Just then Tampa airport became operational and we could book flight tickets for the same night. Though we got tickets, we were not sure we will fly back until we get the boarding tickets. At 11 pm, we landed in Tampa and reached home half an hour later. We were happy to see our home in the same state as we left.

Although the entire week the life was tough but it did not feel that bad as there were many helping hands. The help and understanding offered by everyone was very overwhelming. I am falling short of words to express it. And I am highly impressed by the disaster management in USA.

Beauty Lies In The Eyes Of The Beholder

In India only fair skin is considered as beauty. Me, having dark complexion never counted as good looking. But since my childhood my family has cultivated confidence in me by giving values not to give importance to outer beauty and emphasised on how I can be a good human and independent and confident person. Many times I was rejected for being dark skinned person but I never got hurt or felt bad about it as I criticised people for not understanding the true value of qualities of the person. I always waited for right people right opportunity and it worked for me.

I always believe if one accepts self as what he or she is, its hardly matters what the rest think about him or her.

But to my surprise, in Sweden I got compliments by white people for my complexion. Other day here in Tampa, USA, I was greeted by a white woman (mentioning white not for discrimination), she complemented me saying ‘You look very beautiful’ and while she was staring at me I really felt as if I am some beautiful princess. Truly, Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder

Social Media and Me…

Needless to talk about power, impact of social media… but it just fascinates me… not for the likes I get on my photos or posts… not for the number of followers.. by the way I don’t get many :).. but for the inspiration I get from the people when they share the posts..

I have a friend, Divya Navale, who is traveler, travelling is her passion and I got inspired by the photos she posted… I felt the urge to visit those places and worked towards it, fortunate enough to get the opportunity to travel. 

My cousin Shilpa Shinde is amazing photographer, when I saw photos posted by her I thought even I should try my hands on photography. I am an amateur photographer now.

The thoughtful blogs from my friend Ajay Varshney, quotes shared by people inspire me like daily dose to live my life, to feed my cognitive process.

I share the photos from the places that I visit and like so that if people like that place can plan visiting those. One can see the place in photos if they cant travel there. I scribble my thoughts just to express and spread some thoughts I like and feel like sharing. By the way, I got introduced to blogging by Prashant Batra. Thank you Motu ;)

Hope I am also inspirational to someone somewhere the way you all are for me.

Sometimes I Wonder…..

Sometimes I wonder am I an abnormal girl?

In my collage days I never liked people complementing my look or clothes. I used to always feel people should appreciate my talent or nature. Every girl has dream to get married and be a mother. It was never dream of my life. I always dreamt to be charming lady with descent career. Sometimes I wonder I always did what I wanted and never followed traditions just for name sake or thinking ‘log kya kahenge’.

I am thankful to God to have supportive parents who always understood me and inculcated ability of rational thinking, questioning obvious in me.

I always wonder its not easy to understand me and get along with me easily… For me it was the biggest challenge to find suitable life partner and then one fine day I found as supportive, understanding and sensible man with whom I am happily married.

Sweet Little Doll Turns To Graceful Princess

My sweet little doll, my younger sister, ten years ago she left India for higher studies and started living independently in Canada. She completed her masters and started working. Every year she visits India for about two weeks and we spend gala time with each other, we eat together, roam together and shop together. But its always I do didigiri all the time with her.

But, this time we met at Florida, USA. She had come on vacation to meet me and visit few nearby places. No need to say we had lots of fun these days. First time I saw her driving car, graciously dealing with Americans, confidently ordering and eating local food, so well she has learnt American mannerism and life style. My sweet little doll, whom I used to pamper and take care of was taking care of me. Best part of all is being successful in life she is so down to earth. I feel proud to see my doll has grown up to graceful princess and has found his charming prince who takes care of her.

God Bless You Dear.

Choice or Destiny

We are aware of saying,  'It's choice that determines destiny', but I wonder is that always true. If we believe that our life is a product of our decisions and if we believe in destiny we believe some forces defines our life. I feel life is blend of choice and destiny.
In spite of scoring good marks, clearing of interviews and having job letters from two top companies due to recession I couldn't start my career on right time is part of destiny but I chose to look for another opportunity is my choice. I got second chance is my destiny.
Because of my health I had to return halfway on my first onsite assignment. It was the worst experience of my life that I had fear in my mind to take up any onsite project.  But I made efforts to overcome my fear and got opportunity to travel abroad for work is again good example of choice and destiny.
Getting into uncontrolled situation whether it's good or bad is destiny, the way you react to it is your choice. So your life is outcome of both.

Wish I Can Travel More..

When I was a kid, my family always went on trips during my school vacations. We visited nearby places like Pune, Shirdi, Nashik, Aurangabad, and Ratnagiri as well as places outside my state like Karnataka, Delhi and Kashmir. I really enjoyed these trips.

I had a collage friend, Asmita, who had come from Sindhudurg to Mumbai for her studies and stayed with her grandmother in Mumbai. I was very impressed with this girl and her independent ways. After my education, I grabbed the opportunity to live independently with friends and went to Bangalore for my job, my dream career. With friends I did many things first time, right from house hunting, grocery shopping, banking, etc… but I didn't travel much. I stayed there almost for three years, but I visited only Hampi, Udupi, and Manipal. I wish I was more active to see more places nearby. Luckily enough, I got to stay in Hyderabad for two months for project work. During my stay, I got to interact with various people and got to know the south Indian culture.

Later for my work I moved to Pune. I stayed there for a year. It was fun to travel on the Mumbai-Pune expressway on every weekend by Shivneri. I went to Parvati, Sinhgad, Lonavala and hung out on FC Road, Tulsibag market, etc. It was a good experience.

Then I got opportunity to travel to Stockholm, Sweden. I tried to explore Swedish way of living as much as I can in my short duration of stay. Experienced snow, walking in subzero temperature… I wanted to explore Sweden more but the stay ended abruptly and had to return back… yet want a lot more to experience, especially northern lights. I have a wish to visit Sweden once more in my lifetime.

Stockholm is an awesome place, wherever you go you feel you are in heaven. After visiting Stockholm I wished I should visit more places in India and around the world. I made short weekend tours to Ratnagiri, Raigad, Malshejghat, Lohagad within Maharashtra. Enjoyed truly.

And now to Florida, USA on work assignment. Its more than three months here now… setting up things here… lots of things to explore..

Along with going to tourist places, I enjoy visiting local hangout places, knowing locals, their eating habits, etc. Every travel is an adventure, you learn something new. It brings more Aaha moments to life. I enjoy being a traveler than being just a tourist. If I had money and ample time, I would certainly travel more.

My Unforgettable Valentine’s Day

This was when I was in second year of my graduation.

On Valentine’s day the collage atmosphere was cheerful. It was D Day for the couples. Singles were looking for their dream partners. I had a group of some friends and we were just roaming around looking at  the crowd. The couples from our group already had some plans. Single boys from our group were searching for girl partners. We three girls were thinking to celebrate the day as a group but boys were not interested. We pissed off with guys and decided to go for movie ‘Akele Hum Akele Tum’. We found out where its been shown and decided to go to Bandra Galaxy theatre.

We were very excited, reached there and got to know the show is housefull. We got disappointed but Neeta told us we can get tickets in black. Prerana and me have not bought tickets in black ever before but we decided to go for black as we desperately wanted to celebrate the day. Neeta bought the tickets and we had some time for the show. We were very happy and stood in the queue to get in and we suddenly realised the tickets were not for ‘Akele Hum Akele Tum’, it was for ‘Bandit Queen’ and ticket for this movie was not fully sold when we bought and on top of that we didn’t want to see this movie at all.

What to do now. We did not want to waste our money and not to watch the movie as well. We decided to sell those tickets at the price for which we bought. Somehow we were able to do it. But when I was selling my ticket to a guy he asked ‘Since when you started this?’ and we got so nervous and scared that we almost ran from the theatre and stopped only when we reached Bandra railway station.

And we named ourselves ‘Thakele Hum Thakele Tum’ J

On every Valentine’s day I remember this day J

India Against Corruption

Even after doing everything 100% legally correct... y m i not getting possession of my house.... is it because the seller of the house is son of police??
We have made the deal with zero black amount, still the seller is not giving me possession... he asked us to pay more 21000/- by cheque as he wants white money (dont know why... not aware of his kali kartute) and we will pay less to broker...
This is disgusting....
and even after that we haven't got the possession and as we paid him unwillingly we feel we should stop the payment and just go to the house and don't move from there till he vacates the house...
What say friends????

This Happens In Delhi As Well

A year completed for my marriage….

Sharing my experience which was pending since long time….

We had been to Jim Corbett Jungle, Nainital, Uttarakhand for our honeymoon. No need to say we had amazing time there. Met good people, had good food, enjoyed nature and were on our way back thinking everything went well than what we had planned and expected.

We reached Delhi Railway Station around 4:00 AM, hired a cab to go to airport. Little scared as Delhi not being safe at night. The roads were empty and I was enjoying Delhi Ki Thandi with Sachin. We reached airport very safely. Sachin paid the pre-decided amount to the driver and we headed towards the entrance. I took out my id proof and Sachin started to look for wallet for his. Realized we have lost our wallet and Sachin not having his id proof as well as printout of the flight reservation. The entire trip was such a nice experience and I thought it should not have been ended like this.

Sachin went on the road to look for the cab and the driver but he had already left. Hardly in five minutes the cab came to us. The driver gave the wallet to Sachin saying he found it on the seat. The driver had gone to arrival entrance and again came back to departure gate where he had dropped us.

Although Delhi is not known for such incidents I had different experience.

A Year With Sach

Lots many thoughts popping up same time, confused how to start, let me close my eyes and take breath and sort them out:)

I know Sachin for a year now. On first Oct 2011 I met him first time and on next day we decided to marry. Very strange, right? or this is how marriages are fixed in India. People take months to decide where to invest their money but no time to decide with whom to live entire life. Arranged marriage is the greatest gamble I played and found myself very fortunate this time.

 I didn’t know anything about him except his degrees :) and for the only reason I said yes to him as he is an IIT-ian and for his very pleasant personality. Every time I met him my apprehensive mind gained more confidence on my decision.

Till now every moment I spent with him is very exciting and interesting. Arranged marriage is full of surprises and till now I have come across only with pleasant surprises. He is just the way I want my lifepartner to be. Hey Sach, don’t get overconfidant, there is a scope for improvement ;)

May my entire life is full of such surprises and excitement with Sachin…

Wedding Bells About To Ring

The loooooooooooooooong search for life partner is finally over. I have found someone with whom I am going to share my rest of life.

All the credit goes to Aai who continued her search for her son in law endlessly for last 7-8 years. Now she is happy to find someone the way we all want as a result to poojas to all kind of Hindu God that she has done during this period. She never lost her hopes.

Now all are busy in marriage preparations. Everyone just talk about the event, are working to make the event successful and memorable.
I am full of anxiety, continuously thinking about making my marriage successful, making everyone happy. I am enjoying to be in my own dream and working to turn those dreams into reality.

What we need is all your best wishes.

Had one more rocking birthday My kids made it little more special this time

Birthday is always special day of life as one gets extra attention on D Day. I have been very fortunate to always being surrounded by friends and loved ones all the time (nazar na lagao). Every birthday of mine has always been celebrated with lots of Josh with my cousins and my friends.
But, this time it was little more eventful as my birthday treat was arranged by my kids(@ office), who are much younger to me. (Till now its been arranged by my parents, by me or by my friends who are of my age.) and they arranged it so well, they made me so special that I have no words to express. The best part was they planned it like my ideal dream. They took me to Nariman Point, one of the most fav place of mine in Mumbai. My every wish, however silly it was, was fulfilled. I got a cute balloon as my birthday gift. I just loved being with them.
May God bless them and may my every birthday be as rocking as they have been till now.

Ladies Day Out

Last evening I spent time with my colleagues, we were roaming from 7:30 pm till 11:00 pm on Mumbai streets. Well the scene is very common here in Mumbai. Then you must be wondering what’s there to blog about it.

Yes, very true. I did not do anything which I did not do earlier. But certainly I did it after along time. After a long time I got girls company to freak out without caring a damn about the world who can enjoy late at night without boys around them. After a long time I did typical girls talk, we giggled, we shared few secrets, we shared our thoughts about life, we spoke about Mr Virappna & Mr. Osama (don’t ask what did we talk about them,that’s top secret, in next outing we will surely talk about Mr. Obama). Gals, I hope this is just a beginning.

You must be still wondering what’s so great about it. The great thing is here I get impressed with gals who can live their life independently, who can enjoy there life without males around them. I just hate girls who feel insecure when guys are not around them especially late in the evening or while traveling outside city. I can proudly say I have traveled in bus from one city to other overnight not because I had no other option. I did it because I wanted to explore life. The girl should have just little common sense what to wear, where to go, whom to talk, how to talk and how to behave nothing goes wrong (obviously there are exceptional cases but then I would say if it is destined to happen it will happen at most secured and safe place as well). Most of the girls in India have mindset of being dependant on guys whatever form as friend, as boyfriend, as husband. Once girl gets married her world is around the guy. Guys continue to enjoy their personal life but girl by her own choice is left with no personal life. But good to see that things are little changing now.

The moral I just love girls enjoying life independently. Thanks for God to give me such a amazing parents who never treated me differently because I am a girl or who never restricted me to do anything because I am girl rather they taught me right from my childhood to deal with this world. I also should thank God to give me birth in this city which treats girls with respect and equality. (Now its difficult for me to live in a place which is not safe for female)

So to conclude, Thanks Shreya and Sanchiti for last evening. Hope we will have many more like this and we will go out as well.