Stage & Me...

A big break I took from the blogging world and now there are so many topics I want to blog about. Will take you through everything that you missed from my life. I just switched to a new firm two months back and my heart still lies with my First Company IGATE which gave me a platform to actually identify myself and be what I am.

We had this initiative called as TGIM- Thank God it's Monday where in every Monday the employees would be encouraged to come forward and display their talent no matter how weird it was. It is a platform to provide 30 minutes of unadulterated pure fun and a place where we could hear some soothing and soulful music. An attempt to get rid of your Monday blues. The Mondays at IGate were something  that I would look forward to. I usually sang with my better half  Suchitra Vaidynathan and we earned a name for us - Chitra Sisters. I have had a blast on the stage singing with her .

I am sharing a link of the video with you guys  of one of my performance for IGATE Annual Event -2014. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4vR73xCxDo

 

The quality of the video isn't that great but it's one of our best performances and we performed in front of 10000 odd audience and its one of the most memorable events of my life. This post is not to brag about myself but  to encourage all my readers to overcome the stage fright that each one has.

What amazes me is the way I performed in front of such a strong crowd. I was fearless .I didn't know what fear was. I didn't care how the performance was going on. For the very first time I felt I sang for myself. People have an presumed image of me as someone who's bold and someone who is fearless and so performing on stage would be like a piece of cake for me.

But the truth is I have been booed many times during my college days and many times I have walked down the stage with tears in my eyes. One such incident that I would want to share with you guys is of my junior college days . We had an elocution competition and I had to talk on some topic. I had prepared it well and I thought I would crack it. I went to the stage as my name was called. The hall was occupied with hardly 50 people. One look at the audience then and I had went totally blank. I started with my speech ,I muttered something and then I went blank. There was complete silence in the room, I was nervous and anxious .I saw the audience staring at me waiting for me to speak a word atleast. The judges asked me to finish it off and give another competitor a chance. I had tears in my eyes and I asked the judges for one more chance. And they refused. By then the audience had started hooting, giggling and I was in tears. I left the room crying .I could have left the stage forever. I could have stopped being on the stage forever. I could have left the stage forever. But it just encouraged me further .I realized two things from the incident that the stage is where I belong to and secondly I need to be the best if I wanted people to cheer for me.

I know many of my friends who are so talented but fear from performing in front of people. Right from very young age parents identify the talent in their kids and put them for various classes to hone their skills. But not many parents encourage their kids to go and perform on the stage. Parents fear getting embarrassed themselves and most of the time never encourage their kids to be back on stage after one or two failed performances. I would suggest everyone  reading my post, If you think you have got it in you, just go there and perform without being bothered about the world. Your first performances may be a failure but that shouldn't stop you. Every time i get on to the stage, this incident comes to my mind and I realise that i have hardly 5-6 min to prove myself- so either I make it or break it. At times I dont even think about anything I just do it for myself. No matter what your age is, being on the stage has nothing to do with your age, you just have to be young at heart and you just have to do things wholeheartedly.

Fat to Fit...

 Not Everyone is fat by choice.No one wants to be ridiculed as a Fatso.Everyone wants to be like the perfect model on the front cover of Vogue. But yes now i do realise we are responsible for all that happens with our body. A doctor had once told me this, " You are what you eat "  and that had somehow made sense to me and had stayed in my thoughts for a longer time. And now i have totally started believing that I am what I eat. I was never a zero figure all my life nor i was an obese baby by birth. Slowly and gradually my weight kept increasing (thanks to all the corporate lunches and parties )and i didn't even realise when i turned 93. The first time the weighing scale showed 93 , I was alarmed. The warning bells had started ringing.

Apart from the weighing scale that i so so loathed to use everytime during a medical checkup, there were other factors too that forced me to lose weight. Frequently mocked and being ridiculed by people , I had started feeling depressed. Somewhere it had started affecting my level of confidence too. I was showered with so many embarrasing nicknames ( moti,fatso etc  etc) . I didn't care what people told about me, but i somewhere felt that i was losing my identity. I am a software engineer, a blogger, a singer, a dancer  but people never addressed me as“ a singer” or “ a dancer”.Inspite of being multi talented than most of them who called me names, i thought my talent was being overshadowed by my weight. I have had so many experiences wherein for stage shows I would be declined a role.Obviously the real reason never came up but it was put up diplomatically many a times. Not that I cared about people, as to what they said.It was a fight against my will power. I questioned myself whether I was this weak that I could succumb to fatty foods and risk my life when I had such a beautiful life ahead to enjoy.


And that is when i decided  I am going to walk my calories away.I wake up early in the morning and go in for a jog or a walk with my bestie Anu. If you plan to go for walks ,always have a company.  Try to rope in a friend, your spouse, your parents etc who are tough taskmasters and will see to it that you jump off the bed.You need such company so that the other person is always motivated to shed off the calories.Anu is one such task master and thanks to her I don't miss a single day.

Its been 6 months and i am 11 kilos lighter.The more I walked , the more the effects became visible and the more confident I was. You can see the change in the pic below.

Morning walks along with a proper diet plan are the best thing if you are planning to lose weight. I used to wonder whether walks are effective, but the picture speaks volumes. And yes dont start with the expectation that the results would be visible the next day... you need to have loads of patience.. you need to wait patiently with a positive attitude.Set up goals for the week and try to achieve it...
If you are on the heavier side and you think you are going through everything exactly what i have been, its time you question your inner conscience and get your life back on track. No one is born perfect but nothing can stop you from  being perfect. There may be times when you plan to lose weight and suddenly you find yourself hogging.Just question yourself what is more important to you an air filled bag of chips or your son /daughter who would be joining the kindergarten soon. Being with people who spread positivity also helps a lot in the battle to lose weight. Be with people who accept the way you are and motivate you. My fiancee accepted me the way i am ( yes with 93 kilos) and that further strengthened my resolve to lose weight and be perfect for someone who has accepted the imperfect ME! Also there is nothing like I cant lose weight or I cant do this or that... Everything is possible, if you believe in yourself...if you love your life. Start loving your body and see the results....

Trust me where there is a strong will power to achieve something in life, nothing or no one can stop you...

Recharge Your Hair...Recharge Your Life

This is an Entry for the Sunsilk Contest on Indiblogger


Few months back,i was totally bored with nothing exciting happening in my life. I decided to add few colors to my life. I pondered what to do, how to do... And i finally decided,i will actually add some colors practically if not to my life, to my hair....
I went to my parlor and asked the lady to get my hair colored. I had always imagined my hair to be burgundy in color. Unfortunately  i ended up forgetting the shade that i wanted to apply on my hair.(yeah ! yeah blame it on  my growing age)

The lady kept guessing, is it blond that you want? I am like.. eww no! A person with a wheatish complexion like me would end up looking like an African bird.. Then she said , what about copper color? And i was like.. emmm.. ok!! Lets try copper...We set out on the expedition of adding colors to my hair and indirectly adding to my life. She kept working on it and finally the time came in when she revealed her experiment on my hair with utmost pride.

I looked at the mirror and shrieked. My hair looked like this

                                      #dont i look like an Australian Imported Rare Breed Bird ? :(:(


.. It not only took away colors from my life, but also from my face.. My face had turned pale. I was not happy with the color et all.. And there was no chance that the color would fade away soon.

I resembled an imported bird with different shades of copper all on my hair. I did not know what to do and i cursed myself to go by the stupid plan.

I somehow wanted to get rid of this newly imported feathers and somehow tried to hide it. On the first day of the office, people were like,"Hello, whats this?" and i tied up my hair in a bun to save myself the embarrassment. I also became the butt of jokes of so many of my friend circles. I decided to get rid of the color by applying the not-so-timely-recalled burgundy color. Home experiments followed suit one after the another. My mom who arrived from Delhi a few weeks later wept and weaned and kept cursing me,"Guptaji will never accept a bahu (daughter-in-law)like this. God! what have i done to see this day"

Lots of melodrama, lots of stress and lots of chemical based color spoilt the texture of my hair. My hair became lifeless. It became dull and drab .The very reason i want to recharge my hair is though i look like an imported costly bird these days, i at least want to look that i belong to a good breed :P I want my hair to regain the shine , luster and beauty back . Only this will add zeal to my life and recharge me too. I wouldn't have to hide my hair in buns, ponytails and under shawls. I can be a free bird...emm gal.. and My hair will start breathing too.

And that is when  my friend suggested me Sunsilk. In her words," Oye birdy, One stop solution to all your hair problems.. Sunsilk!!!Ever touched silk, that would be the texture of your hair once drops of sunsilk fall on your hair. From the seasonal bird to the gal with the beautiful hair, the transition will happen in no time..

And Thanks to Sunsilk ! It did Recharge me Forever!! The results are for you to see....



                                            Doesn't My hair look much better and recharged now??
                                

       

                                                   #My friend who suggested Sunsilk

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Love - One Of A kind

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda

She was dressed as a bride and was waiting for him .
He came in to the room &  made love to her.
She felt like a woman for the very first time.
He satisfied his carnal desires .
Getting up  & Dressing again as a bride she waited......

Random Thoughts

I do crib a lot in life. A lot about my looks, a lot about my hair, my face etc etc… And I think most of us do thanks to beauty obsessed world; the fair skinned obsessed world that we belong to… Yesterday,some thing happened, reality struck. It made me wonder whether this obsession over looking good, the fad diets, the size zero figure and living life with a lot of restrictions made sense.

I met someone last night. I have known him since childhood. He was always hale and hearty and had no such habits like drinking, smoking. He was neither obese nor malnourished. But yesterday he looked like a bag of bones. Skin hung loose on his petite frame. He looked sick and lost. Someone told me he had been battling liver cancer. He couldn’t drink, eat or sleep. He was holding on to his life. Something in me changed the night I saw him on his deathbed.

I wondered whether cribbing about looking good actually did matter. I wondered whether restricting ourselves from eating, drinking and any other stuff actually mattered. I have seen people following ridiculous diets, abstaining oneself from the simple joys of life. I am not promoting eating junk food or anything over here. But going all bonkers over eating a chocolate mousse isn’t worth it. I wouldn’t say go and hog chocolate mousse every day But then it’s fine if you decide to skip your diet for a last day and indulge in a sinful chocolate mousse, you never know it could be your last one. Do things you feel like doing at the moment. Live in the moment! Live as if this could be your last.

If you missed a  day at gym, hit the gym harder the next day .But don’t waste a single day cribbing over what is lost. I have friends, who crib over the color of their skin, apply face creams, go nuts over preserving their complexion. Taking care of your skin is fine, but looking like a live mummy all 365 days is sick. Let your skin breathe someday; let your skin be exposed to sunlight one day!

We make dietary restrictions, we put us through so many regimes and routines just to live longer , look good and be healthy. It’s a good practice but ensure you don’t take the life out of you! I have friends who never eat out because they think it’s unhealthy. I would say indulge in the simple pleasures of life like an occasional drink, an occasional indulgence in the new chicken Burger that’s recently launched, try street food, have the puchkas or the gol gappas on a rainy day, have the ice golas  someday….You never know when you would be in a situation, where in you want to have all these, but sadly you cant !

Simply live life to the fullest!  

Being Engaged!!

                                             #personal pic




I recently got engaged; two months back! Though  it was a love turned arranged marriage , I must say it felt all arranged. I still belong to an old school of thoughts and at times,  it makes me wonder, really was I in love for 6 years with the same guy?
Just like it happens with an arranged marriage, the guy's family drops in to meet the gal's family. rather see the gal, the same stuff happened with me. I was nervous, like any other gal would.I wondered why i was nervous.. i had known this guy for so long... then why the anxiety.. May be because i wanted things to go right ... Thousands of thoughts crossed my mind, and finally i was down with fever . Two crocins down , i somehow looked presentable on the day which was supposed to be the most important day of my life. More important than any other day rather. Dressed in  a saree( Again the old school of thought worked here) I waited impatiently for my groom and the family. And I must say the wait was endless. Finally they came in.
I was always against the arrange marriage stuff because i am an all time confused bimbo who is highly indecisive who can't decide petty things for herself, forget choosing the life partner in some twenty minutes or what!!!  Ok now you would wonder how I zeroed on in my fiancee....surprisingly right from the day i met him, nothing felt wrong, there was no two opinions or rather there wasn't any second thought. There was something right about the decision. Everything felt right about him, about us!!And an other reason for not liking the arrange marriage stuff, was carrying the tray of tea and delicacies to the innumerable prospective grooms where you have to be shy, and all eyes are glued on you.I hated that!! What was I , a show doll? And so arrange marriages were strictly NO!!!
But carrying a tray for my future in laws felt right. Suddenly i felt shy too... Seriously shy and Me!! I wondered!! But doing this felt as a responsibility i must shoulder all my life which i felt was right! When you feel things are right,  there is no way they can go wrong.  The meeting of the families went well . And so we are engaged!! yay!! we are engaged !! :D :D
 I always used to ask people , whether there was any difference between staying engaged and being in a relationship.  And people would say Nah!! we feel the same. But i do feel a lot of difference ... The transition of a boyfriend to a fiancee  changes a lot of stuff in your life. I am not sure whether you all would agree with this. But yes, i believe a responsibility comes up along with the ring. And its a sweet one...It's very essential to understand that the way you carry yourself, the way you behave will not only affect your family but your future family too.. Its not just one family that you have to care about now! but its two families !! And also you can't call your fiancee an idiot or a dumbo in front of the so called "relatives"  though you  are thick friends till date. Yes but calling him an idiot in private...more than welcome :P
There are more people to care for, who care for you and lovely moments to look forward to.
This is the moment where you get to understand your partner from a different point of view, where you get to know his family, where you know what your future parents in law are going to be. At the same time, this is the moment where they would also understand you as a person. I would advice not to fake it, and try to be the  best bahu of Sas bahu sagas.. it doesn't work that way. If you are stupid, be it.. let them accept the way you are... because trying to be intelligent for years to come is going to be a difficult task. The period between the engagement and marriage is also the time, when you try to accept his parents as yours. I would call it as one of the most sensitive period of a person's life , something that should be handled with care.
Handy tip : Spending more time with your in laws and knowing to get them better is something that should be done during this pre marriage period.

And apart from all this, calling your boyfriend a fiancee  gives a different sense of happiness.

If you are of the marriageable age and haven't fallen in love yet, don't keep searching for one.. it could come on your way during the many walk-ins with the tray of tea and delicacies. And trust me..once you get engaged, you are going to love the time before the marriage and after the engagement....