Dreams Unlimited

 Let’s play twister, with a slight twist. Self: “Designed for a complicated solution in a simple and elegant manner.” Satisfaction. Referee: “Left hand to red.”   “Two people on my team are on unplanned leave today” Irritation. “Right hand to blue”   “Stuck in a traffic jam.” Frustration. “Left leg to yellow.”   “A decadent dark chocolate cake slice with tea.” Pleasure. “Right leg to green.”   “Watching the sunset.” Joy. “Nose to blue.”   With each experience, each emotion, the mind keeps getting further twisted. No yoga pose can accurately describe the mental shape that has emerged. It is easy to get so contorted that you forget you can end the game and stand up straight, even if for a few minutes every day. That is a powerful reset. This is what my meditation practice is to me - untangling myself and taking a pause before jumping into the twister of life again.

She had it all - a seven-figure salary, a debt-free house, a comfortable lifestyle. She was proud of all that she had accomplished. One day, she came across someone earning an eight-figure salary. Self-doubt crept in. Was she not good enough? Maybe she should have asked for that promotion. Was she top management material? Why didn’t she pursue her start-up idea? Was the fear of failure keeping her from reaching her true potential? She picked up a magazine featuring the 10 most beautiful houses in the country. Hers seemed ordinary and pale in comparison. Maybe it needed a coat of paint, some more furniture – expensive looking furniture and art work from renowned artists. She just had two house plants – others had managed to make their home an oasis of greenery. Maybe she just needed a bigger, more spacious house. Her current home overlooked the street and all she could hear were sounds of the traffic. How lovely would it be to have a sea-facing house and constantly be calmed by the

 Does a good deed done with a bad intention count as good? How about a bad deed done with a good intention? Good / bad have a moral judgement associated with them. Also, there is no clear rulebook calling out what’s good and what’s bad. It’s subjective; one man’s good can be another’s bad. Even terrorists believe they are doing the right thing and will be rewarded for their actions. To a neutral observer, the outcome is all that matters. If you give to charity only to save tax, would it still count as contribution? Yes, it would. It did enable someone to pay their medical bills, put a roof over someone’s head or provide a meal to someone. It did make a difference; whether you intended that or not. The difference being the satisfaction you get out of the act. Worth experimenting to see how changing your intention changes your experience. A strong intention can do miracles. When the covid pandemic struck, Sonu Sood stood up and did for the country what even elected leaders could not

If you want to know more about the beaches and party scenes in Goa, this is not the place; if you want to know about the villages, the heritage buildings, the forts, the food; then read right on. I do not enjoy going to a place without knowing the history, the context or any backstory. These help me connect to the place, understand events that took place there, the people living in the place - their preferences, their way of life, and the architecture styles.  I did extensive research for nearly a week and finalized a skeleton of an itinerary for myself (wanted to keep things fluid with a loose structure). I was staying at a resort on Betalbatim beach. Chose this beach as it is not crowded - perfect for my morning and evening walks on the beach. Will divide this post into five parts - Loutolim (village of noted cartoonist Mario Miranda), Divar Island, Panaji (capital city of Goa), forts (Reis Magos and Cabo de Rama) and finally food! Loutolim :- Mario Miranda's work speaks to me. H

The major pain area was that I had no single source of truth. Every piece of information I needed to save, did not have an intended home; I would just put it in a place that was convenient to me, at that time. It was all scattered and haphazard.  I knew there must exist a better way to organize things; I just did not know what it was. From a work perspective, I have always maintained to-do lists: itemized and prioritized, so that I have a view of open tasks as well as the ones that need immediate attention. When it came to meeting notes, I would scribble it somewhere on my notepad; and at a later date would have to hunt for it or pore through multiple notepads to find what I was looking for. From a personal perspective, anything important or any good quotes that I would come across would be either put in a draft on Gmail or sent to myself on WhatsApp or scribbled in some notepad. It would often happen that when I was really looking for something, I would have a hard time finding it. Du

Diwali to me is associated with getting new clothes, waking up early morning to bathe with Moti Sandal soap (there is even an ad depicting a child waking up everyone in the house at the crack of dawn and informing them that it's time to bathe with Moti soap) , getting dressed in the new clothes and going to the temple, meeting and greeting people over there. Later in the evening we light up our entire house with a hundred diyas; put up lanterns and colorful lights. This culminates in bursting crackers as a form of celebration. And the most important part - the food; the ladoos, chakli, karanjis, sev - all freshly made and consumed over the span of a week. Each day of Diwali also came with its unique set  menu - every year the same menu is made and we all look forward to it.  This template is the same for most festivals with slight variations. Common elements are food (the most important, if you ask me) , getting together, having meaningful conversations and having a lot of fun toge

What started off as a fun experiment escalated quickly into long work hours, pitching in house maintenance activities, being fatigued by end of day - only to wake up to the same routine every single day. Whether you are a social butterfly or a social raccoon- being confined gets to you physically, emotionally, mentally. It is about not having the option to step out, not having any social situations and interactions. It has left a gaping void that cannot be filled as zoom meetings, VC's, hangouts are just not the same experientially. History will recognize this as a defining moment - all events will be described as pre-corona and post-corona. Things have changed permanently; there is no going back. For me, my priority was to ensure I'm taking care of myself - physically, emotionally and mentally. I started home workouts early on 5-6 days a week to ensure I was getting enough exercise. The endorphins released post a good workout are definitely a bonus. Thanks to my coaches Mun