At home...

With the everlasting struggle to call physical spaces home, I realized how at ease I feel at home (my parents's logically) when the first thing I do upon reaching is re-arrange the showcase in living room, alter the layout of sofa cushions, ask random questions about stuff in kitchen, magnets on the refrigerator door, shoot my disappointment over the state of the bookshelf. Of course baba (dad) is generally excited to have us vacationing and aai is generally elated (and amused) how I start claiming my rights (smug opinions) about stuff :D (there is a joy in this I tell you!)

So adding to the list of 'things' that make something 'home-like'. The ability to ask questions, random questions, stupid questions, nonsense questions, tough questions, will-make-you-think-real-hard questions.

May be home is where you unlearn knowledge and be just plain curious. Sometimes despite of being territorial and sentimental.

travel musings

* From happy, reflective cab drivers from Afghanistan/Kenya/Punjab to majnoo (reckless and fearless), flirt drivers in Mumbai, travel feels incomplete without their personal stories.

* Feels like home when you return back to a rain-less day when you can get most of your laundry sorted out and taken care of. Yes, after reaching home really early, I spent an hour emptying my bags and taking care of various batches of laundry to be done. You can see I cannot wait to get into routine all over again!

* Incheon airport, Seoul has the most interesting cultural center. During my layovers there, I have made a greeting card and a hanji crafted paper doll. Have also bought the best ever fridge magnets. I vote for such centers at our airports as well!

* Sometimes you have to travel over 13000 kilometers to experience kindness. I family of 4 were holding each others hands and standing in the waters at one of the south lake tahoe beaches. Initially I thought it was all about family love and bonding. Only to realize later that the mother was suffering from some kind of motor disease and everyone was physically supporting her to soak in the sun and the water. I was moved by the scene.

* Over the past 6 months, I had lost interest in cooking. But some culinary experiments during the past one month and I am motivated to cook and try new dishes in my kitchen. Sometimes its good to wait for motivation is what I have realized. Because in the past 2-3 months I had literally forced myself to cook on occasions and things had not turned out that well.

* After finishing reading born to run last month, I am inspired to become a vegetarian. The book does not advocate it. Some stories in it are so amazing though that I felt like following a healthy green diet. Of course seafood keeps appearing in my life, and looks like this decision is going to be a tough one!

Atlanta diary

'When was the last time you did something new' - someone posted this on my facebook timeline.
Got me thinking. I traveled to Atlanta for the first time last week. While the weekdays got utilized in work meetings, sessions I did not really head out. Office to hotel, hotel to office. Except on thursday when I really really craved for rice and searched for a thai place nearby but settled for a chinese one instead and got my tummy full of greasy fried rice!

So come weekend colleagues here told me about a lot of fun things I could do over the weekend. Except few of them which I was interested in involved really long commutes and were not recommended to be done using public transport. Then I decided I would do something I have never done. I made a list of touristy places people told me about. Chalked out a plan to cover as many as possible. And guess what Atlanta's geography helped!

I made sure I knew my addresses, hence a day before started googling for routes and saved them all. Having a phone with maps on helped. Left house at 11 and got a very kind cab driver who was nice enough to give me his inputs as well. So this is how my day with grand plans unfolded.

Reached Georgia Aquarium by 11.30. 15 minutes in queue and got a admission ticket for 1 PM. had more than an hour to spare so walked across to the Centennial Olympic Park. It was built during the 1996 olympics and has engraved bricks having names of people who donated money to build it. Sat around a bit but it started to drizzle so walked across the street and paid a visit to the CNN world headquarters. They had a 50 minute tour which I could not take, so I roamed around, visited a few other places and hit the merchandise shop. Was super happy to get powerpuff girls magnets and an umbrella. As luck would have it heavy rains had started outside so made it just in time without getting drenched to the aquarium. 

fish!

I have to admit that this was my first ever visit to a full fledged aquarium. The Georgia Aquarium did not fail to fascinate me. They had an ocean voyager, a tunnel like passage in the middle of the exhibit which was so awesome. Surrounded by whale sharks and gigantic manta rays it felt surreal to be walking that tunnel. They also had beautiful coral exhibits where I found Nemo and Gill  -> 
Guess what also found some sea dragons.

After this I visited the world of coca cola, museum, just because it was adjacent to it. And I wanted to check off everything on my touristy agenda. Visiting such a place is the ultimate dose of pop culture. I am neither a soda fan nor a coke fan. But what the heck. When in rome and la la la. Most fun thing here were the people. There were nice exhibits and videos embodying the coca cola company's values of spreading happiness. They have a vault where they claimed the secret coca cola formula is kept. One of the exhibits takes you to the vault which is of course all secured and out of reach. The only dampener here was the long wait in queues.

After this I headed out to watch a movie in an IMAX theater. Another thing I had never done in life before. So I geeked out on Pacific Rim at the IMAX which is an awesome escape fantasy movie involving giant robots and what not. The 'holy shit' moments in the movie totally made it worth the money and time. Also I did not get bored even one bit. Only recommended if you like the action genre. Then I shopped a bit at my favorite H&M at the Atlantic City Shopping Center and headed back home.

Whatta day! Packed with touristy activities. Although I am not a big fan of such back to back activities I followed the norm and explored a new city using wikipedia and local recommendations. Also given the fact I was pretty much on my own this method proved hassle free.

So what was the new thing that you did for the first time lately ?

Believing in the younger generation

I got a very kind and talkative Afghani uncle for my cab ride to the airport yesterday.
Because he had lived in Delhi for an year and had visited Goa, Kashmir, Taj Mahal, he had a lot of travel tales to tell. I told him Afghanistan seems like a very beautiful country based on the few books that I have read. He then confessed about having not visited his country for the past 30 years and talks moved to the inevitable wars/unrest plaguing that region since the Russian invasion (when he had to leave Afghanistan leaving his school and father's business and a lot of extended family behind). He talked about not being able to travel to Peshavar (earlier a part of Afghanistan) without an ID and the pain it caused him. He told me how lucky I was to be able to live where I was born and still be able to travel. According to him that is the best of both worlds, because I confessed I somehow am a 'get-homesick-pretty-fast' kind of person.

He said even though he missed not getting to raise his kids in Afghanistan, he is happy that their upbringing has been so peaceful. He said he feels happy when he listens them talk about all things fun and not war or unrest. Of course we agreed a large share of that goes to the surroundings they were brought up in. He said he believes in the younger generation and the internet to be able to achieve what most political moves cannot. i.e. a culture of peace and belonging.

The thought itself is so heartening.
Sometimes its so wonderful to be able to listen to sensible and wise people.

Working from home

A scam.

I ate 7 times today.

Scavanged the refrigerator for all left overs and finished them or disposed them neatly.

Small talked with house maid. 

Drank 4 cups of tea. A liter of orange juice.

I also sneaked in an episode of 'the newsroom' during the day.

I viber-ed with friends.

I cursed the slow internet speed. Imaginary throwing bricks at laptop also happened.

I ended up working till 10.30 PM. a 12 hour day.

Working from home - a real scam, when I am involved.

snippets

he said : 'you know you could return that old phone of yours and buy a new one in exchange. You could save some money as well!'

she replied (instantaneously) : 'Can people in life be replaced this way ?' 

A pause. she added 'I think, no'.

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She stood a few meters away from me. She looked at me curiously. Almost on the verge of staring.

I continued on my way home. I crossed her.

The cat then turned and walked away from the juncture. Almost 10 paces and never looked back.

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'there is a sincerity in your self deprecation. A hilarious sincerity.' 

'Isn't that what makes me human ?'

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'What made you pick 'The Last Mughal' to read ?'

'You know I was supposed to travel to Dilli this month. I though it would be a good idea to read about a place while actually visiting that place.'

'So did you go to Dilli?'

'Oh no. But I did time travel.'

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'When will everything heal ?'

'Don't ask the question, live it.'

happy boxes

My work addled weekend found this -> http://www.purisubzi.in/post/50163457409/happybox

I stopped working after that. I started thinking about happy boxes.

An image came to my mind. Grandfather (nanaji/aajoba) giving me a book and an afternoon spent reading that or numerous other comic books/sherlock holmes books in his backyard. 

image courtesy - Pascal Campion

There is magic in going back to spaces you most loved during growing up. There is magic in re creating these all over again while growing up. Isn't that why one grows up ?

As the post linked above, I also have a physical box (a metal one in my case) and it stores all the trinkets of stuff too precious to be given away to forgetting. Do you have happy boxes ? What do you keep in them ?