Love is not you, not us. It's them!

When normal people hear a love song, they think of their beau. When normal people look at a romantic movie, it warms their heart and they think of their lover. Most of them relate to their husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend when they hear the sound of the first rain.
Something strange happened yesterday when I heard the song Gerua from Dilwale. I liked the song. I liked what I saw. I heard it again. and again. and again. The song just seemed to go deeper inside me each time I heard it. It just oozed romance. So much of romance. It gave me the shivers. The whim whams.
And each of the 11 times that I heard it yesterday, I thought of love. I thought of how love brings people together and how it takes them apart. And No, I didn't think of the one love in my life. I thought of the eternal love that two people so close to me share. One of whom has been gone for an year now.
Amit and Sumedha- my two best friends. I can dedicate a hundred posts to them but nothing can ever do justice to the love they had. That zing, that passion, that chemistry that you only see in Shahrukh movies. I've seen it live. I've seen it blossom, I've seen it dwell, I've seen it grow.....I can't see it now but I know it's still growing. Not because Amit is gone. But because he lives on. He lives on not only in the way he loved her but because of the example he set. He lived the life everyone should live. He loved his gals how everyone should love. He wooed, he besotted, he adored her...And then he went away!
If shahrukh had met Amit, he wouldn't be calling himself the perfect lover anymore.

Here is to loads of PWPSAHM out there! Cheers Ladies

So everyone seems to be offering their advice on what the SAHM(Stay at home Mom's) feel about quitting their jobs and managing the kids and also about the WM(Working Mom's) who listen to the call of duty and work the whole day and manage the kids at night. But does anyone even know about the PWPSAHM? Several women who are Partial Working and Partial Stay at home Moms! Everyone seems to know how physically challenging it is for the WM's to work all day and then look after the kids. She is one who is climbing the tough corporate ladder yet keeping her maternal instincts under check. Everyone also seems to acknowledge the sacrifice the SAHM makes for her kids. She is the one who left a promising career to manage and stay with the infants and the toddlers when they needed her the most.

But who dare care about the PWPSAHM? She is the one who has treaded the seemingly easy sounding but in reality very treacherous middle path. She is the one who tries to make her way up the corporate ladder or the office politics. She is the one who reaches office the earliest so she can cover up the work she missed when her toddler fell ill. She is the one who reaches home in time to feed lunch, tow them to their classes, play in the park in the evenings, try to manage the food and house and finally put them off. She is the one who is supposed to do more work at office since she has the liberty of leaving early. She is the one who has flexi hours at work but the work volume is the same. She is also the same female who sleeps the last at home since she is finishing her pending assignments.

She is the one who feels upset when she doesn't reach the bus stop on a rare occasion. She is also the one who sometimes cleans the toilets, juggles the maids, tends to the chores. She is also the one to wake up the earliest since the kids need to get to school.

She is the one who is neither here nor there. Neither does she get a big fat corporate salary nor does she get enough satiation with the kids. Neither does she get appreciation at work nor the kids love for her balancing act.

She is the one who sacrifices to buy the jeera and the methi rather than get a pedicure. She is the one who completes her work at 11 pm rather than sleeping or reading a book.

She is Me. She is the one who is going BLAH BLAH BLAH right now.
And she isn't asking for any sympathy or appreciation. It is her decision to be SHE.

Rakhi Emotions-From my pen

This past week, the India-Gift team worked around the clock to send rakhis, rakhi with cakes, rakhi with chocolates and a whole lot of rakhi gifts everywhere in India. Our young team was new to this and we innovated in our own style to ensure all deliveries were made on time.

From pleading to a cake vendor to deliver rakhis in BeguSarai to chatting late in the night with patrons bribing us with extra money to take last minute vendors. From finding a good samaritan in Gangtok who drove 25 kilometres to deliver chocolates and rakhi to striking gold in our Senior Web Developers Uncle who delivered a rakhi bouquet 2 hours away in Hazipur. We did everything we could to ensure everyone who placed their interest in India-Gift to share their sibling love got their dues.

We packed the gifts, we decorated them with bows and knots. We sampled the cupcakes, shopped for hundreds of rakhis and haggled for the free rolli-tikka.We scribbled on the greetings, sometimes even adding an extra 'dearest' somewhere. We indulged our customers in chat while we checked whether their orders had reached. We ran the show for the first time and had heaps to learn. 

The thing that stood out for me was the 'Greetings'. The single line expressions that we were earlier typing and sending were changed at my behest. Typed notes aren't personal, I thought. Thus I decided to write down each single note that went down with our gifts. From Dear Bhai, Enjoy the chocolates to I miss you Bhaiya to Next year Rakhi together, Chotu. I almost chocked writing some of them. There were some which didn't have any greeting. Those I decided to add myself. I thought all brothers and sisters deserve a loving note. It was very sweet and overwhelming to see how siblings connect. Personally, it was an insight for me into how relationships work. How we as an Indian society celebrate our relations and occasions. An extremely pleasing experience and a satisfied feeling at the end of the day that we had done our bit in bringing people together.

The week occupied us so much that perhaps the whole team forgot that we also had brothers and sisters. Thus for all our team who perhaps didn't send a rakhi or a gift for their brother or sister because they were too busy bringing other's greetings together, I apologise. It was a thrilling ride seeing everyone work like they did. If we keep the same energy and will to deliver love everywhere, I'm sure we are going places soon.

I can talk online, I can walk online, I can eat online! Someday I may even pee online!

Notwithstading the influx of the ‘look up’ videos asking people to steer clear of screens, everything continues to go online. I am unsure if everything going online is a good thing or a bad thing for me. On days, I feel it is very convenient that everything is now possible at the click of a mouse while on others I feel my humanness is being overpowered by a technology. From everything being done by hands and legs, now everything is being done by apps and websites.

I was just making a list of my daily chores and realised that these technological advents had taken over our lives completely. Have a dekho and you will end up laughing, perhaps sarcastically-

6 AM - I wake up to the tone of a clock app on my smartphone.

6:30 AM-  The ‘replenish your body’ app on my phone reminds me to have my first glass of water of the day. The one with honey and lemon.

7 AM- The ‘wunderlist’ app tells me that it is my cousin’s birthday.

7:30 AM- I go for a walk after dropping Kid 1 to bus stop. ‘Strava’ tracks my steps and calories.

8:30 AM- Time to clear the overnight clutter of whatsapp messages.

9:00 AM- Now it's the turn of Facebook to remind me of the same cousins birthday and some random acquintances too.

9:15 AM- I call the Uber cool ‘Uber’ cab. Reach office and pay with ‘Paytm’ wallet. Enroute, I whatsapp the cousin.(the one who has her bday)

10:15 AM- The discussion in the content bay about ordering from ‘Frsh’ starts. We decide what to order, use a coupon and cash back from our mobile wallet and settle into the work schedule.

12 Noon- The ‘skype’ con call starts. We discuss the changes in our app and what else is needed to improve.
1 PM- M from my team receives the T-shirt he ordered from an online shopping portal. We all rejoice on fast delivery.

2 PM- I call ‘Uber’ again.

3 PM- I speak to the family in Ludhiana on ‘Facetime’ and exchange pleasentries.

4 PM- The kids want some chocolate. Being lazy to go out I check Grofers. To make up the minimum bill, I end up ordering some coffee.

4:30 PM- I check the vacation pics of a long lost friend on Instagram. Fuck the bitch. Damn jealous!

5 PM- The yoga instructor from Urban Clap comes to slice off the calories I gained from the coffee.

6 PM- The maid I hired from ‘Refer a Maid’ comes to cook the meal. She informs me that there is no gobi. I use the express delivery from Peppertap.

6:30 PM- The kids are playing(thankfully outdoors). I settle back to read the news on the TOI App.

7 PM- I remember that I have to share some pics with my sister in law in sydney. I share the dropbox link.

7:30 PM- With dinner, Kid 1 tells me she has to make a 'best from waste' of a flower. I go to google for help.

8 PM- I pay the electricity bill, phone bills, book a movie ticket for the weekend. Of course online! Didn't you get it already?

8: 30 PM- The maid tells me that Kid 2 is running out of diapers. I run to firstcry.com.

9 PM- I schedule rakhi deliveries for all my brothers across India at India-gift.in

10 PM- I play poker on adda52.com

10:30 PM- We decide to go out for a drive. I turn to zomato to find the nearest pastry shop.

11:30 PM- Give up on finding a pastry shop. Order from batman delivers.

Midnight- Before slipping into my short beauty sleep of 6 hours, I find the time to unlock a friend's game on Candy crush, take the daily bonus on Criminal Case and check tomorrow's weather on the app.

Repeat!