Commonwealth: The hottest topic of discussion these days everywhere.
CWG: The guys we all hate, for making a laughing stock of us around the world.
Rs 70,000 Crores: The estimated cost of this fiasco.
Games Village: A "luxurious residence" for games athletes - where the roofs leak, toilets are jammed up, light fittings are missing, and stray dogs abound - not to mention the stagnant water capable of being a dengue/malaria source. Where so far only half the towers are complete and where many of the completed towers don't even have furniture installed yet.
Lalit Bhanot - A man with questionable standards of hygiene!!
Suresh Kalmadi - The master of the 3 ring circus, whose tall claims and empty promises have given the press plenty of material to rip apart...
Lackadaisical: The attitude of the government so far
Corrupt: A word we need to find an alternative to - it doesn't even begin to describe the crooks running the CWG operation. So many personal fortunes made out of "common wealth"
Chaos: What to expect when the CWG-exclusive traffic lanes become operational
Shame: What Indians the world over seem to be feeling at the current situation, since we all seem to have been tarred with one brush.
Apprehension: What next??

I want my money back!!!!

Had to move back to stay with my folks for a bit, because of a mild case of typhoid. Not the horrible typhoid of last year that I'd suffered through ; I didn't even need to take more than a couple of days off from work. I must say, no matter how independent one gets, there are times in life when one needs someone to fall back on. For me, that's my parents - I come to stay with them every time I'm sick, and it really makes a difference.

The one night that I was alone at my own home, with temperature crossing 102 and nobody around to even put a cold compress, sticks in my mind though. I can't remember a time when I felt more alone and depressed, and it makes me realise how important a support structure is - and that means not just parents but others. The way things are right now, I don't think I have that. You kill yourself working, so much that you neglect all or most of your friendships and relationships, and at the end of the day this is where you end up. Alone!

Laut ke buddhu...

Three years ago when I left my previous organisation, I had loudly declared to anyone who cared to listen that commuting to Gurgaon every day was not for me and that I'd rather not work than be in a place where I spent three to five hours just travelling to and from work. Well, things have now come circle and my current organisation has - after months of waffling - finally shifted their office. Where to? Gurgaon, of course. I'm back to my early morning wake up calls, long commutes, and insane traffic. As they say, never say never....

I did it!

The highlight of this year for me has been a two week solo trip to England and Scotland that I did on my own this summer. After years of waiting for "the right time", for someone to maybe go with, for the requisite "bank balance" and a lot of other things, I finally managed to screw up the courage and go off on my own. My first ever long haul trip, and yes my first solo vacation. It was even better than I had thought it would be, and I came back with lots of pictures and memories as well as a new-found confidence in myself. I wonder now why I didn't do this earlier! Parts of this trip will be coming up on this blog soon. I'm now looking at ideas and options for my next trip, since I've promised myself to do this on a regular basis now. No cure for the travel bug!

Back...again

I've been meaning to get back to blogging actively for a long time now, but something or the other kept making me put it off. Apart from my innate laidback-ness, I think there is this odd fear that I might not have anything to write about, or even that I mightn't remember how to! Only one way to find out. So here's looking at me, and yet another shot at doing something I used to love to do but gave up along the way...