I like you only little little * Kuch spicy khane ka mann kar raha hai * Aur bata, hows work? * I had got the highest marks in Marathi, in school * Geddata karo Sir, Get Data karo! * Tichi shitti wazli * Bhaiyya ek Mango cone aur ek Anjeer cup dena * Clocked 160kmph for the first time and what stability! * No Boss! * Mangoes kyun nahin aa rahe market me? * 1 M = 10 Lacs * Can Sir Ravindra Jadeja finish the game for India? * YOLO * How many zeroes did you put in the Crore? * Akka – S.I.S.T.E.R. – Sister, Nakka – F.O.X. – Fox, Kukka – D.O.G. – Dog * I got a DELL, no Lenovo for me :( * Naat, scootera * Is it Quora as in Kora, or Quora as in Que-ora? * Check out Amelia Boutique Hotel in Bukhara * Behind Harley Davidson showroom in Banjara Hills * I saw 17 peacocks today, including 4 peahens. KBR Rocks! * Usse Gujju mein baat kar, life set ho jaegi teri *Can you please call the pest control guy? * It is Jaliyan-wala Bagh not Jallian-wala Bagh as taught in Maharashtra Board History text books * Yippe * I am scared * I think we need to learn Telugu, no, they need to learn some Hindi, come on! * I want to study, please ask me Fill In The Blanks or True/False * Last day kab hai? * Chal futt * That defining moment when a spec of dust gets stuck under the “Ctrl” or “Alt” key on your laptop’s keyboard * I won’t let you guys go till you dance with me * Where do you stay? Dilshukh Nagar? Wow, that must be far! * Samba! * My wife wants to visit Serengeti *Yaar mere ghar pe phone ka network nahin aata, landline pe call karna * Somehow whenever I take such by-lanes, I always end up at a dead-end, and you are always able to find your way out! * Repu? Sayantram? Aaa * 2 people voted up your answer to the question: “What do people eat for breakfast outside of the US?” * Aee namak shamak, namak shamak, aa-haa-haa * So much pending work, so many things to do, procrastination is a terrible thing * Tu agle janam me kya banegi? Non-living things bhi chalenge! * Nigella is food porn. She isn’t just food porn, she is also, porn! * Bol Raja * There is a ban on eating rice * Sahi, congratulations :) AK kya bola? * Aaj tu fir lights off karna bhool gaya office jate time * Dear Aditya Ji * You don’t like pan? You mean Paan? * I thought you were in LA, that is Los Angeles. I had no idea it meant Learning Academy! * There are some new sushi restaurants in Hyderabad * Is this your iPhone5? It was lying in my room! * Please dial 1 for banking, please dial 2 for credit cards. Sorry, we did not understand your input. Please try again, else hang up * Do you want an input? * Chal bye *
Tag Archives: Life
Feel alive bathing at the Strawberry Park Hot Springs in Colorado
So here I am continuing to write on the adventure bathing experiences I’ve had in the last few years. I know a few people who do not enjoy bathing, but for me it is a complete joy. Even at home I try to create varying bathing experiences each day to distance myself from the monotony. I alternate between bathing from the bucket, and using the shower. Along with that I also alternate between using a shower gel and a soap bar. That gives me almost 4 combinations to work with. What do you do to make your bath more exciting?
Coming back to adventure bathing, some of the experiences I’ve had are really unique! Those are times that are close to my heart and those that I cannot forget, ever! A not so recent experience was visiting the Strawberry Park Hot Springs, in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains in the US. That road trip from Denver to Steamboat Springs, and Vail and back, was one of the most beautiful and memorable trips ever! Patrik Da, are you reading?
So what was unique and so exciting about it? Well to start with, the outside temperature was well below 0 C. Now who takes a bath in a freezing weather? Would you even remove your thermals in such? At Strawberry Hot Springs, you would not be able to resist the temptation of skinny dipping! Strawberry Hot Springs are natural mineral hot springs at an altitude of 14,000 ft above sea level. They way the whole complex is designed is that boiling water emerges from the top most rocks of the spring, and flows 7 levels down into a stream of naturally frozen river. So the stepped pools provide you a gradient of temperatures varying from sub zero at the bottom to about 80-100C at the top. You can go jumping around the pools of varying temperatures or just choose one that fits you the best and relax for hours.
But here are the best things about the springs >
There are no lights out there, and you can stay in the springs all day and all night
and you do not need to wear clothes :) so basically you may skinny dip!
I’ve never seen a more beautiful night sky ever, than from the hot springs. There was no city light to block the shiny stars. The night was dark enough to show the Milky Way too!
Bathing for hours, literally, rejuvenated me! Watching the stars up above the world so high and wondering what they are, made me feel one with the vast universe. It made me come alive. Being Alive Is Awesome and this bathing experience only affirmed that belief!
This photograph of the Strawberry Springs, Colorado has been taken from their Facebook Page and you may not use it further.
This post is written for Cinthol’s new Alive is Awesome marketing campaign.
Getting back to life, with an awesome experience
In the last few days, I’ve blurted a lot of not-so-happy messages out, especially on Twitter. And the posts on my blog have only talked about food, cooking being my latest pastime. Has it been too long that I talked about travel? I guess not. Has it been too long that I took a vacation for myself? May be yes!
The point is, I need a break! :) A long day leaves you tired, mentally drained and physically exhausted… Imagine what months of such would do to you! What you need in such times is an escape, a mode to get back to life, a mode to feel alive! All I need in times like these is a trip, away from home and into the wild. Wondering when was the last time I took a trip to relax, the first thing that comes to my mind is the 2010 trip to Phi Phi Island in Thailand.
We stayed at the Phi Phi Island Village Resort in complete luxury, but the highlight of the trip was the endless hours I spent in the water. Swimming is something I really love. Floating in the water relaxes me completely, making me devoid of all the worldly troubles. Phi Phi island has some pretty corals and awesome marine life. Take a snorkel, put on your fins, and splash you go!
Swimming in turquoise blue waters of the Indian Ocean with these very pretty other forms of life made me come back to life, made me feel alive! Being alive is awesome and that is what bathing in Phi Phi made me feel.
If you even plan a honeymoon, or a second honeymoon or just a relaxing week off from work, head off to the Phi Phi Islands near Phuket in Thailand and feel alive :)
This post is written for Cinthol’s new Alive is Awesome marketing campaign.Red dot
I often pinged people on Gtalk only to get a reply “Hey I am busy right now, ttyl.” At other times, I have waited entire days and weeks at stretch to hear back from someone who messaged me on Facebook that he/she will give me a call ‘tonight’. This happened mostly during my hostel days, and then also at times once I started working. Till a while ago I did not understand such behavior, and considered it appalling.
However, times have changed. Situations have changed. Places have changed. I have changed. Frankly speaking, I am no longer the same person I was 12 months ago (that was around the time I moved to Hyderabad). Let us go back to early-mid 2011, right after my wedding. Office hours were 9am to 6pm, no sorry 7pm. Actually 8pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10pm on Wednesdays and yes, 7pm on Fridays (because I would throw a tantrum). Basically there was no fixed time to get back home on the weekdays. Once home, the schedule would be – have dinner, play a game of scrabble once a week, go to bed. And I would be so tired that I would be fast asleep at 10.30pm. Tiredness and need to spend time with myself would force me to sleep all through Saturdays. On Sundays, my wife would revolt and we would go for a drive over the hills, or go eat a nice dinner, or waste time and money in a shopping mall. That would be my week. And then Monday again, back to work.
I was busy, but I was not. On being asked “What’s the plan for the weekend”, I would gladly say “Nothing” :). And it was true. I did not have any plans. And apart from work (where all my friends were too), I was never busy.
Late 2011, we decided to move to Hyderabad. Wife first, then I. Today when my friends call me or message me, I have to tell them that I will call them back later. ‘Brb’, ‘ttyl’, ‘later’, have suddenly become my words. But what has changed? I have started getting more involved with life, with a better work-life balance. Today, my office timings are a very strict 9am to 6pm or 11am to 8pm, whichever I choose. I get more time at home, and over the past 12 months or so, this extra time has been used rather well. From trying my hand on the synthesizer to learn music and play the Canon in D, to playing Badminton – a sport I never once played in my childhood, to going down for a walk almost everyday for 6 months, to cycling at home every morning, to cooking new recipes inspired by Masterchef, to reading fiction for the first time ever – and I hated reading anything other than Wikipedia and science books, to watching amazing theater plays every week, to meeting and socializing with new friends every month, to traveling and living more each day. Today, even as I am typing this post out, I can see myself in Pune next week and in Kolkata the week after. Over the weekend, I do not know if I want to take some more rest or take my wife out for a long drive or go meet an old friend. There are so many options and so many things to do, yet only limited time. These days I feel as if I need an 8 days week, 3 for the weekend, which would include 1 for myself.
Editing photos and uploading them on my blog take up a lot of my time after every trip, a lot of which I did this year – so far 7 countries. I’ve spent more time on Wikipedia this year than ever before. I have gone back clicking links in my quest to learn more about the history of the human civilization. Did I add that I lost 16 kgs in the last 7 months? And I am back to my 2007 weight! Oh anyway, this is not my end of year review that I do every December/January, but I already feel as if it is the end of an year. Well yes, end of an year in Hyderabad. The point of this blog is that enough things have kept me moving, busy and in fact healthier than ever before! I feel as if I am in demand every hour of the day, with no free slots on the calendar. Maybe sometimes being idle is good, having nothing to do is great, but isn’t that what I did the last few years when I gained that tremendous weight? Yes I am in the ‘busy’ trap as Tim Kreider writes in the NY Times and yes I do ‘like’ this state, 6.75 days of the week (I spend a quarter of a day, or an evening every Sunday wondering why it would be over so soon).
However, when someone asks me “How’s it going”, my answer is “All great, why don’t you come visit us in Hyderabad”. I am that eager to host people and take them around the city I have made my own. So next time you ask me “Itna kya busy rehta hai”, you better know that I am busy but I am not :) At least I do not pretend to be busy. And if not this weekend, then maybe next, or maybe a weekday if not the weekend – but I will create some time, I sincerely hope.
The title of this post is dedicated to chat messengers which let you show a ‘Red Dot’ next to your status to visually alert your contacts that you are not available for a casual chat.
Things to do?
Well well, I have been going around telling everyone that I need 8 days a week! And that is pretty much true. So let me explain.
Basically, I need a 3 days weekend for myself. That is to do all the wonderful things that I really want to do on a weekend. One full day, goes towards sleeping and taking care of household chores such as cleaning, dusting, washing clothes, blah blah blah. The second day, is to go out! Go out watch a play or attend a concert, or maybe just go shopping with wify hopping across shopping centers, meeting friends or going on a photowalk. Or multiple of those things together. The 3rd day of the weekend should be for myself! What do I do on that day? Do things I enjoy doing at home! For example, writing a blog! Or editing my photos, or maybe even cooking an amazing meal for that matter!
So those are the 3 days I would ideally love to spend after a hectic week, on my way to a recharged new week at work! Now people ask, why not just have the usual 7 days week, with 4 working days and 3 days for your weekend? Well, I personally believe 5 days is just the right size of a working week. 4 days is short, 3 even shorter. Here is why – You come back to work on a Monday, still feeling blue, lost and lethargic. Tuesday is when you are on top of what you need to do and really start working on it. You are at your best on Wednesday and Thursday – the two days you really work with full steam. Thursday is the night for you to go out have a drink or watch a movie, or come back and spend some time with family again. On Friday, the weekend is almost there and you are almost too excited to focus! Now if you take away Friday for the weekend, Thursdays would not be as efficient as they are, and similar for Monday! Whatever.
So make that 5 working days and 3 days for the weekend. That would make an year with 45 nice full weeks, and 5 days to spare for your annual vacation :) But of course, you would get only 45 Saturdays and 45 Sundays and 45 8th days !! Don’t you just love this model?
Anyhoo… so coming back to the blog, I still have the following stuff to upload on my blog:
1. Prague Travelog and Pictures
2. Milan Travelog and Pictures
3. Salzburg Travelog and Pictures
Plus, in addition to all of those, need to write two travelogues for ShutterMonks – yes and they need new words, and maybe I need to select and attach different pics too!
And? Yes, edit some more pics and upload them!
I’ve not even given my music another chance after the initial few bouts last year! SAD!
But yes, if you do like the 8 days a week idea, let us sit together for a few shots of JD+Coke!
