Winning is NOT Everything but definitely A beautiful start to many things!!

8 years of work in the IT industry and 96 paychecks which can get me all the material pleasures of this world can be easily outweighed by this single BLOGADDA Award which I have received today. Its true, that its never too late to start dreaming and following your passion in life. And this award signifies just that!
This is my first step towards realizing my dreams and it would always remain special to me. Ofcourse, I am enjoying all the limelight and all the accolades coming my way today. The blogger who had few hundreds of reader has suddenly been recognized by thousand of others. More than that, I am going to give my first victory speech of life! No prizes to guess, that before even winning this, I have already rehearsed it thousands of times earlier, infront of the mirror, in the bathroom, in the traffic, while coding ,while brushing and all the odd places one could have thought off. But today, I have forgotten all of it!! No ,,,really,,, I cannot remember any of those decorative language I so wanted to use for my VICTORY SPEECH.
And now the only saviour for me would be our very own GOD, the master blaster and inspiration for the whole country. Yes, SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR!! If it was not for him and his last speech few days back, I would have stood here dumbstruck, thinking what should I say on this ONCE IN A LIFE TIME MOMENT of my life? I would simply follow his foot steps and start by thanking the people who mattered, who actually encouraged me to get nearer to my dream, without whom I would have been still an IT porfessional, happy with her monotonus life and dragging herself every Monday to work just to wait for the next weekend to come. Yes, isint this true for all of us? Be honest!!
So I would definitely like to start with my parents. Its an irony of my life that I write mostly about my family(kids,husband,staff and parents) but my parents do not read me. They are not tech savvy and they dont read me often. But I am inherited by my Dads intellectual and Moms emotional genes, which makes a deadly combination I feel and helps me in writing things which touch the hearts.
Then I would thank my source of inspiration, my elder daughter Khushi for whom I actually started writing. The little witty answers, the innocent remarks from a 2 year old were to be cherrished for lifetime and so I started making a note of them. The personal diary of thoughts suddenly attracted alot of readers and hence my journey as a blogger started. The journey continues with my little daughter Avani, who is not less than an angel in my life.

And the most important person who encouraged me, who appreciated and criticized all my writeups is my husband. I would have never thought that those words were of any worth apart from my personal memories. But Ashish knew I have the gift of words and he motivated me to write. He has not only made my life beautiful but he also gave wings to my dreams. He still is behind my life to leave my job and become a full time writer. He sees a J K ROWLING in me :P.
Another person who has been instrumental in my journey is a colleague and a friend of mine Maneesh. We all know alot of things, but that one trigger which really changes your life forever is always special. My 16 k mails to my friends and family and a bit of rhyming here would have lost in the darkness if Maneesh didnt introduce me to blogging.
Its weird but I have a list of innanimate objects also in my list.I would be thankful to is BLOGGER.com, Blogadda and Indiblogger. I would have never made it to the wall of fame if I didnt have my very own BLOG SITE and been introduced to the wonderful world of blogging by these blog sites.
We usually remember the explicit things in life, but today I want to enlist an implicit person who was instrumental in my success. My ENGLISH teacher, Miss Chandrika. Coming from a small place where speaking in English and being good in english calls for alien looks from others around, our English teacher made her sincere efforts to inculcate those basic things in English like grammer, vocabulary, diction, expression etc in us. Rightly said by a great philosopher Aristophanes "By words the mind is winged". And those words were given to us by our teachers.
My extended family, my friends, my fellow bloggers, my critics everybody has shaped me as a good person and possibly a good blogger. I am greatful to everyone around me. Some bit of influence has been caused by my city, my society, my house, my surroundings, my country. The trivial things which I observe around me gives me energy and ideas to express.
I am very happy that in less than one year I have become a recognized blogger. We bloggers write for being read. We want to read and be read by others. Getting a prestigious award like BLOGADDA AWARDS gives not a window but full sky of possibilities to be read, to be connected with like minded bloggers. It means a world to me. The joy is equivalent to giving birth to your child as with each day you get attached to your writings as much as a child. You want it to grow, you want to to succeed, you want it to flourish!!
I would like to receive this prestigious award from the hands of CHETAN BHAGAT. He was the first writer I read and his simple words and direct speech enlightned me that only big words and decorative language doesnt make a good read. Any TOM DICK AND HARRY can express and its not the words but the expression which matters.

I would like to revamp my blog site. It should shout DIPTI  DIPTI DIPTI everywhere. Not by my portfolio photos or name, but by my personal touch. My thoughts, my writeups, my wins, my vision, my motive of blogging should be visible to anybody who visits it even once. It should be my identity and customized as per my persona. It needs a huge amount of thinking and execution to change my blog into my identity as what started as a hobby needs a makeover to be my passion.
I would definitely like to go out and indulge in the sinful DEATH BY CHOCOLATE which gives me equivalent if not more, HIGH than writing.
I would like to celebrate my victory with my family. Would like to go to my Mom's place with my husband and kids. I want to read out all the blogs to them and tell them how much my family means to me.
Thank you BLOGG ADDA to make it possible. When I make it BIG, I will definitely owe it to you also and will not forget you in my VICTORY SPEECH then :)


This would be My Winning Speech on being rewarded the BlogAdda Blog Award!

ISHQ WALA LOVE??

While driving to office today they played "ISHQ WALA LOVE" and for the first time it struck me.
Ishqwala love? Really? Whats that supposed to be? Aur kaunse kaunse wale love hote hai? A very beautiful song from STUDENT OF THE YEAR only if you can ignore the meaning of the lyrics. Sometimes you just want to enjoy the feel and music of the song rather than getting into the lyrics.
But on second thoughts and on a lighter note, I feel its very apt for our generation. As I call it; "THE CONFUSED GENERATION". We have our feet in two boats all the time. The traditional, idealistic, hypocrite, sacrifising, compromising, forever wala love and the honest, contoversial, selfish, human and realistic varieties of love.
I LOVE YOU has become such a common line unlike the older days. Ofcourse, its not wrong to express the love to anybody you love, but when you hear a lot of forms of this expression its funny.
Its like the sterotype line ""Hum Ek baar jeete hai, pyaar bhi ek baar karte hai!"" has become so fake with time. You have so many LOVE needs as human. Social love which comes in the vertical of marriage and this is supposedly also the ISHQWALA LOVE for our generation.But nowadays as they say "Marriage is the end of love!!" for many.

Then there is old crushes and ex-lovers wala love, which proves the Newton's laws stating "Energy (read Love) is never lost, it changes from one form to another". Emotional love which usually is seen among the fairer sex where the need to understand and be understood is higher than the supply. Ofcourse, physical love where  nowadays according to a survey, social networking sites are playing a critical role to make people more vocal about their attractions, lust for each other.
Then there is the MIDLIFE crisis wala love, where people have compromised for half of their lives with their current partners and now trying to find love which they have idealized all these years. There is CRAZY Love which may or may not be both sided but the person in love is so obsessed with the thought of loving him/her that nothing can stop him of doing crazy things in love. Then there is CONFUSED love where you dont know if its love or friendship or lust or forever wala love.
There are more varieties of love which are apparent , right from Friendship love, Casual  love,timepass love to finding the soulmate anywhere, any point of time of life. All are termed LOVE.
Its a controversial topic and there are no rights and wrongs here. Its the perspective you see it with. You have one life to live and one life to love,, so whether its ISHQ WALA LOVE or any other variations of love. Keep LOVING!!

FAIR OR UNFAIR?

Sunday afternoon after the toiling week at work, I was relaxing on my lazy chair with a cup of coffee in hand and a big fat book in hand. From a very long time, I have been deceiving myself and my parents that this is what I like to do on my holidays. But I couldn’t take the boredom anymore, I couldn’t take the pain of leading a lonely life anymore. I definitely deserve a better life than a 9 hrs of monotonous sick job, 3 hrs travelling in Bangalore traffic and then a pathetic weekend at home, doing nothing!

I am 29 and soon I am going to be crossing my status of being an ELIGIBLE spinster. I am going to be in my 30s, the most dreaded number for a girl. By now, most of my friends and cousins have lived their half life and started with a new phase of mid-life crisis. And I am here, not even started my family life.

Not that I did not plan it for myself or didn’t have the dreams of a normal family life as any other normal girl; It’s just that fate had some other plans for me.

Immediately after college, when Aditya and his family visited our home to see me, I was pretty skeptical about the whole arranged marriage scene. I was excited, nervous, anxious, happy all at the same time. I had seen his photograph and quite liked it also. But photos don’t speak and I wanted to speak to him.

We started with a casual hi along with a brief smile. There were no butterflies, no love at first sight, not even skipping a beat after meeting him. It was everything a first meeting between a prospective girl and guy would be. Discussing hobbies, interests, liking and talking about expectations from their ideal life partners and a little bit of awkward eye contacts while checking out each other.

 Being from a progressive society we had some time to decide before we NOD for each other. A few more get together, a few more unofficial meetings to know each other better.

In a few meetings we were very comfortable with each other. The positive vibes which I got from him helped me, open up with him. We spoke for hours together and never had dearth of topics to discuss. He was always there for me. We had met  one month back, but it seemed like we were always together. There was no pretence; there was no hurry of falling in love. We went out with each other more often now, sometimes with his friends and sometimes mine.

He visited my house anytime and went to the kitchen and picked up a bite to eat. My Mom dad liked him a lot. He was everything a girl would have imagined in her life partner. At least I thought he is the one for me. Within 2 months, I was so used to him that I couldn’t recollect how I spent my time before I met him.

I was dying to be with him and looking forward to spend my whole life with him now. But it was strange that my parents were not even interested in asking me for an answer. They had comfortably forgotten that we were not yet engaged. But as an Indian daughter, I could have not initiated the conversation myself, so I kept mum.

Aditya and I went for a lot of parties together and when he invited me to accompany him for his friend’s engagement party, I immediately agreed to it. I could have not missed another chance to dress up for him and lure him one more time to fall for me.

So that Sunday evening, I dressed exceptionally beautiful and consciously for him. He told me that his best friend is getting engaged and he is like family to him. And even before we were formally labeled as family, his family had become very important for me. So I had to be at my best for that party.

He picked me up at 7 pm. I could make out that he was not able to take off his eyes off me. I liked every bit of attention he gave me and in fact for the first time he was not speaking and just looking at me. The rare view mirror was adjusted for a different purpose tonight.

The silence in the car was beautiful; I knew love is in the air. I knew we have started liking each other. We had never spoken about this love; we were not in hurry to do that. I thought he doesn’t yet want to name this feeling, he is giving himself and me time to enjoy it without any name to it. I wanted to tell him I am ready to take the plunge. Ready to be in his arms. And I am determined to work this out with him. Amidst all these thoughts, the car stopped!!

We had reached a five star hotel where I could see the lawn is decorated with White and blue orchids and silver netted robes. It was beautiful and coincidently blue orchids are my favorite. The whole decor was classy and simple. I could sense unusual silence for a party. My first reaction was. “Ohh,, we seem to be too early for the party!”

Aditya did not respond to my reaction. He continued towards the lawn. There were few close friends of him, his family members. I greeted them with a smile. I was contemplating whether I should touch his Mom Dads feet or just be there. Then finally I touched their feet. They were ecstatic, i couldn’t fathom why!!And what I see? My friends?  My family?  My MOM DAD!! I turned towards Aditya and he was nowhere. I couldn’t see him anywhere. I went to my Mom and asked

"What are you doing here? Do you know his friend? Why didn’t you come with us then?"

Mom started laughing. I was confused. What’s going on? And suddenly I hear Aditya.

He comes next to me, gives me a reassuring smile and proceeds

"Diya, sorry to kidnap you like this and confuse you. I wanted to tell you something. Actually we all want to tell you something and ask you something. "

I was embarrassed and happy at the same time!

“My  Mom Dad want to get you home and make you family. Would you like to join us? "

Before I could reply he continued

" I am deeply and madly in love with you. You are the one I want to spend my life with. Would you like to be my life partner?  "

He was standing with a platinum love band in his hand. He had his parents, my parents and all our close friends at his side and they all waited for my answer desperately! I gestured Mom-Dad for their approval and it was a yes! I was almost in tears. I stretched my hand and uttered a YES. He came towards me, slid the love band in my ring finger and looked in my eyes. I hugged him and he exclaimed!!

"Am I allowed to be without the ring??" and everybody burst in laughter.

My Mom gave me the other love band and I slid that into his ring finger and warned him not to remove it ever from his ring finger!

Everything came to a stand still for that moment. I was in love and I just got engaged to the love of my life. 2 months back I had no clue that Aditya existed and today my existence is unimaginable without him. That day I not only accepted my love for him but also started a new ever lasting relationship with him. It was a pure and divine. And  all our loved ones, blessing us with all their heart made it more special for both of us.

The whole family ganged up with Aditya to make this special for me. I could have never imagined that my PLATINIUM DAY OF LOVE would be so special. I still can’t answer correctly when people ask me if I had a love marriage or an arrange marriage. I don’t know how would a love marriage be different from the one arranged for me.

We were very happy together; we got married the same year and started our family life. We were very much in love. I had every reason to be happy and I was very thankful to God for choosing me. I was the blessed one;  Until I got the phone call that evening.

Aditya went for an official visit to Singapore for two days. I had spoken to him 1 hour back when he was about to board the flight. He was very happy and he was late to airport because he was shopping for a gift for me. He told me that I would be to be blamed if he misses his flight! But he didn’t!

Wish he had missed the flight. Wish he was a little late to the airport. Wish I would have not let him go. I can only wish now. His plane crashed in the middle of sea. I have lost him…forever!

It was only 3 months that we had started our married life. We hadn’t seen the ups and downs of life. We had not understood any vows of the knot. And he was gone!!  No goodbyes, no fights, no promises! I have not lost the love of my life, I have lost the reason for living.

Its 6 yrs now, and my heart is still beating. I am still alive for the world and the world has forgotten our love story. People say you can live with good memories, but you can only die every moment with memories. I am dying every moment and I know I have no right even on my own life. But now I am left with nothing more than his love band which he has forgotten on the bathroom rack while he hurried to catch the Singapore flight. And I am left with pain ,,,pain of memories!

This blog is intended to participate in the PLATINIUM DAY OF OUR LOVE contest on Indiblogger.in. 

This is a fictional story and has no resemblance to any real person or event. 

Smart Suraksha tips for Bangalore

Ten smart suraksha tips for Bangalore in the order of their prefrence are as follows:
1. Download SMART SURAKSHA application on your smart phone and make sure you add the 5 contacts in the list carefully. Those contacts must be able to help you in the hour of need. For example, add a family member who knows where you have gone, add a friend from office/college who know when you have left your workplace, add your best friend who doesnt mind running to help you at 4 am, add somebody influential or somebody in police/politics so that if required they can get police help immediately.And last but not the least, add your Dad/Moms number because they will not leave any stone unturned in reaching you!

2. Do not let anybody kid/child/adult/male/female/handicap ,,anybody enter your house without knowing them well. If you are in a gated community, let the security guard call you and be with you while dealing with any stranger. You can trust noone as once they are inside the house, nobody would bother to know whats going inside the house
3. Please learn Kannada language, which is Bangalore's local language. If you know the language you are in good position to communicate with anybody on the road and hence inform incase of any emergency
4. Do not trust any private vehicles for lift. Both in day time or night, if you need to go somewhere do not sit in a private/company vehicle, private buses, private taxis etc as there is no accountability for such drivers and vehicles
5. When late from office, especially when you need to take the Outer Ring road, inner ring road, Hebbal flyover and those empty patches please accompany with a colleague or security guard. Its always preferred to take your own company transport compared to your own vehicle after 10 pm
6. Carry a pepper spray at all times in your purse and car. A portable knife is also a good idea incase you are stuck in emergency situations. And avoid travelling in auto rickshaws after 10 pm. The auto rickshaw fellows in Bangalore have a huge ganging with the goons and they are their best informers
7. Never go in parking lots alone after dark and never check your car/bonnet/lights when you are all alone in the parking lot. Lock the car as soon as you get inside the car.
8. If somebody seeks help from you at night and you are all alone, never stop the car. Make sure you go straight to the nearest police station and send help for them instead. Infact if somebody tries to blame you for some accidents or tries to stop you in the running car, they are definitely goons trying to get hold of you. Never stop the car even if they break your window glasses, just drive away straight to police station
9. Never try to fight and argue with local looking goons in Bangalore. There were cases in which local goons try to purposely intice you for fight and then the whole gang appears from nowhere and creates a scene out of nowhere! Beware of such gangs, simple get into the car and drive away at that point of time, later you can take some help and sort things out
10. Last but not the least, trust your instincts. If you feel that something is fishy and you are uncomfortable with someone, dont take chances. Just get out of the car/cab/bus and take some other way of transport. Its better to be safe than sorry

I am sharing my Smart Suraksha Tips at BlogAdda.com in association with Smart Suraksha App.

Won a gift voucher from Flipkart for this post from Smart Suraksha team
http://blog.blogadda.com/2013/11/14/winners-for-smart-suraksha-contests