Explorer of Experiences

The mesmerizing sunset I captured from a traditional abra at the Dubai Creek. At the time of writing this post, I have completed seven months living in Dubai. In this time, I have explored so much of the city (as much as I possibly could) but there is still a whole lot waiting to be discovered. I feel like I have been here for a really long time but that speaks volumes about how easily I settled in to my new life here. If you're planning to move to Dubai, here's some essential reading just to get an initial sense of the vibe here.   1. You'll need to watch your money. Dubai has everything aspirational from the finest restaurants to the most desirable retail brands to global events. But we know experiences cost money, and can be on the slightly expensive side. Can you do without that brunch? Certainly your stomach can. Do you need that jacket? Winter isn't for another 6 months. Introspective conversations like these are good practice to avoid overspending.  ...

Image source: bugbog.com Earlier this month, Sweden hit the headlines by announcing its enforcement of six hour work days . A bold move there Sweden, but definitely a welcome first-mover. The country really has shown how much it cares for its people by making this move. The idea behind this enforcement is to enable people to get more work done is less time (read increase productivity) whilst leaving them with enough time and energy in the day to pursue their personal life. I absolutely stand by it.  I have always thought that people have been made to or think they have to invest 90% of their day in work. But why? Do relationships not matter? Does putting effort in a hobby or a non-work creative pursuit not matter? Who made it mandatory to work from 9AM to 5PM? And that by the way are not the standard work hours. In India at least. Maximum companies have a 9AM start time which means your day begins at say, 7AM when you wake up, get ready and probably get some breakfast in...

Image courtesy: www.picjumbo.com Have you ever had an experience working with students? How was it for you? Was it interesting sharing knowledge and your expertise with them? Did you in turn learn something from them? Responses to these questions would really interest me. I have had a recent experience working with students and it would be an understatement to say that it was exasperating. I took on these students considering they were being trained in skills I did not have and required for a work project. However, I was thrown in the deep end and realized very quickly how the students lacked the skills I was looking for and hence could not deliver the kind of quality I was expecting and was important for me to deliver. Hence I had to work doubly hard to get this project completed, relying on myself to work on elements of the project I had never tried my hand at before. The students showed lack of responsibility, lack of clarity and structure, lack of interest and drive and a dis...

I thought I'd write something special with Womens' Day just around the corner. Sometimes, you don't need to search far and wide for inspiration. It's right close to you. Look around you - a friend, a co-worker, a movie, a book, travel...inspiration can come from anywhere. In this case for me, my ever-smiling and oh-so-hardworking friend Keshia is an inspiration. And I want to share what makes her tick with you.    ‘Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously in it.’ This famous quote by Julia Child fits like a glove as the beginning to our interview with Chef Keshia D’souza. Currently Chef de Partie at Courtyard by Marriott Pune City Centre , she found cooking to be her passion at the tender age of eight. With over six years of experience in the kitchen, here she is in her Chef’s whites with a smile on her face and her affable personality already evident. How did your passion for cooking begin and what inspired you? I got the idea...

I have been itching to write this post. I have met a lot of people especially in my work life who have pretty much been the same, work style wise. Very few have stood out. To make a mark, for me personally or professionally, three things immediately crop into my head. These are my so call ' mantras ', and they work. They will not only make your life easier, but will also create a strong impression of you with other people. Don't procrastinate Image courtesy: www.businessmindsetexpert.com Leaving things to do for later is a bad, bad idea. It takes time to get things off your check-list  but it takes only few seconds for another ten or thirteen things to get added to that to do list. I always list my things to do in terms of priority. But what works for me is to get those things done which would hardly take any time. So that gives me the chance of scratching that item off my list. And it's sheer pleasure when I make pencil strokes across that completed item. ...

I liked the typography, nothing else! Right this moment, I'm in a phase where I don't know what I'm doing nor do I know what I want to do. All I feel is overwhelmed with everything - from the lightest of issues to the heaviest. It's all bogging me down. There's just too much happening, too many things to do! I don't quite like the times we live in today. Never is there a day, when you get the opportunity to just sit back and relax. Instead, your note pad is just filled with things to do and more things to do. And each thing, is a mammoth task in itself. You struggle your way through the list and before you're done, pat comes another hundred tasks to be completed. There's work to do, formalities to complete, errands to run, it's a freaking rat race. And those darn phones! They just never let you simply be. There's too many things that need your attention but only one you. I get tired. It's draining.  Which brings me to my next thoug...

It's a Monday and no surprise, the 'blues' have struck. But it's not just that syndrome that's doing the talking (or more aptly, the writing), but I reeeeally need a break. It's been six months since my last vacation and boy do I need a reboot. I flew out from last year and landed into this year not knowing, not realizing, not understanding how time has gone by! I still feel like I'm in 2013 and it's proving to be one hell of a long year. I recall how before I took off to Manali last September I really needed that trip too, work was just taking over my life. This time around too, things have not changed and a breather is much required.  I can't grasp quite how people only take one vacation a year. It's strange; use all your leaves at one go and plan, spend on and enjoy a long break? What happens then when you want a stress buster at any other point in the year? I'd rather split my holidays up, ideally have one per quarter in the year...but...

Not too long after I started earning did I realize what I wanted to spend my savings on. Not clothes, not shoes, not bags but on travel. With work pressures steaming up and city life in Mumbai spiralling out of control for me, travel was my only relief - it became something I pampered myself with and something I gifted myself every now and then. I surely deserved it. 2013 turned out to be a great year for me on the travel front...I ended up doing a lot more trips than I had planned. January 2013 - Bangalore Crispy dosa drenched with that divine chutney I've been to the city a number of times. But every time I go, it's always  a treat because of the  friends I meet and the dosas I eat. Yes I love these lentil pancakes, I can live on them! Here's  a picture of a supremely crisp dosa I ate standing with my friends at a typical udipi joint by the road on the very sunny morning that we reached the city by an overnight bus.  February & March 2...

If you've read my piece called 'Mumbai's Training Glory', you'll better understand where I'm coming from. I wrote this is in August of 2011. My wrath with Mumbai continued, and I wrote on about it but this time I  thought it would be interesting to chronicle my average day for my readers. So go on, read it...your time starts now! That life in Mumbai is a struggle, is probably something you’ve heard way too often. Well it is true, oh so true. But mind you, I’m only part complaining. It’s bad, but you do feel a sense of pride at the end of the day for having lived through it. The city makes you hard. The city makes you strong. The city makes you a survivor. But this is not just another write up of my life in Mumbai. This is the story of my daily travails of getting to work from home and back each day. And I promise, each journey has been nothing short of eventful, to say the least! From my home to the gate is a 7 minute walk. I then cross the road an...

I wrote this post a year into my transition in Mumbai (circa September 2010). My tryst with trains in the city continued till June 2013. I have since left Mumbai and looking back at this post, I pity my past self. Haha! If you have no stories to share from myriad train journeys in Mumbai then, I dare-say, your tryst with this city is incomplete. There is no evading those trains and also no denying their inevitability. Whether running at leopard-speed or crawling at snail-speed on the rat and litter-infested tracks, trains truly are and as popular parlance would have it, the ‘lifelines of Mumbai’. Long distance road travel in this busy and over-populated city is frustrating and utterly time-hogging, leaving the host of commuters with a rather sensible, economical, quick and preferable option of train travel. Sit in a train compartment and you will quickly notice how welcoming this mode of transport is to people across different strata of society. Affluent and chicly...