2AM Thoughts

2AM is certainly not for the happy people. Especially when you know the time and it still seems a distant dream to reach the dawn. Never forget that the storm will pass, the night will end, and a new day will always dawn. Said someone, I believe. But what about the time frame when it's hard to face the storm, the night is too long and the dawn is nowhere to be seen. In my world, that is when the 2AM thoughts crop up and start to haunt you.

I'm sure nobody is alien to these feelings but what helps here is the 2AM call....from a friend or from a certain someone who matters. The comforting voice that assures you that it's gonna be alright, the one that lingers and puts you to sleep. What happens when you hear it fading away? The heart breaks, the dream shatters and everything goes dismal with the crack of the dawn.

That's the thing about 2AM thoughts. They come out right from the pit of your stomach and haunts you incessantly until nothing else matters. Dependency acts as the only healer then. Now what sucks is the question  if this dependency is for your own good or in the coming days it's gonna scare the living daylights out of you. If latter, God forbid as in this case it's like a drug that gives you relief at the moment but eats you alive later.

The wise thing is to always keep in mind that you're on your own in the world that you've grown. So, brace yourself, buckle up tight and take life, one blow at a time.

Until later,

G

For that pore-fect skin

One thing that's always a turn off for an oily skin is the emergence of large pores on the skin. And it gets pretty bad when you have severe acne problem. It doesn't really make for a perfect healthy skin. But what can be a real saviour is how you take a good care of your skin. Properly washing your face at least two times a day by default comes out as the basic step. But that's not that. It takes proper toning for an oily skin to escape those enlarged pores.

I myself am the victim to such bad skin condition. And it's been a while that I've been trying everything possible to keep the enlarged pores at bay.

So, as part of this regime, I tried two products that especially come with the claims to reduce the appearance of enlarged pores. And here I'm to preach the gospel.

Pore Refining Solutions Correcting Serum by Clinique: This one product really gave me some hope. I've always been hearing from experts to use a toner to diminish the appearance of enlarged pores but honestly I never see anything good coming out of it. (Though I still keep following that) So, one day there's one friend who suggested me to use Clinique products as they are said to be perfectly suited for acne prone skin. I took her advice and bought this one for 'pore'-fect my skin.
The product claims to reduce the enlarged pores to 58%. And take my words when I say it does fulfill its promise. The only thing is that it's a bit costly for the kind of result it gives.

Seaweed Pore Perfector by Body Shop: After three months of constantly using Clinique's Pore Refining Solutions Correcting Serum, I got hold of this product. Interestingly I couldn't find any good review of this product on internet and that got me worried. But I'm glad I bought this one as it has really worked for my skin. If after using Clinique's, I found my skin improving, then this one from Body Shop worked wonders for my skin. It doesn't come with any fancy claims but it is indeed one product that I would really preach about.

So, the choice is yours. Try it out and 'pore'-fect your skin as I know how badly these pores can affect your mood.

Until later,

G

Knowledge is Great

Indeed! As Stephen Hawking said ‘The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge’, I would like to carry forward this thought to the idea that if you know you’re ignorant, you can strive to gain knowledge; but if you’re in the delusion that you are pretty knowledgeable (when you are not), it sucks. This same thought applies to the selection of the course you want to do.

You never know if you’re in the illusion that you want to do something or you actually want to do that. I think the best way is to sort it out. Well, talking about Britain as the point of discussion is studying in Great Britain. Britain has plenty of amazing universities like Cambridge and Oxford… and students can really die to get a decent degree from any of these universities. But before that, you need to be sorted what course you want to go for. Selection of college comes next.

If you talk about me, I would be pretty interested in doing my MBA from UK. There are plenty of reasons that affect my decision here. But first I think I should be clear enough to answer ‘Why MBA?’.  The major focus is here is to hone your skills for a senior management role. Every business in some way or the other needs management and to do that job well, you need someone with the required skills. And if you don’t have a hands-on experience with that, better to go for an MBA degree. Or if you do have a hands-on experience here, you might want to hone your skills more and more.

Now coming to the point- why MBA in UK? The first point that comes to my mind without any doubt is because of the reputation of the country in the world of business magnates. The other point would be the choice it gives you in terms of the time interval you want to choose to complete your MBA. Quite a reason for me or for many who have quite much experience in the business world!

And last but not the least- which college? This one is quite easy in fact. I would definitely like to do it from London Business School.  It kills two birds with one stone for me. I’ve always been in awe of London. This is the city that I would like to explore, see and cherish. And doing MBA from London would serve that purpose very well. The other reasons are quite academic. Of course, the exceptional credentials of this business school play the foremost role here. Ranked best in the world, the school is renowned for its world class events. The respectable degree that it provides is surely a plus-point here.

Hope you agree with me! 

My tryst with the spoilers

There's nothing worse for a movie lover than knowing what's gonna happen next in the movie before you've  even watched it.

 I'm sure many can relate to the idea as all of you at any point of time would have faced something that I'm facing right now. And as I write this dramatic post, I swear I'm cursing the mega search engine Google for this fate of mine that now seems to be worse than death. 

Yes, the Google as it has this unfettered access to each and everything that makes it totally unavoidable sometimes. Unavoidable and cancerous too..'coz you also fall prey to it and end up picking up on the stuff that you should really avoid to not turn your 'spoiler' into 'super spoiler'.

 And it's not just a one time thing; it happens to you again and again. I'm sure nobody has forgotten the famous 'Red Wedding' spoiler of 'Game of Thrones' or 'The Girl with yellow umbrella' one from 'How I Met Your Mother'. And the saga doesn't just stop there. So beware if you've promised yourself that you're not going to fall for any such thing coz you never know when you're already the victim. 

As a matter of fact, this time for me it has happened with 'Downton Abbey'. I started watching this series with full fervour, courtesy to the colonial era, heavy accent, amazing dresses and pretty faces. I watched the season 1 without any hassle, getting surprised at the moments that were meant for it. It just so happened the other day I was introducing one of my friends to the 'Downton' stars and as I started googling 'Lady Sybil', my screen popped up with the searches mentioning 'Lady Sybil dies' (That would happen in season 4). It broke my heart not only because it snatched away my 'Holy cow!' moment but also because Sybil is my favourite 'Downton Abbey' star. An ultra modern, ahead of her time, naive and oh-so beautiful Sybil- who in my view should be the one who should live throughout the 'Downton' saga.

And as I already said, the story never just stops there. It made me prick up my ears more and more and I  now know who Lady Mary (another character from Downton Abbey) is married to and how many children the couple have and the other little related details. 

Guess it's gonna take me this blog until I do take my frustration out and stop thinking about it. Or maybe I'd better start finishing up this series.

Hoping I don't run across another spoiler!

Laters,

G

The loss...that I feel sometimes!

Sounds like an emotional topic! Well, it is. And as emotional as it sounds, I'm at a total loss; the loss of my life's significance...the loss of patience...the loss of right words for the right moment...the loss of control that I usually used to have...the loss of everything. Apparently, it's not leading me anywhere but to darkness. Darkness, where I can't find myself...where I'm losing myself more and more everytime I try to step up...where I've nobody to turn to. And as pathetic as it sounds, it's true. But all I can do is sit quietly and wait for it to go.

But the thing that I don't realize until now is that I've been doing it all wrong. I'm waiting for the darkness to go away; when it's just the absence of light. I'm sad and at loss because I don't have something significant that brightens up my day; or maybe that's what I believe. Maybe I do have that significant thing in my life but I'm looking for more. But am I not supposed to look for more? Because what I do know is that we should always try to make something of our life, our relationships, or friendships, et al. Easier said then done! Had it been so, I woudn't have been feeling this grief-stricken.

As a matter of fact, I can't even negate the one true fact i.e. After winter, must come spring. At least I'm this optimistic. Meanwhile I've been doing a little bit of thinking lately. Because you know when you're sad, you think about life like you've never thought before. And that somehow made me reach to some conclusions in my life. These conclusions vary from the friendship to the relationship that I share with the people around me to the goals that I set for myself.

Starting with the friendship, I think I've already written about it here at some length before. But the stuff that I realized this time around is a bit different. Here I'm talking about drawing a conclusion; and I pretty much succeeded in that. So going by the definition that says A friend is someone who's always available for you through thick and thin, I would say I'm blessed to have two really good friends. They have been there for me always and I was never at the loss of words while discussing life with them. And trust me, I did thorough testing. ;)

Coming down to relationships that I share with people around me, it came out to be a little disappointing. I studied people around me and drew the conclusion that I'm mostly unwanted or undesired. I would have used the term 'social pariah' but I would leave it for my self-loathing self that is not keen to show up as of now. Next time, maybe! 

Goals that I've set for myself! Trust me, I've set a thousand of them; some changes every now and then and some stays waiting to be accomplished. But dang, no luck as of now. I'm not at a loss of how to go about it; the only thing that's missing here is the dedication. Maybe over the time!

While I'm not fully able to comprehend the reason behind all this thinking, I sure understand what it feels like to find significance in the wrong things. For that matter, this piece has been like a guide for me throughout this time of loss. And yes, LOVELARS, I do understand the feeling when you ask 'Have you ever had those moments where you find yourself getting upset with yourself for getting upset?' Yes, I've been having those moments lately and all I can feel is 'loss'.

 Hoping it would soon go away!


 Until then,
 G 

Delhi Diary: Dilli Haat

I've this one basic thought that I always believe in- Whenever you want to explore a place, explore it like a tourist would do. So, it has been around my two years in Delhi and I would say I've explored it all. 

And as I don't mind taking a badge of 'Adventurer' from Foursquare, I think it's time I share my wisdom regarding the touristy places that you can visit in Delhi. I'm tagging the places as touristy coz they give you the taste of Delhi. In fact, as winters are coming, I've decided to give visit to each one of them again.

And as I was at Dilli Haat the other day, so why not begin the 'Delhi Diary' series with this very episode. And may I say the idea of doing this blog post came from this very visit. So, it makes double sense now. Doesn't it?

When I first heard the name, I thought it's going to be a place where you can get the real touch of Delhi. You know the 'chole-bhature', street collection, etc. But contrary to that, it showcases a little something from every state of India. Yes, that's the charm of Dilli Haat.

But sadly I couldn't cover it all this time due to excessive downpour. 

So, here are a few pictures of the things that I covered.

 I don't remember where I clicked this one. But it doesn't really matters as every stall was colourful in its own way.

This I remember was at Tamil Nadu stall. These were the different sorts of 'vadas' at display.

The famous 'rava' dosa from Tamil Nadu! And may I tell you it was indeed delicious. This you are hearing from a non-'dosa' fan. So you can imagine!

These two pictures are from Navdanya Organic Food. We couldn't bring ourselves to have a taste from this stall. You can guess why. ;)

Last time when I visited the place, I had 'pabda' fish from West Bengal stall. And it was good too. I'm sure I have its picture somewhere. I'll post it as soon as I find it.

And this is it! It was a good fun. And I would say it's one of the must-visit places in Delhi. So, when are you planning to visit?

Laters,

G

For the love of music

Music is a key to a happy day. That's what I firmly believe in. Especially these days. Oh yes! And as there is no joy other than sharing a good music, I'm here to share some of the finest songs that I like the most.


So, here is my playlist.

Lemon Tree (Oasis): First in the list and the most played. You gotta listen to it if you want to get a faint idea how good this song is.

500 miles (The Proclaimers): Grey's Anatomy introduced me to this one and it instantly made it to my 'My Favourite' playlist. Watch the flashmob, give attention to the lyrics and you will know; as it did make me sappy the first time.

Baby I'm Yours (Breakbot): The beat, the graphics, the lyrics and the music- the perfect music that can easily top the charts. Headphones in, world out...like really!

Walk of Life (Dire Straits):I know...this one is a little old but it never fails to make my day.

Rockstar (Nickelback): Last but not the least in today's list is none other than 'Rockstar'. An absolute bliss and holds true word for word.

These five songs are my top five most played songs and I don't think I'm gonna get enough of it. And courtesy to my wonder ear phones from Sennheiser, I feel every beat. ;)