2011!

2011 was interesting. Highlights:

• I celebrated 2 years of marriage in 2011. Karwa chauth 2011 was the first day i recall when I ate absolutely no food. Am proud I could manage that feat :)
• The beginning of the year saw me complete my first year in London. I had never thought I would leave India and knew that if I did, I would definitely hate being out of the country. 2011 saw me slowly fall in love with London and the big city- multi cultural pot of simmering ways of life that London proudly is.
• Middle of 2011 witnessed me complete one year of work in London. Can;t believe that I managed to get a decent job in recession hit London.
• I changed roles towards the end of 2011. I am very grateful that I had options to chose from inspite of how the markets outside are and I am thankful that people at work appreciate my capabilities and abilities.
• I travelled extensively this year. Sid & I started 2011 with Nice (France) and  Monaco- gorgeous beautiful places. We managed to get out of the main city and explore villages near the beach. The camera can never capture the gorgeous beauty of the blue Mediterranean sea. Never!

Near Nice, France

• Italy- The Nice trip was closely followed by a ten day trip across Italy ( we visited the lovely Rome, Florence, Venice and Pisa). We mostly did touristy things in Italy plus I was quite unwell during the time. We are therefore planning another trip to the beautiful Italy in 2012!
• Next up, in June 2011 was the absolutely stunning Spain. I realised during this trip that I am not a big city person, I enjoy the smaller cities much more- that's where you get to see the real culture of a country. After spending a few days in Barcelona, we headed out to Tarragona, again a beach village near Barcelona. And it was lovely!  

Yours truly in Spain

Tarragona, Spain

• Then our next trip took us to the city of a 100 Spires, Prague! Here are some pictures of the beautiful, charismatic city!

Prague View of Prague

• This was followed by a trip to New York City (And the Niagara falls! A must see!!!). Add to that two trips to India and you will see how busy I have been travelling across the world!

The breath takingly beautiful Niagara Falls New York City View at night from the Empire State building

• I learnt to cook better. Yes, I did! For a party I threw last night, I made samosas, khandavi, quesadillas, spinach pin wheels etc etc all on my own! 
 

• Made new friends. A dear friend now, is a girl who I met first on a Jet Airways flight from Delhi to London in the beginning of 2011! She was sitting next to me and we exchanged numbers on the flight....nothing happened for the next two months but after that we started meeting up, got our husbands to meet who got along really well...and voila! friends!
• Being married to a sports enthusiast ensured that we were sitting in stadiums across London for a variety of key matches! This huge list included India England cricket matches at both the Oval and Lords. We lost one and drew the other :(

Eng Vs India, Oval

• Tennis- we were there at the Wimbledon grounds cheering on Leander Paes in the doubles mixed (he lost too)

Leander Paes, Wimbledon, having just lost the match :(

Mens doubles semi finals: Wimbledon 2011- the crowds begin to gather

• Saw the God of Tennis- Roger Federer live in action in the Barclays O2 Mens Finals. And thankfully he won! What a sight it was, to see each and every person in the arena stand up and applaud that one man. It was a moment I will never forget.
 

Roger Federer at the ATP World Tour Finals- what greatness and what a humble man

 

• Add to that a couple of football matches and you will realise how busy we have been sitting in stadiums too!
• Sid got me to see Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dace tap dancing show. Tap dancing had fascinated me even as a child and I simply loved watching these incredible men and women perform with grace and energy.

Michael Flately's Lord of the Dance

•  Apart from that , we watched almost every movie that we had the whim to watch and loved every bit of the gorgeous silver screen that cinemas across the world had to offer! 

As you can see it has been a busy year. Add to all of the above a book. 2011 saw me become something I never dreamt I would become in my twenties. An author. On the 1st of September 2011, my first book got released by Rupa & Co to a largely positive response. It made to best seller lists, i gave many many interviews (which reminds me that there are two pending sets of questions that I should answer ASAP), I wrote an article for TOI which was met with a great response, newspapers carried pieces on me and TIB, I launched the book in Delhi, i gave autographs, I addressed a crowd of over 500 people talking with them and telling them about TIB, i saw TIB kept in best seller sections in book stores in India. Most importantly, however, I got emails from my readers. They emailed me their love and appreciation for TIB. For that I thank you all.

Have a great 2012 ! I wish you all the health and happiness!

Love

RP

 

Mommy Love!

The old world met the new.

My Mum wrote me a letter. Yes, a proper letter. No, not an email. A letter. Written on ruled paper and in Hindi. How charmingly old world-ish is that?

I really cannot recall when I got a letter last (except for the bills that we get in the post here in London).And one from Mum, never before!

However, the letter was not posted to me. Instead, as soon as my mother finished writing the letter, my brother fetched his ipad, clicked a picture and Imessaged it to me.


That is how the old world met the new. But that is not the point of this post.

So I was about to finish work when I got the picture of the letter sent to me by my brother. I squinted here and  there to read it, I enalrged the image, I turned my iphone upside down, I did every thing possible to read the letter till I was able to figure out each and every word.

And then I re read the letter.

And then re re read the letter.

 And then re re re read the letter.

Almost tearing up each time I read it.

I will not go into the details of the 2 page letter as it is too personal. Suffice to say that it was the sweetest, loveliest letter I have ever set eyes on. My Mum had been (uncharacteristically, might I add) missing me terribly and she thought of just penning down her feelings.She told me that she missed me, she told me what all she missed ( including me being so busy studying the whole day that I would not even take a bath- how charming :/) and how unfair it was that I now live hundreds and thousands of kilometers away from her.

Anyways, like I said, I read the letter about a trillion-gazillion times.Infact after work that day, I went out with some people to a jazz club. Dimly lit, excellent music, great food. But all I could think of was Ma's letter.

Such is the power of words.
Such is the power of love.

I realized that day that when you truly love someone( your spouse, your parents, your siblings, your kids, your friends) its like this thick rope connecting two hearts, securing the two hearts, empowering the two hearts. One heart writes and the other reads. One heart says and the other hears..

And sometimes, one heart says a little bit and the other heart understands everything.

Love
RP

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Live it!

Like, I said to a colleague the other day while coming back from an amazing meal, sometimes we are so busy living in London that we forget to look at it.

She agreed. We discussed how we can probably describe the road to work (and by road I actually mean the road) and not the people that we (don’t)see or the beautiful buildings that we again( don’t )see.

So that day after work, I stepped out of my office and looked. And saw. And realised what an amazingly beautiful city London really is.

I had never really consciously noted the beautiful architecture of the building bang opposite to office.

I had never paused to admire the understated but immense beauty of St Paul’s Cathedral which I walk past each day to work.

I had never noticed how trees had she their leaves and how pretty they looked decked up for Christmas. Who had put up the blue lights? And more importantly, when?

I had never noticed the little fountain. How pretty that looked!

I had not noticed how beautifully fresh the cold wind that I hid my face from was.

I had not noticed how with approaching christmas everyone was looking happier.

I had not noticed so many many things.

This is life. This ordinary day that has gone by is life. One day has gone past you. It was the day you could have done so much, seen so many things, laughed, joked, clapped, danced…it is gone. A small part of life as you know and (hopefully) love is gone. Just imagine how precious it was.

Sometimes, we are so busy living life that we forget to see. And admire. And appreciate.

I have realised that it is time to change that about me! And I am convinced I will J

Love,

RP