Quest for life

Whenever there is a favorite song of mine on the radio, I not only sing along but can do a jig or two while driving the car. This, however, is a highly unacceptable behaviour as per my mom who thinks that I am past the age where such behaviour would have suited me. I keep asking my mom if there is any rule book on age appropriate behaviour for adults. For I have heard about age appropriate behaviour for kids and I do understand that there are certain norms that society expects you to follow once you have a certain type of understanding and maturity. However, if the behaviour doesn't interfere with anyone and is totally for your own pleasure does it have to be age appropriate? What is age appropriate anyway? Different cultures think differently on the same. For eg Hindi has a proverb which says "Buddhi Ghodi Lal Lagaam" which means heavily decorated old mare. In India, it is quite often used for older females who use bright colors or are heavily made up. I find it quite

Yesterday went to buy my dinner and while I was waiting for it to be packed was served a fantastic and much needed cup of tea. When I wanted to leave some tip the guys refused and were just happy to make me feel a little more comfortable in a foreign land. Wow, what hospitable attitude! I was thinking what did I do to deserve such kindness. There are many acts of kindness that we can do and probably do in our daily lives which bring happiness and satisfaction to our lives. Like helping old people to cross the road or paying for someone's coffee or education or saying some kind words to make someone feel better. However, how many times are we kind to our loved ones. Aren't we too pressed for time when it comes to spend time with our loved ones. Isn't it too much of an effort to say some kind words to people who are closest to us. So how is it that we are kind to strangers and not so kind to our near ones? What makes us act with kindness with total strangers and not with o

One of my good friendships started with a compliment given to me in the porch of a hotel where I was waiting for my car. It was an interesting chance encounter which started with a compliment. Although I was really happy to accept the compliment on my really old Saree, it was not till the time I have had another nice chance encounter with a taxi driver in Baku that I actually thought about compliments and how we perceive them at different stages of our lives. It won't be very clear to readers if I didn't explain about my "encounter" with the taxi driver. A few days back I was walking through the beautiful boulevard of Baku. I was half way through to my hotel and it was already dark. Now I started walking a little fast and reached for the road to get to my hotel. Suddenly a taxi stopped and driver started urging me to avail taxi ride. My hotel was near and I was not interested in taking a taxi so I gestured that I don't want a taxi. To my surprise he kept on ins

Last month I had attended a classical music festival of Bengal Foundation in Dhaka. It was an occasion well attended by Dhaka residents. I was surprised to see that the stadium was full to listen to Indian Santoor Player Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma and Table Player Ustad Zakir Hussain. I have never seen such a great crowd even in India to listen to these maestros. However, soon I realised that the crowd was there not only to listen to these great legends but also to participate in some sort of outdoor activity. Many diplomats told me that there is hardly anything to do in Dhaka for recreation and hence any opportunity that people get they want to avail it. This can be true as I saw the whole upper middle class and upper class people, dressed up for the occasion but there were very few who were paying attention to music. Most people were interested in having food or chatting with friends who they happened to meet in the event. Everyone could locate so many friends and acquaintances there th

This is 3rd January and here I am sitting at Doha airport waiting for my connecting flight to Baku. As usual instead of sleeping or reading I am watching people wandering at the airport and brooding over things. I must be staring at some Burqa clad lady because she just offered me nuts although she is sitting three empty chairs from me. A very cute way to tell me to stop staring :)This made me stop looking at people and do something constructive hence decided to write. This is supposed to be my first journey of 2016. I am thinking what is it that is different between this journey and numerous others that I have had earlier or will go on later. I realised that there is no major difference. So what makes this the first journey of the year? Why should it be a first or middle or last journey of the year? Is it because the date of the calendar has changed from 2015 to 2016? Why do we keep counting time? Why does our lives revolve around the calendars and watches? Of course it is necess

Sometimes I wonder what is it that makes people travel. Is it the natural curiosity to see other places, an urge to find what lies beyond familiar surroundings, better prospects in comparison with the current situation, need for a change, boredom, attraction of unknown, or in modern times it can also be a reason to boast amungst friends. People have different reasons to travel. Some travel to explore the world, find out about the unknown or unfamiliar things. Learning about new things is like being a child again. New things and alien cultures can surprise you and enrich your experiences. Trying new things and meeting new people expands awareness and makes you a more accepting person.  Some people travel to get away from the routine. They want to unwind and travel brings that much needed break to rejuvenate. They escape their daily lives for some period by traveling and it does give their mind and body a boost required to live a healthy life. Such people reduce stress and gain

Recently met a very charming French lady and we started talking about her travel experiences in India. She is a well traveled lady. I have also had few foreign travel experiences and although my ex-boss keeps teasing me about my travels saying that I have wings on my feet I feel that I do not travel enough. I should be in Modi's team to be considered well traveled:). I keep hoping PMO will call me and consider me to be part of the team:) ! Anyhow, back to the French lady and her experiences. While talking about our experience of different places and different cultures we started talking about stereotypes. We both agreed that stereotypes do exist and some of them are fairly common to that particular culture. Hence Stereotypes can be taken as fairly typical of various cultures. This can be a fairly offensive statement for few die hard liberal people who think that we can't generalize people and nations like that. Intellectuals may consider it too simplistic to believe in stere