But wait..now I have to read a 24-page case-study on Sony PlayStation (which I don't even like! definitely a minus)plusa 9-page article on the Five Minds of a Manager (WTH! another minus)plusa 24-page chapter on Path-Goal Theory of Leadership (OK, one more minus).
(+) + (+) + {(-) + (-) + (-)} = (-)
Now if I learntanymath in school, I know a minusplusa minusplusanother minus definitelyequals a minus (am I not a genius!). So this minus now negates my plus of going to the fun event!
You've got to be kidding me, I thought 'tis the season to be 'jolly'!
(alright, I apologize for venting publicly..)
P.S. I think this is a 'wicked' idea!! (Sorry, Matt :P)
How about we have our own series of Multiple Linear Regression Stories? What say, Mason MBA Class of 2012?
to you- my family, friends old and new, loved ones i have left behind in my journey, and those i am yet to meet on the path of life (hello!).
wish you all a very happy thanksgiving!
i wish i had celebrated such a day in each of my 27 years, and maybe not just one day, but that every day in the last 27 years had been a thanks-giving one. for i have learnt it is gratitude that is at the root of all things and there were many a good things that happened in these years (“a thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues”- cicero). but the biggest learning for me has been to be thankful for the not-so-good things that have also happened to me.
while today i am grateful that i am free, that i deserve to feel happy and loved and cherished and beautiful all over again, i am also grateful for the last 5 stormy years of my life. they make me who i am today, for the better or for the worse, i do not know. while i acknowledge and feel thankful for all the wonderful people and all the beautiful things that make my days worth living and put smiles on my face, i also feel grateful to many others who were once a part of my life but made me curse my very existence. they put frowns on my face and added age to my innocence, but you know what- i am still thankful to them because it was only when i saw myself in the mirror i realized that i needed to make myself feel beautiful all over again, that i needed to take charge of my life to put the smile back on.
my first american thanksgiving holiday experience has been thought provoking and emotionally charged; i learnt that more than celebrating a tradition or history, we need to celebrate our humanity. sitting at the thanksgiving dinner table, breaking bread with my friend’s family made me feel grateful that love and affection do not abide by nationalities or skin color, they transcend national borders and bridge cultural gaps to bring people together. i felt like liz from “eat pray love,” thankful and extremely lucky. liz’s character moved something big inside me, forcing me to think of my journey from a boring life in mumbai to a girls’ movie night with three women of different nationalities, huddled together in a friend’s den, watching the movie. these experiences will stay etched in memory because they hold so much significance in shaping my life moving forward.
now i know thanksgiving will form the core of my everyday living as I go about this second edition of my life. when i first started out, i knew i will have to unlearn a lot of things in order to gain new tools to deal with situations that i face. i am now determined to unlearn my ungratefulness and make it my second nature; like i wake up every morning, get dressed and go to school, do my work and come back home, i want to be able to say thank you to everything in my life. and everything includes the tiny and the elephantine, the visible and not-so-visible, the loved and liked but also the not-so-liked ones, the good the bad and the ugly because the bad and the ugly clear the clouds and enable me to recognize the good more clearly.
if every single day, each person capable of feeling any emotion says ‘thank you,’ sometimes more demonstratedly but always at least quietly within, life will not only become tolerable, but enjoyable and cherishable. because gratitude is like a thread that, when woven into the fiber of our human existence, can liven up a dull patch of grey with a dash of red color. saying thanks is reckoning that ‘you are, therefore I am.’
and this day, i want to tell everyone who knows me, has known me or will know me, thank you for being a part of my life; whether you brought me a beautiful gift or an ugly one, i still say ‘thanks.’
Another dose of My Happy Things..Well, I am trying to make a comeback, people. In these past months, I have missed this space beyond doubt (heck no, I did NOT abandon it contrary to popular belief). But you have to appreciate the fact that an MBA program isn't particularly blogging-friendly, you know. With DA mixed with MC and FA kicking our butt and LEAD throwing us off our path, MCS work could only have added to our woes. Not to mention the OB avalanche and the Everest climbing, phew, you see why I don't hold myself guilty of not writing more than I have to for my LEAD papers and OB self-assessments. Anyways, today was another happy day and I have renewed my promise to give this another shot.
While I am at it, here's my happinezz dose, my toast to the day that was today:
·being an individualist and an individual, oh yeah, Ms. Type A that I am!
·a smack of lips, there's hardly anything that can beat a pecan pie ;)
·carrying money without spending it (oh sure this drives my shopping genes crazy, but at least it's better than seeing it 'hang in my closet' as a whacky sweater that I will never put on)
·critical reading and thinking (read: side effects of an MBA program, ha! You gotta do what you gotta do..)
·a scenic afternoon spot (well, Miller Hall is a 'scenic' location, and I love it!)
·poodle skirts and dalmatian printed scarves. Alrighty, errr, well..I'm only trying to put my Halloween costume together ;)
·kicking a few cigarette butts out of my way, and knocking a few undesirable things of my marathon 10-page To-Do List! Woohoo, way to go girl!
·the joy of being friendly, of being warm, of considering and respecting another person. All I can give, my greatest gift to another person
·finding a You-Know-What when You-Need-It-Oh-So-Badly ;) Thanks, fellow member of the 'Sparkling Girl Gang' of Mason MBA Class of 2012! Ha ha ha, I just coined that kick-ass term!
·a game of Floor Hockey, figuring out how to hold the damn stick and get into the play (though I am sure I will be anything but happy tomorrow morning when my body's sore..ouch!)
·sugar dissolving in milk, and my coffee seems so much more comforting as I settle in for the night...
...because Happy Me is going to get on with Ethics reading and DA homework..ta-da!
As the snow came drizzling down, first light, then dark (oh no!! not really 'dark' 'dark', snow is white—Snow White of course!)..It's just that after 'light' I immediately thought of 'dark' and typed it out...er...whatever...let me start again!
As the snow came drizzling down, first light, then faster, then harder, as the snowflakes pelted into the ground, my mum came rushing into my room and exclaimed- "WAKE UP! It's snowing outside!" I muttered "Yeah, OK" and only shifted my head to avoid the light filing through the window above my head. "It can't be snowing in Austin, you see?" That's what I thought in my half-sleep state.."It must be a light rain-shower, icicles or sleet or god-knows-what! It can't be really snowing, in the true sense of the word because Merlin's beard! This is TEXAS and it bloody doesn't snow here!!" (OK, forgive the Merlin's beard part of it, I agree it was a bit overdramatic—it is the Harry Potter influence of course; those of you who have read him would know that..I am currently suffering from a fresh bout of Potter Mania as I told you in my earlier update)
Anyways, I muttered to myself about how the last time around the stupid weatherman had predicted snow in Austin, and said there would be about 3-4 inches of it..finally what happened? Hold your breath.....Hola! we got 3-4 centimeters (or wait, was it millimeters?) of snow and it wasn't exciting to say the least! So wisely indeed, I thought I should stay in bed for some more time and ignore the voices coming through from the other room, voices full of excitement and voices that were now exclaiming "Vihaan, see there—snow! snow! Snow is falling!"....grrrr...I din't care about the 'snowing' and decided it was best that I got on with my 'snoring' (OK, that last one here was a joke; but of course, I don't snore!!) ;)
When I had waited for ten minutes, or maybe fifteen, I couldn't take it anymore and felt around for my glasses...I said to myself, "I must see what this fuss is all about!" Sitting up in my bed I pulled the blinds apart a teeny-weeny bit to peek at the main street just outside my window... AND....
It was snowing, I mean really 'snowing,' I mean there were snow flakes that were clearly visible to the eye and I could see that almost half of the little green stretch just under my window was already covered under a white cloak, and the main street—the main street was also wet from the melting ice and the garden across—that was surely looking 'whitewashed' to say the least!!! Yes, my dears, it was surely snowing in Austin! Now wonders never cease, do they?
I jumped out of bed to find my family with their noses stuck to the window glass and joined them in admiring our first real snowfall together! Vihaan was surely excited, and he kept saying "raindrops, look raindrops" and we kept correcting him "snowflakes, see snowflakes!"
My mum and I put on our wintry clothing (read: a pair of socks, some gloves and something that has a hood to cover our heads) and amidst a scuffle, tried to get Vihaan to agreeably put on his three layers of jackets and tee shirts and slip on his gloves too! Oh, and did I mention my bhabhi had already returned home from work and decided to get us all going into the fun? She told me to get the camera while she asked Vihaan to 'please co-operate' (grrrr) and "Get Some Warm Clothes On!!" first before he could get his hands into the '(s)no'! Yes, Vihaan cannot pronounce any words that combine an 's' with anything—be it an 'm' or an 'n' or a 't' or an 'h'..So as far as my charming little lad is concerned, 'snow' is just 'no' and 'small' is just 'mall' and 'straw' is just 'raw'..I have been getting him to say 'small shoes' almost 5 times a day and he keeps repeating 'mall soos' after me...tsk tsk!
Nonetheless, with Vihaan already suffering from a terrible cold and slight fever raging within his tiny body, we had to keep our snow-game minimal and did not venture out much farther than the porch..It was still fun! After spending a few minutes getting used to the biting cold outside and the snowflakes that were dousing our hair and clothes, Vihaan could manage to keep his eyes open and we started creating snowballs..holding the freezing bits of ice in our gloved hands felt soo good! I was punching them hard to form round shaped spheres for Vihaan to throw around. And then, we got down to task—to create what is now going to go down in history as "Vihaan's First Snow Mountain"..Yeah buddies, that's all we could manage with those tiny hands at work! I could not stop smiling as I saw him enjoying himself so much in the snow, grinning at all of us as though he had found pure eternal bliss! That's what his pumpkin-shaped face showed...
I leave you with our pictures to tell the remaining story...Hope you enjoy as much as we did, looking at the '(s)no'! And please click on each individual picture if they are not clearly visible; I am still struggling to get tech-savvy and manage this photo-business..grrrr!
After a heavy dose of reading, courtesy: The Fountainhead, I have been feeding my Potter Mania over the course of last 4 days in my bid for a light and fun reading. And I got much more than I bargained for, what with re-reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and watching the Harry Potter movies series all over again! You bet it's been a thrilling journey, emotion-packed and above all—sheer fun! My range of emotions hasn't been narrow by any sense of measurement: excitement, feverishness, impatience, fidgeting, quivers, butterflies, apprehension, jitterbugs, goose-bumps, trepidation, 'awwww' and everything else!Above all, it has been an action-packed week so far and I am extremely content with my choice of 'time-pass.'
Amidst all this imagination-overdose, my grey cells obviously set into motion and I found myself thinking aloud—if I ever had to meet Harry what would be the first thing I would say to him? Would it be "Hey, I think you are such a great wizard" or "Aww, you are too cute" or "Hey Harry, you are the best!" or er...something something...I don't really know what would be the first words I'd utter if I came face-to-face with him! Stupid of me, I know..but couldn't help wondering about this last night, as I sat watching "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" for the umpteenth time.
So all you Potter fans who may be reading this, have you spared a thought to wonder what would your first words be to Harry, should you run into him anytime? Or do have any Harry Potter stories of your own to share with me? Anything you guys did, experienced, read, watched, felt, waited for, etc. etc. I want to know about them for sure! C'mon grab your Quick Quotes Quills or send me your Owls..I am surely waiting to hear!
I was thinking today (yes, I can think)—why not pen down my little nothings each day from the day that was? I surely had many versatile experiences throughout today, but at the end of it all what I would like to really savour and document from these wide-ranging thoughts and actions are the happy sweet nothings. Aptly so, since this is a happinezz magazine and "Frowns and Long Faces are Not Allowed." (OK I borrowed and tweaked that a little to suit my purpose)
So here goes my first post in an upcoming series of
things i am happy about today...
• my brother is safe and sound. no seriously, did you hear of the Austin plane crash? it happened half a mile away from his office, while he was probably happily typing away at his computer
• discovery of a pack of a new cereal variety—apple jacks—it tastes yum! so what if I borrowed some of those from Vihaan’s stock? :P
• that 30 minutes ago i was animatedly planning a business venture with an old friend and feeling the feverish rush of childlike excitement pulse through me once again
• goodreads—a dear friend suggested it and now i can actually take stock of my so-called literary pursuits
• in the dark, watching the glowing light from all the electronics in my room
• overindulgence in coffee and cinnamon biscuits—that’s my version of devil's food aka the midnight snack
• sambhar chawal for dinner—maa ke haath ka khana
So pick up your pens (rather grab your keyboards) and tell me what are you happy about today...
An avid curio collector and someone with a loud cackling laugh, I am here to talk of my zingy experiences while unearthing the precious treasures of life. Sometimes I happen to stumble upon these treasures in my kitchen so don't be surprised if I come up with a cooking tip or two to share with you. Or you may find me sweating it out over a craft project and listing down the steps involved in making a paper strawberry here. If I haven't warned you enough, I can be a mixed bag of surprises!
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