Dance - The stressbuster

I had learnt Katthak when I was in school. It was a Sunday ritual which I really looked forward to. The sound of the ghungroos and the fine nuances associated with that form always left me aghast. There was so much to learn and so much to do. But sadly just like my other hobbies, I left this one too somewhere mid-way and concentrated on my studies.

Cut to 2016.

The story of my Fitbit Alta

It all started some 6 months back when the start/stop button of my Fitbit Charge started giving problems. It would light up the display screen of my charge with the slightest movement of my hand. I dismissed it for some temporary problem and overlooked it. I ran the Pinkathon with my Charge on my hand. And it showed me my first ever running performance and I was immensely proud of the statistics. Then one fine day after finishing my Yoga class, when I came back home, that very problematic button had fallen somewhere much to my dismay and it was so tiny that I couldn’t find it anywhere even after searching on the road from where I got home. I was left with no tracker and that left me little dejected. 

Guru Pournima

Today is Guru Pournima.

I quote from Wikipedia

Guru Purnima is an Indian and Nepalese festival dedicated to spiritual and academic teachers. This festival is traditionally celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Buddhists, to pay their respects to their teachers and express their gratitude. The festival is celebrated on the full moon day (Purnima) in the Hindu month of Ashadha (June–July) of the Shaka Samvat, as it is known in the Hindu calendar of India and Nepal.[1] This day marks the first peak of the lunar cycle after the peak of the solar cycle.

Consistency helps!

I had posted sometime in March about starting Yoga once again after a gap of nearly 10-15 years. I had one or the other reason to not invest time for my good health and all these years I hardly did anything to make myself fit and feel energetic. But then in April 2015, I became extremely serious, took a well-balanced diet and exercised well and shed off all the baby weight that I had accumulated all these years.

Going solo

I bought a second hand car in May this year and I am proud to say that I own a car now ;)

It's a blue wagon R, my favorite color and it is pretty ok for a beginner like me. I took the car with my dad sitting beside me to a friend's place on one afternoon and my dad was more scared than I was of the traffic. His hand was on the hand brake all the time and he did not spare any chance to pull it in the middle of the road if he thought I was banging onto someone. I told him to relax and that I was in full control and will drive carefully. He didn't seem convinced, a father's heart you see!

Blog Marathon Post 3 - Life without screens!

Yesterday I suddenly decided to not be connected to the wi-fi all the time when I am working at home and it was really a quiet and nice experience. The messages on whatsapp were not popping all the time and the mails landing in the inbox, be it important or not were not bothering me at all. I felt like going back to the early 90’s where the phone was used just to call and message each other and smartphones were not known.

Blog Marathon Post 2 - Beat the heat!?

The Sun god is very angry this summer.

Beginning mid-March he has surpassed his own record of shining and giving heat, at least in the capital of Karnataka, Bangalore. I came to Bangalore in January 2015 and since then this is the first summer which really has broken all the previous records of highest temperatures in an otherwise cool city. Temperature this year has touched 41 degrees where Mumbai is at 31 degrees only.

Blog Marathon Post 1 - Just another day

Our next blog marathon was supposed to start yesterday, from Monday 26.04.2016. My friend John had asked me about it on Friday itself and I had happily agreed without thinking whether I will be able to do it or not. I took my writing skills and my brain for granted. 

Blog Marathon Post 9 - Women's Day Celebrations

8th March is celebrated as International Women's Day. On that day suddenly everybody decides to wish the women around and celebrate womanhood. Companies hold talks and do programs related to the topic of emancipation of women and how the company supports women employees and salutes them for their spirit etc. Nothing against that. They have good intentions. No doubt. Just like there were celebrations all over India, our housing society also decided to host a small program and we all were really looking forward to it as I was going to sing a song in the program.

Blog Marathon Post 8 - Breakfast @ MTR

So as I had mentioned in my previous post, Shreya and I went to meet my old friend cum ex-colleague and my mentor in blogging world, Mr. John. What better place than MTR could it be for our having South-Indian snacks? We headed towards the place on 100ft Road, Indiranager and all the memories of that road flew past my eyes. A and I had spent 4 and a half years in that area and we knew every nook and corner of that area. But now after 5 years, it seemed so different and changed. Anyways, within the next half an hour we all gathered at the restaurant.

Blog Marathon Post 7 - Contours Women's Day Run

As I had written in my earlier post on Pinkathon, the next Run which I was looking forward to was this. Contours women's Day Run® (CWDR®) is an annual event held to raise awareness and help empower the Indian Woman. My neighbour, who participated in the Pinkathon with me had told me about it and we decided to go for it. Unfortunately she had to rush to Vizag for her office work and she couldn't participate. This time my saviour was my petite and ever-ready kid sister, Shreya.

Blog Marathon Post 6 - Yoga - Back to the Basics

After a break of 3 days, I am back to my Blog Marathon.

So this is the post, which I should have posted on Saturday.

I joined Yoga classes after a long time. Two of my close friends in the society joined from beginning of March and I took some time to think whether I should join or not. How will I be able to manage office work and cooking (my cook is on a holiday) and managing my kid’s schedule.

Blog Marathon Post 5 Baccha party

I had invited T’s friends from the daycare and their mothers for tea yesterday. It is a group of 4 kids out of which there are twin brother and sister and another boy who goes to the same school as T does. They came at about 6 pm and were there for 2 hours and the ruckus they created together was beyond my imagination.

Blog Marathon Post 4 - The Getaway

Have you ever gone on a trip alone?!

Yes, alone.! No friends, no relatives and no family.

Just you! Scared at the very thought of it? I am scared too!

Blog Marathon Post 3 - Pinkathon 2016

31^st January 2016 will be forever marked as a golden day in my life. Pinkathon 2016 happened in Bangalore and I ran 5 km for the first time in my life, at the age of 36. I had never done it before and I hadn’t imagined myself running when I returned to India last year.

Blog Marathon Post 2 - The very hungry caterpillar

“The very hungry caterpillar” was introduced to me and T by my host-mother who had come to visit me in Stuttgart to see T for the first time in 2013. I had stayed in her house in 2003 when I had gone to Magdeburg on a scholarship and we still had kept in touch. She gave us a German version of that story “Die kleine Raupe Nimmersatt” written by Eric Carle. T did not understand much then as he was just 13 months old that time, but he got hooked to it once he started going to the daycare there as he was read the story before a nap in the afternoon almost daily.

Blog Marathon Post 1 - Neerja - The shero

I had no clue of who Neerja Bhanot was until I saw the trailer of the movie “Neerja” on television. The heroine whom I hate the most was starring in it. But the movie was looking extremely gripping and I decided to watch it not for anyone else, but the shero, Ms. Neerja Bhanot who died a tragic death while saving passengers on a Pan-Am flight of which she was the chief purser.