Reason to Smile :)

Reason to Smile: I haven't been visiting this page much now-a-days. Not because I don't have reasons but because I haven't got much to share or write about. I had lots on my mind to recuperate. Lots on my self to work on. Lots to think, re-think, re-work and succumb. But being home since many months has surely made me super lazy :P Needless to mention, I have not done anything. Just been keeping my facebook profile active with my outdoor posts, treats, and  many more friendly retreats. That's about it. I have experimented on myself though in the days that can literally get me down - Psychologically. I did feel exhausted too. But I took hold of something that made me get a trip to Pune. The Aga Khan Palace is something that I have always wanted to visit. Heard it was very beautiful and serene, located at the rear end of the city. Very isolated and not so huge that it was, it is truly one of the peaceful places that has been indeed well maintained. The localites don...

Reason to Smile: Some relief and some peace of mind after a long time.  15 th April 2017 All set to define what this so called ‘phase’ is, I am here to write anything and everything that comes to my mind, body, heart and soul. These days all I am advised is to pen down all my thoughts and feelings by those friends who think I write well. They have read those two stories I had written earlier and were also published on akkarbakkar.com Here’s something I would like to present from my desk once again. Not that I was ready for this one but the kind of response I realized I gathered on my latest story (nearly 7200 likes on facebook, more than 100 shares and comments), I thought there is surely no harm in being better on this. Also this seems to be a good space when I literally have all the time in the world for such activities. ‘I don’t want to go home.’ said a very small crying girl inside me. I was totally tired of doing the daily chores of passing each day with a...

Reason to Smile: Holi, the festival of colours to celebrate eternal and divine love is usually spent with family and friends across India. People literally paint you with different colours and one can't deny! This time it fell on an extended weekend so some of us who don't like to play the crazy way decided to push off some place where we remain isolated and no one will then bother us. So a few of us who do not play Holi the dirty way skipped the beat of the occasion and wandered off to Malshej Ghats. Hemant fueled up his car and all of us just jumped off to the evergreen idea of Camping at Malshej. Rohan joined us on his bike ride and that's how our journey began. We literally drove off biding adieu to the city ! What happened next is another level of an event full of surprises again.. We reached Malshej and hunted for the base till late evening. By 7.30 pm we set up our tents and were ready to prepare food. Ritu, Me and Hemant got on to the traditional kitchen with ves...

Reason to Smile: I got to lead a bunch of students from IIT Bombay - 92 of them ! Riders On Rolls - a group by IIT students had organised this camping and this response was from the campus itself. Two big buses, all notorious chaps and we were on the move ! The spot we chose was not the same as other groups and riders go for usually - Arthur Lake. We strecthed ourselves a little ahead about 25 kms and were amazed at the beauty of Samrad Village where the most wonderful trek is popular for - Sandhan Valley. The entire Bhandardhara range, for people who dont know, has a marvellous circumference of Ratangad, Sandhan, Alang-Madan-Kulang Forts, Ghatghar and many small trek points covered around us. I was surely up for a surprise when we located this spot right below Alang Trek ! One could just possibly lift our eyes a bit a see that majestic plateau as if I could stretch my hand and touch its base. Obviously it just looked that close :) The setting up of 35 Tents, distribution of near...

Reason to Smile: One more article on Linkedin that perhaps has been inspiring to many. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lifetime-job-after-retirement-neha-mehta?published=t I met a lady aged 72, lean body, average height, small face with a few teeth outside ready to walk the talk attitude, as strong as a rock. She entered an office me and my friend were a part of. As I stare to notice her more keenly, she unapologetic-ally pulls the chair, sits there confidently as if it was no ones business, looks at us and there is a pause. An awkward silence prevailed. Years later, one of us spoke "Hello Madam. Are you here to meet Niraj?" She gathered all her courage, leaned forward and a soft voice uttered with an extremely bright smile "Yes" We had organized a meeting with her on the partnerships on a business model proposed to her. She had come to discuss terms and commercial aspects. A perfect Gujarati that she was, questioned us on everything that can go wrong and t...

Reason to Smile: It is for the first time with this festival that all the 9 days were under my kitty to take a plunge on. Usually it is not common for people to check out the Kala Ghoda Art Festival that comes every February of the year hosted by the Hindustan Times Media (9 day event- first weekend to the second weekend of Feb) with such huge and long art / event schedules to be attended all days. It is this excitement of being able to attend any show at the right time without having worried about deep pockets and office timings to be met, that I chose to visit Irish House for all the stand up comedy acts by the event. Artists like Anirban Das Gupta on how lazy can people be in Kolkotta, Siddharth Dudeja on how capitalism is the cancer to our society, Abhishek Upamanyu on how he assumed he would be killed by his dad, Sourabh Pant on how he stands by his son for all odds, Kunal Kamra on why he would like to sleep all day, Neville Barucha on who would want to marry him, Jiya Sethi on...

Reason to Smile: One more story I wrote of an episode that changed one life completely !! From my desk: Manas and Roli (name changed) were whatsapp friends. I happen to be common friend between them. I know both of them personally very well and have known their personalities a tad bit better than their school friends or so called close / best friends. I have been with them for around more than a decade now. Thanks to the virtual world of FB and whats app, they both got connected through me. So, this story is about two distinct individuals who had never met before. However, one incident happened and their lives changed for good. They apparently landed up being best of friends after that day ! Roli is in her mid thirties but timid, born and brought up in a typical middle class family, aspires to be a writer and wants to make it big in the industry. Manas, on the other hand, is a simple, decent yet a broadminded man who had no qualms about admitting that he had a bad marriage ea...