Summer vacation!

Finally!! Finally!! Finallyyyyy!! A vacation for me!!

It's been a long time since I have holidayed elsewhere with my family (almost more than 3 years) and now the golden moment has arrived! A much anticipated and well deserved vacation is on the cards and I am so so so very excited that I will finally be going to a place that I have never been before! There are many places though, where I have never put my foot in, but this one is different....it's a gorgeous place, but I won't tell the name of the place now. 

This is the first time I have done shopping for such a travel...and I'm going to put up the entire process of excitement and madness I have been through to prepare myself!!

I will be travelling with my mum and this trip means a lot to both of us :)

The amazing place mentioned above isn't really chilly if u ask me, mostly dry and hot, very very hot during the daytime. And it has a beach *wink* and it's amazingly glittery at night!
So these are the few options I am planning to bag in.

To be Continued...

Moments

                  They say that when you are breathing your last, when your brain is about to shut down for ever, when the last few moments are comparable to the pinch of sand, each breath you take is that one speck that slips through the hole only to perish in the vast heap at the bottom of the hour glass, you can see your entire life flashing before your eyes. You get to weigh your past deeds and rationalize your needs, which you had no time to do when you actually had the time to live. Your mind travels back to the hazy memories of children running about laughing, a swing in motion and a happy lady whom you recognize as your wife calling out to you for your turn to play with your daughter for she has work in the kitchen to attend. You have totally blocked the truth, that you leg is crushed under the weight of metal and a moving tire scathing your jaw, out of your head at this moment.

                  This is the moment to remember those who had loved you, who you had loved, whom and what all you had left to be with the person you loved. There was nothing I could not afford with the money I had earned throughout my life, but I can't take the money with me to the place I was heading for and I can't trade it to get back those moments that I have left behind or have missed. The incoherent whispering and the sound of siren disrupts my reminiscence momentarily, my body feels tad bit lighter and strong grips around my shoulder and legs. But soon enough I am transported to the time my little daughter Susanna was tugging at my shirt sleeve and was cooing to me to stay back. I was too rakish to realise that touch of innocence, too foolish not to listen to the words of my angel. My excuse? A very lame one. I was under the spell of a seductress half my age, who literally sucked away my conscience and reduced me to the title of sugar daddy who was providing her with all the candies she needed to make it to the top of the society. Hazel with her sparkly blonde head, sun kissed shimmery skin and pink pouty poison mouth spelt trouble the very first day she had stepped into the office. She had me wrapped around her finger soon enough and I was completely out of my mind!! I was being stupid to let my guard down like that, foolish to think I could be young again by rubbing shoulders with this bloke. Misty was hysteric the day she got hold of the accounts of my affair. What I thought was over-reaction coming from a person who stayed out late and travelled a lot because of work now seems so legit for she was the person who had given up everything to be with me.

                 I can see that day I met Misty at the beach bar when we were in our twenties. She was there with a bunch of gal friends and I used to work part time as an assistant to my elder brother who was a bartender in the same bar. The beach bar Summer Colorado was an amazing place which had housed many amazing love stories. Infact my brother had met most of his girlfriends in here with whom he claimed to have numerous adventures. The bar had functioned only during the summer season and most of the clienteles were female. So the day job was serving beverages and flirting away till the ladies shimmied their drunk selves or were carried (read: groped) by their male counterparts out of the place. There's this red head that stood out amongst the crowd that day. She had refused to drink and had blocked out numerous advances from the wolves flocking around her. She looked sad but it was apparent that she did not need any rescuing. She looked waif pretty and different from her gang of girls who were flaunting shoulder pads and outlandish hairdos. She was dressed in a simple forest green dress with her wavy locks cascading over her right shoulder. Now that was my moment of experiencing ethereal beauty! I had only talked to her once that day when she had asked me the directions to the washroom to which I had replied that it was better for her to hold it back and let it out in her own house or at any friend's place. She had flung me a quizzical expression which froze me before I could tell her that a girl like her should not step in to the washroom of this bar, given the fact that it's common for both men and women and she did not seem to be the "hello sailor" type. She took off in another direction and I had just realised the magnitude of stupidity in my free advice. Little did I know that being stupid that time would earn me her gratitude and later her trust. She started frequenting the club and we got closer until it was the end of the season and the time to pull down the shutters of the bar had arrived.

                I was still unaware of her surname Pettrisue, a legacy of shipping magnates! And I Pete Delevan was just an honors student who was paying off his college fees with the extra money he had earned from doing odd jobs here and there. But Misty and I knew that we wanted to be together. She had to go against her parents and had to leave behind everything so that she could be with me. We got married at a local church and I was still unemployed. But I was determined to leave behind the callous carefree days and place myself in the hands of hardship so that my wife would never turn her back towards me and say that she can't live like this. And eventually I had made it to the top, I became the prestigious owner of the chain of Delevigne Hotels. Misty gave birth to our lovely daughter Susanna. But since I was busy and out for work most of the time, she grew lonelier by the minute until she used her arts degree and her parents contacts to get the job of an art consultant. Her job requires a lot of travelling and staying out late, similar to mine, but she works hard while I was busy doing something else. We made a lot of money and we had everything that we wished to possess. But I had missed out on my daughter's birthday and my wedding anniversary quite a number of times. It was all forgiven though since both of us knew what we had been through to make everything work. 

                 Misty was inconsolable the day she found out about my short trips with my assistant Hazel to one of the hotels. The path I had taken was forbidden and dangerous but I still do not understand why I could not think rationally then as I am doing now. Is this how the final moments of a dying person is supposed to be? Is this the time when you judge yourself and repent cause you there's nothing you can do? How easily I could have said no to that witch and had saved my marriage, I could have been with Misty and Susanna now. If only I had listened to my daughter today and had not packed my things to move in with that witch. None of these things would have taken place. I can't even recognise these people swarming around me, where is Misty? Where is my daughter? .....

Things we do

We think a lot before doing something cause common sense is no longer common and intuitive power has hit the pause button as an effect of repetitive collision with bad experiences. But still at times we won't do what we should have and we will fight tooth and nail to stick to our decision under the pretext of "it was the right thing to do". 

We eat, pray and love. We eat up our cash credits, bank balances and our true emotions at times. We pray for a day when we don't have to sit face to face with the worry that the tax collector and our bills give. We love to point fingers at others when we are in deep shit, we love escaping from our worries and responsibilities of a true citizen and we most certainly love to attach ourselves to things that we truly can't claim as ours. We die a little everyday as time passes by.  So, we eat, pray and love in order to survive the next few hours. 

We make resolutions to study harder, eat less, spend less, quit smoking, be less sad, etc. But most of the time we fail to live by our commitments. It happens naturally to us cause we are hopeless.

We get attracted, we propose and we make love. Somewhere, sometime, Romance sheds a drop of tear.

Internship mean reds..

"Holly Golightly: You know those days when you get the mean reds? 

Paul Varjak: The mean reds, you mean like the blues? 

Holly Golightly: No. The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling? 

Paul Varjak: Sure. 

Holly Golightly: Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. "-Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard, Breakfast at Tiffany's

I really don't want to talk about me rubbing shoulders with knowledge in this particular piece, it's the other thing apart from knowledge that people would find themselves in. Learning is a pretty common thing now, cause no matter what you do, you are learning about something or the other. This on the other hand is my take on the experience I had during the internship.

THE PLACE: We don't have Tiffany's here in Kolkata, the place I am from and where I chose to do my internship. But weekly Barista cafe rut and my bedroom had played a huge role in keeping me sane throughout the training period. The 5 months of professional vaudeville (I wanted to write freak-show, but that will make it sound silly and not sad) has changed me but in a good way. At Least I know what I want to do with my life, now and in future. But I definitely don't want to be like the employees of the office I was working in. The name of the firm I had worked in is Agrawal and Agrawal Architects and Mr. JP Agrawal is the Director. The building was a massive structure consisting of 5 floors and the staff (also the boss) expected each one of us to make use of the stairs and not the lift, even if it were to ask for a pen from the HR or to consult any senior/staff who were stationed at different LEVELS of the building. However the best part of that Building "Worship House" was its front facade and the intricate interior details. It was all straight out of a Karan Johar film scene! The firm has the tag of being "the biggest architectural firm of East India" and spatially speaking, it really is! The environment of the office was definitely welcoming and it gave out vibes of peace and a certain "work is worship" feel. But when there's a rot in the system, it will bring the entire thing down. In my case, it was a terrible encounter with strictness and rigidity. Like I had mentioned that Worship House was all about "work is worship", it clearly didn't leave any gap for recreation. I could see my entire day planned out in-front of me, for the 20 weeks. There's nothing to plan as such, it was all in repeat mode which went like this: wake up around 8 am, bathe, eat, reach office by 10 am, work , have lunch (lunch hours being 1.30 pm-2.15 pm), work, stay back till 8.30 and do some more work, reach home around 9.30 pm, have dinner and then get tucked in bed by 12.30 am. The office hours were: 10.15 am to 6.15 pm, but it was a sin even if one had wished to leave around 7 pm. My senior would often ask me "Why are you leaving so early? Where will you go? Are you supposed to dress up that way just to visit a doc or are you going somewhere else?" 

THE PEOPLE: The director had clearly stated on the very first day of the training that though the official work hours were till 6.15,no one left the office before 7 and if somehow you could manage to stay till 8.30 you will earn extra points! Now that came as a shock to me, I wasn't rooting for this! But later I was even more shocked at my capability to do so. The first 3 months were nerve wracking.

In the month of June when I had joined, there were some 120+ employees, the people body being divided into: Directors,  senior Architects, junior Architects, Architect assistants and interns. And of-course the body of people who made sure the building is not falling apart hygiene-wise or whatsoever. And them there was this HR who was taking his post too seriously as days went by and now works at some security office. No matter how straight that classification and hierarchy looked, oh boy was it all messed up from within! The draftsmen were the true heroes cause apparently they had more knowledge regarding construction and its various phases than the architects. The architect was way smarter than those senior and directorial post holders. The interns were there just for the crushing, trust me crushing a person emotionally, physically and mentally is their favorite time-pass. My senior is is an amusing psychotic creature. She is diabolical, bitchy and neurotic. Figuring her out was like catching an anaconda by its tail and not the mouth where you are actually supposed to hold it. That's right I got bitten most of the time. God I so wished I could catch her by her throat! As frustrating as it was, I found myself been flung at not just one psycho bitch but two of them, only the other one was her bf, senior and equally irritating. Survival was my only hope, else the very threat of been given the boot was dangling by a thin thread over my head. Towards the end I was more than just happy to have lived through the torture. But somehow for some reason I have found myself in the office running errands and doing chillar work for free even when my internship was over. 

But I would be unfair to certain people worth mention without whom I couldn't have gathered the strength to carry one. 

The person who tops the list is a certain senior of my college who had been the agony aunt to all my woes, sorrows and binge breakouts. He had worked in the office for a week prior to my joining and somewhat had a notion of those who spelt trouble. He had even warned me about them but hell shit as my fate, I was handed over to the forbidden bunch. Which was why I had always looked up-to him whenever I was in trouble or emotional outrun. Then there were my fellow interns with whom I have some pretty wonderful memories both inside and outside the office premises. Lunch break was the time when I would channel all my energy towards venting out my frustration and anger or bitch a word or two about my seniors. Trust me when I say that those were the best parts.

 However there's nothing I would trade to bring back that time of my life, cause I am just as happy when it's all over. But yeah bugging my college senior is something I would never stop doing, be it internship woes or work related queries. 

i will try to fix you...

Nope this one's not a Roshni original, it's a song from one of the albums of the band Coldplay and no doubt this one's special...I took my time out to share the wonderful lyrics, something which I wanna say out to those who matter, keeping behind everything.



                                                         "Fix You"

When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

And high up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
But if you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
And I...

Tears stream down your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face
And I...

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Seasons In The Sun

This post has been made as a part of the IndiBlogger The Lakme Diva Blogger Contest. http://www.facebook.com/ilovelakme




Nothing could have made the fresh yellow tinted walls of my apartment brighter and sunnier other than the summer sun. And that somehow manages to wake me up every morning from the deep slumber and the previous days tediousness. That's one good thing about summer time, inspite of all the sweltering  heat, humidity, scorch...every morning seems to be a new day, a bright beginning and a hint that path we are heading will be lit forever. That's how we get to mentally prepare ourselves, but the body needs to be taken care of. For example, no matter how much of romping about I will be doing under the sun, my day should start with Lakme Sun Expert skin lightening Facewash, followed my Sun Expert Moisturizer and Gel. This is one consumer brand, my skin is comfortable with and it really makes my summer more enjoyable.

I am basically a B.Arch student studying in Vijayawada, AP. And summer is the time, where you can no longer survive or work in the extreme climatic conditions of Andhra Pradesh. So we get a 2 month summer leave after our semester exams get over and this vacation, like all the other previous ones, is gonna be FUNtastic for me. Waking up in such a bright room during summer has its plus points, the heat won't let you feel numb or drowsy and the bright indoors tickle your brain with the thought that it would be a shame if I don't get to utilize this beautiful day by staying all day in. And then, after freshening up, the thing that hits the brain is planning out all the stuff I should be doing in order to make my day fruitful and you know, make my life sunnier! (I know it sounds cliched, but that's how summer is for me).

 So I get to have old friend meet ups, lemon soda, ice cream, salon, shopping, whopping on the java, movies, luncheon, tea parties, evening walks, pani puri etc etc and finally when I am back to my own place, the body is all worn out, tired but the face and the pupils never cease to smile. It's not only how I am living my life this way, my friends are always there and guess what...the fun continues as they all come over to my place for the slumber party, which is only the better half of the funfilled day. Giving each other face massages, manicures, late night talks, movies, popcorn...and so on.

 There are certain days when people will be busy-busy with other works, but that has never affected my regular rut of outings! I will be out on my own, with my tote and umbrella! Now hitting the roadside shops, bookstores, libraries and crafts mela is an awesome way of passing time to me. You must be wondering that how on earth I am so jobless??? Well I am not, get into architecture and you will know it. A 2 months vacation of nothing doing is essential for all those studying B.Arch!!! Then there's all the crazy outings me and my friends people get to do like one day trip to river bank resorts, beach, amusement cum water theme parks, all of which makes the summer super enjoyable and super duper exciting!! But its always the same thing back home, a routine of face massage and water drinking and tan removal remedy! Thanks to Lakme, I never had to worry much about my skin on that front! :) 

My Job Sucks

sigh. beep. hmmm....

Waiting is futile. And hoping is getting on my nerves nowadays.

Gotta start preparing for tomorrows presentation. Another 2 hours of decision making and the rest of the night to be spent on compiling all the photo snippets.
Ah great! Now the coffee mug is also missing! How on earth am I supposed to stay up without the java!
Eileen! EILEEN! A petite girl, in her twenties makes her appearance inside the room.
What now?
Have you seen my coffee mug?
It's with you all the time! You had have your evening beverage in it a few hours back. It must be somewhere inside this shithole, Maddy.
Never mind, I have found it, you can go off.
Eileen twists her mouth and positions her hands over her hips. Oh no, not another round of boring lectures!!!

Hi, I am Madeline G. Polter. Age 25, female and working as an assistant editor for the famous fashion magazine Boho Touch alongside Eileen Mitchell, my roommate and coworker. We both work under Samuel Peterson, editor of the Bohemian Touch magazine. I am actually new to this place, since it had only been a month, I had started out as an assistant editor for BT, but not a newbie in my job cause I had worked for many more prestigious magazines before this. Being an assistant editor for a fashion magazine in your twenties...what more can a girl ask for? But that's just an emblazoned title, the work is not at all as glittery as it  seems. Moreover it sucks! This magazine? Is just a year old and is having enough problems with the funds.As for me, I didn't have to apply for my post at all. Moreover it was Mr P, who had happened to know about me, through a friend of his daughter, came begging to ask me to take up the job. And I had been such a fool to fall for his kind childlike eyes and roundish face! He has features similar to that of my own dad, whom I have only seen in photos. I had thought or rather hoped that maybe their is a certain connection, which got intensified when Mr. P told that I resembled a lot, feature-wise, like his his own daughter!! I was just 20 who was given an offer for asstnt. Editor and a hope that I may somehow track down a long lost family member, that being my own dad. I fell for it and viola I landed up somehow in some shithole apartment in Lower East-side New York. It had been only a week since I had moved in with Eileen in her apartment which is way better than the previous one, but still as shitty. Rather it was kind of her to let me in. She had wanted to share it with someone who would a) pay half the rent b) not bore her  c) be ready to get bored with her own lectures and d) be a perfect roommate material (!!!) However one thing was pretty clear, the fact that symbiosis existed between the 3 of us, i.e my colleague, boss and me. They both needed me and I needed them too, in order to survive in this city. I wasn't brought up in New York, moreover my entire lineage had nothing to do with this place, or the country! But after schooling and all, I had given some serious thoughts regarding my future and had finally realized that this editorial world is where I totally belong in. Not exactly editorial, sarcastically saying journalism. After having graduated from some college with a degree in English Hons. I had managed to bag up quite a few exciting jobs in magazines n newspaper (read famous ones), but here's the catch: I could not possibly be rooted to one place, one blessed job. I was constantly on the move, sometimes the area or the city or even the country!! But it had all added up in my resume. And I must admit, my position at work place keeps getting better with the newer jobs I get myself into. So to be totally honest, that is exactly what keeps me going, rather hopping from one office to the other. But this time, there is one huge blip, the magazine that hired me is a big failure and by the time I had come to know about it, it was quite late. The office was situated in New York and I was offered a good enough post; now that was a major sell off!!!!! I didn't care to check about the popularity statistics in the publishing market, such an idiot I was!! But my boss Mr. P is ever so hopeful about the "upliftment" in quality, now that I was here. Not to mention a word about my salary and had it not been for Eileen and the sharing of rent, I would have been literally homeless. Mr. P says that once everything is set, the debts are cleared, there will be a high rise in salary. In other words, I had a boss, an office of 15 workers, and the bank looking at me and waiting for the so called "change in the trend that sets everything straight". The job was hectic and depressing cause nothing seemed to work right. I mean fashion?? Firstly copying and analyzing the style and trend of the season's latest by Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire etc etc is not what one can produce in your next issue!!! Secondly none of the workers, excepting Allen and Peter (they had previously worked in a salon!!) were remotely associated with fashion, including me. And finally Mr. P, the boss was doing it all cause his daughter (as I have been told by Eileen) is a big fashion fanatic and wishes to run her own Big Fashion League in New York and plans to take over the mag after it emerges out clean from the mess it is in. God the Kid is only 18, she should be attending Jon Bon Jovi or an Aerosmith concert somewhere instead of wasting her time thinking about taking over her dad's position. No wonder back in my hometown, we used to label any American passing by, crazy Yorker. So back to where I was, my job that is. Its not a 9 to 5 job as anyone would expect a normal one to be. It starts from 6 and may lead up to 10 to 10.30 (in the office itself) and there is always work to be done even when we are back to our apartments. That may take up the entire night at times and the main reason behind this is the less number of workers, the low popularity, low pay and the debts. So that again comes back to Mr. P and his faith in me to help them get rid of the situation. You see how tied up I am to this job now??? And the worst part is, I have no clue where to start and if by any chance if I am able to get the system to start, I have no idea regarding how to keep it going. Now for the other part of the story. The connection between my estranged dad and Mr. P. I was 6 when I was told that I don't have a dad when I had asked my mum about him. I used to see the dads of other kids in my school coming to pick them up when the classes were over. And I was 16 when I got to know that I have a dad, who is no longer staying with us and is possibly living in some other part of this world. I had accidentally stumbled across some photos and when I had showed it to my aunt, she had slipped it outta her mouth. Well you see, here's the glitch, when I had first seen Mr. P, the first thought that hit my head was the resemblance his face had with that of my dad in the photo. I keep the photo with me all the time though. And when Mr. P was making the offer, or rather getting desperate ti hire me for the post...I simply couldn't say no. A part of me was saying to turn the offer down cause the job requirements didn't somewhat go with my resume, but a bigger and better portion of me was wanting to take up the offer cause a) it's New York b) assistant editor!! c) there might be a chance this guy is actually my runaway dad. And I simply couldn't say no to him. Which brings me to the present condition where I have a magazine to look after, a parent to track down and settle up things with both. And once I am done with this, I am seriously running away from this place. So in the end, I always manage to find myself a reason to put up with all the trouble and when it's over, to move on in life.  I gotta go back to my work now, it's just one of those endless night-outs and java gulping and the arranging of papers, photos and presentations. Thanks anyway for stopping by and listening to my stupid work story. I hope your's is not as bad and even if it is, I have nothing else to do other than wishing you good luck.