Life Stories

We were in Kanchipuram to seek blessings at kamakshi temple. We had parked our car in the parking area and headed towards the temple. Although it wasn't too crowded, it took unusually long time for us to get the darshan. After the darshan, we headed towards the parking area. While my husband was taking the car out, there was another car that was being parked in a nearby parking spot. The car was adorned with a route map of the journey. As it was unusual, I stopped by to talk to those strangers to understand what were they up to. I was told they were covering the 12 jyotirlings. While we were talking, I noticed an insta ID marked on the windscreen of the car. They were supposed to be heading towards Tirupati for which we had a brief talk, post which we parted ways. The insta ID passed my mind again today and I thought of looking it up. It came out, the person I met is a famous personality, an entrepreneur and a youtuber.  Any guesses on who the person could be....?? Only insta and G...

After a long wait, my brother finally agreed to get married. The final one from our generation!! The engagement ceremony took place in Delhi with happy faces from both the sides joining the fun and frolic.  My kids' school was ongoing but this was important too. We took a leave and flew to Delhi from Pune. Indigo was caught in an issue related to their staffing model which had badly impacted majority of flights. By the day my flight was scheduled, luckily the issues had resolved and operations were normalised. We reached my brother's place in Gurugram around noon on Thursday. My sister has already arrived with her family the previous day. We all met each other , more for the kids who were meeting after a gap of a few years now. Ma brewed some masala tea for me while we freshened up before settling down for a delicious lunch of kulche chhole. Some of us caught up on some sleep before the mehndi artists arrived.  3 artists took around 3 hours ...

Helping others with a feeling of selflessness gives immense pleasure. I got another chance to visit one of the community learning centers(CLC) managed by our organization. A CLC caters to kids, women and men of different age groups who belong to a community and visit the center after their school/work/household chores. CLC helps them build skills, provides vocational training and also organize fun activities. As a part of CSR, we planned a drawing competition at a center in Yerwada, Pune. We were warmly welcomed by the coordinators and the members of the CLC. With an opening ceremony by one of our leaders explaining the purpose of the drawing competition and the topics for the day, the event started. 30+ kids enthusiastically participated in the event coming up with beautiful drawings. The jury marked the drawings and presented trophies to the winners. The volunteers also distributed goodies to all the kids at the CLC for their participation. The CLC handed over...

He who plants a tree plants a hope. With urbanization and industrialisation the green cover is rapidly disappearing from the surface of mother Earth. I got an amazing and much awaited opportunity to volunteer for a tree plantation drive conducted by my organization. I had just come back from another CSR activity when the nomination form popped up for this tree plantation drive scheduled for 2 days later. I grabbed the opportunity and nominated myself. Confirmation came by mail the next evening. I was super excited on having been selected. Next day morning I reached office on time, the volunteers gathered and we were sent to a location in Khadakwasla. The location was over an hour's drive from our office. CWPRS(Central Water & Power Research Station) officials haad kindly agreed and allowed us to carry out our plantation drive in their housing complex. There was a tent setup for us to be seated where we had an initial welcome note along with tea. Our partners had also joined us ...

Alright!! We're still in Chhatrapati Shambhaji Nagar and the wedding is done. What next?  Being there, hubby suggested we go visit the Ghrishneshwar Jyotirling. My friend and her family joined in too.  It was a 20-min drive. We reached the jyotirling. Phones aren't allowed inside the shrine so we kept them in the car. It wasn't too crowded and we were able to have the darshan in around 15 mins. We went back to the parking. Aunty suggested we drop them at Ellora caves. Looking at the time, it wouldn't have been enough for them to visit the caves. We were planning to go to Shirdi, offered them to join us and they agreed. We took the Samruddhi expressway which was fairly vacant. We reached the parking by 6:15pm (around 1.5 hours). We again left our phones in the car. We reached near the gate, and got uncle aunty seated on a bench. Husband went to get the darshan pass and in the meanwhile me n my friend went to get some tea for all of us. All of us assembled bac...

Friday, 28th Nov was my best buddy's wedding in Chhatrapati Shambhaji Nagar (previously called Aurangabad). The groom is from Karnataka and the bride from Maharashtra.  We are a group of 3 close knit friends who worked together a few years back and that turned us into buddies beyond the workplace.  The 2 of us still work in the same campus(but for different employees) while the third one is based abroad. The friend from abroad showed up on Thursday night for the sangeet function. She was kind enough to make me a part of the celebrations through video call while I was already in an office party. Reaching home from the party and packing my bag, we got on a late night call to discuss the next day. I started my travel at 2am and she went off to sleep. It took us (me n my husband) less than 5 hours to reach out destination. She was still in her dreams when I disrupted her by another phone call to open the door 😂 we were so glad to see each other after such a long time....