I must come back

Yesterday was Saint Lucia’s independence day. A lot of my friends (people who live in Saint Lucia or people who visited the pretty island like me) had posted the famous ‘Saint Lucia We Love’ music video on their Facebook walls. I have watched it three times, since. Oh! I am so nostalgic and the grey London skies are not helping either.

The video brought back all the memories of the legendary year I spent in Saint Lucia. The bluest of the blue water, Jump up Friday night parties, full moon beach parties, world’s best sunsets, the local fish food and all the amazing friends I made there. Most of them have also left the island and are back to their respective countries and they also miss Saint Lucia a lot! We all keep planning to go there one day and have a reunion. Hopefully, we will. Till then we keep singing – Saint Lucia We love.

I don’t believe in reliving anything that has already happened. I am the kind of person who would only prefer going forward than being at the same place no matter how happy it is. But I wouldn’t mind reliving that one year in Saint Lucia that I spent. It truly was Legen – wait for it – Dairy.

Hopeful, as the video says – But I must come back!

I have a new home

And it’s called London. And it has kept me busy and away from blogging. Although I have started writing about my life in London on another blog and hopefully will be updating that regularly. And would try not to ignore this one too.

Meanwhile, life has been good and very different from what it was since last year. From the sea-facing balcony to a no-balcony house. From 30°C to 10°C (and getting colder) and from beach shorts to overcoats. While London city sometimes overwhelms me, most of the time it fascinates me with its amazing architecture, oodles of history, red buses, mind the gap and lush greenery (I live very close to Hampstead Heath). I really hope to find time and update my London blog as regularly as I should!

Old is Gold

What happens when your $120 new DKNY shoe bites you so hard that you are left with blisters and unhappy feet in the middle of the road?

You quickly find an Old Navy store and pick up $3 flip-flops and strut around the city. Aesthetic or not, they are life-savers.

Happy Independence Day. Sorry I am confused

Today is 15th Aug. When I was in school this used to be my absolute favorite day during the whole academic session. This was one holiday I didn’t mind spending with my classmates and school teachers. I LOVED listening to stories of all the brave men and women who fought endlessly and gave us the gift of INDEPENDENT INDIA. I felt this is the most amazing gift we Indians have got and we must all cherish it. And cherish we did in our own comfort ways!

It’s been a year I have moved out of India and may probably not go back for I don’t know how long. May be as long as the nation from which we gained freedom 65 years ago is fair to us and treats us well.

Today I had one of those particularly lazy days where I preferred to give my body a rest and my mind a lot of work. And I kept thinking if I were born in 1920s how would my life would have been in India. After going through many scenarios like I might have died young while fighting for the freedom or I might have witnessed a lot of freedom struggles and would have narrated those stories to my grandchildren. And suddenly it dawned upon me would I have not tried even once to move out of the country and go abroad may be to UK and study? After all I have read many novels where the protagonists were born in the pre-independence era but they moved to England to finish their higher studies or in pursue of a life away from the tortures and pains.

So what exactly would have been the pains or events i would have tried to run from? This is the list that came to my mind:

1) Rulers: Why should I be ruled by people who do not understand our day to day pains? People who declare that they are they leaders because they know best how to run this country while they know nothing, absolutely nothing about the poverty struck lives of ordinary Indians.

2) No safety for women: Rapes were so common. A woman may dare not go outside without being guarded by men, forget the freedom to think and demand her rights. It’s like telling me in today ‘s era, ‘Hey your country is not independent. So you must be molested if you go to a bar alone and have a few drinks’.

3) Injustice: Innocents were punished for no reasons, while guilty men roamed around freely. Even though it directly didn’t concern me, sometimes it was impossible to get people behind the bars even when you knew they have committed severe crimes. And that’s when people like Sardar Udham Singh and Bhagat Singh and many more came forward and did what they thought was best. And best it was.

4) Corruption: “I would go to the length of giving the whole congress a decent burial, rather than put up with the corruption that is rampant.” — Mahatma Gandhi May 1939
This was the outburst of Mahatma Gandhi against rampant corruption in Congress ministries formed under 1935 Act in six states in the year 1937. 
So India was a corrupted country! Taking bribes from people because they were illiterate and didn’t know better had begun to
foster among Congress minsters.

I think it’s understandable why I wouldn’t have preferred to live in such conditions. But hey these were pre-independent scenarios and now it’s been 65 years we got independence….oh wait!

Dead friends on Facebook

Do you delete the friends who are not alive anymore from your friend-list on Facebook? Or do you just let them stay? And even if you delete, do you feel bad about it?

I have deleted innumerable people from my friend-list. Oh yes! I am very big on that. Piss me off, don’t keep in touch with me, FB stalk me always but don’t care to say a hi – oh please don’t stay on my list anymore! In fact now I have found a new thing – I block them straight away, so they wouldn’t know I am on Facebook and ultimately wouldn’t know I deleted them.

Okay back to the main topic, I have a friend who died last year of a health condition, very young chap, but not a very close friend. I almost deleted him thrice last year (a guilt overcame me always and I just couldn’t) and finally deleted him today! May his soul rest in peace.

Does Meditation/Visualization make you feel restless?

Sometime it does to me. Sometimes instead of having a calming effect it leaves me wanting for something more. Sometimes, I don’t feel like coming back from where the meditation/visualization took me. Is it absurd?

I guess that’s when gratitude comes in the picture. Now now, I am absolutely grateful for the life I am living. I have no complaints whatsoever! This was after all just a dream few years ago and I am living it now. And I am the kind of a person who would find happiness in ‘most of the conditions’ rather than complaining.

But sometimes when I visualize something that I don’t already have – in order to attract it in my life, I become restless – may be because of the fact that I don’t have it already (or all)

Fortunately it doesn’t happen always. More often than not, I feel VERY GOOD after a good meditation session. I usually listen to the free-guided meditations available on internet. My favourite websites are: Fragrant Heart and Mind Power I have been doing it from the last two months and now I can visualize better, concentrate better.

But it’s those few times, which leave me wondering if I am doing it right? Or is it natural? Or is it a phase, which will go as I practice meditation everyday? I know I will get the answers one day. Till then

Keep Calm and Meditate

Today….

I woke up with big to-do list flashing on my phone. Almost 10 emails to be replied to, meditation, gym, cleaning, few phone calls.. well like a usual day!

But today I decided not to do things the usual way.

After all, I live in a paradise, people come here from all over the world to take a dip in the crystal clear water that is found on the beaches of this beautiful island. And what am I doing? Day in and day out waking up to a to-do list and finishing the chores, admiring the lovely view from my balcony and feeling grateful about the most beautiful place I live in. What about going out and playing?

Well, it’s not that I do not go to these lovely beaches, but of-late people around me have got busier. Girlfriends are busy with their studies, hubby is deep immersed in work and well I have been busy too.

And so before I left for the gym, I quickly replied to the 5 emails (the ones which had to go with attachments) finished a phone call, did the dishes. And in my gym bag I also packed a bikini, towel, a book, and a brand new kaftan cover-up which had been lying in my closet for a month now

After I worked out I didn’t go to the bus-stop to catch a bus that would take me home. Instead I took a shower at the gym, donned my bikini and with a huge smile put the kaftan and straight went to my favorite road-side French bakery and had a delightful breakfast. I replied to the rest of the e-mails. Finished another phone-call and marched towards the world-famous beaches

The sun was shining, the water was inviting and the beach was empty. It is off-season, so I had the whole place to myself. I got myself a chair with an umbrella. For the next 3 hours I swam, sun-bathed, read, and repeated. It was pure bliss!

The beach to myself.

Pangs of hunger finally made me move from there to a local food-joint. I ordered a meal and was asked by few locals seated on the next table to join them, which I did.

There was a woman smoking a joint and a local drug dealer who gives her the supply, he also doubles up as her driver. The woman worked in London Stock Exchange for 20 years. She had been coming to Saint Lucia very often in the last twenty years, her honeymoon being the first trip. Sadly, the marriage didn’t work out but the love for St. Lucia stayed.

She saved up enough money to buy a house in Lucia and is having a ball here. She has in fact found someone here and they were getting engaged that night. She suffers from multiple sclerosis but her will to make the most of this life amazed me.

A local (rastafari) jewelry maker joined us. He was wearing beautiful golden beads in his braided hair, and in fact gave me few too, which I wore immediately in my hair, which got me a lot of compliments.

After wining, dining and few hearty chats that you do with strangers, I said bye to my new friends and returned home.

I felt good. It was a beautiful day. I plan to make such days more often. After all, you live in a paradise only once.

A book and a beach. What an ideal life!