Wednesday 19 June 2013

Avatarized!

*Creativity at work place*

I often come up with innovative ideas of wasting time during office hours and boring lectures. This is one such. While the back sides of most of my notebooks are covered with sketches and cartoons of teachers and professors (a habit that I believe I picked up in my kindergarten years), this one is an impromptu attempt to sketch that side of myself which I love the most! :D


Thursday 13 June 2013

Potpourri

Amazing French cheeses, wines, yummy caramel desserts, perfect sunny weather, heavenly landscape, late-night long walks along the shore with friends and guys with that french accent! what not to love about southern France :)

 When we came to Nice last weekend, never did we imagine that we all are in here for a treat. A treat to the eyes. The place, in one word, is heavenly. One needs to be here to believe how amazing it is. It doesn't have specific tourist places, attractions, monuments and alike which one can visit in an hour or two. What make the place so great are its landscape, the beach, the perfect blue water of the Mediterranean and the french cuisine. The first four days have been deadly hectic, working for 20 hours everyday, attending conferences, presenting papers and sleeping only when we realized that the mind cannot work any more and that we could collapse any minute. However, what followed afterwards has so far given us no reason to complain. Of all things that I have loved in Nice, the long walks at night, with the limitless stretch of the sea in front, planes flying over the head and light breeze caressing the face, have triumphed the list. However, I'll remember these days for the rest of my life not mainly because I am having so much fun and that the place is so beautiful but because of the amazing friendships it has helped me to build.

It couldn't have had come at a better time; a time when I was desperately looking to have a friend whom I could talk to, about anything, about happinesses and pains, about concerns and fears. Being a complete social extrovert, I have a huge bunch of friends to go out with, to talk to, to hang out with. But at times these aren't enough. Late at nights, sometimes a rush of memories make the eyes damp, or the heart digs some previous sadness and is saddened yet again, or the pangs are too strong to ignore. It is in moments like these when one longs for someone to keep the mind distracted. I never thought I would feel all these emotions when holidaying, but the heart has ignored me. During the past weeks, life has taken a different turn. Several realizations have hit me bad and have left a dull pain in the throat which just refuses to go. The change in place has perhaps helped in healing the pain to some extent. But what has definitely worked wonders for the mental peace has been these late-night talks with friends about different issues, office gossips, men, food etc. People say talking about completely unrelated stuff takes the mind off the vicious cycle of unhappinesses and gives you motivation to fight back. The pains aren't made less, no solutions are earned; just the heart is fooled into believing that there is life beyond. However, I feel that these not only gives you the strength to not think about difficult times but also establishes friendships that stay for a lifetime :)

So while looking forward to having a lot of nice time, the French way and thereafter the Spanish way; I sit here in a magical place, late into the night, with a fresh sadness of people lost and new happiness of finding people to share moments with and realizing that life, indeed, is the best teacher!