Human Catapult :)

This looks like a whole lot of fun :)

So Let The Travelling Begin...

This year finally after much prodding I got my passport done. I have always wanted to travel to different countries, but could not do it earlier as I did not have enough money saved. Before stepping out of my country to see the world I thought why not check out places in India. Its cheaper, I don't have to bother about visas and I will get to experience the variety of cultures.

So this Christmas my sister and I picked our home state. We have a few friends in Bangalore, Karnataka.So there was a little extra motivation to go there. The last time I went to Bangalore I was in school, so I do not remember much about the city.

We got a really nice Govt. luxury bus, the KSRTC Airavat. The ride was quite comfortable. It was an overnight journey (around 14 hrs) and we touched Bangalore around 10ish in the morning. The moment I stepped out of the bus, I felt I was at home. I have never felt this way for any other city. It was good to hear people speak in Kannada (quite a breather from the usual Marathi in Pune)

I wanted to see the city not as a  tourist, but like a local. We got in touch with our hosts and they agreed to pick us up from a point closer to their home. We took the local bus and enjoyed the ride as it went through all the small lanes and markets. We saw a lot of colleges, churches and MNC's on our way.

We got to spend some quality time with our friends and their kids.Christmas was a quiet one:) We went out for dinner at a well known Steak place. It was worth the 1.5 hrs of travel through the maddening Bangalore traffic.

The next day we took the volvo local bus to meet another good friend. They now lived on the other end of Bangalore. This was the most expensive local bus ticket I have spent in any city (70 bucks for 26 kms). But it was fun and a very comfortable drive :) We got to see some of old Bangalore like MG Road, Brigade Road, Koramangala, etc

One of the things I take back is the visit to the 'Krispy Kreme' outlet. I am not a big fan of doughnuts. But these were heavenly. After the first bite, I turned to my sister and said "Now I have lived". All in all it was a great trip. Refreshing, exciting and a much needed one :)

Turning 30

Wow I never thought this day would come so soon. I officially am done with the twenties. I am happy and sad at the same time. But I guess it is normal to feel that way. The year that went by was unique in quite a few ways. Some of the highlights were:

Experienced that life is frail (during my first surgery)

Blessing of new friends (Nidhi, Tejal, Peter & Yagesh)

God’ protection over me

Experienced betrayal by someone I trusted the most

I am grateful to God for keeping me alive all these years and in faith for 13 years:D. He could have chosen to take my life a long time back. It’s only by His grace that I can go by everyday. I am thankful unto the Lord for saving me from my sins and giving me a new life. To know that when everything comes to an end, one day I will see Him face to face and glorify Him  for eternity :)

Bike Stunts :D

I would be happy just to ride a bicycle :P

Curious Cat ;)

This kinda sums up how I am around gifts :P

Happy Wednesday ;)

 Foresight

They will be sent in magical sonnets that travel through the air.

God is my Strength and Portion Forever

After I hit publish to the previous post I went on to the blogs I read regularly. This post from Pray for Ian encouraged my heart and hoping that you will be too.

 Psalm 73. 

God is my strength and portion forever-A Psalm my Asaph

Truly God is good to Israel,

to those who are pure in heart.

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,

my steps had nearly slipped.

For I was envious of the arrogant

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

For they have no pangs until death;

their bodies are fat and sleek.

They are not in trouble as others are;

they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.

Therefore pride is their necklace;

violence covers them as a garment.

Their eyes swell out through fatness;

their hearts overflow with follies.

They scoff and speak with malice;

loftily they threaten oppression.

They set their mouths against the heavens,

and their tongue struts through the earth.

Therefore his people turn back to them,

and find no fault in them.

And they say, “How can God know?

Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

Behold, these are the wicked;

always at ease, they increase in riches.

All in vain have I kept my heart clean

and washed my hands in innocence.

For all the day long I have been stricken

and rebuked every morning.

If I had said, “I will speak thus,”

I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

But when I thought how to understand this,

it seemed to me a wearisome task,

until I went into the sanctuary of God;

then I discerned their end.

Truly you set them in slippery places;

you make them fall to ruin.

How they are destroyed in a moment,

swept away utterly by terrors!

Like a dream when one awakes,

O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

When my soul was embittered,

when I was pricked in heart,

I was brutish and ignorant;

I was like a beast toward you.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you;

you hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will receive me to glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;

you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.

But for me it is good to be near God;

I have made the Lord God my refuge,

that I may tell of all your works.

Tired

I am tired. Period. For  the last 6 months all I have felt is exhaustion- physical and emotional. So much has happened that I don’t think I have really had the time to comprehend what is goin on. Its like my body is coming to terms now with everything that is going on, and I am beginning to crash. I am  crying at the drop of a hat, getting upset on things that never bothered me before and I want to do is just take my blanket and go back to sleep.

I know this is just a phase and it shall pass soon. Really learning to lean on Christ at this point and keep my focus on Him. To remember He is the perfect High Priest and He can sympathize with my weaknesses. I am grateful for the Spirit within me that helps me to focus on truth even in these difficult days. 

So what makes a good story

The Boring Stuff Makes The Story-Barnabas Piper

What makes a story good? What makes it move? Action, conflict, suspense, character development, plot twists – absolutely, all of the above. And also all the stuff that we can’t see: the mundane, the rote, the grunt work, the daily tasks and habitual actions. A great story isn’t made of people brushing teeth, showering, packing a lunch and heading to work to create pivot tables. World-class novels are not composed of email responses and traffic jams and grocery shopping. But without such things the characters would never get where they needed to go and be who they need to be.

It is the mundane that allows the excitement to happen. Normalcy is the network of bridges which connects the islands of excitement. Without the boring we could never get to the good parts.

And it is the same with our stories. Much has been written about living a good story and about how we are part of a grand narrative. God is the author and we are characters. My story intersects with others to make a massive, intricate, incomprehensible plot line which only an omnipotent author could understand and direct. And so we are encouraged to “live a better story” and to “make the most out of our stories.”

But what is it that makes my story good? Describing a good story in general is easy enough, but when it’s my story it becomes complicated. For some it’s making memories. For others it is strong relationships with God and man. Or it could be acts of nobility and service. Or maybe it’s risk and thrills – living for the “experience.” Likely it is the unique combination of these which leads to peace and happiness for each individual.

An ingredient is missing from that combination, though: all the boring stuff. Without the mundane there are no “experiences” or relationships or nobility. So we must do the commonplace well. Work hard. Excel at details. Invest our minds and energy in our commutes, our cleaning, the forms we fill out, the children we bathe and feed, the meals we prepare, the teeth we brush, and correspondence we send. For, if you look close, this is really the stuff that makes the story good.

The Candy Cartel ;)

Hilarious video:P Happy Friday y'all :D

The Corporate Life

I have been working in the corporate world for more than 3 yrs now. I don’t  know if I can say I totally love it, but I don’t hate it either. Given a chance I would like to go back to the education industry as I love working with students/children ( you kinda always feel young around them;)

As a single person though, I prefer working in the corporate industry as the pay is good and I am able to support myself. Yeah, it does mean long working hours and some days are just absolutely manic. But the paycheck reminds me of why I am slogging the entire month :)

Working in a corporate can have its advantages too. Unlimited supply of coffee :D That is big for me as I am a coffee lover . I know, I know the machine coffee ain’t that great. But when you have worked in a college that is in the middle of nowhere, with no access to good food, let alone coffee, you start appreciating the little things in life :)

 

The other good part are the offsite trips with your team. When any kind of travel and stay is an all expense paid trip, you  just say yes and be happy ;) I have been fortunate enough to go to some good places, which I am grateful unto the Lord for. So as you work you  might also  have some fun on the side:)

Mid week Humour :)

Need a vacation

This year has gone by fast and it had a lot packed in it too. New job-surgery-relationships-passport application-new church and the list goes on... I don't think I really got a break. I know I went to Goa for a few days in September, but I did not get to relax. I am looking forward to the end of this month though. I have blocked leave from  25th -1st Jan and I have taken a couple of days off before :)

Hoping to celebrate my birthday with a friend in Mumbai and then later travel to Bangalore for Christmas. Right now I desperately need a change of place and people. I am literally counting each day. Hoping that this trip would be refreshing and a good start to 2014 :)

Multilingual

Growing up I never liked school. Studying, exams, Math were some of my least favorite things. Something that I would really loathe, was having to learning different languages. English was anyways the first language( I had no issues with English). Hindi being the national language became a compulsory subject ( I was ok with that as well, as i enjoyed Hindi :) The academic rules changed after a few years and they made Marathi as a compulsory third language .This one I struggled with:( 

I did not understand the purpose of learning so many languages at that time (well I did not know about the sovereignty of the Lord ;) Fast forward 20 years in the future. Here I am sitting at church singing songs in English, Hindi and Marathi able to understand what the Lord has done for me in 3 different languages :) I think today was when I thanked the Lord for those times in school :)

Fond Memories :)

Today was one of those days where I am grateful for good friendships. I praise God for keeping them. We went out for lunch today to celebrate my dearest  friend Tanya's birthday. The weather was absolutely perfect, nice and cool, the sun was out only for a little bit. We met at our favorite restaurant that has an outside seating. Even though it was a Saturday, the place was quite empty ( I am glad that it was :) 

There were some good long conversations, with some lovely saxophone playing at the background. The food as usual was great. We decided to do Starbucks post lunch and enjoyed the walk on South Main road in Koregaon Park. I had forgotten how nice and quiet that lane is. 

Coffee at Starbucks is always fun  and there is something about hanging with people who love coffee ;) All in all it was a great day. We did not realize how four hours had just gone by :)

Kal's cartoon :)

I loved this one by Kal from The Economist :)

Nobody will Remember

A humbling article by Stephen Altrogge.

Remember that immensely popular rap song from a few years back that had the lyrics:

This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill

Fifteen percent concentrated power of will

Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain

And a hundred percent reason to remember the name!

That song was everywhere! Football commercials, video games, the radio, movies! And yet, without using Google, can you remember the name of the artist who performed the song? I couldn’t (it was “Fort Minor”). Kind of ironic isn’t it? An entire song devoted to being remembered, and yet no one can remember the artist.

I tend to read a lot of history. I recently finished reading a biography of Truman Capote, who is widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Truman was constantly hobnobbing with famous people – the movers and shakers and news makers of his day. He was friends with movie stars and authors and politicians and socialities. And yet what amazed me as I read the book was that I had only heard of one or two of the big name celebrities.

The reality is, very few people will remember me. This is not some sort of macabre, self-pity, nobody likes me, I’m a loser, gather round for a group hug, kind of statement. It’s simply the truth. Unless I assassinate a world leader (which I don’t plan on doing) or invent a cure for cancer (which I don’t forsee happening) I will simply fade into the mist of history.

Only a few people will remember me. I want to make sure I leave behind the right memories.

But there are a few people who will remember me, and I want to live my life in light of those people who will remember me.

So who is going to remember me?

THE LORD

In Matthew 6:6 Jesus said:

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

In Matthew 6:19 Jesus said:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

In Matthew 10:42 Jesus said:

And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.

These verses, as well as hundreds of others, imply that God will remember every good thing we do in the name of Christ, and will reward us for those things. We will forget many of the good deeds we do in the name of Christ. Other will also forget those good deeds. My grandma, who was one of the most godly, gentle, servant-hearted people I ever knew, got Alzheimer’s late in life and forgot just about everything.

But the Lord will NEVER forget any good work done in his name.

When I stand before the Lord on judgment day, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, he will remember my name. He will remember every good deed and he will reward me for those good deeds. In light of this reality, I want to live with all my might while I yet live. My name will be lost to history, but it will not be lost to the Lord.

MY FAMILY

The only other people who will remember my name after I die will be my family. My grandma died when I was only thirteen years old, but I remember her very clearly. What do I remember? I remember how generous she was with us. I remember how she loved to sing and dance to worship music. I remember how she constantly served my dad and mom. She left a legacy of godliness behind.

Charles Spurgeon said:

It is a blessed thing for some of us that we can look back on a father’s example and a mother’s example with nothing but unalloyed gratitude to God for both. But there are others among you who, in looking back, must say, “I thank God I was delivered from the evil influence to which I was subjected as a child.” Do not let your child ever have to say that of you, but ask for grace that in your own house you may walk with a perfect heart.

I can look back on my mom and dad’s example with unalloyed gratitude to God for both. Were they perfect, flawless parents? Of course not. But they were godly, generous, affectionate, prayerful, and devoted to God’s word. Most people won’t remember them, but I certainly will.

By God’s grace, I want to leave the same legacy behind for my children. I want my children to remember that I pursued and loved Jesus. I want my kids to remember that I delighted in them. I want my kids to remember how much I loved Jen.

Most people will forget me, and that’s okay. But a few people will remember me, and I want to make sure I leave behind the right kind of memories.

Thought for the day

How tourists view India

I have no issues with tourists coming to India and travelling around the country. Its good to visit places and learn about different cultures and know how people live, eat and stay in another part of the world. Something I believe every person should do before visiting any country is a little bit of research. I am not saying that you will come to know all a country has to offer, but at least you will have a fair idea of what to expect.

Most of the people who come to India expect to see poverty – like everywhere. I know India is a developing country and might not be in par with the well developed nations, but that does not mean that we are below the poverty line.They think they might contract some fatal disease the moment they step into the country. If I were to visit a developed nation, for example say the US I could also come down with some illness, and that is could be because of the change of weather, food, water etc.

Something that irks me the most are the photographs they put up online of poor people, slums etc.. Its like every place they visit is down trodden. ( and I am sure every county has its share of homeless people on their streets) Each country has its own shortcomings, but I do know that there are some amazing places that you can visit here, great variety of food you can taste and experience a wonderful blend of different cultures-all in one place.

I am not venting out my frustrations, but just trying to say that India is quite well advanced about a lot of things, its just up to you,as  what you want to take back home. 

Jamie Oliver :)

I love Jamie Oliver's cooking and I love sandwiches.

So I enjoyed watching this video that gave me both :)

The perfect breakfast sandwich