Colourful & attractive online stationery sites/brands in India

Do you love fancy stationery? I do! I have purchased a number of beautiful looking notebooks, notepads, journals, planners and so on for the sheer beauty of it, and hardly could make up the heart to even use them, lest I spoil them. If you are like me, today I am giving you information about some of the best Indian websites where you can get enticing stationery at good prices (there are discounts quite often so if you find some expensive, you still have a chance!).

What to expect

• Here, I am covering paper products, mainly in book form, only.
• This blog is NOT sponsored by any of these brands.
• I have tried to put in the efforts of my research in the best and briefest way possible for stationery lovers and I hope you benefit from it. 
• These are purely my personal views. You may think differently and I am open to it!

Doodle Collection

They claim to be elegant, functional and chic, and I couldn't agree more. They offer

• Diaries and notebooks
• Note cards
• Tote bags
• Mugs
• Pens
• Pouches

If you look at their homepage, you see lots of bright colours. So is their stationery - bright, rich and vibrant.

Take a look at their journals and planners, and you will fall in love. Varied hues, right combinations of fonts and shades, plus well planned details. Just like this Doodle mindfulness journal/planner.

What I like

I love their new collection of wiro diaries with elastic band and pen/pencil to complement the beautiful diaries. Do peek in!

Alicia Souza

I got their planner as a birthday gift and I mentioned it in a previous entry that it is mind blowing. This brand also has a lot of interesting products. One section worth mentioning is the PMS collection (Post Mean Streak, not what you think :P). It has cute notecards, which I leave to you to look up to.

They have a collection of

• Badges 
• Magnets
• Mugs
• T shirts
• Dog tags
• Enamel pins
• Luggage tags
• Phone covers
• Decals
• Wall art
• Jotbooks and notebooks  
  

What I like

There is hardly anything to not love about them. I like their wall art (it has some cool lines and graphics) as well as their calenders and planners. They have a limited but lovely variety which I think makes it a breeze to choose.

Type7 design

Sleek and simple design of this website makes it a breeze to browse through. They provide

• Planners
• Notebooks
• Notepads
• Art frames
• Wrapping paper and gift tags 
• Tote bags

What I like

I like the fact that they give an option of buying two or three notebooks of our choice as a bundle at a discounted price. Their wall art comprises of some simple but good quotes.

Nightingale

If you live in India, I am sure you haven't missed hearing about this stationery brand. It has been around since the year 1964 and is one of the first to have great quality and varities of stationery. The first thing that I chanced upon on opening this website is the Bhagvad Gita! Now I am not a fan of religion and gods, but the book itself is an exquisite, enthralling piece of art, and if you are a follower of vedas and upanishads, books of this series are a must have. Do not miss out on a glimpse of the vedic cosmos series. They have Hanuman Chalisa and Yogasutras of Patanjali in addition to Bhagwad Gita.

 In addition to the regular spiral notebooks, writing pads, etc, they have the premium Nightingale collection of

• Spiral lockable notebooks
• Travel book
• Planner
• Sketch Pad
• Rustic top open pad and notebooks
• Slam book
• Visitor & Address books
• Subject notebooks

What I like

They have a contemporary feel and subtlety that appeals to all age groups. To me, it feels like closing some generation gaps :) My favourite would be the Rustic Vintage Notebooks.

Propshop24

This is not exclusively a stationery site. But then why did I include it here? You'll see! They provide

• Journals
• Planners
• Diaries
• Bookmarks and paper clips
• Notepads
• Pens and pencils
• Sticky notes and stickers
• Pouches and folders

I would call some of its products as too cool. Something you won't find easily anywhere else. I will stick to talking about paper products here. Like the Little Black Book or the Kharcha Pani book, which are absolutely creative.

I would suggest using a search option here if you're looking for something specific. But if you like to adore beautiful stationery which you will surely buy someday, you could go on admiring the vast variety of stationery the site has to offer!

I also found Wedding planners, (something that most sites do not commonly offer), magnetic notepads and a Bucket list journal here.

   

 

What I like

You can guess! Everything they have is different and tempting too! I wish I had a wedding planner when I got married :)

Chumbak

Again, this is not primarily a stationery brand, but this blog would be incomplete without the mention of Chumbak, definitely! The typical Indian style, traditional yet modern caricatures and sketches, are bound to impress. 

If you are someone who likes to be ancient and yet progressive, this is your go-to. They have nice motifs & leaf patterns, our favourite Elephants & peacocks, and Garam masala as well as Chai on their covers. You got it! They have 

• Notebooks
• Planners and Organisers
• Greeting cards
• Playing cards (What?)

I am sure you'll like the taste of it just like our adrak wali chai.

What I like

I love all their patterns, colours and designs. Just buy whatever you need!

So here ends our small but fascinating journey. Do tell me how you like it! :)

Take care. 

Today's update

This is going to be more of an update than a blogpost. I am trying to look up resources and learn more about a few things to update my knowledge. I think there is no point talking unless you really have something to talk about or badly want to talk about.

But I will mention that currently, the things that have piqued my interest are brush lettering and of course blogging. I am trying to learn more of these on Udemy and Skillshare. I find these online resources quite interesting and useful. I also discovered that a lot of software content can also be learnt online easily, at throwaway prices or almost for free. The price that you may pay for two Starbucks coffees is worth an entire course online. Yes! So save the money you plan to spend on that branded jeans or shoes for more useful things. I am a frugal being and I am proud about it!

Take care and have a great weekend :) (It's okay you can buy the filter coffee ;))

Evil emotions and loving yourself

I did not plan to put up this post today, nevertheless, here I am :)

I write a lot of poetry, which I used to think is poetry, but turned out it isn't, because a Poem has a proper technical definition whose criteria my poetry does not match and hence it is not poetry but simply free verse.

Got you :D I know, it is evil to bother people like this, but I like to be evil sometimes. Being evil is being human too. If you claim you're all nice, good, sweet, bam! Keep your evil lies to yourself! As humans, we all feel certain emotions at certain points in life. They are not always under our control. And that itself is human. Love, lust, happiness, sorrow, envy, anger, irritation, fear, pain, etc are natural to us. The only difference is we vary in our display of such emotions to others; we control them or at least try to control them.

Why am I talking about this? Well. I just got my finger crushed while closing a door. Since then, all I can think of is the pain. Anything that anyone says is not getting registered in my head. I am getting confused about simple things. I have to skip one finger while typing and the other fingers have to work extra hard. I have stopped trying to be the ultimately brave one and given a break to all my tasks, lest I lash out the pain into anger on someone else who is nowhere responsible for this trouble.

Again, a simple point I learnt from Mel Robbins yesterday. There are times when we are stressed, anxious, we do not know where we are heading. We are worried about our future. We worry about so many other things, and what do we do then? We get more dynamic, speed up all that we are doing, in an attempt to refrain from thinking about the stress causing factor and escape from it. But that's NOT the right way. When in doubt, always SLOW down. Calm down yourself and think what is wrong, why you are feeling a certain way. Try and find a solution to it, and if you cannot, at least see what you can do to reduce the stress to a minimum, accept what you can rather than avoiding it.

From personal experience, I think I tried to ignore or suppress a lot of my feelings, which led me to fall into depression. So I can tell you, never ever do that. I didn't know what were panic attacks until I started getting them and looked up if there is a name to what I am going through! Diverting just a little bit from the topic, I will tell you what is a panic attack, in layman terms. For me, it was extreme levels of stress and anxiety. Even when everything went perfectly fine, I felt stressed and worn out, sad, negative, worried, like the world was coming to an end and there was no meaning to life. I felt doubtful about my existence, that I was a worthless being in this vast universe. In such a state of depression and panic attacks, what saved me was the love for my children, I always knew I need to live for my little children if nothing else. It kept me going for a long time until one fine day when I got a bad panic attack in the middle of the most awaited holiday with my husband and I realised it was not under control anymore and I need a doctor. So much, for killing your feelings and not speaking your mind out. After that, it has been a lot of back and forth with my own self, trying to understand what I really want, why, and how I should go about it, no matter how busy I am and what other  important tasks are at hands. I needed to remember I am important first.

The same holds true for everyone. In your life, you have to make yourself the most important person first. Love yourself. Be kind to yourself. Accept yourself with your flaws! It is NORMAL to be IMPERFECT.

If you are happy, everyone around you will be happy too. But if you make everyone else the centre of your being, it will suffocate you one day. Love your self first. Parents, spouse, children, everyone is important, after you. Make time to do things you love, tell when you don't like something, take time to be alone, talk to yourself and analyse your feelings, pamper yourself, and you will be happy on your own. And so will others around you. Think about it!

Take care :)

My fifty cents - 1

Today is going to be a slightly different blog post from my usual style. I think I will have a series of these posts where I will share some worthy points from notable books/authors/videos in a straight and simple manner, which could be useful to any of us in simple but big ways. It will also help in improving our efficiency, productivity and life skills in general.

The first one in the series I want to mention is the audio book by Mel Robbins called Take Control of your life and although I have not finished it yet, there are small points from the book I wanted to share with you all. I will only cover two points so it is not cumbersome to remember and adapt these.

The first thing I learnt is what is it that stops us from doing things? How many of us have really given this a thought? What stops you from pursuing that small hobby? What stops you from exercising? What stops you from so many little things you want to do but you are not doing? Say, I love to read. I think I want to read everyday. What is stopping me? Sometimes I think I don't have enough time at hand. At times I feel anyway I will not be able to finish a large chunk of it so I end up not doing it at all. More often, I have spent time in mindless browsing of the phone. There are two things happening here. I am thinking a lot of it. And I am afraid at times. Over thinking and fear are two things that stop us from doing a lot of things. I want to write a book but I am afraid I am not well read and qualified enough to write a distinguished book. So what do I do? I do nothing. I live in fear, I want to but I can't. What if I can never do it? What if I cannot write a great book even if I do write?! See where this is going? So how does this help me in anyway?!! What I should be doing rather, is to think of small steps that will take me to my goal. So first, stop overthinking and stop being afraid, which then takes us to the next step. 

Second thing, take your goal not as a one big mountain you ought to climb, but as small lego blocks that will help you build your ultimate structure. Now consider this - I want to write a book, so if I start right away with the given skills, I may fail and be even more demotivated than I already am. So what do I do? Take smaller steps. Read more books. Have a small goal of reading say 40 pages per day, write blogposts everyday or any other written content, say, articles, poetry, and so on, at say 5 per week. This will not make me a classic writer overnight, of course, but it will certainly keep me on track with my goal of writing a book. I would have read at least 20-30 books in a year and written over 240 pages of content, which is good practice to be focused. I might then take up online courses in writing better. Get the point? Divide your goal into smaller chunks that are more practical, understandable and countable. Slowly revise them as you get better and go to higher levels, and getting to your final goal will be a piece of cake. 

I will end the post here, so it's easier for things to sink in :)

I hope this has helped you in some way. If you want me to read any other books which you think my readers would benefit from, do tell me in the comments. I will continue this series as and when I find lessons worth sharing. Till then, take care :)
  

How to kill time

This is a new one for you, na? I know you know about Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Video games (not hamare zamane ke, but newer ones, Game of Thrones types) and so on. I will show you more innovative ways to kill time.

Go to Amazon. No no, don't buy stuff. Just check out things. It could be anything - photo frames or laptops or cleaning brush or storage basket or bean bags. Add whatever you like to your wishlist. Now check the list everyday. Whenever the price of any item drops, it will show you, price decreased by x% since item added. When you think you can finally afford it, buy it. Or you could just continue to dream of buying it someday. I promise you, it is the most efficient way to kill time. I myself have purchased things like this, including my desk, yes!

Now try Kindle app or store or Goodreads, if you are a reader. Check out tons of books. Look at their reviews and ratings. Check out the description. See the price. Think whether you like it. If you like it, is it of any use to you? It is not of any use, but it is very cheap and at a huge discount and has high ratings and good reviews. Never mind, just buy it! This has two benefits, kill time and waste money. Or again, you could just stare at different books and their prices everyday and dream of reading them all someday. Yes, hum honge kamyaab ek din! (We shall overcome someday!)

Now open the Google play store on your android phone or the iOS if you have an iPhone. Check out the new yoga or fitness or dating or planner or self development or gaming or educational or intellectual or stupid apps. Check how much memory they will eat up on your phone. Check if it is free. It has to be, who spends money on phone apps? (You do? Go on, spend, my friend, spend!) Check if it is useful for you. It has high ratings and the right MBs and is free too. But there is a better app but it costs money and more memory. Shut it out of your mind. Save the money! Once I did not save the money, spent Rs 2000 on an app for thyroid and fitness diet, and it gave me quinoa, muesli, flaxseed, cornflakes and toast recipes. I uninstalled it, obviously. You think someone eating roti, curry, rice and curd everyday can survive on these foreign cereals and manage a house and two kids? Oh yes, fitness freaks can! But me, no thank you, I need more energy than yoga bars can provide. I might as well munch on almonds and pistas. Anyway, coming back to the point, so much to explore on Google Play/iOS too.

There is more - Google music, Amazon music, Saavn, Gaana, Wynk, etc. Go to them all, switching between one app to another, checking out 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, music and so on till you're so confused as to what is it that you really want to listen to because you have everything at your fingertips!

Check out YouTube. How to lose belly fat, how to impress your girlfriend, how X got rich in a day, how to make a lantern out of ants (this is a joke, of course.), so on and so forth. Look at all the goals of your life here and promise yourself you will do it all, soon, very soon.

Still got time at hand? This one is going to take the award in time killers. Yes, Netflix, Amazon Prime! Movies, television series, name it and you have it there. One, two, three, four, hours upon hours of killing time, so well that you won't know when your baby peed or cried or even fell off the bed (wake up, my dear, wake up, the baby is wailing and disturbing the neighbours and it is 1 am.)

After all this, if you still have time, my dear friend, just check if you're on earth or in heaven.

Take care!


PS: Do tell me if you enjoy reading my blogs through your comments.

Walk your woes away :)

In order to complete my step count, it is necessary for me to go for a walk everyday, unless for some exceptional reason I have reached my target. Of course, like everyone else you see on the street, I too go with my earphones in my ears, listening to music. There's a nice round street which is strangely quiet and dim lit, with very few vehicles coming in, because the road leads to nowhere! So this has become a sort of my zen.

I enjoy this period of being alone. Although the phone is still with me (the phone is as good as a whole person, because it has taken over our lives in a big way, but I'll leave that for another day!), I use it just to sync with my band and listen to music (I use the Mi fitness tracker, which I think is the cheapest branded fitness band!).

Now coming to the music, I am a fan of purely Hindi Bollywood music. The only other songs I know must be those I learnt in school?! Of course, I do not like all of them. I love tons of songs, but I am horrible at names of actors/movies/directors and so on. So if you ask me which movie was the song Main koi aisa geet gaoon from, I won't know (Sorry Shahrukh, but I do remember seeing your face in that song!). I love the songs from 90s since that was my phase of growing up. Even now I choose to put on Amazon music 90s bollywood and walk, and I simply love it! One of my favourite mixes was that of Ek pal ka jeena and taal. It makes me tap my feet to this day! Of course, there are songs by Shaan, Dance masti mix, Bombay Vikings songs. And the all time favourites

• Pehla nasha
• Humma humma
• Kehna hi kya
• Meri mehbooba
• Dil se
• Chhaiya chhaiya
• Do dil mil rahe hain
• Ho nahi sakta
• Jab koi baat bigad jaye
• Jo haal dil ka...  

You get it, right? Already I feel I am floating in the air with soulful music :)
Nothing peps me up like good music. And if you have good speakers, I might just tap my feet a bit too. I love to dance (alone, please).

So the whole point here is - it's good to be alone. I think everyone needs to be alone for a while and shut out from their routines to be able to think clearly and sort out mental clutter. Now that I try to be more regular with walks, I realise how it makes me feel good, more productive and gives me clarity with my thoughts.

I follow some YouTube channels regularly and I have learnt that to be more efficient and productive, it is better to maintain a planner, or even a plain notebook for that matter and just note down the things you plan to do. Although I have been trying to follow this, I am not doing it as often as I ought to, but I have definitely seen some improvement in terms of task completion in less time.

Writing things down makes you more serious about doing things, even if it is as simple as washing your bike or cleaning your cupboard. There are lots of things you could do with a good planner, which reminds me of a Youtube channel by Salonisrivastava, wherein she has designed a planner herself, but taking a look at it, you could get good ideas as to what and how to put into a planner. Here's the link to it - Saloni's planner

I received a lovely planner as a gift from my sister, which has more of colours and doodles, and if you like such things, you will love Alicia Souza's collection too! I had bought a journal from the same in Bangalore and it was extremely beautiful. Here are a few pictures of the planner:

 
 

Nice, no? :) I have NOT been sponsored by any of the brands/channels mentioned here. I happen to like them, so I am suggesting these. Do take a look and tell me what you think. I am so excited to use my new planner.
(By the way, this planner is a birthday gift that is two months late! ha ha!)

Take care guys, and tell me what you think!

Shop, shop, shop without a stop!

So I am just getting worse each day. Other than binge eating, I am indulging in binge shopping. I have never been an impulsive or compulsive shopper. When one thing comes to mind, I weigh all the pros and cons, necessity, cost, etc and only then make a purchase. Sometimes I used to purchase books impulsively on the Kindle store at discount offers. But that was it. Now I find myself planning a purchase every alternate day, and though some are as cheap as Rs 200, some go up to a few thousands.

I don't know how my husband is tolerating this, but he is <chuckle>. If I were in his place, by now I would be reprimanding him as to what was wrong with him and whether he was out of his senses! But poor guy, he is managing! But then I made a big saving too, so I think I deserve the small indulgences at least. What? Needs some bit of an explanation.

I was planning to buy a laptop, since I intend to write a lot more and it is a pain to type long text on the smartphone. I have a tablet too, but again typing on the screen holding on to a big tablet is also a task. I started researching about the various laptops and the various technical specifications and what I might need. I am an occasional tech freak. When I want to buy a gadget, I will go about finding the lengths and depths of it all. After a lot of study, I decided I need minimum intel core i5 processor, 6 to 8 GB ram, 2.4 GHz processor speed, 1 GB memory, and do on. Now if you do understand, I need to be "up to date". If I buy something, it has to be close to latest, if not latest. And no laptop of such a specification comes below the price of at least Rs 50,000. I didn't want to spend that kind of money. So I kept browsing Amazon, and voila, look what I found!

Now this is a multi device bluetooth keyboard. Sounds confusing, but it is not! Go to Amazon and check out this amazing piece. It is simply

• a basic wireless keyboard
• that runs on two small batteries
• connects to three devices 
• using bluetooth. 

Yes, that is all! The MRP is around Rs 3000 but on Amazon you can find it at about Rs 2100. I know what you are thinking, so where is the i5 processor, 2.4GHz speed and so on? Look, I pondered a lot over it and realised that my current issue is typing, and my tablet has all the necessary applications, so why spend unnecessarily? At the given cost, even if I use this keyboard for two years, it is an investment worth made. And when I really need a laptop, I can always buy it later, after all, technology keeps changing everyday! If I go by this calculation, I have saved at least Rs 48000. So yay!

I am so in love with this thing, it works like a charm! The keyboard, I mean. It can connect to three devices at a time and work simultaneously on each just by turning a small knob. The size, shape, and design is simply beautiful and functional. If any of you need just a typing device, I will strongly recommend this! Plus, it has an inbuilt crevice to hold your tablet and/or phone. So when I am using it, I feel like I am using a highly advanced device, with a touch screen and small keyboard along with being wire free! Yes, no wires! Yippee! You're welcome.

Hmmm so coming back to the shopping spree, I have been shopping for few clothes, and mostly things that will help me in home decor at less cost, or almost nothing. I have purchased some glitter, glue, set of paintbrushes and a big box of acrylic paints (which my kids have been eyeing and I have given them a strict NO to even touching them!). Here you can see what I made of it.

 

I also spent on the flowers/plants you see here. I was absolutely elated to see how it turned out, though not perfect! It gives you a feeling of satisfaction. I have been doing a lot of beautiful and feel good decor DIY attempts. You should try it sometime to know how it feels. Let me know in the comments if you have tried making something just for a look good/feel good decor piece or home decoration. I've done a lot for my desk and I feel a sense of pride everytime I look at it and it makes me feel nice :) This is how it looks:

 A lot for today! If there is anything specific you like to hear from me, let me know in the comments. Take care!

Past Life Regression and some confessions

I went for a past life regression session. Yes!

Now if you're jumping in excitement thinking I am going to reveal some miraculous incidents of my past lives, I'm sorry to disappoint you. Not because I am hiding something from you, but because there really is nothing interesting to share. After gaining some amount of insights into how hypnotherapy works, medically of course, I understood that it varies from person to person. For someone who is very strong headed or always on guard like me, it is difficult to be easily hypnotised and actually reach the subconscious level to find out anything concrete. I did gain one meaningful insight though, that I am a private person, and although I like to meet people and spend time with them, I need quite a bit of "me time" too. Which means I need to be all alone for some time everyday, or my nerves get wrecked. That, my dear, is quite true!

Coming to my steps per day, I haven't been doing well on that front either. I had set a target of 8000 steps and in the past three days I did not go anywhere beyond 6500 steps on an average. I skipped my medicines on two occasions and it caused a severe headache and some backlashing. I am binge eating junk and sugar like I never have in my entire life, not even as a kid! And it is showing in my weight and fitness levels :(

I tried to make up a little bit by catching up with my target steps today. I am also consciously trying to avoid eating junk. I think it is the thyroid and depression? Nothing has made me crave so much for sugar and salt ever! I am not making excuses, no!

So while I was walking today, I spotted an old man carrying a heavy bag. I have seen many old people going about with their chores and doing things that are difficult for them to do at their age. Sometimes I feel I should help, but immediately I step back thinking who knows who they are and what they might be upto? Or they might just get suspicious of me! Remember all the warning signs in TV, radio, airports and trains, be alert, do not trust anyone and so on. Phew. And the Crime Patrol as well as Savdhaan India wagon. Oh my god. Thanks to them, I have lost my peace of mind more than necessary umpteen times, worrying about my young kids.

Look, I am not against being aware. But come on, is it really helping? Watching all this stuff only makes you more and more suspicious and distrustful of everyone around you, friends or family or colleagues or staff, which is a really toxic state to be in. There are also thousands of positive things happening around us but they are not shown, of course because who would be interested. I started reading a book called Factfulness by Hans Rosling and I realised that we are really thinking in a very limited manner. It got me thinking. We always have in mind what the media is telling us, and it is only telling all the negatives that are happening. So what about all the positive things happening in the world? We don't know them all, so of course we are not aware, and we think the world is going towards hell (really, tell me how many times you have thought this? I did!). But IT IS NOT. Go read the book, you'll know what I am talking.

I also believe in destiny and instincts. So if your instinct says you should do something, then you should. No matter how cautious, how aware and prepared we are, destiny also has a role to play, so there is no point being stressed and worried about things out of which 99% are not going to happen. Here I would also like to mention a lovely speaker, B. K. Shivani from Brahmakumaris. Some of these views are very well explained by her. I have become a fan!

A lot of gyan for today! I will be back soon :) Right after that new coconut cookie...

Excited!

Today has been an eventful day, in terms of what I plan to do tomorrow. I would like to keep this a secret for now. But it would be interesting to give a hint.

Sometimes we cannot change certain things consciously how much ever we try, so we need to change things at the subconscious level. There, a big one!

Yes, again, 8000 steps with no extra effort. It makes me feel so gleeful. I have also noticed that I can sleep way better when I have met my walking target! Another bonus to focus on walking, yup! Otherwise, I don't remember when I last slept well without taking any medication. I had almost turned into an insomniac. I wasn't always like this; I used to sleep like a log! I could sleep anytime, in just about any given space, as tiny as half of the side berth of a train (when i was smaller of course. I was kidding you, yes). I used to sleep a lot till I was in my twenties. Then what happened? Thirties took over, simple! (If you're so keen to know, read my book! Not trying to publicise it my dear, but it's really too much to talk about here!)

Anyway, what happens when you turn thirty? At first, you're trying to tell yourself nothing has changed, come on, it's like every other year. One year added to the age, that's all! And slowly reality dawns. You notice few greys here and there. Your skin is not as manageable as it used to be. Your hair is rough. Not in a nice way. You put on a few kilos. Not many, but you did, don't hide! Your flat stomach has a small roll of fat around it. Others still don't notice, but soon they will. Devilish me, you're thinking no? It's perfectly fine. It only means I am right.

You also start thinking of yourself as 'grown up'. Wait, you turned an adult at 18 isn't it? Oh come on, that is the government assumption of grown up. NOW comes the real you to the fore. You're out in the world, seen and faced struggles, crossed a few milestones, experienced a few failures as well as successes, with more knowledge about 'the way the world works.' Of course you will have many more of all of these, but you have most probably seen the toughest and best of them all. You are more prepared and hence feel you are qualified to give advice to those younger to you. Asked or unasked.

Beware, don't go to thirty somethings to even ask for a gift suggestion for your partner/spouse. They will tell you
1. How to choose the right partner
2. How to maintain the relationship
3. How to know if it is working
4. How to know if it is not working
5. How to get out of a bad relationship
6. Anything
7. Everything

You see? Oh what about the gift? You know their choice better na, just think what they like!

So yes, thirties is an awesome stage to be in. Really!

Music, music!

I managed my 8000 steps today! Yippee! :)
Little drops of water make the mighty ocean!

I didn't specially go for a walk today. I enjoy listening to music and zone out myself from the rest of the world while I walk in circles in the nearby lane. Sheer determination and fear of being thought of as crazy keeps me from raising my arms and flailing them and moving my waist in filmy style. So cheesy, no! But when I listen to good music, I always feel like dancing. I like long drives and slow music. Fast walks and peppy music. And so on.

I think music is eternal. It is somehow linked to a lot of memories. For example, kuch kuch hota hai reminds me of my tenth standard when the whole lot went crazy over Shahrukh and Kajol and how Rani's micro minis were the talk of the town! Dil se reminds me of time being still, me sitting doing nothing and simply listening to the soothing tunes over and over again at my dad's place in Bangalore, in lush greenery, or in the car, or at my desk while staring at the neem tree outside the window, where a new bird perched every now and then.

Chikni chameli gets me irritated instantly in any era. So does baby doll, my name is sheela, chaar botal vodka, johny johny, hookah baar, chhote chhote peg laga, pila de deewani.... You know what I mean? Some songs are gems that never lose their shine and you can sing them forever. Like Ek din bik jaayega maati ke mol, jag mein reh jayenge pyare tere bol. Some are mediocre, you don't love them but you don't hate them either. And some just make you puke. Not literally.

Sometimes I think Bollywood has run out of good lyricists. Or good ideas. Or the time to think of good ideas. Whatever it is, they're wasting our time and brain for sure. What? Listening to crap is wasting your brain, alright? In fact, the song from the flop movie Refugee, Panchi nadiyaan was also quite good, if you listened to it carefully, in comparison to all these songs.

I also don't understand the thing with remakes. Why do you need to RE make perfectly fine songs?! And one of them actually has a tagline in the beginning, oh god, one more remix! See the irony? You know you're being stupid, and yet you're so excited about it! Like a pickpocket who has decided to give up stealing, but his hand automatically slips into a pocket when he sees one. Then he also blames the pocket, that it was not supposed to be full of money in the first place to lure him. Well, well!