Explorer of Experiences

If you've read my piece called 'Mumbai's Training Glory', you'll better understand where I'm coming from. I wrote this is in August of 2011. My wrath with Mumbai continued, and I wrote on about it but this time I  thought it would be interesting to chronicle my average day for my readers. So go on, read it...your time starts now! That life in Mumbai is a struggle, is probably something you’ve heard way too often. Well it is true, oh so true. But mind you, I’m only part complaining. It’s bad, but you do feel a sense of pride at the end of the day for having lived through it. The city makes you hard. The city makes you strong. The city makes you a survivor. But this is not just another write up of my life in Mumbai. This is the story of my daily travails of getting to work from home and back each day. And I promise, each journey has been nothing short of eventful, to say the least! From my home to the gate is a 7 minute walk. I then cross the road an

I wrote this post a year into my transition in Mumbai (circa September 2010). My tryst with trains in the city continued till June 2013. I have since left Mumbai and looking back at this post, I pity my past self. Haha! If you have no stories to share from myriad train journeys in Mumbai then, I dare-say, your tryst with this city is incomplete. There is no evading those trains and also no denying their inevitability. Whether running at leopard-speed or crawling at snail-speed on the rat and litter-infested tracks, trains truly are and as popular parlance would have it, the ‘lifelines of Mumbai’. Long distance road travel in this busy and over-populated city is frustrating and utterly time-hogging, leaving the host of commuters with a rather sensible, economical, quick and preferable option of train travel. Sit in a train compartment and you will quickly notice how welcoming this mode of transport is to people across different strata of society. Affluent and chicly-dressed

I wrote this post on 6th May 2010...it was my first year in Mumbai on my return from Melbourne, a time when everyone was still learning to live in a post-MJ world. On the sunny Australian morning of June 25th, 2009, this is what I remember waking up to - "Oh no no oh nooo...Michael Jackson's dead!" The hyper, high-pitched voice of my housemate travelled through the air, journeyed past my thick wooden bedroom door and sailed its way into my ears. Slightly peeved that my slumber was untimely disturbed, my tired brain cells tried to process what her squealing was all about but I soon gave up the trouble. So, while the other dwellers of the house on Mincha Street began their morning rituals of fixing up a diet breakfast or drafting the day's to-do-list, I went about mine by logging into Facebook. I was stunned. Mourning Facebook-ers bombarded my entire news feed with "R.I.P. Michael Jackson :'(" status updates. Suddenly the Man that created history

(This post was written by me and published on my Facebook page when I created my Twitter handle back in May 2010 . I like a million others was curious as a cat to discover Twitterverse. With this poem, I quite like how what I had in my mind  translated into words . Enjoy reading and if you will, follow me on @HanishaLalwani.) *Tweet! Tweet!* Who is it?  A little blue bird, 'Twitter' is what you call it!   I'm spreading my wings and flying with it...  For those out of it, are sadly missing out on it!  Once I'm on it there's no fighting it,  He's on it, she's on it, even it's on it...  And if you're not yet on it,  Then you must be quite a twit!  Celebs tweet randomness on it,  Crazy fans are lovin’ every bit of it...  The media is spying all over it,  Tharoor and Modi fell in a soup ‘cause of it!  Corporates are spending millions on it,  Students and teachers are debating over it...  Inside the studio,

So, I wrote this 'Note' on Facebook back in April 2010 , when Blackberry was cool. Funny, how I look back on my notes and the world seems to have changed so much. For us and for one unfortunate company called 'Blackberry'.  17th January. My birthday. I held in my hands my first ever surprise gift sent by my beloved parents. Courtesy a 'slip-of-the-tongue' episode with my excited father, I already knew what lay inside the box. So, lacking the eagerness one usually displays in the process of unwrapping presents, I casually opened the box to reveal a Blackberry! It was THE Blackberry only the entire world was quickly becoming obsessed with! Beautiful and black, my new phone rested beside me as I sighed and wondered what I am going to do with it. Before you think how crazy that just sounded, let me explain. The world consists of two kinds of people - the 'technologically sophisticated' and the 'technologically challenged'. I belong to th

(This was something I wrote on 29th November 2010, way back when posting 'Notes' on Facebook was my preferred writing outlet over blogging...obviously, things have changed now!) Public Friends Only me Custom Close Friends college See all lists... school University work Limited Profile family Marriott International Family University of Melbourne Symbiosis International University Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. Acquaintances Go Back Move over, crazed chocoholics and ailing alcoholics, I’m Hanisha, the incorrigible shoe-a-holic! Lo and behold, I’m the self-confessed lover of shoes A dreamy pair is enough to shoo away the blues For every occasion and season that may come and go I have fitting shoes and shoes to fit that take me to and fro It’s my desire to own one in every shape, color and design They dress my feet up and make them look so fine Heels, stilettos, ballerinas rest sweetly in my shoe-closet I only have

Decisions.  People debate whether you 'take' or 'make' decisions. I care little about that. What interests me more are 'decisions' - what makes us take them, why we take them and under what circumstances. So many times, we are faced with a dilemma - we can go either this way or that . And we will never completely know which one will ultimately be the right one for us. We only know if we make a choice and take the plunge. Time will then tell. Eventually, you may prove to be right with what you decided or if luck's not in your favour, you may end up not being happy with the decision you made. In a situation like that we may think, why didn't we choose the other path? But hey it's always easy to say 'what if'. Regrets come to us very easily. But I repeat unless, you live your decision you will never completely know. So why ponder over what could have been when all we have with us is where we are now.  It's a constant battle. We just ha

Yes, that's me. Mounted on that blue scooter.  With just few classes of riding done, and a slow progress on that front, I went ahead and booked a scooter. A snazzy Yamaha Ray. And that helmet's cute right? If I hadn't booked it, I would perhaps never have done so. Ever. Because I think a lot. Can I do this? Can I ride? Should I spend on a two wheeler? Will it be worth it? What if I never learn to ride? How will I do this on my own? Yes, you've just got a sneak peak into the mind of a Capricorn lady. But guess what, I can ride. I made my first bold move of taking the bike out without a pillion trainer with me last Saturday. It's something I compelled myself to do because I had to ride down to the showroom to collect my permanent number plate fixed. No choice. It had to be done and I had to do it myself. So heart in my mouth, I start the scooter, whispered a prayer and took off. The entire ride to the showroom I wished nothing but for kind hearted fellow rid