My Diary Pages

Harry came to my life when I was in the eighth standard. A bespectacled young boy with ruffled jet black hair, green eyes, and a scar on his forehead; a boy to fall in love with. Don't blame me as I was a teenager who wanted a spell of magic in her life and to run away to the Hogwarts. I hated being a muggle and aspired to become another Hermione Granger. I imagined myself boarding the Hogwarts Express and reaching Hogsmeade, going to that magical school, and learning to wave my wand. I had once written a secret letter to Harry on Valentine's day and later decided to keep it safe in my diary. When I watched 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' for the first time, I lost my mind (and heart!) over that young and extremely cute Daniel Radcliffe.  I remember keeping newspaper cuttings of anything and everything related to him. I still have them, safely secured in my old trunk. Well, that infatuation lasted for a couple of years till I graduated from college. And...

The Holy Ganges In my mind, there is always a cobweb of thoughts running in a loop: worries about my parents' health, anxiety over the work deadlines, fear about my future; the thoughts go on and on. So, when I decided to take my parents on a short trip to Banaras, I was anxious over charting out the travel plan and executing it to perfection. My parents, on the other hand, were initially reluctant and later very excited to go to the holy city for the umpteenth time. But the bone of contention between us was the travel plan itself. While I was stressing on early reservation and booking for the trains and hotel, they were thrilled over traveling by a bus overnight and staying at a place with bare minimum facilities. No prizes for guessing that they are more adventurous than me. Needless to say, I could manage to book the train tickets only. Banaras has a charm that never fades away. Though I have visited the city a couple of times, I still look forward to roam across...

I never believe in new year resolutions and can not keep them anyways. But I try to maintain a to-do list in a notepad, a list of things on the personal and professional fronts that I want to achieve. I call it my own bucket list or wish list to make it sound fancy. Please do not confuse it with the wish list I send to Santa on Christmas or the bucket list of activities to do before I die. This wish list is closer to reality. For example, I remember this particular bucket list from the year 2014 when I wanted to stay on my own in a rented apartment (I was staying at a hostel before I moved into the apartment), get a driver's license and buy a two-wheeler, invite my parents for an extended stay at my place, join swimming classes , search for a job I like, and look after my finances responsibly. These wishes might sound mundane but they played an important role to boost up my confidence- the confidence to live alone, drive across the city, meet new people, and confront my inne...

So, the markets crashed last Friday. " Carnage in Indian markets... "- the headline screamed to make me aware about the situation. Our very own Rupee is stripping in front of the mighty Dollar. It is a guessing game that up to what extent Rupee will fall. And to add to this chaos, our government has revealed too many scams to undermine the traces of faith in the system. How does this make an impact on a common Indian woman like me? I do not have an impressive portfolio of shares. So what if markets crashed? Sorry Rupee!!! But your great fall is not affecting me directly so far. Scams make me realize that how less I earn compared to the amount involved in the scams.But other than self-pity, scams do not affect me either. But somewhere deep inside, I'm scared. Will my job be safe in the gloomy slowdown conditions? When will the falling and angry Rupee start pinching my household budget? How soon eating my favorite pizza each weekend w...

It was a cold December morning. I had to catch a flight to reach Mumbai by afternoon. As fate plays foul, due to foggy weather and delay by the flight to take off, I landed up in Mumbai by six in the evening. My destination was Pune, so the journey continued further with a cab ride. Finally, by ten at night, I reached. The next part was catching an auto-rickshaw to go home. I happily hired one and suddenly to my horror, I realized that MY WALLET WAS MISSING!!! It was late, I was alone, the road was quite deserted, the auto-rickshaw driver looked scary and my wallet was missing. All sort of random thoughts were flooding my mind. Three words to sum up my condition, I was the "Damsel in Distress". After taking a few deep breaths, I called up my "Knight in Shining Armour" (read my best friend , staying in another city) to rescue my money by blocking the debit cards left in my wallet. Somehow I reached home, borrowed money from my local grocery guy to...

It is that time of the year when my employer asks me to show the proof of investments I have made for tax saving; a gentle reminder that being a defaulter would lead to deduction of tax at source from my next month's salary. So, basically I need to part away with my hard-earned money- either park it in some financial plans (ashamed to admit, I'm yet to start with one) or let my next month's salary get shrunk post tax deduction at source. Even though I would be more interested to save the money and splurge it on myself, I'm bound to think about the terms like savings and investments (which is good somehow for a wayward investor like me!) So, how an investor like me behaves in a year? In the first month of every new financial year, I'm high on hopes about managing my money well, taking wise decisions about investments and savings. Trust me, I take this resolution every year. On the first day of the first month of a financial year, I spread out my fina...

Not a bad option or is it??? I'm not settled in my career, struggling to put the best foot forward in my present job, wondering if I can make it big in my life. I'm a 25 year old Indian girl, which makes me eligible to be pinned down on the dart board, facing darts from my folks and family. "When are you getting married?" As I have a very special friend in my life, the poor soul's mere existence invites more darts. "Are you sure about the guy?" And the final dart, "Shall we search a guy for you, in case you are not sure?" Phew!!! Image: quotesmart.net Right now, I'm not sure about most of the things in my life. Or for that matter, I can't say whether I would ever be a hundred percent sure about my tomorrow. A beautiful line from one of my favorite movies, Kung Fu Panda- "You are too concerned with what was and what will be. There's a saying. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today i...