Y'all need to watch this

Its one of the best video i came across recently. I am yet to find better content on relationship with father for our generation Indians.

Stand up comedian Zakir Khan's 'Papa please preach more' (Watch it here!)
It is the best because all the emotions are so true to the core and so relatable, it hits home like WHAM.

I've had my own share of issues with my father while growing up. We don't understand life at that point. But when we grow up and experience life at close quarters, we begin to understand our parents more. Small things they did/do suddenly seem to carry the significance the weight of the world.
 My Parents have never failed to fill me with positivity during my good and not so good phases of my life. I owe so much to them.

Also, you can check out Zakir's another video 'Construction of a joke'. It addresses issues about self image. Very helpful stuff.

I don't necessarily like all of his jokes but he's definitely got a unique style. Plus he is from Indore so he's a homeboy :)

Street food addiction

Since childhood, i have survived various sort of addictions. Video game addiction, TV addiction, i'm still an exhaustive book reader (never grew out of that one), online shopping addiction, korean drama addiction and the latest one, which i hadn't even realized: Street food.

At first it was just a necessity. i mean, who wants to cook dinner after a long, hard day at work? and when there are so many options around...
So, fixing dinner in the kitchen became an occasional event. But eventually when health and weight started taking its toll, i made a resolution to have home made, healthy food only. No eating out.

That didn't last. And thats when i came to know that i did not like to have dinners at home at all. I have come to love the extra oil and masala that only street vendors can provide.  I need my fix every 2 days. Sometimes daily. By now, i don't even want to get rid of comfort food. Drawback being it burns a hole in the pocket. 

Commitment

Today, my parents celebrate their 36th marriage anniversary.

I reminded them yesterday, they are the kinds to forget an anniversary. They smiled for sometime and then went back to their work. Milestones maybe, don't mean much to them.

The key to being together for so many years is that they take each day as it comes. My father is right now completely on bed and my mother has to take care of his basic chores. It wouldn't have been possible if not for my mum.

They've held out for so long, hand in hand, during ups and downs, it is amazing. And of course, if you'll ask them its only normal.

36 years, a couple must have seen everything in this span of time. They've bought up three kids; seen them through their education and employed, seen the marriage of one, birth of a grandson, numerous challenges of life in between. God bless them both.

WUT

Where do we actually find happiness? In work? At home? Among friends? In money?

I've tried every option above and i did not find happiness anywhere.

I've had the notion that i would find happiness only in success. But what is success? To achieve a milestone. To be happy.

It is a weird circle. We are not successful until we are happy, and we are not happy until we are successful.

Instant Achar!!

Shortage of time and need for better can make you stumble upon best of the things on earth.

These past few days after i've resolved to cook dinners at home and out of respect for my body not just munch and gulp the street food i love so much, as  dinner.

And so starts the journey of whipping up something nice almost every evening with my awesome roomies, and since we are from diverse regional backgrounds, i get to discover wonderful recipes like this one:

WHAT YOU NEED:

25

No, this isn't an appreciation post for Adele's new album (which it totally deserves, i love that ish but that stuff is for some other time).

This is for when you turn 25 and look back to what your life has been, what changed you and made you.....

I'm not a fan of looking back at life. it gets you reminiscing, pining for the old times. In Dumbledore's words

Nostalgia is a rich emotion but a useless one when life has other pressing needs.

But 25 years being considered an important milestone, you gotta look back objectively in order to learn from your mistakes. That time is almost over where you had the liberty to make as mistakes you wanted to, take as many risks as you wanted to. in other words, at this point you feel like:

Manache Ganapati of Pune

5 'Manache' ganapati mandals are part of Ganeshotsav tradition started by Bal Gangadhar Tilak to bring society together as a whole.

On friday, me and friends visited these pandals amidst pious people packed streets to offer our prayers.

It was the last day of 10 day ganpati fest and streets were blocked for vehicles and volunteers were in place to manage the human traffic that has poured itself out to get 'darshan' of Lord Ganesha.

1. Kasaba Ganapati

We made our way to the first Ganapati of honor.