Project I :: { Self Worth, Love and Desire }

          Will I be a cool Grand Mom? Will my kids Travel the world? Will I have a beautiful huge Yacht standing in the turquoise waters of Santorini, Greece?

          Listening to Gasoline and Matches | Date: 7^th Jan 10.05 pm, as I sit in front of the TV geared up to open the laptop again after an exhausting work day, I sit to wonder what am I doing, what am I doing right now, what all did I do today, how will my day be structured tomorrow and eventually how will my life turn out? 

I should be writing a blog on my last trip (the ideal scenario), after all travel is what my blog is about. I do have its structure ready with all the facts and figures in place, but I don’t think it’s in the right shape yet to be posted up for everyone’s read. So my Hong Kong Trip details will be a bit delayed. Or, I might end up deleting it which depends upon how I feel about it in the next read.

From the movie ‘You’ve got Mail’:: Kathleen Kelly: [writing to "NY152"] Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life - well, valuable, but small - and sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven't been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around? I don't really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So good night, dear void.

A week back, I decided to move back home. It’s a brave enough decision considering the fact that it includes around 100kms of daily drive through the back breaking and digestion screwing traffic. But I got to do it, if not for me, for my family, my single mum and the little mental peace that I have left. She’s done the world for us kids, she struggled with us, lived and made us worthy of a comfortable life that we are leading right now.
 

          On an unrelated note: My brother has got a fab opportunity in biotechnology product management in Munich, Germany after 3 years of rigorous hard work, studies, making his way through in the foreign land. But the thing that makes us happy is his words that, that’s what he wished for. On him getting a job, I am happy for me as well as. It will be much easier for us to materialize our long trips and drives across Europe. “Grinning!”
 

Am I happy with what I am doing? To great extent I am, I mean there is a use of brain and whatever little appreciation that I get from clients does keep me hooked and in the groove. Well! Most of the time it does and I know my career is in a decent shape. And it is what matters most right now. But I am still thinking, if not this then what?   

Couple of days back my brother asked for some photography tips. He’s decided to learn something new after being regular with many things including the Yoga asans, German language degree just to name a few.

He asked me a simple question, why did I leave photography? It didn’t perturb me one bit. I have been asked question number of times before and I always shrug it off by saying ‘Been there, done that!’. But that’s not completely true. I mean whom am I kidding? I loved it and I think I was decently good at it. I had the drive and looked upto Lara Jade for her works. What’s even interesting is that after moving to US, I had started making money of the freelancing assignments that I did; model look books and portfolios. I would spend hours shooting and then hours editing the pictures, without keeping a check on night or day. 18 – 19 hours would pass in a blink and would never tire me off. 

However, what left me perturbed and thinking was his statement: “Tune wahi cheez karni chodh di jo tujhe sabse jyada pasand thi. Kyun?” ’You left the thing you were most passionate about. Why?

Now that’s something no one has ever asked me before.

Why did I stop clicking pictures? I don’t know and don’t have any justifiable reason for it. All I know is:

Nobody leaves their passion unless something truly life turning happens that forces a change in the course of your direction.

I do, however, know exactly where the ball got dropped. I was 23 or so, going through a hell lot for any 23year old to handle. At that point in time photographs creation somehow was left behind in the due course. I wanted to be strong, appear strong in front of the entire world and photography didn’t seem like a strong statement to prove anything to anyone. 

I know I was weak to give it up! 

In this entire process I agreed to prove my worth in the language that people around me understood the best without much effort. I took up a 9 – 5 job in a rather nascent industry of Digital Marketing that placed me at par with many of the fresh graduates from ivy league schools of Harvard and Stanford and promised me a beefy check. My incentives were that it would not let my math skills rust, was fast paced, evolving and will distract me from everything else. And it did that fantastically! Freaking super Thanks to it!

So where does the photography stand in the picture? It’s an old flame, something that got ignored while I was busy making myself a cozy corporate chair.  It’s an old flame that might flicker anytime. It’s an old flame that I miss it like hell. It’s an old flame that might insist on me to dust off my old camera.

Meanwhile my love for Travel and Technology is keeping me good company and I am trying to justify my (lame) life and 100 kms. daily drives by spending a couple of hours every day with my aging mom. 

Until Later, 

Rakshita
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Project I :: { Happiness Potion: Friends & Trips }

It’s 22^nd Dec’13 and I am just counting days to my upcoming trip to Hong Kong and maybe Macau.

3 Days to go!

Countdown has begun and I can’t be any more excited. This particular break has come about at a much needed time when my brain is just this close to go all bonkers with everything around.

Because of this trip, I will be missing a very dear friend’s wedding. I am not a wee bit happy about it, but my tickets are non-refundable (silly excuse, I know!). She was my roommate in first year of college, and then I moved to Mumbai and later to the US. She also moved to the States but to some different corner about which I had no idea about. What amazes me is that she is still studying; she did her masters and now perusing PHD which will be complete in 2018. Amazing right? MBA is on my agenda for a good long time now, but I believe NIFT has spoiled me a little too much to ever study or pickup books again.

Within a few days she will married, married and gone to the US. Like some old aunt in the family, I am too sad and but also so happy for her, both at the same time. I wish her well and may the couple spend years and miles together with tons of smiles and laughter.  

On an unrelated note: Last week I got a sample of Dove cream beauty bars in a white pouch. It had a letter asking the reader to spend a day with a friend over gossip and fun. It couldn’t have come around on any better time.  I never usually endorse or write about brands (haven’t done it so far), but this note has something special about it or maybe it came at the perfect time.

Around 6.00 pm I got a call from her, confirming that she is home after a backbreaking day of the wedding shopping. Just made a visit to her place and swear you me, it was one hell of a crazy evening. Stupid hilarious, yet infectious laughs over how I used to hatch hot pot of water with Maggie in a quilt thinking it will cook the same way eggs get hatched under the hens butt. Went mad laughing about how she would convince me that I should ration the visits of other hostel girls who visit every 5 minutes as she needs to mug up her course material, the way we would gossip, bitch and mimic other hostel girls, how I would spell 4 of French as quatre with an accent e, the pretty eyes chica, the breezers, the Mishti Doi breaks @5.00 pm and much more of the hilarious nonsensical anecdotes.

I was the pin point of almost all the jokes cracked today evening. Apparently, I haven’t changed wee bit as per aunty and Ipsi but I am not fully convinced. I think I am a little smarter, less naïve, same ol’big mouth and most important I now resemble a bloated balloon. I should however, make an effort to believe their words as old friends do tell the truth. Don’t they?

As the Dove note asked of me, I did make a visit to this amazing old friend of mine (we met after 10 years) and were like a house on fire the way we used to be 10 years back. Man! It felt like yesterday, in fact it felt like TODAY. Somethings don’t age and when they do, they transform into such beautiful relationships without any pretenses, ego or tussles. They transform into beautiful, honest, hilarious and warm pieces of fuzz, enough to keep you cozy for another next 10 years.

But that’s no excuse for us to stay away for another 10 years. I hope to see you much before that. I hope you are listening Girl!

Mucho Love and luck to you!

-Rakshita

Check out Dove Beauty Bar #DoveFaceTest

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How to start travelling? :: { Struggles and THE ANSWER! }

Long sagas, big blogs, short quotes and so much more had been written and continue to pop up for read about travel and the spirit of travel.

10^th Dec’13 | I went to apply for Chinese Visa today; we are already very late with our application and hence we went for an express delivery of the visa. I am so excited to get it tomorrow itself. It’s was a good start but turned little troublesome when our car’s battery started giving problems. Grrr! Almost entire day wasted at that.

Listening and tripping to AC/DC. Don’t ask me how you trip to AC/DC, you just do.

I travel a lot (well! a little more than many) but I still want more. It’s now much more than a mere hobby or just some pleasure break that I take every half an year. It’s become a need, a drug without which I can’t possibly survive. If I don’t travel, I can’t function properly in my corporate job, I become irritable and impatient as if life is just running away leaving me behind and as if I am dying with each single passing day (which actually, we all are).

Sometimes I travel fancy and in sheer luxury, but most times I travel without shopping a single trinket for anyone or myself, I book the cheapest flight and train tickets but stay in lovely hotels and expect world class service(that’s my hook).

I was on a rebound when I started travelling and I fell in a relationship with it. You fall in love with the places and it’s people when you travel and then with a heavy heart you move ahead to explore another destination. You fall in love with the hellos and byes become the hardest part of any trip. To Travel is a great high, it teaches you so much about every thing including the journey called life.

1) First day in Egypt 2011

2) Running across the deserts to the Pyramids

3) Embracing the Pyramids view (being such a tourist)

4) Feeling the stone relief 

5) Outside the Luxor temple

6) Bunch of school girls getting a picture clicked with me (making me feel no less than a celebrity) outside the Hatshepsut temple

7) My first ever visit to a Mosque

8) Tahrir square; in middle of the freedom revolution (first day of first ever elections in Egypt) 

9) Northern Egypt: soaking up the view

Just about everyone I know has the similar love affair with travel. Everyone lists it as one of their passions in life but not everyone is able to follow it. Why is it so? I hope I am able to help you break the curse and start with your own travel diary.

Most common misconception: It takes a lot of money to travel. It does take money, but that’s not the only or prime consideration. The most important consideration is to prioritize and be sure about what you want to leave behind in terms of appointments, commitments, work etc.

The best way to start travelling is... JUST PACK AND GO! 

I know sometimes (well most of the times) it’s not as easy as I make it sound, especially considering how we’ve made our lives so busy and complicated with the EMIs, jobs, family and commitments etc. that whenever we even come close to planning a real trip, we end up finding an easy reason to slam all the plans. Anxiety gets the worst of us and we give up saying ‘One Day I shall Travel’. So, to avoid the hyperventilation of anxiety, take a globe, rotate it and just put your finger on the map. Once you’ve selected a place you’d really wish to visit, put all your energies, money and INTENT to make it into a reality.

For people at specific phases of life: Read On!

Note: To travel is planning a trip and going anywhere aside to your grandparent’s, uncle’s or cousin’s house.

1.   Too Young to Travel? If you are smart enough to figure your ways out, to explore places and people, age won’t matter. And if you are not, travel will make you smarter. Invariably, travel will serve you best.

Take couple of months off, take some part time job and save some money. If you are really desperate, dream to travel and have no qualms about taking money from parents or others, beg and borrow for a trip of a lifetime. If you are from western side of the world, go not to the Americas or the UK but to the adventurous places like China, India and other parts of the Asia. You’ll get to see and learn a lot about how to survive not only in these countries, but in life.

{ River markets, Bangkok }

Additional Perk: you can have a month or two long trip in these countries in the same amount that you would spend in a week in some western part of the globe.

For younger lot from INDIA, you’ve worked and studied way too many books and most of you have got those thick spectales on. It’s high time to take a breather and get one with nature. Go to Rishikesh or Nepal - The LAST RESORT, a brilliant and not too expensive an option to get a taste of adventure (rafting, bungee, rappelling etc.) and of the wild. Amsterdam and Spain are good options too that will leave you exposed to the ideas that might have never crossed your mind while you were busy studying those science, history and mathematics books. Best part is that you can go to these places alone even if you don’t have company of a bunch friends. Travelling will help you make friends who like to travel.

2.   Too busy working? Or no leaves available? Or will travel after retiring?

Whom are you kidding? 

Yes, that house is important, but is it really worth it if you toil away the prime years of your life for a matchbox sized apartment? Are the memories in any which way comparable to that rafting trip, when you jumped in the chilling water of the calm rapids and then hiked through the forest to get back to a hot cup of tea and grilled sandwiches in lunch.

You might not remember the number of late nights or Holidays you sacrificed for work, but you will remember each and every holiday you went crazy having fun on.

If you are working, my guess is you would have saved some money or has a potential to get the basics together for this first ever dream trip of yours. If you are short on time to plan, take help of a professional for trip planning and tell them what all you want from your dream vacation.  A trek or a beach view or dinner with the locals or interaction with the wild whatever it is, travel planners shall make it possible for you. All you have to do is be focused and determined to achieve the desired results to get the sweet reward of wonderful memories that will last you a lifetime.

Reevaluate your priorities. What will matter the most 15 – 20 years down the line? That promotion and little appraisal after numerous late nights you put in or the pictures of you having a blast with a bunch of fellow travelers.

{Emerald Lakes Tongariro National Park, New Zealand}

PS: Take cues from various corporate professionals who are avid travelers. Feel free to write to me with your queries, I will be delighted to help and will put you to right people who can help you plan your first trip without leaving big holes in your pocket.

3.   I am a Girl: So? 

      The biggest weakness we have is that we give ourselves way too less credit for everything. Before anybody else, we are the first ones to doubt ourselves, our potential; we are first one to question our own strength. To this, many of you might say, that it’s not safe for girls to travel or my parents don’t permit me to go out etc. You don’t have to be a rebel to be able to travel, all you need to be is determined to do it. Imagine if you, your girlfriends and the girls all over the world started traveling without any doubt in their heads, world will be such a free flowing zone for women, no taboo, no ho-ha about women exploring the world all by themselves, one city at a time, one country at a time.    

Please question, to what extent are you willing to live under the shelter of your parents, brothers, boyfriends and husbands without having a chance to develop your own perspective of how the world functions? Take a call, pack your stuff and get out.

So how should you start travelling? 

Leave everything BEHIND, collect your savings (meagre or big); throw in a pair of jeans, comfortable flat boots, a bunch of T shirts, a couple of party dresses with a few other basics in a mid-sized bag and GO! This is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution but it's probably the only solution and shall serve the 90% of the people with a dream to travel “ONE DAY!”  

Listening to Jon Bon Jovi’sgreatest hits – you give love a bloody bad name 

Rant: Nothing is more important than knowing life. You know life not by eating or blindly following a school of thought in the name of religion or being aimlessly tied to a fellow human in the name of marriage. You know life by seeing life, life of others, life in various setups, life in different forms. You know life by trying to understand it and how and why it functions the way it does. You learn to live life by knowing about it and when you learn to live it you respect and appreciate it, which increasing number of us are failing to do.

For now... JUST PACK AND GO!

Untill Later, 

Rakshita

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Project I :: { Random Acts of Kindness }

It’s a Voting day today here in Delhi. I hope all you Delhi people got your pretty bums to the voting booths to vote for a better city. I wish I were able to vote for the government in Delhi, was actually all set with my pick of the political party and then I realized I don’t have voter’s card to vote in Delhi’s elections. I hail from UP and now work in Haryana so my great idea to vote for the city elections turned into such a Boo! Boo!

Anyhow! Please do vote if you want your rights. As Sarthak of 95 FM said today, go out and flex those voting muscles.

4^th December’13 | Listening to Dido’s White Flag 

After my much dejected last post (you can read it here) about how we are ruining this world with almost all our actions, I heard an announcement about something rather pleasant on @94.3 Radio One – Celebrate ‘Being Human’ day or similar name day (please pardon my messed up memory)on 11/12/13.

It asked listeners to share their random acts of kindness with the others listeners. I felt good because if nothing more, it’s an effort where we recognize how others and we have been kind to the world. It felt different as kindness is not a regular or popular topic of the discussions of my civilized, posh and corporate world. It’s not something we talk about a lot these days and even if we do, it’s in the lookalikes of Page3 parities where we would be flaunting thousands worth of bags, while our maids would be earning just a couple of thousands for the entire month for keeping the house clean. It’s rather a sadistic irony considering that how we all are aware of it and yet play a big part of the situation!

Steering back to the topic: Kindness! When was the last time you were kind? An hour back? This morning? Yesterday? In my head kindness no longer stays a habit or practice among us. I mean, if it was a habit or a ritual, why would there be an entire show on it? Do we have radio or television shows on “Hey, how did you brush your teeth this morning” or “Hey, tell us how warm or cold the water was in the shower today” We don’t!

So it was a pleasant reminder that asks us, the listeners to probe and jolt our memory about when was the last we were kind.

A single act of goodness can have a strong lifelong influence on people’s life. Salman’s latest interview on Karan’s show is a great example where he talks about how he was so strongly influenced by the people who did right by him in whatever small gestures they did. It’s interesting to listen to such a small yet warm anecdote which left him influenced and kind that he is known for, among his fans and film fraternity.

To cut the long story short, ‘kindness’ not only has the power to influence, but gives the person being kind, a sense of fulfilment and satiation. It’s the feeling that many of us seem to be going crazy looking for. So here! The answer is: Be Kind! And tell the world (maybe!)

What is my latest Random Act of Kindness?  

I will tell you but then I will need to kill you. And I am not a killer! 

Well! I am also planning something for poor this winter but shall not talk about it unless it’s done. On that note, I will leave you to decide your “Random Act of Goodness”. How are you planning to bring warmth in somebody's life this winter? 

Note: If kindness is too much of an effort, try gratitude. It’s easier, simpler, leaves the other person wanting to do more for you (well! in most cases) and is the first step before you actually start doing something for others.

Read and listen: What is it that makes someone stop and help a stranger in need? WBUR is exploring that question in a radio series, Kind World, featuring stories of kindness and the profound effect that one act can have on a person’s life. http://www.wbur.org/kindworld/2013/11/26/when-the-parachute-failed-a-true-sacrifice

Until Later,

Rakshita

Project I :: Don’t be Hungry & Have Babies

I’ve been reading, seeing and listening a lot lately, not the fictional novels, not the latest movie flicks, not to the billboard hits, but everything that is making my heart sink an increasing inch with its each read, view and sound.

    {It's 28^th Nov’13, sometime during the day. I am wearing a soft tan leather bomber jacket and I've just finished listening to Ellen}

    {if you've decided to read this post, I request you to click on the linked text. These will link to the pieces that have influenced me to write this post and will also give you a better context of where I am coming from}

I’ve been trying to jot down my thoughts for almost two weeks now. Everytime I sat to write something, I felt so dejected with so many things that I couldn’t dare to write anything pleasant or motivational (forget it being happy) about travel. They say externalization comes after you are strong and sorted inside. I’d like to believe I am strong enough as a person, but I still feel hell guilty of wearing this chic jacket made with soft tan leather (probably the calf leather).

Call it cynicism, but everything is getting intolerably morbid around me. It depresses me when I see corruption that starts with the biggest of the politicians and ends at maybe a simple office parking, the height of consumerism starting at simplest of the house parties with overflowing alcohol and maybe ends with shopping for every possible moment of our life. I hate carbonated sodas and now the carbonated water. The dearth of living space that starts with matchbox sized apartments and ends at people sleeping under flyovers in chilling winters, the overflowing flowing money that makes the dream of big fat weddings possible but doesn’t provide even a days’ meal to so many hungry souls, is utterly troublesome to me.

I love multinationals, my travel paycheck comes from there, but I miss that ‘mitti ki kushboo’ (Soil’s smell) that used to tickle my nose during rainy season. I now don’t even realize when it’s raining outside as I am mostly busy with my head dug in tiny screen staring at my face. And even if I do sense rain, the smell of it is intoxicated with smoke and pollutants. I miss the desi, super soft touch of cotton dhoti that my Nani used to wear and the taste of the pickle she used to make. Everything here is factory produced and made for the mass consumption. But as matter of the fact remains, we are still hungry.

From extensive chicken farming, to the birds ingesting our plastic and metal waste,to animals being skinned (skinned live) for fur by the fanciest of brands for our warmth, everything is resulting to the death of everything around except of ours as we are fittest for survival.

If we are so fit why is each one of us struggling to find our identity? Why are we scaredto reveal it to the world at a fair chance of being judged and rejected? We’ve got to remember that we are supreme, we are powerful. We are the Mighty Lords who Rule the World! We do however, have the world but why are we still hungry?

We are so hungry that we are eating into each other. From facing ‘racism’ in probably the most cosmopolitan country of the world to using fellow humans in the name of comfort, we are sucking away happiness; we are sucking the freedom and the sense of smell, touch and feel all in the name of progress and development. It’s now a routine for us to hear about men on a raping spree. Listening to these stories so regularly, now feels like listening to someone’s daily routine of meat shopping. Rape has now become part of our diet.  We recover/adapt and camouflage better than a lizards tail and a chameleon; we are zombies, we are the cannibals and the vampires. But We Are Still Hungry!

Everything is making me feel guilty and angry. I feel guilty of my actions, of using stuff, being a solo passenger(and driver) of my car, using more than needed tissue papers, buying shoes and bags and hoping for those thigh high Chanel boots, seeing others waste food (most of us do it so shamelessly) and overeating (gluttony is THE curse of today’s world), for not being able to take care of those abandoned dogs, for eating the processed potatoes out of the plastic packets and drink from the Bisleri bottles and coke cans. I feel angry about the thugs, the thieves, the rapists, the claimed protectors and leaders of the world and a lot of times for being born as a girl.

I am neither a preacher not a teacher; I am just an observer who is sharing what’s affecting her. Maybe I’ve become more sensitive lately, maybe I am an erratic cynical, maybe my monthly cycle is around the corner or maybe I am one of the stupid, senseless souls who are trying to show the picture of the world as it actually stands without all the glitz, glamour and brands.

Ques: So what’s next?

Ans: I don’t know.

I don’t know how I can make the situation better, I don’t know how I can undo and stop all this that gives me chills, all I know is that I am hurting and hurting very bad. So if nothing else, at least I am making some self- rectifications that help me ease some part of my guilt by not adding to the poison and the pain.

They say every coin has two sides and off late I am just witnessing the dirtier one. Has anybody seen a better version of the world? Please do show and share it with me as I am in need of some hope.

This post is written in an effort and a hope (maybe it’s all in vain) that we make some effort which leaves us and this stupid place called earth a little green, safe and less painful so that we can have babies without a guilt filled and wrenched heart. Remember! We are Supreme! We are powerful! And we can do verywell without all this Hunger! After all, we will be passing this world on to our babies.

{I know I’ll be butt of many jokes. Many analogies and hypothesis will be drawn by both strangers and dear friends, but I choose to sound stupid and absurd in just a small hope that of many reading, ignoring or laughing at this post, just one or two of you are stupid enough to take me seriously and feel the same guilt. A guilt that pushes them to make a little effort to think and act a little differently and have guts to say out loud that YOU CARE! You care for your world, for the fellow humans and for the remaing bunch of freaking animals and plants.}

Until Later,

Rakshita

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Project I :: Rants

As I sit to write something deep and meaningful, I am left clueless about what do I want to write about today?

Should I write about career, my new house that’s under construction, about work life balance or something else? All I know is, I shall refrain from writing anything about travel until I do actually travel or have something really appealing to say about it.

Mom is talking and making fun of me and my cold while I sit with her in the bright sunny room ideal for getting requisite dose of Vitamin D during winters. Bon-Bon lie sleeping next to my bed as I eat freshly pealed roasted peanuts.

It’s been a good day so far; sun is shining bring outside and I am already done with some of the important errands I had to do today. I got bank stuff sorted out this morning, filled in couple of queries for aluminum glass windows for our new home, figured out the Chinese Visa documents, had a plate full of fruits, drank warm water and hot tea, played and ran a lot with Bon-Bon.

BTW, Bon-Bon has become daddy recently. Below are a few pictures of the babies. Before these tiny things were born, we assumed them to be the kids of Peaches and Scruffy. But, we stand so surprised after seeing the striking resemblance with Bon-Bon. I am a happy and proud Granny. :D  

On an unrelated note, I am seeing lot of traction on my Twitter handle in addition to my bloggers’ profile. On a closer look, I see lot of vague (I am guessing fake) profiles of people following me. It might be something to do with my posts or somebody bought me all these followers. Whatever is the case, there is a definite increase in the number of genuine travel enthusiasts + influencers who are now following me on twitter and I am quite happy about that.

So again, what should I write about today? Nothing!

I am taking Bon-Bon out for a walk now and then maybe visit my cousin and Massi before I plan something eventful for evening. 

Untill Later!

- Rakshita

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Winter :: White and Shine

Its winters and all I can think of is New Year celebrations, snow on the ground and crackers in the air; the gorgeous festivities, marriages and decorations :D 

4.33 pm on Friday 22^nd Nov’13 |Listening to Bryan Adams - Summer of 69 and pinning to  #GnS (read as Glitter and Shine)

Whenever I think of winter vacations/ trips, ‘Home Alone’ somehow manages to strike an instant cord in my head. Plum cake - lots and lots of it, is a close contender to 'home alone' in my Christmas memory list. I distinctly remember my first moment of the OH! SO DEVINE!  plum cake. It was love in the first bite. 

At Mathematics teacher’s place, a bunch of happy little girls, we sit on her couch and twin bed with our legs swinging back and forth in the air. We laugh as we enjoy the freshly baked plum cake. God! I remember it like yesterday. 

I was born in a lovely weather during the month of September and was raised in the northern part of India. I never actually got to witness or live the snowy part of winters while I was a kid. But thanks to the recent love bite by Travel Bug and my loving partner in crime, I try to plan a trip whenever feasible without temperature posing a real concern.                    

          However with the soaring temperatures, the numbness is ought to set in. So while travelling, be all geared up to not let that winter chill effect your travel plans. Read things to carry for winter travel here.

So, getting back to all the #GnS and white, I am all excited and hoping to witness some good white snow this winter along with tons of shine on New Years’ eve. Pinterest is further adding fuel to the travel fire keeping me quite hooked on to all the glittering loveliness during wither travel and is getting me in the mood for some serious partying.

Since it's a friday and I have a party date, I am going to stop writing RIGHT HERE and leave you with some gorgeous images of nature and glittering, shiny manmade things. Hope you enjoy’em.

P.S: No matter how your week was, Cheer Up! Afterall, it’s freaking Friday! 

Love and Drink up! and as Ellen says: You’re Gonna Be Ok; Dum Do Doom Doom Doom; Just Dance!

Cheers!
- Rakshita

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