Two cities, One soul

I believe in dreams coming true. I believe that when you really wish for something real bad, wish for it with all your heart, it does come to you and sometimes in the most miraculous ways. One such wish/desire came true in 2009, for which it will remain one of the most memorable years of my life.

Like the profile of my blog says, I love to travel and the one place I've always wanted to visit has been Paris. Fondly called La Ville d'Amour (The City of Love), spending some time of my existence here has been a dream I've cherished since years altogether and have raved about it to every single soul I know including my senior colleagues at work. So when my senior colleague called me to inform that my birthday gift was underway and I get to travel to the city of cafés and couture in October 2009, it was hardly believable. But as I headed to my journey, a new revelation unfolded.

I wrote a lot during my brief stay in the city. As much as I saw the city, I craved for more. It was much like discovering the varied facets of your own soul. And realisation struck to me on why I love this city so much...
I found Paris to have a soul quite like my first favourite city in the world Bombay. I instantly found multiple reasons to prove this.

• There are tonnes of food places around. Several bistros, patisseries, restaurants alongside Chinese takeaways, Italian joints; offering a very global feel to the city.
• Parisians love being by themselves quite like any Bombayite.
• They are as protective about their language like a Mumbaikar, at the same time as global like any Mumbaiite.
• They are a complicated set of people, love their own space. Hence, they might come across as snobs. But they are very welcoming people.
  
• Paris like Mumbai has several narrow roads, with long cars screeching their way through them. Traffic is a problem there as well.
• There is some magic in the air. While you would see people standing on the bylanes, sipping coffee and watching the world go by, you sense the character of the city in itself, the soul of its surroundings. It just makes you feel alive.
• River Seine and the Arabian Sea keep the cities' soul stirring
• People living with hearts on their sleeves. Both the cities are the haven for lovers. While we find ours crowding up in Marine Drive or Bandstands, theirs stand in the middle of the road expressing their love as the voyeurs pass by. The musicians on the sidewalks, the smiling waiters, fill you with the sense of life that you might feel while taking a walk in Marine Drive.

• You can endlessly keep walking in the city and yet discover a new thing, a new aspect, an architectural wonder everytime.
• And like Bombay, Paris never sleeps.

I still reminisce the introspective moments spent in the city. Going to a quaint little store near my hotel to pick up some souvenirs for friends back home, having small talk with the shop owners nearby, passing through the cafés to smile to absolute strangers, the city told me to come back again, to discover some more, to fall in love with myself all over again.

This is to both Paris and Bombay, two cities with one soul. This is to that soul. Je t'aime.

Happy 2010

Its an utterly depressing state when you start deteriorating and more depressing it is when you let it happen. I've let it happen for sometime now but have had enough. Being a business journalist sure can have its cons. For one, you get so badly stuck with the jargon that everything seems to be a market, you analyse everybody's strategies, growth prospects, investments and expansion plans! I have been so stuck with this same thing that even after realising my passion for blogging needed fuel, it was let to exhaust in the back burner.
Hence, besides others, my 2010 resolution is to blog diligently. Write, create and rhyme once again and what best to start off with than to look back in the decade gone by.

It was a decade but today it seems like a lifetime in itself and what is life worth if nothing is learned from it?

I've learnt...

• grades aren't everything. But you still need them
• that repeating mistakes though best avoided, isn't always bad. They might give you a different experience everytime
• people don't change. They evolve... for better or worse
• sometimes your best friend is your worst enemy
• you must indulge in sinful desserts
  
• its great to be impulsive
• college is the best phase of your life
• it is important to bunk classes
• music is the best soul soother
• I'd love to travel to discover new people than new places
• first times have a charm that no other time would have
• getting your first salary is a moment of sheer pride
• happiness is spending your hard earned money on your parents and little sister and not saving them in a bank account
  
• it is a great thing to be confused
• to love and let go
• nothing and no one for which/who you would have to lie to your parents is ever worth the lie or to be a part of your life
• chirping birds, sunshine and rains could sometimes give you more happiness than anything
• good things always happen to bad people
• it is okay to start small in life. The scope of growth then, is much bigger
• one of my fondest memories of 'me-time' was to ride the bicycle early morning on my way to school
• you might have a million loved ones around you but you still live and die alone
• your gut instinct is the only thing that doesn't let you down
  
• not everyone you might meet through the virtual world is fake, but most are!
• its important to follow your passions. Its the best way to make yourself feel alive again

After all these, seems like it was quite an eventful decade. Phew!
The new decade will come with its bunch of surprises, learnings and excitement and after a crazy NYE with some of the most cherished people in my life, The Gibberians, I say... 2010? Bring it on!