Orange Is The New Black

PHOTO PROMPT © J Hardy Carroll

The clear blue skies, the slight chill in the breeze, the chirping of the birds, the happy atmosphere - I was not the one to appreciate all this. I buried myself in the virtual world.

You see, I was famous online.

I was an fashion star with many followers. I kept myself busy by posting my pictures on all the social media platforms. I was addicted to selfies and my phone. One day, while driving, I took a selfie and ended up killing a pedestrian out for a walk.

Corporate Circus #4: Loyalty Points

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On the 27th of June, 2017, I completed 9 years in the corporate industry. Also, 9 years in the same company. Roughly around ten years ago, I was placed in one of the biggest companies of the world as part of the campus recruitment. A day after the last exam of my Engineering ended, I joined the company. Looking back, I feel so nostalgic about the whole journey. My joining location was in Chennai and I spent the first four months of my corporate life there and hated every part of it. While most of my problems were with the city I was staying in rather than my job, I still did not get to enjoy the start of my corporate life. My peers were very different from the way I was. I was the odd woman out among a batch of local produce. There were a few others from different locations as well, but our frequencies were not even remotely close.

During the first four months of my corporate life, I hated everything around. I was one of the lucky few to have been placed in a project in the exact domain that I had studied, so technically I was hanging in there. While I cursed the city and the people around, I was still in love with my company and the work that I was doing. The first chance that I got to come back to Bangalore did not materialize and that took me down pretty badly. Thanks to the long distance, my first ever relationship came crumbing down and I was hampered emotionally. I had a few friends around me but none could understand what exactly I was going through. I was away from home for the first time, in a city that I couldn't relate and had people around who looked at me like I was an alien. Everything that could go wrong was going wrong but I still had my work with me to keep me going. Then one day, I got the news that my project was shutting down.

The Rich Puppet Master

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There once lived a puppet master

This story dates back to the days of yore

This woman piled on her vices

For her greed, there was no cure

She cast her charm while she was young

Through her fingers she captured a man

He surrendered to her from day one

Inflicting melancholy on his own clan

Together they cheated and stole

From everyone and everything that came their way

Turning into misers of the highest order

They piled on their riches day after day

Book Review: Like Water For Chocolate

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Title: Like Water For Chocolate
Author: Laura Esquivel
Publisher: RHUK (16 September 1993)
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Price: Rs. 360 on Amazon
Pages: 224

This book was touted to be a magical realism one and I was fresh from the brilliant hangover of 'The Night Circus', so I picked this up gleefully. For a food lover like me, any book that revolves around food is a bonus hit. I had read and loved 'Chocolat' and this one seemed to be on similar lines. It is a love story like none other and every chapter begins with a delicious recipe. I devoured the story, page after page.

Tita de la Garza, 15 years old, lives on a ranch near the Mexico-US border with her mother, Mamá Elena, and her older sisters Gertrudis and Rosaura. It is the de la Garza family tradition that the youngest daughter must remain unmarried and take care of her mother until her mother's death. Tita was born in the kitchen and has a deep connection with food and a love for cooking. This is also due to the fact that Tita's primary caretaker as a child was Nacha, the family cook. Tita falls in love with her neighbor Pedro, who feels the same towards her. When they ask for Mamá Elena's permission for marriage, they are reminded of the tradition and Mamá Elena suggests that Pedro marry Rosaura instead.

Long May She Reign

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Tall and proud she stood strong

Stripped off her every face

Power still lingers in her eyes

As she prepares for the race

An unloved wife but a loving mother

Deaths of her children she couldn't foresee

She'll fight with all that she has

Giving up is not a part of Cersei

Married twice but no man by her side

Dangerously ripped off her innocence

Lost, unaware but finding her way

Slowly, of the war she's making sense

All About The Bling

PHOTO PROMPT © Janet Webb

My uncle Bob was one of a kind. He was different in his own way, just like me. Probably that’s why we got along so well.

“We have just one life, darling. We might as well as sparkle”, he used to say.

He liked shiny things. He used to dress in bright colors and wore matching earrings. He was a happy person, positive and always smiling. But, the family hated him. Maybe they were not used to seeing so much happiness on one person.

The Early Bird Saves More

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What is the best part of a holiday? The destination and that awesome feeling. And the worst part? The planning, of course. Honestly, I am an avid planner and when it comes to travel I leave no stone unturned. My husband and I try to take a vacation every quarter and we plan our year around this. Traveling on a fixed budget is never easy, but if the planning is right, you may even get to save some money from the budget. What the first step in planning a vacation? Yes, choosing the destination. The next step is to decide how you would get there. Air transport has become so convenient these days that you can fly to any destination from any city.

The one thing that troubles me as a traveler is the fluctuating prices of the flights. One day it is low, a few days later it is high and a few days later it is back to being low again. This sinusoidal wave of high and low always puts me in a pickle when I sit down to book my flight tickets. A few years ago, when we booked our tickets from Bangalore to Delhi we paid close to 30,000 for two return tickets. This was because we booked the ticket one week in advance. Next, when we had to travel to Sri Lanka, we decided to book our tickets a month in advance and we ending up saving quite some money. Not much, but something at least. That is when we realized that when it comes to travel, the earlier you book your flight tickets, the better.

But how early is too early?