LOL: Life Of Leo

We all start off as zero, and that's a very good thing. As time passes, we accumulate people, memories, materialistic pleasures and a lot more things in our lives. But at times, life does take you back to the starting point. Yes, back to zero. How you come up from there shows your growth as a person and a human being. I have been through enough ups and downs in my life. I have had a face to face with zero enough number of times now, but I did not give up. I've left the zero behind in so many cases and I've worked really hard for it. Having said that, there are many other cases where I still am a zero. Take swimming for example. I've been wanting to learn it since the past five years and still haven't got to it. But the very fact that I still want to do it, makes me go from zero to one. At least I have the ambition or the interest. There are a lot of other people I know who are a zero in almost every aspect of life. I agree that zero is the start for everything

We've been through a long journey now And every moment has been best after best It is you who I need to survive When I have you, I don't need the rest Months and years have passed so quick And yet I fall in love with you everyday I might not keep telling you this Just read what my eyes have to say People expected the spark to die down Together we turned it into blazing fire No matter how much time passes in between It is you who I will always desire Life seems so simple with you Together we have got past it all I can walk with my eyes closed for you I know you'll be around to break my fall You are the most important part of me You are the color and I'm your hue Without you, A to Z could never happen All about me is also about you

I have never been someone who would copy something from another person. No, I do not mean stuff like cheating in exams. We all have done that! I mean trying to copy the personality or choices of another person. Since childhood I have made my own choices and more often than not they have been out of the ordinary. While others were trying to be photocopies of one another, I was more than happy to stand out in a corner alone with my own choice. I have seen people trying desperately to look like someone or be like someone. Their object of affection or admiration can either be a celebrity or some random person in their circle. I have seen more than ten girls in Bangalore who have got " Daddy's lil girl ' tattooed on their arm with the exact same font and style as that of Priyanka Chopra. I wanted to laugh out loud. Can't they be a little original at least? I have seen friends trying to ape each other and end up looking really funny. Choices are meant to be personal. B

In today's world of crying out for feminism, women are failing to notice one big thing. While there is a group of women holding slogans and screaming out for equal rights, there also is another group that does not want women to have equal rights as that of men. This second group is more often than not led by a woman. In the almost three decades of my existence as a woman, I have tried my best to succeed in every step of my life. But the ones who wanted to hold me back and point a finger at me were always women. When a woman climbs up the corporate ladder, a lot of them think that she's sleeping her way to the top. In the group that thinks so, there at least will be one or two women. Maybe women cannot handle each other's success. If that's the case then this whole act of feminism is a facade. It should be called selfishism instead. A mother-in-law will not spare a moment to find faults in her son's wife. The daughter-in-law would be a working lady and would no

I'm not perfect and yet I'm very happy the way I am. I do not have the perfect body or fair, flawless skin. I've accepted myself the way I am and that is the same way I accept others too. Being a realist, vanity is not something that I'm particular about. I look for a person's personality first and only then go for the other things. I have dated both good looking and average looking men as looks were never a priority for me. It was important yes, but not at the cost of intelligence and a good sense of humor. Having said that, I know and accept the way I look. So I know what is within my reach and what is not. I am a decent looking girl and I wanted a decent looking guy. That's about it. I did not want to be vain and wait for Mr. Universe to come sweep me off my feet. After all, I'm no Miss. Universe here. It is no hidden fact that we Indians are obsessed with fair skin. Even though more than 60% of our population is brown, white is the color always pre

Growing up, we learn a lot of things and before we know it we become pros at a few things. Be it reading, writing, drawing or anything else. Life also teaches us a lot of lessons via people, memories and situations. Lessons from life are some of the best ways to understand ourselves and the choices we make. Although our first lessons come from parents, they only teach us what they know or what they have learnt. Most of these lessons would be a part of a different era and might not always work out for us. What do we do then? Before we learn new things, it is important to unlearn a few things. Not all choices are bad, but eventually you can only narrow down on one. It would not be easy, but new situations teach you new things. And it is very important to approach these things with a clean slate. Walking around with an outdated idea in mind will not let you accept the new ideas. At times the old idea can be modified to accommodate the new idea, but some letting go off is needed. Som

I don't know about you all, but I do have a favorite font that is always my default font on all documents. Yeah, call me silly if you want to but 'Trebuchet MS' is a font that I've been in love with since I was a child. This is the default font on my emails, word and excel documents as well as my notepad. There is something very clean about this font. Every letter gets the correct width and it is very easy to read. It looks professional and playful at the same time. Since I'm an IT slave, I'm involved in creating and updating a lot of documents. No matter what the font used earlier is, I always changed it to Trebuchet before I start working on it. You might consider this an a OCD quirk, but this is something that is very important to me. The only thing that I hate about my iPhone is that I cannot change the font used in it. A single document with different fonts troubles my eye. I don't know what people were thinking when they prepare professional docu

There is something very endearing about simplicity. Too much of complications will always lead to well, complications. I try to keep everything around me as simple as possible. I am a no nonsense person. I do not complicate anything nor do I like getting into something complicated. Right from my style, to my writing, to my cooking; I try to keep everything as simple as possible. Nothing hurts my eye more than over complicated fashion sense. I have seen girls try to wear a jacket, with multiple neck pieces and hand accessories and heels and what not! Why not wear a single piece of everything and just keep it simple? I'm not the one who likes accessories much. A nice branded watch is the only accessory I need. My sense of style is simple too, jeans and a top. I do not like wearing scarves, jackets or any additional thing. It's not that I cannot carry it off, I just do not want to carry it off. When it comes to writing, I have seen simplicity go for a toss. Nothing ruins r

If I'm talking about me then there is no way that I would not talk about relationships. And by relationships I do not mean only the one that is between a boy and a girl. In our day to day lives we develop so many relationships. Some last forever while some just drown even before it begins. Relationships have influenced me a lot till date. Thanks to the ups and downs in my life I now know what relationships have survived the test of time. Throughout the course of life, you become a part of many relationships. Some by choice and some by blood. No matter what the relationship is, it needs to be nurtured from both the ends. Only then will it survive. People play around a lot when it comes to relationships and take advantage of each other. There should be no place for ego in a relationship. Once ego comes in, every thing else automatically goes out. When my first relationship ended, I learnt a lot from it. It took me more than three years to get over a relationship of three years.

I like people who stand out from the ordinary. There is something so attractive about such people. I'm not talking only with regards to fashion here, but also in terms of personality and thoughts. Growing up I've seen people following the crowd desperately and yet expecting to get noticed. How is that ever going to happen? When your aim is to blend in the back ground how do you expect to stand out? I recently read an article in a magazine about women who were termed "Quirky". One was Sapna Bhavnani , the hairstylist with colored hair, tattoos and piercings. Next there was Aditi Mittal , the stand up comedian who likes to wear large glasses and make people laugh. There also was Kalki Koechlin , the unconventional looking buck-toothed actress who talks her mind when it comes to social issues. All these women were called quirky just because they decided to do something out of the ordinary. Some people think that quirk means weird. They cannot be more wrong. Quirk

I haven't written her in so long There seems to be a void in my heart No matter what I choose to write about She and I can never be long apart Words do come to me everyday They sing to me as I go to bed I have no time to string them together They just make a home on my head Some of them are light as feathers While most of them just weigh me down I'm trying my best to give life to them Yet they stay on like a permanent crown Image Source They need an outlet I understand But then, so do I With all the "about me" talks going on How could I just let her die She and I are bound together Making a tune out of a random word We choose our emotions carefully Eliminating negatives from the herd She gave me the strength to write Showed me feelings in myriad hues Now I have to celebrate her It is time I paid her my dues Without her I wouldn't exist I miss her and her perfect rhyme I tried to stay away

I did not realize that I had OCD until someone pointed it out to me years ago. I liked doing things in a particular way and I thought everyone was like that too. Turns out, I was wrong. Some people are okay with the way things around them are placed and they don't care two hoots about it. But I am different. I like things arranged in a particular fashion and when that changes it troubles me. Some times so much that I leave all the other work and sit down to set the arrangement right. Hey, it is important to me. As far as I know I keep my OCD to myself and do not try to impose it on others. I do all the OCDish tasks myself as I know only I can do it the way I want it to be done. My husband was aware of this streak in me while we were dating, but he found out the extent of it only after we were married! I'm listing a few things here that I'm very particular about. ~ Monday's are very important to me. I wear only white to work on Mondays as I need a clean start to

Since I'm an emotional fool , I can never say "No" to most of the people I know. At least I was like that until some time ago. Everybody loved me back then when I was the person who was always there for people and saying a "Yes" to every plan. Now that I think of it, I had a lot more friends then too. Maybe it was because I was a good person or maybe it was only because I was always accessible. It took me quite a while to realize that people are actually taking advantage of me. I was never a high maintenance person, I'd be okay with anything. But when people started cashing in on this, I realized that I was actually being a pushover. Yeah, me. Shocking, isn't it? That is when I realized that it is not really a bad thing to say "No" once in a while. I found out the true colors of most of friends once I started doing that and it is now safe to say that they no longer are a part of my life. It is always good to adjust a bit and be accommodat

I turn thirty in August and apparently most of the people around me have magical powers to hear my biological clock ticking. I'm in my fourth year of marriage now and child free. At times I'm not even sure if people actually sympathize with me or are envious of me. As a child when we used to play house-house, I always chose to be the lady with no baby. Most of my friends would bring their dolls and treat it like their baby, but I always wanted to be a non-mother. The only way these "babies" could make their way in to my "house" was only if I invited their "moms" over. Long story short, I did not want to have a baby even back then. Even if it was only a game. Before people jump into conclusions, let me tell you this; I actually do like kids. I am a very good aunt to my nephews and nieces and recently my tiniest friend gave birth to the tiniest niece and I'm so in love with her already. I love kids who are naughty and bratty. Silent and wee

If you have known me even for a brief time you would know that I need my space no matter what. I'm not the one to interfere in anybody else's matters and I except the same from others too. ' Live and let live ', is a really simple concept but none of us follow it. We live in a world where everyone has to judge everyone and encroach one an other's space as often as possible. I absolutely hate it when someone tries to make decisions for me or tries to give me unnecessary advice. I love my life and the way I live it. I do not bother anyone with anything. I am a financially independent woman and I choose to live my life the way I want without having to ask anyone for anything. But that's not the only thing live and let live is about. Nothing drives a rift among friends like interference. Yes, friends do have a say in a few aspects of life but not all. They should not make decisions for you or try to impose something on you. Space is the most important thing in

Personally, I'm not someone who likes to have a lot of friends. I believe that more the number of people around you, more the chaos. I choose to have a small number of friends and I absolutely love it that way. I do not talk to all of them everyday, but I know that they will be there for me no matter what. A normal day for me starts by 7 in the morning with cooking and cleaning, followed by office, then back home, a few hours of reading/writing and then back to cooking and cleaning. I already am struggling to manage my several hobbies with the limited time I'm blessed with, and a few people I know complain that I do not stay in touch with them. And by people I mean random people, not even friends! Social media has bridged the communication gap for most of us, but I wouldn't call liking someone's post as staying in touch with them. Someone actually told me this once that they like all my stuff on Facebook but I don't return the favor as I do not want to stay in

As much as I love talking, one thing I hate the most is justifying. When you are an honest person with off beat choices, people expect you to explain every move of yours. I have hated explaining myself since I was a child. I'm a realist and being very practical, I tend to do things in a different way. Most people consider me foolish for doing this but my heart and mind have enough reason to do so. If it works, they ask me to justify the path I chose. If it doesn't work, they ask the same thing. Why? I am a normal human being with a sensible head on my shoulders. I have the capacity to make decisions and stand by it. If others doubt it, then I think they need to question themselves as to why they doubt it instead of asking me to justify it. My parents don't ask me anything. They never demanded any explanations when I got home late after college or work. They trusted me and let me be. But I have seen ample cases where in one is expected to justify every move of theirs.

We Indians are a crazy lot. And our mentality is something else altogether. Although I haven't met people from many nationalities, I've traveled enough to know some of them. When I compare their mentality and behavior with us Indians, we clearly rank really low. Of course I'm not speaking for everyone and about everyone in India here. I'm just talking about a few obvious examples which made me feel like we Indians still have a lot to learn and behave cultured. Once I was travelling back to India from Ghana, where I was working for a month and I had a stop over at Dubai for four hours. Dubai airport is like a magical palace and I just love roaming around it. After picking up a few items from duty free, I headed towards the lounge for getting some rest. The lounge was almost full and I managed to find a chair for myself and tried to get some sleep. I had barely shut my eye when I heard someone shouting. I then saw an Indian woman shouting at a foreigner lady for sit

I am a Jill of all trades and the only thing that is stopping me from becoming a master of them all is the golden excuse: Time . I normally am a very hyper person who just cannot sit quiet and has to do something all the time. When my husband is around that something is mostly talking. Both of us are great conversationalists and we end up sitting and talking non-stop most of the time. But since he moved to a new job a few months back, I'm home alone for a couple of hours every evening once I return from work. This is the time when I'm at my busiest. Even as a child, I loved to be left alone at home every now and then. I absolutely cherish the lone time that I get for myself and it can only happen when I'm home alone. If there is someone at home then I inevitably end up talking to them. When I was young I would finish school/college and come back home by early evening. Both my parents and my sister were working so I had the entire house for myself. It was such a fun ti

Since my parents are pretty broad minded, I did not feel the generation gap much while growing up. Although they had their own set of assumptions and beliefs, nothing was imposed on us. They understood that times are no longer the same and they grew up with us as parents. They did not stay in the 80s while we were in the 2000s. But I did have quite a few friends whose parents were clearly from another era. They expected their kids to wake up in the morning before six, take a bath, pray to God and only then continue with the day. Six pm was the maximum time till when they could stay out. They were expected to wear certain clothes and not do anything fancy like roam around or spend time in coffee shops. I'm not talking about girls alone here. Some boys too were victims of the generation gap. Why am I talking about this suddenly? Well, today I wore my favorite pair of ripped jeans and was headed out when quite a lot of people in my apartment gave me dirty looks. I smiled at them

This show first aired in 1994 and I only started watching it in the early 2000s. While growing up, there were only two channels on TV and that itself was considered a luxury then. When cable TV became affordable, I learnt the concept of English sitcoms. I do not recall the first ever episode of FRIENDS that I saw, but I remember falling head over heels in love with it. Earlier they showed just one episode a week and I had to wait for a whole week after that. Most importantly, due to the western concept and kissing being shown on screen I couldn't watch this in front of my parents. Soon, dad got us another TV for our room and I was thrilled. But still I had to wait for a whole week to watch a new episode. Internet was considered a luxury too back then. I used to save money and go to cyber cafes to read about the show. I read almost everything about all the cast members and I continued to watch the re-runs of the show. Soon CDs became popular and we bought a computer at home ju

If you are an eightees kid, then the only dream that your parents would have had is to watch you grow up to be a doctor or an engineer. And if you come from a lower middle class family, the only option you have is to pursue engineering as medical fees are not for the faint hearted. Back then in the early 2000s, engineering was considered so big thanks to recent IT boom. Other fields like arts and commerce were for those who barely managed to scored. Engineering was meant only for the creme de la creme, as it was considered to be very tough to even get a seat, let alone study it. Today, social media is the new rage and we have digital marketeers, designers, influencers etc. Back then, these were alien terms. And unless and until you were an engineer or studying to be one, you were looked down upon. 2004 was the year for me to start graduation. Since 2002 I was preparing to get a free engineering seat. I was a pretty good student so I was not the one to sit and study morning, noon

I turn thirty this August and it is more than safe to say that most of the people I know this age, are parents by now. We all have heard of the societal rule book where one should get married by twenty four and have any number of babies by the time you turn thirty. Almost all the people I know have followed this rule to the tee. But for me, a baby has never featured on my priority list. Do not get me wrong, I do not hate babies. I like them a lot, in fact. But I have never really wanted to have one of my own someday. And this is what I think until now. Will I change my mind later? You never know. Since I know a lot of parents, old and new, most of their conversations revolve around their children. You might be in a large group of ten people with three parents among them and yet most of the conversations would revolve around babies and everything else associated with them. I was once out for lunch with a group of my lady friends and all they spoke about was their children. They di

For someone whose list of favorite movies include 'The Godfather' and 'The Shawshank Redemption', chick flicks are an eye sore. Yeah, that's me. I am a big movie buff and I have to watch at least a couple of movies in the theater every month. I also like to go back to my hard disk and pick some from my movie collection during weekends and watch it over a glass of wine. But no matter what the situation is, I would never "want" to watch a chick flick. Being a girl some people are shocked when I tell them I do not like to watch movies like 'Miss Congeniality' and '27 Dresses'. But that's the truth. I find these movies to be really stupid and hard to digest at times. To start with, I hate the term 'chicks'. I think it is offensive to women. And to chicks. Likewise, I hate being called 'babe' too. When someone used this word I have an image of a cute little pink pig on my mind and not a curvaceous woman. I know of a lot