Tuesday, November 17, 2009

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This is a reminder that on October 22, Nidhi Thakkar sent you an invitation to become part of their professional network at LinkedIn.

> To: [purplevioletsplash.nidhi@blogger.com]
> From: Nidhi Thakkar [nidhithakkar@gmail.com]
> Subject: Let's stay in touch on LinkedIn

> I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.
>
> - Nidhi

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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Reminder about your invitation from Nidhi Thakkar

LinkedIn

This is a reminder that on October 22, Nidhi Thakkar sent you an invitation to become part of their professional network at LinkedIn.

Follow this link to accept Nidhi Thakkar's invitation.

https://www.linkedin.com/e/isd/813215877/9qZ0m3I7/

Signing up is free and takes less than a minute.

This is a reminder that on October 22, Nidhi Thakkar sent you an invitation to become part of their professional network at LinkedIn.

> To: [purplevioletsplash.nidhi@blogger.com]
> From: Nidhi Thakkar [nidhithakkar@gmail.com]
> Subject: Let's stay in touch on LinkedIn

> I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.
>
> - Nidhi

The only way to get access to Nidhi Thakkar's professional network is through the following link:

https://www.linkedin.com/e/isd/813215877/9qZ0m3I7/

You can remove yourself from Nidhi Thakkar's network at any time.


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© 2009, LinkedIn Corporation

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Let's stay in touch on LinkedIn

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- Nidhi

Confirm that you know Nidhi Thakkar

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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

So much to say!

Last few weeks have been eventful and path breaking. News in chronological order:

a. Two months ago I had taken the GMAT, right before I resumed work from my no pay leave and I had dine miserably. I felt dizzy and blanked out. This kind of weirdo stuff has never happened to me so my world had come crashing down. Negativity loomed and I took refuge in edgy rock music.

b. Two weeks after on 31st July, my best friend, my best friend in the whole wide world left my world-only locally/physically and went to Philly to pursue her PhD. I was so concerned if she was ok and happy when she left, that I didn't cry. I talk to her every other day and I am doing okay but I miss her in the small things everyday.

c. I resumed work to find, all hell had broken loose, really crappy projects left untaken for me to take on, my leave and pay calculation whopped. My mom still broke down ever so often and I took it in my stride only to be a demon in my relationship. Somehow, I picked fights everyday for everything.
KEY MSG: messed up time of my life

d. On the insistence of some angels and some panic setting in within I blocked another GMAT date. I will spare the details and just say that I went and gave it my best shot aaaand **drum roll** I got a 680. It's not an Awesome score but it's a good/ great score! I'm sticking with it.

e. My most latest phase is the application phase, it's hectic but good hectic. Works picking up and honestly I am not focusing too much on it cause there is other stuff m looking forward too.

f. The sun is beginning to shine and there is a spring in my stride. I just completed 3 years of being together in a relationship! That's a Big deal! So it's looking up! :)

Today was good, I made friends with the cutest kid on the bus to work and I am now going to stop en route home 4 my hair cut appointment. Sober clean or funky drastic??? That is the question!

Excited!
-PVS

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Passive recipient

Music training has given me a new lease on life. So much so that I'm probably planning to initiate a music appreciation club. ( M super excited abt this! Elaborate another time) what has happened however is increasingly, Im hardly writing. Ever since I was 16 I have been accoustomed to penning down my thoughts. The bend to music to find solace instead, has snowballed. This may not be a healthy change, I think it's nice to create something of ur own - prose, poetry or song that has come out from within you in your inspired moment. Inspired thru joy, pain or ponder it's ur very own! I'm going to try n go back to that cycle, and start creating. Maybe right a song! y not? So cheers to that!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

its been a month

I lost my Dad on 10th of May 2009. No mater how much you know and see it coming nothing can prepare you for this. My state of mind, I cant put in words. I want to believe he is here with me inside me, I talk to him sometimes but its spooky that he never walks in through the door. I see him everywhere, I can hear him in my ear, I want to wish him good morning and tell him that I love him. I hope he knows.

Its weird that this is the first time I am writing about this. 7 mins is all it takes for your world to change, the pillars come down in crashing in on you. You look at your mom, her loss much greater than yours and you pick yourself up, you believe you have. Its just both of us now Mom and I, strong and weak together, we will make it through, we will. 

Have I stopped questioning God. Now, its mellowed down. But I still cant fold my hands and pray in gratitude. I want to believe Ill see why someday, but I cant.

Its blurry as I look on. I know I should i just need to go one step at a time, but I dont know which side to head. I dont know if I am doing the right thing - playing the joker, playing the pester-er, playing the philosopher, playing a parent to my mom - yet sometimes pretending to sleep in her lap, just to be there as i lie awake thinking.

I wish he was here with me right now, Id be tucking him to bed, as we would chat about things insignificant for about 5 mins before he goes to sleep. We were happy, our world of 3.

I wanted inspiration to write, look what hes thrown at me.

UNTITLED

The world was calling with open arms, as I walked straight on to it,
With fire in my eyes and a mind to guide, to me there was no stopping

The spring in my walk, the twinkle in my eye,  the signs all alive by a promise-
Go on little one, venture your own, just look behind we will be standing by

I trudged along and fast made progress, I hope I looked back enough
To see and hug and thank you to make me see so much

Then one day I lost you and nothing has ever been the same
I try hard to move ahead but you see Iv forgotten  the game

I close my eyes and think of you and remember the words you'd spoken
I see you are here within me, your promise is not broken

With time I will rise and walk again, 
And smile right through the pain
With time you will see, when your here with me, 
I will master the world for thee.

Good night dad, I love you.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Bite 1 : my birthday!!

My birthday was very nice..I guess with age I am getting comfy with myself, you know, no pangs with the way I look, with the way I am, I have reached a comfort zone with myself. Yes, I am trying to do a lot of stuff all at once, headed in too many directions, but I am at peace with chaos, complete acceptance: thats who I am. As I write this on the 16th March, I think I can take a step further and safely say, that I like me the way I am. Sure I kick myself, for breaking mind promises made to self, but Id much rather be me. Guess that makes sense in a way.

So anyway, predictably, my silly billy best friend came over with Varun at midnight! yay! The surprise was ST who showed up, with his gang, our gang actually, so we were digging into 2 cakes ( one they got and one my parents) with chips and music and giggle, they left at 2 in the morning! I did the dishes and went to bed. HIGHLIGHTof segment one of 23rd birthday: I got a Worldspace - Shal and ST gifted me one! super super gift!!! :)

Got up, got ready and rushed to office. Worked quickly and cut a cake at work that my sweetest colleagues got. Then as per plan went for Lunch with ST. We decided to head to Joss, for some reason I thought they do oriental cuisine as well as pasta!! Turns out they don't, I had only eaten it in a banquet function there, but the walk in restaurant doesn't do it. The menu: was BORING. Black and white printed on yellow old paper stuck on red cardpaper so that it has a red border jutting out. No dish had a name, instead each item on the menu was a description of itself. For example: Exotic Vegetables with Water chestnut tossed in oyster sauce. THATS the NAME of the Dish!! So basically, I dint want to eat my birthday lunch here! After drinking two glasses of water, I walked up to the manager and said sorry but we want to excuse ourselves, I wanted to eat Pasta and thought that's what this place served. The sweet fella took no offence and we ran out: I wanted to go to the nearby: ALL STIR FRY ( same ol, no birthday exclusivity here)

It is critical to note at this juncture that at work I am allowed  a 90 mins  lunch break and I was down by 40 mins by now, I can safely guess.

Mysteriously, we get lost in Colaba, the lane you turn into to go to All Stir Fry is missing, add to that a lot of no entry and one ways, 20 mins pass and I start to hyperventilate a little, a little haggle haggle happens ( " I am trying to find the place! please relax, don't scream!" " you don't understand, I have to go back soon, All my mistake should have stuck to Joss") and then, TADA we see it!!
With the precise order in mind, I order my dim sums and share my khau sway : delicious. Vijay the friendly waiter, sings happy birthday to me, gives me a happy birthday card and I get a complimentary piece of brownie from the chef!

Vijay's charms made me forget to keep track of time and I am suddenly jolted to reality with a call from office, my favourite agency, Tribal DDB, has been waiting for 15 mins now for a 3 o clock appointment! SHIT! Super hyperventilation kicks in, which is accelerated with my boss's call. Leads to an accident ( no ones hurt) by ST and I somehow make it back to work after 2.5 hours! I am so ashamed and embarrassed!! Break into shpeel of apologies and to make matters worse my agency has got me a cake!!!

Alls well that ends well and the day ends well, Iv missed about 90 birthday calls, my battery is dying with the number of calls I'm getting. Here Id like to highlight that: Social Networking has taken the romance out of birthdays!! Random acquaintances have remembered my birthday this year ( statistically i had a jump of 300% in the no. of calls this year in comparison to last year) and the sad bit here is that I didn't appreciate the gesture, I know they just logged on to Facebook today and hence I got the call!

So I run and come home asap! My parents want to sample food at Aromas of China, I tell them of course I am good with Oriental food, whatever they like ( Shucks! I just had it this morning). So, Switch off my phone and go for a great quite dinner with my parents.

SOOO good birthday!!

Next day I get a big cake delivered at the office, a blast from the past residing in another country sent it to me! So the total count of birthday cakes is 5!! :)

I realise, I cant really keep things straight, I could have written the above day in 5 lines or 50, I always choose the higher word limit!! Pls don't ZZZZZZ, the better part of Feb is yet to come, this time with photos!! Watch this space, Ill write soon.

Love,
PVS

P.S - If you are watching this space, Please tell me what you think of it, or just tell me that you are, I don't know if anyones reading here!!!!!!!!

fabulous feb

Feb was great! :) great birthday, 2 trips back to back, both so different from each other, interesting projects coming throughat work, had the websites launch party and finally bit my lip and got into prep mode!

While I have not been able to update the blog, what I have learnt is that my blog is very verbose, just like its author. I cant not write, but i can relay it in bite size posts, so the following posts shall cover the month, slowly and gradually.

Please do carry on reading!

Love,
PVS

Thursday, January 29, 2009

pre Birthday weekend

TGIF! Dad came home the day before, so thats good, life is back to normal. Normal does not = good. But but but Its my birthday in 4 days..so I am keeping my fingers crossed, it'll be a turn to a better year.

On Friday, the 6th of FEb we are planning to host a little do the occassion is a announcing the launch of our site. My boy friend ST( remember it, I feel weird writing my boyfriend all the time), another friend and I have been working for about 6 months now ( Me not full time, its STs baby actually, I am doing alll that I can to help ) and the site is finally going to be up and running. I dont want to go into details just yet, give me a week and Il put up an EXCLUSIVE post on the site. Its a smash hit, i tell ya.

So besides work, (I work in a destination marketing company full time, thats my job the website venture is the SIDE element ya?) thats gettinga little too much to handle. I am already party planning. The party will be on the terrace of a really nice apartments, right next to the beach..good music, booze, food and a lot of chit chat. We want to have a projector, projecting the " take a tour" caricature bar of the site, so people know. We are expecting about 80 - 90 pax. A lot of things pending:

1. Music equipment hire 2. Projector 3. Catering 4. Invite and Inviting 5. Name Cards 6. Liquer List 7. seating, lighting and set up

Im hosting a do after sooooo long, Iv lost alllllllll my party organisation skills! Yesterday, while discussing details I got super excited and defensive and I ended up fighting with ST and it became a huge draining fight that lasted till 1 am! Thats when I started having doubts if its a good thing that Im a part of this or not, cause instead of help and support, we are breaking each others spirit when we are all stressed out. I am scared it will end up affecting my relationship in the bargain.

You know, you can condition yourself to an extent but ultimately you cant fake, your true you is bound to come out! You know I am "AAAAAAAAAAA" wacko person, so no matter how much I condition myself to be a " Hmm" "Ah" person, ultimately the wacko "AAAAAAAAAA" takes over! Shit, I am so drained emotionally.

So anyway, Il just trudge along and close on a lot of things this weekend. Rest well, watch a movie maybe, birthday grooming is a HIGH necessity! My feet look so ugly, I think i heard them chant " pedicure, pedicure, we need a pedicure last night while I was asleep" and shop maybe splurge, I dont care cause its Birthday week the whole citys on sale anyway!

Friday, January 23, 2009

My rockstar dad and my own milky way

The last 2 and a half days have been crazy. Had to rush out on Wednesday from office, when I got a call from mom, saying dads admitted and situation is critical. They were to go for some tests in the morning to the Oncology department and see why he has been running out of breath and feeling so tired! Turns out he has got a severe case of Deep vein thrombosis, which means that there was a blood clot- 3 actually 1 in his leg and 1 in each of his lungs! this happened in a matter of 4 days and if we were even a day later than we were, it would have spelt serious trouble. He was admitted in the ICU and given Clot-blaster drugs. This is one of the nasty side effects of the drug that he takes to keep his illness ( multiple myeloma) in check. The thing with these drugs that fight cancer is that the drug itself are so strong to kill the bad cells that they affect the good cells and the body too.

My Dads a rockstar, he has fought the disease for 2 years after his transplant and the ugly head has shown up again these last 6 months. He will be discharged soon, be a good boy and rest for 15 days and follow instructions, as he has promised and in 2 months when the drug dose is over he will be fine again, the disease will be in control again for a loooooooong time. I don't just say that i BELIEVE it will be. He is a fighter!! So is my Mom, the darling who has bound us all together.

Sorry this is sounding like such a sob family drama..m just a lil drawn in by the atmosphere! ok ok Im going to snap out it! **SNAP** **SNAP** Soooooooo todayyyy after work I am going to stop by the hospital and my popular dad has soooo many people around him that tonight I am not required, its Nehas birthday so Im going to drop in wherever they are celebrating and say hi before I head home. I'm contemplating a book that I should buy for her..maybe Il get a generic book or a book of heart warming story on the triumph of human spirit Zzzzzzzz

Its amazing how much you can observe at the Hospital while Ur waiting in the ICU waiting room, it has these contextual analysis of human nature, responsiveness, resistance, fear, acceptance, joy and relief at times too. I wish I had a camera to capture so much that i saw. I have two whole days to snap way. Il upload some to show you what I mean.

I want to end on a positive note so these are the happy things:
1. dads getting better
2. Although the weekend will be spent in the hospital, Monday is a Public Holiday! The Republic day as usual Il sleep through the morning, when the soldiers will be parading outside the Red Fort at New Delhi. Im so Shameless. tsk tsk
3. Rahman is nominated for 3 Oscars! YAY! ABOUT TIME.
4. I found an old flame on facebook! I wonder how he is now, we are going to talk soon. Read: curiosity
5. Work wise 2 great great projects are picking up, MY PROJECTS. I am OIC ( Officer in Charge duh!) a 6 month online initiative - an online reality show :) and a TV and print campaign with a big partner agent.
6. I am going to do some research on musicology., I really want to study Music, The MBA plan stands i guess but I really want to study music, I have been looking for a vocal teacher, not because i want to be a good singer, but i want to dedicate that time to my passion. It will be therapy for me.
7. My fitness levels are not as bad as i thought, I could sprint walk and jog distance "d" in time "t" that i had set, I am going to work more on it and get fitter. Pinky Swear.
8. My birthday is coming sooooooooon, I am convinced its going to be a great year I cant wait, O and my best friend Shal, for my birthday is going to stick the glow in teh dark sars and moons and comets on my ceiling, so that i lie under the stars from now on! Ooooooo i cant wait!!!!!

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Happy Sad Ending

Absolutely Manic Monday yesterday. The weekend was fairly non active. Saw a pathetic Bollywood movie on Friday, cant wait for Slumdog Millionnaire to release soon. Got myself a "wedding dress" and studied a bit on Saturday. Had coffee with my munchkin, my best friend on Saturday night, we spoke of our mutual woes in a fairly philosophical way and Sunday, I was a good family member and met with an Aunt who visited us from LA and gave us updates on my various cousins i had no idea about and spoke of the recession in the Us and the Obama hope, I politely excused myself at night and caught this almost delightful play called "Jake's Women" completely star studded turn out, the artsy whose who, anyway Il refrain from gossip and get back to Monday.
The thing about my Mondays off late is that I am quite Non-Motivated to come to work, the tourism industry is not doing well, we have seen some major budget cuts affecting our Marketing plans, I'm still getting used to dealing with my new boss and its just not a happy scene. The travel struggle hasn't got any better( O FYI: I travel through challenging, weathered infrastructure for an hour an a half each day to come to work, that 3 hrs total each day of my precious life. I dont want to start multiplying the no. of days i have been travelling and get into a different sad loop here) so basically there wasn't a spring in my step this Monday. And then i began to over pressurise myself to shake the feeling and that led to a viscous cycle and it led to a fight with my boy friend!
But I am going to start working on "positive". I accept that i need to tranquilize myself. I finally started reading Atlas Shrugged this weekend, which has added the whole question, rebel, think and rethink and over think to my already similarly inclined frame of mind. But I cannot stop reading it. To sooth my nerves, i solemnly swear that the next book i read will be "The Secret". I promise not to be suspicious about it and to accept and willingly try to accept. Its worked for a lot of people I have been told. Strangely though I have come across anyone who says - "It worked for ME" (Devil: God i hate self help books, Angel: Try it it will work for you) ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH lets see how it goes.

At the moment though, I cant wait to read the next Chapter of my current book.
Who is John Galt? ;)

Friday, January 16, 2009

I slipped again. My bad :(

I am such a sicko. I slipped again, why do i have to be such a procrastinator. Start everything, "gung ho" and then see it fizzle out. OK confession time, I started teaching children at this street childrens school every Saturday, went for 3 Saturdays then I went to Singapore last December, for work and havent gone back since.

Confession 2, after 6 months of dedicated Yoga class i havent enrolled for this month, I tried to self teach and it worked! But I dont even do that anymore, I just sleep in the morning barely get up to give myself enough time to get ready and get ready and run, I come home at 9 after work, BUT i dont study, just watch the tele and sleep!

I am feeling terrible, maybe its just a phase eh? Ill shrug and it will be alright!!! (( See I am such a positive thinker! haha)

OK happy thoughts!! I am going for Dagas wedding to Kolkatta!! 13 - 15th Feb and then I have to come back for this stupid roadshow on the 18th which is "my project" 19th I am off to Delhi for Shwetas wedding, I am sooooo excited! Bharnis coming and we are going to himachal, Dharamshala and we will see the Golden Temple too!!! :) This time I am going to document the journey, I wish I was a good photographer, that I knew "technique", then I could capture all those moments and make a photo journal.

I was thinking maybe I could borrow someones video cam and make my own show reel and send it to T&L or Natgeo..Iv always wanted to. Will just do an impromptu and make a fool of myself probably.

Haan, now for these weddings that I am going to ya. I need to be all "dressed" which means MORE expenses. I am looking for a good designer: read CHEAP. Whats all the fuss anyway? I mean I am invited right? So just have me the way I am jeans, fab India eth all..But i get these jaw dropping expressions when i suggest. So ya my budget is 5 K meeting a few of them this weekend.

So action plan for this weekend:

1. Get pipingo name cards printed
2. GMAT prep
3. Freeze on cocktail and shaadi dresses ( what a waste!)
4. Sort out Internet connection at home
5. Find a teacher to teach me vocals, Bandra should have some right?
6. But a pair of Jeans from that Outfits place
7. Research on B school application deadlines.
8. Spend time with mom and dad
9. O and try and go and teach ( i am just scared they will say get out we dont wantyou. so Iv been too scared to face them and haven't been going.) But i am going to go speak to them again and tell them how and why what happened and that it MAY happen again!
10. Avoid multiple rounds of dessert