AIM HIGH!

Serendipity

2012-01-16T14:04:00.001+06:00

It's been quite a while since I blogged last time, and during this time I got a few requests from my international friends about my writings. "What the hell is going on with you? You've become less active on social media, you stopped blogging, are you OK?"

It's awesome and fantastic how nowadays friendships have evolved and how we "measure" them. One of my Nigerian friends used to say that people who are very active on different e-platforms seem to be very extrovert ... virtually. Whereas when you come to know them face-to-face they tend to stay in a shadow and they are pretty much introverts. I guess I would agree with him (and disagree at the same time) - just looking at myself I feel I can find a whole life there "in the web net", and still, I looooove interacting with awesome personalities whom I meet on the way. Plus, in 2011 I continued my lifetime friendship with Books :) I read books about everything and everywhere. Each morning next to my pillow I would find a pile of books that would make my mornings, keep me in tension till I get home, and some little brochures that I take to the office while loading web pages on my system.

So where was I these months, to be precise from Oct 2011 up to Jan 2012? Still here, in Holy India :) I've been roaming here and there, I've become more relaxed and explored new feelings and desires towards this !ncredible country, I cherished and enjoyed most of all those divine moments with my colleagues (aka friends), with ACErs across India. I kept on constant travelling: so I finally made it to Munnar which is a hill station covered in dozens of infinite green tea plantations. Elephant rides that we took there were topped with fun, laughter and awe-experience (did you know that an elephant peeps about 5l of urine and it looks like a tap water?!). Kochi with its warm sunsets and delicious Kerala food which we dreamt of once we were back to Chennai. Then a long awaited trip in November 2011 to one of the oldest holiest places in the whole world - Varanasi. The town or rather a holy place is one of the pilgrimage spots for Hindus and it gets most of the Hindu attraction during Diwali (one of the most respectful and significant Hindu celebrations across the world). However, on Diwali I stayed in Chennai and this time it was of no difference for me as it was a Diwali in 2010 I've seen in Hyderabad. In fact, it was continuously raining that day in Chennai, so I was not fond of going out, and most of my close Indian friends would leave Chennai for visiting their families in the Northern India. Surprisingly, I find Diwali similar to our New Years (in CIS region) - we pay as much attention and dedicate hours of preparation time for it as Indians (read Hindu) do for Diwali.

I also visited Mumbai in October due to work reasons, and it was a marvellous trip. Every time I get to Mumbai, I get this hyper-mode feeling that I can conquer the world :) What I mean is that Mumbai is so hectic, you rush for everything and nothing, you enjoy slow walks in the suburbs or dropping by shopping areas in Collaba, south of the city, actually awake in you a giant feeling of "The World is so AWEsome!" ... Mumbai, I am so weak in front of you!

December was quite. I decided I would not travel much in this month and spend it wisely for last minute things in Chennai. It was my last month and there would be plenty of things I had to do before leaving. My favourite spots such as Thiruvanmiyur beach or Ideal beach resort on the way to Mahabalipuram, where you lazily swing in a hummock, read a book, look at the sea and simply dream. Priceless moments.

Leaving Chennai was a mixture of enigmatic feelings. I've been stunned by so many confessions from different people, I've been made cry when my friends would leave or when I had to say "Bye and See you soon!", I've learnt a few Indian dishes which I am so proud of (by the time I come back home I am planning to host an Indian evening for my family/friends :), I've been falling in and out of love, I've been attracting and pushing people back and forth ... A lifetime experience in India was about to end, and Chennai was to close this outstanding chapter of my life. Chennai had guts to make me feel home. I actually could not believe these words when I said them outloud - I made my living in Chennai successful and full of fun and passion to life no matter if it was too filthy, too humid and hot, too spicy and oily, too inefficient and complacent, too much of whatever I hated it in the beginning!

I came to the same conclusion I've started my life in India - People are one of the most adaptable creatures the world has seen. And if you are willing enough to sacrifice some part of that comfort life you used to have somewhere out there, you will find a beauty of life even in the God's forgotten place like Chennai. After all, I've learnt a bit of one of the world's most complicated languages in the world- Tamil ;)

PS I fall in love with these bits and this voice every time I listen to it. Just thought the song has some close connection to what I am leaving behind me in Chennai ...

Life at the maximum!

2012-01-16T13:11:00.006+06:00

Jan 5th, 2012. Chennai Domestic Airport. En route to Mumbai with 16kg excess luggage. How fancy is that?

The saddest part of this phase of boarding for Mumbai flight was that I had to get rid of some stuff. And since my heaviest stuff were perfect books I read during 2011, unfortunately I had to leave them (and some clothes) in the airport! I shed a tear when an airport assistant took the books off from me, but what to do?

On the plane. With my guitar and loads of bags. Empty hearted and ready to leave as soon as possible. Surprisingly, that evening Chennai pampered its visitors and inhabitants with a good weather. Usually, when I leave places "I wish I could stay a bit more", the weather does not welcome flight conditions and it is either heavily raining or snowfalls delay the flight, and then this is the most boring time in the airport!

I was damn exhausted, so I immediately was off on the plane. Even a veg snack they served on the plane did not taste that delicious the way it was supposed to be.

Mumbai, late evening. Chilly air, honking and Hindi speeches. Splendid. Alas, my heart was there in Thoraipakkam, Chennai with friends and closer to rough waves of the Bay of Bengal.

As always, my phone battery was about to die, and I made last calls to Mumbai friends to meet me. Half an hour later I was at their place. I felt safe. Strange, but this time coming to Mumbai resembled to me as if it was my first time travelling alone and as if I could not utter a word in any of the languages. I was absolutely numbed.

Friends made me feel home. We talked, we laughed, they offered me food and safety. You know that kind of safety that you need the most when you are thrown outside in the middle of nowhere in a very sever winter night, and then all of a sudden you are picked up by a stranger who gives you a shelter and says, "Relax. Everything will be alright." That was me and my condition.

Mumbai happened fast and loud. The way it should. I was warmed up by so many close friends and their love and affection made me feel home. I am home with my family - a bunch of self driven crazy travellers who come to India, leave India, cannot survive back home and come back to India again, who found their loves in the whole lifetime in India and they do not give a shit about how much you earn, what suit you are wearing and which accommodation you choose when you travel. Simple. It is so beautiful about them. I mean their attitudes to life. Simplicity and No Posh style at all. And they are smart. Damn smart. My friends. We are internationally linked with each other, and once we leave each other we fall sick. We lack each other.

Mumbai friends' meet up and Baddis' farewell

Jan 7th, Mumbai Domestic Airport. Flight Mumbai - Jodhpur is delayed by a few hours and Air India does not announce the delay to the passengers. My friend, Nisha and I are still optimistic about our perfectly planned trip to Rajasthan, western India. We will take off today and land for the camel safari ( which we did not book yet :D )

Two hours later we boarded for our flight.
Rajasthan, here we come!

Excel !

2011-10-02T19:49:00.001+06:00

It's not a perfect representation of the thoughts I had on a more or less similar topic that you can see in this video. After all, only I know my thoughts. But it's good to know there is a digital movement happening in introducing Kazakhstan to the world arena.

I have a beautiful idea how to cutify a Kazakhstanodiscovery for future world nomads. I just need the right resources ( like professional software wizards :) Well, yeah, I may sound ambitious but not boasting about the topic :p

PS Sharing old still feelings

Saheb Biwi aur Gangster Experience

2011-10-02T19:14:00.001+06:00

A very good friend of mine had a strong desire to watch a Hindi movie. Of course we decided to pamper ourselves and not to lose an opportunity to hear and see the beauty of Hindi. Granted that we live in the south India, in Tamil Nadu state, which is one of the most conservative states in India, Hindi movie was in a Must Watch list. Though it was my second Hindi movie, I booked tickets for the first movie that got most votes.

After I booked tickets for Saheb Biwi aur Gangster, I watched the trailer... and I was curious. Yes, a very teasing promotion. Yes, I got slightly shocked. Yes, I wanted to see another face of India. Face of modern India that is seldom discussed by my Indian friends/locals in general. Face of India that interests us, as internationals when we ask if there is any sex education for kids in the schools across the country. Finally face of India which was set in a small town in the northern India that provokes (maybe?) a new pattern of people's behaviour... publicly.

The trailer is accompanied by a vibrating Hindi song that immediately enables you to dance. Don't tell me it does not :)

Happy watching :)

A Thing About India

2011-08-11T01:21:00.006+06:00

Live India with every heartbeat.

Live it and Love it. But only when you are Open for India.

These lessons I learnt throughout my 1 year of living and working in India.

On July 25th 2010 I landed at Mumbai airport at 3am hoping there would be somebody to pick me up.

I still remember that night with every tiny detail: loud crowds of short men,women and children staring at an Asian girl looking confused and frightened with her one luggage suit and a backpack. I remember the smell which Mumbai had welcomed me with : the same smell I sensed in summer 2008 in Delhi on my first arrival to India. I remember how I kept on asking locals to help me make a call to AIESEC Mumbai guys and find out where the taxi driver was. I remember that 6 hours later I met one of my future best friends, Ola, who has been so generous and helpful! I just could not understand why she had been so helpful to a stranger - just another intern in India. She would lend me money (I forgot to exchange US Dollars to Indian Rupees in the Mumbai airport), give all her Mumbai maps, encourage to take her cell phone and make necessary calls (in our first weeks of Mumbai madness). I remember I met with Dina on the same day and she had been a great guide and friend sharing hew viewpoints on India, the internship experience and Mumbai as such. I remember my fears, my tears, old and new friends, discoveries, small achievements I'd been proud of, monsoons (Oh My God! Mumbai!), love and hatred...

My inner body and mind remember every single beat of my Hyderabadi life. Meeting so many close friends at AIESEC International Congress 2010, regular travels, cultural cooking evenings, parties, latino dances, my guitar lessons and Toastmaster classes, my awesome colleagues and a big job dissatisfaction, strong support and encouragement of my Kondapur family - Carlos, Areli, Fadel(ina), Kasia, Veronica, ACE family... Lots of things ...

I remember and appreciate the times I had in working with amazing passionate and creative minds in the Global Support Team in AIESEC. We have walked with the team a beautiful leadership path, we have lived our lives being in so many places at the same time: Moldova, Denmark, Turkey, Serbia, Slovakia, Cambodia, Bulgaria, India. The talks we had carry a lot of vital essence: do we really impact ourselves and our organisation? How do we create impact? What is a change and how to manage it?

Change management has been the key thought and action in India so far. I changed Hyderabad for Chennai, I changed Hyderabadi friends for Chennai folks, I changed charming Nizam city for enchanting beaches of the Bay of Bengal and hills of Tamil Nadu, I changed enlightening Kondapur family for a "silent" Canopy family, I changed my first project- Competency Development- to come to Training and HR Deployment and continue working with Competency Development area.

I changed a lot of things and places within one year but I have not changed one core thing yet: Love and Passion for a Great Living.

Closing my first year in India and opening another chapter I am celebrating my FIRST ( or ONE? ) YEAR in India with new friends and I am happy I can be a part of their lives.

I am also asking myself a simple question after this amazingly !ncredible year -

1+1 = infinity

2011-08-02T05:47:00.005+06:00

The summer 2011 kicked off with travels. Tons of discoveries, FUNtastic moments, re-connections with friends I have not seen for a long time, and dancing with I love you, baby . Splendid!

Meanwhile, I was preparing for the ACE Conference. A plain thought of meeting all ACErs in the maximum city Mumbai in the beginning of July electrified me with a driving force, and I was getting online every time I had a chance to keep on working for it. The Conference team was a bunch of professionals: AIESEC did teach us a lot during our active years in AIESEC, and it was a big pleasure to work with such a dynamic flexible innovative team as the one that created the whole concept and fun.

Our Conference team was gender-balanced: current ACE coordinators- Feras, Iryna and Chinedu, Feras's successor, Magda ( lovely Polish! ) and Onur, one of the core idea-generators :) A truly international passionate team!

You know, when an opportunity comes to work with committed fun people I tend to jump not thinking too much of what investment of time and energy it will require for me. Just a plain thought excites me: creating new opportunities for somebody to see him/her shining and discovering while walking a leadership journey!

On June 21st I landed in Mumbai... I arrived at the same multi-opportunistic Mumbai like last year. This arrival was much more to the point: I knew the local language, I knew the routes, I felt more confident and the rickshaws could not rip me off. Right after landing I met with dear Mohamed in one of the coffee cafes, and some time later brave Oksana joined us. Delicious lunch of pasta, magnificent aromas in the cafe we stayed in and long awaited chats with old friends. What a marvellous day!

The next two weeks before the conference buzzed in the air I lived outstanding days with my friends in Powai, Mumbai. Feels like we all created a forgotten sense of home for each other. Dinners we cooked together and then laughter that would break Mumbai tiredness and madness, foolness we would play repeating 'Ba. Bu. My name is Babu" ( Babu in Hindi means something like Dude ), the care and love we would dedicate for each other ... The memories of those two touching my heart weeks have been precious!

Meanwhile, conference preparations cooked of the right ingredients of total dedication, passion, excellence, commitment and fun have energized the whole conference team day by day. A few of us were masters of wicked humor, and some others took notes of those jokes.

June 30th. Not a raining evening at all. ACErs keep arriving to the hotel. Old friends. New faces. Incredible excitement. Our first dinner altogether near the swimming pool. Indian food. Tons of meat that is immediately grabbed by hungry-for-meat ACErs. Yummy desserts. Shyness of somebody. A cautious eye of another one. Talents in engaging with a big crowd of people. Trust. Affection. Love. ACErs.

The next three days were like a roller- coaster. Too fast and too little.

I am extremely grateful to the ACE program for living such an incredible life in India. Grateful to the ACE Conference 2011 for walking a leadership journey together with my team and with the diverse 75 talents from 30 countries.

ACE Conference was a huge highlight of

- Love and Passion

- Commitment and Responsibility

- Creativity and Fun

- Purpose and Action

- Big Picture with tiny black dots

- Carpe Diem

- Confession and Acceptance

- Diversity and Unity

- Professionalism

- Leadership

If you are interested in the ACE program refer to the following links:

AIESEC International Global IS Partner - TCS

Testimonials - Ratan Tata and Yogesh Thakoor

Partnership History

Initiatives

...When you love what you do and you do what you love, you create a room for absolute infinite happiness. I am grateful to a creative loud ACE Family that keeps growing and gets stronger day by day. Thank you all for an amazing opportunity to be a part of your lives! Thank you dear FACI team for all efforts you have put to highlight the most memorable moments of our life changing experience in the ACE programme!

Windmills

2011-07-28T20:13:00.001+06:00

My phone rang. Feras, my hermano, called. After brief warm greetings he asked me, "We are planning to have ACE Conference in the beginning of July. I was thinking of the Chair for it. Would you consider my invitation to lead the conference?"

Lead the ACE Conference ... That is to engage with 70+ ACE interns from 30+ countries, to be an ambassador of one's own country and be united in diversity, to network with TCS colleagues and understand one's place in the corporate world we are in, and of course to indulge into peculiarities of the magical Indian culture. Great opportunity! Of course, I said Yes! to Feras and the ideas of the event jumped into my head.

This conversation happened in the end of April 2011. Two weeks after we agreed to meet with Feras in Trivandrum, Kerala. We both were invited to Leadership Development Institute in Trivandrum to deliver a session on Culture and cultural difference. Business and communication overseas. as a part of a training program for business development/relations managers of TCS. So our weekend agenda was full: session delivery and conceptualising the ACE conference.

However, God likes playing jokes on me as I can see. On May 6th lunchtime I received a call about cancelling my evening flight to Trivandrum because Air India crew were on strike. Nobody knew when it would finish, and nobody knew when they would start operating the flights.

- Ok, could you please find me another flight? I asked casually.

- Not possible, madam. All flights are booked.

- Well, if not Air India, then another airline. There are plenty of them, I repeated, still casually.

- Not possible, madam. All tickets are sold. We don't have any tickets available to Trivandrum, the same monotonous voice replied.

- Ok, are there any tickets from any other place but Chennai to Tricandrum today? I have an urgent meeting this evening and I have to be in Trivandrum. I stopped being casual and tried to show the seriousness of my situation.

- No madam, I repeat, we don't have any tickets to Trivandrum. Neither from Hyderabad or Madurai or from anywhere else.

Call dropped. I looked at the blank screen of my phone trying to understand how I was going to get to Trivandrum. The session was scheduled for the evening, and the next day we were supposed to build the conference agenda with Feras. Well, I said to myself, one way or another, I gotta be there. I went upstairs to my cabin and searched for available flight tickets on the same day, May 6th 2011. The agent was a trustworthy source: there were no tickets at any time on Friday, All the next days tickets' statuses blinked at me winking, "Hey, nobody has bought me yet. Take me, I am yours!" I swore in French and kept on searching for tickets. Then I called Feras but he was already on the plane from Mumbai to Trivandrum. Then I called the coordinator of the training program to inform him about the current situation. We both did not know what to do.

Then I said that I could take a bus and arrive the next day. If the session could be shifted to Saturday noon, I would make it.

- Assel, are you sure you want to come by bus?

- Yes, absolutely.

- Maybe Feras can deliver the session on his own?, the coordinator asked cautiously.

- No worries. Let me book bus tickets online.

Seriously, what's the problem, I thought. It would not be my first time of travelling by bus alone in India. Ok, it's not comfortable at all and more time consuming in comparison with the airplane, but it was an important weekend.

So I went online to book bus tickets. Fail. Then I called Chennai bus stand to book directly from them. The person I spoke too bombarded me with his super proficient Tamil and I could not even utter a word. I called for help from our HR and thankfully she explained to him what I needed. The man asked me to arrive at 7pm to the main bus stand and call him again, he promised me he would get a one way ticket for me.

I called back to Trivandrum office and asked of changing the session for Sat noon. Reassured, I would be there by morning, I left the office and headed to the bus station of Chennai at 5pm. So here is a bit of background information: if you happen to live in Chennai, or to be precise, to work and live in Chennai suburbs like me, you estimate that to get anywhere in the city takes around 1,5- 2 hours. The roads are packed and air pollution blocks every cell on your skin. So here was I on an AC bus hoping to reach the bus stand by 7pm. Luckily, my friend called from Canada and I had to fight on the bus for the place to stand, take care of my bags and talk to my friend. Unforgettable bus battle that ended win-win for me and people around :)

7pm. Asian looking girl in a skirt alone at the evening hour at Chennai bus stand. Quite dangerous, they say. I did not care. I spent 30 mins in searching for a bus ticket to Tirvandrum, damn it, and there were no tickets. Not to Coimbatore, not to Madurai, not to Cochin - nowhere. Good that I knew major cities in Tamil Nadu state. Bad that this knowledge was still unused. Moreover, nobody spoke plain English at the "travel agencies" as they call it and I almost lost hope to find somebody to help me. Then somebody grabbed my hand. It was a tiny guy who asked me, Kerala, Kerala? I said, Yes, Kerala, but Trivandrum in Kerala. Let's go, let's go, and he went straight.

We came to a small airless room where two big guys were counting money. They asked me, Where are you going, madam? Trivandrum. Do you have a spare ticket? We don't have buses to Trivandrum. But you can go to Nagerkoil and from there take another bus to Trivandrum. It's only 80 km far from there. Ok, fine. How much is the ticket?

The bus was supposed to leave in half an hour, at 8pm. Knowing Indian punctuality I relaxed: no need to hurry and worry, the bus would be on time.

On time happened three hours later. Passengers who were going by the same bus were shouting at the guy who sold us tickets, and I was shouting too. I found out that he ripped me off selling me three times more expensive than the actual price.

I crawled onto the bus and immediately turned off. I was so exhausted waiting for the bus in a dusty humid station surrounded by thousand looks of hungry men.

About half an hour later I was woken up by some strange noise. I noticed that all men left the bus in a hurry and only 3 women including me remained in the bus. I looked at the driver's seat but there was nobody, and the bus was still moving. Hallucinations? No, reality. The bus kept on moving and then it bended right! Oh God, I thought we would crash! I slowly got up, took my orange backpack and came out.

- What happened? my voice was trembling.

- No problem, madam. Five minutes, a tiny voice replied.

Ok, here is a rule: when you hear No problem, madam then it means there is a serious problem.

- Why are we not going?

- No problem, madam. The engine is broken.

- How bad is it?

- No problem. Five minutes.

Still could not believe in what happened, I looked around. It was a complete darkness, we were in the middle of nowhere, the passengers were looking at each other. Nice start, I thought. Then I saw a man taking his bag from the bus and rushing towards a car.

- Hey, wait, excuse me, where are you going? I asked him.

- I found a cab, I am leaving.

- Can I go with you?

- Yeaaah, sure thing. He looked at me as if I was insane.

So here I was in the small car with three unknown Tamil men going somewhere to the south of India. I had no information of who they are, which direction we would take and most importantly, when we would arrive. Perfect combination!

I called Feras and to my colleagues to Trivandrum explaining what has happened. They were terrified. They asked me if I trusted the men, and I said I knew nothing about them. But my companions surprised me: they asked me where I was going and why, and then they called their wives and family members to search for a flight for me to Trivandrum. It was almost 1am when we finished online conference call with many people involved solving one person's question.

Hopeless and emotionally exhausted, I fell asleep. Somewhere deep inside I had a big trust to these three men and I had a vision that everything would be alright.

6 hours later one of the men woke me up and called for breakfast. We stopped at Cafe Coffee Day and had a morning capuccino with samosa ( spicy vegetable pastry ). We were about to reach Madurai and then Trichi where one of the men would stay. We agreed that the taxi driver would reach Nagerkoil first and then he would bring me to Trivandrum. We have discussed all the financial questions of this journey and seemed everyone was satisfied with conclusions.

The road from Madurai to the south of Tamil Nadu is picturesque. Friends, if you are big nature lovers this is one of the fantastic roads to take. I have no idea Tamil Nadu is rich of green hills and strong winds. That is why on the very south of the state close to Kerala state border there are plenty of windmills at a distance of 15-20km. One of the men in the car happened to live in the Middle East, so he understood me perfectly - an expat in India.

By 10-11 am we have reached Trichi and a former helpful expat has wished me good luck in delivering the session on time.

Then we moved to Nagerkoil to drop another man. By midday-lunchtime I said Bye to him too, and breathed in happily anticipating a successful end of my endless journey. So we moved north from Nagerkoil and I was enjoying the green scenery of south Kerala. Less than an hour later we stopped.

- What happened? I was totally sure something has happened.

- Police, police. Stop, stop. The cab driver did not possess a good command of English.

- Why police?

- Not register. Car new. Not register.

Oh God! So the police stopped us 40km before Trivandrum and the driver had to pay the fine. I understood that if I stayed it would be another Indian novella, so I paid the driver for the journey and went hunting for any vehicle. The driver, however, asked me to pay more "just because he has to pay the fine I had to pay some part of the fine!" Upset, he looked for another way to get money from me and found me a rickshaw, and then asked money again. The rickshaw driver gave his price for 40km ride: 800 Rs (~ 16USD)

- You must be kidding me, I said, 800 Rs I would pay from Chennai to Hyderabad. But not for 40km distance. Bye.

I walked a few minutes and caught a local bus.

- Excuse me, are you going to Trivandrum?

- Yes, madam.

- How long does it take?

- One hour.

- How much is the ticket?

- 25 Rs ( ~50 US cents)

Perfect!

I reached the Trivandrum office at 2.30 pm. 17, 5 hours took me to reach Trivandrum to a) engage with TCS business managers in a lively discussion of how culture impacts the business nowadays, and b) dream with Feras about the July Maximum event for all our stakeholders.

Friends recommended me to blog about this time consuming and incredible independent trip. Some people asked if I was not afraid to take the risks I'd taken.

Honestly, I did not care if I should be scared or not. I knew only one thing: I have to take a decision in those situations very fast. Time is time, and I would not like to lose it. Finally, there will be amazing stories to tell to my grandchildren :)

... next blog post is about actual ACE conference...

Malaysia

2011-07-27T21:34:00.007+06:00

Kuala Lumpur - Pangkor Island Route

As I was quite exhausted after physically active Sri Lanka trip, I immediately fell asleep on the plane to Kuala Lumpur. Flight was not time consuming and I woke up when we were about to land. First glances on the Malaysian peninsula cast my gut feelings: this trip would impact me tremendously. Well, I said to myself, let's get this done!

First moments and first days in KL are entitled as "Tarzan in the City Jungles". KL ICCT Terminal did not impress me. What impressed me was loud groups of Chinese speaking women wearing short skirts, sleeveless bright Tshirts with scoop neck and extremely high heel shoes who carried a large quantity of fake exclusive hand bags from LV or Armani, children toys, heavy boxes and plenty of other stuff. To add, they'd been very noisy, breaking the line all the time and speaking so loud that my ears started to pain. After harmonious noiseless trekking in Sri Lanka I had been thrown into one of the Asians metro cities. Welcome to Kuala Lumpur :) ! Immigration table. Passport stamped. I am legal here. So far nobody asked me if I am from Japan or Indonesia or the US. Good sign.

I came out from the terminal and went searching for a shuttle to take me to KLLC . As always, I fell asleep on the bus and was woken up one hour later by a Chinese neighbour. He said, We've arrived. Wake up, please. By the way, you look tired. Where have you been? " I'm travelling" "Alone?" "Yes. Is something wrong with it?" "No, no" You know, sometimes I just wonder how Asian men talk. For example, in India a few guys told me ( after not seeing me for some time ) , - Oh, you lost weight. - How nice of you saying this to me , I reply with sarcasm. - No, no, I am sincere. You really lost weight. 6 months back when I met you, you were quite fat. Now you look fresher. What do you do? Dieting? Oh boy. He does not know he is deleted from my memory. I got off the bus and was searching for my friend's boyfriend. Unfortunately, my phone was off and I thought that Vodafone roams automatically. Fortunately, I immediately recognized Aman just because it was obvious: he was searching for somebody in the crowd and I thought it could be me.So, we went to take a subway and a wild zombie named Tarzan rose in me. I totally forgot how to use a modern transportation, forgot that people may ( and can, actually ) not stare at you and you also do not stare at them. Forgot that you do not need to push people to find your way out of the subway station and that you do need to bargain loudly with rickshaw drivers and they do not shout at you back just because there are no rickshaws in KL, and secondly because everything is digitized for simplicity and comfort. On my arrival day and the next day I was still tarzanning. It felt as if I was learning how to take first steps, how to walk properly and not jumping because there might be a bike or an annoyingly honking truck. I was flying and feeling light. First three days in KL were perfect. I had spent a very precious time with my careful friend, Lasma. Lasma painted my staying in Malaysia with all warm colours that exist in the world. Priceless friendship.

First three days were not very much tourist oriented. Yes, we went immediately to Petronas Twin Towers. We were very lucky because that night it was a lunar eclipse and here is a proof :) Lasma encouraged me to try south eastern asian food. I fell in love with Bangladeshi food. Delicious! Thai food left me speechless. Needless to mention that I was gradually falling in love with the scenery, the taste and the drive of magnificent opportunistic KL.Among touristic sites I visited my favourite one is KL Towers. It gives a grande panorama view of the city with an audio guide and history background. Moreover, it educates you on the highest towers in the world such as Ostankino Tower in Moscow, Russia or the Tokyo one. I loved this spot because it stopped my feeling of being a Tarzan: high skyscrapers planted by a hand of an architect left me with relief. There was nothing to feel paralysed or shocked. An ordinary life in an ordinary city.

Apart from structured organised life, I loved KL for its affordability and the sense of comfort. Peaceful moments of reading a book or a journal in a cozy cafe with a fresh brewed coffee and a blueberry muffin, or lying on the grass next to the fountains and viewing the Petronas Towers and imagining you are a bird ... Cherishable moments. In the last two days of Seductive Malaysia trip there was no notion of time. There was Present all the time. There was no Yesterday, no Tomorrow. There was friendship, our sweet dreams, luscious food, amazingly transparent blue oceanic water, beige soft sand of Pangkor island, a sizzling orange sunset, lonely ships in the ocean, a total freedom and peacefulness. ... Seductive Malaysia trip has finished. Saturday noon June 18th I took a flight back to the hottest Chennai, India.In the airport as almost everywhere in KL shop assistants would ask me, Excuse me, are you from Kazakhstan? My jaw dropped several times. First time when I was abroad locals not only recognise my origins but also do possess a substantial knowledge of the country based on the actual facts and not the Borat movie. I probably shall say here that I adore multiculturalism and cross cultural communication, I smile when internationals know nothing about my homeland ( not even its location ) , I feel fine when people say that Kazakhstan is still Russia or China or whatever. It is fine. However, the more I travel and live abroad, the more I appreciate my motherland, the people that live in a multi- ethnical Kazakhstan and the cultures that we bear. But this is probably a topic for another blog post. You can view the pictures from Malaysia trip here

Sri Lanka

2011-07-26T23:24:00.005+06:00

Notification: It is quite a long blog post

One of my friends after visiting Sri Lanka in April 2011 created an album in Facebook named The Pearl of Indian Ocean. He refered to Sri Lanka - a magical mesmerizing island with a rich history of Buddhism and amazingly hospitable inhabitants. I've been there in spring 2011 but due to the busy-ness at the AIESEC conference and an urge to be back in Chennai office, I had not had a glimpse of this lavish land. Moreover, I missed Sri Lankan friends I made at the AIESEC conference. Stuffed and stucked with these feelings, I took a flight to Colombo on June 8th. I was excited to wave to Chennai and with a huge relief I said, 'Be as you are, Chennai. But without me. At least in the next few weeks we wil rest from each other' Couple of hours later International Colombo Airport welcomed me with its politeness and colourful lanterns which immediately caused a big smile on my face: lanterns do associate with Sri Lanka and a dear friend for me. This was the first sign I would be having an exceptional Vacation in the country like no other... The whole trip was Exceptional: my AIESEC Sri Lanka friends that I missed tremendously, the beauty of raw nature of the island, people's warmth, attention, care and affection, perfect chilly weather ( but still with the mosquitoes :), delicious juicy home made food... Quick chit chats with Ashan and Dana, hearing laugh of Inas, enjoying Livi and Teddy Bear Thilina's energizing dances, appreciating Kesh and Thirsha's sister-ness, sharing good news with Hatim, discussing different topics with Niradh, travelling with Deepika and being with myself are the highlights of the Sri Lanka vacation. I have lived incredibly priceless five days in Sri Lanka that would never be forgotten. Below I am sharing with you my routes ( map is on the top) and what I have experienced. Day 1 (Green line) Colombo-Peradeniya After a quick exchange of greetings and some food gifts from India to Kesh, we set off with 2 AIESEC Alumni to Kandy. A 4-hour bus ride was an introduction to a beautiful nature the island has. The ride was not tiring, on the opposite, we talked and we laughed, and we had short naps and debated. By the evening, we reached Peradeniya - a small cozy town where Deepika, a brave wise friend was waiting for me. She recently joined AIESEC, and we got to know each other during their National conference in spring. Little I knew that time that we would travel hand in hand in the next five days learning and listening to each other. Deepika met me and walked me to her house where her family had prepared a delicious meal: fresh juicy fish with curry, raw fried jack fruit, steamed rice and a white loaf of bread! Same bread that I would eat at home in Kazakhstan! Needless to say how euphoric I was that evening, but Deepika and her family had seen me! :) After late dinner I exchanged the travel plans. There were a few places that I definitely wanted to visit, otherwise I would feel my trip was incomplete and I would return again in some time. Initially, I wanted to go to Kandy and see the temple. Surprisingly, Kandy was very close to Peradeniya, just 5 or 6 km. Then Deepika's father offered to go to Mahiyanganaya - this place was not in my list, so we googled it and I was astonished! The pictures and travel websites convinced me in the very first seconds. So we set the alarm clocks for 3.30am to depart at 4am and catch the sunrise with its reflections in transparent innocent lakes and rivers. Day 2 ( Dark blue line ) Peradeniya-Mahiyanganaya-Peradeniya 4am. Complete darkness. A cool air splashed on our faces. We got onto Deepika father's truck. A repetitive monks'chants woke my mind up and my eyes illuminated with a sly adventurous spark: I was going to see the sunrise and the virgin nature.

The road had been with no surprises. Deepika tried several times to wake me up on the way because I was all the time asleep. Effortless.

By the time the sun rose high enough to dazzle us, we had been a bit thirsty and hungry. It was not hot at all and natural colours of the sky, the sun, the surroundings have completely woken me up. What I saw was picturesque and refreshing. Beneath a hill we were standing on, a big land of dark green trees and plants and luminous lakes and rivers had caught our eye. It was absolutely amazing to witness how freshness enters a day, and absolutely marvellous that I could witness it after living in one of the hot spots on the Earth.

My 1st day of landlocked travelling was far more than just good. It has been splendid! We finished the day with Deepika and another AIESEcer in Peradeniya simply resting on a wide green lawn of the local university campus, eating ice-creams and laughing, taking pictures and visiting a couple of Buddhist temples. My heart was conquered by breathtaking views of authentic nature and easiness that fulfilled that day. Pura felicidad. Day 3 ( Pink line ) Peradeniya-Kandy-Dambulla-Sigiriya One of the biggest attractions of Central Sri Lanka is definitely Sigiriya rock. Everyone buzzes about Sigiriya rock and of course I was keen on some rock climbing. Back home rock climbing or trekking is one of my weekend activities with friends or family members, so I could not miss this opportunity in the island as well. By tradition, Deepika and I woke up early in the morning, recharged with a simple nutriotious breakfast nd took first bus to Kandy. Then another bus to Dambulla. And then some 4-5 hours later we reached Sigiriya. It was already midday when we found ourselves quite hungry and thirsty. Unfortunately, we did not see any shop available to get some snacks or drinks. But attentive Deepika did take a bottle of water with her from home, so that bottle was our savior for the next few hours. Right after we got off the bus I saw a massive rock dominating a flat area. Luckily, there were no tourists at all except one couple. Deepika and I headed towards the counter to get an entry ticket and some guide books if possible.To my biggest surprise, shock, disappointment ( exactly in this order ) the entry ticket for foreigners cost 33 USD!Even in India tickets to UNESCO Heritage Sites cost not more than 5 USD ( except for Taj Mahal which is around 15USD ) Unfortunately, I did not carry that much money with me that day, and even if I did I would not pay this sum for climbinga NATURAL rock "designed" by king's people some centuries ago. With all my deepest respect to the culture, I do not overpay things that are not created by men. In addition to that, in travellers' blogs that I searched there was no mention about such a high fee. So I had a plan B. My flatmates visited this place in April, and they were sort of short of money ( simply because they forgot to exchange Indian rupees to Sri Lankan rupees in the airport, and since they did not spend much time in Colombo they could not exchange Indian rupees anywhere else. So their whole trip was an adventure :) Tom, one of my flatmates, told me that they found another rock in Sigiriya from which they could view the main Sigiriya rock, and all they had to do is to climb that rock and pay nothing. Bingo! That was my plan B! I explained to Deepika that we need to find that rock, and it is in the bag!However, Deepika's hesitating reply slowed down my adventurous hyperexcitement. I felt that it was one of Deepika's first independent travels and that I should not be insisting. On the other hand, I would've been upset coming back home and having an incomplete travel plan. Well, there should be a third way then. We walked to and fro, we estimated all prons and cons, we even found that cave temple from which we were supposed to climb but we could not find the balance. I still did not want to push Deepika's decision and I saw what it took Deepika to come to a final step: we found a local man who agreed to show us the path and show the Sigiriya rock and a nearby area. He also has served us as a guide and it was an absolute pleasure to be following him and climbing him in narrow junctions. One of the funniest moments I remember was when I asked Deepika in the morning if she was wearing sneakers. Thoughtful, she asked, Why? No, I wear flip flops. "Isn't it slippery?, I asked. "No, she said, in Sri Lanka we wear flip flops. We wear them everywhere. "Interesting, I thought. In my country we wear sneakers when we do trekking. Cultural differences", and I smiled. In fact, when we climbed the cave temple I have noticed that our guide wore flip flops too. Indeed, everybody in this country wears flip flops. Here is a snap of Cultural Differences :) Finally, we reached the peak of the rock and what a pictresque view I saw I must admit!!! Strong wind, a completely uninhabited virgin green land was in front of us, and among the trees and plants there was the famous Sigiriya rock!!! Achievement!I took out one of my travel treasures - Kazakhstan's flag and got a picture with it. The view was absolutely stunning, and the feeling that finally we completed our mission of 3rd travelling day made me feel relieved. Pura felicidad. It was already late evening when we almost reached Dambulla. Unfortunately, we did not have extra time to visit the Golden temple there as well as one of the MUST see places in Sri Lanka. I leave it for the next time :) Day 4 ( Maroon line ) Saturday, June 11th. Another big day to realise my travel dreams. The plan was to see the Kandy temple and be as fast as possible in Galle, the south of Sri Lanka to plunge in the bluish warmest waters of the Indian ocean. A tiring bus ride Peradeniya-Kandy ( a short stop in Kandy to see the front side of the temple) - Colombo ( a 2 hour stop in Colombo ) - Galle ( a 4 hour bus ride ) stuffed me with lots of hours of uncomfortable sleep and then a hunt for glorious sunset pictures. Golden floating clouds and ravishing scarlet reflections of the sun charmed me with all its simplicity of the natural beauty. How often don't we notice our surroundings that beautify even the greyish moment in our lives? How often do we limit ourselves neglecting what is available in the nature and consuming everything artificial that glows? We reached Galle in the evening and though it was quite dark and traffic noise did not add any charm to the city, I fell in love with what I sensed in Galle: lightness. Deepika's old friend picked us up and we moved to her house. It was a really lovely evening with her family: home made food, laughter and travel stories, local stories and making plans for the next day. The next morning we woke up at 5.30am to leave at 6am, and to my big surprise ( Oh my! How many positive surprises did I encounter during my Sri Lanka trip? :) Deepika friend's mother prepared breakfast for us as a take away! So cute! With the help of the family we reached the main attraction of Galle - the then Dutch fort which is a perfect sightseeing and a destination to do jogging or yoga in the early mornings. Since it is not that hot in the mornings and the breezes enlighten one's inner energy and harmony, the fort is extraordinary in this sense. I guess I do not need to say more here since the feelings can't really be described at a full length and depth of what one can experience there. You simply go there if you are looking for some serenity and serendipity. And love, of course :) ... All good things come to an end. So did my Sri Lanka addiction was counting its minutes. Time has come when I had to say Bye to Deepika and her friends with whom I spent an indescribable time in Galle. It has been really hard to let go the trip with Deepika and head to Colombo but I had to. I reached Colombo by 9 pm and was extremely happy to meet my AIESEC Sri Lanka friends: the guys have just started their term as the National board of AIESEC in Sri Lanka. They all looked exhausted after the planning conference and we celebrated our meeting with a few shots of local drinks and AIESEC dances :) ... The cab arrived at 5am to take me to the airport. I packed my Sri Lanka memories, kissed my friends who were deadly sleeping and went to the cab with Niradh. Colombo was quiet in the morning. I arrived at the airport totally exhausted. At the customs a woman asked me if I was from Japan or Malaysia. Negative. In fact, I was going to Malaysia. But my heart was still in this warm hearted beloved country like no other. When we took off, I could not resist shedding a tear as well as the weather. The sky had been crying with me.

The Sri Lanka travel experience was absolutely Exceptional. Twice.

You can view Sri Lanka_Exceptional albums in Facebook here and Vkontakte here

Collection of HAPPYness

2011-07-25T01:15:00.004+06:00

Excitement! This was my first reaction to the email I got from organisers of World 10K Marathon in Bangalore. One of the main organisers was the IT company I've been undergoing a management internship at: TATA Consultancy Services ( TCS )

Sarcastically, I received the confirmation email 1,5 day before the big run. Excitement doubled when I managed to book the bus tickets: after all, it takes only 6-7 hours to get from Chennai to Bangalore ( this is nothing in India. And I love watching a wide road and green trees on the way to Bangalore. I just can't find it much in Chennai )

So tickets were booked, map was printed, and unwisely I stayed up till 1am. The next morning I found myself throwing clothes to my beloved orange backpack that keeps all my travel memories, and running to be on time for the morning bus. Naively, I believed I would be on time, but in fact I was late for 25 minutes. I could not believe I have overslept and would easily lose this opportunity to run. No way, I was craving for it! After all, it could have been my second run so far... Wait, why could have been? I still could find another bus but a thought of paying double did not put any smile on my face. No, not at all.

Luckily, there were two guys who also missed the same 8am bus and they were trying to get another bus for the same tickets. After a few minutes the guys were asking for three tickets including mine :) I felt how luck smiled at us when the travel agency staff agreed to give us a 10am bus for the same tickets we have not used. (Not that bad, ugh?)

So we had a 1 1/2 hour and we went to the nearest hotel for a fresh breakfast. I was quite hungry but as I imagined that most probably breakfast would be too masala in the morning, I gave up of ordering dosas and idlis. ( Masala are spices; dosa is like a big pancake but it is too oily for me, and idlis are like small pancakes made of rice flour and usually eaten with coconut chutney or any other chutney and sambar ( i.e. "sauses" )

During breakfast, I got to know my companions. Both were from Chennai and both were travelling. Seemed like both were best friends and seemed like they did not care if they speak English or Tamil with me. Neither did I. I was sipping a pineapple juice and smiling like a small kid that has gotten what he wanted. Yes, I was actually going to run the next day. Unbelievable!

7 hours later we safely arrived at one of the most developed and beautiful cities in India - Bangalore. I always liked Bangalore - its wide clean streets, shadows from the trees, parks to walk and rest, and beautiful people. In the evening I met with Pascal, a Cameroonian friend, and we headed to his home. In this marvellous evening I had tried a delicious Cameroonian meal. Unfortunately, I forgot its name but it was with fried bananas and some meat and something else. Delicious!

The next morning I woke up impatiently to start the HAPPYness Day. Pascal and I arrived at the main stadium at about 6.30am where runner amateurs were flooding the whole district. Passing by DHL, KPMG rooms, press room, media room, etc we searched for TCS room to get a runner kit. It took us almost half an hour to find what we needed: in a blue light bag I found my number 26161, a branded blue Tshirt, a brand new blue cap and lots of useful packs of oats, sun lotion, some medicine, a sandwich and a cake and a juice can and much more. Impressive! ( It was impressive for me because when I had my first run in Riga, Latvia I did not receive such a pack )

One hour later Pascal and I reached the gates from where 5Km batch was supposed to run. I really had no idea how many people had registered for a 5 Km run but there were too many black haired heads to count. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Off! I slowly walked from the main entrance but then was caught up by a massive wave of runners: it was a big mix of TCSers, DHLers, KPMGs, local company employees which names I cannot recall.

My goal was to run 5 km, five, not ten km. I started off quite lightly. I approximately knew my time for 5 km, I sensed when I would need to make stops and how much of water I would need to visualise to satisfy my thirstiness. Hopefully, it was slightly hot and there were a few water stations on the way. Cheerleaders' support, passers by inquisitiveness and reporters' media coverage made the run an extremely funny experience!

So 22 minutes later I got an update: I ran 2 kms. Sigh. I still felt fine, no need to stop, the breath and pulse were stable, so I kept on running. After some time I notice a new sign: 4km. 'Brilliant', I had thought, ' I am close to finish". However, a sign "5" never appeared. Instead, I saw "7", then "8" and so on. To my surprise I was running a 10 km challenge! I had nothing to do but finish. Finish as soon as possible because by 6-7th km I felt tired and hungry.

44 minutes is my record for 10km. I don't know if it is a good time or not. Personally, I found it a suitable time: not in a rush, not in a slow motion, not breathless or waterless.

In the end, I felt HAPPY, excited and reassured I can run at a bit more long distances. I felt that I can achieve more when I get this hobby more seriously and would get myself trained every week. I am serious. I will get back to running in the gym and will look for future marathons.

Post marathon. I am so much thankful to Pascal for his friendliness and care. Thankful to his friends who have fed me in the first evening and who shared with me their views on life. Thankful to TCS Bangalore for this amazing opportunity to feel life in my veins! Thankful to that couple at the bus station that helped me get the bus to chase my dream. And thankful to my beloved mom who taught me one simple truth in life, "Anything that you are doing in life - do it with all your passion and love. Put your soul in it. Then you will be happy". Thank you, mama!

A few pictures from the marathon published online you can view here and a few more in one of my Facebook albums here

Turning Passion into ACTion

2011-07-21T23:46:00.010+06:00

A bit of Chennai

In the end of May 2011 I found myself emotionally broken: the sickness did not seem to slow down,an unbearable heat would only boil the air, mosquitoes were cruelly biting every inch of me and unnecessary stress at work pinched my head.Of course, due to health matters I just literally switched off my brain whenever it came to think of the office.Obviously, I stayed home for a few days to foster recovery by sleeping and

relaxing.

During those hot sick days and nights I was thinking what made me feel what I felt. What was the environment that made me lose my optimistic spirit? Who were the people whose behaviour I could not understand and thus, I did not enjoy their company? What elements were missing to feel uplifted, to smile, to shine and be happy?

It did not take me long to think, to analyse. Solutions popped up naturally.

Firstly, I registered for the Open World 10K Marathon in Bangalore organised by TCS.

Then I said to myself,'Discipline is your best friend at this time. Make it a habit to listen to your heart and do what you really want. Reduce negative language in your thinking.Welcome physical exercises with an open heart when you are absolutely ready for this experience,and go!" So running in the gym and yogging in the evenings, swimming at weekends and feeling lighter and lighter helped me in winning the fever. I must add to it that I am still bad at proper nutrition for myself, especially when it comes to working out. Too bad, I know.

Expect the unexpected. One of the key lessons I always carry in my soul here in India. I can't recall if I learnt this lesson somewhere else but definitely in India it is a reality. (Owing to this precious learning, I have even forgotten the word "Expectation" and whenever somebody utters it I wonder what it is) So unexpectedly I reached the Finish line in the project I worked in for the past 5 months. A colourful box of friends' farewells got enriched with another of Farewell experience of mine: saying Bye is always a two sided coin. On one hand, you are sad saying Bye to your that "Old" lifestyle you led. On the other hand, a Bye is always a door into unknown, and I am always positively certain that the Unknown brings new opportunities, new friends, new discoveries and new desires. Heavily loaded by these thoughts I said a warm Bye to the project and to my colleagues, breathed in excessively filling my lungs with a huge volume of the air anticipating a beautiful exciting summer.I knew what I wanted: travels! I needed so much a break from Chennai, the break from the heat and annoying noise, the break from whatever I was in at the end of May.

Yes, I am an average travel freak. I do not look for comfort when I travel. All I want is to be in the moment, to feel the present and live it to 100%. So I checked my passport, checked my monthly budget, googled the pictures of places I wanted to visit and clicked on 'Book' the flight tickets... Beginning of June embraced me with all its future unknowness and astonishing surprises. I was going to be with myself to rejuvenate and do what I truly love - travel ...

M(a)Y

2011-07-21T01:07:00.003+06:00

Time runs. It does not fly anymore for me here. It marches and sprints with a 'Champion!' spirit.

My May 2011 was a peak of Intern's Cycle Life: last farewells to ACE family members: Naldo, Erik, Agus, Ola, Mohamed Adel, Vincent. My dear Naldo, my soulmate and my brother; it was Naldo, Elizabeth's and my journey in India we cherished, shared and cared about. My dear Erik whose positive attitude softened all the challenges I had encountered in Chennai and whose firm hand was always there to reach. Beautiful Ola that showed me her wisdom, who was constantly seeking for the best and learning to enjoy simple beauties in the world. Agus, Latino, guapo, whose salsas and merengues I will always miss! Mohamed Adel, the passionate Egyptian friend, his friendship is as silent as a mouse. Vincent, a big big African brother with a wide friendly smile and kind eyes.

...May was as crazy as any other month here in India. I was twice seriously sick: these temperature differences of indoor and outdoor checkmate me with no option but be treated with MEDICINE. Of course, I go to the Doc in a very rare case: I just simply do not believe to whatever they prescribe. However, here in India I already had gone twice to the Doc: dealing with infections and abnormal fevers made me re-look at my skeptical views of the Medicine in general.

Then, there was an intensive week of parties. It started with my pre Birthday party. My flatmates- Pamela, Erik and Tom- together with my first flatmates and close friends from Hyderabad - Carlos, Areli, Jose and Fernando - gifted me with a huge touching surprise: the Hyderabadis just arrived here at Chennai on Saturday noon. Devoted friends spent about 20 hours on the train, on a bus, in a rickshaw instead of traditional 12 hours! Exhausted and sweating, the Latino friends made a loud noise in our Chennai flat! It was totally unexpected: I was having a lazy noon nap when all of a sudden somebody was whistling, and then I saw faces of Fernando and Carlos in my room! Firstly I thought I was having a dream and I smiled looking at both of them: God knows how much I missed both of them! But then the noise grew louder and louder, and Areli and Jose's laughs woke me up completely! Had I had a camera nearby I could've captured those moments: all of us together embracing each other and tears come down my face... All my flatmates and close friends in Chennai knew about the surprise and were awaiting for the evening party to start. It was a priceless Bday gift! I am hundred times grateful to Pamela and my dear Chennai friends for keeping the fire burning that night!

So the Party week continued. We had farewells for Tina, Agus, Erik, Edward ( who actually left 3 weeks after because of the inefficiency and weirdness of the Immigration office of Chennai ), we had Bday party for Tanya, a true Damn Soviet compatriot. With Erik leave we welcomed Sergio and Angela to Chennai ACE family, and the parties went on and on ...

Meanwhile, my body got weaker and weaker. The heat of Chennai had been ruining all my hopes for a chilly weather at least for a day. I had this crazy thought to crack the eggs on the heated cemented road or rock and fry them. Guess, I thought too long that I actually never did it. Now the sun is not that strong and the experiment has more chances to be just a hypothetical thought of mine . . .

However, even if I was staying in bed with high temperature and terribly sounding cough I was still hoping to run a Marathon in June in Bangalore. By the way, my former office mate Juan, hearing my cough, said to me, 'Even I with a long Smoker experience do not cough like you do. Go visit the Doc': said-forgotten. I was worried of a more important stuff:

a) How long it takes me to run 5 km

b) When I am travelling to Malaysia

Creating Happiness

2011-06-02T01:46:00.002+06:00

When I read my posts from first 6 months of living and working in India, I notice how many times I mention " I want to be Happy". In fact, right now I realise I was happy all that time as well as quite dissatisfied with the professional experience I was (not ) having. Friends would say, "You can't have both: excelling at work and living a wonderful life". I would frown back and ask, "Why I can't have these both at the same time? It is only me who is responsible for getting what I want in life". "Yeah, but there are some internal or external circumstances which you have to take into account, you know. Especially in India, where nothing is stable and things change faster than a thought appears in one's mind" And I would be still frowning and disagreeing with this viewpoint. Yeah, call me stubborn or idealistic but this is me and I live with this spirit.

So when I look back at my year I lived in Latvia I am firmly reassured what year I had lived in my life. I headed to Latvia to see AIESEC in Latvia growing, having successes and learning from failures, daring to dream big and not being afraid of how big those dreams were, seeing the impact of his or her actions. I had one long term thought in my mind: I want to live a year of SUCCESS and ACHIEVEMENT, and share it with people around me. Living in India I came to a conclusion that I had success and achievement every single day during my term in the National Team of AIESEC in Latvia. Can you believe it - every single day? I say to myself - no, it can't be. How many times did you lose faith or get mad or refuse from an initial plan to accomplish a professional or personal goal? If at least it happened once, how can you declare you were successful every single day? But here is a trick: it is all about how you perceive it. Yes, we all get emotional ( and don't tell me lies that there are folks who are super perfect in managing their emotions ), Yes, we all may lose inner beliefs and give up, but that is the easiest way. For me it is a behaviour of me being weak, it is about wasting time procrastinating or complaining. The complaints do not bring solutions, so it is better to move on, to open your eyes and mind for other great upcoming moments, opportunities, encounters.

So after my 3-4 months of Indianness I made it clear for myself: in the year of 2010-11 I want to be HAPPY and see LOVE around. When I do not feel happiness or love - I create it. I go and try new things, I experiment with my body, with my mind, with my feelings. I travel to relax and live the moment. Carpe Diem, you know :)

Accidentally, I watched this video tonight:

Stefan Sagmeister: 7 rules for making more happiness | Video on TED.com

... after all, if you want to be happy, be (c)

I Want It!

2011-05-31T11:31:00.003+06:00

I feel this amazing springy desire to do these days things I have craved for recently!

I want:

- spend more hours in the gym to prepare myself for the upcoming marathon in Bangalore

- meditate to hear myself

- place things in order and freshly breathe in after some chaotic months

- finish 4 books I am reading now (!)

- watch the movies from my friend and write back to him

- start writing my 1st book of living abroad

- go to Chennai beach in the evening and not worry about late hours after office spending there

- dance like hell everywhere: at home, in a club, in my soul

- approve my budget for the independent summer travel plan in South Asia

- prepare for the ACE Conference in July 2011

- say "I love you" and "Thank You" to people that I love and care

- call my brother and hear him sounding happily

- prepare myself mentally for homecoming

- get rid of fears that recently appeared in my life. This thing must be funny because recently I wanted to have some fears but now since I have been uttering this word quite often I feel an emotional tiring weigh and it is very boring for me.

- get back to studying Portuguese

- lastly and most importantly I want to make a successful marriage between what I do and what I love

Be grateful

2011-05-11T23:37:00.000+06:00

Last few days I am feeling pretty much weak. I believe it is the heat and humidity and air pollution of noisy Chennai that I still did get used to living. Though I've lived here already 4,5 months.

Today I started a new yoga course: a new teacher, a new room for practising, a new group of people interested in ... in whatever they are interested. Some come for spirituality, some others come because their parents brought them there, like today.

In my previous yoga classes I had for a couple of months in the office premises I've experienced two different things:

a) Teamwork

b) Fun

What I missed was Why? I do yoga like I was told to. I joined those classes because I was curious - that is like people say, C'me on! You live in India and aren't yogging! Which is a quite imprecise judgement: I've heard before and witnessed myself that the so-called "Yoga Gurus of India" are not always great inspiring leaders or pro's. So in the end of my second month of previous classes I ...quited :) Luckily, three or four weeks later I found a new yoga course in a distance of 3 min walk from my flat (yes, yes, I refer to the distance like auto rickshaws in Mumbai :)

So today I met new people whom I am welcoming to my life: the yoga master ( I don't know his name yet but when he calls me he says, "Hello, this is yoga master" - if he is going to call himself the Master, I really will believe him soon :), a few kids that funnily did Pranayamas (breathing exercises), a brave average aged woman in a tight saree- she got me thinking of her outfit for the class, a young tall father that came with his cute 4-5 year old son ( the boy kept looking at me the whole class. Once I smiled at him I received a smile back :) and a 65 year old thin bold man.

Most of the exercises we did were not a new invention of how to make our bodies move. They were less intensive and less sweating in comparison with previous Office Guru classes. And they were shorter- 45 minutes. But! these classes are 6 times/week and the duration will be extended once we are ready for that. This is what Master Guru said.

But why I am writing about this one hour piece of my evening is that I heard a beautiful monologue from that 65 year old thin bold man. We live in one block of flats with him. He is from Hyderabad ( Yay! ) and now stays with his son in Chennai. He met me nearby my flat and spoke to me. In the beginning it was a pretty common opening of the dialogue:

- Hi, I saw you came to a yoga class today. Is it your first class?

- Yes, it is. I also saw you.

- Ah yes, yes. I came to the club on Saturday. You know, they don't have classes on Mondays.

- Yes, I know.

Meanwhile he keeps smiling illuminating me with a very warm deep look of his eyes.

- Where are you from?

- I am from Kazakhstan.

- Rajasthan?

- No, Kazakhstan, Central Asia ( Oh My, I think, how come that one of 26 states in India sounds so familiar to Kazakhstan?). Do you know where Central Asia is?

- Rajasthan... Hm, no, it is in India.

- No, no, Kazakhstan. Do you know China? Russia?

- China... Yes, I know. Russia, yes. But where is Kazakhstan? (well, he mispronounced the name)

- Russia is in the north, China is in the east and in the middle is Kazakhstan. This is where I am from.

After a few minutes, still smiling and examining me with his slyish but friendly eyes he says:

- Are you not Russia? Is Kazakhstan in Russia?

- No, we are a separate independent state. But we border. You know, like India borders with Nepal the same is with us: Kazakhstan and Russia share one border in the north ( At this point I stopped not going into details )

- But have you not been a part of Russia?

- We have been in the Union. In the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan, Russia and 13 other countries. But nowadays we are all independent countries ( and I am not going to debate with people on this topic - which state is independent nowadays and which is not )

And then the old man, my new neighbour/yoga mate/a friend (?) switched to another topic. He talked to me about his father and what his father taught him. One of the biggest lessons he learnt from his father is ... gratitude. He said, Do not criticize anyone. When you criticize things or people, you spoil your mind, your soul, your body. You allow negative thoughts overspread in your mind, body and soul. And this is bad. This is too bad. Do not do it. Do not criticize people. This is what my father taught me... Be thankful. Be grateful.

I was attentively listening to him and all seemed like he spelled a few minutes with his grandfather's charm. At that moment I made a parallel to:

a) Why he was talking to me about gratitude?

b) As a kid, I was less fortunate and did not spend much time with my grandfathers. My father's father, the knowledge and the treasure of the family, had a car accident in a very young age; my mother's father, the role model, died from a cancer when I was 6. So I actually did not have any time to spend with them.

... Accidentally I played my friend's playlist and heard this song - the song about gratitude.

Let us be grateful. At least, today.

This is YOUR LIFE!

2011-05-09T22:41:00.003+06:00

Was fortunate enough to receive this message from a friend months ago...

Had enough of memory power to find this message in my messy inbox to remind myself and share with everyone ...

The Power of Belief

2011-05-09T21:09:00.001+06:00

" John Stuart Mill once wrote, One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interests. That's precisely why beliefs open the door to excellence"

This sentence had stricken me today! I was dining in the office canteen feeling quite exhausted after the weekend trip to Trivandrum, Kerala and dying because of the Chennai heat. I impatiently took out the book I am reading now from my old reliable orange backpack, turned to page 55 and greedily swallowed the first paragraph. The eye opening sentence had reassured me that in times of turbulence we can

a) give up;

b) pause and lose momentum;

c) stay firm, keep believing in yourself and think positively.

The latter had highlighted my adventurous weekend in Kerala - I strongly believed in myself and I saw only happy moments of it. Said - done: it has been THE Weekend! I will share it with you dear readers in some time ( Love Hinglish :)

... For this weekend I am thankful to India ...

There will be stories for me to tell my grandchildren :)

The Cycle

2011-04-27T03:19:00.002+06:00

An intern's life is simply AWESOME!!!

I have been an intern during my University years, and that life was mainly about performing super well, proving my skills and learning a lot about my major studies in practice. That life has been super cool because of exceptional mentors I had who shared with me the beauties of a teacher's role as well as the university students made my 4-6 weeks of practice unbelievably amazing and challenging!

9 months I have been an intern in one of the leading Indian IT companies. Have travelled around India, visited beautiful Sri Lanka, dreamt about touring around South (East) Asia, met so many great great people and some parts of me are in hands of international friends in their home countries... Incredible!

Yesterday I celebrated my engagement with India. I was sitting in a rickshaw, going today for a German friend's farewell and thinking about my 9 months' life. What has been and has not, where I have been and have not yet, what I have gone through and what is still there awaiting for me, what kind of person I have become... So many events happened for the past 9 months... I cannot measure them, I cannot describe them piece by piece, sometimes I cannot bear all happiness at one and the same moment.

One thing that I would like to share is that I became such a proactive learner at my internship in India. I have definitely learnt some invaluable lessons of life in my previous experiences. But somehow Indianness stands out of the crowd so far. Today I have heard a lot of negative thoughts, emotions and simply bitching from a few people and it got me thinking. What can this person do? What action shall he take? If he asks for a help, shall I help? How?

It is always easy to complain, I used to think. I used to think that I prefer to be a part of the solution rather than a part of the problem. I feel I still tend to think in this way. So today I was thinking whether to leave the person dealing with his problems who tends to be a part of the problem, or to help him by at least listening and help him grow.

Another moment that closed my day was friend's farewell. This is intern's lifestyle: people come, people leave. You easily or through pains connect with new homo sapiens, they enter your life, they shape you and your tastes, they are a part of your Indianness, they are a part of your learning and maturity, they are a part of you... You are them, they are you. And then they leave. And you cannot do anything but hope you will meet one day in this beautiful world. Next future moments will always be different, but it does not mean they will be bad. On the contrary, actually.

... One more close friend's farewell is in a few days... The person who has been here always for me - all these 9 months and a few more days...

Unbelievable intern's life in India... Unbelievably cool people do live on this planet. They are called the children of the sun.

Confusions in my head

2011-04-18T22:57:00.002+06:00

These days I am totally random. Even now. Why am I writing about this? Why am I thinking about this? Just for the sake to think of something? ... Again, a very random phrase...

Saying "this" I mean ...hm, what do I mean?

Ok, there are so many confusing thoughts in my head these weeks.

Firstly, I really really worry about my country now. Due to rapid snow melt and heavy rains in the west and in the east of Kazakhstan many people have lost their houses; the floods caused deaths of some people ( I do not know how many ); infrastructure built during the Soviet times has been destroyed... And nobody knows when it is over. On the contrary, the new government is being formed now after presidential elections happened on April 3rd, and all media attention is focused on whose seat will be shifted and who is gonna remain from the past. I wonder why Kazakhstan hesitates and is not asking for international aid? The country is not able to manage the currents. The water is increasing, the dams are already destroyed, the number of homeless people is skyrocketing... This video or this article do not bring any serenity.

Another confusion is ...ugh, it is India as always. This time it is not about cultural shocks or whatsoever. It is about how much of India I find in myself and am willing to leave the country now. The next day I am exploring more and I am saying, ' No, I do not want to leave the Holy land now. Later.' But eventually it will happen one day, and I want to be ready for it. Emotionally. Yes, yes, emotionally. It drives me crazy but exactly by living in India I get very emotional. I have not experienced so many high and low emotions at the same time before.

Yesterday I had quite gloomy Sunday. At 3pm we had a blackout (it happens every day) and while I was waiting for the power to be on, I fell asleep. Woken up around 8pm I was in panic. I had a nightmare ( it does not happen to me at all ) and I realised that we still had no electricity at home. My flatmates were out and I tried to calm myself down. Walked around the dark flat, finished the watermelon, and went downstairs to ask the security to help me get the lights back. Ten minutes later I was online searching for friends to talk. I was quite stressed, sweating and my hands were shaking. This is nooooot a typical case with me. Usually, I know how to control emotions. But yesterday I was just not able. My mind was occupied by the nightmare. Well, somebody had heard me and I was caught up in a few skype chats and calls with friends from Europe and Sri Lanka. A few hours later, I was relaxed. Thank you.

Today I had a very cool productive Monday. It does not happen often here with me these weeks since the heat is increasing in Chennai, and walking to the office at 8am is killing me. I feel as if the sun is at its peak and it burns everything around. We used to have a few ponds in our neighbourhood with beautiful white birds and lotus flowers. From January to March every morning I would enjoy watching little white flowers on the way to the main road, in the evening I would follow the birds' and somehow catch myself imagining I was a bird too. Now the ponds are dry, the birds are flying around to find a drop of water, and lotus flowers remain in neighbours' memories.

But also today and yesterday and the day before yesterday and all previous week I was confused. Quite much. Confused about my current state in India now and a desire to move next somewhere else. Confused about big desire to stay in India, discover it more. At some point I find myself quite aculturised here -cultural shocks do not happen anymore, many things do not need an explanation, I behave similarly with the locals (south indians to be correct), frown if food is not spicy, shake my head not realising it, dance Panjabi dances and enjoy Tamil music, smile when children smile at me and want to come and touch but are afraid of foreigners... I gradually accept Chennai and Tamil Nadu as my home state though it is extremely different from cozy Hyderabad.

I incredibly miss Hyderabad, Almaty, Riga, St Petersburg, Moscow, Brugge, Colombo, Kharkiv, Ust Kamenogorsk, Sibiu, Astana...

I understand I cannot spend entire life with the same people in the same place. I will just go mad when it happens. Maybe that is why I prefer to move from a place to place like a bee, you know - from a flower to another flower, marking every plant with my presence and my taste, creating a small world there and leaving it unexpectedly...

Emotions... It is easy to control them. But sometimes I just do not want to control anything. I do not need to probably...

Random world which I created myself.

Tomorrow everything will be fine: the sun shines, the kids play cricket, and I smi)e. Everything will be OK in the end. If it is not OK, then it is not the end.

Only Girl (In The World)

2011-04-18T22:18:00.000+06:00

Oh yeah :)

Disorder

2011-04-17T03:22:00.001+06:00

Life is funny. The ones you desperately want to be with are not yours. On the other side of a coin, there are those who want to be with you but you do not want them. To add more, there are those who say they will go with you anywhere... anywhere... as long as you are close... and it leaves you confused... as you do not know what to believe in...

Wherever you will go... Hm... I am not yours and it is OK. It will be OK.

THE Marathon

2011-04-17T01:36:00.003+06:00

If you want to win something, run the 100 metres.

If you want to learn something about life, run the marathon.

- Emil Zatopek

16.04.2011

A simple truth of life

2011-04-07T00:14:00.003+06:00

I don't need all the money in the world to be happy.

I need something more... Deeper... I have understood what it is... And I am creating it when I really want to be happy or when I want to make somebody happy... You do not need to ask for it...

PS Loving my life every day. No matter how far away we are all from each other.

No pains - no gains

2011-03-22T02:05:00.003+06:00

A thought popped out in my mind: I want to quickly document this very moment:

It is March 22nd, 2011, 1.35am. I am sitting in our living room of a two-room apartment I share with 3 interns from Ghana, Mexico and the UK. It is my 6th permanent flat I occupy in India since July 2010 when I started my Indian journey. The people I have shared a living space with, my past and my future projections, my dreams and my questions... It is a very intense learning day to day experience that is being created by so many hands...

I am listening to bits of Eminem rapping in my laptop, listening to the fan's noise that keeps me cool in this humid +37C weather of Chennai city, covering my legs with a blanket from annoying mosquitoes... And I catch myself at another thought: I am away from home on this very day when we celebrate Nauryz - the Persian New Year or the Kazakh or the Kazakhstani New Year ( google it if you are interested ).

Where was I on March 22nd in different years and what I missed/gained?

2005, I am in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia - Missed celebration of Nauryz with my student mates and free university lunches :D Learnt how Kyrgyz people celebrate Navruz- they cook beshbarmak making noodles instead of a whole dough divided in square pieces as Kazakhstanis do, and they celebrate it on March 21st. By the way, I have tasted Kyrgyz beshbarmak with people from Slovakia, from the Caucasus region, from the Czech Republic, from Kazakhstan. Not an AIESEC event :)
2009, I am in Romania at an International AIESEC Conference EuroXpro- 5am, Salta and I are sitting in the hotel lobby, thinking of a Nauryz video content to display at the morning plenary for 200+ delegates from Central/Eastern/Western Europe. We understand how much we miss home and we are happy we had a quick skype chat with our relatives while making the video. The images from that morning are still so vivid! Unbelievable!
2010, I am in Latvia, cooking baursaki in our MC flat for the team mates. It is an early morning, and I feel excited about the New Year concept in general. I am planning to call home to hear my Mum, my family. I miss them and I am happy as well I can be exposed to other cultures to appreciate and share.
2011, I am in Chennai, South India, listening to Eminem, designing ideas for the next AIESEC conference in Sri Lanka. Incredibly missing my family, my brother, wanting to be with them now to hug every family member, to see and hear them speaking... To see the spring in my hometowns... To celebrate Nauryz with every one like I celebrated Holi yesterday in Hyderabad - with loads of laugh, hugs, fun, pictures, posing, fooling around...

Life Appreciation

2011-03-16T23:28:00.002+06:00

Intense life in Chennai...

A lot of learnings and findings...

A strong need to reflect and document these findings...

A little time to take an action... Or not?

Incredibly Missing my friends, my interns' family in Hyderabad...

Visiting them this weekend to celebrate Holi - a colourful Indian holiday, which is not celebrated in Tamil Nadu state ( where I live now ) ...

AIESEC re-connections soon...

Realised that I am not doing my best or even going beyond it...

Strongly missing exceptional somebody who is somewhere doing something extraordinary...

Missing our times together...

Always keeping my family in my heart...

Loving my job and people I interact with on a daily basis...

Re-shaping personality process...

Re-loading believes, values, emotions, experiences to understand where to go next...

Understood that the bars of excellence have vanished...

Thinking of what legacy we have left last year as an MC team of AIESEC in Latvia...

Curious of what has remained in me as a Kazakhstani...

Is it true that we are Global Citizens as soon as we are not associating ourselves with our homelands, as soon as borders of "I" or "My" do not exist, as soon as we are thinking globally...

This is me these days. A bit exhausting path some days but I love it!

My Past and My Present

2011-03-13T12:44:00.000+06:00

What to say ...

I am simply loving my past ... and my present ...

Bringing Peace to the World

2011-02-22T23:30:00.000+06:00

I was a small kid and a big fan of Madeleine Albright. As a child, I could not conceive how heavy and burdening Political issues must have been for women to resolve. But I was always fascinated by these strong females that would wear dark suites, talk about some serious stuff and shake hands with men. Few "weak females" with lots of heavy set huge men...

No, I am not a feminist. I respect Adam and Eve.

I also respect when Eve (-s) spread their powers in multi- directions to make the world better. And we can combine both roles: a diplomat, a business woman, a waitress and a mother. It is not difficult at all when we get a supportive shoulder and love.

My Childhood

2011-02-17T21:36:00.000+06:00

I was born in the Soviet Union. I grew up in an independent Kazakhstan. I am shaped by globalisation.

... But I had a priceless childhood! Thank you, my dear family and friends! ...

... I wish my children will have a very good childhood too...

Liberal Thinking

2011-02-16T22:26:00.001+06:00

I have been surfing the net for a few videos related to Kazakhstan as I am re-discovering an image of the country I was born and raised in. Living abroad taught me one priceless lesson: Appreciation to your motherland strengthens day by day, and you are happy when people back home are happy; you are worried when people back home are worried.

One of the greatest lesson I absorbed during my teenager-hood was Focus and Unity among Kazakhstanis. Focus would be given from above and the citizenship would follow it. Individual thinking does exist, innovative thinking may prosper across the country but also is being killed because of hierarchical and bureaucratic systems. Unity is one of the national features among Kazakhstanis that sometimes is not valued and may not be witnessed from first sight. But believe me, Unity does fulfill the spirit veins of the Kazakhstanis. We have been nurturing Unity since 18th century if I am not mistaken - since the times of Ablay Khan.

Unity echoes as Equality for me. All men are born to be Equal. But not all men and women and children are Equal in our reality. I am not very religious. I am Muslim "by default" but I do not practice Islam. I respect any religion people believe in and follow. I respect Islam as well even though nowadays the religion is a victim and a weapon in hands of anyone who thinks he is the strongest and the most superior than the rest of the world.

When I used to live in Hyderabad, India I was looking for a peaceful place where my mind could relax from everyday noise. Some cities in India lack such places - infrastructure is not developed to the level of comforting people's lives. However, if you travel to remote villages and UNESCO heritage sites you will be amazed how calm and harmonious those places are. So, when I was about to leave Hyderabad I went sightseeing and visited Charminar, a four-minaret building. It used to serve as an original foundation of the city by Moguls in 17th century. Next to Charminar I saw an amazingly gorgeous noiseless grandiose mosque. I have been fascinated and of course I was eager to enter it, and spend some minutes in peacefulness. I felt that at last I found what I looked for. However, my thoughts and desire were destroyed by a sharp men's voice who said I was not allowed inside the mosque... because I was a woman...

I have never experienced such burning questions, emotions, thoughts before as I had that minute. When I asked "Why?" and said "It's OK in my country" ( this thought came to my mind so fast and so naturally), the man replied " Because you are in my country. And you have to behave according to our rules" My attention was caught. I felt disgrace. I felt I was not equal to the Men just because I am a Woman...

Below is a video that made me proud I am Muslim.

I still believe all people are Equal and all people have the rights to be happy.

An Unquestionable Question

2011-02-14T22:13:00.004+06:00

A paradox of my life: I tend to look for challenges and I do not get them. This is what occupies my mind: I do not have challenges. Then I ask myself: What is a challenge for you? How do you define it? Does it have a taste? A smell? A sound?

If to follow Wikipedia, " A challenge is a general term referring to things that are imbued with a sense of difficulty and victory " Cool, it's said and done: So I have a difficult task ahead, I analyse it or I design it as if it did not exist, and I get solutions. This is one approach. There are lots more that I could use. However, it is not important now. What is important is that I do not get satisfied by "challenges" I am faced. My point here is that even if I see a complicated task in front of me, I know how to solve it. Or I sense that I know. This feeling gives me not just a sense of confidence. It relaxes my mind. It does not make me think. It plays hide and seek with myself. To be honest, it is pretty much annoying.

OK, then I ask myself: if you do not get satisfied by those difficulties because you "know" how to make those victories to happen, then what do you want? Do you necessarily need to experience a feeling of a Challenge? What will it bring to you? How will it change you? What will it lead you to? ...

And then I comprehend another sense: I cannot feel FEARS. Even now looking at this typed word "FEARS" I am relaxed ( as a point of reference: it is not recommended to type words in upper case as it may signal a shout for a receiver of one's message ). So, about FEARS: what are they? What type of fears do we have? Why do we experience fears?

I have thought of FEARS for some time, and I understood the following for myself:

- An absence of FEARS for a few years led me to the way I am today: Dissatisfied because I do not see a real challenge for myself, i.e. where I won't be able to figure out a solution. It consequently causes a

- FAILURE, a personal FAILURE. However, I reckon you need to experience and embrace FAILURE when it happens to you as it builds a stronger personality. Failure functions as a spice, it enriches your personality with tastes, smells, cluttered speeches, confusion, frustration... What results in the end is up to you: you either win or you lose. I accept FEARS and FAILURE as a great

- MOTIVATOR. A few months ago I have experienced a Leadership Failure with another person. In the beginning, it drove me nuts. I was confused, I rejected everything and everyone. But then I asked myself a few really essential questions. Yes, it was hard to accept personally the feedback I have drown for myself, but I accepted it. I accepted Leadership Failures. I understood it was one of my FEARS. However, the FEARS were not BIG ( But I did learn it myself! Yay! )

So FFM formula concluded my thoughts last week on a following note: Girl, do not complicate things. No fears? Great! A room for Failures? Awesome, learn from it! Motivation? Do take an advantage of it!

So I sketched a plain puzzle of my next few things - from 5 to 10 - that I am continuing to pursue. In Sep 2010 to Dec 2010 I promised I would achieve at least 80% out of 10 things in 100 days. Yeaaaah, I did achieve... 65% ... Way to go!

10 things planned vs achieved from Sep to Dec 2010:

- Learn how to play a guitar - in process

- Learn Spanish - did not take any solo class. Starting again.

- Improve Public Speaking - attended Toastmaster's Club in Hyderabad in Nov-Dec 2010. Joining the club in Chennai in Feb 2011.

- Read 10 quality books - Done. The list is displayed in my linkedin profile

- Visit at least 5 new places and get AWE- inspired - Done. I have been to Pattadakal, Badami, Aihole in Karnataka state, Goa, Palolem beach, Jaipur ( Rajasthan state) and Delhi ( the capital city of India ), Chennai and Konchiparam, Tamil Nadu state.

- Learn Salsa - zero progress.

- Learn French - zero progress.

- Lead a Global Support Team (GST) in Talent Management area, AIESEC - Achieved! I work with 5 great personalities!

- Implement at least one educational or research oriented sub project within GST for sustainable operations - Achieved together with the team! ( Our team plays around Competency Model (CM )in AIESEC. CM is bread and butter of highly successful enterprises nowadays. However, corporate world still cannot figure out what it is and what ingredients to add when you prepare it for your workforce. )

- Deliver either a business training or facilitate a workshop/AIESEC conference - Achieved! In Dec I delivered a training on Cultural Sensitivity for science college graduates within company premises.

Not bad. I can do better. You ask me "Do I need it?" I will reply "Why Not?"

Motivator. There are a few BOLD things I want to do in life. "I want" , not "I plan". These are:

- Family: taking care of my parents and my brother. Start my own family when the time comes.

- Travels: Independently, with friends, with my family members. I want to travel to at least 100 countries before I die. ( Here is a trick: I do not fix an age when I shall visit 100 countries. Death is inevitable, therefore let's do first things first!)

- Dear passionate job: My country is in need of entrepreneurs, AIESEC taught me how to be an entrepreneur, and I realise how much it is valuable for the society and for building a firm self esteem to drive entrepreneurship within yourself. So I will have my own business in the nearest future.

- UN: I have a tremendous willingness to spend some time working for the United Nations and develop the Talents across the world, Improve Education Systems.

- Audacious Individuals: I want to meet and work with people whom I admire ( apart from my smart friends all across the globe, there is a small bunch people with whom I would like to collaborate on different projects ) For instance, these are Batyrkhan Shukenov, Ken Robinson, De Bono, Bono U2 solo, Michael Duglas, etc.

- Intercultural Communication. Management: I want to live in every continent before I settle down mentally and physically back home in Kazakhstan. Yes, I am a big patriot of my country.

- Oceans, Swimming as a hobby: I want to have memories of the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans on my skin.

- A book: I want to write a book (-s ? ) about different matters that are important in life. Family, for example. Or living abroad.

- I will come with more when it is the right time for them ( the so called aspirational goals ) to appear.

Conclusion: I do need to have a lack of FEARS in my life as they show me what I really want in life.

Opening Ceremony of 7th Winter Asian Games in Astana, Kazakhstan, 2011

2011-02-12T01:26:00.002+06:00

Feel Proud and I love my country!

Menin Elim, menin Kazakhstanym!

Honeymoon

2011-02-08T23:21:00.003+06:00

"Well, I am glad to hear you are doing great. I can hear it in your voice. And your pictures - well, they tell everything about you now. You love your life in India ..."

Well, yes, I love my life. Anywhere in the world. In India I found another meaning of life. I assume I will find more meanings of life and love while my staying here.

I don't know what to begin with. I have spent 6 1/2 months in India, and I don't know how many months I will spend more. I don't want to measure my life by days or months. Simply because at one point I do not measure it. Or sometimes, there are some breathtaking moments I encounter that make my life brighter, stronger, tougher, full of compassion and love...

Compassion. Last weekend I spent in Trivandrum, Kerala. It is in the very south in India. As soon as I got off from a plane I felt a high level of humidity and I smiled. This is that India I have discovered first time for myself when I was on a vacation 2 years back. Humid noisy colourful spicy India. I fell in love with it that time. That is why I decided to come back. I did not know that time what real India is. I do not know it even now after regular travels I keep going to, after working with Indian people in one of the leading IT companies, after researching the country ...

I have discovered a very compassionate India for myself. I am learning how I can be compassionate. It is sometimes hard. It is sometimes painful. It is sometimes graceful. Fearless. Tearing apart. Putting me down on my knees. But at the end of a day I know I need to stand up and keep walking. I know I can give a hand to those around me. Even when it feels uncomfortable. Even when I am about to cry. And then I feel as if I have cried out all my tears in the beginning of my Indian journey...

It is my Honeymoon in India. It is time when I am absolutely in LOVE with India.

Resistance

2011-02-07T23:51:00.000+06:00

... It is neither wrong nor right... What happens is the right thing to happen...

You got me there

2011-01-10T22:02:00.002+06:00

What am I to you and what are you to me?

Are we getting better or did we used to be?

What of the song we used to sing?

Where are the souls we used to carry in?

What is a sail without hurricane?

What is a hurt without someone to blame?

Show me the sky and I'll, I'll climb the stairs

Give me something 'cause I'm losing it

Give me what it is you believe in

'Cause I give to you my truth

I got all my faith in you

I don't know which way we are going

Doesn't matter anyway

Just as long as you will stay

Tell me the word and I'll shout it out

For what is a voice when in doubt?

The world has changed, the world will change

Oh, give me something 'cause I, I need to feel

It's so good, you know

I still love you so

And you don't have to do this on your own

No, no

1/4 of an Indian chapati

2010-12-15T02:09:00.006+06:00

The most dangerous place is in your safety zone

A very correct phrase, that describes a few of my Indian months, has recently occupied my mind.

I could sense how past 4 months of my Hyderabadi life have echoed in me as " I do not want to leave my safety zone... Not now... Later... When I am ready ... " This readiness may have not ever come if one dear friend to me would not ask me the very right question I was in need of. It took me a gigantic portion of courage to confess and get reassured I need to leave my safety zone...

The Choice

2010-12-08T18:19:00.001+06:00

Feeling back home... Again

2010-11-07T14:20:00.001+06:00

Have never thought this small town - Riga - would be so dear to my heart. Irreplaceable...

Watching the video ( Thanks, Agnesita! ) I have walked the same roads as I did when I lived in Riga - the 21 and 41 bus routes, the silent walks on the bridge, wondering around in the Old Town with the interns, enjoying a bottle of wine in the park, catching some sun tan in Jurmala and loving the scenery behind the train window...

Latvia, Riga I miss you very much. Sometimes even more than my original home - the place where I was born and raised, where I studied and made my first independent steps, where my family lives and waits for me. I feel sparkling knowing that I have at least two homelands in my life. Will my heart stick to India that strong as Kazakhstan and Latvia do? :) ... there is some time I have, to spend in India...

The Matter of Choice

2010-11-07T01:28:00.004+06:00

It is not a secret that our thinking is shaped due to environments we live in, the media we choose to read/listen, people we connect ourselves to, etc. The thinking of a humankind is very general, "average", "Excellent but not enough", lazy in a sense it finds itself comfortable with a current state of the world, the society, and the person it belongs to. These are just a few highlights from the recent books I have been reading. The books are globally recognised and based on real business cases, life situations, death-life decisions, somebody's expertise, investigations and their conclusions.

One of the last week's book that I have finished was all about To Do lists. Well, it is not a typical To Do or Must Do List. The book vividly describes the Why we need these lists and How much of value they bring to us. Though the real life examples are comprehensible, I was struck by one paragraph that I immediately related to experiences I have had with different organisations in my past. The author's opinion had also let me understand the behaviours of people I interact with daily.

I would like to share with you the paragraph and if you are experiencing something similar, please let me know. I am all ears as I have a strong yearning to hear how you are dealing with a described situation.

" ... No, the real lesson is that under conditions of true complexity - where the knowledge required exceeds that of any individual and unpredictability reigns - efforts to dictate every step from the centre will fail. People need room to act and adapt. Yet they cannot succeed as isolated individuals, either - that is anarchy. Instead, they require a seemingly contradictory mix of freedom and expectation to coordinate, for example, and also to measure progress toward common goals ... "

Loud Bang!

2010-11-02T19:23:00.005+06:00

OK, folks, if there is a will, there is a go, right?

I have a will, and I will make it happen.

Firstly, I am announcing to myself and publicly that starting from today, Nov 2, 2010 life gets easier here for me. In all senses. I myself am closing that circle of negativism and uncertainty I have been living through because of this and that. Quoting a smart girl who recently said to me, I came to enjoy and experience India, and I don't give a s*** about anything else. This is promise # 1.

Secondly, some time ago I have made a short list of 10 goals I will accomplish by Dec 30th, 2010. Thanks to my friend's link to one inspiring blog, I am competing with myself for fun and to occupy my mind with busy-ness, and to drop a few fresh thoughts into a burning pot. These goals are as diverse as possible; I was laughing when I discovered that 2-3 of them have not changed at all since autumn 2009; and believe me, I will achieve at least 80% of them. This is promise # 2.

Thirdly, I am learning again from the scratch what it is to feel happiness. Yes, it has been discovered in small portions here by me. Yes, changeable reality a

nd different standards I have witnessed and adjusted for for the past 3 months are way far from the living standards back home in Kazakhstan and Latvia. Yes, I would easily get weak and frustrated, but who said that Rome was built in a day? So, work, work and work is required from me in huge volumes. This is promise # 3.

Fourthly, back to basics. Big Thanks to my colleagues I am enjoying Toastmasters I used to do in the University; big thanks to a patient guitar teacher when I am loudly strumming the guitar that I took up classes of here, in Hyderabad; a huge respect and acknowledgment to AIESEC members that are actively in touch for any inquiry; a warm Thank you! to the Global Support Team Talent Program, to my team members and to our new value - Activating Randomness :). This is promise # 4.

Last, but not the least, rediscovering the life with its forms and angles, with its smells and touches, with its gentleness and sharpness is going on. It will never stop unless I say so to myself. Therefore, final promise # 5 dated Nov 2- Dec 31st, 2010 is all about Love.

... This maybe scary for somebody to confess publicly about his/her fears. I am eager to take another path: to publicly declare I will do everything possible and impossible to be happy. I am already happy. I did feel it yesterday. I felt it today. I will feel it tomorrow.

My HAPPYness Journey is at its inception!

Love and Patience

2010-10-30T22:21:00.000+06:00

Thanks for loving me, it's simply perfect

Boomerang Children

2010-10-30T19:35:00.003+06:00

...Baby, you are beautiful, smart, skillful, talented, unique. You are just YOU, so take it as a fact...

Intense, diverse, noisy, travelling, hard ( not challenging ), ridiculous, sleepless, tearful, tiring, careless, helpless, meaningful, learning, calm, "everything-is-gonna-be-alright", silent, talkative, friendly, supportive, back-to-basics days are being walked by me every day here in India.

But everything is gonna be OK in the end. If it is not OK, then it is not the end. Yeah?

What's next?

Urker - Asel,Уркер Асель.

2010-09-28T09:32:00.000+06:00

This is how my day starts today :)

Toploader - Dancing in The Moonlight

2010-09-20T01:35:00.000+06:00

Briefly: I love my internship experience in India - I love the people that I meet here.

This song is just a summary of this colorful week: Latino parties, joint Kazakh- Latino cooking evenings, tons of laugh and dances in the moonlight, and sunrises in the mornings, and incredibly amazing PEOPLE! Thank you, guys! Thank you, AIESEC!

Divine moment

2010-09-10T23:05:00.007+06:00

Understanding of the right place, the right time and the right step in life is a powerful self-motivation for me. It hit me today: I was spending an evening in one of the parks of Hyderabad, I wanted to find a peaceful place and simply enjoy the scenery and harmony. The Lumbini Park next to the Hussain Sagar lake is one of the options, though it is an amusement park and is quite noisy one. My friend and I went by boat to see the statue of Buddha- that statue we heard of and read in online guides a lot.

A grandiose high stone masterpiece welcomed visitors along with a harmonious silent music. The warmest wind and pink purple yellow cloudless sky juiced the divine moment! Throughout the time we spent at the lake, next to the statue, in the park, watching a laser show with a thorough digital history of Hyderabad, listening to Indian music .... ah, I just felt it with all my heart - Hyderabad is my Indian hometown. It is my home for this year, it is my country for this year, and I am responsible for everything that happens to me this year. Let it be the good. Let it be a disappointment. Let it be happiness. Let it be discoveries. A-ha moments. Love. Harmony. Peace.

Thank you my dear friend for reminding simple things that matter.

2010-09-05T14:32:00.003+06:00

A Farewell Letter

If for an instant God were to forget that I am rag doll and gifted me with a piece of life,

possibly I wouldn't say all that I think,

but rather I would think of all that I say.

I would value things,

not for their worth but for what they mean.

I would sleep little, dream more,

understanding that for each minute we close our eyes we lose sixty seconds of light.

I would walk when others hold back.

I would wake when others sleep.

I would listen when others talk,

and how I would enjoy a good chocolate ice cream!

If God were to give me a piece of life,

I would dress simply,

throw myself face first into the sun,

baring not only my body but also my soul.

My God, if I had a heart, I would write my hate on ice,

and wait for the sun to show.

Over the stars I would paint with a Van Gogh dream a Benedetti poem,

and a Serrat song would be the serenade I'd offer to the moon.

With my tears I would water roses,

to feel the pain of their thorns,

and the red kiss of their petals.

My God, if I had a piece of life...

I wouldn't let a single day pass without telling the people I love that I love them.

I would convince each woman and each man that they are my favorites,

and I would live in love with love.

I would show men how very wrong they are to think that they cease to be in love when they grow old,

not knowing that they grow old when they cease to love!

To a child I shall give wings,

but I shall let him learn to fly on his own.

I would teach the old that death does not come with old age,

but with forgetting.

So much have I learned from you, oh men...

I have learned that everyone wants to live on the peak of the mountain,

without knowing that real happiness is in how it is scaled.

I have learned that when a newborn child squeezes for the first time with his tiny fist his father's finger,

he has him trapped forever.

I have learned that a man has the right to look down on another only when he has to help the other get to his feet.

From you I have learned so many things,

but in truth they won't be of much use,

for when I keep them within this suitcase,

unhappily shall I be dying.

~GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ~

Love

2010-09-05T00:23:00.004+06:00

This word totally describes my state of mind in India right now.

Short. Precise. Rich. Infinite.

Explanation is simple: I feel so much relaxed and calm. Like when you are lazily sleeping on a beach, sipping a fresh fruit cocktail and breathing love that is in the air. Indescribable !

India, India... You are so different. You are so magnificent. You are so warm. You are so sweet. You are so full of love.

One of my dearest moments I encounter often is when I commute by a rickshaw somewhere, and he drives crazily. I am at this moment loving the wind that embraces me, that holds my face and that whispers different stories to me...

I feel so much in love at these moments

Incredible India.

How much is too much?

2010-08-20T22:26:00.004+06:00

Quoting

Activating Leadership

We lead by example and inspire leadership through our activities. We take full responsibility for developing the youth leadership potential of our members.

Demonstrating Integrity

We are consistent and transparent in our decisions and actions. We fulfil our commitments and conduct ourselves in a way that is true to our ideals.

Living Diversity

We seek to learn from the different ways of life and opinions represented in our multicultural environment. We respect and actively encourage the contribution of every individual.

Enjoying Participation

We create a dynamic environment created by active and enthusiastic participation of individuals. We enjoy being involved in AIESEC.

Striving for Excellence

We aim to deliver the highest quality performance in everything we do. Through creativity and innovation we seek to continuously improve.

Acting Sustainably

We act in a way that is sustainable for our organisation and society. Our decisions take into account the needs of future generations.

These are our AIESEC values. This is a sort of philosophy we live daily once we get to know AIESEC and it stays in our hearts, in our minds. This is what I have believed in since I joined AIESEC in 2007 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I have gone through a beautiful profound life experience, made lots of strong friendships with young in mind and brave in heart people from all world regions, travelled to a few countries and lived for less than a year in Latvia. Logically, I decided to continue my AIESEC career aiming higher, I was looking for a professional upgrade, I was looking for challenges, I was looking for another exciting year in my life. You know why? Reasons are multiple. One reason is my beloved one: I want to be a cool grandmother. Yes, yes, the coolest grandmother ever that my grandchildren could have. Future projections.

Now, dreaming is great. My dear friends, dare to dream. Dare and make your dreams come true. It is a wonderful feeling.

However, we are now in present. Therefore, let me talk about what is happening NOW and HERE.

Owing to an international leadership experience back in AIESEC Latvia and in Kazakhstan, I have coordinated a national exchange programme. During our year in Latvia our team made a breakthrough: 40 talented young people caught the right opportunity and experienced Latvian culture as well as brought their innovative approaches in solving vitally importnat issues to the societies of Turkey, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Armenia, the Netherlands, Italy, Ukraine, Malaysia, Moldova, Peru, Colombia. This is our main product- AIESEC Experience. This is what we promise to our stakeholders and this what we should deliver. The better the service , the higher customer satisfaction we receive. Right? Or I am wrong?

My long term AIESEC experience showed to me that nothing is impossible. Nothing. You have a goal, you have resources- you will achieve it. You will taste success in the end. Definitely. Do not tell me you cannot make it happen. You just did not try hard enough to make it happen. You do not need to try hard. Play smart and results will come ultimately. Have some patience and have a positive attitude. Easy.

Right, it is easy. However, a disappointing fact ALL AIESEC interns face DAILY here with AIESEC India say it is not that easy.

My point here is simple: AIESEC India "leads" a totally different AIESEC philosophy. Odd AIESEC way.

Reception culture. After painful conversations with many young students that came to India for short term development internships from all over the world to improve illiteracy in outskirts of India or to drive Anti-HIV campaigns, etc I see tears and fears in their eyes. I see uncertainty and non confidence in themselves. After they landed in airports they are not picked up. They are not provided with accommodation at least for the beginning. Or if they are provided with accommodation, then this place may have a room, an AC, and a bathroom. It is an ideal case. I am encountering with these situations daily, in Mumbai and in Hyderabad. I question here the following: if you cannot manage fifty ( 50 ) interns on average in a quarter why do you keep bringing people here?

Legal issues. Management internship with TCS that I am in as well as most of my friends here requires a longer staying in India. Thus, it involves a legal registration of foreigners. While my staying in Mumbai, my friends and I had to CHASE AIESEC Exchange responsible members to assisst us in legal registration. After two weeks of a long procedure we got the stamps and we started working in the company. My question here is - you know your pipeline of incoming interns, you can project how many passports need to be registered, you know what promise you give to your stakeholders. Why do you complicate the processes?

New economy. Labour mobility is widespread nowadays. Though it concerns some governments, labour mobility's core is as old as the world: our ancestors migrated to have a better life, and current world population flows due to the same reasons. State of the art technologies give a room to practise a new economy : business can be done virtually and you do not necessarily need to be present physically in the office. Seems that AIESEC India is very progressive in these terms. Once an intern arrived, AIESEC India members forget about him/her. No or low interaction with him/her, no welcome parties, no cultural activities that build awareness about India, that break people's stereotypes. An intern just adds another number in an Excel sheet. I question a member from AIESEC in India: what reception have you received in another country during your internship ( if you had one ) ? Or what reception would you like to receive once you decide to go for minimum 2 months internship to any part of the world?

People. Eventually, we deal with young people in AIESEC India. An average age of an AIESECer in Western Europe is around 23-25. Our members in AIESEC Latvia and Kazakhstan are 20-25 years old. An executive member of AIESEC Mumbai, India is 17. When you are 17, you most probably care about education, social life, Facebook. A mate of mine has witnessed it in Mumbai: an intern arrived, and a reception coordinator was chatting with him in Facebook. Yes, it is a down to earth example. But we talk about people and their lives. We talk about EXPERIENCES - we just talk and we do not make any right actions.

It is very crucial- at least for my friends and me - to prevent these situations with future interns. A giant work must be done. First, it should be understood by every member of AIESEC India, and it shall be solved by executive members of National Board of AIESEC India. Show your leadership by managing your Numerical Desires in a right way.

I am extremely disappointed I know the answers. I feel ashamed when I see interns' tears and I cannot help. They love India but they hate AIESEC here.

My purpose of this post is not to destroy image of AIESEC in general or AIESEC India in particular. My aim is to give a voice of another numerical result, or a voice of an intern and ASK every single person from AIESEC India - what are you doing to improve your reality? How do you plan to manage your membership and impact young people's lives? What are those stories that we tell ? How will they determine the way we live?

Quality or Quantity

2010-08-20T01:12:00.003+06:00

“You are not here to make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world. You impoverish yourself if you forget this errand.”

—Former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson

After a brief self analysis of my first 3 weeks here in India I came to a conclusion that I got stuck. Emotional Intelligence- oh yes, a lovely topic to discuss, a heavy weight to carry on your shoulders. Still, I understand I do not score high in EQ ( Emotional Quotinent ) and it is now one of the first priorities in my personal development, a few things practised by many of us here are very ridiculous. Yes, these are my perceptions. Yes, these are frustrations we all go through in life. Yes, life can be paradise or can be hell - in the end we are talking about people's attitudes. In fact, we are talking about responsibility. Self responsibility. Empathy. Self restraint. Relationships. Emotions and perceptions. Optimism and negative attitudes. Life in general and lessons that we take from it.

A few things that I have to deal with since my arrival to India keep upsetting me very very much. These matters are highly important for me as well as for many others being on exchange here.

I just wonder why we, human beings, do not walk the way we talk. I wonder why we prefer Quantity VS Quality. I wonder why material world has a bigger value than our relations and our lives. I wonder...

Along with that, I feel disgusted. I feel dirty. I lose faith. And I refuse to believe. Just refuse.

All these talks we have about leadership become meaningless for me here. I am sorry to say so but it is so at the moment. It does not mean I refuse my past life and my values and my beliefs too. No, no, not at all.

Priorities keep changing, right? Life is a change itself. And as we know, the only constant things in life is change. However, changes may stay unchangeable. A challenge to understand? Well, I see it this way now. I believe this opinion will be substituted by another one. The only thing my mind finds difficult is OverPromises and UnderDeliveries.

Keep walking. Learn. Apply. Enjoy. Life is beautiful.

Mumbai: 2nd week

2010-08-09T16:51:00.005+06:00

Adaptation

Life in Mumbai is extreme. It is not bad, not good. It has its own path. It is very hectic, it is insane, it is sweet, it is lovely, it is filthy, it is so much international, it is spicy, it is ... diverse.

Mumbai Diversity - 1. If you happen to be in Mumbai you would probably commute by local train service. There are two classes: first class and second class. The difference is in cost of tickets in 10 times ( e.g. coupons for 2nd class may cost 40Rs, 60Rs or 80Rs = 120KZT, 180KZT, 240KZT or less than $1, 1Euro, $1,5 respectively ; now multiple by 10 and it will be a cost for 1st class ) and in seats. In 2nd class women/men compartments plenty of people can take a seat; in 1st class only 3 people are allowed. Taking a train to get to other parts of Mumbai is like a roller coaster. You get through so many emotional peaks of yours within one- two- three minutes.

In the beginning, I was feeling really uncomfortable commuting by trains here. It is difficult to describe, pictures won't say much and you gotta feel it. However, the situation is not that bad as it seemed to me in the beginning. Later on, I started noticing how women ENJOY trains. It is like a small society for them. Seems as if they can meet each other only on the trains, only during these sweating rush hours they chat as if they won't see each other in this entire world. They chirrup, they laugh, they argue, they live and enjoy their lives within 30-60mins of a trip.

Metric measurement. Guys, tell me something, in your countries, when you want to know where a building is located how do you measure distance? By meters, km, miles I suppose? We, Isnaldo, Elizabeth and I, it shall be like this. On the contrary, in Mumbai we were introduced a new measurement: 5- 10 min walk. Let me give you an example: we are looking for a particular known landmark, and we ask passersby its location, or how far it is, or what direction we shall go to. In reply we hear, " Go straight, then right, then straight and right again. It's not far, jsut 5-10 mins walk" :) Lovely. We got used to it and we reply the same to just arrived interns. Splendid :)

Mumbai Diversity - 2. Walking is one of my hobbies I truly enjoy. Alas, in Mumbai I am getting tired very quickly and walking in the city becomes more of a pain than a pleasure. For instance, due to heavy rains I started to wear yellow rubber boots. Quite comfortable to protect feet from dirt, and at the same time it is a total sauna for my feet. One day, three of us ( Naldo, Liz and I ) had decided to go around Mumbai. We visited the Haji Ali mosque and got totally wet from head to toe passing by the Arabian Sea shore. We then went to Mahalaxmi Temple dedicated to Mahalaxmi goddess, and got wetter. We have also seen the world's largest human machine Dhobi Ghat and got astonished, shocked, thoughtful and wet again. After all these imbalanced pictures and people's various lifestyles we took a taxi to Moshe's and satisfied ourselves with a delicious meal. Meanwhile, we were studying India book and decided to walk to Hanging Gardens or to TATA gardens. According to a map we used, it was not far, just 5-10min walk. So we took a deep breath and marched to the Gardens, also known as Ferozeshah Mehta Gardens. It was raining, of course. So, one of us is sleepy and sips take away coffee, another one whistles different tunes, third one is gazing at traffic and documents everything. On the way we saw the cheapest world's car TATA Nano and of course took a picture! ( We like TATA group too much :) So, after 5-10min walk we saw a park, or better to say an outdoor public area. Curious, we changed our way and we thought it was TATA Garden. In fact, it was Hanging Gardens. And here our astonishment has increased! Mumbai diversity, part 2! We could not believe our eyes such a peaceful clean cozy place could exist in Mumbai! We took lots of pictures, we laughed so loud, we were innocently happy and we did not want to leave the Gardens! Indeed, you never know what happens next. It is so true especially in Mumbai!

Cultural differences. We all have our individual standards we apply towards friendships we make, towards politeness and roughness, towards what's acceptable and what's not in one's society. By growing up, I have been learning and experiencing what it means to be tolerant, what to sacrifice in yourself to be open towards other cultures. Ultimately, what's acceptable in my society may shock a person from Tanzania, let's say. Here, in Mumbai I feel I am asked sometimes too much of being culturally sensitive. I am not saying I feel disgusted, or that I neglect these differences. The matter is in its frequency and weight of this tolerance is sometimes too heavy to carry on shoulders daily. I am grateful I have friends here I could talk to, and I feel relieved. Otherwise, I would go crazy I think. But what I understand is that I want to insist on learning and adjusting myself for Indian diversity, and I will work on myself. If this is one of my weaknesses at the moment, I shall work harder to prevent its further existence.

Locked. During these two weeks many stories happened, many places have been visited, a few parties have been attended, a few tears have been dropped, lots of laughter have been produced. However, only now I realise I could not reflect on what was happening to me every day since July 26 when I landed in Mumbai. The days have been Formula - 1 video clips. We rush, we sprint, we don't have time for 3 meals/day. Our stomachs have shrunk, and we cannot eat more than a meal a day. Otherwise, we feel sick and nauseous. As the result, I cannot recall any day from A to Z. If I had not my camera with me, I don't know what I would do. Memories are blocked as our work accounts used to be. Why is it so? Maybe because so many things happen at a time, and here you really need to react fast to changeable situations?

______________________________________________________________________

Resume

I never was missing my family so desperately as I do now.

Lesson to learn: I should surround myself with things I used to enjoy doing. They will help me. I need to settle down at last. I want to start working. As if I am asked to catch 10 rabbits with 2 hands. Who will win in this case?

Mumbai: Week 1

2010-08-06T02:16:00.008+06:00

Survival

Not so long time has passed as I am jotting down a few thoughts after my first week in Mumbai, India.

Briefly about what happened before my rather spontaneous arrival at one of the largest cities in the world: I have simply enjoyed my time home with family, a very short and desirable time, a very miraclous and gorgeous time, the so much needed time with my family and close people. Yes, it's been short- just 2 months to taste "How is it being home?" and jump into a new life journey. An incredible journey, I believe, since India is now promoted as Incredible India and I get reassured by this message daily.

My hometown

You may have noticed this blog post is called Survival. Indeed, my first week in Mumbai has been a survival. Never ever have I witnessed such a tremendous growth and failure of one, never ever have I felt alone and surrounded by people going through the same challenges in their first week here, never ever have I got astonished and shocked simultaneously as it is happening in Mumbai with me. Never say never.

Imagine, you wake up, have breakfast, and getting ready to commute to work. Different countries have different means of transportation and different styles of commuting. I have not had any picture how it may look here though it is not my first time being in India. But now I understand that India is different. Not just diverse. It is different as two sweet similar apples. So if I was shocked by crazy traffic in Jaipur and subway culture in Delhi when I visited India first time a few years ago, I was paralysed by seeing train traffic in Mumbai. It takes me a lot of courage to open up myself and get all my inner strength to get out of my comfort zone. It takes me a lot of patience not to get broken in front of everyone and first of all, in front of myself. It takes me forget the life I used to live before and start absolutely a new life. A blank page.

Emotions. Week 1 gave me an impression I am in a movie. Not a Bollywood movie though. I am an actress. I am being acted upon by circumstances, by weather currents, by someone's laziness and immaturity. I was feeling very stressed, I have never felt so lost, so desperate, so lonely, so frustrated. On my 2nd or 3rd day I was so fed up with these consequences of Survival script that I decided to be a director of Survival series, and make it a sitcom. At least this idea worked out. In the end, regardless of all long awaited actions from the others and an insane traffic, my friends and I could nothing but laugh. Laugh histerically sometimess. We would be damn exhausted but we would keep on laughing. As it was the only remedy and support we could find at any time.

Our 1st morning journey together. Induction. Isnaldo, Elizabeth

Universal Time. Value of time is different everywhere. Moreover, it is different for every individual. I remember I would sometimes go crazy back in Latvian times when I was late for some important things in my life. At home I do not notice how time flows. It is so natural there, as it should be. Here, in Mumbai, my friends and I do not feel or see time at all. We leave our living places at 7.30am and come back home at 12-1 am, exhausted. During a day we can't understand what is going with time! It disappears!

Indian Standard Time ( IST ) However, when it comes to meet with anyone here in Mumbai people act according to IST. I have noticed, it does not matter whether you are local or an expat, everyone has a habit to do business, to meet with friends according to IST- Indian Stretchable Time. Kazakhs are not that progressive as Indians in being "accurate" with IST.

Monsoons. Oh Gosh, another discovery. Have you ever experienced fiercely raining cold water from heavens? Add to this a filthy street water mixed with litter and smog. Do not forget to put some colours of happy Indians being on a train, outside, at booking offices, and finish with colours of confused concerned faces of Westerners. A speechlees picture. Daily.

A photo taken in an autorickshaw

Friends. I am so glad, so glad I have my old friends here. I am so happy I have made new friends here with other interns. It adds super power and days do not seem so lonely.

Nastya, Feras and I

_____________________________________________________________________

Resume

Week 1 has been the bigest emotional challenge so far in my life. I have no feelings towards this condition yet. It does not mean I am afraid of living here or anything like that. It has been really really hard for me, I have not thought it would be that much hard. But I will manage. I will. I am not the first trainee here, nor the last one. Everyone has survived. So have I.

Lesson to learn: Forget your past life. Start an absolutely new one.

Before I take off

2010-05-25T18:33:00.001+06:00

So, home in a few hours :)

Mountains' view from a plane, a sleepy Almaty, rising sun, familiar Kazakh and Russian conversations, my blue passport, the best brother, calls and non stop talks about how I feel and if I changed, and many more...

I have not been home for almost a year.

I have a slight idea of what my home is now- I believe my home is where my heart is.

I am amused and pleased to hear my old friends' calls and emails about my return. They are incredible! Yesterday, for instance, I got 2 fantastic gifts from 2 people: a book that I wanted to read long time ago, that projects my favourite field of work I see myself in the future; and a massive external storage for my e-docs/books/etc. Funny to say about these gifts but they are just on time :) Thank you, guys!

Moscow... Indescribable for me at this moment. It is not my first time here though. Is something missing to make a Moscow trip memorable? I have everything here I wish to: my close friend, the sun and beautiful parks, fountains, pancakes with a strawberry jam. There is only one thing that makes me shiver: Moscow subways. First of all, they are the most confusing in comparison to others I've been to ( even St Petersburg metros are simple!). Second and the most overwhelming are images from recent video news on terrorist attacks. It may sound silly but I am having these images in my mind every time I take a metro to go somewhere in Moscow. Lastly, Moscow traffic makes me tremble too! Living for a long time in a quiet small Riga taught me that I can "enjoy" ( so to say ) getting a public transport: when drivers and pedestrians obey the rules, when people do not push each other, and you barely hear a very bad language.

Here I feel as if I am on another planet. I felt it straight away when I arrived a few days ago. But now I am thinking: have I really felt that way or I have just exaggerated a situation? Maybe these emotions come because I did not want to return to my local reality so fast?

I still do not know what I will see in Almaty; however, I know what to expect, and I would be more than happy if I am wrong.

A few additions I would like to document for 2009-2010:

- Best songs for me this year

Muse Undisclosed Desires

David Guetta Delirious

The Fray How To Save A Life , You Found Me

Natalie Imbruglia Counting Down The Days

Snow Patrol Just Say Yes

Nelly Furtado Manos Al Aire

Iron and Wine Cinders and Smoke

Jason Mraz I'm Yours , Lucky

Maroon 5 Nothing Lasts Forever

BEP Bebot

Natasha Bedingfield Pocket Full of Sunshine

John Lennon Love

The String Quartet Tribute- all tunes

Shakira- all songs

Alicia Keys- all songs

Coldplay - all songs

Madonna- all songs

The Beatles - all songs

Spice Girls Viva Forever - a song for all times

( Do not look for a meaning; the tunes are just beautiful, that's why I admire these artists )

The Best Books for me this year

Jim Collins Good To Great

The McKinsey Way

Muhammad Yunus Creating a World Without Poverty. Social Business and the Future of Capitalism

What Matters Now

Claude Hopkins My Life in Advertising

The Best Videos for me this year

How great leaders inspire actions

How to Live before you Die

How to Start a Movement

Al Gore on Averting Climate Crisis

What Adults Can Learn from Kids

Why I'm Rowing Across the Pacific

How Art Gives Shape to Cultural Change

Innovating to Zero

The Fringe Benefits of Failure

Success is a continious journey

The Best Discovery for me this year

Say NO to say YES!

The Best Weakness this year

Sleeping hours :)

The Best Strength this year

"Can Do" Attitude

The Best Moment this year

Every Single Moment I live

The Best Feature I love

An inner smile

Here I am closing my 1st life chapter of adventures, happiness, surprises, A-ha! moments, trips, friends, love, care, LIFE before entering a big nomadic country Kazakhstan. I am not planning to blog later for some time. There are some personal reasons and www.blogpost.com is banned in the country.

With love,

Assel

A vegetarian

2010-05-24T00:05:00.000+06:00

Recently an inner voice told me, Hey, what about reducing meat in your nutrition and becoming more heathier? What about stop eating meat at all?
Why not, I thought.

So this is my plan: practice being a veg in the next 6 months. I am still eating meat - beef, lamb, chicken, pork, ( horse meat at home I believe ). However, I am thinking of trying another life- lighter, greener and healthier.

Coincidentally, I have watched this video today Graham Hill: Why I'm a weekday vegetarian | Video on TED.com and got more curious :)

There are a couple of more things I desperately want to do this year.

Excited! Dream planning starts and shall be accomplished in 2010! Woohoo!

V-Log: My last year students

2010-05-23T22:33:00.004+06:00

Last year when I was finishing my job at Kazakhstan International School, my 4th graders and I were preparing for their spring project "Home Journey. Migration"

We studied different topics at our classes - Programme of Inquiry - and in the end were supposed to demonstrate what we discovered within every 4 weeks of studies.

Do not judge this brief video- after all, these are 8 year old students, and this video means a lot for all of us.

V-Log: A few words from my MC team

2010-05-23T22:00:00.003+06:00

Here is a a video of my team filmed in the Riga airport and in our MC flat before I left it.

Just a few capturing moments, a few smiles and a few memories.

xxx

May 20, 2010

2010-05-20T15:32:00.003+06:00

Time to say Good Bye and Thank You

* AIESEC in Latvija: members, alumni, partners

* My Team: Jake and Liza

* My Baltic Colleagues

* Latvija as a country

* Lina

and many more people, places, things

We will stay in touch virtually of course.

Hopefully, we will see each other very soon!

Do What You Believe In. Believe In What You Do. { My Philospohy}

2010-05-15T06:14:00.000+06:00

I'm Yours - Loving it!

2010-05-12T14:38:00.000+06:00

Remedy

2010-05-12T04:05:00.003+06:00

Most of you have probably experienced a situation when you are trying to catch time and do things you have not done before.

Last weekend I had spent exactly the way I like: not knowing what comes next and appreciating every single moment.

Here are a few of them:

Tallinn, Estonia

- Hitch-hike to Tallinn, Estonia to see a Nordic-Baltic country and spend some time with my dear Julian. Result: stereotypes about a beautifully warm country have been broken to pieces , have "travelled" for a short time to Latin America, danced bachata and salsa, sang karaoke in a Finnish bar in the Estonian language, met a great man that reminded me one of my best friends, stopped by in Parnu, South Estonia, and had a reliable partner to hitch-hike next time !

- For 1st time was not seeing and hearing news and celebration of 9th May. I was in Tallinn and was feeling strange.

- Celebrated a Bday of an AIESEC Estonia member in an Irish bar, I met a whole bunch of fantastic people. Among them were "old members" of AIESEC Estonia/Canada/Colombia/Turkey. After party was over, I realised that it was most likely to my home LC way: crazy, energetic, loud, lots of dances and songs, love and affection, emotions and feelings! Thank you, AIESEC Tallinn!

- Admired a member from Parnu town for his ideas and methods in running his own NGO. That's what happens when you gain soft and hard leadership skills, and implement them straight ahead.

- Loved Estonia!

Present Future

2010-05-05T14:20:00.002+06:00

Today, going to the city centre, I had a new look out of a bus window. Last few days I've been a "vegetable" - this label I have put on myself due to being lazy/sleepy/wondering around about sometning and nothing in particular. A shame, I know.

However, when today I as usual spent about 30mins on the bus I had two questions on my mind. First, what is the future of leadership? Second, why people, being aware of high effectiveness in self management and practising good habits, stay ineffective and procrastination becomes their first choice on some days? To be more precise, 2nd question is more personal.

Before typing your thoughts I would like to share with you one interesting podcast "Democracy in the Workplace"

Now, let's put our thoughts on:

- Future of Leadership in private sector/ public sector/ personal lives/ education/etc ( choose your topic )

- How Procrastination can be beneficial to your individual growth?

Waiting to hear your thoughts ( either here or in inbox )

Assel

Yes

2010-05-02T20:30:00.001+06:00

Modern Kazakhstan: how does it look like?

2010-05-01T18:20:00.003+06:00

Annualy, May 1st is celebrated as a Day of Peoples Unanimity in Kazakhstan. It is a beginning of long May holidays bringing happiness, commemoration to Motherland protectors - USSR - May 9th, and time to highlight once again multi-ethnic harmony in the Republic.

A few days ago, the Kazakhstani Government has declared a new Doctrine of National Unity. When I heard about it my initial reaction was , Oh, The Assembly of People of Kazakhstan fosters their actions to strengthen their presence and continue uniting the nations and nationalities in the Republic. Obviously, this Body is now gaining its significance in the region of Central Asia and should represent ALL voices of people living in the country not only to prove its status and trust it has earned throughout the years, but also to influence the stabilization of solving regional questions.

However, my understanding of the Official Document has been re-considered today.

Let me give you a few insights.

Firstly, as I am now collecting a picture of a modern Kazakhstan I have been asking myself: What are the values of a present Kazakhstani person? What are they comprised of? What local youth today is interested in in the world, in their own community that leads to development and harmony? How has local population been affected with recent disturbances, riots and murders in Kyrgyzstan? What actions do people in general take towards eliminating natural disasters that have increased this year in the state?

My thoughts have echoed in one of the articles I have come across today. The article published in Russian called Modern Kazakhs: consciousness, values, installations ( I doubt in linguistical correctness of the latter ) discusses today's Kazakh persons and their differences. The difference is not only in geographical aspect, but also in cultural, information, language, social, economic fields. The questions raised are also about long term development of Kazakhstan: who are these people that will lead the country to its sustainable development? What role do they play in a society today?

Apparently, the article has surprised me a lot!!! It also correlates with a recent Doctrine I mentioned above. I am surprised to hear that the Document is interpreted as as an attack on ethnic Kazakh identity, language and culture (click on a link, and read another article EURASIA INSIGHT

KAZAKHSTAN: ASTANA FOLLOWS THORNY PATH TOWARD NATIONAL UNITY )

As it is mentioned in both sources, Kazakhs represent about 60% of population ( Population is about 15m people ), and that they, as a core ethnic group, are the ones that will lead the country to its prosperity, the ones that will keep forming national identity as well as activate and implement temporary technologies. Besides, there is a debate about Kazakhs living in the cities that are perceived as more literate, more civilised as opposed to country Kazakhs that do not possess a strong understanding of the world reality, and are not that much "civilised" as the city Kazakhs. Apart from that, there is another group of Kazakhs should be mentioned. One is internal migration of Kazakhs that look for better conditions to fulfill their basic needs, and another is external migration, Kazakhs in past and mixed Kazakh-Chinese-Mongolian people in present. What about them? And why Kazakhs as "the core ethnic group" should lead the country? What about other ethnic groups - Belorussians, Russians, Koreans, Caucasus, etc - aren't they an equal part of population that has the right and responsibility to a creation of an innovative personality in the Kazakhstani society? Don't they belong to ( qouting ) "the state-forming nation"

I tend to disagree that only Kazakhs as ethnic majority have a right and appropriate understanding of Patriotism for Kazakhstan. We,Kazakhs, have assimilated with other nations that we are a mishmash of cultural diversity today. Of course, there are still present pure Kazakh, Russian, German, Polish etc families with their views on life; but how can one call himself a 100% _______ nationality living in a multicultural world?

Patriotism is not only about your true national identity that gives you a "cultural" right to belong to this or that country. It is also about how you as an individual associate yourself with a place you live in and what you are committed to do wholeheartedly to make a difference, to shape a history and stay proud of the work you have done together with others.

I am proud I am from Kazakhstan; but I am also proud I am an international person.

Love in Life

2010-04-29T13:07:00.004+06:00

These videos are absolutely meaningful ! Thank You Dey and Beautiful Individuals.

Why You Should Never Quit in Life

Feel Life in Different Ways

Winter Song

Beauty of Life

To Conclude:

A More Beautiful You

Enjoy Watching!

Assel

Take your records, take your freedom

2010-04-29T05:06:00.002+06:00

In between the lines reading that . . .

* Why do people constantly perform poorly?

** Why do people constantly perform well?

"Miles from where you are

I lay down on a cold ground

Afraid that something picks me up

And sets me down in your warm arms "

Time Pressure

Loss that brings fortune

Honesty

Fake images

Fear I do not accept but I am being fed from you, you, you

Support or Collaboration Needed but not Provided. Not asked.

Then no claims and complaints.

Life is beautiful - ALWAYS! Find your own side of medal: shining or dusty...

misTAKE

2010-04-28T21:41:00.003+06:00

Mistakes are beautiful for they show you your stupidity and uncertainty.

I do not like last sentence. Wisdom is another part to be discovered.

10+10 = ....

2010-04-27T02:30:00.002+06:00

Yesterday I reached one of the goals I have put for myself 260 days ago: in my MC term in AIESEC in Latvia I will attend/facilitate/coordinate/organise minimum 10 conferences. 10 months and 10 conferences. Does it equal to 100 new friends? 100 discoveries? 100 new places? 100 hours of preparaion?

It is much more than 100 new things. It is my life that I enjoy a lot. It is people around who create these opportunities, these environments. These are obstacles on a way that I may like to struggle with or that I get disappointed of if they are unreasonable. These are moments of creativity, long moments of unbelievable happiness, moments of being in comfort zone, adjusting to its stretches and unfortunately not getting out of it; these are lovely AIESEC dances, short and long sugar cubes from AIESECers that warm you up, especially when you miss those people. This is AIESEC.

In 24 days I am leaving Latvia. The story of another great personality is to be lived in AIESEC in Latvia in 2010-11. This person- whoever you are- is going to be lucky because it will be his/her best life experience!

Elite Recruiter

2010-04-27T01:28:00.003+06:00

One of the moments I really enjoy in AIESEC is interacting with AIESEC people.

Well, I love people in general :)

Today I read one interesting article 18 Ways You Know You Are an Elite Recruiter, and would like to make some parallels with AIESEC eXPerience. They may not be so serious; I aim at presenting to you the best moments of being in AIESEC and developing HR field.

So here we go: 1st statement is from the article and 2nd statement is personal sharing.

You know you are an “elite recruiter” if . . .

1.You get referrals from candidates you turn down for a position. - You meet applicants for your positions later at some joint projects, and you work with them together for another common goal. And you do not remember that you turned them down before. As a result, you make friends with them fast and keep these relations for a long time.

2. Your hiring managers ask you who they “should hire” … and listen to your advice - We coach our members on what people we need in our organisation. Right people in the right place for the right job!

3. Candidates seek your input on preparing for the interview with the hiring manager. - Knowledge management and coaching are our tools.

4. Your candidates seek your council on deciding between competing offers, knowing that you aren’t just trying to fill your own position, but truly want what’s best for them. - Competency Model helps us to identify what people are needed for a role as well as members themselves decide whether they would like to take up a role in a project or go on exchange.

5. You keep track of all the people you have hired, and keep up an ongoing relationship with 90% of them - Member Tracking Tool as one of the examples of our tracking system. Social life is at a quite good level maintained by those who wish so. Believe me, it happens not only during conferences :)

6. You track your performance (quality, efficiency, responsiveness/delivery) on a quarterly basis - Performance management is another example to track ourselves, be more ambitious and reach the stars!

7. You quantify the ROI of your services to your key stakeholders - It is one of the values we respect and follow: Demonstrating Integrity - walk the talk.

8. You have clearly written quarterly performance improvement goals - Review and Analysis quarterly.

9. You spend time each week helping those less fortunate find employment, craft a better resume, prepare for an interview, etc - Team days locally, nationally, globally are a part of our business culture. Member Education Cycle includes various educational activities to prepare our members to become change agents possessing specific behaviours and competencies.

10. You invest at least 15 minutes to an hour developing a written — hour by hour — daily plan of action that you deploy before each day. The most successful recruiters are religious planners - Planning is 80% of your success. The one who is successful may stick to the 80/20 rule (or 20/80 :) it works differently, right? ;)

11. You stick to a schedule where during certain times of the day you are simply making calls and don’t allow for outside distractions - Making calls is sometimes a success for our members, and sometimes can become a fiasco. But drop-in visitors are permanent features of AIESEC life :)

12. You have received gifts from candidates/hiring managers for “changing their life” for the better - In AIESEC we call it "Sugar Cubes"- we leave a note after conferences are over, and it's powerful!

13. Your hiring managers ask for your assistance in creating the job description, and you’re able to guide them in a consultative way to determine what needs to be accomplished, instead of a list of intangibles - Typically, it is one of the duties in Talent Management manager job description.

14. Your hiring managers ask for your assistance in creating interview guides which will help them discover the candidate’s true capabilities - Read #13 statement pls :)

15. Your candidates turn into “centers of influence”: those people who are well-connected and to whom you can always turn for help on difficult searches - That's your professional network: locally, nationally, internationally.

16. Your outside clients see you as an expert on what’s going on in the marketplace and even in their industry - That's why the companies that understand AIESEC product partner with us on a long term basis. Each party benefits a lot and enjoys mutual cooperation.

17. You get referrals without even asking - All you need is to drop a mail to people who know you well and can endorse you.

18. People who seek your assistance have heard about you from more than one person - True. Especially when they add you in Facebook, you have a slight idea how you may know them. Apparently, you may have 1-5-34-76 common friends. Network.

Express Yourself Now

2010-04-21T04:26:00.000+06:00

Saying that ...

2010-04-20T03:39:00.003+06:00

Life is beautiful!
And I'm loving life!
Love
Increases
Fantastic
Emotions!

Inspired!

2010-04-13T18:00:00.003+06:00

Many years ago I was striken by a thought: how do I want my children remember me? What education will I provide for them? How do I want them to behave? What values will I teach them? What my children will look like in 21st century?

And then I had bunch of thoughts, I was looking back at my parents and what they taught us, their kids ( and we are still kids for my Dad and Mum- my brother and I ). And I wanted different things, for instance, that my Mum would actually raise my first child, or at least assisst me a lot in this, and things like that.

But now I'm questioning myself: why do I need to teach my kids about life? Why don't they themselves discover it and learn from their successes and failures, from their steps into making the world a better place?

We, adults, often make things complicated than they are actually. Why not to try opposite action: kids teaching us how to live.

I recommend you to watch this TED talk Adora Svitak: What adults can learn from kids

Any comments? Let's discuss it, I'm interested to hear your opinions on this video.

Desperately Wanting Peace

2010-04-12T10:30:00.003+06:00

Dear World,

I Want Peace.

Assel

Paris Je t'aime

2010-04-08T13:31:00.001+06:00

I never knew the charm of spring
Never met it face to face
I never knew my heart could sing
Never missed a warm embrace
'Til April in Paris.

Edgar Yipsel Harburg

Another dream should come true soonish :)

My Floating March

2010-04-05T16:46:00.013+06:00

It's a sunny soft day in Riga now, I'm listening to Keith Urban, and cherishing my dear memories from 2 last weeks in March. 10 days in St Petersburg, Russia and almost 6 days in Sialuai, Lithuania with great personalities have marked another chapter in my life.

It is of my nature to document every event I am a part of so to get happier when I list them in my soul.

St Pete chapter:

Being in Russia for 10 days was a quick feeling of being home. It has felt so not only of being surrounded by the spoken and written Russian language everywhere, but also the specific atmoshpere I was in. I am hundred times thankful to my friend Sasha who created the best warming reminder of how it looks like to live with your parents and still being independent! As well as I am grateful to Sasha's parents who treated me as their daughter and took care of every single minute I was to spend in St Pete!

A stunning architecture of the city fulfilled me with different emotions: I was living for 10 days in the place that was a beginning of Russian history. I spent days in Pavlovsk and in St Pete where Russian Tsars and Queens had taken significant decisions that affected greatly not only Russia but the rest of the world as well. I have visited the first house of Peter I, and read his correspondence with an English Queen. He was right saying "Russian people will benefit from my initiative of building The Window to Europe. But it is up to them to decide how they hold the balance between being authentic and modernised". Another matter I admire Peter I for is how farsighted he was. He mentioned that construction that the city was under should positively reflect its development and maintain a strong image of Russia minimum for 3 centuries. I reckon his long term plans have brought its fruits so far. Last but not the least why I admire Peter I is for my hometown. It was built in 1720 by Peter I order after Russians and Germans investigated our land was rich of natural resources, gold mainly. I don't want to go into details and approve who should be chanted in this case: our people that possess this land or foreigners that researched it. What is important is that Ust Kamennyi fort had become a home for many people since 1720, and is the dearest town for me.

At last, an important explanation of my visit to a fabulous city is an AIESEC conference, aka REC for WEST region. I should say only one thing: I love AIESEC conferences in Russia. Because they are like conferences in my Local Committee AIESEC Almaty. It is culture of excellence, it is give-and-take energy 24/7, it is striving for more and less blaming, it is being a part of solution not of a problem. Let's assume it has not always been so, but what I've lived through was definitely striving for more and being open and honest about one's own aspirations and motives. I am so much sure of an immense growth in AIESEC Russia next years due to its leaders- new and current members who have just got their minds shifted about spanless opportunities the world is having.

Moreover, some particular people have made my REC experience an unforgettable one: Dinar and Nikita, I truly enjoyed working with you in one team for Leaders track- I still adore your working styles, and love your jokes. As Dinar said, По Чесноку! :) Thank you to our Pleasant Things team- Dinar and Yigit, you have made me do pleasant things I have never done at conferences! :) The Duck team- Delya, Katya and Lida- huge thanks to all of you for taking us on the roof at cold night and giving us a warm welcome and a round of appreciation. Thank you to Organising team and AIESEC in Russia team for making this conference happen they way you needed it to be. And big private thank you goes to Tanya, the conference manager and Richard, the Chair. I can't say more.

Baltic chapter:

Though it was a bit hard physically in the begining of my arrival to Sialuai to concentrate on other tasks of the conference, and I thought I would not discover a lot of new things for myself, I have reached new peaks of self effectiveness and self importance. It is a long story, so I would rather give you an insight of my sequent loud and wild AIESEC Baltic conference. I am of an opinion that if something attracts you - jump into it! So I jumped into my new role as a Newies Track Manager, and am still loving people I have closely worked with: the FACIlitators team of 4 young minds from 3 different countries in Central Europe with their ideas worth trying and succeeding in all their efforts they put into making the very first conference for 40 new members of AIESEC in Estonia and Latvia! Petras, Giedre, Filip and Kerli, the days and nights we spent discussing and debating are the best memories of Synergy! Random laugh, warm hugs, pleasant tears, and dear people are the treasures one can find at AIESEC conferences. I have found mine, and I am silently happy. A special thank you goes to my old friends I have spent minutes with. You know what an important event Synergy has been for me.

Want to say that being physically exhausted, emotionally poor but irressistibly happy is a priceless gift one can live in his lifetime.

On a windy cold changeable day in St Pete Sasha's friends and I having fun in Pavlovsk

My REC team

Newies FACI Olympic TeaM Synergy FACI team (partially)

Findings on 216th day

2010-03-13T22:28:00.002+06:00

Growth Mindset

2010-03-13T21:21:00.003+06:00

Something that concluded this working week

... in 2010, we have realised 20 exchanges in AIESEC Latvia. TWENTY EXCHANGES! To put it in some context, it represents 230% growth over the same period last year. It means that we are 8 realisations away from achieving the term goal we set last June. Just 8 realisations and we will have a total of 41. Also, with 8 realisations, we will have achieved in 2010, the total number of exchanges we completed in the whole of 2009. This is an incredible achievement, something that is the results of months of all of our hard work.

For AIESEC Latvia to be in this position, is something of which we can all be very proud

To reflect

International Women's Day for 100th time

2010-03-09T02:06:00.004+06:00

March 8, 2010 marked its 100th anniversary as International Women's Day.

Long history.Less actions.More expensive life.Modified views.Same wishes.

I purely remember last 8th March. It was a turning point in my life and in my friend's life.Day that led us to somehow new life.

This 8th March I will remember for a long time. Morning was splendid: it was brightly shining for 4th (!!!) day in Riga, I found chocolate on my table in the MC office (so I did not figure out how it showed up there), skype talks with my brother and friends did not have its logical end (is something wrong with the Internet in the office?), my laptop that shut down with no explanation (or I'm having troubles with it?) and then I headed off to the lunch with ex MCP Latvia and Liza in nice bank/office. Everything was fine until we went back with Liza to the MC office. All of a sudden I felt terrible pains in my body like it was cut harshly with a sharp blade. Long-continued dizzyness, spasms, lack of air ( though I was standing on the bridge over the Daugava river, and it was windy!), low abilities to comprehend and to see, and much more. Gosh, I thought I would be thrown over the bridge!

Liza went to the office as she had an urgent work. And I stayed there on the bridge, not actually realising what was going on and what I should do. I had no strength to walk, to see, to move. I felt as if I were about to faint on the bridge, and nobody would be there to help. Good lesson.

I've been in this terrible condition for more than 2 hours on the bridge, and I have no idea how I got home, but I am a bit better now.

What does this experience show to me?

First, nutrition is very much important. Being as a kid, I had had a proper feeding: vitamins, lots of physical activity, etc. By growing up and having regular medical check-ups, doctors discovered in my organism low hemoglobin level, insufficient iodine, first signs of anemia, and lots of other upsetting stuff. Reasons: poor or less developed health care system in the country, low attention to girls' /women's health education in schools during my teenageerhood; living close enough to the Semey region that was an experiment territory during Soviet era for atomic bombs and substances of that character; living in the town that is one of the most polluted towns in the world; I assume low income in my family in the mid 90's had influenced my blood as well. (Very good promotion of my town, ugh?)

What I hope is that education around these topics (see above) has improved now at home, and NGOs, schools, anyone holds various initiatives around them.

Second, work centred life previously also had its "impact" in today's situation. Always forgetting to eat on time and eat good food (question: What is good food?), being responsible for my own health and thinking how it'd reflect in the future- hmm, nice questions to think about. If I have a baby daughter in the future- poor girl does not have to suffer because of my illiteracy and irresponsibility.

Third, I am still able to find inner power to turn myself into positive good looking funny person. Even if I fell down today a few times, was walking like a totally drunk person in the centre of the city in the afternoon and passers by were avoiding me 10metres in advance, I was seeking for that inner positive power that ultimatelly brought me home.

Finally, a friend in need is a friend indeed. This friend was absent today. Or it was me.

Nice post, right?

Happy International Women's Day! Let you be healthy and strong, dear GIRL/WOMAN/PERSON!

...

2010-02-28T22:54:00.003+06:00

Feel irresistibly happy.

At the same time, feel upset when I see people being rude, easily getting resentful and not willing to collaborate.

I think I can get along with any person who knows his value, realises his ambitions, and does not give up in front of any obstacle. Unfortunately, I seldom meet these people.

I was happy this week when I got to know that Jake, my MCP, is AIESEC International Vice President elect 2010-11. At the same time I was sad at the thought that our organisation gets smaller and smaller in leaders. I agree that once you get engaged with AIESEC, your life begins to change tremendously. You might not notice it, but it is happening. When time comes to its logical end, you need to finish your AIESEC life, AIESEC experience. If you had a quite long term AIESEC life, you become a true change agent- you act to make the world a better place but not acted upon. Even if you were not active in AIESEC, you anyway strive to change the world. This is an ongoing process.

However, I am so much in doubt this week regarding some things happening in my organisation. Especially, when I see and hear unwillingness to cooperate just because the weather is terrible. (Figurative meaning) (Well, not only figurative meaning. Look outside at Riga streets and you'll see melting snow, mud and rain. Spring is coming. Renewal :)