Serendipity

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!

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!

A Thing About India

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 -

Turning Passion into ACTion

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 ...

Butterfly Effect

What makes you feel passionate?

What makes your eyes shine?

What makes your heart beat faster, harder and impationately?

What makes you be seductive in your current job occupation?

What is that that makes you feel alive and drives you non stop?

What is YOU?

In this post I wanna play a Snow ball or Butterly effect- I desperately wanna hear YOUR VOICE to know what makes you being UNIQUE in life and gets your eyes shine from inner/outer happiness.

Just to start with:

Personally, I shine when I see people make their first steps in any new activity/job that ultimately brings them closer to success. Success is when you can DO IT! My very lovable reminiscence of people's successes were my kids, my former students whom I taught in the University ( they were 2 years younger than me. By the way, 2 of them now got married- I got to know about this outstanding event yesterday) and whose teacher-facilitator I have been for almost 2 years in Kazakhstan International School.

I woke up today late and as usual was observing Riga people rushing to their work from our medium kitchen window. White soft snowflakes were dancing in the cold air adding more work for the street cleaners, increasing long moments of winter happiness for kids and reminding me that I have not received back any note from my former students yet. Reminding me how I miss seeing their successes in studies, how busy we were last year organising a short Greek sketch on eternal life values- love, courage and friendship; reminding that Jan 2009 was one of my most painful and memorable months in 2009 that brought me eventually to where I am. This morning gave me a great signal I might have forgotten- what passion is there for people? What type of passion exists for my friends?