Monday, December 19, 2011

The Cost of a Smile :)

Smile! Seems pretty harmless right. So many sayings that encourage smiling. So many songs written on ladies smiling. Smile and the world smiles with you. Cry and cry alone. Blah blah blah...Yet we are most frugal about things that are free. As if we will lose a million dollars if we smile at someone. Okay, maybe I am exaggerating a little. But think about it, when you are out walking or in a mall and you see a stranger in front of you. Your eyes meet. You both scrutinize each other. How often do you acknowledge him or her with a smile? If the answer to this question is often or every time, then I would put you in the exception category. Because most people don't really respond to another person with a smile or a nod. They would look at you from head to toe but will not smile at you or even nod. It is hilarious and intriguing to me. Sort of my pet peeve. I cannot understand that if you are spending a couple of seconds to look why not use that time to smile. Wouldn't that be more productive use of time.
People working in customer care are taught to smile when they say hello to a customer. The rationale behind this is that people can sense the warmth from your voice. So if you smile and speak with your customers, they will be more willing to buy from you. Hence the over use of," Hello sir or ma'am, do you find everything ok?" or ,"Do you need help with something?" It is annoying but nice that someone cares or is at least pretending to care. Seeing someone smile does make you smile. No matter who it is. 
When I go out, I notice how people react when you are in front of them. We look, analyze and then when our eyes meet, I smile and 75% of the times the smile is not returned. Interesting right. In my apartment there is a sort of ego play. Two people will continue to look at each other with squinted eyes but will wait for the other person to acknowledge them, say hi or smile. Why the game I don't know. Maybe the lack of humility. Maybe the presence of ego. Either ways too much drama if you ask me. 
I read a quote once which said people don't remember what you said, your praises or actions but they never forget how you made them feel. So true. Why not be the first smile, spread the happiness and make even a stranger feel special. Hopefully your efforts will be reciprocated. 
Keep smiling :)
Leena --<@

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

First Love

         Relationships are funny.Living or not, you can always have a relationship. Think about it.. so many people are in an awesome relationship with their iPads and iPhones. Fully content with their world of apps and tools. How do you know that? Simple when your friend or spouse goes missing or is upset, you get worried. Something very similar happens to people who lose their iPads or iPhones or when it stops working. I am sure it will not be an exaggeration if I were to say that my husband would go crazy if he loses his phone for even 5 minutes. I empathize with his obsession with his gadgets. Although I don't feel the same about my phone. 
         I have a different kind of relationship. And it is super special to me. It is not a phone or a laptop. It is my one and only 8 inch Chef knife from Cuisinart. Strange some might say, but ask a person laboring over cutting the veggies with a blunt knife. Before marriage I had never stepped foot in the kitchen. And post marriage I intended the situation to stay the same. Unfortunately things don't always go your way and when you start adding inches around the waistline, you need to watch what you put in your mouth. Cooking at home seemed like a logical choice then. The most irritating chore in the kitchen is prep work. And I hated it since my knife was so blunt by hands would start paining. I tried so many knives I lose count. And needless to say, they all sucked. I bought brands and they just didn't work for me. 
Until one day my husband brought home an 8 inch Cuisinart Chef knife. Wow it was love at first sight. I had to try 5 different knives to get to my lovely Cuisinart knife. It was and is so sharp that over the years have slit all my fingers and sliced all my finger nails. Instant manicure for me. AT one point of time I had band-aids on all fingers. No one would use it but me in my house. It was all mine and no one can touch it. Talk about exclusive rights. Alas, relationships go through rough times sometimes. In my case it happened when another knife entered my kitchen and my life. A beautiful 6 inch special vegetable knife from Cuisinart. I have been dabbling with buying this knife for almost 4 months before I bought. Sort of felt guilty of bringing another knife in my life. Could I manage two? It was a heartbreaking decision. 
          Alas I bought the knife and you know what it was fantastic. It was sharp and so smooth. And I did not cut any of my fingers. I used it non stop for one week and then tried my chef knife one day. It felt perfect in my hand. They say that you never forget your first love. And old habits die hard. Even though I still cut my fingers using my chef knife, I only use it. Occasionally give some time to the new one. First love is difficult to forget and move on, specially if it is an 8 inch amazingly sharp and beautiful chef knife :)

Leena --<@

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The Group

I think everyone aspires to be a part of some group at one point of time or another. Whether it is to be part of the cool group or the intellectual group or even the geek group, as social animals we want to be connected with some set of people. I always tried to create my own group and then include any one who wanted to enjoy being themselves.

Recently though, I have had this desperation to be part of a certain group. I have been on a weight loss regime since early 2011 and have taken up running as my cardio routine in my gym. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into, but I wanted to part of the group that can go on running for hours at a stretch without any problems. I remember the Nike Commercial in the movie " What Women Want" I would love to have that feeling when I am running. Easier said than done right! 

With the resolution of doing my best I got on the tread mill. A lady and a guy were on my side running nonstop for 30 minutes. I did my 3 minute warm up and started running at the speed of 5. In 2 minutes I was gasping for breadth and pressed the emergency stop. I looked around and the people besides me went on running like they were flying effortlessly on thin air. I was super annoyed. 

My trainer took me aside and told me,"Leena the more you will push yourself, the farther you will go." Sounds simple enough. Well not in the gym. I started running for 2 minutes and started challenging myself to increase in 5 minute increments every week. 

It was very painful and for a person with a short attention span, it can get very boring. I tricked myself into thinking that it was fun and coupled it with loads of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Disney Channel feel-good shows. 

Today I can run for 45 mins non-stop at the speed of 5 - 5.5. The feeling you have after finishing that long stretch is simply amazing. I look forward to almost going "WOOHOOO !!!" once I am done. Now I don't care if I belong to the runners' group or not. I am just glad I was able to experience that feeling! I hope to run a 5k soon just to see if I can make it that far. I have discovered my love for running and I am not looking back.

Cheers!
Leena --<@

Monday, June 13, 2011

Amazing Hike at Purisima

Tasked with completing our first 7+ mile hike, we set out to the Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve. Took the loop directions on a website and still lost our way :) Started at the foot of the reserve at 400 ft elevation and ended up at 2000 ft tip of the preserve. We did achieve our target distance of 7 miles but ended up 4 miles from our car. Sprinting the last 1 mile of the hike through the mystic mist(due to the elevation) we were almost dreaming of our comfortable car, only to find ourselves in the wrong parking lot. We found a ranger talking to some hikers and told her our sob story. She said," Oh, you can hike down to your parking. It is just 4 miles away." What.. we were ready to collapse on the ground.. What followed was another and more intense sob story of how tired we were. She finally agreed to give us a ride in her truck. How thoughtful! We were so relieved and so guilty at the same time :)

I was feeling.. hmm if this happened to us, others would have experienced the same. I asked the ranger," Do you get a lot of these cases where hikers get lost?" She said," Yes, we do see cases once or twice." Pause.. I hoped she would say 'in a month'. Instead she said," In a year." Bummer :( Being the outlier in this case did not feel good, especially since I think I have good directional sense. She told us about other times when people got lost. They were funny but scary at the same time. She mentioned that there are quite a few musicians living in the area including Tracy Chapman and Neil Young. She did warn us about trespassing, saying that people have a different way of dealing with people who invade their private property. Note to self: Don't go wandering in private property while hiking in a large preserve. 

We finally got back to our car and came home in one piece, thankful that everything was fine. We were tired but humbled by this experience. Learnt that nothing should be taken for granted at any time and we should try our best to be prepared.

Some tips when you go hiking:
1. Always carry water and some cereal bars
2. A flash light should be helpful on shaded hikes (it tends to get dark very quickly up in the hills)
3. An extra layer of clothes doesn't harm
4. Cap, good shoes and sunscreen always :)
5. Most importantly: Rely on the trail map rather than any website while deciding on the appropriate trail. (Note: Knowing how to read the map would be prerequisite)

Happy hiking!

Leena --<@

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Why Tea 'n' Coffee ??

Finally I have gotten on the blogging bandwagon. The topic Tea 'n' Coffee is unique to my household. My husband has a lifelong desire that his wife(that's ME) would share a cup of tea with him in the morning.. Which I do not, simply because I am a coffee drinker :) and have no intention of leaving my coffee for tea. Interestingly, this is our favorite morning conversation. We call it a truce by me offering to make his tea in the morning and him not trying to convert me to a tea drinker. 


In this blog I will bring in the flavors of my life (personal and professional), my learning from life and derivations as well.


Please feel free to provide your comments and I look forward to speaking with you soon!


Leena --<@