The Chained Soul

In the cage of your own pre-conceived notions lies your frightened soul, desperate to free itself from the enclosure. Let it break free and go away, go away and just be…

Let it fly like a free bird in the clear blue sky
Let it thrive on music and hum along
Let it swim the deepest oceans and hike the highest mountains
Let it travel the untrodden path
Let it walk the bylanes of small hidden villages
Let it breathe the air of foreign land
Let it imagine and go places
Let it soak in the sun of early summer mornings
Let it learn a new language
Let it feel the sand of pristine white beaches
Let it read and soak up everything ever written
Let it raft through the rivers and dive from the cliff high above
Let it meet happy new faces
Let it walk through the green meadows and dense forests
Let it witness the awakening of the world
Let it gasp in the beauty of crimson red skies during sunset
Let it relish the tranquil silence and savor nothingness
Let it learn from its trivial mistakes
Let it sleep under a star-lit sky
Let it exude gratitude and humbleness
Let it experience the adrenaline rush
Let it cease to just exist and start living; living like it owns the world
Let it get lost...

Current mood: Keep calm and meditate!

Happiness in the little things

Every single day, we live our lives, oblivious to the small things that happen around us. Many a times we choose to ignore them but there is so much bliss that the little things can give us that it can be quite overwhelming sometimes. Here are a few (Well, okay! Not few) little things that can make you happy just by their mere existence or occurrence; all we need to do is acknowledge them, by all our five senses.

1. Chirping of a bird
2. Smell of first rain
3. Rains
4. Music playing out of nowhere
5. Smiling children
6. A baby’s hand wrapped around your finger
7. Soulful music
8. Happy old people
9. Love
10. Friendship
11. Beautiful weather
12. The smell of babies
13. Inspiring happy quotes appearing randomly
14. Colors (bright and beautiful)
15. A long drive
16. With a loved one, maybe
17. Friend calling just to say hello
18. The smell of perfectly-cooked food
19. Daddy’s concern
20. Mother’s care
21. The sight of a place holding fond memories
22. Nature
23. Bumping into an old friend
24. Knowing how much they have changed, for good
25. A smile from someone you just helped a little
26. Or maybe a little more
27. A good book
28. Walk through the meadows
29. On the beach
30. Just a walk
31. Family time
32. Old pictures

While I try to compile this happy list, it comes to me that there are so many things that can brighten your soul in just the least of time, all you need is to know how to appreciate and enjoy its power to give to you. Maybe there is a lot more to add to this one, next blog maybe, maybe…

Arijit Singh’s soulful performance plugged in and loving every bit of it :) 

Last day at work

If I had to quickly write this piece and finish it off with just a short sentence, this blog would read, "It feels terrible". But this one particular blog can't definitely be that short. There is so much that I'm feeling and going through that anything written in brief wouldn't do justice to it and a big blog, still wont suffice. Last day at work, isn't a great feeling, especially if you have nothing planned ahead.

To begin with, I'm going to miss my colleagues from the office the most, like the mooosttt. They have been the craziest, loveliest and awesomest (I know there isn't such word, but that's how awesome they really are) people I have met at a professional level ever. They know how to welcome someone with warmth and treat them with umpteen care and unbiased love. They have unknowingly taught me so many small but significant lessons in life, the value of little things, its just terrific. A little about them all:

One colleague of mine, she has been an inspiration, has pushed me to do things which I had always been procrastinating all this while. She is so giving and selfless when it comes to things like these, anybody else's progress would just make her more happy. A phenomenal writer, happy doodler and an insane creature, she will be missed the most. Our camaraderie is a subtle one,  it's all unsaid and done, no complaints, no demands, just a common love for many things together.

Other one, has been like my source of entertainment at work, has made me laugh at times when I did not even need him. No matter what, he has been there, being stupid and crazy and kickass. I did not even realize, when his presence became so consequential to me.

This only other boy in the team, is quite a sweet fellow. He will take all the tantrums, anger, mood swings and still be the same to you. He has always put others before him and that is what makes him indeed a real nice person. I wonder when I can be that selfless, but still the struggle is on :)

There is this super-creative female, her work has been such an inspiration. Everything she created, has been so incredibly beautiful that it inspires every one to create, to weave magic. Also, she is a lovely human and maybe that is the reason, I have a special inclination towards her even without having some real good 'bonding' moments with her.

She is about to get married, has mood swings which are more volatile than the Sensex, but has this one particular thing about her, her good mood is infectious. The times when she is in the right state, no one else in office can remain dull. Her live wire energy keeps us going.

This tiny chatterbox in the office, can get everyone to listen to her. She can talk endlessly for hours and people say, she can talk to corpses too, their inhuman state won't matter to her. This holds true after you see her constantly babbling around with anyone and everyone. At the same time, I have never seen her complaining about anything under the sun, she will just make fun of it and laugh it off. Quite a super thing.

One colleague, who left work much before I did, is quite missed. She was like this mobile bomb of cuteness. Her smile so contagious and her style so different, I always found myself gawking at her in bewilderment, her cuteness was just not believable, it was too good to be true. I wish to remain in touch with her.

This new girl in the office, hardly been a month since she has joined, but her sweet little gestures have bowled me over. Her home-cooked food, her uncontrollable laugh and the cute way of calling me will keep coming back to me all the time.

And then there is this one more girl, a mellow personality, just makes everything look so calm and normal. Her way of looking at things is different. Observant enough, she very gracefully does small things that leave you smiling, it's amazing!

Apart from these crazy people, I am going to miss my work, a bit too much. This place, has given me opportunities, so many, to learn and grow. Here, I have grown in everything I thought I was moderately good at, learnt so much more and most importantly have learnt quite a few lessons of life. Hoping to continue my tryst with writing and doodling even after I walk out from here.

While I write this, I think there are so many things that I'm going to miss, the food, the post-lunch walks, the unnecessary gossip, the laughter, the chitter-chatter, the morning discussions, the ranting, the people (yes! I mention this again), and my work (this too deserves equal importance). Nevertheless I will try my best to keep in touch with all of these super-awesome people and keep in touch with myself, by continuing to do what I love.

Wishing luck to myself :)
Life goes on...

Be real, be you.

In a time, where being busy has become a way of living, should we really expect people to remove and dedicate some of their precious time to us?

Let's look at it like this, I am working in a full-time position, still when someone important has something to share with me or wants my time, I am there, just right there, both physically and emotionally. But why, when such deeds are expected form the same people, they just turn away?

We need to know, life is sometimes neither as simple or as complicated we think it is. All we can do is, stop complaining. We need to believe in giving, giving away as whole-heartedly as we can. There is no contentment better than the one you get from doing little good deeds or gestures for people, irrespective of your equation with them. If we always do things to get something in return, we can never be real. I used the word real to imply how real and selfless we are naturally, but how things change when each one of us develops a perspective of their own. We need to retain our own natural being, the selfless one, within ourselves.

The other day, while in an over-crowded bus, on my way to the office, a wrinkled old-lady with two huge bags, got in. Looking around she realized that there were many eyes glaring upon at her telling her how doltish she was to get in a bus, so full of people, with two large bags. I discerned her evident insecurity and discomfort. Studying at her state, I offered her my seat. She, though a little reluctant to look happy, took the seat, settled in while I helped her with the bags and put her hand on my head apparently thanking me.

I don't think this was too heroic of me, but just a little act of humanity, coming from the natural self. It was only giving, without wanting anything in return. That simple little effort made my day, if not anyone else's.

So, when people treat you like you are unwanted, like they're too busy for you, like you are unimportant, just calm down, take a deep breath, get out and be who you are. It might be that what you think they think of you is an illusion of your own. they genuinely might be too caught up. Have patience, do not expect much and let life take its own beautiful course with all the grace and elegance. Just be!

The 'Lost Slumber'

If ever, life gave me the power and authority to change something as I desire, I would have the world start a little late. To me, waking up in the mornings is such a task, more so because I love being up till late (read really late). And what do I do being awake? I do not have much of an idea, but I think just lazing around, tossing and turning on my bed and having my brain run around and go places is such a wonderful feeling. Nevertheless its my little brain that does a lot of work during these hours. It wanders and functions the most in the dead of the night, thus not letting me sleep. I do not understand why but the craziest and most creative of ideas strike me in the hours of darkness.

My mind on most of  these happily sleepless nights imaginably writes and writes oh-so much about just anything and everything, I write so much in my imagination, however actually not putting it on paper or on the e-space and somehow I like it when it remains only in my head. Innovative ideas too flock my mind in large numbers in the dark hours.

There is something so moving and so beautiful about those thoughts that occur to me in the night, I just do not want them to leave me. Its incredible to become one with myself, remain aware and free myself of all the physical impossibilities by just being there, in my state of trance.

Playing in my trance mode:
hey brother- Avicii
Summer time Sadness- Lana Del Ray
Yeh jo des hai tera- A.R Rahman (MTV Unplugged)
I feel so close to you right now- Calvin Harris
Hey Ya- Karthik Calling Karthik

In case you are just an ullu as I am, lets catch up for a chat, in the tranquility and peace of the night :)

A behind-time Introduction

A shout out to all you fellow individuals on the blogger-sphere. I know this is a tad too late but it had to come.
This is Richa here and my Twitter bio right now reads, 'Happy Writer. Creativity breather. Sapiosexual. Mad dancer. Panipuri lover. Tuneless Singer. True Leo. Adventure Seeker. Grammar Nazi. Social Media bird.'
These 20 words quite perfectly explain the whole of me. I love to write. Love everything that involves creativity. Intelligence really is a very big turn-on. Dance is a form of expression that I've known since I was a toddler with a running nose. To me, Panipuri is the best food in the whole world, and Yes I'm very serious about this. I love to sing but every time I seek my love, ten others seek me asking me to shut up, but I still continue. I proudly boast of possessing every quality of a true Leo. Adventures make me happy, a bit too happy. I always have this undying urge to correct anyone who goofs up with the grammar and last but not the least, I am a social media person, even professionally.

Apart from the aforementioned traits, there is one thing I strongly feel should be added to my Richa-in-a-nutshell-bio and that added characteristic would be 'A Wannabe Vagabond'.

When you Google it up, words like traveler, gypsy, wanderer, nomad, wayfarer, bag lady, drifter and many other surface. If you ask me, I'd be more than thousand times happy to associate these words to me and my being. However for whatever the reasons may be, I haven't been fortunate enough to have any of these to call my own. To live under the stars, at the beach, under the sun, on the mountains, at a village with the locals, near the river, around the wild, with the fellow travelers, on the road, nothing much has come to me till now, but I hope and want that it does soon. So yeah, that's a wannabe vagabond writing to you, how much ever she is capable of.

Hoping to be a little more connected than this through the Wannabe Vagabond Diaries.
Cheerio. 

Why so serious bro?

So, I get mad-happy about writing my blog and want it to be awesome, incredible, inspiring, crazy and all things nice. However, what happens eventually is somehow funny and stupid. Since, the time I started this blog, I haven't written any new blog except the first one, the one filled with over-excitement and supreme happiness and that's about it.

Thinking about it, the reason why I cannot write and come up with new blogs is simple, my obsession with making it a real good one, with writing only stuff that people would love to read and looking all oh-so cool out there. But the reality which struck me now is even more simpler, its a 'personal' blog and I can and I should write whatever I feel like. Now, apparently I will start writing more, this time not for anybody but to please my own self, to impress me with my own writing, which I hope will get better with time, and to fall in love with myself after every piece that I write. After all, this space is mine, book(mark)ed and reserved only for me, isn't it?
Happy blogging to me :)

Finally...

Blog: a personal website or a web page on which an individual records opinions, links to other sites, etc. on a regular basis.

To start with, this is my first hand at trying to blog and the line above is all that I have known about it. I have always been a professional writer, thus do not know much on how it feels to pen down your own viewpoints, thoughts, feelings or anything on that matter.

However, I must say I'm overly excited about this. First, because I have attempted to start my 'personal' blog since I don't even remember when, so the thought that it is finally up there makes me happy. Second, because blogs will let me write more and writing is something that has always been quite a special thing for me, and third because a dear friend will be really happy if I do it (FYI she had been driving me crazy to start it even now). This blog will always be a baby born out of her constant pressure on me to get this blog up and running. Thanks :)

So, I'm happy that I'm finally here at this precious place, writing, expressing and being happy! :)