Good bye letter to 2009

Loving 2009,

It’s not really a nice thing to call you ‘LOVING’ because for the most part you’ve been shitty to the hilt. Accept it. But still I realized it’s not positively nice of me to be discourteous to you because it’s not your fault, it’s already my story that I’m living. And also I’m sorry that I’ve hated you all these days, I should more readily be thankful to you for spoon feeding me some of the amazing lessons. In 21 years of my life, only in 2009 I have experienced some bad thing or the other at the end of every month, which is sad. However at the end I feel like, all the bad things that happened are also coming to an end because 2009 you’ve taught me how to be through such kind of ugly situations. In the coming year I look forward to nothing so ugly to happen, even if it does, I’m ready. 2009, I hated you for departing some of the wonderful things from me, for taking some of the lovelies of my life, for setting boundaries to my smiles, for killing the happiness, for making me trust on people who are not worth it, and also for making me the laziest brat ever but today I say to you that it won’t be the same again. You will never come back again in my life, because today is the end of you, and a beginning of a brighter thing – 2010. A lot of unexpected relationships have been created this year, some of them have already broken but some of them are going to sit tight with me forever, so I thank you for those days. I made up my mind to make use of every single day of 2010, there’s gonna be a freaking change in my life, and it’s gonna be way awesome. You hear that? Be nice wherever you ended don’t come back and haunt me with those nasty things okay? Just remain in my diary like the loving-shitty-09, but don’t you ever dream of coming back to me because there is no place in my life for dimness. I still love you, for being 20% nice; you get an award for that. I’m hoping you’re reading this very important letter I’m writing to you. I won’t see you again. Thanks mega-loads.

And dear 2010, better be nice because I don’t wanna write a short letter to you, if you’re nice I will write a long one okay? ;-) okay!!

Love

Esther

Ps: Wishing all of you a bright 2010, may all your resolutions be followed, and keep smiling because that’s what makes you a perfect thing in this whole world.

On my Birthday

[Sorry for the long absence]

On November 23^rd a friend of mine, who saw me at a store shouted out with glee saying “countdown begins for the big day”. I kept mum because I didn’t care the least bit about which big day he mentioned indirectly until I checked my phone for the date. I realized he was dropping a hint about my birthday, and I was zero happy about it. Since then I found all the other not-so close friends ask me about where the party is held, what I would buy for my birthday, how many are invited etc. I wondered! The whole year was a big mess and was more or the less like a bullshit for me. I don’t know the exact reason about my whole year being one of the shittiest things ever, but I was not so excited and happy about my birthday or the celebrations. Every year my birthday is celebrated with family and friends. I spend huge time on cutting cakes that are sent to me by most of my family members. I used to go out and make sure to pick one of the best outfits for my birthday and spend good expense on those outfits, take friends out for lunch etc.

But this time the thought of birthday and shopping made me feel a little low than usual. I felt like jumping to 2010 without living the whole month of December. But nothing works the way I want it to especially when it comes to dreaming or desiring. I felt ridiculous that I was being so lame and I decided no matter how bad this year was to me, let me do something that would really make me happy and make me be a blessing to others. Trust me the moment I started to push the negative shit aside and started to think positive, my new year began. I told my dad not to announce anywhere that I am celebrating my birthday this year and asked him not to make plans for any big celebrations. I told him I’m not buying those expensive outfits this time, and requested him to give that money to me (in hand that is). He asked me “why I needed the money and not those expensive outfits I buy for my birthday every year”. I told him I’ll contribute it to the needy.

I’ve been waiting for a new beginning all this while and I realized that every good thing you think about and every good thing you do, is a beginning of a great thing. I’ve turned 22 on December 23^rd and I celebrated my birthday with some of the cutest kids of this planet. These kids taught me the value of life, most of the time we keep thinking about the things we lack, and never realize about the best we have. These kids live in an orphanage, and they know that they have no parents but just guardians. Yet they smile at the problems and the facts they face. When they sang happy birthday song to me I felt like stopping the time and freezing the day so that it never ends. I had one of the best birthdays ever, because I know those expensive outfits don’t smile at me, but the goodies I gave the little ones will sure make them smile. I’ve contributed thousands of rupees at the orphanage so that the guardian buys whatever is needed for them and I also have bought those lil kids cute Santa hats and smiley badges and other cute goodies. And I’m sure my birthday was a happy day for them. Now, that’s what is making me the happiest soul on this earth.

I’m sharing some of the pictures I clicked on my birthday.

Life, I shake my fist at you.

P.S: Merry Christmas and a very Happy New year

The Pearl Necklace of Life

Is anyone of you feeling too low about losing a very important part of your life? Anyone here is missing someone who you really loved and he/she is not with you right now? You need to know, I felt the same once upon a time, until my cousin had shared with me one of the cutest stories I’ve ever heard. That story has been so touching and played a very important role as a boost of confidence in my life. I know most of us go through this rough-phase once, twice, thrice and sometimes like a lot in life. But we all need this story that keeps us going. Which is also helping me to move-forth and on. I’m sharing it with all of you, who are skating on unhappiness. Just remember “Losing someone shouldn’t stop your life”. Here’s the story –

There was a 7 year old girl named Sheba, who lived with her parents in a small town. Sheba was sweet a girl with an apple cheeked face, with blue eyes and slight curls in her bronze colored hair. She one day happened to go for shopping with her mother to one of the biggest malls in the city. While her mother was busy shopping, Sheba admired everything that was in the store except for its prices. She felt like she was in heaven for a while, and kept smiling looking at the soft toys. She played with all the toys in the store. Then she found something really interesting. A pearl necklace. She told to herself not to get tempted but she was already tempted. She wanted that pearl necklace on all expenses. Sheba immediately turned to look at her mother and her mother was busy talking the store guy about the bill she had to pay. She ran her to mother and pulled her hand and pointed out at the pearl necklace. Sheba’s mother looked at it, saw the price and wasn’t amused. But she thought that this was not the age for Sheba to like such things and made up stories and told her that she couldn’t afford. Sheba was unhappy and was sad to hear that. She asked her “please mom, I love that necklace and I want to have it” and her mother couldn’t refuse but told her “I can buy this for you on a condition that 50% of your pocket money every month, will be deducted”. Sheba was ready and wasn’t bothered about her pocket money. All she knew was that she would soon own that wonderful pearl necklace she saw at the huge mall. She said “I’m okay with the condition”.

Sheba was so proud to wear the pearl necklace. She’d worn it every day, she shows it to her friends each time they came to visit her, she would stare at it for a long time, and she wore it to church every Sunday. She was totally in love with that pearl necklace she owned. And she never regretted about her pocket money being deducted. Days passed by when her dad dropped in at her room, and she shows the pearl necklace to him though it has become too old now. Her dad says “wow its awesome, can you give it to me?” Sheba was not ready to give it to him. She told her dad that she owns it and is also getting just half of her pocket money. Her dad tried to tell her he would give her double the pocket money she earned if she had given that necklace to him. Sheba didn’t like the deal. She never gave up. She was sure that no one can take that necklace from her. The next day again her dad asked Sheba to give that pearl necklace to him. Sheba gets really wild and walks away without replying. The third day her dad comes to her room and stretches forth his right arm and asks for the pearl necklace. Sheba gets really upset with how her dad was forcing her to give that pearl necklace to him. She puts the pearl necklace in the box and drops it in his hand, and looks down with a sad face, and her dad outstretches his left hand with a brand new diamond necklace which was more beautiful than the pearl necklace she owned. She was out of speech and was the happiest girl in the whole world.

I hope you understood something out of this story. This is what most of the times we face in life, the things we love always disappear in one snap. You keep crying over it, because you miss it. But most of us don’t realize that there is always something BEAUTIFUL coming up in our lives. Replace yourself with Sheba and replace Sheba’s dad with God. When you think God has taken away something from you, just believe that He’s preparing something really beautiful for you to have. Whatever you lost may come back to you as the most beautiful thing. Maybe it is not so easy to accept this fact, but trust me this story has changed my life, my thinking and my desires. It made me grow strong in faith and also I own something really beautiful right now – Happiness.

Random friend requests

Friend requests from a bunch of unknown humans are at times annoying. Sometimes it is funny when some of them add a note containing baseless compliments. A few times I even giggle annoyingly when people try to be too sweet to get connected to me. Socializing is fun, making new friends is awesome. But trusting everyone is not such a good idea. This is what I feel when I get random add requests from people I barely know. Like I said, some people try to fawn on you with a “cute” note before they send you the request; it’s laughable although those requests are destined to be denied. And O yes how on earth have I missed to mention the typo and the grammatical errors they make. I’m sharing a few friend requests I’ve received in some of the networking sites which made me wonder,"Oh! why?", "Oh no! I'm rejecting you", "Oh! shut-up".

"Be my friend" add requests

1)

Hi, Rajesh in raipur! I'm good, hope you're better?! I should either accept or send the mail ID? Makes no difference, I should be given an option to deny as well. What say?

2)

You just sit there in the pending list I'll be back :)

3)

Ok, now that was quite convincing. I mean, straightforwardness yeah? Who's that on your dp?

*rolls the mouse, scrolls down, denies the request*

4)

Whats should I tells yous? I ams not ables to understands. Nice meeting you engi-near :)

5)

Yeah right! *clicks no*

6)

So, I keep thinking people are crazy about friends and they just send random friend requests but I guess its outside the limit. I clicked on a link on facebook the other day, well the mafia group clued me in to do that. The next day, I found dozens of add requests saying "Mafia wars".

Oh wtf, sit there in the pending list, will get back. They're still there. lol.

The interrogation part

And so some people like my name, hence "The add". Dude "naam ke kya rakha?" :D

The finishing part

It happens. I can't help being crazy at times!

Happy day

Days are just perfect, just the way I want it to be. Laze around, do stuff I like, be a total couch potato, play a ton of music, go out meet friends, some giggles, some smiles, some nautanki (fun) and some shaitaani (mischief). Oh, the joys of being unemployed! How can my day be a perfect one? – When it’s unplanned. For some reason, when I plan to go out with friends, do some ridiculous stuff which makes me the happiest person, it’s always a major flop. When I don’t plan at all for tomorrow it’s always a brighter one for me. I’m sharing all that I did in one of the crazy and fabulous days of mine this week with a friend (a junior in college). I can get into all details with it, on the condition you don’t collapse from fatigue, okay? Okay.

On a frigid evening, while I was having hot coffee with a friend on a highway, another old college friend sent me a text asking me if I was free to watch a movie with her the next day. I was a bit particular about not going for the morning show because no one can wake me up from sleep in the mornings as I’m most active and alert during the nights. Trust me I wasn’t knee deep in all the madness about neither the movie nor the plan. I just thought, oh yeah just a movie. Then back home. As usual, what I hoped-for never happens. So, here I am sharing the list of crazy/fabulous stuff we did that day.

Ajab prem ki gazab kahani – yay we got the tickets, thanks to PVR always reserves tickets for cute people like us. The show started at 1:30, and we bought some snacks. Popcorn+ chicken sandwich+ coke. I cannot stomach nachos, so totally avoided it. The movie was tad overrated to be AWESOME, but it was just cute. No wonder the music was simply a WOW. I won’t type the whole story here but yes it was a fun watch. Ranbir kapoor, omg what do I say? I guess he’s in the process of stealing my heart. And kat looks sweet as always.

[After the movie]

Window shopping – we undoubtedly had no other plans, so we went window shopping. Talking, giggling, and saying wow wow for every eye catching thing. We also ended up in men’s section, exchanging our ideas with the difficulty we have in shopping for a guy. The rapid talks went on, while we also ended up in typical ladies section. Oh doesn’t suit me for some reason. I’m more okay being the tom boy than wearing Indian dresses. Well back to the topic, we were quite hungry by then and planned to head off to a place here called EAT STREET.

Wait there was a change in the plan; we wanted to go to IMAX/Prasads (a mall in hyd) to actually visit the scary house.*Rolls eyes* No it wasn’t really my plan she planned it, I really was scared with the thought of going to the scary house. Although on our way to the scary house I asked her if she was sure of going there. She could make out I was super uncomfortable and she withdrew the plan. We headed to the mall fetching to do something fun.

Crazy hotel – right next to the scary house we found this crazy hotel; she looked at me and asked if I’ve been there before. Hell no. And it actually looked scary too. So I was a bit hesitant to say yes let’s try it out. I wasn’t ready to explore like she was. She asked the boy at the counter, is it scary inside? The guy apparently didn’t wanna lose anyone visiting his crazy hotel, and said it’s all about earthquake. I knew he was lying! Duh? Earthquake? I was blank, before I could even say a no, she bought two tickets. And we obviously giggled and entered the hotel. It was all dark, just flipped the cell phone to see what was in. it was scary right at the entrance and I as usual, started screaming for no reason. You must ask her, I was almost in tears to go back and not go further. There was nothing inside, it was all dark and gosh it was totally crazy. We just had to find our way to the exit. Total crazy experience, while we found some ghosts trying to scare us at the exit and both of us pushed the exit door screaming, ended up making fool of ourselves, while everyone in the mall were looking at us and laughed at us too. Weird that is. So, if any of you have plans to go there, I would say “don’t waste a bunch of your time like we did”.

Mirror maze – this was right next to the crazy hotel, I’ve been there like thrice now. It’s a fun place to visit. It’s all about mirrors and you have to find your way out. The lights and the mirrors are like a total wow. I can live there because, I for some good reason love mirrors! How do people manage getting such ideas to make such fun places? I mean it’s all about you and the mirrors and those bright lights. Wow! It is all kind of amazing.

We went to the gaming section, one of my favorite spots in any mall. Nope this time we didn’t play any of those games, but we tried out our photographic skills. Posing and doing funny stuff.

Eat street – we eventually fetched up at eat street after all the hilarity at the mall. We craved to have an ice-cream. Belgium dark chocolate is something I love picking over other chocolate flavors. It’s been like a regular snack to me when I was employed. Yum!

We planned to get back home because we were already late. My friend has been one of the best in giving ideas! She had the puchka-hogging idea popped up in her mind. For all those who are wondering what puchka is? It’s pani-puri. Trust me I learnt it recently. L.O.L.

Puchkas – it actually started raining while we were enjoying the puchka bites. We got wet, but still grabbed all that we could. We also found a fellow stranger talking total crap while we were having puchkas. Not his fault, he did make us smile with his weirdness.

It was time for us to go back to our houses. But it was already late. And I, for some reason hate auto-walas, the hatred increases in the night times even more. So, I decided to drop her at her place. I’ve never been to her house, I loved her family. Her mom was one of the cutest women I’ve met. I’m loving the day totally. Yet another memorable one.

So what do you do in your free time? Drop me the details would love to know.

Chosen one

I never thought I’ll post something like this. This post is for my cousins (who are my best friends more than cousins), who lost their dad unexpectedly. I was inspired to write a few lines about my uncle, though I don’t know the entire life story of his, but the testimony he carried touched me. It’s a dedication, no cries, no sorrows, only smiles with a hope that he’s watching over us.

A person who was tall and handsome

A person of wisdom

A person who couldn’t tolerate it, if anyone cold-shouldered his brothers (all 6 of them)

A person who won all battles for his family,

A person who filled the gap of the head of the family, when he lost his dad,

A person who loved his wife unconditionally

A person who stood with his wife like a pillar of support

A person who loved kids

A person who loved his two cute daughters

A person who was the cutest father

A person who helped the poor

A person who was rich with no pride

A person who was active to help

A person who was courageous

A person who was ready to give up everything to see his wife/family smile

A person who took care of his wife in every situation she was in

A person who was fun loving

A person who could make his daughters smile

A person who never wanted to see them cry

A person who didn’t want to see his wife ill

A person who made sure to be with her throughout her bad times

A person who ignored his pain

A person who was selfless

A person who didn’t want to see anyone suffer

A person who was concerned about his children’s marriages

A person who loved his family more than himself

A person who didn’t care much about his health, like how he cared for his wife

A person who lost his breath unexpectedly

A person who assured his wife he’ll be fine before he took his last breath

A person who now, is in heaven

She was the lucky one, to have such a faithful/committed husband, she didn’t lose hope after he died, and she knew he would come back. When she saw him in the coffin, she knelt down, touched his heart and prayed for him.

She said - He’s the chosen one.

We will miss you uncle.

[sorry friends, its not to make anyone sad but I wanted to talk about how nice he's been to us. It makes me feel better.]

Temporary happiness yet a memorable one…

[I know the title might confuse you a bit until you get to the ending part of the post.]

On one of my lazy evenings my bro and his friend got home smiling and talking about something which made me watch them with an active inquisitiveness, but I thought okay, let them tell me what it is and carried on with being lazy. They were actually talking about kittens they saw at the parking lot in my apartment. I was like wow kittens! Now who doesn’t say “wow”? I wondered if I could get one and asked them with the sweetest tone ever “I want one” [with uninterrupted blinks]. Bro said he tried getting one but couldn’t as one of the kittens have scraped his skin to break loose from his hands.

I thought okay, no big deal will ask his friend to get me one. Before I could even ask, they agreed to get one for me. I was the happiest! Trust me. Owning a cat/dog/horse would make me the happiest girl. We three went down to the parking lot taking stairs instead of elevator so that we could reach there before they find a new home. I wasn’t sure about how we could actually find those kittens in that huge parking lot. I really expected some running and circus stunts, to catch one. To my surprise those kittens hid behind a huge electricity meter wall, and hid in a thin passageway behind that huge wall. There were three of them. I thought, it was easy to catch one. Later realized there was a grill to the electric meter wall and it was locked. So, it was not that easy to catch one.

Finally we started mewing so that they feel we are of their kind. Though my bros friend had this manly voice and it didn’t sound like he was mewing! I was asking him to stop scaring those cute kittens. Anyhoo, we didn’t find a way to get the kittens' attention towards us. In fact, one of the very-smart kittens decided to take a walk in the passageway, and ignore us for a while, maybe it found my bros friend really boring .We had many ideas to bring them out of that grill which was almost covered with the spider web. Bro was at his best, he went home brought milk in a tiny bowl and tried to show those kittens that it was milk and not coke. We three were totally falling on each other peeping to see those kittens through that thin passageway. In the mean time, I pushed bro and we ended up with just 2 drops of milk in the bowl, while the rest of it fell onto the ground.

Bro – I’m not bringing milk from home.

Me – neither me.

Bro and me – * look at his friend *

Later, we again started mewing. I tried my best calling them names. Saying “come to mommy” and pointing a finger at my bros friend. We ran around from this end to the other end of the passage, hoping at least one of the kittens would sit close to the grill. Nothing worked. I got really tired and gave up and was a bit upset that I could see those kittens but could take neither of them with me. Bro and his friend thought it was time to act smart and gave up those circus stunts and asked the watchman unlock the grill gate, took up a risk, entered into that electric meter room and got one.

As soon as bro came out with a kitten in his hand I started wondering what was with his hair? It seemed grey to me, seems like a good way for the spiders to build web on his hair! Poor thing worked hard to see me smile; his friend also had almost torn his shirt with all of his stunts in catching one. It was a happy moment, while I couldn’t stop saying “aw cho chweet”. I called the kitten ginger. Okay now that name has its own flashback so let’s not get into its depth. As soon as my bro and his friend heard me call the kitten "ginger" they started calling it garlic, Gaa! My sister didn’t really bother to welcome ginger home because she was too busy with her farm on facebook gosh!

I thought everything was okay now, while dad entered home, irate for some reason, and asked me to leave it from where I brought it. I looked around and bro and his friend weren’t with me, they eventually disappear when Dad comes home. I could do nothing. It was just like a sweet dream and a bad climax. I didn’t even spend like half hour with the kitten and dad asked me to leave it. I could have made an issue out of it and could have still had ginger as my pet today but the reason I left it, was because dad said “Even this kitten has siblings, don’t separate them”. I really wasn’t sure if he didn’t want to see the kittens being separated or didn’t want a cat as a pet at home. I was getting weird thoughts like running out of the house with the kitten and try using some silly dialogues like “I won’t stay here without ginger” and blah! But wasn't ready to spoil my mood. Whatever it is, I really enjoy every bit of the adventure even today. Whenever I look back and see how bro and his friend were at their best to get the kitten for me, it makes go "Aw"! That was really cute.

So, ultimately I learnt, happiness is happiness whether temporary or permanent. And when it’s temporary it’s always a memorable one. You have a chance to speak about the best times you've had with your fellow beings, and everyone enjoys doing it, don’t you? I’m doing the same.

Few things about me and my Bro...

I have a brother, two years older to me and we call him Danny. When I opened my eyes on this earth, I seriously don’t know who held me in their hands first, but mom told me Danny was the happiest brother. As I aged I learnt that there were only two guys in my life, 1) Dad 2) Danny. Danny was a rough guy according to everyone in the family and I always tried to equal him. I used to do everything he did. And sometimes got caught in most of the troublesome things and would bear up with the whacks/whams and what not by mom. I started getting used to all his habits when mom ended up telling everyone around that she had two boys and one girl (I was also a boy according to mom).

When he was 8 years old, my cousin sent a bicycle as a present to Danny and I wanted the same bicycle. I remember crying for the bicycle and ended up having a fight with him. I didn’t speak to him for an hour until he took me for a ride. I saw him ride the cycle every evening and would wait for the last round when he took me for a ride. He did throw me in a gutter once on my birthday, duh!

I always wanted to be like him. I used to wear his T shirts and act like him at home in his absence (and that’s when he used to go play cricket without taking me with him). We grew up with the rides and the fights. Once I spotted a few guys hitting Danny. I got wild-rushed home-told mom-took her to the spot, mom stood there with a huge wooden cane and started hitting all the boys black and blue when danny yelled and said “Mum we were just playing a game” and looked at me like he was gonna eat me. He punished me for that by taking all the money from my kiddy bank else he wouldn’t give me a ride.

We grew up and were in high school. We both had different bicycles. Separate rides. But still the habits of being like him never changed in me. I was a tough girl too. One day I overheard a guy say “hey she’s Danny’s sister don’t play pranks on her”. I went up to the guy and found out that my bro was a terror to some of the guys who tried to play wicked pranks on me, in school. And that’s how I figured out why most of the guys from my group used to get scared to speak to me. He has always been a support to me unknowingly. If I was in any difficult situation I knew whom to tell it to. I shared all of my secrets with him knowing the fact that he was a secret holder but he did exert pressure on me through threatening about revealing my secrets to mum if I didn’t help in introducing him to my friends.

As kids we used to fight and not speak for just a day, but things have changed as we grew up. Now we don’t speak for months if we ever fight. He’s the first to apologize let it be his fault or mine. When he bought his new bike few years ago, I was the first girl to sit on his bike. His friends told me he was the happiest that day when I sat on his bike and took the first ride. Everything that belonged to him belonged to me as well. Everything he held in his hand, was mine (because I used to cry for it). And now we have mutual friends. His friends are my friends too. We hang out together and I know he would protect me always. He’s been the sweetest and also the most annoying bro at times.

This post is totally dedicated to him as he celebrated his 24^th birthday last week. I know he won’t read this but still wishing him a great life and a cute wife (lol).

Starting up a conversation with strangers

Most of us at some point in life are surrounded by strangers let it be hospitals, banks, bus/rail stations, interviews, malls, etc. Many of us require great effort in starting up a conversation with strangers, don’t we? And some of you might not like talking to strangers for the reason that you only enjoy talking to the one’s you know. Or some of you want to start a conversation with the person sitting next to you but end up starring at them and see them walk away thinking you’re a geek. I never interacted with anyone in college if I don’t know that person really well.I would give a Yes, no, maybe replies to the ones who try talking to me. So, most of them from my college ended up having a wrong impression about me being an attitude babe. Although, the ones close to me call me bubbly babe.

Later when I started working with a BPO, I was trained on how to interact with people around me. And interacting with customers helped me grow my communication skills pretty fast. I’m sharing some of the things that can be useful to many of us who want to start a conversation with the person sitting next to you. I tell you this is one of the best things you could do, learning about different people. This is going to be pretty useful for guys. People who think starting up a conversation is not you’re “thing” then please feed the fishes on my page you’d probably enjoy doing that than reading this *winks*.

Smile – when you see someone occupying the vacant seat next to where you’re sitting, please wear a smile on your face in case the stranger looks at you. Don’t give a weird look and confuse the stranger if that seat was already occupied.

Observe – observe the stranger, if he/she looks busy/tired/grumpy/sleepy/irate/weird then avoid starting a conversation else you’ll feel embarrassed with the answers he/she might throw at you. If you think the stranger is energetic and is smiling you might wanna go ahead and start off with a bright conversation.

Compliment – this is what I always do and you could do it too. For guys it’s the best way to impress girls, especially for the ones who like genuine compliments.

Ice-breaker – don’t wait for the opposite person to start off with a conversation. That sometimes won’t work for guys. You be the one to talk, maybe just a “hi” if the stranger looks at you and you could probably continue asking a few questions.

These are the general things we all are aware of, am sure. However there are certain things that need to be avoided else the conversation makes no sense at all rather wasting each other’s time. I will share a few personal experiences.

Avoid unnecessary talks with strangers:

[This happened when I was getting back home in a cab after a long tiring day at work, got squeezed between 2 jumbo sized people, a guy to my left and a girl to my right. The girl somehow managed to doze off as soon as she got into the cab, the guy was fully awake like me. I found a cowboy hat in his hand. Here’s the further conversation]

Me - *wow nice hat* thinking to myself, staring at it.

Guy – looks outta the window. And then looks at his hat.

Me – that’s a lovely hat, *smiles*

Guy - *giggles* thank you... my wife gave it for my wedding anniversary.

Me- oh that’s … interrupted...

Guy – I wore it today for work to show it to my friends, but somehow didn’t wanna wear it while taking calls, it looks funny though. My wife is really a sweet heart. She bought it for me for my wedding anniversary.

Me – that’s really swee …. Interrupted again…

Guy – you know what? I think I’ll show you my watch, it’s really awesome. *fetches for it in his bag*

Me – why didn’t you wear... Interrupted...

Guy – I love it so much that I keep it safely in the bag, never felt like wearing it.

Me - *dialing the last call on the call list in my phone*

Guy – you know what …. [His story continues about his wife]

Me – *blank, yawns, blank, grrrr*

Guy – shows to me his wedding pictures and his wives pictures in his phone.

Me – excuse me I have a call. “Hi baybay…”

Guy – waits for me to hang up.

Do you think I really dialed someone’s number dude? I switched my phone off and pretended to talk to someone, had to wait until he started to look outta the window again, though I kept the phone near my ear and acted like I was listening to someone. We all have an actor in us, don’t we? Now, that was something I can never forget. The conversation would have continued if he would have given me a chance to say/ask something. There are people who can talk rapidly about unimportant things. Why do I really want to know about his wife anyway? I really never felt like complimenting a stranger after that. So, people who have the habit of talking rapidly can bear in mind you’re throwing the opposite person in a boredom space. Avoid doing that, else they can talk about you anywhere like I’m doing here about that guy I met in the cab.

Don’t stare at the stranger:

This is basically what most of the guys end up doing, if you wanna say “not everyone does that” then I agree to it, but 90% people I’ve come across have done that, it includes girls. Avoid starring if you don’t want to talk.

[Below is a conversation that happened the other day at a consultancy when I had to wait at the lobby to meet an HR. There was a guy two seats next to where I was sitting. He was struggling hard to start up a conversation]

Me - *reading news paper* (I have this habit of reading my horoscope though I don’t believe it)

Him – tries to peep into what I was reading

Me - *cough cough*

Him – *opens the main paper* (trust me the way he opened the paper and turned the pages was absurd)

Me – *looks at him angrily*

Him - *half-smiles*

Me - *back to reading my friends horoscope*

Him – mute

Me – *wondering why he is so silent looks at him* and gaa he’s starring.

Him – half-smiles

Me – WHAT?

Him – wh-who-wha-whotttt.. iss…?

Me – Sorry?

Him – blank

Receptionist – Esther you can meet the HR.

Me – gotta go *straight face*

Trust me I like aptness. I still don’t know what he tried to ask me? Maybe, just my name? Better luck next time dude.

Don’t be a braggart:

[This was the most recent one. Yet another consultancy lobby, with the receptionist who sat there without any work, maybe it’s just the weekend special]

Me – Hi, I’ve been waiting here since two hours to meet Mr. XYZ (Oh remember the HR I’ve mentioned in my previous conversation?)

Receptionist – Oh yeah, you’re Esther right? Gimme two minutes. *Dials some number, talks, hangs up* Please wait for 15 more minutes.

Me – Ha? Ok, whatever!

Receptionist – you can have a seat here ma’m. [The seat was quite close to the receptionist’s desk]

Me – Thanks *was quite pissed off though*

Receptionist – did you color your hair?

Me – Yeah [now that’s a weird start up, I felt, but that’s okay I could say a yes, no, maybe]

Receptionist – I love you hair, it’s straight.

Me - *rolls eyes* Ah, yes it is. Thanks btw.

Receptionist- *giggles* what do you do?

Me- I’m working … etc etc..

Receptionist – Oh nice, I’m just 18 but I’m working. I’m very intelligent.

Me - *straight face* okay nice.

Receptionist – do you know shaan?

Me – which shaan? The singer eh?

Receptionist- yeah the singer... He’s my bro’s good friend.

Me- *raises eyebrows*

Receptionist- good na?

Me- Very good. Excuse me I just have to make a call. [Walked out]

Wasn’t that boring? I almost dozed off listening to her.

Keep your conversation limited with strangers. They will hate you if you talk about your popularity. This post has been unusually long but I’m sharing my experiences about my conversation with strangers out of which none of them were perfect. Connecting well with people you don’t know is really a nice thing to do. So try to connect, make friends but avoid boring them. I don’t admit enjoying all of these conversations, but experiences are experiences, eh?