Saturday 4 April 2015

A Big Grin at the BIGRIN !

I’m back to my laptop, my fingers quickly roll through the keys as I can hear the sound of rain falling on the rooftop, with an Arijit Singh rendition playing in the background. His voice is soulful. That however, is not the reason why I’m writing. I am attempting to pen down the coziness of the Bigrin, a cafe here at Clement town (honestly I had lost hope, a little too soon though) that is sure to get you into a nostalgic affair. 

The mild drizzle yesterday evening was an invitation for some really good coffee. We wanted to head out to the nearest cafĂ© and be home on time, other commitments followed. And then out of nowhere one of us with the Mentos effect (Dimaag ki batti jalade), remembered, ‘there’s a very small place right here in Clement town, but I guess you’ll like it’. Like it, No! We loved it!!

After battling to park our car in the busy and narrow street, buzzing with students, we made our way into the place. A warm and laid back affair, all set to swing you along, with some fellow guests on a six-string, a book in hand with a zillion on the shelf next to you, soaked in caffeine. This is precisely what BIGRIN offers. Their walls speak their testimony, with snippets on tissue papers telling the tales of friendship, love and warmth. Bigrin just brings it all together.



A humble but diverse menu, they remind us that sometimes all you need is some comfort food and the ‘poor man’s tea’ to go along (they did not forget the coffee lovers, offering six different ones). Maggi and chai were our choice for the day. The drizzle called for it. Something like the ‘Chai-Samosa’ affair at the 'Chemistry' canteen at Panjab University. It is quite a romantic entanglement and has witnessed many as well.





























Food always makes memory (good and bad both!). The first bite of the meal and the first sip of chai took me almost a decade back. I was reminded of the college time when cozy food and a good company meant the world. Life was simple. We were a gang of four, (what people called us; amuses me every time I think of it) and I instantly picked up my phone and sent them a picture of the modest meal, laid in front of me (God bless whoever made Whatsapp). For my memory, it was priceless!



For now, the rain has stopped and on special demand I’m heading back for more memories. Bigrin is calling me back. Ciao!

(Kept my camera handy again! Enjoy!)

Thursday 2 April 2015

Because failure is a choice.


Failures are hard to accept; repeated failures, even harder. It takes a lot of courage to accept it, and probably a lot more than a gallon of water to gulp it down! And then once it’s done and over with, you wonder, ‘what went wrong?’, ‘why did it not work out?’, ‘who was to blame?’


Blaming oneself, that’s something we’re all yet to imagine. Blaming someone or something else, it’s a piece of cake!  So why do we get into that blame game; the vicious cycle of putting things on others for our own miseries, to make a sorry figure out of ourselves, to escape reality.

God has been kind. I’ve had things work out for me, more often than not. So the times when it doesn’t work out, it’s punishing (not that we should get a hang of it). Success makes you greedy. And well, you start taking it for granted. Sometimes the amount of effort you put in also goes down with the overconfidence it brings along. It is very dangerous.

And when the ball moves out of your court, you blame the court, you blame the ball and you blame all that is in between the two. You want to rewind and go back to when things were on your side, but real life does not work that way.
Failure might bring along a sense of dissatisfaction, the pain is unmatched, but doesn’t it also bring along the opportunity to bounce back, and make things even; let’s think of it that way!

My husband and I, (as with most couples) act as mutual shrinks (or motivators), so when one of us is low, the other one takes over. He tells me, ‘you must learn from a tennis ball, the harder it falls down, the higher it bounces back’. Only if we could treat life this way, nothing would keep us from reaching higher.
Failure also makes us compromise on direction. One failure and we lose track of things. Perseverance might be the key, but staying on track and keeping firm about it adds a lot more sense to it.

We fail, at some point of time, all of us do. But it’s never permanent. It has as much life as we want to give it. What we do with it, is what makes all the difference. I've met people who fail, crib and blame. And then there are those who slog through every defeat, give it a good fight and come back as winners. It is always a choice.