What's there in name?

Everybody has a name. It’s an identity of an Individual in this big world. There is a story behind how we got our name? There is a story behind how we carry our name. Did our parents search lot of books for our name? Why did they like that name for us? Did somebody suggest our name? We have nickname as well. The real name has several versions as in my case. Sometimes I feel how unfair Shakespeare is to say “What’s there in name?”. It is an identity we relate to our self and every body else relate to us. One realises what is there in name when one’s name is repetitively pronounced wrongly, like mine.
                   My name is Indrayani. Many people told me my name is unique, long and difficult to pronounce and spell. I was the only girl named “Indrayani” in my School and college. So I enjoyed a privilege of being unique in that sense and felt proud as unique name helped me escape the mess created by similar name like swapping of exam papers, roll numbers etc. My teachers and friends used to call me “Indu” or “Indumati” which I hate. Yes! These are the two absolute no no versions of my name. In my Pune office non maharastrian people for whom my name was new used to call me “Indrani”, some of them actually thought the meaning of my name is “Wife of Lord Indra” and began to call me “Indra ki Rani”. But that is not the meaning of my name. Again I had to clarify and clear the air. I was never linked with any boy in my entire college life and now I am being linked to King of Gods – Lord Indra. Ohh! Poor me. My Bengali colleagues called me “Indro”.  Every time I made it a point to correct them but all efforts went in vein. When I joined office in Dubai, the things went worst for my name. Many versions of my name were waiting to greet me. Local colleagues called me “Indrayana” or “Indriyani”. I had colleagues from Africa, UK, US, Shrilanka, Pakistan, etc. Most of them actually found my name as a toung twister so they chose a name “Indra” for me. I had to agree happily (?). Rather than hearing many wrong pronunciation this was better. But all my family members call me “Indrayani” without a single mistake. Even after I got married, thankfully new family members learned my name easily and pronounce it correctly. The meaning of Indrayani is “A woman having command on languages”. I am not sure if I am living up to that but as I am writing this article on the usual drama and confusion on my name, I feel extremely proud to have a name that’s unique, meaningful and long. Thanks a ton Aai and Baba for giving me this name. And Thanks to Aaji for suggesting it.

Pencil Sketch - Cat

Painting of a Flower pot

Pencil Sketch - Who's that girl?

This is what I have drawn couple of hours ago.

Phuket - Day 2

On the 7^th August, we were very tired by the long  journey and was not feeling to wake up in the morning. I was not feeling to wake up in the morning. But I got up and stepped in the Gallary of our room, I was taken aback by  the beautiful cloudy morning waiting to greet me. Also the scenic ocean view was a bonus. 
 We immediately brushed our teeth, had a coffee and went to Karon beach which was at 15 minis walking distance from our Hotel. Below is the pic of Karon beach.

Ocean was roaring like Lion and as the waves hitting see shore hard no one was daring get inside the waves. But the scene was very beautiful. Sky was cloudy and gray, the ocean waters were white, foamy, and sand was white too. From beach we can see some of the Islands in the Andaman Ocean looking like bonsai from the distance. One island was looking like a green Broccoli bunch. After some photo session we took a small walk in the lanes of Phuket. I saw this lady selling some food  items on the streets. I particularly like the bike which can carry your stuff and when needed can be used as a street shop. We can find such bikes  many in Phuket on streets.

Also I noticed most of the hotels have open kitchen at the entrance. Customers can see the hygiene maintained and the way it is prepared. We returned to hotel with the excitement to explore more of the Phuket in remaining three Days. We got ready and had a nice breakfast. For remaining day today we had booked “Hongs by Starlight” tour by John Gray.  August, we were very tired by previous Day’s he long  journey followed As decided at 11AM exactly the John Gray’s Canoe trip driver came to receive us. I really love the punctuality Thai people have. It was a long one and half hours journey to the Dock.  Shortly we landed on a big boat. We were the only Indian couple in the tour. Most of the crowd was from Australia.  The tour started with the introduction from the captain to the crew members and what all will be done in the Day. The Breakfast served was light and delicious followed by Phuket’s famous juices. The view on the way was spectacular. So many small Islands welcomed us on our way. Lush green, stiff slanting high rocks were truly breathtaking.  Water was green, the typical fresh ocean green. Phuket was at its best, as it was cloudy we sat on the overtop deck.  Below are the pictures of one of the island the sharp edges of the rocks hanging from the roof of the Hongs.

After an hour or so our boat was parked at place one ocean and we were educated about canoeing by our captain. The small Islands in the Andaman sea have caves inside them, these caves are called as Hongs. They can be explored during low water time only. Usually around 2PM the water level falls and the gates of the caves are opened ( I remembered Khulaja sim sim dialogue from Alif Laila). Captain told us safety measures like how to protect ourselves while crossing the sharp rocks and not to touch any rock on our way as canoes are really small boats and some touch can influence the direction of the canoe which can be dangerous inside the hongs.  In one canoe two tourists and a sailor were accommodated. I sat at the front my husband behind me and our sailor at the rare of the canoe.  Below is the picture of a canoe.

Our Sailor’s name was Chap. Chap was around 21-22 years old and was tattoo loving person. All around his body he was painted, he barely knew English but few English words and our expressions completed the conversation for the rest of the day.
This was the first time I was seating on the boat so close to ocean, I have to just stretch my hand to reach water. I have done banana boat ride in past but this boat was lower that banana boat. I don’t know swimming so I preferred to wear Life Jacket.  I was excited as it was my first canoeing experience. We went inside caves which had so narrow entrance that one has to lie down completely (as shown in below pic)  in the canoe to pass through it, once you are inside its dark, as dark as night. Chaps torch which was mounted on his head showed us the spectacular, amazing treasure nature has saved deep inside these caves. The roofs were carved with natural salts and water dripping from the rocks. The rocks inside were hanging from the roof like a dripping drop, they were indeed very sharp. Sharp enough to cut your skin and make a serious damage. But I was so mesmerized by the beauty of mother earth that the dangers of rock didn’t scare me.

 Inside some caves there were beautiful trees and fishes, crabs and other marine animals. After visiting many caves we were on our way back to the boat when the storm struck the Pha Nga Bay and it started raining.Our canoe was like a small leaf dangling on the waves. It was little bit scary but I enjoyed. After coming back on the boat we had some free time for swimming in the Andaman ocean. We had a great time, now we were hungriest and I must mention food was delicious.  It was a fairytale ambiance, it was raining outside and we were having hot and tasty sea food, followed by was equally seducing coffee. Krayton is a show piece made out of natural things like flowers, leaves and banana stem. Thais offer it to ocean on every full moon night and make a wish. They believe these wishes are fulfilled. With the help of Chap we also made our Krayton. Below is stuff required to make a Krayton.

And below is how it looks after crafting.

Making and offering our Krayton was a total spiritual experience. No one said a word, the impact was long lasting. This brought an end of our wonderful day in the
Hongs by Starlight.

Clear the Clutter

Excessive clutter in every facet of our life leads to stress. If you are surrounded by clutter in your life you are unknowingly inviting the chaos. By devoting a little of your time to getting rid of the clutter in your life and maintaining things relatively clutter-free , you’ll reap the rewards of pleasing living areas, reduced stress, and a more organized and productive existence. The best way to start by taking small steps to declutter your work place, home, car and everything in and around you. The combined small steps will lead to big improvements in long run.

Declutter your work place
Take out all the stuff from the drawer of office desk. and put bavk only what you use and required. Throw away unwanted printouts, papers etc. When papers come sort them immedietly, toss, delegate or simple file but do not put them on your desk. Set up a basic alphabetical filing system with a folder for each project or client.  Keep your office supplies and other items in designated drawers.  If you need to, label things, but the main thing you should do is designate a spot for every item you decided to keep and make sure that it stays there, or goes back there when you’re done using it.

Declutter your Computer
Go thru all the folders you have, if there are some folders you are no more using delete them if there are pictures take them on CD  or hard disk and keep safely or upload on picasa but delete from computer. Unwanted documents, delete them.  Get rid of most or all of the icons on your desktop.  They not only slow down your computer, but they also create visual clutter.  There are better ways of accessing your information.

Your Home
After work place, home is the place  where we spend most of our time where we host guests, parties and relax. No wonder messy home also adds to daily stress.

Your Room:
Start with whatever lies on floor, Pick everything and keep neatly. Take your old newspapers ans magazines and either sell them to raddiwala or donate to library. Arrange your bed properly. Spread the bedsheets nicely. Clean your show pieces, wall hangers and furniture. Donate what is not required or not used. Organize everything that you’ve decided to keep into drawers, cabinets, and closets, keeping them out of sight, but still neatly organized and uncluttered. Do this one room at a time.

Manage your wardrobe:
For many people wardrobe is a place where they throwaway the things they want to keep out of there sight. Organize everything that you’ve decided to keep into drawers, cabinets, and closets, keeping them out of sight, but still neatly organized and uncluttered. Do this one room at a time.

Your Life:
Reduce your commitments: We don't realize when our life becomes too clutter with all the things we do with our home, office, friends, family, social gathering and so on. Take it easy! Don't expect too much from yourself. you don't have to work hard in the office and then again have an eventful night with friends. Look at the each area of your Life and consider what brings you joy and value. Anything that doesn't make you happy and doesn't add value, reduce those commitments. If you do this you will have more time to do things you love. Don't gather too much information that is also a clutter occupying your mind. Don't spend too much time on anything doesn't interest you. Spend time to revisit your financial portfolio. Make a list of FD's in which bank they are and when are they expiring. If possible reduce the number of accounts you have. See if you have reset your Internet and mobile banking password and you remember them. Make sure all your documents like Mark sheet, company joining and relieving letters, salary slip etc are well organized and safely kept.

Manage your routine :
Many of us do not have set routines in our daily life and simply tackle the daily work responsibilities, chores, exercise haphazardly. This unstructured way of life style adds to stress and unproductivity. Batch your work. Instead of doing the laundry everyday do it once a week. Instead of going to glossary shop frequently make it a habit to do it once a week. Plan your weekly and daily schedules.If you cook daily, try to clean dry and cut the vegetable one day so that they will be readily available on time, clean furniture, windows etc once a week. Keep your accessories like earrings, goggles, bags, shoes clean and in structured way so that they should be handy when required.

Once you’ve successfully decluttered, whether it be one area or all the areas mentioned above, clutter will inevitably begin to creep back into your life. You must be vigilant in weeding it out on a regular basis, or it will just take over your life again. So make it a habit so declutter daily and include this in your daily routine.

If you try this, let me know if it made any difference to you.

Phuket Day 1

My latest visit to Phuket was a amazing combination of learning about culture abd heritage of Thailand, enjoying the scenic beauty of Andaman see and canooing to spectacular caves. I have been to thailand for 4 Days with my Husband. Below is how we spent our four Days

Day 1: A culture and heritage tour with Chaya

Day 2 :Visit to Karon beach and John Gray's canooing trip

Day 3: Pha Nga Bay by speedbaot with Sail tours and a relaxing Thai massage at Mantra Spa

Day 4 : Elephant treking in the morning and Phuket sight seeing by renting a motorbike

On the 5th of August we left home at 6PM to catch a flight for Phuket. Me and my husband Swapnil were very excited  as this was going to be our firct oversees holiday. Filght was scheduled at 9 and was about to reach Bankok by 6:45 and then we had a connecting flight at 7:45 to Phuket. Both the flights were by Thai airlines. The journey was pleasane but the flight got late by half an hour and we reached Bankok by 7:30. So we missed our connected flight then we took our Visa on arrival as the fnext flight was ay tje vclose timing sxcheduled at 8:30, we took our visa from the fast track counter costing us 200 bht each more. the distance from gate where our flight arrived to the Visa counter is considerably more and one has to literally run if you are running short of time as ours. But a airport attend lady helped us and came a long way woth us showing us the exchange and the visa counter and then taking us back to the gate where Phuket flight was scheduled. Finally we boarded a 8:30 flight to Phuket. A tasty juce and sandwich was served on board.  We arrived to Phuket by 10:45AM. From above in the place we could notice the innumerable islands Phuket has. The green forests were eqully eye catchy. The sky was cloudy and it was raining. Phuket has International airport but it is comparitively smaller. The guy we have booked for airport transafers has already arrived to pick us from the airport and drop us to our hotel in Karon beach. It was an hour journey through some big and curvey roads and sometomes throgh small lanes. i noticed the big electricity cabling on the sides of road. Homes were having slanting roof, i guess this may be because Thailand is a tropical country the chances of rain are more. We reached hotel by 12. We have booked a cluture and Heritage tour with Chaya, immedietly after freshing up Chaya came to pick us at the correct time 1:45PM. Chaya was very interested to share her knowledge on history and culture of Phuket and Thailand. Below a pic with Lovely Chaya.

She asked us about our Arrival and journey, after she came to know we haven't had our lunch she took us to a local restaurant to have authentic Thai food. That was good and cheap. Along with the chicken noodles she introduced us to Thailand's favorite drink, iced coffee. I loved it, sweet and cold. Below is a Thai chicken noodles, the white balls you can see in the bowl are fish and a cold black coffee.

 After which we went see the sino portugeas buildings and a old house build in the fusion stype of European and Thai architecture in Phuket. The building was 200-250 years old and currently 4th and 5th generation of the family are taking care of the building. The furniture was 200 years old and was ordered from Italy. It was good and introduced us how Thai people lived in past.

In every Thai building you will find the spirit house. They beleive that the spirits of the people who were leaving on that land may be some 200 years or even before that are still there, and instead of facing their evil we build them this house so that they can leave there and protect us from the evil. Below is a snap of a typical Spirit house.

After that we went to Gypsy village, Gypsies are taller and darker than other Thai's. There homes are elevated from the ground. They leave at the closest proximity from the sea. They are close to nature and are  not materialistic like other Thai's leaving in town. We do not find fencing to their homes. When Tsunami hit the coasts none of the 2000 Gypsies died, as they understand the sea and nature. When the water was taken a back by sea they understood something terrible is going to happen and this water will come to coast with bigger force, so they just grabbed their children and ran. I could see some expensive cars parked out of their houses. We can get pearl jwellary in this town. Chaya bargained for me and got me a good deal. Also the real fun was when we ate the fresh fried fish here. It was a total delight. Below is Gypsy home.

 After this we went to a souvenir shop where I got some stuff in good price...again Thanks to Chaya for taking us to the local shops. Here the rates are same for locals and tourists. After some shopping we went to a Buddhist temple where some monks were chanting mantras and it was a spiritual experience. Temple had Budha statue in the meditating pose. Below is the pic from Budhdhist Temple.

After this we went to visit the Chinese temple where we saw 100's of statues of Chinese emperor and militants. On the way of course Chaya was sharing the knowledge on this. 

After all these sight seeing we were hungry and she took us to a nicest restaurant at the range hill from where we enjoyed the beautiful view with tasty dinner. Chaya is a very warm person and guided us on how should we spend our next 3 three Days effectively in Phuket. She dropped us back to hotel by 9-9:30 PM. At the end we felt we have got so much in so less time.