Orange lifeboats on choppy waters

Every once in a while there is this need, the itching of the skin, the flinching of muscles, the uncalled for palpitations... the need to break away from the norm, to do something impulsive.

Last night was one of those, the itching and twitching had been going on for about a week, all symptomatic of unrest, the want or need to create, in whichever way or form and the prolonged inability in doing so was driving me up the wall. There's always been this sense of almost excruciating unrest every time I decide to paint something new or write something, its become the norm, not taking away from the angst in the process. In these small hours I've realised its so important to surround yourself with people who inspire, encourage, motivate and fuel curiosity, the more you do that, the easier it is to find what you've been looking for all along.

Nothing clears the mind like a good old fashioned gust of cold wind to your soul, sometimes a bike ride in the middle of the night does the trick as well. Some brilliant company with whom conversation flows effortlessly- from common friends, life philosophies, trials and tribulations, to what we want to be doing in life and suddenly the paper weights we place on our thoughts disappear.

These are my kind of crazy, the path breakers, the ones I treasure, the ones I love talking to, the ones I stand by, come hell or high water. These are the people I recognise as my tribe, the ones who go against grain and follow their heart. These are my people, my friends, my life force.

With every turbulent wave, we rise high and fall low but we will always know we have each other, my little orange lifeboats on a stormy sea.

An afternoon well spent @Uba Tuba

Yesterday was quite an eventful day,called up a friend of mine who owns Uba Tuba,the new mexican restaurant in Bandra to give him a earful about some stuff, only to realise he was understaffed for the day and needed help with service.Of course I jumped on board and hopped into a rick and made my way towards Mehboob studio to help him out.

The afternoon turned out to such a wonderful experience,I had the pleasure to meet so many wonderfully interesting people one person stood out,she's a fellow artist and we quickly got chatting about art, what I do and what she does.Turns out she runs a really cool company called Dypsydoodles do check out her work especially if you have kids.!http://www.dypsydoodles.com/After chatting at length about art,inspiration,work-life balance,the ups and downs of being an 'entrepreneur' we exchanged numbers and parted ways hoping to bump into one another soon!

By the way she has the most adorable kid,who after a little convincing gave me the most rocked out poses of the day!

Dipika and her husband enjoying their meal despite the shutterbug[yours truly]

The little rockstar for the afternoon playing or Mexican Happi drums

Met a few people who had made their way to Uba Tuba after visiting the Bandra lit fest and we got chatting about all the things they did there and their experiences.Also had the pleasure of meeting some lovely families who had stepped out for a nice Sunday lunch!All in all a lovely Sunday afternoon experience,filled with chatting up the customers,having real conversations with like minded people,clearing tables,taking orders,serving orders!!One hell of an experience and I'm bound to do it again pretty soon!!

I've never regretted doing something I've never done before and yesterdays experience stands testament

Projectiles of life

I sometime feel we are just objects thrown from one situation to another,one emotional platform to another..We live our whole lives in this never ending swinging to and fro,round and round...and sometimes we are flung so far out it seems impossible to get back to any sort of equilibrium...I sometimes think i subconsciously thrive on the plunging myself into the unknown.

I have this innate need or want to meet interesting people and in the last couple of months have had the immense pleasure of working with some really unique,divergent and dynamic minds.Theres no headier rush than having a reaaaaalllyyy interesting conversation with someone,where you walk away feeling enriched.This brings to mind a quote i read a long time ago by Bill Nye

"Everyone you will ever met knows something you don't"

Today i took a chance and messaged someone who i've spoken to a couple of times over the phone but met only once and was audacious  enough to ask him if i could meet [non-work related] just to pick his brains.Lucky me he complied!!I think in this day and age of having the access to technology that in a way breaks down and eliminates geographical boundaries we need to leverage it to build new connections,have more and more interesting conversations,meet and converse with like minded people or more interestingly people who have completely different points of view all in an attempt at enriching ourselves.

Back to the conversation earlier today,considering I've been thinking a lot about new possibilities to the point to mental and physical exhaustions it was a delighful meeting.He's a really busy man but was sweet enough to spend at least an hour with me discussing so many interesting options i wouldnt have even imagined or considered and to add icing to the cake met two lovely ladies who shared so much about their lives and choices in an attempt to reiterate i'm not alone when it comes to trying out new things.

My take away from todays experience has been,theres no harm in asking someone for something[nothing material, I'm not that kind of person but time in this case]whats the worst that can happen they'll say I'm sorry I'm too busy to meet with you.Also the more people you meet only enriches your limited time on this planet so go out there make new connections,say whats on you mind,converse,have opinions that are different and most importantly follow you heart.

Increasingly we'll all learnt to wear mask as a self defence mechanism.

Masks of anger with war paint and gnarly expressions
Masks of indifference like a pantomime with no emotion,totally redundant
Masks of fake laughter big clowinsh smiles,over exaggerated and over the top
Tear stained masks which leave tiny droplets waiting to roll off the chin
Masks of bravery,staunch expressions of valour and battle scars to show,like we are  perpetually waging a war with humanity
Masks of pain like a pin-prick that lasts for eternity
Masks of worry,drilling deep gorges into our foreheads in the hopes of paving the way for clarity of thought
Masks of shame like wilted petals on a once beautiful flower gravity forcing itself on us
Masks of restlessness like a buzzing bee with a sugar rush

If we only dropped the masks,even if that means letting someone into your life,even if you are vulnerable we'd all have truer relationships and richer lives because of it.If theres one thing detest the most is fake people,people who use,manipulate and lie to themselves more than anyone else.

So at this unearthly hour here's to taking chances to make connections!