The Serendipity Tattoo

ser·en·dip·i·ty

ˌserənˈdipədē/

Noun

For as long as I can remember, I have been obsessed with finding the meaning of life and my reason for living it. This has often led to over-thinking, analyzing, anticipating, and making lofty plans that have sometimes resulted in disappointments.

A year and a half ago when I got my second tattoo (You can read about it here) I promised myself to evolve and let life take its natural course without the constant questioning of – why, what, where and when. 

For someone who needs to rationalize each situation, it’s not easy to go with the flow. Channeling my obsession in a positive way, over time and with some effort, I found a direction for my growth.

I decided to say ‘yes’ to everything I had previously said ‘can’t’ or ‘will not’ to.

Saying ‘yes’ changed my life. I let go.

I didn’t just tick of a list of things to do but my soul grew to become perhaps its best version - fearless, calm and eternally joyful.

Today, I got my third tattoo to celebrate this growth and as a reminder of all the pleasant occurrences and in anticipation of the beautiful surprises that await me in this life.

I got the word Serendipity flowing into a paper airplane tattooed on the side of my ribs.

The word ‘Serendipity’ and the airplane have a special meaning for me.

Serendipity (n) means - The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

Looking back, everything that has ever occurred, has made sense sooner or later. The times when I felt I couldn’t survive turned out to be blessings in disguise.

Life has for most of its part, been a series of pleasant surprises when I have let it take its own course and even when I have questioned its workings; it has been kind and grateful.

The word to me is a reminder to believe in the eternal power of the universe that is always working in my favor even when it might not seem like it.

In my tattoo, a paper airplane flows out of the word.

The airplane signifies two things.

Firstly, It is a physical form of the word serendipity. Paper airplanes don’t have a set course. Paper airplanes go where the wind takes them. The airplane is a reminder for my soul to be free, to go with the flow.

Secondly, the airplane signifies reasons to keep traveling. In the past four years, I have visited twenty countries. To think, I never traveled before is something that now seems alien to me.

I have, especially during my solo travels experienced serendipity in its truest form. The best days have happened without plan or agenda, people have best become friends with conversations that were randomly stuck while sitting on opposite tables and surprises have occurred at every cobbled street.

Traveling has made me richer, smarter, and happier. It has led me to believe that the only moment I might have is the Now and I can’t afford to waste it.

I got this tattoo done in Paros, Greece. The plan was to get this done in Athens but as serendipity would have it, someone I randomly met told me about an artist nearby and soon after the chance meeting, I saw this chalkboard.

Needless to say, the studio was in a little alley. :-) 

Tattoo Artist – Mario
Studio – Paros Ink
Appointments – Perhaps in the high tourist season it might be best to call or send Mario a Facebook Message.
Note: Mario also runs an Italian restaurant in the evenings hence tattoos are generally done in the mornings.

2015 - The Year Of No Limits.

Snapshots of this amazing year (Insta - @suitcasesandsnowglobes)

For the first fifteen years of my life, I lived in a large, long forgotten colonial home in a scarcely populated area of an average North Indian City. With acres of land and a small fleet of help at our disposal, we did not have a concept of neighbours and after school play dates. Once home from school, my brother and I had to invent our own games like climbing trees and chasing animals to keep our selves entertained.

When tired from running around the compound and bored with my dolls, I would role-play my ideal adult life. I would sneak into my father’s office and have important business discussions with empty chairs. Sometimes I would sit inside our black Premier Padmini car and turn the wheel right and left while having life altering conversations about Barbie Dolls with my pretend family.

Once a week my brother and I would climb up the loft in our room, get into life size trunks that smelled of mothballs and play spaceship. Even though I never said it out loud, in my mind, I was on the moon already. 

What a beautiful feeling it is when you truly believe that everything is possible. The certainty, that in the tiny part of the universe that we call our own, anything can be achieved.

In the universe that I inhabited during my growing up years, I was everything I wanted to be but as it happens with each one of us, sooner or later, reality entered my beautiful world. It started with being told that I was not good at spelling. Then I was informed that I couldn’t dodge the ball fast enough so basketball was not for me. Heartbreaks, interview failures etc etc…The list of can’ts and don’ts kept getting longer and deeper as the years flew by.

I took fewer risks and found a comfortable spot that conformed to what everyone else around me told me I could and could not do - believing it to be true.

Over time, that little girl who believed in magic, got lost somewhere in faded photographs.

Decades later, 2014, a year of extremes happened.

So exactly this time last year, in a fragile and extremely low state of mind, I made myself a few promises and one of them was to find myself again.

I made a list of everything I once wanted to do but never ended up doing because I thought I wasn’t good enough. Considering I sucked at it already, how much worse could it get?

In the book – Eat, Pray, Love, Ketut Liyer tells Liz, “Balance is not letting anybody love you less than you love yourself.”

So I decided to take a quantum leap and shift focus on someone I left behind long ago. The little girl who hid in trunks and danced without music.

I had to find her again.

In the course of the year, I learned a new language, traveled to places I hadn't thought of before, started to (actually) enjoy cooking, got my health back on track, put my self out there to meet new people, made some amazing new friends, entertained more, drank less, took a lot more challenges at work, started saying NO if it wasn't good enough, went on a lot of first dates, spent time figuring out what I wanted out of a relationship, tricked my body, tricked fear and most importantly, learned to drive.

While I was learning new skills, something was changing at a deeper level. I was falling in love.

A few weeks ago, I stood in the middle of the Beagle Channel in silence. The only sounds around me were that of yawning sea lions and the slight rocking of a wooden boat. I spread out my arms and took a deep breath of the fresh Antarctic air into my lungs and smiled. 24,000 Kilometres away from everything I own and people I know, I was alone but for the first time in years, I was with myself. I was in love again.

I knew then that I had found her. I had found balance.

2015 has been beautiful, blessed and a year about the most important person in my universe – me.

I couldn't have done this without the ones who stood by me in the past year and pushed me to be the best version of myself - you are my rocks. Thank you.

And the one’s who led me to this journey. I can't thank you enough.

As we step into another year together, I hope that you too will try and search for that little girl/boy hiding somewhere deep within you and do everything in your power to chase the dreams she/he ever had.

I hope that you will fill each moment with more love and happiness.

Happy 2016. Happy New Year.

Love and Light,

Me. 

What Is A Five Year Plan Anyway?

In a life that I once inhabited, I knew someone who was the epitome of righteousness for people around me. He was the person to look up to, emulate and go to for advice on life, career and all of that. He spoke a lot – mostly things that everyone already knew but did it with such an air of authority that made everyone sit and listen in awe. Yes, you guessed it right. He was a consultant.

On one particularly long drawn evening over drinks with friends and family, the topic of discussion turned to my future. He was of course, leading the conversation stressing that if I didn't have a five-year plan; I was more or less wasting my life.

As the evening progressed and my self-esteem steadily regressed, I realized that I didn't have a clue what the next five years would bring for me, what I wanted to do with my life or where I wanted to be. I didn't even have a one-month plan.

Was my life set for failure?

In the days that followed that eventful evening, I wasted tons of paper writing down plans for my future. I wanted to be a CEO, I wanted to do an MBA, I wanted to make lots and lots of money, blah, blah blah…. In the years that followed that eventful evening, my set answer for the interview question – ‘Where do you see yourself five years from now?’ was a well-rehearsed, politically correct answer that always got me the job.

The truth is, all of it was bullshit. I would always come back from an interview with a bitter taste in my mouth because I knew I had been bluffing. I didn't know what my plan was. I was just getting better and better at making up a perfect picture people could buy.

Ten years, five homes, four jobs, three relationships and one sky dive later, I don't think I ever will. None of those perfect plans have ever worked out and it makes me wonder if the consultant was right.

Is an unplanned life a wasted one?

The thing about living an oblivious, unplanned life is that time passes by in sections – sometimes fast and sometimes slow instead of major milestones and rewards. You blink an eye and a year is gone and then another. Life becomes a series of threads stitched together with stories and adventures that sometimes make for interesting conversation over drinks. You remember feelings rather than actual events, bits and pieces of people and places that crossed your path.

Like the time when you laughed so hard that you almost died of a stomachache.

The look in his eyes when you just started dating and how it made you go so weak in the knees, the smell of fresh pasta in a tiny street side café in Italy, sunsets, walking on the grass barefoot and then lying down to watch the sun dance amongst the leaves for hours.

You remember contours of a face and forget the face itself and cheesy lines from books that you quote in real life. The regret of not getting the extra scoop of ice cream because someone mentioned ‘calories’, the sound of church bells, songs and Michael Jackson dance steps. You remember pain, sorrow and joy.

You forget the promotion letter you received that is thrown somewhere at the back of your bedside drawer, long conversations on your performance at work with the boss, the traffic delays, the clients, the campaigns, the dress you spent a fortune on and the pair of shoes you so loved once.

And is it worth it?

Perhaps it is. One day five or ten years down the line in the middle of a random conversation with a stranger you look back it all comes together. You have grown up. You have changed. You don't have the dollars and the title but you have something else. Something bigger.

You realize you can finally say no to things – social invitations, people who are ruthless, negativity, consultants who try to coach you and boring dates.

Sitting and drinking wine in a quiet restaurant makes more sense than getting beer spilled over yourself at a concert and when you are there your biggest concern is if the loos are close enough.

You spend money on experiences and understand the importance of comfortable footwear, breakfast and vitamins. You forgive easily because keeping a grudge is a lot of effort and brain time. You are comfortable with your quirky, unique, unplanned self.

It hasn't been a wasted life.

I would love to go back in time and tell the consultant that I am glad I never had a five-year plan.

It isn’t about what is yet to come but a spark of epiphany that occurs in the present and flashes everything that has transpired in front of your eyes validating that you exactly are where you ought to be in the now.

It is about the five years that went by. The rest is just coincidence that will occur sometime in the future. And when it does, I will just wing it! (Like always)

*Image: Google.