Copyright : Belongs to Parul Chandra . Should not be reused or reclaimed. If someone wishes to use it , I would advise you to seek permission for the same. Thanks.

High time ! All my people ! now its time to post only the published articles ! As people are highly sentimental towards inspiration drawing ! I would love to acknowledge each one anytime ! god bless ! Love !

Confessions of a Single Woman

The life of a single woman is a whirlwind of contradictions. One minute you like a guy, the next you don’t; one day you have money in the bank, the next you’re chasing pennies around the floorboard of your car to afford a McDonald’s cheeseburger for dinner; one week you feel single and fabulous, the next you just feel lonely and mediocre.
It happens to the best of us.
There is no real safety net for a single woman. No fierce protector. No knight in shining armor to swoop in and scare all the bad guys away when we’re feeling picked on at work. No protective cocoon to run to when we’re feeling our inner caterpillar is outweighing our inner butterfly. We are, quite literally – single. Singular. Solo. Alone. We have moments where we look at the martini glass as half empty, then kick ourselves for doing so. We have Facebook stalking expeditions in which we scope out all our exes just to see how balding and ugly and miserable they are now, then feel somehow betrayed when they look…dare I say it?...good. We have really brave moments when we kill an enormous spider or change a tire by ourselves and we become completely convinced that all we need to do is slap an “S” on our chest and we could save the world. We dance all night with our girlfriends then ace our presentation at work the next day going on nothing but Starbucks and adrenalin (and wearing the same clothes we had on the night before). We face the condescending looks at family gatherings and high school reunions when people learn that we’re not dating anyone and pat on us like we’re their pet and say: “Oh, don’t worry. You’re surely next!” We lose jobs and friends and parents and lovers…and sometimes have no one but our pillow to witness our tears.

We fall in love - deeply, madly, passionately in love – and sometimes, they forget to love us back. Sometimes we love someone for years, without the other person even knowing we exist. We suffer in silence, hoping against hope that one day they’ll not just look at us, but really SEE us; that they’ll not just want us, but NEED us. Sometimes life offers us a second chance to get it right…and sometimes life just offers us a second chance to say goodbye.
Sometimes even after all the hurt, and all the waiting, and all the hoping, and all the wishing…for reasons beyond our control, it still doesn’t work out. Sometimes you just know you know the only way to be true to YOU is to let him go. If we’re lucky, we have a best friend to reflect our hearts back to us and show us our strength when we’ve lost our way. And if we’re REALLY lucky, we have several incredibly brave, sassy, independent, beautiful, strong honorary best friends to inspire us to be a better version of ourselves…to walk our talk…to live up to a higher standard…and to never lose the faith that someday, some way, amidst all the many frogs, our Prince Charming will emerge and sweep us off into our Happily Ever After. This, my dear friends, is my way of saying thank you. Thank you for believing in what I have to say.

And here’s the good news…for you, for all single women.

We are tough. We are bold. We are fierce. We are a force to be reckoned with. We face the world the single way every single day…and we don’t back down. We don’t let the idea of going to a movie alone intimidate us. We don’t let the threat of bumping into an ex stop us from going to the most fabulous party in town with our head held high. We walk a path that many women will never have to walk…a path that forces us to constantly step out of our comfort zones…a path that a majority of the women we grew up with and acted as bridesmaids for will never have to walk. The journey of a single woman is not an easy one – but we welcome the danger. We welcome the unknown. We embrace our freedom as the gift that it is…we pay our own way…we march to the beat of our own drum and we ask permission from no one to do so. There is a fire in the soul of a single woman that can never quite be tamed…an unwillingness to settle…an independence all our own, built from the knowledge that we can do absolutely anything without calling for backup and we can look damn good doing it.

There is a wisdom we possess that comes from surviving many a broken heart…a shine to us from learning how to make an entrance into a room accompanied by no one but me, myself and I…a confidence that comes from knowing we are not afraid to fall…because each time we fall, Life presents us with another opportunity to get up and move up. We realize a happy life is more important than a happy ending…and that we don’t need a significant other to lead a significant life.
And if one day, our Prince does find us, we won’t expect him to complete us, but to compliment us. Because we are strong. We are invincible. We are all…The Single Woman.

Ps: Inspired by Mandy Hale ! Neha ..I hope you are feeling amazing now ! :P!
Iam always there love :-) And yes yes ; for all my friends..after all you guys know you are awesome anyway!keep smiling !

Life through your eyes..:)

Sometimes you get too tired complaining about the things that happened in your life. Sometimes, you, yourself don’t want to understand the reasons of why it happened. Just because you are tired to keep thinking of all the bad stuff. Someone rightly said, its you, and only you, who attract the bad stuff or the good stuff in your life. Everyone has their share of sorrows but it takes courageous people to see it, sustain it with a smile and move on. I may not be the most courageous person when it comes to difficult times but I have learned to handle it.

During these years, it was always a nightmare to tell someone what I was going through. It was very hard to explain because being too emotional is not always rightly seen. When you can’t take care of yourself, no one else can. I used to think that life is such a painful mystery with each phase unfolding with more sorrows and pain. I kept falling until I found the way to stand straight, look myself in the mirror and tell myself that it will be alright. And trust me, with time it always has been alright. Honestly, life will never be easy. It will never be a fairy tale. Because if it was that easy then everyone would have lived happily ever after. And there would have been no sufferings at all in this world. But that holds no truth. You will have to handle it. Everyone has to.

But if you think you are alone, and then let me tell you are not alone. Along your roller coaster ride, people would sweep into your life who will trust your potential at its core, who will be there in your suffering, who will understand ever inch of you and make the roller coaster ride worthwhile. You will never question who you are after that because you will definitely know that at times when you won’t believe yourself, there would be one person who will believe in you, who after seeing all the bad stuff in your life, will still accept you the way you are. That is the moment you have halt, yes, I command. HALT!

Just go and tell that one person how much he/she means to you. It’s important for you to realise how much one person can make your life worthwhile. That one person who makes you believe that this world is still a better place to live in. The journey of your life will never be difficult after you find that person. It will all, be alright :)

P.S. –For this one person in my life who with each day gives me a reason to smile. Finally, its only for you. Thanks for coming in my life and helping me discover me again. It has not been long enough that we got to know each other but with each day I learn something good out of you. I know that I would be better person at the end of my journey.

Keep Calm and live happily ever after...:)

When you thought you'd be baking pie & living behind your very own white picket fence, you'll find yourself doing something so entirely different, you couldn't have even imagined it a year before. There will be moments when you'll look around and not even recognize your own life...in a good way.

The other day I was leaving my usual post at CCD where I frequently write from when I spotted three young girls, probably 15 or 16, tops. They were dressed in typical college girl fare, cutoff shorts, sandals, t-shirts…and they were huddled together intently. It was obvious that whatever they were discussing was very important to them. As I passed by them, I overheard a little snippet of their conversation. One girl was obviously the ring leader and was talking emphatically to the other two, waving her arms in emphasis as if trying to get her point across.

“Let’s be realistic here, girls. It’s obvious that we’ll all be married with at least three kids by age 25.”

Her two friends nodded enthusiastically, agreeing with their leader’s dramatic proclamation. And I…well, I giggled.

Out loud.

I couldn’t help myself. If I closed my eyes just a little and gazed at the trio through the lens of time, I could see myself 5 or 6 years ago, making that same prediction to my girlfriends. It was literally like I had hopped into Doc Brown’s DeLorean and traveled back to the year 2005, when I was young and clueless and lacking in life experience and just knew that all roads led to love and marriage and me with the baby carriage.

The three girls looked at me sharply when they heard my accidental giggle. How dare I burst their bubble by presenting them with a new path, a different picture, a living example of THEMSELVES, a decade later, in a completely different place than where they thought they might be? I smiled apologetically at them so they would know I meant no harm. And I really didn’t. I just wanted them to know that if their prediction didn’t come true…they would survive. And even thrive. Maybe even more so than if it DID.

“Girls, I just want to let you know that I thought the same thing when I was your age,” I said kindly. “And I’m 23 and I’ve never been married.” I paused for a moment as they let this information sink in. “I just wanted you to know that if you’re not married with three kids by age 25…you’ll be okay.”

They all looked a little confused, like they didn’t really know how to take my deviation from their life plan. Then they smiled and nodded and I went about my day. Who knows if what I said sunk in, or if they just viewed me as the poor desperate exception to the rule…the girl who somehow fell through the cracks of marriage and now wanted to rain on everyone else’s “Happily Ever After” parade. That wasn’t my intent or my heart at all. Actually, quite the opposite. I honestly viewed the girls as younger, more naïve and innocent versions of myself…and it made me long to hug my fragile 16 year old self and tell her that her life wasn’t going to turn out the way the majority of her high school friend’s lives did…but that she still has a beautiful, magical, wonderfully messy and miraculous journey ahead of her.

And that’s true for all of us.

We paint an idea of what our lives are going to look like and are “supposed” to look like in our minds, and the reality very rarely matches up with the fantasy. You lose the job. You lose the love. You get sidetracked. You get discouraged. You get blindsided by bad news. You get beat up by life. You lose your way and you lose your career and you lose your faith. And you wonder if you’ll ever get your Happy Ending or if you’re destined to wander this planet alone.

But what you can’t see at the time is this.

You lose the job because it wasn’t your destination, but merely a stop along the way. God KNOWS that you were never meant for a cubicle even though you don’t yet realize it. You lose the love because to cling to it would hold you back from everything else you’re meant to experience. Your arms are now free to grab onto LIFE. You get “sidetracked” because God knows the only way to get you off the stubborn path you’re on is to allow you to run smack dab into a detour. You get discouraged because you’re human, and fallible, and sometimes you need the “down” moments to rest, regroup, and prepare for the “up” moments. You get blindsided by bad news and beat up by life because this IS life and bad things happen…but the beautiful flip side of your present struggle is that it prepares you for your future success. You lose everything you think is so vital to your very existence because God longs for you to not just see, but to truly GRASP, that all you really need in this life is HIM. You wander the planet alone for a longer time than you would have liked because you have a destiny that’s so special, and so important, and so far beyond anything you could have ever imagined for yourself, a relationship before its time would only distract you from fulfilling it.

And somewhere along the way, amidst all the loss and tears and triumph and tragedy and joy and pain and laughter and transformation and restoration and lessons and love and LIFE…you realize that the true meaning of it all isn’t to settle for merely a Happy Ending…but to hold out for a Happy Everything.

Perfectly imperfect

To achieve perfection is not to be rigid and obsessive, but to let go and be yourself...

Cut to Black Swan, a movie I truy adore. Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a ballerina competing for the lead role in Swan Lake, is found unsuitable for the dark role. She is too “frigid” and “perfect” in her performance. The director, Thomas Leroy advises her to stop being a perfectionist and to lose herself in her role, preferring passion over flawless technique. “Perfection is not just about control,” he says. “It is also about letting go…”

We tend to look at perfection as achieving a ten on ten, doing something so well that it couldn’t be bettered! Such perfection spells the end of endeavour, of dreams, of aspiration. If in your mind you are perfect, the rest of life can at best be spent in maintaining and nurturing this perfection — that flawless skin, the perfect figure, the perfect score, that inimitable performance, a perfect musical rhythm or that perfect moment in time. Anything less would be disappointing.

Why does perfection need to be a punishing routine, leading to obsessive, rigid behaviour? Why should it rely heavily on judgement, and exclude normal life? Obviously, it isn’t meant to be a human trait. Human beings are designed to have flaws; perfection is meant for the Gods.

The quest for perfection actually is a search for certainty, for a sense of control. Anything that stays within specified limits is under our control. The moment shapes shift and take on a life of their own, we lose control and hence, power. We force ourselves to conform to set practices and standards to the extent we forget our true selves in the quest to be “perfect.” Here then is a new look at perfection. Let’s call it the perfectly imperfect! Perfectly normal. A letting go of rigidity, of fastidiousness, the obsession of being the best. To achieve perfection is not to be obsessive and punishing; it is a letting go and allowing natural flaws to be as they are. It is perfectly fine to be perfectly average! Imperfection is fluid, perfection is cast in stone. Progress requires imperfection.

Cultures around the world have embraced the concept of the perfect imperfect, often introducing deliberate flaws in works of art, either for religious or aesthetic reasons. The world famous Amish quilt makers deliberately leave an imperfection in their quilts because God alone can be perfect. Turkish shipbuilders and carpet weavers reportedly do the same to remind themselves that perfection is the sole prerogative of Allah. One of the central principles of Islamic art is not to compete with God for perfection.

Great sculptors in India always deliberately left a flaw in the statues they carved — controlled imperfection. If a sculptor was making a Nataraja, for example, and it was too near perfection, he would introduce a flaw, mostly breaking a toe or introducing a mark that spoilt the perfection a bit. This was true of all arts.(All this research was done by me while reading a whole lot of books.)

In one sense, it is believed that all that the Mother Goddess creates is perfect, but pure perfection can only be She herself.

Every Persian carpet included a God’s knot to indicate the weaver wasn’t even attempting perfection. Navajo rug weavers believe that the slight imperfection allows a route to creativity.

The Japanese principle of wabisabi is well known — beauty that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. Asymmetry and irregularity are deliberately introduced by the Japanese as a necessary ingredient of art. Zen potters deliberately leave glaze drips on pots as “controlled” imperfections to reinforce that “perfect is boring.”

Nina in Swan Lake, when in complete touch with her dark side and no longer the rigid innocent, gives a sterling performance, after which she says, “I felt it. Perfect. It was perfect.”

I know I have left everyone pondering over whats going on at Parul's end , why such a note?? Actually I experienced it today when one of my friend said to me Parul you are "PERFECTLY AVERAGE"!!! To be average is anathema, but to be perfect at anything is considered wonderful — even if it is perfection at being average! And I truly love my friend for that..

rickshaw walah....

Rickshaw wallah.....

When was the last time you thought you thought you were bound in the conundrums of life...too busy to even realise the small,intricate and seemingly insignificant parts of life....

I have 414 friends on Facebook (5 friend requests pending)

Now assuming most of them scrap or poke through their workspaces and homes...We have 312 such places....

So sitting at one place, I was actually connected to 312 places...Feels like God!!

I was omnipresent...Ubiquitous!!

Now Picture this...

For a change...I left my overheated lappy....and decided to go out...

Outside my apartments....I saw a familiar figure....

To be honest...all such figures seemed familiar in my "FACE"-"Booked" Life...

There Stood with a three wheeled contraption as company...A Rickshaw wallah...

He had a smile on his eyes ....

And a glint on his speckless teeth...

"Bahut samay baad dikh rahey ho bitiyaa!! Kya haal hai?6 mahine (months)ho gaye!! "

"Haan main abb Idhar nahin rehti....A 6 chaloge?", i said , with a tinge of annoyance...

He saw me with a look..which was difficult to disparate---it was a look of contemplation - neither denial nor approval!!

I sat and so began the brief pedalling of wheels...

Its funny....The spokes of the wheels always move forward....and yet I looked back behind...rewinding my life in the past 22 years...The triumphs and tribulations all appeared ...

"Aapka bhai kaisa hai?"

I was taken aback....The figure that seemed so familiar to me and yet was no less than alien....remembered me so well....This even after in the past 6 months...he must have surely came across much more than 414 friends...

I guess he isnt on Facebook....But then does he need to??//

Leave the answers upto you....