Roses and thorns

A few weeks back, on an office slack channel, someone posted started a post called rose 🌹 and thorns 🌵 - one good thing and a bad thing that happened in the past month. This felt like a good way to reflect on the past 6 months of my life. Why six months? - because that's how long I've been a mom for! (How time flies!)

September:

🌹 Meeting mini 🩷

🌹 Spending time with my parents

🌹 Seeing my husband become a dad

🌵 Waiting for the birth, anxiety around the whole process

🌵 C-section pain + extreme exhaustion

🌵 Trying to breastfeed/ pump (SO painful!) and constantly worrying about supply

🌵 Mini’s ultrasound appointment and her getting pricked for regular bloodwork 

🌹 Getting to use all the baby stuff I had got ready for months - seeing all the plans come into action. (Dresser organization was spot on - it still is quite organized)

🌹 No office work!

🌹 Taking baby in the stroller that I had spent months researching

🌵 Having to plan feeds every time we step out

🌵 Endless washing of bottles, pump parts

🌵 Having to wake up twice at night to pump/ having to walk into the cold house and wash parts in cold water. Brr!

🌹 Her trying to catch the bottle 

🌹 Her burping face

🌹 Seeing my parents interact with mini

🌹 Not having a huge belly. My belly button not being stretched out

🌹 Walks in the park 

🌹 Getting to watch Les mis with my mom

October:

🌹 Starting monthly birthday celebration. Still one of my favorite things to do! Coming up with a theme for photoshoot + dessert

🌹 Discovered “swerve” sugar free sugar that tastes really good! Excited to make a bunch of desserts that my mom and dad can eat guilt free

🌹 Being able to drive again and go to any store on a weekday (since I am on maternity leave)

🌵 Needing someone to sit in the car with baby anytime we need to step into a store

🌵 Tied to 1 hour outings between meal times

🌹 Being able to nurse a lot more - seeing her feel full is the bestest feeling. 

🌵 Unending cycle of pumping, washing, sanitizing, feeding, changing diapers and doing laundry

🌹 Having a little more energy

🌵 Pulled stitches once trying to reach up. Bled a little. Got super scared and worried about how much I’d be limited in future

🌹 Grandparents excitedly welcoming her every morning into a warm sun drenched living room

🌹 Picking out her outfit and swaddle for the day each morning

🌹 Cute baby yawns

🌹 Outing to Filoli and Ardenwood farms

🌹 Put up lights outside the house for Diwali/ Christmas/ New year

🌵 Feeling helpless when she starts crying while out and worrying about racing back home in time before her next feed

🌵 First diaper blowout in the wild 😜 

🌵 The rush to warm up a bottle when she’s hungry

🌵 Constantly wondering if she got enough milk or not

🌹 Having a tiny human swaddled up sleeping between us

🌹 waking up to see her little face fast asleep

🌹The cutest brightest eyes looking at you

November:

🌹 Fully off formula!

🌹 Mini smiles looking at our faces 🥰

🌹 2 month vaccinations done = cleared to go into stores/ restaurants (ofc when less crowded)!

🌹 Hosted a thanksmas dinner, made lots of good food and hosted a bunch of folks waiting to see baby

🌹 Mom & dad bought us a fancy set of cutlery

🌹 Beautiful table scape that lasted for over a month

🌹 First road trip with baby to Carmel-by-the-sea

🌹 Now a pro at feeding baby whenever, wherever

🌹 Finally feel confident that she is getting fed enough - no more second guessing if she wants more formula, measuring ounces, helplessly trying to figure out why she is crying

🌹 The most satisfying feeling of being able to fully calm a crying baby, seeing her feeling content and happy in my arms after her feed

🌹 Grateful each day for having the most easy going baby ever! (Especially during the road trip to Carmel)

🌹 Seeing my parents enjoy little outings (not much this time due to baby; but even the little ones seem more exciting with little one)

🌵 Husband back at work + busy even after work

🌵 Rocking her to sleep breaks my back each time

🌹 But so worth it seeing her sleep in my arms

🌵 Lots of body aches + feel fragile

🌵 Middle of the night feeds

December:

🌹 Mini starting to perceive her surrounding more. Started to giggle and that was the best feeling ever

🌹 My sister and family visited us! (Had been eagerly waiting for this for months)

🌵 Returned to work

🌹 Mini met her cousins

🌹 Trip to Yosemite with the full fam - this was a trip that felt nostalgic even as it happened. 

🌹 Christmas dinner - The whole family sat at the table in our airbnb and had a proper  (nut roast, mashed potatoes and  dessert)

🌵 Rainstorm at Yosemite that kept me agitated for weeks

🌹 Seeing mini and her cousins in matching pajamas

🌵 Felt sad to say bye to sis and family

🌵 Baby caught a little cold - sad to see her struggle with phlegm

🌵 Impending gloom about having to resume work in full swing

🌵 Feeling sad that my parents visit was nearing to an end

January:

🌵🌵 Parents left. They had been with us since baby was born - the sudden emptiness, the anxiety around us being wholly responsible now for baby was all too much

🌹 Husband started paternity leave

🌹 Slowly adjusting to a new normal - a family of 3 and a little furball

🌵 The amount of work just felt overwhelming. An impossible puzzle to solve. I kept working through feeds, bad posture, body ache, working after hours. Each day done felt like a day conquered.

🌹 Somedays feel like I'm a supermom when I manage work decently and keep a little baby alive and happy

🌵 Tons of house repairs propping up - mold remediation for our master bath, bathroom reno, roof replacement

February:

🌵 One of the hardest months till date in my life

🌵 Just scraping by at work. Newer teammates are doing so much - proactive work, going above and beyond when I'm struggling to just finish tasks assigned to me

🌹 Claude! Lifesaver - I've forgotten now how to code. Worried this has come for our jobs - but at least for now, it is helping me finish tasks

🌵 Big fight with husband as both of us are overworked and at wits end

🌵 Mom guilt over not being able to engage enough with baby, provide proper mental stimulation

🌹 Visiting home improvement stores for the upcoming reno

🌵 No time to research enough and just going with whatever is easy for the reno

🌵 Expenses seem endless

🌵 Constant worry about job security with all the AI advancements + inability to focus at work

🌹 The one glimmer through all of this is little mini - one look at her little face and all my worries seem far away

🌹 Lots of adorable baby giggles - she is a pro at flipping over both ways now (started sometime in Jan)

🌹🌹 She wants me - specifically - this is the best feeling in the world

🌵 House is a terrible mess - plastic sheet walls everywhere to protect from the construction dust, fully cramped sleep situation, tiptoeing everywhere around the house

🌵 Mini now sleeps in a crib (due to us having to sleep on single beds) - so everytime she cries at night need to get out of bed, bring her to feed then put her back (hoping she'll fall back asleep) - some days this takes a huge toll on my sleep

🌵 Still have a lot of body pains

🌹 Getting to play with baby - any amount of time - just fixed my day

🌹 Cuddly stage - no longer the tiny fragile baby who's head needed support. Can carry her upright and she is totally squishable 

Tomorrow is her six month birthday! I'm planning to make a lemon chiffon cake, topped with whipped cream and decorated with rainbow color fruits. Planning to make it a rainbow theme. Absolutely exhausted and have an impossible amount of work left (need to put back stuff in pantry, finish building closet shelves, take a shower, maybe catch up on some work, bake a cake, make frosting ugh - and its already 10pm - TBD what all I can accomplish) 

Until next time,
Bye.
Shaya

Baby’s about to turn 5 months old

​Hi future me,

Thought I’d try something different today - just post about my day today. I’d been putting off getting back to blogging since I had so much to catch up on. But I really want to capture these moments so here goes!

Today is a Saturday - an ordinary one - nothing special going on. I haven’t introduced my little baby on this blog yet (post coming someday); but I’m now a mom! Mini me (I’ll call her mini from now on) is turning 5 months old this coming Monday! How fast time has flown by. I already feel like I’m forgetting how she was as a newborn.

I woke up around 5:30 am to feed her (that’s my usual routine these days!). 1 year back I couldn’t have imagined waking up at 5:30 one day :D and now it’s just part of the routine. She is such a good baby though! Just that one feed through the night is enough. Slept back at around 6. Pmj was to go to play pickle ball at 10. I had planned to tag along and take mini for a walk around the lake in her stroller (usually she naps at that time). However today I woke up at 7:30 for another feed and after that she fell fast asleep only waking up at ~9:45. Decided she would be too cranky if I took her so stayed back. Pmj left saying he’ll be back in ~ 1.5 hrs. 

I took her to her activity mat and video called mom. Today I did not have my headphones in - so mini could hear her nani talk. Having spent so much time with them, she was fascinated hearing their voice. We only use the back camera to avoid her looking at the screen. So she was a little confused but showed recognition. After ~20 min on the mat she started getting cranky and I took her in to feed. Once she was full she was excited and ready for the day. 

I put her in her bassinet and took her to the kitchen while I made some savory French toast for myself. It turned out yum! I put her in her bouncer, showed her some high contrast books we got from the library yesterday as I ate. 

Around then Pmj came back. Her face lit up seeing dad. We spent a little while all together sanitizing library books and deciding where to eat (we originally planned to hike and then eat - during her sleep window but realized that was too ambitious and prioritized eating over exercise :P). 

I took her out to sit on the swing in the backyard as Pmj went to shower and get ready for lunch. Both she and I love sitting on the swing in the evenings/ weekends especially with the weather starting get a little warm. She loved imitating bird sounds and watching kitty roll around and have zoomies in the backyard. 

After another feed she dozed off and we quickly got ready and headed out to this new Punjabi restaurant- bikanerwala. I ordered a big meal which took forever to come. She woke up pretty much as soon as we reached the restaurant. We took turns walking her outside and eating. After a nice sumptuous meal we stopped by Walmart (I bought a round cake tin to make a heart shaped strawberry cake for her 5th month birthday) and came home. Another feed later Pmj took over baby duty. I pulled out a kitty toy (feathers on a long string) hoping to entertain both mini and kitty. It was adorable to see both of them get excited so easily both with the toy and seeing each other. Next I spent some time tidying up the house (which has been such a mess this whole week). Then it was again time for her feed. I scrolled through some social media, kept her entertained on the bed for a while as Pmj had dinner. I had leftovers from lunch for dinner and watched some YouTube. Soon after we gave her a bath which usually gets her sleepy. Fed her, and slowly she drifted off to sleep. It’s the cutest thing to see her slowly go from excited to sleepy to asleep. After she was fully asleep I had a shower and now I’m in bed typing this blog :)

Motherhood has changed me in so many ways - one of them being how tired I am while going to sleep. Earlier I could never imagine not wanting to stay up late on a weekend to watch some tv. Now sleep is so precious that I simply cannot imagine sitting up late to watch something :)

Each day ends with me being super tired but also so so fulfilled. The amount of love I feel for mini each day is something I could never imagine feeling before. 

That’s it! Such a long post about nothing really :)

Until next time,

Bye!

-Shaya 

Catch-up

 Hello,

I’m still here, alive and kicking. Five years older but not a lot has changed. A quick catch up from where I left off last:

- Got married (highlight: the foood! and gold plates (not real gold ofc))

- Moved to California. Our first apartment was in a hilly neighborhood. I moved on Friday night and hadn’t seen much of the landscape. Next morning I was breath taken seeing the green hills around us. The thought of a new life together with my partner in a new city etc was wonderful. I might write a separate post on just that weekend. It was magical!

- Started to love hiking. Our first year of marriage was pretty much just hiking and cooking good food.

- Survived a pandemic 

- Dessert obsession. I made a new dessert pretty much every week during the pandemic.

- Changed jobs.

- Started developing an interest in birding (one more item checked off on the ‘signs you’re an introvert’ checklist)

- Visited Alaska (twice!)

- Dyed my hair - ombre Pink to Orange

- Bought a house. Year 2 of marriage was all about interviews and open houses *facepalm* how quickly responsibilities add on

- Year 3 was my DIY era. Became a painter, carpenter, plumber and artist. Fell through the ceiling once, fortunately didn’t break any bones but learnt some lessons

- Tee passed away. RIP. You’ll forever be in our hearts.

- Saw lions, cheetahs, giraffes and zebras in Africa. Tigers in Kabini and bears in Montana. Montana became my new favorite state in USA. Seeing the green landscape the first morning we drove into Yellowstone, knowing how much wildlife lived there was a core memory.

- Started taking Piano lessons. Waltz in A minor is my personal favorite now.

- Had some other losses which I may (or may not) talk about someday

- Paddle boarded in the turquoise blue waters of Maldives

- Kitty came into our lives.

I’ve been too lazy to post here. But seeing how fun it is for me to read old posts, I want to continue posting whenever I feel like it. 

Bye!

Finding true love 💕 (T -4 months)

Hello future me,
I'm writing here after almost a year, but I have major news today. I'm getting married in 4 months from today! Thought I'd write a little about how it came about - just so that it might be fun to read someday long into the future. Here it goes:
Dec 2017:
I had moved to Austin around the end of Sept 2018. I was thoroughly enjoying being an independent earning member of the society. I had for the first time in my life, my own mode of transport, had the freedom to wake up whenever, cook whatever pleased me and in general take control of my own life. It was at this point that I received a proposal from one of my mom's colleagues' relatives. I was fully closed to the idea of marriage and viewed it as a kind of slavery that people willingly signed up for. I had 4 friends from university who worked with me and lived close by. We used to hangout most of the time together. One member of this group got married in December. He was significantly older than me and I didn't think much of it. However, a lot of my undergrad friends also started getting married and I started to think about how my life might change if I did decide to get married.
Feb 2018:
By Feb I had started seeing more and more people my age getting married and I started to seriously think about what kinds of people I saw myself with, where I wanted my life to go, what I could and could not tolerate in a SO. I agreed to let my parents register my profile with a matrimonial bureau. I got the first set of profiles of prospective grooms. Most were ~5 years older than me and much taller. I felt intimidated by it and couldn't imagine even befriending any of them. Again started having very negative thoughts about marriage. Another friend in my 4 people group got engaged.
Apr 2018:
Wedding related stuff went onto the backburner. Every set of profiles that my parents got I had new reasons to say no. I was closed off to even talking to any of the ones that seemed like good matches. Had long conversations with my sister on how she decided, etc. But I was still confused.
June 2018:
By this time, I had spoken to 3-4 people and had found one guy who seemed to be of a similar nature as me. We had similar interests but very different long term goals. We ignored this difference hoping it would somehow get resolved and continued talking. We met briefly and started to consider seriously on how we could make it work.
Aug 2018:
The offer fell through. We were not able to resolve differences in our long term goals. The guy's parents were not very much in favour of it and we decided to move on. This is the closest I've come to a heartbreak. I took some time completely off the wedding scene. Poured myself into work. It was at this point that the last of my friends in the 4 person group also got into a relationship. We stopped hanging out often as they got busy with their SOs.
Oct 2018:
Still wasn't completely over the June guy. Spoke to a few people, but not very seriously. I had some reason to say why it wouldn't work out.
Dec 2018:
This was when I got introduced to this guy I'll refer to as PMJ from now on. We spoke on and off over text and over the phone. He seemed like someone who was full of life. He seemed open minded and "woke". This was something I kept looking for but hadn't found in most people I spoke with. However, there seemed to be some differences in mine and his personalities. I'm more of a calm natured person when I found him to be more fiery. However, our long term goals seemed to match and I was always left with a pleasant feeling after talking to him. After all the no's I'd been going through for almost a year, I wasn't sure enough to decide whether he was THE one. We kept talking and decided to meet in person.
Feb 2019:
We met in person and spent hours just talking. I didn't realise how time passed and felt very positive about him. He seemed to be self-assured while not being proud. This is a very thin line and I'd been judging everyone very harshly on this criterion. He seemed just perfect with respect to this aspect. A few weeks later, both of us gave our acceptances. My parents had spoken to his parents and they gave a waving green flag as well. It was at this stage that there was talk of a March wedding. The one major change was that I'd have to move half way across the country. This was too big of a change for me and I couldn't take that leap. I deferred talks of a marriage until May/June. He agreed to it and left for a trip to India. I thought it was all done and it was just a matter of him coming back and resuming talks. However, he started to have second doubts about the long term goals that we had decided on and how it would impact him.
Apr 2019:
PMJ returned and we were off for sometime. He needed time to think and I got scared. From imagining myself being married to not talking to that person was a huge transition. I started worrying on what would have happened if I had indeed agreed to a March wedding and he had second guessed his decision later. Went back to being sour and negative about everything related to marriages.
June 2019:
At this point all 3 of my friends were married and I started to feel the need to find a partner. Sometime in May, PMJ had gotten back to me and had given his green signal for the wedding. This time it was my turn to take forever to decide what I wanted to do with my life. My parents visited me and I was busy entertaining them, taking trips etc. Every other conversation revolved around getting married, finding the right person etc. I somehow started to feel PMJ was the right one considering all factors. Fate also seemed to be pushing me towards him. However, I was too occupied with family gathering and did not want to decide it then. I never thought I'd be deciding when I did. Just a week before my parents were to leave back to India, I went to my sister's place for a week. During the bus journey,dove deep into my thoughts and was able to see things clearly. It was at that minute somehow I had absolute clarity on what I wanted in life.  Nothing else made more sense at that point and I wasn't scared any longer. He had said yes, I had really liked his parents, he seemed to be exposed to 2019 type of free thinking and was ok with it. He seemed mature enough to be able to take well thought of decisions; someone whose opinions I felt were well thought through and at the same time someone who was fun loving and interested in experiencing new things in life. That weekend I let my parents and family know of my decision and I told PMJ of the same. I was a little anxious if he had moved on. But it was in both our fates to end up together. He agreed! We had a conversation after a loong time. And that was it!

Off late its been more of wedding prep and getting to know each other's lifestyle habits etc.
This post has been suuper long. I'll be checking in from time to time with details on wedding prep and other interesting stuff. But for now, this is where I end this post.

Hoping my future self reading this is happy and still with PMJ! ;)

Until next time,
Shaya :D

New Year Resolutions

Hello Everyone,
Happy New Year 2018! I'm sure no one reads this any longer. So hi future me :D
2018 is here! Started this blog 3 years back. Wow! So much has changed since then. I was writing my undergrad exams when I started this blog. Since then, I've completed 2 degrees, gotten a job, moved to a new country and started living by myself in a new city.
I don't usually think a lot about new year resolutions; but I do like to make a list. So here goes -
1. Do yoga for 40 minutes everyday (started today! )
2. Make at least 3 new friends at work
3. Cook twice a week
4. Become more self assured - work on being more confident
5. Plan a surprise vacation for my parents
6. Think about marriage - probably in 2019 - so, talk to people, think about deal breakers etc
7. Get a good work scheduled figured out - now I work through the evening till late in the night while watching random youtube videos - end up sitting in front of the comp the whole day. Hopefully will split up work and free time later in the year.
8. Keep in touch with friends. Till now I would meet friends everyday in college - but now unless I make a conscious effort, I won't have any friends left. (Already feel it) Hope to do a better job planning activities, meeting friends and making new ones too!

These are all the things I can think of right now.
Bye!
- Shaya :D

Lost in the city

Hi All,
This is an actual dream (nightmare) that I had. It was so much like a movie, I thought I should write it somewhere. Here it goes:
I had got a job in Mumbai (a city I've never been to before). I arrive at a hotel where I was being put up before I start my job. The hotel doesn't look very impressive. I meet someone from the company at the hotel. I ask him about my role, what I'd be working on etc. and all he says is that the work is top secret and I'd get to know more once I started work. Then I get some cryptic text which looked like some task that I was being assigned. (I had to wake someone up staying at the same hotel). I'm very unsure about the task as it makes no sense. I go to the room mentioned in the message; the door is half open but I don't open it as I'm not sure about the task and if I understood the message correctly.
A little while later I meet a group of people all about my age who were also joining the same company as me. They all seem to know each other but I don't know any of them. They don't seem very clever (like people who might be hired for a top secret mission). I start having doubts about the company. They decide to go out for a movie and I say that I'd like to join them. We all go down to the lobby and then I remember that I'd forgotten my purse in my room. I don't ask them to wait as I feel that I don't know any of them well enough. I run upstairs hoping to come back before they proceed a long way. While running up I realise that I have just 100 rupees and a little spare change. A movie would cost about 100 rupees. Would it be worth spending all of my money on a movie? My card wouldn't work. Anyway, I decide to risk it and go for the movie hoping that sticking to this group might help me figure out something about this crazy situation.
By the time I come out, I don't see anyone from the group. I decide to get to the central bus station (hoping that they might have headed there). Another girl who was standing nearby comes and asks me if I needed help. I ask her the directions and she says that she was headed the same way. I start walking with her and she starts asking a lot of questions about where I studied, what I studied etc. I start getting suspicious about her and start asking her questions about her past. She gives me vague answers. I notice two huge thugs walking behind us. I panic a little and decide that I should return to the hotel, gather my belongings and quietly get away from that place. I walk with the girl back to the hotel but as soon as we reach I realise that I was being chased and I try to merge into the crowd. I loose my purse (with my phone and the little money I had). In a panic I somehow make my way to a bus stop. I see a friend (more of an acquaintance) on a bus. I jump onto the bus. I explain to her that I had lost all my belongings, my phone, money and was being chased by people who wanted to kill me. in my mind I'd figured out that they had hired me to steal my identity. The company would take my identity, use it to get a job for someone else (someone from the group I had met before) and then remove all traces of my existence (maybe kill me I thought)! My friend agrees to help. But she doesn't seem to understand the gravity of the situation. She was on the bus trying to run away from home for a day to skip a test that she had to take the next day.
I was in that state of panic when I woke up. Was I glad to see my own room and my phone just next to me! Phew!
That was the story of my nightmare. I think I've been watching a lot of movies lately. Also, maybe it is the uncertainty about what the future holds. In all, it made for an interesting story to tell (knowing it was just a dream! Otherwise it would have been truly scary!)
Bye! :D
- Shaya

Aftermath of watching The Journey to AT2UI

Hi All,
I finally watched Superwoman's A Trip to Unicorn Island and it was AMAZINGGG!!!! Lilly is SUCH an amazingly awesome person! I am not the kind of person that gets involved in a movie. I tend to overanalyze each scene, think about what could be going on in the actor's mind, think of what the director might have thought they were trying to convey in the scene etc. But I was completely involved in this. Yes, this isn't a story based movie, it is a real life documentary and this is possibly the reason why I was so involved in it; but still, Lilly's personality is what makes the movie so awesome.
Through the movie she goes through a LOT of harships - she says multiple times that she feels lonely and stressed that she has to bear the whole show/trip's responsibility all on her own; but seeing how people react to her makes it all worth it. This is something that I felt was completely true. It makes me want to do something with so much passion that I'm willing to take on any obstacles that may come in my way. It is so important to have a dream a goal in life.
I've thought about this many times in the past. What is my goal in  life? What is that burning desire that I want to fulfil before I die? I've always loved coding and so I thought I'd make a career in it by doing a degree in Computer Science and aiming to work in the field. I thought my aim or goal was to work as a coder. But this isn't a strong enough goal. Every time I need to study or finish a project, I don't get inspired or motivated to finish it by thinking about my future job at a Tech company. Is it that I have a lame goal?
While watching the movie I realized that making Youtube videos wasn't Lilly's goal. Making people happy was. YouTube was a mere channel for her to achieve that goal. Similarly, what makes me happy is seeing the end result of a project that I'm working on. Building on an idea that I have in my mind and bringing it into a form that others can see and use. Maybe that's what drives people to start their own startups. All success stories involve people having a strong goal in mind and plowing their way to achieve it. Of course, to achieve something great you need to take a risk; sometimes it pays off and other times it doesn't. But, is there no other way to find that kind of happiness? Can you work in a regular 9-5 job and still get that kind of fulfilment in life? I'm not talking about having a hobby that you pursue after work that could bring you pleasure that your work lacks. What I am saying is, can a regular 9-5 job be satisfying? If you are working towards something - a specific well defined target, it is easier to motivate yourself to do that. For example, right now, I need to be studying for a stats exam I have next week, I need to work an a project due in 3 days and apply for jobs.
If I study well and and a good grade on my stats exam, me and my family will be happy - this is my motivation. Is this strong enough to motivate me to actually do it? Sadly not; I've written so many exams in my life unitil now, I've kind of gotten used to the end result.
If I apply for new jobs - I may get an interview call which may (hopefully) result in me getting a job. Is this good enoguh? (It should be considering the fact that I need this job for a lot of very important (top secret) reasons) But, at the end of it, it won't be a job that I'll look forward to every morning.
This brings me back to my initial point. How do I get a job that I will look forward to every morning? Maybe there is a job like that! That could be my goal. To get a job that I will be excited to do each morning. Hm. Rambling on my blog helped me find my goal! Who knew!?
Although I've been having a lot of trouble finding myself A job, from today, I vow to find a job that will make me happy each day. This is a strong enough goal! I already feel energized and motivated! I need to study well, get good grades, apply for a LOT of jobs. It may not be the first job, or second, but finally I want to end up in a job I love and I will work towards it EVERY minute from now. Wow! This was a completely spontaneous post. I haven't posted here in a very long time and I don't think anyone reads thisblog any longer. But if you did, and you reached all the way here, Hey there! I've found my goal. Let me know how your goal-finding is going.
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Simple pleasures

Hello everybody,
Its been a long time since I last posted. I thought I'd write a positive happy post on little everyday things that make me (and I'm pretty sure you too) happy! Here goes:

1) Suddenly waking up from a deep sleep only to realize you have more that half an hour before your alarm goes off.

2) Waking up only to realize today is a holiday 

3) A bright sunny day

4) Fresh blossoms

5) Making the perfect cup of  tea/coffee with just the right proportion of everything.

6) When your hair looks good without you needing to spend 15 minutes on it.


7) Writing the last word on an exam. 

8) Hitting 'Submit' after finishing a long assignment.

9) Talking to a loved one.

10) Meeting an old friend.

11) A basket full of freshly washed clothes.

12) Getting into the shower after a long tiring day (especially in winter).

13) Hitting the bed after a productive day.

14) Being greeted by your over enthusiastic pet the minute you reach home after a long day.

15) Getting a seat on a crowded bus.

16) Three consecutive green signals.

17) Listening to an old favorite song.

18) Plans that work out.

19) When you think you're done with the last piece of chocolate cake only to realize that you still have one more piece left.

20) Receiving a complement

21) Hitting Shift+Del or rm -rf on a completed project folder. 

22) Build successful. 

23) When you fix a bug and your project works.

So these were twenty three random happy thoughts. I hope it made you smile. I'm sure there are innumerable such things. Do let me know things that make you happy! Also, if you are a fellow blogger, it would be cool if you do this as a tag post too!
Until next time,
Bye!:D

Life as an Adult (Part 2)

Hello everybody,
I posted the part 1 of this post a while back and had said that I'd be revisiting this topic. Here is what I've learnt about 'adulting' this year.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about growing up and becoming an adult is- Responsibilities. I never truly understood the meaning of responsibilities until now; I'm sure I still barely understand it. Responsibilities are really hard to keep up with and fulfill. There are so many responsibilities and you can't skip any of them. You need to play multiple roles; take care of your money, food, grades, health, relationships, taxes etc. Missing out on any one of these could land you in big trouble. Sometimes you may need to pay attention to all of your responsibilities at the same time. It isn't like school where they distribute work throughout the semester. Although during exams, it feels like you have too much work, it is manageable. But when you are an adult, sometimes, it is impossible to do everything that is to be done; you just have to give up on some things and face the consequences. It is like an unfair game where there is no way to win sometimes. You just take the penalty and continue doing your best. The worst part is there is no fixed duration. If you have a stressful period, but you see an  end to it, you can motivate yourself enough to push through it. But it isn't always that simple. Just after you finish one set of things, you'll have a whole bunch of other things waiting to be finished. You need to make a conscious effort to take a break and let your mind relax too. If you don't do that and overwork yourself, you will be the one to suffer its consequences later. This is what I've learnt about responsibilities now. You'll always have more responsibilities to handle than you can; you just have to prioritize. It will again be you who has to face the consequences of missing a few of your responsibilities. So you just need to decide what consequences you are willing to face and what you aren't.
The next biggest thing about becoming an adult is getting freedom. Freedom to take your own decisions. It isn't all that big a thing. Being given the freedom to take your own decisions comes with its own price. It implies that you are old enough to be trusted not to take foolish decisions. As a kid or a teen, doing what you wanted to do was freedom. Your parents did all the thinking part. You never had to think about the consequences of what you 'wanted' to do. The general idea we have as kids is that parents set constraints on us and when we become adults, those constraints will no longer be there. So we can do what we 'wanted'. Now I feel that this is a big misconception. We had it easier as kids. We could be assured that whatever our parents let us do could not harm us in anyway. Now it is up to us to set those limits. It doesn't mean you don't have constraints. It is only that you willingly set constraints for  yourself. This is actually harder because you need to decide what is good for you and what isn't. This takes a lot of trial and error and you could end up hurting yourself in the process. As a kid, if you really wanted something desperately, you could fight, argue with your parents. If it wasn't a ridiculous demand, there is a very good chance that your parents would've found a way to let you have it. As an adult, if you really want something, but can't make it happen, you just accept it and move on. Situations act as constraints; you won't have a person to direct your frustration towards. Also, as a kid if you weren't allowed to do something you really wanted to, and if you cooperated, you'd usually be rewarded for it. Now, it is just the expected behavior. You won't have anyone give you a pat on your back or feel sorry for you.
A 3 year old would jump on furniture without hesitation. A ten year old would be much more restrained. Not because the 10 year old thinks that jumping on the sofa isn't fun. It is only because the ten year old probably fell a few times doing it and knows the risks involved. It is just the same growing up. You do get freedom; freedom to set constraints for yourself.
Adult life is pretty tough and boring. I'm sure I'll get better at it as I gain experience and I'll start to find ways to have fun along the way. But for now, this is all that I have to say on this topic.
Do let me know your views and opinions on this topic in the disqus section. I'd love to know what you think!
Until next time,
Bye! :D

The universe, end of life on Earth and other things that are beyond my comprehension!

Hello everybody,
I hope you're having/had a nice day. My topic of discussion today is so vast, I could not even find a suitable title for it. Prof. Stephen Hawking recently made the following statement about the future of life on earth:

Although the chance of a disaster to planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, and becomes a near certainty in the next thousand or ten thousand years.

What!? We can be "nearly certain" that there will be no life on earth in ten thousand years? We have recorded history about what happened 10,000 years before today. 10,000 years in the future, there is a possibility that there may exist no one to read about even the greatest achievement of mankind that we've witnessed in our lifetimes. What is the meaning of all our achievements? People strive all their lives to accomplish something that they'll be remembered for even after they die. There is an expiry date for that too! 10,000 years. Coming to think of it, we have no idea about the genius who invented fire, the wheel etc. it really does not matter whether you accomplish something or not. You maybe the most influential person in the world today. 10,000 years from now, you and everyone who thought you were influential and everyone who knew them will be dead. Some people say, we leave our work behind after we die. True to some extent. We still use fire, the wheel etc. but 10,000 years from now, no one will even use our inventions! Doesn't life seem pointless if we think about  10,000 year goals?

My next question is - Is life really that rare? There are 9 (or 8) planets and at least 168 "full size" moons in our solar system. There are about 300 billion stars in our very own galaxy. A best estimate of number of galaxies in our observable universe is 100 billion! Each of these 100 billion galaxies have at least a hundred billion stars and each of these stars have planets, moons etc. And all this is just the observable part of the universe. We have no idea what exists beyond! They are so far away, light from regions beyond hasn't reached earth yet! What is the probability that no other forms of life exists anywhere else in this massive universe? There could be life forms that live in space, on stars, on moons! And there is the question about quasars and blackholes that lie within this observable universe but are on the boundaries of human comprehension! Prof. Stephen Hawking recently also mentioned that black holes are not "eternal prisons" that we thought they were; things can get out of them maybe to another dimension! Another dimension!? These are things that science fiction is made of! We have so little knowledge about this dimension, there could exist other dimensions!? Mind boggling! We think humans are a successful race, we've achieved so much etc. It is impossible for a single person to know everything that every other human knows and yet, the entire human race collectively knows so little about the universe. We know so little about what we don't know about the universe. Hence we call it the "observable universe" Because there exist things that we don't know that we don't know about! (I know, I'm starting to get confused myself! but that last sentence does make sense)  

There is so much variety in lifeforms on earth. From the single celled amoebae and paramecium to humans to blue whales, there exist so many differences. And we all have essentially the same environment. The same amount of heat (distance from the sun (the same sun)), the same atmosphere, chemical composition etc. Imagine what kinds of life forms could exist elsewhere in the universe! Unimaginable. What is even the definition of "intelligence"? We humans have reached some sort of an agreement about its definition. But even here on earth, the word intelligence makes sense only to humans. Other creatures may or may not consider us to be intelligent. We think we are hundreds of times cleverer than our pets, but if they thought so, they would probably have had all sorts of complexes! Now imagine what other lifeforms from other parts of the universe could think about intelligence? Is there even a thing such as intelligence? 

I need to stop here. My brain is starting to hurt. Now I need  to resume with my normal life and convince myself that it is very important for me to go to a class and listen to another human talk about yet another human's work. How interesting! 

Until next time,

Bye! :D

My 2015 in Words

Hello everybody,
This is my last post in 2015. This year has been full of changes for me. That's why I decided to put down words that defined my year. I made a word cloud out of it and here it is!

I wish you a wonderful and prosperous new year 2016! I hope we all achieve our dreams and become better people this coming year!
See ya soon! :D

1 year Blogiversary!

Hello everybody!
I can't believe that it has been 1 year since I started this blog! I can clearly remember the night I started this. I had my exams going on and we had guests over that night. In the middle of my finals I had started a blog! I was so excited that day. I still get super excited when I see a new comment or a view from some remote country that I know very little about. If you've been following my blog, thanks a lot!! You're awesome! If this is the first time you came here, hi there!, I hope this won't be your last visit here! I hope to continue posting interesting stuff here.

Until next time,
Bye! :D

Christmas collab with Adorkable Darling

Hello everybody!
I hope you are having an awesome Christmas and are enjoying your holidays. This is the first collab post on my blog and Adorkable Darling from 'the wonderful (yet ordinary) life of me!' helped me with this. If you haven't checked he blog out, do so! Its wonderful! For this collab, I asked her a bunch of Christmas related questions. Here are her answers:


1) What to you is the best part about Christmas?
The best part is being with my whole family on Christmas eve. Everyone exchanges gifts , and I make music with my brother. We play a gift exchange game and let me say it can get pretty crazy. I'm from a Mexican-american family , so of course there is a lot of FOOD (another one of the best parts);Pozole , tacos , rice , tamales , and of course something sweet after dinner. It's always a good time.

2) Your favorite Christmas related activity and why you love doing it.
I love singing ( and playing on my piano) Christmas songs. I love making music in general but Christmas music is just so much more joyful.

3) Did you believe in Santa as a kid? If yes, how and when did you realize that he wasn't real?
Yes I did believe in Santa as a kid. I even thought that I had heard him on the roof one year, haha. I found out he wasn't real when I was 13. I was in Choir class and my class mates were talking about how they found out that Santa isn't real. I was a little in denial first but then I saw a video in history class that talked about when the classic image for Santa was created. Of course I didn't really tell my parents that I knew but they probably figured it out as i got older.

4) Your dream Christmas tree.
My dream tree would be decorated with blue and silver ornaments. I would have little white flowers scattered on the tree skirt and topped with a glittery angel. Also little white lights would look great hung on it.

She asked me a bunch of questions and here is what I replied to her. Do check it out!!

Do leave a comment with your answers for these questions! I'd love to read them!

Merry Christmas again!

Until next time,

Bye! :D

Update

Hello everybody,
If you have visited my blog before, you might notice some changes here! If this is the first time you've come here, hello and welcome! :D
Here's a list of changes and updates:
1) 
2) I've organized all my posts into categories - Thoughts, my journey and Fun stuff (you can see those tabs above)
3) I've added a Follow by email option. So you just need to enter your email id and you'll get an email every time I post something new. (Don't worry, it wont be too many emails)
4) I've enabled RSS feeds. So you can subscribe to them
If you're in a mood, click on "Join this site". That's the best way to follow this blog. Also enter your email id in the follow by email section. If you did that,

You're awesome!!
If you didn't, that's fine, I won't hate you. (But do! :P)
I have a whole bunch of interesting posts coming up! So stay tuned!
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Don't be ashamed to cry

Hello everybody,
I hope you're having a great day. It may look like I've chosen a very depressing topic to blog about today; but its not a depressing post! This is something that I've always wanted to write about.
I am a person who cries a lot. For that, I've been made fun of/ insulted innumerable times before. Crying, like laughter is something that is very hard to control. There are two main types of crying: 1) When things are not in one's control, people burst out in anger or cry 2) Out of sadness.
 If someone shouts at someone in anger, they are considered to be "strong" and instead, if someone cries out of frustration or not being able to control a situation, it is considered to be a "weak" reaction. Its not. It is just a different way of expression one's emotions. A lot of crying happens out of frustration rather than out of sadness. Just because you cry, it doesn't mean you fail at life or are incapable of handling a situation. It only means, at that point, you need sometime to think and figure out a way to handle the situation. When people burst out in anger, they don't have much self control on what they're saying and they may end up creating further problems because of something that they said without thinking. But these people don't care much about this. And that's fine too! It is just the kind of people they are. And then there are people who think about what may happen if they shout at someone in that state of mind and choose to remain silent and get their emotions out by crying. It isn't that they are weaker. Bottling up emotions only results in you becoming generally more depressed. If you feel like crying, cry! (If you want to scream, do! As long as you don't hurt someone else too much). Get your emotions out. You need to address the fact that something is bothering you. When you do that you may feel like crying. Do! You can't keep crying forever! Once you are done, you will be in a better frame of mind. You will be able to find a way to get over whatever is making you cry. You will address the issue that is making you feel any less happier than you should be. If you never acknowledge the fact that something is making you sad, you'll never find a way to solve the problem. You'll just learn to live with it. Why live with any kind of sadness when you can find a way to better it? Every problem has a solution! At least, there is a workaround for every problem. The most important part is to first acknowledge that you are unhappy about something. If it makes you feel like crying, don't hesitate to! It is a natural way of expressing feelings. Humans cry, dogs cry, dolphins cry! Its ok. Don't let anyone else tell you when it is ok to or not ok to cry. Don't feel the need to hide your emotions just to look like a strong adult. What people might think about you is not worth bottling up your feelings. And crying does not make you a weaker person!

I have struggled a lot in the past trying to control my tears. Not everyone reacts the same way to situations. I cry sometimes for getting a lower score than expected. I know it is a trivial issue not "worth" crying about. But that's just the way my brain decided to react! I didn't feel like crying at all when I left home (and country) for an indefinitely long period of time!. I am very attached to my family and I felt sad to be leaving them. But I did not feel like crying! The brain is a weird organ and you don't always know how it works. There is no "better" or "right" way to react to a situation, Crying is never a "weak" or "laughable" way to react to a situation. So don't hesitate. Let it go!
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Fame

Hello everybody,
Today I decided to write about my obsession about celebrities. I don't know if its only me or if it is a common thing, whenever I discover a new celebrity, I first like some work of theirs, then stalk them, get obsessed for a week/month, get jealous, compare my life with theirs, try to find an explanation as to why I'm not as successful as they are and feel depressed about life. At this point, I usually find something I think I'm slightly good at as compared to the general public, work at it like someone possessed for a week/month, feel better and stop pursuing the activity.
Currently, I'm at the 'compare my life with theirs' phase. I know what's coming up next and I'm not too happy about it.
Why am I obsessed about being famous? I want to know what it feels like to have thousands of re-tweets and tens of thousands of people favoriting your tweet each time you tweet. Waking up to a thousand new subscribers on YouTube, hundreds of comments saying 'You're the BESTTT', 'I LOVEE YOU' 'Amazing work' etc. But after a point, does it start to feel meaningless? But still, getting such encouragement from thousands of people for the work you do must feel pretty amazing. I too work. The only return I get from it is a salary. I'm sure there isn't a soul who admires the code I write or is jealous of me because I built a super awesome app (I didnt... hypothetically speaking). Celebrities get to do what they love the most, get paid more than well, AND get the adoration of millions! How lucky are they!? I agree, superstars lose all their privacy, need to be careful about every action of theirs, don't exactly get to do what they love, have other people directing every move of theirs' etc. I agree that their lives have quite a bit of problems. But its not the super stars that I'm envious about. Its the moderately popular people that I'm really envious about. They have enough popularity to have a million followers on social media; but at the same time, they can lead normal lives without being surrounded by paparazzi the minute they step out of their house. (I'm referring to YouTubers, new singers, comedians etc here). Do all those comments by millions of "fans" have any significance? Does anyone actually care about someone who does not even know that they exist?
Are they really more lucky than me? Would I really be happier if I was a semi-popular person? Is it possible that I may one day become popular? (Considering the fact that I have no special talent that could qualify me to become popular, this most probably is never going to happen. This is a different kind of popular that I'm talking about. Not the Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs kind; but the Superwoman, Zoella kind.)
This post is such a mixed up random set of thoughts. I'm in a really confused state of mind. Maybe its because of my reduced interaction with friends off late (all thanks to exams :( ). Earlier, I used to have long conversations with my best friend on this topic and that would help me get over the why-is-my-life-so-miserable phase a little faster. Now I need to resort to my blog to do this.
If anyone actually got to this point, CONGRATULATIONS! You really are a patient person. If this post made any sense at all to you, let me know!
I have my finals in less  than a week and I'm rambling about fame. :/
Until next time,
Bye!:D

Too much of anti-racism?

Hello everybody,

I hope you are having a great day! I just came across this video today and wanted to share it here.

I had heard a lot about how in America it is very important to use specific words to describe people of a particular race and how one could get into major trouble if someone used an incorrect term to refer to them. 

I do completely agree that being rude to a person just because he/she belongs to a particular race or is from a particular country is unacceptable. However, being over sensitive about it just shows how insecure one is about one's own origin. People from different countries have a different upbringing. It is fascinating to know about things from other countries/cultures. If there is a constant fear of offending someone, we will never be able to get to know about other cultures. 

Each culture is beautiful in its own way and one must be proud of one's own origin. I remember, when I was in 12th grade, I had a friend who belonged to a different religion than me. I had tons of questions I wanted to ask her. The popular belief about that religion is that people are very strict followers and take offense easily. So, I used to think ten times in my mind before I asked her a question. Slowly as I got to know her better, I realized, she was quite open minded and nothing like what the media portrayed them to be. I'm sure a lot of other friends just avoided conversation with her just to ensure that they never offended her in anyway. 

By being oversensitive, we are just preventing spread of knowledge and increasing the barriers. I know, people will ask a lot of questions based on stereotypes that are shown in the media. But this is the opportunity to show that there is more to your culture! 

These are my personal opinions. Do let me know your opinions on the matter in the comments below!

Until next time,

Bye! :D

Bitten off more than I can chew?

Hello everybody,
It has been so long since I last published a post here. Grad school is super hectic and I've been living from deadline to deadline. Its ok to live on a tight schedule for a short duration... when you see an end in sight; but off late I don't see an end to this! I just finished picking courses for my next semester and I've again chosen really hard courses. One of them was a course I had to finish, that is a heavy course and wanted to finish it off. However, I've also chosen a PhD level elective class. We have a lottery system for choosing classes and I got a really late number. I had very few options and thought this seemed interesting. Now I'm having serious doubts about my decision. This semester, I chose fairly moderate load classes and I've been working really hard keeping up. I have no idea how I'll manage next sem. On top of all of this, next semester, I'll have to seriously start interviewing and applying for internships in Summer 16. So till the end of next sem, I think I'll have this crazy hectic schedule. It feels like the sem has just about started and its already time for finals!
I've had quite a few ideas for posts but have put them away for lack of time. I thought I'd take a few minutes off to post at least this.
A friend has taken three heavy load courses this time and is managing fine! I hope I'll be able to manage next semester without a huge negative impact on my GPA.
Among other things, quite a few of my friends are going back home in December. I know that it doesn't make sense for me to go back now, as my parents would probably be visiting in June 16. However, when I see them all excited I feel really sad. It'll be at least a year before I get to see little Tee. By then, he may have forgotten me! I can't bear to think of that situation. I hope some miracle happens and they find a super easy way to transport pets overseas. (Or that he'll start responding to me over the phone or when we skype)
Will resume studying for my test now :/.

Until next time,
Bye! :D

What if I was born as a boy?

Hello everybody,
I hope you're having/had a great day today! Stephanie Mayer recently announced that she will be releasing a new book titled Life and Death which will be a re-imagined version of twilight but with gender roles swapped. That should be interesting! I also watched a video of a girl putting on make up to look like a boy. She looked funny... but I could imagine her as a guy. This got me thinking... what would I have been like if I was born as a boy?! Crazy! I know, but here are a few things that I think would be different.

Looks
I look a lot like a girl (that sounds really weird); I mean, some females have slightly masculine faces and some feminine, I think my face is slightly feminine. Also, since I rarely wear any makeup or get my eyebrows plucked, it wasn't too hard to imagine how I would look. There are so many hairstyle apps available. Some months back I had tried one of these apps, and it had a few boy hairstyles too. With that on, I thought I could have passed off as a boy!! It was really weird; but funny!
I'm quite short; so if I was a boy (I hopefully would have been slightly taller than I am now), I would most probably be teased/bullied for being too short.

Even Emma Watson (who I think has the most feminine face) looks like a boy sometimes! :P

Source

Personality
This is really hard to imagine. I would like to think that my personality is based on who I am and not based on who I am expected to be; but I'm sure my environment, society etc has played a huge role in creating my personality. Also the fact that I have no brothers makes it harder for me to think what a guy would like and not like had he grown up in the same environment that I did. But trying to think about things that are really me and not qualities that I've developed because of the society, here's what I think I would be like:
I hate conflicts and try to avoid them whenever possible. I love things that can be explained logically and try to find a logical/scientific explanation for everything. I hate any form of sports and have no interest at all in watching any game. However, I do enjoy playing video games and am pretty good at a few. I love technology and hate it when I'm in a conversation where someone else knows more than me about some technology. I am quite modest and rarely show off. I hear guys usually brag about every little achievement. So, I think I would show off my skills/abilities a little more if I was a boy. I don't talk a lot and I think that would be something that wouldn't have changed. I am quite emotional with regard to some issues and people, but I don't always give into my feelings and take irrational decisions.
Overall, I think would be a soft spoken, sensitive, law abiding person with a few good friends. (That line could describe me even now! Maybe girls and guys are not too different after all.. but then again, I don't think such guys exist! :P)

Interests
I am a big fan of Disney; I watch a lot of teenage drama kinda shows. I don't think I would be into those if was a boy. Disney maybe; I have a friend (who is a boy) who loves all things Disney as much as I do! I like teenage drama shows because usually the main character is a girl (whom I can relate to); I can't think of any shows with a guy as the main character;  so I don't know what I'd like TV/movies wise. The most popular genre among guys is action; so, maybe I would like such movies. But, there is noting in those movies that an ordinary person can relate to! I don't know... maybe there is something relatable. The shows that I watch also don't have people like me in it... but I still enjoy watching them, Maybe its a guy thing and maybe I'd have understood it if I were a guy.
As I mentioned above, I love technology, gadgets etc and I think I would be even more interested in them as a guy.
I enjoy writing, but I rarely find guys interested in stuff like this. Yes there are a lot of male authors; but that's different. I don't think I would have had a blog if I was a boy. Maybe I would've just played video games in my free time.

Career path
This one is pretty easy. I'm 99% sure I'd still be pursuing the same career path. Being an 'IT guy' is slightly more common than being an 'IT girl'. So, I think career wise I would be in the very same place that I am in now.

Friends
I don't like talking to strangers, but I make friends easily. Although that sounds contradictory, its not! If I need to ask someone a question, a favour etc, I feel very uncomfortable. However, I don't have a problem introducing myself and befriending someone of my age who goes to my same school/college. So, I have a lot of people I know/ am "friends" with; but I have very few close/true friends. And most of my friends are girls. Even in the larger group of "friends" very few are guys. So swapping the case, I would have a large group of guys that I am friends with, a small group of very close friends and a few girls that I know fairly well.

Ah! Finally, I've reached the end of this very weird post. It was really hard and amusing trying to imagine myself as a guy. I don't think I (the girl me) like this... would be very impressed with me (the guy me). I'm glad I wasn't born as a boy! Anyway, have you ever imagined yourself as a boy/girl? Would you like yourself (your gender swapped self)? Do let me know in the comments!
Until next time,
Bye! :D 

#IAmNotAFruit!?

Hello everybody,
I hope you are having a great day today!
As I scrolled through my Facebook feed today, I came across this video where women were saying 'I am not a fruit'. It was a protest video against generalizing women's body types into categories based on fruits (apple, pear and banana). Here is a link to the video. I strongly believe that any kind of shaming is wrong and everyone is free to wear any kind of clothing that they fancy. That being said, I think it is trivial to protest against anything and everything that is said about the body. Magazines do say what flatters each body type and what doesn't; but that's just the view of one stylist/fashion guru (dunno the exact terminology; I rarely read such stuff). Its upto each individual whether they want to read about it, follow it, let it bother them etc. A lot of people like being told what to wear and what not to. And some others like deciding on their own. When there are people who want advise, and people who are willing to give it, I don't see why anyone else needs to get involved. It is hard for anyone to give advise without any form  of generalization especially when they're addressing such a large audience. For such convenience sake, if they categorize body types, I don't see any harm in it.
Ultimately, you decide what you choose to wear. When no one's calling you a fruit, I don't see why you need to say you're not one!
This is just my personal opinion. I don't intend to put down anyone; I just feel that was something trivial to protest against. Again, this is just my opinion. Do let me know about your opinions. I'm open to counter opinions too and would love to hear the other side too!  
Until next time,
Bye! :D