This week has been especially bitter-sweet. A few friends at work are leaving for better opportunities while a few friends at other places have been asked to leave because of the bleak markets. This has got me wondering about an entire new facet to dsplacement.

What we do, defines us. Makes us who we are. Without a job, a title - I am a nobody. Personality-less, color-less. As dear the idea of home and moving around is - in some respects, the idea of a job is far more grounding. Job, work, dream - they are different words but symbolic for what they represent. We leave home, undergo one form of dsplacement, for a better job, to follow our dreams or just to get work. No?

Trading one for another.

I’ve been amazed at some of the stories that have been coming in on Dsplaced. I’m so glad that this project has touched a chord with most of us who have been through this Dsplacement. I want to reach out and say - keep them coming. Don’t hesitate. Write in. Whether you’ve lost homes, jobs or significant others - let Dsplaced become your home for your story. We are eagerly waiting for the next story.

As for Mansi, she’s spirited and smart. I’m confident she’ll find her new home soon - but in the meantime, if you have a lead for her or know anyone’s who looking for a kickass account planner - she’s your girl.

There is something about digital narratives. I spend countless hours on facebook everyday and marvel at the dazzling digiscape of human emotions, dreams and aspirations that paints and re-paints itself in form of text, visuals and videos within the Facebook confines each day. If the emotions expressed on facebook were visualized, it would quite beautifully capture a facet of humanity. Also, projects like a A thousand journals, PostSecret and We Feel Fine have inspired me tremendously to imagine further and think about how to capture and create a mosaic of human emotions online. And so, what better emotion to explore than Dsplacement?

Dsplacement is a word I associate with people who out of choice or force keep their concept of home fluid. I have been in love with the idea of exploring our relationships with cities, countries and the very idea of home. Personally for me, all three have changed several times and I expect them to continue changing for the next several years. I feel like, all this dsplacement has defined my sense of self and my identity. But I am curious to know how, if at all, it has impacted other people. And so, dsplaced.com

It is in a way an experiment in storytelling. The brevity and the levity of messages on Twitter and stories in 6-words amaze me and I wanted to bring  in a similar element to dsplaced.com. Because sometimes, less is more. Especially in this case.

So I teamed up with Mansi, a kindred soul like me, who I have never met in person yet and together, we launched Dsplaced. Thankfully for me, she shared the same frustrations and curiosities of being a digitally connected yet dsplaced.

I urge you to spread the word, to visit the site and submit your own story. I don’ t know how it will shape or how long it will stay alive on the web - but its almost meditative and healing to do this. To catalog these digital snippets of people’s minds that ultimately, in different words, tell teh same story.

I’d love to meet and make some new friends while I’m there and if you of you fancy a coffee or a drink with me, I’d be much obliged

Also, as I mentioned -I haven’t been home in a long time, so I have to re-introduce myself to this city and get to know it again. So any recommendations on things to do, places to visit, people to meet and places to eat at will be very much appreciated.

This year was a double whammy - I’ll be spending Thanksgiving in Mexico with my closest girl friends and then Christmas in India with family, old friends and new friends.

Thankfully, I know what I want to do with my life, but what hampers me is that there are too many things I want to do and achieve in this one lifetime. And I am often confused about where to begin, whether to begin…

For those who have begun - hats off to you. You are my hero.

2008 is my momentous year!

Look what I received in the mail!! My voter registration card and my passport.

Applying for a a passport was such an easy process. All I had to do was take my Citizenship Certificate and my Drivers License to the nearest post-office that processed passports. I got my passport photos taken at the postoffice itself for an extra $15. The nice clerk, put all the paperwork and checks together, asked me to sign in two places and that was it! She said it would take up to 6 weeks for my passport to arrive and lo behold - it was in my mailbox as a sweet surprise from the United States Government in less than 2 weeks!!

I will embark on my first trip outside USA with my American passport this Thanksgiving and boy, I can hardly wait.

Now to get the Indian visas….

The current economic climate is a definite damper on the mood of the country. When I talk to people, friends, colleagues .. I wait to hear them say, it’s all going to get better. But they shake their heads in dismay and shurg. And then I wonder - are they, like me, waiting for others to say and give hope that things will turn?

I’m young and resilient and don’t have kids, a house or any loans. I kept wondering - how is this economy affecting me? My job is fine - we are all still busy at work.  I don’t cook much and I eat outside most of the time so an extra buck here and there doesn’t impact me much. My teeny stock portfolio is down 30% but I only started investing last year so I have to act like that money doesn’t exist and just wait for it to go up, which it will eventually.

So in short, I am fine. But people around me, perhaps not so much. Especially some family members who were ready to retire only to realize their retirement has dwindled overnight without them having tocuhed it. Thats sad. My father’s investments have plunged as well but he assures me that he is only 52 years old and hence fit as a horse and ready for the markets to move up when they do. Thank god for that old soul is ever the optimistic man.

My roommate, who happens to be a trader on the almost non-existant Wall Street, tells me that we haven’t hit rock bottom yet. That we are holding off in the hopes of this election. That perhaps, that might put the faith back in the market.

I read the WSJ, watch the news and make intelligent conversations with people about the economy. Or atleast try to. But I have no fucking clue what is going on or when things will begin to look up because its not even the economy anymore, its those soddin’ emotions. And who was ever able to predict them?

I have no advice or wise words to give out or solicit. But I’m doing all I can - which is, not losing faith.

In the workforce, I’m used to feeling on top of my game or at the very least in control of situations assigned to me. In my personal life however, my sister and my fiance will attest to me being quite a disaster in the kitchen and the wardrobe. I organize and then re-organize stuff in my wardrobe a million times trying to out-do myself and get better - only to get flustered and end up with a result that does not please me. Sometimes, even giving up half-way. Not a particularly proud moment, but I’ve been trying very hard to address this.

And this really really confuses me. I’m not boasting, but I think I’m good at my job with a ridiculous desire to continue to get better at it. Why is it that then I’m not so good or so confident about the little tasks? I get flummoxed and boom! My self-esteem plummets.

I am certain this is a weakness and I’ve decided to mend it. I tried a little technique today and it seems to be working for me. Upon being assigned a task that is outside my comfort zone, I first write it down. And then I think and list out the steps that need to be done to achieve the given task. Once that is done, I then think through each step and try to imagine the most efficient and productive method to get it done. Wrting helps me. Listing helps me. Once I see the entire task broken down like that, I feel much more confident and in control. Now, I know people who do all this in their head and get on with the job without a worry. But this process is helping me overcome my weakness right now and try to stay more oganized.

The major drawback is that I end up wasting a lot of time. But maybe that’s a part of the process?

I wanted to ask you - any tips/ tools you would recommend to help a rightbrained slight scatter-brain like me overcome this weakness? How do you stay organized? And how would you advise me? What has/ has not worked for you?

This stormy weather outside is inspiring dark thoughts inside my head today…

For those of you unfamiliar with Umbridge, she was the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix. It is unanmious opinion that Umbridge’s era at Hogwarts is ‘characterized by cruelty and abusive punishments against students.’ Stephen King called her the greatest make-believe villain to come along since Hannibal Lecter.

She scared me. Really, she did. By the end of the book, I hated her and was mighty pleased when she suffered the consequences.

And ever since I saw Sarah Palin get up on that podium and accept her nomination, I’ve felt the exact same way I felt about Dolored Umbridge when I was reading the book. These women are completely different: real vs. fictional, Ex Ms pagent vs. ugly toad, etc etc- but the feeling they inspire in me is eerily and disgustingly similar.

I am an American citizen now and I pray, pray that our fate is unlike those of Hogwarts children under Palin. I get a feeling like she will strip us of our dignity by acting like a blubbering fool - I fear that she will make us utterly powerless if she steps into the President’s role. Argh. I respected McCain and thought of him as a smart, stable dude. But his pick of Palin makes me question his judgement.

I am going to vote and by god that one vote will make a difference!!

I am a realist and this citizenship isn’t just presenting me with a passport to the world, but also opening up doors for my significant other who I have seen struggle for the last four years with his H1-B visa situation. Not being able to leave USA for the last 4 years for the fear of not being able to come back, being stuck in an insipid job that sucked the life out of his dreams and just the misery of not being able to believe that ‘anything is possible.’….. I will never know what its like to be in that situation, but boy, am I glad it will change!

It is ridiculous and immature to question my allegiance to either India or USA or ask me what I feel like. I feel ecstatic, stupid. And incredibly proud to have India in my heart and America on my mind (and my passport!)
But just tonight, I will indulge my irrational-self and go to bed with my Indian passport in hand. Tomorrow, it will become a relic, a thing of past, of no intrinsic value but still priceless to me.

Welcome to America, BabEy!

Anyways, Apple was generous enough to let me download all my itunes songs that I had paid for from itunes store. I’m so very thankful! The rest I will steal from my boyfriend’s collection however, its those songs that I cannot remember I had in my library that have now slipped into the abyss that bug me.
I did have some pure gems that were mine alone…

But, I guess like Ingrid beautifully says, all we can do is keep breathing… and the music will come
But really, thank you Apple. I heart you. Even more.

An aside - I watched Hellboy this weekend and Barry Manilow’s ‘Can’t Smile without you’ is stuckk in my head