Karina Pandya

Its been such a unique year-2008. Starting the year off by representing The Banyan, where I worked along with my team members running the Mumbai marathon to creating a newsletter for my organization, called Nambikkai, which got recognition by appearing in the local Chennai newspaper this year has been full of wonderful episodes in my life. I never imagined that something I wrote, would get such recognition! In my own special way i was able to create an impact at the Banyan. This was the year I had first applied for my masters in communication and journalism. I wrote a beautiful essay, got through and the only part to get through was by flying back to Mumbai to appear for the entrance, but I was convinced to stay back...being told I was doing well at my job and i could always apply next year. So, I thought about it, and decided I would do my masters next year. I stayed back and ultimately in the end decided to resign on August 3rd.. I needed a change..a break from my job. explore w...

it was a bright sunny day.... 26th November,2008. The day life changed for Mumbai, a city in the ocean of the country India... It was a normal day at work, and I couln't expect anything to go wrong. I had a doctor's appointment in Andheri, so I rushed from work to go for that in the evening-6PM. I felt-light hearted after meeting my neurologist.. Who knew that within the next few hours life could change so much.. I took a 7.30 train from Andheri and reached Churchgate by 8.30PM. There was something very very very wrong as I exited the station...I remember clearly, that just catching a taxi to go home in Colaba was troublesome, because every taxi driver refused.. It was not untill one taxi driver told me there was gun shooting going on there did I realise the enormity of silence that gripped the city. I travelled in the taxi, quietly- looking down all the lanes I passed, as the taxi driver pulled up on my lane-Strand Cinema Road- one of the lanes right in the center of ev...

We make friends in life...and, we lose some....these people who have come in my life have filled it with so much of happiness. I wish I could re-pay them back for how they've helped me, changed me as an individual. Today I am, all that I am i know because of whatever has happened in my life- the fights, the good times, the bad...the experiences and memories... "Stop being a kid...you're a grown up!".. all that i can say to myself, when i feel so rejected, and low in life. Life waits for no one... you just have to make yourself stronger through each fall.. you can't make someone understand you, you can't force them to believe you... you just have to believe in yourself.. I wait and I wait, hoping one day that I'll get a chance to get it all right in life, but somehow i can't. i can't let go of emotions and sometimes i just bury myself in them... wishing they never happened. I am strong, and its just a phase...it'l pass, it' all get better in...