The Stuff of Life

Hello Universe. I am yours 

(andyouareme)

This is a long ado update to the story that started on my blog and that everyone reading is a part of. :)

So when I last wrote a post, I was on a desperate hunt for good vibes.
and needless to say, many tests and trials later, all the collective energy of people reading this blog worked. yay!

I wrote that last entry when I was still waiting for my visa. I didn't end up getting it, missed the flight I was supposed to take, and decided to go to chennai to explore the only leedle strand of hope there was: To land up at the embassy and jump onto a flight from chennai the same day.

So off I went, with a bag full of sweaters for the english cold, but to chennai at the hottest time of the year with practically nowhere to go! I was taken in by a very sweet friend of a friend who I'd never met  also full of good vibes, and landed up at the embassy at 8am in the morning expecting my life to turn into a bollywood movie. Unfortunately, things didn't work out that way. I didn't get past the gate where I was laughed at by the guards and employees.  Apparently you can't just turn up at the british embassy and demand visas. :D

Back on the home front, a cat was doing her best to pull some strings that also didn't seem to be working out. All looked bleak. And so I sat outside the embassy, with not much to do or go, vaguely hopeful and mostly dismal and called a number that I knew no one picked up for the visa section in the embassy.
5 hours of phonecalls later, with no real progress at all, I let go and decided to just go back home.
I realized I was still happy to be going home to all my comfort and love. I surrendered and had done what I could.
It was around the same time that the number (on auto redial) had gotten through and they said my visa was ready and on it's way to bangalore.

the next hour was a blur. me yelling that I was in chennai and not to send it to bangalore, them saying they'd try and keep in chennai except their office (far away from where I was at that point) was closing in five minutes,jumping into autos, stopping traffic, running to the vfs office, finding it closed with two comical guards outside saying I couldn't go in and telling me to leave. A burst of tears (works every time) and suddenly I found myself getting the guards to open the office for me and being ushered to an airconditioned special office where I was told to wait. (all this not even knowing whether it had been accepted or not) and offered tea, and a man in a suit handing me and envelope. deepbreathe.openfold.stamped.

and three hours later, I was on my way to the airport with my bag full of warm clothes, shaking with excitement, and very very sleep deprived.

hello universe.
i am yours.
this book is to the journey
(and letting it take you where it will)

listening to mindspaces at TED global in Edinburgh

 thanks to Levi's and all the love.

what do you think (so far)?
I think the world is bigger than I thought (and I love it)
hellofate. 
I trust the tests make me stronger.

heartfelt thanks to all these and more. :)

The Stuff of Life.

this is where it all began

and this is where it brought me.

 

the persistence of vision

(not giving up too soon)

fitted with a good pair of levis jeans.

and I found myself in a dream.

with robotic birds and all. :) 

(watch this talk )

here are some quick sketches while the talks went on.

yemen from my eyes  "you are the bridge"

The God Complex - trial and error. let yourself fail.

Robin Ince (a definite favourite that isn't up yet) left with me goosebumps and a hundred scribbled quotes. I breathe atoms. keep the wonder. I'm glad the universe is pointless. 

A talk on Lying 

JR's awesome Inside Out Project

and more and more and more.

a second round of updates coming soon. (I promise) 

I leave you with a photograph taken in edinburgh accidentally. point and shoot.

but quite descriptive of how I felt.

Love and Gratitude.

Shilo Shiv Suleman