Don't ever think that you're alone on this battle.

Something to cheer you up =)

How a Cup of Tea Sparked a National Movement : Brilliant Campaign

Bablu Jatav's wife, Shanti, died on 20 September, soon after giving birth to their first child in Rajasthan state. Mr Jatav, 38, says since there is no-one else to look after the baby, he takes her to work with him every day. Now a local charity has agreed to help Mr Jatav take care of the baby.

"Shanti died soon after delivering the baby at the hospital. Since there is no-one to look after my daughter, I keep her with me even when I pull my rickshaw," Mr Jatav, who lives in the town of Bharatpur, told the BBC. "We had this baby after 15 years of our marriage, my wife was so happy when we were blessed with a daughter, but it is very sad she passed away."
Taking the baby to work has created its own set of problems - on Tuesday, she had to be taken to hospital to be treated for dehydration. Mr Jatav says life is tough and he is struggling to keep afloat.

"I have to pay 500 rupees [$9; £6] a month as house rent and 30 rupees daily to rent the rickshaw," he said. Mr Jatav said he was afraid to re-marry because "my first priority is to care for and bring up my baby girl".

Meanwhile, after a report on Mr Jatav's plight was published on the BBC's Hindi website on Thursday, calls to help the family have been coming in from India and abroad. And on Friday, a Bharatpur-based local non-governmental organisation agreed to help Mr Jatav care for his baby.

Taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/asia/india/

I took up the Online-Coupon gym offer recently.
It was only one fifth of the usual monthly fee.
I have bought many Online-Coupon facials and spas to know well enough how 'hard-sell' the promoters would be in getting me into signing up for memberships.
I'll just need to be thick-skinned, once again =)

It's quite a high-end gym and I can really feel the air of elitism.
Naturally, my self-defeating mind played tricks on me.
**I edited and deleted the examples of the negative thoughts here**

But I suck it in and chant in my head,
"I'm invisible, they can't see me. I'm Invisible. They're not looking at me. I'm INVISIBLE."

It worked.
And I love how it sounds like INVINCIBLE.

Letter to myself

This is a therapeutic idea I got off the Internet.
This is the letter I'm writing to the 10 years younger-self.

Hey you.
Things are going to get real rough.
The pain that you feel now is going to get worse.
Horribly worst.
And you will think you wouldn't survive.
You'd think that suicide would be your ultimatum.

But no.
The fortune teller was right.
Things do get better once you hit 30.
Not fairytale better, but believe me, you'd be grateful.

You'd start doing what other ordinary people are doing.
You'd start enjoying what other ordinary people are enjoying.
You'd begin to believe that you can be better, do better.
And you really will.

The main source of depression was because you cared too much what your family said and thought of you.
You had wrongfully placed your identity with your family, nothing wrong with that,
but girl, you know your family.
You can't put your self-worth based on your relationship with them.
That almost killed you.
Let's not go near that mentality ever again.

10 years later, you will remind me again that not only what my family thinks shouldn't matter,
no one else's does.
Babe,
Find and listen to your own voice.
You will be ok.

Online conversation with E. She's applauding my initiatives to improve my lifestyle.


E = Yeah, your blog entries are more positive now.
Me = I do feel 'better'. My former mentality was just to 'delay death'. But now, I want to taste life.

** I still surprise myself sometimes.
Yesterday, I exposed myself when I gave this blog link to a new friend.
The first UN-depressed, real -life friend who actually wanted to read this.
=)
I hope I don't regret this spontaneous act.

Went to this Tzu Chi neighbourhood event with Mother.
She needed someone to drive her there.
I could sense her desperation and relented.
She promised that we'd leave in an hour's time, after the dinner.

But after we had eaten, I felt it was a bit rude to leave as it would have been too conspicuous.
The exit was too far.
So, we stayed on.

There was a segment of games and this old uncle volunteered to play.
It was charades.
The paper the answer was written on was quite transparent and people at the front could see it.
But this uncle didn't realised it.
He was very into the game and we could see just how much he was enjoying himself.

How his face would lit up when we had the answer.
We, at the front, didn't spoil the fun for him either.
We didn't guessed the answer immediately, instead, we just play along until the 'right' time came for us to just give the answer.

He was very happy when we were announced as the winning group.
No prize whatsoever, but he was very delighted.
I could see that he really made effort to dress up for the occasion, unlike the rest of us who were overly casual.
That night really mattered to him.
And because it mattered, he found joy.
And because I felt people like him mattered, I took this photo.
And because I applaud people who organise events like this, I wrote this post.
Humanity is not lost.

"We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone. " - Ronald Reagan

I've always thought of myself as 'damaged'.
Even used this word as a pseudonym once. 
But now, I see this word differently upon stumbling unto this.

 “Damaged people are dangerous.
 They know they can survive.” 

- Josephine Hart (via deu-sex-machina)

Had a little disagreement with my father this morning.
As I was driving to work, my mind kept replaying my unhappy past with him.
So so so much anger and grief.

I guess because I drive to work everyday, the route was on autopilot for me.
I wasn't paying attention.
I upset another driver just when I was about to turn into the building where I work.
She honked at me.
I turned to look at a very agitated lady mouthing curses at me.
I felt embarrassed because looking at her T-Shirt, she's an employee too.

Just when I clocked in, I saw her walking past me.
Yikes.

I really need to 'let go' , 'forgive'  my past, if not, it may really 'kill' me one day.

After losing his parents, this 3 year old orangutan was so depressed he wouldn't eat and didn't respond to any medical treatments. The veterinarians thought he would surely die from sadness. The zoo keepers found an old sick dog on the grounds in the park at the zoo where the orangutan lived and took the dog to the animal treatment center.
The dog arrived at the same time the orangutan was there being treated.
The 2 lost souls met and have been inseparable ever since. The orangutan found a new reason to live and each always tries his best to be a good companion to his new found friend. They are together 24 hours a day in all their activities.
They live in Northern California where swimming is their favorite past time, although Roscoe (the orangutan) is a little afraid of the water and needs his friend's help to swim.

Sourced from somethingthatdescribesmeandmyarticles.blogspot.sg

Have been delaying this post this for almost 3 weeks.
Professional TV production crew came over to film our corporate commercial.
We were all very excited to see all the good looking people.
=)

Colleague (M), who is also a friend, was feeling rather stressed out and made impromptu plans for a karaoke session among people from the workplace.
I felt rather honoured that I was among the invited.

It was fun.
It feels nice to sing with other non-judgemental and shameless *wink* people in a private room.
For 3 hours, we were in a world of our own - free to goof around , wanna-be's talents, drama queens...etc.
I really enjoyed myself.

That was 3 days ago and I'm still singing some of the songs.
I'm actually 'practising' to be better, preparing myself, should there be another karaoke session.

This is a huge milestone.
Depressed people don't sing.
Believe me, I have not sang a very long time.

Someone cut my queue.
I was quite upset because I couldn't muster enough courage to say, "Excuse me, I was here first."
You know it's not going to be easy reasoning with people who deliberately stand in front of you, just because they can.
Sigh.
"Let it Go" - the mind says...
So, I just waited patiently, admiringly my surrounding.
Taking time to 'quiet' my mind.
While the queue cutter was inside the fitting room, I noticed a familiar face.
It's an old friend.
I was quite apprehensive to call out to her at first, but waiting outside a fitting room gave me plenty of time to consider the consequences.
"Ah.. what could go wrong", I thought.

So, we chatted.
It was good.

If that woman didn't cut my queue, I wouldn't have met my old friend.
Isn't it strange how things happen for a reason?

it was fun...