u/Rachel1702

Posting on behalf of a dear friend. One of their community dogs, Bruce, 9 years old, was kidnapped on August 16, 2026 in the dead of the night and relocated. Their community is going all in to find Bruce, but as of now they have drawn a blank. They have posted in Missing Dogs WhatsApp group, Whitefield Canine group but need more help to share the case details and hopefully, someone has seen Bruce somewhere. They are sure some of the community residents and businesses got this done illegally with payment under the table. They are also using local political influence to not cooperate to help find Bruce.

All details of the case are here - https://www.instagram.com/helpfindbruce?stkn=anpubDd2endncGY5

So this week I realized I am done with big name brands for my physical event needs like banners and swags. We are a small Texas based startup. $20M approx revenue. But we participate in events across US and Europe. So naturally, I need banners and swags often.

I chose big name brands for my banner needs who then collaborated with DHL and UPS for shipping. This has happened twice now - both the cases delivery is either delayed or shipment has been sent back to sender. We don't have offices in all the locations where we participate in events. And sometimes we can't opt for advance warehouse shipping because either the event doesn't have that facility, or the registered vendor has had tax compliance issues with us in the past. So we have to choose our delivery dates to match when our team will arrive at a particular city. I know it's a hail Mary situation but it is what it is.

Twice in one week my deliveries got royally screwed up. And here I am sitting and looking at local Boston printers now who can give me a step and repeat banner in 3 business days. Salt to the wound - an AI bot just talks to me when I try to contact customer care to resolve the issues.

People, stop using AI agents to replace your entire customer service workflow - it is frustrating to talk to a bot that offers no remote resolution and just says,"I am sorry", "I truly apologize". I don't care about sorrys, I want resolution.

On that note, do y'all have recommended local vendors for banner printing across locations like Amsterdam, London, New York, Boston, Chicago? I want to work with businesses where I can talk to a person on the other side. 😭

So I have become what I hated the most. And it's all because I am terrified of losing my job, losing my source of income, the general uncertainty of life, and the brutal job market where there's no stability - where there never was but before AI, things seemed slightly better.

Ever since I joined my present company 2 years ago, something just switched off in me - a love for life, a love for myself, my husband, my furkids.

Now I am too exhausted to feel love. In 2 years, I have not initiated physical intimacy with my husband - he always initiates. 5 out of 10 times, I follow through and the other 5 out of 10 times I change my mind in the middle and leave him hanging. He is the most beautiful man a woman could get - handsome, kind, intelligent, funny. And here I am not being able to love him the way he deserves it.

My furkids are so gorgeous - 2 Indie cats and 2 Indie dogs and I barely spend time with them. My eldest cat died last year and I never got the opportunity to mourn her properly.

All I do is spend 12 hours in office and commuting on WFO days and 12 - 14 hours I just sit on the sofa and work, work, work on WFH days. I don't even know if I get paid enough for what I give.

I used to run 3kms everyday followed by a very nice gym routine of cardio, stretches, weights and I used to feel glorious. Now, I don't do anything about fitness. I used to host parties regularly to spend time with my close friends - that rarely happens now - maybe once or twice a year.

I have skipped lunch almost everyday for 2 years. My anxiety levels are at 9999 and more and hunger just evades me completely. This Thursday, I blacked out after a stressful situation at work and was unresponsive for a few minutes. I feel like I am slowly and gradually killing myself. Suicide ideations are a daily, almost hourly feature. I am on medication and therapy every 2 weeks. I am already diagnosed with BPD, DID, and moderate OCD.

I have also become a high functioning depressed addict and as if I wasn't destroying myself enough - for the past two months I am chain smoking.

I really don't know how to get out of this dark mess. I really don't know why Indian workforce is treated like the garbage can of the world and one person is expected to cater to NA, Europe and India time zones. I really don't know why I am even earning anymore and for what if health is compromised, time is compromised, family is compromised.

I am just completely lost. This year the only time I felt a little alive was that 1 week I was in Bir for vacation in June. Otherwise, I am just dead inside.

Tl;dr - Fucking up my otherwise beautiful life with my husband and furkids because work is consuming the shit out of me.

So, I get paid about 1.3 lakhs per month in hand after taxes, deductions whatever. I get a variable pay of about 1-1.5 lacs extra per year. I have 7.5 years of experience. At this stage, I am managing event marketing, PR programme, and customer advocacy programme, a little bit of influencer and partnership programmes too. I just have an intern to support me, who is probably not going to get converted to an FTE due to a hiring freeze and headcount limitation policies. I have some help till October but after that it will just be me alone as an IC taking care of all of these things.

So what do y'all think - am I underpaid, overpaid, or just right?

My ROI numbers are just about break even at the moment - event marketing, influencer and partnership programmes are trackable from the ROI perspective - PR programme is hard to map to hard ROI metrics. But then again the investment is primarily done for brand marketing purposes - awareness, exposure, credibility, community building - things like that.

P.S. - I got a 35-36% hike on the last appraisal cycle but I was told from next appraisal cycle not to expect any thing more than a single digit hike percentage. I am running for a Senior Manager position - not sure if it will work out, but again was told if the promotion happens - there won't be much of a pay hike as such.

I think I have set myself up for the classic Indian workforce exploitation but correct me if I am wrong and if I should just shut up and be grateful.

I don't know if this is ethical - so looking for perspectives.

My manager, the Director of Marketing, is a micro influencer on LinkedIn. He is also part of several networking groups for Marketing leaders and gets invited to networking events often as participant as well as speaker. These events are all from his personal network and has nothing to do the company's official events calendar.

Throughout last year, he made one of our team members maintain his LinkedIn account. The posts had nothing to do with our company's voice on social media - they were purely personal with very scattered company updates. My work friends from other companies who saw his company updates post often commented that he is a giving a line item breakdown of everything we were doing - including hiring and firing information. Our CEO also commented that he is sharing too much company information. Nobody other than the Marketing team knew that his account was being handled as a job responsibility by a company resource. He then fired her last month.

Today he asked me to help him build his profile for another personal networking event. He is very clever - he keeps all these requests verbal. I have enough clout in office to refuse him politely but I am sure he will get back at me in ways that only a sociopath knows for refusing him.

I have also noticed he has a tendency to push vendors from his personal network for company activities in India. His vendors charge higher than market rate most times and he calls our shortlisted vendors cheap. For context, my department in Marketing alone has an annual budget of $ 1 million and we have a mandate from Finance team to optimize and reduce costs. He does not care about that mandate.

I feel like I am in a very dicey situation with this person. Most times he is great but then these glaring red flags get me concerned. Am I overreacting? Or is this normal?

I Thought I Had Vertigo — A Week in Bir, Himachal Pradesh

I am a marketer at a B2B tech startup in Bangalore. My husband Saurabh works at a corporation and has something to do with aeroplanes. We hadn't had a trip just the two of us since our wedding. So we said enough is enough and headed to Bir.

I planned obsessively. Used AI to build an itinerary. Booked everything in advance. And said absolutely no paragliding - I am terrified of heights.

That strategy pretty much fell apart.

**Getting There**

Fly into Chandigarh, take a semi-sleeper Volvo bus from Sector 43 ISBT — 7.5 hours, bookable on RedBus (Ram Dalal / FlixBus, \~₹2,300 for two people one way). Rapido didn't work reliably at Chandigarh airport - sort a local cab instead. Lodge 43 near the ISBT is the only one-star of this trip - filthy but functional if you need a washroom and somewhere to wait. Cafe 43 at the ISBT though - the dal makhani and tandoor ki butter roti are genuinely great.

**Bir Itself**

Find Bir Billing Adventures in the Tibetan Colony. The lady who runs it - Auntieji -makes bread omelette and the kind of chai that becomes your anchor for the whole trip. She also rents scooties and has paragliding pilot contacts. Go here first.

Chokling and Nyingma monasteries - extraordinary. Dogs on the property, breathtaking murals, completely open to visitors. The monk behind Nyingma's artwork was also associated with the Namdroling Monastery in Karnataka. Shoes off, photos mostly welcome, inner sanctum keep to yourself out of respect.

Mafia Cafe rooftop for evenings - tables fashioned from old scooties, Saahil played live despite being unwell, snow-capped Dhauladhar catching the evening sun. I counted 22 paragliders from up there and vowed not to join them.

**The Days**

Lapas Falls near Barot - more intimate than any waterfall I've seen, including the Seven Sisters of Meghalaya. Bathing is allowed, changing tents available — we didn't know and missed it. Don't miss it. The 45-60 minute walk up to Lapas village and down to the falls is worth every step.

Rajgundha Valley - go for the Uhl River. At Barot it's tame because of the dam. At Rajgundha it's young and furious. Five seconds with your feet in before the pain starts. I built a small stack of stones on the bank and thought about a geography textbook I'd read at age ten. Twenty-five years later, adult money, finally seeing it live. That moment hit different.

Chaina Pass Zostel run by Rajvinderji - hidden gem, glamping under stars, two Himachali puppies who reminded us of everything waiting back home. Plan a full separate trip here.

Amuzium Illusion Museum - ₹600 per person. I've been to Ripley's in Amsterdam. The collection here is smaller. The experience isn't. The staff makes it personal. 45 minutes disappeared.

Don't skip Manoharji. He was our local driver and the spine of every experience outside Bir. Himachali drivers blur the lines between skill and calling - on those roads, your driver is truly your god.

**The Confession**

I have a life that most would say comes close to the 1% of our society. And yet - for longer than I'd like to admit - I hadn't felt grateful for it. I was looking for a spark I'd lost somewhere in the accumulation of a good life I couldn't feel.

Over momos, chowmein, tigmo and mutton shapta at Bir Tibet Kitchen on Monday evening, Saurabh and I called Anandji - a paragliding pilot's number we'd taken at the Landing Site. We asked for his license. Learned about PPU - Bir Billing Paragliding Pilots Union, 400-500 pilots strong. Fixed 6:30 AM the next morning.

I woke up at 4:30 AM. Nervous. On medication and therapy for over three years. Still looking for that spark.

We drove to Billing at dawn. Valley glistening gold below. Signed a waiver - to me, less a legal document and more an act of honour for another human being taking the same risks. Anandji had been flying since school, had completed a 31-day trek to Spiti. We were in good hands.

Saurabh went first. I had five seconds to learn something I'd never done before.

Ran. Jumped. Sat.

It happened so fast and so organically. Saurabh says that moment feels like being a coin tossed midair - you don't know how or where you'll land. I felt suspended between earth and sky. I looked straight at the Dhauladhar range and felt so light.

We both landed with something we hadn't arrived with. I found the spark - strong enough to break through. All the KPIs, deadlines, and planning felt very minor at that moment.

**The Ending**

Coincidentally, our last day was Nirjala Ekadashi.

Machchial Lake - dedicated to Machchindranath Dev, an incarnation of Vishnu. Generations of Mahseer fish float in pristine, sacred water. The locals don't want tourists here. Hear them out and they'll welcome you and show you how to feed the fish. This was nature untouched, uncorrupted. I understood immediately why some things should stay exactly as they are.

Baijnath Temple - 800 years old, dedicated to Lord Vaidyanath, the healer avatar of Shiva. Whisper a desire into Nandi's ear with an honest heart and legend says it comes true. I tried it. We'll see. Considering the mental state the paragliding had left me in - the conjunction of nature and healing on an auspicious day we hadn't planned for felt like the universe was making a point.

**The Line That Stayed**

A stranger who'd just landed at the Bir Landing Site told me paragliding was grounding and humbling. I filed it away and told myself it wasn't for me.

She was right on both counts.

I thought I had vertigo. Turns out I just hadn't been high enough yet.

Go to Bir. Find Auntieji. Eat the omelette. Then call the pilot. Ask Nandi for something with an honest heart on your way out.

The itinerary was thorough. But Bir? Bir was better.

---

Happy to share pilot and driver contacts privately - DM me.

We stayed at The Birdhouse Villa - highly recommended.

Used AI to reduce my 4000 word essay on the trip to just an overview. If you want to read the full story, I will DM you the PDF.

All names are changed.

I am a marketer at a B2B tech startup in Bangalore. My husband Saurabh works at a corporation and has something to do with aeroplanes. We hadn't had a trip just the two of us since our wedding. So we said enough is enough and headed to Bir.

I planned obsessively. Used AI to build an itinerary. Booked everything in advance. And said absolutely no paragliding - I am terrified of heights.

That strategy pretty much fell apart.

Getting There

Fly into Chandigarh, take a semi-sleeper Volvo bus from Sector 43 ISBT — 7.5 hours, bookable on RedBus (Ram Dalal / FlixBus, ~₹2,300 for two people one way). Rapido didn't work reliably at Chandigarh airport - sort a local cab instead. Lodge 43 near the ISBT is the only one-star of this trip - filthy but functional if you need a washroom and somewhere to wait. Cafe 43 at the ISBT though - the dal makhani and tandoor ki butter roti are genuinely great.

Bir Itself

Find Bir Billing Adventures in the Tibetan Colony. The lady who runs it - Auntieji -makes bread omelette and the kind of chai that becomes your anchor for the whole trip. She also rents scooties and has paragliding pilot contacts. Go here first.

Chokling and Nyingma monasteries - extraordinary. Dogs on the property, breathtaking murals, completely open to visitors. The monk behind Nyingma's artwork was also associated with the Namdroling Monastery in Karnataka. Shoes off, photos mostly welcome, inner sanctum keep to yourself out of respect.

Mafia Cafe rooftop for evenings - tables fashioned from old scooties, Saahil played live despite being unwell, snow-capped Dhauladhar catching the evening sun. I counted 22 paragliders from up there and vowed not to join them.

The Days

Lapas Falls near Barot - more intimate than any waterfall I've seen, including the Seven Sisters of Meghalaya. Bathing is allowed, changing tents available — we didn't know and missed it. Don't miss it. The 45-60 minute walk up to Lapas village and down to the falls is worth every step.

Rajgundha Valley - go for the Uhl River. At Barot it's tame because of the dam. At Rajgundha it's young and furious. Five seconds with your feet in before the pain starts. I built a small stack of stones on the bank and thought about a geography textbook I'd read at age ten. Twenty-five years later, adult money, finally seeing it live. That moment hit different.

Chaina Pass Zostel run by Rajvinderji - hidden gem, glamping under stars, two Himachali puppies who reminded us of everything waiting back home. Plan a full separate trip here.

Amuzium Illusion Museum - ₹600 per person. I've been to Ripley's in Amsterdam. The collection here is smaller. The experience isn't. The staff makes it personal. 45 minutes disappeared.

Don't skip Manoharji. He was our local driver and the spine of every experience outside Bir. Himachali drivers blur the lines between skill and calling - on those roads, your driver is truly your god.

The Confession

I have a life that most would say comes close to the 1% of our society. And yet - for longer than I'd like to admit - I hadn't felt grateful for it. I was looking for a spark I'd lost somewhere in the accumulation of a good life I couldn't feel.

Over momos, chowmein, tigmo and mutton shapta at Bir Tibet Kitchen on Monday evening, Saurabh and I called Anandji - a paragliding pilot's number we'd taken at the Landing Site. We asked for his license. Learned about PPU - Bir Billing Paragliding Pilots Union, 400-500 pilots strong. Fixed 6:30 AM the next morning.

I woke up at 4:30 AM. Nervous. On medication and therapy for over three years. Still looking for that spark.

We drove to Billing at dawn. Valley glistening gold below. Signed a waiver - to me, less a legal document and more an act of honour for another human being taking the same risks. Anandji had been flying since school, had completed a 31-day trek to Spiti. We were in good hands.

Saurabh went first. I had five seconds to learn something I'd never done before.

Ran. Jumped. Sat.

It happened so fast and so organically. Saurabh says that moment feels like being a coin tossed midair - you don't know how or where you'll land. I felt suspended between earth and sky. I looked straight at the Dhauladhar range and felt so light.

We both landed with something we hadn't arrived with. I found the spark - strong enough to break through. All the KPIs, deadlines, and planning felt very minor at that moment.

The Ending

Coincidentally, our last day was Nirjala Ekadashi.

Machchial Lake - dedicated to Machchindranath Dev, an incarnation of Vishnu. Generations of Mahseer fish float in pristine, sacred water. The locals don't want tourists here. Hear them out and they'll welcome you and show you how to feed the fish. This was nature untouched, uncorrupted. I understood immediately why some things should stay exactly as they are.

Baijnath Temple - 800 years old, dedicated to Lord Vaidyanath, the healer avatar of Shiva. Whisper a desire into Nandi's ear with an honest heart and legend says it comes true. I tried it. We'll see. Considering the mental state the paragliding had left me in - the conjunction of nature and healing on an auspicious day we hadn't planned for felt like the universe was making a point.

The Line That Stayed

A stranger who'd just landed at the Bir Landing Site told me paragliding was grounding and humbling. I filed it away and told myself it wasn't for me.

She was right on both counts.

I thought I had vertigo. Turns out I just hadn't been high enough yet.

Go to Bir. Find Auntieji. Eat the omelette. Then call the pilot. Ask Nandi for something with an honest heart on your way out.

The itinerary was thorough. But Bir? Bir was better.

---

Happy to share pilot and driver contacts privately - DM me.

We stayed at The Birdhouse Villa - highly recommended.

Used AI to reduce my 4000 word essay on the trip to just an overview. If you want to read the full story, I will DM you the PDF.

All names are changed.