Well... Yesterday was another day of my life, a holiday, but not one of my usual kind where all I do is sleep, or read.... Wonders that having people whom you love near to you...
It all started early in the morning when I decided to go out with my Besssssssst Friend and it so happens that the other person is very excited about the same too, and we start off our day with breakfast at Marthahalli, and planning to go for a movie. But then, no, movie will not do, we thought. Very rarely do we get time to spend with people special if both are working, and even more rare if they are with tough accounts in the software industry. So we decided against the movie since that will kill half of the day that God has so kindly granted to us, and we set off walking along MG Road.
There are so many things to check out(Just window shopping, mind you, otherwise your time will be taken up by your needs which can always wait for another day), and when with friends, this is real fun. If you dont think so, think of the many number of times at college when you didnt have the money to purchase anything while you were out all day windoow-shopping and feeling that it was one of the great days of your life.
And after that, we had a long walk to Kubbon Park, and talked about everything ranging from our childhood to the recent Mumbai terror sweeps. There were tears and smiles with tearful eyes, and then there was laughter too, and tears because of that. Thats one thing about people special. They can make you smile when you are all tears(I can hear you say that you have read this sentence from some mail forward. I have read it too :)
And then lunch, for which we had Chinese food, and again a small round of window shopping(I could have done without this for the second time. But girls are girls!!). Back to Kubbon again, which by now was quite full since it was not drizzling anymore. There were kids playing, couples walking hand in hand, and friends laughing for untold, unseen stuff.
By then, it was time for us to part ways again, but not before dinner. Though I was not the least hungry, fearing angry looks and few minutes of silence, I tucked in too, and to be honest, I enjoyed the meal. And a journey back by the famous autorickshaws at Bangalore, jumping all the way... Once I was safely home, we said 'Bye', and turned around to look at the opposite direction. But by then, the decision was already taken. We will meet again, and again, and ofcourse, again...
Monday, December 01, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
The thief, my chain and the police
I was on my way back from office, and since it had not been a long day, I decided to take a walk home which I just love in the Bangalore weather. And before you ask me, it wasn't that late. I was going back by 7:00 pm, afterall who doesnt like to go home early?
Soon I reached our main gate, and started walking along the main road. There is a very busy signal around here (just like all the other signals at Bangalore, yes, I can hear you say that!), and I started crossing the road, towards the service lane which will take me home. It started drizzling and I soon had my umbrella opened.
It was then that I felt a cold pair of hands on my throat, and I could see the people on bikes and cabs staring to see what is happening. My first reaction was to free myself off as I was afraid to the core. While I was twisting about, I saw a young man of about 25 running away, continuously looking back at me.
Another few microseconds passed and then realization struck me that he had got away with my chain. It was my favourite chain which I had been wearing since I was 28 days old. You know, all such emotional involvements. But at that moment, I couldnt think of that. I could only think of the numerous people around me who were straining their head out through the windows so as to get a better glance of what is happening, without extending any hands of help. Well, thats the kind of society we live in, and thats an altogether different issue. Sigh! And here begins my first trip to the police station.
Me, my friend and our house owner set off to the local police station nearby. I saw the lockup, and was thinking that it looks exactly the same way as it does in movies before I corrected myself. No! Directors have shown it the way it is. And Lo! there was a thief inside. And there were guns! I was busy looking at all these just the way we do while we visit museums that the inspector came in. And then came the questions, which had all been very familiar from the movies I watch, 'do you think you can recognize the thief?', 'how many sovereigns was it?' and so on.. After the question-answer session and occasional glances at the thief(it was after my friend reminded me that thief is also a human being, not an ET, that I stopped staring at him!), we left home.
I thought that this would be the last time I am gonna hear about my chain. But then, there are no end for surprises. I got a call from the police officer one day saying that they caught gold from somewhere and will get a chain made (though much lesser than mine in weight), and asking whether I am interested. I was not, initially, but after certain coaxing from friends and my house-owner, I agreed. And again we set off to the police station. Though there were no thieves this time for us to glare at, I got a chain, along with the bill for it from a famous jeweller here, saying that I can exchange it in 5 days time, if I wish to do so. Man, weren't we surprised? Till we reached the police station, we had never thought that this would happen even though we were informed of it. Thanks to Bangalore police, and their eccentric ways!!!
Soon I reached our main gate, and started walking along the main road. There is a very busy signal around here (just like all the other signals at Bangalore, yes, I can hear you say that!), and I started crossing the road, towards the service lane which will take me home. It started drizzling and I soon had my umbrella opened.
It was then that I felt a cold pair of hands on my throat, and I could see the people on bikes and cabs staring to see what is happening. My first reaction was to free myself off as I was afraid to the core. While I was twisting about, I saw a young man of about 25 running away, continuously looking back at me.
Another few microseconds passed and then realization struck me that he had got away with my chain. It was my favourite chain which I had been wearing since I was 28 days old. You know, all such emotional involvements. But at that moment, I couldnt think of that. I could only think of the numerous people around me who were straining their head out through the windows so as to get a better glance of what is happening, without extending any hands of help. Well, thats the kind of society we live in, and thats an altogether different issue. Sigh! And here begins my first trip to the police station.
Me, my friend and our house owner set off to the local police station nearby. I saw the lockup, and was thinking that it looks exactly the same way as it does in movies before I corrected myself. No! Directors have shown it the way it is. And Lo! there was a thief inside. And there were guns! I was busy looking at all these just the way we do while we visit museums that the inspector came in. And then came the questions, which had all been very familiar from the movies I watch, 'do you think you can recognize the thief?', 'how many sovereigns was it?' and so on.. After the question-answer session and occasional glances at the thief(it was after my friend reminded me that thief is also a human being, not an ET, that I stopped staring at him!), we left home.
I thought that this would be the last time I am gonna hear about my chain. But then, there are no end for surprises. I got a call from the police officer one day saying that they caught gold from somewhere and will get a chain made (though much lesser than mine in weight), and asking whether I am interested. I was not, initially, but after certain coaxing from friends and my house-owner, I agreed. And again we set off to the police station. Though there were no thieves this time for us to glare at, I got a chain, along with the bill for it from a famous jeweller here, saying that I can exchange it in 5 days time, if I wish to do so. Man, weren't we surprised? Till we reached the police station, we had never thought that this would happen even though we were informed of it. Thanks to Bangalore police, and their eccentric ways!!!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Inmates of the 'chocolate' house
The chocolate house,
Bangalore..
This is our house, the one we transformed into a home.. And ahem, ahem! we cook here! Not just that... we watch movies here, we play here, we sleep here, and we do all household stuff here. So u might wonder, what is special about the chocolate house.. and that is, the very fact that WE stay here. And let me tell you who WE are...
Well.. one of them is not feeling well at the moment, and is taking maximum advantage out of it.. :) . she blackmails me, orders me around and makes me roar with laughter. She is Surya, and always insists that the actor Surya took after her name.. Now I see that you get the point, about what she is all about :) . And to describe her, I should say that she is more like a ghost, u never know when she will pounce on you and fight next. But if you are down, you can bet on anything in the world that she will be right next to you. And hey, forgot to say about her culinary skills. She is a great 'dough-maker'. She makes the dough for chapati, puttu and what not! And know what? She speaks proper 'madhyathiruvithamkoor' language. She is from God's own Kollam, u know...
And the second, and the shortest, is Simi. No, no, dont be apprehensive about her name. She is not actually very dangerous and is not involved with any bombs. I can assure you so much :P
'Bhaiyyyyaaaaa... ', and if she starts of this way to any Rickshawwala or shopkeppers, all of us around her gets cautious and starts kicking and pinching her... Thats what Simi is.. u know, kind of a blabbermouth. But dont take this against her. Its only coz she has still not grown up, 'height-wise' and 'brain-wise' (She is gonna stand up on a chair and hit me for this, am sure :) .
And now that leaves Lisha, our elder sis. She is the puli amongst us, running around for patents :) . She looks after us all, and if not for her, am sure we would have died having daal and onion curry. She is the one who insists upon keeping the house clean, and keeps us on our toes :) . She is sweet and have a great photographic smile...
Oh , oh.. I forgot about the 4th and the great person.. Meeeeeee!!!!!!!! Am Vandana, a very sweet and tall gal... And you know what, so many nice things about me to be said. But then, being the very modest gal I am, Lemme leave things about me to you..
And now, you know the inmates of the chocolate house.. And hey, do you know why its called chocolate house? 'coz it is painted with a dark-brown chocolate color and people as sweet as chocolates stay here... And know what? Dinner time is really special here, with all of us having it together, and I get the smell of it.. So catch u later :)
Bangalore..
This is our house, the one we transformed into a home.. And ahem, ahem! we cook here! Not just that... we watch movies here, we play here, we sleep here, and we do all household stuff here. So u might wonder, what is special about the chocolate house.. and that is, the very fact that WE stay here. And let me tell you who WE are...
Well.. one of them is not feeling well at the moment, and is taking maximum advantage out of it.. :) . she blackmails me, orders me around and makes me roar with laughter. She is Surya, and always insists that the actor Surya took after her name.. Now I see that you get the point, about what she is all about :) . And to describe her, I should say that she is more like a ghost, u never know when she will pounce on you and fight next. But if you are down, you can bet on anything in the world that she will be right next to you. And hey, forgot to say about her culinary skills. She is a great 'dough-maker'. She makes the dough for chapati, puttu and what not! And know what? She speaks proper 'madhyathiruvithamkoor' language. She is from God's own Kollam, u know...
And the second, and the shortest, is Simi. No, no, dont be apprehensive about her name. She is not actually very dangerous and is not involved with any bombs. I can assure you so much :P
'Bhaiyyyyaaaaa... ', and if she starts of this way to any Rickshawwala or shopkeppers, all of us around her gets cautious and starts kicking and pinching her... Thats what Simi is.. u know, kind of a blabbermouth. But dont take this against her. Its only coz she has still not grown up, 'height-wise' and 'brain-wise' (She is gonna stand up on a chair and hit me for this, am sure :) .
And now that leaves Lisha, our elder sis. She is the puli amongst us, running around for patents :) . She looks after us all, and if not for her, am sure we would have died having daal and onion curry. She is the one who insists upon keeping the house clean, and keeps us on our toes :) . She is sweet and have a great photographic smile...
Oh , oh.. I forgot about the 4th and the great person.. Meeeeeee!!!!!!!! Am Vandana, a very sweet and tall gal... And you know what, so many nice things about me to be said. But then, being the very modest gal I am, Lemme leave things about me to you..
And now, you know the inmates of the chocolate house.. And hey, do you know why its called chocolate house? 'coz it is painted with a dark-brown chocolate color and people as sweet as chocolates stay here... And know what? Dinner time is really special here, with all of us having it together, and I get the smell of it.. So catch u later :)
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
One year @ IBM (A Flashback )
Today is September 16th.. and I have been here, at IBM for an year and 5days now.. Hmmm.. How does it feel? Well, great!!! Am no more an ELTP (Freshers recruited into IBM are called ELTPs until we finish our first year), am an IT professional, with one of the world's greatest companies...
Let me take a ride along the tunnels of my memory, of how my year here was..Everything started the moment I touched my plastered feet at Majestic Railway Station, cut the plaster the very next day, and took a rick(started with Auto rides on the very first day!!) to go to Grand Ashoka, for my Induction Programme.. Little did I know then that the people I am about to meet there are gonna be my buddies, little did I know then what IBM had in store for me.. And when I walked back that day, I didnt know what awaited me here...
We were put into batches and the trainings started, in Software Testing. And to be honest, was feeling a little aloof that I was put into testing :( . But then, those trainings were as good as college days. And when I say as good as college, you can definitely imagine the kind of fun we had. And after the training, just when we thought that all fun is over, we entered a phase of life called 'Bench-Life', inevitable for all budding software engineers. The old IBM towers at Airport Road, became a second home to us, with all of us looking forward to those long walks everyday to have lunch at various restaurants. Vicky, Swetha, Swathi, Sriram, Vinai, Rahul.. all of us had a grt time then.. After that came FTP days with GT closing down. Well... Hamara ek dushman tha vahan, naam hein Dush, Dushyanth!!! He started taking attendance and made us take that looong trip to FTP everyday.. We thought that the worse will be over once we enter projects, but then, came another vampire, in the form of RCM exams. We witnessed many colleagues moving out of the company. And all of us went different ways too, to different projects, different offices, different locations and so on... And my life took twisted turns too, like moving from Testing to Java, and then to C++. But we had this ray of good hope, MS program, where we get to meet all our dear friends. Only thing is that you need to bear with the professors.. But then, thats ok.. ;)
And once we got to work, we all learnt what professional life is all about. There are days, when all you do is check the mails and listen to music, and there are those days, when you dont know what day it is, what time it is or how many days has it been since you came to office. But the best part is that there are always people around you, to help you, to support you and to say encouraging words. You would never know yourself maturing into a young professional...
There are status calls, meetings, lunch-outs (Yummeee), n cafe lunches (Well, I just hate that :( )... There are smiles around me, and fights too. There is innovation n there are mistakes too. There are friends and Managers too ;)
And its not just your professional life that improves too.. Personally, one becomes a much better person than what one was when he/she started out. I have now learnt to put up with my friends, one who puts looooots of salt in whatever she cooks, another who puts looots of chillies, and another who likes to have everything around her clean. I have learnt the A,B,C,D of cooking (and when I say this, I mean it, I do not know E,F,G..,Z !!) , I can now travel long distances alone, I now have a confidence on myself, I am independent, I have made a few friends whom I know will be with me forever, and so on...
And going back to my professional life, am now with AT&T.. Ahead Today & Tomorrow, is what the T-Shirts around me say, and let me see where I go...
(To be contd. like a mega-serial !!!)
Let me take a ride along the tunnels of my memory, of how my year here was..Everything started the moment I touched my plastered feet at Majestic Railway Station, cut the plaster the very next day, and took a rick(started with Auto rides on the very first day!!) to go to Grand Ashoka, for my Induction Programme.. Little did I know then that the people I am about to meet there are gonna be my buddies, little did I know then what IBM had in store for me.. And when I walked back that day, I didnt know what awaited me here...
We were put into batches and the trainings started, in Software Testing. And to be honest, was feeling a little aloof that I was put into testing :( . But then, those trainings were as good as college days. And when I say as good as college, you can definitely imagine the kind of fun we had. And after the training, just when we thought that all fun is over, we entered a phase of life called 'Bench-Life', inevitable for all budding software engineers. The old IBM towers at Airport Road, became a second home to us, with all of us looking forward to those long walks everyday to have lunch at various restaurants. Vicky, Swetha, Swathi, Sriram, Vinai, Rahul.. all of us had a grt time then.. After that came FTP days with GT closing down. Well... Hamara ek dushman tha vahan, naam hein Dush, Dushyanth!!! He started taking attendance and made us take that looong trip to FTP everyday.. We thought that the worse will be over once we enter projects, but then, came another vampire, in the form of RCM exams. We witnessed many colleagues moving out of the company. And all of us went different ways too, to different projects, different offices, different locations and so on... And my life took twisted turns too, like moving from Testing to Java, and then to C++. But we had this ray of good hope, MS program, where we get to meet all our dear friends. Only thing is that you need to bear with the professors.. But then, thats ok.. ;)
And once we got to work, we all learnt what professional life is all about. There are days, when all you do is check the mails and listen to music, and there are those days, when you dont know what day it is, what time it is or how many days has it been since you came to office. But the best part is that there are always people around you, to help you, to support you and to say encouraging words. You would never know yourself maturing into a young professional...
There are status calls, meetings, lunch-outs (Yummeee), n cafe lunches (Well, I just hate that :( )... There are smiles around me, and fights too. There is innovation n there are mistakes too. There are friends and Managers too ;)
And its not just your professional life that improves too.. Personally, one becomes a much better person than what one was when he/she started out. I have now learnt to put up with my friends, one who puts looooots of salt in whatever she cooks, another who puts looots of chillies, and another who likes to have everything around her clean. I have learnt the A,B,C,D of cooking (and when I say this, I mean it, I do not know E,F,G..,Z !!) , I can now travel long distances alone, I now have a confidence on myself, I am independent, I have made a few friends whom I know will be with me forever, and so on...
And going back to my professional life, am now with AT&T.. Ahead Today & Tomorrow, is what the T-Shirts around me say, and let me see where I go...
(To be contd. like a mega-serial !!!)
Monday, April 14, 2008
Feminist
After a long time, today I felt like penning my thoughts again…
If you ask me why… well… maybe because am at home, this is the time that I synchronize me with, well, none other than me :) . Being at home is like being in heaven, right? There might be no 'I-am-great' feeling there, no high-funda life, still everything about home is special… home gives you a feeling a belonging, a feeling of self…
Hmmm… I guess am getting too worked with the question ‘why’. Lemme now tell you what I wanna share with you. Was at kitchen today, making ‘payasam’, today being vishu. And that old feminist spirit came to me again. To make it clear, I am not that kind of a feminist whose pictures come in newspapers all the time, who insist on the other gender asking for forgiveness all through. I am one of another kind, who feels that feminism is all about the way a woman lives, to be able to give vent to her feelings, to be able to make people close to her understand, what she wants, and to understand what others need from her. She is not the ultimate power, nor does she craves for power, its all about understanding others as well as fulfilling her wishes.
The other day, I heard about a girl who was forced to spend her life in a kitchen. She was not the least happy doing these household jobs. She felt useless, and considered her life useless. To be honest to myself, I don’t think that its some useless job, it’s actually the most challenging job that someone can ever take up. And only women can do this job to perfection, not her muscled counterparts. It’s as much interesting as any disciplined profession can be. But just like you can’t force a doctor to join the PWD department, you can’t force someone who is not interested to take this up. Anyone can earn, work in an organization they like or not, for the sake of making money, but its only few who can make others happy by keeping themselves happy. And this is not something applicable to girls alone; it’s applicable to everyone dreaming of a happy life.
I dream about my future too, and I know exactly where my preferences are, whatever I say. And it’s about knowing oneself by a woman, which should be called feminism, not anything else…
And am proud to say that I am feminist; I place my family above everything else…
If you ask me why… well… maybe because am at home, this is the time that I synchronize me with, well, none other than me :) . Being at home is like being in heaven, right? There might be no 'I-am-great' feeling there, no high-funda life, still everything about home is special… home gives you a feeling a belonging, a feeling of self…
Hmmm… I guess am getting too worked with the question ‘why’. Lemme now tell you what I wanna share with you. Was at kitchen today, making ‘payasam’, today being vishu. And that old feminist spirit came to me again. To make it clear, I am not that kind of a feminist whose pictures come in newspapers all the time, who insist on the other gender asking for forgiveness all through. I am one of another kind, who feels that feminism is all about the way a woman lives, to be able to give vent to her feelings, to be able to make people close to her understand, what she wants, and to understand what others need from her. She is not the ultimate power, nor does she craves for power, its all about understanding others as well as fulfilling her wishes.
The other day, I heard about a girl who was forced to spend her life in a kitchen. She was not the least happy doing these household jobs. She felt useless, and considered her life useless. To be honest to myself, I don’t think that its some useless job, it’s actually the most challenging job that someone can ever take up. And only women can do this job to perfection, not her muscled counterparts. It’s as much interesting as any disciplined profession can be. But just like you can’t force a doctor to join the PWD department, you can’t force someone who is not interested to take this up. Anyone can earn, work in an organization they like or not, for the sake of making money, but its only few who can make others happy by keeping themselves happy. And this is not something applicable to girls alone; it’s applicable to everyone dreaming of a happy life.
I dream about my future too, and I know exactly where my preferences are, whatever I say. And it’s about knowing oneself by a woman, which should be called feminism, not anything else…
And am proud to say that I am feminist; I place my family above everything else…
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