Oodles of fun @ IBM - Part 2

We had a cubicle decoration competition at office yesterday, and that was great too. It was at 11'o clock that we decided to participate and by 11:30, we decided upon the theme - Indian festivals - one festival each in 4 corners. And now came the challenging question: which festivals and how to portray? Prasanna came up with a notepad, and we all sat together and an animated discussion followed. Christmas, for sure was opted since the spirit of X'mas was all around us. And we the Mallus just could not do without Onam. Pongal - said a few and Ramzan - shouted someone. But none of us actually knew what people do for Ramzan except for the biriyani part of it, so we settled upon Diwali. So XMas, Onam, Pongal and Diwali were finalized. And off we went to get stuff. The rest is best explained with pictures.

Pongal-o-Pongal: Note the papercup sugarcanes, cow and the pot with foaming milk



Pookalam depicting Onam



Paper boats (thithithara thithithay music in background)and Mahabali enjoying the show



Diwali - couldn't take a snap with the sweets, You see, people here all have a sweet tooth!!!



Christmas in the air



Santa and his sleigh



And guess the outcome. We won third prize - few packs of temptations and Kitkat family pack - for the CTP family :)

Oodles of fun @ IBM

Just rushed back to a meeting with the client after a fun@work programme for this year, and as he is talking about an application I need not be bothered about, I thought of penning down the evening events. Needless to say, fun@work was indeed fun. Today's events were 'Voice of IBM - a singing competition', 'Dance your way', Quiz and a DJ.

After Aarthi's song(zara zara behekta hein), which was well sung, I dont think we heard any bearable music until Sree went on stage. There was this lady singing to her own 'thaala' and 'raaga' while the karaoke was going elsewhere with the crowd clapping madly, not encouraging but praying to God for Mercy and for asking him to ask her to stop! And there was this guy who was dancing in his own African manner(kaatala-bhaavam). And sorry, there were other songs in between about which I have no comments - Absolutely. Sree was the 7th on stage, and started off on a wrong pitch, but intelligently and cleverly brought it back to track. Even without the karaoke, it was well presented, and well accepted by the audience. And after this song came a dance by a lady who was soon joined by Akshay Kumar of our team, Rohit ;) He was in full josh as he swung around her and then to a side, and was really surprised to see her leave moments later. Boy, the look of surprise on his face is just beyond words - like, 'how can a girl ever stop dancing with me?' ;)

There were other performances by both IBMers and a few kiddies after which there was the finals of the Quiz competition. The quiz kind of proved that most software engineers never read newspapers(some are worse than me, if people who who really know me can believe it!). And hey, I got a pack of Kitkat goodies for answering a question correctly in 'IBM' round - what are the values which IBM stands for? (For the sake of IBMers who do not know the answer, and others who are interested in knowing about it, the answer is Dedication to every client's success, Innovation that matters-for us and the world, and, Trust and Personal responsibility in all relationships). But then, the whole fun part in the quiz were the answers from the crowd, which were just, well, plain stupid nonsensical stuff :)

After this came the prize giving ceremony where we found out that Aarthi came second and Sree was first. And the person who was the most astonished about the first prize was Sree herself who was until then asking everyone how badly did she perform. But then, she was indeed glad and even more so on seeing the big box of Ferrero Rocher that came to her as a gift (secretly, I was probably happier about it ;) After that came the DJ, where everyone slowly got into the dance-mode and got onto the floor. I was more of a silent smiling onlooker with my sore back restraining me from going anywhere near the stage. But then, how many times in life do you get to sit in a chair right in the center of people dancing and at that again, with a box of chocolates in hand? I guess that explains what I did during that part of the evening. But then watching Rohan doing the cheerleaders dance would have cheered anyone up!

And as we slowly walked back to the work floor, taking snaps along the way, we all had a smile playing on our lips, and that makes up for the few hours of work we missed(which we will most definitely have to put in later, read, now)!!!

Nagawara Signal

Traffic signal at Nagawara is at a busy junction in the Bangalore airport Road, and to add to the chaos of this junction, there are service roads joining it from all 4 sides... I have to pass this signal to go to work everyday, and for that matter, to go anywhere!

Motorists flying their bikes as if they were all Jet pilots, cars between buses looking like half-done sandwiches, and the 'we-are-so-oblivious-to-everything' lorries and BMTCs are a regular sight here. Even the people trying to cross the road wait for a bus to park right in centre of the road so that they can cross over the road.And this description will not be complete without talking about our dear autowala 'bhaiyyas' who are just not ready to negotiate about their a-leg-and-a-half rates and parking criss-cross, and squeezing in from all directions.

I always wonder about that poor dear traffic signal which is more like a silent mourning witness to all these. I mean, it dutifully blinks, changes lights and does whatever is expected out of it, but just does not gets the respect it deserves. If the policeman turns to the right, the vehicles on the left just pass by even when the signal says 'no', probably smirking. And at times when traffic is not all that heavy and there are no cops around, this signal has to witness the perfect chaos and fails in it attempt to help people with these flashing lights(since people do not even bother to glance at its direction) and end up being analyzed as the rootcause of many accidents which it had nothing to do with. Hmmm.. who cares about tri-colored things anymore, right?

Even the people make around is a subject of diversity. Ranging between professional-looking IT guys, 'am-so-cool' casually attired call-centre people, daily roti kamaane wale aam aadmi, hijjdas, beggers etc, this actually makes a perfect diversity club picture.

And moreover, this place holds a place in everybody's life for some reason. For me, this is where my chain was snatched by a thief (and my trip to police station on account of this which was the topic of one of my old blogs - Thief, my chain and Bangalore Police), the place where I have 'almost been hit - but just missed' by the most number of vehicles(owing to mine as well as others mistakes!), the spot until which I have got the most number of lifts since my teammates obligingly drops me here on their ways home, and the one place where I have fought with Auto-wallahs for the max number of times.

As time passes, probably a flyover may be constructed here to avoid the innumerable traffic jams or a seperate highway may be constructed to make the commutation to the new airport all the more easier, but Nagawara signal will always remain, dutiful like a great watchdog and flashing red, amber and green...

A diary milk, and its impact :)

Can you imagine how much of a sunshine a diary milk can bring to one's life? Here I am, confined to bed for a week, and when my best friend came to meet me now, he got me a big diary milk! Boy, I was real happy. I knew that even he had a tiring day at office, but when people show that they care, it really makes one happy, especially if you are sick and tired of being sick!!!

And that makes me think of the brighter part of bed rest:

1) You have loads of time to yourself - which means you can sleep when you like and getup when you like.
2) You can catch up with movies and books, and re-read or watch all-time favorites (To name a few, I watched High School Musical Series,Hangover,Unnai Pol Oruvan,Mein aur Mrs Khanna,Malabar Wedding,Taken... and finished reading '2 states'-a new novel by Chetan Bhagat and False Impression by Jeff Archer)
3) You can see sunset (I dont want to mention sunrise here, coz I prefer to sleep, and be happy with sunset, thank you!)
4) And now, lemme face it, you get to know whether you really like your job or not: The last time I was confined to bed with a broken bone, I was happy being at home, and this time, I wanted to go back to work and see a lot of black unix screens around me!
5) You dont have to cook, and better still, not wash the heavier and messier vessels at home.
6) No college.. Hooray to this one! (Though I will have to attend makeup classes later, I need not bother about college right now)
7) You can write blogs like these where you need to think of every single positive thing out of something entirely negative :)

Oops.. wonders that a diary milk and a loving smile can do to one. Ain't I happy?

Exercise maadi!!!

I am a certified software engineer too.. not because I finished some very complex certification exams which doesn't have dumps(Sigh!) but because I am currently asked to take bed rest owing to a bad back ache. And I thought its very much my responsibility to write about the 'syndrome' I have now since I know for sure that many of my techy friends do take their time to read this blog :)

Well.. first of all, as we all very well know, sitting in the same posture for long is bad, and doing that regularly with no exercise is even worse. We have all been thinking of exercising daily(I know, I have been thinking too like, say, for 2 years now :), but never do since we are not able to take off for 30 mins(so we say, but the real reason is, stand up to it, we are just plain lazy!). But then, from my experience over the last week, lemme tell you, its better to do 30 mins of exercise everyday rather than to be confined to bed for 1 whole week. Take my word for it, its boring, to the core!

And coming back to the problem faced, its called 'Disk Prolapse'(mine is a minor one though). It mainly happens for youngsters today because of the above mentioned reason(no flexibility for our body, incase you have already forgotten).

So dear friends, don't think that am being a Guru, but do flex your muscles, and take good care of yourselves - because ultimately, that's one thing that really does matter!!!

Awesome weather @ Bengaluru

Its 9:00 pm at Bangalore, and its awesome weather here, and I just thought I will describe how it is and how it impacts me (well, this post definitely is the impact of this weather)...

First and foremost,for us, the techies who are very much responsible for the addition of a word to Oxford dictionary(Bangalored), who do not see much of daylight, do not see any at all nowadays since the sun shines barely, or so it seems. Its great to sleep late mornings with a quilt over head, and then wrap the Reebok/Nike jacket(I rarely see software ppl without this accessory and hence its mention here) close against the body for warmth, on our way back home in the cab, which is nearly always, midnight!

And on holidays like this which makes us all mutter a biiiiig thanks to Gandhiji, its great to stay inside, and fry fish, and eat it, when its raining outside. I know that we should be into non-violence atleast today(being Gandhi Jayanthi), but since the fish were already dead when we got it, I guess that's ok :) And in the evenings when the sky is cleared, get dressed in some warm clothes and go for a ride. The cold air can rejuvenate the body. But if you stay out in the cold weather for long, instead of your nose turning pink, it will turn, hmmm, moist ;) So stop at the nearest comfy coffee shop, and again wrap your pashmina shawls against yourself and take a piping hot cup of coffee. This when done with loved ones gives rejuvenation# 2.

And in the late-evening(late-evening, not night), get back home and take a refreshing hot water bath. After that, get all curled up in the sofa with dinner and watch a movie(am not sure whether it rains/drizzles outside at this point of time, but believe me, it IS cold). And well, what else, just drift off to sleep!

Note from a not-so-old Jeans

Hi,

I am a not-so-old jean and just thought that I should pen some of my feelings(for someone to know and understand)

As for some background information on me,I am Mr. Grey Straight Lee. The first time I opened my eyes, I was at a Lee showroom at MG.Road, Bangalore. What happened during the first few days of my stay there is a company secret, and I can't share that with you. However, one fine morning, a young lady did come with her friend and picked me up, and from thereon I have been having a life too.

At first, I saw more of Bangalore and I got to learn which tees and sneakers go best with me, and I made friends with all those guys. I was having so much fun going around places, and hanging out at malls. It was at this juncture that I was picked among many competitors to be worn on a trip to Kerala, her hometown. I had this very triumphant smile on my face when I was taken out of the cupboard after a refreshing bath, which we, the jeans, rarely get. And lo, we were all set to go home.

When we reached the bus depot here, I did see a lot of people like me around, but then I was just not bothered. It was late night, and I wanted to be up and about early the next day since one of the old guys in the cupboard had told me that Kerala is too beautiful a place. As soon as we hopped into the bus, I checked the surroundings and then drifted off to sleep.

It was with a sudden shake that I woke up in the morning. We got out of the bus, and the cool monsoon showers were on us, and boy, the sight was indeed breathtaking(not that I have any). We hopped onto another local bus, and this time, I was in for a surprise. I looked around for admiring glances since I knew that we were at our Bangalore-best, and instead I saw people were staring at me from all angles. Can you believe it? I first thought that they are all probably sooo very taken in by my looks, but no, even the sneakers and the T-shirt were being glared at. And yes, those were glares. I was embarassed and tried to look for another one of my sort around, and for my utter dismay, couldn't find even one in the bus. That was the first time it was happening for me. I was used to seeing a few Sarees/Churidhars but it was always more of my sort, and this time it was a completely different story. God, I just wanted to be out, and we soon did.

On the walk which followed, there were more stares(read,glares) but I had got used to it by then. I was absorbing the surroundings and all the beauty in it. We soon reached home and I rested for sometime. I was not selected to go out over the next few days, but by then, I knew the reason too well. By the time I was picked again, we were all set to come back to Bangalore. I had to settle upon dusty berth in the train in that cold weather and we were soon back here. Man, that trip really was an experience that I can add to my resume. I had been here with her during those tough moments and proved how good a friend I am.

My days here after that started getting really boring soon and I thiught I have seen the worst with formal dress-code being made implemented at her office. But no, such things have no end. Yesterday, Mr. Blue Boot Lee made his entrance to the cupboard, and I was moved to the row beneath to give way to him. I cried all night, and the fellow guys in my new shelf consoled me saying that changes are inevitable in life and that old jeans will always remain good friends, come whatever new brand/style may. I just hope that what they said proves to be right and that she understands my plight by reading this, and comes back to me. I am waiting, for those good old days...

Happy Onam!!!

Today is Uthradam, the 9th day in the month of Chingam(Shravan) and tomorrow is Thiruvonam, a festive day at Kerala. And I wish to wish you all a verrry Happy Onam..


And about my Onam this year, I am not at home but at Bangalore. Had some work to finish and had to stay back here having postponed my vacation by a week. But Onam here will not be all so boring as I imagined, because TV shows are not going to take all my time this year. Instead, we have decided to follow the tradition with a small Sadhya (with Palada pradhaman, of course), wearing Onam saree(mundum neryathum), wishing near and dear ones and being happy, which is what Onam is all about. There will not be any Thiruvathirakali or Thumbithullal, but I don't think that we have all that in Kerala nowadays. So I should definitely not be looking forward to all that being at Bangalore(though you cant cross a street here without coming across a Malayalee). And moreover, am not sure whether Mahabali visits Bangalore ;) From all what I have heard and read, he vistis only Kerala(its only in the Mimics-parade and parady-cassettes that he is at all places, and almost always at the Arab land).

The biggest attraction about Onam is the Onasadya. Its said that you should have a feast this day, howmuchever sacrifices you gotta make for that. And people do not care about this part, coz its the part looked forward to by everyone the most, for this grand festival. Its supposedly the most grand meal prepared by any civilization/cultures in the world. And the feast devoured from banana leaves, is just lip-smackingly delicious, and even more so, coz its preparation is a combined effort of the family.

And as a kid, it was the pookalam part which had always excited me. We used to make a colorful arrangement of flowers in front of our house and pray that Mahabali likes ours the best(though for pookalm competitions at school, I wanted judges to like ours the most, not Mahabali :) And on the day of Thiruvonam, we use make 'maveli' with clay, and that adorns the centre of the pookalam, making it an even more beautiful sight.

Well.. thats how my Onam stories go, and coming back point-blank to my intention of blogging this: "Wish u all a very Happy Onam, and hope that you have a rocking time ahead!!!"

Me and Aircrafts!!!

You must be wondering what is with the title, well, let me explain.. I am trying to describe the various feelings that aircrafts have brought to my life..

Admiration for my creative self:
This was the feeling I used to experience every time I tear old papers and make aeroplanes which zooms around the room :)

Excitement:
As you can very well guess, this was the feeling I experienced the most when I was about to get into a flight from Coimbatore to Hyderabad, my first ever flight, the one which I was looking forward to, as excited as one can be... The scene I had imagined was verrry different from the one I experienced. I had imagined an airport where as soon as I check-in, I would see a lot of pilots and air-hostesses/stewards walking busily and men in suits cluttered all around, buses parked to take the travelers to their respective flights and what not(yes, you are right, just the stuff we see in movies and read about, but then that was my only source of information!). And for those who have not seen the airport at Coimbatore, let me just explain, as soon as you check-in, you need to walk(just like how you walk in Majestic, but not that long a walk), and find your flight. These will be parked on a side(am not sure whether 'park' is the right word, but I do not know of a better one), and you get onto it. N lo, its done, you are boarded. Its as simple as that - no complications at all!!! But I was nevertheless excited and it lasted until I we neared Hyderabad where I could see Buddha's statue from the altitude. That was really great and it soon gave way to another feeling:

Fear:
As the steward announced us to wear seat-belts, we were told of a small delay. At first, I was excited again at the prospect of flying for a few more minutes, but after that bad thoughts started coming in giving way to fear(just like they always do), and I was wondering of what would have happened causing this disturbance. I just wanted to touch the ground then, and ofcourse, I wanted to be touch the ground safely unlike the way the thoughts which were haunting me then were hinting.

Relief:
Well, this was just a matter of few seconds when we descended and the big bird stopped properly, and then someone explained that we were circling the airport owing to congestion(this was at the earlier Begumpet airport). And the airport this time was very much similar to the ones in my imagination with airport buses and everything (only thing was that I wanted to be out!)

Sorrow:
This is an altogether different incident, something most of us would have experienced when people close to us take a flight and we feel that we are left behind, again. When little Sona turned around and said 'tata', I felt that there was no grief greater than that..

Grrrrr feeling:
This was on another trip from Hyderabad. I had my leg plastered then(owing to a Masala Dosa at Google, but that's an altogether different story), and was checking in when the lady at the counter asked me why I had not booked my ticket mentioning "handicapped" since that would have fetched me a discounted rate. I was already very much cross over a Masala Dosa, and this dialogue was too much for me to take in then. It was very much a "grrrrrrrrr" feeling I experienced then(hope you understand what it means :)

And yeah, excitement on someone else missing a flight:
Yeah, that's actually great you know, when a close friend misses his flight and decides to spend the day with you. Not sure how many would have experienced this, but I just lovvvved it(not so sure about him, he paid for it ;)

Anxiety:
And this is the reason for my blogging today. I am anxiously waiting for a flight to arrive, after getting all approvals in place. It's an official trip, but then I definitely don't care :)

Friendship Day

Today is friendship day, the day we used to look forward to, as college students, and celebrate.. the day I used to let my friends know that I totally adore them for what they are(and what thay are not).. This was the day for which we were all prepared with gifts and cards for each other, when we tied friendship bands(which I have saved even now) and fought over ice-cream parties(not real fights, mind you, it was almost always 1 ice-cream and umpteen people ;)

It meant trips to CCD/Barista with friends with cash long-saved for the very purpose,cake cutting at class and a lot more untold stuff. It was all about the colors of life... about how being with friends can change the black and white frame of our life to rainbow colors. Wow, man, those days were lovely(and lively).

And today did not go bad either, I did go out with my friends for a newly released movie, Love Aaj Kal, which was good, and another round of shopping. Only thing that was missing was that I had failed to realize its friendship day. Never thought THIS will happen to me. Things that a professional life can do to you!!! Too much, na? Just hoping that this will never ever happen again. My friends are all special to me, and I would definitely want to let them know of that fact. So let me make a note to my friends, "Love you guys, for all those wonderful times we had, let it be at school, college,or office(and the times we bunked all of these:), and for being there for me, trusting me and above all, being friends. Happy friendship Day!!!"

Happy Birthday to Me :) :)

I have always lovvvved my birthdays, right from my childhood days when I used to be all set for it with my new "color dress" which I can wear to school that day. And I love it even now, and that great day happens to be, mmmm, TODAY!!! I just turned 23. Wow!!!

I got calls from my dear ones both near and far right from the moment clock struck 12 (and even before that, as a matter of fact). And after that we cut cake (It was yummy, will post a pic here). There were 6 of us here(me, Su, Simi, Lisha, Treasa n Amulya), and while me n Simi indulged in the art and fun of cake splashing, smashing, throwing etc etc at each other, others intelligently stayed out of it and indulged in a more benefiting job of finishing the cake off. After that came the gifts part and I got my long dreamed Reebok Jacket and a salwar as gifts. Well, and after that I went off to sleep, and had a good sleep with occasional phone calls in between.



Now in the morning, there is a beautiful collage from Siva in my Inbox, and am setting off to office with a box of Diary Milk. Looking forward for a great day...

Vandu's Day Out

This was a weekend I had been looking forward to for a long while, though for different reasons. We had planned an outing to Chikmagalur, and I was too very excited. But then coz of internal and external issues within the team, it was just the guys who were going. This decision came in quite late, on Wednesday, and I was left with no time to get tickets to go home. On Thursday, I got to know that my college friends were going to Chennai, and then, that too was late, to get all approvals inplace (well.. being a girl IS hard!). And we decided (me, Lisha n Surya) to go out on Sunday.

It all began on Saturday early morning journey to the fish market, and then looong hours of cooking almost 6 dishes (well, I wanted Lisha to learn the art of cookery, so I was, u know, just guiding her on how to go about stuff :). And after a delicious, lip-smacking lunch (Rice, Curd curry, Fish fry, Fish Curry, Beans, Cauliflower masala, Salad, n Gulab Jamun for dessert), I decided to give myself a good break, and started off reading a book which I recently got my hands on (Witch of Portbello - Paulo Coelho). And in the evening once Surya joined us, we went off to Kammannahalli, and were window-shopping for a long while, and yeah, I did pick up a movie for Achan.After that came the dinner time, and catching up with a lot of news with Surya. Sorry, I don't remember when I drifted off to sleep, but am quite sure that it was well after 12, coz I remember setting my alarm up for the next day.

And today, my day started at 6:30, when the 3 of us got ready for Bannerghatta National Park, with a bag stuffed with food for lunch(we had heard from a good number of people that it's better to carry food, since you don't get much of good solid food there). And well, we started off!

We went to Majestic and then caught a bus to Bannerghatta, and dashed off straight for the Grand Safari(which was a good decision, I think, considering how longer the queue was later in the day). We first passed through herds of deers, and then to Bear Park. If you ask me how a beer looks like now, I would probably say that its verrrry cute like a dog, with a face very similar to a pig. Well, thats how I feel, and if you think that my description is wrong lemme ask you 'have you heard about the freedom of thoughts and expresssion?'


And after that we went along the place where lions are. There were a couple of them playing around ,and that made me think of Alex(Yes, from Madagascar!). Only thing am sad about is the fact that these lions chose the right side of the forest to play along, and we were sitting on the left side of the bus. Boo hoo... :(

And ho! Tiger Park.. Puliiiis, and so many of them. Boy, wasn't I happy? Those big, wilg cats, are, well.. there's no other way to put it, just magnificent. They were so very beautiful, and I actually did not bother to take their photographs, I just wanted that picture to etch into my memory right from my eyes.



After the Safari, we came back to the zoo and walked around watching monkeys, deers, antelopes, peacocks, hippo (like Gloria, agn from Madagascar!), zebra(shall I say Marty? ;), elephants and what not. We had our lunch there at the park, and started our journey back.

Once we reached Majestic though, there was a slight change of plans, We decided to go to ISKCON temple. At ISKCON, there was a long queue to be followed, and a man in white asked us whether we would like to get onto a priority 1 queue(forgive me for talkin like a software engg), where we can go directly and pray. Being brought up in a culture where we were taught to endure hardships to worship, we declined, and stood on the queue for 'aam-aadmi'. Though I felt it was commercialization of I don't know what, I loved the place, for the sheer bauty of it!



And then, it was time for us to come back home, and after dropping Surya at her place(not by Merc, by auto), we both came home. And now after a refreshing hot water bath, and a piping hot cup of tea, I sit to surf, to connect to the world outside not by the smell of soil, but by a giant web called the Internet!!!

IF (by Rudyard Kipling)

I was in 6th standard, when I first came across this poetry(when Kannan Uncle gave this to me for a read). I couldn't make much sense out of it then, but thought of it as some heavy material, just perfect for my Englist recitation competition at school. And I byhearted this(just like I did all the poems at school), and won the first prize. The next year, when I changed my school, I recited this again, and won again. It was not until 2 years later that I pored upon it, and appreciated it for what it really was, and since then, this has been my favorite. And today, when I got this as an e-mail forward, my first reaction was to post it here, because I have carried it right from my childhood until this day...

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

-Rudyard Kipling

11:00 AM - 12:40 PM - At PES

(Before you begin reading, let me tell you, this is an extract from my notebook, I had written this in paper and pen, and am simply typing it out now)

There are times when people talk nonsense(or so it seems to us), and we are forced to listen. Well.. things are not that bad here right now. 'Coz am at liberty to write/read/play as long as I dont disturb the class. Yes, Mahesh Sir is at class talking about something called 'Deterministic Finite Automata'! And OMG, Rohan is asking doubts, breaking all my confidence that not a single soul understands what is going on. What do I say now, other than just remark to myself 'Puli Puli'!

And to my left, Simi has come to conclusion that she is fighting a losing battle by trying to concentrate, and probably that she is stressing herself too much by trying to do so, and have closed her book. And to my right, Sumi and Sree are talking about critical issues of the world (read, gossip in whispers). And hey, Sir just asked whether we have any doubts, and can you guess what a girl asked?, "Sir, what is it that we are trying to study in this subject?!"... Well, am impressed, though am not sure what the professor's feelings could have been. She is atleast trying to motivate herself, even if not about the topic in hand(I mean, Sir's hand ;), then atleast about the subject in question... Quite an improvement, I say.

If I look out of the window, I can see a small fragment of the Bangalore-Mysore road, where people and vehicles are buzzing around to reach their destination, least worried about the Tuning machines.

Okay.. turning my attention back to class(rather the people in the class), Mr. Kundithaputhran is busily(n seriously) taking down notes of god knows what, the Tamil girl with a yellow rose on her hair(Forgive me, a lil bad at remembering names) is catching up with her lost sleep, Srinivas is thinking, probably about how many additional features he can add to the existing tuning machines, and yeah, I think that Vineetha's wedding is fixed, she has her hand on her chin and is thinking very deeply.

Oops. Roll call. Let me listen, if I miss this, then the whole point of travelling that short distance from Hebbal to Banashankari is all lost.

After 5 mins:
People around me have all woken up(they dont mind waking upto attendance), and things are back to that normal, subdued mode. Simi has gone undercover, yup, on phone and under the desk(well, she can fit in there perfectly, much to my jealousy).

Nearing end of class:
Sorry, had switched myself on listen mode. Gotta do it sometimes, you see. Problems of being a student, have to put in a lot of effort :( )
And hoorah.. lunch break!!! Bubbye

Back to Square One

Last 2 weeks were a little hard on me (today being the hardest, will tell you why after some time). We have an issue with our application GUI hanging every now and then in the productoin environment, and am the 'bakra' this time, having been assigned to debug the code and rectify the error.

Since this code was recently ported to a Solaris box, I had to start from scrap. I got the path where Java is installed on the box from my System Admin, and started off. Sigh! What a difficult job it was, and too very demanding!!! Every time, I issued a command to compile, the compiler shouted at me, using all words it knows like symbol table, Software Configuration Management etc which made me think it would have been better if it just tells me, "Idiot, don't you even know to set the environment properly beffore trying to compile with a makefile??". But no, it just doesn't say things all that clear and I had to google, make changes one by one,compile again, and ho! listen to all those perfectly 'sensible' messages from my dear compiler. But then, being the hard nut that I am, I fought and fought with every single thing in Solaris, and atlast, successfully made a Makefile, which gave me the class files for my code.

Boy, wasn't I happy? And today, as soon as this conquer of the Mt Everest happened (or so I felt), I made the jars and got all ready for deployment and my testing. I typed in my URL, and was waiting, for my page with all my applets to appear. All I got was a blank screen, but thank goodness, I had the sense to look into the Java console, and it said "java.lang.ClassFormatError: Bad major verision number". I googled for the same and know what? It gave me a pretty straightforward answer. My GUI which runs in Netscape 4.79 under SunOS 5.8 can't work with code compiled with Jave 1.4, using which I had compiled the whole damned thing!! Well.. all I have to do now is to get the path for Java Version 3 or earlier from my SA and start again , you know, such an easy job, considering that my compiler is so very considerate and compassionate!!!

Don't I just love my job, and yeah, my System Admin ???

And..

.. it rained today!!!
I know that its something nice, especially when its boiling hot in the Garden City. But the saddest thing is that I did not even get to know that it was raining outside. And when I came out, I could not smell the sweet smell of rain against soil, coz it was all concrete that the rain splashed against. There were no teeny-weeny leaves nodding at me after a refreshing bath :(

Sitting inside those air-conditioned buildings, and in all the hue and cry about rating, recession, increments and what not, I am missing out on these small things which will actually make me happy...

Now I know why I simply love my monthly trips to Kerala where I can smell the soil, and walk around without slippers, where I can pluck mangoes from the tree, and run to the open space outside when I feel like having a gulp of fresh air. I love it when I am close to the nature, and that is when I feel myself...

And for those who think that missing out a scene of rain is just some 'very small issue', I wanted to pen something: "Enjoy the little things, for one day you may turn back and realize they were big things".

Down the memory lane…

I had been to the temple today, today being Vishu, and that helped me walk down the memory lane. As I was watching ‘Kalyanasougandhikam Ottam Thullal’, I thought about the Vishu of my yester-years.

I used to wake up to my mother calling me with love, and my father gently guiding me to the Pooja room, where ‘Kani’ will be waiting for me and my sister. My mother never used to let me see the ‘Kani’, the night before when she arranged it, so that the sight will be all the more thrilling for me the next day. And when I sit in front of the blooming Kani flowers, and open my eyes, the next day, I see Lord Krishna smiling at me, and a reflection of myself in the mirror. Everything will be yellow and so very beautiful that it rejuvenates oneself (Am sure whoever said ‘Yellow yellow, dirty fellow’ had never seen this very beautiful sight, else he would never have said that).

Then comes the most exciting part, which I used to look forward to, the most, ‘kaineettam’, where people elder to you give you money. I remember days and days of calculating how much of a ‘collection’ I can make that year, and how to spend it. (And being the miser I was then, I used to save the cash for long, much to the envy of my sister :).

After that we run to the open space in front of our house, to light fireworks and burst crackers. It was always more of light and less of noise, probably because we were two girls. But it was always like that unless we had some cousins visiting us for Vishu. And after a bath, it meant time for temple to see the ‘Kani’ arranged there. I loved this part, especially because there will be so many elders around there, and we kids had quite a lot of collection (Now I will soon start dreading this. You see, the difference between debit and credit!!!)

Back home, people dressed in a lot of stuff comes for money and interrupts in between all those TV programmes. And a scrumptious lunch follows, mind-blowing Kerala-sadhya at its best. Mmmmm… it’s lip-smacking.

Wow man, wish I could go back to those old family days. Now that my sis is in US, and my mom, no more, its just me, my father, and grandmother at home. But still, we have a Vishu-Kani all ready for tomorrow, and will celebrate it together. There aren’t any crackers, ‘coz bursting them alone is no fun, but I have made up my mind to have a Gala-time, visiting friends and relatives. There are people around me who love me. And after all, its family-time…

Accomplishments

I have this feeling that I accomplished something today, finally!!!!

Last month has been(and still is) hectic, what with a module of our application core dumping at its own will and wish. (And know what this module is called? Fault locate daemon!!!) We have been attending calls, trying a whole lot of things, dreaming about optical fibers with a micro bend on it and what not!!! To be very honest, I do not have any idea as to what needs to be done about this. At times, things just fly over my head, and I feel too very frustrated since solving this needs a lot of system knowledge, which I lack.

And today, I didn't do much(just like the last few days. Grrr), and suddenly, there was this light in front of me. I was able to put timestamps onto the log file for this troubling module. Not too much of an accomplishment, but I now feel that I am also on the contributing side, and this gives me the motivation, to go forward.

Well.. let us hope that this issue gets resolved soon, ASAP, actually, since its costing me the leaves I had applied for, the trainings I want to attend, and of course, all my evenings!!! Now I gotta stay at office till 12 every night for that damned status call to get over. Praying for this to get resolved soon. God, Do be with us!!!!

Happy Birthday Vimmu

Heyyyyyy...

Its Vimmu's Birthday on 20th.. And Vimmu, Hope you have a blast, and a pic from me, for you :)

Wish u a verrrrrrryyyyyyy Happy Birthday Dear...

(am not thr in the pic, but tats ok! there is always a next time when we can take a pic together)