Sleeping like a log

I am writing this blog because I have nothing better to do and internet is free at office.
This is an incident 6 years and 15 kgs ago...

A typical winter mid-night at hostel, we are all draped in our warm blankets/rajai's and snoring away to glory. Suddenly I felt something near my feet, may be I thought it was a pile of clothes or something, so I just kicked it to push it out of my lazy sleep. What ever it was, it fell on the snoring Lil's face with a thumppppp...and hell broke loose.
Ah...what a noisy dream, why is everybody shouting in my dream!!!?

Lil has a very vunerable sleep, she wakes up even when I turn a page of my book and yells at me...'can't you turn pages quietly???' and I go '@##$%^&^'. She can be quite troublesome if you disturb her sleep, so we normally maintain decorom while she is sleeping. And on that fateful night when something thumped right on her face, she woke up screaming so loudly, she could have brought the hostel ceiling down. My other roomie Supi woke up too. They rushed to swith the lights on...it was a CAT, an UGLY BLACK CAT !!! Now the combined effect 'Mile Sur Mera Tumhara' and they kept screaming incesantly while jumping on their respective beds, so much to bring the girls from the adjacent room to ours.
A bunch of five girls trying to drive the cat out, jumping screaming and giggling all the way at midnight...takes half an hour to succeed.

And it was revenge time, Lil turned to me and I let loose a lazy snore. Enough to get her into one of her ugly moods, she pulled me, brought me to sit on my bed and everybody gave me a piece of their mind venting out their frustration on me for being woken up from their sleep. And when everybody left I went back to what I had been doing best...snoring.

I woke up a little not-too-fresh in the morning. I had had a bad noisy dream last night. I woke up Lil lest she misses the college bus. While we got ready I asked her the question of the century...
'Oye...Kal raat kkoi aaya tha kya??' (Did somebody come into the room last night ???)

I have an iPhone

No really I do...

Only its called an sciphone, has no wifi or multitouch, the camera is terrible, doesn't have the half eaten apple icon on it and costs only 2500 INR odd...one of the amazing copies that only China can churn out.
We had been to the SP road last night to look for some basic dual sim phone and we came accross this. This one totally swept me off my feet.
And...Maa Kasam, every single person in office whom I showed this phone, started with rolling their eyes on me with this people-have-so-much-money-to-spare look until I told them it was a cheap copy of the revered iPhone...and it gets me a lot of attention otherwise too.

Check this out...
I barely managed to grab one of the weird seats on the Volvo, the ones just infront of the backdoor of the bus. Its a weird place, you tend to see the asses of the standing passengers of the bus. As the bus started filling up, I could see more and more asses targetting me. What if they unite and target their natural gases at me...I could be knocked out for several hours. I tried to close my eyes, but the sudden jerks brought me back to the reality every now and then. Having nothing better to do, I started reading the labels on their asses...I mean the labels on their trousers...Arrow, Van Heusen and unknown brands like DeZire, Crimson and even RockStar...I chuckeled to that.

Ah...too boring...time to explore my new iPhone (I insist on calling it an iPhone).
And then the first ass turned, and the second one...and one by one all asses turned on me. I looked up, and what I saw was even more embarassing. I tried to concentrate deeper into the phone...the asses were better I thought. I remained hooked to the phone until most of the standing passengers were gone (ITPl is almost the last stop).

Yeah yeah, not a great experience with grabbing eyeballs I guess!!!
Nevertheless...the phone is all worth the money.

On the way to office today

Db dropped me at the Leela Palace bus stop as usual. I catch a volvo to ITPL from there everyday while Db goes to his office at Diamond District.

I waited for almost 10-15 minutes, but no volvo turned up to the bus stop. I was getting late and the crowd was building up. Even if the volvo came in another minute, I'd probably have to travel standing till ITPL. There was this descent looking guy standing next to me waiting for the same bus impatiently, making these impatient noises every now and then and looking at his watch everuy 30 seconds.

In another minute, a bus arrived, It wasn't the A/C volvo bus, rather a battered old bus, probably the ones which goes on a longer distance like Mysore or Ooty may be. Boarding this bus was pretty much mere shan ke khilaaf, but the conductor shouting 'ITPL,ITPL,ITPL' was too provokating. The young man standing next to me hesitated for a while then asked the conductor "ITPL???" and hopped on to the bus. The bus was still waiting and the conductor just standing infront of me was chanting incessantly 'ITPL,ITPL,ITPL'. I took a closer look at the bus, plenty of seats empty, something I wouldn’t get even if I manage to catch the Volvo. It was my turn now...’ITPL???’ I queried…it was less of a query and more of loud thinking. I hopped in too.

The bus was in a real bad shape, the seats were too clumsy and there was no A/C. But there were two TV's available at the front end which were playing some Telgu movie. There was a huge traffic jam, giving all us passengers the chance to watch the full movie. At first I wasn't interested until I saw Pravu Deva on a wheel chair. Awww!!! Such a waste I thought to myself. It was a movie revolving around some dance competitions and I must say the dances were pretty breathtaking. Prabhu Deva was the guru who had lost his legs to an accident and was training a group (which also included the main lead) to win the dance competition in question. But with the ususal non-sense that any south indian movie serves its audience, there were many such scenes where I went 'What Crap!!!'
Towards the climax, the friends of the main protagonist are kidnapped to prevent them from reaching the competetion venue. The lead is shot in his leg and his shoulders and has to dance aka Basanti to save his friends. Not just he manages to do that, he also manages to dance the competition to the quarter finals, semi-finals and the final, finally winning too. And worse, people in the bus were actually hooting, whistling and shouting while the hero danced his way to glory with bullet shots on his shoulder and legs. Nagarjuna and Chiranjeevi pop in from no where to misuse and abuse the all laws ever made by any physicist.

And the final nail in the coffin...as a token of respect, the lead wants to make his handicapped Guru to do some dancing too. To my utter horror, he carries Prabhu Deva on his shoulders while Prabhu Deva's vaccum pant legs are dangling in the air and they together dance, the lead doing the leg movements and Prabhu Deva doing the hand movements, together doing the Maa-Behen of physics. Newton must be turning in his grave while the passengers in the bus cheered to the histronics.

For sure, one of my best rides to office.

Complexed life

I am getting old.
Lets call it experienced or matured to make it sound better, but it eventually means the same thing...I am getting old.
I am going to be thirty in 3 damned years...that's something man!!! Feels like I was seventeen just a couple of years back, how the hell have the 10 years gone by so quickly.

Now its time to make some serious decisions...
serious??? Now all the decisions taken in the last 27 years seems to be cake walk...choosing between buying a skirt or a jeans, candy or icecream, Homework or TV, engineering or medical, serious relationship or crush-n-bounce.
Sounds really petty stuff...right!!!

Now we have big decisions, big...that could change life forever...one mistake and sooooshhh you go!!!

My age, my experience is also going against me at the professional front.
Three years ago, I felt like a insignificant part of a big company, and just the fact I had a job to hold on to, a kind of job people fancy about was good enough to make me happy and content. Despite of the fact that there were many things around me which I would have liked to change, I learnt to accept things the way they were. But this is a strange stage of my life, where I want to take initiative to go and change things around. But as they say, its easy to find a leader and be one too, but its difficult to find the first follower. Probably in a years time I'd turn into a dumb and deaf figure in the balance sheet of my company...and eventually find my solace.

Phew!!! I have become a serial-cribber...don't you think so!!!

Among all this...there's something to go yipeeeeee about.
I think I am losing some weight finally. The long travel to ITPL everyday, the walking I get to do on the way to office and also the ghar ka khana...looks like this combination is working. My jeans got a bit loose (or has the jeans expanded???) and my double chin is almost gone.

okay lemme just say it....yipeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Hush Hush...!!!

I have a secret...a BIGGGGGG one. One that I am dying to say, but I can't and I won't say it now.
All in good time!!!

And please...I am not pregnant!!!

I am getting old

Late twenties...not so bad i guess.
For some people life starts at thirty...but I seem to be getting old.

I remember during my college days, I was often complemented on my good skin. One pipmle and it showed off as a flashy torch light...and everybody seemed come come and ask 'Hai Hai!!! Tereko pimple ho gaya ???'.

But I feel my skin is starting to rot now.
Time to fight the seven signs of agening...darkess, patchy skin and blah blah !!!

But no Olay for me puhleese, last time I spent 600 bucks on the creme last time and ended up using it for foot massage. It left my face with a string of spots.

To Bhai - On Raksha bandhan

Okay now...this is not the pic of me and Bhai (we are far more cuter....teheeehee), but the idea of putting anything else sounded too cheesy to me.
But the story comes from when we were as small and cute(may be more) as the ones in the pic. I was this innocent younger sister and you were the Kamina walla wada Bhai...you listening Bhai!!!

I would tie a Rakhi to your little wrist and you would hand me the 5 or 10 rupees that Dad gave you for the occasion, while Mom watched and smiled at her sweet duo. And as soon as she left, you would hit me hard and take the money back from me and also take 2 rupees extra as the interest for keeping the money for so long.

I am sorry my Rakhi hasn't reached you this season, I hope it reaches by today evening. But if it doesn't don't get mad at me...consider it to be my revenge for one of the above mentioned occasions. And also to get even with you each time you missed to protect me from Db, when he forcefully switched the TV off finally at 2 O' Clock in the night, or when he refused to buy me one more Tee after I had already bought 5, or when he shouted at me for not taking bath on weekends, or when I refused to take medicines or see a doctor even when I'd be terribly unwell.
I hate you both for that...from the core of my heart. **wink**

I know you have been through a lot this year and earlier too. But now that you are at your road to revival, I wish you get more happiness than you can handle from now on.

Besh Wishes on Raksha Bandhan
From you innocent little sister on her way to ultimate kameenapan.

And this is our pic...you'd agree were cuter. Don't go by his innocent looks...that was just for the camera.

Really???

Its a little late to be blogging on this...nevertheless here it goes.

It was the 13th of August, we had this independence day celebrations at our office. We were requested to wear stuff which were specific to our origins...so I was ideally supposed to wear a Sambalpuri Saree to represent Orissa. But there was something the event managers conviniently overlooked. They sent out the mail only on 12th evening...so that people like me who had blown up to considerable proportions didn't get tome to jugaad the clothes to their currently fitting sizes.
So, no Sambalpuri Sarees for me...and its not my fault either.

I turned up in a routine salwaar kameez, and changed into a saree later in the afternoon.
V is one of our organizers for the event.

V: What kinda saree is that, its got something to do with Orissa???
Me: No, just a saree. For my regional saree, the accesories don't fit me anymore.
V: Oh Okay.

After an hour.

V: You sure, the saree's nothing to do with Orissa?
Me: No, its just a fancy saree thats it.
V: Hmm...we don't have many people from our team who could participate in representing various parts of India.
Me: Hmm

Later that day, during the competetion.
I wasn't obviously participating, so I stood in a corner clicking pictures. Suddenly V notices me and

V: Hey come come.
Me: What???
V: (Pulling me to the judges) And she depicts the modern women of today dressed in a fancy saree.
Me: Hain!!!! (I have better things to wear than a saree to showcase my modenity)
Judges: (Visibly or predending to be happy) Yeah nice nice!!!
Me: Whatever!!!

Guess who is sitting wella today

Rediff news....link

Day care for adults

Db tells me, this actually exists somewhere in Chennai.

Not sure if this is a work of fiction by a notorious male brain.

Updates

I finish 6 months with my current employer today. My confirmation feedback was pretty good but it doesn't matter to me anyways. I have grown over those days when ratings, feedbacks and appraisals meant the world to me. And with this team I am quite hopeless, given the fact that I tried everything possible to bring about the improvements in the team but with no co-operation from the senior level, I got to meet only dead ends. Lets talk about innovations...shall we??? Phew!!!

Bhai has successfully completed 2 months with HCL, and I hope the success continues. With the relief coming from his job, my parents decided to meet the couple at Delhi finally, which would be their first visit to them since their wedding in feb last year. Considering the consequences I had to face when we (me and Db) paid them a visit last year, I found it strange to explain to Mom to behave herself lest she gets into an ugly situation with my SIL. Mom is a simple woman, I know she wouldn't be able to handle it if my SIL loses it and gets remotely close to what I had to face with her. So better she avoids the situation by being careful herself. Yeah!!! times are changing, the MIL has to be careful with the DIL.

In turn, my SIL is gonna come back to us after completing her MBA from Delhi. She'll be here for job hunt. See how time flies!!! Though troublesome is the last thing she is, yet its gonna bring some change in our usual lifestyle. Yet one thing that makes me happy is, because of her arrival, we got a new cubboard and also Db has been organizing the house religiously so that his sister gets a clean and organized room devoid of cables, magazines, bank/ credit card/ phone/ electricity bills being thrown around.

I have bought a new Electronic Keyboard last week, the model is called Casio CTK 700 if you care. So since last 2 weeks I have been playing various tunes, and I am getting good at it with each passing day. Soon I'd be able to upload a few tunes to my blog as well. Db is a real smartie...he likes to play the drums tune on the casio, creates good noise pollution and when its my turn to play my tunes, he hands me the headphones.

Shopped for some 3 jeans at the Lifestyle mega sale, glad to see that my waist has reduced by 2 inches but surprised to find that my weight has gone up by 2 kgs. Is inch loss directly or inversely proportional to weight gain??? Don't ask me...I have no clues...and somehow I have stopped caring too. I am just happy at the moment wearing jeans one size less than my normal.

The Groom Hunt V

Now THIS is the one which worked as the final nail in the coffin.

As I was given to believe, THIS alliance was kept on hold for almost 4 years...i.e. even when I hadn't finished my education. My parents kept avoiding them since they believed I was not ready for marraige, and when they did get interested, the guy was in the US.
I had already met his parents, younger brother, Mamaji, Mamiiji, Nanaji and Naniji. And now that he was back in India, our parents wanted us to meet. Despite of the fact that he was in Bangalore for a couple of days to meet his younger brother who worked here, he didn't come to see me. This was because his parents wanted us to meet in the presence of his family. Weird as it sounds, I had to agree since my parents were quite keen on this alliance.
I had a war of words with my manager to get my leaves approved, so as to make it to Rourkela to meet him.

And finally he came to meet me, again with his parents, younger brother, Mamaji, Mamiiji, Nanaji and Naniji. But the meeting was not half as weird as I had anticipated.

My Father was strictly against the idea of me wearing a saree and carrying a snacks tray to the guy's family. So I was in my room sitting on my computer playinh PCMan when S enterted to meet me accompanied by his Mamiiji (I wondered why they couldn't leave us alone, as if I would bite him). S was smiling and was quite pleasant, he asked me to finish my game, he was not in a hurry...I paused the game nevertheless.
But he was more pleasant than I had thought.
Suddenly all my anger for being called to Rourkela to just meet a guy whom I could have easily met in Bangalore, for which I even had to fight with my manager, was fast vanishing. Looked like it was worth it. I liked the interest he showed in my job and discussed about his own. He was joking on how people think he had a lot of savings since he frequently visits the US, but in reality he spent more abroad and had hardly anything to be remotely called as savings. We spoke about Mumbai, Bangalore, US, his job, mine, our weekend activities, java and business. Not a bit of arrogance, not a bit of ego...or so I thought.

I was impressed to say the least. But as they say, people have many faces.

We kept waiting for their reply for almost a week. And finally when my father called, S's Mum said that they were fine with the alliance but he wanted to meet a few more girls since it seems I was the first girl he had met. I thought that was fair enough though, but I believe his parents were kinda forcing him into it. But eventually they agreed and set up a date for the engagement. I kept waiting for S to call me or mail me but it didn't happen. I was told that his family had also started shopping for the engagement, buying me jwelleries and stuff. But I couldn't get married to him just like that. I had a break up a couple of months ago and I would want my would be husband to know about it, there were a a lot of things we need to discuss which would couldn't have in our first meeting and while his Mamiiji was around...but he never called.
I raised a concern to my parents, but my Father believed that its the sign of a no-nonsense kinda guy...what the hell !!! Nobodody spoke to me...not him, not his parents.

With more updates being fed to me about the arrangements being made for the engagement day, I was getting desperate with each passing day. Its like marrying a complete stranger...I couldn't do that. I asked my Mum to get his number from his parents...but she thought it would be outrageous. There was nothing that i could do.
Bhai came yo my rescue when he said that he hadn't met the guy to whom his sister is getting engaged to, so he wanted to speak to S over the phone. My Mum called up S's Mom to get his number, to which his Mum said that S is not willing to speak to us. It seems he had mentioned that he didn't wish to speak to anybody in my family before the wedding. Since my Mum insisted, she said she would check with her son and let us know.
I could now smell a terribly smelling fish...and so did my Mum.

When she gave the no. of S and a suitable time to call him (as if he were Shahrukh Khan), my Mum took it on her to call him before Bhai does. S spoke to my Mum in his usual pleasant way, but soon after they hung up, his Mum called up accusing us of tricking them to get S's no. and warned us never to call S again. My Mum was agast but decided to stay calm till my Dad returns home. When Dad got to know, he was furious. He immediately called off the engagement making it clear to their family that he doesn't wish to push his only daughter into a well.
They later came back to make amends but my Dad found it difficult to trust them again.

I had had enough by then and asked Mum to leave me alone for a while. Meeting another guy was the last I could ask for.

Hopelessness continues...

The Pizza delivery boy is at the door

Db : Please get the Pizza
Me : Ok
Db : And Pay him too.
Me : **Stares** Okay.

We finish the pizza.

Db: Feel like having an icecream
Me : So get it
Db : You get it na plzzz. Its just around the corner. Take the bike.
Me : Don't you think such requests are normally made by kids to their fathers or by a wife to her husband. Thoda ulta nahin hai!!!
Db : That's okay...but you are my smart, independent 20th century wife.
Me : But who wears the pants in the house???
Db : **Starting at my shorts** Your pants are shorter than mine.
Me : Whatever!!!
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Sipping a fresh lime soda outside Lifestyle in the Oasis mall, after buying 3 trousers in the SALE...

Me : **getting so romantic** Shopping to heart's content, having a refreshing lime soda in such an amazing weather and having you beside me. Aur kya chaiye life mein!!! (What else do you need in life)
Db : Salt...more salt
Me : What???
Db : I need more salt in my drink.
Me : @$@#%#%#%
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The Groom Hunt Part IV

And you thought the series was over !!!
Well...continuing....

If all this makes you feel that I had a very stringent criteria for the men, that ain't true. All I wanted is somebody who is sensible and would have no problems with me continuing with my job. But I had no idea that it was such a difficult combination to find.

With the kind of values I was brought up with, the fact that my father brought me up at par with my brother and I have always been treated equally with men was not helping much. Also my paycheck being heavier than that of most men that I met was also not helping, a convent educated Oriya girl who wants to work post marriage was a no-no for most Oriya men. Also my ever increasing weight...these things matter in the arranged market dukaan you see. Though I hold no malice for people who rejected me for being overweight, good for them because ever since the graph has only gone upwards...so anybody who would have married me hoping I could turn slimmer would have been terribly disappointed.
And the irony is, despite of the fact that most guys I met seemed samples to me, I rejected none of them. All of them either rejected me or had me as a backup plan.

I met K through a college friend, K was his lead in his project. K was interested in me when he saw my picture in my friend's album, but initially I wasn't too interested since he was absolutely bald. Later, after a few months, after getting to know a few more things about him, I approached my friend saying I was interested. We chatted a couple of times, and I found him pretty interersting. He was coming down to Bangalore to meet his friends, and we thought we could meet up as well...it was going somewhere. But the very day he was flying to Bangalore, I found out that he was the classmate of my ex, and actually they were pretty good friends.
Complications was the last thing I wanted in my relationship, so I had to call this off. Guilty as charged, I will forever be under the guilt of the wrongdoing. Worse, I couldn't even tell him the reason why I was calling this off...for a stupid ego trip that I didn't want him to know I was earlier dumped by his friend and nor did I wanted my ex to know I was contemplating marraige with his friend.
Anyhow, the loss was mine...he was a great guy.

I met another guy at the Bhubaneswar airport; his father was way smarter than the guy in question. His father was also pretty keen on the alliance.
After the meeting, his father called up mine to say he kinda liked me a lot but it seems his son finds me too smart for his taste...because I turned up in jeans to meet him and not saree or a salwaar kameez at least. Though I like his honesty, at least he didn't site petty excuses like she isn't fair or tall enough or overweight.

But certainly this arranged marriage business was getting more difficult and humiliating.

Mera TV kharab ho gaya

My TV isn't working. This is the same TV that I had got 4 years back with my hard earned money, giving my blood, sweat and tears. How proud I felt when I could buy one with my own money. But the same souvenir of my independence and self sufficiency has finally dumped me.

The initial signs were showing up when Db was in Australia last month. It would suddenly go all dumb, and showed only pictures and played no sound...but then, like a mischevious kid I would hit it once hard on its head and it would come to its senses. The symptoms went serious when even the slap on the head stopped working and you needed to reboot the TV to get its audio working.

But since last night that has stopped working too.

Db is a happy man now since he hates TV and the small and old portable TV in the bedroom or youtube easily provides him the news and stock updates.

I can manage for a while with the portable TV or by playing the sound on the portable TV and watching the pictures in the drawing room TV (The TV in the bedroom is smaller and of not that great picture quality...and yes I am that desperate), but I need a replacement for the drawing room TV ASAP.

The trip to Goa Part II - Terra Paraiso

Terra Paraiso is the name of the resort we were put up with in North Goa.

Though staying there was more of an impulsive and desperate measure. Our stay at the holiday in was planned for only three days, the original plan was to move to the North and find a good resort near the Calungute beach. But since I could hardly enjoy the Holiday inn due to the complexities that feminism brings in, we were actually contemplating to extend our stay here. Finally, almost as an impulsive decision we decided to move out, and with no access to internet, we made a few calls to makemytrip, who promptly arranged the above mentioned resort for us.

But the decision was not so bad after all.




The Terra Paraiso is situated at the heart of north Goa, hardly 2 kms from the Calungute beach, and 6-7 kms from the Aguda fort and similar distance from a few more happening beaches around. The pool was amazing and ours again was a pool facing room which worked in a lot of ways. The rooms were way more spacious than ones in the Holiday Inn and Ah!! they had a jacuzzi too, but didn't find the jacuzzi effect anything out of the world. But the service was quite okayish and food was bad. Contrary to Holiday Inn, here we seemed to be one of the oldest couples. There were a few honeymoon couples around, who used to sit in the corner with candlelights during dinner time.


Though I found those candlelight dinners very chirkoot...but considering that they were just babies compared to us, may be they couldn't afford a grand one. Okay now...who am I kidding!!! Forget grand or chirkoot, I never got to have a candle light dinner myself, and before you starting poking your finger on to Db saying 'how mean!!!', it isn't his fault...I find all this too cheesy and mushy and Db already knows that a die-hard romantic is the last thing I am.

And there were a two such couples who were here for some fun...you know, college kids who are going around and want to catch some fun together without telling their parents. How did I identify them !!!???Come'on...these are the couples who you can find everywhere in the resort, trying to get close and cosy, since this after all is their chance they spent the money for...while they address each other as 'tu', clap and hug at the drop of a hat.


Here there were many people who were as underdressed as me, but we still have a problem here. Most of the girls had a wonderful figure to show off and were at least 3-5 years younger, and 2-3 sizes down to me, so I looked like an Auntie jiski jaawni dhalti hi nahin. Okay now, Db is tired...I'll stop cribbing.

Once we hired a bike there, life became simpler and far more enjoyable thereon. We visited many of the famous beaches in the days ahead and had really great time. All the beaches were
amazingly picturesque...more on them coming up in the next post. But I am still looking for the person who said Goa is a cheap shopping place...Bangalore is far more cheaper. or may be they sell things costlier during the off season. I have just got myself a few stolls and one bag.

Trip to Goa Part I - The Holiday Inn

A trip to Goa during the off season is not a really bad idea after all.
My vacation could be called a mixed bag. Considering that me and d Db are so different on our views on how a holiday ought to be, this holiday had something for both of us. We got ample of time without office and cool our heels while the last few days of the vacation we also managed to go around the place and visit a few places.

As we reached the Madgaon station, I was starting to feel terribly disappointed. It was raining badly and also because, for a place known to be a
major tourist attraction not just in India but worldwide, the Madgaon station was smelly like an armpit. It was also Bharat Bandh on the same day, and the idea of spending 12 hours in that smelly railway station was giving me goosebumps. But thankfully Holiday Inn decided to send us the pick up cab to the resort which they had initially denied because of the bandh. As we started cutting through the narrow roads towards the resort, my disappointment level was increasing by many folds. For a place which attracts many foreign tourists through out the year, I was expecting a more commercialized place. There were no rickshaws, no petrol pumps in the radius of 20 kms around, the roads were so narrow that it would make it difficult for two buses to cross each other, the town buses looked ancient...my Grandfather's village looked so much plush compared to this. Even Db's hometown Jeypore is also much more scenic than this, if marketed properly, it would do much better than Goa.

Such an over hyped place I thought...

The first three days of our vacation was pre booked at the Holiday Inn Resort in South Goa. It was raining cats and dogs when we reached there. The resort was nice, they had an amazing pool and a private beach. Our room was very cozy and comfortable and also pool facing...it was amazing to just sit in the balcony sipping your tea and watch the pool or the sea. The food was amazing, we had the buffet b'fast, lunch and dinner included in our package and we had a great time with the food that was served to us. With the food at the resort, I found my long lost taste of homemade curd...so much so that I am actually in the process of making it at home now.

I was earlier told by my friends that I would probably look terribly overdressed in Goa, since there would be many who would hardly be wearing anything at all. But we seemed to be the youngest couple in the resort (most of them were with one or two kids, or middle aged couples or corporates who had come for conferences) and with my shorts, I looked like the most under-dressed person there. I had got hardly anything from Bangalore that could remotely match up to the sarees and salwaar kameez or the full length jeans with long kurtas that other aunties were wearing there so I remained the most under-dressed person around.
Also, I was not keeping well (the regular women stuff)...and I was not expected to keep well for the next 3 days as well...so all I could do is watch people having fun from my balcony. Though it was not as bad as it sounds, but I could still do better by jumping into the pool or the beach. Though Db got his chance to have a quiet and relaxing holiday away from office, the fact that I was not enjoying didn't give him any pleasure.

So, on the second day of our vacation, we decided to hire a bike and check out the Palolem beach. I am still looking for the person who told us that the beach is just 20 kms away, since it was almost or more than 35 kms from our resort. And as luck would have it, the seemingly bright sunny day turned into a ghastly rainy one and we drenched ourselves on the way to the beach. Worse, the beach was lonely as a desert with only filthy dogs to give us some unwanted company. Disappointed to the core, we left the place in a few minutes. But the worse was yet to be...as we were returning back in the rainy afternoon, we lost our way and got a lot more wet and frustrated than we otherwise would have been. We reached our room by evening, and eventually decided to forget the beaches and enjoy our stay in the resort by using the internal facilities given here.


At the end of three days we had the option to either stretch our stay in the same resort for the next three days or move to North Goa. We chose the second option and booked another hotel from makemytrip for another resort in North Goa, near the Calungute beach. Then was the fear for the unknown when we checked out of the Holiday Inn and booked a cab to the north.

Luggage...I hate it !!!

When I was single, travelling home was not a teary affair for me unlike my other friends.

They would start preparing a month earlier by buying stuff for their family, piling them on the bed and not bothering to pack them into suitcases until the day of the journey comes...and the final result would be two pregnant looking suitcases for which hiring one coolie would look inhuman. On the contrary, I has something which looked like a schoolbag which I carried home. For a one week vaccation, It would have 3-4 T-shirts, my lens kit and may be a facewash, and some snack if I am being too generous. My roomies would look shocked each time(probably carrying more luggage than you need is a girly thing) and made sure they ask their parents to add to my luggage. So most of the time, my return trips were over burdened, my own luggage being just one fourth of the total luggage I'd be carrying.My worst ever experience was when one of my friend's Dad wanted me to carry a Rajai for his daughter to Bangalore. I showed him the size of my bag and he gave me this strange expression and offered me to give a bag too. But somehow I managed to wriggle out of carrying the Rajai.

The bottom line is I have always hated to carry luggage, I feel a huge luggage spoils the journey, half with the effort it takes to carry them and other half by worrying about it on the way.

But post marriage, the tables turned. Now each time I go to my in-laws place, I need on suitcase only for myself while Db has to make his own arrangements in another bag. For a one week vaccation, I need to carry five salwaar kammezes, a couple of sarees, bangles, gifts for the family and a teeny weeny makeup kit. Though my luggage is still far from looking like the pregnant bags of my friends, but they are still enough to irritate me.

Now this is a very novel feeling to me.
We are going for a week long holiday to Goa this week (yipeeeeeee!!!!). Thats one place I have always wanted to go. Also this is our first vaccation in 2.5 years of our marraige, I wouldn't call the Delhi trip as a holiday. I started my packing yesterday, and I have already packed eight Tees, two shorts,two slacks and two skirts and the bag is already half full while I still have a plenty of things to pack the essentials, the toileteries, my swim wear, my jeans, camera and need to leave some space for the shopping in Goa too.
Never felt so full.

BTW, we are staying in Goa for a whole 5 days and would be staying at the Holiday Inn. Howzzat!!!

Truth is stranger than fiction

The wake of the news of many models comitting suicides, provoked the thought of this blog post.
I know a lot of people who would die for the money and fame that these ladies were enjoying. Then why, a person who supposedly has everything in life would be drawn to an edge where they want to end their life. Agreed, showbiz comes with its set of challenges and pressures, but every profession has its set of challenges, each life its own set of problems.
I read somewhere where a fellow model has comented that, the fashion industry takes a lot of compromises, casting couches to reach at the top, and when you are not able to sustain it at the top that results to depression and eventually such drastic steps. My question is if something is so important for you to achieve that you are willing to tread the path full of nasty compromises, then you have no right to complain whatsoever...and aren't you a fool to believe that the fame and sucess will last a lifetime for you. So, you got to have a Plan B...right!!!
And why trouble his boyfriend for this. She chose to end her life after a fight, or breakup or whatever, why should he be blamed for that...makes no sense.

As I was given to believe, it seems films influence peope and the societe, everything starting from fashion, smoking, extra marital affairs...everything influences people. But reading more about the film and fashion industry, I feel their lifes is way more filmy than the movies they are a part of.

Did you know:

Hema Malini chose to marry the very married Dharmendra, but Dharmendra's wife was not willing to divoce her husband. hence they managed to escape through a small gap in the Indian Legal system, by converting into Islam.

Sanjeev Kumar never married because he was in love with Hema Malini who in turn chose to marry the married and father of two kids, Dharmendra. The then Actress Sulakshana Pandit wanted to marry Sanjeev Kumar but he kept refusing her proposal since he could never get over Hema Malini. Sulaksha Pandit in turn never married too.

MadhuBala died of a hole in her heart, the most common disease shown in movies during those times. She hid her ailment for a long time from people until she succumbed to her illness. She had an affair with Dilip Kumar and both wanted to settle down, but they had a rift over a court case where Dilip kumar chose to testify against MadhuBala's father, hence standing by what he thought was right. But this caused a drift between the two and she chose to become the second wife of Kishore Kumar instead.

Meena Kumari was abandoned by her parents when she was born but later brought back by her father. She died due to liver failure because of excessive drinking, post her divorce with Kamal Amrohi. It is said that she was as pennyless on her death as during her birth, there was no money to pay for her hospital bills.

Parveen Babi is supposed to be schizophenic, before she met her tragic end, another common subject choosen by many masala movies till date. read more...

Nargis was born to a courtesean but was kept away from music and dance to prevent her from landing into the same profession. She fell for Sunil Dutt when he saved her life in an accident (a common practice in Bollywood movies to woo a girl) during the making of Mother India and soon they married.

Guru Dutt chose to end his life after a failed relationship with his wife Geeta Dutt and Waheeda Rehman. The had also made two failed attempts earlier.

His wife Geeta Dutt died soon after suffering a serious nervous breakdown, she ran into financial problems and started performing at lower platforms like Durga pujas and other stage performances. She died of liver failure due to excessive drinking.

Asha Parekh never married because of a failed relationship, and because she believed her unapproachable personna repelled people to ask her for marraige.

I was unknown to most of them before I dug into it...and certainly I realize that all that glitters is not gold. The glittering glamorous world of fashion is cinema is probably dark and hollow within...and certainly what we see recreated on celluloid, happy pretty faces...dancing and cheering might be going back to a dark lonely life as soon as the lights are turned off.

Truth is certainly stranger than fiction.

Hopeless !!!

Me : Do you believe in mushy love stories?
Db : (makes a dismissive gesture while still looking at his laptop, which means 'No' for an answer)
Me : So do you think I was a fool to believe that I would some day have a magical love story to call my own?
Db : No not really. Hota hai!!! (happens)
Me : You know I always thought I would some day have cindrella kinda love story. I saw in some movie, the guy leaves the girl in the station, and while he is walking out he realizes how much he loves her. He turns back and starts running to stop the girl. But the train has already started moving, so he runs after the train with all his worth...but misses it. Frustrated, as he returns back, he finds the girl waiting on the platform. She didn't board the train because she believed he'd return to get her back.
Db : (Still looking at his laptop) Okay.
Me : You know, I always wished it happened to me.
Db : Hmm
Me : Would you run after the train to stop me?
Db : No, I know you would be waiting in the platform, so I'll walk.
Me : Hmph!!! Okay, say we had a fight and I went to my Mom's place...phir???
Db : I'll send a return ticket to your Dad and ask him to put you on the next train back.
Me : He wont do that.
Db : (Smiling) He will. Trust me
Me : (now irritated) he wont, he wont, he wont!!!
Db : Okay then, in addition to the return ticket, I'd insist that your Mom also comes to the station to recieve you.
Me : And how does that help?
Db : She'll anyway pakaofy you so much on the station that you would snatch the return ticket from your Dad and jump into the next return train.
Me : Whatever !!! **Hopeless guy**
Db : **Evil Grin**

The day I thought Jesus smiled at me.

It was a dull rainy evening when I started from office.

But I love the rain and unlike normal people who'd like to stay back for the rain to ebb, I like to drive in the rain. Also, Db was in Australia then and there was nobody waiting for me back home...I'd never get this chance again once he's back, he wont let me drench in rain. I must take this opportunity, but the only problem was the day being a Thursday and I am supposed to visit the Church. So if it starts raining more heavily on the way, I'll be stuck.

Anyhow, I decided to go for it.

While I had hardly crossed the Old Madras Road, it started raining cats and dogs. People stared parking their bikes at one corner of the road and taking shelter in nearby bus stops. The road was almost empty now, with only a few four wheelers here and there. I got down to wear my raincoat, the one that I lovingly call 'Master Deenanath's Raincoat'. I remember the day I started driving, Db had given me this raincoat and I went 'eeks!!! its so tacky, looks like straight out of some museum. I'll look like an grumpy Aunty wearing this.' . But when has he ever listened to me!!! The very day I was carrying the raincoat in my bike's storage and in a few days wearing the same in the rain. But God bless him, 'Master Deenanath's Raincoat' works like wonder in the rains.

I decided to continue driving, because the sight of the crowd waiting at the road side gave me a huge scare...'imagine the jam when all of them will hit the street when the rain stops'.

It was raining all the time, the rain drops whipping me across my face. My trousers are all wet now, so are my shoes, so is my bag. But I still continued, the empty road was a huge encouragement. I reached the ejipura signal, by then the rain had ebbed. I contemplated for a while...shall I go home, change, freshen up and start afresh, or do I go to church, finish up there and go back home and chill for the rest of the evening.
Since the traffic was pretty less and the rain has slowed down, I decided to take up the second option and took the right turn towards VivekNagar.

As soon as I took the right, it started raining cats and dogs again.
Ouch !!!...
I am already too wet to care for the rain anymore...but at least my bike is getting the much needed wash in the rain. I could see the smile coming on my face.

Damn I was skin wet when I reached the church. I reached the church parking, the security handed me a parking slip, which immediately turned into crumbled powder as soon as I took it my wet hands. Quite a lot of people waiting inside for the rain to come down including one couple who were waiting right where I parked my bike. I remember them because the lady smiled at me when I was making up my mind where to keep the crumpled parking coupon to prevent it from further damage.

I stepped out of the parking to a surprised crowd and proceeded to buy candles. The vendor was herself hiding from the rain when I came to her stall and said '4 candles'. She gave me the candles and a sympathetic smile, I gave her an enthusiastic one.

I proceeded towards the church main door to almost a hundred spectators who were waiting at rain secure places and were visibly amused to see a round shaped woman (no girl) in tacky Raincoat waking lazily in one of the heaviest rain that Bangalore had seen in a while, and at the top of all that smiling too. I reached inside and lit my candles and stood there still smiling at Jesus and eventually took the same path back to the parking to find the same couple still waiting right where I left them. The lady smiled at me as my bike's engine roared to life.
At the parking exit I handed over the crumpled remains of the coupon to the security with a two rupees coin and crossing the rest of the waiting crowd, I drove away to glory in the still heavy rain while I thought Jesus must also be smiling at me.

Finally, I reached home...drenched from head to toe in ice cold rain water and my clothes sticking to me like second skin but somehow still amused.
As I changed I helped myself to a cup of coffee, I thought to myself, if this doesn't please Jesus what will.

A Thought

A bug a day, keeps the build away.

:(

A Lazy Post

I haven't been blogging for a while now.
Its been busy all the while...the new job with new responsibilities.
There are quite a few updates though. Life's been moving, moving at a decent pace.

1. Db is back from Australia. Its been 3 months that we met. He's back with too many gifts...he's got me sooooooo many awesome dresses, but the sad part is they do not fit me well. I need to lose a lot of kgs to get into them gracefully.

2. Bhai has landed himself up in a descent job, in fact the job is good and I am very happy for him. But I would like to believe that I am not to happy, until he gets his first payslip.

3. My parents are quite happy and relieved with what Bhai has got himself...and the fact that they are happy, makes me more happy.

4. We are planning (well yes still planning) for our first holiday in the 2.5 years that we have been married. There has been no time all this while, and if we had the time there were other things that needed our attention. So finally we (rather I, Db is always in for a holiday) decided to live my life, stop thinking about others and give myself a break from everything else. While I have been punishing myself on the pretext of the responsibilities that came on me, others have obviously taken a chill pill. Its time I took one too.

5. We are planning to pay off the last installment for the plot in a few months. Then the plot is all ours to build our dream home.

There are more updates but all in good time.
Right now I am just waiting for the tester, as and when she raises more bugs...I need to push it to others in the team and (**yawn**) chill out myself. Seniority brings in a few good things too, and this is one of them.

Plus one

Its my b'day again.

**Grins**

Rajneeti...the kyuns???

I have a few questions to the Rajneeti makers.

1. What was the significance of having Ajay Devgan to play the illegitimate son. He could as well have been the Master Deenanath who had nothing to do with the politically influencial family, and the story would yet have the same. And the Kunti-meets-Karna scene...' tum mere jyestha putra ho' (still cringing). This could surely have been a modern take on Mahabharata, but the actress must have been possessed by the Kunti atma to speak those saskrit words...so lame.

2. The significance of women in the movie is just to say 'Mein Maa banein waali hoon'. How come all the women get pregnant by just making out just once?...so convinient !!!

3. Why did we need a accented Katrina to play the character Indu who aspires to be a part of politics. She seems to be very much been in India to have an accent, while the America returned Ranbir speaks pure hindi as well as Sanskrit words at times with ease. So much to create the hype of being a Sonia Gandhi inspired character !!!

4. Katrina plays a sports car driving, chewing gum munching girl who needs no license to kiss (license gaadi chalanein ke liye ya tumhe kiss karnein ke liye? cringing again!!!). Yet she agrees to get married to the elder brother of the love of her life and being thrown around like a commodity.

5. If Nana Patekar drops his idea of killing Ajay Devgan after knowing that he is the Kunti's Karna, how come he encourages Ranbir to kill him.

6. I am yet to find a politician who looks remotely half as good looking as Arjun Rampal??? Even while he is doing the Maa-Behen of the poilice commisioner, he looks hardly believable.

7. Can you really get away with killing your Chacha and cousins so easily, not as much as setting up an inquiry commission on it.

8. After the scene on the airport where Katrina tells Ranbir that she would get him back from New York, I was waiting for the twist when it would be revealed that the deaths were actually planned by her. But instead when Ranbir finds out the murderer, he turns out to be the oh-so-predictable Ajay Devgan. A very amazing twist missied to the story.

9. Why exaggerate so much ??? Do political families really go around on a killing spree, targeting their own family???

10. Why make the mokery of a veteran actor like Nasseruddin Shah? All he does is donate his sperm to the script .

Top 10 lessons learnt from staying alone in my house

1. Stay online as much as you can...and bless people who ping you. It reassures you that you are not an crotchety old lady who is sitting alone in a house.

2. Get addicted to facebook or orkut. Comment on everyone's status and like everything that anybody says or does. This way you make a good chance that when you start a thread, there are people replying to it and that starts a neverending thread and kills time.

3. Order in food. Since you can't finish it all by yourself because of the limited size of our stomach and your mental calculation to check your weight...the food easily lasts for two days.

4. Write on your kitchen whiteboard 'WATCH YOUR WEIGHT...DONT ORDER FOOD' and ignore it on the weekends.

5. Do a lot of shoppping on the weekend and bill it on the credit card your husband gave you. Watch your kurta collection soar while your bank balance remains unchanged. **

6. Check your weight regularly. Notice that despite what people expected that you lose weight sulking for your husband, you have actually put on a significant no. of kilos. Blame it on the weather.

7. If you don't find the remote, find it under the pile of clothes on your bed, or the pile of unread newspaper, under the laptop, in the fridge or bathroom.

8. Get a new hair cut in some expensive beauty salon and bill it on the credit card your husband gave you. **

9. At office, keep a visible expression of being sulky and sad for being lonely at home...so that they feel guilty to give you more (any) work.

10. Ask in a friend to come and stay over on the pretext of helping her in distress, and curse yourself every single day after thinking when the hell will she leave.

(** Sport a 440 watt smile on the webcam the next day, to make your husband feel better )

Bhage re mann kahin...

I feel happy and light today...why???...I donno.
I just feel like it.
May be because I managed to catch up with a old friend last night.
May be because I see things moving now...moving for good.
May be because Db will be back in a couple of weeks now...he wont be here on his birthday but will make it for mine.
May be because I feel I have lost some weight, an old trouser fit me today.
May be because I have finally succeeded in keeping away my blog from my teemies. **Victory Grin**
May be because I have resolved all the bugs assigned to me today.
May be because I finally managed my Sizzlers.
May be because I am listening to this lovely song after a long time...and it made my day.
Bhage re mann kahin...aage re mann chala...jaane kidhar jaanu naa.

As this old friend of mine said last night...
' You and tensions, come'on you are the koolest girl I have ever met!!! I can't believe you are telling me you have problems.'

I do babes...I do. Too many to handle. Each time I think I have reached the end of the rope, I am pushed one more time.
But I am happy happy today and it actually makes me feel KOOL like you mentioned.

How I wish it rains today !!!

Hangover

I am too sleepy today, could be the wine that I had last night.

And that was some experience.
I met Db's friends SSS and M around 10 in the morning. We started making plans for the day, the scope being from watching a movie to visiting the nearest pub for a glass of wine. But Db vetoed the idea of getting drunk since he didn't want me to drive in that case.
Finally we decided to go out for lunch, then go for the evening sow for Iron Man 2...and eventually we take a call on what we wanted to do for the rest of the evening.
So we started around eleven and went to Garuda Mall. Had lunch, and then killed time doing window shopping till 3. By the time we went for the movie, we were dog tired.
Now, despite of the fact that the movie was horrible, terrible and head ache inducing, what added to make the experience worse was, due to some technical fault they delayed the show by some 15 minutes while we were already sitting in the theater. Since I was too tired and the AC was heaven, I dozed off. And even 15 minutes after the movie started, I couldn't bring myself to keep my eyes open. And when finally I managed to open my eyes, the movie wanted me to close them again.
Well, we had dinner at Indijoe's in MG Road (Sizzler finally!!!). But I really wanted to have a glass of wine but I had to drive back, so it wasn't really a good idea. So I decided to buy a bottle of red wine on my way back home.
But by the time I reached Kormangala, it was already 9.45. It was already late, but there was quite some crowd on the road, so I decided to grab my wine from Spencers after all.

I got the wine and put it in the freezer to chill. Around 11 in the night, I pulled it out to have a glass of it. Okay, looks like it has a cork, but I think I have a cork screw at home. I try to use the corkscrew to pull the cork out, but the screw wouldn't penetrate the cork at all. I pull out Db's tool box, I try each tool to pull the cork out, but no help. I could see the hole created inside the cork, which had the other end of the cork, but I wasn't able to pull it out. Already 12 by then
Now, the only option I had was to query google devta. But he didn't help too. 12.30 now.
I was getting desperate, I checked my Google talk list to see who is online and could probably help, but no body seemed helpful.
Finally I tried to figure the cork screw closely. Its a pretty complicated one, but finally I managed to crack it and to pop the cork out. It was 1 PM by the time the wine was available to drink. Firstly it had turned warm by then, and I had no patience to pu it in the fridge and wait for it to chill. Secondly, as soon as I poured a glass for me, I could see the remains of the cork in the wine, which had come off and dropped into the bottle when I was experimenting with Db's tool box.
I used the filter which is meant to filter tea, to filter the cork remains out of the wine. (Jai ho Indian Jugaad!!!)

And finally I managed to have a glass of wine with some ice cubes. I struggled a lot for the sips till almost middle of the night, and with that effort, I am happy I still have the hangover.

Bachaoooo!!!!

Yes, I always wanted more readers on my blog, but never ever wanted to share it with my team at office.
I dont wanna change the title of my blog since I love it, nor do I want to hide it.
Hmm...Kya karron????

Gotta think of a new title fast, before people at office manage to catch up here.

Confused

My team had a plan to order in some food to office and then sit for a team lunch together in the cafeteria.
My manager wants me to take the responsibilty to order in the food and make sure it reaches on time. As the BA in my team put it across to me 'He believed you were the only one who would make sure it comes on time'.

Now there are two implications, the good one and the bad one.

The good one is, he belives I am a responsible person, and he can bank on me.
The bad one is, he thinks I am the most wella person in the team, so at least he'd give me something to work on...or, going by my size, he believes I would take food seriously and that would give me the push to make sure treat happens on time.

Aiyo!!! which one is the case???

The journey...

Last saturday at the wonderla, one of my collegues mentioned that he believed girls fights is far more serious than the guys fight. Well I do agree to that, the intensity of fight for girls might be a multiple degrees less than that of men nor do most of us indulge in the maa-behen walli galian, but while the guys can be friends again the next day, women can never do that. The remnants of the fight always remains in their memory. It takes a lot of time to heal up and they might or might not be friends ever again.

I have a guest at home since last friday...this is the a girl from my engineering college, who was from another hostel. But strangely she is the same girl who apparently hated me then. She would never let go of a chance to put me down, she had snapped on me on several occasions for no reason. Most of my friends also hated her since she had as reputation of taking panga with me. I maintained a safe distance from her since I am quite incapable of getting into a word fights with people.
Hate is a very strong word, but I think I was almost there. I almost hated her too.

We were different in more ways than one. She was the topper of our branch and knew only one thing to do...study and study harder. And I was a free spirit, I had lot of friends, I took part active participation in the fest each year and also in intercollege dance competitions and mostly won them too...while I also managed to score a percentage which was only 3-4% less than her. I believe she hated me because she actually wanted to be me but couldn't, since she couldn't get her books outta her head.
But at the end of the final year, she had a job and I didn't.
While I was terribly frustrated, she surprised me by coming to me, and for the first time in last 4 years she was kind to me...for reasons I couldn't fathom excatly the same way I couldn't understand her hatred for me. She encouraged me and said I would certainly land up a better job than others, since she believed I deserved it.
"Are you alright !!!" is all I could say then.
She smiled and left.
I smiled at her too...and that's the last memory I have of her.

I met her a few months back in ITPL. Being grown ups and professionals now, we spoke gracefully and also exchanged numbers. Last week she called me, she was going through some crisis and wanted a temporary accomodation for a couple of weeks. She asked me and I readily agreed since I was also put up alone...and here we are staying under the same roof since last 3 days.
Last evening we went for a short shopping, halted at the coffee day for a hot cup, went for a late night drive and muched on a road side chicken roll...later I clicked a few matrimony pics of her and we spent the rest of the evening trying to make necessary corrections and highlighting the pics on picasa. We shared a lot of experiences, cooked and laughed together.
I wonder if she is the same girl who I thought hated me so much, the same girl I wouldn't look eye to eye.

Lastly, last night she mentioned.
'I wasted 4 years of college only studying yaa'r. The marks don't really matter, nor do we need what you studied during engineering anywhere in the kind of job that we do. I wish I'd have enjoyed a bit of my life at college. I must say, you made the most of your time at college'
Me : Sigh !!!...' No, I hope I had studied a little more !!!'
And we laughed over it.

Its strange how women behave, oh-so-unpredictable, oh-so-complicated. May be this how God made women, we probably at times don't even understand ourselves.

It is my fault...it has to be.

I hate girls with their typical tantrums. I hate to keep waiting while the girl in question finishes her make up, I hate when people are not punctual and keep others waiting irresponsibly. And the worst part, the disgust shows up on my face. Also, I feel I become good friends with my team and soon people start taking me for granted.

Yes, I am cribbing. After a wonderful day at wonderla with my new team which otherwise is a quite fun group. Just that, a certain group of people with whom I have been close to in this team are probably a little upset with me, also upsetting me equally at the same time. I thought they were being unreasonable and the feeling was mutual.
I think quite some of it was my fault, because I was impatient despite of the fact that its high time I should accept that thats how most girls are, and if I need their company for some reason I have to learn to put up with it. As for the other side, I am amazed at the confidence people have, by being vocal and so in-the-face on things which they quite don't even understand. I wish there was a corporate training on how to talk to people and specially team members.

I have a problem...in all cases I normally find the fault with myself. My dissatisfaction is due to my impatience, its due to the fact that I let myself loose to people I probably should have been more professional with. Its late now but I guess I can still make amends. This was the last day I have let myself go, I gotta gear up and start keeping a distance.

Sizzling for a Sizzler

To start with


and more so if its a lousy weather and I haven't got much to do at office. I had to migrate the existing weblogic application to Tomcat which was no herculan job, I am finished and now I am bored out of my skull.

Today the hot topic of discussion is the cricket match that we played over the weekend and how we lost miserably ripping us off each shread of izzat that we had.

Anyways...I haven't got much to chew on today, so I am just blabbering off on my blog.

I want to have Sizzlers and only at Indijoe, but I dont have company. Normally, I don't wait for comapany...I'd just go and have my favoruite food at my favorite resturant...alone, if I have to. But the building on the old airport road, where Indijoe is placed is closed due to the recent fire in the carlton towers. The next centre is on church street and that's not the place I'd like to go alone. So I am desperate.
I was able to drag my friend J into it yesterday, but he was not keen to go as far as Church Street. He promised me the China Pearl in Kormangala serves Sizzlers and as good as Indijoe's. Reluctant, but I agreed...something is better than nothing, and also because he had a point. Going as far as 12 kms in the sun for a sizzler seems not worth it to a rational headed normal person (And we are poor people, we don't have a Honda City like one my rich Anonymous commentor..teheheee). But, to me it still felt worth all the effort...What!!! When did I tell you I was rational and normal!!!
Whatsoever, I was waiting at China Pearl exactly at 12.30 as planned. J reached 10 minutes late. Its rare to find a girl waiting for the guy to turn up. Anyway, while J was yet to come, I scanned the menu, to my horror there was no sizzlers.

Me : You don't serve sizzlers???
Waiter : No Maa'm.
Me : Is it like you don't serve sizzlers for lunch, or you don't have them at all? (Indijoe doesn't serve sizzlers for lunch on weekdays)
Waiter : No Maa'm...we don't serve them at all.
Me : Can I talk to somebody else?

Another waiter came to attend me.

Me : Are you sure you don't serve sizzlers???
The other waiter was giving me the Cloromint...dobara mat poochna look!!!
Waiter2 : No maa'm, we don't.
Me : Ok thanks. (J, you are in deep trouble !!!)

J arrived in a few minutes.

Me : Kaminey!!! They don't serve sizzlers here...grrrrrrr!!!
J : What??? (Snatching the menu from me) Impossible.
Calls the waiter.
J : You don't serve sizzlers???
Waiter2 : (Also giving the Cloromint look) No Sir.
J : Hey come'on. I have had it here several times. (Looking at me) Sacchi...
Me : *%@#$%$#&^
j : You had them earlier right! You must have taken it off the menu recently.
Waiter2 : No sir. We never had them on our menu.
J : Ok. (To me) I donno how its happening yaar...I have had the sizzlers here several times.
Me : Yes, in your dreams. I told you, I told you...grrrrrr again!!!
J : Sigh!!! Ok...(sigh again) lets go to MG road, Indijoe.
Me : No. I am not going anywhere and I am eating right here, because YOU spoilt my mood.
J : Arre!!!
Me : Yes...thats how it is. Now, you order and if the food is bad I am gonna kill you.
J was terrified of me for the next 1 hour or so that we spent at the resturant. He ordered the food very carefully and ate very less while serving me all the time.

As much as I was enjoying his plight all the while (I love to trouble him), my desire for sizzlers has increased by many folds.

Now what!!???

Bowled Over...

I hate it when people don't value my time, or for that matter any body's.You plan to meet me at ten in the morning and show up only by two in the afternoon...you make plans with me and back out at the last moment just because you feel like it...you plan to meet me for lunch and spend all day shopping around knowing very well that I can't stand the sport for any more than half an hour.

We had a cricket match today, among various project teams. Now, people promised and backed out at the last moment and most of them didn't even bother to inform that they won't grace us...so much so that we couldn't even form the team of 6 that was required. I don't mind people not joining the team, what irritates me is the fact that people commit and then don't turn up nor do they bother to inform before time...so least bothered of the inconvenience that we would face due to this.

Somehow, we managed to coax a few people outside our project to join us.

When we finally reached the ground, the opponent team looked pretty dangerous to us. They seemed all fit with flat tummies, tanned complexion and well dressed in proper jerseys which showed up the name of the team and the name of the player on their back. Looked like they were into some serious gully cricket.
The match started well...they won the toss and decided to bat. We gave only 20 runs in the first two overs and just 1 wide ball (I gave that **ducking behind the chair**). The third over saw more boundaries and by the fourth over they had made 51 runs.The last over was still to see the worst when we gave 4 sixes 2 fours and two wides (bowled by the jugadu player from the other project) which made the grand score to 85 while one of our key batsman got injured.
Soon it was our turn to bat, we started badly. I scored 6 runs before I left the pitch, all of them because the bowler served me wide balls (so no marks to me). While I was walking away from the pitch, I looked back to find another of our key batsman following me after getting out on the first ball. That made 2 wickets down in the first over.
We had just 3 more batsmen since one of them was injured. In the next two overs, we hit two boundaries and a few more wide balls, all summed up to 34 runs before all the batsmen were down

Apni toh balatkar ho gayi..now, thats some defeat.

And the end of it all, the jugadu player turns up to my manager and asks for a lift back home.
'Hey come'on, I played for you..and I played such that you don't have to play the next match...'

Yeah right !!! Thank you so much

Men will be men

On Sunday evening...

Me : I have something for you. Wait I'll mail it accross
Db : Kool. What is it, a picture?
Me : Nopes **wink**. Oh!!! its too huge, some 8 MB.
Db :That big!!! Some video is it?
Me : Nopes **wink**. Oh it hadly reduces the size by 500KB if I try to zip it.
Db : Arre tell me what it is.
Me : Okay I'll just send it across the way it is. It will take a while to upload the attachment.
Db : Okay

He recieves the powerpoint in 10 minutes. It has a few of our pictures starting from the day we met two years back till date. A little brief of our life together with some cheesy lines.

Me: You got it.
Db : yes
Me : I wanted to add some music to the file as well, but I couldn't figure out how to do it.
Db : Good you dind't.
Me : Kyun???
Db : That would have made the file heavier.

A brief minute of silence while he watches the powerpoint and I try to read his expressions on the web cam.

Db: Do you want to know how you could have compressed the file.
Me : ????
Db : What???
Me : You are so mean. You are so rude.I'll never make anything for you ever again.
Db : **smiling**
Me : What are you smiling at?
Db : nothing nothing
Me : Tell me **warning gestures**
Db : Nothing, just a comics that showed up in my (google) reader.
Me : You are so mean. You are so rude. You are.....

The Substitute

As kids, during such rainy evenings, Mum used to make hot pakoras with a cup of hot tea for us while we chilled ourselves at the balcony. The thought of it makes me nostalgic. Every single evening that it has rained here at Bangalore I have remembered my pakoras and tea. Tea is something that I still managed to get at office, but what about pakoras!!!

I have finally got my chance.

A cup of hot tea with Mc Chicken Nuggets on a rainy evening...NOT BAD!!!

The Groom Hunt Part III

The worst part of being a girl is you get easily emotional blackmailed into things. I wanted to take up the offer for a long term at London, but I was coaxed to get married ASAP. Every weekend I saw myself with one more of a kind across the table. So much so that I had almost learnt to sleepwalk through them.

Suitor : I saw your pic, I must say you are not photogenic at all.
Me : Thanks (I saw your pic too, must say you are way too photogenic) **animated smile**

What the hell am I doing here??? I could have been in London now earning convinient pounds and getting richer, or could have persued my MBA degree which I always wanted to do.
What is my future ahead...is one of these guys going to be my husband. If this is the quality of men that the Oriya Brahmin community produces (...there is something seriously wrong in our genes then), I'd rather turn into a nun.

Suitor : I must say you have a very interesting job profile. Great work. You even seem to earn as little more than me.
Me : Yeah, I switched my job recently so got a good hike.
Suitor : Great. Whether you work or not after the wedding...gimme sometime, I'll decide and tell you.
Me : (YOU decide on whether I work or not...KUTTE KAMINE HARAMKHOR @@%&!*!@#%)

Next.

Suitor : Are you ready for an arranged marraige?
Me : I guess yes (Why the hell do you think I am here then)
Suitor : You know, I feel no marraige can work without love. You need to fall in love first.
Me : So what are you doing in arranged marriage pool?
Suitor : Trying to find true love may be.
Me : (Yeah right!!!)
Suitor : You look absolutely my kind yaar. Lets try to fall in love.
Me : (Haila !!!!!!!!!!!!!) And how do you propose we do that? More so when I meet a new guy almost every weekend.
Suitor : I propose you stop that right away and lets see if we can fall in love. You know, we go out, buy gifts for each other, fall in love and then get married.
Me : (and not sing songs in chiffon sarees!!!???...Mummyyyyyyy)
I wanted to shake him...what are you??? straight out of some Yash Chopra movie????)

You meet all kinds of people here.
One thing I was hoping I would learn from all this was patience, and how to take nonsense from people and not get up to pull their noses to howling points.

Argh!!!! My Mom...

Conversation between Mum and me on the phone

Me: Mum, how do you make ridge gourd with poppy seeds (She is good at it, and this is my first time)
Mum: Okay. You got the ridge gourd?
Me : Yes Mum
Mum : And the poppy seeds.
Me : Yes got that too.
Mum : Remember to peel off the ridge gourd
Me : Yes Mum. Recipe recipe (repeating the words creates the impact...at least thats what I believed...silly me!!!)
Mum : Haan Haan. Did you taste the ridge gourd...are they bitter.
Me: Did that Maaaaaaaaa. They are fine.
Mum : Acha add a little more potatoes, since the gourd tends to shrink.
Me : Okay forget it. I'll look it up on the net.
Mum : No No wait. Okay...cut the onions, not too big in size,not too small either. Cut the onion from between, and each piece make three longitudinal cuts and two horizontal cuts. Got it!!! Or shall I repeat.
Me : Maaa. I know how to cut onions, I have been cooking for two years now for God's sake.
Mum : **Random BrouHaHa**

The outcome of this conversation : Bheja Fry.

Moral of the story : If you want to try a new recipe, move you God damned butt, switch on the router, switch on your laptop...and type www.google.com on your browser.

They are back

I am high on Cafferine today, because I am low on sleep.
I cant remember the last time I slept like a log...well I do actually. That was sometime last week. Because this week the bed bugs are back.
And when I call the pest control guys to complain that the bugs are back in 2 weeks after I took their service, they suddenly don't understand any language I speak.

So, today is my official cussing day.

I am gonna recommend this to the cops,CBI or whoever, to use this as a 3rd degree torture for criminals on remand. Let them stay in a room infected with bed bugs. i am sure its gonna work wonders.
Also, last week, I got this new Tee from lifestyle. As such I hardly find anything that fits me these days. Its like I go to a showroom, take a couple of things to the trial room and I go 'Oh it fits...bill it!!!'. And you wait all week for the friday to come and you wear this new Tee to office for the first time and you realize that it has a little hole at a very prominent place, and worse you don't know if it was defective when you bought it or its the bed bugs at home who have been sharpening their teeth on it during the day to come and bite you in the night...I feel like screaming.

I feel like hitting somebody. No, that's not abnormal...I do feel like it once in a while. i used to hit Bhai when I was at home, now I hit Db (sorry, if my SIL is reading this), and he happily obliges too, but he is not around.
So where do I vent my anger out???

I know where...I am gonna catch a few bugs at home today, put them into a little bottle and put them in the freezer and decrease the temperature of the freezer to the minimum and leave them there for the weekend.

The Groom Hunt Part II

Okay so lemme continue from my previous post...

This is the first ever guy that I met for marriage…and coincidently he worked in the same office building with me in the same company, Cognizant in Kolkata. The only difference was I was hardly a year old in the IT industry and he was a Senior Manager on the 6th floor of my building.
His father had called me up once to find my floor and project as well as cubicle no. so that he could fix our meeting. But to my horror, the second time he called he told me that his son actually came to my floor and saw me, and left…and he was kind enough to have liked me they wanted to take it forward. ‘So I don’t get to see him is it???’I asked. To which he said that his son keeps really busy to have time to meet me that’s why he chose to come to my floor and just have a look at me and leave...but don’t worry we’ll send a picture to you.

‘You got to be kidding me!!!’…I yelled at my Mom. ‘I don’t get to see this guy and the guy choose me by just taking a trip around my cubicle…on what basis??? This is not happening!!!’
And so he called the next week.
Suitor : So when do you wanna meet?
Me : You tell me
Suitor : Look I really don't have time for this, I keep really very busy all day. I will call you when I am free you could meet me in the cafeteria for a few minutes.
Me : Sure (I am assumed to to free, since I only hatch eggs in my cubicle all day)
So, finally he calls at 6.30 to fix the meeting at 7 in the evening.

I reached 5 minutes early and he arrived 15 minutes late. As I saw him enter, I had my doubts if he actually is a Senior Manager. He was my height 5.4", half my size...too thin, and looked like a college drop out. I made a mental note to go back and check on the Outlook if he actually is a Senior Manager, which later I found he indeed was.
Suitor : Hi...I have a meeting in 10 minutes, a discussion the appraisals for the team. I excused myself saying that I have a cousin waiting for me at the reception. So you see we have just 10 minutes.
Me : Oh Okay. Lets keep this for another day in that case.
Suitor : No No. Lets just get this over with...its always equally busy day for me.
Me : (okay get me over with...compliments me too well. You got to show you are busy to prove your seniority, particularly to your would be...err...might be wife)
Suitor : You know this meeting was not important. My parents like you, that’s all that matters. But I believe you insisted to meet me...so what do you want to know?
Me : (I want to know which way is the exit) That’s okay. I guess its time for your meeting. We’ll talk sometime when you are free enough. Thanks for your time.

And I called my Mom right then telling her I would rather jump into a well than marrying this moron.


Now this one is special, since this is the first one I met in Bangalore and the first one I met soon after my breakup. We would kinda observe his orkut account regularly and used to address him as 'Tusky' among our group. I hadn't got a chance to speak to him, but I spoke to a lady over the phone a couple of times who claimed to be his cousin sister. She had fixed our meeting on the next weekend at Pizza Hut in the forum mall.
As I entered Pizza Hut, I couldn't find a table with just one guy or one with a guy and a lady, I could only find groups sitting around. And suddenly a lady, who seemed to be in her late twenties approached me and introduced herself as his cousin who had been calling me all this while. She led me to a table, where to my horror, I could see six people including her. Of the five men seated there, I couldn't recognize who was 'Tusky', I guess the photo he had on Orkut was a quite old one.
I was introduced to them, turned out that the lady I had been speaking to was not 'Tusky's' cousin, she was his classmate from college. Of the five men one of them was her husband, 2 were 'Tusky's' college friends, one was his roommate and the last one was 'Tusky' himself. I was hoping they would leave soon, since this crowd was making me uncomfortable, but they all stayed on till the length of the meeting. I was alone on my Morcha, while the other side were a battalion of people and just the thought of being judged by so many people who had no business being here was bothering me. They started shooting questions at me, I was getting a faint impression that they had actually come prepared for the meeting, since each one of them had average 15-20 questions to ask me spanning from my carrer to my culinary skills and my family to my pets.
I contemplated to excuse myself and flee, but the Pizza arrived just then and I wondered what harm would it be if I stayed a few more minutes and finished my share. 'Tusky', I must say was very energy efficient, he didn't speak a single word through out the meeting and used all his conserved energy only to tear the pizza to his mouth. All through the meeting he was just smiling, having pizza and yes he did pay the bill.

While decided to leave when 'Tusky' joined me till the forum main door. This is the first time he spoke in one hour,
Tusky : Well...it was nice meeting you. But I will like to meet you again...sometime next week???
Me : Ahem!!! I work most of the weekends.
Tusky : Really!!! Whenever you are free, you could gimme a call, we can meet. Would you like to keep my number?
Me : Err..okay
He gave me his number, I saved it on my mobile.
Tusky : Can I drop you home?
Me : No, I'll be fine...thanks. (That was sweet)

As we said good bye and I turned my back to him, I opened the contact on my phone. I had saved it with his fully qualified name this time and not just 'Tusky'.
I read his name to myself, low self confidence, insensible guy...who didn't think that bringing 5 of his friends on the first meeting when the girl is coming alone is not just unnecessary and ill-mannered but outright rude too.
I pressed the delete option on the contact.
'Delete Contact?' Yes/No.
I looked back, I saw him walk back towards the Pizza Hut. He had a moustache too. 
eeks!!!!...I pressed 'Yes'.
'Contact Deleted'

The Groom Hunt Part I

They say empty mind is devil's workshop. My mind has turned into a workshop, though I guess not that of a devil.
I reach home by 6 in the evening, I have the entire evening to myself. I have so much running on my mind...i feel like painting but I don't, I feel like blogging and I do it sometimes, I feel like watching a movie and I do sometimes too. But something I always wanted to write about.

I wanted to write about experience while groom hunting, for me as well as my friends...which started with being funny, to tedious and finally humiliating. Lets call them all Suitors.
Lets start with the initial ones which were amusing.

Though not the fist guy that I met, but certainly one of the most memorable one. This one had a an Engg and MBA degree and had come down from the US to meet not just me, many girls. We met at Baskin Robbins in Kormangala.

Suitor : So what would you like to have?
Me : Something in chocolate flavour.
Suitor : Have you tried Banana Split?
Me : No. But I don't like banana and mango flavour.
Suitor : But you should tried the banana flavour here...its amazing.
Me : I hate the flavour itself
Suitor : Just try it once.
Me : No I am gonna waste it I know. I'll like to have chocolate flavour.
Suitor : Okay
And he returns with two banana splits
Suitor : (Looks super excited) Try it!!!
Some part of me wanted to get up to smash the banana icecream on his long nose. How pushy!!!
Me : (With a forced smile, I just a minuscule of it) Its terrible.
Suitor : (Surprised like he just saw pigs fly) Oh!!! You didn't like it!
Me : No (Nor did I like you) **animated smile**


The next one was in late twenties, also working in the US who came down to meet me at Bangalore. He had called me once from US and I was pretty much okay with him, except that he was good 7 years elder to me. We met at the Coffee Day in Kormangala.
After some casual conversation...

Me : So what are your expectations from your wife?
Suitor : My Mom and my sister are a little to the rude side. They kinda speak their mind however rude it is. I don't expect my wife to be the same.
Me : Oh! (Thanks for telling me what I was getting into). You are quite settled, why do you choose to marry so late? .
Suitor : I am not a virgin some women have a problem with that.
Me : (????? Ouch!!! appreciate your honesty...but too direct for a first meeting)
Suitor : Are you like...you know!!!
Me : What!!!
Suitor : You know
Me : Err....does that matter???
Suitor : No I guess
Me : ( Bhago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I guess the guy wasn't interested in me and was trying too hard too shoo me off.
Well...more coming up in the blogs to come...I have all the time on earth now.

Office Humour

A perfect (mis)fit

I feel I am stuck at the worst period and worst stage of my life.

Physically I feel my state is the most difficult one. I am neither thin, nor to fat…rather let’s just say I have put on some (good amount of) weight. So I am probably travelling in the middle of the bridge to motiness. I f I was on the thin side of the bridge then I would have been the happiest person, if I would have been on the other side of the bridge i.e. already too moti, I would have accepted it and taken it in my stride. But I am somewhere midway, that makes me a self conscious someone, who is trying (to try) too hard to lose weight. I wish to reach at least some side of the bridge someday, hopefully the thin side.

On the second note, I also find difficult to fit into any age group. The unmarried singletons probably find me an Aunty, while I don’t find their jokes funny anymore. Most of them seem silly, immature and outrageous to me. I find it difficult to join a group which likes to sit at a coffee shop during wee hours in the night while chatting endlessly to nothing.

While with the seniors I stand out like a sore thumb. They find me silly, immature and outrageous.
I don’t think I would ever be able to talk or behave like one of them, I am just not wired like that. When I got married, I had told my SIL that if she treats me like a friend we can have a healthy relationship, the day she starts behaving like a SIL, it will make me uncomfortable and the relationship will become more pretentious. Over these years everybody on my in-laws side accepted me like this, may be they were just happy that ‘okay…at least she is not pretending’.

So now where do I fit, that makes life difficult for me. The worst worst phase of my life...really!!!
Ok...now. Looks like the temporary singlehood life is taking its toll on me.