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.

Its Kool...

Just last night I was complaining that its getting hot here at bangalore...and its already raining today.
Love the weather today, but its a pity we have to work today, and worse I am not supposed to take leaves for the next 5 months of my probation period and the worst that Db isn't here.
Have a long weekend starting day after tomorrow. No clues what I am gonna do with it.
Yes, I am slowly starting to get bugged by my temporary bachelorhood.

Temporary bachelorhood

Now, this is my time for self glorification.

There are times when you feel like patting your own back, when you can find reasons to believe that you are superior to most of the others in your species, you believe that this is something others probably couldn’t have done.

The first time I had felt this was during my graduation days in hostel…when late one night, ‘Leen’ went to the roof to hang her clothes, and came screaming down saying she saw somebody draped in a white saree on the roof top. Our entire gang gathered together but it was only me who said ‘what bullshit is that!!!??’ and walked up to the roof alone and came back with her balti which she had dropped in panic up there…I was alive and not possessed.
On the contrary, I almost fainted when late another night while I was coming back from the roof top after hanging my clothes, I heard the hostel landline ring, I picked it up and the voice on the other side said ‘Hey…can we have s** on phone???’. I was obviously not aware then that guys from the boy’s hostel were so funny.

Well…coming back to the present I have had many such moments this week.

The pest control at home. Trust me it’s not an easy thing to do single handedly…to dismantle the house and join the pieces back later, more so you have a nosey nose like mine.

I went to watch a movie alone at PVR. Many of my friends went ‘Awww…That’s so bad…you could have called me na!!!’. But I did not feel bad at all, in fact I have done this several times when I was single…Big Deal!!!

One of these days, I felt like gym after office. The gym is in the roof top of our apartment. Late in the evening when I went to the roof, it was huge, dark, quiet and deserted. I paused for the while and thought ‘am I scared??’. But I was not. I unlocked the gym…It was quiet. I worked out for around 40 mins and came back. I dare you if you can do that, more so if a family of 3 had committed suicide in the apartment just above yours a few months back.

Well…I could go on but I think I should stop blowing my own trumpet now.

I am expecting a friend from office on this weekend. Its time I arranged my temporarily bachelorized house to some kinda standard expected from a married woman (no girl). So this evening I have got something to do.

I have never waited for a pay check as badly as this month. First…I am running out of cash while the hoosband is not here, second I dying to know how much I will get in hand in this new company and finally…next week is a long weekend and Db is going to Sydney with his friends, so before I die out of boredom I wanna shop shop shop till I drop.

To which Db says:
Cool , I’ll make sure the credit card has enough limit available for u.

which basically means he is gonna pay off for what ever I have already spent on my card.
I can't tell you how much I adore this man.
Ahh!!!...the joy of having a good hoosband!!! Touchwood!!! :)

Ants in my pants

No, I dont literally mean that, I thought this kind of a title will make my blog look more catchy...not sure if it actually served the purpose.

No ants, but worse...I had bed bugs in my house. They started in my bedroom some time early this month. But for some unfathomable reason, they never attacked Db. Not that I would want him to be bitten by bed bugs, but why the hell me all the time. We didn't know there were bed bugs then, I thought it were mosquitos giving me a tough time, and Db thought it was psycological for me since they never made their presence felt to him.
Nevertheless I tried everything I knew to fight against mosquitos...all out, kala hit spray, mosquito coils...but it didn't help. That made Db's case stronger, that it was psycological fo me.
Hmm may be.
I tried not to think about them...didn't help.

And, one fine night we saw them, just two weeks before Db was supposed to travel to Australia. They were clinging conviniently to the mattress, we carried the mattress to the balcony. I had no prior experience of bed bugs, thankfully Db had.
It was his idea not to kill them, it seems they reproduce from their blood. So we started collecting them in a little bottle or flushed them down the toilet. Looked like it worked, but we shifted our base to the living room bed nevertheless. I slept peacefully for a whole week before they started attacking our drawing room bed as well.
Awhhh...there was no rescue. Another week of cleaning the mattress and drying them in the sun, didn't help too much...but in a few days Db had to travel and I was left alone in the house with the bed bugs to gimme some unwanted company.

Those were the worse days...probably the bed bugs are also like pervert men, who want to hit on a AKELI LADKI.
I tried a small experiment. I have a huge tweety bird at home, a soft toy, who is big enough to be mistaken as a human kid in the dark. I placed it on the bed one night and switched off the lights. After half an hour I suddenly switched on the light to find the tweety bird lying helplessly while 7-8 of the bugs were trying to feast on her. So now I know how it looks on me.
'Awhhh...I'll kill you, I 'll bloody kill you all'. Someday I'll write a blog post on it, if I can get rid of them.

As my 1st move, I decided to consult Google Devta, he knows it all. I came accross this. I decided to take up the duct tape solution, sicnce I cannot take up a pest control session in the middle of the week.

This is what I wrote to Db the same day.

I found a way out to torture the pests...one sadistic way. :D :D :D
I found this on the net
I have bought some duct tape here, I am gonna paste it around the bed and the mattress.
When the bugs come having dinner on me, they ll all get stuck on it.
In the morning I ll dispose the tape and add one more the next evening.

Think this should work. :D

And the next day Db queried:

Any interesting adventure ? did the duct tape work ?

To which I replied:
not exactly.
It was a long night 4 me yesterday.

I came late from offc, while I came back from the church it was already 9. So picked up my favorites from Magnolia ;)
soon after that started the tape work. Since I didnt find duct tape which have adhesives on both sides, I had to manage with single side tapes.
it took me 2 hours to seal the bedroom matress.
Though I couldn't cover all of it.

I slept almost peacefully all night, sine the bugs obviously couldn't reach me, except a few smarties, who eventually got caught and flushed.
But contrary to what I expected, I didn't find a single bug stuck to the tapes in the morning.
though I found a few wriggling on the floor, and they eventually also got flushed.

Any way I have fixed the appointment with the pest control guys, they assure me in 2 sessions they would be gone.
hope it works out.

But it was still the middle of the week, 2 more days to go for the pest control. So I kept using the tapes every day, at least I could sleep peacefully...well almost.

This weekend I got my house pesticied. I was a difficult day for me, since the house was totally dismantled. Also because I have severe allergy to dust, smoke and any kind of sprays, so it kind of left me panting for fresh air. I finally sealed the house for next 5 hours but I didn't know where to go to kill that amount of time. So I went for a movie at PVR, called Lahore. The movie was good, but intension was just to kill time.

I came back around 5 in the evening with a severe headache and the consequences of the alergy still prominent. My house looked more like a refugee camp to me then. I had asked my house maid to come to help me in the evening, I was expecting her around 6. So I cleared a part of the drawing room, spread a small bedsheet there, opened all windows and switched the fan on at full speed, covered my nose and went to sleep for an hour. For a second I had the feeling of self pity which I hate to have. Woke up with my maid calling on the door. She helped me a lot in clearing off things and arranging the house back to normal.

my house is cleared of bugs, for as of now. I have been sleeping peacefully since last two days, except for the persticide smell which still lingers.

My idea of bliss

NB : I didn't want this to be my first post soon after Db left for Australia, the pun is absolutely unintended.

The bug I had been working on all day, gets resolved exactly at 5.34 for me to leave the seat at 5.35 to catch the 5.45 bus. The traffic is mercifully too less and I reach Kormanagala in 45 minutes square...with the lovely melody of 'iktara' swarming from my Ipod and bottle of Thumbs up tantalizing my taste buds, while I take this 15 minutes walk home from the bus stop in a lovely breezy weather...and reach only to find that the yummmm chicken curry I prepared yesterday is still waiting for me in the fridge and a portion of the forgotten strawberry ice cream you bought for your guests last week awaits you.

MMMMMMMMMMMM...I love my life, but I miss you love!!!!

On Leave today

I am on leave today, while I am not supposed to. While on the probation period in here, I am not supposed to take leaves. But I guess I had to.
I have a bad stomach upset, I had a bad pain in my stomach, not to mention the no. of times I have been running into the loo all day, also running a little fever
I wanted to keep my sick leaves, since I normally need to call in sick at least once in the month. But that reminded me of a story, and I stayed back.

Once there was a poor old man. He had a gold coin. He decided to keep the gold coin to use it during the worst time of his life.
Life gets tough for him, he is left with no money. He goes around begging for food, but he doesn't use the coin in order to keep it for a worse time. And one day, he dies due to his poverty, still having the coin to use it for a worse time.

So I stay back to use my leaves while I need them.

Random Nothings

It’s been a while that I wrote something here.
Well!!! There’s been not much updates though.

Now that I have finally adjusted with the work timings and travel factor for the new office, they are moving my project to another building in the Old Madras road. So starting from 29th of this month, I am gonna ride a vehicle all the way to office from Kormanagala to Old Madras road, crossing the major bottlenecks of the city…the Inner Ring Road, Indiranagar and the CMH Road (Anybody who can suggest me a better way from Sony world signal to Big Bazaar in Old Madras Road, is my angel).

Work has already started for me in the new project…even while the KT isn’t quite finished. There was another guy who had joined with me here, but he is more or less kinda absconding. This guy has loads of attitude problem, though he doesn’t look like one could carry such attitude. He hasn’t come to office in the last 3 working days and didn’t feel necessary to inform anybody in the team.

There are no updates regarding Bhai, we are pretty much where we started from.

Times have changed for me. When I started my career in the IT industry, I had this team mate called Debu. He was a non-stop nonsense, doesn't-know-what-he's-speaking-about kinda guy. But we were good friends, despite of the fact that I tried to keep a fair distance from him since he had a tendency to get flirtious at times. Now I have a bit refined version of Debu in my team now, but somehow it doesn't matter to me anymore. May be I am getting too old and all these just look like baby talk to me. Pata nahin!!!

Db is travelling again. This time for a minimum of 2 months. So going back again to a temporary singlehood life starting sometime next week. But this time around I have a few friends, so hope it wouldn't be all that bad.

So that pretty much sums up the last 3 weeks for me.
The next to next week is gonna be a little lonely for me.
*Sigh*

About Kids...

Kids…I love them. But I think it’s just convenient to say I like kids when they are other people’s kids.

No…I am sure, people who have their own kids are happy to have them, but I feel having a kid is a huge responsibility or as Db would like to put it…the ROI (Return on Investment) is very bad.

I do want to have my own kids at some point in life (donno when though), but I am not sure if I can handle the responsibility it comes with. But there are times when I look at other people and feel that I could have done a thousand times better than them. As I told Db the same day, it’s been a while that I met a kid whom I found sweet.

We went for one of Db’s nephew’s 5th b’day party this week. Now, I come from a nuclear family, I have never got to seen so many kids together. Here there were too many kids, most of them seemed to have both working parents.
Now, I believe there is a very thin line between pampered and spoilt, mischievous and ill mannered. Like I feel, I am a pampered kid but I was never spoilt, mischievous but not ill mannered. I remember Bhai and me to be quite well behaved as kids.

These kids were spoilt to the extent that they refuse to speak Hindi or Oriya even with the elderly people in the family, yell at the guests whom they have never seen before ‘Ae…you get out of that sofa, I have no place to sit!!!’…while their parents watch and smile in silence ‘Awwwww my baby is cho chweet!!!’
The kids had all kinda firang names, who believe that speaking, yelling and swearing in English is kool. They refuse to listen to their own parents. Now, what will they grow up to…a confused generation, who would probably have an identity crisis.

I mean...I have nothing against speaking English or beahaving like firangs, but I have a problem when they say ‘I don’t speak my mother tongue’. Even my Oriya is not great, I was brought up in Rourkela, which had a more cosmopolitan culture, and also Oriya was not mandatory in our school then. We got to speak our mother tongue only at home, or within the family and relatives. Despite of the fact that my father is a renowned writer in Oriya literature, me and Bhai have only got a descent knowledge in Oriya. But that is not something we are proud of, nor are we shy to speak in our mother tongue. That kinda shows your upbringing.

I really don’t wanna have a kid and bring him up this way, so that he grows up to a confused individual, and unable to identify himself among any group, American or Indian. I want to bring him up so that he/she can adjust himself in any group, with family he can be as pleasant and charming...mischevous okay but not ill mannered, and yet can be at par with the kind of friends he mingles with.

My first blog from my new office

Now this is my first blog from my new office.

Being a bank, they have some real serious security procedures. Too many passwords…way too many. To set up the minimum no. of passwords to let me access the internal sites and internet took good one week. But my software installations are still on its way, so you see I haven’t got much to do.

Though I am yet to check out the code base, yet going by the technical documents given to me, the project is hardly any challenge. We used jdk 1.5 earlier (planning to upgrade to jdk 1.6 soon), hibernate and springs, and ajax and rich faces in my earlier project…but here they work with jdk 1.4 and JDBC…that’s it!!! So you see, technically its pulling me back to where I was 4 years back. Since this is the IT division of the bank, there isn’t any competition from other servicing companies. So people take a chill pill here.
So it’s not a good feeling at all…kills your enthusiasm.

I have to wake up at 6.45 every morning, contrary to my earlier schedule at 9 am. I have to walk to the bust stop, a 15 mins walk from home, two times a day. I can’t manage to sleep a blink on the way, in the bus. I reach home around 7-7.15 in the evening, saving hardly 2 hours compared to my earlier schedule.

So am I complaining???

No I am not.
Hmm…well let’s just say, not yet.
The reason being the team and the office. The office is the coolest I have ever worked in.
People reach here between 8.45-9.15 in the morning and leave at 5.45-6.15 in the evening.
It’s a good change to find non-frowning faces around.
The team is a bunch of mad caps (most of them), but an otherwise fun loving team.
The HR and Finance are very friendly, and the managers are friendly and enthusiastic.
The food in the IT mall is great…so I gotta watch my weight again.
I walk quite a lot all day, so might lose all that I gain at the IT mall.
The tea at office is very nice, and needs no coupons.
It’s nice to work in a carpeted office after a long time.
They have 13 holidays all though the year, my previous employer had only 9.
I have *Drums roll please* 32 leaves in a year, out of which 26 are mandatory, meaning they are not to be carried forward to the next year. With all my provious employers I had 18-20 leaves per year. Also getting the leaves approved was a huge pain in the neck. Here they are pretty flexible with the leave system.
I have a personal IP phone at my disposal, at all other places that I have worked earlier, 3-4 people used to share one phone.
I can carry my I-Pod inside which none of my previous employers allowed.
There are quite some short term onsite travels here, to Egypt, Paris, Russia among other places (yipeeeee!!).

So it’s kinda great, except for the everyday travel to office and the technology I am to work with. I will certainly try to find out some good projects around and see if I can get through them.

Second Happy Walla Anniversary...

Db: So you are a housewife now.
Me: Howzzat??? I am gonna start my new job on Monday.
Db: So what??? You are not on anybody’s payroll for the next two days, so that makes you jobless.
Me: But these two days are weekends.
Db: So what?? You are not paid for the next two days, so that makes you a housewife.
Me: Big deal!!! So what if I am a housewife for a few days.
Db: So behave like one.
Me: As in????
Db: Make me some good food, mere pair dabao, meri sewa karo.
Me: Huh!!!
Db: Nothing doing!!! For the next two days you have to behave like a housewife.
Me: Okay.
…Dal is getting so costly these days, and all Gobi’s in the market are damaged….what do I cook?? …My friend nam got amazing diamond studs last week, you haven’t given me a single piece of jewelry in last one year,
…The neighbors next door got a new Honda City, we don’t even own a car.
…Nam went to Srilanka for a vacation on this New Year, you haven’t taken me any where ever since our marriage.
Db: ??!!!!??
…. Your Mom called yesterday, wants me to visit the temple everyday, who has the time for all this. Grrrr!!!
…Your siblings are not doing well in their academics, lemme tell you, I am not going to take their responsibility.
…When are we going onsite?
…This house maid bugs me so much, get me a new one.
…Take me to a movie…Shahrukh Khan!!! I am bored…take me shopping.
…Why are you with your laptop, talk to me!!!
…Where are my Saas Bahu serials.
Db: Okay…I lose. Don’t you dare ever leave your job, work till you retire.
Me: **GRIN**
Let the madness never end. Happy Anniversary Love!!!

NB: Since this is my blog, I prefer to write about only those arguments that I happen to win, which again happens once in a blue moon. But my blog is my business…so Meri Marzi!!!