Path of Joy!

Pic Courtesy - Ashish!

I am on a week's leave, (NOT a vacation) in a struggle to start working towards a committed "project"!! So, after spending the day trying to get my concentration on a book (academic of course) and considering that the letters in there were dancing in front of my eyes the whole day, I was left with 6 hours of study ending up in "effective" completion of 5 full pages!!

Ashish comes home and I look doomed! We decided to go for a walk!! This walk - as Ashish puts it, was the one I "earned" after a day's solitary confinement - EHAHAHA!

So, while we were walking, I discovered the most simplest, serene and joyful moment!!!

All you have to do to self-discover this is - after a full day's attempt at studies, go for a walk through a drizzling evening....gentle breeze just to refresh your thoughts....a path surrounded by beautiful trees, with beautiful flowers - half of them strewn all over, making the path more picturesque than ever......seeing the rain drops gleam in the light from the lamp post....enjoying the silence, the unspoken words...in the company of a "special someone".....

The pleasure, the delight of walking this path of joy cannot be shattered by anything, BUT the brutal truth of next day's study plan!!!!!!!!

Training In and Out!

In yet another city for yet another training!!

My roomie this time was a very young sweet girl from Delhi. She is a fresher and a new joinee, which explains her high expectations from the accommodation! I mentioned to her I was bored and she suggested some cartoons and dumps of shows she had, I had no clue of. I realized I was in a danger of being outdated and archaic!!!

So, after analyzing the potential of the danger, I had a peaceful night’s sleep and get up to see a lovely, absolutely chilly morning! Fighting the Monday blues, I get out of the bed in anticipation of a hot water bath and switch on the geyser. After a while I realize there is no power and I go to the caretaker to ask for a candle, in response to which he says “Madam geyser bandh kar dijiye meter trip ho raha hai aur isiliye power nahi hai”. So, that marked the start of the long day ahead - early morning bath with ice cold water in a chilly weather!

The training starts off with a bang and on time (the corporate populace would concur, it’s a rare sight)!! The trainer shows the PPT slide which describes the ‘goals’ of the training, which reads – not in exact words - 1) “learn ABC concepts”, 2) “to also have FUN” (??????) and he read this with just a smalllll hint of a smirk…..Fun when on a PPT in words, becomes just another item on the agenda! So proved the training!!

The one thing, which our table group was collectively working on, was the bowl of candies!!! We had a decent lunch, except that amount of effort it took to tear (yes TEAR) apart the roti drained us off all energy, so the lunch ultimately had a knock-off effect!!

The subject which we were being trained in is almost Greek and Arabic to me and every now and then the instructor asks “Is it clear?” I had an urge to wave to him and say “Oh yeah ofcourse, in fact, there is soooooo much clarity that I can't take anymore of it!!”

Most of the training team went out for dinner one night….standing and walking in the most happening of locations in the city which had at the least four restaurants in every lane and two in every by-lane, it took us one hour and a half to decide on a place to eat…it was sheer insult to the city!!

Given the “little” time we took to single out the eat out join, it turned out to be a tacky place. We see funny notices, posters and quotes all over – examples:

• “Fighting In Prohibited” (right outside the restaurant kitchen!)
• “Khali baithna mana hai”
• “First time in India, Daler Mehendi in Amritsar”

Any outstation training trip cannot end without a crazy adventure....We all at times have unreasonable craving to eat something yummy....some of them reading this now would agree, there are few species who have such cravings more often than others ;-) So, my roomie had a killing urge for an ice cream...now talking about the unreasonableness - it was at 12:30 midnight!!!!

So, four of us set out by walk to search for an outlet which served icecream - at that hour!!! Far ahead we saw some ray of hope, which turned out to be Barista!! It was obviously closed! The only mistake that guy committed yesterday was, to keep the lights on while he cleaned the place. We barged in and literally pleaded him to give us two scoops of icecream each (now that it was icecream, urge for that had already spread from one to atleast two of us!) We had solutions for any number of reasons he stated for not being able to "entertain" our requests...so...he finally gave up and we bought two scoops of icecream with chocolate sauce!!!

It was am amazing experience to have a mix og vanilla and chocolate icecream with chocolate sauce and walking down the empty road on a chilly night!! AMAZING!!!!

So, that’s a "quick" review of an interesting time had at this training!!!

P.S: Btw, did I mention there were more pillars in the training room, than the tables and each of the pillars had MIRRORS on either side!!!

Hard Pressed For Time!

I was trying to kill time waiting for someone and was browsing through the message "templates" in my Nokia phone.

They were a host of messages like "I am busy in a meeting...", "I will be late by....", "I will call you in...." which one assumes are sent over and over again to same person or group of persons. I thought so too, until....

I saw this one mind boggling message in the "templates" and that was.... "I love you too!"

Truly, people do seem to be hard pressed for time and living life in the fastest of lanes!!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S!

After a very long time, I could catch up with some of my friends from college and some cousins. Its funny how with time things change drastically and yet some things stay just the way they have always been!!

So, this friend of mine, who was perceived to be the most bindaas of us all in college, we weren’t even sure he’ll manage to stick to one thing ever in life, is now doing very well (touch wood) in a field he wasn’t even technically trained for (he operates squint and other eye dysfunctions in infants). He has proved to be the most stable and most responsible of us all.

An other friend of mine, who we were sure is a very sorted out person, has still not managed to sort things out for herself.

Yet another friend/cousin of mine, who has an amazing passion for her line of profession, who we thought would always be in the corporate world, climbing up the sought after ladder, is now taking care of an entire household (which is an overtime job) and has a very cute sweet lovely amazing little baby girl (which is wayyy difficult than working anywhere and any number of hours).

I, who always wanted a laid back life, never wanting to do a full time job and was never serious about building a career in the corporates, now find myself in the bestest of them and feel extremely restless when I don’t go out a day and see the busy-crazy human rush!

Today, each one of us is busy in our own ways, yet we find some time to catch up with the other. These are the people who I know will be there for me when I need them, with no relevance to the number of days that have passed without a call!!

Its funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back everything is different!!!!

Silent Moments!

Pic Courtesy - Ashish!

I need a vacation!!!

Last couple of months have been very busy, stressful and tiring. Travelled a bit for training, gearing up for more!! I always assumed, I like all ways of travelling, now I am not sure anymore! I still like travel, but now I know which part of it and whats it that I like about them!!!

I need a vacation!!! A silent, unwinding, relaxing and a lazy one!

By the sea shore, on a full moon night, soft breeze, sitting by the rock, waves splashing (the gushing sound of that is amazing) and when only the fondest of memories are reminisced. Its one of those rarest of rare moments when we realise what really matters!

No phones, no traffic, no mails, no laptops, no meetings, no clients, no rush hours!!!!!

In anticipation of living these fantasies....

I will spoil this post if I write further, so END!

In Case of Emergency!

I was travelling last week for yet another training in Kolkatta….(this time around it was a heavy dose technical training, so nothing exciting enough to write about)…coming back to Kolkatta….I had this tired, hectic day and so decided will hit the bed early…..finished my dinner early, vouched not to logon to internet and said my goodnights…..I finally land in the bed and realize, the mind and body alike refuse to fall asleep that early, as early as 9:30PM!!!!

So, I laze around letting my mind wander hither-wither….out of the random thoughts, I had a weird thought – what if there is an emergency at that very moment and the building (guest house) had to evacuated? Something like a fire, an earth quake? Given the fact that all thoughts have to be deliberated (irrespective of how radical or weird) – I did so!

The first thing I could think of to take along if I had to run, was my mobile (I think most of us would) but the next thought that struck me, was what appalled me – I ACTUALLY thought of my work, if I had replicated my work and would there be a copy if my laptop was left behind!!!! Can you beat that??

I know few of my very good friends may see the ditcher in me, those friends to whom I have been a reliable companion when it comes to planning different ways of staying away from work, various ideas which would pop out to replace the tedious work schedule with exciting outings etc., [mention about "plan" was intentional, since sadly, no attempt was ever made to execute them :-( ] Trust me guys, this was not a deliberate attempt of betrayal, my mind seems to be corrupted by some life threatening virus!!

Why I thought about this is still a puzzle – maybe I am too loyal to my work [;-)] OR maybe my reflexes are set to a default rework denial!!

You all know answer to this one!! [:D]

The Journey of Hopelessness!

So, anyone who knows me better would know the legendary tales of my cell phones!! Yes, the plural is intended! For all those who have feeble remembrance and for those who are new additions to my friends list here is the account!

My very first cell phone, was the big blue toughy – Nokia 3310!!! It was bought by my bro…I was stuck to it all day long, played snake – the only mobile game I ever learnt! I was very fond of it and flaunted it at every chance I had….until one day…..when I was in the front room (which was open to public view) of my office. I was waiting for a call…I did receive the call but on the office landline, so I ran to take it and after a chat of 15-20mins I hang up and start working on some files when I realize an essential part of my routine of checking for sms is missing – I rush to the front room to find my macho cell, only to realize it had found its new owner unknown to me!! I cried rivers over the loss of it!!

My brother again buys me a Nokia cell, with a promise from me to take very good care of it! After a lot of introspection I realized I lost the cell because I didn’t have a twine to it…so…this time I work on my mistake and buy a twine and always hanged it around my neck…..I felt this was safe….but not to forget, I don’t repeat my mistakes I just make new ones every other time….so, this time, I attended this one wedding when I thought it was drastically against the dress code to hang the cell around my neck and so put it in my bag, a bag which didn’t close properly (the fact which I ignored then)….and that was the last I saw of it….the phone was very conveniently pulled out – the twine made whosoever’s work easier!

Not very surprisingly, I was denied a mobile at home!

Months passed by and I had to go work in an other city for few months…..since, it was the first time I ever left home (to work outside of my city) it was vital that I stay in touch….so….I was “forced” to buy a new mobile…. I was bored of using (read it as ‘losing’) Nokia, so I bought a Sony Ericsson – which was THE most frail mobile I used till date, it had a flimsy keypad and was indeed very fragile! Now this is the best part – I don’t even remember why I discarded this one – I would have battered it to death or would have lost it!!

Then I took my brother's Samsung and another Sony – all very fancy, my first “color” phones, BUT again sadly I don’t remember how or why I parted with them! For all those people who have noticed the common trend in all these using-losing cell phones, YES, it was always my brother who bought all the lost ones for me… after a while he stopped doing it, to induce a sense of responsibility, he tried making me spend my money – it didn’t make much of a difference, I still lost plenty of them!!

In yet another instance, I had this Nokia 3230 – a very nice fundu phone (back then)….I dropped it down!! I don’t know how, it just fell and the screen had a fracture…the LCD had a major damage and I was suggested I call a Nokia care 24/7 customer service…I managed to get the number and called them….in the anxiety that the most expensive of my mobiles is on its journey to disaster, I started explaining the customer service executive what exactly I was seeing of the mobile – I told him “there are colorful juices flowing in the display screen, but I can't touch then, they are inside” – the executive on the other line was mum – I can bet anything, he put the phone on mute and laughed his heart out at the unembellished description I gave! I don’t remember a thing about that cell phone after this incident!

This one time, I put the mobile aside to pay the auto wala his fare and happy with the fact that I finally reached office, I stepped out of the auto and my cell still continued its ride into the city with him….I realized it when I was in the lobby of the office and I screamed (literally) in realization of my loss – the security and me both ran to the main road to try my luck and see if I could recognize the auto – all I had for description of the auto to explain to the security was “bhaiyya it had a green seat”!! “Green seat” an identification to single out an auto in zillions that were there???

Oh yeah and this one, you should know – most hilarious (until the next happened) – I was in the US of A, my then fiancée and now husband had given me a phone to keep in touch during the visit…one day we were both to go out to meet someone and as usual I was the one who was the potential cause for delay and living upto it, I was late! To add to it, I was just not finding my hand phone…in hurry and an effort not to annoy him, I decided there wasn’t a burning need for me to spend half hour searching for the mobile in an already delayed schedule. So, I went out without that….happy to meet someone new and in all the excitement we got back home. What I see when I get back? his aunt had my cell phone in her hand….she smiled and held it up to me, the reason for the smile was – this one was found in the tracks I wore last night…..the reason isn’t complete yet – these tracks were put for wash and then in a 100% dryer – the phone got washed and dried! No ray of hope whatsoever!

Very recently, as recent as yesterday – it was that time of the year when I lose my mobile, but this time you will be surprised I still didn’t lose it, this one just went for water diving and choked itself to death….there were slight hopes still to recover, which I eradicated! I dropped the cell accidentally in the washroom and the rest is history…in obvious reflex and an effort to "cealn" it, I put it under running water!! When I realized what my reflexes did, I tried drying up all the parts, but it just wouldn’t recuperate – my mobile now refuses to work!!

Every time I lost a mobile, I cried…first it was like flooded rivers, then the intensity of the floods came down….and as the number of occurrences increased, the less I bothered to shed a tear, so much so that, I fail to remember the last mobile I cried for!! Thus, consistently and progressively I stay hopeless!!

I am yet to buy a new mobile and have gone three full days without one….it’s funny how it feels to not have it.....I feel so disconnected and empty….Staying connected without a cell phone is a long forgotten memory now! We hardly remember how we communicated way back when there were no cell phones….how did we wish friends on birthdays? How did you tell your boss you were taking an off? How did you communicate at home if you were late? How did you converse with your friends to vent out?

But, on second thoughts, do we really stay “connected” having cell phones with us? The advent of cell phones to most extent does not change the fact of keeping in touch or otherwise!! Then and now – it’s the “intent” which makes the difference – I deem!

P.S: My mom tries my mobile on Day 1 and thinks I am studying or I am sick with a head ache and hence it was sw/off. She re-tries on Day 2 and when it continues to hold the same status, she knew I couldn't study that long and so she calls my husband and the first thing she asked me was "did you put the mobile in washing machine or mixer?"