SMART farewell

Today we went to Olive Garden, a well known Italian restaurant in US. It's not that I've not been to an Olive Garden before, it's just that today was a special occasion. My farewell after four years of service at Nashville office. Even though I have another month to spend here but the farewell was planned today as my manager ST will be out office in the first half of January. And a lot of the people would be travelling during the Christmas and New years holidays.

The travel from office to this restaurant was about 20 miles (yes I checked the trip meter). We were total 8 people. We split ourselves in two cars. ST took a fast route on interstate to reach there early. DD, who had an accident couple of months back refrained herself from driving on interstate. I quickly opted for riding with DD to be able to see the scenic country side roads, which I have not seen in all my 4 years in the city. At the end I did not regret my decision, the ride was fantastic. For a change it was good to be riding rather than driving :)

It was first time for some people at this restaurant, because of it's prices. As we entered in, ST & group were already there and had asked for a table of 8. UK had got her camera to capture the moments. So as we were waiting to get a table for us, we started clicking some pictures. Oops! Juster after few pictures the battery went down. UK was shocked, "I charged the batteries last night". We started teasing UK for her negligence on batteries. She was still determined to capture moments. She took GJ with her to nearby Office Depot store to buy a pair of batteries, though it was drizzling outside.

30 minutes went by but we were still waiting for a table. "What a crap!", that's what you could see on everybody's faces. Finally the waitress came to the group and explained that the problem is there is no table ready for 8 people. They will have to join 2 tables but they are not getting any two adjacent tables free at the same time. She suggested we can sit on two different tables, adjacent to each other but they cannot be moved as they are fixed to the wall. Huh! ST went into to check the position and location, and we got ok.

As we started sitting around the table, UK and GJ were also back with the batteries. We were on two different tables but not far but not very comfortable, as the idea was to have lunch together. Which means more than just eating food together. Luckily one other table which was adjacent to the other side and movable, got empty in the time our waitress got our drinks. We decided to join that table and move one half on the group. This felt better, everybody enjoying the lunch together.

All our orders were taken and we were waiting for the food now. All the gossip and chit chatting continued. Suddenly ST said, "Are you ready with your speech". "What speech", shockingly I answered. "I don't know any speech, I ain't giving any speech here". Everybody started to force me in a teasing manner but I kept on neglecting there request.

The food was good. I didn't experiment on my dish, I just ordered what I have eaten in past here. There are not many dishes to experiment for in US for vegetarian people. I was the only veggie in the group, but everybody liked the food. ST's speech request resurged once in a while, "We will hear your speech with dessert". And I spoke to myself, there is nothing for me to give a speech. I'm not a celebrity here, we have just come to enjoy a lunch together.

By the time it was time for dessert everybody was full up to throat. Nobody had any room for a single bite of dessert. "No dessert, no speech. Since there is no room for dessert so I don't have to give any speech now". Everybody started answering together, "No, no! if that's that case then we will order one dish and eat it later". "Then I'll give the speech when you eat it", I replied. I knew there was no escape. I used to be the one who would pull everybody's leg in such kind of situations and this time I'm at the receiving end. What you sow is what you reap :).

"It has been a great pleasure to be working with you people. I know a lot of people I worked with in past are not here to hear me but everything would not have been so great without colleagues like you all. I had spent 4 years in college to get a bachelors degree, and I can relate my 4 years in Nashville to same. So I feel like I'm a double graduate now. I don't know at this point what future holds for me. I've lot of plans but not everything will go as per my plan but I'll keep you all posted. All the best to all of you for future". That was my short and sweet speech. It was an emotional moment. It's hard to walk out of niche that unknowingly builds around you, but you realize it only when you leave it.

ST said, "Well, it has been a pleasure to have you here. You have been an asset to the team. Continue your good work. We will miss you here". Everybody wished me good luck. And the lunch ended with a different scenic ride back to office. I'll miss my SMART team.

(p.s. - No offence to any other team. SMART is a noun here and not an adjective)

Continuing with 12 days of Christmas....

Monday, Dec 15 2008:
So today it was my day to get some snack to the office. I choose to get the great Indian delicacy called Rasmalai (my mouth starts watering even if I'm just writing about it). Not only I decide to get it to office but I also gave it flavor of my hands.

This is not the first time I'm making Rasmalai but definitely this is the first time when I'm making it in such a volume. My roommate AT and I counted number of people in the office. It came out to be 22. We had 3 boxes of the rasmalai patties, which made it total of 30 pieces. AT thought this would be less, even I thought that too but I told him it would be difficult to prepare more than that. I said we would restrict everyone for a piece each and at the end whoever gets the second would be lucky.

We got the ingredients a week before itself. We go the Indian market here fortnightly, so we didn't want to make a extra trip just for rasmalai. Initially I had thought we will prepare the sweet on Saturday itself so that we can keep it in the fridge for a full day which will help condense the dish to enrich the flavor more. Somehow we did not get time on Saturday (had to take a friend leaving for India for shopping).

On Sunday as usual in afternoon, AT and I were watching American football match on TV. AT said when are we going to prepare rasmalai. I gasped, "Oh man, I totally forgot about it". I couldn't believe myself, how in the world I could forget it? The most important activity of the weekend and I just forgot it, what a fool of me. So after finishing lunch I did the 3 hours preparation hoping others would like it.

Monday morning I woke up and went to kitchen. Unlike every morning today I went to see the rasmalai first before I drank some water. It's intact and still looking good. I moved the dish to other container for carrying it to the office. The container was filled upto the brim, or may be 1 cm below the edge. I suspected that the dish would spill while carrying so I covered the edges of the lid with aluminium foil, so that the lid would fix tightly to the container.

All set and ready to leave home I picked up the dish and was waiting for my other roomate KN to lock the door. As he was locking the door I looked down at my dress to make sure nothing has been spoiled. Well the thing has already spoiled my jacket, trouser and shoes. Oh my God! I asked KN to pick up some paper napkins from inside. I decided I would clean myself later, first I need to get the container to the car. AT was already waiting in front of the stairs in the car, so that we can avoid walking in the rain as much as possible. Carefully I walked down the wet slippery wodden stairs, but AT didn't see me coming down. I stood in front of the car door but both of my hands were occupied and I could not open the door. AT could not hear me inside the car as all the windows were closed and he was looking for something inside. I had to knock the door with my leg to get the door open.

As I sat inside in slow motion I realised I could not place the container on the seat as the seat is tilted. The car leather seats, which are easy to clean plus I had put a pile of newspaper at the base to avoid any spill getting on the seat. I just wiped my clothes and shoes with the paper napkins as I didn't have time and patience to change my dress. All of these precautions but still at turns and brakes I had to struggle a lot to avoid spilling. Not wise enough, was what I learned from this experience. I should have taken a bigger container.

Finally it reached office. I didn't open it until the lunch time. In fact people we expecting it so they came looking for it and started opening it even before I planned to open it. Some of them had meeting so they suspected they would miss it, hence the rush. I had to literally pull away everybody. I quickly finished my lunch, put on some last minute garnishes and then let everybody attack it. Also I did make sure I mention tha everybody is suppose to take one piece only as the quantity is limited. Intially people followed but later they ignored.

It was nice to see anxiety and enthusiasm around but I did want it to be unfair for the people who were not in office that time. I think at the end of the day everybody got atleast one piece of it, which was good. Not to forget, everybody did praise it :)

Merry Christmas!! (Sorry had to edit the picture for some posters in the background).

Getting ready for Christmas

Friday, Dec 5th 2008:

It's Christmas month. Lights everywhere. Cold weather. Christmas tress. Santa Claus. And last but not the least, 12 days of Christmas.

Most of you must be wondering what is this 12 days of Christmas? Well at first even I didn't know about it. So I tried to gather some information about it from various sources. The 12 days of Christmas is also referred as Christmastide. The Christmastide starts from the evening of 25th Dec and ends on 12th evening i.e. 5th Jan, because 6th Jan is the day when Magi visited infant Jesus (as per Bible). So people keep on the festivities from Christmas for another 12 days. In some places, by superstition it has become bad luck to leave the decorations up after twelfth night.

Now in modern days, the 12 days and nights are celebrated in widely varying ways around the world. For example, some give gifts only on Christmas night, some only on Twelfth Night, and some each of the 12 nights (I would love last option as long as I don't have to give any :)). To my surprise in US the 12 days of Christmas are celebrated before Christmas and not after Christmas as the ancient documentation suggested. There is this famous song about 12 days of Christmas,
On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
A partridge in a pear tree.

On the second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Seven swans a-swimming, Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Eight maids a-milking, Seven swans a-swimming, Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Nine ladies dancing, Eight maids a-milking, Seven swans a-swimming, Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Ten lords a-leaping, Nine ladies dancing, Eight maids a-milking, Seven swans a-swimming, Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Eleven pipers piping, Ten lords a-leaping, Nine ladies dancing, Eight maids a-milking, Seven swans a-swimming, Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Twelve drummers drumming, Eleven pipers piping, Ten lords a-leaping, Nine ladies dancing, Eight maids a-milking, Seven swans a-swimming, Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree!

Coming on to how it is celebrated in our office is another variety and I'm sure lot of offices must be doing it. We put down an empty list on the notice board. The list contains the date with blank space in front. There are two entries for each day. Now each person in the office has to write there name on the sheet at least once, which denotes he or she has to get some snack or dessert to office on that day for everybody to share.

It's fun and lot of weight gaining (for the ones on diet).

Monday, Dec 8th 2008:
So today is the first day as part of celebrating Christmastide. My roommate AT was one of the two volunteers for getting today's feast. We went to Krispy Kreme and bought variety of doughnuts for everybody. Everyone enjoyed it, as not a single piece was left till end of the day. I have volunteered for next Monday. Lets see what I come up with...

Nashville Deepavali!!!

This was my 4th Diwali in Nashville. This time the celebrations went beyond Diwali day. Since Diwali was on Tuesday, the fire crackers were organized on next Saturday so as everybody could participate.

The Sri Ganesha Temple of Nashville is a well known destination of many Indians in central America. The Temple is only 5 minutes walk from my place but still we don't visit the temple that often. In fact we visit the temple on special occasions only (birthdays and festivals). This time it was Diwali, 28 Oct 2008. We went to the temple but it looked quite silent that day. We looked at the notice board inside the temple and there were no notice about Diwali celebration. We did our prayers and came home. Turned on the lights in the patio. Cooked and ate dinner. That's it, that was all we did for Diwali.

Next day, our neighbour (Mr. S) knocked on the door. He got some Diwali sweets which his wife had made at home. Mr. S mentioned that they looked at the lights in the living room from outside yesterday and they were off. So he assumed there was no one at home and hence did not come in to wish happy Diwali. I told him we were at home must be sitting in the living room watching some video on the laptop. There was not much to do for Diwali so we just stayed inside home. Well we missed a lot for Diwali but we were lucky we still got home made sweets. The sweets were really good.

Then on Thursday one of the colleagues mentioned that the Diwali celebration will be done in the temple on Saturday, 1 Nov 2008. There will be Laxmi pooja and fire crackers as part of celebration. As soon as I heard that an excitement ran trough my body. Hurrayyyyy, we will be celebrating Diwali in a traditional way. Better late than never. The celebration extended when another colleague Mr. K invited everybody for a lunch to celebrate his wife and 6 month old daughters home coming from India. So no work, no cooking, only celebration on the 1st Nov.

I woke up at 11:00 AM on Sat. The lunch time was 1:00 PM. As it was weekend we roommates would be slow to get out from bed, chit chat, watch videos, some movie or some TV show. So the time we got ready it was 2:00PM. I had to pickup some friends from other location. I did that in the time my roommates were getting ready. So finally we reached Mr. K's house at 2:30 PM. As I entered the house, I could feel the nice smell of food entering my nose passing all the veins and giving indication to my growling stomach that the food is coming in soon.

It was all Jain food but the food was really really good. My fascination for food kept me go on eating for about 2 hours. I was so full I was hardly able to breathe and I knew this is not good for health. Mrs K's cooking is so fantastic that I could not resist myself from eating such nice Indian food after a long time and I knew there is no surety when will be the next time I will get such nice food, so I kept going. Mrs. K is such a sweet lady, she was so happy I'm eating so much :).

When everybody finished eating of course except me, we had to find something to pass some time before we go to the temple for Diwali celebration. The unanimous decision was all time favorite "dumb charades". We had lots of fun and laughter playing the game. Foolish, imaginary, hilarious actions and reactions from everybody.

Then in the evening around 7:00 PM we headed out for temple. Everybody did there prayers and came out in the parking area for fire cracker bursting (of course there was no parking allowed in the parking area that day :)). I was very excited to burst some crackers. Well I'm an anti-crackers kind of guy. Its been a long time when I bursted any cracker in India. This time I was in US and in the back of my mind I was thinking that whatever pollution will happen will be in US and not in India so I cared less. I did know that this would will still add to global warming but that thought did not stop me from doing some pollution in US.

Once we finished all the crackers we bought, everybody started feeling hungry (not me :)). It was about 9:00 PM. The temple was serving dinner for $5.00. Everybody was delighted to have dinner in the temple. It was 2 in 1, prasad as well as a delicious dinner. Everybody finished there dinner and we walked back to house all smiles. It was definitely an eventful and exciting Diwali but I still missed being at home.

Global perception about India

Last night, I was watching the reality show "Amazing Race" on TV. This time the race went to Delhi, India. As soon as the contestants came to know that they have to go to Delhi, the first thing they had to say were: "It's going to be hot", "It's going to be crowded", "I had not been to India, I hope it's going to be fun".

When they reached India there reaction were: "How do I get out of Airport, I'm stuck here", "Taxi-Taxi, Do you know where is Moonlight motors in GK (The guy just said yes, but he was lost later on)", "Man! the traffic is so bad", "The roads are so crowded", "Everybody is in a car and blowing horns".

The Moonlight motors was a very small shop in a very small street of Greater Kailash. Many of the contestants went around and around before they reached there first destination. During there journey what was shown on the show was blocked roads due to construction, cattle hovering on the roads and not to forget people staring at the contestants (especially girls, and everybody knows why) as they were seeking help. One of the girl even mentioned that I'm not going to change what I'm wearing, because I'm comfortable in what I'm wearing.

Last but not the least (and this is the funny one), in one of the rounds contestants had to go to a wedding, create a garland of Indian currency and give it to the groom. The money on the Garland should be exactly Rs. 780 and should include notes of all denominations. The team of 2 had to squeeze through the dancing baraat into the banquet hall. Once they reached inside they realized they have to get notes of different denominations. So they were scared to come out through the baraat, but they had no choice. Finally when garland finished, they went inside the banquet hall to hunt for the groom. I was rolling on the floor when I saw they were asking every men on the floor "Are you the groom?", "Are you the groom?". Of course they found the real groom at the end.

"Cambodia was 4 times better than India". This is what one of the other contestant had to say while he was travelling towards Moonlight motors. Frankly speaking I did not enjoy the perception I saw and I just hope this perception will change in coming future. It's not somebody who can do it, it's everybody who have to do it.

Book vs Movie

Recently I watched the movie Hello!. I had lot of excitement to watch the movie. I had heard so much about Chetan Bhagat's book "One night at the call centre" that I could wait to see it on the big screen. I personally had not read the book (as I'm not into reading books at all) but .

When I finished watching the movie I was wondering how come people like the book. The book does not seem to be worth the praise it gets. Then I discussed the same with my roommate (Mr. R) who has read the book, and no surprise he also liked the book. He had not watched the movie, so I started describing my points what was shown in the movie.

Surprisingly, Mr. R said everything in the movie is same as book. The characterization, the plot the sequence everything is the same. Then after thinking more about it I realized that the whole difference lies in how everything is shown.

The movie moves around 6 colleagues working in a call centre. If I was reading the book I would have imagined a room full of people with computers lined up in rows and everybody continuously murmuring in there headsets. In the movie it was shown that in the entire room there were only these 6 people with everybody having there own private desk.

Similarly, there are several other things which you will imagine based on your experience when you read a book but the way it is shown in movie is more hypothetical than being realistic. This is what makes reading a book a much much better choice than watching the same on big screen.

PS: Is "lord of rings" better in movie or in book?

Why should I return?

I have been in US for almost last 4 years. Now when I look back it seems to be a long and tiring journey. Why tiring? because I had given more than 100% at everytime. I took on challenges which I thought were hard for me to handle. I crawled and dragged on everything that came in my way. Today when I open my eyes to see where I'm, I feel like I have raced on the path of my journey of life.

6 years ago when I passed out of college I never thought 6 years later I'll be able to go so far. That time there was always a fear will I be able to survive myself, will I ever be able to live a comfortable life? Will I be able to live up to the high expectations of my family and friends? All these thoughts were always in back of my mind and always bothering me, even though you would never see them reflected in my actions and expressions. Today with God's grace I have answer to all those questions and thankfully all are positive. Now I feel more relaxed person than I was a few years ago.

All this has not come easy. Not that I'm complaining about but it's just how I feel about it. All this has come with lot of sacrifice, more than me the sacrifice from my parents. They always wanted me and my bro to be around them and make a good family together (I'm sure every parents want that way). It has so happened that for last almost 10 years my parents have lived without me and my brother, but they never ever complained about it.

Living in US has been completely different than my days in Amravati (college) and Mumbai (job). Personally I have never felt very good about my stay in US. Most people think US is much better then India, facilities are so good, water and air so clean and traffic and roads are so organized. My answer to all that is that, while you get all that you have to live in a very different culture, eat different type of food and be among people who sometimes think that you are spoiling there jobs. Its not that it has always been bad experiences, I have had lot of memorable moments too. In fact the good experiences have been more than the bad ones and also I have made many American friends and have been praised by Americans quite a few times for the good work I have done. But above all I still don't live my life as freely as I would have if I was in India. I miss being with the family and friends back in India. My country, My people, My culture, My freedom.

In the last 4 years I must have been to the airport at least 25 times. Not just for my traveling but because of dropping and receiving others too. Being an emotional person, everytime in the back of my mind I used to think when will the day come when I will return back to my land. It's not that I have not been to India, I have been there 3 times in last 4 years. Going for vacation is not that of fun, living there is much more fun.

Now that I have made the decision to pack my bags full and final, I'm just counting days backwards. But sometimes I get confused did I make right decision? Yes you read it right...confused! And the reason for that is the activities that are happening in My country. Bomb blasts, politics and other anti social activities. All these make me think why should I return back to my country? If I'm not safe in my country why should I go back? I have option to settle down in US and I call my parents here to stay with me. So was it a right choice? We do all the efforts and earn money for what, to live a good happy life. So what's the point in living in a place where you can stay happy.

I don't have answers to all these questions but the only thing I know is come what may I will still prefer to live in My country. My countries problem are my problem and I do not see any reason to run away from them. Instead we should look forward to finding solutions to the problems. I just hope and wish I'll get a chance to do something for my country. I'll definitely keep on trying to get such opportunity.


Mil gayi mujh ko meri disha....badli hai yun hawa...I'm coming home again.....(Hattrick-2007)

Kaanch ki barni aur do cup chai

This is one of the most motivational story I have read. Its not only about the message it gives but also the timing it has come to me. It perfectly suits the situation I'm in and not only me but many others who stay away from family for work.

I believe staying away from family for education and setting up the career is fine, but later there comes a time where we have to think about family and parents. We should live life in stages childhood, school, college, work, parents and family. Now when I talk about parents and family it does not mean we have to give up the career but we should chose a career we can spend time with family along with the job. Anyways njoi the story...

काँच की बरनी और दो कप चाय - एक बोध कथा

जीवन में जब सब कुछ एक साथ और जल्दी-जल्दी करने की इच्छा होती है, सब कुछ तेजी से पा लेने की इच्छा होती है, और हमें लगने लगता है कि दिन के चौबीस घंटे भी कम पड़ते हैं, उस समय ये बोध कथा, "काँच की बरनी और दो कप चाय" हमें याद आती है ।दर्शनशास्त्र के एक प्रोफ़ेसर कक्षा में आये और उन्होंने छात्रों से कहा कि वे आज जीवन का एक महत्वपूर्ण पाठ पढाने वाले हैं...उन्होंने अपने साथ लाई एक काँच की बडी़ बरनी (जार) टेबल पर रखा और उसमें टेबल टेनिस की गेंदें डालने लगे और तब तक डालते रहे जब तक कि उसमें एक भी गेंद समाने की जगह नहीं बची... उन्होंने छात्रों से पूछा - क्या बरनी पूरी भर गई ? हाँ... आवाज आई...फ़िर प्रोफ़ेसर साहब ने छोटे-छोटे कंकर उसमें भरने शुरु किये, धीरे-धीरे बरनी को हिलाया तो काफ़ी सारे कंकर उसमें जहाँ जगह खाली थी, समा गये, फ़िर से प्रोफ़ेसर साहब ने पूछा, क्या अब बरनी भर गई है, छात्रों ने एक बार फ़िर हाँ.. कहा अब प्रोफ़ेसर साहब ने रेत की थैली से हौले-हौले उस बरनी में रेत डालना शुरु किया, वह रेत भी उस जार में जहाँ संभव था बैठ गई, अब छात्र अपनी नादानी पर हँसे... फ़िर प्रोफ़ेसर साहब ने पूछा, क्यों अब तो यह बरनी पूरी भर गई ना ? हाँ.. अब तो पूरी भर गई है.. सभी ने एक स्वर में कहा..सर ने टेबल के नीचे से चाय के दो कप निकालकर उसमें की चाय जार में डाली, चाय भी रेत के बीच में स्थित थोडी़ सी जगह में सोख ली गई...प्रोफ़ेसर साहब ने गंभीर आवाज में समझाना शुरु किया - इस काँच की बरनी को तुम लोग अपना जीवन समझो... टेबल टेनिस की गेंदें सबसे महत्वपूर्ण भाग अर्थात भगवान, परिवार, बच्चे, मित्र, स्वास्थ्य और शौक हैं, छोटे कंकर मतलब तुम्हारी नौकरी, कार, बडा़ मकान आदि हैं, और रेत का मतलब और भी छोटी-छोटी बेकार सी बातें, मनमुटाव, झगडे़ है..अब यदि तुमने काँच की बरनी में सबसे पहले रेत भरी होती तो टेबल टेनिस की गेंदों और कंकरों के लिये जगह ही नहीं बचती, या कंकर भर दिये होते तो गेंदें नहीं भर पाते, रेत जरूर आ सकती थी...ठीक यही बात जीवन पर लागू होती है...यदि तुम छोटी-छोटी बातों के पीछे पडे़ रहोगे और अपनी ऊर्जा उसमें नष्ट करोगे तो तुम्हारे पास मुख्य बातों के लिये अधिक समय नहीं रहेगा... मन के सुख के लिये क्या जरूरी है ये तुम्हें तय करना है । अपने बच्चों के साथ खेलो, बगीचे में पानी डालो, सुबह पत्नी के साथ घूमने निकल जाओ, घर के बेकार सामान को बाहर निकाल फ़ेंको, मेडिकल चेक-अप करवाओ..टेबल टेनिस गेंदों की फ़िक्र पहले करो, वही महत्वपूर्ण है... पहले तय करो कि क्या जरूरी है... बाकी सब तो रेत है..छात्र बडे़ ध्यान से सुन रहे थे.. अचानक एक ने पूछा, सर लेकिन आपने यह नहीं बताया कि "चाय के दो कप" क्या हैं ?प्रोफ़ेसर मुस्कुराये, बोले.. मैं सोच ही रहा था कि अभी तक ये सवाल किसी ने क्यों नहीं किया... इसका उत्तर यह है कि, जीवन हमें कितना ही परिपूर्ण और संतुष्ट लगे, लेकिन अपने खास मित्र के साथ दो कप चाय पीने की जगह हमेशा होनी चाहिये ।

Personal vs Professional relationship

Recently I have been thinking about this subject quite often. I have been watching my colleagues to observe how people behave in different situations. The subject becomes more important when you are with same people at work and also at home.

The most common phrase which most of us would have heard is "Do not get you personal relations into professional work environment." But the big question is, is it easy doing when you spend 24 hours with same people around?

Think about a situation when you are getting ready in the morning knowing that you have an important meting to attend in the morning. Since you are staying with other colleagues you are bound to travel with them. You do all your efforts to be on time for the meeting but your roommate is lousy and not understanding the importance of getting to the meeting on time. Won't you be upset on the person for this attitude? Won't this make an impression in your mind about the person? And, won't you carry the same impression along when you are dealing work with this person?

These are some of the common questions I usually get confused with. How can a person change his personality based on the situation? If that's true then the person has 'dual personality' syndrome which is much more dangerous than anything else.

The only thing I can think of getting around with this is to learn ignoring people behaviours based on locations. Meaning, at work I would expect the person to be more focused on what he/she is doing, whereas at home I can be little lenient. So this would mean I have to be dual natured, which I don't how how dangerous could it be :)

Good luck signs

I have ben thinking of writing this for last 2 days. Finally I got some time. So on wednesday Aug 20, I woke on my usual time. Since I woke up there was only this thought of the meeting with the client that day. The meting was really important and required lot of things to be thought about to design this change.

I wore my favourite shirt and pant for the day and was very excited to take on the day. Everything was per routine....combed hair, sprayed perfume, took my cards wallet, grabbed a pair of socks to living room etc. I have this habbit of taking a cup of milk everyday in breakfast.

That day I was all set before my second room mate, so had time to relax myself on the couch for some time. As I was chilling on the couch I started thinking about something [very personal can't tell :)]. Sweet thoughts about future which brought smirk on my face.

In the midst of all these pleasant thoughts hovering on top of my head....suddenly....I spilled the sweet milk on my trouser. All the thoughts suddenly disappeared, with no trace at all. I had very little time to change, so I decide just to change my trouser and had to go in with not very matching dress up.

Then when I was driven to office by my room mate this another thought came to my mind. Is this some kind of good luck sign? Will all the thoughts I had in my mind at that time come true? I had never heard before that spilling milk on your favorite dress is a good luck sign but then I don't know about all the good luck signs that people talk about.

I don't believe in any good/bad luck signs or any supertitions. I think these things work only if you believe they work. And actually my belief is that nothing diferent happens because of these signs/supertitions, we just tend to relate our incidents to them and come to a conclusion.

The meeting went well. This time don't know for what reason I thought may be the spilling of milk will do some magic and turn my thoughts in to reality. Only time will tell.....

Way to celebrate

As my friends celebrated my birthday last week, I had to go through tremendous torture. There was cake and candles, but there was something else which made other all smiles.

So all my friends were at my house in the evening. The sun was behind clouds but we all didn't miss an opportunity to play couple of games of volleyball before it went to dark. We play in a sand court in our housing community. After the two sweating games everybody reached house.

This is the time, cake was centered on the center table and number 2 and number 8 and a "?" candles were lit. I grabbed the big knife for myself to cut the cake. The flash lights have already started popping out of the camera. I was testing everybody's patience by not blowing off the candles. I would enact as if I'm going to blow them of but naaahhhhhhhhh.....and in the anticipation my friends sang the happy b'day song (I had a good laugh).

Finally when the wax from candles had started settling down on the cake I was forced to blow the candles off and the Happy B'day song was sung again. I used my big knife to slowly slice this cream cake with strawberry topping......yuuummmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyy. I shared the first slice of the cake with my roommates.

Suddenly I see thing which had my pulse go down. I could feel the misery coming my way but there was no choice with me to avoid it. It was another cake not full but half. Creamish-yellowish in colour. And no it was not for eating but to be rubbed on my face as a custom. I thought in my mind if I get defensive then i don't have any chance of escaping it. Then I decided I should get aggressive rather than being defensive.

I quickly rushed to the half cake and filled both my hands with it. So anybody who would dare to come near me would have take this cake on there face too. It was like a war with one soldier surrounded by about 10-12 enemies. I quickly moved towards the wall so that I get on one side and I'll have everybody in front of me. Then it was like a kabbadi game and I felt like being sent in the opponents court struggling to avoid anybody's grab. Somebody said something and I looked at that person on one side and suddenly a hand came on my face putting some cream on my face. I reacted and counter attacked with the cake I had in my two hands. My reaction was useless as I could not open my eyes because of the cream around it. I had also realised that it was not a fresh cake but may be week old stinking cake....yuuukkkkkkksssssssss.

I still managed to get myself in a position and somehow grab hand full of cake again in my stinking hands. I tried my best but they were too many for me to handle. The picture below says it all....

HAPPY B'DAY to me!!!

The modern life

This is a picture I received in a forwarded mail. It did make me think that certainly the so called mordern life has slowly creeped in and change our life style.

The above lifestyle is certainly a common practice for people in IT field. I thought of few friends and tried to compare them with this picture. one of my friend when he comes back home after work makes sure that he reads "eenadu" online (daily telugu newspaper) everyday.

Second one would spend his time browsing videos in youtube. Third one would not miss an opportunity to post scraps to his friends on orkut. Some of them would always have deasl2buy open 24X7 open, to ensure they are the first ones to catch the best shopping deals.

Internet has become so addictive these days. It's good to have it bcoz it's good source of any information you want. But the big point is it's not at all a good substitute for the physical activities.

I like to spend my time playing tennins, volleyball (if enough players are available) or sometimes swimming. My roommates and I have now agreed upon not getting an internet connection at home. Simple reasons, we have access in office to do basic stuff and secondly, avoid getting addicted to this not so important thing. However sometimes I do spend some time playing freecell. solitaire, minesweeper and hearts on my PC, but i'm trying to stay from them too :)

Now think about how you spend your time after you get back from work? Do something constructive for you, your family or your country :)

On reality shows...

This is what I read:

On reality shows...


This is what my initial comments were on the above blog:

I'm not a TV fan at all. I do even think I would not keep a TV in my house when I have kids(don't know how much feasible that would be).

But to your point i think the reality shows are ok for adults as they are responsible for what they do, unlike kids. Kids do what parents want them to do without even fully understanding what they are doing.

All this gave a thought to my mind. Are these reality shows for kids any less than child labor? Comparing the stress, mental agony and embarrassment they have to go thru.


And this is what inspired me to put it in my blog:

I was in Scarborough, Canada this weekend visting a good friend of mine. We have worked together for almost 5 years but now he has moved into another project and that is why he is in Canada. My friend has two kids, a 7 year old boy V and 3 year old cute little doll S.

I spent 2 days with the family and now I have very mixed feelings about the subject. V likes to watch TV especially kids movies. While we were driving to the African Lion Safari V was able to relate things with his movies and remember them.

I was more surprised when we were driving through Safari. V could recognize almost all the animals. This made me wonder if used properly TV could be good medium for education.

S is a very bright gal. She is only 3 but she could immitate anything/everything she sees. She would also sit with her bro and watch movies. Both are very o-operative to each other and I guess that makes learning much more fun for S.

So at the end of it i don't know what I'll do with my kids. May be I would just go with the flow or let my wife drive it :)

Happy teaching!!!!