Friday, December 22, 2006

Going… Going… Gone!

Yippieee!!!

Today is last working day of the year and payday !!!

I am going home for holidays… long, long holidays! Can’t wait to see mom and sis and Mumbai… yeah I am gonna go to Mumbai !!!

Hmm… this has been amazing year for me, especially the last quarter :-). Tried my hands at things which I never thought I will do like theatre and writing poems, traveled to the US of A, started exploring my passion for social service, made couple of really really good friends :-). Ooh ooh… I have two new additions in my gadget list, a 17” screen, fully loaded lappy and Honda Dio, the ‘EW’ baby.

More ‘review’ of my year will be done sometime later.

I guess the emotional turmoil is almost over and I am ready for new changes and challenges. Bring it on baby!

That was a happening year in true sense!!

Here is wishing you all a very very Happy and Happening New Year!!!

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Merry Christmas

This weekend was full of fun. I did write about the ‘rocking’ part but that’s not the only good time I had. It started with dinner at a friends place on Friday night followed by amazing (raised to the power n and n tends to infinity :-) ) Christmas Party on Saturday morning. Now you will ask, Party in the morning? Yeah it was hell of a party. First ever Christmas party I attended and it will not be the last one for sure :-).

This year round, I have been involved with small time volunteering work here and there but this was different. Imagine having close to 2500 children around you singing, dancing, jumping, clapping (sunshine claps and star claps and rocket claps, have you ever heard of them?)! Just the idea of having so many kids together at one place is scary and how you keep the glued together for continuous four hours? You have to be part of such function to get the answer. There were just kids, their teachers and we volunteers, no ‘dignitaries’, no speeches, praising each other n stuff like that. And there was face-painting, magic show, rock show, dance performances, singing, Santa clause, gifts all exclusively for kids and by kids.

What were we in-charge of? Work! The work ranges from decorating the place, to packing food parcels, painting the kids faces (Christmas trees, Santas, hearts, stars, smileys), dancing on the stage (yeah, one school needed volunteers to dance with the kids. Not to mention I was the first one to go!), taking kids to the loo, clearing the place (we actually swept the whole basketball court!). Some volunteers had started early morning (around 4 am or so) to collect kids from their schools. Everybody was working in such a close coordination; nobody was needed to be given instructions twice. And how many of them I knew to start with? None! Isn’t that the true spirit of working together?

The party was called “Chrysallis 2006” and is organized every year in Bangalore for under-privileged children by organization called Chrysallis. You can join the yahoo group here and orkut community here.

If you love kids, this is the place to be!

Monday, December 18, 2006

Rapture of the Deep

They came, they rocked and they won hearts!!!

The BAAPs of rock were here and they rocked Bangalore like never before (as least for me :-) )

First time I came to know about the band “Deep Purple” was when Kalpana Chawala died. She was a great fan of their music and had carried their music to the space! Next time was when I copied rock music collection from my colleague’s machine. I loved “Hush” and “My woman from Tokyo”. But to be honest I was never die hard fan like I am of Bryan Adams or even my recent favorite list additions like Dire Straits or Metallica :-). Yeah yeah yeah… I am becoming a metal fan!. So why did I go for the show? To attend a live concert that too a rock concert! How could I lose such an opportunity and it turned out to be the best one. Oh yeah I have been to BA concert earlier but I was too away from the stage and couldn’t see more than a black clad figure jumping on the stage. How I wished I were 10 feet tall!

This time no mistakes made. We were there much before the gate opening time. ( I mean my friend was there at 3 pm to be right at front of the line. Yours truly reached leisurely at 5 :D). We were right in front of the stage, in 2nd or 3rd row (Mind you, that is hardly 10 feet or so away from the stage!). A local band played to start with. They were not bad. The guitarists were good and vocalist was eye-candy ;-). Then there was again break of half hour. I was already tired of standing for 3 hours. Three hours standing among crazy smoking stinking freaks, no place to move and no Deep Purple :-(.

Then they came out of purple haze. What followed was 2 hours of non-stop head banging and foot tapping music. Sigh I have no proper words to describe it. Steve Morse rocks on the guitar. The pieces he played on guitar were tooo mind boggling. So is the lead singer Ian Gillan, perfect entertainer with his ‘air guitar’. No talking, only music and serious music for that matter. If I had not seen in person I would have never believed the kind of music was being played by guys in their 50s. Unstoppable and unbelievable energy! “Smoke on the water” is still banging in my head. The recorded versions sound so lame now! The crowd could not stop screaming in excitement. My throat is still sore and feet hurt like anything. But who is complaining :-).
What a rocking show!! Whaaaaat a rocking show!!!

In the words of the band vocalist Ian Gillan, I would say “What a perfect way to end a rocking year!”

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

How much to change?

I have been talking to lot of friends about relationships. Some of them have more that one failed relationships and other ones are happy with the first person they met. I always wonder what makes a person to be or not to be in a relationship. One friend was particularly complaining about, how we get blind and change for the other person or how the other person makes us change and make us do things we don’t generally like to or how we are compelled to behave so that the other person is happy with us.

Well yes, that is very much true. We do change a lot for the sake of other person, willingly or unwillingly. But can we completely blame other person for that? I don’t think so. It is two sided affair, if someone expects us to change, don’t we expect other person to change. Are we kids to let other person take control of our life? And it is not changing completely, can’t view it as adjusting with the person because we absolutely like him/her. Just like the weather change, I like my sleeveless dress but I can’t wear it in the winters. If I want to go out in cold weather I must wear a sweater and I don’t complaint about it because I equally love the cool weather. So it is matter of choice and mending with the situation.

Oh yeah I am not talking about letting go of your identity. I don’t pack up my dress for life. If someone forces you to change, against your will and your sub-conscious tells you it is not right, you MUST stop before going any further in that relationship. And it is not just about a girl-boy relationship. If we look at any relation in general, be it parent-child, siblings or even friends, same rule applies. My mother doesn’t like me wearing western cloths when I go to my native town but she wouldn’t protest if I trim my long hair to shoulder length (which I know she absolutely dislikes). So it is absolutely mutual. I believe being understanding and accepting and not adamant is beauty of any relationship :-). I mean life is never absolutely black and white, isn’t it?

Have you seen “Runaway Bride”? It is the best depiction of what happens when someone tries to change himself/herself change against one’s wish. The bride runs away right away at the altar because she realizes she has been fooling with herself.
Does she find her perfect man? This proposal explains it all …
"I guarantee that we'll have tough times. I guarantee that at some point one or both of us will want to get out of this thing. But I also guarantee that if I don't ask you to be mine, I'll regret it for the rest of my life.
Because I know in my heart -- you're the only one for me"

Monday, December 11, 2006

Samanewali line se!

Have you ever seen a movie sitting just next to the screen? The actors look like coming on your face and the sound is loud enough to turn you deaf. The front row public is the real “public”, they won’t mind whistling, clapping or even dancing to funky song tunes. And if the movie is packed with cracking dialogues and “dinchak” music then ‘kya kahane’ ! Have you ever watched movie in a village theatre where people are rubbing noses to the screen and ready to jump with every dialogue. They will throw money for the dancing heroine, boo at the villain. Believe me it’s a site worth watching than any other movie. In the town where I grew up, the front row fever is carried till last row. So you will hear whistles for every song/dialogue coming from all over the theatre and yeah, there will be bulbs flashing along the movie screen on hero-heroine’s entry and during song sequences :-).

I have seen quite a few movies sitting in front row. Naah not in my native, I would never dare to go there :-). Fortunately Bengalooru people are too sophisticated in front row as well, they won’t utter a single word of protest even if the cinema screen goes blank for 5 minutes right in the middle of nail biting climax, except for some people like us. I have enjoyed movies like “Bunty aur Bubbly” and “Lage Raho Munnabhai” more due to my company. For B&B, there were only two people making noises in the theatre, one guy whistling to “Kajrare” tunes, other guy clapping and singing loudly. A girl, sitting next to them was hiding her face from stares of whole theatre. The scene was different for “Lage Raho …”, surprisingly the whole theatre was screaming and so was the crazy bunch of 8 sitting right next to the screen. This time the girl wanted to dance but nobody allowed her :-(.

And may be she was expecting same kinda fun when she got tickets in front row for Dhoom-2. But to her bad luck, the movie didn’t provide enough masala for that. Now you won’t expect guys whistling at Hritik Roshan (He is tooooo gooood… *Sigh* I can’t whistle loudly). How much will anyone waste energy on artificial Aish anyways?
Overall it was good movie, worth watching if you promise yourself not to remember laws of physics (especially anything related to gravity) in the theatre :-).

Finally ... !!!

Finally the wait is over......
I got invitation for blogger beta … yippeeeeeee !!!

This so cooool. Flexibility and super usability, just the google way !

I am loving it !!!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

What do you want from work?

There was supposed to be some skip level meeting for which we were supposed to give feedback for our manager and work condition requirements in general. A teammate was taking responses. There were usual answers like more money, better communication etc and one guy got over enthusiastic he demanded he wants a laptop at home with wireless connection and 17’ TFT monitor in office. Then the serious discussion took different route, one guy wanted work place tree shade in the garden and freedom to use any place as workstation in the office. Other one wanted closed individual cubicle so that no one will be able to disturb him work (or no work :-D). One wanted a bean bag instead of chair. Another wanted a masseur to relax him when he gets tired of working continuously. Another one wanted a personal refrigerator loaded with all kinds of drinks and food. One wanted monthly personal purchasing allowance (his claim was some other company gives it). I wanted a sofa with foot rest, also a bed to steal nap once in a while :-), ability to switch my mind off in boring meetings. And then our imaginations started running really wild. I couldn’t stop giggling.

I think when it comes to demanding facilities we "IT" people have always something or other to demand. Free food, drinks, more money, holidays, onsite trips, team outings and what not and we still are not happy. Just look at people working in other industries. Being daughter of a dedicated private medical practioner I never knew that people can actually take few days off from work. I saw my uncles working with government offices, they would give their life to save a late mark in office and here no one even cares what time I come to office or not. When I tell my uncle that there is no fixed timing for my office he gets astonished, He always says “what kind of office is yours? How do they manage to pay you money with such working style?” I have no answer. It is also not acceptable for him that I refer to my manger by first name and don’t call him “Sir”. For my friend working in Finance sector, Saturday off sounds luxury and for another friend from school it is difficult to accept that I don’t need to write leave letter. Life has changed so much.

Then I wonder, isn’t it stupid of me cribbing about bad work? I guess not, work does matter more than these facilities.

What do you people say?

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Weekend trek

Someone has complained that I am getting too senti with my poems. So I have decided to stop writing (I mean posting :-)), unless I come with a funny poem. Yeah that's what I want to write next time. Mission humorous poem! Also my brother is taking pains to read my poems and I want to save him from that (for the time being :-)).

Here is my account for a weekend trek I had been to. I had started writing it loong time ago but just was lazy to finish it till today :-D. Tell me if you like it.

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What is your dream place like?

Well... mine would be a place with loots of greenery and fresh air and away from all the hustles of city life. Sounds like heaven naa?? It does to me; and guess what, I had chance to come closer to what I dream of.

Last Friday, my friend asked if I could join him for a biking trip. Biking trip? Now this something I have never done. Given my special affinity with two-wheelers, specially the back seats (I was thrown off bike TWICE!), I am always bit hesitant to be in non-driver's seat. But he promised to be good driver plus early morning trip to fresh nature is irresistible, Isn't it? So the plan was to start at 5 in the morning, drive all the way to the place called "Savandurga", around 60 km away from Bangalore, go around for some time and come back by lunch time. Good plan, I can finish my sleep after coming back :-). I had absolutely no idea about what the place is like.

So like an "acchi bacchi" I got up 4 o'clock, was ready by 5 (This has to be special mention cause only I know how it is painful to get up sooo early on a Saturday morning :D). U picked me up and we were supposed to meet other people joining us whom I didn't know at all. They turned out to be nice people, a couple and two more guys, everyone being enthu and regular trekker/explorer. Most imp thing, no one knew exact route to the place :-). So there was usual ritual of asking auto driver for direction and everybody insisting he knows the better route. It's the best part of traveling on Indian roads; everyone is more than willing to tell you direction and their own free opinion about the road condition and everything else. We being the least literate about road followed our fellow bikers all the way. It was amazing to see the amount traffic on roads at those wee hours, do these people ever sleep? After asking here and there we set out for our (unknown!!) destination.

There was no chance to steal some sleep on bike ride because I had little confidence on my driver's direction sense (cause he thinks even 8 km is tooo away to remember directions :P) and the road was too bad to allow me not noticing the bumps for a while. Also he threatened me that he might fall asleep while driving so I had to be on vigil :-D. But being awake was worth the view around... absolutely breathtaking! There were huge rocks spread on the green background, like brat has spread his pebbles all over in a green garden. Bikes were stopped at a place to take pictures around It was beautiful site and while we were busy admiring the view S exclaimed, "That's the place we have to go!" pointing to a looong standing peak, it was solid rock structure with a cloud ring around its crest like a white crown on its head. And my reaction was "What? Weren't we supposed to just bike around". I was not prepared to actually trek :D.

We reached the mountain base huffing-puffing.. drivers exhausted with driving the bikes with skill of rally-biker, finding patches of road in the pot-holes and poor bikes exhausted of climbing the rough road (?). Apparently this place is an "eco-tourism" spot and there is park at the bottom for weak-hearted people like me and fort + temple at the top for trekkers and devotees. It looked like a steep rising above our head and boy oh boy I was scared to climb that up (seriously). We crossed lot of locals on our way up and climbing up the slope seemed to daily ritual for them :). At the bottom of the mountain there was again confusion on which path to take. A bunch of enthu kids took us to right place. The way up is clearly marked with arrows and we were advised not the leave the path if we wished to come back alive. The way up WAS steep. Since it was solid rock it was difficult to climb up wit shoes on. The best solution was to tie shoes around neck... yeah yeah yeah most of us did that. And no, I didn't, cause I was wearing slip-ons :D.
Me and S almost gave up twice on the way up but the toiling was worth it. It was a beeeeeautiful day with not too bright sun and not too many clouds. It showered in between but that was just for few seconds.

We were around 3000+ feet above the sea level. There was not a considerably big human population in the range of sight, save the small town at hill base. On one side I could see there were solid rock hills with huge rocks place on each other in unbelievable asymmetry. Looked like they could fall any time and crush 10 people at once. Patches of green grass grown everywhere they could find place in between those rocks. On the other side there was huge flat land with lush green fields and a river twisting between them. Since the morning was little bit cloudy, I could see patches of sunlight scattered on the green fields. It was astonishing sight, one circle of the field lightened with sunlight like taking center stage in the clouded area around it, river water adding sparkle to it. The sight took away all the fatigue. I wanted to get drenched on the mountain top... but no luck :-(. Just took a nap the fast blowing wind.

Ahhh... now that's the place I would love to build my home and settle down for life. We were actually discussing the idea of building a direct path from there to our offices, may be another flyover for our dear Bengalooru. How wonderful that would be!!
Go trekking people!