Where is the party - Ada Namma uttla party!!!

This space has been neglected for the past couple of weeks. Not necessarily because I was busy, but because somehow I felt I did not have anything to say. (Now don't ask me if whatever I have said here so far is of supreme value or not ;) )

Last month has been different, if I may say so. Three of my friends and I took a 5 day short holiday to Sri Lanka - where we did a road trip across Sri Lanka. We had a great deal on flight tickets which we capitalised really well. 5 days was perfect, not too long, not too short. We did something different, something new each day. From beaches to temples to forts to hikes, it was a lot of fun. 5 days just whizzed by. Sigh!

This Sri Lanka trip was my first 'vacation' vacation in last 3 years. Yes, I have taken breaks but they were always one or two days off whenever I travel to a new place on work or couple of days if I go home. But this time I was in a faraway land where I was incommunicado. And I realised something very simple. Your surroundings influence you and your thoughts profoundly. When in Bombay (oops Mumbai) I can never switch off from routine work/ thoughts. When at home in Bangalore/ Chennai I cannot escape conversations or thoughts which still link back to a lot of memories (good and not so good). However, when I was in SL, I was switched off completely from routine life and conversations. It was refreshing.

-------------

I recognise one aspect of my life - that I am immensely Lucky. I won the genetic lottery. I have great family and friends who can be called upon selfishly at any time for anything. I truly consider myself privileged. I also recognise that luck and good fortune has had a big role in my life as it does on everyone's life. Somehow I never get to articulate my thoughts and feelings to convey why I feel so strongly about this. I guess I am linguistically challenged. Hence I did the next best thing. Found someone who shares similar thoughts but can articulate it much better than I ever could.

I would recommend everyone to spare 20 min of their precious time to listen through this video.

----------

Two years ago, I was shifted into the team I am currently working in. For the first year or so I was working full time on this team and project and for past year my responsibilities are split between this team and a new project. Being part of this team and project has been an absolute pleasure. I know that I put in tremendous effort for this team, more than any other projects/ teams that I have worked on. And it never felt like hard work.

I remember this one time, December 2007, when I had to travel from Delhi to Ludhiana. There were no day train tickets available, so I was forced to take the night train. It was 1 degree Celsius that night and in second class compartment with the wind chill factor it was close to -1 or -2 degrees. I couldn't sleep one bit that night. I had never before experiences such cold and was ill equipped in terms of warm clothes. I thought I would freeze to death and my body could be used for some cryogenic experiments, all in the interest of science and humanity. I couldn't even sit down as the berths were frigid. I kept walking around the compartment the entire night. It did not help much when I noticed that there were only 2 others in the compartment that night. That moment I realised that if I were to sleep, I would either be frozen on mugged. Sleep deprived, cold, icicled, I walked into my hotel at 5 am, had a hot water bath and went straight to work.

This is just a funny anecdote for me. I knew I had to get the work done and the train journey was a minor irritant that had to be dealt with. But for another person I know, an incident like this, is yet another reason to crib about their job. Disregarding all other parameters and over simplifying everything else, I have come to the conclusion that the only reason, I worked harder, longer and yet did not think that it was such a pain, was because I was having fun. The team members of team A were fabulous and we got on really well. Also, we were doing something for first time in India, so there was almost entrepreneurial like feeling to the team and the work that we were doing.

Over the last year, 2 of the team mates have moved on, things are different now. Having been in this project for close to two and a half years, I have been asking for a change for a while. And I definitely think, it is time to move on for personal growth. The last few months on this project have been dull and hence it had coloured my perception of the entire three year experience.

All that changed on Friday night. Friday was our company's annual meet where we celebrated last year's performance. I won an award for 'Breakthrough Performance' on this project. The cash isn't big - a small gift voucher but the significance of the award hit me much later, when I was contemplating on the last 3 years. Working on this team and this project has equipped me with certain experiences and skill sets that are quite unique and very few people in the Indian FMCG industry have. I loved working on this project and with the team and guess what, over the past 3 years I have been recognized for my performance at various forums internally a record 6 times.

I don't write this here to brag. Yes a few compliments would be welcome :). But intent of my sharing this is that I learnt something very important. It is essential to pause occasionally and introspect. We are so busy in our day to day lives and so obsessed with planning and plotting for the next goal that we forget to recognise how far we have already come. Internalising this simple aspect, can be a source of immense self confidence. The above observation is true for me. I am spending this weekend, in my bed (as I am down with viral Fever :( ), gloating over my achievements. Monday morning is work as usual. The cycle for this year starts. The trophy closet means nothing more than higher expectations and bigger challenges to the outside world. But that is tomorrow. Today I am self indulgent.

--------

Here and There

The last one month has been hectic. I was in Palakkad, Kerala for a day for my cousin's engagement and my, what an amazingly pretty place it is. We took a train from Chennai to Coimbatore and drove down to Palakkad to a village called Noorani.

It is the monsoon season and it had been raining in Kerala for more than a month. The greenery around me was refreshing and the drive to Palakkad picturesque. It had rained through the night and the entire place looked fresh. I had a whale of a time. The engagement was in a small Aiyappa temple and was attended by what seemed like the entire village. I joked around that the situation reminded me of Alaipayuthey (original tamil movie of Saathiya – which was infinitely better).Maadhavan goes to a village for his friend’s wedding and he bumps into Shalini. Drawing inspiration from that, I was also on the lookout for Shakti (Shalini’s screen name in the movie). And what more, Madhavan's screen name was Karthik. Don't say it. I know what you are thinking. But I shall spare you the rest and sigh that is where the similarities with the movie ended.

Anyways the village was a small quaint place. It was the kind of place that one imagines when indulging in romantic nostalgia. Of an ancestral home where, when you visit, you feel you have discovered a small part of yourself. Nooraani was just that. Quiet place, where time flowed in joyful bliss.

Camera can often capture the moment and possibly the mood, but the combination of both is in the eyes of the beholder.

---

Sometime last week I hurt my back. It was pretty bad. In the sense, I couldn't sit continuously for more than 5 minutes. I had a niggling back ache for over few weeks but never gave it too much importance. And by the time I went to the doctor, it was a sharp shooting pain that radiated away from the base of my spine. The doc advised my 5 days of bed rest and prescribed a few tablets. I was then asked to return after 5 days. If it situation did not improve, I would be subjected to X rays and MRI to check for slip disc.

With the scare of a slip disc, I dutifully complied with all the restrictions imposed. On the 5^th day I was dreading the visit to the Orthopaedic. After a few basic questions on my back pain that I answered with all sincerity, he summarily dismissed the slip disc theory. Yayy! Severe muscle cramps, strain etc was deemed to be the reason. A week more of no bending, lifting heavy stuff or sitting on the floor and I would be fit and fine. It has been close to a week after the second visit and I feel much better. Phew!

---

Clicking Eagle (CE), who has been mentioned earlier in this blog, my (ex) roommate moved out a couple of hours ago.

His new assignment has taken him to London for a year, but I doubt it would be much more. Often riled as the 'Dostana' couple for sharing a room, CE and I had a blast over the year that he stayed here. So on Friday night, my other flatmate MV and I hosted a send off party at our place. There were 12 of us from campus days and we had a blast. We were in high spirits and soon the hall was converted to a mini dance floor. Good music, great conversations that lasted way into the night. As people left, MV and I decided that we would meet CE’s desire of a drive through the new Bandra- Worli sealink. So at 2.30 am we took a taxi across the sea link. It is truly a marvellous sight - the suspension bridge lit up in all its glory. Phenomenal. Once we had decided to succumb to our impulses, we decided to make our way to Marine drive at 3am. There was a slight drizzle and the waves lashing onto the breakers were spraying mist that left us slightly damp. A few snaps of the queen’s necklace and of the night skyline were surreptitiously taken before the cops asked us to leave and we headed straight to the TAJ for desert. The triple layered chocolate mousse (white, normal and dark) was sinful and we did get a glimpse of a few film stars there. We finally decided to head home and reached back around 4ish. A few hours of sleep and we were up packing and sending him off.

Three of us CE, tallboy and I hang out a lot together since campus days. CE and I have been in Mumbai for over 3 years and tallboy settled in Chennai a year or so ago. CE is irreplaceable (like he always says) and there is a void left behind by his move and that can be only filled by tallboy. And tadaaaaaa!!!, tallboy is moving to Mumbai and moving in with me by early September. Yayyy!

----

One of my closest of friends graduated this year from one of the world's premier B schools in US. And she has not yet landed a job. It has been 3 months since graduation and close 6-7 months of job hunting and still she hasn't got what she is looking for. With a loan that runs into 6 digits (Dollar terms) and no job in hand - due to the downturn - which is no fault of hers, she has all the reasons to be gloomy, morose, anti social and the likes. But she is none of these. I am copying a small part from her most recent post.

It's funny how faith works. Oftentimes it is difficult for the rational mind to grasp faith as a concept. For it can seem rather blind, baseless and unscientific. The rational mind understands effort and result and expects them to be proportional to each other. It cannot settle for an aggregate but non-chronological reciprocity between effort and result. Neither can it understand belief without proof, or patience without progress. Rational as I claim to be, I believe effort and faith feed into each other. Faith induces effort even when the fruit is not in sight or within reach. Unrelenting hard work in turn serves to augment the very faith that one is constantly inching towards the fruit.

In principle, one could have faith in anything- in oneself, in instinct, in justice, in the ultimate reign of goodness, in the immutable laws of nature, in Time, in God. I think it is something, maybe the only thing, that protects our irrevocable right to dream, our sometimes irrational optimism, and our unjustifiable claim to lofty goals and ideals. It is what keeps the innocence in us from escaping.

Back and forth, back and forth, life will go on. I know. But right now, there is a breeze in my hair. The grass is young and green. The moon is high and blue. The world is picturesque. The idealist lives on...

She reeks of optimism and self confidence that is inspiring to say the least. In my peer set, I know a few similar cases and I know how they are dealing with the situation. Grim at worst and nonchalance at best. But here is a girl who refuses to let circumstances dictate terms. Atta Gal!

ps: If you haven't noticed yet, Thoughtsafari writes fantabulously. Her posts are sporadic, but you can read them all here.

Pps: If you can help with jobs in financial sector, please write in :D

Travel time again - Udaipur

Earlier this month, Sep 2 and 3 to be precise, we (my department of 6 from work) had our offsite in Udaipur. Celebration of a good year gone by. Two people planned the trip out.. It was done immaculately. Lots of fun, enjoyment, some work. All in all a good 2 day break from work.

Will try and let the pictures do the talking :)

This is the entrance to the Udaipur Palace. Looks royal during the day and enchanting at night. The tour of the palace is really good and one gets a good dose of history.

The sound and Light show, which runs every evening is very tastefully done. It captures the history of Mewar (of which Udaipur was the capital) very well. You almost feel it in your guts when they describe the number of times the women in kingdom of Mewar have committed Johar (where the women commit suicide by jumping into sacrificial fire, rather than be captured by enemies - when defeat is inevitable - this enables the warriors to fight unto death without care that their women folks would be 'illtreated')

This is picture of the famous Lake Palace (Taj Group). It looks pretty during the day but by night, the white light, under moonlight and starry sky its breathtaking. No wonder it costs INR 30,000 a night there.

The dinner was brillianto! The place was restaurant in the palace premises. The backdrop was the palace, enchanting in its presence. The restaurant was by the lakeside with the Lake palace in the distance. And the entire place was done up in soft yellow light and candles. And ofcourse, the moon is all its resplendant glory, white washed the night. To me it seemed like lake Pichola knew that she looked beautiful and she was basking in all the attention, with the water glimmering in the moon light.

We just did not want to leave. We were almost thrown out politely :). I am sure that the to-be- married, married-long-ago folks in the group swore to come back here with their respective partners. And I, well I just sighed! ;)

This is the place where I stayed. Very very tastefully done up. There were traditional paintings on the walls. The colours used gave a very earthy and comfy feel to the whole place. And there were baitaks (sitting areas) where we just lounged. I am sure that when I build myself a house ( whenever that is), it would definitely have a baitak.

And ofcourse, how can I not do the touristy thing of riding a camel. I tell you, it is not very comfortable or lets say pleasant. :P

Its been 2 years and 3 months since I started work and they have flown by. I counted the other day that I had done 19 states in India - cities, towns and villages. In my life, not just in 2 years. But last two years have been fun. And while we are on this topic ... I got promoted. Effective October 1 , I am a Manager.