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.

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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.

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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.

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There she goes

It is end of an era.

MGM is a batch mate of mine from B school. She sat next to me in the first year till our electives separated us. We played silly school games sitting next to each other, passed chits, gossiped etc. Both of us were initially lost in the big bad B school world and helped each other find our way through the two years.

During our two month internship period I was in Madras and she in Bombay. She had a bad project and I was stuck in a place where everyone was 30+ and all they spoke about was diapers, admitting kids to schools and in-laws. What kept me (and her) going was yahoo messenger. MGM and I would chat incessantly on YM through the day. Two months ended, just like that.

Through second year on campus and the last three years of work, one thing that has remained constant is our chatting. When gtalk was disabled in her office we moved to another client, found some other proxy and eventually moved to mail-chat, exchanging close to 15-20 emails a day, if not more. We would talk about everything under sun - movies, music, books, our crushes, share interesting articles we read online, gossip about our batch mates/friends and so on. I don't know why, but I have a vivid recollection of this conversation when she mentioned her boyfriend/ fiancé for the first time. Never had I seen her more self assured. We are almost witnesses to each other’s lives, just living in different cities. Somehow we never run out of conversations. There have been days when sitting in Chennai office, I have chatted with her entire day then we would go out later in the evening for a drink and dinner. We would still have enough to chatter about.

My writing skills aren't spectacular, to say the least. And it was the same case when I had to fill out forms for companies to convince them that I was a suitable candidate. I would send the first draft of my form to MGM only to get it back with umpteen crosses and corrections. I wonder if she was living out her dream of becoming a teacher, like her mother, vicariously, returning my drafts with red marks all over them.

Last week she quit her job, to join her husband in US. Her She H1B visa did not get approved even though 20,000 slots are still lying vacant. A big shift for her - to sit at home at least for a while till she finds a job or they decide to shift elsewhere. It looks like her move out of India is going to last for the foreseeable future.

When I get to office tomorrow, after almost 2 weeks, I know I am not going find her 'Good morning' mail in my mailbox. Sigh! It is not like she has gone incommunicado or disappeared forever, but the nonstop (non)sense chatter that for so long, I had taken for granted, will not exist starting tomorrow. But right now, I know nothing can make her happier than being with the boy after close to 2 years of long distance.

Adho paru - Minnal

I have written over past few years about how I love to travel and meet people and how my work helps me with just that. I have not moved out of Bombay in close to 3 months. This is the longest period since I joined work where I have had no travel

The last time I travelled on work was in early June. I was in Chennai and as part of some project I found myself being ushered into a house in Abhiramapuram area. I was accompanied by my colleague NonStop (NS in short) who in her sheer excitement of being in Chennai, a land where she could find girls who could speak my language, had for reasons beyond my understanding, decided seal my fate with a girl, any girl that day itself. (Yes, it is mission among a select group in office to get me hitched, regardless of the fact that everyone but one in the 'select' group is single). Anyways, her obsession had reached ridiculous levels. She could be spotted nudging me to put a 'looku' whenever she spotted a girl within 100m radius. So what if the girl was only 18. Sigh!

Anyways back to the point. We were sitting in this house in Abhiramapuram talking to the lady of the house. As the conversation skittered between personal topics and others, she (the lady of the house) let it out that she had a daughter who was going to do her MBA. Clearly, 'ting ting ting' happened and NS, shedding all pretensions of professional conduct, stamped my leg. I was quite sure that the lady would have noticed this very minor but obvious infraction of conduct, but I was saved by the telephone. The lady excused herself and this gave me enough time to send a glare back at NS, which I am sure, gave her the message, Vellilai va! neeya naana paathukkalam (come outside I say, let us decide on this today!). NS being NS wasn't willing to let me have the last word, even in the non-verbal communication that we were having and continued to make some contorted facial expressions that I think meant – ‘ K to you’. While we were in the midst of this very engaging conversation, we heard the lady giving out some instructions on the phone. And we both realised that she had a just yelled out her daughter's name and had also dropped in a totally irrelevant piece of information that she had taken the car out and wasn’t expected back for a while.

NS, gave me a sly smile which meant, 'hmm.. that chick drives a car.'. She got was a cold shoulder in return. We soon resumed our conversation with the lady, and both NS and I, were deeply engrossed in our work related aspect of the visit, eager to finish it off quickly. One numbers full-plate meals at Saravana Bhavan was just half an hour away now. 'Trrrring' the door bell rang and in walked a cute girl in an Orangish-yellow sari. She was clearly coming back home from a wedding. She was about to start a conversation with her mom which was stopped midway through the first sentence, when she sensed our presence. She quickly headed for her room. My eyes followed her till she was out of sight. I felt I had seen her earlier somewhere and was running a 'quick search and retrieve function' mentally. It wasn’t too successful.

I was desperately avoiding looking at NS, who I could sense was sporting such a wide grin that I was sure that the edges of her mouth were close to her ears or maybe eyes or maybe both. Anyways we got back to the task at hand and soon forgot about this incident. We were tired, the heat was sapping away our energy and the enticement of Thaair saadam with Vadu manga and mor molaga (Curd rice with pickles) was just too irresistible. We completed our work and were about to leave when S(the girl's name – you think I wouldn’t remember that??) emerges from her room, in a very short split skirt, drinks cold water from the fridge and walks back. Phew! Minnal

I have travelled length of this country and over 3 years met close to 1000 people, visited around 200 odd homes, in Chennai, Bombay, Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh (land of Priyanka Chopra, at least in the movie Fashion), Bangalore and so on. Visited some of the most affluent people to the poorest, sat through in the most mind numbing sessions and yet never once had a bumped into a girl of nubile age. And finally, in Chennai..

I did not want to leave the house immediately, but didn’t have much of a choice. I was contemplating, whether I should drop my visiting card (but that would be too in your face) or maybe leave my notebook or cell phone behind and use that as an excuse to drop in later. But my better judgement prevailed. I knew the house and her name. I didn’t think I needed anything else. So we quietly left.

The 'select group' congregated at Amethyst coffee shop that evening and subsequently in Bombay where this issue was debated. NS raised a question on how I knew what a split skirt was and how I could identify a split skirt within a split second. The first part was answered by a simple glare that made her retreat and for the second part, I gave her a detailed explanation on how it was possible to figure out whether it was a split skirt or a skirt or shorts. She wasn’t convinced. Here I had to enlist support of another dear colleague Super-SoDi. Super-SoDi hails from South Delhi and hence by default is more knowledgeable in such superficial matters. Super-SoDi ruled in my favour and the conversation then moved to what now? That is when my colleague Punch-mama and I decided to take control. The two of us have loafed the streets of Chennai in our respective heydays and have a reputation for ‘street’ smartness After careful analysis that included parameters like location of her house, her neighbourhood, family profile, the language she spoke (mix of English than Tamil), her dressing sense etc etc we drew up her profile and shortlisted three colleges from which she could’ve graduated. Punch-mama's wife who hails from one of the shortlisted colleges offered all her assistance.

In a few days that topic died its natural death. From making three trips to Chennai in May-June, I don't see any more coming up in the near future. Such is life!

Glossary

NonStop (NS)- She speaks NonStop. Period. Does not even pause to catch some air. I think she isn’t human . Whoever said brevity is the soul of wit was clearly mistaken.

Super SoDi- An absolutely affable person who hails from south Delhi. For the uninitiated it is the land of air kisses and ‘bling’ attire fashionistas. Everything that happens to her is in the superlative. She always has the weird-est of dreams, funny-est of incidents, sad-est of days, embarrassing-est of moments and so on. You get the picture.

Punch-mama Or Punchline mama never fails to deliver the right (and corniest) of punch lines in every presentation to senior management.For e.g. ‘From Now to Wow’ .I am sure he researches and prepares hard and waits for opportune time to deliver the punches.

Onam to Karma

Happy Onam to all! I wish I could also have Kolan-Olan-Pachadi-Kichadi. I am not a Mallu. But that has never stopped my mom from making Olan, avial and payasam on Onam days. Sadly I have to make do with chapati-dal and sabji today. Sigh!

Few folks wished me Happy Onam. I was like pleasantly surprised. So when probed further, I was told that it is some south Indian festival, so I was being wished. Watever!

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A quiet weekend passed by.

I had a long conversation, lasting over few hours with my friend in US late on Friday night lasting well into the wee hours of Saturday morning. She is one of my closest friends. We've known each other for more than a decade. The funny part is that I have met her only twice, that too very briefly (max 2 hrs in total) in the past decade. We talk to each other once in couple of months; sharing small laughs and big gossips, discussing our big problems and small victories. She is my confidante, a person far removed from my regular life, to whom I talk with carefree abandon.

She has been in midst of problems and issues for a while. From playing the mediator to (supposedly) being the problem itself, she has braved it all. Caught and torn between people she loves, she cannot take sides. This hence makes her nobody's favourite. This definitely sounds quite like a drama series/ or a mega serial script with all the right elements. But sadly that is how it really is.

She is quite an inspiration. The way she has been handling the entire situation over past few years - sagacity, maturity and dignity – Exemplary! All I can offer her today is a patient ear and a silent prayer that things will get better. I know they will. I just hope it is sooner than later.

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I hurt my back a few months ago and after that my gym was being renovated. So I haven't been to my gym in the past 2-3 months. Yesterday the gym re-opened. It is refurbished, looks swanky and has quite a few new equipments. I promptly walked in to the gym with all enthusiasm. The moment I stepped on the weighing machine I realised that the scale was faulty. Or so I thought. I called upon the instructor to set it right. He insisted that the machine was perfectly fine. I asked him to read my weight accurately. He nonchalantly mentioned that I had lost 3 kgs in past two months. WooHoo!

And that piece of news basically did it. I lost all the enthusiasm I had for the gym. Finished. However , given the fact that I was at the gym and had changed already, I decided to test my stamina. I ran a mile or so in around 12 minutes flat. 50 crunches and 200 skips later, I declared with trumpets blowing all around that I was in super fit condition. and that I had discovered weight loss secrets unknown to all. I diddn't need the gym anymore. But my dearest friend MJ disagrees. She has threatened to yell at me if I discontinue my gym sessions. Given that I chat with her all through the day, I don’t really want to be at the receiving end of the yelling. So my gym sessions are going to continue for a few weeks I guess.

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I have always believed that work is just one aspect of our lives. It needn't and shouldn't be taken too seriously. A bad day is just that- A bad day. No point fretting over it. Work is marathon and not a 100 m dash. Etc. I have seldom carried my mood home from work in the last 3.5 years. However this time it is different. Something happened recently at work and I am generally irritated about it. I feel I have worked hard, earned and even I deserve what has been denied to me. It is even more unfair that I am the only person singled out from a group to be denied an opportunity. I strongly believe that whatever happens happens for the best. But, I am unable to see it. And this is not even the first time. that something similar is happening to me. Quite de-motivating.

Somewhere, I am desperately hoping that I will be able to encash all the positive Karma that I have hopefully accumulated for myself over all these years. Anyways, tomorrow is another day. Shall pick up my bag and trudge back to work. *crossed fingers, Crossed toes* Hoping for some luck*