30 Days & 30 Ways

Time flies away when you really dont want it to!

The other day I realised I had completed 1 month in the new company I recently joined. That made me ponder on the events of past 1 month...many things changed, many new were commenced...here's a point by point detail of my 30 days in TPL:

1. TPL has made me diary-gal. I cant do without my daily to-do list. I go off to sleep and something I need to do the next morning crosses my mind - I'm up the very next second and scribbling notes in the diary, with dreamy eyes and shaky hands!
2. My job puts me in a place where I screen people on every stage, starting from their joining our projects till the time they survive there. I hold myself responsible for rejecting "infinity plus 1" people so far... cant say how many more will follow...
3. This job has changed my perspectives a lot. I've turned sides now, I get a two-side view of things now.
4. I used to work 9 hours and travel 4 hours before I joined TPL. Now I spend those 13 hours working!
5. My phone works over-time too. I used to charge the phone battery once in 2 days - now it gets fed everyday.
6. This ones a bad one - I was so used to falling asleep with A's pats on my head. Now since he's moved to decent morning hours, he sleeps off before I do and I dont get those pats I so miss in life :(
7. There's another thing I miss... seeing him sleeping next to me the moment I get up... but I make up for that by calling him while I am still half-sleep.
8. For the first time in 5.5 years, I'm trying to get into a day schedule - the 9-6 routine.
9. Another bad one - the weekend I used to be so crazy for - has gone half - yes, I work on Saturdays, too!
10. I still travel but way less. And I get to travel in Metro sometimes too - makes me happy, reminds me of old days, when I was a regular with Metro.
11. I am a regular with home cooked food, too. Working from Home job has some merits, at the end of the day!
12. But at the same time, eating out hasnt gone down. If I'm travelling, I'm eating out...and eating a lotttt!
13. And that shows when you look at my Tummy. Its never been like it is these days!
14. TPL India team is a 3 women brigade (that includes me, too!) I haven't had female colleagues/boss before - so this one's a change too.
15. I have a weird history of getting along with Leos. Its either too good or too bad. Incidentally, both other women in the league are Leos. Its been good so far... lets see...
16. First thing when I get up - I used to plan the meal I had to cook - now I check the mail.
17. I get to write a lot these days, but that has hit on my reading quota. I am stuck on Brida for about 1.5 months now. Buckle up!!!
18. My break time from work - I solve Sudoku puzzles that appear in the newspaper everyday...1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9.. and you're done! I even have Sudoku on my iGoogle page. I play sudoku when I am travelling - time flies ;)
19. I have promoted myself to a regular Lipgloss from zero make-up.
20. Social Networking sites would soon declare me anti-social. Well...I was never a fan but yes, a regular but its may be once a week now...just so I dont forget my passwords ;)
21. There's been a biiiiiiig cut down on my movies too... 30 days and just 1 movie. Thankfully it was a cute one.
22. I have now entered into a professional relationship with a very very dear friend. This frightened me first, but then enlightened a lot of things later on. I am glad it happened :)
23. One of the very important things I do at work is getting the customers' expectations right...and the way I work is setting my boss' expectations wrong! Leading by example, you see!
24. In my IQR days, I used to think I was a workoholic...I wonder what I am right now...
25. Again in my IQR days, I believed wherever I'd go next, it'd be better for sure - that still holds true. I wont like to compare more :)
26. I gave my first ever salary in my granma's hands, i still remember. My first salary from TPL is due now - and I'm thinking what to get for the 2 most important people in my life...
27. This job has made me take my driving seriously.
28. I have loved to have a planned day, but that's history now. I still begin a day with a plan, but its a plan that has all the deviations and d-tours of the world! Life now is an ad-hoc list of assignments :)
29. Now that i've got myself rid of travelling thru 3 cities everyday (from one end to the other end of NCR), A has got into it and spends a lot of time driving now.
30. My first post in more than a month - the one that you just finished reading!

Some cartoons now, I think I need'em:






Sweety.

ADIEUS!!!

News! News!

I recently resigned from my job at a company I worked for... AGES it seems!

4 yrs 9 months and 3 days - to be precise - was my tenure there.

Few things I wont ever forget about this workplace:

1. It was barely 6 months old when I joined in.
2. The day I put in my papers, I was the oldest employee in the company - I mean tenure-wise!
3. I got the first job promotion of my Life here, which happened when I was 15 months old here.
4. I trained over 100 people here.
5. I joined this company just to be with "A" who also happens to be the first employee of this company.
6. He got the "extra miler of the year" award for 1st year of the company and I followed when I won it in the 2nd year! The certificates now occupy a wall in our living room, back to back.
7. I have been a part of every single campaign/project my company got. The day they got a new thing coming in - I was in it! I was named "Nimbu Mirchi" by A who believed I was being used to keep evil spirits off of the new projects!
8. We knew people on first name basis and so did our CEO saab.
9. I got the chance to be a multi - dept person -- I did Operations, training, transitioning, quality analysis - all of it!
10. Whenever I ran into CEO saab, he was always the first one to move his hand forward to have a handshake. And then I'd meekly move mine ;) And the day I moved my hand forward before he did... He posed his to embrace...

Zillion other things are crossing my brain, reminding me of good times & bad times here... but I'd halt right here...

Good Bye and All the best, iqr!


Sweety


(This post was written on July 9 and being posted today - which is my last day @ iqr.)

Earth vs. Global Warming

March 28, 8:30PM - 9:30PM (your local time) is your time to cast your vote and choose Earth against Global Warming.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness. (Courtesy www.earthhour.org)

You can, too, cast your vote for Earth by switching all lights off for one hour - one billion votes is all dats needed...
Turning off lights for an hour won’t stop climate change but it would definitely show that individual action is important and does make a biiiiiiiiig difference.

Here's a few things you could do in those 60 minutes:

• Go outside and look at the stars. (Lovely!)


• Find a great viewing spot to see your town or city go dark at 8:30 p.m. and take pictures. (Dats a lil tough to do :( )


• Go for a lantern walk through a park. (Ghostly :D)
• Gather your family or friends for a candle-lit dinner. (Lets meet up, guys!)


• Meet your neighbours at a street or block party. (Hello, how are... exercise)


• Talk to your children/family about how much electricity your family uses. Brainstorm ways to reduce it. (Let's get serious)


• Tell ghost stories. (Been ages I did that!!!)


• Change all your light bulbs to energy-efficient versions. (poore ghar ke badal dalo :P )


• Take a walk in the moonlight. (With them ;) )


• Have a candlelit bath. (WOW!)


• Put a glow stick on your dog's collar or leash and go for a walk. (Not bad an idea ;))


• Have a wine or scotch tasting in the dark. (Ummm...)


• Get out the sleeping bags and camp out on the living room floor. (Yay!!!)

If nothing above interests you enough, you could make a list oft hings you'd want to change from your daily life and help Earth beyond this 1 Earth Hour! :)

So Go Ahead... use your light switch as your vote and elect Earth over Global Warming.

Sweety.

3 Nights & 2 Days @ Taj Hotel, Mumbai

Unfortunately, that's not an irresistible hotel package I'm talking about.
I've never been glued to TV, rather glued to a news channel as I've been in last 58 hours...

Of all the things they've been showing and talking about, I observe ONE thing... in one of the clips covered by lensmen, I see a few NSG commandos running in the background and I see the turbans on their heads...goes without saying, they were all Sikhs by religion, but very Indian at hearts IN MUMBAI...

Leaves me wondering why theres no one from Honorable Mr Raj Thackrey's MNS team, and why these NORTH & SOUTH Indian NSG commandos were allowed by MNS to fight and rescue his very dear Maharashtrians...

I hope Mr Raj Thackrey is getting a lesson out of it and he hides himself under the roof of his home and never comes out for the rest of his life!

I might be talking regionalism, but thats honestly not my idea behind writing it all here...

Sweety.

10 years without you

I still remember myself watching her go, she was to be admitted in a hospital, and I kept seeing her till the end of the road, and I'd do this almost everyday. Would think about her, resting my elbows on the windowsill, without batting an eyelid, I'd keep looking at that corner of the road, imagining that's where she'd come from, smiling healthily.

But little I knew that she won't ever come back...what came was the news that she had departed.

Again and again, even after she'd left, I'd still go and look out of the window, would keep looking at the same end of the same road, thinking non stop "here she comes, here she come, she hasnt really gone away..." Those were the days when I had actually started believing that departed ones do come back, but she never did!

And then there was a time I started hating her, for she had made us so miserable without her, I am sure she knew this misery had to happen. I can never forget how helpless we were. But I also knew she's around and is watching her daughters being raised without her and feeling helpless about it. Gradually that bad feeling melted away, gradually I involved myself in daily chores she used to take care of, but I continued with my waiting-at-the-window routine, I kept waiting for her arrival.

And I still remember pa appearing from the same end of the road, accompanied by a few other men, hands down, folded, face down, eyes down, looking at the road, coming towards home. He had brought her, lifeless, for us to see her for the last time and bid her the last good bye...

That was the end of one big chapter of our lives...lives had changed, our lives had changed.

Though I wanted to preserve them, but after a lot of thinking, I got some of her dresses altered and would wear them sometimes. And then I noticed - pa would look sadder, gloomier and quieter. I realised her clothes made him think of her much much more. He almost even called me with her name when I was wearing her clothes. Seemed like I was torturing him and I made up my mind not to wear them again...

Growing up, I was inspired to take up a lot of things she had mastered in. While I was real interested in some, I took up some only out of respect I had, but soon figured it was worth including them in life... one of those things was designing dresses. Everybody around was so amazed with my work, while I thought it was probably in my genes.

Offlate, I have been occupied to such extent, that I dont even think of her everyday or as much as I should, yet some or the other thing reminds me of her. Life is being pretty good to me and I feel happier when I remind myself that wherever she is, she is with pa and not alone. I know she is constantly watching over us and still doing her best for us.

Today, its been whole ten years without you Ma, and deep down somwhere in my heart, I still hope I'd see you standing next to me and I'd get in one moment, what I've missed all these years. Thank you a zillion times, if at all that can suffice, for everything you got me in life, however I'd still ask you for something...

We all are still incomplete without you, please come back if you can.

Sweety.

The LATESHT Discovery

Follows is what I realized about myself a while back:

It takes me ages to violate something, but once I start doing it, there's no looking back...!!!
How profound ;)


Sweety.

Sultan - My Gonna Be Friend

Long time no see...I said to myself when I logged in to blogger today! Anyways...

August 3 is friendship day and I'm gonna get a new friend (atleast I hope so!). Read on how...

Lemme now set a background for this gonna-be-friend of mine. I am very very scraed of dogs and A's aunt has one. A biiiiiiig one. A Boxer. They call him Sultan. So, A's aunt is leaving for the US of A sometime next week and wants us to keep Sullu-Pullu while she's away.

Sultan happens to be one of the biggest dogs I've seen so far, but he comes across as a very very intelligent and gentle dog. (Doesn't help me cz I am always scared) They always lock him in a room whenever I visit'em. Now, I am gonna stay with him under the same roof. So I have decided to strike a friendship with him and the time is apt too!

A has been bugging me with the idea of getting a pup home and I say no always. Not because I am scared of'em, but because I strongly feel both of us wont be able to manage. Dogs need care and you need to give'em TIME. You gotta be in a routine for'em. But I have given my green signal to A this time, for I think its a perfect chance for him to find out if he can change himself a bit, change according to Sultan. Sure he's caring enough, but when it comes to doggy-walk etc., he's the laziest guy I've known.

My friend K says you shouldn't bring him home, cz its gonna be difficult for the two of you when you'll send him back at aunt's. When I told A, he said, "do you think I am gonna let him go back?"

Time will tell that. For me now, its time to learn some doggy stuff! Off I go!!!

Sweety.

The Invasion

I hate it when someone attacks my freedom. Freedom of saying things, freedom of not saying things, freedom of following my heart...

I hate it even more when that Invader is a dear one... but then I realise, only dear ones have this liberty... but I still dont approve it.

I love my freedom more than myself. I love it even more when I am being forced to do something I dont really wish to... and that's when I fight. Like I did last night... though I had to surrender when they overpowered me, but that surrender made them loose their stand in the core of my non stop beating machine. So I dont feel defeated, because they are... What they lost last night, they'll never win that again.

I go down the memory lane and can't find myself acting like this ever. I was never like this. I am forever changing, I think! For good or for bad, is not the agenda at the moment, doing what you feel is what matters...

Having read this far, if you have a feeling that I am using this platform like a venting place, I think we have something in common.

Sweety.

Memoirs of a D'uh!

My new colleague K asked me yesterday if I had, ever in my life, rang someone's doorbell and ran away. Somewhat ashamed, I said, "no", but mentioned how annoyed I used to be when someone would ring our doorbell and I wouldnt find anyone waiting outside the gate. This was nothing less than a torture in summer afternoons, where you are half-sleep and all you see outside are deserted streets and no signs of those pranksters!

She asked back, "have you ever played street cricket?" Proudly, this time I said , "yes."and that "yes" gave a green signal to some memories to be lively in some part of my mind. I recalled how I loved to bat and hated to field whenever I played the game. I recalled I wasnt very good at it but still enjoyed quite a lot. I recalled playing with kids who were atleast 8-10 years younger to me! And I also recalled how I had once hit someone, right in his stomach, for I had sensed he was watching me play and I dint want him to. That someone...he was my dad's frnd's son, dad liked him a lot, they both were each other's favs, so much so that dad said it once he wanted to marry me off to him... Anyway, the guy smiled despite of that shot for he knew I had noticed him :D

While I was still lost in all this, K shot back. "Have you been mischevious in school days?" was her next question. I was humiliated this time. Reason being my sis who had asked me the same question just a couple days back and made me realised what I had missed in my life.

2 people have asked me same thing just in span of 2 days and they looked for the same thing...something I had never done and they had reacted identically...I realised being the way I was back then is just not IN these days!

All I treasure from my schooling years is being in good books of teachers, sincerity, obedience, topping the class every year, being named a "book-worm". Such a seedha - sadha bachcha I was, that now when I look back, I laugh at myself.

I love Pink Floyd's "We don't need no education" I so love it in my new avatar! And I am pretty sure, I would have ridiculed the artist for passing out such a message had I heard it in those years ;)

K said yesterday that I looked like a docile and I gladly replied, "these looks are deceptive, babe." She would have hit bull's eye had she said it around 3 years back. Those who know me in and out, would give all the credit (good or bad) to A & I wouldnt disagree. This man has changed me and changed me for good. Its been a complete transformation, believe you me!

I surrendered myself to him, but do you know the best part of this surrender? I have all the freedom I need and more & I love my life like this, I love my life with him!

Sweety.

P.S.: Those who think I was contradicting myself towards the end of the article, I suggest they need to read it over and over and over again until they start feeling that I wasn't! :P

I've got to be ME

Its CRISIS time.

For the first time its "identity crisis". For the first time I am feeling bored with things. For the first time.....

I do not welcome changes easliy, but its the stagnant life of mine that's been a botheration for me.

They say its a mood swing period I am going thru, I know I am not. At the same time I dont know what I am going thru.

It dint happen overnight. At the same time I dont know when it started to change.

Its not because of just one thing. At the same time I dont know what the reason is.

I have been "the busier, the happier" kinds, so far as I remember. I adore this state so much so that its being difficult to survive with this trait at work. May be I was like this always and this "busy" phase never let me think of it ever.

Sustaining zenith is getting impossible by the day. Not that its tough to handle it, but Work is what you prove yourself with.

No work, no test.

No test, no evalution.

Give it some time and people forget you as if you were never there. Identity crisis, isnt it?

Sweety.

New voyage called VONAGE

Another change is just round the corner...
Come Monday and its gonna be all different...for just a few weeks, but yes, change is a change.

I have been moved to a new project, and that means new working hours, new work, and people from a new culture to deal with.
I am going to start working on a project which is outsourced to us by Vonage UK. We start with a week long voice and accent training along with a few inputs on UK Culture and then may be 2 weeks for a thorough knowledge of Vonage product/services, which we are about to sell. Ohh yes, we are going to selllllll.... :(

The day I was told that I was going to be a part of this campaign, I was so so excited cz I was looking for some change in my boring work which was related with web-research day in and day out. Reading web-sites, copying - pasting & editing data to no relief.

Today is going to be the last day of it all. Monday morning...yes its going to be a day shift, so monday morning when I report at office, I am gonna head straight to the training room! To a week long learning of a country's culture and dialect. I like training sessions, for they are meant to enhance the learning, for they have more fun time, for they let you have a better interaction with everyone around and there is no boredom most of the times. Not many people wud agree wid the last point, but this stands true for me.

Another change that I'd like to talk about, before I forget to mention it...
My role is gonna be changed too. I have always been a part of operations, but this time I'm gonna join the Quality brigade :) :(

Yeah I have a mixed feeling for that, m happy and excited as its gonna be an all new job, new responsibilities and new challenges and I am sad as I haven't got any experience in this field. Though they call me perfectionist and diligent when it comes to quality from operations' point of view, but I have no clue what quality is from quality's point of view!
Someone who has a lot of faith in me chose me for this role, knowing I had no great knowledge of it all. I am sure expectations are an all time high this time and I have to live up to them. Once again!

Besides all this, coming 3 weeks would also mean lack of time for web and for blogging. I'd also be adjusting my sleep and my day's routine, but what I am going to miss the most is my time with A.
Now that's what the challenge is!

Hope to be back here soon,
Sweety.

Broken…

I heard about an unpleasant incident today. A colleague’s uncle died in a road accident, when his car collided with a truck loaded with oxygen cylinders, needless to say, he died on the spot. The police, as if this wasn’t enough, injected the dead with alcohol, and made an ugly scene. Unfortunately, car belonged to a friend and the poor guy wasn’t carrying his driving license. The news came out later in evening and now the cops demanded bribe to close the case and release the body. How unfortunate! Makes me wonder if we really need something like police…are they there to make life better for us or worsen it???

I soon got over with the Police part, it’s something usual in my city…but I can’t get over the fact that it’s a broken family now. L Probably he was the one who earned the bread and butter for his family… I know nothing in this world stops when someone leaves, no matter how great a person he/she was, but still!

When I went thru this breaking thing, when it happened with my family, when I was barely 14, I thought of Something once…The only person I shared it with dint agree with me, I dint argue, I dint fight, but I kept this thought back in my heart, where it came from, but with the news of every demise, I think of it again and again, and today is one such day…

So that thinking of mine says, Families shouldn’t be broken.

That simply means that a family would comprise of parents and their kids, and according to me, no one would leave or die alone. If the time has come for’em, they all would die together! So that there’s no one to cry after’em, no one has to miss’em, no one feels deprived of anything, and above all, nobody’s life is blank, be it any page of life! And yah, that also makes me ponder on how this entire episode will go to one generation after the other, if I think logically (Yeah I do that too, sometimes). I got a temporary solution to this too, but I sure knew God wouldn’t buy that, if I were ever to present it to him.

I wrote it here today, not because another death reminded me of it, not because I wanted to take it forward to more and more people and get someone to support or agree with me, but because I wanted it to come out of my heart and be there on my mind always, I might find one reason, one solution, one day. Amen!


Sweety.