We Must Love Someone

Read this on Mum-Del Flight and it seemed to be the most appropriate thing to think and feel about:

We must love someone,
if we are to justify
our presence on this earth.
We must keep loving all our days,
someone, anyone, anywhere
outside our selves.
For even the Sarus crane
will grieve over its lost companion,
and the Seal its mate.

Somewhere in life
there must be someone
to take your hand
and share the torrid day.
Without the touch of love
There is no life, and we must fade away.

 Ruskin Bond

Sweety.

Tag Time: T20 Questions

Read this on a blog I stumbled on, liked it and here it is, for you to read and pick up!


Q. Who in your phone has a heart after their names?
A. No one, I'm very lazy at that




Q.Would you be able to date someone who doesn’t make you laugh?
A. Lets not do things you'd end up regretting later :)


Q. Are you happier now or three months ago?
A. I was happy then, I'm happy now.

Q.What was the last thing that made you laugh?

A.It was a funny video on FB - A commercial made for a Cheese Brand. Here's the link.

Q.Do you think you’ll have the same best friend a year from now?

A. We,ve been the best friends for years!

Q.What was your last thought before you went to bed last night?

A. Ahh, the tummy still aches... (It was morning by then though)

Q.Anyone you’re giving up on?

A.Staying away from home, I am the most hopeful right now, for a lot of things :)

Q.Have you ever thrown a cell phone in anger?

A. Thought of a lot of times, honestly, did too a couple of times. (Threw it on the bed though!!!)

Q.Is there someone who you can spend every minute with and be happy?

A. Need I name him?

Q.Who was the last person you hugged?

A. Hugged A, 9 days ago.

Q.Does everyone deserve a second chance?

A.Not always

Q.Is there someone who meant a lot to you at one point, and doesn’t now?

A.Yeah, a great deal of people.

Q.Have you ever lost someone who meant a great deal to you?

A.Same as above, please

Q.Have you ever received a text message that made you cry?

A. Many

Q.Are you lying to yourself about something?

A. A few, Weight loss is one!

Q.Last person you went to the mall with?

A. Rakesh

Q. What’s special about today?

A. Its my 10th day away from Home.

Q.What does your last message say?

A.It says:

Arz kiya hai, Zindagi ka maqsad hai sabko pakana,

Wah Wah, Zindagi ka maqsad hai sabko pakana,

A For Apple,

B For Banana

(Sorry if it was a sad one)

Q.Connection between you and the last person who text messaged you?

A. Too deep to explore :) 

Q.Last person you had a conversation with on the phone?

A. Spoke to A, with a dear friend and bro on conference

So that was it! Enjoyed as much as I always do at completing tags. I want you all to pick it up, lemme know once you're done. I enjoy reading tags equally. (You listening, Geets?)

If you don't blog, leave me your answers in the comments!!!

Sweety

I deserve to be in Lansdowne!!!

Lansdowne is a hill station in Uttarakhand, India.

It has a history from British days and was named after a Viceroy who governed the place for many a years and was taken aback with its beauty.

Lansdowne is an Army Cantonement area and needless to say, its maintained very beautifully. As a rule, at one time, Lansdowne must not have more than 500 poeple inside its boundaries.

Its only about 225 KMs from Delhi.

Hang on my friends, did I tell you why I deserve to be in Lansdowne yet?


Its a place where no Mobile Networks work!



Can somebody please take me there? Are you listening, A?

Or atleast steal my phone please!!!


Some shades of the place...

Sweety.

Respite from The City of Joy

As I fly back home early Sunday morning, a lot of things that started in last 2 weeks would come to a halt. I 'd call it - Respite from The City of Joy...

It will be a respite from living alone in a room. A room that has nothing you could call your own. A room, that is only there to serve as a roof on your head, and where you could sleep. Sleep that you squeeze in between work!

It will be a respite from maddening traffic on dingy roads of the city. From poorly managed traffic and from poorly managing traffic police force. From yellow ambassadors, that make a lot of noise and from their drivers who charge you double of what the fair metre shows.

It will also be a respite from hogging at places like CCD, Azad Hind, Fingertips, Honey Da Dhaba, BB's etc. Oh! the list is endless. It will be a respite from chicken hakka noodles as the only good option left while looking at the menu (most of the times). From coffee, toasted bread with butter and black pepper, at 2 PM.

It will be a respite from an-early-to-bed-and-early-to-rise-city, where you dont get to see many people after 6 pm. Respite from a place where most of people work with a laid-back-attitude. The only thing that energizes them at work is initiation of a Dharna.

And finally, this is going to be a respite from Weekends without A

But, the best part of Kolkata: choco-fudge cookies at monginis (I gotta go buy a lot of these today), mishti doi, rosogulla, the Gurudwara where we had nice kesar milk at 4 AM, our funniest attempts at speaking Bangla (no matter how incorrect our bangla was, we all got the accent right!) and sea-food festival at bar-be-que nation on valentines night!

Well, I might have spent all fortnight at the wrong places of the city, however this is what and how it has been all this while.


Already aware of another trip next month,

Yet soaked in an overwhelming respite

Sweety.

The Anthem from the City of Joy

जागे हैं देर तक हमें कुछ देर सोने दो
थोड़ी सी रात और है, सुबह तो होने दो

आधे अधूरे ख्वाब जो पूरे ना हो सके
एक बार फिर से नींद में वोह ख्वाब बोने दो...


With higher-than-ever-hopes of flying back this weekend,

Sweety.

From The City of Joy

(The post was typed on MS Word on Feb 16 however being posted today due to lack of a lot of things, one of which is TIME!)

The Fussy Eater seems to have landed at the right place, it seems.

Last 5 days have been great, work wise. I lost track and was back on track before it was too late. But the stay has been even greater because of the kind of Food. Not that I have developed taste for Bengali Food, but I have loadsa options so I don’t miss dear Delhi. The only thing that I am missing about Food is Cooking it myself! The cook at this guesthouse told us stories how some Punjabi guests made great Rajma Chawal during their stay… pitching us to do the same too…

Had a great dinner Valentine’s night. Tried veg sushi too, though didn’t like it much. Would definitely go for other variations sometime.  Chicken Hakka Noodles is the new staple diet these days. Had a great time with boiled egg sandwiches, cheese balls and coffee the other night (Read 4 AM).

Catching up on some bangla too… words like “tada-tadi” (quickly) and “lebu” (orange fruit) have some funny stories attached to them.

Though I am carrying lots of Mills and Boon Romance, but have hardly had a chance to flip a page.

The FM stations here seem better than the ones in capital. They play all Bangla, Hindi & English! Most Bangla songs that I’ve heard seem to have same tunes as the Hindi ones, so nothing sounds Greek and I start humming the Hindi song. :D

Got this PJ SMS this morning from A:

Handle this PJ…

Who is the leader of ducks?

…

Ans.: Frog

…

How?

Because, he is MainDuck!!!

You know what that means?

To me it means, the Frog back home is waiting to be kissed ;)

Homesick but Hopeful,

Sweety.

From an airplane window

Has it ever occurred to you, that you boarded an early morning flight, high on caffeine, with sleep miles away from you, and with all intentions to catch up on sleep while on board…?

Friday morning was one such morning for me…

I so love to be on a window seat, it’s hard to explain! And then the view as you go up and high, higher, and higher… Seeing roads below on the ground, roads as thin as lines on your palm…

Checking in, I settled for the last seat of the A 320 machine, I knew its one seat you couldn’t recline on, I still took it because it was the only window seat available…

Seat next to me was still vacant when they said – boarding full - but the man on aisle seat was one scary figure. Long white beard on dark brown skin, and a paunch…

And then, off we flew… I get a sudden high the moment I realize front wheels have left the ground… is it my love for airplanes or just the excitement of the flight, I am yet to know that.

For the “nth” time, I pictured A waving at me when he saw me off at the airport. The embrace, the look in his eyes and the silence between us…

Once the ground was too far, I shifted focus to the clouds. Sky was the deepest of Blue, but the farthest point showed signs of an early sun. In a few seconds we were above a thick layer of clouds. They looked fluffy and soft. There was a point when all I wanted was to jump off the plane and land on the fluffy clouds. I think the only thing I wanted to survive this landing was Flubber… you’d know what I mean if you have seen the movie…

Spotting another airplane at a distance adds up to my excitement all the time. When I saw one this time, I imagined that someone from the other plane must have noticed us too, and would be glancing just the way I am.

As my gaze shifted from that to the distant sky, what I saw, I think, I won’t get to see again… I saw the Sun rising, coming up gradually, nothing extraordinary about a sunrise, except this was a close-up!

Few minutes later, I noticed the famous Howrah bridge below while I gorged on the Chocó-almond cookie, we were about to descend and I was moving towards the beginning of an indefinitely long stay away from home…

From the city of joy,

With tears welled up in eyes…

Already Homesick…

Sweety. 

Random Updates

I don't know who to apologize from, for being inactive for close to 2 months, you readers, myself or my blog! I dont want myself to even start like this and i dont want to blame work or life for this, but unfortunately, i am doing both.

Things have been very very very busy, work has almost taken over my life controls, but I am happy. Guess, happier than I have ever been, far as work is concerned. Finally feeling like immersed in it and not to forget, getting appreciated for it! Why wont Bosses love such a thing???

Anyway, the other day I was working from my Boss' place. While leaving in the evening with the boss for a meeting, we realized we hadnt turned off the internet modem. Leaving my laptop near the doorway, i stepped in office room, to turn it off. Boss said - turn on the lights, Rekha, its dark in there. I said - thats fine, i can do without it. Turning it off, I returned to the doorway, and left for the meeting, post which we both left for our respective homes.

Boss called at 2:30 in the night, laughing, to tell me I had left my laptop battery adaptor at her place!

The brain went into a quick flashback of things and I realized this:

The battery adapter was plugged in right next to the broadband modem. When I had stepped in to the office room to turn off the broadband modem, I could have easily spotted it there, IF the Modest me hadnt decided to keep the lights off! Damn Me!!!

The next day, I made A stay home and work from there, we managed work by switching laptop batteries from each others' laptops, since the adapters were not common and the batteries were. Thanks a tonne, A, for the idea.

The second day, I was working from the Boss's home office again, so got to pick up the battery adapter from there. Duh Me!

One good thing these days is that I am back to my reading thing. Finished Brida, Veronica Decides To Die, Message in a bottle (I cried for good 30 minutes), a walk to remember, Stay hungry Stay foolish in last 1.5 months. Now reading The Class by Erich Segal - finding it different from his others such as Man, Woman and Child, Love Story and Olivaer's Story. (Enough show off of my collection, I think!)

Not a great news on Movies, Last I saw was Wake Up Sid. Wanted to watch his next too, but didnt get good reviews. They are showing it on Telly this month, that'd do for me :) Saw Outsourced on Telly, its a hilarious one! You must see it, whether u belong to BPOs or not! I recommend, highly!!!

Wanna go see Paa, let see when that materialises.

Looking forward to December Christmas break from work, though its only 5 days and then 2 more days with a gap. I am longing for one now.

Before that, with my birthday approching in about a week, I am due of doing something I promised myself of doing before my birthday. I have to register myself for eye donation, and am looking for a hospital/institution/medical bank that can be contacted for this. Let me know if you know any.

Sweety.

Godspeed!!!

A: London's just like Delhi, but with better roads.
R: I think better road sense too!
A: yeah! (laughs)

I dunno how true it is, but thats the first thing A told me when he landed on London's roads.
But then, who cares about London?

I asked him a thousand questions... how was the flight? could you manage to get a nap on the plane? nausea? hope you're not feeling cold! how far is office? would you be ok commuting alone? kuch khaya? blah blah blah...

I personally hate asking and answering too many questions, but just couldnt help asking him!

Guess I know how I'm going to survive this entire week... counting days and calculating GMT time! I think I'd just adjust my mobile phone's time... so we are in the same time zone... at the least!


Sweety.

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.)

To Let it Go or Not

Wish you all a happy & colourful Holi!

I had 2 conversations today, which are worth mentioning..

First, with an old acquaintance, whose ONLY intention was to convey good wishes. But the way the wishes were conveyed, the words which were used, it reminded me of things buried deep down somewhere. The actual intentions were, thus, inevitably revealed. The exchange of words (to me, honestly, it isnt anything more than that!) made me think, why cant some people just move on in life? They wouldnt leave it and wont let you do so too!

Second, with a colleague with CLEAR intentions of conveying their wishes and reminding me of a small tiny tiff from the past. What this person tried to reconcile on, was something I had forgotten, purposely, since it wasnt something to drag and keep fuming about. I was asked to forgive and forget, and I gladly agreed.

I am not the thinker kinds, but the comparison came naturally to me. Both these people and their situtations in my life are different, let me admit.

But guess this Holi, I've got my lessons right :)

Hope you enjoy the colours and let go off things that don't really matter!

Sweety.

I think I wanna step in your shoes, Mom...

These days..I observe myself getting fascinated than ever when that colleague of mine shares how her 3 yrs old adopted baby gal says prayers for everyone in the kin, before she goes to sleep every night...

These days..I see myself calling my 4.5 yrs old niece almost every alternate day, longing to hear her sweet yet wicked talks...

The moment I get myself thinking deeper into this, some part of me revots and reminds me of my years old dreams of further studies...
It reiterates I cant yet burden my Man with the age long responsibilities of raising a family.

And the next thing I know, I have changed my mind...
but same series of thoughts...over and over and over again...

And I have no comeback for this thought of my own... Offlate I have started believing that I can only realize and perhaps get as well, what I have missed at the receiving end only when I shift myself to the giving end of those heavenly joys!

Fortunately or unfortunately, this is what my heart and mind are filled with, while I so wanna jump to completing 2 wonderfully happy years of the institution called... marriage...


Sweety.

2009

Looks like I'm a bit late but still... Happy New Year!!!

Wanted to change the way my page looks and the beginning of '09 seemed the right time.. so here's the makeover result!
Sounds funny but true..when I was saving page elements before I changed the skin, I named the folder with backup data - "Blog Makeover" ;) :P

Another reason of changing the look - my blog will turn 1 at the end of this month. So this is also a kind of yearly appraisal I have for my page. :)

Lastly, here's the best sms message I read this year:

Have a Dog's attitude towards all difficult things in 2009!
If you cant eat or screw it, then just piss on it and move on! Happy New Year.

Sweety.

Miles to go before I sleep!!!

Here’s the Tag from Geetika… “10 things before I die”

What follows can also be termed as a Wish-list and birthday is such an apt time to do it ;)
So, here we go:

1. A helicopter ride – that’s not a tough one, but my fascination for choppers from the childhood days is still very much there.
2. Be whatever M has missed in life.
3. Collect books – thousands of’em! (Goes without saying – read’em all too!)
4. Find some old school buddies, I still remember their names… and faces too, but just can’t find them…
5. Get married to A – AGAIN!!! - On 25th, 50th, 75th, 100th, 125th, 150th … Wedding anniversaries…until we lose the count of years and even after that!
6. Learn dancing… and baking as well.
7. Meet SRK and still be able to stand on my own feet ;)
8. Never let my kids know of the word “NO” – I’m going to try hard for this one.
9. Study a few more years – not sure what I want to pursue yet, though!
10. The last one...It was real difficult getting here, but this one was easy… Raising a baby gal. :)


P.S.: There’s no Order of preference for the list, the wishes were rearranged in the alphabetical order! ;)


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.