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. 

Tag Time!!! "5 things on my mind right now"

Thanks, Geets for the excitingly exciting tag, sorry it took me ages to do this, but here goes...

1. The update on work front - "Too much on my plate". I have my boss saying this to me atleast a dozen times in 2010, yes, my plate is FULLLLL... and the way I am, I am way too Happiiiieeeee!
2. I need to start Gymming before it gets out of control. Guess, the work is to be blamed ;)
3. Winters, please go away. I've had too much of you now. Once you're gone, I go gymming ;)
4. The Sagittarian Blogger is going to have its 2nd anniversary soon and its appraisal time for my page. Too much on my plate... he hehe...
5. The new Mills n Boon is waiting on the bedside for 4 days, wait, here I come....

Oh, wait! I tag... Mettalica Bhakt, Sweet Demon, Braj and The woman of many shades! 

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.

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.)

Return of an Auditor :D

I returned back to my usual job today...job of auditing calls...after a long time. Not that I was off work, was busy training batches of new hires back to back...ah, that reminds there's another one lined up next week...so anyways, after current batch was thru the final assessments, I could get back to my usual audit thing...and with that, I was back to my music box too...

Auditing at our end consists of a lot of filing and data entry too, so while I am doing all that, I keep playing one or the other track and keep moving my feet...so today, the first thing I did when I got back at desk was I plugged in my beautifully amazing and amazingly beautiful headphone and played a song which goes like this...

Sinbad the sailor jahaaz me jab chala
Mere yaar sun lo sun lo
Dhoondh raha tha ek nayi duniya ka pata
Mere yaar sun lo sun lo
Woh... anjaani raahon me thaa..o-o
Woh... lehron ki baahon me thaa..o-o ....

And then this one...

Tum ho toh gaata hai dil
Tum nahi toh geet kahaan
Tum ho toh hai sab haasil
Tum nahi toh kya hai yahaan
Tum ho toh hai sapnon ke jaisa haseen ek samaaaaaaa
Jo tum ho toh yeh lagta hai ki mil gayi har khushi
Jo tum na ho yeh lagta hai ki har khushi me hai kami
Tum ko hai mangti yeh zindagiiiiiiiiii......

(Mine and A's current faves respectively!)

And the after effects of these 2 tracks... I felt like I just got up from sleep, felt like a kid jumping with unknown joys, felt like....ummm....just amazing!
Last few days have been real hard "work wise"... new work timings, long training sessions where I kept repeating myself and did endless talking, and where everyday when I got up, the first thing that used to come to my mind was, "o sh**, I'm late again"

I figured out yet another time, what music does to me...wonders!
Anyway, weekend is just right here, with a small family meeting in pipeline and I might go watch "Rock On!!" again...simply loved it...more because I was at Shakuntalam (Pragati Maidan)...where I was to go book fair actually ;) and I did too, got myself "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand...ah, and that reminds me I have to finish "The Kite Runner" ...only last chapter and it's gonna be done...and Its the best fiction I have ever read...and what else....

Whatever i'll be doing this weekend, I'll be hoping for 1 thing... this I do every weekend...
"I'll be hoping this weekend lasts FOREVER!"


Sweety.

Weekend Insomnia

Not feeling sleepy despite of a hectic night, I resorted to one of the things I love in my life...Music.

Atif's new track is out and its there on my current playlist and I am loving it...like his other tracks, like all other romantic tracks, for I think of A everytime I listen to it, even when he's sleeping blissfully by my side :) and here comes my coffee! Been ages I tasted it, I try and keep away from it so I dont loose my sleep but I thought I can have some today, when I am so feeling like having it and while the weekend is still here and I can catch up on my sleep later too. Coffee always reminds me of tea, which I havent tasted in 23+ years of my life. Mom never introduced me to it initially, for she thought I might start liking it over milk :) and then I also never picked it thinking tea, being dark in colour makes you dark! By the time I realised the truth, I had decided I seriously dint wish to taste it, and so it continues...

Coming back to Atif, K in her usual Q&A session asked if I had ever been to his live performances, sensing my liking for him. Yet another time I said no!

She continued, "do you know how is his voice in reality?" I really dint have a clue so I made it clear from my face expressions. She, after sensing my ignorance, enlightened, "its very bad! In his live concerts, one can figure out that hes not singing live and they play the recorded tracks in the background and he would just move his lips." "So do they edit it everytime he records a song in a studio?", I asked almost worried. And as suspected, she said, "yes!"

When I pondered on it again on my way back to my desk, I realised it really dint matter to me cz I just listen to what I love and I love what I listen to! How they get it is really not my business.

Now about last night at work. Despite of calibration with client and lots of pending audits, I managed to dine out with A between the shift and it was just lovely! No wonder I still love it when we go out for a date cz I can successfully forget the fact that I am married to him!

K met him last night and said she found him cute....

& I cant afford to disagree!!!

Sweety.

Yaari Dosti Taaza Maaza!

AP: Keep smiling! Was good talking to you after so long today.

S: :-)

AP: Shabaash!

S: :-D

AP: Alright, dats it! Dont make any more faces now.

S: B-) 8-)

AP: Stop that now. You're gonna be away for 2 days... :-(

S: :-P

AP: Oh Pagal Ladki.

S: :-(

AP: Pagal, Stupid, Idiot, enough now!

S: :'-(

The era of emoticans saves many many words!

Sweety.

Random Updates

I had decided to write today, may be some lines from my current fave song and Geetika was there to push me too...but the song will follow, work comes first.

My new campaign went live today, GMT noon time. Last 2 weeks of training, I have been busy and so has the day today, so far. With the first few test calls came a lot of things...loads of last minute doubts, nervous faces, plenty of technical errors, which is quite a custom here ;) and we knew it was coming! The first day of calls in a campaign has a lot of expectations, a lot of excitement, a lot of nervousness, a lot of first-timer-phobia :D

A guy even made it to the sale today and I got to do the verification!!! Reminds of the days I was in sales as an executive, around 4 yrs down the line...I used to see guys reading their scripts verbatim, stopping only to hear the firang on the other end say yes! (Firangs are who we deal with, I am used to this term, so please bear with me!)

And then comes my new role...quality analysis and I was given this:

Simply b'ful!

And now, as I stated in the beginning, here are few lines from my current fav song...ekdum latesht!

"Tu Khush Hai Toh Lage Ke Jahan Me Chayi Hai Khushi

Sooraj Nikle Baadalon Se Aur Baate Zindagi

Sun Toh Zara Madhosh Hawa Tujhse Kehne Lagi

Ki Aditi Woh Jo Bichadte Hain Ik Na Ik Din Fir Mil Jate Hain

Yeh Aditi Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na Phool Fir Khil Jate Hain...."

No...my name is not Aditi. No...I have not yet fallen for the new guy. No...I have not started liking Aamir overnight. :D The only reason I like this track is because it has been able to make me smile ear to ear in last fortnight, where I dint sleep for more than 4-5 hrs at a stretch, where I missed A like anything, where I was just so occupied...

Anyway, have to get back to my new headphones and listen to non-stop yap yap yap and then some more yapping!

Sweety.

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.