There was a time when I used to cry every time my mother took me to the parlor. During school days every summer vacation until 8th Standard I got my hair tonsured. My mom being a very dynamic and a bold lady, she always bought us up in lines of Bharathiyaar she never liked any of us being coward or shy. During my childhood, unlike other gals I never liked cutting my hair short. I have begged, screamed and sometimes even cried every time she took me to the parlor for a hair cut. Every time after the hair cut, I hated to look myself in the mirror. There were few friends who loved my hair cut, they had their personal grudges and told me that having long hair is very time consuming and sometimes even painful to knot the hair when it was wet and they were in full praise for my mothers decision of having a bob cut.
Nothing of their say consoled me much. I always felt like having a waist length hair. My dad too liked me growing my hair long. The fight between my mom and me on hair cut starts every 3 months. Some of my friends play with my hair and some consider me even as their boy friend. Till my college I was reluctant to cut my hair, as I was always moved by my mother’s abundant love, that I did everything just for her sake. There were few of my college guys and gals who used to tease me in offensive ways. I kept narrating their comments to my mom. She kept saying you need to know how to face such things in life. Life is yours and do what you feel like and put off what others say. Though she said, she never allowed me to take decisions on my stuff :).
Sometimes I felt little hurting but my resistance to such disgusting comments became stronger day by day. I tried growing my hair little lengthy after I joined the software industry. Probably I got accustomed to see myself in short hair that now I don't like to see myself in long hair. I have completely lost the penchant for long and strong hair.
Today I had my hair cut again after five months time.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
College Hi
Everyone were stepping inside the office but I was striding in the opposite direction to attend a meeting at 9 A.M. On my way to the meeting room, I met several friends. I kept waving my hand to say them a "Hi". I love saying hi to people and always felt it was a short and sweet of inquiring your friend, how they were doing?.
I only got back to my college days; I used to keep saying Hi to so many people on my way from my home to college. Some envied me for knowing everyone in college, but majority appreciated me for my companionate behavior. I was very keen knowing people, be it my juniors or seniors. I acted like a bridge between my class mates and juniors. My friend’s network made it easy for anyone to get books through me. I knew who had what book and who would be in a position to lend the books to my juniors. This activity made me develop a strong chain of friends in college. Today morning I felt as if I was in college as I realized that I started to know many in the office premises.
I only got back to my college days; I used to keep saying Hi to so many people on my way from my home to college. Some envied me for knowing everyone in college, but majority appreciated me for my companionate behavior. I was very keen knowing people, be it my juniors or seniors. I acted like a bridge between my class mates and juniors. My friend’s network made it easy for anyone to get books through me. I knew who had what book and who would be in a position to lend the books to my juniors. This activity made me develop a strong chain of friends in college. Today morning I felt as if I was in college as I realized that I started to know many in the office premises.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Baby Shower
I was literally begging my roommate to join me for the baby shower. She refused and I didn't feel like forcing her anymore. I was afraid of the chillness outside and wasn't sure if I would be able to walk much. I wore my winter jacket and walked as slowly as possible. I saw one of my friend few foot away from me, if I was fit today I would have caught her in my normal walking pace. I didn't feel like troubling myself much, so I called out her name but she didn't hear me either. Somehow I managed to reach the entrance and pressed the community hall buzzer. Immediately my friend came to receive me from the entrance to the hall.I didn't even have the mood to dress up well for the occasion. I wore something that made me feel more comfortable. Everyone found me to be pale and sick and were questioning what was wrong with me.
I occupied the last row and was cracking jokes with my jogging partner. Very shortly the function started. Most experienced married women followed by least experienced ones went forward to put bangle to my friend. I didn't pay much attention to the formalities, as I was busy talking to my very young, active yet a beautiful friend. She introduced herself and patiently waited to hear my name. I asked her, if she has seen me before and very quickly she answered " ya I remember I have seen you during snow-tubing". I was stunned by her answer and told her mom about her memory power.
The function got over in a very shot time and everyone lined up for food.
We had coconut, lemon, tomato , tamarind and curd rice followed by dessert (gulab jamun and ice cream).
Each family who attended the function were given a warm send off by clicking their snaps while receiving the thambulam. Families went first, I was wondering with whom should I tug in to get the thambulam. To receive the thambulam bag I joined couple others who were married but weren't accompanied by their husbands for this baby shower. Almost everyone who attended the function were married couples except for yet another friend of mine. Felt little bad for not having a partner till now. Anyway today I realized the importance of not getting married very soon. For sometime I felt I did make a blunder in attending this function as a bachelor but anyway it was also fun meeting married couples. I only felt my presence would make my friend feel happy. I managed to surpass this feeling from my mind and carried out with my routine activities after reaching home.
I occupied the last row and was cracking jokes with my jogging partner. Very shortly the function started. Most experienced married women followed by least experienced ones went forward to put bangle to my friend. I didn't pay much attention to the formalities, as I was busy talking to my very young, active yet a beautiful friend. She introduced herself and patiently waited to hear my name. I asked her, if she has seen me before and very quickly she answered " ya I remember I have seen you during snow-tubing". I was stunned by her answer and told her mom about her memory power.
The function got over in a very shot time and everyone lined up for food.
We had coconut, lemon, tomato , tamarind and curd rice followed by dessert (gulab jamun and ice cream).
Each family who attended the function were given a warm send off by clicking their snaps while receiving the thambulam. Families went first, I was wondering with whom should I tug in to get the thambulam. To receive the thambulam bag I joined couple others who were married but weren't accompanied by their husbands for this baby shower. Almost everyone who attended the function were married couples except for yet another friend of mine. Felt little bad for not having a partner till now. Anyway today I realized the importance of not getting married very soon. For sometime I felt I did make a blunder in attending this function as a bachelor but anyway it was also fun meeting married couples. I only felt my presence would make my friend feel happy. I managed to surpass this feeling from my mind and carried out with my routine activities after reaching home.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Breezy weather
I hibernated the whole day at home. I resumed my energy level at 5.30 P.M, and pulled my roommate to cub foods. It appeared little bright outside that none of us bothered to protect ourselves much. We walked out, for couple of minutes we enjoyed the cool and breezy weather. But after a while both of us couldn't withstand the wind,
for the first time we felt it was warm inside cub foods.
We kept soothing ourselves by saying that we are feeling good and it was very pleasant outside. On our way back, we both started to shiver as we were walking in the opposite direction of the wind. We were thrilled walking in the breezy climate.
for the first time we felt it was warm inside cub foods.
We kept soothing ourselves by saying that we are feeling good and it was very pleasant outside. On our way back, we both started to shiver as we were walking in the opposite direction of the wind. We were thrilled walking in the breezy climate.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Bhaji Day
Yesterday's dhokla batter was very handy for today’s bhaji preparation. We did potato and onion bhaji and enjoyed the same with mint chutney. We shared our hot tasty bhaji with our friends.
We called one of our friends to give his share of bhaji, unfortunately he was not at home. We couldn't control our temptation and attacked even his part.
Nowadays cooking seems to be easy and fast, we four gals prepared chapattis for 11 people in a very short notice. We four gals planned to have a night out, but one of my friend said she would join us and the count kept increasing and finally reached to 11. All of us dinned together to enjoy our food. Everyone appreciated our Bhaji during dinner.
We called one of our friends to give his share of bhaji, unfortunately he was not at home. We couldn't control our temptation and attacked even his part.
Nowadays cooking seems to be easy and fast, we four gals prepared chapattis for 11 people in a very short notice. We four gals planned to have a night out, but one of my friend said she would join us and the count kept increasing and finally reached to 11. All of us dinned together to enjoy our food. Everyone appreciated our Bhaji during dinner.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Double Birthday
I was in total rush from office to cub foods and from home to friends place. Me and my roommate were crazy running and getting ready today. We had two birthday celebration this evening. We had a very minimal time gap between the two parties. One at 6.15 and other at 7 P.M. My friend came to pick us up for the b'day celebration. We were just in time for the first party, cake was cut instantly. No birthday bumps no ragging was done to the birthday boy, instead his friends were all pulled to sing or write poems.
Everyone balked and finally I felt not to hurt him anymore and sang a song from Khadalan Tamil Movie, the crowd was just waiting for a staring point, another friend of mine immediately came up with a two liner poem. While starting from home my roomie jibbed and I cajoled her by saying that we would be back in 10 minutes. But sometimes time becomes more valuable on your friends birthday. We couldn't start in 10 minutes, we waited and spent at least 30 minutes to display our friendly attitude.
Sometimes directly or indirectly people correct few things in us, what this b'day boy taught me in the past was to speak frankly and give true opinion about things, if you feel you can't give true thoughts on something; just give a smile, people will understand what you are trying to convey. I used to hide lot of things from my close friends, I was not an open book until I mingled with him.
Felt happy that I was able to spare sometime with him on his "The Day".
We hadn't done any cooking till 7 P.M for the potluck, We tried Dhokla from scratch and it was a complete screw up. We ourselves couldn't eat, as it was half baked.
Our friend came to pick us up, just then we got the rice packed. We absolutely had no time to worry about our starter dish. We headed to the party hall. We started to decorate and arrange things in the hall. In couple of minutes my tennis friend arrived. We were waiting for his USTA partner to join us for the celebration, on his arrival we had the cake cutting ceremony. The highlight of this party was the B'day cake topped with tennis player practicing serve on the tennis court and the b'day bump(almost all guys kicked my friend, some of them hit him friendly and some attacked him violently).
In between number game and dumb-c, we all had our dinner. I was much delighted for one reason that I was able to make it up for both my friends birth day. After coming to U.S I have understood the meaning of spending time with friends.
Everyone balked and finally I felt not to hurt him anymore and sang a song from Khadalan Tamil Movie, the crowd was just waiting for a staring point, another friend of mine immediately came up with a two liner poem. While starting from home my roomie jibbed and I cajoled her by saying that we would be back in 10 minutes. But sometimes time becomes more valuable on your friends birthday. We couldn't start in 10 minutes, we waited and spent at least 30 minutes to display our friendly attitude.
Sometimes directly or indirectly people correct few things in us, what this b'day boy taught me in the past was to speak frankly and give true opinion about things, if you feel you can't give true thoughts on something; just give a smile, people will understand what you are trying to convey. I used to hide lot of things from my close friends, I was not an open book until I mingled with him.
Felt happy that I was able to spare sometime with him on his "The Day".
We hadn't done any cooking till 7 P.M for the potluck, We tried Dhokla from scratch and it was a complete screw up. We ourselves couldn't eat, as it was half baked.
Our friend came to pick us up, just then we got the rice packed. We absolutely had no time to worry about our starter dish. We headed to the party hall. We started to decorate and arrange things in the hall. In couple of minutes my tennis friend arrived. We were waiting for his USTA partner to join us for the celebration, on his arrival we had the cake cutting ceremony. The highlight of this party was the B'day cake topped with tennis player practicing serve on the tennis court and the b'day bump(almost all guys kicked my friend, some of them hit him friendly and some attacked him violently).
In between number game and dumb-c, we all had our dinner. I was much delighted for one reason that I was able to make it up for both my friends birth day. After coming to U.S I have understood the meaning of spending time with friends.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Area Contest
I assembled at 5.30 P.M, but my whole mind was preoccupied with one project bug and that issue was almost eating my brain. But as I volunteered to help them out for the arrangement, I closed my laptop and set my mind off from the issue and focused only on my assigned task.
There were close to 35 members who attended the contest today. I was fascinated seeing the awards. I dreamt of having one with me.
I got a exposure to people from different clubs and their angle of approach and topic selection for the Fall Humorous speech contest.
We had two members representing our club in this contest. We wanted both to win, but unfortunately only one won in the evaluator contest.
I made some new friends and had a great amount of learning. My initial plan was to walk down home in between the contest but someone offered me a ride. My division governor came forward to drop me home and ensured I stayed till the end of the meeting.
I found few speeches to be very dramatic, more than speech preparation people worked a lot on their body language and voice projection. I found few participant practicing their body moments during the break time. The meeting winded up well on time. We had some photo sessions and snacks. I was jaded and famished that I could hardly do anything after coming home.
There were close to 35 members who attended the contest today. I was fascinated seeing the awards. I dreamt of having one with me.
I got a exposure to people from different clubs and their angle of approach and topic selection for the Fall Humorous speech contest.
We had two members representing our club in this contest. We wanted both to win, but unfortunately only one won in the evaluator contest.
I made some new friends and had a great amount of learning. My initial plan was to walk down home in between the contest but someone offered me a ride. My division governor came forward to drop me home and ensured I stayed till the end of the meeting.
I found few speeches to be very dramatic, more than speech preparation people worked a lot on their body language and voice projection. I found few participant practicing their body moments during the break time. The meeting winded up well on time. We had some photo sessions and snacks. I was jaded and famished that I could hardly do anything after coming home.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Wow wat a walk
The walked up and down to office today. The weather was breezy and cool I just felt like walking and walking. I had tight deadlines to complete one of my office work, so didn't even move an inch until I thought things were getting into shape.
I took a short break to take a flu shot, I believe I was late by couple of minutes, I missed to have my vaccination today.
By the time I reached home at 6.15 P.M, my mind was completely saturated and badly needed a break. Talked to my friends and completed all my pending task.
I now don't even have the energy to type in my day's activity.
I took a short break to take a flu shot, I believe I was late by couple of minutes, I missed to have my vaccination today.
By the time I reached home at 6.15 P.M, my mind was completely saturated and badly needed a break. Talked to my friends and completed all my pending task.
I now don't even have the energy to type in my day's activity.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Disturbed
I have the habit of nodding my head to everything my mother says. I feel very proud sometimes to have satisfied all her wishes, even when they seemed impossible to me. When I see her crying, I put my feelings aside and ensure to keep her happy.
Today she has finalized my life partner and asking me to get ready for marriage in January 2010. Throughout my life, my mother has always given me the best things in life no matter whether it is small or big. I am confident that the guy she has for me would be the best of all, but I need to know how comfortable I would be with him after marriage. I requested my mother to arrange for a conversation with the guy.
She totally refused, she knows my thinking is very different and broad that might or might not be liked by the guy.
She justifies saying that he is well-educated and is from a good family background, what else you want to know about him, let me know I will check with him and let you know. I kept bickering with her and was firm saying that I need to talk with him at least once. I have even told her, she needn't worry about my marriage much, if at all I don't get a guy of my choice, I would prefer staying alone than fighting with him throughout my life. She keeps pressing me hard by saying, you are getting old and it would become difficult for us to find a guy of your choice as days pass by.
I don't think I was wrong in asking her to arrange for a casual talk with the guy. I am the one who is going to live with him not her. I am not even planning to talk with her for the next one week, so that things would cool down between me and my mother. I am disturbed today, I don’t feel good whenever I fight with my mom.
Hope she too understands me, the way I understand her.
Today she has finalized my life partner and asking me to get ready for marriage in January 2010. Throughout my life, my mother has always given me the best things in life no matter whether it is small or big. I am confident that the guy she has for me would be the best of all, but I need to know how comfortable I would be with him after marriage. I requested my mother to arrange for a conversation with the guy.
She totally refused, she knows my thinking is very different and broad that might or might not be liked by the guy.
She justifies saying that he is well-educated and is from a good family background, what else you want to know about him, let me know I will check with him and let you know. I kept bickering with her and was firm saying that I need to talk with him at least once. I have even told her, she needn't worry about my marriage much, if at all I don't get a guy of my choice, I would prefer staying alone than fighting with him throughout my life. She keeps pressing me hard by saying, you are getting old and it would become difficult for us to find a guy of your choice as days pass by.
I don't think I was wrong in asking her to arrange for a casual talk with the guy. I am the one who is going to live with him not her. I am not even planning to talk with her for the next one week, so that things would cool down between me and my mother. I am disturbed today, I don’t feel good whenever I fight with my mom.
Hope she too understands me, the way I understand her.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Friend's Chair
I tried hard to keep myself awake this evening as for the past couple of weeks, I have been sleeping in the evening, going late to bed and reaching office late. Today evening we visited one of our friends place to return back their milk can. I and my roommate found a chair similar to the one showed in Friends Serial. I sat first and my roommate adjusted herself to sit next to me. We pushed the knob on the side to pop up the cushion to place our legs. We kept cradling each other while conversing with our friend. Both of us as usual had a great time.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Jeen's Reception Party
Should we say this person is lucky and blessed to have all of us as friends or Should we say his lovable, good-nature and amiable character linked us to him ?
Whatever is the reason, his marriage was an occasion of adhesiveness for many families and bachelors. This blog is posted for two reasons, one to know the efforts of many who planned and executed their actions without any slip and two to expose my friend to the hidden love and affection attached to his surprise reception party.
Many pinged his dearest friend Binzeer to know what plans she had to make his marriage a memorable one. There were many who showed interest to do something for him as a token of their cozy feelings.
She thought too hard even during her tough support and fasting days. While walking back home, we would chart out some new plans and ideas for his reception party.
The initial germination of having a surprise reception party started in Ranjith, Binzeer and Venkat's mind. On seeing overwhelming responses from Jeen's party invite, the murky dream became clearer.
Following are few highlights of his reception party preparation:
Master Plan:
Plan A
To somehow manage to take Jeen and Ann for a Lunch outside on Sunday afternoon, but finally the idea was to bring them both to POPS party hall.
Plan B
To directly bring back Jeen and Ann from church to POPS party hall.
Personal Invitation:
Solely done by Binzeer. She consulted many if she should mark everyone in CC or BCC while inviting people for the party, as she wanted the invite to be very personal.
Call us crazy, we did what not to make this party a surprise.
Can't even count the number of lies and dramas that each of us enacted to make it 100% surprise. We even trained Jeysri and Srini to lie if required, thereby ensuring not to leak out anything about this party to Jeen and Ann.
Heart-Pulsating Scenes:
#1 - Buzzer
First our plan was to cook in Uma's place. But since Jeen kept frequenting their place even after marriage, We had to find some other alternative spot to ensure he never suspected what was carried out. As my house was easily accessible to everyone, we decided to cook at our place. It looks like Jeen borrowed some zip lock bags from Uma on Saturday evening.
We didn't know the real purpose behind he borrowing the zip lock bags but we started guessing wide and that raised few questions in our mind such as, did he borrow the zip locks to stuff marriage sweets and distribute the same? if so, for sure he would step in Ashwini's place and we would be caught red-handed and our bombshell would break.
We had lots of people coming to my place on Saturday evening to cut vegetables. Every time people buzzed we ensured and confirmed it was not Jeen. After everyone gathered, if at all we heard any door buzzer we double-triple checked to ensure it wasn't Jeen. At around 7.30 P.M on Saturday evening I left to Uma's place to get some tea powder. Nobody noticed when I slipped out and as I was in a rush I neither informed anyone nor picked my house key. When I returned back I had to press the door buzzer, I pressed it thrice, there was no response. I stood outside for 10 minutes, as the whole gang thought it was Jeen and didn't even respond back (so that Jeen would think I had gone out) , they utilized this time to think hard and see how they could divert Jeen from not stepping in my house.
#2- Garland`
I heard from Uma that she and Priya hooked pink petals and did two garlands for Jeen and his wife. Uma and Priya spent almost two and half hours in making this beautiful pink garlands. As in U.S people associate pink with Gals and blue with Guys, Venkat strongly opposed Jeen wearing PINK GARLAND. Uma found Venkat's point to be valid, later she asked him to get some white petals and re-did Jeen's garland.
We were all eager to see Jeen and Ann in the self-made garland during the reception party. When Jeen hesitated to wear the garland, our heart were in total pieces.
We couldn't tell him ,what someone did for him to give him and his wife a real reception effect. But at the end he wore the garland for couple of minutes.
Cover up scenes:
#1
Uma, Binzeer and Ninoshka unloaded huge bags of vegetables from St.Paul farmers market Saturday morning. They never even dreamt Jeen to be up and standing in his balcony to watch them unloading stuffs from the van. When Jeen enquired why she got such bulk quantity of onion and tomato, Uma lied that today was the closing day of farmers market season and that she had got vegetables for the whole world in and around Wilson avenue. Fun part was Jeen himself volunteered to help them out in unloading.
#2
Every time Binzeer/Uma got a call from Jeen, they would run to the bed-room as the living room was filled with people most of the time.
Today morning I heard Uma saying she was still sleeping when Jeen checked to know her availability to drop him at Brindha's place. Though Uma got up by 5.45 A.M, she faked her voice to appear as if she was really sleeping. Jeen was determined and we knew his next move would be with Karthik, Uma immediately called Karthik and asked him to refuse Jeen's request. He too replied back saying that he was busy with cricket match. We totally trapped Jeen and ensured to execute either of our plan(A/B).
Catering Committee:
#1 Veg Cutter Group
Members:
Uma, Binzeer, Nadhiya, Beygan, Karthik, Laser, Nithya, Ninoshka, Abdul,Brindha, Ashwini
Location: our house
This team chopped the volume of vegetables required for the party cooking.
Karthik found it hard to cut vegetables sitting down, but got accustomed to it in sometime. Beygan and Karthik made everyone cry by cutting the red onions. Laser tried his strength on the hard carrots. Abdul left one onion unpeeled. Nadhiya focused on the beans. Two 'N's (Ninoshka and Nithya) were totally in ripping the garlic skin.Brindha finely sliced the cucumbers. Binzeer tried her knife with ginger.
Uma patiently worked on the garlands. I was preparing tomato juices while cutting.
#2 Non-Veg Group:
Members : Brindha, Rajesh and Binzeer
Location: Brindha Rajesh house
Saturday night this team prepared spicy chicken. The members in the team were awake till 3.45 A.M not cooking chicken but chit-chatting about their college life.
#3 Cooking Committee:
Members:
Uma (Head Chef) ,Nithya, Nadhiya, Ninoshka, Binzeer and Ashwini.
Location: Our house
This team headed by Uma started cooking from 6 A.M on Sunday morning. Executive chefs Ninoshka and Nithya grinded cashew and masala paste. Nadhiya's approval was required to check the quality and quantity of food. Binzeer stirred vegetables in the cooker. And me in packing section. Every dish we prepared Uma only thought of Jeen's taste bud.
#4 Vada Group:
Members:
Shobha, Kavitha Ashokan and Jaishree
Location: Bradley Apartment
Jaishree prepared the batter, Shobha flattened the batter to make round vada and Kavitha fried them in oil. Target time 10 A.M accomplished even with high count of 200 vadas.
Solo Performers:
#1
Member: Nadhiya
Dish : Raitha
Considering kids and adults into account two different types of raitha was prepared by Nadhiya.
#2
Member: Vasanth
Dish : Veg Kurma
Even without any help from his spouse and family, he prepared veg kurma all alone.
#3
Member: Kavitha Shyam
Dish : Dhaal
People have different taste buds and Kavitha decided to prepare dish for people who eat food with less spice
#4
Member: Prachi Sathe
Dish: Chappathi
She took efforts to toast the chappathi's purchased from TBS Mart.
Logistics and Transportation Committee:
Members:
Venkat,Abdul and Lazer
Hot food were moved to Venkat's car with some high tech fundas (trade secrets not let out). Prefect on time door delivery to POPS party hall.
THE BIG DAY
Arrival:
Jeen was dressed up in blue shirt while Ann was clothed in pink chudhi. They arrived close to noon.
They looked perfectly attired for the surprise reception party. Uma took pains to shout "Surprise" but the whole crowd remained uncommunicative, probably they were all knocked out seeing the young couple. They were directed to the main table decorated with their marriage photo, banner and flowers.
Cake Cutting Ceremony:
The spongy cake topped with whip cake decorated with candles was cut by two gentle natured people holding together the ribbon bowed knife(done by Abdul in the last minute) . The crowed applauded and Abdul sang "Happy B'day" just to make this ceremony a pleasurable one.
Ragging Session:
Brindha shooted the first question to Jeen. Ranjith was eager to know if there was any fights between them after marriage. Beygan wanted to check the reactions of Ann on seeing Jeen in person for the first time.
Solo Songs and Antakshari:
We had an advise giving old song from Hari and fast wrap Slumdog millionaire song from Srini.
As people were shy to expose themselves as an individual, we decided to play Antakshari. The whole group was divided into two. Jeen and Ann were split into different groups. We had a starting problem for this game. Each of us kept calling others name but none of us had the guts to initiate. The first song was sung by Kavitha and Ashok. We all appreciated their courage and enthusiasm. Each group from then on, tried either to sing two lines or hum just the starting beat of each song. Kudos to Abdul for singing new version of Jana gana mana, as the new version had lyrics listing down all food items in a funny manner. Malayalam song from Kavitha Shyam in Ann's team triggered Jeen to sing another Malayalam song. Everyone continued their tit for tat and finally the whole group dispersed.
Thanks for the invited friends who came in to spare their leisure, relaxing yet a valuable Sunday afternoon with our newly wed couple.
Special Appreciation:
To my new roommate Ninoshka, we all knew Jeen some way (cricket,tennis and football) or the other(project) but she hadn't even seen Jeen. She helped us out in lot of ways during this arrangement. Special thanks to her. Anand for booking the POP party hall and helping us out even in the last crucial minute.
All members patted each other and said we did a great job by preparing lunch and arranging accommodation for 75 people.
Though all of us were from different families and culture, we worked as a single unit to make this party a grand event. Jeen's reception party was well executed to make it enjoyable. Hope Jeen and Ann enjoyed it.
Jeen's feelings are expressed in the following blog:
http://jeengeevar.blogspot.com/2009/09/wedding-reception-in-us-total-surprise.html
Whatever is the reason, his marriage was an occasion of adhesiveness for many families and bachelors. This blog is posted for two reasons, one to know the efforts of many who planned and executed their actions without any slip and two to expose my friend to the hidden love and affection attached to his surprise reception party.
Many pinged his dearest friend Binzeer to know what plans she had to make his marriage a memorable one. There were many who showed interest to do something for him as a token of their cozy feelings.
She thought too hard even during her tough support and fasting days. While walking back home, we would chart out some new plans and ideas for his reception party.
The initial germination of having a surprise reception party started in Ranjith, Binzeer and Venkat's mind. On seeing overwhelming responses from Jeen's party invite, the murky dream became clearer.
Following are few highlights of his reception party preparation:
Master Plan:
Plan A
To somehow manage to take Jeen and Ann for a Lunch outside on Sunday afternoon, but finally the idea was to bring them both to POPS party hall.
Plan B
To directly bring back Jeen and Ann from church to POPS party hall.
Personal Invitation:
Solely done by Binzeer. She consulted many if she should mark everyone in CC or BCC while inviting people for the party, as she wanted the invite to be very personal.
Call us crazy, we did what not to make this party a surprise.
Can't even count the number of lies and dramas that each of us enacted to make it 100% surprise. We even trained Jeysri and Srini to lie if required, thereby ensuring not to leak out anything about this party to Jeen and Ann.
Heart-Pulsating Scenes:
#1 - Buzzer
First our plan was to cook in Uma's place. But since Jeen kept frequenting their place even after marriage, We had to find some other alternative spot to ensure he never suspected what was carried out. As my house was easily accessible to everyone, we decided to cook at our place. It looks like Jeen borrowed some zip lock bags from Uma on Saturday evening.
We didn't know the real purpose behind he borrowing the zip lock bags but we started guessing wide and that raised few questions in our mind such as, did he borrow the zip locks to stuff marriage sweets and distribute the same? if so, for sure he would step in Ashwini's place and we would be caught red-handed and our bombshell would break.
We had lots of people coming to my place on Saturday evening to cut vegetables. Every time people buzzed we ensured and confirmed it was not Jeen. After everyone gathered, if at all we heard any door buzzer we double-triple checked to ensure it wasn't Jeen. At around 7.30 P.M on Saturday evening I left to Uma's place to get some tea powder. Nobody noticed when I slipped out and as I was in a rush I neither informed anyone nor picked my house key. When I returned back I had to press the door buzzer, I pressed it thrice, there was no response. I stood outside for 10 minutes, as the whole gang thought it was Jeen and didn't even respond back (so that Jeen would think I had gone out) , they utilized this time to think hard and see how they could divert Jeen from not stepping in my house.
#2- Garland`
I heard from Uma that she and Priya hooked pink petals and did two garlands for Jeen and his wife. Uma and Priya spent almost two and half hours in making this beautiful pink garlands. As in U.S people associate pink with Gals and blue with Guys, Venkat strongly opposed Jeen wearing PINK GARLAND. Uma found Venkat's point to be valid, later she asked him to get some white petals and re-did Jeen's garland.
We were all eager to see Jeen and Ann in the self-made garland during the reception party. When Jeen hesitated to wear the garland, our heart were in total pieces.
We couldn't tell him ,what someone did for him to give him and his wife a real reception effect. But at the end he wore the garland for couple of minutes.
Cover up scenes:
#1
Uma, Binzeer and Ninoshka unloaded huge bags of vegetables from St.Paul farmers market Saturday morning. They never even dreamt Jeen to be up and standing in his balcony to watch them unloading stuffs from the van. When Jeen enquired why she got such bulk quantity of onion and tomato, Uma lied that today was the closing day of farmers market season and that she had got vegetables for the whole world in and around Wilson avenue. Fun part was Jeen himself volunteered to help them out in unloading.
#2
Every time Binzeer/Uma got a call from Jeen, they would run to the bed-room as the living room was filled with people most of the time.
Today morning I heard Uma saying she was still sleeping when Jeen checked to know her availability to drop him at Brindha's place. Though Uma got up by 5.45 A.M, she faked her voice to appear as if she was really sleeping. Jeen was determined and we knew his next move would be with Karthik, Uma immediately called Karthik and asked him to refuse Jeen's request. He too replied back saying that he was busy with cricket match. We totally trapped Jeen and ensured to execute either of our plan(A/B).
Catering Committee:
#1 Veg Cutter Group
Members:
Uma, Binzeer, Nadhiya, Beygan, Karthik, Laser, Nithya, Ninoshka, Abdul,Brindha, Ashwini
Location: our house
This team chopped the volume of vegetables required for the party cooking.
Karthik found it hard to cut vegetables sitting down, but got accustomed to it in sometime. Beygan and Karthik made everyone cry by cutting the red onions. Laser tried his strength on the hard carrots. Abdul left one onion unpeeled. Nadhiya focused on the beans. Two 'N's (Ninoshka and Nithya) were totally in ripping the garlic skin.Brindha finely sliced the cucumbers. Binzeer tried her knife with ginger.
Uma patiently worked on the garlands. I was preparing tomato juices while cutting.
#2 Non-Veg Group:
Members : Brindha, Rajesh and Binzeer
Location: Brindha Rajesh house
Saturday night this team prepared spicy chicken. The members in the team were awake till 3.45 A.M not cooking chicken but chit-chatting about their college life.
#3 Cooking Committee:
Members:
Uma (Head Chef) ,Nithya, Nadhiya, Ninoshka, Binzeer and Ashwini.
Location: Our house
This team headed by Uma started cooking from 6 A.M on Sunday morning. Executive chefs Ninoshka and Nithya grinded cashew and masala paste. Nadhiya's approval was required to check the quality and quantity of food. Binzeer stirred vegetables in the cooker. And me in packing section. Every dish we prepared Uma only thought of Jeen's taste bud.
#4 Vada Group:
Members:
Shobha, Kavitha Ashokan and Jaishree
Location: Bradley Apartment
Jaishree prepared the batter, Shobha flattened the batter to make round vada and Kavitha fried them in oil. Target time 10 A.M accomplished even with high count of 200 vadas.
Solo Performers:
#1
Member: Nadhiya
Dish : Raitha
Considering kids and adults into account two different types of raitha was prepared by Nadhiya.
#2
Member: Vasanth
Dish : Veg Kurma
Even without any help from his spouse and family, he prepared veg kurma all alone.
#3
Member: Kavitha Shyam
Dish : Dhaal
People have different taste buds and Kavitha decided to prepare dish for people who eat food with less spice
#4
Member: Prachi Sathe
Dish: Chappathi
She took efforts to toast the chappathi's purchased from TBS Mart.
Logistics and Transportation Committee:
Members:
Venkat,Abdul and Lazer
Hot food were moved to Venkat's car with some high tech fundas (trade secrets not let out). Prefect on time door delivery to POPS party hall.
THE BIG DAY
Arrival:
Jeen was dressed up in blue shirt while Ann was clothed in pink chudhi. They arrived close to noon.
They looked perfectly attired for the surprise reception party. Uma took pains to shout "Surprise" but the whole crowd remained uncommunicative, probably they were all knocked out seeing the young couple. They were directed to the main table decorated with their marriage photo, banner and flowers.
Cake Cutting Ceremony:
The spongy cake topped with whip cake decorated with candles was cut by two gentle natured people holding together the ribbon bowed knife(done by Abdul in the last minute) . The crowed applauded and Abdul sang "Happy B'day" just to make this ceremony a pleasurable one.
Ragging Session:
Brindha shooted the first question to Jeen. Ranjith was eager to know if there was any fights between them after marriage. Beygan wanted to check the reactions of Ann on seeing Jeen in person for the first time.
Solo Songs and Antakshari:
We had an advise giving old song from Hari and fast wrap Slumdog millionaire song from Srini.
As people were shy to expose themselves as an individual, we decided to play Antakshari. The whole group was divided into two. Jeen and Ann were split into different groups. We had a starting problem for this game. Each of us kept calling others name but none of us had the guts to initiate. The first song was sung by Kavitha and Ashok. We all appreciated their courage and enthusiasm. Each group from then on, tried either to sing two lines or hum just the starting beat of each song. Kudos to Abdul for singing new version of Jana gana mana, as the new version had lyrics listing down all food items in a funny manner. Malayalam song from Kavitha Shyam in Ann's team triggered Jeen to sing another Malayalam song. Everyone continued their tit for tat and finally the whole group dispersed.
Thanks for the invited friends who came in to spare their leisure, relaxing yet a valuable Sunday afternoon with our newly wed couple.
Special Appreciation:
To my new roommate Ninoshka, we all knew Jeen some way (cricket,tennis and football) or the other(project) but she hadn't even seen Jeen. She helped us out in lot of ways during this arrangement. Special thanks to her. Anand for booking the POP party hall and helping us out even in the last crucial minute.
All members patted each other and said we did a great job by preparing lunch and arranging accommodation for 75 people.
Though all of us were from different families and culture, we worked as a single unit to make this party a grand event. Jeen's reception party was well executed to make it enjoyable. Hope Jeen and Ann enjoyed it.
Jeen's feelings are expressed in the following blog:
http://jeengeevar.blogspot.com/2009/09/wedding-reception-in-us-total-surprise.html
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Blue Spider
I have never seen people being so punctual that too for such things. People were on time to help us out. The evening brightness dimmed, but our energy level soared to get our job done at the earliest. Twelve of us split our task and ensured to make our biz more exciting by ragging each other to sing, dance or do something interesting. One side songs were running on my PC and on the other side people were gagging.
The whole house was boisterous. Most of the film songs I played had a predominant flavor of carnatic music. The crowd preferred more beat songs and kothu pattu, they tolerated with me for couple of songs but they couldn't control beyond a certain limit. They said Ashwini can you please change the songs. I did change the songs to some high beat ones, even that they didn't like much. At last I handed over my comp to them to play the songs of their interest. We enjoyed music and in between people did fight to play their individual favorites. Everyone wanted some refreshment to pump their energy. People felt famished and one of my friend recommended to prepare some tea.
Teabreak, I got the headcount and finally said this is the first time I am going to prepare tea for someone. Everyone hissed, please do not take any risk now. Fine I said and called one of my friend to help me out in making tea.
I didn't realize that we were running short of tea powder at home, as I never take tea , I didn't even bother to keep a track of it.
We borrowed some tea powder and cups from our friends place. Prepared tea and had the same with apple slices.
Same time photo session started covering each one of us doing our assigned line of work and comparing our actions to funny ad songs. We really had a great time. It was just two and half hours we spent cutting vegetables but believe me, we loved every second. We split our stuff and majority of them headed back home at 8 P.M.
As expected few of our friends stopped at our house, close to 10 P.M to hand over cooker and other utensils necessary for tomorrow's cooking. After dumping things they left. Meanwhile my roommate stepped in the wash room.
She came back running asking if I have seen any blue spider. I replied back “No”. She took me to the wash room and showed me a blue spider. I asked to call our friends who left home couple of minutes back. She got them back, my friend took a empty plastic cover to catch the spider. He was doubtful whether it was a real one, as the spider was stagnant in the same place without any motion. Generally insects scurry when we switch on the lights. He was confident it was a plastic spider and lifted the spider. We all laughed for a second and were eager to know who was that naughty person, who tried to prank us in the night. The investigation is still on.
The whole house was boisterous. Most of the film songs I played had a predominant flavor of carnatic music. The crowd preferred more beat songs and kothu pattu, they tolerated with me for couple of songs but they couldn't control beyond a certain limit. They said Ashwini can you please change the songs. I did change the songs to some high beat ones, even that they didn't like much. At last I handed over my comp to them to play the songs of their interest. We enjoyed music and in between people did fight to play their individual favorites. Everyone wanted some refreshment to pump their energy. People felt famished and one of my friend recommended to prepare some tea.
Teabreak, I got the headcount and finally said this is the first time I am going to prepare tea for someone. Everyone hissed, please do not take any risk now. Fine I said and called one of my friend to help me out in making tea.
I didn't realize that we were running short of tea powder at home, as I never take tea , I didn't even bother to keep a track of it.
We borrowed some tea powder and cups from our friends place. Prepared tea and had the same with apple slices.
Same time photo session started covering each one of us doing our assigned line of work and comparing our actions to funny ad songs. We really had a great time. It was just two and half hours we spent cutting vegetables but believe me, we loved every second. We split our stuff and majority of them headed back home at 8 P.M.
As expected few of our friends stopped at our house, close to 10 P.M to hand over cooker and other utensils necessary for tomorrow's cooking. After dumping things they left. Meanwhile my roommate stepped in the wash room.
She came back running asking if I have seen any blue spider. I replied back “No”. She took me to the wash room and showed me a blue spider. I asked to call our friends who left home couple of minutes back. She got them back, my friend took a empty plastic cover to catch the spider. He was doubtful whether it was a real one, as the spider was stagnant in the same place without any motion. Generally insects scurry when we switch on the lights. He was confident it was a plastic spider and lifted the spider. We all laughed for a second and were eager to know who was that naughty person, who tried to prank us in the night. The investigation is still on.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Receiving Couple
My friend and his wife landed, completed their baggage claim and were eagerly waiting for our pick up. Eight of us went to receive this awesome couple. We split in four-four and travelled in two different cars to give our friend and his spouse a warm welcome. We started from the house late thinking that it would take sometime for him to finish the formalities at the airport. We kept updating the status of our distance from the airport. My friends in other car reached before us. The car I was in, we were making fun of each other, by the time we reach there I believe they would have started their ride back home. We tried to hold them for 5-10 minutes in the airport until we tugged in.
My new roommate was quickly introduced to my friend and his spouse. Rode back home and were waiting to see the reactions of our newly wed friend with unexpected surprises at home. The home was decked with their photo's and flowers. They showed terrific signs before even stepping inside the house. It was fun watching them get in.
We had great time pulling each ones leg. Had some refreshments and dispersed home.
My new roommate was quickly introduced to my friend and his spouse. Rode back home and were waiting to see the reactions of our newly wed friend with unexpected surprises at home. The home was decked with their photo's and flowers. They showed terrific signs before even stepping inside the house. It was fun watching them get in.
We had great time pulling each ones leg. Had some refreshments and dispersed home.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Kiddish Fight
I fixed my yesterday's issue in 5 minutes, though I am yet to meet my deadline.
Today I worked quite actively and energetically. Great ideas and suggestions popped in my mind. I was running pillar to post to complete all my pending task. I was feeling little uneasy by 11.30, had a quick lunch and continued with my work.
Surprisingly my roommate stopped at my desk to enquire about voicemail set up and name plate change. I directed her to our building infrastructure person Nancy.
She was a sweet lady and explained my roommate the necessary process. She rather gave us additional information about office supplies at her desk.
We both grabbed a 2009 calendar, just three months left but still wanted to have a copy of it. Later we dispersed to carry out our line of work. Our weekly status meeting which was intended to be short turned out to be a long one.
Walked home in a different route with four of my friends. Most of them were teasing me and another friend of mine for wearing a cap and protecting ourselves from the scorching heat. Met my rental in charge at my building entrance, chit-chatted with him for a while and reached home by 4.45 P.M
In between my keyboard practice, my roommate opened the door and said hi to me. We later continued with our work. For the past two days we have been having sweet corn as our evening snacks. Today too we decided to have the remaining ones. We both sensed the stinking garbage smell. We decided to dispose the trash before even tasting our corn. My roommate led the way, she found it difficult to push the heavy wooden door. I commented from behind, you are so weak that you are unable to push the door. She giggled, gave a pause and said the door was too heavy for her. She continued her vanity in loud voice that she was strong and I kept saying I was stronger than her. The argument continued until we threw the trash. While returning back she got in the main entrance door and tried locking from inside. She kept pulling the door from inside and I was pulling the door from outside. She gave a better force than me that the door always got closed not allowing me to enter the building. She said she would open the door only if I accepted I was weaker than her. I was determined not to accept that I was weak.
We tried three-four attempts and every time she won. We were playing should probably say we were fighting like kids on this one for about 10-15 minutes. I had to later give up and accept that the fact she was stronger than me.
I roared in laughter after stepping our apartment door. The argument still continued I told her what made me give up and she wasn't stronger that me..blah blah....We had lots of counter conversations today, but no hard feelings. Funning talks and jokes.
Enjoying life with my child natured roommate.
Today I worked quite actively and energetically. Great ideas and suggestions popped in my mind. I was running pillar to post to complete all my pending task. I was feeling little uneasy by 11.30, had a quick lunch and continued with my work.
Surprisingly my roommate stopped at my desk to enquire about voicemail set up and name plate change. I directed her to our building infrastructure person Nancy.
She was a sweet lady and explained my roommate the necessary process. She rather gave us additional information about office supplies at her desk.
We both grabbed a 2009 calendar, just three months left but still wanted to have a copy of it. Later we dispersed to carry out our line of work. Our weekly status meeting which was intended to be short turned out to be a long one.
Walked home in a different route with four of my friends. Most of them were teasing me and another friend of mine for wearing a cap and protecting ourselves from the scorching heat. Met my rental in charge at my building entrance, chit-chatted with him for a while and reached home by 4.45 P.M
In between my keyboard practice, my roommate opened the door and said hi to me. We later continued with our work. For the past two days we have been having sweet corn as our evening snacks. Today too we decided to have the remaining ones. We both sensed the stinking garbage smell. We decided to dispose the trash before even tasting our corn. My roommate led the way, she found it difficult to push the heavy wooden door. I commented from behind, you are so weak that you are unable to push the door. She giggled, gave a pause and said the door was too heavy for her. She continued her vanity in loud voice that she was strong and I kept saying I was stronger than her. The argument continued until we threw the trash. While returning back she got in the main entrance door and tried locking from inside. She kept pulling the door from inside and I was pulling the door from outside. She gave a better force than me that the door always got closed not allowing me to enter the building. She said she would open the door only if I accepted I was weaker than her. I was determined not to accept that I was weak.
We tried three-four attempts and every time she won. We were playing should probably say we were fighting like kids on this one for about 10-15 minutes. I had to later give up and accept that the fact she was stronger than me.
I roared in laughter after stepping our apartment door. The argument still continued I told her what made me give up and she wasn't stronger that me..blah blah....We had lots of counter conversations today, but no hard feelings. Funning talks and jokes.
Enjoying life with my child natured roommate.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Pressure
This time I am not concerned about blood pressure but more tangled in biz pressure.
I tried to have a sound sleep today morning but my attempt to sleep undisturbed has always been a challenge. I had slight headache when I got up. I had lots of activities in office today DTS migration to SSIS, meetings and code changes for one defect. I tried opening my workspace and it spitted me with lots of errors. I hardly moved an inch till 10 in the morning. Only after mailing my DBA with today' prod move list and took off to eat something. My DBA found few issues while deploying the package in Production Server, started digging on the issues and felt listless by 11.30. I quickly heated my lunch and enjoyed the sumptuous food.
After lunch I had a quick meeting with one of my colleague to fix the issues in my workspace. By the time I was back, I saw red lights flashing in my desk phone. I wasn't too sure who had left me a voice message. I opened up my voicemail inbox
and deleted my archived messages. I heard one new message left couple of minutes back.
It was a message from one of my client. I was given a KT last week to work on a particular report and they inquired me about the status. I told them that I am yet to start coding. I remember seeing a mail from them yesterday to check if it was possible for me to complete the code changes by this week. I said I would try my best to get it done as early as possible.
I understood that few fixes can't wait and needs contiguous attention. I stopped working on other things and started to focus much on this issue. My hard luck what worked yesterday also didn't work today. I had to start everything from square one.
I thought I would spare some time at home to understand this issue, but after coming home I felt very jaded and took a nap.
Now I am feeling the pressure of this task. Yesterday my clients inquired through mail, today through phone and tomorrow they might even visit me to know the status of the code fix.
I am praying GOD to ignite my problem solving portion of my brain, that would make it easy for me to resolve the issue.
This one task is haunting me a lot since the start of this week.
I tried to have a sound sleep today morning but my attempt to sleep undisturbed has always been a challenge. I had slight headache when I got up. I had lots of activities in office today DTS migration to SSIS, meetings and code changes for one defect. I tried opening my workspace and it spitted me with lots of errors. I hardly moved an inch till 10 in the morning. Only after mailing my DBA with today' prod move list and took off to eat something. My DBA found few issues while deploying the package in Production Server, started digging on the issues and felt listless by 11.30. I quickly heated my lunch and enjoyed the sumptuous food.
After lunch I had a quick meeting with one of my colleague to fix the issues in my workspace. By the time I was back, I saw red lights flashing in my desk phone. I wasn't too sure who had left me a voice message. I opened up my voicemail inbox
and deleted my archived messages. I heard one new message left couple of minutes back.
It was a message from one of my client. I was given a KT last week to work on a particular report and they inquired me about the status. I told them that I am yet to start coding. I remember seeing a mail from them yesterday to check if it was possible for me to complete the code changes by this week. I said I would try my best to get it done as early as possible.
I understood that few fixes can't wait and needs contiguous attention. I stopped working on other things and started to focus much on this issue. My hard luck what worked yesterday also didn't work today. I had to start everything from square one.
I thought I would spare some time at home to understand this issue, but after coming home I felt very jaded and took a nap.
Now I am feeling the pressure of this task. Yesterday my clients inquired through mail, today through phone and tomorrow they might even visit me to know the status of the code fix.
I am praying GOD to ignite my problem solving portion of my brain, that would make it easy for me to resolve the issue.
This one task is haunting me a lot since the start of this week.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Humorous Speech Contest
My first participation in Toastmaster’s speech contest. Though I am not a amusing person by a nature, I still participated in today's humorous speech contest. Most of my friends consider me as a serious personality, as I sometimes don't understand their jokes or argue with them saying, what they stated was not possible.
As I was not sure whether I would be there for the next contest, I participated in today's event.
I went to the conference room exactly on time, they asked me to fill in few forms.
My content chair person had few chits numbered from 1-3 and asked me to pick one. I picked and I got the number 2 on the chit.
I completed the procedures and the event started within 10 minutes. We had a guest speech from our area governor. She talked about losing weight, in the past I have heard many talk about weight loss, but I found her speech to be the most impressive with punching conclusion. Her message was strong don't bother about your shape just focus on leading a healthy life with a song(Red Yellow Black and White). Couple of minutes were given to the evaluator to comment on her talk.
And I was one of the judge for the Evaluator's contest. The sergeants of arms collected the ballot and the judge evaluation sheet. And after two minutes our speech contest started. The first speaker was my former evaluator, his speech title was hot, sweaty and salty. From the title I thought he would talk about weather conditions in his native place. But his story turned out to be totally different.
He talked about bachata music and how he got to dance with a gorgeous women in a house full pub. His demeanor while expressing his first sight love for the women with dancing moments kept everyone spell-bound. The whole audience started to roar in laughter during his presentation. I completely lost my confidence by then, as the humorous speech has to be original I didn't even prepare for this contest. I doubted myself for a second, will people ever laugh for what I am going to speak?.
I heard the thunder of applause for his speech and immediately my name was called out. I tried my best to capture everyone's attention and ensured to add few jokes in between. I was surprised to see smiles in my spectators faces. I winded my speech and took a deep breath to mark a sign of relief.
After the third speech the three evaluators and speakers were interviewed on their personal interest and in meantime we got our votes counted.
The contest chair announced the results. As expected speaker 1 won the award and was selected to represent in the area contest.
I am glad to have such a wonderful experience.
As I was not sure whether I would be there for the next contest, I participated in today's event.
I went to the conference room exactly on time, they asked me to fill in few forms.
My content chair person had few chits numbered from 1-3 and asked me to pick one. I picked and I got the number 2 on the chit.
I completed the procedures and the event started within 10 minutes. We had a guest speech from our area governor. She talked about losing weight, in the past I have heard many talk about weight loss, but I found her speech to be the most impressive with punching conclusion. Her message was strong don't bother about your shape just focus on leading a healthy life with a song(Red Yellow Black and White). Couple of minutes were given to the evaluator to comment on her talk.
And I was one of the judge for the Evaluator's contest. The sergeants of arms collected the ballot and the judge evaluation sheet. And after two minutes our speech contest started. The first speaker was my former evaluator, his speech title was hot, sweaty and salty. From the title I thought he would talk about weather conditions in his native place. But his story turned out to be totally different.
He talked about bachata music and how he got to dance with a gorgeous women in a house full pub. His demeanor while expressing his first sight love for the women with dancing moments kept everyone spell-bound. The whole audience started to roar in laughter during his presentation. I completely lost my confidence by then, as the humorous speech has to be original I didn't even prepare for this contest. I doubted myself for a second, will people ever laugh for what I am going to speak?.
I heard the thunder of applause for his speech and immediately my name was called out. I tried my best to capture everyone's attention and ensured to add few jokes in between. I was surprised to see smiles in my spectators faces. I winded my speech and took a deep breath to mark a sign of relief.
After the third speech the three evaluators and speakers were interviewed on their personal interest and in meantime we got our votes counted.
The contest chair announced the results. As expected speaker 1 won the award and was selected to represent in the area contest.
I am glad to have such a wonderful experience.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Knee Ache
I couldn't walk to office today morning in the balmy weather. I just felt inside God sake please someone leave me at office. I was about to cross the junction, one of my friend offered me a lift to office. As I was not in a position to trouble my leg, I quickly jumped in the car. Inquired about their office work and tennis matches.
Managed to be in office before 9 A.M. I had a list of task to be completed today.
I tried focusing on my work and avoided even small distractions.
But something was troubling, my left knee I neither could bent nor stretch my leg.
I kept changing my sitting position to make myself comfortable. All my attempts went in vain it only aggravated my pain. For a second I felt like taking off from office, but as I had very critical code fix to be completed, I dropped that plan.
I was thinking to ask one of my friend to drop me home, as my work got dragged I couldn't ask him to wait for me. I had to walk down home.
I came home and sat down for solid 30 minutes, I have never complaint about leg pain so far in my life, even after walking 10 Kilometers I always found things to be fine with me. Today I was feeling uneasy to stand and walk. Might be my bones are becoming very weak or could be I am involving myself in rigorous tennis practice.
Lets me wait and see what happens with my leg tomorrow.
Managed to be in office before 9 A.M. I had a list of task to be completed today.
I tried focusing on my work and avoided even small distractions.
But something was troubling, my left knee I neither could bent nor stretch my leg.
I kept changing my sitting position to make myself comfortable. All my attempts went in vain it only aggravated my pain. For a second I felt like taking off from office, but as I had very critical code fix to be completed, I dropped that plan.
I was thinking to ask one of my friend to drop me home, as my work got dragged I couldn't ask him to wait for me. I had to walk down home.
I came home and sat down for solid 30 minutes, I have never complaint about leg pain so far in my life, even after walking 10 Kilometers I always found things to be fine with me. Today I was feeling uneasy to stand and walk. Might be my bones are becoming very weak or could be I am involving myself in rigorous tennis practice.
Lets me wait and see what happens with my leg tomorrow.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Soporific
I did it again, got up on time today, that too on a Sunday. I was feeling little sick to get out of bed as I slept only for four hours last night.
I didn't want to snooze for long today and as I land up being awake late in the night. I was feeling soporific the whole day. I tried involving myself in different activities to avert my sleep.
In the afternoon I controlled my self not to sleep. I tried different things to avoid catching a wink. I tried to call my friends and solve Sudoku, nothing helped me to be conscious. I finally decided to watch a movie. Mozhi, one of my favorite Tamil movie. I watched it for the second time, nowadays I am enjoying every small thing in life. My friends used to tease me for being so impatient while watching a movie. I used to fast forward songs and fight scenes and always managed to watch three hour movie in half an hour. I unremarkably apply logic to every scene .I would comment none of the movies are realistic as they add some masala, and always my friends used to hiss saying that movie is for entertainment and relaxation, not for logic. Today I watched this movie with complete pleasure.
I washed clothes, chit-chatted with my roomie and tried debugging some code. I couldn't concentrate much on any of my activities as I was feeling terribly lethargic.
I didn't want to snooze for long today and as I land up being awake late in the night. I was feeling soporific the whole day. I tried involving myself in different activities to avert my sleep.
In the afternoon I controlled my self not to sleep. I tried different things to avoid catching a wink. I tried to call my friends and solve Sudoku, nothing helped me to be conscious. I finally decided to watch a movie. Mozhi, one of my favorite Tamil movie. I watched it for the second time, nowadays I am enjoying every small thing in life. My friends used to tease me for being so impatient while watching a movie. I used to fast forward songs and fight scenes and always managed to watch three hour movie in half an hour. I unremarkably apply logic to every scene .I would comment none of the movies are realistic as they add some masala, and always my friends used to hiss saying that movie is for entertainment and relaxation, not for logic. Today I watched this movie with complete pleasure.
I washed clothes, chit-chatted with my roomie and tried debugging some code. I couldn't concentrate much on any of my activities as I was feeling terribly lethargic.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Family and Friends Photo
Family with two sons and two daughters with a minimal age difference between all the four kids. Wow what a family was the expression given by me on seeing the snaps shown by my new roommate from Goa. She shared with me her childhood and very recent family photos.
I was commenting on every photo, how she looked and what physical changes she has undergone in years.
She was saying how her parents and aunts managed to raise them and memories of fights with her siblings while flipping the photos. I regretted for not maintaining my school and college days snaps. At least to compare how I was to what I am.
Till date I don't have a single photo album capturing my sweet memories. I love taking photos but not good at maintaining them.
Neither do I have a family photo with my siblings and parents. Today my roommate thought me the significance of family members and the self gratitude towards them.
Conversation with her made me feel I have missed lots of things in life. She showed me a key chain with her previous roommates group photo, all five gals have uniformly dressed up in blue jean and black top. Most of the time we lose in touch with friends and distant family members. Sometimes even find it difficult to recall their names and faces. And today someone is teaching me the importance of capturing our relationship in ever remember able photos.
I was commenting on every photo, how she looked and what physical changes she has undergone in years.
She was saying how her parents and aunts managed to raise them and memories of fights with her siblings while flipping the photos. I regretted for not maintaining my school and college days snaps. At least to compare how I was to what I am.
Till date I don't have a single photo album capturing my sweet memories. I love taking photos but not good at maintaining them.
Neither do I have a family photo with my siblings and parents. Today my roommate thought me the significance of family members and the self gratitude towards them.
Conversation with her made me feel I have missed lots of things in life. She showed me a key chain with her previous roommates group photo, all five gals have uniformly dressed up in blue jean and black top. Most of the time we lose in touch with friends and distant family members. Sometimes even find it difficult to recall their names and faces. And today someone is teaching me the importance of capturing our relationship in ever remember able photos.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Feeling Good
Peaceful day with all pending issues and work completed. Usually Friday's I don't like to work much. Just chilled out today evening watching 1.5 episodes of "Friends Serial" , followed by some home shopping and chit chatting with friends.
One of my friend had forwarded me the following link on how our thinking affects our health. Worth reading pals, check out.
http://www.livescience.com/health/090911-7-bad-thoughts.html
One of my room mate is leaving to India tomorrow, so she bid her final bye to our neighbor. Our neighbor is very sweet personality and offered us today's dinner. Initially we hesitated a bit but got convinced by her care.
Enjoyed masala puri and then all of us gathered to create the e-invite for Diwali Celebration. Broke our head to decide on the background, content and the list of people to be invited and didn't realize that we have been spending more than 3 hours in doing the same. Talked to my dear most friend and his wife at 11.45 P.M and listened to my recent favorite song at least four times today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIuAFYCwEkk
I felt good today except for the fact I did lots of TP and hopefully things will become more better in the coming days.
One of my friend had forwarded me the following link on how our thinking affects our health. Worth reading pals, check out.
http://www.livescience.com/health/090911-7-bad-thoughts.html
One of my room mate is leaving to India tomorrow, so she bid her final bye to our neighbor. Our neighbor is very sweet personality and offered us today's dinner. Initially we hesitated a bit but got convinced by her care.
Enjoyed masala puri and then all of us gathered to create the e-invite for Diwali Celebration. Broke our head to decide on the background, content and the list of people to be invited and didn't realize that we have been spending more than 3 hours in doing the same. Talked to my dear most friend and his wife at 11.45 P.M and listened to my recent favorite song at least four times today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIuAFYCwEkk
I felt good today except for the fact I did lots of TP and hopefully things will become more better in the coming days.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Ticket Day
I felt something was really going wrong with me. I have never lived a day without planning for my next day activity and today I completely lost myself. I went to office and munched some fruits and immediately one of colleague stopped by to discuss one critical issue raised by Taiwan last night. I tried to open my inbox to get the details and saw another serious mail dropped to my manager about this issue. I didn't worry much but felt we could have handled it little better. I was thinking what got messed up this time. It was a network issue and we weren't sure what sequence of steps the user followed to generate this issue. We had a quick meeting with our architect and finally planned for a sametime meeting with Taiwan users in the night. I saw another issue related to reports. I quickly had to fix those and move with my data load in PROD.
I was under the impression that data load is the most easiest job and boom I got an error. I didn't have the patience to debug the code and pinged one of my data load expert to give me some hint on this issue, she was even busier than me, and said it was next to impossible to help me out.
I had no option but to debug the code and finally figured out some data were missing. I fixed the issue and continued with other loads.
In the weekly status meeting I heard my name several times as I was mapped to many interesting task in the project. I was happy to be assigned to varied responsibilities, but sometimes I doubted my capabilities to perform those task.
In between I received a phone call from my rental office to collect my house key as I left it on the office desk today morning while giving the apartment vacating notice. I had to call one of friend to collect the key before the office closes by 4.30 P.M. I was feeling empty-bellied by 5P.M and had no energy to walk home. Feeling very jaded today.
I was under the impression that data load is the most easiest job and boom I got an error. I didn't have the patience to debug the code and pinged one of my data load expert to give me some hint on this issue, she was even busier than me, and said it was next to impossible to help me out.
I had no option but to debug the code and finally figured out some data were missing. I fixed the issue and continued with other loads.
In the weekly status meeting I heard my name several times as I was mapped to many interesting task in the project. I was happy to be assigned to varied responsibilities, but sometimes I doubted my capabilities to perform those task.
In between I received a phone call from my rental office to collect my house key as I left it on the office desk today morning while giving the apartment vacating notice. I had to call one of friend to collect the key before the office closes by 4.30 P.M. I was feeling empty-bellied by 5P.M and had no energy to walk home. Feeling very jaded today.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Fight Back
During dinner we were watching the U.S Open 2009 quarterfinals match between Soderling and Federer. From the score it looked like the first set got over in jiffy as Federer had a lead of 6-0. We started watching the match from the second set. Soderling tried some hard shots and gave his tough fight in the second set to reach a score of 6-3. He had a rude body language whenever he lost a critical game point. Federer was in full form to win the third set with ease. Before the start of the third set, the commentator said it's going be a straight set for Federer to enter semi-finals match against Djokovic. This comment from the expert annoyed Soderling.
Soderling gathered his confidence level and bounced back in the third set. Federer could not take any hard and brilliant shots from Soderling. The match was competitive in the third set. The match went neck to neck until the tie breaker was broken by Soderling.
Soderling if wanted could have given up in the third set, but his will to fight back and to give his best was appreciable. I loved his determination and courage to stand against all odds even in the last chance.
Soderling gathered his confidence level and bounced back in the third set. Federer could not take any hard and brilliant shots from Soderling. The match was competitive in the third set. The match went neck to neck until the tie breaker was broken by Soderling.
Soderling if wanted could have given up in the third set, but his will to fight back and to give his best was appreciable. I loved his determination and courage to stand against all odds even in the last chance.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Missing Biz Partner
The office room is shared between me and one of my friend. Today I was missing his presence, as he has gone for a month’s leisure to India. I have been sitting next to him for the past one and half years. Today my mind was clouded with his absence in the room after the long weekend . We fight like school kids for small matters. Everyone comments a lot on the way we fight. Sometimes we pull each others leg in front of everyone. He praises me a lot when he wants something from my side. Initially our relationship was not too strong to share our personal stories. But now we share everything from our food to future plans.
He is very diet conscious , so do I. He always pities the way I look. He keeps saying you look very sick and pale, why don't you eat properly. Sometimes after hearing those words I usually become little emotional for him being caring and affectionate. Both of us have a loud voice and our voice raises when we get angry or excited. People in the adjacent bay get distracted with our voice and strongly request us to get the door closed when we discuss.
We enjoy our freedom in the small room. When we feel like, we clean the room together. I dump all my waste in his desk and he does the same thing to me.
He gets new office cleaner sprays from the stationary and I start using the spray, without even asking him. If both of us like taking some break, we schmoose on general topics such as education policy in U.S, mentality of guys and gals ,sometimes about family and friends.
When we have something very critical in work, we never even bother to talk with each other as our focus would be completely on the issue. Any silly doubts we try resolving among ourselves. We taste each others lunch and sometimes fight for the spoon. When I feel lazy to fetch water from downstairs, I drink water from his bottle, when he is busy chatting with people I would get water for him.
We have a mutual understanding on small things though our fights are big. Missing all those enjoyable moments.
He is very diet conscious , so do I. He always pities the way I look. He keeps saying you look very sick and pale, why don't you eat properly. Sometimes after hearing those words I usually become little emotional for him being caring and affectionate. Both of us have a loud voice and our voice raises when we get angry or excited. People in the adjacent bay get distracted with our voice and strongly request us to get the door closed when we discuss.
We enjoy our freedom in the small room. When we feel like, we clean the room together. I dump all my waste in his desk and he does the same thing to me.
He gets new office cleaner sprays from the stationary and I start using the spray, without even asking him. If both of us like taking some break, we schmoose on general topics such as education policy in U.S, mentality of guys and gals ,sometimes about family and friends.
When we have something very critical in work, we never even bother to talk with each other as our focus would be completely on the issue. Any silly doubts we try resolving among ourselves. We taste each others lunch and sometimes fight for the spoon. When I feel lazy to fetch water from downstairs, I drink water from his bottle, when he is busy chatting with people I would get water for him.
We have a mutual understanding on small things though our fights are big. Missing all those enjoyable moments.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Sneezing Funda
Science was one of my favorite subject in school. I loved sketching the diagrams and learning new terminologies. But experiments I always did for name sake, I never bothered to imply any of the scientific theories in my day to day life.
Today we paid a visit to Science Museum. We watched a movie on Titanica Ship for 45 mins. And then moved to human body section. We tried to experiment few things.
As we were running short of time, we couldn't spare sufficient time in all the sections of the museum. Wherever we saw a group of people, we only researched those parts. In that way we spent time in knowing what is the correct way to cover ourselves while sneezing.
The correct way is to sneeze on one's fabric (i.e. on shirt sleeve) by crossing their hand on the opposite shoulder. If a person sneezes on her/his hand, there is a high possibility of spreading the bacteria and virus to any object.
In the demo video they had showed an employee talking over phone, sneezing on his hand and transferring the bacteria to the public phone. Others using the same phone got infected with this bacteria.
The video also covers how people would react if we sneeze on our own fabric and the correct way to cover ourselves while sneezing and coughing.
Every small experiment in the museum, made me realize the importance of science in day to day life.
Apart from sneezing funda, I loved the harmographic diagram made from the pendulum oscillations.
I regret my school days for not understanding the in-depth knowledge of each experiment.
Today we paid a visit to Science Museum. We watched a movie on Titanica Ship for 45 mins. And then moved to human body section. We tried to experiment few things.
As we were running short of time, we couldn't spare sufficient time in all the sections of the museum. Wherever we saw a group of people, we only researched those parts. In that way we spent time in knowing what is the correct way to cover ourselves while sneezing.
The correct way is to sneeze on one's fabric (i.e. on shirt sleeve) by crossing their hand on the opposite shoulder. If a person sneezes on her/his hand, there is a high possibility of spreading the bacteria and virus to any object.
In the demo video they had showed an employee talking over phone, sneezing on his hand and transferring the bacteria to the public phone. Others using the same phone got infected with this bacteria.
The video also covers how people would react if we sneeze on our own fabric and the correct way to cover ourselves while sneezing and coughing.
Every small experiment in the museum, made me realize the importance of science in day to day life.
Apart from sneezing funda, I loved the harmographic diagram made from the pendulum oscillations.
I regret my school days for not understanding the in-depth knowledge of each experiment.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Bus Trip
After one and half years I was travelling in metro transit (transportation resource for the twin cities). Unlike India, buses here arrive on or before time but never late.
If the arrival time is 9.27 A.M, one can except the bus in the stops at sharp 9.27 or 9.25 A.M.
We googled MetroTransit official site to get the bus route to Cathedral Church and Mall of America (largest mall in North America).
We scheduled our time of visit between 12.30 -9.30 A.M and we had to spend close to 2hours in our to and fro bus trip. We rushed to enter the bus in one of our stops, the dual role driver (driver here issues the bus ticket using the e-machine in addition to driving the bus) asked us to wait and gave importance to one of the physically challenged passenger. Wow what a system and what a patience the bus driver has ? whispered me and my friend. The driver patiently secured the passenger within the wheelchair belt. Our Indian drivers work under pressure to manage the crowd and traffic whereas U.S drivers work with patience, safety and punctuality.
Indians might lose their patience travelling in U.S local bus as they either have frequent stops or long routes.
Unlike India were the rates differ depending on the distance covered, in U.S the bus tickets are of standard rates (1.75$) , no matter whether you get down in the next stop or in the last stop. But the ticket can be used to travel in different buses within a duration of 2.5 hrs. I still remember the days how Pallavan Transport conductors used to struggle giving the right change to the passenger.
In U.S if you don't have the exact change you will either be kicked off the bus or no change returned. Say if you insert five dollar note for two tickets, the change (1.50$) would not be returned to the passenger. Total discipline from the passengers is expected. The passengers are monitored using two cameras one in the front and the other in the back door. Passengers can get out of the bus through the back door but can ever board the bus using the back door.
In India ,school students are provided with bus passes, similarly U.S students have a bus card, which they need to swipe after boarding the bus.
Approaching stops are announced in mike by the driver in U.S, whereas Indian drivers
waste their energy shouting each stop names. People in U.S respect bus drivers.
As I was travelling in four buses today, I keenly observed every small feature in the bus. I have learned to be patient after today's bus trip.
I love travelling in bus no matter whether it is in India or in U.S.
If the arrival time is 9.27 A.M, one can except the bus in the stops at sharp 9.27 or 9.25 A.M.
We googled MetroTransit official site to get the bus route to Cathedral Church and Mall of America (largest mall in North America).
We scheduled our time of visit between 12.30 -9.30 A.M and we had to spend close to 2hours in our to and fro bus trip. We rushed to enter the bus in one of our stops, the dual role driver (driver here issues the bus ticket using the e-machine in addition to driving the bus) asked us to wait and gave importance to one of the physically challenged passenger. Wow what a system and what a patience the bus driver has ? whispered me and my friend. The driver patiently secured the passenger within the wheelchair belt. Our Indian drivers work under pressure to manage the crowd and traffic whereas U.S drivers work with patience, safety and punctuality.
Indians might lose their patience travelling in U.S local bus as they either have frequent stops or long routes.
Unlike India were the rates differ depending on the distance covered, in U.S the bus tickets are of standard rates (1.75$) , no matter whether you get down in the next stop or in the last stop. But the ticket can be used to travel in different buses within a duration of 2.5 hrs. I still remember the days how Pallavan Transport conductors used to struggle giving the right change to the passenger.
In U.S if you don't have the exact change you will either be kicked off the bus or no change returned. Say if you insert five dollar note for two tickets, the change (1.50$) would not be returned to the passenger. Total discipline from the passengers is expected. The passengers are monitored using two cameras one in the front and the other in the back door. Passengers can get out of the bus through the back door but can ever board the bus using the back door.
In India ,school students are provided with bus passes, similarly U.S students have a bus card, which they need to swipe after boarding the bus.
Approaching stops are announced in mike by the driver in U.S, whereas Indian drivers
waste their energy shouting each stop names. People in U.S respect bus drivers.
As I was travelling in four buses today, I keenly observed every small feature in the bus. I have learned to be patient after today's bus trip.
I love travelling in bus no matter whether it is in India or in U.S.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
State Fair Visit
Had a taste of MN state fair today. Though felt famished and jaded while traveling to MN state fair ground. Our energy got pumped up after having chocolate milk and potato crisp. We gals fought over the last piece of potato crisp and headed for second round chocolate drink, as all of us were juiceless (If you preserve the cup, you are allowed to refill milk anytime for that day). We kept moving from stalls to stalls. Our favorite exhibit was from field crops sections, we were praising each of the drawings done using field crops such as Maize, Rice , Corn etc.
We tried few games and tried our luck to win at least one soft toy. One of my friend was lucky to win a purple puppy from the balloon bursting game.
We entered the foreign bazaar and did plenty of shopping. We relaxed ourselves for a while in the winch and rested ourselves on the road side. Coincidentally during our lax time we viewed the State fair Official Parade. Took some snaps and then moved to Medica stall. It was fun hitting either the eye or mouth of the wooden cutout, we were provided with small four gunny bags filled with some light material. Anyone who succeeded two target hits were awarded with hand spray, three hits with a bag and four hits with a T-shirt. One of my friend had a lucky hand today, she won all three and others took spray and bag after trying out the shots for three times.
Filled our empty-belly with corn and kept walking to the exist. And something caught our attention again, sack ride. Two of my friends were reluctant to join , but my other energetic friend joined me for a ride. We found it very difficult to climb the stairs to the starting point of the ride , but we came down in jiffy using the sack sheet.
The small lane in the ground was totally packed with people and we stood up in the onion flower queue to avoid the crowd and our hunger.
I have heard of onion rings, but onion flower was totally new to me.
We keenly noticed how the onion flower was prepared, a big fat yellow onion's scale leaves were spread using a simple tool , followed by dipping the same in corn flower and frying it. While serving the basal plate is removed and replaced with Ranch/Ketchup/Cheese. It tasted yummy.
It was time to start home, we came out with so much of happiness. After a very looooooooooooong time I have enjoyed myself.
We tried few games and tried our luck to win at least one soft toy. One of my friend was lucky to win a purple puppy from the balloon bursting game.
We entered the foreign bazaar and did plenty of shopping. We relaxed ourselves for a while in the winch and rested ourselves on the road side. Coincidentally during our lax time we viewed the State fair Official Parade. Took some snaps and then moved to Medica stall. It was fun hitting either the eye or mouth of the wooden cutout, we were provided with small four gunny bags filled with some light material. Anyone who succeeded two target hits were awarded with hand spray, three hits with a bag and four hits with a T-shirt. One of my friend had a lucky hand today, she won all three and others took spray and bag after trying out the shots for three times.
Filled our empty-belly with corn and kept walking to the exist. And something caught our attention again, sack ride. Two of my friends were reluctant to join , but my other energetic friend joined me for a ride. We found it very difficult to climb the stairs to the starting point of the ride , but we came down in jiffy using the sack sheet.
The small lane in the ground was totally packed with people and we stood up in the onion flower queue to avoid the crowd and our hunger.
I have heard of onion rings, but onion flower was totally new to me.
We keenly noticed how the onion flower was prepared, a big fat yellow onion's scale leaves were spread using a simple tool , followed by dipping the same in corn flower and frying it. While serving the basal plate is removed and replaced with Ranch/Ketchup/Cheese. It tasted yummy.
It was time to start home, we came out with so much of happiness. After a very looooooooooooong time I have enjoyed myself.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Dosa Day
After a long time we prepared Dosa batter at home. From yesterday both of my room mates were excited to have Dosa. Today morning one of room mate was sad as the batter did not puff as expected. We left the batter till the evening to puff well. I left home to receive one of my friend from the airport. The moment I saw her , I told her that we are preparing DOSA tonight. She showed no interest, it seems she has Dosa everyday made out of ready made batter.
We reached home and I got busy looking my friends Chicago trip snaps. It was 9.15 P.M and none of us had even started to think about dinner. We quickly chopped onion and tomato to prepare chutney. Started preparing Dosa at 9.30 P.M. Meanwhile I called another friend of mine to join us for dinner. I love setting target time for cooking, as I hate cooking for long. We planned to wind up our cooking by 10 P.M. Prepared Dosa in two pans and hurried our process to meet the deadline.
30 Dosa's for five people was done within 40 minutes. As usual I took pride of my planning skills. Everyone enjoyed the Dosa and chutney.
We reached home and I got busy looking my friends Chicago trip snaps. It was 9.15 P.M and none of us had even started to think about dinner. We quickly chopped onion and tomato to prepare chutney. Started preparing Dosa at 9.30 P.M. Meanwhile I called another friend of mine to join us for dinner. I love setting target time for cooking, as I hate cooking for long. We planned to wind up our cooking by 10 P.M. Prepared Dosa in two pans and hurried our process to meet the deadline.
30 Dosa's for five people was done within 40 minutes. As usual I took pride of my planning skills. Everyone enjoyed the Dosa and chutney.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Apt Lease
Today I had to sign the lease documents for our new apartment. I had to sign several papers. The lease procedure in U.S is completely different from India except for the security deposit.
In U.S people can lease their apartment on a half-yearly or yearly basis. On breakage of lease one has to pay rent for the remaining period of the lease. Renewal or termination of the lease contract has be notified two months in advance.
Your security deposit is returned back in full only after thorough inspection of the house.
I never bothered about lead paints affecting health, one of the lease documents insisted that the renter knows the deleterious effects of lead paint on one's health.
I had to sign another document explaining the security aspects of the apartment.
The documents covered all the policies and procedures to lead a safe and secure life.
People can not smoke inside the apartment as each apartment is facilitated with a smoke detector. I was stunned reading the details on smoke detector, short beeps from the smoke detector is an indication of low battery. It is the complete responsibility of the tenant to get the battery replaced. Even if the smoke detector is non-functional or if the smoke detector triggers a alarm signal the tenant is under complete watch.
I read the main points in each of the document that I was asked to sign.
When one vacates apartment , they have to ensure to leave the house spic and span to get back their security deposit.
The lease contract in U.S is very effective.
In U.S people can lease their apartment on a half-yearly or yearly basis. On breakage of lease one has to pay rent for the remaining period of the lease. Renewal or termination of the lease contract has be notified two months in advance.
Your security deposit is returned back in full only after thorough inspection of the house.
I never bothered about lead paints affecting health, one of the lease documents insisted that the renter knows the deleterious effects of lead paint on one's health.
I had to sign another document explaining the security aspects of the apartment.
The documents covered all the policies and procedures to lead a safe and secure life.
People can not smoke inside the apartment as each apartment is facilitated with a smoke detector. I was stunned reading the details on smoke detector, short beeps from the smoke detector is an indication of low battery. It is the complete responsibility of the tenant to get the battery replaced. Even if the smoke detector is non-functional or if the smoke detector triggers a alarm signal the tenant is under complete watch.
I read the main points in each of the document that I was asked to sign.
When one vacates apartment , they have to ensure to leave the house spic and span to get back their security deposit.
The lease contract in U.S is very effective.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Definition of Success
I was thought right from my childhood, no matter whether you fail or succeed just keep going. Many have their own definitions for success.
I was thinking for long what my definition for the word Success would be. I went through an article on "Success that lasts" forwarded by one of my friend.
According to the analysis given by the author, a person can call himself/herself successful only if he/she strikes a balance in four sectors of life i.e. self happiness, achievement, family and legacy.
Just enough is an antidote for infinite motives addiction in one's life. Only when a person is able to switch and link, he/she can relish true success.
The author explains with few examples saying albeit few perform extraordinarily well in their career they are not considered as successful as they have compromised on their self happiness and family presence.
Another interesting point the author mentions is we should pass on our secret of success to the next generation.
Even playing an instrument with utmost dedication and commitment is considered as a personal success. The crisp conclusion of ever lasting success would be balancing the bar between profession and personal satisfaction on the rope of family affection and society. And yes in short my definition for success would be "JUST ENOUGH" ....this brings me more happiness indirectly leading me to some hidden success in my life.
I was thinking for long what my definition for the word Success would be. I went through an article on "Success that lasts" forwarded by one of my friend.
According to the analysis given by the author, a person can call himself/herself successful only if he/she strikes a balance in four sectors of life i.e. self happiness, achievement, family and legacy.
Just enough is an antidote for infinite motives addiction in one's life. Only when a person is able to switch and link, he/she can relish true success.
The author explains with few examples saying albeit few perform extraordinarily well in their career they are not considered as successful as they have compromised on their self happiness and family presence.
Another interesting point the author mentions is we should pass on our secret of success to the next generation.
Even playing an instrument with utmost dedication and commitment is considered as a personal success. The crisp conclusion of ever lasting success would be balancing the bar between profession and personal satisfaction on the rope of family affection and society. And yes in short my definition for success would be "JUST ENOUGH" ....this brings me more happiness indirectly leading me to some hidden success in my life.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Carl Roetter
Some people leave imprints in my life and one among them is Carl Roetter. We became friends through ToastMaster club. Though he is in forties, the vigor and exuberance he has is just staggering. Right from the first club meeting everyone was enthralled by his table topics speech. His first ice breaker speech (to introduce oneself to the group) was mind-boggling, never in my life have I ever seen someone introduce in such a bombastic manner to the group.
Any role, any activity he does it with utmost dedication and involvement that makes him more valuable and estimable in the club.
We have a house full strength only for this speech. He has an excellent voice projection and body language. I sometimes wonder if he did any Radio Jockey, as he modulates his voice so well.
How and what you say counts a lot to the other person, the way Carl presents small things is just adorable. Each and every member in the club loves his presence, so do I. All his speeches imparts information and thought provoking signals to ones mind.
I missed his second speech due to some project issues, but had a quick glance of his presentation. I have been craving to seek his personal advice for my career path and finally encountered a chance today. I was telling him what I aspired to be in my life and wanted his guidance for my next giant step. We spoke for about 45 minutes and at the end of the schmoose I could see a light at the end of the tunnel. I found all the hints and tips given by him to be very effectual and amusing. He has ignited my mind for the next move in my life. Carl Roetter is yet another hoarded wealth and a remarkable person in my life. He has given a turning point to my career path.
Any role, any activity he does it with utmost dedication and involvement that makes him more valuable and estimable in the club.
We have a house full strength only for this speech. He has an excellent voice projection and body language. I sometimes wonder if he did any Radio Jockey, as he modulates his voice so well.
How and what you say counts a lot to the other person, the way Carl presents small things is just adorable. Each and every member in the club loves his presence, so do I. All his speeches imparts information and thought provoking signals to ones mind.
I missed his second speech due to some project issues, but had a quick glance of his presentation. I have been craving to seek his personal advice for my career path and finally encountered a chance today. I was telling him what I aspired to be in my life and wanted his guidance for my next giant step. We spoke for about 45 minutes and at the end of the schmoose I could see a light at the end of the tunnel. I found all the hints and tips given by him to be very effectual and amusing. He has ignited my mind for the next move in my life. Carl Roetter is yet another hoarded wealth and a remarkable person in my life. He has given a turning point to my career path.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
