A little background : Radio mirchi were actually linking this story(read post below) with dalmiya - saurav story as to how dalmiya pushed down his kid..not literally (read saurav) and now is the president of icc. Personally i dont think it was a good example/ way to relate the story and this..but the outcome surprised me. here is the poll:
This morning they had a poll on radio mirchi asking their audiences as to
if there is a question of life and death do parents love themselves more or their kids i.e. will they run for their life first or they will save their childs and sacrifice theirs.
vote A : the parent will run for their life first
vote B : the parent will let their child live
mentally i was thinking Vote B, they then narrated a story, in which birbal with the help of a parent monkey and child monkey had proved to Akbar(who believed otherwise like me) that parent monkey pushed down the child monkey in water, just to save its own life.
surprisingly many people were voting for A, which kinda shocked me.
Is it true ?
I have no experiences of being a parent yet, but seeing the possessive mothers near me I always thought it should have been B. Also, am sure all movie buffs agree, our hindi movie always portray how much parent sacrifice for their child.
is it only me who is thinking it would be 'B', would u vote A or B?
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Yipeeee am back home
Hurray am back home!!!. (Though not for long)
back to pampering (read food) from mom,
back to my friends,
back to my friends,
back with my car,
back with my room,
back with my TV,
back for fun,
back to my friends,
back to party
looking forward to visit Mocha, yes i hear its open in Pune and to visit 'The ship' new greek restaurant.
So far, in a weeks time I already ate chinese food, vada pav samosa :) and had a growling stomach too.
P.S: Why do we Indians crave so much for food.
back to pampering (read food) from mom,
back to my friends,
back to my friends,
back with my car,
back with my room,
back with my TV,
back for fun,
back to my friends,
back to party
looking forward to visit Mocha, yes i hear its open in Pune and to visit 'The ship' new greek restaurant.
So far, in a weeks time I already ate chinese food, vada pav samosa :) and had a growling stomach too.
P.S: Why do we Indians crave so much for food.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
I believe I can fly
I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky...
I was singing this song when I actually flew an aircraft some days back.
yes yes…I did..although the pilot took care of the mere jobs of take off and land...i Iook care of the tedious jobs i.e. take the aircraft to different heights and steer it left and right (no u turns).
so many controls..its amazing to talk with the pilot thru headsets..i tried removing the headset and chatting but couldn't hear a thing, switched back to headsets hearing him talk to the ATC...or the controller on the grounds...this is bravo whiskey bla bla...it was fun :)
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Funny
Second post for the day...but this ones funny :)
A couple drove down a country road for several miles, not saying a word.
An earlier discussion had led to an argument and neither of them wanted to concede their position. As they passed a barnyard of mules, goats, and pigs, the husband asked sarcastically, "Relatives of yours?""Yep," the wife replied, "In-laws."
WORDS
A husband read an article to his wife about how many words women use a day... 30,000 to a man's 15,000. The wife replied, "The reason has to be because we have to repeat everything to men... The husband then turned to his wife and asked, "What?"
CREATION
A man said to his wife one day, "I don't know how you can be so stupid and so beautiful all at the same time."
The wife responded, "Allow me to explain. God made me beautiful so you would be attracted to me; God made me stupid so I would be attracted to you!
WHO DOES WHAT
A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning.The wife said, "You should do it, because you get up first, and then we don't have to wait as long to get our coffee."The husband said, " You are in charge of cooking around here and you should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee."
Wife replies, "No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Bible that the man should do the coffee."Husband replies, "I can't believe that, show me."So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testament and showed him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says.......... "HEBREWS"
THE SILENT TREATMENT
A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day, he would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 AM for an early morning business flight. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, "Please wake m e at 5:00 AM." He left it where he knew she would find it. The next morning, the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't wakened him, when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed.The paper said, "It is 5:00 AM. Wake up."Men are not equipped for these kinds of contests.
God may have created man before woman, but there is always a rough draft before the masterpiece ;)
A couple drove down a country road for several miles, not saying a word.
An earlier discussion had led to an argument and neither of them wanted to concede their position. As they passed a barnyard of mules, goats, and pigs, the husband asked sarcastically, "Relatives of yours?""Yep," the wife replied, "In-laws."
WORDS
A husband read an article to his wife about how many words women use a day... 30,000 to a man's 15,000. The wife replied, "The reason has to be because we have to repeat everything to men... The husband then turned to his wife and asked, "What?"
CREATION
A man said to his wife one day, "I don't know how you can be so stupid and so beautiful all at the same time."
The wife responded, "Allow me to explain. God made me beautiful so you would be attracted to me; God made me stupid so I would be attracted to you!
WHO DOES WHAT
A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning.The wife said, "You should do it, because you get up first, and then we don't have to wait as long to get our coffee."The husband said, " You are in charge of cooking around here and you should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee."
Wife replies, "No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Bible that the man should do the coffee."Husband replies, "I can't believe that, show me."So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testament and showed him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says.......... "HEBREWS"
THE SILENT TREATMENT
A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day, he would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 AM for an early morning business flight. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, "Please wake m e at 5:00 AM." He left it where he knew she would find it. The next morning, the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't wakened him, when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed.The paper said, "It is 5:00 AM. Wake up."Men are not equipped for these kinds of contests.
God may have created man before woman, but there is always a rough draft before the masterpiece ;)
IT in India
I came across this in one of my yahoo groups i am enrolled to, the original source is a blog but I dont have its link.
Its an interesting (though long) read on our IT condition and I do agree with some of the points mentioned here. Although I think that this condition happens more for project consultants than the engineering team as such for a product. Here it goes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before I started working for myself, I spent some years in some of the top IT companies in India and still have many friends working in various software companies. I wrote a blog Recruiting like crazy, about the same time last year about how Indian companies are recruiting like there's no tomorrow and the possible consequences.
However I was avoiding writing this particular piece as it seems like an unpatriotic thing to do, to tell the world how bad the working conditions in software companies in India have become. And there's always the risk of excerpts being used out of context to bash up IT in India.
I am now writing this because I just keep hearing horror tales from the industry and it doesn't seem like anything is being done in the matter, so I thought I will do my bit and write.
First and foremost, before stereotypes about India kick in, I would like to clarify that I am not
saying that Indian software companies are sweat shops where employees aren't being paid and made to work in cramped uncomfortable places. The pay in software companies is very good as compared to other industries in India and the work places are generally well furnished and plush offices. India being a strong democracy, freedom of expression is alive and well and Indians are free to express their opinions and voice their concerns. Yet, I say that the software industry is exploiting its employees.
IT work culture in India is totally messed up and has now started harming the work culture of the nation as a whole. Working 12+ hours a day and 6 or even 7 days a week is more the rule than the exception.
Consequences:
- A majority of IT people suffer from health problems.As most of the IT workforce is still very
young, the problem isn't very obvious today but it will hit with unbearable ferocity when these
youngsters get to their 40s.
- Stress levels are unbelievable high. Stress management is a cover topic in magazines and newspapers and workshops on the subject are regularly overbooked.
- Most IT people have hardly any social / family life to talk of.
- As IT folk are rich by Indian standards, they try to buy their way out of their troubles and have incurred huge debts by buying expensive houses, gizmos and fancy cars.
Plush offices, fat salaries and latest gizmos can give you happiness only if you have a life in the first place.
The reason I feel this culture has emerged, is the servile attitude of the companies. Here's a tip for any company in the west planning to outsource to India. If you feel that a project can be completed in 6 weeks by 4 people, always demand that it be completed in 2 weeks by 3 people.
Guess what, most Indian companies will agree. The project will then be hyped up as an "extremely critical" one and the 3 unfortunate souls allocated to it will get very close to meeting the almighty by the time they deliver the project in 2 weeks.
Surprisingly, they will deliver in 2-3 weeks, get bashed up for any delays and the company will soon boast about how they deliver good quality in reasonable time and cost. Has anyone in India ever worked on a project that wasn't "extremely critical"?
I was once at a session where a top boss of one of India's biggest IT firms was asked a question about what was so special about their company and his answer was that we are the "Yes" people with the "We Can Do It " attitude. It is all very well for the top boss to say "We Can Do It ".. what about the project teams
who wish to say "Please....We Can't Do It " to the unreasonable timelines...I was tempted to ask "What death benefits does your company offer to the teams that get killed in the process?". I sure was ashamed to see that a fellow Indian was openly boasting about the fact that he and his company had no backbone.
The art of saying No or negotiating reasonable time frames for the team is very conspicuous by its absence.
Outsourcing customers more often than not simply walk all over Indian software companies. The outsourcer surely cannot be blamed as it is right for him to demand good quality in the least cost and time.
Exhaustion = Zero Innovation
· How many Indians in India are thought leaders in their software segment? - Very few
· How much software innovation happens in India? - Minimal
· Considering that thousands of Indians in India use Open Source software, how many actually contribute? - Very few
Surprisingly, put the same Indian in a company "in" the US and he suddenly becomes innovative and a thought leader in his field. The reason is simple, the only thing an exhausted body and mind can do well, is sleep. zzzzzz
I can pretty much bet on it that we will never see innovation from any of 10000+ person code factories in India.
If you are someone sitting in the US, UK... and wondering why the employees can't stand up, that's the most interesting part of the story. Read on...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Problem
The software professional Indian is today making more money in a month than what his parents might have made in an year. Very often a 21 year old newbie software developer makes more money than his/her 55 year old father working in an old world business. Most of these youngsters are well aware of this gap and so work under an impression that they are being paid an unreasonable amount of money. They naturally equate unreasonable money with unreasonable amount of work.
Another important factor is this whole bubble that an IT person lives in.. An IT professional walks with a halo around his or her head. They are the Cool, Rich Gen Next .. the Intelligentsia of the New World...they travel all over the world, vacation at exotic locations abroad, talk "american", are more familiar of the geography of the USA than that of India and yes of course, they are the hottest things in the Wedding Market!!!
This I feel is the core problem because if employees felt they were being exploited, things would change.
I speak about this to some of my friends and the answer is generally "Hey Harshad, what you say is correct and we sure are suffering, but why do you think we are being paid this much money? It's not for 40 hours but for 80 hours a week. And anyway what choice do we have? It's the same everywhere."
So can we make things change? Is there a way to try and stop an entire generation of educated Indians from ending up with "no life".
Solutions
1) Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week.
Recently, in an awards ceremony at a software company, the manager handing over the "employee of the month" award said something like "It's unbelievable how hard he works. When I come to office early, I see him working, when I leave office late, I still see him working".. These sort of comments can kill the morale of every employee trying to do good work in an 8hr day.
Companies need to stop hiding behind the excuse that the time difference between India and the west is the reason why people need to stay in office for 14 hours a day. Staying late should be a negative thing thatshould work against an employee in his appraisals. Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week .
2) Estimates: If time estimates go wrong, the company should be willing to take a hit and not force the employee to work crazy hours to bail projects out of trouble. This will ensure that the estimates made for the next project are more real and not just what the customer has asked for.
3) Employee organizations / forums NASSCOM (National Association for Software and Services Companies) and CSI (Computer Society Of India) are perhaps the only two well known software associations in India and both I feel have failed the software employee. I do not recall any action from these organizations to try and improve the working conditions of software employees. This has to change. I am not in favor of forming trade unions for software people, as trade unions in India have traditionally been more effective at ruining businesses and making employees inefficient than getting employees their rights and helping business do well. So existing bodies like NASSCOM should create and popularize employee welfare cells at a state / regional level and these cells should work only for employee welfare and not be puppets in the hands of the companies. If the industry does not itself create proper forums for employee welfare, it's likely that the government / trade unions will interfere and mess up India's sunshine industry.
4) Narayan Murthys please stand up
Top bosses of companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, etc. need to send the message loud and clear to their company and to other companies listening at national IT events that employee welfare is really their top concern and having good working culture and conditions is a priority. Employee welfare here does not mean giving the employee the salary he/she dreams of.
Last word
I am sure some of my thoughts come from the fact that I too worked in such an environment for a few years and perhaps I haven't got over the frustrations I experienced back then. So think about my views with a pinch of salt but do think about it. And if you have an opinion on this issue, don't forget to add a comment to this article
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
:) Makes you think doesn't?
Its an interesting (though long) read on our IT condition and I do agree with some of the points mentioned here. Although I think that this condition happens more for project consultants than the engineering team as such for a product. Here it goes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before I started working for myself, I spent some years in some of the top IT companies in India and still have many friends working in various software companies. I wrote a blog Recruiting like crazy, about the same time last year about how Indian companies are recruiting like there's no tomorrow and the possible consequences.
However I was avoiding writing this particular piece as it seems like an unpatriotic thing to do, to tell the world how bad the working conditions in software companies in India have become. And there's always the risk of excerpts being used out of context to bash up IT in India.
I am now writing this because I just keep hearing horror tales from the industry and it doesn't seem like anything is being done in the matter, so I thought I will do my bit and write.
First and foremost, before stereotypes about India kick in, I would like to clarify that I am not
saying that Indian software companies are sweat shops where employees aren't being paid and made to work in cramped uncomfortable places. The pay in software companies is very good as compared to other industries in India and the work places are generally well furnished and plush offices. India being a strong democracy, freedom of expression is alive and well and Indians are free to express their opinions and voice their concerns. Yet, I say that the software industry is exploiting its employees.
IT work culture in India is totally messed up and has now started harming the work culture of the nation as a whole. Working 12+ hours a day and 6 or even 7 days a week is more the rule than the exception.
Consequences:
- A majority of IT people suffer from health problems.As most of the IT workforce is still very
young, the problem isn't very obvious today but it will hit with unbearable ferocity when these
youngsters get to their 40s.
- Stress levels are unbelievable high. Stress management is a cover topic in magazines and newspapers and workshops on the subject are regularly overbooked.
- Most IT people have hardly any social / family life to talk of.
- As IT folk are rich by Indian standards, they try to buy their way out of their troubles and have incurred huge debts by buying expensive houses, gizmos and fancy cars.
Plush offices, fat salaries and latest gizmos can give you happiness only if you have a life in the first place.
The reason I feel this culture has emerged, is the servile attitude of the companies. Here's a tip for any company in the west planning to outsource to India. If you feel that a project can be completed in 6 weeks by 4 people, always demand that it be completed in 2 weeks by 3 people.
Guess what, most Indian companies will agree. The project will then be hyped up as an "extremely critical" one and the 3 unfortunate souls allocated to it will get very close to meeting the almighty by the time they deliver the project in 2 weeks.
Surprisingly, they will deliver in 2-3 weeks, get bashed up for any delays and the company will soon boast about how they deliver good quality in reasonable time and cost. Has anyone in India ever worked on a project that wasn't "extremely critical"?
I was once at a session where a top boss of one of India's biggest IT firms was asked a question about what was so special about their company and his answer was that we are the "Yes" people with the "We Can Do It " attitude. It is all very well for the top boss to say "We Can Do It ".. what about the project teams
who wish to say "Please....We Can't Do It " to the unreasonable timelines...I was tempted to ask "What death benefits does your company offer to the teams that get killed in the process?". I sure was ashamed to see that a fellow Indian was openly boasting about the fact that he and his company had no backbone.
The art of saying No or negotiating reasonable time frames for the team is very conspicuous by its absence.
Outsourcing customers more often than not simply walk all over Indian software companies. The outsourcer surely cannot be blamed as it is right for him to demand good quality in the least cost and time.
Exhaustion = Zero Innovation
· How many Indians in India are thought leaders in their software segment? - Very few
· How much software innovation happens in India? - Minimal
· Considering that thousands of Indians in India use Open Source software, how many actually contribute? - Very few
Surprisingly, put the same Indian in a company "in" the US and he suddenly becomes innovative and a thought leader in his field. The reason is simple, the only thing an exhausted body and mind can do well, is sleep. zzzzzz
I can pretty much bet on it that we will never see innovation from any of 10000+ person code factories in India.
If you are someone sitting in the US, UK... and wondering why the employees can't stand up, that's the most interesting part of the story. Read on...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Problem
The software professional Indian is today making more money in a month than what his parents might have made in an year. Very often a 21 year old newbie software developer makes more money than his/her 55 year old father working in an old world business. Most of these youngsters are well aware of this gap and so work under an impression that they are being paid an unreasonable amount of money. They naturally equate unreasonable money with unreasonable amount of work.
Another important factor is this whole bubble that an IT person lives in.. An IT professional walks with a halo around his or her head. They are the Cool, Rich Gen Next .. the Intelligentsia of the New World...they travel all over the world, vacation at exotic locations abroad, talk "american", are more familiar of the geography of the USA than that of India and yes of course, they are the hottest things in the Wedding Market!!!
This I feel is the core problem because if employees felt they were being exploited, things would change.
I speak about this to some of my friends and the answer is generally "Hey Harshad, what you say is correct and we sure are suffering, but why do you think we are being paid this much money? It's not for 40 hours but for 80 hours a week. And anyway what choice do we have? It's the same everywhere."
So can we make things change? Is there a way to try and stop an entire generation of educated Indians from ending up with "no life".
Solutions
1) Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week.
Recently, in an awards ceremony at a software company, the manager handing over the "employee of the month" award said something like "It's unbelievable how hard he works. When I come to office early, I see him working, when I leave office late, I still see him working".. These sort of comments can kill the morale of every employee trying to do good work in an 8hr day.
Companies need to stop hiding behind the excuse that the time difference between India and the west is the reason why people need to stay in office for 14 hours a day. Staying late should be a negative thing thatshould work against an employee in his appraisals. Never complement someone for staying till midnight or working 7 days a week .
2) Estimates: If time estimates go wrong, the company should be willing to take a hit and not force the employee to work crazy hours to bail projects out of trouble. This will ensure that the estimates made for the next project are more real and not just what the customer has asked for.
3) Employee organizations / forums NASSCOM (National Association for Software and Services Companies) and CSI (Computer Society Of India) are perhaps the only two well known software associations in India and both I feel have failed the software employee. I do not recall any action from these organizations to try and improve the working conditions of software employees. This has to change. I am not in favor of forming trade unions for software people, as trade unions in India have traditionally been more effective at ruining businesses and making employees inefficient than getting employees their rights and helping business do well. So existing bodies like NASSCOM should create and popularize employee welfare cells at a state / regional level and these cells should work only for employee welfare and not be puppets in the hands of the companies. If the industry does not itself create proper forums for employee welfare, it's likely that the government / trade unions will interfere and mess up India's sunshine industry.
4) Narayan Murthys please stand up
Top bosses of companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, etc. need to send the message loud and clear to their company and to other companies listening at national IT events that employee welfare is really their top concern and having good working culture and conditions is a priority. Employee welfare here does not mean giving the employee the salary he/she dreams of.
Last word
I am sure some of my thoughts come from the fact that I too worked in such an environment for a few years and perhaps I haven't got over the frustrations I experienced back then. So think about my views with a pinch of salt but do think about it. And if you have an opinion on this issue, don't forget to add a comment to this article
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
:) Makes you think doesn't?
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
10 things to do at work when there is no work
Untill last week I had lots and lots of work....no time for food...morning 8:30 to night 11 it was just my application, my desk, test scripts and defect sheet and now...there is nothing to do at all.
What can one do when there is no work at office.
1. Write mails to friends (include friends that you dint write for years)
2. Search for school/college and old friends (but cant do tht here...orkut and other alumini sites are blocked)
3. Read blogs
4. Chat - Here there are various options ( i finished chatting with friends in India...and US friends have yet to come online..they are sleeping )so chatted with robot check this out...http://www.pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?botid=f5d922d97e345aa1
5. Call friends ( I finished my calling card minutes, free talk time and my prepaid card is empty)
6. Read news
7. learn something new like a new tool (ahh this is something which I started to do..but got bored :) )
8. clean the desk and drawers
9. Clean your desktop, emails
10. Pretend to work. (this should be the first in list actually ;)
When there was work I wished there was no work and now that there is no work I wish there was work. Its funny how our minds work, Seems like the grass is always greener on the other side..but I think I want work..but not much...as much that I can finish from 9 to 6 :)
Friday, May 26, 2006
Spreading tradition
Its so funny to notice that sometimes , somethings get so contagious
The place where our team sits at work is very close to the support group, hence the decibels are kinda high here. I dint wanna listen to all their talks describing their weekends and all tht hence I started wearing headphones and listening to my music while working. Initially I was the strange gal out here..wearing headphones at work (though it was common thing in all my previous offices) and now almost the entire team here except for the PM have headphones at their desk :)
I spread the tradition here too:)
The place where our team sits at work is very close to the support group, hence the decibels are kinda high here. I dint wanna listen to all their talks describing their weekends and all tht hence I started wearing headphones and listening to my music while working. Initially I was the strange gal out here..wearing headphones at work (though it was common thing in all my previous offices) and now almost the entire team here except for the PM have headphones at their desk :)
I spread the tradition here too:)
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Saturday, May 20, 2006
travel spree
Seems like I am on a travelling spree this year, this morning i was just thinking of places i travelled since jan 2006 and I was amazed to see the list
udaipur,mahableshwar(thrice),lonavala, mount Abu,Bombay(i lost the count now),Dubai, UK..looks like i really travel a lot.
I thought as people get old, they tend to settle in a single place...seems like either i am not getting old or i have not found the right place to settle :)
udaipur,mahableshwar(thrice),lonavala, mount Abu,Bombay(i lost the count now),Dubai, UK..looks like i really travel a lot.
I thought as people get old, they tend to settle in a single place...seems like either i am not getting old or i have not found the right place to settle :)
Saturday, May 13, 2006
This can never happen in India
I went to the bank yesterday to open an account with them, and the lady with her brit accent asked.
Are you Mess or Messes (Are you Miss or Mrs)
Miss
Are you single or married
Single
Do you have any children below the age of 18
No
This can happen only here :)
Are you Mess or Messes (Are you Miss or Mrs)
Miss
Are you single or married
Single
Do you have any children below the age of 18
No
This can happen only here :)
Thursday, May 11, 2006
what age will you die?
| You Will Die at Age 70 |
 You're pretty average when it comes to how you live... And how you'll die as well. |
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
bon voyage to uk
finally i am in uk, after a long journey of more than 24 hours; the good part is i cud visit my bro for 10hrs, so it was nice. seems like everybody wants to be in uk, after the long immigration queue(read 2 hours 30 minutes, seems like everybody wants to be in uk) i was finally out of the airport. I booked a cab and my next journey to fleet started. the cab (volvo, i dint know volvo had cars too) driver started talking in hindi , he was from afghanistan and played hindi music for us.."ishq ki galli which no entry" he he he.
the route to fleet is very scenic ,its supposed to be summer here, but the sky was pretty gloomy, i dont feel that its summer at all. Finally we reached fleet, there is greenery everywhere, with differnt kind of flowers, trees, there is a variety of flowers blooming in the grass too. its really beautiful. the houses here are pretty, they look like the house in 70's made of bricks and slanting roofs. Ours was one of them too.
we called our project manager after reaching the guest house for the keys , and he came in 10 min , he asked us to freshen up and said in 20 min we'll go to office. huh!!!! I wanted to sleep, i cursed him at that moment...freshed up a little and went to work. while talking to the front desk, i recoolected friends episode where monica and phoeboe are trying to avoid their brit neighbour coz of her brit accent :).
office is good, met some colleagues and it was lunch time.
cafetaria looked good, reminded me of sltc cafetaria where they served soups , food etc, only difference is here we have to pay ;). there was only 1 veg option, and lucky me i got the last piece of it(lentil cheese or something was its name) and my another veg colleague survived on jacket potatoes. he he , he literally ate boiled skin potatoes with some other veggies :)
afternoon, i dont remember at all as to what i was doing, i was so sleepy and my eyes were so red. my pm kept asking 'you feeling sleepy' i said yeah , with a hope that he would tell me to go home, but he just smiled and went away.he kept asking me may times. finally at 5 he said, go home and try not to sleep till 7:30, dont sleep now else you will never be able to come over the jet lag. :), all curses for him are taken back now.went home, cooked food and slept. morning 4:30 I woke up and then forced myself to sleep. morning caught the bus and came to office, evening, am still here, planning to take a cab..how much i miss my car :(
I THINK US IS BETTER THAN UK, OR MAYBE I AM IN A REAL VILLAGE HERE. too early to judge, I'll explore this weekend for some good places around.
the route to fleet is very scenic ,its supposed to be summer here, but the sky was pretty gloomy, i dont feel that its summer at all. Finally we reached fleet, there is greenery everywhere, with differnt kind of flowers, trees, there is a variety of flowers blooming in the grass too. its really beautiful. the houses here are pretty, they look like the house in 70's made of bricks and slanting roofs. Ours was one of them too.
we called our project manager after reaching the guest house for the keys , and he came in 10 min , he asked us to freshen up and said in 20 min we'll go to office. huh!!!! I wanted to sleep, i cursed him at that moment...freshed up a little and went to work. while talking to the front desk, i recoolected friends episode where monica and phoeboe are trying to avoid their brit neighbour coz of her brit accent :).
office is good, met some colleagues and it was lunch time.
cafetaria looked good, reminded me of sltc cafetaria where they served soups , food etc, only difference is here we have to pay ;). there was only 1 veg option, and lucky me i got the last piece of it(lentil cheese or something was its name) and my another veg colleague survived on jacket potatoes. he he , he literally ate boiled skin potatoes with some other veggies :)
afternoon, i dont remember at all as to what i was doing, i was so sleepy and my eyes were so red. my pm kept asking 'you feeling sleepy' i said yeah , with a hope that he would tell me to go home, but he just smiled and went away.he kept asking me may times. finally at 5 he said, go home and try not to sleep till 7:30, dont sleep now else you will never be able to come over the jet lag. :), all curses for him are taken back now.went home, cooked food and slept. morning 4:30 I woke up and then forced myself to sleep. morning caught the bus and came to office, evening, am still here, planning to take a cab..how much i miss my car :(
I THINK US IS BETTER THAN UK, OR MAYBE I AM IN A REAL VILLAGE HERE. too early to judge, I'll explore this weekend for some good places around.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Holi
These days I hear different stories as to what is holi, why is it celebrated etc, Infact our office holiday declaration email read 'holiday for holi : festival of colors' :) (sometimes I wonder what the non-Indians would be thinking of the holiday description we give, Diwali-festival of lights, Holi - festival of colors, then maybe festival of food and what not:))
Anyways What I was telling was these days I hear stories about holi and I am curious to relate as to which one could actually be real, but in my childhood I never cared as to why we celebrate holi, I just cared as to I get all the colors in advance, a pitchkari to play with, my set of old clothes (2..just in case) and I've filled up lots of balloons with water (this is my set and they are seperate from my brothers)..a day in advance, and next day all neighbours and friends would get together and color each other, we would pull all the shy faces out and color them..all uncles aunts would just not be recognizable. I now wonder what pleasure i got rather still get to just pull people and color them or pour water on them..but its fun he he he ...i dunno why..but I really enjoy it. this is how I spent my holi past many years.
This year's holi was a little different, (apart from me waking up my neighbours and coloring them in their bed he he he).
These days each festival is so hyped coz of the media..holi now played in clubs and resorts with some ticket charges Rs.300 per person or 500 per couple entry etc etc.Some of my Family friends were inviting me to boat club where they had 'rain dance' and food etc Rs.300 per head(discounted price, since they were boat club members). Me ;acting cheap these days (duh I've bought a house, am next in the EMI driven slaves queue now) says..no no..300 for holi...no way, and i turn the invite down..and was thinking that I will spend this holi maybe at home resting and preparing for the transition or thinking about my new job. The evening before the 'holi' day, another friend calls up and invites me to play holi, I denied..thinking of another club invitation with all the crap and shoo shaa business ..but after hearing the destination, I just said yes readily.
Next morning (after coloring and waking up my neighbours) around 10-15 of us were at Shreevatsa with lots of colors , pitchkaris, some sweets and souls full of enthusiasm. this place (Shreevatsa) is just in the heart of pune i.e near pune station but I never knew of its existence, despite of being in a central location , it was pretty quiet, sonal..who organized the holi went in and called the lady in charge there, as to where are the kids. the lady replied that they are all waiting for you, and she called upon the kids..all kids suddenly from somewhere came out, There were kids from age 2months to 10 years. they were all dressed up and had set up a tub full of water in the middle of the playarea. Soon the music blasted , pitchkaris were out and all the colors found perfect faces for themselves. The kids instantly bonded with us(I think Holi is a real ice breaker)..we were coloring each other, chasing each other..pouring water..shouting ahh oooh and running around there he he ....Chaitrali (one of the kids) was so excited that despite having one of her hand paralyzed she cudn't let her hands off the pitchkari, she was opening the pitchkaris with mouth and filling them up...she just couldnt wait till the time i fill it with water...seeing her excitement I just picked her up and put her in the water, she laughed loudly and then shouting and enjoying....with all the chap chap around , the other kids wanted to get in too..one by one each of them raising their hands up..my turn my turn and we picked them up and they (and us too ;p) had a dip in the tub..(which by now was all colorful). Some kids were so shy that we had to pull them out from their room, and some were chhupa rustoms..they wud splash water on us and just run away or hide and we would keep loopking for them. all of us were drenched and we could barely recognize each other (face wise) here the physical fact of being tall, fat, short made a helping hand to recognize people. Chaitrali..by now started shivering...we asked her caretaker to take her in. Pushkar (he is a brat) was all grinning (with no teeth in his mouth) and we were wondering what he hiding behind..and boo he gets a water pipe and ...well well.. we all were kinda cleaned with it :). Later sides changed and he faced the water pipe :). seeing all this chaitrali came again (this time all dry and with a different dress) and started playing again. all kids were laughing with joy and teasing us with colors ,We all played and played till each of us started shivering.
Later we cleaned up the place, bid them bye and returned home; Each one sharing our experiences with each other and talking to ourselves too.Though I spent more amount (almost 4 times to what I would spend for boat club party), it doesn't matter now, This holi was so much fun, I can still picture the kids giggling and laughing and putting water on us. I slept with some satisfaction and feel good and some food for thought too.
I am glad I got this oppurtunity today, I think each of us..though I think not each of us can adopt children...we should atleast spend some quality time with them or make their life a little more colorful than what they already have in whatever way we can. I think SOFOSH is doing a great job.
Anyways What I was telling was these days I hear stories about holi and I am curious to relate as to which one could actually be real, but in my childhood I never cared as to why we celebrate holi, I just cared as to I get all the colors in advance, a pitchkari to play with, my set of old clothes (2..just in case) and I've filled up lots of balloons with water (this is my set and they are seperate from my brothers)..a day in advance, and next day all neighbours and friends would get together and color each other, we would pull all the shy faces out and color them..all uncles aunts would just not be recognizable. I now wonder what pleasure i got rather still get to just pull people and color them or pour water on them..but its fun he he he ...i dunno why..but I really enjoy it. this is how I spent my holi past many years.
This year's holi was a little different, (apart from me waking up my neighbours and coloring them in their bed he he he).
These days each festival is so hyped coz of the media..holi now played in clubs and resorts with some ticket charges Rs.300 per person or 500 per couple entry etc etc.Some of my Family friends were inviting me to boat club where they had 'rain dance' and food etc Rs.300 per head(discounted price, since they were boat club members). Me ;acting cheap these days (duh I've bought a house, am next in the EMI driven slaves queue now) says..no no..300 for holi...no way, and i turn the invite down..and was thinking that I will spend this holi maybe at home resting and preparing for the transition or thinking about my new job. The evening before the 'holi' day, another friend calls up and invites me to play holi, I denied..thinking of another club invitation with all the crap and shoo shaa business ..but after hearing the destination, I just said yes readily.
Next morning (after coloring and waking up my neighbours) around 10-15 of us were at Shreevatsa with lots of colors , pitchkaris, some sweets and souls full of enthusiasm. this place (Shreevatsa) is just in the heart of pune i.e near pune station but I never knew of its existence, despite of being in a central location , it was pretty quiet, sonal..who organized the holi went in and called the lady in charge there, as to where are the kids. the lady replied that they are all waiting for you, and she called upon the kids..all kids suddenly from somewhere came out, There were kids from age 2months to 10 years. they were all dressed up and had set up a tub full of water in the middle of the playarea. Soon the music blasted , pitchkaris were out and all the colors found perfect faces for themselves. The kids instantly bonded with us(I think Holi is a real ice breaker)..we were coloring each other, chasing each other..pouring water..shouting ahh oooh and running around there he he ....Chaitrali (one of the kids) was so excited that despite having one of her hand paralyzed she cudn't let her hands off the pitchkari, she was opening the pitchkaris with mouth and filling them up...she just couldnt wait till the time i fill it with water...seeing her excitement I just picked her up and put her in the water, she laughed loudly and then shouting and enjoying....with all the chap chap around , the other kids wanted to get in too..one by one each of them raising their hands up..my turn my turn and we picked them up and they (and us too ;p) had a dip in the tub..(which by now was all colorful). Some kids were so shy that we had to pull them out from their room, and some were chhupa rustoms..they wud splash water on us and just run away or hide and we would keep loopking for them. all of us were drenched and we could barely recognize each other (face wise) here the physical fact of being tall, fat, short made a helping hand to recognize people. Chaitrali..by now started shivering...we asked her caretaker to take her in. Pushkar (he is a brat) was all grinning (with no teeth in his mouth) and we were wondering what he hiding behind..and boo he gets a water pipe and ...well well.. we all were kinda cleaned with it :). Later sides changed and he faced the water pipe :). seeing all this chaitrali came again (this time all dry and with a different dress) and started playing again. all kids were laughing with joy and teasing us with colors ,We all played and played till each of us started shivering.
Later we cleaned up the place, bid them bye and returned home; Each one sharing our experiences with each other and talking to ourselves too.Though I spent more amount (almost 4 times to what I would spend for boat club party), it doesn't matter now, This holi was so much fun, I can still picture the kids giggling and laughing and putting water on us. I slept with some satisfaction and feel good and some food for thought too.
I am glad I got this oppurtunity today, I think each of us..though I think not each of us can adopt children...we should atleast spend some quality time with them or make their life a little more colorful than what they already have in whatever way we can. I think SOFOSH is doing a great job.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Thank you
Birthdays are terriffic.
This birthday of mine was one of such kind. i got wishes from friends from all phases of my life, school, college, computer classes, previous office, current office, relatives and neighbours too.
I got wishes from Germany, singapore, Chicago, maryland, california, bombay, bangalore, indore, ahmedabad, pune and Dubai. I just realized my friends seem to have covered the entire globe. I was even greeted by the candidates whom i was interviewing yesterday at work:)
I got lovely gifts too, flowers, chocolates, cards, jewellery (swaroski :p)), wine, clothes and had a good time with all my friends covering the entire day. thanks to vc and jo and bhavana for all the string decorations and all..its been years that I did that, reminded me of my childhood :)
To all my friends and colleagues. Thanks for making it such a wonderful day for me. I really treasure your friendship. This year was really a different kind.
P.S: I must've gained atleast 2kgs yesterday as i cut 4 cakes in all , the entire day. I need to go to the gym now.
This birthday of mine was one of such kind. i got wishes from friends from all phases of my life, school, college, computer classes, previous office, current office, relatives and neighbours too.
I got wishes from Germany, singapore, Chicago, maryland, california, bombay, bangalore, indore, ahmedabad, pune and Dubai. I just realized my friends seem to have covered the entire globe. I was even greeted by the candidates whom i was interviewing yesterday at work:)
I got lovely gifts too, flowers, chocolates, cards, jewellery (swaroski :p)), wine, clothes and had a good time with all my friends covering the entire day. thanks to vc and jo and bhavana for all the string decorations and all..its been years that I did that, reminded me of my childhood :)
To all my friends and colleagues. Thanks for making it such a wonderful day for me. I really treasure your friendship. This year was really a different kind.
P.S: I must've gained atleast 2kgs yesterday as i cut 4 cakes in all , the entire day. I need to go to the gym now.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
the hunt is over...
no no...not groom hunt, that is still going on.
It had been my moms plan for me, past many years to buy a house, but I was just being lazy. This year rather year 2005 she finally convinced me.
It was a tough time to decide a flat,
first of all we had to decide the type of house
2 bhk, 3 bhk, row house, duplex, which floor etc etc
mom said 2bhk..bro 3 bhk..and I wanted a row house ;)
then came the location
aundh, kondhwa, koregaon park,pashan,sus road,chandni chowk
I liked kondhwa and my bro liked aundh
After a little search here and there , I tried to sell ganga satellite in wanowrie to my family, mom liked it and my bro liked it so so.It was difficult to convince my bro for ganga satellite, he even came to a stage of saying there is no need to buy a house. but finally he got convinced.
So this morning I was taking ma to see the house at Ganga Satellite and my aunts place, and on the way I saw bramha sun city's ad. So I told ma lets see this one too since its on our way to our aunts house.the road to the site was real narrow and ma told ...well i think its reject..the roads are way too narrow..anyways since we've come so far lets see the site , we continued driving and whola when we reached the gates it was awesome(turned out to be the largest entrance gate in asia), the sales office was impressive we were presented a video of the entire project by katrina kaif(shes the brand ambassador),then we saw the sample flat, Mom was so impressed with everything, we sat with the sales person there and booked the flat..again came the question of 2 bhk or 3 bhk :p) I called my bro and we finalized C1 flat no 102. (though he was concerned that the builders are not fake ..he he he)Our flat will look like this
I am so excited..just cant wait for another year. Finally we got our dream house not very far from the city and not in the city too. Plus we have all the amenities, well 101 amentities which includes all types of sports that you think of except skiing, 3 swimming pools, gym, jacuzzi, massage room, 5 gardens, boating in an artificial lake , amphitheatre, lounge bar, 24 hrs music cafe, music room, library, restaurant etc etc.
I dunno how much of this i will be using..but its just so cool to have everything around.
Suni..ur co is also very near to my new home ;),Anand ur dance classes too, ruzie sohos is right there.Hitesh, plz gimme some money :p)
P.S: Later we also learned that there were actually 3 ways to reach the site...and its really kewl just 2 kms away from koregaon park
It had been my moms plan for me, past many years to buy a house, but I was just being lazy. This year rather year 2005 she finally convinced me.
It was a tough time to decide a flat,
first of all we had to decide the type of house
2 bhk, 3 bhk, row house, duplex, which floor etc etc
mom said 2bhk..bro 3 bhk..and I wanted a row house ;)
then came the location
aundh, kondhwa, koregaon park,pashan,sus road,chandni chowk
I liked kondhwa and my bro liked aundh
After a little search here and there , I tried to sell ganga satellite in wanowrie to my family, mom liked it and my bro liked it so so.It was difficult to convince my bro for ganga satellite, he even came to a stage of saying there is no need to buy a house. but finally he got convinced.
So this morning I was taking ma to see the house at Ganga Satellite and my aunts place, and on the way I saw bramha sun city's ad. So I told ma lets see this one too since its on our way to our aunts house.the road to the site was real narrow and ma told ...well i think its reject..the roads are way too narrow..anyways since we've come so far lets see the site , we continued driving and whola when we reached the gates it was awesome(turned out to be the largest entrance gate in asia), the sales office was impressive we were presented a video of the entire project by katrina kaif(shes the brand ambassador),then we saw the sample flat, Mom was so impressed with everything, we sat with the sales person there and booked the flat..again came the question of 2 bhk or 3 bhk :p) I called my bro and we finalized C1 flat no 102. (though he was concerned that the builders are not fake ..he he he)Our flat will look like this
I am so excited..just cant wait for another year. Finally we got our dream house not very far from the city and not in the city too. Plus we have all the amenities, well 101 amentities which includes all types of sports that you think of except skiing, 3 swimming pools, gym, jacuzzi, massage room, 5 gardens, boating in an artificial lake , amphitheatre, lounge bar, 24 hrs music cafe, music room, library, restaurant etc etc.
I dunno how much of this i will be using..but its just so cool to have everything around.
Suni..ur co is also very near to my new home ;),Anand ur dance classes too, ruzie sohos is right there.Hitesh, plz gimme some money :p)
P.S: Later we also learned that there were actually 3 ways to reach the site...and its really kewl just 2 kms away from koregaon park
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
my experiences with autos
I am so proud of myself or maybe I am just lucky.
Its been a week that i am traveling my auto rickshaws (yeah my dear car is gone for servicing) and I dint have a single (seriously not even one issue) dispute with the drivers of the rickshaws.Normally I would get into an argument either for the tariff or he not taking passengers...but this time its real cool.
The best experience was this morning.
My Mom telephoned the rickshaw stand and asked for a rick to come, I got into the rick and he said he had to fill petrol, Since I was in a hurry I told him to drop me near the petrol station and I'll take another rick. I started searching for another rick and could not find any..I started walking and the same fellow came and told me ..come madam I'll drop you to the autorickshaw stand..I dint get petrol here else i would have dropped you.He dropped me to the stand and told another driver to take me and also told him I was in hurry.
The rickshaw was awesome...felt like sitting in a car, the car seats were so clean and comfortable with mats and the rick was shining jet black. Moreover he played good music for me and dropped me to work on time. He also asked me , Mam are you going to perform a sugery[ Looking at the bag in my hand, he thought I was a Doctor :)] and I'd told him I had to go to Deenanath mangeshkar hospital (well thatz the nearest Landmark to my office)
I hope this saga continues for another day as I will get my car tomorrow.
Its been a week that i am traveling my auto rickshaws (yeah my dear car is gone for servicing) and I dint have a single (seriously not even one issue) dispute with the drivers of the rickshaws.Normally I would get into an argument either for the tariff or he not taking passengers...but this time its real cool.
The best experience was this morning.
My Mom telephoned the rickshaw stand and asked for a rick to come, I got into the rick and he said he had to fill petrol, Since I was in a hurry I told him to drop me near the petrol station and I'll take another rick. I started searching for another rick and could not find any..I started walking and the same fellow came and told me ..come madam I'll drop you to the autorickshaw stand..I dint get petrol here else i would have dropped you.He dropped me to the stand and told another driver to take me and also told him I was in hurry.
The rickshaw was awesome...felt like sitting in a car, the car seats were so clean and comfortable with mats and the rick was shining jet black. Moreover he played good music for me and dropped me to work on time. He also asked me , Mam are you going to perform a sugery[ Looking at the bag in my hand, he thought I was a Doctor :)] and I'd told him I had to go to Deenanath mangeshkar hospital (well thatz the nearest Landmark to my office)
I hope this saga continues for another day as I will get my car tomorrow.
Monday, January 09, 2006
unusual food Combo's
Some people enjoy food when combined with some other food, here's some combination i've seen so far.
Papaya with green chutney and curd
Jilebi and curd
Jilebi and tomato ketchup
Masala roti and ice(not Rice)
Dalrice and roti
Coke with icecream
Cofee with strawberry and cucumberjuice
Noodles with curd/buttermilk
Curd +rice+aachar+papad(my fav)
and overall mix everything served during lunch and enjoy!!
Papaya with green chutney and curd
Jilebi and curd
Jilebi and tomato ketchup
Masala roti and ice(not Rice)
Dalrice and roti
Coke with icecream
Cofee with strawberry and cucumberjuice
Noodles with curd/buttermilk
Curd +rice+aachar+papad(my fav)
and overall mix everything served during lunch and enjoy!!
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
This is what i get!!!!
After being a little conscious initially..as I am the only gal in the batch ..thinking that all eyes are on me (though nobody cared) and wondering what would these college students think about me...whatz going on in their mind (yes i go to symbiosis gym) and lifting weights, cycling, understanding and using each equipment present there, sacrificing eating out, controlling food habits, doing yoga....after doing all this for a month (technically a month but i guess i did it for 15-20 days) I lose 1 kg as per my gym weighing machine and 3 kg as per my home weighing machine..and the fat % remains the same :(
Am not going to give up!!
Am not going to give up!!
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
WHAT ARE DREAMS?
While reading this blog, I was wondering what do our dreams generally signify. as far as I understand , dreams reflect of what we think in our sub conscious, but does'nt it happen that sometimes you never think of it like in days and days but then too see it in your dream. Like I very often see snakes in my dreams (just yesterday a small snake bit me in my dreams), mom says that seeing snakes signifies that you will get money :)...well but mom the snake bit me....and its been a while that I saw the animal channel and thought of snakes, then why did I dream of it?
Some dreams are really good, like in college days I would dream that I went to college in helicopter (those days I would be tired travelling by bus and trains :)), so I can understand that its just my state of mind there.
but some dreams are real scary, so far i've seen these scary dreams only twice...and I literally screamt which scared my room mates too
Sometimes I see a dream and then forget about it, and then in my real life the same incident happens (its just like a replay) and I question myself; hey has'nt this happened before? Is that a dream too or is it intuition....but intuition cant be in such picturesque details, can it ? or was it a dream?
WHAT ARE DREAMS?
Some dreams are really good, like in college days I would dream that I went to college in helicopter (those days I would be tired travelling by bus and trains :)), so I can understand that its just my state of mind there.
but some dreams are real scary, so far i've seen these scary dreams only twice...and I literally screamt which scared my room mates too
Sometimes I see a dream and then forget about it, and then in my real life the same incident happens (its just like a replay) and I question myself; hey has'nt this happened before? Is that a dream too or is it intuition....but intuition cant be in such picturesque details, can it ? or was it a dream?
WHAT ARE DREAMS?
Thursday, December 01, 2005
the saga of the never ending sweeping of the broom
Clean your shelf..your clothes fall off when we open the cupboard would be a comment I would face most of the time in my childhood and I would never be able to find my books in that small section alloted to me in the cupboard , finally on one weekend Dad would sit on my head and make me clean the shelf and I would think man its so much to clean, least did I think that its gonna be worse once I grow up
These days cleaning is not restricted to my shelf...(oh no..now i have a cupboard), a room, my car, office drawers and other such materialistic things, I also need to clean and organize my laptop, desktop at work, my personal computer at home, the lab machines, my mobile phone, my emails (in different accounts) apart from office email...Uuuf its too much to doUntill now I have never had the feeling that all my things are clean and organised..something or the other is left unclean or not organized..Will I ever achieve that ?
I have a friend who manages to do it well, she washes her home slippers and keeps it to dry with her utensils and so does the supdi (I am not sure what it is called in english dust pan ??) on her kitchen platform. Also she roams in her house without slippers to verify that there is no dust in the house and even wiped her home walls...yeah right walls
These days cleaning is not restricted to my shelf...(oh no..now i have a cupboard), a room, my car, office drawers and other such materialistic things, I also need to clean and organize my laptop, desktop at work, my personal computer at home, the lab machines, my mobile phone, my emails (in different accounts) apart from office email...Uuuf its too much to doUntill now I have never had the feeling that all my things are clean and organised..something or the other is left unclean or not organized..Will I ever achieve that ?
I have a friend who manages to do it well, she washes her home slippers and keeps it to dry with her utensils and so does the supdi (I am not sure what it is called in english dust pan ??) on her kitchen platform. Also she roams in her house without slippers to verify that there is no dust in the house and even wiped her home walls...yeah right walls
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