Different Strokes

Name:
Location: Hyderabad, AP, India

Lover of art and music. Fair and just, balancing the scales always as a true Libran. Partial towards chocolates.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Different Strokes for Different Folks

It’s often been said that you enjoy a relation with a person when your wavelengths match and you enjoy it even more when your brains resonate at the same frequency…Wondering what I’m talking about?

Ok..Let me explain…Well, it happens to be a fact that I love blogging..or you could say writing…I feel it kinda liberates me from the mundane drivel of life…I got to admit it that I talk about it the most…Now, unfortunately in my circle of friends, I don’t have that “resonating buddy”…So, when I open my mouth to share some of the wonderful blogs I came across, I would get varied reactions:

(F1, F2, F3 are my friends)

Me: Hey I checked out a really cool blog today, DesiPundit, the stand he takes on “surviving in the IT industry” is simply super. I think we’ll indentify with it best.

F1: What !!! I don’t want any Pundit to tell me how to survive in this IT industry..I know how to suck up to people and get things done, that’s how you live here..

* Thanks a ton buddy…you made me feel like a leech*
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Me: Hey, the blog….. *stop midway in the sentence realizing that the person is not paying attention*

F2: * A dazed and a lost expression on his face. Muttering something under his breath *

*Probably wondering why his code is not functioning. Never disturb such species, unless you want to hear all the cribs on his crib list, right from APJ Kalam to his Project Manager.*
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Me: Do you know what I blogged on today? It’s really touching..

F3: As I was saying, I wanted to go shopping this week and buy pickles for my grandmom..Which one do you suggest?

Me: Well, I think Joshi’s would be a good option…Now about the blog..

F3: Do you think they pack it well??

Me: What the blog?? Why would they pack a blog?

F3: What blog? I was talking about the pickles silly…

*Ok…So, the pickle vendors have outbeaten my blog in popularity*
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I tried conversing with my mom on blogs..But, house wives have got their own set of tensions I guess…

Me: Mom, if you are free I could show you my blog and maybe teach you to access the internet. So, you can regularly check my blog without having to wait for me.

Mom: *Nods her head*

Me: Mom can I skip dinner tonight??

Mom: *Nods her head*

*Ok…So, moms apply this “nod the head trick”…and they say men don’t listen…So, decide to take advantage of the situation*

Me: Mom, can I stay late up tonight and party with my friends?

Mom: No way lady. You are not doing any such thing..

*Shucks!! You can never make out when they are listening*
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Now, that’s the scenario around me…By this post if I have given the impression that I’m a person with the most refined taste and look down upon others around me as insignificant bugs, then you got me wrong…I don’t blame my friends for not being interested…It’s just a matter of taste..Now I know that I would be least interested in politics or cricket…Given a blog of their own I’m sure my friends would also have said similar things about me and would have highlighted me as a duffer not knowing the difference between a leg-spin and an off-spin…

C’est la vie!! That’s life…It’s always different strokes for different folks!!!

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

A drudgery called "work"

No work at office today, infact didn’t have anything tactful to do for almost a week…Don’t know why these companies hire people…Some are excessively taxed and stay back late nights much to the displeasure of moms/wives…And some others like me are totally jobless…

The first 2 days passed away swiftly in mailing, I mailed to every damn person in my contact list…Spent sometime googling away with great fury…Did you know that giant ant eaters are becoming an exotic pet variety..so much for dogs being pets…Then logged on to some websites which play music..RadioBlogClub is my favourite…Actually all thanks to Sameera for having suggested this one…It’s shouldered me in my difficult days of boredom..The next 3 days were HELL!!!...I was frustrated at the time people took to respond to mails, coz I didn’t get a single reply for the dozens of mails I had posted…So, I was forced to do that thing that any fresher would dread doing, yah studying…A new joinee, just fresh out from college, is always under the impression that he wouldn’t have to encounter a book for atleast another couple of years…Now holding a book brings tremors in my mind as all those horrid night outs come soaring back….I almost flinch at the sight of a book…Worse than this is an e-book…I’m under the impression that an e-book is not an “electronic book” but is an “enchanting book”, as it casts a spell on you…a sleeping spell..It lulls you to sleep even without a song….

*MIND: This chapter introduces you to SQL Server 2000 by describing the components of SQL Server and explaining how those components work together to provide a relationaaaaaaallll….zzzzzzzzz*

Many software professionals would term this phase of joblessness as “The Honeymoon Period”…Little do they know the torture during this phase…If you observe closely; there are many jeering gazes and some pitiful glances some of them saying:

*Hrumph…I know so much more than her…no wonder she’s jobless*

Some loathsome pities:

*What a waste of time…tsk tsk*

“Arghhhhh!!!! Leave me alone” is what I want to shout out…

In the “demand list”, I place in front of God everyday, one thing is common now-a-days ..“O God!! Please bless me with work atleast today.”…O shucks!! I’m begging for work..When I had work to do, I just couldn’t stop myself from cribbing and cursing and now I going nuts without it…

I think “yeh kaam ka laddu hai…jo khaye pachtaye aur jo nah khaye pachtaye”

Friday, May 19, 2006

A heaven called home!

I sat by the window and gazed at the trees and the houses outside. It was a lazy afternoon when the whole colony was devoid of any sort of activity. I was alone at home and hence let my mind wander and have it’s escapade. The power of the mind is really invincible as it can make the journey of thousands of kilometers in a few seconds. Now it stationed itself in my hometown in India. The thoughts and memories of my hometown churned a whirlpool of feelings drowning me completely in it.

I remembered “amma”, who was my babysitter. She used to run around the house for me trying to give me a bath. It was her duty to apply oil and sandalwood paste to my skin. She used to provide justification to the anointment of the balms and pastes, which sounded very weird to me then. She said “You’ll get a good husband if you apply oil”. I still don’t know if the oil earned me my husband. She had outlandish stories to tell me, which comprised of strange places beyond the river in our village. At that time, to go to some place beyond the river was a task that no decent girl ought to have done. My curiosities were satisfied by her fictious tales.

I remembered running around the house and embracing my grand mother from behind just to treat my senses to the smell of the jasmine flowers which adorned her hair. She used to admonish me for having disturbed the course of her puja and used to ask God for a thousand apologies for the “sin” I had committed. I watched my mother as she patiently went about with the household chores, silently just like the ox which ploughs the field as if it was it’s duty. My mother, I always felt should have been a nurse, as she had a healing touch. I remembered the days I was sick with fever, she used to sit up the whole night changing the wet cloth over my forehead. Her very presence reassured me that I would become alright. I used to enter a deep slumber with my head resting on her lap, which is the most secure place in the world. For me she was a warrior who protected me, a fairy who granted all my wishes, my friend who played with me and a sister in whom I can confide.

All of a sudden on this afternoon in UK, these memories brought a storm of emotions, which welled out of my eyes as rivers of tears, leaving deep and dark furrows on my cheeks…How I missed my hometown….How my inner self longed to get back to were I belong…These years spent abroad, away from home, flashed across my eyes as swift as a fleeting moisture less cloud…I observed the transition in me from rice, avakkai (pickle) to bread, croissants…I remembered the little girl with huge black innocent eyes, with oiled and neatly braided hair, who used to run around with the postman from house to house…I found the same girl now dressed in designer wear, with the same black eyes devoid of innocence…

I sensed a regret brewing within me….I should have gone back to India, when I was bearing our future within my womb…I could have gone back when they were still young, they wouldn’t have known the difference. I could have moved when they in their early schooling years…It would have been difficult for them, but eventually things would have settled….But, now was too late…Was it that late?? The ring of the phone interrupted the chain of thoughts…It was from the office…Our business had won a huge contract, which would be a huge prestige to our family…and that would mean some more time away from the kids and returning to India seemed 5 years away….After this contract, it will be something else…another contract, the kids, their weddings…and home coming seemed farther away…

Oh!! I didn’t introduce myself….so stupid of me…I’m an NRI (Non Returning Indian)

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Weirdness Epitomised

Well, this time I have conducted a survey among my friends and colleauges to list out 10 reasons as to why they find me bizzare in my ways...Well, my friends, not being the polite kinds (more of the frank kinds) were more than happy to tell me..So here goes.

Reason 1:
I’m a sauce/ketchup lover…I can have ketchup with almost any damn thing….and I mean it…I can relish ketchup with burger, chips, idli, dosa, upma ….One of my friends has christened me “saucy”( and the award goes to Rakesh, for having come up with that wonderful name)…Have to admit it, that actually sounds kinda sexy….

Reason 2:
I’m a great fan of Sonu Nigam….Let me clarify that I’m an ardent fan of his voice and his singing abilities and his face has nothing to do with it….

Reason 3:
I’m a stickler for cleanliness…I act like a vacuum cleaner…Now u guys don’t get weird ideas that I work for the MCH …for non-hyderabadis..that’s Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad…Worse, I go around preaching my cleanliness philosophy to everyone around me…(Sigh!! There go half of my readers…)

Reason 4:
My lingo is also kind of weird( according to the people around me)….as there is a certain set of F.U.Ws in my lingo…Well that meant Frequently Used Words….If u want a sample, I can give u some, but this involves a small amount of phonetics.. “I'll slap u”, “idiot”, “pah pah”, “ayee”, “yucky”…and many more…

Reason 5:
I hate Sidney Sheldon novels…now some of my friends find my dislike to S.S novels weird…All I have to say to them is that, “If u like SS novels, you have not read anything at all”….I also have a dislike to the most acclaimed book, Da Vinci Code…(Shilpa and Srikath deserve a special mention here…)

Reason 6:
I’m crazy about rings and artificial jewelry…I go bonkers when I go shopping…I’m also a shopping freak…All these 10 and 20 Rs maal interests me a lot…I’m also a cotton fanatic…I worship that fabric..(may be I should write another post on the various handlooms available in India…. “The Weaver’s Club”..he he)

Reason 7:
I can’t stop the urge of stepping on untied shoe laces…and hence proving to the other party, how dangerous untied laces can be….(now this is one thing in me that I find weird too)…

Well, now here comes the catch…I started out this post sure that my weirdness will definitely win 10 reasons…but unfortunately, I’ve run out of reasons..So, any of my friends (those who were not involved in the survey) who wish to complete this list are most welcome…

Ciao.

Friday, May 05, 2006

I am a Disco Dancer!!!

I attended one of the DJ nites conducted in office…..Generally people go to such nites to burn the dance floor. But me, nay…I’m different….I go to relish the musical waves which hit my ear and of course to watch the others dance. Unaware of this fact one of my colleagues asked me for a dance and got a blunt “No” for an answer. Only my feet tap along with the music…no other part of my body is stimulated unfortunately….

Me and dancing are way apart…We are like step sisters, who never get along…Lets see….hmmm…The first time I danced was in standard 3- The Sunflower dance. We had these frilly frocks and a sunflower around our face made out of crape paper…All I could remember doing was shake and nod my head…Well, if you could call that a dance ..then I did dance….The next time I took the floor was in the fresher’s party in my engineering years ..there I danced out of force and fear of ragging… and in the farewell party I danced out of sentiment….

When I dance I surely look like a chicken which is caught in between two trucks in a desperate attempt to cross the road…The movement of my hands and feet resembles those of a drowning soul…In short, I have two left feet when I dance….

Come to think of it…I’m not alone in this world who is bad at dancing….Sunny deol definitely sucks big time at dancing….My favorite star, Abhishek, is also not far off in this category…As an Abhishek fan I would say he’s improved a lot with the hip hop look in “Dus bahane” and “Bluffmaster”…My friend Shilpa is the one who would go to a discotheque and glue her self to the chair….well, I know many who are shy to dance but only a few like me, are not exactly shy, but are not good at the trade.

I love those ads of pepsi where John and the girl in the black skirt sway intimately…oohhhllaaa….And the one in which Hrithik says "I can’t dance”….

Well, I am one of those privileged people who make other dance to my tunes…..(I guess that would have sounded better in hindi)…
Anyway, naach baliye…