Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Winter to Spring

One of the things I've always wished for is to stay away from home atleast for sometime, either for studies or for work. I feel its a learning experience all by itself. Had never got a chance until now. Also when its happening now, I am going through a sort of mixed emotion. I guess its natural too..

I shall be moving to Chennai (hopefully only for a few months)  in less than 10 days, for a new job. It was totally unexpected and one of the rarest occurrences where I've been lucky. :) I was born and brought up in Bangalore and I simply LOVE the city. I agree it has its flaws, but nothing till now has been able to change my love for the city. My friends tell me its probably because I haven't seen many places. But I don't agree. I think its because I am too attached to this place. Having been here for 20+ years, nothing but Bangalore can be home to me. The thought of having to live away from here and live in a city to which I am a stranger is a scary and saddening.. :(

The sadness of having to stay away from parents at the time that they actually need their children around cannot be expressed in words. The only thing that I tell them and myself in consolation is that they'll be grandparents few months down the line and that they'll have so much fun with their granddaughter/grandson that they'll not even remember me.. :P Seeing my mom's sad and dad's tired face brings tears to me. But I can only hope that staying away for sometime may make, me love them and they love me more... :D

Accompanied with it is a feeling of loss, to be leaving the current workplace, which is probably the best and safest to be in, both in terms of learning and the people. The kind of friendly and lovable people I've met here are probably hard to find in the corporate world. I hadn't felt much when having to leave college, quite unlike others. The sadness I am feeling, for having to leave this workplace is almost the same as what I had felt when leaving school... :(

There's some excitement and happiness too.. :) Happiness, that an unexpected wish came true.. Excitement of having to go and live, work and cope with everything myself. A sense of independence and responsibility which feels great. :)

Also is the fear of whether I'll be accepted in the new place, whether I'll be good at the new work, whether I'll find true friends as good as the old ones... All these feeling leave me drained. I hope things go through smoothly and I do my best. I know its just a few hours journey to home. It'll be a thing to look forward to. :)

You must be wondering what's the relation between the title of the post and the post itself. Its just that I'm feeling like it is the transition from winter to spring, where the tree sheds all its leaves and slowly in some days the new ones start to spring out. I probably need to shed or leave behind the old things and start afresh and blossom in a new place... :)

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Power Cuts

Come summer the common things we hear of are the high temperatures, water scarcity and power cuts. With trees being cut down without a forethought, leading to untimely rains and unpredictable weather cycles, power cut is a thing everybody is expecting and is prepared for during summer.

Power cuts are a thing that people detest. Firstly, people are accustomed to using fans and air conditioners during summer. They have to bear the heat during power cuts. Secondly the television in almost every house is running all the time whether or not anyone's watching it. No chance of watching the tv during power cut. If there's an IPL match being telecast during the power cut, then God save the people working in the Electricity Board from all the curses that are cast on them by the people. Have scheduled power cuts, people come up with ideas of finishing all the required tasks well before the scheduled time. Make the cuts unscheduled, the parents start complaining of how kids are unable to study for exams.

Majority of the people today are prepared for the power cuts having Inverters/UPS facility in their residence and work places. The only time they are probably in darkness is when they sleep or when the UPS stops working for an unknown reason. The city life is such that there's traffic and lights at all times, even at night. People have become so used to this kind of a lifestyle that probably they cant even imagine staying in the darkness for a couple of hours.

I on the other hand like power cuts. :) Call me insane if you want. But I find it weird that people want to have lights around them at all times. Some are such that they can't even sleep without a bed lamp :O. I like power cuts (especially if they are during the evenings) for various reasons...

* First and foremost is that, it is to save power, of which we have a scarcity.
*  I think every person should and must have an experience of being in the darkness for a while. It is beautiful... :)
* Darkness lets me be with myself, even if it is for a couple of hours or minutes. I think it is the time to contemplate and think about oneself and the others.
* I love the way the brightness of the moon becomes prominent during power cut which at other times is overshadowed by the city street lights.. :(
* It brings you closer to your family members.
* It makes you realize how bright and beautiful the life is at other times.

I have many fond memories associated with power cuts... :) Back then when I was in school, the time when our family and my uncle's family lived in two different floors of the same house, power cuts meant fun time!! :) Me and my sis would gleefully run upstairs to join our cousins, uncles and aunt. The entire time was spent playing Antakshari, Word Building, Quizzes and what not... :) The elders would team up against kids or it would be be boys versus girls. It was so much fun.. :D We would stop the game when the power is back and continue it from there the next time. Thats something that I badly miss from the time my cousins and their family shifted to a different house... :(

During one such dark evening when we were playing Antakshari, there was a knock on the door of my uncle's house. Since I was nearest to the door, I went and opened it. It was pitch dark outside. It scared the hell out of me to see no one there.. I banged the door shut and ran inside. I was just telling that there was nobody, when there was a knock again. I almost wept out of fear. My uncle, who's a civil engineer went and opened the door to find one of his workers outside. This worker I'm talking about has a very very dark complexion. I hadn't seen him coz of the darkness outside. The worker said "Avaru nanna nodi baagilu haaki bittru !!" (she saw me and shut the door!!). How my cousins and everyone else laughed at me that day, is one thing I'll never forget.. :( . One thing that I'm thankful for, till date, is that the person outside didn't smile, else I would have fainted seeing a set of white teeth in the pitch darkness... :O

I was a very fidgety kid, unable to sit in one place and study. My sis on the other hand would sit for hours and would get up only when she finished a chapter atleast. I would keep making trips to the kitchen, looking for something to eat or drink, or would go disturb her. But I loved to sit and study in the candle light during power cuts. It was just to show off to my parents, that I'm so hard working. ( Now I feel, its probably one of the reasons I wear spectacles and my sis doesn't :P )

I'm so thankful that even now we don't have a UPS system in our house. I hope we don't need one too... But the candles have been replaced by an emergency lamp. I avoid the light and go sit in the dark room during power cuts. :) It brings back to me all the good memories and makes me like it all the more.. :)

PS: The only time I get upset with a power cut is when my computer gets switched off (poof!!) and I haven't saved the file.. :P

Monday, March 15, 2010

Change...

...is one thing that I've never been able to understand. There are different kinds of changes.. Change of place, weather, home, work place etc etc... All of it affects us somehow.. But change in people... Hard to digest. The fact that people change "just like that" seems so shocking and saddening to me. I might have changed too... But going by majority of what my friends say, I haven't changed much...

Discuss this with friends, they say change is a part of life and it happens. You can't help it. Isn't it in our hands? is my question... I say change for good is ok, but change for not so good is not ok. But as my friend said, its all relative. What's good according to me, may not be good for the other person. Similarly I may not like a change that's good according to them... Even though I know and understand this, why is it that it hurts every time to see a changed and unexpected reaction from the other person?

I have changed quite a bit within myself. The people around may not notice it.. I have become stronger than what I was before (not physically :P but emotionally). I am basically an emotional fool and get hurt by the slightest of things. I dig out and assume meanings out of the words spoken by others and hurt myself.. Some where I think this adds up to the change I see in people, while it might be just that I'm assuming it.

I am friendly and patient and forget about fights easily. Sometimes I can't even remember the reason I fought with the others for. I ask sorry even in situations where it may not have been my fault. I just want to get over with the fight.. But its wrong sometimes, to do so, coz I may not even be giving the other person the time to think if its their fault.. All the more a reason why people may take me for granted and I end up feeling they've changed their attitude towards me... I believe in "Value the relationship more than the issue".. Doesn't work always I guess.. You should be ready to take a stand atleast at certain times.

Okay... this post was nonsense.. :D and you may not follow anything at all.. So forget it.. I am still wondering what I wrote... ;) Sometimes the thought is so clear in your head but you cant put it down in words... :(

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The long planned trip

In the past few weeks all my week days have been spent at work and the weekends in traveling, with no time and energy left to blog...

Talking of traveling... I had gone to Mangalore during the last weekend and Chennai in the weekend before that. Though the Chennai trip was an official one, with the my teammates and me having gone to attend a meeting, we happened to spare a few hours and visit a beach nearby. Its called the Besant Nagar beach. The last time I had been to Chennai I had visited the Marina beach and was awed by how huge it was. But the it was crowded and was all filthy with the people making the shore a dustbin for their convenience. But the Besant Nagar beach that we visited this time was much nicer, though smaller. It was a lot more cleaner and less crowded. We spent an hour or more, playing in the water and clicking pictures. The waves were a little high, it being a full moon day... We had to leave soon as we had to get back to the guest house..

The Mangalore trip had been a long planned and postponed one.. I had never gone for a trip with my friends until I joined work. Even the trips that I went for after work were all official, with us sneaking out some time to roam around. I always longed to go for a trip with friends... The Mangalore trip plan dates back to nearly an year, with initially the location being Mysore and not Mangalore.. :D The plan was made when my dear friend 'A' was in Mysore for training in her company. But with she having tests or one of us having some other thing on hand, the plan never got executed. Subsequently 'A' was posted in Mangalore and to add to it another close friend 'P' also worked in Mangalore. So now the people nagging us to come there... had doubled!! There began the Mangalore trip plan...

The usual postponing kept happening, with me having an exam, with my friend 'B' being on call on weekends and with 'D' having other works. If not these... come long weekends 'A' and 'P' would come to be in Bangalore with their family.. Somehow things never worked out.. My exam got over and B's senior returned making her free during alternate weekends. 'D' agreed too.. :) We fixed the first weekend of March, as the days for the trip. 'B' suddenly realizes that she's on call that weekend :P ... I request her to swap the days for another weekend with her senior, and... she does... Cool!!! :)   'D' informs she has an appointment on that weekend and asks us to postpone the trip again...!! But 'B' couldn't swap again and we didn't wanna postpone it further as come April it would get hotter...!!! So... 'D' dropped out of the plan.. :(

Finally me and 'B' made it to Mangalore... only to realize that P's working on the weekend and is not free.. :P Well.. we did blast him and took revenge by making him feel guilty for having made us come and he not being free!! We stayed at A's place... Roamed around with her and her roomies, two really nice and friendly people.. :) We went to beaches and temples and an island.. :) We went for the scary Banana Ride, where we were thrown of into the middle of the sea water!! :O (hehehe :D but we had life jackets on!!) It was scary initially and when we heard that its not once but thrice that we'll be nearly drowned in water.. :O But once done.. we felt like we had climbed K2... :D It was a wonderful feeling... :)  The coward 'A' looked on... taking pictures and riding happily on the boat.. :P (but if not for her, we probably would have had no pictures of the ride... :D)

'P' could only make time to meet us in the evening and have dinner with us... But atleast he did that.. Else we would have killed him!! All in all it was an awesome trip, with us left longing for more.. :) Great time and great fun!! :D In a way it was a right decision not to postpone the trip as there have been certain recent developments (about which I'll blog later :) ) which would have probably made us cancel the trip!! All's well that ends well... :)

Monday, March 1, 2010

Promotion on the way..!!




The past few days have been hectic and I've had no time to write this post.. I know it deserves to be here 10days back, but I couldn't... :(

Yay!!!! I'm getting a promotion.... Before you jump to conclusions, let me tell you that the job I'm in, I cannot get any promotion.. So its not at work :P Then what??? hehehehahaha :D I'm gonna be an aunt... I'm gonna be an aunt... I'm gonna be an aunt... :)

Of course there's still a lot of time, but I'm all excited already. I have 4 cousins, all younger to me.. With 3 of them, I've had the chance of playing, advising them as an elder sister, scolding them and entertaining them and enjoying the baby antics :) as I am much older than them.. But it gets more exciting to know that your own sister's baby is all set to come..!! :D Time's coming for me to stop acting like a kid and behave ladylike!! (I am just waiting for a chance to become all the more kiddish and to have fun with the little one ;) ) My sister's enough to teach the kid the prim and proper ways. She's always been the proper lady and I've been the taleharte at home :D!! So this little she/he is gonna have one aunt who's gonna spoil her/him nicely and one mom to teach her/him (and me) the correct ways :P... Its gonna be fun!!!

The excited me is already making plans and the sober sis keeps bringing me down to earth. For instance, I was discussing with my sis that I want a niece and not a nephew. (Yeah I know... I'm biased. But half the world is biased... Many of them still prefer a baby boy. So why cant I be biased towards girls? hmmph!!) So getting back.. I was telling my sis that everyone who has a boy kid or a girl kid dresses it up as Krishna paapa, so we'll dress up my niece as Radhe and take pictures.. :) I was so happy with my idea. My sis literally poured cold water on it, saying "Sit and study for your exam tomorrow, I'm getting tensed about it and you are jumping around!!" :( You wait my dearest sis, I and my niece/nephew (yeah yeah.. I'm not all that biased..) are gonna gang up against you... :P

I am making plans of what the baby will call me.. chikkamma :O I should think of something else!! Aunty sounds even worse.. :P I've seen people who call their chikkammas as chikki (atleast it sounds better!!). I also heard suggestions like mini-mum (chikka-amma)... sheesh!! People do you have suggestions??

So all of you reading this, please do include my sis and the family in your prayers and bless that the little one arrives hale and hearty into our lives.. :)

(PS: The dot on the top was a drushti-bottu for the little one :) )