Nothing but change is constant...

Far too many things changed in the last few months. It takes time for me to make friends... I was lucky to get a good bunch of friends at office. But with all of them getting transferred one after the other, there's hardly anyone left. When this was happening, I happened to mention to my roommate that the only thing left is for my roommates to get transferred and I will be left alone :(. Behold!! The following week my roomie tells me she's getting transferred too... :(

Home sickness is another thing that I'm dealing with. I start feeling dull if it's nearly two weeks since I've gone home. Off late the longing to visit home had increased.. To play with the little one, to listen to his sounds and just to watch him sleep. The little one is going his house today :(. Now it'll have to be a few hours visit to their place to have a look at him.. How I wish he could stay with us always...

To add to this, after putting in nearly five months of efforts in the current project at office, just when we were getting the feeling of having become a part of the project, just when we started learning a few things about the product, we were told that they are moving out the freshers to other projects, due to some issues. After having worked for more than a year in b'lore I had to join as a fresher at the current workplace.. Now this change is happening here. What do I do??

Feeling low and helpless.. :(

Feat oh Feet!!

Yay!!! My darling nephew caught his toe in his fingers for the first time today.. :)
Congratulations on this feat, dear boy!! :D

Green or Gray??

All I had heard before coming here is that rains in Chennai are scarce. Lasts for a week or so and occurs in October... But it has been raining here intermittently since November . Infact the cyclonic effect resulted in rains for three continuous days with places getting filled with knee deep water and we getting an off from work :D

A pleasant surprise was the chilly weather we experienced for a few days... I know the deadly summer's gonna be back soon, but why not enjoy the days as long as they last.

When I talk of rains I miss Bangalore so much. One amongst the many things I love about b'lore is that it rains unexpectedly. Just when the heat is getting intolerable, the rain gods shower their mercy on the city for a day or so. The trees and plants start looking beautifully green with all the dust getting washed off them. :)

Its such a pity that the city is now getting robbed of its beauty in the name of improving the city's infrastructure, the new roads and the Metro rail. Lovely roads which were lined with trees nearly a century old, now stand bare and dusty. All you can find now is the cement, dust and heat :(

Not long back, I had read an article in the newspaper in which Arundhati Nag had told that the late Shankar Nag had prepared a full fletched plan along with the sketch of how the underground Metro project could be executed in Bangalore, without affecting the greenery of the city. That project never got the required support from the government and never saw the light of the day. What if it had?? Probably things would have been different...

I have an interest in plants and gardening myself, which has taken a backseat. I remember the days when we lived in the quarters of the IIMB campus. Our garden had a variety of fruit bearing trees including mango, jackfruit, lemon, pomegranate, coconut, chickoo, guava etc. Also roses of all colours and a variety of hibiscus flowers could be found. All of it now seems like a scence out of a novel :). My dad used to take regular and really good care of it. On moving to a different house all we were left with were a few potted plants... :(

Some day.. I wish to have and maintain a small garden of my own. Maybe in an attempt to try and preserve the beauty of the city in my own little way... :)

The Baby Update

He rules the hearts and the house!! He's almost 4 months old and it's already giving me the feeling the he's growing up too soon :( The teeny baby which came to its maternal grandparent's home in August, is now ready to go back home... He and my sis will be going back to their house in a couple of weeks... :(

I hardly get to see him and when I do, I can't get enough of him.. The time flies by when you sit next to him babbling nonsense and cooing at him. He smiles, laughs and gurgles in response. It's such a delight to watch him do just that.

He has recently started turning over to one side and sleeping. The smart fellow lies straight, turns over to the side, again turns to lie down straight and keeps repeating the same, having happily found out that this trick makes him go round in the bed :D

His best friend till a few weeks back was the cieling fan, which my sis lovingly calls the "Fanny Boy!!". He used to watch it with awe and talk to it in his baby language. He has suddenly started getting scared of his Fanny Boy and starts crying at the sight of it rotating.. :( I heard recently that he cried terribly on seeing the rotating fans at a function they had taken him to... :(

On the first day of my two day weekend visit, he spends staring at me wondering, "Who is this?? Seems familiar. She keeps turning up every two weeks!!". By the second day he figures out that I'm his chikki and happily talks to me and laughs on seeing me, making it difficult for me to leave later in the night.

All these months almost all the activities in the house depended on whether he's sleeping, he's awake, he's crying, he's playing, he's hungry etc. My parent's especially are gonna miss him terribly. He being their "Kullanti" and "Bangari", they are used to spending their day around him. They now have to go back and get used to staying in the same old empty house. :(

Gonna miss you so much sweetheart!!!

This too shall pass...

Not all days are bright and sunny, there are dull and cloudy ones too. Days when you have no energy, no hope and no enthusiasm. Days when you feel, "why does it happen to me all the time??". What one needs to know is that one is not alone. Every individual goes through the same...

Words of advice aren't scarce, one keeps getting them from all directions. Words of comfort, is what the heart longs for... The spoken words may not be new. Its just the feeling, that the "words understand you" and not "you understand the words".

"Jo karna, uska naam kya?" (How does it matter by what name you call something that you have to do?)
What you can do is, smile and do it and be happy or crib and do it and be grumpy!! Something you've heard before, haven't you? But these words made me feel better today!! :)

No matter how good or bad the time is today, "this too shall pass" (Yeh waqt bhi guzar jaayega).

Saying NO!!

Ever come across a situation where you have to say No to someone for something that you can do?? I'm sure you have.. What I wanna know is how simple or difficult should it be??

I for one find it really difficult to tell No to people in certain situations, even if the person is a complete stranger. I have had many people telling me, "How difficult is it? You don't even know the person". Sounds simple, but I find it difficult. Well if I do manage to say No, I keep feeling guilty and keep bothering about it, like how I am now. The reason for the post - an incident that happened in the bus today.

Before I write about today's incident, let me write about a couple of incidents more, that have happened, not very long back.

Incident 1: I have this tendency of giving money to people who come begging, for I feel bad for them. After advice from many people I have now improved and stop myself from giving money to the beggars who look young/healthy. One evening on the way home, I was waiting for my turn at the usual grocery store, when a pretty healthy looking beggar turned up. Nobody present there responded to him. I was lost in thought whether or not to give him money as he had a bandage wrapped around his elbow. Seeing that nobody responded, he approached the shopkeeper, who said that he won't get anything for free!! The beggar took 3 Rs and handed it to the shopkeeper. I was feeling sad for him that he has so little to spend for something to eat. Before I could do anything, the beggar says "One Charms!!". Can you believe that? :O He bought a cigarette.x-( The incident irritated and upset me so much. Is this what happens generally??

Incident 2: I along with a few friends were at the railway station waiting for the train. A beggar turns up. My friends say No, so I say No too. Within a few minutes a lady approaches me with an open palm. I say No again. As she walked away, I noticed that she had a huge bag on her head. She appeared to be clad in neat saree as well. She went and stood at a distance. As I wondered... the realization struck me that she with her open palm was pointing at the bottle of water I was holding. She was asking for water!! God!! How ashamed I felt at that moment. :( I then went to her, told her that I misunderstood her, apologized and gave her the bottle of water. She smiled and thanked me. :)

Incident 3: This is what happened today. The lady in the seat next to me, a villager, asked me what the time was. Though I can now have minimal conversation in Tamil, I don't know how they tell the time in Tamil. So I responded saying "Tamil teriyaadu" ( I don't know Tamil ) and asked the girl standing beside to tell the lady its 7.30. Immediately after this the lady asks me questions like, where am I going to get down? If I have a mobile phone? She said that she has to call her son and asked me to do so from my mobile. When I said No, she asked that was it because I didn't have balance in my phone? I didn't know what to say, I was wondering whether or not I should make a call for her sake... Thinking that my number would unnecessarily go to unknown people, I decided against it. Thankfully since I had told her that I don't know the language all I had to do was stay silent. She stopped talking to me herself.

I have been feeling guilty since then and wondering whether I did the right thing?? How do I know if I am in a situation like Incident 1 or 2? How do I decide when to tell No to people? How do you people do it? Let me know...

Come back post :D

I know... It been too long since I last posted. I've been too lazy and procrastinating all the time, when I had such wonderful things to post about..

Let's call this a come back post and I'll try to keep my blog alive from now onwards. :)

What's been happening at my end is -

* Yay!!! I'm an aunt.. My sis was blessed with a baby boy, two months back. :) :) Everyone's having a great time with tiny one back at home and all I get, is to see him once in two weeks when I go to b'lore... hmmph!!! :-/

* The baby is about to be named in a few days!! :D

* Got used to chennai.. getting back to the house here after a long day at office feels nice too..

* I have definitely become more adjustable and responsible and quite good at all the housework too.. ;)

* Feel lonely at times and miss home terribly. Get upset when I feel that they don't miss me equally :(

* Have been struck at home doing washing clothes and stuff like that, at many weekends :-/ coz its too hot and the places are too far to go roaming..

* Miss hopping over to CCD with friends whenever I feel like. Also going for long walks whenever I felt like...

* Started liking the work at office.. A new zeal to learn things.. :)

* Hardly able to talk to all my old friends, and they keep complaining about it :(

* Made a group of friends here and a few of them already left.. :( Took transfers and were posted elsewhere.. Missing them too...

That's about a short update from my end.. What's up with you??