A Busy Sunday

Last weekend was full of activity. After the Pyjama/Pajama party Saturday night, I was off to meet a college friend for lunch at Pizza Hut on Sunday. Have already mentioned the bhangra. Rang the bell nevertheless (you will know if you have been to a PH). Cause I did have fun!

Called my sister just before leaving. She was watching Phir Milenge at a theatre nearby (“good movie, but depressing.. u watch it on c.d.”). An excited voice replied from the other end: “X company called. I have an interview at 4 at H hotel (big 5 star hotel). Will you accompany me?” My reply “sure!” So what if I had slept only for four hours at night and was ready to crash. This was big didi asking for something. And I just can’t say no. :-D ( yeah yeah, didn’t wanna go home and face parents who were still wondering what I did all night)

After a lot of miscommunication and to and fro traveling on my part, we finally met. Next stop: cyber café ‘cause she needed a print of her resume. Racking our brains, we finally zeroed in on a market feeling sure we would find one there. And we did. I just wish we hadn’t. Have never been to a seedier place. Tiny room full of cabins. Stinky. SLOW computers and paperless printers. Bored unresponsive guy in-charge. The walls of the cabins were full of graffiti. I will let your imagination run wild here. Every obscene word possible was up there!

Armed with the resume we headed to the H Hotel. Sis went in to write the test. I sat in the lobby. Waiting. Oh! I hadn’t thought of this! How will I kill time?! Hmmm. Did the predictable thing. Took out my cellphone. Inbox and Outbox cleaning time. This was followed by message to Joker. I am bored. The darling that he is, he called back. Chatted with him for a while.

Fished into sister’s bag. Found a book called “Symbolism of Hindu Gods and Rituals”. Something is better than nothing.

Sis finally emerged from the test. A person came to take her interview. They were so short of space that they had to take the interview in the lobby. And since there weren’t any empty seats in the lobby, I was asked to get up. Uff!

To cut a long story short, after three hours of waiting sis got the job. She didn’t accept it. That’s a different story.

This was Rakhi for me. We have no brothers. Every year sis and I tie rakhis to each other and exchange gifts. But it is these moments of standing by each other that really celebrate a relationship. Thanks sis for always being there!

Pajama/Pyjama Party

On a boring Friday afternoon, amongst the many boring mails that keep finding the way to the mailbox, came a surprise invitation. Subject: Dinner Party.

Since most of my colleagues stay near the office and I stay away, I have never been able to make it to these weekend get-togethers. This time however, there was a change. Another colleague who, like me, put up not-so-near the office, was driving down for the party and had offered to bring along others. This was reason enough for me to join in.

But, there was more. The mail (not in the standardized format I previously wrote about) clearly encouraged sexual discrimination. It read :

Guys: Dinner
Gals: Dinner followed by Pajama Party and Booze

Yay! Glad to be a gal …yoo hoo!

I know I sound like a talli. The truth is I don’t drink and going by the past record, I was sure there would be hardly any takers for booze. Even if there were, breezers is how far they would go. Come on. We are the same people who when order pizzas, vegetarian orders exceed non-vegetarian ones!!!

All enthused, I joined my lift-giving colleague. First destination: Booze Shop.
Me to myself “ ok ok.. they must be buying the breezers”

Girl 1 to Booze shop guy: Tequila and Vodka please.
Me: *gulp* These ladies are serious!

After buying the Tequila (1800 bucks!) and Vodka, we headed to the house of our gracious hostess. She had just returned from the shop and proudly held two really really yellow lemons. Ah! The stage was set!

There were seven of us. All girls. The guys got offended when they realized that they will not be allowed to join in the pajama and booze party. They even offered to wear floral pajamas. When still denied entry, they decided to boycott dinner.

All of us then headed for dinner. Vegetarian food, mostly. :-)

Dinner was followed by a game of truth or dare. After harassing quite a few people with our dares and most of us itching to get into pajamas, we rushed back to the venue for our parteeee.

After changing into pajamas/ shorts and making all arrangements, four of them perched on the bed encircling the booze and the glasses. I was reminded of what a friend had remarked when I told him I was going for the party “ Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, a girls’ pajama party. That only happens in my dreams!” This, dude, was reality.

Two others gave me company (one out of choice, the other by compulsion as this is a sacred month in her religion) and we sat around cheering them.

Didn’t quite get the point of gulping down a drink and sucking at lemons furiously after that?! And they didn’t even get high…:-(

We watched Notting Hill. Everybody almost fell asleep by the time half of it was over. Obviously Hugh Grant’s charms were not working. So, everybody took the next logical step. We did what all pajama parties must have. Sat in a group and talked about our respective romantic relationships- past and present.

Not going to bore you with the details ..;-) ..hehehe

What I did realize however was that I was sitting amongst a group of modern women: intelligent, ambitious, attractive, successful. But they all seemed to have their values in place. Virginity is still important. Parental approval did matter. Sorry to sound clichéd .I know these may be outdated ideas for some people. But to these girls and to me, they still hold a place of importance.

Slept at 4:30 in the morning. Got up at 9:30. Had lunch with a college friend at Pizza Hut when the waiters suddenly broke into bhangra! Not good. Then talked to my sister who dragged me to…..well that is for next time, if there is one!

Copy Paste and Spell Check

I work in a firm famous for it's exceptional communication skills. Every possible form of communication is standardised and drilled into the people when they join.

A victim of this practice is the innocent mail through which the output of our efforts is communicated. Analysed in so great a detail, a lot of people tend to get fanatical about it. The rest of us follow the blissful solution: copy paste.

This has led to various problems. Letters meant for Mikes have been sent addressed to Johns.

Bloopers in mails create hilarious situations. Couple of real instances-

Instead of "I will be sending you the information in five to six hours" the mail read "I will be sending you the information in five to six years"!!!

"Hope you are doing well" got replaced by "Hope you are doping well" :-))

Some errors even the trusted spell check can't detect!

As I embark on this journey, I solemnly resolve not to blog on the following-

• Depression
• Poems that have anything to do with love
• Calvin, Garfield or Tom and Jerry

If any of my blog friends read this, they will hate me. My heartfelt apologies.