Random Thoughts 2

Leaving for an office trip tonight. My first experience with an adventure sport. Am sooper-dooper excited.

Will be away from my family for the first time on my birthday! And amongst people I cannot categorise as friends. Just colleagues. Am used to being PAMPERED on my birthdays. But I know that the thoughts of family and friends will be with me. They better be!

Night shifts are horrible. Two more weeks to go :( ( Not in a call centre, I repeat and with complete respect for call centers)

Got awesome birthday gifts and greetings from family and new friends. Holiday from sis, exorbitantly priced Nike track pants from mom and dad (my choice, don't blame them!), my life's first music card from Srini, and priceless stuff from a dear friend (the gifts are just too many to list out!)

I have grown up, rather changed over the past one year. The last birthday doesn't seem like yesterday. From a responsible college student to a carefree working girl. ;) This doesn't sound like growing up!!!! I guess the responsibilities have reduced..or changed!

Changed the name of my blog. Got questioned on the choice of the word Tumultuous. I think it is my present state of mind. And as HoH said "we can change it anytime"!

Enough rambling! Will be back with my experiences from the trip. Till then, Bubye :)

Birthday Gift from Sis

An all expense paid 4 days-3 nights trip to Mussoorie: my birthday gift from my sister. Thanks behan.

Highlights from the trip:

• Train journey from Delhi to Dehradun had sis and me surrounded with distinguished people. An author (not sure who) occupied a seat behind us, owner of Book-Café on our right, Vasu, an adorable kid, in the front seat and a little resident mouse in the window on the left. The kid was so cute that half an hour into the journey I had the kid in my lap and was trying to feed biscuits to him. Well, the book shop owner obviously was looking for some peace and two girls in the next seat gushing over the kiddo didn’t go with his plan. He changed his seat. Hehe.. Very soon we were looking for the same peace. But mister author decided to speak non-stop. The six hour journey had us listening to him hold a most boring conversation with a young aspiring author. One of the invaluable pieces had our young man tell the author that when he writes his book he will not use any complicated words. He immediately added that it isn’t that he couldn’t use them, just that he will not. Referring to books which have complex words he said, “to read them you need to refer to another book- the Dictionary” Wow. How profound! Grrrr
• The taxi ride from Dehradun to Mussoorie was in an ancient ambassador car. In the one hour, I managed to move the window glass up a full two inches!!!! I commented that the car was going slow and hence we were saved from feeling queasy on the ride up the hill. Sis said, “He isn’t Schumacher but then she is no Ferrari either!” A sample of my sister’s witty remarks that kept me entertained through the trip
• Walking. Walked about 12 kms daily for two days. Trips to Landour bazaar which is almost on the other end of Mussoorie when compared to our hotel. On the first day it was for silver jewellery from a curio shop we had heard about. Bought a few earrings. The second day was dedicated to a special mission. Sis noticed that the bells that the cows and goats were wearing were different from the usual ones. So we decided to buy one for ourselves. However, there was just one shop that sells these and it was in Landour Bazaar. So we had to walk all the way again asking for directions to Devi Chand Khem Chand’s shop. Eventually found it and bought a cowbell each
• Looking at snow clad peaks and walking through clouds.
• Eating yummy food and enjoying it even more thanks to the maddening hunger after long walks. Ice cream in the sun.
• Reading books while in bed under a warm quilt. I read four books this week: 5 Point Someone, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy –Part one of the Trilogy of Five, Daddy Long Legs and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The last one being the one I liked the most

There were loads of other things but I guess I will talk about them some other day. Now it is back to the grind….but only till next weekend when I am off to another exciting trip. Yay!!

Virtual meets Real

Met Srini today. The first blog/net friend I have ever met. (My father met Joker in March…but that’s another story). And the experience was most enjoyable. The suspicion that a person will not turn out to be what he/she appears to be always remains when you know someone only through the net. However, Srini turned out to be just what I had imagined him to be and more.

Incessant rain almost cancelled the program. Rain causes auto rickshaws to collapse in no time and they are the only means of transport since I do not drive. However, rain gods had mercy and the rain stopped. We met at 4:15 at Café Coffee Day. I am amazingly bad at recognising people and I was dead sure that I would not be able to recognise him. But I guess the face that smiles at us everytime we visit his blog made the task much easier.

Sat and talked and talked and talked. I guess it comes naturally to both of us. May sound clichéd but it is true that not once did I feel that I had never met him earlier in life.

Suhail had told me that Srini is a kid. Well, in some ways I guess he was right :-) There were quite a few things I discovered about him. He doesn’t like Chinese food and would like to eat pizza not more than once in six months!!! (Of course he ends up eating it more often thanks to his pizza- loving colleagues) He has a collection of almost all James Bond movies which he prefers watching over Masoom ( :P to Srini).

He has a blog which he vaguely remembers writing and rediscovered it by accident. Also he hears sounds of babies crying when there aren’t any around!!!! Spooky…

Srini, it was great meeting you. Thanks for the lovely birthday greetings (my first this year and the first musical card of my life!). Hope to meet you again the next time you visit this place (provided you also enjoyed the evening as much as I did).

Also met RS. The second time I saw her and the first time I talked to her. Missed meeting a few other enthu bloggers. Hope to catch you guys next time!

For those who were worried, I am still employed inspite of the previous post!!

They and Us

Are certain people made of different stuff? We often see people, successful people and think that She/He is who I wish I could be. Maybe not as an ideal but you wish you were in that other persons shoes.

The Firm I work for is neatly divided into two parts.

The lesser mortals (phrase courtesy handa) like me who sit on the computer all day doing what is politely described as “transactional” work. It can range from financial analysis (We actually get to calculate CAGRs sometimes..yay!) to something as mundane as finding prices of DVDs from three websites for 600 movie titles. Was lesser mortals too mild a word? Bottom Dwellers..Maybe…

Then there are the GODS. The ones who mete out this work to us. They come from the best business schools. Not only should they have done their post graduation from these schools, they should also be engineers from the most prestigious engineering colleges.

A lot of lesser mortals wish to cross over to the territory of the Gods. Seeing them dreaming of it, asking the representatives of Gods that preside over us on how to make the move..I wonder..Can’t they see that the Gods are made of something totally different from us? Or are they?.............

PS: I love the firm I work for and love the work I do…

Triple Training

Trainings are an integral part of a job in the corporate world. They are the source of bread and butter for a huge lot of people (Read H.R.). Thankfully they provide a rather interesting break from work to the bored employees.

In my five months of work experience at the Firm, I have undergone training thrice: a two-week long one, a one-week long refresher and a three-hour one. All of them have interesting memories associated with them

The first training was the induction training. It introduced us to our work and the various tools we were going to use. (Night shifts and this description of training might make you think I am in a call center. Nothing wrong with them. But to set records straight, I am not). It was a two-week long torture. 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. No wonder they organized a special party at a pub after the training ended! And no wonder all of us danced like crazy!!

The second training was a week-long refresher. More tools were introduced. It was easier (though I don’t think I remember a single thing from it!) The unforgettable part of the training was the scolding we got on the penultimate day by one of our trainers. We were accused of not being serious about the training. Since we had already been working for a couple of months, the people were used to us sharing the workload. With us in training, there were capacity problems happening. As the trainer said “You should see what is happening! The floor is on fire!”
The training was concluded with a pizza party.

The third training happened a few days back. While the previous two related to the work, this was related to our personal professional growth. We were made to play an interesting game. Sheets of paper were provided and we were asked to make different 3-D objects with it. Ah! A room full of formal-clothes-wearing grown-ups transformed into kids. Everybody scratching their heads trying to recall how to make the boat, the cap, the plane…not always being successful at the effort!
At the end of half-an-hour, the participants bore a satisfied grin and the tables were full of curious objects. I came up with a boat, a house, a lollipop, a bangle, a bowl, a cone, a cap and a few other things. Some people came up with very imaginative things. The one that was most appreciated was a September 11 memorial. There were two paper buildings with a plane crashing into one of them.

Overall, an enjoyable experience.

Just reminded of the song “woh kaagaz ki kashti, who baarish ka paani…” It is raining too! Maybe I will go play with my paper boat…..

Ps: If anyone from work is reading this, I do remember what was taught in the second training. [ ;-)]

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“Live to learn and you will learn to live” Hmmm……