Mango Sorbets, Rock Festivals and Celebrating Women Power at Work Fultoo Ishtyle!! ;) :P - Days 32,33 and 34 of the 100 Happy Days Challenge!!

So February’s been done with and March is here in full swing… Also, just saying, the days are flying by so fast. It’s already a week down in March… Days until now have been filled with lazy weekends, mango sorbets, rock music and some mighty good fun times at work! So far, you’re doing a pretty good job, dear March!! Please keep this up and I shall be one happy person!! Touch wood!!

The first weekend of March was one of the laziest I have ever had in a long long time. Rested so well, and did not step out of the house at all, except late Sunday evening for some minor shopping, one of which was this absolutely friggin’ delicious MANGO SORBET. Happiness in a cup! No doubts at all! Pure heaven!!

The highlight in March (so far that is) is that I attended my first ever ROCK Concert!! Thanks to this friend of mine! Singapore had its ROCK FESTIVAL over at Fort Canning Park and there were a few bands that came to play – Alter Bridge being one of them! While it was all nice and good fun and lots of energy around, the standing and the wait for it to start was a bit of a drag! But once they started; wowweee!! Pure Magic I tell you! May I please tell you that I had a lovely time!! You could actually feel the beats thrumming through the ground, to your feet all the way up to the eardrums and inside your head. I am not kidding!! Nope, Sir no! So fun was had and all that followed by a nice dinner, some good catch-up time and the pleasant feeling of having had a good time, which frankly speaking, is not that easy to come by these days!!

Women’s day is also here in all its glory and we have been having multiple celebrations at work… reason primarily being you have a team full of ONLY GIRLS (Is my mom reading this!!? :P) and therefore Women’s day HAS TO be celebrated. Even better is, you don’t leave your boss any choice but to treat you because you know he does have the additional task of dealing with mood-swings, ups and downs and all the attached frenzy of working with a team full of girls! ;) :P Hobson’s choice really! :P  But on a more serious note, it’s really heartening to see that he took the effort to treat us! :) :) Things like this make you feel special you know.. ;)  

We also channeled the Oscar Selfie pic that crashed twitter and had a mini-version of our own! Super-duper fun!!  :) And also found out this new coffee place here called Joe and Dough which serves some amazing coffee and super-awesome traditional cheesecake! :D :D 

So that’s March so far for you…

Live the short life to the fullest. Be Happy and Stay Happy. Peace out dearies!! 

"Gong Xi Fa Cai" for the Year of the Horse - Day 21 of the 100 Happy Days Challenge!!

Today’s happiness quota was fulfilled by attending this Chinese lunch at the Crystal Jade restaurant with the office colleagues. Singapore, as you all know, is a healthy mix of diverse cultures and just recently celebrated the Lunar New Year with all gung-ho. This year is the Year of the Horse and all around the place; you could see cutouts and miniature red and gold horses in a galloping frenzy, especially around the Chinatown area here. You can read more about the Chinese New Year / Lunar New Year here.

Coming back to the topic of today’s lunch – before the lunch, we started out by commending the New Year with the “traditional Lo Hei”, also known as “Prosperity Toss.” Yusheng (same thing in Chinese) is often served as part of a multi-dish dinner, usually as the appetizer due to its symbolism of "good luck" for the New Year.

These are the ingredients used and this is the meaning of the usage of each ingredient – directly and blatantly copied from Wikipedia.

When putting the yu sheng on the table New Year greetings are offered. “Gong Xi Fa Cai” meaning “Congratulations for your wealth” or “Wan Shi Ru Yi” meaning “May all your wishes be fulfilled”.

The fish is added, symbolizing abundance and excess through the year. “Nian Nian You Yu” meaning “Abundance through the year”, as the word "fish" in Mandarin also sounds like "Abundance".

The pomelo or lime is added to the fish, adding luck and auspicious value. “Da Ji Da Li” meaning “Good luck and smooth sailing”

Pepper is then dashed over in the hope of attracting more money and valuables. “Zhao Cai Jin Bao” meaning “Attract wealth and treasures”

Then oil is poured out, circling the ingredients and encouraging money to flow in from all directions. “Yi Ben Wan Li” meaning “Make 10,000 times of profit with your capital” or “Cai Yuan Guang Jin” meaning “Numerous sources of wealth”

Carrots are added indicating blessings of good luck. “Hong Yun Dang Tou” meaning “Good luck is approaching”. Carrot is used as the first character also sound like the Chinese character for red.

Then the shredded green radish is placed symbolizing eternal youth. “Qing Chun Chang Zhu” meaning “Forever young”. Green radish is used as the first character also sound like the Chinese character for green.

After which the shredded white radish is added - prosperity in business and promotion at work. “Feng Sheng Shui Qi” meaning “Progress at a fast pace” or “Bu Bu Gao Sheng” meaning “Reaching higher level with each step”

The condiments are finally added.

First, peanut crumbs are dusted on the dish, symbolizing a household filled with gold and silver. “Jin Yin Man Wu” meaning “Household filled with gold and silver”

Sesame seeds quickly follow symbolizing a flourishing business. “Sheng Yi Xing Long” meaning “Prosperity for the business”

Yu Sheng sauce, usually plum sauce, is generously drizzled over everything. “Tian Tian Mi Mi” Meaning “May life always be sweet”

Deep-fried flour crisps in the shape of golden pillows are then added with wishes that literally the whole floor would be filled with gold. “Man Di Huang Jin” meaning “Floor full of gold”…

Everyone then tosses the salad an auspicious seven times with loud shouts of Lo Hei and other auspicious New Year wishes. The ingredients are mixed by pushing them toward the center, an encouragement to push on the good luck of all at the table.

Interesting eh?  :-) So that’s what we did today.

It was my second time participating in this (the first time was around 2 years back at Citibank)… This one was fun :-) :-) really enjoyed the tossing of the ingredients… hopefully, luck will favor me better than last year! :-)

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Year of the Horse is upon us…  

So…. Saddle up, Canter on and Gallop towards a year filled with Happiness, Peace and Prosperity ….

“Gong Xi Fa Cai” all you lovely people…

Mardi Gras baby, Mardi Gras!! - Day 15 of the 100 Happy Days Challenge!! :) :)

So day 15 is a day late on this space… but there is a good reason for it. :D :D I was at my office Annual Dinner and Dance event.. :) :) And I came back late… so no time to post..

Anyways, the point being, it was my first ever Annual Dinner and Dance from any organization that I ever worked for…. And I was super excited and thrilled to go to one!

And such a lot of fun it was! I even won a shopping voucher in the lucky draw (yay!!) …

Lots of pictures were clicked, lots of fun was had, lots of laughter was heard, lots of letting the hair loose happened, and lots of super-duper excitement for the night… :) :)

All I had energy to do once I came back was change and pop into bed…  

Here’s the daily shot pic for you.. [The pic was posted to INSTAGRAM under my handle yesterday itself) ... So I didn’t exactly deviate from the challenge you see ;) ]

Nails. CHECK. Glittery Sandals. CHECK. Beads. CHECK. Mask. CHECK. Vivid Colors. CHECK.

MARDI GRAS THEME. CHECK.  :D :D :D :D

“That was the point of Mardi Gras, was it not?

To serve and honor all the people,

To bring into hard lives a touch of royalty and grandeur...

To put on a spectacle such as this, free of charge, was an honor.

― Dan Baum

This is just a pic clicked from the office decorations!!!

Just to let you know, my mask was silver ;) my beads were gold and silver and my dress was blue… :) :)

MINION Surprise :) :) - Day 13 of the 100 Happy Days Challenge!! :) :)

I had a MINION Surprise today morning! :D  This friend of mine at work – Ananya – she gifted me this cute lil’ fellow and now he holds pride of place on my workspace… :D So much fun to receive surprises I tell you! They are one of the things that make me go all “awww and you shouldn’t have and all that” but deep inside I am jumping all over the place in joy because someone had me in their thoughts and that counts a lot! :-) Tell me if it doesn’t!! I bet you can’t…!!! :-) :-)

Once I got this little fellow, I wanted to find out which one he was… I am no great shakes on information about these fellas and so googled it as usual. And I found this who’s who of minions… Now my fellow has only one eye, so he could be Stuart, Phil, Kevin, Bob or Jon! I asked Ananya and she said she thought it was Stuart… So I decided to go with Stuart :D :D  This is what the blurb says about STUART ….

Stuart, a one eyed minion, is a playful and funny minion. He loves playing video games with his best friend Dave.

Ok!! I already like him a looooottt…. :D :D :D 

Look at him here… :D :D Made my today a good one because every time I looked at him and saw him grinning at me, I smiled too … 

So thank you Ananya… for making my mid-week so-so day a pretty darn good one! :-) :-)

That machine is out to get me!!

My laptop at work has been giving me trouble ever since I got it! Of course its age has to be blamed for it! To me, it is from the ancient ages and I doubt there is an older version than this; but like some of my friends pointed out, apparently there are older versions!! It’s probably trying to prove to me that I can’t push it around and treat it like just another machine given its age; it seems that it has feelings too!! Err..! Hmm! So if it is not the keyboard that’s giving me the problem then it’s the LAN connection; and if it’s not that then it’s something else. Either ways I seem to be spending too much of my time at the IT Service Desk rather than at my desk much to the amusement of my colleagues!!

Currently it’s my Outlook that’s experiencing problems! The system has gotten into its head that I am overloading it with emails and has decided to go ahead and create hundreds of ‘personal folders’ (*pst) for me in Outlook. I am not kidding, at last count there was more than 100. How do I know? Well, the IT guy got bored after a while of deleting the folders and taught me how to do it and asked me to delete a few :-/ Ok! I am kidding! He did not ask me to delete it, but the look on his face said that he might as well have asked me to do it!!! Well, he did sit and delete it for like 40 mins or so! Can’t blame him! It’s a boring thankless job, doing that!

Anyways, apparently the problem occurs whenever I reboot my laptop. And so, every morning without fail, I am at the IT desk, asking for support! To rectify my Outlook! And now I am almost like a member of the team!

Sample this!! After one particularly long session of sitting and deleting the numerous personal folders, I asked the IT guy what I should do if it occurs again.  He looked at me straight in the eye and said “You come find me!” and gave me this sarcastic smile! Well... he did say to go to him every time it occurs! So well, next morning yours truly was promptly at his desk with my stupid machine!

Another tip from my boss – just drop your machine on the floor! And say ‘Oops!’!!

There you go! A brand-new laptop! :P

Well.. It’s all fine for him to say, I am the one who’s dropping the machine! Hmmppff!!

Anyways, that’s the deal now!

I keep cribbing and complaining to all and sundry! I call up my friends asking for tips to resolve this problem and that!

But the way things are going… one of these days I just might ‘accidently’ drop my laptop!

And say “Oops!!”  …  ;-)

:-) I am EMPLOYED !!! :-)

My rants and raves about not having a job have finally come to an end. I have finally got a good enough job, albeit for a short while, with an investment bank here. And I am one happy gal right now. If you want to know how happy, ask my hubby and friends. It took me a year and a half to get here. A year that was ridden with frustrations, despair, unfulfilled hopes and what not!! And much of it has been written here on this blog and you have been subjected to it. Ok, before I get too melodramatic over it, let me just say that I am very happy right now. It feels awesome to have a reason to get up early each morning and go someplace. It feels on top of the world.

It’s my second week here at my new job. And I love it. I was the happiest when I was working. I still am! It’s nice to have that feeling of no-time-to-spare, deadlines, screwed-up reports, the banter with colleagues, and most of all, I am back doing what I did – working with Excel. :-). I never knew the importance of Excel until I landed in Satyam for my first job. And I knew zilch about it. I used to go blank every time someone asked me to do something in excel. But now I can safely say that’s not the case. :-) Even if I am not an expert, I am at least confident enough now that I can manage to do whatever is being asked of me.

And that confidence is not just related to the reporting / mailing work that I am involved in. But also with respect to knowing what to expect from a job, what I have to do in order to get things done, right from getting access to the various portals to the way to handle / take a query call. I remember back in Satyam, I used to hate making or taking query calls. It was more out of fear that I would not know what to answer if the person asks me something and I would get tongue-tied. This was in the initial few days. Of course I learnt how to handle it in due course of time in Satyam too but for a long while, I would make my list of calls when no one was around me, or take them on my mobile. I guess a few months at the job should help overcome this. I sure did! I still have some of those jittery-nervous feelings – call it performance anxiety!! But I am sure those will be off in no time too…

I love going to work. I am the kind of person who never had those Monday-morning-blues. I love getting up, hurrying about, getting ready and rushing off to work looking all important in my formal dress. I love everything about my job, right from the access cards to the email id with my name in it. It fills me with confidence and makes me feel as if I can do whatever I set my mind to. I love discussing important projects and details with my team, and manager. I love those moments of chitchat with colleagues. I love everything about it. :-)

Okie… I think I am getting super-excited just writing on and on that I love my job. You get the point. :-)

Yes! I am a happy gal!!

Touchwood! :-) 

Why God Why.... Why me...!!?!??

You know what I hate!

Plans getting made and then getting dropped for some reason or the other…

I get disappointed man!
Really… you look forward to something so whole heartedly and then CRASH!!! BOOM!!!
KAPUT!!!

There it goes… down the drain… all down like a mud-castle that you built on the sea shore… you know like when the sea goddess decides that she’ll just wash it off because it is standing out like a sore thumb in the wonderful beach…. Of course you know! What am I saying!!!

This year has gotten off a bad start… what with the Chairman of my company suddenly having a conscience attack and putting the future of an odd 45000 people at crossroads in their lives!

No one knows their future…. Yeah right! I am not trying to make predictions here. But then I have a broad idea about my future though am still not too sure of the finer details… but I know where I’ll be 3 months from now and that is a good thing what with the current state of affairs here…

No one knows where they’ll be in a month from now… But it is going to be my last few weeks in Hyderabad and before the ‘so-called-conscience-attack’ I had some great things planned for the rest of the time I had left here… and now they are all down like a pack of cards… and how many ever times I try to build them up again in various combination using different things it still collapses… weird!

Nothing is working out! Literally!

Each time I get into one of these moods I tell myself… “Stop cribbing! And start cheering up! Enjoy the left over days that you have here! And then you can go back to your haven in nice good ol’ Kerala.” Yeah right! A fat lot of good that did to me! It is like a vicious cycle… I get depressed thinking about the fact that I am going to be leaving and I will miss some special people over here and then I perk myself up saying ‘Cheer up! Nothing ever came out of looking like a sorry chicken caught in the rain’ and then I become all bubbly and nice and cheerful and talkative… everyone around me is happy that I am normal (yeah me being off my rocker means I am normal) and then we make plans…. To go somewhere, to eat something at some nice place and something even as trivial as watching a movie or taking a drive… Bam! There… someone up there or down in the nether world heard my wishful thinking and Bang! They say, “I am sorry we have to put a spoke in that wheel of thought that you have, so here goes! Oh 1 spoke is not quite enough… here take 2 or better still keep 3 for safe measures!” and there it collapses! And I am left picking the pieces trying to make sense of what just happened! God knows seriously!

All I ask for is that my last few weeks here are good, nice, peaceful, without any changes or disruptions, happy and memorable so that I have a happy image about the place! This was the notion that I carried over or rather kinda-sorta New Year wish! Hell! I think someone somewhere has a warped sense of humor.

And now I have given up!

You up there or down in the netherworld… you heard me?? I have given up! I now know for sure that whatever plans I make are not going to be fulfilled or they will not take place! So why bother to make any plans in the first place!!! So true! Yeah yeah I heard you back then!

So now motto is to take each day as it comes and leave the rest to the forces of nature who think they know best!

Funnily enough before I started complicating things that was my motto… yeah well… whatever!

Story of my life!!!

Personality Viruses...

Points to ponder:

1) How come there are always people who know how to do a better job of doing something?

2) How come there are always people who know everything about every single topic under the sun?

3) How come there are always people who know what exactly is going to happen in a crisis?

4) How come there are always people who have an opinion on anything that happens and are so sure that their opinion is the right one?

5) How come all these people are the ones whom I end up having the misfortune to meet?

As life goes on, you have the fortune (mis!) of meeting a wide variety of people. People who are of the fixed notion that, they are better off than anyone else, they are the best in whatever they do, they are always right and suffice to say, they are perfect!

Far from it….

Some of these types that you meet can be classified into –

The “I-am-sorry-I’m-still-in-the-past-century” type:

They have fixed notions about how things should be, how people should behave, follow rules and regulations for every single thing right from eating out or talking to sending a mail. They hate it if someone questions their way of living and are more of the old-fashioned type. They get defensive for every single thing, can’t accept a single thing about the way people or society is at present and in general irritate the normal people. And god forbid, if you’re a girl caught talking to a boy…. Be prepared for a lecture! Right from advising you on how to behave with superiors to how you should be sending a mail, these are the kind that gets you irritated more so than often.

The “here-use-my-shoulder-to-weep or sob-whether-you-want-or-not” type:

These people think they are god’s answer to people’s troubles. They have a solution for everything and an ‘I told you so…’ look on the face whenever a little trouble comes your way, more so if you have made the mistake of not letting them know the minute details of your life. Of course even if there is nothing untoward or no trouble they still have this ‘you’ll live to regret this’ kind of expression on whatever your actions are unless it’s the one that they advised you on.

The “I-can-do-a-better-job-of-doing-this” type:

These are the guys who think that whether its running the country or managing an organization or simply just doing a task, it’s them who can do it best… the others no matter how good they are, can only just about manage it…. these guys have an opinion on everything, a better way of doing things, and more often than not, try to show off their half-baked knowledge on whatever it is – Stocks, Computers, Nuclear Physics, Metallica or Mallika Sherawat.

The “plain-old-artificial” type:

They simply seep artificiality. It’s like its part of their blood. They make passionate speeches about jingoism for e.g.:, stand up for lesser known causes, make a hue and cry about how something that is common in society should be considered as taboo. You can feel it when they make those long drawn out, point-validating monologue on a particular thing. The artificiality just oozes out of their pores…! It more or less makes you want to puke.

The “let-me-help-you-out” type:

These are the guys who interfere, butt in, and basically poke their noses into whatever you try to do at any point of time. They seem to think that you are in dire need of help and therefore offer to help you out irrespective of whether you want it or not. Sometimes it gets to the point of saturation and then … KAPUT..

Anyways…. So those are some of the types that you might end up meeting in your life….

And we all know what harm any of the above hybrids can do…

Mostly these are the reactions that you’ll have!!

a) A tendency to throw the nearest thing at the person intended

b) A feeling so frustrating that you just sit with you head in your hands and try to shut out the monologue

c) An uncontrollable itch to slowly gouge out your body parts considering that it would be comparatively better to listening to the crap that is being dished out

d) It can also invoke religious fervor in you to save you from the clutches of the being.

e) Beating your head on the wall to avoid the other mental trauma.

Me- I am the lucky one. I have actually felt like doing all of those sometimes all at the same time ….

I am a privileged soul, you see….

Some of the above-said characters I get to meet every single day! :-)

Things that I don’t understand!!

› Why is that when you are a girl/woman in the corporate world (especially if you are not part of the upper management) people tend to take whatever you say on any subject a little less seriously than they do with guys/men? Is it that their ego can’t take a girl talking about politics/science/stocks/technology as good as any other person well-versed in them or is it just that ‘Bah! She’s a girl… what would she know about such stuff’ kind of thought process?

› Why do some people talk as though they carry the burden of the entire world on their fragile shoulders and talking about the better good etc … If I am not commenting on whatever your thoughts are and I say whatever I think, why do they give me that look of derision as though I am committing a crime thinking just about whatever my life is concerned with?

› Why do some people have to always butt in with their opinions on whatever 2 other people are discussing?

› Why do people have to do a post-mortem on stuff that has happened ages after it happened? Can’t they just let it be?

(to be contd.)

The last curse before a new year!!!

This is called blogging in bulk…

I have a few too many mails regarding the late evenings we spend in office especially on Friday’s when you cannot even say ‘TGIF’…

The nincompoops in my office have this sadistic pleasure of fixing up meetings and reviews for the last possible minute thereby ruining what would effectively have been the best way to spend an evening! Doing anything else but not sitting in office…

Today being New Years Eve what would one expect from a normally sane set of people… No! You expect too much! The jackasses have gone and fixed up meetings till 7:30 in the evening for just the units that we handle…! Goddamn! I dunno what to say to that!!!

So while the rest of the world is outside busy making merry, and plans for the evening… or putting plans that they have made we are sitting here and listening to a bunch of people go on and on about how good and promising their business is… Wow! I have no words to express my joy! :O Simply exhilarated!

I guess this is again one of those raving and ranting posts..! But when you have to deal with people like whom I meet… well… it is valid! And fair enough!

I wish to god that I can curse the asses who have done this and have gotten their sweet revenge but well... Today being NYE and all that… I will just safely say…

I wish whatever they have done unto others will return to them multifold! As you sow, so you reap! :D:D

Heheheh! There!! That should take care of it! :D… We all know what the outcome would be..!

Good luck Fellas and Fellis!

Have a great year ahead! :-)

Silence is Golden ... (sometimes!!)

She was quiet. Almost like her personality was in the silent mode like in a cell phone.

Quite contrasting to her personality! She was a chatterbox. Anyone who knew her would say that. She could go on and on and on about stuff… She would just not stop talking…

It was quite unlike her to be quiet. And even more so when there was no specific reason to it.

Nothing wrong with her mood. Everything was the same and it was quite a normal day.

Yet she was silent. And she just did not feel like talking! And she did not feel like giving an explanation as to why she was quiet. No one would understand even if they tried.

Because she did not have a reason. She just did not want to talk.

Abnormal? Unusual?

************************************************************************************

Has it ever happened to you that you just go silent? I mean even if there’s nothing wrong with you or nothing wrong with your mood! You just don’t feel like talking and least of all give anyone a specific reason as to why you are not talking!!

And then you get a hundred odd questions!

‘Why are you quiet? Is something wrong? Are you not feeling well? This is so unlike you! Is something bothering you? Did you have a fight with someone? Did someone hurt you? What happened to you?’

Whereas on a typical day it would go something like,

‘Can you just keep quiet for some time? How much you talk! Why do you keep going on and on and on… ? You are quite a chatterbox aren’t you? How come you can talk something on everything? I’ll pay you if you shut up for some time!’

Contradictory huh…!

Shows how change affects people in my opinion! Lol..!

But I have had a lot of days exactly like this…

I mean I am not always expected to be cheerful, smiling, pepped up right… I can have my off days or days when I choose to be off. Sometimes it is so weird that you don’t even have a clue as to what set you off or put you in a bad mood. And for all you know it might not be a bad mood at all…

I do not need a special reason to keep quiet. I can just go silent when I feel like and it does not taking anything from anyone, just my thoughts! But somehow people tend to perceive it as something gone wrong!

Wonder why!

Friday Woes....

I HATE SITTING LATE ON A FRIDAY IN OFFICE WITH NOTHING TO DO... :-(

WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF PEOPLE REALIZED THAT WE HAVE A LIFE OUTSIDE OFFICE....

WOULD ALSO BE GLAD IF PEOPLE DID NOT MAKE ME SIT HERE SIMPLY WITH NO WORK, NO DEADLINES, OR FOR THAT MATTER ANYTHING TO DO....

WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR THEM TO UNDERSTAND????

I am cold... :-(

Okie…

That turned out to be quite a long post… (the previous one!)

I am drained out..! :-) But happy!

I am not sure if I captured all my thoughts on it though…

It is quite cold in office today… I mean normally in office, inside this classroom like room that we sit in (proudly called the NOC room) it is colder than normal… the AC is either high or too high… that’s probably the only two settings our office knows! Today it’s too high…

I am very sensitive to the cold… extremely… and that’s just the AC I am talking about… the fan is ok... However fast it is its fine… but the AC… Brrr.. Brr… Chatter Chatter… I cannot stand the cold… my fingers go numb, my teeth start shivering and I become as pale as a creature which has no blood… then it’s a sight… I mean I look a sight… (There go my trips to the colder countries!!)

Even on the normal sunny days outside, our office is as cold as the North Pole (and no, before you ask, I have not been to the North Pole people... I would probably become like a human icicle!!)

I crave for the sunlight like the E T in those alien movies… I need that ray of sunlight or in my case heat to function properly… makes me wonder sometimes which planet I am actually from…

And now huddled in a jacket to keep the cold (But not doing a good enough job! Darn! This stupid jacket!) I am typing away thinking of warmer climates…

Ok time for me to step out for my daily dose of sunshine…

See ya in a bit....

I have a question... Does someone have an answer??

What do you do when you are caught in a situation where you want to be honest to yourself and tell someone what exactly you feel but you know that if you do that you would be hurting that person real bad? Would you end up compromising on your honesty and self or would you stand up for what you feel irrespective of how the other person feels??

Tool Trauma!!!

I am getting irritated… and that seems to be my constant disposition these days…

There’s this new tool that has been developed in office for tracking Action Items and Escalations and it is literally taking my life out…

I am supposed to be monitoring this tool and the entries in it for my boss and to say that it is painful would be an understatement… it is fraught with complications on who to raise it on, who has to raise it, issue status, description, resolution plan, date of expected closure, date of actual closure and etc etc…. and once I save it an auto-mailer goes… and then my boss gets bombarded with mails from people asking why, what, when, where, and how this damn thing was raised… Fantastic!And that’s not all… it also throws pop-ups like RP word limit minimum length is some 50 characters or something… the RP date and the date of expected closure should be more than the date of actual closure or whatever! Phew..!!

I wonder who had the bright idea of the tool to track this stuff… and it’s not like people are actually entering it in properly or diligently. Sadistic streak I must say! To enter one item it takes around 5-10 minutes… what is the point I do not understand other than making us lesser mortals squirm and fidget when we have to enter the damn entries….

Sheesh!!!!

Sometimes I hate technology!!!!

PS: No offence meant to anyone, i just hate the tool !! :-).

And I dream on......

It is raining heavily outside. I am sitting inside my centrally airconditioned office huddled up in a jacket to keep in the warmth. I can't help but think of what I would do if i was at home...

Having a hot cup of coffee (filter coffee) in my favorite black mug, accompanied by maybe hot pakoras onion/potato, or mirchi bajjis, even spicy nuts... curled up in my bed with a nice interesting book and music plugged into my ears, cuddled in my blanket... hmmm...

High hopes!!!

Instead of that I am sitting here and listening to my colleague who has taken the day off on how he is enjoying the climate... gah! and double gah!

I wish I were at home...

I wish I were at Kerala...

I wish I were anywhere but here....

Lunch @ Lounge Habits!!!

Lunch today was outside…. A kind of team building initiative as along with a pending treat… 2 birds in one stone concept!!! :P So anyways, it was at this new swanky place little close to office called “Lounge Habits”…. We reached there… and the place was more or less empty… well guaranteed that it is a new place and so a lot lesser people would have heard of it and therefore the minority there… the place is quite a eye-catcher what with orange colored paint on the walls, a pool table, a TT table (that sounds funny – a table tennis table!!), hookahs, movie cds, games and the whole gamut… all set to attract people…

Ritzy victuals on the menus – mainly Mexican, American and Italian food including the likes of pasta, risotto, sizzlers, fajitas etc… the main problem was that the chow took eons in coming to the table… we were waiting, waiting, and still waiting, twiddling our thumbs, talking endlessly, waiting for the extraordinary cuisine to be served… the waiters would bring one order at a time, tempting our taste buds and then go back in leaving us salivating for more… but this was only for the starter items… we gobbled them up like we were from Somalia and we had not seen food in quite a long time… once the main course orders were placed, we were left waiting for them like sinners waiting for salvation… the ones who had ordered for the sizzlers were kind of sizzling in the face when they were waiting and once the food came (finally it did come!) they were sizzling from the mouth and the ears… just the smoke was missing!!! The expressions on the faces of my colleagues were worth watching when the exotic items were brought to the table… picture perfect I would say!!! :P

Interesting items on the dessert menu except that most were not available (including my cheesecake! :-()…. I ordered for a cappuccino and when it was served, the maître d' asked me whether it was good… probably he was preparing it for the first time!!! :P but the desserts were good considering the fact that they were brought in from outside… and in all fairness to the guy, the coffee was good…

It was quite funny actually… and a lot of fun too..!! (to be understood in 2 different senses!)

Quite a team building initiative it turned out to be… we as a team decided we would never visit there again… unanimously… collectively…

My Little Sunshine Time...

Ever encountered these species of people who contradict anything and everything that you say…. I mean whatever you say irrespective of which topic it is they just have to contradict it… counter it… and they will still do it even if they know nothing about the topic or the subject… not something that I can easily stand…

And you try to tell them “sorry boss!! U r actually wrong! That’s not what it is!” Nopes…!!! The individual is obviously gloating in his/her own little sunshine time that whatever we say just bounces off them… such thick-skinned creatures I have just had the privilege of meeting…

If you don’t know something then have the humility to accept that you don’t know it and learn it… instead of that you are just curbing your own knowledge if you keep thinking that you everything about it… and even if it’s a topic that you are well-versed with, you cannot possible know everything that is there to know about that particular area. Admit the fact that some people might – just might – know something about the subject that you could learn. Sounds like a typical case of thinking that your glass is full…

There is always something or the other to learn about everything… Things that you would never have known otherwise... Why have a closed mind and restrict your thinking!!! I don’t understand why they simply have to oppose whatever anyone says… I hope they do not think that we think that they are learned or well-versed or whatever… On the contrary… "Yoohoo buddy!!! Time for reality!!!"

Over the days I am getting to meet quite a lot of these kinds of people and some of them being people I thought highly about… talk about being bombarded with “Hi, I would like to be a part of the limelight too…”

Some Things... Never Change!!!!

Dog’s tail…. Can never be straightened…

Some things never change…

Whatever, How many ever, Whichever way you tell some things, old habits die hard!!!

It’s great to see history repeating itself though in a very satirical way… been a year now... But the expressions, the perplexed look, the rolling eyes, the bewildered exasperation… seems familiar… semblance of something that is more or less like… been there, done that!!!

Lol… life does come full circle does it not… and all I have to say to the ones who are in the precarious position that I once was is that…

GET USED TO IT…. SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE….

TGIF...?? I think not....

Its 7:45 PM on a Friday evening and I am still sitting here in office rotting away....

What did i do to deserve this??!!? Why can't I go home at a NORMAL TIME atleast on a Friday Evening???

And it's not even like I have work to do.... I am just sitting here simply doing nothing...

Why does it always have to be like this?? I understand working late on other weekdays but not on Fridays please....... that's INHUMAN... and the sooner the rest of the world understands this the better!!!

I am sitting here without any work...

GOD.... WHY... WHY.... WHY....