Saturday, April 28, 2007

Good for him, shots and Bob T. Bear

  1. A colleague gets admission into IIMC, K & L. He’s worked hard for this and the tension has been almost palpable for the past few days. There’s a huge wave of relief and then jubilation as the news of the results being declared spreads through the office. I love the way everyone right from the bosses are so concerned and so happy for him.
  2. After thinking I’ll take the camera to work so that I can take pictures of the yellow blossoms for 3 days, I finally do. And I manage to capture some good frames.
  3. I find Bob T. Bear’s Diary. Ha ha!!

Friday, April 27, 2007

Bloody war, waiting for a full house and surprisingly good

This is good enough to warrant being above any numbering. Life Ain't THAT Bad... finds a special mention on the The Original 3BT site. Congrats partner! And now back to what brings us a chance to get these 'above any numbering' moments...
  1. The war continues. Today's most interesting bomb thrown at me is a paper cup that reads "THIS IS NOT A BOMB. It's a cup". Another one has a huge red stain on it. It is one of mine that has been returned with 'blood' on it.
  2. Counting days till mum, dad and sis finally come to Pune. They'll be here next saturday, and I'm really really looking forward to having someone at home when I come back from office.
  3. Eklavya turns out to be a surprisingly good movie. The camera work is simply awesome, and the intensity of the film is such that I end up wishing I had taken the chance to watch it on the big screen and hadn't payed so much heed to the popular reviews. The film is short and never once wavers from its central theme.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Staking claim, sweet war and breather

  1. In the mail rack, in somebody's mail box, there's a latest copy of Reader's Digest. It has been lying there since saturday, and no one seems to be interested in claiming it. Everytime I pass by, I notice it and fight an impulse to flick it. I like this little game of checking if it's still there. Whoever it belongs to, this is a warning to you - if it's still there on Monday morning, I'm going to claim it. No RD should have to face the insult of being delivered to an uninterested subscriber. It deserves to be opened and read the very day it is received! Meanwhile, I'm going to continue hoping no one claims it!
  2. Amidst the usual debris (paper cups, balls of paper, tooth picks etc) that I get bombarded with from the adjoining cubicle as part of the on-going war, the first bomb for the day is a Kitkat! Hmmm... a sweet war... :-)
  3. A friend tells me he feels better after chatting with me. He was stressed out and I provided him with a breather...

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Identity Crisis, neighbour and productivity

  1. As I enter the gates of Magarpatta, I notice there's a shock of yellow all around me. The trees have burst into flower of the brightest yellow, overnight. In between these yellow blooms, there's a flaming red Gulmohur, so covered by flowers that not a leaf is visible. Suddenly I start wondering if it actually is summer - Magarpatta looks so fresh and springy!
  2. Utpal, who I share the office cubicle with, is back from a 2-weeks-long vacation. Good to have the vacant seat occupied again.
  3. Senseless banter exchanged over email with Manjiri... we write about completely random, arbitrary things to each other, and I get many occasions to chuckle - both while reading her mails and while drafting some befittingly insane replies.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Happy friend, truce and important updates

  1. Meenal writes to me to say that she's feeling really relaxed and happy.
  2. Talking to a friend without fighting or arguing.
  3. Tanmoy calls up late in the night, when I'm about to fall asleep and tells me what pranks are being played in Just For Laughs Gags on Pogo.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Finito, thriller and miss you..

  1. I come to office with a terrible headache, only to find plenty of work stacked up for me. I spend the first half of the day grumbling and accomplishing nothing. Then post lunch, I dig into work, and lo and behold, I'm done by the time it's 6!
  2. Exhausted, I sink into the bean bag and start surfing channels. Ek Hasina Thi is being aired, and it's just only started. It's 'inspired' by Sidney Sheldon's If Tomorrow Comes. But its been made well, and I enjoy the thriller - the transition of a naive trusting girl into a street smart, ruthless woman as a result of being cheated and sent to jail on false charges by her lover.
  3. A girl who had joined my previous company, fresh out of college, just a few months before I left, and whom I had mentored, calls me up to say that she misses me.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Balmy breaths, turn of fate and sleep

  1. When I finally get out of office at 8:30 p.m., I see that it has rained and the air has the smell of the wet earth. I shiver a little as I take deep breaths of the balmy breeze.
  2. We go to Sweet Chariot because I want to eat the Black Currant cheese cake I'd had there long ago. To my disappointment, they don't have it, so I have to settle for a Mango cheese cake. My disappointment evaporates with the first spoonfull, and I'm glad they didn't have black currant. I wouldn't have tasted mango then!
  3. Its good to be able to hit the bed at a decent time (after a long time), and fall asleep almost instantly. Because of the evening rains, its a little chilly and the soft coverlet is a pleasure.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Alive at dawn, nature's tantrum and bheja fry

  1. The sunrise. From pitch dark, it slowly starts to lighten up and the mood changes from black to grey to indigo to pink to orange. What is it about dawns that brings so much peace to the soul, while at the same time causes you to feel so alive? There's a word for this in Marathi - Chaitanya. It is a feeling of being alive in every fibre, every cell of your body, as if every thought sparkles and every breath is life itself. And yet this does not explain Chaitanya completely.
  2. An impromptu storm in the afternoon. It lasts for a total of 10 mins, but the scene looks so different. There's chaos everywhere, the roads are splattered with branches and leaves that the wind has torn from trees and other random things that it has stolen from people and then discarded, almost like a child that first throws a tantrum for a toy and then loses interest in it the moment it acquires it. People are peering out of the shelters they have hurried to, to escape this tantrum and are wondering whether its safe to venture out. For the brave one's who do, there's a reward - they are the first ones to breathe in the young clean air after the storm. I'm one of them.
  3. Bheja Fry. After a sublime morning and a tempestuous afternoon, comes a ridiculous end to the day. Bheja fry - literally translated to Fried Brains - is a riot of laughter. The protagonist of the movie is an idiot and such a natural and perfect one that you have to do everything you can to keep falling off the chair - you're laughing that hard!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Roads, snake dances and a merry band

  1. Freshly made, black tar roads... they just look so inviting, I always want to drive on them right away.
  2. Pai does a 'naagin' dance. Man! He's a riot... (and no, he was not under any chemical influence...) For the uninitiated, a 'naagin' dance is dancing while impersonating a snake. Anyone who has the patience, can watch Bollywood's favourite 'naagin' dance...
  3. Watching the antics of all those who've had just one drink more than they they should've... The mood is merry and I get to really laugh my guts out at the party.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Chic, a bouquet and Sons of Fortune

  1. Wearing the new dress mum got for me from Cochin. The pattern I chose for it has turned out pretty and the dress makes me feel very chic... oh! and I get a lot of compliments on it too...
  2. Flowers! I take the girls from office out to dinner - my birthday treat has been pending for too long.... and along with a book, I get a beautiful little bouquet of yellow roses and velvety red Zerberas... This is the first time flowers have been brought into this house since I moved in.
  3. I start on Jeffrey Archer's 'Sons of Fortune', and before I know it, it's already 2 a.m. I simply love his racy style of writing...

Monday, April 09, 2007

And these are a few of mine...

I was away from the internet for three days, and I came back to find some really interesting posts Aparna's been at work on. And the idea of listing down 10 things I love seems so simple and such a natural extension to the philosophy of this blog, that I'm almost annoyed I didn't think of it myself! But I definitely can't resist doing it myself, so here's my list, excluding family, food, clothing and stuff on Aparna's list, in no particular order:

  1. Being 25 and not being cynical enough to think 3BTing is a silly thing
  2. Laughing so hard that my sides hurt and tears run down my cheeks
  3. The feeling of absolute delight when I read something, something goes 'click' in my brain and I know exactly what the author wants to say
  4. Shopping!
  5. Soft carpets and bean bags
  6. Starry nights
  7. Being independant
  8. Candle-light dinners
  9. Vacations
  10. Surprises (NOT shocks)
  11. Getting lost on the road and then finding my way or discovering a new one...

Easy to go on and on... anyone got a few more?

Friends, savvy parents and sexy shoes...

  1. Having friends that support you and don't let you fall... Why did this suddenly dawn on me today? Well, can't really state that here, but if any of my friends (they that know why I'm saying this) are reading this, I'd appreciate a 'yo' in the comments...
  2. My parents are getting savvy enough to try and search for rail reservation availibility on the net on their own, albeit with some help from me over the phone. Just the fact that they even want to try to do it makes me happy, 'coz its some positive progress in overcoming their do-it-yourself-on-the-internet-phobia.
  3. Wearing my new smart and sexy red shoes. They look ultra stylish with their closed pointy toes and their high-enough-to-be-sexy-but-low-enough-to-allow-me-to-not-topple-over heels and I can smirk away.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Fountain mist, chit-chat and Bilbo & Gandalf

  1. The fountains one sees, right after entering Magarpatta, are very different from the usual ones. They throw a very fine spray, almost a mist, and not very high... they're arranged in a semicircle and the whole sight looks so soft and ethereal...
  2. Many phone calls with a lot of people I haven't talked to for a long time... the evening is well spent..
  3. I start with The Hobbit. Its written in a charming, childish manner that makes me smile almost continuously. Something tells me I'm going to enjoy reading it immensely... An excerpt that I particularly fell in love with:


"Good morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the
grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows
that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat. "What do you mean?" he said.
"Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I
want or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is morning to be good on?"


"All of them at once," said Bilbo. "And a very fine morning for a pipe of
tobacco out of doors, into the bargain. If you have a pipe about you, sit down and
have a fill of mine! There's no hurry, we have all the day before us!" Then Bilbo
sat down on a seat by his door, crossed his legs, and blew out a beautiful grey ring
of smoke that sailed up into the air without breaking and floated away over The
Hill.


"Very pretty!" said Gandalf. "But I have no time to blow smoke-rings this
morning. I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging,
and it's very difficult to find anyone."

"I should think so - in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use
for adventures. Nasty .disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!
I can’t think what anybody sees in them," said our Mr. Baggins, and stuck one
thumb behind his braces, and blew out another even bigger smoke-ring.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

ROTFL, hurry hurry and computing power...

  1. A very enjoyable lunch with the girls. We laughed till we were falling out of our chairs and people had started turnign around to stare at us... :-D
  2. Walking out of office when its still light, and seeing people who have someone waiting for them at home, hurry.
  3. My brand new home PC... and I'll have an internet connection very soon too...

Monday, April 02, 2007

F.R.I.E.N.D.S, canine lover and happppppy...

  1. Watching five episodes of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. back to back.
  2. A lady, out for a walk, brings a bag ful of bread with her and feeds all the stray dogs in the lane. She doesn't seem scared of them..
  3. Screw Driver: Getting sloshed and Happppppy