I always get the feeling of "coming back" whenever i sit down to write something on my blog, which in the first place should not be there, since this is my blog and I am supposed to be here. ..But this is the way I have been... and now after putting a lot of thought into it have decided to change my ways.For the first time in my life I have prepared a list of to-do things, lovingly called resolutions. One of them being "not" coming back to the blog, but staying here.
I had decided to start writing from the first day of the new year, but "shubh kam mein der kaisi". First semester is over and I am quite happy with how it went and what i learnt, and of course happy with the gpa too. The break is proving to be a little too much, and I want it to be over soon, to get going again. The lethargy which had crept in during the break, has to be wore off and I promise it will be done.... as for now I am not coming back, I'll stay here.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Of ice cream, rain and birthday parties which pop out of nowhere
We four had our dinner and since praveen as usual was busy with his assignments, me, karan and rubal decided to have some ice cream from Mobil. So, what’s unusual about it? Nothing, unless it is 12 o clock of a November night, its 2 degree Celsius outside, it’s raining and its windy.
But if we want to have it, we just want to have it, so we packed ourselves up to brace for wind and rain, got our umbrellas and proceeded to Mobil which is about 10 minutes walk from 1300. It was allright till we reached there, but started pouring heavily while we were on our way back. We took shelter under the EE department building, when one wise man among us suggested that we run and beat the rain to 1300, lest it starts coming down even more heavily. And we started running into the wind with our umbrellas on our heads in the heavy rain. This soon proved out to be the worst we could do, as one of us had his umbrella turned inside out and all of us got drenched by the time we got home. But... mission accomplished and we had our icecream.
I and Rubal were in Havener's centre playing Table tennis, when we got a call that we have a birthday party in Jigar's home and we have to carry a bowl of rice, at around 8 in the night. Now which b'day party starts at 8? Anyways we got home, cooked rice and went to Jigar's home, sure there were a lot of people. It was a party allright, but the question was whose birthday it was, and nobody had an answer. Finally, it became known that it was Jigar's idea of having a get together, a good one at that. Although there was no birthday but whose complaining till we get Indian food.
But if we want to have it, we just want to have it, so we packed ourselves up to brace for wind and rain, got our umbrellas and proceeded to Mobil which is about 10 minutes walk from 1300. It was allright till we reached there, but started pouring heavily while we were on our way back. We took shelter under the EE department building, when one wise man among us suggested that we run and beat the rain to 1300, lest it starts coming down even more heavily. And we started running into the wind with our umbrellas on our heads in the heavy rain. This soon proved out to be the worst we could do, as one of us had his umbrella turned inside out and all of us got drenched by the time we got home. But... mission accomplished and we had our icecream.
I and Rubal were in Havener's centre playing Table tennis, when we got a call that we have a birthday party in Jigar's home and we have to carry a bowl of rice, at around 8 in the night. Now which b'day party starts at 8? Anyways we got home, cooked rice and went to Jigar's home, sure there were a lot of people. It was a party allright, but the question was whose birthday it was, and nobody had an answer. Finally, it became known that it was Jigar's idea of having a get together, a good one at that. Although there was no birthday but whose complaining till we get Indian food.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Back!
I am in the middle of a programming homework, a project and an assignment, I am stuck and I don’t feel like working anymore and that's one reason why I am back to my blog. I have been contemplating writing this for a long time. Each time I am free, I have two choices, either write a blog entry or cook something to eat to satiate the otherworldly noises coming from my stomach, needless to say I always choose the latter.
The last few weeks have been awesome, and I have been doing work like I have never done before. More so, because after a couple of years at CSC I had almost forgotten how it is like, to work. Each week I think, maybe I'll get some time off next week, to do the pending stuff, only to find that the next week is more packed than the last one. Working nights and sleeping at 4 or 5 in the mornings have become a norm, and this is coming from a person whose eyelids used to get heavy after 10 in the night.
BUT, this also has been a time of learning, ...learning and growing(not referring to my vertical growth), getting accustomed to the way of life here, and learning about the culture, the behaviour of people, there have been so many new things, things which make an individual grow, apart from the academic stuff.
Talking about academics, for once, I am learning by doing things and not by preparing for exams.
What have I learnt? I'll try to go over it one by one in my next columns.
I hope to return here more often.
The last few weeks have been awesome, and I have been doing work like I have never done before. More so, because after a couple of years at CSC I had almost forgotten how it is like, to work. Each week I think, maybe I'll get some time off next week, to do the pending stuff, only to find that the next week is more packed than the last one. Working nights and sleeping at 4 or 5 in the mornings have become a norm, and this is coming from a person whose eyelids used to get heavy after 10 in the night.
BUT, this also has been a time of learning, ...learning and growing(not referring to my vertical growth), getting accustomed to the way of life here, and learning about the culture, the behaviour of people, there have been so many new things, things which make an individual grow, apart from the academic stuff.
Talking about academics, for once, I am learning by doing things and not by preparing for exams.
What have I learnt? I'll try to go over it one by one in my next columns.
I hope to return here more often.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Kalkaji to Rolla
It was not until a couple of days before my flight that I realised I was going so far away from home, and many a times I felt like chucking it all and going back, but I was at a point of no return and decided that I should go ahead with what I was planning from more than 3 years.
Even after maintaining all the lists and packing my stuff in advance there were things coming up every now and then and before I could know it was the afternoon of Saturday the 2nd. Before leaving for the airport I decided to take a short nap. I reached the airport at around 7, met with rubal and karan, bid good bye to my family and went inside at 8.Although we reached there 3 and half hour in advance but still couldn't manage to find adjacent seats for the three of us.
Checked in the bags and cleared the customs, and here I was ready to embark on the journey.
We boarded the plane at around 10 30 and fortunately managed to find adjacent seats once inside the plane. The flight to Chicago was a long tiring one, and for the whole duration of the journey i kept checking the small screen in front of me to know how much time was left for deplaning. We three chatted for a while and then I started checking out the screen, There were movies, songs, TV shows and Kidstuff, after a while I settled for Peace Music. Dinner arrived after about an hour of take off, obviously I opted for Indian Veg and the quality was a harbinger of the kind of food i'll be getting in the US. The Airhostesses at American Airlines were hot, or at least as hot as one can be when on the wrong side of forty. Period. As I had already taken an afternoon nap, I wasn't feeling that sleepy so I decided to check what everybody else was doing.
The gentleman next to me was a software engineer from Cognizant and was going to Florida ,Just behind me on the isle was an oversized kid reading some novel. Most of the people were dozing off, trying hard to fit in their quilt. Its a cascading effect that when everyone around you is sleeping , you also tend to feel sleepy, so I decided to sleep too, checked the screen
we were flying somewhere over North Pakistan.
I woke up 2 hours later, people were still sleeping and I decided to watch a movie, picked up "What happened at Las Vegas", this cycle of sleeping, waking, watching movies ,listening to songs continued and a snack and a breakfast later we were hovering over Chicago, The night view of Chicago from the window was breathtaking and it looked like a Diwali night celebration of lights. Soon we landed at the O'Hare Airport at Chicago and before long we cleared the Immigartion and the customs. The Airport was huge and we had to take a train, to reach the Domestic Airport. Our next flight to St. Louis was 3 hours later so we decided to rest and soak in all the change slowly. Everything had become so different in a span of some 15 hours.We boarded our next plane at 8 in the morning, and soon after I started feeling airsick, luckily it was a short flight and we landed at St. Louis in an hour. It took us a while to figure out the baggage carousel, found it finally and took our luggage. We had contacted the India Association at the university in advance and they had a shuttle ready for us. The final part of the journey started, US was so different from India. we travelled the last 100 miles to Rolla in about an hour and half, although tired it felt good to finally be at the destination.
That was the journey, I'll be back with my first few days in Rolla in some time.
Even after maintaining all the lists and packing my stuff in advance there were things coming up every now and then and before I could know it was the afternoon of Saturday the 2nd. Before leaving for the airport I decided to take a short nap. I reached the airport at around 7, met with rubal and karan, bid good bye to my family and went inside at 8.Although we reached there 3 and half hour in advance but still couldn't manage to find adjacent seats for the three of us.
Checked in the bags and cleared the customs, and here I was ready to embark on the journey.
We boarded the plane at around 10 30 and fortunately managed to find adjacent seats once inside the plane. The flight to Chicago was a long tiring one, and for the whole duration of the journey i kept checking the small screen in front of me to know how much time was left for deplaning. We three chatted for a while and then I started checking out the screen, There were movies, songs, TV shows and Kidstuff, after a while I settled for Peace Music. Dinner arrived after about an hour of take off, obviously I opted for Indian Veg and the quality was a harbinger of the kind of food i'll be getting in the US. The Airhostesses at American Airlines were hot, or at least as hot as one can be when on the wrong side of forty. Period. As I had already taken an afternoon nap, I wasn't feeling that sleepy so I decided to check what everybody else was doing.
The gentleman next to me was a software engineer from Cognizant and was going to Florida ,Just behind me on the isle was an oversized kid reading some novel. Most of the people were dozing off, trying hard to fit in their quilt. Its a cascading effect that when everyone around you is sleeping , you also tend to feel sleepy, so I decided to sleep too, checked the screen
we were flying somewhere over North Pakistan.
I woke up 2 hours later, people were still sleeping and I decided to watch a movie, picked up "What happened at Las Vegas", this cycle of sleeping, waking, watching movies ,listening to songs continued and a snack and a breakfast later we were hovering over Chicago, The night view of Chicago from the window was breathtaking and it looked like a Diwali night celebration of lights. Soon we landed at the O'Hare Airport at Chicago and before long we cleared the Immigartion and the customs. The Airport was huge and we had to take a train, to reach the Domestic Airport. Our next flight to St. Louis was 3 hours later so we decided to rest and soak in all the change slowly. Everything had become so different in a span of some 15 hours.We boarded our next plane at 8 in the morning, and soon after I started feeling airsick, luckily it was a short flight and we landed at St. Louis in an hour. It took us a while to figure out the baggage carousel, found it finally and took our luggage. We had contacted the India Association at the university in advance and they had a shuttle ready for us. The final part of the journey started, US was so different from India. we travelled the last 100 miles to Rolla in about an hour and half, although tired it felt good to finally be at the destination.
That was the journey, I'll be back with my first few days in Rolla in some time.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Last Day at CSC
For the last day I decided to go to office a little earlier than usual and I was there by 9. A lot of new joinees were pouring in since morning and here I was running here and there to complete the formalities for the last day ,winding up things at office. "Winding up things at Office", much easier said than done.Not that its difficult to get things done at CSC, but because it also meant saying good bye to friends.
One standout thing which each of us will remember were the tea breaks. The tea breaks were not anything less than an occasion, often spanning close to an hour and two tea breaks in a day meant 20% of a weekday spent discussing something not even remotely connected to work. The topics of discussion ranging from management to appraisal, from needles to noodles, but never ever coming close to work. Senseless jokes and endless laughter were the order of the time. Neelam's PJs, Shelly's smile, Manish's wit, Nidhi's blunders, Pawan's photoshoots, Aman's blabbering and Balli's english made those 2 hours the highlight of each day, and its difficult to digest that I'll no longer be there in the breakaway. The lunch get togather and the chat meeting before lunch meant another hour of fun with friends and Office seemed more like college. Last six months at CSC have been one of the most memorable and fun time of my life, exactly opposite of what one would think of working in an MNC.
Most part of the last working day as I had thought was spent in running for exit formalities, but the farewell at the end of the day was a pleasent surprise, so much so that I couldn't think of anything to speak, although I wanted to. The farewell was warm and as good as any I have ever recieved, which was followed by the usual photoshoot. And here it was, my last day at csc coming to an end, the day for which I was waiting for so long, I now wanted it to last a little longer, so that I could gather as many memories in my mind as I can.
It dawned to me that I maybe seeing some of my friends for the last time, but such is life. I don't know when will I get a chance to meet you people again,but all of you have been special and I'll miss all you people. Cheers for the time we spent togather.
P.S : Special thanks to Shelly and Neelam
One standout thing which each of us will remember were the tea breaks. The tea breaks were not anything less than an occasion, often spanning close to an hour and two tea breaks in a day meant 20% of a weekday spent discussing something not even remotely connected to work. The topics of discussion ranging from management to appraisal, from needles to noodles, but never ever coming close to work. Senseless jokes and endless laughter were the order of the time. Neelam's PJs, Shelly's smile, Manish's wit, Nidhi's blunders, Pawan's photoshoots, Aman's blabbering and Balli's english made those 2 hours the highlight of each day, and its difficult to digest that I'll no longer be there in the breakaway. The lunch get togather and the chat meeting before lunch meant another hour of fun with friends and Office seemed more like college. Last six months at CSC have been one of the most memorable and fun time of my life, exactly opposite of what one would think of working in an MNC.
Most part of the last working day as I had thought was spent in running for exit formalities, but the farewell at the end of the day was a pleasent surprise, so much so that I couldn't think of anything to speak, although I wanted to. The farewell was warm and as good as any I have ever recieved, which was followed by the usual photoshoot. And here it was, my last day at csc coming to an end, the day for which I was waiting for so long, I now wanted it to last a little longer, so that I could gather as many memories in my mind as I can.
It dawned to me that I maybe seeing some of my friends for the last time, but such is life. I don't know when will I get a chance to meet you people again,but all of you have been special and I'll miss all you people. Cheers for the time we spent togather.
P.S : Special thanks to Shelly and Neelam
For the last day I decided to go to office a little earlier than usual and I was there by 9. A lot of new joinees were pouring in since morning and here I was running here and there to complete the formalities for the last day ,winding up things at office. "Winding up things at Office", much easier said than done.Not that its difficult to get things done at CSC, but because it also meant saying good bye to friends.
One standout thing which each of us will remember were the tea breaks. The tea breaks were not anything less than an occasion, often spanning close to an hour and two tea breaks in a day meant 20% of a weekday spent discussing something not even remotely connected to work. The topics of discussion ranging from management to appraisal, from needles to noodles, but never ever coming close to work. Senseless jokes and endless laughter were the order of the time. Neelam's PJs, Shelly's smile, Manish's wit, Nidhi's blunders, Pawan's photoshoots, Aman's blabbering and Balli's english made those 2 hours the highlight of each day, and its difficult to digest that I'll no longer be there in the breakaway. The lunch get togather and the chat meeting before lunch meant another hour of fun with friends and Office seemed more like college. Last six months at CSC have been one of the most memorable and fun time of my life, exactly opposite of what one would think of working in an MNC.
Most part of the last working day as I had thought was spent in running for exit formalities, but the farewell at the end of the day was a pleasent surprise, so much so that I couldn't think of anything to speak, although I wanted to. The farewell was warm and as good as any I have ever recieved, which was followed by the usual photoshoot. And here it was, my last day at csc coming to an end, the day for which I was waiting for so long, I now wanted it to last a little longer, so that I could gather as many memories in my mind as I can.
It dawned to me that I maybe seeing some of my friends for the last time, but such is life. I don't know when will I get a chance to meet you people again,
but all of you have been special and I'll miss all you people. Cheers for the time we spent togather.
P.S : Special thanks to Shelly and Neelam
One standout thing which each of us will remember were the tea breaks. The tea breaks were not anything less than an occasion, often spanning close to an hour and two tea breaks in a day meant 20% of a weekday spent discussing something not even remotely connected to work. The topics of discussion ranging from management to appraisal, from needles to noodles, but never ever coming close to work. Senseless jokes and endless laughter were the order of the time. Neelam's PJs, Shelly's smile, Manish's wit, Nidhi's blunders, Pawan's photoshoots, Aman's blabbering and Balli's english made those 2 hours the highlight of each day, and its difficult to digest that I'll no longer be there in the breakaway. The lunch get togather and the chat meeting before lunch meant another hour of fun with friends and Office seemed more like college. Last six months at CSC have been one of the most memorable and fun time of my life, exactly opposite of what one would think of working in an MNC.
Most part of the last working day as I had thought was spent in running for exit formalities, but the farewell at the end of the day was a pleasent surprise, so much so that I couldn't think of anything to speak, although I wanted to. The farewell was warm and as good as any I have ever recieved, which was followed by the usual photoshoot. And here it was, my last day at csc coming to an end, the day for which I was waiting for so long, I now wanted it to last a little longer, so that I could gather as many memories in my mind as I can.
It dawned to me that I maybe seeing some of my friends for the last time, but such is life. I don't know when will I get a chance to meet you people again,
but all of you have been special and I'll miss all you people. Cheers for the time we spent togather.
P.S : Special thanks to Shelly and Neelam
Monday, July 21, 2008
The Leaf and the Rose
A thousand leaves got blown away by the wind, some fell on the pavement, some on mud , some on grass and one leaf fell on the ground near a rose. The leaf thought that he was the luckiest person in the world. He adored the rose,he was awe-struck by the beauty of the rose and smitten by its fragrance he fell in love with it,forgetting his origins, forgetting his roots, his past his limitations and his future.For a moment in the sane madness of love , the leaf forgot that he was no different from other leaves who had fallen of the tree,and that his future was nothing but to get buried in the ground with other leaves. He could not go near the rose because of its thorns and the rose had its own leaves , but still the leaf loved the rose's company.
There were nine hundred and ninety nine other leaves, but why did only that leaf fell near the rose, there must have been some purpose, some divine purpose, something that brought them togather.
The leaf lived his whole life in the moment of his love with the rose ,and his happiness was incomparable to anything in his lifetime. But a strong gust of wind broke it all. Once again the leaf got blown away, and blown away with it were all his dreams, his desires, everything that he had imagined. He saw his dreams crashing down,the image of rose fading away as he was swept away by the wind. Perhaps the wind will bring with it some other leaf to the rose.
In case you happen to read this and you are still interested, you might want to answer this.
Was the leaf indeed lucky to have loved the rose for that fleeting moment, or was he unlucky to have suffered the pain of a lifetime in return for a moment of happiness.
There were nine hundred and ninety nine other leaves, but why did only that leaf fell near the rose, there must have been some purpose, some divine purpose, something that brought them togather.
The leaf lived his whole life in the moment of his love with the rose ,and his happiness was incomparable to anything in his lifetime. But a strong gust of wind broke it all. Once again the leaf got blown away, and blown away with it were all his dreams, his desires, everything that he had imagined. He saw his dreams crashing down,the image of rose fading away as he was swept away by the wind. Perhaps the wind will bring with it some other leaf to the rose.
In case you happen to read this and you are still interested, you might want to answer this.
Was the leaf indeed lucky to have loved the rose for that fleeting moment, or was he unlucky to have suffered the pain of a lifetime in return for a moment of happiness.
Friends
Any personal blog is not complete without the mention of friends, and some events which are taking place around me at this time, have made me write the opening post about my friends. A google search for "friends" piles up a lot of formal meanings of this word (apart from the results for the sitcom) which , in my opinion is not the way to describe, a relationship as informal as friendship. I will not try my hand redefining what friends and friendship is, as people have their own definitions and my understanding and my perspective may not be right for everyone.
Though not many but I've had some good friends in my life who have helped shape my thoughts and my views, and to a certain extent have helped shape my life too. Pradeep, Yogesh, Varun, Amit, Shelly, Manish these are the people who came in my life one by one and have left a huge impact. I call them my best friends. Each one of them is special and different from one another and I would have loved to write about them in elaborate detail, but I know it would make others skip this portion, so avoiding it.
Sometimes it makes me wonder, how vast the meaning of friendship can be. A relationship with one friend can be so much different from a relationship with another friend while still being in the spectrum of friendship. Friendship sometimes also tends to be of varying degree, you maybe on the terms of great friendship with a guy and a girl, but in both these relationships there are different terms and limitations (This plainly is my point of view). I share a different kind of bond with each of my friend and cherish their company.
I haven’t had a great number of friends, those I have, have a special place in my heart. Time and circumstances will always force us apart, but the memories we share will be there forever.
Cheers!
Though not many but I've had some good friends in my life who have helped shape my thoughts and my views, and to a certain extent have helped shape my life too. Pradeep, Yogesh, Varun, Amit, Shelly, Manish these are the people who came in my life one by one and have left a huge impact. I call them my best friends. Each one of them is special and different from one another and I would have loved to write about them in elaborate detail, but I know it would make others skip this portion, so avoiding it.
Sometimes it makes me wonder, how vast the meaning of friendship can be. A relationship with one friend can be so much different from a relationship with another friend while still being in the spectrum of friendship. Friendship sometimes also tends to be of varying degree, you maybe on the terms of great friendship with a guy and a girl, but in both these relationships there are different terms and limitations (This plainly is my point of view). I share a different kind of bond with each of my friend and cherish their company.
I haven’t had a great number of friends, those I have, have a special place in my heart. Time and circumstances will always force us apart, but the memories we share will be there forever.
Cheers!
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