Swizz Guard!

'To go .. or not to go ...?'

Sounds like a corruption of Shakespeare's famous line?

Naaah .... those were my thoughts on whether to go on a trip to Switzerland.
Does it sound like a proposition, most would say, 'YES!!!', without batting an eyelid?

Possibly!

Luckily, that period of insanity passed and i booked my flight tickets and my accomodation at Interlaken, our base camp.

Additional to the same, i was also randomly chosen, to organise a project party, at my account level the same weekend i was flying towards Switzerland. So, amidst visiting Oxford Street to buy all the winter clothing i may need, I needed to book a cruise and arrange for a decent Indian caterer.


Did manage to pull off all the above and head to the trip towards .....a land many said .. is a paradise on earth ...! Being a firm believer that paradises are a figment of imagination of lesser mortals .... i decided to validate the veracity of that claim .... myself.

Jaya Haae!

The week that was .....

Yeah ..... i haven't been posting for a while ................ thanks to a bully called procastination,who stopped me from letting loose ....!

Now, that he has been taken care .....of .. I'm back for good !

As of last week .....

Monday - It's a Bank Holiday. Unwind. A visit to WGC. A gruelling trip to Nottingham. A thrilling ride on GNER from Stevenge. Oh .....what a trip it was .....!! Indeed!! [:)]. Folks, never miss this 'Tales of Robin Hood' when you all go to Nottingham.

[WHAT? My mobile number?
Oh ..i have changed that.
No .. i don't live in that place anymore. Don't tell me i did not warn you .....!]

Tuesday - R was leaving office, so made her a collage to walk her through all the nostalgic momens our gang had in office. Ah ..... it feels good to make people's stay memorable in office. Will miss all the candid talk and the awesome coffee breaks. We will miss you R. [:(].

Wednesday - S's birthday. Attempts in full swing to put her on air, as it was her birthday. Attempt ...remained an attempt. So, an attempt to 'mug' was unanimously decided. Ah .... its great to make people's day. It indeed is!

Thursday - Chase clients. Chased by my team. Chase the team. Chased by clients. Sandwiched.Review meetings. Mile stone reports. Delayed submission details. Yeah, the monday activity still runs in the background. SIGH!

Friday - Somone pings random, on Skype! I decide to speak to them! For a while. Never done that before!!

Saturday - Understand that the house i was suppossed to move in ...does exist only in imagination! The house is gone .....! To risk being homeless in London, need to start locate ..... a place .....!

Thanks H and V, you folks really came up when help was needed!

Sunday - Move into a bachelor pad!! Clothes strewn all over. The next best thing ...all across. Footwear mela at the place. Lids of bottles consumes time! [;)]. Freedom in some ways.

Sunday again - My life starts to be normal and 'bright' again ....!

Perhaps ...

A snippet from the movie Big Fish:

Edward Bloom (Ewan Mcgregor) in conversation with Jenny (Hailey Anne Nelson), the kid ....

Jenny : How old are you?
Ed : 18
Jenny : I am 8 now ..... Quite some difference isn't it?
Ed : Yeah ...
Jenny : So by the time i am 18, you would be 28.
Ed : Indeed.
Jenny : By the time i am 28, you would be 38.
Ed : Good. You are great at arithmetic.......
Jenny : But when i am 38 ...... you would be 48 ......
Ed : yeah ......
Jenny : Now ...... that difference isn't big ... isn't it?



Perhaps .................. Jenny is right!

Thoughts speaketh .....

Thoughts speaketh ....

'Hey .... I'm sorry!'

'Oh .....!!'

'Dood .... ?!!! She is just as old as your daughter'.

'Huh? Well, i thought that was your middle name!'

'Ofcourse, you wouldn't understand that! It's all business isn't it?'

'DAMN'!

'Yes, i do, any more questions?'

'Perhaps ...... i would do that ......'

'I really am!'



Yeah .... .I'm not responsible for the interpretations! Go figure!

Me.

Offlate ..... depending on what, me have been thinking it has been ......

Me?

Me ???!

Me

ME.

me.

ME !!!

me.

ME.

The trouble of being me, can only be matched by me alone!

Is this a rant, that has gone tangential? Never mind ..

London Calling .....

Speakers, warn the passengers 'Mind the Gap'.

Trains overcrowded, during peak hours ........ grappling with the evergrowing additions to this city.

Trains delayed, in the entire Northern line, as a passenger has taken ill ....... in the adjacent station.

Tabloids every morning and evening, free.

A summer temperature of 15 degrees.

Rains. All of a sudden.

Aachi Masala. Chennai Dosa.

Cooking.

Bright at 11 30 PM.

Hang on ...... lots more to come ....... in the coming posts.

Life is .....

Life is beautiful .............,

but is short and can change suddenly too!!!

Live Life ...from today ...tomorrow may be late to begin!!

PS: R.I.P :(

Directions : Venusian Vs Martian

Thanks to all of you all, who wished me, through emails and messages. Do find, a treat in your inboxes soon. :-)

So, a couple of friends had met up for a treat. Ofcourse, i was the host!

Barbeque Nation, the venue for the treat, is a place i would recommend to folks who would want to revel in ambience. The barbeques at ones' table with the sweet aroma wafting is all excellent, if its only at your table. The salivary glands were already in overdrive. However, the treat was only olfactory, till now, as we were waiting for another friend of mine to join in.Apparently, he was somewhere around, as he did not know, the exact location of this place. K, calls on him to check where he was ............ (In typical Venusian fashion,following is the conversation that ensued)

K: Hey .... where are you?
P: Somewhere around that place. Right now, near E.S.I hospital. How do i get to this restaurant?
K: Okie ..... you are near E.S.I now?
P: (wonders if its a paraphrasing class ....) Yeah!!
K: Okie... come straight ahead ..... you know Levi's Showroom?
P: Ok .......
K: Hm ... do you know the Lee Showroom?
P: Hm ......
K: You know, that other X showroom on that road ........
P: Hm ..... Okie, how do i come from here?
K: You come straight ahead ..... there used to be Nandini ..... now it is not there ....
P: Okie .....
K: This place ... is right opposite to that!
P: Huh ....! So ....
K: Okie ... wait .. let me give the phone to Jay.

So, i am roped in to this loop .....

Me: Dood ... from E.S.I , come straight ahead, to Khivraj Bajaj. Next to that is this place.
P: Cool dude, will be there in 2 min !

K, to all the rest............ : Hey, where is this Khivraj Bajaj?

:-).

Anyway .... nothing to take away from the fun i had that day. This blog was just to show the differences in approach taken by Venusians and Martians. :-).
The surprise birthday cake.(I loved that and for the first time, it was not splashed on my face). The nostalgic memories. The chat that lasted for quite a while. Ah .. it was all great!

Thanks to Ket, Pad, Laksh and Khushi, for reducing the impact of moving from 25 to 26.

I love you too ...

Mobile Phone!

Quickly .... what came to your mind when you thought about that? Yes, yes, yes ...... i hear it. It's almost indispensable isn't it? One of the few technological inventions that have bridged gaps quite substantially. As i found out, sometimes not the way we exactly thought, it did :-).

A few days back, I was browsing through the "features" of Nokia 6030. A fairly simple mobile, that promises music to the ears with its FM receiver and of course value for the money invested. When it was launched it was a big success. One of the features, i came across were the impressive in-built templates. (Main Menu ---> Messages ---> Saved Items ----> Templates). Yes, before you crucify me, i understand these templates are means to save time. They are to help you in sending a response, as some of the default responses are stored in these in built templates.


Sample a few of these templates:

1) "I am late. I will be there at" - Yes, agreed. You are late and thus, you do not have the time to type the complete message and hence you edit that template, add a time and lo ....... your job is done.


2) "I am in a meeting. Call me later at" - True. A booming economy, means business is bustling with activity . Considering most of us are "agents of change", we would be busy with our meetings. Thus, we being unable to attend a phone call at that point of time, seems justified.


3) "I am busy right now. I'll call you later" - As explained above.


4) "I will be arriving at" - Yes, its a dynamic world out there and who knows ...... what eventuality may strike and thus, our schedule is subject to change. Thus, this template.


5) "Meeting is cancelled". "See you in". "See you at" - Yes, yes. A combination of factors above.


6) "I love you too" - Believe me or not, that is indeed a template, that is default available with this mobile. The argument, that templates are developed after some amount of research done, it clearly goes to show how wonderfully, we have been understood. The research should have clearly shown them, that the most common exchanges couples would have had is the utterance of these words. Like, we following some of the customs without understanding, these words are reduced to a ritual.

A customary exchange of pleasentries.

A mere expected response.

A template.

:-)

Name Game.

"Why, did you choose someone whose name starts with the same letter as yours?" asked a friend of mine, as i had been a unintended recipient of an SMS, from her, actually meant to be delivered to "someone".

Well, only after i answered that question of hers' i pondered ...... on some associations i have/ had ..... purely on account of my name, beginning with the alphabet, in the vicinity of the alphabet their names began with. Quite a few of them. Some of these folks, i would have never mingled with otherwise. Some of these folks i may have missed if not for that stroke of luck.


In Pre Univ, i met some elements who changed my perspective on certain issues quite drastically. They tried their best to narrow down my view. I am happy they lost in their excercise. These folks whom i had to share two years of my life taught me a lesson or two in tolerance (They tested almost how long i could withstand them!). I felt like being subjugated to an array of experiments on testing the limits of personality destruction!


In college, i guess no one would have hated me as much as roll no 64, simply because according to him, in jest, " i destroyed his otherwise brilliant academic record". Actually, i sympathise with him! :-). Maybe, he was right to a certain degree. I was an average student (Naaaaaaah! I am humble! ;-)) in college. I had one nasty habit that started off in school. A dude who copied an answer from my paper, flunked a paper and had to leave school. Probably, that's when i decided i should be the recipient of the accolades or brickbats and that i wouldn't want to put in someone else's results in jeopardy. Thus, it was always that way. Poor, 64, had to face the brunt of it in our engineering days!


My training days in my corporate life was a splendid experience too! Quite a few of us ..... were in a group forced, by the company policy of linking a few folks alphabetically. Ah ...... what a stroke of luck. :-). That was by far one of the most enjoyable group i have had to "work" with! :-). I even got paid for that! :-). Life can be unfair at times .......... to others! :-).

Indeed, sometimes we are forced into a group on account of our names. Sometimes its good ..... because ... even you couldn't have chosen a better group yourself! :-)

It takes one .....

Happiness comes in all shapes and sizes .........

But seldom, did that statement ring a 'bell'. Perhaps,wedding bells are exceptions. :-).

As, goes the saying, It takes one to know one. :-).

Congratulations!! Wish you lots of you ahead :-).