Saturday, September 13, 2008

Detachments as I put it

Coming home is like retiring.I mean a detachment from everything that usually surrounds my normal life.An attempt to flee while knowing all the time that you are to be rooted where you are.Me, The Kite!

This homecoming was no different.The occasion being Onam, the most important and celebrated festival of Kerala.Onam to me is all about eating lots and eating well.A welcome change from the aloos,rajmas,paneers,pizzas,finger chips and office cafeterias.Well, office cafeteria. One of them gives gulab jamun.My fav.Thats just about it.Haan , nothing else is worth mentioning.On reaching Kochi, everything from the tea at the thattukada, to the prasadam from the temple tastes heavenly.Yeah, heavenly.Heck, I even liked the tea I made myself, at home.Must be the God's own touch.God knows am not a fan of mine!So much so that my digestive system is working overtime and given me a guilt.I return to my pathetic diet in two days, and to the goddamn forks, spoons and table manners!Haan..This is what happens when half-baked social animals are put into the society.

Talking of detachments, I was on cloud nine when I opened my official mail the other day and saw a list of issues raised by the customer.The very thought that the issues looked ugly and I was not going to have to handle any of them until my small stint at detachment was over made me feel good.I happily marked all of them as unread and closed my inbox.Another mail did make me sad.Someone I adore (read as hate from the bottom of heart) had celebrated his bday.I wished I had been there as well when they lifted him parallel to the earth and gave him his bday bumps.

Now that am returning soon enough to attach myself again to whatever detachments I have made,its time I comforted myself.You see, its not so bad after all.All you have to do is a small term memory loss of the detachments you made, until its time for the next.Well..man comforts, God consoles.Amen!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Braving the BMTCs

Its been quite a long time since I blogged.Change of workplace curbed my oppurtunities.This one is closer to my home, just about 3 kms.Well, the closeness ends right there.With multiple signals on the way I have imagined multiple raised to 'n' times the feasiblity of a helipad in this building.


God,I dont like auto drivers here.They are ambitious, hence cunning.It is a routine.I go up and ask one of those guys parked outside my apartment."Sir Monotype hogatha?."Hogalla madam".Pat comes the reply.Distances within the minimum charge limits do not interest them.But ever ready for distances which burn your pockets.After the minimum charge the meter starts working inexhaustibly, and so does the passenger's heart.But I do not break the routine.Its like I need it for the day to begin well.Talking of beginning well, I do.In the past few months my kannada improved.When you listen to the same set of expletives in the bus everyday, it will ultimately.In the mornings people shove you around the packed bus.You have no time to get hold of the handles hanging from the support bar.The lady in front throws dirty glances at you for having kicked her legs or back.You in turn throw the same look at the person behind you for having kicked you forward.

Finally when Monotype arrives, Iam exhausted, bruised and in need of bath and sleep all over again.Well, eh, maybe I exaggerated that a little.

Come evening and Am ready for the struggles again.A software professional coming out of a cool office is an auto driver's easy target.They crowd around you wanting to know were you want to go.But man, now is my time.I give them my sarcastic smile and shake my head in 'NO' knowing very well all the time that they would do the same if they knew the place I wanted to go!So why not?Enjoy the effect now.Probably they'l imagine a cool hunk or company vehicle picking this girl up to leave her at her home, or to a party.Not for long, as I wait in front of them in the bus stop for the next packed bus to come along and dumb me at my place.Dead or alive.











Wednesday, January 16, 2008

How weird can things get

His face was one of peaceful repose.I would have loved to punch him right in the nose just to see if it registered any significant changes in expression.But I knew it would not be worth one red cent.All he would have done would be to look up nonplussed as if I had suggested he darn his socks.For no fault of his,I dreaded seeing his face as I authenticated myself into my bay.The song on my lips and skip in my feet are lost.It irritated me to find someone who seemed so detached from everything.Or maybe it was the face.Pink and pregnant with calmness.Weirdo!

I did wonder why, an as harmless a face as his could give me a run for the noradrenaline .Perhaps it was my own insecurities.Or it was time I read archives on the fundamentals of non verbal behavior. I seat myself am irritated at the very fact that I was irritated over nothing.And the point was it could not be escaped.He seemed to be tied to his chair.Last Satarday as I entered my bay cursing my luck at having been woken up from a siesta I could not believe my luck yet again.The subject of my distress was in his position.Nothing had changed since I left my bay on friday night.

Today as my boots clicked against the tiles he raised an eye, lazily to see the villian with the tap.Signs of life! Whoa..That was a major breakthrough.Now this makes me feel good.Without reason again.So to sum it up, I have been irritated in the first place....Been put off by his stillness...Enjoyed breaking his trance...before I begin to think am weirder and lose my peace over it, and start writing about myself, I'd rather sign off!

Thursday, November 29, 2007

What's outside my window this friday?

Fridays are Blue-Blue symbolises the heavens if am right-Once in a blue moon they arrive with all the hype.All the cliches about the upcoming 'weekend' are on air and mails,which make me wonder why the hype was not so relevant a few years back.Ofcourse it must have been a different kind altogether.


Come to think of it Fridays are indeed delightful.Like today it is too.In my favorite tortured and tatterred blue jeans, with the upturned blue waste bin for a leg rest,and music playing in my ears, am rested and self-sufficient.The other day I changed my cubicle.With my new bay positioned next to the french windows, things could not have been better.As I lift my eyes to look up from the monitor the blue sky spreads out in front of me.Yeah in my honour they are a light blue today.No puffed up clowds.The heads of an array of Coconut trees(Coconut trees are glamorous enough!!) positioned against the side walk next to the windows delightfully obstruct my field of vision.As the tree leaves fan the sky the thin white clouds move freely like cotton bundles.A lamp post among the trees destroy the romance, yet it would have added spice when the day grew old.


Curbing my reel of mental images, a pair of squirrels play peekaboo on the trunk of one of the trees.An eagle swarms around the tree which makes me wonder whether the scene I had set up was going to turn bloody.But it was not to be.I caught the innocent eagle romancing its partner.Yet I thought it would have been even more romantic if the set had a pair of pigeons.Eagles seemed a little out of place,right?

So what was it that was making me unlike the Me?Was it the friday or the scene in front?Must be both.As I gaze cozily at the scene spread out in front of me am unaffected by the fact that my Team Lead sits only an arm's length away from me.My CPU has been cleverly adjusted to hide my dormant monitor from his line of vision.

But all beautiful moments wither away a little too soon.And this time the villian is the fact that windows have to be cleaned too.I watch with increasing despair as the maintenance boy arranges a ladder against the window, climbs it and commences his job.As I gaze at the alien in my set sloshing liquid soap onto the glass panes ,the set blur like that tear which blinds the eye.

What an anti-climax! But then when he is done maybe, the friday will look brighter,maybe my set will look spotless.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Woke up lost


When was it that I was wide awake last?The rays din't blind.Neither did it seem right.A well defined red sun.No anger but surprisingly firm and decided.Had it chosen the rise or the set?The air was calm save for chirps from birds.Were they off to prey or back with it?A barely noticeable breeze.The direction of which could not be gauged.What scent did it bring along?That of the glory or the primrose?

Are the evils obliged to disappear or still hanging around?Who will light the time ahead?The sun or the moon?Was it a bad dream that woke me up or the call of time?Close my eyes and it is a deep crimson.Open them its the same crimson.The twilight played games again.Woke up lost...

Friday, November 2, 2007

Odysseus' friend

At the end of an eventful one year of handling millions of mails a day ( forwards to be exact) , scrolling repeatedly through the available contacts in Google Talk,taking commendable number of tea breaks in between socialising through mails and messengers,bitching about Project Managers,Tech Leads or anyone of their kind who ever tried to throw their weight around, I came to be known as one year experienced .Or rather the realisation came in its full force when some of us, the 1-year experienced, were asked to give a piece of our ""hard-earned knowledge"" to the Oct-2007 fresher's batch.The task was simple,mentor a group of 200 odd 'just out of college-eager to get into corporate life' (yaaawwwnnnn) or 'just out of college-give me a project' (double yaaawwwnnnn) proffessionals.

And an irony it was that the topic of mentoring had escaped all the 4 years of study in college.We had a big white book for the subject.It would not even have served as a head rest as it would position the head at 90 degree to the torso,thanks to its volume.If I had to open that book today I would find the fossil of the ant which got in between its pages as I opened the book the first and perhaps the last time to savour the smell of new paper.The last nail to the coffin was laid the day when the coordinator for the whole mentoring program distributed the slide show for the day of mentoring.What little notion I had about the topic had gone down the drain.

The night before the mentoring Letha and I sat on our beds with giggles that could not be escaped.Ever since we came the engineering ways we had been inseparable be it in sharing a room in hostel or doing the final year BE project.In the next day's act we were again comrades.Flying the slide show hard copies we pulled the blankets for the day.


On the D-Day we dressed smart,an act to look unreachable and distant to the freshers.Would they not shun from asking you their doubts regarding the topic if you put on an act and tried to look condescending and intelligent(which requires hell lot of effort and practice ofcourse) .The act crumbled as soon as we entered the lecture hall,swimming with young,ready to pounce faces.Without further delay,the session started and the mentors for the day were introduced."Seek their help whenever you need it while you solve the problems for the day".....GULP...."Give over your solutions to them.They will validate it for you"....MORE GULPS.. with more gulps to come.


The dare-devil 'act' had given away to kitten in hot water looks.I must have looked very reachable for they summoned me for discussing every thread of thought that passed their mind.I retorted in the smallest decibels, lest another guy in the next aisle got to hear my template answers .I went "Errrrr dont you think this solution involves more number of iterations" or "dont you think that is not an optimal solution" or "yes!absolutely!you are in the right track" gags.God lone knows the number of times I repeated the same comment to a single person or perhaps some angry young men steadfastedly attacking their problem had counted too for I wondered whether there was a depreciation in the number of summonings.However it is worthy of much praise that we ,the mentors, escaped unscathed.Maybe they were saving the stones for another appropriate moment.


At the end of the day,when the session came to an end the coordinator complimented the mentors for their cooperation and without whom the session would not have been a success.So this was how people learned to make template statements in public.The first taste of it.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Sluurrppp!

At a time worthy of a fine siesta am rooted to a chair with a monitor in front.The tea boy arrives.He is a malayali.Giving a smile he places the tea cup at my desk and buzzes around with his tray of tea cups.I raise the tea cup to my lips and even before I take a sip I hear a huge slurp behind me.Not unexpected but a reminder.I quicly rummage in my desk cupboard for my headsets.A life savior at this H-Hour is the music when someone or the other around me would be spraying away the tea into their mouths with huge slurps.

Ever since I was a kid I had grown up with increasing irritation of tea slurps.When I grew teeth and nails I realised they were as horrendous as pulling a piece of nylon against the tip of your teeth or scratching your fingers against the blackboards.Well a lot of people share this sentiment.I once asked Acha the logic behind slurping tea.He said maybe it was to prevent scorching your lips with the hot tea or maybe so that you get the taste of tea in all the nooks and corners of your mouth or maybe just because you loved the sound.Now the third one is an absolute horror and I had solutions for the other two.Why not wait until your tea is cold in the first place and if it was necessary to get the taste of tea why not do it after the sip?You do not have spray it into the mouth.After all its tea.It will find its way.

Sipping my tea I muse on what standards ought to be set for drinking tea.It would be better to alter the texture a little.Maybe we should start taking them with chopsticks or take it as tea tablets like they must be doing in space.Ah in that case,it would be all chomp-chomps instead of slurp-slurps around.But that would be a change atleast.I shrug at the wacky brain waves.They could not be helped.If Ajay had been around he would have had more of such wacky points to offer.Only the other day he was reminding me not to drain my cup of tea completely at a hosts' and demonstrated the same by leaving behind an ample portion of it in his cup for my examination.After all I was the host.My string of thoughts come to an end when someone does a huge slurp behind me.I hurriedly add more songs into my playlist and drain my tea cup.And yeah I can drain it this time.I guess am not at a guest at my desk!