Sleepless in Bangalore

Never knew i would be awake just to finish my work till this wee hrs...Wish this performance cycle gets over fast..i guess now i am aware of all the processes and have had enough of handling the same for employees..

Whenever my system/Excel sheet becomes slow i come here to write 2-3 extra words ...thats how i got some time to blog today...

No title is a good title

I could not think of any title for this post as its a random one and dont have anything specific to write about. Just finished watching this movie called "How to loose a guy in 10 days". Yup a another chick flick..after all i am a fan of happy ending these days :) this was the only way i could burst the stress piling inside me due to work. Performance appraisal cycle started so hardly get time to chat/do things that i really wish to...as i understand the criticality of work..one mistake and i can screw someone's career/performance rating...isnt the work i really like (because of risk associated) but its supposed to be the best in HR...this is my second continuous cycle of handing it end to end without any support at bangalore center...hope this one goes smooth and i can go on my most awaited break...Gonna be busy for atleast next 3 weeks..work timings have anyways stretched till 9 pm these days and also need to count the hrs i log in from home to close the work...

Going to miss couple of weddings planned in family (both sides)...but in no luxury to attend any one this year...hope to attend some next year if ppl decide to get married again ;) or new ones plan for the same..

Completely out of touch with family and friends..nothing new though...miss going on outings and breaks...feel like going to some nice exotic place..once again...

i guess i better sleep else tomorrow some employee is going to curse me ..will write soon...this time for sure..(another promise made by me)

To Boss - With Love

I never thought i would ever like a female boss but fortunately i found one such manager whom i adore and respect from bottom of my heart. There are very few people who can create that place as a manager and you dont want to loose them. I wouldnt have realised "Deepa"'s importance untill i came to know that she has planned to move on. With the most beautiful work moments spent with her, I am sure i am gonna find it extremely difficult to adjust with a new boss (forget abt being a female or male). Deepa has always supported as a manager, elder sister and a mentor.

I still remember the day she had called me for interview and i was in casuals and had to tell her that i cant make it  because i was in jeans and couldnt go back home in such a short notice. Loved the way she said "its ok..u come" we wont mind. Her openness and her chill attitude was one thing that attracted me for sure. When i first met her she kept on smiling in the whole interview process where in the other manager was asking hell lot of questions. I was actually under impression that Deepa was a kind of person who would read in between lines or body language and then give her judgement...but later realised that she was just ever smiling person who would make anyone feel comfortable under her.

I am surely going to miss her if she doesnt decide to stay back. I would wish her luck in whatever she does but truly speaking i still dont want her to quit and go...

Wait

Its sometimes so difficult to wait for someone or something. Even though when you know that wait will not be for more than an hr. The heart beats go high...the tension starts building up..irrespective of the positivity, one still gets scared and one still hopes that this wait time gets over fast...

Diwali 2010

Finally I am excited about diwali this time..more or less all my shopping for the festival is done..its time now for some sweets..today being dhan teras, i am planning to buy a silver coin...not sure if i will get one..else utensils are always there in your ":to buy" list...

Tomorrow i have cards party at another friend's house..so hoping it to be a fun party...then diwali day i have to do lot of cleaning and cooking...Have invited some friends..so looking forward to the same..

Still thinking what should i make...:)

Chulbul Pandey

I happened to see this movie - Dabang!!! it was actually dabang :D

The whole movie was salu dominated and i guess the actress who made her debut did not get enough screen space. Salu's dialogues as usual were heavy and fun to hear. One thing i like about typical salu movie is you can leave your brain back home and proceed for his movies.

Mallika's munni badnaam hui was a hit number and which u just cant let got out of your mind...what a hilarious song...I was so impressed with chulbul uff salu's performance that i have named a manager as chulbul pandey and now my whole team refers to him with the same name. (including my bosses). Thankfully he doesnt know what is he known as else i am sure he will throw me out for all this :D

Trip to Yercaud

returned from the team outing from a place called Yercaud. Yercaud is in Tamil Nadu and is a hill top. Weather has to be good due to its altitude but the best part is the kind of resorts available and the view that you get. I did  not do much of exploring as was anyways tired of looking at hills and their view points.

Team outing had lot of booze, bon fire and obviously floor breaking dance by some guys who were completely sloshed in drinks, i m sure no one can identify the composition! People go crazy when they actually drink..i used to think that most of the guys will act mature when females are around but guess i was wrong. U get to see the hidden talent in all those shy guys who otherwise do not open their mouth in corporate life. Eye opener for sure.

Overall it was a fun trip and definitely a break from the stress ful life..wish to write more but somethings remain beautiful if they arent expressed. 

Life in a meeting room

You start your day and rush with your backpack to office to join a meeting which has anyways started 10 mins earlier (meeting is on time but ofcourse you are not!) and then mumble to the colleague sitting next to you to understand the context of last 10 minutes. The colleague feeling disturbed but sympathizing with you with either softly tell u coming close to your ear ensuring he is not watched or scribble on a notepad placed infront of him.

By the time you get the context you are generally asked for your inputs and you dont know what to say so you begin with clearing your throat or start with a big "ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm" to initiate thoughts which anyways arent important and will breif what others actually know!

Once done, you thank god that nobody noticed your stupidity and you want meeting to be concluded so that you can catch up for a tea, but to your disappointment the moderator will apologise for stretching the meeting for next half an hr ruining your tea/coffee plans. Only mercy moderator will have is to provide you a cup of coffee by ordering the same in the meeting room. something better than nothing right?

Post your first meeting you realise that there are lot of mails that require your action and you run fast to your desk in order to reply back and be called "prompt" in replies. Someone made an SLA of replying in 24 hrs time so they have to stick to it now....

you see some reminder making a noise and coming with a orange color and sitting on your task bar but so engrossed in work that you just think that orange is a close color of task bar blue. By the time you pay attention to the orange you realise -  " shucks i was supposed to be on time for another meeting".

The fight of landing on a different floor with a different meeting room ambience and name you make yourself comfortable and talk to yourself "hope noone realised how i forgot reading about the agenda of this meeting" Meeting goes on and on and the time is reminded to you not by watch by the growling sound of your stomach! Lunch time and none of them are bothered; either ppl diet to be on size zero or they had something before getting in the room,  you can just speculate these.

As always meeting runs late leading to a stomach noise which can  heard on the room top by the food serving vendor...you get rid of the meeting, run and catch on the most exciting menu of the vendor which more or less looks like same on 22 days of a month. (+- 5% variation in color of rice).


and life continues in meeting rooms post lunch as well....

dreading 30s

I am dreading 30s...in few years i am there and the fact of me being that old is pinching me so much :( i just never thought i would become this old;

Things have changed quite a bit and so have I. Things i used to like couple of years back are nowhere in my list and things i used to hate are so much important for me these days that life without them seems to be so very impossible.

1. I used to scold my mum for investing her time/energy/money in stock market and just to realise that i have also started playing but thankfully not to the same extent.

2. The long phone calls from everyone used to be my favorite passtime and now i just dont seem to answer any calls unless i see an emergency or a reason/logic behind the same.

3. The junk has finally started leaving me! Strange but true. I have reduced so much of my junk intake..not that i have started eating anygood but atleast its not junk.

4. Reading of books and tastes have remained the same, still dont like high funda books and have no energy to break my head on them either.

5. still enjoy my space..

6. have become more straight fwd at all the fronts weather ppl like it or not! Thankfully i like it and i prefer dng things that i like now.

7. Have started living for myself then to living for others :)

8. Enjoy my office work and do not mind stretching at all...thanks to my supporting bosses.

Bharat Bandh

I have always hated the concept of calling a bandh by any parties but today for a change i liked it. I happened to go out to buy something and realized how nice this green city looks without those noisy ricks, honking city buses, overtaking private cabs that follow no traffic rules and those pedestrians who do not wait for the lights to turn on for their turn to cross the roads. Inshort, the maddening traffic was not there and it was a calm and quite city with few vendors selling fruits and all major stores closed. (reminded me of srilanka)

Weather also supported to enjoy this and it was an overall a great experience to step out of house and take a stroll. Thanks to my office who planned to give us off considering our safety. (unfortunately this Saturday is working to compensate)

I have a report to make but sitting sitting near my balcony, i just feel like looking at the big trees swinging from one side to another and dropping their leaves in someones backyard. I just feel like putting a sheet and keeping laptop aside and taking a cool nap :)

Anyway

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

- by Mother Teresa

Trip to Hogenekal Falls

It is located in the dharmapuri district of the southern Indian state of Tamilnadu about 180 kms from Bangalore. It is sometimes referred to as the "Niagara of India". We planned to visit hogenekal in the month of Sept. It was a day trip and we started early in the morning. My colleagues had given some tips about what to eat and what to expect.We reached and took a look around only coracle ride were available. This is how a coracle boat looks like.

The inside story was little scary...it was flooded due to monsoon seasone. Infact while sailing we realised water started gushing in the boat and the local guy had to park us on a rock, and then repair it. The weather was so very hot that i could feel the burning sensation beneath the jeans :(

 

Certain points appear like Niagra, just that they are not from the same height. U can find locals frying fishes on the shore, not hygenic but one can try. We couldnt because of Navratris. Amazing Place 2 see

 

Kemmangundi Revisited

The first thing that comes to my mind is place being not maintained properly. I visited 5 yrs back and it was much more scenic and beautiful. This time i saw that the usage of plastic had increased, the rooms were not maintained and the roads have become bad 2 worse. Only good thing was the Hebbe falls, but the road to the falls managed to rock 206 bones in the body again. I guess there was no road at all, so calling it "bad" wouldnt be a nice idea. Government hasnt done anything there to maintain its charm and to clean it time to time.

I hope we all will wake up one day to clean our beautiful places and not to harm it any further. Long weekend was good and drive was amazing. Photos in sometime :)

In - Non tolerating Zone

Just realized i have developed some strong likings and disliking for people. I was never like this and never had any apprehensions for people but this phase of life is strange. Its like a non-compromising state of mind where i dont want to tolerate a single person if i find them to be out of my tolerance limit these days. Still digging myself deep on whats changing me...I am not too sure but i guess work load has made me intolerable of it...I guess i need a break but i can see for next 1 month there is no relief and people will have to have my rude way :(

I am also enjoying the arrogant state for myself which has made people fear me these days. The relaxed/sweet me has gone somewhere and an arrogant me has taken over. Offlate people have told me on my face that they are scared of me or my presence. They feel that a single mistake of theirs can get some Prasad from me!

The most recent comment i heard was - I resemble to Amma ji of some hindi serial aired these days on color channel called "Na aana is des laado". This comment actually made me watch one episode and i realised how terrorising my presence is for others...

Somehow i did not feel bad..i got some sort of sadistic pleasure...i guess i need to be this way for some more time to get things my way...

Organised...phew

I just organised my blog by putting some labels, it was due for quite some time. Will try to be more frequent on blog as i think i have many things to store over here :) Dont feel like going to office, finding it hard to move myself for a hectic friday :(

Do i have an option? NO...

Fine let me go and see if i can blog from office or atleast if i can create my content...

Trip To Srilanka

After my goa plans went down the drain, i was firm on making a trip again in few months and i waited for the republic day long weekend. I know what made me select srilanka...it was Taj exotica, Bentota. I was googling and came across this exotic hotel and fell in love with the place. Once decided that i wanted to visit, there was no going back..(offlate  have become quite subborn with my wishes and the way i want to lead my life)

We started from Bangalore to Chennai from where we had the flight. Srilankan airlines was good and i liked the airhostess saree which was little different than the indian ones. While an air hostess was serving i kept staring at the attire thinking do they drape the same way as we do or is it different? They had a frill extra near the belly & on the dress. i experienced a weird thing - After she provided the meals during the flight and when she came to collect the left overs at our seat, i said thankyou to her while handling over my plate. She responded back stating "I was the first one in the flight today to say thanks to her". I was very disappointed when i heard that. Why on this earth do we take people for granted as if they are our slaves and the role that they are performing doesnt require us to say a simple thankyou to them. What is wrong with us? I kept thinking about the same in remaining 15 minutes of my flight time. The sea line below was amazing and it was so clear and so defined.

We landed at Negambo and took a cab for Colombo. The route was pretty much same as india and so were the people. We did not realise that we were in some other country. We could see ad of some indian brands like airtel, sharukhkhan, Tata Communications etc. I expected Tata brand for their hotels but existence of other business line surprised me quite a bit. We reached colombo and stayed at Taj Colombo. Its a very commercial property right across the beach. All you need to do is cross the main road and you are on the beach side. It was a crowded beach and people had come for their normal evening outings. The vendors had small stalls of prawns, popcorns and some other new, unforseen food items. I could not resist and tried almost everything which was new to my eyes and tastebuds. For a change i did not feel like looking at my waist :D

Next day was planned for bentota but before we could reach we did little shopping in Colombo. Colombo is pretty decent when it comes to Apparals but unfortunately the best of their showrooms do not have trial rooms and being a girl it was pretty difficult for me to buy something without trying its fitting. I looked around to see hw locals managed to buy and i saw them trying the dresses on top of whatever they were wearing. Not bad was all i could think. I too picked up a dress which i could try on top of my clothes :P Size wasnt a big problem as i could spot fatter women (The biggest pleasure for any fat lady is to spot fatter females than her!). Someone told us that srilankan gems are also famous and they had an exhibition which was coming to end. It was a governmental one so risk of being cheated was also less. This gems store was amazing and looked pretty reasonable. We bought couple of them but not sure if we should wear them due to astrological reasons in india. I found them cute and bought them.

We took an auto for Bentota, distance was 60 kms and we wanted to explore the place in the local style. Autos are damn expensive and so is the food. We halted in between to try local cuisine at one of the restaurants and realised that there was no rate card or menu card. They only had meals so we went for them. It costed us a bomb, in the same price in india i would have had my food in 5 star hotel. But no regrets since it was what i always wanted to do..to explore and to eat every local cuisine. We reached Bentota in 2 hrs and the weather was good as compared to what we had expected. Ta exotica was really a exotic place and it was very very tempting. I would love to go there again & again & again....

Beach was just at the back side of the hotel and it was neat. More or less like a private beach with some foreigners around. No locals and vendors were there.We had good time over there the first day and came post sunset. Next day we planned to visit lot of places like Mask factory, turtle hatchery, lagoons & Galle fort. I dont know which one to rate better!
For those who plan to visit can take tips from me now..Security is of no concern now.

The best part of the journey was the return. I was left with some currency and i did not want to carry it back to india, so i thought of spending it in one of the departmental store at the airport. When i entered the store i realised it was a normal store and had nothing special to be carried back. In this dilema i suggested hubby that we should go for ice creams and try them. I guess those were the only things we ignored. He agreed (poor guy as if he had an option). We relished the ice cream and when we reported at our counter they told us that we were the last 2 passengers and everybody else had checked in. If we would have delayed further, then they culd have given the seats to waiting, leaving us there. As soon as Sandeep heard that he started taunting me " have more ice creams, we could have missed the filght because of u and ur idea of exploring food"...he said that all in front of the ground staff making me feel so sorry of what could have happened. The lady at counter popped her head from desktop and said " excuse me madam, If you dont mind can i upgrade you to business Class?" Who on this earth would say no to such a polite, generous request. I kept smiling at sandeep saying "Look because of my ice cream you have been upgraded!". He was absolutely clueless whether he should scold or remain silent...

Over all a great trip and a wonderful location. I miss the enjoyment and all the fun i had. It was a different experience all together and given a chance i would love to go again.

"sthu-thee" SriLanka, C U Soon

Note: As usual i got a comment stating that i look like a srilankan female by one of the locals. He infact told that i am a look alike of his wife. Could not see her but i am sure she is pretty :P...

Of Managing Expectation

I find it funny when people have unrealistic expectations from others! Well in easy language expectation to me is:

"What I can do for others is what others will do for me!"

Its all about managing expectations right for yourself & for others. Its better to be clear in managing them than to carry a burden of not meeting someone's expectation later.

So to assess a situation and to get an answer, when a situation or behaviors bothering you, following a simple exercise helps:

1. Why a typical situation/behavior

2. Look back and assess other situation associated with it

3. Analyze if it comes as a reciprocation to what vibes you had sent.

Things will look less complicated and the clouds of hatred will start fading away by giving way to a ray of light/hope.