Beach BBQ Vs Earthquake

What sounds more interesting – a beach barbeque party or an earthquake?
Ok, I know beach barbeque party of course! Right? Well if you’d ask me, I’d say an earthquake. I know what you are thinking now – she is crazy! Well judge for yourself …
It so happened that we had a beach barbeque party organized at the office – just a summer celebration lunch. There were some relay games and Hawaiian shirt contest and the likes. Lunch was hotdog, pasta salad and potato salad followed with ice cream! Interesting it was indeed as there was the whole of the office – all of 12 floors worth people gathered to enjoy the meal.
Then we headed back to our dungeon. This needs a bit of explanation. We are located on the 14th floor but some restructuring work is going on there and so we are temporarily located in the basement which we lovingly call the dungeon.
So, back to the story. We came back and were at work for about ½ hour. I felt something shaking. I thought I’m moving my chair too much so sat still and the shaking continued. Saw the water bottle shaking and looked around to see if anybody else had noticed. That time, the colleague who sits across me also looked up and said he too felt it. Then there was some noise around and we all started wondering if we should head outside. I hesitated for a moment thinking I should take my passport with me if nothing else! But that thought just flashed past and we headed out. Some more people were descending the stairs.
We are in a building 22 stories and if we felt the tremors in the basement, I’m sure people on the higher floors experienced them much more than us. After about 10 mins, we started to go back and the building security would not let us in. We told him we just wanted to grab our passports but he wouldn’t agree. So we had no option but to go the parking lot away from the building. Once there, some of us started checking on their blackberries about news of the earthquake. Here we came to know that the earthquake was 5.5 on the Richter scale. They had started evacuating the building and all the staff was out. We were told that there would be investigation to verify that the building suffered no structural damages before we would be let in. that would mean about 3 hours of no activity and just waiting. 3 of us sneaked inside through an alternate route and gathered our stuff.
Then somebody had a bright idea of going for beer! So our team headed out to this place and we had a great time there with drinks and snacks and chattering around. Making the most of ... earthquakes… on a Wednesday afternoon…
Not totally crazy, am I now?

Rush Hour... no rush minute...

What time would you get up if you had a bus to catch for another city at 6.00 in the morning? ok let me give some more details. The bus starts at 6.00 am, reaches the point you board in about 10 mins. You stay at about 10 min walk from the boarding point.
So again - what time would you get up? 5.00 am? considering you would snooze and everything...
well not me!
I get up at 5.45 am (that too accidentally, more on this in a minute), rush through everything; barely managing to get a very very quick shower, and make a dash to the boarding point. And how! start walking, am not even halfway there when the bus goes past me and then I am left with no choice but run. Technically there is a choice - of missing the bus, but not without trying right? Not when you took the trouble of reserving a ticket in advance! So I reach the bus just as the conductor is about to close the door. I ask him if this is the 6.00 am Borivali bus while puffing and panting heavily; he nods and I set my foot on the stairs. Finally I am in it and it starts immediately! Leaves me thinking that good I didnt waste any time wondering if I would make it to the bus or not and trying!
Now for a little background.
I was to travel to Mumbai on an official visit. I had booked in advance for 6.00 ticket. I set an alarm. Mom too was going to set one and I didnt let her do it: very confidently stating I'm all set and I've set 2 alarms - in case I switch one off instead of snoozing it. And so I had. Albeit for 5:55 am and 6:00 am instead of 4:55 am and 5:00 am.
Can you beat me at that?

And is this becoming a habit?

I know I have said this before, but sorry for not posting regularly... Guess, the classroom trainings and certifications does that to me!

Well thats not the only things I am doing these days though. I am also catching up with the creative side - afterall "All work and no play makes..." and I dont wanna be dull in any way! So promise there will be some updates from here for sure!

Thanks for being patient in the meanwhile!

MIA?

Sorry for the lack of post here but I can now only access this on weekends.. Please head over to my photoblog which is updated more frequently...

About moving...

Being in the profession that I am in, I need to travel. When this travel is to different places, outside India and when it is for short duration, then I welcome this change. It is a great learning experience both workwise and otherwise. You tend to meet a lot of new people, learn about new cultures, new food and new places.
Another interesting aspect for me is clicking lots of pictures! Every place has got different sights to offer even more so when I get to see different seasons!
Ironically though, when this same job transfers me to another location in my own country, I think of it as an occupational hazard! I (and most like me) refuse such projects ordinarily. Needless to say, the kind of economy prevailing now has taken away this luxury of refusing such offers. Thus, I have moved to Mumbai.
I like to think of this as a temporary move - maybe only to think of this as positive and there is no denying that I am indeed here to learn some new skills.
Its not that I am new to Mumbai, I have been coming here as a kid as my grand parents hail from here. I started my career here and yet coming back here seems like I am back to doing what I was 10 years ago!
I wonder why is it that moving to a far distant place is more readily accepted and this relatively closer move yet not truly sunk in?

What a start …

…of the day, week, month!
I came in to office today realising on my way that I forgot my cell phone at home… I thought its alright I don’t get too many calls anyway and besides my cell was switched off over the weekend so another day would not matter much.

After reaching my desk, I realised that my chair was missing so I went hunting for a comfortable chair. I was looking at chairs in the bay next to mine which is practically empty these days.
So here I was testing the chairs and deciding which one I should pick. The first one was not to my liking so I tried the one next to it. There I sat and I fell down, backwards! Didn’t realize it was broken. To me that one second when I fell was a long time. I felt like I almost floated down. Luckily there were no sharp edges around there as I had pulled the chair into the open before trying and I wasn’t hurt. Thankfully not many people had come in then and I could get up on my own. No scratches, no bruises, no pain. It was almost hilarious!
Can you believe while I was falling I could only think of
‘Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall…
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…’
Can’t stop laughing now!

Where is the buzz?

The clock is nearing 4.00 pm on a seemingly normal working day. Usually this is the time when you can hear murmuring and there is a spike in activity. People get up from their workstations to take a 10 minute break, head to the tea/coffee machine or a quick bite.
Why is it so quiet then, of late? Where is the usual drone? Where are the people?
There have been talks of a slowdown for a good over 6 months now. We frequently hear the news of layoffs in Organization ‘A’, shutdown of Org ‘B’. Till now, these are ‘news’ for me, terms that I have heard a few years earlier as well.
Suddenly people from around my work area go missing…
People who you travel with to work, who you chat with everyday and sometimes just wave or smile at are not to be seen at the office.
This is when reality strikes – and badly at that.
Maybe this is one disadvantage of globalization, or maybe not. The economies of the world are now so inter-related that some downfall in one part of the world has ripple effect across!
Not that I understand finance or economy in the slightest, these are just my thoughts. So rather than state some incorrect ideas, it will do best if I restrain my ponderings and leave this at that…
Some questions still do bother me though. How long before life gets back to normal here at the office?

Surreal but nice

You are exhausted from a day full of activity. You have late dinner followed with a walk and chatter with some others bunking with you. So essentially you sleep late. The next day starts early with you being all ready and set for another rigorous day. The alarm wakes you up early the next morning. It is still dark outside. You go for a morning jog, come back get ready and are prepared to take on the new day.
This day also follows the same pattern. You set up an alarm for the next day.
Surprisingly you are up before the alarm goes off. You set off to jog. You hear birds chirping and no mechanical sounds.
Imagine not having a TV in your room, no newspapers to read, no signal on your cell. Virtually cut off from the world. You do not hear/see vehicles, no honks.
Nature surrounds you and welcomes you.
It is difficult to imagine but not so much for me anymore.
I have very recently had the pleasure to experience all of this. It is surreal, but nice.
What made it even better is living in a tent so no doors to block the world out. By virtue of the tent, I welcome the nature!

My 30 mins of…

No, not fame.

Basic needs.

Oxygen.
Ok I am not writing this to boast that I went out for a walk this morning. In fact I’d say, far from boasting. This was one of my resolutions – exercising and a whole month after making the resolution, I am trying to put it into practice. Better late than never, what say?
That is beside the point though.
So I went to the park for a morning walk today. When I started on my way, the air was nice and crisp and chill, quite early so not much traffic on the usually busy streets.
Then I took 3 laps of the long (c’mon, gimme some credit) jogging track. My time was up and I started on my way back!
I have never felt the weight of air before! One step out of the park gates and I had this feeling of going into thick air. I was shocked as the realisation hit me that what I (and you) breathe every moment is so polluted, so contaminated, so carbonated! It was in stark contrast with the pure oxygen that I inhaled just a minute ago.
And now I can only hope that this fresh air has stirred some cells in my brain and those will want me to go and exercise in the park more often (I was going to write every morning but I don’t want to jinx it).
Tomorrow I shall take deep breaths – just to rake in more benefits!

Height of...

(A recent conversation)
Chan: Today I look down upon you.
Me: (sad face) Oh! Does that mean I have to look upto you?
(Pause)
Me: No way!
Context -
I am wearing flat shoes and Chan is in 2 & 1/2 inches heels.
Me and Chan: (Laughter)
Now to complete the title of the post -
Height of ... heels!

The Last Sparrow…

(image is not mine- I oculd not find a sparrow even to take a picture. it is from somewhere on the Internet)

I hope not. Here is a simple sight that made me happy today. I saw some common sparrows! And I thought they are all extinct now!

As kids we used to get a lot of these teeny tiny visitors. They used to be everywhere – on the trees nearby, on our balcony railing, in the hallway to our home – just about everywhere chirping their merry songs. We used to leave food grains out on the window ledge or the banisters for them and it used to be fun to watch them pick the grains. There is a tree in very close proximity and these birdies use to come and gather soft twigs for their nests. So all was well then.
Then sometime about 2-3 years ago I realised I had not seen a sparrow in a long time. I even discussed this at home and everybody agreed. True the trees around were almost gone. The only exception of this huge fig which still lies in close proximity to us. In fact it is so close that we need to sometimes trim it thru our window so that the branches do not grow inwards(towards our house that is). So coming back to the main subject, we all began missing the sparrows and used to wait for a sighting which used to be so common.
I still miss them. I was reminded of this because a couple of days back I spilled over some wheat grains on the floor. Now we didn’t wanna use them so I placed them on a platform outside my door. 2 days hence, the grains are still there. I am ready to swear, this would not have happened had it been a few years ago! We must be doing something verrrry wrong to drive out these harmless little ones don’t u think?
Now I wish to say –
Long Live the Sparrow!