Sunday, November 25, 2007

Redirected to a New Land

This must be my quickest blog ever, coz I “don’t have time” to enjoy what I write and elaborate all the interesting things that happened in the past 2 weeks. I never thought I would even say these words- “I am busy” or “I don’t have time” in my life.

To my surprise I found it hard to hold on to lengthy blogs!!!! I’m a person who enjoyed reading/ writing blogs and within a week everything changed…though I wish it doesn’t continue for long. Unusually I had to talk family issues with my mum over the phone and had no time to discuss it at home…:(

It was a mix of all kinda emotions-angry, tensed, upset, disturbed, happy, hesitating, confused, doubtful and again these are just a handful of examples. The new place was not very odd; I managed to carry that smile with me all the time, so that people don’t think I’m bad or unapproachable. I should say it did help me. All people around me belonging to more/ less the same age group; were not that similar as I expected to be. More guys and very few girls in our team didn’t bother me much.

My entry into my work place was with my Tech Lead introducing me to my teammates. There were just 2 girls other than me and heard that they wanted a ragging session…thought OMG!!!! Don’t I have an innocent look, why should anyone want to rag such a beautiful and calm girl [And btw if you are confused I’m talking about myself!!!!] Guys were too demanding…. yes I had to pay them to make them smile.

The first day was full of boring meetings-3 in 3 hrs and I was already tired with repeated introductions. Being a late riser, I was happy to hear that I need not wake up too early everyday. I guessed that the work won’t be too demanding [at least not most of the time] but staring at the computer screen all day didn’t please me at all and I’m afraid whether I’ll soon develop an aversion towards it.

I wanted to write a separate blog about this person-my saviour in this new Island-Gayathri. Thank God I was thirsty that day, so I approached her asking where I could find drinking water and she was kind enough to walk with me to show the place and I felt myself very comfortable with her. I know good things won’t last long and as I expected she told me the next day she’ll be leaving soon!!!!! She’s such a sweetheart I must say and I really feel bad for not being able to elaborate on this one.

So many people, each with a unique attribute and I remember each one with one word in my mind [coz whenever I see them that’s what I felt they are], before I registered their original names- friendly but hesitating, wicked smile, rigid face, mr.smart [tries to be so], flirt n troublesome, just mind your own business, oh my god don’t see me, smiley, dumbo, why should I and who are you kind of reactions in their faces.

It has been a week already and I’m happy that I knew all their names and have got a reasonable number of friends around me. Thank God….the only trouble being I’ve already got enough work to keep myself occupied for the next 1 week!!! Got a presentation to do as well...Am I stressed???? Have to hit the sack now and longing for the next weekend already..he he..:)

Hoping this situation is for just this week and after that I get some time to completely get lost in my utopia and enjoy visiting other blogger’s lands. So till then keep smiling everyone.... like I do…:)

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Tagged(1)--8 Facts about me

Tagging rules: 1. Each blogger must post these rules 2. Each blogger starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves 3. Bloggers that are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. 4. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and to read your blog.

I was tagged by Shashi on eight random facts about me, long long ago. Sorry about the delay Shashi.

1. Novice-I’m a novice at many things. I’m a bharathanatyam dancer [think I can say so..coz done stage performances] yet to do my ‘Arengetram’ but done with my ‘Salangai pooja’, learnt carnatic music till 'varnams', an interior designer for just my home, amateur writer having bunch of stories to be disclosed and the list goes on. Wishing some day I might be an expert in any one at least :)

2. Short-tempered- Any of my friends/relatives or even people who know me since a week would easily highlight this quality of mine. Trying hard to get over this. There were times when I have even felt proud to say that I’m short-tempered but now ‘no way’ I have to change and I’m trying hard to stay calm.

3. My name- I love the way my parents chose my name. It has a part of my dad’s name and a part of my mum’s name, ManohAR and SumaTHI was made ARTHI. Lovely isn’t it? [They even had a boy baby’s name SUmathi and MANohar-SUMAN.]

4. Cleanliness- I can say I’m obsessed with cleanliness-no exaggeration!! Even a small crinkle in my bedspread would disturb me, so I hardly let anyone inside my room. A bit too stupid…my mum says…:p

5. Things people keep- I have this habit of collecting pretty shopping bags and covers. Strange huh!!?? I don’t remember when I started but now would have around 250 different shopping bags with me. Might be when it reaches 1000 or 500 you can find me in ‘The Hindu’ –“Things people keep” segment.

6. Gadgets- I’m a bit crazy about the gadgets and I have named all of them. My mobile phones-Samsung P300-Sweetoo, Apple I phone-Ice [Donno why I named so..might b coz it is cool], Laptop-Dell Inspiron-Chamcha[It means spoon in Telugu n don’t ask me the reason why I named so coz there is none], I-pod shuffle-Snuffy and I-pod shuffle mini-Pouchy, Sony USB Memory stick-Numo.

7. Fitness freak-Diet, exercise, aerobics, tread mill- people who chat with me should be able to talk at least about one of the 4 topics here, coz I’m so conscious about maintaining myself within the 55-58 kgs limit. Though the graph has never been constant, I can’t sleep until I achieve the target.

8. Aries- I’m an April born and according to Linda Goodman’s Love signs “So you are in love with an Aries women, I don’t know whether to congratulate you or pity you” and I completely agree with her !!!!!!!!

Hope it was not too boring….I tried my level best to keep it short.

I would like to tag

1. Compassion Unlimitted
2. m.flowerr
3. white window/Preetilata
4. curious
5. sandhya
6. kuttibalu
7. Random thoughts
8. Thinking Aloud

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Diwali



The festive mood is on and my house is getting filled up with crackers, sweets, gifts, clothes and people. Me always stressing about the cleanliness at home have to take a small break for a week, coz I know I can’t really do it with all the above mentioned things scattered all over the house. Thank God my room is still under my control, coz the keys are with me and I lock it even when I go for dinner to the dining table. Given a 30 secs gap my mum would dump my room with something…

Keeping aside the cleanliness issue I enjoy everything about this Diwali season. I get to do the maximum shopping and this is the only time I totally get satisfied with whatever I buy, be it clothes or footwear or cosmetics or handbags or just anything. Eventually my dad will be the only sad person at home-I heard him saying to my aunt-“En pant, shirt ellam uruvitaanga, idula innum tailor bill vera irukam, I think after that en nelamai Pazhani andavar nelama dan” Me and Mum would laugh at this!!!!

My cousin would always say that the house looks more beautiful with all this mess around. Me and my sis with our cousins, dad with his bros n sis and mum with his bros all at our place…OMG, anyone would prefer a fish market to our house, but I love that non stop nonsense, the get together that brings smile in everyone’s face--no price for that. Dad’s place being Sivakasi and having known most of those cracker factory people, this time there was no place at home to keep the gift boxes-imagine the size of each box which can hold a person in it. Yesterday night I had no other option; I stayed awake till 2 a.m segregating clothes, sweets and crackers for our driver, securities, servant and cook and made sure it was distributed before 10a.m. All were happy with their gifts and I was happy too.

I really missed all this fun for the 2 yrs when I was in Sydney and now it is my sis’s turn to miss this, who is in New York now. I really miss her for not being able to threaten anybody with those ‘atom bombs’ and ‘lakshmi vedis’, my cousins are brave enough to even hold them in their hands, though they don’t do that!!!!

After all the fun and freaking moments comes the unbearable thing-the departure. I really can’t imagine that. Suddenly the house looks haunted with no voices, no laughter and no bursting of crackers. It takes some time for me to get back to normal and this time I’m well prepared for that. So for all my blogger friends-“Wish you and your family a very happy Diwali

P.S-I had time to write but not to post this before Diwali. Sorry for the belated wishes.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

NaNoWriMo

People who read ‘The Hindu’ regularly excuse me!! coz you would have read this already- this is about an interesting article I found in today’s Metro Plus.

So for the rest of you there, let me first chase that confused look in your face [if you have one!!!] which would have made you curious [I wish so] when you saw the topic of this blog, NaNoWriMo, which simply means National Novel Writers Month.

This is for people like me, craving there to write at least one novel in this birth but holding back coz they are very doubtful about their skills, language, etc. Here they give us a month time –Nov 1 to 30 [already 5 days gone!!!] and 50,000 words being the word limit and we can write a novel. You just stick on to this time and word limit and you name your work a novel :) and post your novel for other Wrimos [that’s how they address the participants] to read!!!!

They don’t give any awards or certificates for the best ones but this is just being a place to have a good start. It helps to initiate writing in people, who love to write, but just got stuck up with a starting trouble. Though some feel that lack of judgement and appraisal as a drawback here, the other side says they really don’t mind about that.

Once we post it on or before Nov 30, we can later have discussions in the chat rooms about how to improve and get suggestions from few experts on what to improve. We can even tweak the work later and make it better. So any amateur writers there…think you don’t know how to start the journey…try this one!!!!!

Interested-->www.nanowrimo.org

Thursday, November 1, 2007

The Zoology test

We were in class 9 and our gang [SPADSV-mentioned in my previous blog] occupying the last 2 benches, 3 in a bench- me, Poornima and Sush in the last bench and Dhana, Vai and Sheelu in the one before us. Comfortably seated in the last, to do all kind of pranks we still managed to study well [Sush was the class topper] so teachers [except few] never believed when guys complained about us.

Our Zoology teacher had announced a test for 25 marks the previous day. I hardly studied anything coz our gang decided not to study and planned to try failing at least once, just to know how it feels. Even if any of us studied, they won’t be allowed to write even a word in the paper declared Poornima. After the morning prayer we were asking other girls in our class whether they were prepared and all seem to have prepared---at least to pass.

Though we didn’t discuss among ourselves we were getting tensed as lunch was nearing, coz the test was after the lunch break. We knew that anyway we can’t finish studying in the lunch break and were really worried about the foolish thought that crossed our mind the previous day. After the bell the note books were distributed and all six of us were just............... as blank as our papers were!!!
Poornima broke the silence with her whisper- Hey did any one carry the zoology book with you today?
Sush
: Ya.

She was the bold one among 3 of us, I mean Poornima, coz she came forward to copy it from the book and we can copy from her notes and at the same time warn her if the teacher is nearing us. Sheela started begging for the book coz none of the three had the book and finally managed to get one by threatening a new comer. While the test was going on, a couple of guys were sent out for copying and again another pair and almost 15 guys were standing out to be taken to the Head Mistress. Sush started shivering and Sheela said that the teacher saw us once and next time if she finds any of our heads going down we will get caught for sure!!!!!!!

The test was over and we handed our note books back for correction and were relaxing with a broad smile when Vai said “I saw her watching us from the beginning but Thank God she didn’t call our namesSush became furious, “Why the hell we have to decide such a stupid thing, then get so tensed and take such a risk. Next time I’m not going to listen to any of you guys, but do remember our notebooks would look like photocopies and there are still chances for us to get caught” We all went dumb and for the next 1 week we were discussing about how to convince our parents, if at all they were called to meet the H.M----preparing ourselves for the worst case.

The day came; we were sitting holding our hands tight and I could feel the chill in Poornima’s hands. The books were distributed, almost all girls got their books except 6 of us. While submitting we made sure that our note books were mingled with others’ and not together, but in spite of that now, just our books were yet to be distributed. We were almost in tears, when we heard the teacher call our names. We 6 were standing and she was holding our notebooks in her hand, guys sitting beside us were laughing and their look conveying “Enna aatam poteenga..matneengala

Teacher-Your parents send you hear not just to have fun but to study. How many of you have ever realized that?? [I heard someone among us sob, my face was red and the warm blood was rushing making it more colourful] When people around you can study well, why can’t you? [I didn’t want to see her face so was trying to hide myself behind] Today I’m really proud of these girls standing here. Whatttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt…. [Did I hear her properly? Yes, coz the other 5 had that confused look in their faces too] After so much of hard work, see these girls, all 6 getting 25/25!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [All were shocked and we 6 were still unable to understand what’s happening around us] Now every one, give them a big round of applause [And yes it happened, all were clapping hands for us]

We waited to get our books back and everything looked fine and we all breathed normally again. The guys beside us said “Adi paveengala” and we all laughed.

After 11 years we still remember all that happened on that day and this incident would be mentioned at least once by anyone of us during our meetings till date and we would laugh at it rolling down on the floor.