I think Ive got my answer and a very apprioriate one to my previous post! Now am sitting here wondering what I was really cribbing about last time! I was cribbin that I didnt have time for anything and life was going too fast. Now I realise that it was so good that life was going on like that.
Last week there was a medical (Not mental) problem with me and doc advised me to take 1 week off and take some proper rest at home. I was elated thinking about the unplanned vacation that fell in to my lap. I thought it would be so much fun to sleep till late and do whatever I wanted to all day. I was so wrong! so so so wrong! I sit all day at home doing absolutely nothin!! I mean there is nothing to do actually. Watch Tv.. browse thru the net.. all fine but for how long? Not all day!! I feel like life has come to a standstill and am just wasting it doing nothing. I cant wait to get back to my routine!!
I mean there are lot of things to do like all the pending house repair works, carpenter work and the boring chores like dusting, tidying the house etc etc! But I dont want to do them! Yuck! And I get so irritated when they say.. anyway you are at home all day.. do this do that complete that ! Uhhhhhhhhh! I salute all the successful homemakers but fr me when am at home all day.. Am Lazyness personified.. lethargy at its best (my mom gave me a new title .. "Salugu")!
Oh God.. Please save me from myself.. When will I actually get to know what I really want! And looks like you grant all my typically incorrect wishes!! I was cribbing when I was busy, I am cribbing now also when I have the all the time in the world but doing nothing ( reading books, sleeping, watching tv not counted) .. so what Do I really want??
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
What's your life like?
May be I have done this blah blahing before but today I had to write this down again.
My life these days has settled in to a routine which sounds and looks ok but is very boring in detail. To summarize my any day, I spend 12 hours out of home( 10 hrs office +2 hours travel time 7:30 am to 7:30 pm) , 9 hours of sleep (9:30 pm to 6:30 am .. Something I cannot sacrifice or reduce for whatever the reasons be) and 1 hr of cooking(7:30 pm to 8:30 pm) 1 hr of tv(8:30 pm to 9:30 pm) . So except for the calender date there wouldnt be any difference between yesterday and today. But there are some days , for someone else's last minute planning, my routine goes for a toss. And am like so obsessed with my routine that the very minute I see a possibility of someone disturbing my routine , I get frustrated and today was one such days. A conf call was scheduled from 6:30 to 8 pm at office and I was supposed to attend it. It meant, I would reach home at 9:30 and lose out on 2 precious home hours. I just made some lame excuse and skipped it. But then there is this guilt also that I shouldnt have done that, I shouldve attended that meeting, it was important! I think its every working woman's dillemma.. neither get a 100% job satisfaction nor the 100% home maker satisfaction.
But to put it in the other angle, I have started hating this routine also. I mean, this is not what I want to do in my life. Do I sound confused? At this point I really am.. I can't quit the job because I got used to it and have also got used to the financial independence and dependence on the good sum that gets deposited every month in my account. Its just too addictive! But its not really the case that am really happy spending 12 hours of my day for this leaving everything else haphazard. It's only when we have those friends for lunch or dinner during weekends I realise how much the home needs my attention and time. When I see other women who are happy home makers, I feel jealous, I also want to quit my job, but when I really think of it, am not sure if I can be happy sitting at home all day doing just that!!
May be its really time I seriously think of the other options I can be happy with... do something which gives me satisfaction and a control over my life and my time.
-A confused frustrated soul
My life these days has settled in to a routine which sounds and looks ok but is very boring in detail. To summarize my any day, I spend 12 hours out of home( 10 hrs office +2 hours travel time 7:30 am to 7:30 pm) , 9 hours of sleep (9:30 pm to 6:30 am .. Something I cannot sacrifice or reduce for whatever the reasons be) and 1 hr of cooking(7:30 pm to 8:30 pm) 1 hr of tv(8:30 pm to 9:30 pm) . So except for the calender date there wouldnt be any difference between yesterday and today. But there are some days , for someone else's last minute planning, my routine goes for a toss. And am like so obsessed with my routine that the very minute I see a possibility of someone disturbing my routine , I get frustrated and today was one such days. A conf call was scheduled from 6:30 to 8 pm at office and I was supposed to attend it. It meant, I would reach home at 9:30 and lose out on 2 precious home hours. I just made some lame excuse and skipped it. But then there is this guilt also that I shouldnt have done that, I shouldve attended that meeting, it was important! I think its every working woman's dillemma.. neither get a 100% job satisfaction nor the 100% home maker satisfaction.
But to put it in the other angle, I have started hating this routine also. I mean, this is not what I want to do in my life. Do I sound confused? At this point I really am.. I can't quit the job because I got used to it and have also got used to the financial independence and dependence on the good sum that gets deposited every month in my account. Its just too addictive! But its not really the case that am really happy spending 12 hours of my day for this leaving everything else haphazard. It's only when we have those friends for lunch or dinner during weekends I realise how much the home needs my attention and time. When I see other women who are happy home makers, I feel jealous, I also want to quit my job, but when I really think of it, am not sure if I can be happy sitting at home all day doing just that!!
May be its really time I seriously think of the other options I can be happy with... do something which gives me satisfaction and a control over my life and my time.
-A confused frustrated soul
Friday, January 9, 2009
What would you wish for?
I think God(If you believe in God) has this special way of designing peoples lives. Just when a person thinks he is the happiest person in this world, everything in his life is under his control, and even if someone grants him a wish, there would be nothing more he could ask for God plays his move and shows people, there can never be a day when everything can be under control :) .
This is the pattern I observed with so many people so many times that someone or the other always keeps cribbing about some problem in life, helpless, frustrated and very little under their control. I think along with change, worry is also a Constant.
In my case, I have this constant worry of not being able to eat what I want to eat in the fear that it immediately shows. A situation where my fave food is right in front of my eyes, I have the money to buy it, I dont have to ask anybody's permission to have it, but still something stops me. and that is my worry of becoming more fat. So anyday if someone grants me a wish for lifetime, I would say I should be able to eat anything in any quantity but still shouldnt become fat :) . There is one more angle to this situation, I can just care a damn and go ahead and have what I want and be so happy. But the underlying truth is that I hate when people comment on me saying I have put on weight! I just so so so HATE it! so to avoid that, I have t avoid eating and again the vicious cycle! This is my constant worry for my entire life, any day any time.
And I know I am not the only one having this problem, there are many more. So I think I should wish for a more idealistic world where people stop commenting on someone's physical appearance and accept people by their chaacter, what they actually are.
And the irony of the situation is, there are people who are thin and hate being thin and want to become fat but cannot become fat no matter how much they eat, fat people who hate being fat and want to become thin but that doesnt happen no matter what they do and there are few exceptions who are happy with what they are.
Apart from that, looking at some other issues, People who are working are either not happy with the kind of work they have or their bosses or their feedbacks and have this constant thought of "Heck.. what the hell am I doing here" and there are thos epeople who are struggling for a job and are ready to take up any damn job. Its a different thing that once they join a job, may be they would also start facing usual job problems.
There are people in my office who do not want to work on Onsite assignments due to some personal reasons and they are forced to go and they go work there cribbing all the time, and there are so many other people who are like waiting for that one opportunity to go Onsite but it never comes to them when they want it.
People who have money want more money, people who own houses want to own more houses, and the list goes on.
I think this is all a pert of God's game plan and nothing else. Never let anybody be too happy with themselves.
Share your thoughts...
This is the pattern I observed with so many people so many times that someone or the other always keeps cribbing about some problem in life, helpless, frustrated and very little under their control. I think along with change, worry is also a Constant.
In my case, I have this constant worry of not being able to eat what I want to eat in the fear that it immediately shows. A situation where my fave food is right in front of my eyes, I have the money to buy it, I dont have to ask anybody's permission to have it, but still something stops me. and that is my worry of becoming more fat. So anyday if someone grants me a wish for lifetime, I would say I should be able to eat anything in any quantity but still shouldnt become fat :) . There is one more angle to this situation, I can just care a damn and go ahead and have what I want and be so happy. But the underlying truth is that I hate when people comment on me saying I have put on weight! I just so so so HATE it! so to avoid that, I have t avoid eating and again the vicious cycle! This is my constant worry for my entire life, any day any time.
And I know I am not the only one having this problem, there are many more. So I think I should wish for a more idealistic world where people stop commenting on someone's physical appearance and accept people by their chaacter, what they actually are.
And the irony of the situation is, there are people who are thin and hate being thin and want to become fat but cannot become fat no matter how much they eat, fat people who hate being fat and want to become thin but that doesnt happen no matter what they do and there are few exceptions who are happy with what they are.
Apart from that, looking at some other issues, People who are working are either not happy with the kind of work they have or their bosses or their feedbacks and have this constant thought of "Heck.. what the hell am I doing here" and there are thos epeople who are struggling for a job and are ready to take up any damn job. Its a different thing that once they join a job, may be they would also start facing usual job problems.
There are people in my office who do not want to work on Onsite assignments due to some personal reasons and they are forced to go and they go work there cribbing all the time, and there are so many other people who are like waiting for that one opportunity to go Onsite but it never comes to them when they want it.
People who have money want more money, people who own houses want to own more houses, and the list goes on.
I think this is all a pert of God's game plan and nothing else. Never let anybody be too happy with themselves.
Share your thoughts...
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
poppat e mazza
Today I realised it so much fun when others around you become poppat.
I was getting extremely bored in office today, with not much work to do. Suddenly I heard some wierd blah blah blah from the CPU in the next cubicle. I turned back and saw that the guy was having his headphones put on but still the sound was loud enough for me to hear. I was just about to ping him and ask, why he was hearing to the recording with such a loud volume that even I was able to hear it clearly. Then tish tish tish.. I turned back again and saw what I saw and I was so thrilled! So many others like me. He didnt plug in the headphones to the CPU and the recording was playing out of CPU speakers. and he was actually thinking he was listening to the recording from his headphones! wah wah wah! Shabaash mere bhai.
I told him tat he had not plugged on the headphones and sound was coming from CPU, I could exactly feel what he mustve felt!! experience helps sometimes ;-)
I was getting extremely bored in office today, with not much work to do. Suddenly I heard some wierd blah blah blah from the CPU in the next cubicle. I turned back and saw that the guy was having his headphones put on but still the sound was loud enough for me to hear. I was just about to ping him and ask, why he was hearing to the recording with such a loud volume that even I was able to hear it clearly. Then tish tish tish.. I turned back again and saw what I saw and I was so thrilled! So many others like me. He didnt plug in the headphones to the CPU and the recording was playing out of CPU speakers. and he was actually thinking he was listening to the recording from his headphones! wah wah wah! Shabaash mere bhai.
I told him tat he had not plugged on the headphones and sound was coming from CPU, I could exactly feel what he mustve felt!! experience helps sometimes ;-)
Friday, January 2, 2009
Keep Wondering...
These days.. Ive gotten this new bug of guessing if the lady I saw was fat or was she pregnant. And yes as usual most of the times my guesses have always turned out to be wrong.
I know that as soon as I open my mouth, I land myself in trouble, but still cant help it.
Last week at the grocery store, I saw my neighbour( afte a long time) and my thought process began.. Was she preggy.. or just fat. I decided on the first option and just because I cannot keep my mouth shut and had to talk to her , I said this " Hey how are you.. Congratulations! Which month??" She gave me a pretty confused look and then to hit me on my head, she said this.. "Oh am fine.. and now I realised I am more healthier than ever that people think am carrying".
Why.. why cant I keep my mouth shut!!! God.. Gimme some control on myself!
I know that as soon as I open my mouth, I land myself in trouble, but still cant help it.
Last week at the grocery store, I saw my neighbour( afte a long time) and my thought process began.. Was she preggy.. or just fat. I decided on the first option and just because I cannot keep my mouth shut and had to talk to her , I said this " Hey how are you.. Congratulations! Which month??" She gave me a pretty confused look and then to hit me on my head, she said this.. "Oh am fine.. and now I realised I am more healthier than ever that people think am carrying".
Why.. why cant I keep my mouth shut!!! God.. Gimme some control on myself!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Vannakkam.. Namaskar.. helllo! Been a long long time I have written something in this space.. and what better time than the new year to start writing again :)
Wish you all a very very Happy and Joyful new Year 2009. May Most of your wishes come true.. ( Let some wishes remain for the next year toooo ;-) )
This is the time when everybody looks back at the past year and makes new resolutions for the coming year. Thats exactly what I did and did a lil more :) I am still not able to come up with a final list of resolutions. First a stat of the last year:
1) I put on 3 - 4 kgs last year and by the end managed to shed off only 2 kgs. Was fat for most duration of the year. Ate like there's a tomorrow when we can diet not today. Every time went to Cafeteria to eat a fruit bowl and ended up eating either a samosa chat or a frankie. and there was no stopping to sweets. Guilt?? what are you talking I say?
2) I did more trainings and certifiations than some work in office. I spent 6 months just doing technical trainings.
3) I travelled like mad. On an average, I made 6 trips to Hyd, 2 trips to Vizag, 1 trip to Wayanad, 1 trip to Mysore, 2 trips to Grandpa's place, 1 trip to US. Within US, again in 2 months I was a travelling soldier.A summary of 2 months ( Bangalore--> Paris-->Omaha --> Virginia --> Omaha --> San Jose/SFO--> Omaha->Detroit-->Omaha-->San Jose/Yosemite -->Omaha-->Dallas-->Omaha-->Boston->Paris-->Bangalore) The positive thing that came out of all this is that , I stopped having jet lags :) I travelled from Omaha to Bangalore for almost 45 hrs(incl the time shift) and I didnt feel any jetlag the day I landed or even later. My body has developed an ability to sleep anytime, under any conditions and has probably gave up on me! So that makes 20 trips in 12 months :( and not to mention my daily travel to office from home to whitefield and back to home.
4) I forgot to wish most of my friend son their birthday. Even worse, I wished them either advance or belated. Both useless.
5) Spent money like mad. I went to US, came back and ended up paying back money to my company. generally people save up big bucks! I Shopped when I was Happy, Shopped when I was sad, Shopped before going to US, in US and after coming from US :) Am not really sure now whether to see it as a thing that needs improvement or a thing that needs to be stopped :) Love to Vote for former though ;-)
6) Fought with most of my loved ones.. Naresh, daddy, some frens. Said a lot of bad things abt some people, did gossiping, bitching.. everything that makes me feel ashamed now.
7) Really wanted to do something for others, but didnt do anything substantial. Just could manage to give away old clothes to an Ashram and kaamwali.
I think its high time I look at few thing that went well for me last year... (ummmm Long pause for 10 minutes)
1) I went to US on my own for work and did some good work in 2 months and this was like what I wanted to do since I got in to job 6 yrs back.
2) Got 3 awards at workplace.
3) Met up with lots of friends through the year and had a blast. Also patched up with lot of old friends.
4) Didnt fall sick much. Touchwood.
Thats it! I cant think of anything else that went well with me last year!!!
So now my list of top contenders for new year resolutions are as below:
1) Have more discipline in Life. Spend judiciously and watch my words.
2) Eat healthy (Salads and fruits) and Exercise. Keep fit if not slim( right.. I almost gave up in that word ).
3) Travel less! To quantify that statement, I would say may be just about 6 trips in the entire year.
4) Do something substantial for the poor and needy. Spend some time with people in old age homes.
5) Work.. work! do some good work.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Life mein kabhi kabhi aisa bhi hotha hai??
Yesterday there was a lunch party given by one of my colleagues on the occassion of his twins first birthday. @ the party, one of my colleagues 5 year old daughter, Anushka sat beside me at the lunch table. I was generally talking to her about her school, her dress and generally tping (Time passing) with her. I didnt realise, we were giggling and talking so much almost whole tables attention was on us. Then after sometime Anushka's mom came as she was not eating her lunch and told her to finish her rice and only then aunty( Yeah me!!) will play with her. Til then it sounded ok to me too.. so even I committed to Anushka that I would play with her if she finished the rice in her plate! (Alas!) And then comes the not so nice part... She finished her lunch and asked me to play TAD. I was not sure what it was and asked her mom what it was and she started laughing and said its Running and catching! @#$#@$@#$ How can I play Tad with a 5 yr old at a party with all my managers right there!!!! I tried to convince the lil one that we cant play there as there was no place and that she would be tired as she had her lunch just then but in vain. She sat right there on the floor and started crying and her mom was like, please play for sometime!! Even I didnt like to see the lil one crying but How can I play running and catching???? The heavens finally fell and I actually walked behind her around the table to catch her and to increase my embarrassment, Anushka shouted.. "Aunty Run.. dont walk!!!" Bhagwan.. Why didnt the earth split in to 2 and take me in!! Kids can really be so tough sometimes!! and later ( 10 very long minutes), luckily for me, she was tired and then we stopped playing Tad and settled for some silent sitting games. I was almost dreading she would ask me to play ringa ringa roses!!! But she compensated for everything later by telling that she likes me and gave me loads of kisses! I love you Anushka!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
What is it ??
Sometimes it becomes so difficult to differentiate whether the other person is commenting or complimenting you. And these days such statements have increased in number for me. For eg.,
1) You are not as fat as I expected . ( what??? whaaaaaaaaaaaat??? Either I am fat or I am not. Period.)
2) Very nice snaps, you are very photogenic . (heloo.. yes, I dont look good otherwise and no wonder you were surprised to see that I look good in snaps? )
3) Ohh you cook??? ( and I hate the expression with which they say that.. How can anyone assume if a person cooks or not just by seeing them... Crappy Assumptions!! )
4) Your lunch tastes good today! you only cooked? ( Its me who cooks, its me who eats.. I dont need your vishesh opinions on my lunch box)
5) Not bad. You did pretty well in the exam. ( I know.. I know.. you didn't expect me to pass the exam!)
Am sure there were more but cant remember any more now.. will keep updating this post.. am sure there are lot more to come!
Presenting.. Joey the chef!
Sometimes you find out some good things accidentally.. like Newton got the idea of gravity from the falling apple. Today I found a new recipe for egg Curry. I was always a great cook ( yes yes everybody agress I know) but today I did something, that made me feel so proud of myself!
Today I started off to cook the most easiest thing in the world egg curry. Everything seemed to be going smooth, until I tasted the gravy. Eeeks.. An extra pinch ( ok 2 pinches) of salt slipped through the spoon in to the curry.. Not my mistake you see!
Now to lessen the extra salt effect, I added milk ( lil better), then curd(even better), lil tamarind paste (now it tastes like something) and to lessen the effect of tamarind I added more masalas.. everything I cud lay my hands on, chicken masala, garam masala, corriander powder and Lo! when I tasted the end product.. yummmmmmmm!!! and it was a super hit among my teammates and one of them even asked me to share the recipe! and here it goes for her :) First add more salt and then all the others ingredients mentioned above particularly in that order :)
Clap! clap! and more claps!
(Joey the chef taking a bow)
Today I started off to cook the most easiest thing in the world egg curry. Everything seemed to be going smooth, until I tasted the gravy. Eeeks.. An extra pinch ( ok 2 pinches) of salt slipped through the spoon in to the curry.. Not my mistake you see!
Now to lessen the extra salt effect, I added milk ( lil better), then curd(even better), lil tamarind paste (now it tastes like something) and to lessen the effect of tamarind I added more masalas.. everything I cud lay my hands on, chicken masala, garam masala, corriander powder and Lo! when I tasted the end product.. yummmmmmmm!!! and it was a super hit among my teammates and one of them even asked me to share the recipe! and here it goes for her :) First add more salt and then all the others ingredients mentioned above particularly in that order :)
Clap! clap! and more claps!
(Joey the chef taking a bow)
Thursday, September 4, 2008
All written in the face!
Last wednesday I went to a party at my colleagues place. They being a bengali family, needless to say the food was amazing. Especially the kheer. So yummy. I asked them for recipe and just said I liked it very much ( yes only that) .Today after a week, I met same colleague in the corridor and I dont know why, I was reminded of the kheer, tho I didnt say anything to him. It was as if he read my mind or my face , he said there is lot of kheer at home, I will get it for you tomorrow!! I was like wow then but now going back, am thinking .. was I very expressive in telling how much I liked the kheer(which I knw is not the case as I dont remember saying nything more than just saying I liked it) or was it just the way I hogged or may be it was just the glow and hapiness in my face while eating it which was very evident!!Whatever the reason may be.. the word is spreading fast.. "jyotsna the foodieeee"
And now that the word has already spread, I wish he gets me Gulabjamuns also along with kheer :D geee
And now that the word has already spread, I wish he gets me Gulabjamuns also along with kheer :D geee
And More..
I thought it was all just with the airports.. but no.. the series continued through out the trip. At Goldie's place on saturday morning I woke up at 7 ( ppl say its becoz of Jet lag) and none of them were up. I looked here and there to see what I cud do silently without disturbing them. I couldnt find a toothpaste, cudnt find the correct TV remote , Couldnt find any magazines! so the next best option that looked very tempting was the swing in their backyard! I slowly tiptoed towards the backyard door and without making any sounds figured out how to open the door and was happy that I could open it! and then.. Hold your breath!! The loud alarm went up!! Guyiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!! Goldie woke up, her son woke up with his own alarm and yeah I just stood there like an idiot completely shocked!! I just managed to do something I just didnt want to do!!
Bl$%^%dy House alarm systems!!
Bl$%^%dy House alarm systems!!
And it continued..
Now after one story of boarding pass thing, the next one was just waiting to happen.
I had kept my laptop bag under the front seat during the take off and as soon as they gave the go ahead signal for using electronic appliances, i bent down trying to pull out the bag from the seat that was in front of me. I was not able to reach it, I tried hard but I just couldnt. and suddenly panic struck me, did I hurt my back or have I grown so fat suddenly that I am not even able to pull out my bag which is lying just down there. And then, Tada! I realised I had my seat belt fastened which was preventing me to go down!! relief then but then..All these days i thought it was bad only to become a poppat b4 others, but now I know, self Poppat is all the more worse!!!
Moral of the story: Never try to get a bag lying under the seat in front of you with your seat belt fastened!!!
I had kept my laptop bag under the front seat during the take off and as soon as they gave the go ahead signal for using electronic appliances, i bent down trying to pull out the bag from the seat that was in front of me. I was not able to reach it, I tried hard but I just couldnt. and suddenly panic struck me, did I hurt my back or have I grown so fat suddenly that I am not even able to pull out my bag which is lying just down there. And then, Tada! I realised I had my seat belt fastened which was preventing me to go down!! relief then but then..All these days i thought it was bad only to become a poppat b4 others, but now I know, self Poppat is all the more worse!!!
Moral of the story: Never try to get a bag lying under the seat in front of you with your seat belt fastened!!!
Videshi Poppat series
Now its a new high of my poppat series! Its called the Videshi poppat! and it all really makes me feel like a proper gaon wali .. new to a city.
Last weekend , I was traveling from Omaha to Oakland. I went to the airlines counter and thought of trying my hand at the self help checkin Kiosk. It prompted me for my ticket confirmation number and then asked me to insert the passport for scan. I looked left n right to see where I need to insert my passport and then I found a creek(I am sorry but not getting the right word here .. that small gap in the machine) just enough to put in my passport. I put my passport and hit Enter but nothing happened. I pushed my passport even further and tried again, still nothing happened and it was still asking for passport. And then, I saw on my right there was another creek which clearly had a lable Passport scanning here. And everything was suddenly all crystal clear! where I had pushed my passport full inside was the one from where the boarding pass comes out printed!!!!
And I started trying frantically to remove my passport from that kiosk but in vain. Then to add up to my embarrassment, the airlines guy came up and asked what happened and why my passport was out there.. I sheepishly told him what happened and he again showed me the label which said PASSPORT ScANNING HERE and I said yeah I saw that after I put my passport here. He laughed and got the keys for that kiosk, opened it and gave me my passport. I really wished I just ran away from there but I had to stand there and face that guy coz I didnt have my boarding passes yet!!!! Thats what we call Sone pe suhaga in desh!!
I had never been more proud of myself :(
Last weekend , I was traveling from Omaha to Oakland. I went to the airlines counter and thought of trying my hand at the self help checkin Kiosk. It prompted me for my ticket confirmation number and then asked me to insert the passport for scan. I looked left n right to see where I need to insert my passport and then I found a creek(I am sorry but not getting the right word here .. that small gap in the machine) just enough to put in my passport. I put my passport and hit Enter but nothing happened. I pushed my passport even further and tried again, still nothing happened and it was still asking for passport. And then, I saw on my right there was another creek which clearly had a lable Passport scanning here. And everything was suddenly all crystal clear! where I had pushed my passport full inside was the one from where the boarding pass comes out printed!!!!
And I started trying frantically to remove my passport from that kiosk but in vain. Then to add up to my embarrassment, the airlines guy came up and asked what happened and why my passport was out there.. I sheepishly told him what happened and he again showed me the label which said PASSPORT ScANNING HERE and I said yeah I saw that after I put my passport here. He laughed and got the keys for that kiosk, opened it and gave me my passport. I really wished I just ran away from there but I had to stand there and face that guy coz I didnt have my boarding passes yet!!!! Thats what we call Sone pe suhaga in desh!!
I had never been more proud of myself :(
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Happy days..
What does it take to keep in touch with friends? A call, a mail, a chat ping or an orkut message is the least it takes to keep in touch and be informed that they are doing good in some part of the world wherever they are.
Last week I was chatting with one of my Engineering frens and we were casually discussing about some other classmates. As expected, I was updating her on other classmates and she asked me a question which actually surprised me a bit. She asked me If I was still in touch with everyone. For a second I didnt know what to answer and I was like ' yeah I didnt find a reason to not to be in touch with other classmates!'
And the same day I happened to watch 'Happy Days' movie. I seriously miss those days and now wish I shouldve had more fun then. Not that I had any less but I still want to go back and relive those glorious days. Everyday was a different day and an experience in its own.
Ok may be am digressing, coming back to the topic I started with, as to what it takes to remain in touch with people who have been part of your life and have contributed to your life in someway, may be they made you smile or may be someday you had a laugh at them or may be they helped you in some way or you learnt something from them.
Make that effort to get back in touch with all those long forgotten friends, go back to the best days of your life with them, relive your college life! Am sure it will all make you feel the effort was all worth it!
Last week I was chatting with one of my Engineering frens and we were casually discussing about some other classmates. As expected, I was updating her on other classmates and she asked me a question which actually surprised me a bit. She asked me If I was still in touch with everyone. For a second I didnt know what to answer and I was like ' yeah I didnt find a reason to not to be in touch with other classmates!'
And the same day I happened to watch 'Happy Days' movie. I seriously miss those days and now wish I shouldve had more fun then. Not that I had any less but I still want to go back and relive those glorious days. Everyday was a different day and an experience in its own.
Ok may be am digressing, coming back to the topic I started with, as to what it takes to remain in touch with people who have been part of your life and have contributed to your life in someway, may be they made you smile or may be someday you had a laugh at them or may be they helped you in some way or you learnt something from them.
Make that effort to get back in touch with all those long forgotten friends, go back to the best days of your life with them, relive your college life! Am sure it will all make you feel the effort was all worth it!
Today when I meet my friends whom I first met a decade (some more than that) ago, and see how we had been then and where we are now, what we used to discuss then and what we discuss now.. hell lot of change but at the end it seems the effort to plan and meet up was all worth it! else this trip of mine wouldve been useless. We started off with knowing each other, stuck with each other through out the years, discussed boys, gossips, college love stories, marriages, husbands and now kids , their food, their everything!!! From girls to young ladies to moms!
I know everybody is busy with their own lives and you with your own, but believe me, this will do loads of good to you! Go On.. Be a Tiger! Grrrrrr :)
Fitness freaks anyone?
Lazyness personification = Jyotsna .. Thats how I would define my current state of existance. I am now seeing people all around me jogging, working out and eating healthy. So somewhre deep inside there was a guilt pang and this weekend I enrolled myself in apartment Gym and decided that its High time I go the healthy way!
The gym reminded me of my early days of marriage. Both my husband and me were somehow very conscious about putting on weight may be because we didnt want anybody to comment that we put on weight after marriage. So my very smart husband gifted me a treadmill on the first valentines day we celebrated together! ( so much for thoughtfulness) . So those were the days of full on Josh and we used to compete for the treadmill. My turn ur turn natak and all.
Then gradually, he felt that he doesnt need to work out as he is ok but he made sure I continued to work on that. And then one fine day I read somewhere that it is enough if we work out thrice a week and still eat all days in the week ( bless the writer) . So the frequency of using the treadmill came down and yeah it reached a frequency of once or twice a month or whenever I felt the food I had was heavy (which is rarely the case). When someone asked me to count calories that I ate, I started equating foods, like 2 idlys = 1 gulabjamun so I can have 2 gulabjamuns instead of 4 idlis for breakfast :) quit some logic! Slowly I dont know why, i felt 1 idly can be equated to 1 gulabjamun and I knew my math right! that made 4 gulabjamuns for breakfast yess!
Likewise there are many other equations which I certainly wouldnt want to share them all.
Coming back to treadmill, now isntead of using it once or twice a month, we started using it as a towel stand. really, it makes up for such a good stand for drying towel, u can spread it so well. After that, the treadmill accumulated so much dust that it was not such a good idea to dry the towels too. Now the poor treadmill is being completely ignored.. it just stands on one corner of the house( leassssssst used corner and most hated corner of the house) waiting for someone to clean the 1 inch dust piled up on it. I almost feel its screaming for me to dust it but I conviniently dont even look at that side :)
Last month my uncle had come down to bangalore and he was all excited abt the home gym thing ( yeah we have treadmill and a gym ball(with dust) too). He was the one who used it all days when he was here and gave us a lecture on why we should make the best use of them and all, but yeah as expected uncle gaye, baat gayi.
Now I have somehow gathered all the enthu that I can for the gym thing! wish me luck!
The gym reminded me of my early days of marriage. Both my husband and me were somehow very conscious about putting on weight may be because we didnt want anybody to comment that we put on weight after marriage. So my very smart husband gifted me a treadmill on the first valentines day we celebrated together! ( so much for thoughtfulness) . So those were the days of full on Josh and we used to compete for the treadmill. My turn ur turn natak and all.
Then gradually, he felt that he doesnt need to work out as he is ok but he made sure I continued to work on that. And then one fine day I read somewhere that it is enough if we work out thrice a week and still eat all days in the week ( bless the writer) . So the frequency of using the treadmill came down and yeah it reached a frequency of once or twice a month or whenever I felt the food I had was heavy (which is rarely the case). When someone asked me to count calories that I ate, I started equating foods, like 2 idlys = 1 gulabjamun so I can have 2 gulabjamuns instead of 4 idlis for breakfast :) quit some logic! Slowly I dont know why, i felt 1 idly can be equated to 1 gulabjamun and I knew my math right! that made 4 gulabjamuns for breakfast yess!
Likewise there are many other equations which I certainly wouldnt want to share them all.
Coming back to treadmill, now isntead of using it once or twice a month, we started using it as a towel stand. really, it makes up for such a good stand for drying towel, u can spread it so well. After that, the treadmill accumulated so much dust that it was not such a good idea to dry the towels too. Now the poor treadmill is being completely ignored.. it just stands on one corner of the house( leassssssst used corner and most hated corner of the house) waiting for someone to clean the 1 inch dust piled up on it. I almost feel its screaming for me to dust it but I conviniently dont even look at that side :)
Last month my uncle had come down to bangalore and he was all excited abt the home gym thing ( yeah we have treadmill and a gym ball(with dust) too). He was the one who used it all days when he was here and gave us a lecture on why we should make the best use of them and all, but yeah as expected uncle gaye, baat gayi.
Now I have somehow gathered all the enthu that I can for the gym thing! wish me luck!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Mera Bharat Mahaan
Phew.. last few days have been the busiest days of my life till date. Suddenly everything looked important and had to be finished. Found it damn tough to track on stuff. And now am finally here, in US. The place I have been waiting to visit for a long time just to check what it is that attracts so many people here and yeah also out of the fetish for increasing my cross border travel count :)
And guess what.. I don't really like this place and am still wondering how so many of our indians are here. I mean is it out of choice or its just money. People here actually and literally mind their own business which is very unlike us Indians. They will always maintain a fair distance from others. Its just they, their work and then their family and may be their inner circle of friends<>.
I miss Bangalore, I miss my home and I miss my office. Office there was so much fun, I could talk as loudly as I wanted, laugh my heart out and still feel very much correct in my own way! I mean whats wrong in that! The long gossip and bitching sessions during lunch were the best and I miss them the most. I almost knew all my team members family members names and yeah my colleagues husbands sisters husband name also :) . Here I miss all that fun and feel so much out of place. We Indians are so expressive and yeah Loud is the word! But thats the way we are and thats what suits us best!
People come here and try and adapt to these Americans lifestyle and try to own up something thats just not theirs! Aisa bhi kya jeena jisme jeene ka mazza hi na aaye! May be each ones own choice and their way of life.. but for me
East or West.. India is the Best! Jai Hind!
Happy Independence Day folks!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Let live in peace
This has been going on from few years now and now its not a big deal anymore! people have started taking it as any other news as common as sensex fluctuation.
I dont know who is doing all this, who is spreading the fear, who is disturbing the peace and harmony, whoever it is, deserves to be hanged to death not once but over 500 times! Once for every life they took.
On friday afternoon, we were in office and this news spread out that there were serial blasts in Bangalore and at places where most of my friends worked. Everyone was shaken and tried to reach people to ensure their inner circle of friends and family were fine. The phone lines got Jammed and that caused even more panic as there was no other way of reassurance. I had experienced a fear that I never experienced before. Fear of Death. A fear of What If a bomb wa splaced right in our office, what if its there near home, what if its there near Naresh's ofc building.. and several other fears combined with helplessness and anger on some unknown force who was doing all this. I wanted to screa at the top of my voice .. Live and let live people.. you dont have any rights to do this.. to take lives of innocent people.. to spread terror!!
I dont know as citizens of this country what and how we can do something against them coz I know the entire police force is not enough to protect this country of n billion people. We cannot just get used to these thngs and read it in paper and forget about it in a day. This is horrendous.
All of us need to come together , react and retaliate strongly. We clearly outnumber those bunch of terrorists and thats our strength.. we must do something about it. Coz this is not the world we would like to live in and this is not the world we would want our next generation to come in to :(
I dont know who is doing all this, who is spreading the fear, who is disturbing the peace and harmony, whoever it is, deserves to be hanged to death not once but over 500 times! Once for every life they took.
On friday afternoon, we were in office and this news spread out that there were serial blasts in Bangalore and at places where most of my friends worked. Everyone was shaken and tried to reach people to ensure their inner circle of friends and family were fine. The phone lines got Jammed and that caused even more panic as there was no other way of reassurance. I had experienced a fear that I never experienced before. Fear of Death. A fear of What If a bomb wa splaced right in our office, what if its there near home, what if its there near Naresh's ofc building.. and several other fears combined with helplessness and anger on some unknown force who was doing all this. I wanted to screa at the top of my voice .. Live and let live people.. you dont have any rights to do this.. to take lives of innocent people.. to spread terror!!
I dont know as citizens of this country what and how we can do something against them coz I know the entire police force is not enough to protect this country of n billion people. We cannot just get used to these thngs and read it in paper and forget about it in a day. This is horrendous.
All of us need to come together , react and retaliate strongly. We clearly outnumber those bunch of terrorists and thats our strength.. we must do something about it. Coz this is not the world we would like to live in and this is not the world we would want our next generation to come in to :(
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Jet Set Go!!
Sometimes in life, you do some things and you feel really really proud of yourself. Then there are times when you feel extremely disgusted about yourself for something you have done, and you just want the earth to split in to 2 and eat you up!
Sometime back, my husband and me decided to go to Anantapur to visit one of my relatives. Anantapur is around 3 to 4 hours by road from Bangalore.
We can directly go to the bus station and board a bus without any prior reservation for such short travels. But I don't know why I wanted to be extra cautious ( Strictly against my true nature ) and make a reservation well ahead, lest we get the back seats. So I went to this reservation counter, confused the ticketing guy thoroughly asking him for the availability for Friday evening, Saturday morning, Friday afternoon and all other possible routes. Finally I decided on the Friday evening 7 o clock bus to Anantapur and booked 2 tickets. I had cross checked the ticket and clearly saw the date Friday, 7:00.
As is always the case, Murphy's law sprung in to action and I was really busy at office on Friday and I was struggling it out with some issue. It was almost like a nail biting India Pakistan match , here India being me and Pakistan being that irritating issue. 6:00 pm Code change, build, deploy & test --> 6:15 pm doesn't work --> code change build deploy test.... this kept going on and at.. 6:30 pm I just got worked up and finally gave up and told my manager I have a bus to catch at 7 and will look at the issue first thing Monday morning. Poor guy .. I didn't leave him with much option, before he could say anything I was gone.
We had exactly 30 minutes to reach the Bus station which is around 18 kms from our office and it was a Friday evening peak rush hour. Things couldn't have been worse! My Schumacher raced at a speed, zig zagged in the traffic, honked, took all shortcuts possible and finally reached the station JET!!! I could sense the tension and fumes coming out of him, as he suggested me not to make any reservation and second, I didn't drop the travel plan in spite of being stuck at office till the last minute. I knew, I should've cancelled the plan but.. I don't know why!!
So you might have already got the picture by now, I was feeling half guilty for what I did, half ecstatic for we made it in time for the bus!! We got in to the bus and saw that someone else was sitting in our seats. I went to them and said, excuse me, these are our seats, please get up. They didn't ay much and showed us their tickets. Same numbers assigned!! We went and started an argument with the conductor and driver as to how they can allocate the same seats to 2 people and etc etc. Then somewhere in the middle of the heated discussion, the conductor checked our tickets and a very sarcastic smile came thru his idiotic face. He said, Madam, these are today 7 o clock tickets, and I was like yeah so? And then it stuck Naresh, when they say 7 in the ticket they mean 7 in the morning and for evening the timing shudve been 1900!!!!! And here we were, fighting vehemently for our seats which were never ours in the first place!!!!
I can never ever forget the look I got from my husband, for the 20 minute bike chase, 300 rs bus ticket waste and the vehement argument with the driver and conductor for the seats!!!
Peace be with all ... Amen :)
Sometime back, my husband and me decided to go to Anantapur to visit one of my relatives. Anantapur is around 3 to 4 hours by road from Bangalore.
We can directly go to the bus station and board a bus without any prior reservation for such short travels. But I don't know why I wanted to be extra cautious ( Strictly against my true nature ) and make a reservation well ahead, lest we get the back seats. So I went to this reservation counter, confused the ticketing guy thoroughly asking him for the availability for Friday evening, Saturday morning, Friday afternoon and all other possible routes. Finally I decided on the Friday evening 7 o clock bus to Anantapur and booked 2 tickets. I had cross checked the ticket and clearly saw the date Friday, 7:00.
As is always the case, Murphy's law sprung in to action and I was really busy at office on Friday and I was struggling it out with some issue. It was almost like a nail biting India Pakistan match , here India being me and Pakistan being that irritating issue. 6:00 pm Code change, build, deploy & test --> 6:15 pm doesn't work --> code change build deploy test.... this kept going on and at.. 6:30 pm I just got worked up and finally gave up and told my manager I have a bus to catch at 7 and will look at the issue first thing Monday morning. Poor guy .. I didn't leave him with much option, before he could say anything I was gone.
We had exactly 30 minutes to reach the Bus station which is around 18 kms from our office and it was a Friday evening peak rush hour. Things couldn't have been worse! My Schumacher raced at a speed, zig zagged in the traffic, honked, took all shortcuts possible and finally reached the station JET!!! I could sense the tension and fumes coming out of him, as he suggested me not to make any reservation and second, I didn't drop the travel plan in spite of being stuck at office till the last minute. I knew, I should've cancelled the plan but.. I don't know why!!
So you might have already got the picture by now, I was feeling half guilty for what I did, half ecstatic for we made it in time for the bus!! We got in to the bus and saw that someone else was sitting in our seats. I went to them and said, excuse me, these are our seats, please get up. They didn't ay much and showed us their tickets. Same numbers assigned!! We went and started an argument with the conductor and driver as to how they can allocate the same seats to 2 people and etc etc. Then somewhere in the middle of the heated discussion, the conductor checked our tickets and a very sarcastic smile came thru his idiotic face. He said, Madam, these are today 7 o clock tickets, and I was like yeah so? And then it stuck Naresh, when they say 7 in the ticket they mean 7 in the morning and for evening the timing shudve been 1900!!!!! And here we were, fighting vehemently for our seats which were never ours in the first place!!!!
I can never ever forget the look I got from my husband, for the 20 minute bike chase, 300 rs bus ticket waste and the vehement argument with the driver and conductor for the seats!!!
Peace be with all ... Amen :)
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Living with the dead!!!!
Last week my friend and me had to go to office in the night shifts as we had some conf calls with the clients. The whole office looks so desserted in the night. Except for the security guards and us, there were no one else!
One night, in the middle of the week, at around 1:15 in the night , we realised that there was absolutely no one else in the floor, and even the security guard had gone somewhere. And after that we started hearing some wierd sounds as if someone came, but there was no one and we heard double clicks of the mouse when thee was absolutely no one else!!! The girl along with me freaked out completely and started saying sai baba prayer and me.. I was all tensed from inside but had to put up a brave face outwards else she would have freaked out even more! Both of us then decided to leave immediately.
Yesterday it was all the more freaky. We went to the internet kiosk in the breakout area to check our mails. It was around 2:30 then. It was all so so soooo silent! We sat there for 15 minutes checking our mails and then suddenly the coffee vending machine started off with a loud noise and our systems got restarted (with the message "Windows is shutting down"). Both of us jumped out of the chairs, screamed and ran back to the security guards. I was almost in the state of shock and never more scared than that.
We told the guard about what just happened, and that idiot started laughing his dash out!! He said, the coffee vending machines do a self service every four hours and discharge water to maintain some temperatures and the systems at the internet kiosk restart at every 15 minutes. Our sheer bad luck was that both of them happened together and we thought it was some tech savvy bhooth!!!
Isse badda poppat.. kabhi suna kya?? :)
And I thought coming in night shifts only meant lack of sleep.. now I know it has lot lot more to it!
One night, in the middle of the week, at around 1:15 in the night , we realised that there was absolutely no one else in the floor, and even the security guard had gone somewhere. And after that we started hearing some wierd sounds as if someone came, but there was no one and we heard double clicks of the mouse when thee was absolutely no one else!!! The girl along with me freaked out completely and started saying sai baba prayer and me.. I was all tensed from inside but had to put up a brave face outwards else she would have freaked out even more! Both of us then decided to leave immediately.
Yesterday it was all the more freaky. We went to the internet kiosk in the breakout area to check our mails. It was around 2:30 then. It was all so so soooo silent! We sat there for 15 minutes checking our mails and then suddenly the coffee vending machine started off with a loud noise and our systems got restarted (with the message "Windows is shutting down"). Both of us jumped out of the chairs, screamed and ran back to the security guards. I was almost in the state of shock and never more scared than that.
We told the guard about what just happened, and that idiot started laughing his dash out!! He said, the coffee vending machines do a self service every four hours and discharge water to maintain some temperatures and the systems at the internet kiosk restart at every 15 minutes. Our sheer bad luck was that both of them happened together and we thought it was some tech savvy bhooth!!!
Isse badda poppat.. kabhi suna kya?? :)
And I thought coming in night shifts only meant lack of sleep.. now I know it has lot lot more to it!
Friday, July 4, 2008
Govindaa Goovinda!
We went to Tirupati last weekend and believe me, this trip has been more than just a trip to God, but also been an eye opener for me in more than one ways.
I had to come to terms with the fact that God is easily accesible to the rich and influential. The other ones {like us} have to struggle n struggle a lot to get a glimpse of him!
We left on friday night and reached Tirupati by 3:00 am. We went with simple plans that we would get 50 rs sudarshan token and get a darshan of lord at whatever time it is available over the next 2 days. We went to sudarshan ticket counter at the bus and were taken back to see a mile long L shaped queue already waiting for the counter to be opened. It was 3:30 am then. We joined the queue hoping that it wouldnt take much time, once the counter gets opened they process very fastAfter we joined the queue, we got to know that the counter would open only at 5am. We took it easy and felt, as we came on weekend, we had to do some standing in the queues. Time ticked very slowly and it seemed like an eternity before it struck 5! I was eagerly waiting for the queue to move but even at 6 we were at the same place in the queue! Then the queue started moving at ants pace, but we were moving. Then a little later we realised, people were not very keen in following the queue system and lot of people were starting their own side queues(somewhr at the middle or beggining) and joining the main queue. People like us at the far end of the queue, stood where we were!!! and by the time we realised that even we had to do the same thing it was pretty late I guess. and believe me, it takes a lot of guts to join somewhr in the middle and ignore the angry glares and not so good to hear language of the others in queue.
But when we reached that turn of the L shape queue, things worsened. people suddenly started pushing from back, and people in front did not have any place to move. We found it almost impossible to ground our feet! Sandwiched is the right word. And all this after standing 4 hours in the queue. It was 7 o clock then. But what kept us going was that we felt we were almost done, for we were now at the shorter queue that took us to counter. But we were so wrong.. so so so wrong! There was this light at the end of queue whch we thought was the ticket counter and when we reached there, we realised that it was just another turn and the counter was still far far far away!!! and before we reached the counter we had to survive a few more sandwiched turns!!
I would give you some attributes of that sandwiched queue.. Noisy, frustrated, sweaty, smelly, angry and everything else that I cannot put in words. What was more heart rendering was, people with small babies standing in the queue and people caring a damn for those babies and pushing those who were carrying them too!! The agony those angels were put to was just not done! I almost felt like standing up for them and shouting at all others, but there were others who could shout louder than me! :( and yeah so much for good management, for all the people standing in the queue, there was just one ticket counter and the person giving tickets was taking his own sweet time oblivious to peoples suffering! After all this, came the good news when we were at 500 mts from the counter. The tickets for Saturday got over and we had to come and go through the same queue on sunday to get a ticket for sunday. None of us were prepared to do that! Going through that torture again is something I would not do even if someone said they would give me diamonds when i reached the end of queue. No! No No No!
It was 9 o clock and we were standing there at the bus stop, looking like we just came out of a warfield, beaten, bashed, each one of us smelling like onions and ith no tickets ! We had 2 options, one to go back to bangalore without darshan, second to rack up each ones brains and remember anyone and everyone in our friends circle who in turn had some influence at Tirupati through some relatives. Finally after making some calls, we struck Gold. A person who almost seemed like an angel for us at that time said he would arrange for a darshan next day early morning and also for accommodation :) we couldnt have asked for more. We felt we spoke to Lord balaji himself :)
That was the first smile of the day. Then we left for Tirumala and on saturday as we had nothing else to do other than giving mokkulu ( my FIL n MIL had to offer their full hair) , we went around looking for barber counters (Kalyana Katta) . Here too we had queues, but glad that we had to wait only for 2 hrs :)
Next day we were in the darshan queue by 4:30 in the morning. In fact none of us could sleep all night, with the fear that if we missed out on getting up early next day, we might not get a darshan at all. This queue in another story :) people all decked up in jewellery, silk sarees, silk kurtas, pattu panchalu, tommy girl and JLO perfumes and inspite of all this, there was that tirupati typical pushing that we now mastered! This time we managed to hold some ground successfully without getting pushed with no control. But I suffered from some blows in the stomach and back. A lady all decked up in gold gave a me a blow in the stomach with her elbow, pushed me back and joined the queue before me. I was so shocked to even say anything and yeah before I could say anything she was far ahead in the queue :). people behaved as if they were in some big hurry and if hey didnt break the queue, they would not get a darshan. I dont understand what they fail to understand that everybody in the queue will get a darshan and their breaking the system is only going to make it take longer time {for people like us}
In Spite of all this, I tried not to lose my cool and concentrate on God. I realised the time, effort and money that we had put in and how valuable this darshan was. I then realised why my Dad during our earlier trips used to get irritated when I used to giggle and joke in the queue . He always used to tell me not to do that in the queue and concentrate on God as there was nothing more important at that time. Now I comepletel understand why yo scolded me then Dad. Am sorry Dad for all the irritation I caused you!
So this time, I was fully concentrating on Govinda. But there was something missing. Earlier, people in queue used to continously chant Govinda, one of them would say loudly Govindaa and others would follow him. but this time it was not happening. The only people who were doing it were My mother in law and me. She shouted Govinda first and I followed her. Sometimes Naresh joined us meekly :) And the worst part was, when we were doing this, people stared us as if we were a bunch of uncivilised shouting in the queue!! Whatever happened to all those in the past who used to Chant Govinda with full bhakthi. But now we ignored such glares and continued with our chant. It took us 2.5 hrs for the Darshan and those precious 30 seconds of Gods Darshan made us forget all the troubles and effort. It was worth all the way! Such is his charm.. Govindaa Goovinda!
I had to come to terms with the fact that God is easily accesible to the rich and influential. The other ones {like us} have to struggle n struggle a lot to get a glimpse of him!
We left on friday night and reached Tirupati by 3:00 am. We went with simple plans that we would get 50 rs sudarshan token and get a darshan of lord at whatever time it is available over the next 2 days. We went to sudarshan ticket counter at the bus and were taken back to see a mile long L shaped queue already waiting for the counter to be opened. It was 3:30 am then. We joined the queue hoping that it wouldnt take much time, once the counter gets opened they process very fast
But when we reached that turn of the L shape queue, things worsened. people suddenly started pushing from back, and people in front did not have any place to move. We found it almost impossible to ground our feet! Sandwiched is the right word. And all this after standing 4 hours in the queue. It was 7 o clock then. But what kept us going was that we felt we were almost done, for we were now at the shorter queue that took us to counter. But we were so wrong.. so so so wrong! There was this light at the end of queue whch we thought was the ticket counter and when we reached there, we realised that it was just another turn and the counter was still far far far away!!! and before we reached the counter we had to survive a few more sandwiched turns!!
I would give you some attributes of that sandwiched queue.. Noisy, frustrated, sweaty, smelly, angry and everything else that I cannot put in words. What was more heart rendering was, people with small babies standing in the queue and people caring a damn for those babies and pushing those who were carrying them too!! The agony those angels were put to was just not done! I almost felt like standing up for them and shouting at all others, but there were others who could shout louder than me! :( and yeah so much for good management, for all the people standing in the queue, there was just one ticket counter and the person giving tickets was taking his own sweet time oblivious to peoples suffering! After all this, came the good news when we were at 500 mts from the counter. The tickets for Saturday got over and we had to come and go through the same queue on sunday to get a ticket for sunday. None of us were prepared to do that! Going through that torture again is something I would not do even if someone said they would give me diamonds when i reached the end of queue. No! No No No!
It was 9 o clock and we were standing there at the bus stop, looking like we just came out of a warfield, beaten, bashed, each one of us smelling like onions and ith no tickets ! We had 2 options, one to go back to bangalore without darshan, second to rack up each ones brains and remember anyone and everyone in our friends circle who in turn had some influence at Tirupati through some relatives. Finally after making some calls, we struck Gold. A person who almost seemed like an angel for us at that time said he would arrange for a darshan next day early morning and also for accommodation :) we couldnt have asked for more. We felt we spoke to Lord balaji himself :)
That was the first smile of the day. Then we left for Tirumala and on saturday as we had nothing else to do other than giving mokkulu ( my FIL n MIL had to offer their full hair) , we went around looking for barber counters (Kalyana Katta) . Here too we had queues, but glad that we had to wait only for 2 hrs :)
Next day we were in the darshan queue by 4:30 in the morning. In fact none of us could sleep all night, with the fear that if we missed out on getting up early next day, we might not get a darshan at all. This queue in another story :) people all decked up in jewellery, silk sarees, silk kurtas, pattu panchalu, tommy girl and JLO perfumes and inspite of all this, there was that tirupati typical pushing that we now mastered! This time we managed to hold some ground successfully without getting pushed with no control. But I suffered from some blows in the stomach and back. A lady all decked up in gold gave a me a blow in the stomach with her elbow, pushed me back and joined the queue before me. I was so shocked to even say anything and yeah before I could say anything she was far ahead in the queue :). people behaved as if they were in some big hurry and if hey didnt break the queue, they would not get a darshan. I dont understand what they fail to understand that everybody in the queue will get a darshan and their breaking the system is only going to make it take longer time {for people like us}
In Spite of all this, I tried not to lose my cool and concentrate on God. I realised the time, effort and money that we had put in and how valuable this darshan was. I then realised why my Dad during our earlier trips used to get irritated when I used to giggle and joke in the queue . He always used to tell me not to do that in the queue and concentrate on God as there was nothing more important at that time. Now I comepletel understand why yo scolded me then Dad. Am sorry Dad for all the irritation I caused you!
So this time, I was fully concentrating on Govinda. But there was something missing. Earlier, people in queue used to continously chant Govinda, one of them would say loudly Govindaa and others would follow him. but this time it was not happening. The only people who were doing it were My mother in law and me. She shouted Govinda first and I followed her. Sometimes Naresh joined us meekly :) And the worst part was, when we were doing this, people stared us as if we were a bunch of uncivilised shouting in the queue!! Whatever happened to all those in the past who used to Chant Govinda with full bhakthi. But now we ignored such glares and continued with our chant. It took us 2.5 hrs for the Darshan and those precious 30 seconds of Gods Darshan made us forget all the troubles and effort. It was worth all the way! Such is his charm.. Govindaa Goovinda!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)