Food without thought May 30, 2007

Two gobi parathas with onion gravy
One fried egg
One glass of tea
Two britannia chocolate chip cookies
Two rotis, chilly fish, mutton stew, a spoon of curd rice, paneer butter masala, watermelon, mangoes, one chocolate burfee.
10 pringles chips (jalapeno flavour), 12 salted nuts
One coffee

And its only 3:07pm. To add to it, we have team dinner tonight at a place called Tandoors. More hogging. Sigh.

They say cabs are expensive in Dublin. Maybe I can walk across the country and lose weight that way.

I am leaving this Friday, by the way. So wish me luck and all that

Now thats what I call a survey answer May 29, 2007

The trainers in our team send out surveys at the end of each session. Here are some ‘commendable’ answers we got.

Q: Comments on the training program and how it can be made better.

A: Refer to Q3.

Q: What are the areas of improvement that you think your trainer can work on?

A: Please forgive me for being frank. She is perfect! (Of course you are forgiven Sweety!)

Q: What was the most difficult portion in training.

A: Everything was difficult. I don’t remember anything much. (And they expect me to get sleep after this!)

Q: Who was your trainer?

A: I think her name is …… but I am not sure how it is pronounced. She kept saying it so fast. (Oh my God!!)

..more coming soon..

Saturation? Anyone? May 25, 2007

I miss mom. Coming back after a tired day and cribbing to her about a headache. Demanding that she bring me leftover lunch on a plate guessing exactly how hungry I am and bringing just the right amount of rice. She always used to go one step ahead and heat the curry for me. I am feeling all nostalgic about home, Kottayam, the broken roads, the humidity, the language, the horny men, KK Road, aaaaaarghhh.

I want to go home, I want to go home so bad. I know I sound like a little girl throwing tantrums. But I want to go back to that life. Of no responsibilites, of not having to worry abut personal loans, landlords giving us notice periods, shifting houses, maids, quality of trainees, rude cable operators, dirty floor, clothes that might get wet in the rain, leaking roofs. Wow! I never had to worry about any of this. Look at me now! I don’t want to grow up. I feel I am in no-man’s land now. Pretty much no direction, just living each day as it comes, doing what my employer demands of me, eating junk, sleeping and the whole routine starts again.

Not having someone to care for is worse than not having someone to take care of you.

Wow, that last sentence can be understood only if you are smart!

Homesickness at its worst. Saturation too.

Thursday Thirteen #5 May 25, 2007

13 special places in Bangalore (Yes, I am still not over my weekend, sigh..)

1. Forum mall, Koramangala – Its a great landmark to meet people. We just have to say ‘I will stand at the entrance’ and specify whether its the KFC side or the McDonalds side.

2. Landmark in Forum – Have spent hours here, reading, reading and more reading. They never throw you out, you know. Its awesome.

3. The transit food court in Forum – Have shared many a chaat platters and dosas and roast chicken here. Almost always cuz we couldn’t afford to buy one for each of us. Yeah, coming to think of it I was really poor once. Google made me rich. And an avid blogger.

4. Kairali Restaurant – Made me miss mom less. Puttu and kadala, appam and mutta curry, meen porichathu, aviyal.. oooh awesome!

5. Adugodi – The place where I stayed for 3+ months with my friends. The streets of that place have more dogs than rest of Bangalore combined. I was shit scared, yet I love the place.

6. Juice Corner – They have juice cheaper than bottled water! How cool is that. Have had countless musambi and mango juices from there.

7. Domlur – beautiful wide roads flanked by those trees that look brilliant with orange and red flowers. This is where Mafoi is located. The place I went to everyday for almost 4 months. 6 buses each day. My dreams originated from here. And I realised I never wanted to get into recruitment after spending 3 weeks here. Met some beautiful people meanwhile – Mini, Damayanthi, Vignesh, Gazala, Rudresh, et al.

8. Jyoti Nivas College – My friends’ college. Have spent a lot of time on the campus waiting for them, taking pics, reading, day dreaming. Its almost like I studied there. PS: a lot of cute guys used to come there to play basketball. Just added to the aesthetic value of the place

9. Monday to Sunday – the vegetable mart that allowed us to pick out one tomato, one carrot, 5 beans, two potatoes and two onions. It was a blessing for people who didn’t have a fridge and who wanted atleast these basic veggies in not great amounts. Thank you M to S.

10. Commercial Street – Kept making me think ‘one day.. one day I will come back here and buy everything I want. Everything!!’ I know the obvious question. Did I do that? Well, turns out I didn’t really want much from there. But yes, the first time I visted Blore after coming to Hyd, I went there and bought a lot of stuff. I still use some of them.

11. I am kicking myself cuz I can’t remember the natural ice cream place that gave two scoops for 25 rupees. Ouch!

12. Cubbon Park – walks on weekend evenings (as if I didn’t walk enough on weekdays!), 5rs sev puri on the streets (my first taste of chaat and I fell in love instantly). Heaven.

13. The countless buses, the numerous friendly people on the roads that helped me find my way around, the rude autowallahs, the merciless cars, the glamorous billboards, the dogs, the scent, the climate, Jayanagar, and much much more.

I miss Bangalore. I miss home.

I Love You Bangalore May 22, 2007

As I sat in the special train running between Hyderabad and Mysore, I sat thinking about my previous stays in Bangalore. The first city that I was exposed to. The people and the malls and the overpriced movie tickets left me feeling awestruck. My first stay in Bangalore was for my internship for a month at Pathi Prints Silk Saree Export company in Mysore Road. An uncle knew the director of the company and got me the opportunity. With the 3ooo rupees that mom gave I boarded the bus and started my first journey towards independence, towards a career, towards life.

Used to take three buses a day. One to the factory and two back home. I had a knapsack with all the data that I collected for the day. I stayed with two friends who were doing MCA. They were on a strict budget from home too. We would work out how much we can spend on vegetables, milk and groceries and do the purchase together. Once a week we would ‘treat’ ourselves to kababs at the corner dhaba. 10 bucks for 8 pieces. That was our feast and that was our Sunday dinner.

The feeling when I see the wide sidewalks, the trees, the buses, Forum mall, buy any chappal for 100 rupees stalls, juice corner, Kairali restaurant.. Its really unexplainable. I feel at home in Bangalore. The city has seen me at my worst moments. The tears, the pain, being broke, going hungry because I was too tired to cook, waiting for an auto in the rain, the shoe bites because of walking close to 2km a day.. I could go on and on.

Now when I go back, things are different. I can buy whatever I want to from Forum, I can afford the movie tickets, I can treat my friends at KFC, I can buy the top book from the current bestsellers in Landmark without a second thought. I wouldn’t even think of waiting for a bus anymore when I can just take an auto and not look at the meter with a racing heart, hoping I have enough to pay.

But that also means a 10 rupee kabab will not be a treat anymore. I can’t feel as happy and carefree as I did when I washed my clothes and hung them on the windy terrace, I can’t jump from one terrace to another to meet the girls staying next door. Even the tension of having to finish off all the food is something I miss these days. Why should that worry me? I have a fridge now. And even worse is the fact that I can afford to throw it off..

I don’t know if I like it this way or the other. Guess I should just be practical and ‘move on’. Sigh.

Maybe not May 18, 2007

I was looking around for a three column template for my blog (yes, again) and came across this pretty one above. I even uploaded it and stared at how my post looked for some 5 mins. That’s when I chickened out and reverted to my old one. But I lost the link list I know, I messed up big time and lost all your links. I know some of your web pages but not all, so, of you be a darling and do two things for me:

a) Leave a comment with your blog address

b) Also tell me what you think about the above template and and if you think I should go with that. Anyway I have to add all your links and other stuff so might as well do it at one go.

May 18, 2007

Comments link missing for the last post too Any ideas on why this is happening?

Some random things and a tag May 17, 2007

Random things first:

There is something refreshing in listening to those songs that don’t fall into your ‘favourites’ list. Rosh is right, there is peace in the unknown and the unfamiliar. (I had to say this, as much as I hate the words ‘Rosh is right!’).

Today I realised that I do choose a book by its cover if I can’t find the one I am looking for. I wanted to borrow ‘The Twentieth Wife’ by Indu Sundaresan from the office library. Somebody had already borrowed it so went through the available books and found this book with a pretty cover. And here I am, shamelessly blogging about it. (To see what book it is, check out the side bar on the right of this page).

Someone sent out an email in office that talks about blogs worth million dollars! Whoahh! Do you think I will get there? (Only people who want to answer YES need comment on this question). Check out the article here.

I have been tagged by shammu and I need to do that now so here goes..

Rules for this tag!

1. The person who was tagged will just have to make an introduction and link back to who tagged you.
2. List your five reasons as to why you blog.
3. Choose five people and tag them.
4. Drop a comment on their blog to let them know they were tagged. And it’s done!

Ah, five reason eh?

Ok let me think.

* How it began (think I have mentioned this before but its ok to say nice things again and again and again..) This happened beginning of last year.

D: “Hey N, I am looking for the lyrics of Sudum Nilavu from Thambi. Do you have it?

N: Who was totally crazy about that song quickly types it in notepad and sends it across to D.

D: “Wow, thanks. Which site did you find it?”

N: “Typed it myself yaar. Enjoy”

D: “Oh awesome. You should put it up on your blog”

N: “Oh yeah I should” (in her mind she is thinking all cool people seem to have a blog and she should also start one and be cool herself)

That’s how it all began. Check out the first post here.

* After some more song lyrics, I realised this was getting boring and there were a zillion sites out there who had lyrics in them so what’s the point? That’s when I realised I need to do some serious documentation of my life. Out came the briliant idea that I should put up pics on my blog so that it becomes easy for family and friends to view. Its all in one place! That’s why most of my initial posts are just pics. Like here, here and here.

* Then came a phase of self-pity and heartbroken lover kinda posts. No comments on why or what. It was just was a bad phase. I found a release in my blog, a solace which nothing or nobody else could give me.

* Then, my friends, then, I put up a song that I came across somewhere and liked a lot. And I got comments from people I didn’t know. It was such a heady feeling. Absolutely awesome. Here is the post that earned me fame (yeah I exaggerate, but so do you ). So that’s the phase when my blog used to fan my ego.

* Now, blogging has become more of a passion. I frame sentences in my head while experiencing something. I put captions and titles to moments. I obsess about the template and use an unhealthy amount of time looking for others. I am never satisfied. I refuse to compromise. My blog takes up a good amount of my time every day. And I couldn’t be happier about the small circle of friends I have found because of this tiny page in the corner of the Internet. This is me, this is my life and these are my thoughts (edited sometimes keeping your interests in mind).

Shammu, thanks for this tag. Really got me thinking.

I really don’t want to tag anyone specific this time. Please do take it up if you want to ask yourself why you do this, why do you blog? Do leave a comment if you intend to write. I want to read why too

And I thought I was the one who was nice.. May 14, 2007

Recently met up with S while in Gurgaon. His roomy A is a malayali and was in the Hyderabad office until he relocated recently to Gurgaon.

S: Hey N, how come you never really talk to A? You guys are both mals right? I have never seen you talk..

N: (in a wise tone, or so the thought) Well S, here is something that you need to know about mals. They treat others mals terribly, especially when they are out of Kerala. Why, when we pass each other in the corridor, we look through each other. I don’t know why he thinks I should be ignored. Donno what’s wrong, seriously.

S: (looking quite wondestruck and obviously I had to think it was cuz of my wise words till he said) Wow N, this is amazing. This is exactly what he said when I asked him why you guys never talked. Exactly. Its amazing how each one of us think we are different from the pack, eh?

N: (feeling quite speechless) he did? ohh.. (quickly thinking of why she should have been the one to be talked to first) But I was new in office and he never really spoke to me unless….

Bottom line? This is the reason why mals are not nice to each other outside our state. We think the other is not nice and wants to ignore us, and we feel we are doing everything right. Atleast we are united in this feeling.

Sigh (and to think I am not even a proper mal except for the fact that I grew up in Kerala. Trust me on this, the place you grow up in makes you into who you are, not your ancestral descent. This goes out to all those people who claim they’re part of the Royal Family. No use guys, were you brought up in Chandighar, or Delhi, or Maharashtra, or Kerala? Then that’s it. That’s who you are)

Thursday Thirteen #4 May 10, 2007

13 things that I use every day

1. My toothbrush

2. My phone (wake up looking at it, go to sleep looking at it, use it for alarm, music, time, messages, calls, reminders..) wow!

3. My watch – I feel incomplete stepping out of the house without it

4. My music player – I know this sounds all ‘ohh where is my ipod” haughty stuff but I use it every day in the cab and even on weekends just before I go to sleep

5. Laptop – Property of Google. Used extensively by me. The day I need to return this, I will get one of my own.

6. This is a boring post.

7. I can’t find more stuff cuz most of the things I use over the weekend I don’t use during weekdays. And vice versa. Like the Internet.

8. Ok guys, you have to forgive me for a stupid Thursday 13.

9. And sorry lemon, for messing up this idea of yours.

10. Does this mean you guys are not gonna read my blog anymore…?

11. Do I see people leaving without reading the next two points…??

12. Oh my god! What am I doing?

13. Ok, the damage is done and I am a boring dumbass hehe..

Sorry guys!!