Festivities and Fireworks

'....cause I am leaving on a jet plane, and I do know that I would be back on 8th again!'

Yuppie! I am going on a vacation. One whole week. "All set and raring to go" shall be my YM status today. Going to Delhi, Mathura and Dehradoon. Will be meeting my nephews, cousins and mausi's after eons. Its definitely going to be a fun week especially with Diwali round the corner.

I love this time of the year. I love the slight nip in the air and the unadultrated look of joy on people's faces. I love the beautiful multiple coloured lights. I love looking at people shop. I love being with my family, lighting diyas, making a rangoli and gorging on mithai. This time of the year gives me hope. It tells me that no matter how bad things are, they'll look up and that there really is someone up there who is looking out for us.

This year, I don't quite feel that way. Too many things are going wrong in the world. Too many natural calamities. Too many man-made tragedies. Too much sadness.

But a passing thought before I rush for the festivities: This Diwali try to light up someone's face instead of just lighting diyas and candles. Not a clique but really do something.

Our nation is a nation of extremes, rains on one side and desert on other, hot and humid on one end and cold & snowy on another. The the biggest divide is that of the rich and poor. Every Diwali while I shop for festivities I see people right outside the sweet shops begging to get some money. What does Diwali mean to them? On one end, I always see houses well lit up and on the end end I could witness small lamps symbolising Diwali in small huts. We spend exhorbitantly on the festivites, if we could just tone down a bit and make someone else happier it would be great. But I could very well be wrong, how can I say that someone who has money would be happier than someone who doesn't?

Again caught in a paradox! Better get back to work, before I leave on a Jet plane.... (actually Kingfisher!!)

A few days early, but Happy Diwali, everyone! :) Enjoy maadi!

Bangalore getting 'Bangalored'?!

Rains have been following me everywhere. First, Baroda and now Bangalore. It has been raining cats, dogs and every other animal in Bangalore and other parts of South India since the weekend.

Today, I was happily plonking away at my keyboard at work, while people around me ran helter-skelter and started leaving for home. Yeah, the rain outside seemed a tad on the heavier side, but I didn't think anyone needed to panic. It was just rain after all. Then came the announcements via smses by the Police Commissioner that "due to heavy rains/water logging, drain system is badly affected. Trees have also fallen. There are traffic jams on most roads. It was advisable to return / stay home." Hmmm. That seemed serious then.

But not to me! (I heard enough about it from Ma, so don't any of you start!!) I've survived heavy rain before, even floods in Baroda. This was not such a big deal. Ha! Most people seemed to just melt away. I was left alone with a couple of more colleagues. They lived close by and so they didn't worry about getting home. We finished up our work and at 6 PM, I was ready to go home. The rain seemed to have abated a bit, but water flowed all over the roads and umbrella in hand, I splashed my way through to the car park.

What follows was totally nightmarish! The drive back home was harrowing and what normally takes me around an hour took almost five hours. As it is, we in Bangalore are struggling with pathetic roads and bad traffic conditions and the incessant rains made things much, much worse. The roads were flooded with water, at some places around 3-4 feet of water. The water was so deep at one place that it actually entered my car. At other parts, the traffic just wasn't moving. Not an inch! Two hours wait at the Kormangala - Ring Road junction. The traffic cops just kept diverting traffic. At one point, I was so close home but the cops said that the road ahead had been closed and diverted me again. Another long wait in the traffic pile-up. At one point, I just wanted to abandon the car and walk home. Anyways, inched my way with the traffic and reached home at about 11:00 PM.

Ma was waiting with her danth (scoldings) and hot soup. Some warm food in the belly and I was as good as new. Well almost! It was time to catch with others. Almost everyone had a tough time getting home but were all safe. October 26th!! Will remember this experience for a long time.

Time to tuck in...

Nighty Night!

Guess! Its time

..... for an update. Ah well, it isn't as though anything overly interesting has been happening in my life that I need to update on a daily basis. Actually that’s true most of the times but the last 3 weeks have been crazy. Frankly, I don’t even remember where I had stopped but I shall just tell you all the things that I can recall.

For starters, I had been waiting to announce the exciting news about this new job for which I was interviewing with a NASDAQ listed product development company, where your chotu se S would have been the HR Director for the Asia-Pac region; with Japan, Singapore, China and India offices under her direct purview. How cool is that!! But…

The company in question took its own sweet time reverting back (after 6 grilling rounds of interview) with the offer. First, K (the HR Head) was traveling and then SD (honcho in India) was sick and blah blah and so they took almost 20 days to get back. By then, I had lost the enthusiam about the new job and also forgotten the reason why I was looking for a change in the first place. Plus for a host of other reasons, I refused the offer. Basically, I buckled under the pressure from my pointy-haired boss and R (our CEO) . Everyone knows the love-hate relation I share with Richard and also the fact that I cannot refuse him anything. So here I am, back to where I started.

AC, NG & RM were livid. They thought this was such a great opportunity to catapult my career to the next level. Imagine being Asia-Pac HR Director at the tender age of XX. But honestly, I am not really a career woman. I am more of a relationship person. The new job meant a lot of travel, leaving precious little time to spend with my family (and hence Ma was not very keen about the job either. Infact she didn’t even pray for me. I had a big fight with her on that) And I would have missed the friendship and fun I had with colleagues here in my current company. There was one positive outcome though. I got a BIG raise!

Then what else? I completed another year of existence on this planet on October 24. Spend the night partying crazily at Taika. I got so drunk that I had to be lugged back home. Woke up with a major hang-over. Stumbled till the mirror to find my face decorated with cake. BTW, there were 4 birthday cakes that night. Everyone was so excited about my b’day. Phone rang continuously and smses poured in the whole day but I was waiting for just one person to wish me. :o( He didn’t in person but did send me 2 e-cards. Tons of flowers, chocolates and presents along with a skirmish with AS (aka Hagar the Horrible) completed the day.

I have been so wrapped in myself and my misery of late that I failed to notice the effort and the pain everyone took to make my day extra special. Today as I reflect back, I feel extremely selfish. Thank you God for the wonderful friends and family you have given me! I know I complain perennially to / about you but I know deep inside that I am truly blessed.

There were so many presents; I just can't remember all of it... The best gifts weren't the material ones though. The ones I liked best were these -- the cake AC & RM sneaked into Taika, Rohit’s excited voice wishing me a very very happy birthday at the stroke of midnight, T’s bone-crushing hug, the way she and RT decorated my face with cake, PS phone call @ 2 am in the morning of the 24th to apologize for not wishing me happy birthday at the crack of midnight, Belly’s face when I opened her gifts, N's smile when she walked in to the house with the cake she made for me herself (it was dee..lish..ous, by the way!), the thought behind the Lillies sent by BP (he remembered that they were my favorite flowers), msg on the company board which said "Happy Birthday S", my brother's hug (he never hugs me otherwise), love in my ma’s eyes as woke me up with a hot cuppa chai, dad’s tender kiss on my forehead …… Can anyone ask for anything more?