Science can be sexy!

Being a wonk (as Brits would say) or a nerd/geek is usually a bad thing. If you're too interested in science or (god forbid) you choose that as your profession, you can forget about ever being called hot or sexy. You're more likely to be that boring person in stuffy clothes and glasses that stands in a corner at party and bore people to death whenever you open your mouth to talk.

Well guess what? That stereotype is going out the window! Bono might be one of the sexiest men in rock, but the experts say Dr. Michael Manga is the sexiest man in rocks. Infact, the People magazine rated him as one of the sexiest men alive in 2005!

Dr. Michael Manga, a geophysicist of Indian origin, who is at the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley has been selected the 'Sexiest Man Alive' by People magazine along with Hollywood superstars Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt along with Matthew McConaughey, Matt Damon, Jake Gyllenhaal and Orlando Bloom among others.

"My first inclination, of course, was to say no, because that's not how I perceive myself," Manga, father of two boys, said. "But it is a way to let people know about science and that it is ok to be a scientist."

While idly browsing the net for any other articles on Dr. Manga, I also came across a blog by three women science journalists which categorises their blog-post about Dr. Manga under "men whose babies we want to bear!"

Thought for the day
Albert Einstein, Abdul Kalam, and now Michael Manga: Is being a celebrity scientist all in the hair?!

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall..

I have been wishing for a while that my life would slow down. Slow down enough to smell the proverbial flowers and listen to birds chirping. The wish came true! Partly!

I slowed down but the life continues to zip past me in full-speed. I ass-tobogganed down an old set of stairs last evening. I put my weight down on a step that was (1) slanted (2) green and (3) wet. I lost my balance and fell down 6 steps headfirst...but while that was happening I put my arms out because I didn’t want to break any bones. I ended up doing a number to my legs and smacked my cheek right on the door at the bottom of the stairs. I now nurse a bruise on my leg, which is phantasmagoric, horrific, and painful.

R, Pointy-Haired Boss' Boss being here does not help either. He has been keeping me on my toes since he got here on Monday and is likely to do so until he leaves which hopefully is this weekend. I am already turning blue. The man does not even give you time to breathe. We have always shared a love-hate relationship. He can be so irritating sometimes that he incites violence into a non-violent person like me.

The man wants to give a State-of-the-Union address to the employees and has tasked me to produce a movie showcasing our glorious years. This is my chance to show the world my directorial skills... Bollywood, here I come! Limping!

It Takes One Crazy Place to Glue Me Down~

RM just came to my cabin to wish me Happy 5th Anniversary! We were both hired on the same day, and went through our Boot Camp (Orientation program) at the same time. Our anniversary is actually tomorrow, but the scum is taking the day off. :)

I can't believe I've worked here 5 years already, which is such a rarity in today's world! Employee loyalty is dissipating and most of us work for short-term goals. I have a great time these last 5 years and also the company has looked after me. To date, I am still the youngest Manager in the company but oldest employee (in terms of service) in the company. Some have even christened me "Dinosaur" and off late "The wall", punning from the "Pillar-of-the-Company award" which I won last year. At lunch, everyone was pulling the Dinosaur’s leg. It has nothing to do with my size but the fact that I had been around for so long that I should be extinct by now. Maggie asked me if I was eighteen when I started. Too funny!!

5 years! Wow! Time sure flies when you are having fun. I was the sixth employee in the company, we are 1000+ strong today and still a great company to work for. Despite the obnoxious boss[es], the unthinkable tasks [sometimes]… I guess I’d borne this company for its people! Ok, lemme rephrase… for SOME of the people here! Amidst the craziness, SOME of the people here keep me sane… keep me on the ground and most importantly, keep me smiling! I'll definitely look back at these years with fond memories.

To my Partners-In-Crimes (RT, GR, NG, RM, AG) who never fail to entertain me with all sort of absurd jokes in the middle of many confusing afternoons. Thanks for the tireless jolly times and you!

To supposedly "most brilliant hacker" who’s been here 365 days less than my 1826 days. Thanks for making me question what and why am I doing again and again and again and again and again and again…

To my “where on Pluto Planet is my paycheck?!” Thanks E for accepting my late claims and helping me with my financial planning *wink*

To the Super Boss (R), who constantly kept me on my toes and molded me into a "Count Dracula" of a boss (just like him).

To ND, DP, V, RK; my team members for bearing and supporting a Count Dracula of a Manager like me. I sure drove you crazy with my incessant requests for last minute data.

To RM (bookworm like me who hates lending his books), for initiating "Beson" (Better Sona) project and introducing me to the pleasures of writing. And for playing the (some what grumpy) chauffeur and picking me from the station even at 5:00 am.

To PS for being my Mentor. Thanks for helping the gauche shy girl settle into the corporate world and learn the ropes... the diplomacy... the double speak.

To AG for bailing me out with krackjack biscuits and chips and other goodies tucked away in your desk,whenever I missed my lunch.

To RT, the baby sister I never had.. You needed to be constantly watched over and all the boys making a beeline for your desk had to be beaten up. You trust too easily girl!

To the ONLY boss (Pointy-Haired) I kinda like, maybe because so clueless… hehe! You rock!

To the most annoying Mr. Nosey whose inquisitiveness I had to bear till I moved in to my cabin.

To the rest, whom I haven’t gotten the time to tag you, but of course I do appreciate your presence…

Somehow it had slipped out my mind, even though the beautiful award sits pretty at my desk. I recently won the “Super Star” award at our Employee Day. As the name suggests, it goes to the Star Performer in the company. :) Yup! That’s me! Super Star is a coveted award and only a handful of employees have won it! I will cherish this awards, especially since it may be the last award I win. I have put down my papers and am serving my 2 months notice period. It was a very sad day for me but I had no choice. Ma needed me! May 1 is my last working day. Not sure how the workaholic moi will survive the idyllic days after that.

I finally finished reading Zadie Smith's brilliant book 'White Teeth' . It is, without doubt, one of the most well written books I've read in sometime now. It effortlessly swings from Jamaica in the beginning of the 20th century to England in the 70s to Europe during World War II to Bangladesh in the 1960s and back England in the late 1990s, criss-crossing between a Catholic, Muslim and a Jewish family. Totally riveting!

Unrelated Note to Self: Self-Preservation. Is. Needed. Don't give in to the urge. Hang in there girl!

Back to work, life and hell

The prodigal is back... from a vacation that would make most green with envy. Imagine I had Casuarina groves, blue waters of the Arabian Sea, corals, chirping crickets, milky white sands and a wonderfully desolate beach for company. Besides that there was almost no electricity, no cable, no oily food and certainly no fat screeching tourists with their runny nosed kids. Just a bunch of people like us who had come to soak the pristine beauty. What more could a gal ask for!

But it really wasn't a vacation. We were celebrating the Employee Day (an annual ritual for team bonding and recognizing the contributions of employees of our company) at Devbagh Beach Resort in Karwar Uttara Kannada region). We started from office at 9:00 PM on Friday. The bus journey was terrible. It was a good 17-hour ride, lots of stops in between, a few traffic jams... and what made it seem even longer and frustrating was the Antakshari! I tried to participate for a while...but gave up. Man, its horrible to hear a bunch of South Indians belt out Hindi numbers. My head was already bursting due to the stupid AC right above me added to the shrilly voices.

We stopped at a little hut at about seven in the morning, I guess it was somewhere near Hubli. This guy was making fresh mouth watering appams. Big foodie that I am, couldn't resist. He served it with coconut chutney, potato curry and chick pea gravy, gawwd... It was out of the world! One of the best Appams I’ve ever had. Or was I just desperate and hungry? Finished it off with a round of hot Chai. That kept me in a good mood for a while.

We reached Karwar and had to take 10-minute boat ride from the Kodibagh jetty on the backwaters of the Kali. Our motorboat skimmed the surface of the river under the Kali bridge and sped to our destination - Devbagh Beach Resort. It first appeared as a tiny speck on the horizon. A deserted, uninhabited island! Soon we could see the whole island. A Paradise Unexplored!

We made it to Devbagh at about 1 PM. I was ready to eat and crash out! Unfortunately, our gang is full of enthu cutlets who wanted to jump into the water right away. Getting baked under the hot summer sun is not my idea of fun. So I opted out and instead crashed out in our swiss-style tented cottage. AC and JK joined me. Woke up in the evening, walked up to the beach which was surprisingly empty. Heard later that most of the guys had drowned themselves in pints of beer and were nursing hangovers. Thank God for that! There were these tall pine trees all along the coast, the sands were white and water blue. It was like stepping into a beachside version of a Wodehouse-ian setting. I think Bertram Wooster would have approved...

We ran to the water. Waited in anticipation as the first wave hit. It was, don't know how to put it- 'liberating'. All of us went crazy, jumping in the water, splashing one another,throwing sand on each other, collecting shells... we were 8 year old again and it felt great. Its a different feeling when there is no one around you, watching what you do, and you can just be yourself! Act like a retard and not be bothered!

As the sun began its rapid descent down the horizon, the sky turned a firey Orange. The sunset was brilliant.

Evening turned to night. The sky was pitch black. There were a million stars. A couple of ships in the twilight. The moon came out. Tiny lights in the black ocean from some ship far away. The mighty waves hitting the shore. A flashlight hitting us every thirty seconds from a distant lighthouse. Silver waves just below the moon. Sparkling dot stars. Listening closely to the sound of the waves, they did actually seem to sound like an 'Om'. It felt like a different planet. Or I think I was a bit high. We didn't feel like going back to our rooms after dinner.

Next morning, we were scheduled for a boat ride to go 'dolphin watching'. After a quick breakfast, we were all was damn kicked about spotting dolphins, quickly hopped on to our boat and headed into the backwaters. We spotted around three dolphins in all.. two of them were pinkish, and the third was a greyish black, I reckon. I took only one pic and that too from a distant. As we went crosser, I was transfixed. I preferred just watching them intently rather than focusing through a camera.

Banana boat ride was next on the agenda. This was good fun, five of us on this long banana like tube, which was pulled full speed by a motorboat, and all of a sudden they topple us and we land thud on the water. Struggle to climb up onto the tube again, and topple again. This happens some 4-5 times... It was awesome!

We didn't do much the rest of the day, I felt like a good nap, on the hammock under the tall pine tress. Slept for a good two hours. It was so peaceful. I had such wonderful dreams, I don't remember now... but then I did. Went back to the beach again, we were quiet, it was time for us to leave. We knew it. Time had flown. It was back to the grind. Back to monotony. We took a last group snap, before we headed back to Karwar town in a ferry. And then we boarded our buses somberly and headed back to reality.

Sigghh! It was great while the dream lasted. Am back to work... Little darker and sun-burnt. Drinking tons of coffee to stay awake. Preparing for the review (aka performance) discussion with the pointy-haired boss. Replying to the gazillion mails in my in-box. Catching up on the news. A captain's knock by Rahul Dravid and an inspired bowling performance led by Anil Kumble saw India turn the tables. Congrats India!

Ending this post by wishing everyone a joyful and colorful Holi! We don’t have a holiday tomorrow. The Tambi's are as ignorant about Holi as the North Indians are about Bisebhille Bhaat. So I had to forgo a leave to celebrate the Holi. We have quiet a few guests at home.. More the merrier to color! I overheard my little nieces and nephews last night, plotting to ambush and drown S Mausi in bucketful of colors. Little devils!! Will show them! Mausi has a few tricks up her sleeve.

Layla, you've got me on my knees.....Layyyyla....

This post has been pending for a solid week now. For whatever reason, my blog post page would not load. Would not load no matter how much I begged or threatened. It wouldn’t load on the laptop at home. It wouldn’t load on the office computer. It wouldn’t load using AOL, Mozilla, or Internet Explorer. And I was trapped, unable to post, feeling like a horrible blogger. But now it works. Thank God for small mercies!

It was a hectic week, just the way the workoholic me likes it. The new development in the office are the ergonomic chairs. We have all been issued one. My "ergonomic" office chair is killing me. It's designed to force me to sit in the proper way so that my spine aligns with the stars, but I don't want to sit that way. It's not comfortable. So I rebel against the chair and sit the way I want to and my back has never hurt more. I know I could probably just give in and sit straight with both feet flat on the floor but I don't wanna. I wanna slouch and cross my legs. Stupid chair!

BP got back on Friday and I cooked him a special "home coming" candle night dinner. As Kylie Kwong says, when you cook with your heart and soul, it shows. And it did! BP loved it! In case some of you are wondering what's on the plate... Its the dessert, the final clincher. Strawberry cheesecake!

If weekdays were busy, weekends are getting even more hectic. Last weekend hubby dear’s best friends just happen to give us a surprise by dropping in. AD is the he and J is she in the post. Some weekend rambling: (I feel like using bullets today ;))

* I repeat AD is an amazing drummer. We went pub-hopping on Saturday. We visited Taika, a very eclectic club that satisfies both the need to dance and relax. It has a beautiful waterfall and river that runs through the center of the main room with floating rose petals. This main room consists of huge couches with tons of pillows. This is a great area to lay around, have a casual conversation. Then we headed off to Geoffrey's who had a live band that evening. AD played drums for us at the bar and he was just terrific. The crowd agreed and he got a standing ovation when he finished. We wound-up the night at Legends of Rock.

* I am in love with Eric Clapton, yeah again. :) Most of the numbers played that evening at Geoffrey's were Clapton's. Layla, Tears in Heaven, Cocaine, Wonderful tonight...

* J (the she) loves lot of things that I love too. We struck a wonderful chord with each other.

* BP transforms to this new and unknown person every time he is with his best buds. He turns into a schoolboy who just wants to have fun and nothing else.

*I noticed that I COULD actually get up early in the morning and make others comfortable by playing the domestic diva. Preparing the bed tea, getting the b'fast ready, squeezing fresh orange juice, cleaning up after the guests... I was the perfect hostess!

* Played poker for the first time and I am starting to like the game a lot. I lost a few times initially but I caught up in the end. Made a 100 bucks!

In the coming weekend we are celebrating our Employee Day, which is an annual event where all of us from office head-off to an over-night trip for some "bonding". This year we are going to Devbagh Beach Resort in Karwar (Ghats of Karnataka). It's gonna be so cool!

I end the post with a beautiful thought, "We have to believe. Have to have hope. Have to live our lives thinking that its actually Santa Claus who climbs down the chimney. If you stop believing in Santa Claus.....its downhill all the way!" Thanks MGA!

This is as good as it gets

"I wish I knew how to quit you."
---Jack Twist to Ernis del Mar, Brokeback Mountain