Coffee time!!

Coffee time. Agree to the fact that coffee beans are one of the most tastiest discoveries of mankind. When I was a kid used to wonder why Nescafe adds used to be so expressive and odd, though I loved the theme song. Now I can speak about it. The aroma of coffee enlightens your taste buds and all that annoys you is just blown off your mind.

I never remember one instance during my college days when I had coffee. Most of the so called break-time was spend chatting and roaming around. Since my footsteps found their way to the corporate world, I could realize how important and evident the coffee break was. At Bangalore, it used to be Café Coffee Day – everyone’s favorite coffee station. I bet coffee costs at least 10 time more than the normal ones you get in the cafeteria or the ones you can just make yourself. Still you find a flock of folks camping around the place waiting for their much awaited cup of relief. Since I am in foreign land – the place is different though the trend is all the same – Starbucks!!

Everyone have their own stories to share for ones love towards coffee. For some it is more than an addiction, where coffee finds its place among the most necessary elements of life. The coffee cup is refilled each time they walk by the shop. I swear there are folks for whom coffee and its taste really doesn’t matter – they should be looking forward for sometime outside work. I don’t blame them as I fit into the same at times. Here goes my justifications for a coffee break. Mostly it is to accompany colleagues and get some room for quality chit-chat. There can be millions of topics to discussed over coffee, which changes with the crowd. Most extensive topics being discussion around work, people and the chores - Nothing worth is being spoken or exchanged, sheer cribbing and complaints which are supposed to ease out the work load. Managers discussing how to make people work more or to snatch more projects from the client side. Some may look serious and hang around with the intention of hitting that complicated design or idea which can make the whole system work. Another important batch discussing all big money and strategies.

You may miss an important meeting or appointment. But when it strikes 4 in the evening, there forms a never ending thread at the coffee place. I have always found this job @ coffee shop very interesting. You get to see and talk to a large crowd daily, who will value you for that cup of coffee you brew for them. A bunch of delight that makes a person’s day!

A Kind Act

It is true to a greater extend that people react different to situations. That is not what I actually meant, - it is how every individual act to a particular situation. I know it is wrong imposing my thoughts on anyone, but this one will win an exclusion- I swear after you read it.

After office hours, I rushed to the bus stop down stairs. I could see the bus approaching when I was struggling to get out of the double door exit. This was the last Express bus to my place for the day and hence my last straw to cling to. As the name suggests, it is really an express – takes some 8 odd minutes to my apartments. I had the bus pass with me and went near the counter to swipe it for the ride. Guess what!.. I see it declined. Tried the same exercise of pushing the ticket again and again, but in vein. The bus has already started moving, almost touching the freeway and was impossible to get off the vehicle. I asked him (the driver) how much it cost for the a single ride. He told me some 2.40$. And now where is the money coming from?? I know I carry less cash with me, and whatever I have is usually spend in the vending machines. I told him, “Give me little time, I will get you the money”. The driver gave me a pale look and nodded.

I moved to the very next seat and started frantically looking for the money. I realized for the 100th time that the pouches in my bag are really messed up. It had all those useful and petty. Bills, my wallet, the iPod, some 10 pens – of which most never worked, house keys, lip gloss, sanitizer and all possible crap. I would have appeared a lunatic to the crowd, desperately looking out for the coins. I knew that a considerable part of the audience were those Indian people who get down at my same stop. Even saw familiar faces, but to whom I have not spoken much. At last I could find out a 20$ note from my wallet. I knew there is no other way left out, but to sacrifice the piece of money than undergo any more embarrassment. Suddenly that 20$ seemed to be a big money for me, and it poked my guilt for not keeping the change.

I got up from the seat and was moving towards the counter – heard someone call me from behind. An old lady, she was an American who was seated near to mine. She was a silent spectator to all the chaos I have created. She called me back and asked me not to give the money I had for the ticket. In place she gave me her bus pass, and asked me to swipe it. More than being reactive, I was puzzled. I was not sure what to do as this was the most unexpected one. I kindly refused, and she told me “Kid there are lot of things you can use your money for, but this bus ticket is not worth it”. I went to swipe the pass and the bus driver gave me grumpy look for taking all the time. I returned the pass and thanked her. I knew it was much more than what I told her, she saved me from the huge embarrassment I could have suffered. I looked around and could see lots of heads slip down in shame, for being insensitive and inhuman. I knew I would have helped out anyone in such a situation. Was really happy to meet this person – her name was Stacy, and was so impressed by what she did. The little time I spend in the bus, we spoke about work and our families. My stop reached and waved bye to her as I got down.

Walking back home, I was just thinking about the whole incident. It was sad to find that people really look forward for a reason to help each other. If you have no business with that person who is in trouble, you make yourself invisible. In spite of all that happened, I felt light meeting a good person. This reminded me the whole world has not yet turned bad.

Nature's Bliss

Even though time shows 4:40PM in my laptop clock – I am still living the morning hour. Eyes are closing and opening at the frequency of the butterfly flicker. I have had very less sleeping hours all this week, and my heart calls heavily for the Friday. I know the weekend just passed and it is only Wednesday. Slept around 3 AM the last night, after all shopping mania for my friend's brand new home set up. I swear it takes tons of patience and willingness to get on to this effort. It is like one of the nasty project, which has no requirement documents or pointers. The dead line will be well defined and fast approaching. I remember screaming at him (my friend) every time my head aches or leg pains.

I know I set up the alarm deliberately every night for a wakeup call. I remember it ringing for some 10 times today morning before I could find out the silly piece and switch it off. Checked the time and it way more late than I could imagine. It was around 9:20 AM, and I had just had some 20 mts to get ready. The day @ office was more horrible than any. I could barely keep my eyes open for long. I am stuck in a meeting now – can hardly make out what is getting discussed. I am trying to catch every word that is been spoken. Suddenly experiencing the odd feeling of letters flying all around me. It was just like the “Tare Zameen Par” movie experience. It is raining outside heavily and my crazy imagination rings – what if the buildings have no roof. I am sure everyone is gonna run and hide themselves. But I am not moving away, will stretch my hands to hug the lovely gift of nature.

Something distracted me, and the first thing to check was if I have a wet laptop. Good heavens! – it was not the real rain. And now there is some question raised in the call that is posted to me –“ So Viji is that how the functionality is expected to work??” – One of those embarrassing moments which I face most of the times, still with no signs of shame I asked – “I could not exactly catch your question – can you come again please?”. Typical effects of day dreaming. By the time the call ended, just rushed to the window to check if it is still pouring. The rained has calmed down for a while and people are rushing home. Another check on the time – it is 5:10 PM. The launch down stairs was all wet and the dark sky still gives me hopes of more rain. Wrapping up for the day with a good bye note to the ‘Christmas Santa’ on my desk – “Thy shall see me tomorrow”.

Not Another Monday!

I am scared to turn back and think about yesterday. Right from the start of the day, everything was going disastrous. It was not something new for me, hunting for a formals to wear. Since it is the ‘Fun Day’ Monday, and I usually try to fit into my best attire. Suddenly felt like my whole wardrobe was empty and everything was out for wash!...With greater efforts I could manage to find out some outfit. Clock was ticking so fast that it was almost striking 9:45 AM. Hopes of a peaceful breakfast was then out of question. I had to find a person to go with to office. I started dialing number after number to reach someone. Unusual and to my bad luck, most of the calls were getting directed to voice messages!!!. Whoever I could speak were either working from home or already reached office. At last I could reach one of my colleagues who was about to start to office. It felt to me that, I was so lucky to get hold of someone who could get me to office. The series of events that happened after that can explain to its best why I was dragged to office.

After I reached the office, I could find that I have scooted one meeting which I was supposed to attend. It was not a deliberate act, but sheer poor memory. My whole outlook showed up a big screen of unread emails, most of which were flagged. There were notes to me with so called “Friendly Reminder”, which alarmed me that ‘One more time you fail to respond – It is an escalation’. Before I could settled down, I got requests to create some random documents in a span of some 30mts. Rather than the marathon effort, I had very less idea of what has to be documented. It was now time to get into a review meeting. I got bombarded with so many comments and questions on the technology part (different from what I am working on). More than getting confused and being ignorant on what has to be conveyed, I was getting annoyed as I was digging into things which took me nowhere. There were a bunch of people who had questions and question for me..and poor me left with no options to cook up explanations. I swear I don’t remember a work what I spoke then. When we were almost at the end of the discussion and there comes the next comet. My laptop is stuck and all that has been updated to the document is gone. The team would have freaked out hearing my stupid reason. I had no other way but to reschedule the meeting and grab my colleague’s laptop to work on. Almost by the time I was done with the updates, I see my laptop back up!.. The very sight of the machine urged me to break it into pieces. Then it came to my mind that I even missed my appointment with the eye specialist that day for the contact lenses. I left the idea of calling up the clinic as it was way too late to think about it.

By this time I could find everyone disperse for lunch. I too decided to grab some food as my stomach was all growling. Hunger was as it its peak and I really wanted to eat something good. Picked up some Mexican cuisine – which I customized adding all kinds of toppings and dressings. Eating the whole thing was un-imaginable and I almost threw the whole food. After the pathetic attempt lunching I forced myself back to work. Struggled the rest of the day to complete atleast a portion of my To-Do list, which did not happen. My MOC (MS Office communicator), being the most used application in my laptop at that time – showed me some 30 open conversations. Either it is a random person asking for a doubt, or a project team waiting for updates. Worst is when you find people who have not showed up for a long while, or cared to acknowledge start pinging you, checking for your well-being.

I could find that, my regular pass-times, Face book webpage was not even open, and I see my iPod lie at the corner of my desk unnoticed. When it was almost 6 in the eve, I decided to wrap and get home. The whole evening I spend working, trying to respond to all the emails. It felt like I am just back to work after a long vacation. Having lost all my serene approach to work, it really reminded all the stupid homework teachers used to give during school time. I had no one to blame on or anything specific to crib about. After all the slogging, I managed to sleep. Un-believable that even my sleep granted me another crappy Monday. Disturbed from sleep when I woke up, I could see the day light and it was already morning – I wished not a Monday again!!

A Rainy Monday!

It is a long time i spend time blogging.....most of the times its just becoz i am too lazy to make an attempt. There were times when i have written in seriously and all of them got washed off due to a stupid system reboot.The weekend went pretty dull for me. I could find time to watch a movie at theatre - "Shutter Island". A good movie, which made me think a lot, infact so much that i couldnt sleep sound the last day. I expected to get scared and yell my throat out in the movie hall, but it turned out to be a different experience.

It was a lot hard for me getting up in the morning. It is not a news as the morning sickness stays with me always, but the impact gets to its peak when the calender marks Monday. My alarm never rang, and my roomie had to wake me up. Running all around the house witha brush in my mouth, managing to iron my clothes, quick bath and my sweet own time in front of the mirror. When pattu came and i rushed out, i saw all roads are wet. It rained, and is raining!.. I remember telling him then, I hate rains, it spoils the charm of the day. The day looks so gloomy and you will feel so lazy to even move around.

On the way to office, gazing the roads and the way i took a minute to think what i thought or rather told. I hate rain? That is not true and was never true. I used to love when it rains. I remember all those now when myself and Rinku (my sis) have rushed out home to play in rain. We used to jump around in the mud water and splash water at each other. Getting wet and dancing like one has gone mad. Julie (our doggie) used to join us. She used to be worse, as out of excitement the flower pots in our garden used to break. I alwzz feel my mom loves them more than us!!!... After all the fun here comes the punishments. Mom used to ground both of us for all the mess, dirty clothes and julie for all the pots she has spoiled. It invites lot of scoldings, but the fun and excitement that it has served well, justifies the rest. I used to hate caps and umbrellas when it rains. When I cross the roads i used to run , just not to miss that slightest chance to get wet. There were neevr complains over a spoiled outfit or a dirty shoe.

I don't claim that i have changed over years. The work n schedule mask my desires may be. Or rather i find it immature to let out such wishes. I know that many of my jestures give the feel to people that i am a kid. Given a chance i would love to get back to that kid who was never worries about what she does. By the time i end writing this the rain is all gone. There is noise. I wish with all my heart again, that it rains more n more.

Old faces

Monday morning....office and my favourite pass time...logging into orkut...but today something did trouble me...saw one of my old school mates, online in orkut .Visited her profile to scrap her....saw the snaps she had in there....Was shocked to see Ronia's wedding snaps....Ronia was my best friend in school. This was not the way i wanted to get this news...
Though things happened during school days...i have them fresh in my mind...we were best of friends..there was nothing under the earth that we have not discussed.She was the person who gave me solutions for everything...we always used to hang out together...i used to be a regular visitor to her home...i still remember her sister's doggie running after my life.
We were not from same school...but went to the same tuition classes....i never used to mesh this much with anyone...all girls in class never liked us...as we never used to entertain anyone to our little girlie gang...there was a girl who joined us..later..but my memory is so bad that i am not able to recollect her name....
Even her parents seldom knew whether she was at home...as there are LOTS of people in her house...all our combine studies...little girl talks...small hang outs...i still remember..she used to be crazy for my lunch.she used to love my moms cooking....and i used to wait to get back to her place to taste her moms food......
She was my dearest pal with whom i shared everything...i dunno why and when...there was a space...
My teachers claimed that i was moving a lot away from my studies. They tried their best to convince my parents...to keep me away from my friends...I was grounded from visiting friends places, calls and all contacts. It was 10th exam fever and it was nothing in there but for books and books!! I never used to get her calls...In the class they made me sit in some different place but not near her. She used to get scolded very bad in the class...i used to cry my heart out...but was not able to support her..i was so helpless...
Ultimately i never got a rank for my 10th...i got around 90%...and i was happy with that...but what i missed in life was very big...i liked her a lot....she was my sweet and dearest pal...my first best friend....After that we were together in some classes in 11th and all...but it never lasted for long...as she changed classes...we seldom met...and it was really dying down....Landed up studying in different colleges. With the contacts I had, used to enquire about...but not much..Since I joined my job...there was no news...and i can say..i really forgot my friend! After coming to US...sitting idle for weekends...i started looking into orkut for old faces...found many of them...my tuition class mates....school mates and many...then started hunting for her profile. I had almost given up. That is when i saw this picture. The memories that flashed reminded me good old times I had with her. I am not sure of where she is and if she still remembers me. I wish myself luck to find her and talk to her soon!!