Quick update

Parents are here for the long weekend so haven't had the chance to read/write much. Suffering from, how do you say it, blog-drawl symptoms. So here are some scribbles ...

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Phelps won his 8th gold in a single Olympic. WAYYYY TO GO!! For a kid who was diagnozed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) at the age of 7 & was repeatedly called "immature" by his teachers at school, this isn't bad at all, aye?

The guy can eat! Apparently, he devours 10,000-12,000 calories every day & swims it off!! Errr...looking at his daily diet, I'd assume he consumes more calories...

Breakfast - 3 fried egg sandwiches with mayo, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce & fried onions; 3 choco-chip pancakes, 5-egg omelette, 3 sugar-coated slices of French Toast; bowl of grits; 3 cups of coffee
Lunch - Half kg. enriched pasta (enriched with what...extra carbs??); 2 large ham & cheese sandwiches on white bread with mayo; energy drinks
Dinner - Half kg. pasta with carbonara sauce; large pizza (!!); energy drinks

Did I hear you say Goddamn??!!!

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A horrendous piece of news I read this morning...

49 babies, many of them less than a year old, have been killed in clinical trials for new drugs & therapies over the last 2 years at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

49 babies!!!

And no one made a whimper.....

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I've made the most of my parents' visit & purchased a number of things for myself/my house this weekend, among them
1. A bean bag...YAYYY!!
2. A wrought-iron bed (I was jumping on it to see how much it....errr....shakes....and my parents went "What are you doing? How much would you be shaking the bed at home?")
3. A 2GB memory card for my new digital camera
4. Along with re-chargeable batteries
5. Speakers for my laptop
Before you yell "Brat!!", I paid for them. Just tagged my parents along for reassurance, helping the indecisive me to make a decision & lug my stuff back home! :D

The 'People' Effect

It’s true! When you spend a lot of time with someone, you start behaving like them. I have this friend who is completely neurotic about people walking into his house (or even their own house!!) with the shoes that they wear outside. He insists, even yells at people who walk into his house with their shoes on. And I’ve been spending a lot of time with him. In fact, I always give him grief for being neurotic about such a small thing.

So yesterday, my parents came to visit me. My dad, who was visiting my new house for the first time, was so excited that he walked in with his shoes on, and I yelled “Daddy, take your shoes off!!!”

He came running back and I was like “Oh my God, I’m behaving like A****”

So, I tell you…be careful of the amount of time you spend with people!!

Where is the body fat???

Randomness

Don't have anything particular to write about but am feeling funny & random, so I guess randomness is the order of the day.....

(Warning : This post has adult content but parts of it are fit to be read even by children under 5 years of age)

• Don’t give advice to people in need when you have loads of work/are getting late for something. They will keep explaining their situation to you, will not leave you alone & you will get irritated (happened to me just yesterday)
• Climbing ten flights of stairs after lunch (or anytime)…..BAD IDEA
• Do not support boss while he’s playing TT. It won’t earn you any brownie points
• More importantly, don’t TELL boss you’re supporting him for brownie points!!
• People with bad hand-eye coordination (such as me) should not try to play TT. We should stick to carrom
• If you complete your work before time, don't tell boss you are done with it. You will get dumped with more work. Sit on it, hatch eggs, take a print-out & dress it up if you want! But don’t tell boss
• Male bosses are nice :)
• Clothes become tight when you become fat
• Remember people’s birthdays. Sometimes really cool things can happen. Like two of your closest friends can share the same birthday (double celebrations, right?) while you remain oblivious to it
• Olympics is cool
• Expect to see interviews of Abhinav Bindra’s maid, dhobi, milkman, newspaper delivery boy, even his dog (if they can make him talk) on TV over the next few weeks
• Do NOT expect the Abhinav Bindra euphoria to last beyond the next One-Day/T20 cricket series involving India
• If you’re a chick, you can go from ‘ecstatic’ to ‘manic depressed’ (or from +1098765432 ft. to -9908765324 ft.) in 0 seconds on certain days of the month. F*cks you up, I tell you!!
• If you have a phone that needs to be charged everyday, charge it. Or carry your charger with you. 'Coz without a phone you will feel decapitated. Then don't tell me I didn't warn you!!
• If you drink water straight out of a bottle, learn to drink without spilling it on to your blouse. Wet boobs = Men will stare
• Nevermind. Boobs = Men will stare
• It’s nice when you get caught unsuspecting in the rain sometimes
• Sometimes you just need that bar of chocolate or that chocolate pastry...or those bitchass stilletoes...or that blinggg handbag...or that sexy halter...okay, so you get the drift :)
• Good work/fast work attracts more work. Learn to chill in life if you’re done with your work. Life is beautiful
• You’re never too fresh from a holiday for another break
• You’re never too tired to complete one more slide if it involves being able to avoid a working weekend!!
• Do not play cricket if you don’t know how. Especially with boys. The ball will come flying from nowhere…front, back, side, below, above…and give you bruises. And if you DO play with boys, be ready to get bruises.
• On another note, life is ALWAYS headed SOMEWHERE. It’s never directionless. You might not know where it’s going…you’re not God…or forces…or a spirit (whatever you believe in)…but it IS most definitely taking you somewhere (that you will know in good time).
• There are some things in life that are perfect the way they are. For everything else, there's Austin Powers!!
• There is always a time & a place for everything
• Including sex. It’s called ANYTIME and ANYWHERE!!! :D
• There’s no concept of ‘always’ or ‘forever’ in love
• Life goes on
• Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? He stole the cookie from the cookie jar. Who me? Yes you! Couldn't be! Then who?
• Mommie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Twinkle twinkle little star...How I wonder what you are...
• Not everyone who says they love you, do. At the same time, if someone doesn’t say they love you often enough does not mean they don’t. Look out for actions
• Is this mating season for dogs? I've been seeing dogs mating on the streets everywhere!!
• Dogs are cool. Cats are NOT
• Cats are evil, evil things
• Pigeons are shit birds. All they know is to eat, rotate their heads on their imaginary axis & shit on poor hapless people. They should just die!!
• So should rats, lizards & cockroaches
• We should love animals
• Don’t lie. Just tell people the f*cking truth or you'll have major ass-covering to do later
• A squint can be cute if it's on a cute guy ;-)
• You never know who will walk into your life & when! It's one of those random, bizarre, crazily insane, psychotic, inexplicable occurences in life!!
• Mumbai is the coolest city in India. No other city comes even close
• Never let go of a guy that can give you 'The Big O'. There are plenty of nice, understanding, caring, sensitive, funny, honest, intelligent men in this world but it's very difficult to find a man who can help you reach 'The Big O'

Highlights of The Weekend

1. Played with a pug (the Vodafone dog) named Samsung. I first met him 2 months ago when he was a little baby. Kept meeting him on & off as he belongs to someone in my neighborhood but got to play with him for the first time yesterday. In just 2 months he has become such a BIG FAT dog!!!!! In fact, he has become so overweight that he was having trouble breathing. Poor baby, that dog! What’s wrong with his owners…can they not see they’re overfeeding him??!!!

2. Gave a piece of my mind to someone that I thought needed it desperately. And what a feeling it was to be able to decide that I'd had enough, turn around & give them the finger!!!!!

3. Realized (for the gazillionth time probably) that I’m lucky enough to have an amazingly cool set of parents. Since I started going to college (which I think is a fair enough age), they have let me do what I wanted to, never questioned my decisions & always supported them. They have never asked me what I do with my money, who I go out with, what time I get home at night, why I get home so late on days I go out with friends etc. They have never cribbed about how I hardly ever come home, how I get irritated 9 out of 10 times I'm talking to them, throw a tantrum & hang up!! LOVE YOU GUYS.

4. Also understood that there’s someone in my life who cares for me MUCH MUCH MORE than I realize, and definitely more than I do for him. Always puts me & what I want before himself. I take him for granted all the time, subject him to my mood swings almost every day, give him loads of crap, get pissed off with him over the littlest of things, cut him no slack...yet he puts up with all of this without ever giving it back to me. I think you have to be really lucky to have even one friend who cares so much about you. I must have done something really nice/been really good to someone to earn this.

Anyway...back to fun things!!

5. Had delicious Chinese….Can’t tell you how much I love Chinese food. I miss 5 Spice every single day :(

6. Had the most yummy crunchy melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cake. One cake split between 2 people only. Can’t get better than that!! :D

7. Played cricket with the boys. Yes….FINALLY they let me play! That was because I hid the only ball they had!! MUHAHAHAHAHA!!! And got 2 bruises in the process but that's okay 'coz I feel like a dude!!!!!

A Proud Moment

Dial 'D' for Destiny

I’m a firm believer in the saying “Everything happens for a reason”.

Many people trash this philosophy. Essentially people who don’t believe in destiny. They believe our destinies are in our hands. It works for them. Fair enough. But my life has been full of events & occurrences that were completely out of line with my plans. John Lennon knew what he was talking about when he said “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans!!!”

I can’t explain the events in my life except by saying that there IS destiny at work. That life already has a plan for all of us. It’s been true for me - as I believe it is for countless other people - academically, professionally as well as in my personal life. I’ve known just what I wanted & how I wanted to go about attaining it. I’ve put efforts in that direction but hey! I ended up in a completely different place!!

So what do we do? Do we leave our lives completely up to this invisible force called destiny that we have no control over, or do we continue to make our choices in life, continue working towards them & watch our plans fall apart right in front of our eyes, while we take consolation in the fact that at least we tried?? Because after all, you can’t just take what’s dished out to you. You can’t sit & pray for the good things in life to fall in to your lap. Isn’t that what we’re all taught growing up…in school, at home? Maybe it is to instill a fighter spirit in us…maybe it’s done to teach us to never give up hope.

Whatever the reason, this is one of those questions that has perplexed the human mind since time immemorial & will continue to do so for generations to come. Do we TRY to command destiny (and fail miserably, every time falling prey to frustration but picking ourselves up valiantly again) or do we let life sweep us up in its wake?

Think about it, it’s fun!

Here's some more...

Spot the beach!!

These pictures are of Shankarpur which is about 4 hours from Kolkata




There's supposed to be a beach beyond the fence!!



Don't try to spot me COZ I'M NOT THERE!! :D



There's supposed to be atleast a 500 metre distance between the sea & these sand hills



The waves came all the way to the shops on the beach...Never seen the sea so crazy!!

That feeling of happy-ness

I’m really happy!! You know the feeling you get when you’ve accomplished something that meant a great deal to you? The subject of my happiness is a little banal as it’s related to work but it’s worth writing about nonetheless, I feel.

I prepared a presentation that my boss loved!!

To put this in perspective…I’ve recently joined a new company (a little over 2 months ago). The kind of work that this company produces is very different from what we did in my previous company where I worked for 4 years!

The first presentation I made wasn’t all that good. That’s what I felt though my boss differed :-)

My boss made quite a few changes to the presentation in terms of the insights being offered to the client. The client appreciated the presentation, my boss congratulated me but I wasn’t too happy because ultimately, it was my boss’ work that got appreciated. More than that, the reason I wasn’t happy was that I felt I hadn’t lived up to my boss’ expectations. When you join a company at a relatively higher position, there are certain expectations from you as opposed to when you join as a novice.

The reason my insights weren’t that good was that I had never worked on that product category & that type of study before. Nonetheless, I was a little disappointed and was hoping I’d be able to do a better job with my next presentation. And a better job I did!! :-)

Before you scream “EGO!!”, let me tell you ego had no role to play in this. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do a better job on newer kinds of studies and meet my boss’ expectations. I think I have managed to do that….my boss did not suggest a single change in the presentation. Rather, he said it was excellent!!

If that’s not reason enough to be happy, I don’t know what is!

Now I can happily go on my weekend trip to the beach. Man, how much I miss the sea after leaving Bombay! When you’re in Bombay, you take the sea for granted. It’s such a BIG part of the city that it becomes a part of you as well. I’ve spent a lot of time hanging out at Bandstand and Marine Drive. I always knew I’d miss the sea but could never have guessed how much!!

So I’m really excited about this trip. There are 12 of us going & I hope we have a BLAST!!!

So…over & out for the weekend. Hope you guys have a fun weekend as well.