Wednesday, December 8, 2010

The Tender King

Last weekend we went to watch a play at the Phoenix theater in SF. It was very entertaining.It still baffles me how the stage artists remember 2-3 hours of play dialogues.


The story was around 2nd world war. The play had only 3 actors. A German woman who wants to save her brother who is in a war camp. She is a mistress of a US guy who is in London as part of the coalitions committee and is sent to the US army head to sign a letter on agreement of the Japan bombings.


What was fascinating about the play was how the 3 would swap between 2 scenes. One small stage with sofa, table and 2 chairs. The timing of the lightings was outstanding.


And the audience sits right around the small stage. They cover 2/3 area around the stage and are a feet away from the actors. Right in front of the actors, eye to eye.


Reminded me of practice sessions my mom and sis used to have at the Mapusa Hanuman Natyagraha during Ramnavmi.More like an audition and we were the judges.

Btw food and drinks are allowed. So imagine how you would enjoy a live play with a chilled beer in your hand.

Intuition

I was 15 minutes late to work. My office shuttle picks us exactly at 9 and is rarely a minute or 2 late. At times it is 10-15 minutes late but it is difficult to predict on what days.

Today is one of those days. As I started the drive from home to the office shuttle pick up spot, I knew I don't have to hurry. I don't have to panic. I need not worry.

And guess what? It is 9:25 and I am still waiting along with the few others for my shuttle.

There have been such situations in recent past where I felt 'oh no! Got to take the train. Gosh! What's the train schedule like? I'll miss it.'
And ar all times I have been right.

So 3 cheers to Baba Shreya!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Personalized workspace

Do you decorate your cubicle? I guess I am not that into such things and would never carry stuff to office and keep them there to stay.

Wouldn't it be painful to then pack them when you gotto move? Would be very depressing. Don't you think?

I think our work desks portray our personality in many ways.

Mine is usually plain and dull. Shows how lazy I am.

Here are some pictures I took in office today. The little teddy, looking to get attention of every person walking towards the printer looks pretty lonely. Don't you think?

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Cool

Now I can blog from my iPhone just want to test!

Sent from my iPhone

Monday, November 8, 2010

Ruby

We had a small pup we called Ruby. She was a brown fur ball jumping around, always full of energy. I don't remember what happened of her. We had to give her away.

My mom hated dogs, there was no way we could get a dog. But when my sister got the cute Ruby home, her heart melted and Mom agreed to let her stay. Well, the real reason to let her stay was my sister who cried so aloud and put a big drama that mom had no other choice but to keep Ruby. Condition to keep Ruby however was that my sis and I should take care of her.

But soon the small cute pup grew into a little naughty monster. Neither my sis nor I took proper care of her. Walking Ruby became a chore no one wanted to own. Soon we realised that keeping a dog is not an easy task. My mom did not have the time nor the patience to look after another kid. Soon Ruby had to leave our house and was taken away... I still don't know where my Dad took her. For many years I was too scared to ask about her fearing that she was dead.

Few days back I met Schatzie at the Diwali party. She was so calm, obedient and so much like a grown up. Just the opposite of our Ruby. Here are some pictures of Schatzie and me. Doesn't she look adoerable?



Navin is no different than Mom. He hates dogs, more than that he is scared of dogs. I don't know if I will have one as a pet but I really want to.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Bhivkhuryos (darpoks)

Just as we sat to have dinner, we heard some sound inside our TV table. The sound was as if somebody was struggling to get out through the doors. For a moment we thought we were just hearing some noises from our neighbors house (at times we hear people snoring from the house next door!). But the sound repeated and the door started moving.
Aiyyoo!! Both Navin and me jumped out of our chairs! We were scared it could be a snake or a squirrel or some other animal. Navin made a frantic call to his friend who lives close to our house to come help us free the trapped animal.
Unfortunately the friend did not pick our calls. What do we do? On one hand we were both scared to open the cupboard, on the other hand we were both embarrassed that we were scared and jumping around like small kids and had to get help in the middle of the night.
Here's a video of Navin calling our security LOL





It was funny how the security guard was as scared as us. Here's a video taken while the two men were at war with the trapped animal.






Watch till end of the video! The haunting soul trapped inside was nothing but our DVD player. I had placed a heavy book on the DVD remote player by mistake and the button was being pushed continuously to eject the DVD. LOL It was so funny!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Happy Friendship Day

Well... Its been over a month for the friendship day I guess. I wanted to write something about friendship on that day. Guess I was waiting for some motivation to get me started. The motivation lasted just to get me write the topic! It happens to me many times. Enthusiasm just drops off from 120% to -20%. May be its because of the kind of food I eat I reason. I know, makes no sense right? Yes, makes no sense.

I spoke to Gauri yesterday... she reminds me how important it is to keep Kriya regular. I did Kriya today after hmm... 2 months! Feels so... me today.

So friends... yes, that was what this topic was about. I have 300+ friends on Facebook. I am not sure if I can call them all 'friends'. But we have crossed paths sometime in the past and that has made us stick to each other through FB. And I am glad we do. Otherwise how would I know that one of my school friends recently got a baby! Or it was 4 of my friends birthdays yesterday! Or someone loves her baby a lot! Someone just came back from Vegas. Like its a big deal! Before we got onto FB did we even care? But now that we are, we want to see more. See more of our friends and more interaction with them.

But what do you do when your friends are not on FB. They never check emails. They don't have an email id. They don't connect to Internet. Do you know anyone like that? Well, may be your question is, Is there anyone like that in today's world? Well, fortunately there are! I have to call them to get in touch with them. I don't have to wait for them to post on my wall or wait for them to send reply to my email. The only way to talk to them is actually TALK to them.

Just called a couple of my non digitally existent friends. Feels so good! Forgot to wish them Happy belated Friendship day!

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Margaritas!

Last night, had great time with few Friends at a place called 'Margaritas' in Redwood City. 'Guys, if you don't mind I can fit you in that corner space', said the waitress. Sure! We were hungry and couldn't wait a minute more to put our hands on the MARGARITAS!!! And yes, this place has the bests of bests. Those in and around Bay Area should try this place out.

Here are few pictures taken from my old but still living Nokia N95!
After dinner we all went to Bond's place to have yummy rasmalai. Unortunately did not click any pictures there, but the rasmalai was super yummy!
Funny thing happened as we left Bond's house. We got into the car and headed out of the apartment complex. Suddenly I thought I forgot to pick my bag. Oh no... next thing I see is Navin getting all grumpy and angry and turning the car back. As we approached the house, I looked down near my seat and my bag was right there. Oops. Mishtake! I forgot to search for the bag. hehehe. Now Navin had more reasons to be pissed. Anyhow chalta hain boss... weekend hain :)

Monday, July 19, 2010

Confronting to Mistakes

I missed one delivery at work today. I understood some requirements differently. I even tested the tool thoroughly before delivery but somehow skipped few things. The issue was escalated to my boss and I had to face the consequences. 'Shreya?.. yes she is working on that', that's all I could hear as the boss kept the phone down. I knew I was in for some explanation. The boss was super helpful - did not outburst at me at all. But did ask for details on what went wrong and then based on what I had to say, asked me to cancel my meetings with clients so that I have more time to fix issues before we go ahead.
All this happened just a while ago. I want to pen down my thoughts now itself otherwise these emotions would just pass by and I would not want to remember them again to write them down.
How did I feel while all this was going on? I was feeling bad, very bad. I felt like I made a mistake, because I thought it was my responsibility to be correct. Being wrong was not correct at anytime, right?
As I was talking to my boss, I consciously tried to be logical. I was trying to be correct even in telling the reason why I made a mistake. No, I was not defending my self. May be it was a moment where I knew that something was wrong and at the same time was feeling bad about it. And believe it or not, I was also trying to be consciously aware of my emotions.
I starting telling myself, don't take it personally. All this is related to the work you did or did not do. And it is NOT related to YOU. Be professional. Work does not define who you are. As I walked out of office, I apologised to my boss. He said, things happen!
I know things happen! And I was also trying hard to tell my self this. But I was not able to control my emotions. I felt bad about something. Why did I have to feel bad? What was it that was troubling me?
I was not even thinking about the consequences of the problem on hand. I was not worried that professionally it marked bad on me. It was not such a big deal. But I was and I am feeling sad. Is this ego? Am I thinking of myself as a perfectionist that can never go wrong? I believe it is bit of both.
I just know that mistakes are part of life. But I just don't know how to handle the emotions that run alongside. Knowing and making this knowledge a part of you is how you grow in life.
I am glad that I was part of this experience. It just makes me understand how much vulnerable I still am to life's challenges and how much more I need to learn and grow in life. I wonder how I still have not been ready to grow yet!

Friday, July 9, 2010

Violet Dawn

Got our new Kindle Yayy! Been 2-3 weeks and read 2 books already. It is a very proud moment for me because I have always found it difficult to keep interest in a book and complete it and then pick another one again. First one I read was the Jungle Book :)
And today I finished the Violet Dawn. It is a very intuitive mystery where the author keeps you on the edge all the time. I am glad I came across this book which makes me interested in picking another of the mysteries by Brandilyn Collins.
What I liked about the book was how the book jumped back and forth between the main story and another story running in the past (well, only at the end do you realize the other story is in the past). Both the stories are beautifully narrated giving due attention to each character. You will love this book, if you want a quicker.
I do have one complaint. The mystery around Paige just ends abruptly. I was hoping to see some drama once the true killer encounters Paige. But the story I felt just ends JLT. I would however, definitely recommend this book.

That was sweet

Yes she was sweet. Just met her for 1/2 a second may be. Navin and I were on our way back from a long walk. We were tired, hungry and cold... a sweet gesture like this can make any ones heart warm and happy.
We were in our own world, may be talking about how cold the weather was getting. I look up and boom! A lady pops in front and hands over a small bouquet of flowers to me and goes past us.
Who, what, why? Well, I don't know. May be she was on her daily walk and started plucking flowers and wanted to get rid of them before she reached home. Or may be she just wanted to make someone feel nice. I like to believe the later. I felt nice. Here is a picture of the sweetness :)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Yeh kya ho raha hain?

Well, I know you will call this coincidence! In fact when I told some of my friends, they said I look at the watch too often. But today it happened to me 3 times! So whats this magic you may ask. Well, whenever I have to look at my watch or cell phone or the any digital time display, I see doubles. 10:10 or 11:11! Not magic? Does it happen to you too?

Here's the deal! I happened to get up in the middle of the night, rather early morning. I pick my cell and look at the time. It shows 4:44! Later today, I had to catch a 12:30 shuttle and I had to get ready. I look at the time on the stove, it shows 11:11! It could have shown 11 or 11:03 may be. And now, I was reading a book and just realised Navin is still not home. I look at the time on my cell and it shows 23:11... I am like OK.... and turn my head towards the stove. It shows 11:11!!! This is no coincidence. Now somebody tell me this is not magic.

AND NOW! You will not believe this. I edited this post for spell check and save it and the time shows 12:12 on my computer!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Loooooong weekend

Yes! The weekend just seemed too long. With just no plans whatsoever, we rented a car for the long weekend. We will put together something before Friday, we told ourselves. It was Friday night and we did not have any plans but just a destination in mind. Napa! The wine city!

Navin and I have a reputation to maintain. We never, by never I mean just never ever PLAN for any trips. Not that we don't try. We spend hours and hours browsing the Internet and looking for 'things to do lists' and end up with 'blank' on our lists. We are super duper happy when friends join in because that means we can have some fun activities on the trip. So here we were, just nothing on mind, except that we were going to Napa.

Some of our friends who had been to Napa told us about the hot air balloon rides. OKAY! We knew something we could do! We looked up for some balloon rides and decided on one near Sanoma county. Then booked some room near by hotel. As usual we started later afternoon to reach the hotel in the evening. Went to Chevy's for a late lunch or umm early dinner. Stayed in the room so that we don't stay up too late feeling tired to get up early for the balloon ride. For those who don't know, the balloon rides are usually at 5 or 6 in the mornings! I know... that's too early... but this time we had made hotel reservations and driving plans and also decision to stay indoors so that we reach on time for the balloon ride at least.

BTW, America got Talent so not so bad an option for a Saturday night! (#FML) Seriously!

We got up at 4:30 am to be right in time for the ride. But looks like the weekend was supposed to be a quite one, no adventure added. The ride was called off because of windy conditions. What? NOOOOO! Did I hear you right Mr. Balloon Owners? You guys don't know how much effort it was for us to make it this far! But it was for real! The ride had been called off. What did that mean? It meant we head back to the hotel and sleep for some more time. And that is what we did.
That same evening we headed back home... stopped at a couple of wineries on the way. Went to a Premium Outlet mall in Napa :) On the way back we needed just that little more for a fun filled vacation. So we decided to drive to Fremont for a Hindi movie called 'I hate love stories'. Bad choice, we knew AFTER we watched it! Here are some pictures from our not so planned trip.
After the ride (which never happened)
Outside Mondavi Wineyards

Tasted some bests of Mondavi's wines

Drove to a State Park and walked in the woods... was good fun and tiring

On the Streets of the Sanoma downtown

I hate 'I hate Love Stories'

We drove all the way from Napa to Fremont for this movie... new release that weekend, fresh looking promos, cute Imran Khan... seemed a decent piece of attraction for the long drive? Well, a movie needs a story doesn't it? This one has... a lame and dumb one. Why do movie producers and directors spend their time and energy to make such movies?
Anyways! We sneaked out of the theater during the interval and went straight to the dosa corner outside :) So a good ending to a pretty much going off the drain evening.

Those of you who have not watched the movie and plan to do so, please save the money you are going to spend to promote this crap and enjoy a dosa instead :) It will be a guaranteed satisfaction and enjoyment, I bet.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Happy Birthday Didi...

Today is my sis's birthday... for more than 20 years we celebrated our birthdays together. Our birthdays fall one week apart. Mom and Dad always hosted a birthday party for all our cousins, neighbors and friends one a weekend that fell between the two dates! every year! until I think we started going to higher secondary when it felt a bit awkward... and we wanted to spend time with our own friends... and we did not want birthdays at home lol!
Since Purwa's bday was after mine, most of the times the celebrations were close to her birth date and at times right on her bday! I hated that... but what the heck... we both got gifts on the day :) BTW, (a small secret) we also used to wear ditto pattern dresses! You can see that in the pic below as well!

Wish you a very happy birthday and happy life sista!

Another small secret... after a little while... i stopped calling her 'Didi' :P felt awkward somehow (I am now a big gal feeling I guess)... but I never called her by name either lol! (Indian sentiments for elders I guess)

Friday, June 18, 2010

With love....

Why did God have to take you away from us like this? My heart aches to realize that I will not be able to listen to your voice, to see you again. But I feel your presence, your strong and graceful spirit. I just know you will always be around looking at us and taking care of us.
I think of you everyday... how I wish I could say my final good bye. I wonder what the moment would have been when you knew you have to go.

Who knew when you packed your bags to go to the hospital that day, you would never come back. Next time I ring the door bells, I will never get to see your warm smile. Everything is just the same but only you not home.

You will not read this... But I want you to know how proud I am of you. You have been a fighter till the very end. Your attractive and loving personality will always be in every body's hearts. I feel lucky that our paths crossed and I got a chance to make you part of my life. Never in our past meetings or conversations you made me aware of the tough times you and your close relatives have been through. I wish we had got more time together to share your past too.

Who can disagree... Cancer is life changing...

Rest in peace Seema Aunty.

Unti
l me meet again in the other world... Goodbye... still learning to live knowing you not with us!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

I Miss You a lot


Love you Seema Aunty! Missing you...

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Stillness

Close your eyes, what do you feel? Well, do you even feel anything? Or are you busy chasing your thoughts? I do it all the time, even with eyes open :)

See the grass in this video? It is pushed by the winds in all possible directions. At times the winds are so strong that it can almost pull the grass out or destroy the fragile texture. When the winds die down, the grass just relaxes back as though enjoying the beauty around, all prepared to face any strong breeze that come their way.

Our lives just the same, don't you think? Many problems waiting to blow on your face, to push us in all directions. But we have always lived through the bad times, no matter how grave they have been. Some situations left impressions on us, some came and left even before we made any attempt to react where as others just made us stronger. But every time there was a solution, there was a way out, there was help available. Isn't it?

What matters is did you loose your ground when the problem blew on your face? Or were you relaxed enough to face the situation. How did your mind play with you?

You know, last year around the same time I was in Chicago working at Sears and Navin was at Gap in SF. The economy was bad and there were hardly any new projects coming up in either accounts where we both could be accommodated. We managed to console each other most of the times but there were times when the wind blew right at our face to uproot us from our grounds. We labelled ourselves to be the unlucky ones. We only looked at the bad things in life. We never trusted that our managers took any effort to find us projects together. We hated if people showed sympathy. Small small problems seemed grave. Small things started becoming or appearing to us as big problems.
After few months I was able to find an assignment at Gap in SF. But only for 2-3 months and that meant we could not move our stuff from Chicago to SF. I requested a manager at Gap to extend the assignment by few days so that I could be eligible to move the stuff. But he said that he was already doing a big favor by finding the project and now I was asking for more.

At that time even a small comment like this made me feel bad. But today when I am at ease, I laugh at how the manager had reacted. I feel that it was immature on his part to say something like that. Or may be he was having his own pressure or problems which made him react that way.
But I could have comforted myself even at that time isn't it? But I did not, I was too busy feeling sorry for myself and getting dragged by the problem as it swayed me in all directions. Then or now, I am still the same me. If only I could close my eyes to find that calmness in me.

If you are lucky enough to find the calmness within you, you don't want to loose it again.

Monday, February 8, 2010

What a waste

It is interesting how our minds work as things around us change. When things don’t work the way you want it to, you get frustrated and all energy is wasted cribbing and crying.

We recently had a rating process in our company, when each employee was rated for their performance over one year.

My past one year at work has been very fruitful (for me) in all the projects that were given to me.
I won many appreciations, loads of trust and confidence from my clients; I excelled in every aspect of the work I took up. I got appreciations from my managers. On personal front, I went through hell! I stayed away from my husband for 1 year while I was on-duty guarding my company’s customers and credibility.

But, now when it is time to give back, my so called managers disappeared from the scene. I got moved to a different location, to a different project and I was lost and forgotten from the old. I was given the lowest most rating in the company.

How do I feel?

Cheated – I worked hard to earn customer delight. I got so many appreciation emails from clients. My managers even acknowledged my work by responded to those client appreciation mails with ‘Good Show Folks’ or ‘Well done’! But now I wonder, did they even read those mails?

Wasted – Why did I put so much effort into my work? I did, because I love my work; I am a perfectionist and it is my nature to get things done right. So was it a waste of time, effort and personal sacrifices? Is it wrong to expect what you deserve?

Humiliated – I did all I needed to do to ensure that I excelled in my work. Now do I need to beg for what was expected in return?

Used – If I don’t like the treatment I am getting here, why don’t you go somewhere else? Right? But I have my own reasons to stick around. So now because it is my constraint to not leave this company, you will use me like dirt?

I am sure each one of us has gone through these emotions. May be at work, in personal relationship, at school or may be with friends? How does it feel? What would you advice me? Or do you just give up on your company, your relationship, your life just because it did not do its part when you did yours?

How easy is it to let go? J Simple… I know.