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.

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!

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!

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 :)

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!

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 :)