Prasanna's blog and comments are very interesting. He has made some right points, but tamra parni acharya is talking about brahmanatva.. being a frog and being a brahmin are two different things .. a person is called brahmin only because he practices brahminism by kaya vacha manasa in front of others .. the fact that sanyasis and brahmins go outside india .. there is no acknowledegement for their rituals and practices.. and since the position of a pontiff is very high, you need pramanas that this person has performed all the brahminical rituals ..because its hard to prove, may be they say not to travel ..
But over two to three decades world is becoming small er and days have changed and our people are there everywhere and are trying to practice the brahminism in their own small way or big way ... but its unfortunate our own community back home does not support us and help us to be religious in the foriegn land !!
Neither god nor sanyasi's have any problem .. its the others who are not related are causing chaois thats why the wise say devaru vara kotru poojari vara koda !
Ii appreciate Prasanna's spirit to come forward and express his views in the interest of Brahmins in US. But he has to keep in mind that all me and you and many others want is the swamiji to be accepted by brahmins back home and to do krishna pooja.. so keeping the big picture in mind and we have to be respectful about others thoughts also..and not get into personal allegations
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Be a part of something
Today i had been to a satyanarayana pooja.. there i met rajani, latha and kalpana aunty and their other family members .. after working like a donkey for all 5 days and being in that daily routine, meeting some new faces were really refreshing.
Iam of the opinion that its very important for a person to be connected to an activity, group or to a religion otherwise no matter what it gets boring. one just needs to forget everything and get involved or involve yourself so much that you forget about everything that bothers you...
Another thing what i have seen and experienced over the years is that, a person seeks constant change unknowingly.. we might not like to admit it, but its true.. i have often wondered how it would be spend 24 hours of days to do something what we like to do, or be with someone whom we like to be with , or to be with your parents, or your siblings ..or your own best friends .. or what if we had to read or write continuously..or party always .. or work always ... well, no prizes for guessing ..of course it gets boring .. and we might not feel strongly about it anymore .. cos we are too familiar with the situation...so life is all about balancing little bit of everything on time...
talking of life times.. no phase in this life is stretched!! .. its just sufficient enough to enjoy and to make transit to the next phase.. which also makes time very very important ..one might try and keep the body strong.. but keeping the mind strong and fresh becomes challenging.. as we age it becomes less curious and more predictable ..
..Soo its important to feel alive and to have small pleasures in life....and that can happen only when we participate and get involved and do something for the pleasure of doing it ..
So be a part of a family, a friend, a religion, an event, a team , a project, .. be a part of life !!
Iam of the opinion that its very important for a person to be connected to an activity, group or to a religion otherwise no matter what it gets boring. one just needs to forget everything and get involved or involve yourself so much that you forget about everything that bothers you...
Another thing what i have seen and experienced over the years is that, a person seeks constant change unknowingly.. we might not like to admit it, but its true.. i have often wondered how it would be spend 24 hours of days to do something what we like to do, or be with someone whom we like to be with , or to be with your parents, or your siblings ..or your own best friends .. or what if we had to read or write continuously..or party always .. or work always ... well, no prizes for guessing ..of course it gets boring .. and we might not feel strongly about it anymore .. cos we are too familiar with the situation...so life is all about balancing little bit of everything on time...
talking of life times.. no phase in this life is stretched!! .. its just sufficient enough to enjoy and to make transit to the next phase.. which also makes time very very important ..one might try and keep the body strong.. but keeping the mind strong and fresh becomes challenging.. as we age it becomes less curious and more predictable ..
..Soo its important to feel alive and to have small pleasures in life....and that can happen only when we participate and get involved and do something for the pleasure of doing it ..
So be a part of a family, a friend, a religion, an event, a team , a project, .. be a part of life !!
what others think of you..
Today i was having heart to heart chat with my aunt about my brother and we discussed everything about our property problems.. and how it effected us ... and how its still effecting us...
After hearing what i had to say about my bothers behaviour in past couple of months... my aunt tells me that my brother has become a revolt as he has no work to do and its all because of empty mind and that's the reason why he could be quarrelling with his mother and father and actually he might not have any problems with my mother and might like my mother more than me !!!.. and that left a bad taste in my mouth.. is this the image that she has about me ?
From the childhood i have got this image .. I'm not able to label what it is.. but the image is that i am a very adamant person. On the contrary I'm the most vulnerable person in my entire family... I have seen so much of quarrel and drama.. i'am a passive aggresive person.. Iam not a hypocrite.. and i try to avoid confrontations and quarrels as much as possible .. .i feel once you confront someone things will never be the same...
I have swalloed all my bitter experiences with patience and a smile on the face...
I cant do it anymore.. also its not right to accept things at face value.. if i cant fight for myself.. who else will ... what will i gain by not speaking ?
so its time to change .. and I will change for a better me .. and for leaving good impressions on others..
After hearing what i had to say about my bothers behaviour in past couple of months... my aunt tells me that my brother has become a revolt as he has no work to do and its all because of empty mind and that's the reason why he could be quarrelling with his mother and father and actually he might not have any problems with my mother and might like my mother more than me !!!.. and that left a bad taste in my mouth.. is this the image that she has about me ?
From the childhood i have got this image .. I'm not able to label what it is.. but the image is that i am a very adamant person. On the contrary I'm the most vulnerable person in my entire family... I have seen so much of quarrel and drama.. i'am a passive aggresive person.. Iam not a hypocrite.. and i try to avoid confrontations and quarrels as much as possible .. .i feel once you confront someone things will never be the same...
I have swalloed all my bitter experiences with patience and a smile on the face...
I cant do it anymore.. also its not right to accept things at face value.. if i cant fight for myself.. who else will ... what will i gain by not speaking ?
so its time to change .. and I will change for a better me .. and for leaving good impressions on others..
getting back to work
its been four days i have started working in my new job..it feels just great to be back in work place .. working in a team .. attending meetings( actually i still don't like it )..being a part of some project ..
I have come a long way from joining IPPL .. moving to bigger companies .. going to Germany.. moving to us .. being jobless.. and telecommuting .. and finally joining this new job.. the company and work culture reminds me the days of IPPL....
my team and manager are nice people .. i hope to learn and grow with this company .. another good news is i am buying the car tonight .. i have already purchased the insurance .. i'am excited .. but have to wait for a while before i use it.
the time i came to US till now .. it has been very stressful on different levels .. first i am not comfortable living in someone else house for a long time .. second is living without paying for the comforts can be sooo stressful.. its so hard for me that i forget to enjoy the things i like.. third is being in the house all by yourself and fourth is no real involvement in any activity .. i hope all these change with me taking up this new job .. iam really crossing my fingers .. i wish that i enjoy this time..
I have come a long way from joining IPPL .. moving to bigger companies .. going to Germany.. moving to us .. being jobless.. and telecommuting .. and finally joining this new job.. the company and work culture reminds me the days of IPPL....
my team and manager are nice people .. i hope to learn and grow with this company .. another good news is i am buying the car tonight .. i have already purchased the insurance .. i'am excited .. but have to wait for a while before i use it.
the time i came to US till now .. it has been very stressful on different levels .. first i am not comfortable living in someone else house for a long time .. second is living without paying for the comforts can be sooo stressful.. its so hard for me that i forget to enjoy the things i like.. third is being in the house all by yourself and fourth is no real involvement in any activity .. i hope all these change with me taking up this new job .. iam really crossing my fingers .. i wish that i enjoy this time..
Today was a very good day cos i got the receipt no !!! yahhooo :))..
when i woke up from bed .. i was so dejected.. nobody was around .. i did not had anything to do .. no responsibilities.. the stillness of the house was erring so much i decided to put some music in laptop ...and i though let me check my mails as well and there was an alert from visanow.. and when i logged in and checked the website .. yahoo.. the receipt no !!!..
i immediately mailed mama and aunty and also called Holly, and i asked her if we can stop the PP and she agreed and said she will speak with the lawyers and see ... she also mentioned about the orientation program and said i will have to commute to Bethlehem which was contradicting to what the recruiter had told me... so i also mailed the recruiter about the receipt and also about the hotel accommodation.
just to be on top of the issues i mailed visanow guys ....then spoke to mama, aunty and by then nagesh the recruiter mailed back saying they will definitely pay for my accommodation and he can drop me off monday morning if i want ..i mailed him back that when i spoke Holly she mentioned that coming monday she will be in Bridgewater and next day she will be Bethlehem. So he said ok..let me know if you need to be dropped off..
around 1PM i mailed holly if she heard from visanow about pp refund amout and also about hotel accommodation during orientation ..she immediately mailed saying.. they did not give her the figures.. and about the accommodation i can book in holiday inn express near the office .. by then I had a missed call and vmail from zahra.. so i immediately emailed them my resignation email and in that i had mentioned that i have found a full time opportunity..after couple of hours when i checked back both zahra and craig had called on my cell and craig had replied to my email .. craig replied back saying why did i not tell them that i was looking for full time opportunity ? how dumb !!.. anyways i replied back saying fortunately it turned out to be a fulltime job .. by evening i also heard from visanow guys that they will refund 1000$ in 2-3 weeks.. so everything kind of got settled ..
mama aunty came back and we discussed about confusion with hotel reservation ..i.e if its on me or on the company .. and after that mama called the hotel guys to get the exact location and charges and other things ..and then we found that it has to be billed on my CC only initially and i hope it gets reimbursed later.
Its night now and just now i finished oota.. I had simple anna saru and anna majjige.. while i was doing oota.... aunty had gone to light the lamps in gods room and she was furious that somebody had kept the idols on ground !!.. i told her that i did it ... she asked me to keep it properly on next day ! then she came to oota but she was not okay..
In the morning today i tried to clean the small idols on the wooden thing in the pooja room.. they are the ones that are given to mama and aunty at a function or as a gift .. they are not worshipped but are just kept near the gods ..
honestly i tried to keep everything as it was .. and i have missed couple of them i guess.. i kept thinking i have missed something.. but could not make out at all what i have missed... i have lost my sharpness and have become forgetful so i don't do anything when nobody is around .. cos i don't know if i do something wrong ...
when i woke up from bed .. i was so dejected.. nobody was around .. i did not had anything to do .. no responsibilities.. the stillness of the house was erring so much i decided to put some music in laptop ...and i though let me check my mails as well and there was an alert from visanow.. and when i logged in and checked the website .. yahoo.. the receipt no !!!..
i immediately mailed mama and aunty and also called Holly, and i asked her if we can stop the PP and she agreed and said she will speak with the lawyers and see ... she also mentioned about the orientation program and said i will have to commute to Bethlehem which was contradicting to what the recruiter had told me... so i also mailed the recruiter about the receipt and also about the hotel accommodation.
just to be on top of the issues i mailed visanow guys ....then spoke to mama, aunty and by then nagesh the recruiter mailed back saying they will definitely pay for my accommodation and he can drop me off monday morning if i want ..i mailed him back that when i spoke Holly she mentioned that coming monday she will be in Bridgewater and next day she will be Bethlehem. So he said ok..let me know if you need to be dropped off..
around 1PM i mailed holly if she heard from visanow about pp refund amout and also about hotel accommodation during orientation ..she immediately mailed saying.. they did not give her the figures.. and about the accommodation i can book in holiday inn express near the office .. by then I had a missed call and vmail from zahra.. so i immediately emailed them my resignation email and in that i had mentioned that i have found a full time opportunity..after couple of hours when i checked back both zahra and craig had called on my cell and craig had replied to my email .. craig replied back saying why did i not tell them that i was looking for full time opportunity ? how dumb !!.. anyways i replied back saying fortunately it turned out to be a fulltime job .. by evening i also heard from visanow guys that they will refund 1000$ in 2-3 weeks.. so everything kind of got settled ..
mama aunty came back and we discussed about confusion with hotel reservation ..i.e if its on me or on the company .. and after that mama called the hotel guys to get the exact location and charges and other things ..and then we found that it has to be billed on my CC only initially and i hope it gets reimbursed later.
Its night now and just now i finished oota.. I had simple anna saru and anna majjige.. while i was doing oota.... aunty had gone to light the lamps in gods room and she was furious that somebody had kept the idols on ground !!.. i told her that i did it ... she asked me to keep it properly on next day ! then she came to oota but she was not okay..
In the morning today i tried to clean the small idols on the wooden thing in the pooja room.. they are the ones that are given to mama and aunty at a function or as a gift .. they are not worshipped but are just kept near the gods ..
honestly i tried to keep everything as it was .. and i have missed couple of them i guess.. i kept thinking i have missed something.. but could not make out at all what i have missed... i have lost my sharpness and have become forgetful so i don't do anything when nobody is around .. cos i don't know if i do something wrong ...
Today was another event less day .. as soon as i woke up zahra called me .. i told her about the interview with covansys guy and also expressed my concern about the layers ..zahra is coming across as a very shrewd person ... i ask her anything and she only asks me to do everything.. i guess its time for me also to start speaking out and be outspoken and see what happens.
I felt that today passed away very quickly .. just when i had finished speaking with amma and was done with checking my emails deepta was home .. and soon surabi also came .. both deepta and surabi were very excited today as they got microsoft zune today , zune's display is awesome ..
i also got to see bhool bhulaiya's some parts over youtube.. infact the whole movie is there .. since i have already seen the kannada version.. i did not have the patience to watch the movie.. instead i directly watched the ending scenes .. i must admit i was little scared .. phew .. i should not have watched it ..anyways will get over with it (hopefully!)
today's dinner was nice cos it had little bit of everything, actually i like it .. but after eating heavy festival meals for a week now, i want to eat simple food. after dinner surabi and vidya aunty made banana strawberry milkshake .. it tasted good...its still lingering in my mouth.
i had posted a question about h1 transfer premium processing to visanow.. buggers are writing now that they can apply only when they get the receipt, and thats the reason i went for it in the first place !! My ignorence is costing me money.... its all my damn fault .. i dont know when i will improve with bloody approach to problems .. damn i feel so stupid ..i feel like cancelling the process.. and i might lose 200$..i am feeling so shapeless rt now..
I felt that today passed away very quickly .. just when i had finished speaking with amma and was done with checking my emails deepta was home .. and soon surabi also came .. both deepta and surabi were very excited today as they got microsoft zune today , zune's display is awesome ..
i also got to see bhool bhulaiya's some parts over youtube.. infact the whole movie is there .. since i have already seen the kannada version.. i did not have the patience to watch the movie.. instead i directly watched the ending scenes .. i must admit i was little scared .. phew .. i should not have watched it ..anyways will get over with it (hopefully!)
today's dinner was nice cos it had little bit of everything, actually i like it .. but after eating heavy festival meals for a week now, i want to eat simple food. after dinner surabi and vidya aunty made banana strawberry milkshake .. it tasted good...its still lingering in my mouth.
i had posted a question about h1 transfer premium processing to visanow.. buggers are writing now that they can apply only when they get the receipt, and thats the reason i went for it in the first place !! My ignorence is costing me money.... its all my damn fault .. i dont know when i will improve with bloody approach to problems .. damn i feel so stupid ..i feel like cancelling the process.. and i might lose 200$..i am feeling so shapeless rt now..
This is my first Blog after coming to US. I have felt like pouring my thoughts in the blog several times. But somehow i lose focus and give up.. lets see how far i can go this time ..:)
Today is 21 october 2007 .. sunday and its vijayadasmi.. today morning there was vijayadasmi pooje in one of VMS members house. everyone attended but i could not go ..
morning i got to chat with shubha for a very long time.. about friends, hobbies and marriage. I see her doing the same mistake as i did and since she expressed her thoughts to me i took the liberty to tell her not to settle down(especially) in friendships cos sooner or later, intentionally or unintentionally friends do part with us. so its important to make it a habit to question what if we do not have this person around us or not have this comfort? and see if we can answer these questions. .. and have an idea that we eventually we will lose everything and its better to be prepared for a change.. because change is the only thing that is constant in this life.
when we were chatting about marriage..she asked me if anyone had proposed me .. it was soo funny.. cos nobody has proposed to me so far .. lol ... i wonder why :))D .. even now i cant stop grinning and giggling .. its strange.. but its true .. cos either my male colleagues were married or were younger to me .. how boring na... These days my silence is kind of freaking me out .. its bcos from past three weeks .. everyday ..3/4th of a day I'm alone. I don't speak with myself also!!! like how appa or ravi used to keep muttering something to themselves when they are alone .. After going through so many traumatic feelings and silently suffering for more than 10 years my health and body has started to given up on me.. now I'm a full time asthma patient.. i remember my father ,chikkamma, ranganna mama and murali mama.. that's pretty much half the family !.. i sud be thankful to god for keeping me non asthmatic at least till now.. I feel like calling my mother and telling her how difficult it is for me to breathe .. but cant hear her sob over the phone .. Surabi came just now and peeked into the full size mirror to see her outfit is wearable and likable to school....there is something very appealing about her... but her tantrums in gods room are not tolerable...she is a such a cute, sweet happy child...
Today is 21 october 2007 .. sunday and its vijayadasmi.. today morning there was vijayadasmi pooje in one of VMS members house. everyone attended but i could not go ..
morning i got to chat with shubha for a very long time.. about friends, hobbies and marriage. I see her doing the same mistake as i did and since she expressed her thoughts to me i took the liberty to tell her not to settle down(especially) in friendships cos sooner or later, intentionally or unintentionally friends do part with us. so its important to make it a habit to question what if we do not have this person around us or not have this comfort? and see if we can answer these questions. .. and have an idea that we eventually we will lose everything and its better to be prepared for a change.. because change is the only thing that is constant in this life.
when we were chatting about marriage..she asked me if anyone had proposed me .. it was soo funny.. cos nobody has proposed to me so far .. lol ... i wonder why :))D .. even now i cant stop grinning and giggling .. its strange.. but its true .. cos either my male colleagues were married or were younger to me .. how boring na... These days my silence is kind of freaking me out .. its bcos from past three weeks .. everyday ..3/4th of a day I'm alone. I don't speak with myself also!!! like how appa or ravi used to keep muttering something to themselves when they are alone .. After going through so many traumatic feelings and silently suffering for more than 10 years my health and body has started to given up on me.. now I'm a full time asthma patient.. i remember my father ,chikkamma, ranganna mama and murali mama.. that's pretty much half the family !.. i sud be thankful to god for keeping me non asthmatic at least till now.. I feel like calling my mother and telling her how difficult it is for me to breathe .. but cant hear her sob over the phone .. Surabi came just now and peeked into the full size mirror to see her outfit is wearable and likable to school....there is something very appealing about her... but her tantrums in gods room are not tolerable...she is a such a cute, sweet happy child...
Bigg Boss reality show
I have been recently following up on the BB show on Sony television. Just when things were getting interesting after rupali left the producers of BB totally spoilt it by sending kashmeera.. i think the name itself is so cursed that whether the place or a person it just takes away others peace of mind ..
somehow each one of the remaining contestants had made compromise with each other and were developing positive attitudes and kashmeera's reentry spoilt it totally. she influenced everyone against rakhi in the house, and regarding rakhi's comments ...what are the contestants crying about, also this is a reality show not a admiration show.. what were they thinking, if comments hurt them so much.. then they got to learn to live in such a way that nobody points to them.
rakhi also is no good ..she has made a bad bad comment when rahul called her sister, for which she owes an an apology. she is paying for what she has said on the show. she cannot always be a fun loving , dancing doll and get away being loud .... she gotto grow and learn to behave like a grown up. Unfortunatly when she was attemting to become a grown up.. she is being cornered..
Ravi if u have admired carol its not a criminal offence .. be a man and accept it and for such silly reasons wivess dont leave and go .., Rahul by far is the good housemate, its just that i dont like him doing massages to others, Carol the only thing i did not like about her is giving massages to others. Rakhi, is very loud and has a bad mouth, which she should control otherwise she is by far good compared to others. Amit , you suck and suck totally. on the new years eve also you influenced rupali about ravi .. whether its true or not god knows.. and now after kash came back, you are adding the ghee to the fire... amit always says he isbrave na, then why did he not accept that he influenced rupali in new year when ravi confronted him about the same its a total shame that the housemates cornered rakhi, she has said what she has seen, and including you alleven she is there on the show to win by telling the truth .. its a reality show boss .. so it sure bites..
somehow each one of the remaining contestants had made compromise with each other and were developing positive attitudes and kashmeera's reentry spoilt it totally. she influenced everyone against rakhi in the house, and regarding rakhi's comments ...what are the contestants crying about, also this is a reality show not a admiration show.. what were they thinking, if comments hurt them so much.. then they got to learn to live in such a way that nobody points to them.
rakhi also is no good ..she has made a bad bad comment when rahul called her sister, for which she owes an an apology. she is paying for what she has said on the show. she cannot always be a fun loving , dancing doll and get away being loud .... she gotto grow and learn to behave like a grown up. Unfortunatly when she was attemting to become a grown up.. she is being cornered..
Ravi if u have admired carol its not a criminal offence .. be a man and accept it and for such silly reasons wivess dont leave and go .., Rahul by far is the good housemate, its just that i dont like him doing massages to others, Carol the only thing i did not like about her is giving massages to others. Rakhi, is very loud and has a bad mouth, which she should control otherwise she is by far good compared to others. Amit , you suck and suck totally. on the new years eve also you influenced rupali about ravi .. whether its true or not god knows.. and now after kash came back, you are adding the ghee to the fire... amit always says he isbrave na, then why did he not accept that he influenced rupali in new year when ravi confronted him about the same its a total shame that the housemates cornered rakhi, she has said what she has seen, and including you alleven she is there on the show to win by telling the truth .. its a reality show boss .. so it sure bites..
Change in office timings
Mine is the famous route no 11; it has two things in common, longest route and the longest bus. The staring point of the route is chamarajpet and it then comes to gandhibazaar at 7:42 AM, uffhhh... what a pain and tension it is to be in the stop on time and to catch the bus... I just can’t sleep in the night because I am afraid that I might not get up on time... it had become stressful to take the regular shuttle in the morning...
I knew that the company runs late morning shuttle but was not aware of the pickup points... so several days I have shelled out money on rickshaws to come to office by 10... But finally I did come to know about the late morning shuttle time and pickup point from jayanagar, so I made it a routine to take the late morning and late evening shuttles and to work between 10:30 am - 7:30 pm. I have to shell out 25 bucks everyday... but its okay...it is comfortable to me...
For many others in my company too it is a painful experience to be in the congested bus for hours together before reaching office... recently couple of months ago my company conducted the survey about change in the office hours, and hence a proposal to change the shuttle timings ... the proposal was to change the office hours from 8AM -5:15 PM. And obviously my answer was NO, except for my lady colleague most of my colleagues with whom I speak and my bus friends had also said NO.
After few days I over heard a conversation on the way back home. It was about the results of the survey, it seems 70% of the employees had said Yes, where as 30% had said No. To my knowledge the person who was disclosing these figures is a responsible employee in the portal maintenance team, and even he had his doubts about the figures :-) as he too and many others he knew had not opted for the change in the timings...
I had comfortably forgotten this matter till it was told in dkom. The director announced that the office timings are getting changed from the coming march as 85% people has opted for it... 85 % .. !!??.. How did 15% get added...? It was a wakeup call to me, I could feel the restlessness that I generally go through to make sure that I get up on time and catch the regular bus on time.
Today there is a mail about the change in the shuttle timings and the new late morning shuttles. In the team meeting too it was discussed, My line manager opened the discussion, myself and others asked her the questions, she addressed each point with her point of view ...
The new shuttle reaching time at campus is 8 and 11:15... There is a big gap between the two timings... when this point was raised by an employee...the justification given by the fellow colleague was that there will be no late morning shuttle at the current timing, as everyone will start using it .. How ridiculous... If people who have opted to take the 8'o clack regular shuttle and land up at the late morning shuttle then whose mistake is it... then in the first place they should not have opted of it...
Just because 85% of people want to come to office at 8, the rest of them should also come at that time only and because these 85% people might get distracted to take the late morning shuttles if introduced at the current timings, again 15% people who were honorable using the service have to let go that comfort... India is a democratic nation, everyone has the liberty to choose their own lifestyle and when it comes to office timing people can choose flexi timings of course in a given threshold...
What I also suspect is that some big guy(s) in the management who is a kunjoose and is still using the office shuttles must have problems in commuting to office due to traffic issues... so he(s) is trying to do all these at the company level the name of others and trying to get the benefit...
The most ridiculous thing was... in the meeting my manager said, if anybody has some issues coming to office in the new timings do let me know... And I told her that I would prefer to come in the current 10:30 - 7:30 timings... she says... It’s not a preference... Then what is that which will be given a preference so that I can say I would like to come late ... I did not want to make lame excuses... hence only I said I would prefer... if coming late is not a preference then why should you even ask .. Manager again:-D
Why the hell should I suffer and opt for some other timing which I am not comfortable with. But why...?
I knew that the company runs late morning shuttle but was not aware of the pickup points... so several days I have shelled out money on rickshaws to come to office by 10... But finally I did come to know about the late morning shuttle time and pickup point from jayanagar, so I made it a routine to take the late morning and late evening shuttles and to work between 10:30 am - 7:30 pm. I have to shell out 25 bucks everyday... but its okay...it is comfortable to me...
For many others in my company too it is a painful experience to be in the congested bus for hours together before reaching office... recently couple of months ago my company conducted the survey about change in the office hours, and hence a proposal to change the shuttle timings ... the proposal was to change the office hours from 8AM -5:15 PM. And obviously my answer was NO, except for my lady colleague most of my colleagues with whom I speak and my bus friends had also said NO.
After few days I over heard a conversation on the way back home. It was about the results of the survey, it seems 70% of the employees had said Yes, where as 30% had said No. To my knowledge the person who was disclosing these figures is a responsible employee in the portal maintenance team, and even he had his doubts about the figures :-) as he too and many others he knew had not opted for the change in the timings...
I had comfortably forgotten this matter till it was told in dkom. The director announced that the office timings are getting changed from the coming march as 85% people has opted for it... 85 % .. !!??.. How did 15% get added...? It was a wakeup call to me, I could feel the restlessness that I generally go through to make sure that I get up on time and catch the regular bus on time.
Today there is a mail about the change in the shuttle timings and the new late morning shuttles. In the team meeting too it was discussed, My line manager opened the discussion, myself and others asked her the questions, she addressed each point with her point of view ...
The new shuttle reaching time at campus is 8 and 11:15... There is a big gap between the two timings... when this point was raised by an employee...the justification given by the fellow colleague was that there will be no late morning shuttle at the current timing, as everyone will start using it .. How ridiculous... If people who have opted to take the 8'o clack regular shuttle and land up at the late morning shuttle then whose mistake is it... then in the first place they should not have opted of it...
Just because 85% of people want to come to office at 8, the rest of them should also come at that time only and because these 85% people might get distracted to take the late morning shuttles if introduced at the current timings, again 15% people who were honorable using the service have to let go that comfort... India is a democratic nation, everyone has the liberty to choose their own lifestyle and when it comes to office timing people can choose flexi timings of course in a given threshold...
What I also suspect is that some big guy(s) in the management who is a kunjoose and is still using the office shuttles must have problems in commuting to office due to traffic issues... so he(s) is trying to do all these at the company level the name of others and trying to get the benefit...
The most ridiculous thing was... in the meeting my manager said, if anybody has some issues coming to office in the new timings do let me know... And I told her that I would prefer to come in the current 10:30 - 7:30 timings... she says... It’s not a preference... Then what is that which will be given a preference so that I can say I would like to come late ... I did not want to make lame excuses... hence only I said I would prefer... if coming late is not a preference then why should you even ask .. Manager again:-D
Why the hell should I suffer and opt for some other timing which I am not comfortable with. But why...?
Another day in office
Its a tuesday afternoon in office.... outside it is bright and sunny , inside it is cold because of AC. We software engineers have only one season i.e winter season or i can say AC season.. hmm... Many say AC is bad for health, I do not know about this but in my experince AC is defenitely bad for the skin. It has made my skin over dry and dedydrated... may be i should use garnier wrinkle lift as a body lotion not just as a face cream :-) .. from the cost point of view it is a very bad idea :-(
From morning i have not done anything(!!).. I am feeling guilty sayting this to myself.. but its true, I tried to learn the new changes in the test report, and that got over soon, I tried to solve the customer messages, but the connection to the customer system was not open ...It is 12:45 now .. Mahesh is here .. back from lunch ..
Iam trying to kill time .. let me go to lunch now ......It is 1:45 now, just now I came back from the lunch.. lunch was interesting, today i took north indian lunch, I had poori, rajma, fries (in kannada akki peni) hmm .. it was good .. and with curd rice .. now i'am full..At 2 pm I have a VC to attend. At 2:30 there is a BC status meeting .. so i can escape from VC .. VCs are so boring, for that matter any meeting is boring ...
After BC meeting i dont see myself doing anything, may be i sud do testing only .. there are so many changes .. i can bug my german colleagues to give me KT about the changes.
Tomorrow is the D day, from tomorrow the office timings are getting changed from 8-5:15 .. I really doubt if i will get used to this timings..... somebody help me or ..somebody drop me( to office at 10 ) ???!!! :-D
From morning i have not done anything(!!).. I am feeling guilty sayting this to myself.. but its true, I tried to learn the new changes in the test report, and that got over soon, I tried to solve the customer messages, but the connection to the customer system was not open ...It is 12:45 now .. Mahesh is here .. back from lunch ..
Iam trying to kill time .. let me go to lunch now ......It is 1:45 now, just now I came back from the lunch.. lunch was interesting, today i took north indian lunch, I had poori, rajma, fries (in kannada akki peni) hmm .. it was good .. and with curd rice .. now i'am full..At 2 pm I have a VC to attend. At 2:30 there is a BC status meeting .. so i can escape from VC .. VCs are so boring, for that matter any meeting is boring ...
After BC meeting i dont see myself doing anything, may be i sud do testing only .. there are so many changes .. i can bug my german colleagues to give me KT about the changes.
Tomorrow is the D day, from tomorrow the office timings are getting changed from 8-5:15 .. I really doubt if i will get used to this timings..... somebody help me or ..somebody drop me( to office at 10 ) ???!!! :-D
Finally the day had come for me to travle to chennai..
Finally the day had come for me to travel to chennai. it had been a very long wait ..I had waited for the offer .. I had waited for the work permit .. I had waited for the interview dates .. And now it was here ... It was a pleasant surprise when murali mama was at the door and said the driver is at your service, it was a big relief that I don't have to go out in the chilly morning looking for autos and bargaining with them to go on normal fare ..
In 10 mins we were at the contonment railway station, the station was already crowded .. as if I did not know that fact .. Yet I was surprised .. Went inside the station and daddy went to enquire where the s2 bogie (Kannada word ) will stand ... I turned left and saw that there were name plates written S1, S2 so on .. so myself and appa started walking towards the platforms .. Ours was S4... And in the reservation areas there were so many chinkis .. To me it was it was not a rare sight .. As I have seen them when I had traveled to Germany. But others in the station including appa was amused seeing them .. Soon the train came and stopped in the platform .. by then I had observed that our train 2608 bangalore chennai express would be the next one not the one that had stopped. The train that was in the platform was bangalore coimbatore express .. Obviously appa was confused .. He kept looking at the boards, and kept on confirming that if that was our train .. I told him as much as I could and finally had to be stern ...He was convinced that our train was yet to come.
Bangalore coimbatore express left the station, the tv screen got refreshed and they then started showing our train details, in a short while, the train came to the platform .. from the beginning of this entire trip i.e. from the days of planning till then i have had apprehensions about travelling second class in the trains .. that is becuase it would be a long journey to chennai and one would need some confortable seats and clean facilities inside the train .. but because of confusion while reservation of the tickets .. I had to settle down with 2nd class tickets .. coz we had already cancelled once and haaaad lost 80 bucks (!!!) .. bloody govt, they are parasites.. they live on others money.. they dont have the capcity to generate wealth .. but they have the capacity to eat public's hard earned money... they took 2o rs for the reservation and another 20 rs is taken for cancellation also .. bunch of Bs
we knew that the train would stop only for 2 mins there... even though there were reservation lists on the compartments i got confused ..in a hurry not to miss the train we got into s3, and we asked the passengers .. if it was s4 :-) such things always work when you know if you ask the wrong information someone will surely tell you the right infmn .. so someone did point towards our left and said ' next is the pantry, just go inside and the compartment next to pantry is S4..' we went as per the directions.. the pantry compartments were very long with ofcourse the smell of the kitchen ....
Then came the issue of the seats, our was 74 and 78, during the ticket reservation, it seems the reservation officer had told appa that it would come infront of each other .. ofcourse there was a seat infront of 74, but it was not 78 .. it was on the left side of the 74th seat .. and it was occupied by someone.. then that guy said pls occupy 75, as ours too was like you... we had got different seats... we sat and settled down and the train moved ..
It first stopped at KR puram, and after that we passed by the whitefield route and i started showing appa the regular route that is taken by my shuttle in the morning while going to office. after a while the train was on the non residentail industrial area .. i observed some white things on the trees .. it took me sometime to understand that it was fog .. that was the first time in my life i had seen fog... it was thick white cold clouds situated as a layer at the half the heights of the trees .. the lady next to me asked me if she should close the windows , and i gladly nodded my head .. to my relief i soon fell asleep ..
when i opened the eyes.. dad was asking if i would like to eat anything .. probably that is why i opened my eyes .. i refused .. asi dont eat anything on the jurney .. i again tried to sleep but i could not ..by then we had reached jolarpettai .. the passengers infromt of me got down .. and couple of muslims came and occupied those seats .. one of them called up somebosy on the cell and said the train is late by an hour so he too will be late by an hour .. thats when i felt that nothing can be done about the system .. it only fails ..nothing happens on time .. for no particular reason .. or am i being unreasonable ... after an hour i again fell asleep .. and when i was awake it was 11:30 .. dad was excited that within 45 mins we wold be at out destination.. slowly he too raelised that the train was slow .. and we finally reached chennai at 1 PM ..
We got down at the chennai central, and gladly saw dhanalakshmi aunty .. she asked us to stay in her house, but dad said we would like to stay in anna slai as it would help us to raech the consulate without any trouble. Then we deciede that we should have lunch and then go to the hotel. We cameout and so many auto rickshawwalas kept asking us if we require an auto .. it was bugging .. then I saw a hotel and aunty said she know a hotel by name vasanth bhavan ans she regularly goes their, i said then its fine, coz one should always go to a known hotel, but very surprisingly appa was unhappy and suggested that we should go to a brahmins hotel, it was too funny, namgoskra angaara akshate haakondu yaaru hotelnalli naavu bartheevi antha kaytha eruthare .. :-D ..
Anyways we went to vasanth bahvan, it was like one of our majestic hotels.. there were only ben in the ground floor, in the top floor there were women, but that was snacks section .. with a disturbed mind we occupied the table shown by the hotel guy .. the table was dirty .. a boy came and cleaned it .. ofcourse with dirt .. i kept reminding myself that iam outside my house and outside my hoetown .. so without putting my price i making tantrums i sud let this go .. actually i had no choice but to be silent .. but my heart was heavy .. damn it ... why cant i choose another good hotel, where i can happily eat some good food .. the guy came placed 3 banyan leave and soon the food was served .. i tasted the food and all of tem had garlic .. so i had no choice but to eat curd rice .. appa wanted chapathi and i wanted another cup curd so we ordered again .. and had the food .. we completd and went for hand wash .. behind me came appa .. he cribbed and said.. i did not like the hotel .. food was horrible .. i was so relievd that somone shres the same feeling so next time we could go for a better hotel .. we came out and again the autorickshaw wallas kept on asking us .. the rates that they demand are exorbitant .. they are baseless .. since many things had to be done that day we finalised on an auto for a fair over rate and started towards anna salai..
One thing that is very evident to a banglorean like me is that chennai has good roads .. does not have the mad traffic like blore .. then dhanalakshmi aunty asked the driver if he knew good hotels in anna salai .. after a while that guy said he know a hotel which is infront of the consulate .. but dad was not happy .. i decieded to try out this place before we went to see new woodlands .. we were now in front of the consulate .. and right infront of the cnsulate was a big flyover and infront of that on the other side was no hotel .. we continued further and after 2 kms the auto guy took a right turn and stopped in front of nandini palace ..
Myself and appa saw the room and decieded to take it .. dhanlakshmi aunty then left us at hotel and went back home. we got our luggage inside the room .. and rested for awhile and called up vasumathi .. it was 2:30 in the afternoon. I asked her about the temple and she said she will call m back after speaking with sudhakar. after couple of minutes se called us at the hotel and asked us to be ready and said sudhakar will pick us between 3:20 - 3:30 ,
And i notice the room door had no latch, i just shivered i pulled appa and we went to the reception and told him about the door and asked him to change our room, he then sent a guy and he told us that we could lock the door from inside and no one will be able to open from outside .. with half mind i agreed .. bcoz it was the same in germany also .......
myself and appa we both were very very tired .. i tried hard not to sleep .. by 3:10 i dragged myself to get ready .. by 3:20 we heard from reception that we had a guest waiting for us . Appa went to get sudhakar, but he refused to come inside the room ... we got ready quickly, switched off all the lights, i took all my doucuments, my purse and appa also did the same we came out and were trying the lock the door .. suddenly a guy came near us and said lock the door from inside and pull the door .. we did the same .. actually even i used to do the same when i was in germany ..
We got inside the car and zoomed off from T nagar towards besant Nagar. On the way couple of times i got confused as to why there are less people on the streets, for a second i almost assumed there was some strike going on and that is why people are observing bandh .... then i realised thats not the case .. all cities need not be necessarily like blore :-) , over crowded, over noisy ..
Sudhakar is a silent person, he gives information but very briefly, and answers to the point, it was difficult for me as i ask lot of questions and very opinionated and talk a lot ..
We were finally at vasumathi's place in besantnagar, when we got down from the car, appa whispered in my ears , iam glad we dint opt to saty this far .. i was glad too .. cos appa had cribbed that i had not asked vasumathi if i could stay in their house during my stay in chennai.
Soon we were inside the house and vasumathi greeted us, and as any other indian family household she offerd us some coffee ... it was a very good coffee .. their house is very nice, i like the interiors of the house. the sofa covering combination is the best .. i like the mix match concept, even the curtains were elegant and suited the ambience inside. Becuse of the portico, i felf there was less light in the hall, otherwise, very nice house .. must be a big one ..
Vasumathi soon got ready to go to the temple, my document bag was heavy, so i asked if i could leave it in their house .. vasumathi autnty then called kitty and asked her to keep the documents with her till we returned .. we then left for the temple ..
It was a good journey, vasumathi explained about the roads, temples, beach side resorts ... she is like me .. good in conversations .. we crossed the toll and in 10 minutes we awere at the temple . by then it was 5PM. we had covered the 37 kms journey in just 40mins..
The temple surroundings were very calm. there were less people and lesser number of stalls. Sudhakar parked the vehicle .. and we all got down.. and there was this calf it got excited seeing me and started coming towards me .. oh god .. i was sso scared . ... i walked fast and diverted the calfs attention.
By then vasumati was at one of the stalls trying to buy garlends for the god. Appa said he wants one more for him, and even after bargain it costed us whooping 110 rs ... we went inside the main temple .. and then inside one more prakara, finally inside the garbha gudi, and there was this big stone statue of god bhuneela varaha swamy .. i felt very nice and peaceful seeing the god.
The priests took the garlend from us and asked if i had to be married .. then they all said yes, so he did the necessary formalities and asked me to wear one of the garlends.. it was very weird .. yet i wore .. he asked me to keep the garland till i get married and gave one more garland to appa and asked him to keep it in our devara mane for two days and put it on a tree once it dries .. I was then asked to take 9 rounds on the outer prakara .. but before that we had to go to laksmi temple just beside the varahaswamy temple. We went their and the priest performed the pooja and gave us the blessings .. i dont know why i felt the godess's eyes was somewhat .. in kannada it is called as vakra drishti .. and i felt really bad .. as godess laksmi symbolises wealth and prosperity, also when the priest gave the blessings, he blessed me an early marriage where as for sudhakar he blessed that he should be successful and prosperous .. that time i felt very bad that i did not get the required blessings .. bcoz it was very important ..
i took 9 round around the temple first prakara .. finally covered the andal and ranganatha swamy temple. Iam sometimes too very superstitious.. when i was about leave.. a cat was about to cross my way.. in fact that made me change my path and go towards ranganathswamy temple. I was too very disappointed first becuase i when i saw the goddess lakshmi instead of showing me her lovely eyes, the godess sight was somewhat and again the cat thing ..
With a heavy heart i left the temple .. again those naughty calfs .. a calf actually took a step .. a big step and i mean jumped a big step where our was standing and came towards me. i shouted .. and others who were there were laughing ... may the cow got confused seeing my green duppatta.
We then zoomed ouff towards the chennai city, we first crossed the toll and we were soon in the busy road, the evning was pleasent, vasumathi apologised and said they had a prior appointment and they cannot cancel it and we should have dinner and go, she asked me thrice , thrice i refused..in 40 mins we were in front of her house .. we got inside the house and relaxed for a while, soon the snacks was served and i happily hooged the food. The snacks were khara avalakki that had cucucmber and godhi payasa .. appa gave most of the godhi payasa to me.. i really liked the payasa .. even though i dont eat sweets .. i could eat the payasa ... my dinner was over. Then vasumathi aunty asked for cofy, i refused and appa agreed, then i too took it when she gave cofy to appa,and obviously he criibed it is too much.
By then, sudhakar, suparth were ready to go out, and i asked for my bag, and surprisingly, vasumathi gave me and appa gifts, she also gave the gul pavate unde that was made by kollapurada kobbari prasada. I was happy and ofcourse happy by their hospitality. She then did namskara to appa(!!!) i was too surprised .. ummmm .. god bless them ...
They then offerd us to drop half the way, this supartha also came, he took the first seat and myself , appa and vasumathi took the back seats, we were then dropped and sudhakar helped us with an auto, the guy demanded 60 bucks!!!. Reluctantly appa and myself got it the rick, .. after a while we were at the hotel, i got down and went towards the room, appa paid the auto guy and follwed me inside .....
And guess what , the lights were on in the room .. good heavens, god save us .. oh boy .. oh boy .. i was very angy and appa too realised that the room was opened coz before we left we had made sure to switch off the lights, appa said he will speak in the reception as to why the room was opened, the we decieded to take up the issue during checkout.
but i was psyched .. then called up home, spoke with amma and anni, felt a little better, then i was not hungry, but appa was, so he started cribbing, then i told him iam not hungry and in no mood to go out with him, so he understood that nothing could make me go out of the bed .. he then decieded to take a small walk outside, but i was psyched and i feared and asked him to come soon.. and ofcourse he did take alittle more time when he returned and i was almost in tears by then i told him not to leave me and go .. he understood that i was really in fear.. he then assured he will not go out leaving me alone their.. then we both opened our condiments from blore and ate and ate and ate .. and ate :-) ... i then packed the bags, cleared the mess as next day i will have little time to packup. Then i told appa that i will not take bath the next day as i was psyched that somebody might barge into our room as it had happend that day. He did not say anything .. then i dont know i felt a little relieved and said i will take bath ..cos i have to be fresh in front of the VO.
it was 11 in the night, i pulled up the bed sheet that i had got and tried to sleep, appa thought, that there are no bed sheets provided by the hotel, i told him its right their on the bed, but it never went to his ears, and he kept cribbing that i should have asked him to get a bed sheet from bangalore. ..then i told him to share mine.. but he was unhappy, then finally it went inside his head that the bed sheets were ther only.In teh middle of all this we heard some noise fron the bathroom area. I was worried coz i suuspected that was from geyser, appa too was worried as it sud not get us to any trouble in the midnight, so we again called the reception, even after the 10 mins, nobody came, appa called again, and in couple of mins a guy came, and inspected the bathroom and said everything was fine, the noise is from the adjucscent kitchen... and assured us that everything is fine and boasted that it is agr8 hotel .. and blah . blah ..
Yet i was not getting sleep, i was worried and worried .. i had almost decieded that i am going to sit wide eyed the entire night .. then after half an hour, i felt i can handle this in a better way .. i pulled the heavy chair and table towards the door and felt that even if someone come inside i will have time for action cos they will have to cross the heavy barriers ... i was relieved .. and went to bed .. slept like a log that night ...
It was soon morning .. I had kept the alarm at 6:45 .. i got up and went directly to bathroom, i took my own sweet time to get ready, after sometime, i could hear appa asking me come out, i got so bugged .. i almost shouted back .. then he shouted back and said .. will you comeout or not it 7:30 !!!! .. i came out and in a hurry got a ready.. appa too got ready and by then it was 8:10!!!
Appa was restless, when i was getting ready and finally he pulled me out of the room at 8:15 .. we wanted to have cofy abut appa said he will have only in brahmins hotel ... LOL .. we came out and was looking for the auto .. then the hotel guy came out and asked us if we were going to the consulate nd we nidded our head, he asked us to take the a rickshaw that was there in front of the hotel and said take this rick, but do not pay him, we will pay him for the trip.
We got into the rick and went towards the consulate office.. by then there was a queue already, about half a kilometer long in front of office, our auto guy dropped us, Myself and appa wnet towards the office main entrance .. appa said that i should ask the security, i got ready to go and stand in the queue by then security only came and asked me .. i told him my interview is at 9 , he said, just show your interview letter their and get inside and he asked my father to wait at the same place where others were waiting.... To be continued ...:)
In 10 mins we were at the contonment railway station, the station was already crowded .. as if I did not know that fact .. Yet I was surprised .. Went inside the station and daddy went to enquire where the s2 bogie (Kannada word ) will stand ... I turned left and saw that there were name plates written S1, S2 so on .. so myself and appa started walking towards the platforms .. Ours was S4... And in the reservation areas there were so many chinkis .. To me it was it was not a rare sight .. As I have seen them when I had traveled to Germany. But others in the station including appa was amused seeing them .. Soon the train came and stopped in the platform .. by then I had observed that our train 2608 bangalore chennai express would be the next one not the one that had stopped. The train that was in the platform was bangalore coimbatore express .. Obviously appa was confused .. He kept looking at the boards, and kept on confirming that if that was our train .. I told him as much as I could and finally had to be stern ...He was convinced that our train was yet to come.
Bangalore coimbatore express left the station, the tv screen got refreshed and they then started showing our train details, in a short while, the train came to the platform .. from the beginning of this entire trip i.e. from the days of planning till then i have had apprehensions about travelling second class in the trains .. that is becuase it would be a long journey to chennai and one would need some confortable seats and clean facilities inside the train .. but because of confusion while reservation of the tickets .. I had to settle down with 2nd class tickets .. coz we had already cancelled once and haaaad lost 80 bucks (!!!) .. bloody govt, they are parasites.. they live on others money.. they dont have the capcity to generate wealth .. but they have the capacity to eat public's hard earned money... they took 2o rs for the reservation and another 20 rs is taken for cancellation also .. bunch of Bs
we knew that the train would stop only for 2 mins there... even though there were reservation lists on the compartments i got confused ..in a hurry not to miss the train we got into s3, and we asked the passengers .. if it was s4 :-) such things always work when you know if you ask the wrong information someone will surely tell you the right infmn .. so someone did point towards our left and said ' next is the pantry, just go inside and the compartment next to pantry is S4..' we went as per the directions.. the pantry compartments were very long with ofcourse the smell of the kitchen ....
Then came the issue of the seats, our was 74 and 78, during the ticket reservation, it seems the reservation officer had told appa that it would come infront of each other .. ofcourse there was a seat infront of 74, but it was not 78 .. it was on the left side of the 74th seat .. and it was occupied by someone.. then that guy said pls occupy 75, as ours too was like you... we had got different seats... we sat and settled down and the train moved ..
It first stopped at KR puram, and after that we passed by the whitefield route and i started showing appa the regular route that is taken by my shuttle in the morning while going to office. after a while the train was on the non residentail industrial area .. i observed some white things on the trees .. it took me sometime to understand that it was fog .. that was the first time in my life i had seen fog... it was thick white cold clouds situated as a layer at the half the heights of the trees .. the lady next to me asked me if she should close the windows , and i gladly nodded my head .. to my relief i soon fell asleep ..
when i opened the eyes.. dad was asking if i would like to eat anything .. probably that is why i opened my eyes .. i refused .. asi dont eat anything on the jurney .. i again tried to sleep but i could not ..by then we had reached jolarpettai .. the passengers infromt of me got down .. and couple of muslims came and occupied those seats .. one of them called up somebosy on the cell and said the train is late by an hour so he too will be late by an hour .. thats when i felt that nothing can be done about the system .. it only fails ..nothing happens on time .. for no particular reason .. or am i being unreasonable ... after an hour i again fell asleep .. and when i was awake it was 11:30 .. dad was excited that within 45 mins we wold be at out destination.. slowly he too raelised that the train was slow .. and we finally reached chennai at 1 PM ..
We got down at the chennai central, and gladly saw dhanalakshmi aunty .. she asked us to stay in her house, but dad said we would like to stay in anna slai as it would help us to raech the consulate without any trouble. Then we deciede that we should have lunch and then go to the hotel. We cameout and so many auto rickshawwalas kept asking us if we require an auto .. it was bugging .. then I saw a hotel and aunty said she know a hotel by name vasanth bhavan ans she regularly goes their, i said then its fine, coz one should always go to a known hotel, but very surprisingly appa was unhappy and suggested that we should go to a brahmins hotel, it was too funny, namgoskra angaara akshate haakondu yaaru hotelnalli naavu bartheevi antha kaytha eruthare .. :-D ..
Anyways we went to vasanth bahvan, it was like one of our majestic hotels.. there were only ben in the ground floor, in the top floor there were women, but that was snacks section .. with a disturbed mind we occupied the table shown by the hotel guy .. the table was dirty .. a boy came and cleaned it .. ofcourse with dirt .. i kept reminding myself that iam outside my house and outside my hoetown .. so without putting my price i making tantrums i sud let this go .. actually i had no choice but to be silent .. but my heart was heavy .. damn it ... why cant i choose another good hotel, where i can happily eat some good food .. the guy came placed 3 banyan leave and soon the food was served .. i tasted the food and all of tem had garlic .. so i had no choice but to eat curd rice .. appa wanted chapathi and i wanted another cup curd so we ordered again .. and had the food .. we completd and went for hand wash .. behind me came appa .. he cribbed and said.. i did not like the hotel .. food was horrible .. i was so relievd that somone shres the same feeling so next time we could go for a better hotel .. we came out and again the autorickshaw wallas kept on asking us .. the rates that they demand are exorbitant .. they are baseless .. since many things had to be done that day we finalised on an auto for a fair over rate and started towards anna salai..
One thing that is very evident to a banglorean like me is that chennai has good roads .. does not have the mad traffic like blore .. then dhanalakshmi aunty asked the driver if he knew good hotels in anna salai .. after a while that guy said he know a hotel which is infront of the consulate .. but dad was not happy .. i decieded to try out this place before we went to see new woodlands .. we were now in front of the consulate .. and right infront of the cnsulate was a big flyover and infront of that on the other side was no hotel .. we continued further and after 2 kms the auto guy took a right turn and stopped in front of nandini palace ..
Myself and appa saw the room and decieded to take it .. dhanlakshmi aunty then left us at hotel and went back home. we got our luggage inside the room .. and rested for awhile and called up vasumathi .. it was 2:30 in the afternoon. I asked her about the temple and she said she will call m back after speaking with sudhakar. after couple of minutes se called us at the hotel and asked us to be ready and said sudhakar will pick us between 3:20 - 3:30 ,
And i notice the room door had no latch, i just shivered i pulled appa and we went to the reception and told him about the door and asked him to change our room, he then sent a guy and he told us that we could lock the door from inside and no one will be able to open from outside .. with half mind i agreed .. bcoz it was the same in germany also .......
myself and appa we both were very very tired .. i tried hard not to sleep .. by 3:10 i dragged myself to get ready .. by 3:20 we heard from reception that we had a guest waiting for us . Appa went to get sudhakar, but he refused to come inside the room ... we got ready quickly, switched off all the lights, i took all my doucuments, my purse and appa also did the same we came out and were trying the lock the door .. suddenly a guy came near us and said lock the door from inside and pull the door .. we did the same .. actually even i used to do the same when i was in germany ..
We got inside the car and zoomed off from T nagar towards besant Nagar. On the way couple of times i got confused as to why there are less people on the streets, for a second i almost assumed there was some strike going on and that is why people are observing bandh .... then i realised thats not the case .. all cities need not be necessarily like blore :-) , over crowded, over noisy ..
Sudhakar is a silent person, he gives information but very briefly, and answers to the point, it was difficult for me as i ask lot of questions and very opinionated and talk a lot ..
We were finally at vasumathi's place in besantnagar, when we got down from the car, appa whispered in my ears , iam glad we dint opt to saty this far .. i was glad too .. cos appa had cribbed that i had not asked vasumathi if i could stay in their house during my stay in chennai.
Soon we were inside the house and vasumathi greeted us, and as any other indian family household she offerd us some coffee ... it was a very good coffee .. their house is very nice, i like the interiors of the house. the sofa covering combination is the best .. i like the mix match concept, even the curtains were elegant and suited the ambience inside. Becuse of the portico, i felf there was less light in the hall, otherwise, very nice house .. must be a big one ..
Vasumathi soon got ready to go to the temple, my document bag was heavy, so i asked if i could leave it in their house .. vasumathi autnty then called kitty and asked her to keep the documents with her till we returned .. we then left for the temple ..
It was a good journey, vasumathi explained about the roads, temples, beach side resorts ... she is like me .. good in conversations .. we crossed the toll and in 10 minutes we awere at the temple . by then it was 5PM. we had covered the 37 kms journey in just 40mins..
The temple surroundings were very calm. there were less people and lesser number of stalls. Sudhakar parked the vehicle .. and we all got down.. and there was this calf it got excited seeing me and started coming towards me .. oh god .. i was sso scared . ... i walked fast and diverted the calfs attention.
By then vasumati was at one of the stalls trying to buy garlends for the god. Appa said he wants one more for him, and even after bargain it costed us whooping 110 rs ... we went inside the main temple .. and then inside one more prakara, finally inside the garbha gudi, and there was this big stone statue of god bhuneela varaha swamy .. i felt very nice and peaceful seeing the god.
The priests took the garlend from us and asked if i had to be married .. then they all said yes, so he did the necessary formalities and asked me to wear one of the garlends.. it was very weird .. yet i wore .. he asked me to keep the garland till i get married and gave one more garland to appa and asked him to keep it in our devara mane for two days and put it on a tree once it dries .. I was then asked to take 9 rounds on the outer prakara .. but before that we had to go to laksmi temple just beside the varahaswamy temple. We went their and the priest performed the pooja and gave us the blessings .. i dont know why i felt the godess's eyes was somewhat .. in kannada it is called as vakra drishti .. and i felt really bad .. as godess laksmi symbolises wealth and prosperity, also when the priest gave the blessings, he blessed me an early marriage where as for sudhakar he blessed that he should be successful and prosperous .. that time i felt very bad that i did not get the required blessings .. bcoz it was very important ..
i took 9 round around the temple first prakara .. finally covered the andal and ranganatha swamy temple. Iam sometimes too very superstitious.. when i was about leave.. a cat was about to cross my way.. in fact that made me change my path and go towards ranganathswamy temple. I was too very disappointed first becuase i when i saw the goddess lakshmi instead of showing me her lovely eyes, the godess sight was somewhat and again the cat thing ..
With a heavy heart i left the temple .. again those naughty calfs .. a calf actually took a step .. a big step and i mean jumped a big step where our was standing and came towards me. i shouted .. and others who were there were laughing ... may the cow got confused seeing my green duppatta.
We then zoomed ouff towards the chennai city, we first crossed the toll and we were soon in the busy road, the evning was pleasent, vasumathi apologised and said they had a prior appointment and they cannot cancel it and we should have dinner and go, she asked me thrice , thrice i refused..in 40 mins we were in front of her house .. we got inside the house and relaxed for a while, soon the snacks was served and i happily hooged the food. The snacks were khara avalakki that had cucucmber and godhi payasa .. appa gave most of the godhi payasa to me.. i really liked the payasa .. even though i dont eat sweets .. i could eat the payasa ... my dinner was over. Then vasumathi aunty asked for cofy, i refused and appa agreed, then i too took it when she gave cofy to appa,and obviously he criibed it is too much.
By then, sudhakar, suparth were ready to go out, and i asked for my bag, and surprisingly, vasumathi gave me and appa gifts, she also gave the gul pavate unde that was made by kollapurada kobbari prasada. I was happy and ofcourse happy by their hospitality. She then did namskara to appa(!!!) i was too surprised .. ummmm .. god bless them ...
They then offerd us to drop half the way, this supartha also came, he took the first seat and myself , appa and vasumathi took the back seats, we were then dropped and sudhakar helped us with an auto, the guy demanded 60 bucks!!!. Reluctantly appa and myself got it the rick, .. after a while we were at the hotel, i got down and went towards the room, appa paid the auto guy and follwed me inside .....
And guess what , the lights were on in the room .. good heavens, god save us .. oh boy .. oh boy .. i was very angy and appa too realised that the room was opened coz before we left we had made sure to switch off the lights, appa said he will speak in the reception as to why the room was opened, the we decieded to take up the issue during checkout.
but i was psyched .. then called up home, spoke with amma and anni, felt a little better, then i was not hungry, but appa was, so he started cribbing, then i told him iam not hungry and in no mood to go out with him, so he understood that nothing could make me go out of the bed .. he then decieded to take a small walk outside, but i was psyched and i feared and asked him to come soon.. and ofcourse he did take alittle more time when he returned and i was almost in tears by then i told him not to leave me and go .. he understood that i was really in fear.. he then assured he will not go out leaving me alone their.. then we both opened our condiments from blore and ate and ate and ate .. and ate :-) ... i then packed the bags, cleared the mess as next day i will have little time to packup. Then i told appa that i will not take bath the next day as i was psyched that somebody might barge into our room as it had happend that day. He did not say anything .. then i dont know i felt a little relieved and said i will take bath ..cos i have to be fresh in front of the VO.
it was 11 in the night, i pulled up the bed sheet that i had got and tried to sleep, appa thought, that there are no bed sheets provided by the hotel, i told him its right their on the bed, but it never went to his ears, and he kept cribbing that i should have asked him to get a bed sheet from bangalore. ..then i told him to share mine.. but he was unhappy, then finally it went inside his head that the bed sheets were ther only.In teh middle of all this we heard some noise fron the bathroom area. I was worried coz i suuspected that was from geyser, appa too was worried as it sud not get us to any trouble in the midnight, so we again called the reception, even after the 10 mins, nobody came, appa called again, and in couple of mins a guy came, and inspected the bathroom and said everything was fine, the noise is from the adjucscent kitchen... and assured us that everything is fine and boasted that it is agr8 hotel .. and blah . blah ..
Yet i was not getting sleep, i was worried and worried .. i had almost decieded that i am going to sit wide eyed the entire night .. then after half an hour, i felt i can handle this in a better way .. i pulled the heavy chair and table towards the door and felt that even if someone come inside i will have time for action cos they will have to cross the heavy barriers ... i was relieved .. and went to bed .. slept like a log that night ...
It was soon morning .. I had kept the alarm at 6:45 .. i got up and went directly to bathroom, i took my own sweet time to get ready, after sometime, i could hear appa asking me come out, i got so bugged .. i almost shouted back .. then he shouted back and said .. will you comeout or not it 7:30 !!!! .. i came out and in a hurry got a ready.. appa too got ready and by then it was 8:10!!!
Appa was restless, when i was getting ready and finally he pulled me out of the room at 8:15 .. we wanted to have cofy abut appa said he will have only in brahmins hotel ... LOL .. we came out and was looking for the auto .. then the hotel guy came out and asked us if we were going to the consulate nd we nidded our head, he asked us to take the a rickshaw that was there in front of the hotel and said take this rick, but do not pay him, we will pay him for the trip.
We got into the rick and went towards the consulate office.. by then there was a queue already, about half a kilometer long in front of office, our auto guy dropped us, Myself and appa wnet towards the office main entrance .. appa said that i should ask the security, i got ready to go and stand in the queue by then security only came and asked me .. i told him my interview is at 9 , he said, just show your interview letter their and get inside and he asked my father to wait at the same place where others were waiting.... To be continued ...:)
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