Saturday, November 12, 2005

Blogger's Block!

When you are between the horns of a dilemma the best thing to do is catch the bull by the horn! Two idioms in one sentence. Ah seems like a fresh start has been made made, a new dawn has broken. This blog gets to see the light of another day.

YES!! I had a very unpleasant feeling that just like my previous disastrous attempt at blogging, this too would die in childbirth. Encountering the blogger's block was not easy. There were so many ready excuses not to blog: life's getting drab, why waste time writing when nobody's going to read, next week and promise I will. The last paragraph means that I have managed to get myself out of the block.

Just to emphasize how much will power it required to get back to writing let me take you through a day this week, doesn't matter which one because all of them were just the same!

8:15, time for new age driver equipped with the once-upon-a-time-gizmo, cellphone, to inform me about his arrival with the help of the cheapest method of communication invented so far, missed calls. My cell phone alarm must have obediently gone off at 7:40, but its 8:05 and i am still warm under my blanket. . My flatmate's genuine peals of laughter wafts in to my bedroom. How can someone actually find "Whose Line Is It Anyway" so funny at 8 in the morning??

Morning ablutions over, time to beep the other three cab-mates to be ready. Which basically is a plea "can I spend 15 minutes instead of the usual 30, waiting for you below your apartment?" So far the success rate of this plea has been inversely proportional to how good the three women look in the morning!

Cursing the Hyderabad traffic and wrapping a whole lot of nonsense under the garb of small talk we reach office. The security measures at the gate giving us an inflated feeling of self-importance. After a few "Good mornings" and "Hey there! How are you doing" I reach my seat, turn on the comp, and head for breakfast. Lots of happy and energetic faces in the cafeteria, and the spirit gets a face lift.

Put on the headphones, check all the mails, get down to work. Some interesting moments during the course of the day's work, the others not so interesting. This is generally the most productive time of the day and once the initial momentum starts diminishing, time for some research. The status messages of my colleagues in the internal messaging service is a treasure trove of humor and wit and so what if most of them are taken straight off web sites, they still help in bringing that smile on the face.

A little more work, a little more music and some chatting and Lunch time! This is a time which is to be relished if you are a food lover, but if you are like the 40 something Kg friend of mine who thinks she has a few extra kilos to lose, then you have to fight that war against temptation and finally convince yourself that the cucumber slices are much more delicious than the chicken drumsticks dripping with butter!

Post-lunch siestas have to be given a miss, but the urge doesn't stop rearing its ugly head every now and then. Its a signal that the break-out beckons. Stretching out on the bean bags you have to keep in mind not to fall totally asleep, after all its an office. So a little banter later time to get back to the desk and work. In case it was not made clear then obviously before coming back from the break-out area, food is restocked. After all an empty stomach is the devil
's workshop!

6:30 and that's the end of work as such. But lazying around the office, chit chatting with friends (definitely closer to friends than colleagues), browsing the net and a little bit of blogging. Now what? Get down to the parking lot, get into the cab and Mission home. Roomie is the type who thinks 12 o'clock is midnight and so interaction with him, very interesting though, is limited till the clock strikes 10. Some reading after that, recent consumptions have been Dan Brown's Angel's and Demons and Da Vinci Code and The E-bay store is work in progress, and then time to hit the sack and wait for the cab driver's missed calls!

Reminds me so much of a friend, her favourite line in chat conversations "Get a life!!!"

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Happy Birthday Sir

There are thousands of people we meet. We remember hundreds of them. Keep in touch with less than half of them and when it comes to the ones who leave an impression on us and shape our lives the list dwindles down to a paltry two or three.

I too have my list of such people who made such indelible impressions upon me. Strangest part is the person this post is dedicated to is not even aware of my existence, because he has never even seem me, forget about meeting me. But what started off as idol worship years ago has taken a different shape today.

To make it sound dramatic let me put it this way: From the day I, a pre-school going toddler then, watched him for the first time till today, writing this post on my office computer, this gentleman actually helped shape my life to a certain extent.

Today he turns forty, and I have just started off on my professional career. A generation has passed. He has conquered all he had too and along the way helped me believe in miracles, in the simple fact that hard work and talent backed by a fair share of luck can help you reach places you have always dreamt of.

We all have our favourite stars during various stages of our lives, so did I. But somewhere inside I knew he was more than just a favourite actor. The pre-school toddler reached primary school and he progressed from television to the silver screen. The primary school kid arrived in middle school, he had the world eating from his hands. High school time, when such fascination is the maximum, the toddler turned adolescent still admired him and he in return taught him the characteristics of a fighter and a winner. College happened after that, he continued undaunted to win the hearts of millions and showed the path to the gawky eyed sophomore.

Everytime he came on the screen, be it romancing his lady in some movie, keeping an audience captivated at some live concert, spreading some awareness message or even for an interview saying without any pretence that he loves all the attention, the pure charisma helped this writer to dream. Now every time I go up on stage for any function, I say a silent thank you to the man who helped me get out of all public speaking fears, instilled immense confidence in myself and I learnt that once on stage keeping the audience entertained is a duty and the biggest motivator behind it is the love and appreciation of the audience. Today I too can openly say that everytime somone comes up after any function and says he/she liked my job, I love every word of it:)

Today the one time inconspicuous, introvert middle bencher thanks you for the confidence, courage, conviction and belief in oneself and the inspiration you provided.

Wishing you a very Happy Birthday SRK.

God Bless You

The Mystery Of The Missing Photos

Incase some of the few previous visitors to my blog noticed, the photographs are no longer here. So its the visual world which attracts you more than the written one you can check out the goings on in my life, my office, city, country and the world at large at:

http://seethroughmyeyes.blogspot.com/

By the way I will expect you to read my ramblings over here!

Thanks