Reminiscing on Women’s Day

UPDATE - April 3, 2014 - Ever since the Nirbhaya gang rape incident on 16 December 2012, the views that I had stated in this post (dated March 8, 2012) have been shaken. That incident left me stunned and terrified. No amount of roses on Women's Day can pacify Indian women as long as horrific incidents like these continue to happen in the country. Every Woman's Day in India as of now needs to be celebrated as a day to be thankful for the fact that we are still alive and not yet attacked.

Today is International Women’s Day, a day which seems to me that only women seem to be wishing each other and some men for the heck of it. I guess many men must be wondering what’s with all the fuss for this particular day. I too tend to think along these lines. With a slight feminist overtone, I also tend to think that can’t every day be a woman’s day?

Celebrating Women’s Day explicitly probably can bring to light social causes like women's empowerment for those sections of society who still think that the female sex is incompetent and incapable. The day should also ideally create awareness of how women can reduce the notion of being considered vulnerable. I guess even success stories of women also help to create awareness that women are climbing the ladder of success just like their male counterparts. But probably one shouldn’t just wait for this day alone to highlight all of these achievements.

I believe that the notion that women are comparatively weaker is all just in the mind. Notions of that nature just result in women creating some unreal fear within themselves and men think that women are incapable. Common sense should tell you that it is not physical strength that is being referred to here. This makes me go back a few years in time, during my college days. There were days when we had to head back home after college a little late in the evening. Anytime after 6 pm was considered relatively late back then in Kochi. I could see the concern in the eyes of those who enquired as to which bus stop I would get off from the public bus. The bus stop I had to get off was Boat Jetty which was considered to be a shady place later in the evening. But I guess that was ages ago but still, people considered that area to be that way. For me, it has always been a fairly crowded place teeming with people all around. I am also very aware of who is around me and I think that also helps to ward off unwanted advances.

I recollect the concern many female college mates had if they had to travel after 6 pm back home. I used to wonder shouldn’t fear just set in if you can see something that is going to happen? Why should you just anticipate and mentally invite fear for no reason? I used to often wonder back then about all the activities women would be putting off for the next day just because they all had a Cinderella time of 6 pm to get back home!!

I believe if you always imagine and anticipate all the nasty things that could happen to you then most likely all of it would happen at some point in time. It’s like you are a magnet attracting the negative energy around you. I admit the general atmosphere in a public bus after 6 pm is a bit shady but I never used to panic and always had a watchful eye for my safety. During my four years of college, I have not had any bad experiences with returning home late (the latest back then would have been 7:30 pm!!!). I believe if something had to happen, it could have happened at any time of the day. (Yes, there have been random incidents and all of them were before 6 pm!!)

It’s inspiring and great to come across women who are successful and who don’t allow trivial matters of imaginative fear to come in the way of aiming sky high. Let every day be a women’s day!

Quote by my friend Samuel Valentjin Vooren -  let every day be a day for everyone (female as well as male) who acts with a pure heart, respect and the intention to do good... A sort of nice people day :)

Deprived Indian souls

I came across the article in the Times of India 'Indians 5th most vacation deprived' at a time when I had a squabble with my manager regarding my taking 3 days off for holiday. I took it combining a weekend and later realized that I had never taken 5 days off at a stretch except for some medical emergency. He highlighted the losses the company would incur because of my absence.  The truth is I do not gain anything by not going ahead with my holiday plans.

The article was comforting in a way because it gave some statistics as to how truly deprived the Indian employees are. Of course, this does not mean all Indian companies are like this but a vast majority is very much of what the article had reported.

I agree with the point highlighted in the article that the Indian bosses consider a ‘vacation’ as a luxury. As a result, they tend to associate an employee holidaying as ‘not hardworking’. Recently, I was chatting with a friend of mine who was looking forward to her holiday that she had planned out well in advance. She works outside India and the work culture is such that a vacation is considered a necessity for an individual.

In the West, everyone talks about their holiday plans and is given so much importance and here we have bosses who would try to convince us to reduce the duration of our holiday if we plan to take more than 2 days.

In this day and age where all companies are aiming for high productivity, somehow the Indian managers fail to realise that proper rest for the brain is a contributing factor to high productivity. Results achieved by a stress-free mind would be like finding gold in a gold mine. A vacation would prompt all employees to work their asses off when at work and look forward to a relaxing vacation. And they would be back in the office with a rejuvenated body and soul.

Another aspect that is common in the Indian work culture (specific reference to the IT world) is that working late in the evening or staying up the entire night is considered to be some kind of accomplishment. Of course, I am not referring to people who work night shifts. I am talking about people who are supposed to work from 9 am to 6 pm but still end up in the office beyond 9 pm.

It is strange but true that many a time, you get praised or noticed for the work that is completed by staying late than the work that gets completed within the official working hours (9 am to 6 pm). Shouldn't it be the other way round because wouldn't that indicate the employee is efficient in his work? Many a time, I have noticed that if you submit your work (say by email) by 5:30 am which is an indicator that you are done with your day and will leave soon, your lead/manager will almost definitely be at your desk the next minute asking random questions (visualize shooting aimlessly into thin air) and some work would be given so that you can't leave by 6 pm. Sometimes you would be assigned some work at 5:30 pm that needs to be completed urgently almost daily. Don’t you think there is something amiss here? Isn’t management supposed to be all about proper planning?

Some people however play a smart game. They would send the updates on their work just 5 to 10 minutes before leaving (read as fleeing) for the day. The situation is such that 'fleeing' seems to be the solution for now to deal with the Indian bosses.

For the overworked Indian IT professional, a vacation is a must-have. I felt so rejuvenated after a week’s vacation and my mind was so fresh and energetic. I am looking forward to my next holiday. 

Destiny's assignments

Every person is destined to do something in life. In other words, each one is destined to complete some assignments in life. Many a time, these assignments more often bring about a change in someone else's life for sure. Probably there are many out there reading this who would react like this -

"Has she gone mad?"
"Which book has she been reading lately?"
"yeah..whatever...".

As a child, I had heard of this idea of destined assignments from random people and would have just nodded my head in agreement. Years pass by and the sceptical thought process takes over and one starts to question facts, traditions, etc. The concept of destiny is something I had often heard from hearsay. After many years, I look back and realise that there is some truth to this. And the beauty of it is, we don't realise when we take up these assignments and when these are completed.

Recently I came across a quote by John Maxwell- “Life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.” I personally believe that destiny defines the incidents and moments of one's life but the path that life takes totally depends on how we react to these incidents and moments.

I have often sat back and pondered as to why some people come into our lives -

Some people come into our lives and exit as soon as they come in...Some people come into our lives for a considerable time and then vanish before you realise the same...Some people are just always there, whether you like it or not...

In all these cases, believe it or not, each one of them was destined to change our lives in the smallest of ways. The role they play in our lives need not always be good; the memories of them need not be sweet, it can be bitter or maybe a memory that will always leave you with a tingle of sadness. But whatever role they play, they change our lives and many times, it's for the best.

Thoughts about a good experience always bring up a smile on my face; if it is funny then sometimes I laugh out loud thinking about it. This is when people declare I have gone mad. ;-) Whatever the experience, good or bad, there is a lot to learn from these and move on with life. And I believe only this attitude will get us all through the rest of our lives. Life is strange and complicated, especially after school and college; every year after that has its own story to tell. So many years lie ahead for me to figure out the rest of the assignments that people end up completing and in the process bring about a change in my life as well as in the lives of people around me.

Intellectual Writings

It is interesting to ponder over how various individuals perceive certain notions. Anything and everything can be interpreted in more than one way. Scary thought eh? Taking one such example would be how one of my friends called Maggie (don't be fooled by the obvious gender you may perceive on hearing this name!!) perceives writings as 'intellectual'.

According to Maggie, a piece of writing can be classified as 'intellectual' if the person reading it cannot understand what it is trying to express or convey. On hearing this, I certainly did raise an eyebrow in obvious scepticism. My reaction was more like, “Err...What???” So does this mean if I don’t understand something I can declare that I have come across something intellectual? Or would it make more sense that I am stupid or more like a self-declaration that I am a fool?

Many out there think that intellectual writings need to contain a high usage of uncommon and heavy vocabulary and in Maggie’s words, “No one should be able to understand it”. (Very amusing...). If the line of thought just beats around the bush for most of the time, such thoughts can hardly be called ‘intellectual’.

My take on intellectualism or specifically intellectual writings is this –

Intellectual writing is basically content that showcases a unique line of thought; something brand new. Each idea in this line of thought may be common but the actual sequence of ideas that brings about this brand new line of thinking is what makes the author’s content a notch higher than that of others or in other words, this is what can classify a writing as intellectual.

The usage of uncommon and heavy vocabulary does not necessarily mean that the piece of writing is ‘intellectual’. It just showcases the fact that the author has a good vocabulary and nothing more than that. I have come across many individuals who have a very high standard of vocabulary but fail miserably when it comes to conveying simple matters to other people.

Some people feel poems must rhyme which is incorrect. For all who share the same view, check out these links –

• Curse by Pablo Neruda
• Cousin Nancy by T.S. Elliot
• This Living Hand by John Keats
• Love by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Poetry often is debatable. There is no set format for it. It is just a different way of expressing ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc. It is a beautiful way of expression and with the right talent, poetry can touch many hearts in so many different ways.

However, for any writing, one must always look out for grammatical errors as well as spelling mistakes. Personally, I hate to see a word misspelt and what irks me more is when I come across a person who does not really care about spelling. Hence it takes me a long time to post something on my blog as I recheck many times before I post something.

Before I end my views on this, a special message for Maggie –

Gone are the Shakespearean days,
But none of those will ever be forgotten,
In these 21^st century days,
Man hardly has time to spare,
To ponder, to wonder,
So say what you want to say,
So clear, so lucid,
Else just fade away...

Image courtesy - The Internet

Our Funda for...

This post goes out to all the 'Bold and Beautiful' Kochi gals like me and Elza. LoL.

It was one of those ‘non-stop’ chatter days when we happened to discuss our adventures of travelling by the infamous private bus transport of Kochi. For those who don’t know much about the private bus transport of Kochi, I can provide you all a little insight regarding this. These are the red colour buses that you would get to see whizzing past you on the Kochi roads. Travelling in one of these is equivalent to having a roller coaster ride and you would have to hold on to your dear life and pray you reach your destination in one piece. These buses have also interesting nameboards on top of it.

We also realized that we had well-toned arms back then when we used to often travel in these buses. On analysis and further discussion, we came up with a funda….our funda for well-toned hands.

While travelling in these time machine kinds of vehicles (where being transported to the future…a.k.a Heaven is a high probability), holding on to the support bars in the bus is an absolute must. Of course, the opposite sex more often conveniently does not think of the same and tips on how to handle these species shall also be revealed in this post. When the bus takes a sharp turn (without slowing down), you need to hold on to that bar refrain your body from aligning to the direction the bus is turning and keep your feet rooted to the floor (footwear with good sole grip is an added advantage). This will not only prevent you from falling onto another person but also result in quite a bit of strain and stress on your arms. This may be uncomfortable to some at first but after a while, you will get used to it. This helps in strength building of your arms and gradually the arms begin to get the ‘toned’ look. Some may even develop ‘musckils’…who knows.

Now, to handle those male ‘species’ that travel in these buses who do not believe in gravity and think that Mother Earth is just like any other planet with no gravity, you need to always carry an umbrella with you. If you think a guy is standing right behind you, who thinks that falling on you is the only way he can contribute space to the rest of mankind in the bus, then hold on to your umbrella and move it swiftly backwards, ensuring you have hit him hard. The risk factor in doing this would be if the guy genuinely lost balance and fell on you, which would mean that you need to get ready with the most ‘innocent’ look ever on your face and utter the word that the Englishmen invented to get away with anything and everything in life – “Sorry”.

Despite the satirical description of my so-called ‘roller coaster’ experience of mine, whenever I look at my slightly flabby arms nowadays, it’s always these red buses that come to my mind and I say to myself, “God’s own city…here I come!”

Lost and Found - Screws

One of the few things I have learnt at my workplace is never to tell your colleague that work is getting on your nerves and the fact that you are losing your screws because of it. You cannot imagine to what extent your colleague would go all out to solve your problem. Obviously, I learnt this lesson after actually experiencing the same.

It was just like any other day at work, where my volatile memory was working at its best and I uttered the same to my colleague and blamed it on the work pressure. Unfortunately, I also told him that all this was causing me to lose a couple of screws. :-D

After saying so, the next day, when I arrived at my desk, I noticed a shiny metal object placed right next to the keyboard. Believe it or not, it was a gleaming screw!!!

I was not very sure how to react. I walked to my colleague's desk and gave a questioning look (I tried to raise one eyebrow but yet again I failed). And all I got back was a cheeky smile from him and I saw a lot more similar screws on his desk.

I went back to my desk, quite amused. I am just glad that the screw was a shiny one and not some rusty old one. :-D

Have a look at the screw for yourself...

When hatred turns into something sweet...

It takes only a matter of seconds to hate someone if he/she does something really horrible that you wouldn't be able to forget during this lifetime. But to finally like someone who you used to dislike/hate at some point in time in the past is something that happens rarely and when it happens, you begin to believe in miracles!!

For me, I have come across three such people so far who I used to hate at some point in the past but later on developed a liking for the person gradually, for some it took months for this transformation to take place and for some, it took years.

For obvious reasons, I would like to refer to these three sweet people as Nutty, Sanity and Abacus. Crazy as these names may sound but I do not want to reveal the real names for now.

When I met Nutty...

The first time I spoke to Nutty, she appeared quite arrogant to me. I developed an almost instant dislike for her. Her friend Merry was a friendly one and hence we bonded quite well. However, I had to tolerate Nutty for quite a while because she used to tag along and I could not think of giving her the 'get lost' treatment as Nutty and Merry have known each other for many years. Gradually, Nutty began to change. I do not know the exact cause for this, whether it had to do with people around her or was the influence of the rather new country and environment she just got into. Nutty and Merry landed in one of the 'Gelf' countries. So probably her character that caused dislike for me was just the typical NRI arrogance which just needed time to melt down. I never really could foresee at what level we could bond but later discovered that our love for a rare kind of sarcasm as well as academics had ultimately led us to becoming good friends. She is now happily married and has a cute kid.

When I met Sanity...

The first time I spoke to Sanity was over the phone in the office. As it was an official call, I meant pure business and did not intend to indulge in casual conversation. However, he succeeded in diverting the conversation from business to personal and this put me on 'red alert'. My first impression of him was not so good because unfortunately, I had the tendency to look upon men with a stern eye especially those from the town he hailed from. He appeared to me as one of those who unintentionally flirted to get more personal information. Well, I wasn't giving him any info right away. The problem with looking at a guy with a stern eye is that one sometimes tends to become blind as to whether the guy is really flirting or just being friendly. Some guys and even gals just don't know the difference. I am not sure which category Sanity fits in.

Sanity belonged to a rival team at my workplace and little did I know back then that I would have to deal with him head-on, on many occasions. He knew I was a junior, experience-wise, and I felt he had this 'ragging' tendency in him. Hence I appeared to him as cold and unapproachable and later on, matters between us turned into a mild or subtle cold war situation.

Many a time, Sanity would help me out when I needed information on certain matters after a couple of earnest requests and his behaviour and mannerisms would then make me think that this guy is not so bad after all. Unfortunately, that impression never used to last long as something else would happen which would make me revert back to the not-so-good impression I have of him. One evening, as I was leaving the office, someone called out to me to wait. I turned around and saw it was Sanity. By then we had developed this strange friendship where we could blurt out anything to each other at any point in time. I responded back saying, “I am not waiting.”, with a cheeky smile. He soon caught up with me and we began to talk about almost everything under the sun other than work. What impressed me was that he did not mix work and personal life, well at least, it seemed that way. The previous day both of our teams had to exchange emails that had hints of criticism which yet again created the Cold War situation. But there was no hint of dislike in the way he talked to me when we walked back home. Slowly, I began to realise that Sanity never had anything against me. He was always just doing his job and he being in the rival team had to take a stance that often appeared to be against me. In fact, when I look back at some of the office issues that happened between us, I realise that indirectly he sort of prevented me from getting into bigger trouble but I was blind not to see that. Unofficially, he had helped me many times when I needed help. Sadly, due to both of our hectic schedules, we hardly got a chance to know each other well. The good thing is, that we do chat once in a blue moon thanks to Facebook.

When I met Abacus...

I have known Abacus for close to 3 years now. Our friendship had gone through a like-dislike-like mode. From the moment I developed a dislike for him, I never thought I would ever be friends with him again. However, I had to maintain neutral relations with him as I knew I may have to interact with him in future for official reasons. In these 3 years, there were 7-8 months where we didn't interact with each other as work took us both to different destinations. But he did keep in touch through email occasionally which took me by surprise initially. All the emails were very casual and short. Nothing too much was talked about and nothing personal was revealed. But whenever his email used to pop into my inbox, it made me happy that he still remembers me for whatever reason.

I did not expect him to change when I met him 8 months later. I still maintained a safe distance so that things did not turn sour between us. However, I realised he had changed or rather he has become more mature in his thoughts and words. He has become a very pleasing person, pretty much the Abacus I knew of initially, maybe even better. But it still took time for me to accept this change in him. I think since we both got involved in very hectic work schedules and had experienced enough of office politics, we had become more tolerant of each other. Now he is one of my close friends at my workplace for the most obvious reasons. Irrespective of whatever may have happened between us in these years, I realised much later that he has been one of the very few who has been a witness to the ups and downs I have gone through in the past 3 years both at my workplace and personal life and by now very well know how I tend to react to a situation. It is a relief to talk to him about office politics and personal problems because he already is aware of its history. I am going through one of the toughest phases of my life now and the mental support that Abacus gives me intentionally or unintentionally is something I need and is a gesture that I will always remember.

Image Courtesy: The Internet

Sharoor Mania

Many years ago…

I carelessly glance through the papers…

Local news …. interesting

What’s on TV …? interesting

Editorial ….. hmmm

Politics …. yawn…

My eyes scan across some names flashed across the newspaper…. Princess Diana……Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan…….Clinton……Kofi Annan……Nelson Mandela…….Prince Charles……..Atal Bihari Vajpayee…….Shashi Tharoor……..Sachin Tendulkar…….

Year - 2009

Umsy mentions supporting Shashi Tharoor. Ok.

I come across more stuff about Shashi Tharoor randomly. Hmmm….this person is popular.

All this while, I had read about him and occasionally spotted his name here and there. I never knew what he looked like, nor do I remember him speaking about anything. All this thanks to the ignorant life I lead and hence thoughts about him do not linger for long like many others.

May 28, 2009

I landed back in India on May 17 from London and decided to go on vacation during the last week of May. It was good to be back in Kerala after 5 months. I lazily switched from one channel to the next. I stopped to see the news telecast on CNN IBN about the oath-taking of the MPs of Lok Sabha. I watched various MPs taking the oath; some fumbling despite reading it out; some making funny careless mistakes; some half-heartedly blurting out stuff which I don’t think made any sense to them. I was almost fed up and was about to change the channel when I heard one of the MPs taking the oath. From what I saw and heard. I was stunned. I could see a gleam in his eyes when he spoke each word; I could hear each word pronounced correctly (for a change); I could see there was an air of confidence and freshness in his mannerisms. Who is this person?

…what was his name again? Shashi Tharoor. Yes, this was my first introduction to the Sharoor Mania. I was mesmerised by his personality. Later on, I was mesmerised also by his handsome looks. Ok, I am giving a damp opinion on his looks because I am trying to control my words and thoughts otherwise you would think I am just another crazy girl with a stupid crush….sigh. Moreover, I was thrilled to know he is a Mallu like me…or let me use a more politically correct term - he is a Keralite like me!

I decided to blog about him after a conversation I had with one of my friends about his interesting personality and decided it was high time that I mentioned him.

I have never failed to sit back and listen to his interviews on various news channels. I am a fan of his communication skills and look forward to hearing more positive feedback. I have not read any of his books yet but would like to read them sometime soon. He is on Twitter and so am I but I have no clue on how to use it. :-D

I felt sorry when I heard that initially, people used to point out that he could not speak Malayalam but he proved everyone wrong. Probably he has an accent in the way he speaks which is obvious if you consider the number of years he has spent outside India. It would be the same case for a Keralite who spent most of his lifetime in Kerala and then decides to speak in Hindi which without doubt will have a Malayalam accent to it. C’mon people, give him a break. It is his mother tongue, he knows what he is talking about, and as long as you can understand, what he speaks….then what is the big deal? Our attitude has to change; only then, the State can really declare itself as literate. Literacy is just not about whether you get your A, B and Cs correctly, it is about opening up your mind to fresh ideas and thoughts and not being sunk deep in narrow-minded conventions.

It is still early to declare if I am a fan of his work but he sure can be a promising personality if he keeps his word of taking care of his constituency in Kerala. I wish him all the very best!

(Photo courtesy - The Internet)

In ashes - A momentary halt to life

One always thinks of catastrophes that can happen to oneself. Some may say that this is negative thinking but I think the human mind has such tendencies which is quite normal. Some like to openly express it and some don't like to. The ones who openly express it are often misunderstood for being pessimists.

At times, I used to wonder, what would have happened to me if I was living anywhere close to where the Tsunami hit in 2004? Or what if I met with a tragic accident that did not result in my death but would have left me in a crippled state? Well, I don't go on endlessly thinking like this as my own thoughts scare me and I end it then and there.

My mind did go through a whirlwind of similar thoughts in the wee hours of September 16. Early morning thoughts?? Yes, unfortunately, that is when the fire broke out in the flat right above mine. I don't think I will ever forget the incident for many reasons. I was able to witness various reactions from people around me. The incident turned out to be the perfect example that life, after all, can end up in ashes, any day, any time.

It was 3:15am and I could faintly hear the doorbell ringing endlessly. As I was trying to get out of my sweet slumber, I could also hear a constant banging on the front door. All of a sudden, I realised it was not one of my crazy senseless dreams. The sounds were very real and I jumped out of bed at the immediate realisation of the same.

Riya and I headed towards the front door. I felt some maniac was desperately trying to get into our house. We almost called out at the same time to the stranger outside, "Who is it?". The only difference between what came out of my mouth and hers was the language and the tone. I ended up blurting out in a half frantic voice, "Aara?" (which means 'Who is it?' in Malayalam). Yeah, it beats me too as to why on earth I would say that considering I live in Chennai. According to Riya, people in fear will end up blurting out anything under the sun in their mother tongue and I proved to be a perfect example of this...sigh...

I finally opened the door and saw Amar (the watchman) who quickly blabbered something (which at that time I strongly believe was the 'fear' version of some Indian language) and ran downstairs. I was stunned and was wondering what the hell was going on. I looked out of the flat confused and still in my sleepy state (this state refers to me looking like a zombie puppy with my hair in a mess). Amar came back and the moment he saw my confused look, started screaming out pointing his hand upwards, "Aag...Aag...AC par aag laga hai...." (Fire..Fire...The AC has caught fire...). Please forgive me if my recollection of the Hindi phrases is incorrect as I have very well proved earlier in this post that I was in Malayalam fear mode at the time.

A fire? Seriously, in our building? I was looking at him in disbelief until I saw Nisha coming downstairs. In fact, she appeared to come out of a black cloud of some sort (do not misunderstand that my brain works slowly, like I mentioned earlier, I was in a zombie puppy state). It took just seconds to realise that the black cloud was indeed a black cloud of smoke. Nisha came down the stairs, saw me and said, "My flat is on fire!!" That woke me up big time and I realised that everyone was rushing downstairs and Amar was desperately trying to get everyone out of the building.

I was totally not prepared for this and I came out wearing my T-shirt and short skirt (please stop all possible imagination right now). It was an unusually cold and windy night and I started to shiver a bit. (This was one moment I really wished this was just nothing but a dream....after all....shivering in Chennai???) All of us assembled outside the building and looked skyward. We were a bunch of helpless souls watching raging flames which seemed to have enough potential to likely engulf the entire terrace. My flat was just below the terrace (Gulp!). I looked around and I could see people hurriedly dialling all the possible emergency numbers. I saw a couple of people who took off their bikes to get to the nearest police checkpoint to alert them of the situation. I could see sleepy worried looks on everyone's face. I could hear gossip talks on the likely cause of the fire. The topic that disturbed most of us was the possibility of the gas cylinder inside Nisha's flat catching fire and leading to an explosion which would result in a fire that would be really difficult to control and put out.

Meanwhile, I could see Nisha pacing up and down, constantly talking over the phone. Poor thing must be really worried. We spoke to her for some time. I felt she was comparatively composed and I think was quite positive-minded that the fire would not result in a major loss. Riya and I were thinking that we were empty-handed and that the fire spread to the floor beneath. That thought left both of us uneasy. It made us realise how we take life for granted. How can we be so sure that there will definitely be a tomorrow? Are we always prepared for the worst?

Riya suggested that we should always keep a bag that has all our important stuff so that when we need to run out, we can do so by just taking that bag with us. It sounded like a practical idea but would any of us really implement it? I am sure many of us out there would think it is a crazy idea. But you wouldn't if you ended up standing outside your building at 3:30am watching the terrace on fire and wishing that you could have at least taken your purse out with you.

The fire brigade finally arrived after an hour and took more than half an hour to put out the fire. Finally, we walked upstairs to have a look at the flat only to find charred remains of the same. It was impossible to say that there was once a double bed, laptop, etc as we could not make out any of it. Nisha was standing in one corner and sobbing. She was lucky to have got out of the flat on time.

Incidents like these often prove to be a reality check. There need not be a rosy tomorrow as it takes only a few seconds for life to turn upside down. The words that were ringing in my mind for a while: "It is better to live life to the fullest than not to have lived a life at all".

The bond between smokers

I often used to say "I hate people who smoke". As time passed by and got to know more people, that statement had to be rephrased as "I am against smoking" since smokers are not bad individuals. This post mainly refers to the male smoking population since I have only come across guys who smoke. I have seen girls smoking but do not know anyone on a personal level.

I have often wondered how, many guys manage to know a lot many other guys outside their respective teams, even people with whom they have absolutely no need to interact. I always tend to compare the activities that I do and those a normal guy in the office would do and after a comprehensive comparison, I have come to the conclusion that there are two main differences:

• Going to the loo if one takes into consideration the step-by-step procedure of the same
  
• Going out of the office for a smoke
  

The latter one is one activity that gives guys the chance to socialize. Many a time, a guy's worst enemy is in the best of moods to chit-chat during their smoky rendezvous. I think they are in a different world altogether when they have their puffs. Two guys from two different teams would most likely get along well even during some possible clashes between their teams only because of the smoking bond between them. It reminds me of the episode of where Rachel (F.R.I.E.N.D.S) had to join her smoking colleagues just for the sake of bonding with her boss. I hope I do not end up in a situation like that.

I do not want to firmly conclude that smoking is the only way of socializing for guys. For me, I discovered another angle to smoking. I can't believe guys even in this day and age think that smoking makes them look cool. Sheesh….

Some guys have the decency to make sure they don't stink of the same when they get back into the office. Unfortunately, many don't even care. I even get the feeling many get out for a puff just before they need to sit with me for various sessions. Jerks…

And finally it snowed

Finally one of my childhood fantasies of seeing snow with my eyes has come true. The place looks beautiful after snowfall. I created a snowball and smacked it at a tree. Wish I was a lot younger and had people around me who would love to play in the snow.

Many must be thinking…..was I waiting for it to snow in London to start blogging again…..well not really…. I got caught up with a lot of things and needed a break from everything…

Escapism

I often believe that many art forms require recognition. When I use the term ‘art form’, I do not necessarily always mean it positively.

Escapism; is an art form hardly brought clearly into the limelight. From my work experience, escapism is a phenomenon that is very predominant in the workplace. I assume it is so in any kind of workplace. Maybe its too early for me to comment on escapism in the workplace since I only have 1.5 yrs of work experience. But in these 1.5 years, I have come across different kinds of escapists. And something tells me that my thoughts on this will not change for a long time to come.

I define escapism at the workplace as a situation where a group of people is assigned to complete a task but only one or two in the group actually get involved in the assigned task. The rest of the inactive people only merely appear to look and act busy and hence escape from doing any work at all. I refer to the inactive people as “the escapists”.

I find it quite amazing how the escapists manage to look and act busy without doing anything important at all. Such people also manage to create an impression that they fall into the ‘intellectually smart’ category. The real shock comes in when you actually interact with this set of people. Poor souls who don’t have a voice of their own to protest against these people are the ones who get burdened with work, not just with their own but also bits and pieces (read as chunks) of the work left undone by the escapists.

I love to analyze behavioural patterns of people and if I do it with full dedication, I reach a stage where predicting a person’s reaction to a particular situation is as easy as a pie.

Escapists have generally the following behavioural characteristics:

• They always have a smile and are socially very active. Hence, the first impression one would have in mind would be a very good one.
  
  
• They most likely would be the popular characters of the team. This makes it the perfect cover for escapism as it would be very difficult to pinpoint the flaws of escapism in them.
  
  
• They would be excellent at cracking jokes or giving small treats like chocolates, sweets, etc to the rest of the team from time to time. Giving these people the harsh word will be difficult.
  
  
• Unfortunately, their behaviour will be such that the boss would definitely have a soft corner for them irrespective of whether they do their work or not. At times, this soft corner helps the escapists get a good rating too!!
  
  
• They most likely will be the most helpful people you would come across. I guess the indirect favour they expect in return is not to report to the boss of what they have actually done, work-wise.
  
  
• They would almost always have lunch with the boss.
  

I am sure the above list could be endless but for now, this is all. I wonder how long these people can manage to escape from the realities of hard work. But I am sure a day will come when they will have a lost look on their face; I can assure you that’s the day they will be loaded with so much work that they will be unable to unload it to anyone else.

Lady in Red

The title could remind you of Chris De Burgh's song "Lady in Red", but what I have to say has absolutely nothing to go in line with that song.

I was waiting in the queue at the Railway reservation counter (as usual, I have been doing that quite a lot these days!!). Even though the counter opens only at 8:00 am, the queue starts forming as early as 7:00 am. As usual, I reached at around 7:15 am. The good thing about this counter is that there are lots of places to sit and wait, of course, everyone sits in the order in which they have come to the counter. Soon after, a lady dressed in red (hence the name, Lady in Red) came next in the queue.

I do try to be as awake or rather as alert as possible at that time of the day, fighting against my eyelids closing due to sheer drowsiness. So probably I might have appeared aloof and in this bad world of ours, my aloof appearance definitely is what everyone waiting in a queue would love to see and thereafter overtake me in the queue. After all, everything one does these days seems to revolve around the notion of "Survival of the fittest". But amongst all this petty competition, I fail to realise that there are some good angels out there who do believe in helping or rather giving me a wake-up call in my case!

The counter opened and unusually this time, I noticed people were rushing and did not stand in queue in the order in which they should. Seeing this commotion and due to my aloofness, I accepted the fact that I would end up far behind and since I was in no mood to actually fight it out, I decided that I be satisfied with whichever position I got in the queue. Suddenly I heard someone calling out to me. It was the Lady in Red and she said, "Hey, you were before me in the queue, come here, I have caught the place for you!" There was something authoritative about her voice and neither could anyone protest nor could I help but actually obey her! Now this is when I was convinced that I was definitely sleeping and hence dreaming of all this.

Reality hit me soon enough and I could not believe that I actually came much in front (my well-deserved position) in the queue. She also pointed out that I skipped out on filling out certain sections in the reservation form. I smiled and told her "Thank you very much!" She had a strange smile, an enigmatic one. I realised that angels like the Lady in Red do exist in today's world.

(Note: Artwork done by Melissa Nu-Lee)