Whine and Rant and Crib

Warning: I am now going to launch into a full fledged rant about today. Rant phobics can stop reading here.

It all started when I woke up late. And I decided to cook my lunch as well(I should have realized that trying to take my lunch is a recipe for disaster). Then the usual - stuff got boiled too much, something in my breakfast i.e either the bread or the cheese(ahem low fat) was spoilt, no auto etc. Then when I finally reached work, late of course, many people helpfully pointed out that my bindi was missing, and I hate it without my pottu, I really really do. I slid into my chair whewfully(blogic license) and started checking gmail, blogs etc. And then a mail popped up saying the weekly status review meeting was going to happen in 5 minutes. To my horror I then discovered that a cron job for which I am responsible, has been failing continuously and has been generating lots of mail alerts. I went to the meeting hoping and hoping and hoping that nobody would have checked it and of course somebody had.

After this hungama I went for lunch and discovered that I had forgotten to put salt in all that I had made. :-( I really hope later in life, I don't suffer from high BP or some other medical condition that restricts me to saltless food. (And no diabetes too, I want my ice cream! :-) )

A mini meeting with my PL followed where I dared to pooh pooh one of his ideas and he pooh poohed me back. A bigger meeting with my manager and he also pooh poohed my PL's idea - score one for me! :-) And then he accepted one of my ideas and even praised it. ++1 for me again :-) I was feeling all hotsy totsy and I slid back into my chair with a triumphant half smile. My PL turned to me and said "Janani, why don't you now explain the other suggestion you had regarding blah blah." and I just stared back at him and my manager 'coz I remembered I had some idea and I remembered that I had touted it in the previous meeting as the next best thing to mankind since gel pens, but I remembered not what it was! My manager was pretty helpful and asked to go to the board and explain just the basic flow of logic. I looked at both of them with glazed eyes and mumbled something about preparing a doc and mailing it.

Anyways there is this huge project coming up and I am very excited 'coz it involves lots and lots of coding most of which will be interesting. And I get to dabble with number sequences and random numbers and mail delivery - whoopie! :-) But the downside is that I can't attend V's wedding in Chennai. :-(

Just while writing this post my PL called me and told me that he is going to take care of the mail delivery part. Me sad! :-(

Btw, my roomies aren't coming home for dinner and since I have this problem with eating out alone, gotto cook for myself when I get home. :-(

I hope tomorrow dawns nice and bright "for you and for me and the entire human race" :-)

Me, Myself and Someone Else

On my way to work I saw this girl on the road and she looked vaguely familiar. After lots of thinking I realized that she had reminded me of myself! It was spooky for a minute 'coz this kinda thing never happens. Why do people always remind us of others and not us? Many people keep telling me "There's a girl just like me" at work or college or near their house or whatever - I guess I have a common face! :-( . I've looked at a few of them and I always felt that they looked nothing like me.

It's this way with voices too. People always feel that my sister and I sound similar and no-one's ever been able to differentiate between us on the phone. But we both have difficulty believing that we sound the same. But then, when I listen to my voice on the answering machine or something, I feel even I don't sound like myself.

And btw, about that girl I saw on the road today - I am much prettier! :-)

PHYSIOGNOMY, n. The art of determining the character of another by the resemblances and differences between his face and our own, which is the standard of excellence. :-)

Bunty Aur Babli

We tried to get tickets for this movie last weekend itself(failing which we went for Naina.) Wiser, this week I booked tickets on Wednesday itself only to have the movie hall folks call me to say that they are canceling the morning show 'coz of technical probs. Not willing to let this deter plans, I hunted all over the net and booked tickets in this obscure theatre miles away from where we live and set out in the hot sun only to find that the movie was sooo not worth it.

The movie starts well, the parts when Rani and Abhishek set out from their small town to make it big in the city were pretty enjoyable. They start doing small con jobs first to make ends meet and then for plain fun only to realize that this is their life's calling. So they get married and resolve to be together the rest of their lives and to keep pulling jobs. Amitabh Bachchan is introduced pretty late in the movie as the cop who resolves to catch them. The chase and whether-he-catches-them-are-not is the rest of the movie.

The promos about the movie were pretty clear that it is no intellectual fare. So I was pretty prepared and left my brain at home, but even so I was unpleasantly surprised. It seems as though the director first set out to make the an Ocean's Eleven kind of movie, but failed miserably by including preposterous ideas like selling the Taj Mahal (Sheesh, give the audience some credit!). The humor that you expect in this kind of movie is conspicuous by its absence. And then halfway through he decided to add sentiment as well, as a result there are some totally unnecessary weepy scenes. Of course there has to be some kind of masala and so a cheesy item number by Aishwarya Rai. Amitabh Bachchan's role didn't have much scope, and yet every scene of his was hyped up and the neck cricking mannerism was very irritating. The drunken scene with Big B and Ju B was drawn out like an obstinate bit of chewing gum(I think this is when my roomie fell asleep). To be fair the first half has a few enjoyable moments, but there is absolutely no excuse for the part after the interval. The songs are nothing to write home about except the "dhadak dhadak" song which I kept humming throughout the day.

Verdict : Average bordering on bad

That Thing You Do :-)

My hands kept twitching,
Touching the keyboard, not quite typing.

Red light shone into my eyes
When I explored the underside of my mouse

I clicked refresh all the while
Only to be told there is no new mail

Made sure my mobile was on loud mode
Can't afford to miss a call today

Called my deskphone from my mobile
Yeah all the lines were working fine

The things that we do
On a slow day at work!

:-)

Announcement

I have decided not to continue with "Storytime: Untitled as of Now" anymore. The reasons behind this move are manifold. Mainly it is not moving in the direction I had wanted it to - I didn't want it to be yet another overly saccharine love story. Now it is so dripping with mush that even I can't bear to read it! :-(

Also despite rejoinders that these characters are fictional, people seem to think that I am writing my life story and are guessing as to who is Venkat. Folks, Srishti really isn't me.

So until I hone my story writing skills a bit and churn out something better, you can rejoice at not having to put up with Storytime! :-)

Storytime: Untitled as of Now - Part III

*This won't make sense until you've read Part I and Part II*

Venkat was surprised to see the empty cube. Her blue and green bag was also missing, which meant she hadn't come in at all. A sudden feeling of fear swept over him and he swept out his mobile and called her. She picked it in half a ring, "Today's started out on a wrong note, I woke up sooooo late and then I took bath and rushed to my mess for breakfast and they were out of food. So I went to this hotel round the corner all alone and realized I had only 500 rupees notes in my purse and had to hunt around for change. And now this traffic jam", she drawled out each word for emphasis. "Oh ok, I was just wondering if you were on leave today. Ok, don't drive too fast." She knew he would call and she could sense the relief in his tone.

She liked him. She had justified it hotly to her gal pal, "Why wouldn't I like him? He is kind, thoughtful and really cares beyond the superficial level. He is charming in his own way, can be trusted and in short super nice." "That's just your way of covering the fact that he is as dull as ditchwater. Yeah have a passionate affair with reliable ol Venkat", her friend retorted.

The truth in her friend's words hit her and she frowned a bit. It was not that reliability didn't go down well with Srishti, she admired that quality in men. But she fancied herself as a romanticist and in that role, Venkat was hardly the Prince Charming. She had no siblings, and most of her childhood was spent dreaming. And in due time she started dreaming about her guy, gave him form and even held imaginary conversations with him. The problem was, Venkat resembled him in no way. She wanted her guy to be spontaneous and even impulsive; Venkat thought twice before even saying something. Her guy was a brilliant conversationalist mixing knowledge with humor and could argue a tail off a donkey; you were lucky if you could tear ten words continuously off Venkat's mouth. Mr Right also had to be a party animal, clubbing, pubbing and so on; Venkat thought twice before attending the annual company party and decided to attend in the last minute only because she was going. He hated staying up late and considered watching too much TV a vice.

Srishti was a small town girl herself. And she liked being so. But heart went out for these oh-so-cool guys of whom Venkat was not a part of. She knew she was being a little shallow when she rejected Venkat outright. But she felt like she was killing something in her heart if she said yes to Venkat. Venkat hadn't said much, but the look on face shot to her heart and she wondered if she was killing something by saying no. She always convinced herself that she didn't "love" him. Sure, she liked being with him, liked talking to him, liked listening to him, but was it something more than that? Srishti could never give a straight answer to that question, which kept asking itself so frequently.

And the fact that he was her colleague and lived two streets away from her didn't help. Whenever he smiled, she felt like ruffling his hair and when he was down, it took her a lot of resolve not to hug him and tell him things will be alright soon. She wondered if Venkat shared these urges. And sometimes she wondered if she had killed the love in his heart by her refusal, leaving behind just affection. For a period of time, she forgot all about her imaginary X and almost waited for him to approach her again so that they could live happily ever after. Unfortunately he was the perfect gentleman who didn't disturb the lady again and she was the Ice Princess who didn't propose to men. As time went by and nothing happened, she forced herself to abandon such feelings and stopped feeling sorry for what she did.

TOW the Lunch Box

When I recovered from chicken pox a few months back, my mom suggested I take lunch from home for sometime atleast(Yeah I am a reasonably good cook). And the obedient child that I am, I made a nutritive meal of rice, greens and bhindi, packed in it the lunch box that I had stolen from my sister when I was in Madras and trotted off to work. During lunch everyone went gaga over the fact that I had actually cooked all this by myself and in the morning. My head was literally bursting with pride and I resolved to do it everyday if only to prove a point. That evening I left early (since I was convalescing and all!) and after going 6 floors down and walking a few yards I realised that my lunch box was left behind. Up I went again and brought it back and felt very smart for remembering. Then I shopped at Food World (for next day's lunch), made a call at a STD booth(it was my days of prepaid) and then autoed home. And realised that I had left my beloved lunch box (feels wierd to keep saying that, like some pre school kid or something) in one of those places.

So the next time I went to Madras I hunted for a Tupperware agent and bought a sleek lunch box for a ridiculous amount of money. And after coming to Hyderabad I left it in a relative's place where I landed for breakfast the morning I reached. I managed to get it back later though. It slept at home for a while after that since I completely forgot about its existence. I found it while cleaning up the kitchen this weekend and I resolved to re-attempt cooking-and-taking-lunch. And I woke up early, made roti and dal and packed it in - everything perfect, except during lunch time I forgot that I had brought lunch. Eeeessh! My resolve was more strengthened by this fiasco and yesterday I made lunch took and ate it. Mission accomplished but I forgot to take my box home.

I have decided not to fight providence any more. If I manage to take my lunch box(7th time I am using "lunch box" in this post - ooops I did it again! :-) ) safely today and dump it in my kitchen, I will leave out cooking for dinners and weekends and eat the grub that's served in our cafeteria. Wish me luck!