Communication Gap - Tweet Tweet!!

Last couple of weeks has been really exciting. A small bird – now don’t ask which one, am not the bird watcher (??!!) types – built a very small nest in our sit-out garden of our 2nd floor house. It was so small that I had not noticed at all – till the gardener pointed out the fragile looking home... after few days, saw 3 very very cute little birdies. As I observed from inside my house, saw the mom coming time and again to feed the little ones. Could hardly make out the beaks and bodies – it was just one small mass. Then everything changed last Thursday, when the rain god decided to open his heart out on bangalore. As you may all remember – it just poured cats and dogs – sorry for the cliché but there are no other words to describe the onslaught of the rain. Instantly thoughts went to the nest and the babies and got scared that something untoward would happen to them. You see there is no shelter in the sit-out. The moment I reached home – it was still pouring – managed to keep an umbrella on top of the nest – as if that would help. But noticed that the mom was sitting snugly taking the brunt of the rain and protecting the young ones completely. Mothers – they are of a different kind aren’t they?
On Friday evening and Saturday morning, the mother bird could not be seen at all. That’s when I panicked. And whenever I went a wee bit close to the nest – only the array of beaks could be seen. Had heard that some of the birds will not survive if humans touch them – so taking care and not touching them at all, fed them small drops of milk and bread crumbs. Being a vegetarian, the very thought of looking for worms and feeding made me squirm. And when I was at the task – lo and behold another beak popped out – so there were 4 little birdies actually!!
And then it happened. There is a grill door leading to the sit-out. The mom bird came from nowhere and sat on the grill and reprimanded me so much. Understood very clearly that she was mad at me for going near her babies – she squeaked and gawked to no end. But then how do I tell her that I meant good – was just trying to help. Big time communication gap. and not being linguistically savvy, I know only couple of languages – Tweet Tweet – unfortunately is not included in my vocab. The matter ended with me lamely keeping the bread piece and bowl of milk and coming inside. The next day the same thing happened – me was sitting quietly reading the newspaper with the morning cuppa on the lawn (just adjacent to the row of pots) and again – there was a gang of 2 birds – purposely using the word gang because they created so much of ruckus that made me scoot inside. How do I tell them that it’s my sit out and they have self-rented out the place?
Anyway – now we understand each other’s territory very well. My boundary strictly ends at the house. Sit out and all the amenities there is totally hers till she decides otherwise.
Including some pics – sorry they are so hazy – don’t ask me the make of camera please – I don’t want to give negative publicity to any brand!!

Tweet Tweet!!

Action and Reactions!!

After a long long time, I had to attend a traditional function last week. A good part of the morning was spent in trying to figure out the ‘appropriate’ attire just to ensure that I don’t get into the bad books of the elders – yet again! So, confident that I can impress all and sundry (imagine my optimism) I entered the hall which was filled and overflowing with all hues and colors of all ages. The day which was bang in the middle of the holiday season for school was extremely convenient for parents – who just left their kids to have fun and run round – one day break for the moms.

Then the journey started – with reintroductions, plastic smiles, shaking hands, bowing head and any other small gestures which I as ‘daughter-in-law’ was expected to do. The granny with a stick and reed thin smile – looked at me – did I see a hint of approval in her eyes or was it my imagination working overtime? ‘oh its you – its like seeing the full moon – you hardly come to functions’ – there goes. Oh no, I definitely dont look like full moon (I hope so) – but the second part is true. I had successfully hidden myself from the glare of the relatives for quite sometime in the guise of work, meetings, travel. Then the huge aunt came waddling towards me, and I was introduced (proudly, needless to say) that I was working with ‘WIPRO’. ‘Are you working with Wipro? My neice neighbour’s aunt’s son ‘XXX’ is also in Wipro – do you know him?’ Yes, I will definitely know him, u c it is my business to keep track of all the 90,000 odd employees, how & where they are connected and which one of those short circuit connection will I meet in the next function. A sweet little girl looked at me and my accessories with awe and declared ‘aunty you are looking so pretty’ – WOW!! Kids are so innocent and wonderful, she really made my day. Oh not again – did I see the nosey aunt come by – ‘So any good news atleast now?’ – my god! In this age and time, I cant understand why people don’t accept the concept of ‘childless by choice’. I grin and smile sheepishly as if I have no clue what she is talking about. My favorite cousin – some respite – I go on blah blah non-stop, till I am dragged away mid –sentence, for another ‘not-so-nice’ conversation by someone – who to put it very mildly – has a dress sense which is worse than the African tribes. ‘You should’ve worn a zari saree to this function instead of this’. Its 38 degrees for heaven sake, I am wearing a saree and surviving in that itself is a big miracle. An uncle – to my great surprise – gave me an ear-to-ear grin. Couple of minutes into the hi, how r u conversation, out he spilled the beans. ‘you know puttu is finishing his degree this year – why don’t you get him something at Wipro?’ Breaking news by the minute – I own 90% of the stake in wipro, so I can practically push anyone’s CV for a good job – aint it great!!!! Oh by the way, in all this melee, my dear hubby was nowhere to be seen. I am sure he was happily chatting away with his cousins in some corner, cracking some jokes, and discussing intently about politics and cricket – oh how I wish!!! One more granny – somewhere inbetween a granny and old aunt – very nicely commented on how I have gone down – ajjis are great – they are the sweetest – actually noticing my weight reduction was the highlight of the day. With great difficulty I resisted the urge to give a big lecture about my diet experience – granny there would just get worried. I continued the business of circulating and networking in other words - meeting more people and answering more questions – with renewed energy. After endless such irritating question and answer sessions – some of which were quite inane like – ‘have you applied leave?’. Oh no, though its in the middle of the week, my organization is kind enough to declare it a holiday for my sake!!.

Lunch time – and to my dismay I got stuck between 2 people – with whom even simple conversation seemed impossible. So after couple of attempts at weather, kids, etc I gave up and solely focused on enjoying the meal and took pleasure in just staring at others (how rude!!). Time to go – atlast. Time for the return gift, the mandatory namaskar and ashirwada – absolutely no change in what they wish – “Next time we meet, I am sure you’ll give us all good news!!” Keep Wishing!!

Btw, I celebrated my 10th wedding anniversary last weekend – that’s a long story by itself – maybe my next blog!!!

….. for we may diet tomorrow!!

The popular Garfield poster in my room read ‘Eat all you want today…. For tomorrow we may diet’. Seeing that day-in and day-out – I followed only the first part of it. Life went on fine, lucky that I was not to put on weight irrespective of what junk my stomach craved. The more I settled in life, the more my body also settled. Good weight became healthy weight, a healthier one and now, its finally spiraled out of control. So obviously I started seeing the fitness blogs, google searched for some nice fad diet. Came across this interesting GM diet – which by the way, very sophisticatedly known as ‘De-tox program’. Decided on a weekend to start it off. That’s when I realized there are 3 dimensions to our body – Brain, Heart and the most important Stomach – it rules the day!!! The day started off with quick trip to the market to stock the fridge for a week’s worth of vegetables and fruits
Day 1 – Only Fruits. Ok, so I want variety – the only option today was fruit bowl, whole fruits, fruit bowl, whole fruits. Hmmmmm – not to bad actually
Day 2 – Only Vegetables. My culinary skills tested to the maximum. What can one make out of just vegetables?? Raw salad, cooked salad, combo, a little salt there, little pepper here. And ofcourse the wonder soup – but one cant fill your stomach – which actually kept feeling like bottomless pit – with just soup right?
Day 3 – Fruits and Vegetables – now we are talking sense here. My mind and stomach for once started working in tandem. But then I discovered another part of my body – my teeth. They were screaming from all the chewing and extra load on them. All I could think off was – poor cows – no wonder they make ‘long’ faces when they eat!!
Day 4 – Bananas and Milk – yeah ok till lunch. After that everyone looked like walking bananas. Why do girls have to wear yellow dresses – give me a break – I need another banana…
Day 5 – 6 tomatoes and 1 cup of rice – Are you serious? Which part of my stomach are you talking about – and they have the atrocity to call this ‘feast’ day. Excuse me. But no giving up – I was determined that finally ‘tomorrow had come’ . Come what may – I wanted to finish this
Day 6 – Vegetables + rice – Just 2 days to go. Yes, I can do this. A bit of consolation to the teeth and my stomach – which was screaming beyond words on the abuse that I was putting it through. By now, I was actually ready to go and advice all and sundry in the canteen not to eat those mouth-watering pastries, cheese sandwiches, aloo tikkis etc
Day 7 – Fruit juice + vegetables + rice – wow, end of the diet. “I can do it” was the only thought in the morning. Oh yes, I am feeling little light. Brain, Heart and Stomach – really coming to grips with this finally.
At the end of it, I wanted a t-shirt which read ‘Did the GM diet and survived!!!’. What an out-of-the-stomach experience. No cabbage for another 2 months please.
… for tomorrow we may diet – Na, I don’t think so. First part is good enuf for me.

P.S – this is my personal experience here. Nothing against the GM diet – which btw, is very popular and successful.

Move On!!

When I saw the ‘Fast Track’ ad for the first time – I was floored. What an apt ad for the changing times. Most of the younger lot will surely relate to it. Why am I writing about it is because of relocation. After working for 7 years at the MGRoad office (read: heaven zone), a big bombshell was dropped on us on a fine sunny morning. All of us had to move to ecity campus. My first reaction was disbelief – it meant a complete lifestyle change. Being open to change, I strongly believe in moving on…slowly but surely I reconciled to the inevitable.
Yes, it truly meant a lifestyle change. Leaving home at 8.15 changed to running to the bus stop at 7.15. A 10 minute drive in the luxury of a car transformed to a quick nap of 40 minutes in the ever jostling bus. Window shopping on mgrd has now become grocery /pharma buying at T17. A nice hot cuppa at CCD is now a hurried gulping down a juice at JJ. Office location was a gastronome’s delight all the time. Teasing the taste buds at various places on church street – emgees, bhimas, three quarter Chinese, oye amritsar, mast kalandar, bamboo shoots, kaati zone, koshy’s, ebony, angeeti, arya bhavan, KayCees, KCDas etc is now armoring the tongue for the food at Taika, wok, kamat, iss, idly C+++ etc. Me says no comparison at all. Different leagues altogether.
Move on – is exactly what has happened. Walk to the bus stop means – a lot of smiles on the way – from aunties haggling with vegetable vendors, uncles walking their dogs, cute little kiddos holding their parents hand at the school stop, youngsters walking or jogging and a lot of chaos on the street – what with cows, dogs, milk man, newspaper boy – fighting for space. A lot more friends – bus stop friends, bus friends, tower friends, floor friends, wing friends, blog friends, canteen friends – all this apart from the usual work group friends. A lot more happenings and a lot more happiness working at the beautiful green campus. Leaving office at 7 – 8 and the impossible task of trying to get an auto – has now blissfully changed to leaving office at 6 and be home by 7.15!!
Though I terribly miss MGRoad (as in the locality, not the office per se – those of you who have seen / worked in that office will know), I just cant think of myself working out of that office now. Guys will definitely be missing the smartly dressed girls of Times of India – but I am sure, they will find better alternatives in the EC campus
Finally the icing on the cake was complete last evening. When I got down from the bus, there was utter silence for a minute and then the heavens opened up. It just poured cats and dogs, forcing everyone to run for shelter. And I walked home, in that rain. It was awesome.

My first day

Hi,
This is my first day first post. Hope to keep you all engaged with my thoughts and happenings in my life.
cheers