Christmas in Bristol

It’s been 4 weeks since I came back to Bristol for another few months. Somehow, the weeks have just whizzed by. It seems only yesterday since I landed in UK. It took me 3 weeks to find a place to stay and I have finally got a decent 1BK flat. Right now I am staying alone and am finding it extremely boring. Last week, I got a TV and now there is some respite from boredom.

The Christmas week has started here. Was expecting to see a lot of lights and decorations here for Christmas. But I must say, I am disappointed. There is hardly any decorations/ lights anywhere except for the City Centre. The only place where I can feel the excitement is in my workplace. For the past 2-3 weeks, my colleagues have been discussing about Christmas presents. iPods are probably the hottest pick since all the shops are sold out on it. We went to buy one as a present for a friend who is going back to India and to our disappointment we could not find anything except 60GB anywhere. Finally we had to settle for a 2GB white Nano. As for Christmas excitement for me, the only thing that excites me here is the carol singing in the malls. People get together in groups in various places in the mall. One can sit for hours together and listen to them. Here a picture of the mall. It actually shows what a lousy photographer like me can do to a nice and lively place.



I am going to Scotland for Christmas. It’s a 4-day holiday and we plan to go to edinburg, Glaslow, Fort William and many other places. Am particularly excited about skiing. And I plan to get lots of lots of pictures and souvenirs for my family and boyfriend. I am hoping desperately for a white Christmas

Meets' Birthday

Meet is this little friend of mine who has just turned a year old a few days ago. He is the son of a colleague. We celebrated his b’day in a total desi style. I did most of the decorations and had to pump about 30 balloons. Poor me. But we definitely had lots and lots of fun.

I spent a total of about 5 days in Chennai and there was nothing that reminded me about the 10 years that I had spent there in a hostel. I was desperately hoping that at least the railway station would seem familiar. So while coming back I approached the station with a lot of expectations. But, nothing. It seemed like any other station in India and nothing like the station to which I frequented to for atleast 4 times a year for those 10 years.

The only place that brought back memories (just a little) was the college canteen of my sis’s college. It had the typical blue pest-o-flash in every other corner, the tumblers and other utensils arranged to form pyramids all along the canteen , curd rice being served in banana leaf and the awesome sambar that tasted just like my school mess which I miss so much now.

Out of the frying-pan into the fire. This adage very aptly applies to my trip to Nagpur from Chennai. If Chennai was hot, Nagpur is burning. Its 48 degrees here. I wonder how people manage to go out for work. I stepped out of my home at 6:00 in the evening (for the first time during the day) and had to run inside again for the fear of being boiled alive.
Have done a lot of surfing today after a long long time. Am looking forward to going back to work next week :)

So here I am in Chennai trying to beat the heat but failing miserably.

First and the foremost, I want to mention my first time ride in the low cost airline Air Deccan. I was quite apprehensive when I started from home to the airport. I had heard plenty of rumours like the Air Deccan flights always got delayed and that the window would open sometimes midair (hehehe). The simple printout which was the ticket didn’t help either. So, I had geared myself for some really nasty surprises. However, contrary to my apprehensions, everything was pretty smooth. Okay, so what if they don’t have some fancy check-in counters. Who wants these fancy things if we get to travel in a plane and also pay less. I strongly recommend taking your own food for the journey as the food that they serve is something next to pathetic. Anyways, all said and done, I think low cost Airlines are here to stay and I hope some more airlines like Air Deccan, Spicejet make an entry to make air travel affordable and comfortable for us.

What made the flight even more interesting is the cool bald dude who sat beside me… :)

So I am back to Chennai after about 8 years and everything is different. Okay, the summer is the same and we have to literally hibernate during the day. I can still manage to pronounce quite a few names of places in the first go like Nungampakkam. There is a place here with the name Butt (pun intended). But everything else is pretty different. Something that baffles me is the size of hoardings here. They are HUGE.

I would love to go to my School but I get it that its on the other side of town… So I guess I will have to skip the school plan.

One thing I liked about Chennai in particular is the way they have maintained the beaches here. All along the beach, they have some really beautiful resorts …some private and some open to public. Yesterday we went to one such resort, the MGM Beach resort and it was really beautiful. Something like the ones in Phuket. They have very clean beaches, awesome beachside restaurants. Beautiful cottages…and everything was booked solid for the next 3 weeks. :(

Will write more about my trip probably tomorrow once I am again in the hibernating mode.

Met Ami outside the SEEPZ gate just by chance today. Decided to meet with Abishek and her for lunch. And when I finally reached Tunga Paradise, was surprised with the entire gang from Datamatics :) Met everyone after about 1.5 years. Although I had worked in my previous organization only for 3 months, the crowd there was very young and lively and we got along pretty well there.

Had a nice time recalling all those incidents from my early days in mumbai. My first train ride all alone ( my freinds had promised to call the police in case I didn't report for work the next day ;) My refusing to get on a crowded bus, my first ride on a double decker bus with me sitting on the first seat on the top floor and calling up all my Delhi friends and telling them about it :), giving lift to abput 7-8 people in the car that came to pick me up from office everyday before I revolted and finally decided it was high time I started using the public transport.

Ami and Abhishek have both gotten inot the IIM's, ahmedabad and calcutta respectively. I wish I had stayed there and going by the record, wud have managed to get into one of the IIMs ;0)


Finally, I am leaving for my 2 week trip to Chennai to meet my newly married sis and jiju. Will meet my fav cousin too, so am looking forward to some awesome days.

Well, cudn't keep up the promise of posting everyday. The training plan died a premature death. Before I cud begin the third day of training, I was called away for an assignment with my previous boss who after 8 months of seperation ;) still can't seem to do without me. Thank god that the assigment lasts only till tommorrow.

Just completed reading the book "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. This book is the author's first book and he also happens to be a doctor which I think is pretty cool. The book is pretty amazing in the detail to which the author has gone in his descriptions. Very sheepishly, I now accept the fact that there was so little about Iran that I knew before reading this book.

There was one time when I too aspired to be a writer. But going by the way I write this blog, I should be ashamed of even thinking of it. :) I am consoling myself with the fact that I am more of a storyteller than a storywriter. My expressions do most of the talking.

Now that I think of it, I have aspired to be many things. While my house was getting constructed, I aspired to be a construction worker. :) I must have been in 7th std then. I also wanted to be a doctor, athelete, swimmer, a painter but among all this confusion "the constrution worker" thought was pretty serious. :) All my childhood games had a special role for this person, though the only thing this character wud do was go to the construction site ( after a long walk) and eat and then come back home :)

My landlord very discreetly informed me this weekend that they planned to sell the house. So the house hunting days are back again. It seems a little comforting to know that the neighbors are planning to give away their house for rent in a few months. The entire weekend went by wondering where were we going to put up for the 2-3 months. And to add to the despair, the landlady kept getting prospective buyers to the house the entire weekend. Finally, had to run off to my cousin’s place to have some piece of mind.

I am in a training this whole week. This week included, I will be away from office for 3 whole weeks. One week of training and 2 weeks of holidays J. As far as the training goes, all I can say is I am back to the days of ITP where we would dim the lights of the room and doze off while the faculty blabbered on. Only that, this time, new entertainment methods are being tried and tested. For example, blogging ( yes I am in the training room rite now), smsing, reading online newspapers, and lastly, reading novels surreptitiously.In fact, I plan to blog everyday this week. At least, I promise to will make an honest attempt this time

Life has a way of dealing with things. When you actually think that there is no hope left, life turns around and gives you just that.

Finally, my plans to leave for home seems real. I will be leaving for my home town tommorrow ...... after lots of scheduling and rescheduling my leave plans. Finally my PM has been convinced that she can let me go for 2 days ( imagine, 2 WHOLE days :)), without the project falling apart. I will be going back home after about a year. After all these years and years of staying away from home, it always feels nice to go back to home ( even if it is for 2 days). Home is where you get pampared for no particular reason. You can refuse to pick up things, make your bed/eat/drink/ bath ( eeeks!!! ) / be nice and no one will say a damn thing to you. You don't have to smile at everyone who passes by and you will still feel at home.

When we used to return home for summer vacations, it used to be so much fun. 2 and half months of watching TV and sleeping. It was a relief from the schedule at hostel (PT at 5:30, 7:30 breakfast .... etc). We actually used to maintain a notebook where we would jot down the list of movies that we saw during the holidays so that we could go back to hostel and compare notes on who saw the most :)) Then the movie story session would be held each sunday afternoon....

[ Back to the present :)]

Weekened was good. Went to meet a very good friend from college. She has recently got married and looking at her, I was convinced to put off mariage by atleast another 1-2 years :)
Another long lost friend called me today morning....to catch up on each others lifes, and it really felt good to be talking to her again after about a year of losing touch.

Hoping to meet many other "bachpan ke" friends in Calcutta.

Happened to watch the movie "Shall we dance" on the weekend. One quote by Susan Sarandon on her response to "why do people get married" was

"...Because we need a witness to our lives. There are a billion people on the planet, what does any one life really mean. But in a marriage, you are promising to take care about everything - the good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things - all of it. All the time, everyday you are saying 'your life will not go unnoticed, because I'll notice it. You life will not go unwitessed because I'll be your witness' ...."

Well, I quote it here because it is the most romantic and sensible answer I have ever heard.

As it seems, there is nothing happening on my end other than office and movies.

Interesting quotes

Life has been pretty normal for the few past weeks. So normal that I can't think of anything to blog about. Have been reading and watching a lot of TV during the past days.

Thought of posting a few quotes that I liked:

Walk a mile in other people's shoes.
You'll be a mile ahead and you' have their shoes too.
- a newspaper ad

Yesterday is dead, tommorrow hasn't arrived yet.
I have just one day and I'm going to be happy in it.
- The Sunday Times of India

Faith is - acceptance of that
which we imagine to be true,
that which we cannot prove.
-Da Vinci Code

When a question has no correct answer,
there is only one honest response.
The gray area between yes and no - Silence
-Da Vinci Code

Its the new year!

New Year Eve was fun. Far from the lonely new year eve that I had planned to spend watching TV ...this new year eve was rocking. Thanks to my cousins who dragged me to one of the clubs here in Mumbai where we got to see Malaika Arora Live :) ( I keep bumping into her nowadays). I have never danced so much in my entire life. This definetely was one of the most memorable new Year parties.

The next day, I got up early and the first thought that comes to my mind is "woh sharabi kya sharabi, jiske dil mein hum na hon"....C'mon , its the NEW year and THIS comes into my mind first? So I went off to sleep again, wishing for some nice thought to come to my mind like "me winning the Nobel Prize for Peace..or for that matter...anything :).

By sleeping till late on 1st, I had already broken one of my 2 new year resolutions. and the 2nd one is being broken right now as I blog my way to glory. ( The 2nd one was to blog only after 7 in the evening :)) So there is probably no hope left for me now.

1 question that has been going on in my mind -
Why do we go to temples? Its been a month since I have started going to one of the mandirs near my place. I have never liked temples where it is always crowded and wet and songs are being played loudly. But this temple is different. I find so much peace there, even if it is for 30 mins. And I guess, this is why we go to temples. To find inner peace.

See, its always good to put your thoughts to paper. You find the answers right away :)