A very well-written post!

http://sahajapatel.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/an-arranged-happily-ever-after/

Why this kolaveri?

This is the third time I am writing this post! Wow! The person mentioned here must be something! :D Or maybe, this is symbolic of my growing maturity :P The first time, I was angry and frustrated. After a few days, I calmed down, but still felt hurt. Finally, today I can look back and smile at the wonderful moments I had.

I work on NIC and iSCSI boot drivers. So, most of our issues start with system doesn’t boot, which means you cannot do anything more, automatically achieving the P1 status! During one such critical issue, I had to work with a guy from Costa Mesa. Let’s call him Ryan (I like this name better than the one he has). This issue was getting very hot with the clients and the upper management wanted results, immediately. We have very minimal debugging tools here, honestly speaking, none. So, we have to entirely rely on our gut feeling. This obviously needs a lot of experience and sound knowledge, which I happen to lack. And that is why I was suggested to work with Ryan, who was already analyzing this issue.

I was under a lot of pressure and I woke up early (evening for them) to ping him on chat. I was nervous since Ryan is also one of the top guys and he had not replied to my mail. Surprisingly, he replied immediately. He expressed concern over me getting up early just to work on an issue. He punctuated it with a smiley! That’s right. He put this :) And I knew, I would have no problems working with this guy. We got working on the issue and Ryan even stayed up the next day, just to help me.

I have to give it to him. He is a great guy. Despite the miles between us, he sensed that I was totally freaked out and gave me a day off, just to compose myself. Unlike many others I have worked with, he would keep up a friendly banter which kept me awake during the late hours. This showed in our work and we were able to root cause the issue within two days. It turned out to be somebody else’s mistake!! But the deal wasn’t bad because I had found a very good friend. Ryan is a very humble man. Absolutely modest and down-to-earth. What I like the most about him is his sense of humor. Ryan not only comes up with good ones himself but also has the rare virtue of being able to take a joke on him. He would also laugh at all my jokes, good, bad and ugly.

The issue was resolved, but we continued to stay in touch. He called me his 3 am friend. He even told me about his evil MIL! :D He loves his wife and daughters and I am proud of him for that. I would in turn tell him about my work and my life. This was going good. And then, somehow he stopped talking to me. Yeah, I don’t know why, but he stopped answering my pings. This was strange because, no matter how busy he was, he would always make time to reply to me. He would tell me if he was busy and we would plan to talk some other day. I ignored his ignoring me for some time, assuming he must be on a really tight schedule. However, he never tried to contact me. Honestly, I don’t know what went wrong, no idea whether I had hurt him or upset him in any way. Ryan believed in talking out things to sort them. Somehow, he must have felt that I did not need an explanation.

Ryan, you will always remain one of my good friends. However it ended, I will at least not regret that I did not attempt to revive our friendship.

New Year New Approach

Happy New Year everybody!!! I hope all of you had a lot of fun bringing in the new year. I did :) We had a theme party. The theme was "Your Wackiest Best" but many of us got confused and finally it looked more like fancy dress :D

I never made resolutions. I thought it was lame and anyway I was not going to follow it so what's the point in resolving? Negative right? So, this time I have decided to start the year with a positive approach. I will set targets for myself, I will make promises and try to fulfill it as much as I can.

To begin with, I have a well defined goal.
* Learn to drive: Yes, I want to be able to drive a car, by this month end! In fact, I will register for the classes tomorrow.

Now, the more general ones.
* I will be more patient and tolerant. I will try to keep my temper in check and I will think before I speak.
* I will make more time for my friends and stay in touch with them.
* Finally, I will take better care of myself. I will watch my health and diet. I will try to stay in shape. I will respect and believe in myself and never lose confidence. Last but not the least, from now on, I will enjoy each and every moment of my life!

That's all for now. Hope you guys too start the year on a positive note :) Cheers!

Booked

My parents are two very different people. My mom is shy, home-happy and always planning for a rainy day, where as, my dad is a flamboyant, party hopping, live-for-today person. Hence it comes as a surprise, to even me, that I might have inherited something common from both of them. And that wonderful inheritance is the love for books! Again, my dad preferred the serious kind of books like Ayn Rand, Frederick Forsythe, Leo Tolstoy and my mom was a big time M&B fan! :D She likes books which focus on human relations and emotions. I seem to have taken after my mom though I swear I haven't touched a single M&B book till date!

My mom introduced me and my sister to books at a very early age. But it was my uncle who actually led us right into this magical world. He would always gift a book on our birthday and whenever we did something commendable like winning a competition or scoring good marks. He gifted us our first Enid Blyton and since then we haven't stopped reading. Enid Blyton could make stories out of nothing. I mean she could describe the most simple thing in the most beautiful way. Once I was reading The Famous Five and the way Blyton had described how beautiful the day was made me actually go out and appreciate the bright sunshine and cool breeze! And she always had some nice message in her books. That's the kind of books I would want my kids and every other kid to read.

I haven't read many authors in my childhood and this was mainly due to lack of knowledge. My parents were from small towns and I doubt whether they had read such books in their childhood. So, to me Enid Blyton was the only one who wrote books for kids. But my uncle enlightened me again ( I seem to be making him a kind of Fairy Godfather now :P ). I started reading Nancy Drew by Carolyne Keene and there was a time when I thought I would become a detective too! Agatha Christie is another author who amazes me. Her mysteries are so straight-forward, that is after she explains the solution to them. It is always based on cool, simple logic and you end up feeling 'Oh! Why didn't I see it!'

As I grew up I read a lot of books like Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, Little Women, Peter Pan, Robinhood etc. But honestly, I can't remember them so well. Later I read J.K.Rowling, Meg Cabot, Sidney Sheldon, John Grisham, Chetan Bhagat, Dan Brown and others. I agree I am partial towards chick-lit, but I do try to read all genres of books. However, it was only recently I noticed that I seem to have enjoyed women authors more than men. May be, its the books I have read or may be its because women are so good at humor. It is never cheap or vulgar and though we women are known for our vanity, we are sporty enough to laugh at our own mistakes.

When Harry Potter released, nobody expected it to be such a huge hit. Those days, we would look up the best-sellers in the newspapers and harass our parents to buy us those books ;) We read 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets', the second book in the series, first. I was so mesmerized by the magical world created by the very talented J.K.Rowling, that I refused to read the final book in the series just because I didn't want the magic to end. I couldn't hold my curiosity for long and the mixed reviews added fuel to my fire. I ended up reading the book at one go and I was pretty impressed. I somehow felt Rowling had lost her touch, somewhere in the middle, when she sounded like she was writing for a movie rather than a book. Nevertheless, her last book made up for it, having twists and turns in every chapter, though I felt the final showdown could have been better.

Meg Cabot's 'Princess Diaries' is like a teenager's dream. Sweet and good for a one-time read. I flipped through her other books and felt it was more of M&B kind, so I skipped them. Sophie Kinsella is my discovery, I mean nobody suggested her to me. I happened to read her 'Can you keep a Secret?' and loved her style of writing. Again, her comic timing is very good. I also liked her 'The Undomestic Goddess' and 'Twenties Girl'. I have a affinity towards best-sellers and that's why I wanted to read Pearl.S.Buck's 'The Good Earth'. The book is very inspiring and believe me, once you have read it, you will have more respect for the good Earth. Oh! I almost forgot to mention Danielle Steel. I cry every time I read 'The Mirror Image'. 'Daddy' is another great read. Keep a box of tissues next to you when reading Danielle Steel :P

I haven't read all the books in Stephanie Meyer's Edward-Bella series. Yet, I strongly suggest anyone interested to read 'Twilight' and 'Midnight Sun'. In 'Twilight' Bella narrates how she falls in love with a vampire. 'Midnight Sun' is the same story, but, from Edward's perspective and it remains my favorite book till date. It is a small book, in fact not even complete, yet, I love Meyer for this! It's fascinating to read how the two characters perceive the same thing in so different ways. This book made me fall in love with Edward and 'Edward' is my definition of The Perfect Soulmate!

Shopaholic series - Sophie Kinsella

The Shopaholic series has 5 books in the following order:
* Confessions of a Shopaholic
* Shopaholic Takes Manhattan
* Shopaholic Ties the Knot
* Shopaholic and Sister
* Shopaholic and Baby

Rebecca Bloomwood is a finance journalist and a compulsive shopper. Just a small 'SALE' sign sets her off. Despite having a load of debts she cannot stop herself from buying stuff. What starts as innocent browsing ends in buying things she doesn't even need. The whole series is about how expensive her shopping trips turn out and how she manages to get her life back on hold. The other important characters are her best friend Suze and the love of her life Luke Brandon.

Sophie Kinsella's famous series has also been made into a movie. But the movie combines books 1 n 2 and Luke Brandon's character sketch is tweaked to make him the ideal boyfriend. But the book presents a realistic view of relationships in the corporate world while retaining the humor element. Becky's friend Suze, who is with her through thick and thin, is the ideal Soul Sistah. As usual, the author excels in conveying a girl's feelings and at times you almost feel like going on a shopping spree yourself! A highly-recommended chick lit coz after all

The quickest way to know a woman is to go shopping with her.
-- Marcelene Cox

Small dreams!

A list of some of the things I would love to do in my life. I am confused whether I should keep the ones I have done in bold or the ones i haven't. I think I'll keep the ones I haven't done in bold so that they are in my face when I look at this list! :D

1. Learn a form of dance may be Salsa
2. Open a library
3. Visit the Taj Mahal ( I know despite being an Indian I haven't seen it yet but I plan to)
4. Watch a match in a stadium
5. Attend a concert
6. Lose 5 kgs
7. Get my hair colored
8. Have a holiday abroad
9. Learn to speak a foreign language preferably french
10. Fall in love
11. Bake a delicious cake
12. Have a night out with friends
13. Have a penpal
14. Own a house and decorate it the way I want
15. Participate in a satsang and sing bhajans with complete devotion
16. Make a scrapbook like the ones they show in movies/TV
17. Learn to drive
18. Dance the whole night on New year
19. Sleep under the stars
20. Call up a friend randomly
21. Learn to waltz properly
22. Sponsor a child's education
23. Write a blog
24. Watch the sun rise
25. Sing for someone
26. Have a best friend (apart from my sister)
    
27. Buy a best seller
28. Watch a movie first day first show
29. Take part in theater - as an actor or work backstage
30. Have a pet again
31. Attend a reunion
32. Dance at a friend's wedding ( a baraat would be nice)
33. Play with snow
    

Wedding bells!

Nope not my wedding! But my cousin's! :)

Finally one by one my cousins are agreeing to get married. Sadly the wedding dates always clash with my exams. This time was no exception. My cousin decided to get married the day I had my lab exam!! But as they say all is well that ends well.
Why go to the end so soon? I'll start from the beginning.

2009 was slowly making way for 2010. And we thought the year would just pass away with the usual exams, tension, no fun mantra. But Surprise! Wedding bells started ringing for my cousin and we all were very happy for him :)

Everybody started making plans. The elders decided all girls would wear a saree for the wedding. Our immediate reaction was "What?!?" The thought of wearing a saree scared us because it was a first for most of us. But the sports that we are, we took it up as a challenge.

The great challenge of managing a saree for a whole day!! :D

Soon began the shopping spree that left the boys and men of the house impatient to be done with the wedding!

Now, there aren't a lot of customs in our caste. Its just a few rituals after which we have a lot of time to chat with guests. Since it was a second generation wedding, the youngsters took it up on themselves to make the wedding a memorable one. We planned a kind of sangeet a day before the marriage.

We had a 6-minute dance and I must say I have never practiced so hard. Then we had a few songs and a dance by other invitees. But the highlight of the evening was a skit specially made for the would-be couple. We made a spoof on how they met and life before and after marriage.

This skit is rather special for all of us because everyone chipped in with their idea and we had a lot of fun during its making. Needless to say the skit became a huge hit and we had people praising us for it long after the wedding :)

Amidst all this I totally forgot that I had an exam the next day. Before I knew the D-Day arrived. I fretted about my lab exam. I knew I wasn't prepared for viva. Heck I wasnt even sure about the programs! We were called in and I picked a chit. Relief flooded me when I opened it. I had got the easiest program and I quickly executed it. Since nobody had finished I was called for viva. But lady-luck smiled on me again. The external asked me conceptual questions which could be answered by any student who had understood the subject well. The questions required me to apply my brain than give out textbook answers. Both, me and my external, were pleased with each other and I walked out of the lab in 30 minutes flat!!

Immediately, I rushed home, changed into the saree and was on the venue bang on time! :)

The wedding proceeded smoothly. Finally it was time for us to leave. But we brats stole the bride and refused to let her go until the groom promised to pay up :D when our bargaining ended it was already 2 a.m. Nobody wanted to believe that the celebrations were about to end but it did, leaving us with heavy pockets ;) n lots of memories! :)