Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
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!
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!
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Flashback
Ah.. It has been a year since my last post on this blog. Actually, one year if I count out my single post of 2011. Life has changed so much in this one year. I went through different phases. I was doing my engineering when I started writing this blog. And in June 2010, I got my Bachelor’s degree. I have already showed off enough about my scores here, so it wasn’t very hard to land myself a job. Sounds like a dream right?
“If everything is going your way, then you are in the wrong lane!” :D
Turns out, usually the companies that recruit college students do not hire them immediately. Thus began my wait for my joining date. During this period, I interviewed for two other companies and got selected too. Now I had three offer letters in hand, but still no work! Mind you, all of them are very big corporations. After nearly five months of waiting, all three of them announced their joining dates in early 2012. I had a DoJ in Jan, Feb and March, 2012.
"Denewala jab bhi deta, deta chappar phad ke" - hindi quote. Translation goes like "When God blesses, its always in abundance".
That's all I wrote :P But I can't bring myself to delete it.. So am keeping it :D
Sunday, March 20, 2011
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 an 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!
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 an 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!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Book Review: 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
* 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
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Small dreams!
A list of some of the things I would love to do in my life. I am confused about 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
- Learn a form of dance may be Salsa
- Open a library
- Visit the Taj Mahal ( I know despite being an Indian I haven't seen it yet but I plan to)
- Watch a match in a stadium
- Attend a concert
- Lose 5 kgs
- Get my hair coloured
- Have a holiday abroad
- Learn to speak a foreign language preferably french
- Fall in love
- Bake a delicious cake
- Have a night out with friends
- Have a penpal
- Own a house and decorate it the way I want
- Participate in a Satsang and sing bhajans with complete devotion
- Make a scrapbook, like the ones they show in movies/TV
- Learn to drive
- Dance the whole night on New year
- Sleep under the stars
- Call up a friend randomly
- Learn to waltz properly
- Sponsor a child's education
- Write a blog
- Watch the sunrise
- Sing for someone
- Have a best friend (apart from my sister)
- Buy a best seller
- Watch a movie - first day, first show
- Be a part of the theatre - as an actor or work backstage
- Have a pet again
- Attend a reunion
- Dance at a friend's wedding ( a baraat would be nice)
- Play with snow
- Get a small, cute tattoo
- See the seven wonders of the medieval world - The Statue of Liberty in USA, The Taj Mahal in India, The Great Wall of China, The Pyramids of Egypt, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Leaning Tower of Pisa and The Eiffel Tower in Paris
- Donate blood
- Learn how to use chopsticks
- Learn to moonwalk
- Visit 10 countries - USA, Germany, Thailand, Singapore, South Africa, Austria, Slovakia, Croatia, Malaysia
- Visit 5 states of the USA - California (San Jose, San Francisco), North Carolina (Raleigh), New York (Manhattan), New Jersey (Princeton), Massachusetts (Boston), Michigan (Northville)
- Own Tiffany's jewellery
- Go on a cruise
- Ride first class
- Eat at a five-star restaurant
- Get a rainbow rose
- Attach a love lock to a bridge
- Plant a tree
- Watch a drive-in movie
- Solve a Rubik's cube
- Change someone's life
- Visit all 7 continents - Asia, Europe, North America, Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica
- Get an article published
- Donate my hair to charity
- Eat at a Michelin-starred restaurant
- Visit 5 UNESCO world heritage sites - Western Ghats (Karnataka), St. Michael's Church (Germany), Toy train (Ooty), Table Mountain (Cape Town, SA), Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Mumbai)
- Learn and contribute towards enriching Karnataka's heritage
- Recreate a recipe from Masterchef
- Go on a Hot Air Balloon Ride
- Stay in a house over or facing the water
- Spend a Night in a Tree House
- Run a marathon
- Go on an African Safari
- Visit Disney World
- Watch a Broadway show
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