10 things

My friend Sindhu, has blogged about 10 things she would like to avoid doing in 2012. She got me thinking about what I would like to avoid but found it quite difficult to separate writing what I would like to avoid and what I would like to do. Nevertheless here goes a try:

1). Surprisingly is the same as hers (and I never thought it would be hers) – procrastination is the biggest evil in my life “still”.

2). Suspending this blog AGAIN

3). Exercising – still procrastinating over this one.

4). Cancelling plans to do personal projects

5). Keeping my bicycle in status quo – with a flat tyre

6). Keeping the apartment dirty

7). Same as Sindhu

8). Eating unhealthy sweet things

9). Not creating a proper plan for what I want to achieve at work or in life in the year

10). Eating out instead of cooking even when there is time

Wow! That was not easy … Try doing it – so much easier to write about what to do. The biggest avoid I should avoid – avoid following the above.

Early morning twittering…

The last few days I have been out on the balcony enjoying the morning sounds. Yesterday I saw a group of boys walk to school – a few colourful birds flew past me as I stood looking at our lawn and the trees beyond. The trees are slowly changing colours reluctantly. The green you see below is slowly disappearing but the lawn is a perfect foil for the winter. Our landlord has been brilliant to give a summer landscape to the garden.

The other day I was walking outside our house – suddenly I looked at the lion outside our house. “Is he losing weight as the winter is approaching?” – I asked myself. It was a very short reflection of what normally happens to me. Like a metals contract in cold, I lose weight (I am talking here about 0.5 – 1 kg) in winter and gain back double the amount in summer.

Doesn’t he look fierce in summer?

Missing tête-à-tête – productive or not?

Every morning I come to office much earlier than others do. I come in; I walk up the really tiresome stairs. Those stairs are really tiresome even if I had not put on 4 kilos while in India on that long extended holiday. I do not know any fit person who can climb those monsters and still smile and breathe normally. So I climb these monsters early morning and come to my floor. As it was winter, I normally even have to switch on the lights at 8 in the morning. By the time the others start coming in, I am at my desk deep into a power-point taking one second breaks only to respond to Wannabe (and any other one) whose name pops up on my screen when she sends something on gtalk.

The last few days since coming back from India though, I have had the reverse jet lag. I sleep longer into the day because I am unable to sleep at night. It is the result of being alone – after being with someone else all the time; I cannot sleep the first few days when I am alone. Today it was particularly bad and I came to office about 9:15. One side of the corridor has the rooms of the Vice Presidents and the other side is where normal mortals like us sit. As I crossed the corridor, I noticed a phenomenon at 9:15 in the morning. Every single room had the Vice President in them and a lady with him/her. Each of them is in the de-briefing with their assistants. The VPs sit straight and look at the sky – calm unlike at other times. Some assistants are reading to them what they need to do. Other assistants are taking notes. The calmness is uncanny – perhaps that is what makes an assistant a great one. Before the start of the day, they put the ones they manage at ease – it surely makes life easier for the rest of the mortals who need to interact with these highly wired ones.

The uniformity in these rooms exactly at 9:15 made me think of creating a painting. Unfortunately as I am bad at drawing, this was the best I could do.

And finally I came to my desk and immediately noticed the only room where this phenomenon was not happening – it was my boss’s room. He was already in a meeting with one of my close friends at work. He does not have his agenda managed by an assistant and shares an assistant with his boss. She is also our team assistant. We are a team of three – my boss, my colleague and I. All 3 of us manage our own calendars unless we are out sick or on vacation. So we miss this quiet tête-à-tête.

News items today

Some of the news items I came across today are very interesting:

• It is time to start wondering when the breaking news of the day is “Michelle Obama gets new hairdo“
• and when the news “Stray snake halts Indian assembly” is on the front page of BBC Online, you wonder – are they trying to enhance the stereotypical image of a country?

 

• and it is really not a great time for the past President A P J Abdul Kalam.

First he was “frisked” in security check by Continental Airlines – “tauba! tauba!” – isn’t that a breach of our country’s status as a Republic? How dare a chota mota carrier like Continental insult a whole country’s honour? and on top of everything he did not even receive an apology for being frisked! Having no other urgent matter that is pressing regarding the governance of the country, the parliament spent sometime dealing with the waves created by this unpardonable breach of conduct by the all assuming American Airline.  Did you even realize that he had to undergo full body check and was even asked to remove his shoes? What outrage! Even I have had to undergo that just a few times.  “The frisking was absolutely unpardonable,” Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel said in the Rajya Sabha. “Action will be taken in accordance with the sentiments of the house.”

and then today he was “forced” to walk for 15 minutes in search of his car in a private medical college premises. I wonder who forced him to walk… I mean now, if this is not violation of code of conduct to an ex-President what can it be? Of course, such code of conduct violation merits attention as one of the top stories of “The Hindu”  that too as the second link.

Boys and Brussels

The rain goes pitter patter outside the window. It is 8:45 at night. She sits at her desk and looks at the drops sliding down like snakes breaking into several tear drops. It is the only indication that a glass separates her from the outside world. Beyond the glass is a green world broken just by the winding bridge which just appears through a gap in the green. The tall lamp posts peep out of the green and stand tall like a lighthouse on islands in between the ocean. And suddenly she notices them – the leaves are turning pale. The ends of the leaves have burnt away.

In the background a conversation takes place.

“You are leaving? See you tomorrow.”

“Oh… you will not see me tomorrow. I am going to Monheim tomorrow.”

“Ok then. See you day after tomorrow” – says a clearly irritated voice after a long evening in office.

“Yes. I have to drive there”.

“Well. Take care when driving in this rain”.

She looks outside the window again. “This is what we would call a drizzle where I come from” – she slips into the voices in her mind.

“I hope it will get better tomorrow” – a disgruntled voice at being given an advice clearly not asked for.

“Well… I think it will get worse” – the irritated voice replies back.

She stares hard at the screen trying not to laugh (she had just heard this evening that weather will get slightly better tomorrow and then worse the day after). In anycase she had never seen so much fuss about weather when she was small and now it was quite common place to her. People here discussed it to great length, obsessed about it and cross-checked it left, right and center just the way Indians checked horoscope and astrology for every small thing. They relied on it, planned their activities around it and had backup plans since the technology is still not reliable enough.

“Not at all. I am sure they said weather will be better. In anycase I am a good driver”.

Well… boys will be boys (competition only increases as they grow older) and Brussels will be Brussels.

sunday nemesis

and this is just half of my inbox that you see….

and for Wannabe